Flower Photos

Flower Photos.

Within Walking Distance From Our House......Part Two

More photos taken while I was walking near our home in Magatas.

Within Walking Distance From Our House.....Part One

Here we have a few random photos taken while I was on a morning walk today in Brgy. Magatas, Sibulan Negros Oriental.

While Away From The Internet........Part Three - We're Back.

As I write this, it is Tuesday, July 23 2019. We've just returned home from the cable/Internet office. We've paid the required fee and signed the appropriate papers and were told we should have service in 3 to 5 days - today being day one and Saturday being day five. We'll see just how accurate they are in their estimate.

Update:
When we signed up for cable service on Tuesday, we were told that, depending on the work load, the fibre-optic cable would be installed wihin 3 to 5 days, with Tuesday being day one. That would mean that we might expect service as early as today (Thursday). Honestly, I was not expecting to be connected today.

However, much to my surprise, the men from Fil-Products arrived this morning just after 9:00 AM. They managed to run the cable from the Magatas road to just inside our house, and after securing the cable, the men started their lunch break (11:30). There shouldn't be much more work to do after lunch.

Update:
The workers from Fil Products returned from lunch at 2 o'clock......after 2 1/2 hours. When they arrived, they went right to work and we have wifi and cable tv 30 minutes after they resumed work. Too bad they couldn't just work until noon before taking lunch. Oh well......

While Away From The Internet......Part Two

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been neglecting my reading and I thought that now - when I'm without Internet - would be a good opportunity to catch up.

Earlier in the year, I did manage to read The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford. I enjoyed the novel so much that I downloaded several of his books from Project Gutenberg, with an idea to read them this year. My plan was to begin with his four part series, Parade's End the first part being Some Do Not...... However, when I began reading the first novel, I didn't really want to begin another novel in which adultery plays such a central part of the plot. Adultery is the focus of The Good Soldier and I wanted to find another subject.

After rereading Master and Margarita I attempted to pick up Some Do Not..... once again, but I couldn't relate to the pre-World War I morality of Britain.

Not wanting to neglect my reading once more, I began reading the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was a quick read and I wish I had read the book when I was younger; perhaps it might have led me in a different direction.

I have a folder on my pc desktop labeled "books for 2016" which, obviously contains e-books I had intended on reading last year, but had failed to do so. I uploaded two of those e-books to my Kindle yesterday - Stories From a Chinese Studio - Vols. 1 & 2 by Songling Pu and The Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig.

I've already begun reading the Songling Pu collection. Written about 1679, the work I have was translated by Herbert A. Giles and published in 1880.

The table of contents given in the e-book is a bit odd. The first story in the collection is "EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF GUARDIAN ANGEL" followed by "THE TALKING PUPILS". The table of contents lists the stories alphabetically, the first story given is "ADULTERATION PUNISHED" which is in Volume 2......64% of the way in. Not sure why it's that way, but it strikes me as a peculiar way of arranging the stories.

While Away from the Web.......Part One

Today is Saturday, July 20 2019. That is contrary to the date given on this blog posting. As I write this, I am currently without Internet access for my pc.

We moved from an apartment in Cangmating, Sibulan to our new house in Magatas, Sibulan on July 8. Getting moved into our house has put a strain on our budget and it looks as if we cannot have the TV cable and fibre-optic Internet connected until after my next Social Security check arrives in the bank the first week of August.

Of course, I miss the Internet, but after the first few days, the withdrawal pains haven't been nearly as bad as I thought they might be.

My reading as dropped off the past two years, and the loss of wifi has allowed me to catch up somewhat. While away from the web, I've reread Mikhail Bulgakov's "Master and Margarita". I'll speak more of that in the future, but I will say that I've forgotten quite a lot of the novel since I first read it three years ago.

Not having access to Spotify and forced me to open up my box of CDs. I also have a number of musical CDs burned onto my pc, but unfortunately, I made the mistake of creating the files as a RealSystem Media file for Real Player, my only excuse being that I was a relative computer newbie when I created the files and didn't really know what I was doing.

Not having Internet or international TV station access has prevented me from hearing of the gay to day drama going on in the U.S., and this has actually been a blessing. I'm not at all happy with the political turmoil currently going on in America, and being ignorant of what has been going on these past few weeks has truly been blissful.

Prior to moving into the house, I had been doing my morning workout in a gym located not far from Silliman University. Now that I'm in the house, there is more room to manhandle the dumbbells, and I save the 1300 peso membership fee besides. My workout has changed slightly since the move; no treadmill, of course. My plan is to walk along the diversion road. This being the rainy season, I haven't had much opportunity to walk outside; I did manage to do that this morning, however. At the gym, my routine consisted of 30 minutes on the treadmill followed by 30 minutes in the weight room. In the weight room, I was doing one body part a day, six days a week. At home now, I'm doing multiple muscle groups per day. The 30 minute weight training has become a 1 hour, 45 minute to 2 hour workout. I'm able now to work each body parts twice a week. Today being Saturday, it's leg and ab workout day. I walked for about an hour this morning along the diversion road. That may (or may not) substitute for the leg workout. We'll see.

It's my intention that this post will be the first of many. Just as I've neglected my reading this year, but I've neglected my writing as well. For the first part of July, I can put down this lack of blog posting to absence of Internet. That's not the case for the earlier months of the year. By the time the wifi is up and running and this is posted, we'll see how well I'm able to jot down a few lines now and then while waiting on my return to the 21st century.
These photos were taken on the day I wrote this post.