This Year's Via Crucis

For the 4th year in a row, I participated in the Good Friday Via Crucis, which starts at the St. Anthony of Padua parish church in Sibulan. It began at 4:30 AM.

 Like last year, this year's Via Crucis headed off toward the north, but soon turned to the left, before getting back onto the National Highway, going south. We turned off the highway again at Maslog school.

The route continued thru Barangay Cangmating, arriving back at the church.

The map shows my crude attempt at tracing the outline of this year's route. The white spot at the top indicates the approximate location of the church. According to the pedometer app on my phone, the distance traveled was 6.01 kilometers (3.73 miles).

At about the 3rd station, I was able to get within a few feet of the priest and the men who were taking turns carrying the cross. I wanted to remain near them throughout the walk. This wasn't easy. It wasn't that the priest was walking particularly fast, but people would appear out of nowhere and wedge themselves between me and the group I was attempting to follow. Of course, the ones directly in front of me would always slow down, forcing me to find a path around them.

Two hours after it began, the Via Crucis passed in front of my apartment. I fetched my camera for a few shots.

1967 Rusty

While out on my morning walk to the Sibulan Market area, I saw this VW Beetle parked outside the St. Anthony of Padua parish church. With this one, I was able to get as many photographs as I wanted - including a few interior shots.

The rust covered areas looked familiar. This is the same Beetle I photographed and posted last June [Another Sea Forest Beetle ]. The artwork on the doors is new, but there's no mistaking the rust.

On the passenger side door, we're told that this is the work of Antigo Classico and we should visit their Facebook page. I did, and you can as well by clicking on the link.

Congrats To Me

Over the past couple of years, I've published a few posts about the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps. I've haven't made mention, however of the photos I've uploaded to Google+. Not only have I posted the occasional photo to my profile, but I've uploaded a few photos to a Google+ community - Street Photographers, posting the photos in either the Asia - Street Photography category, or the, so called, Weekly Challenge.

I recently upload two of my photos to the Weekly Challenge, #Backstory. These two photos [the traffic jam and the tricycle] managed to break a personal record for me regarding the number of 1+ (likes) I received. The traffic jam photo received more 1+'s than any other photo (with 38 at this writing) until the tricycle photo doubled that total with 75+'s and 3 shares.

I've learned that one of the secret to getting 1+'s in this community is uploading black and white images. Color photos don't seem to do as well there.

The Patrol's Boats

In a post from February, [Whatever Floats Your Boat] I posted a few photos of boats I had come upon while walking along the beach in Cangmating, Sibulan. Among those photos were two photos of a small boat that had the words "Sibulan Seaborne Patrol" painted on the side. Walking by the same spot this morning, I came upon a different boat - a little larger than the first - sans outriggers, with nearly identical markings.

Eco Oil

Back in August of last year, I remarked that my photo of the Star Oil gas station, located near the airport, had received over 30,000 views. Since then, the number of views for that particular gas station has topped 56,000. As I mentioned at the time, that total number of views for a gas station boggles my mind.

Equally mind boggling to me is the news that my photo of the FilOil gas station located not far from the airport as well, has become my second most often viewed photo, with over 70,000 views.

Driving through that area this afternoon, I noted that the FilOil station gas changed to Eco Oil. My photo with the 70,000 plus views is of a business that no longer exists.

My first thought was to edit the FilOil location on Google Maps to show it as a closed business, and then add the Eco Oil as a new business. This however, if successful, would eliminate my photo of FilOil with it's 70,000 views. I decided, instead, to edit the FilOil location with a simple name change. This edit is currently pending review with Google Maps. I've uploaded a few Eco Oil photos to help with the review.

Calling a Spade a Spade

Contrary to what I wrote in last Tuesday's post, I did not wait until I had finished reading Swann's Way before beginning Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon. As a matter of fact, after reading The Maltese Falcon I went on to another of Hammett's works - also available at fadedpage.com - The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories.

For the most part, The Maltese Falcon film, with Humphrey Bogart, follows the novel rather well.There are a few differences, however. For example, the character portrayed by Peter Lorre - Joel Cairo - is openly homosexual in the novel. More surprisingly, in the novel, Joel Cairo has a homosexual relationship with Kasper Gutman's flunky, Wilmer Cook.

Other difference in the novel is the appearance of Kasper Gutman's daughter Rhea and Gutman's murder by Wilmer.

The wikipedia article covering Hammett says Hammett "is now widely regarded as one of the finest mystery writers of all time". Unfortunately, Hammett does not live up to that praise in The Adventures of Sam Spade and other stories. The seven short stories in this 1924 collection are not, by any means, on the same level as The Maltese Falcon. Of course, following the The Maltese Falcon, I couldn't resist reading his earlier stories. I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed.

The Maltese Falcon (Novel)

Back when I was a kid - you know, when dinosaurs still walked the Earth - we were only able to get 3 channels on our television. Now, many years later, we're able to get more that 100 stations; and we're in a third world country. Imagine the number of channels available in a first world nation.

Still, even with more than 100 channels to choose from, there are only a handful of stations that I care to watch regularly.

One of those channels is TCM - which, at one time, stood for Turner Classic Movies. I enjoy watching the old films - most in black and white. For good or bad, the TCM channel available here in Philippines will repeat movies several times through out the month. This month, I'm given plenty of opportunities to watch one of my favorite oldies - The Maltese Falcon starring Humphrey Bogart. After watching the movie again last night, I thought I'd look online for information about the novel on which the movie is based.

The novel was published in 1930, and I discovered that the book is in the public domain in Canada and available for download at a Canadian website, fadedpage.com.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm currently reading volume one (Swann's Way) of Proust's multi-volume, In Search of Lost Time. I'll finish reading this volume before beginning The Maltese Falcon, but I won't wait to finish the other six volumes. I'll go on to volume two of Proust's work after I've read the Dashiell Hammett crime novel.

Proust

Having -finally- finished reading all eight volumes of Alexandre Dumas' Celebrated Crimes, I've begun reading another multi-volume classic, In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.

The seven volumes of are available at Project Gutenberg Australia. At the time the work was originally translated into English, the title was translated as Remembrance of Things Past. The title In Search of Lost Time, a literal rendering of the French (À la recherche du temps perdu), has gained usage since D. J. Enright adopted it for his revised translation published in 1992.

I am currently on the first volume, Swann's Way.

The Silver Beetle

As I've mentioned before, I drive by a spot I call the VW Beetle graveyard, located in Sibulan near the airport. One need only look at two of my previous posts (here and here) to see that the view from the highway changes regularly.

A few days ago, while driving by on my way to my son's school, I saw a silver Beetle - as opposed to a Silver Beatle- parked in the graveyard.

Fortunately for me, the graveyard is located in Sibulan and not Dumaguete, so I was able to park along the highway long enough to get a few photos. In addition to the silver Beetle, I was able to photograph two others. I'm labeling these three numbers 45, 46, and 47.

Yellow Beetle With a Rack On Top

Traveling out to Robinson's Mall in Dumaguete I came across this Beetle. The rack on top is the first I've spotted here.

This one is #44 in my Volkswagen Beetles of Dumaguete collection.