Sixteen Million Views

 

This past October, I mentioned on two of my blogs [robertsimms.blogspot.com/2020/10/fifteen-million and sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com/2020/10/15-million-views] that the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps had received in excess of 15 million views. Now, in late December, I've learned that these photos have received more than 16 million views.

Naturally, I'm proud of this accomplishment.

I hadn't been checking the stats of late, so I don't know when the number had passed the 16 million mark. Of course, I have uploaded a few photos since October, though not enough to warrant this additional number of views.

I did notice that my photo of what was then known as Silliman University Anthropology Museum was the number one viewed photo in October and December. This photo has been my most viewed photo since, at least 2018.

In October, the number two spot was held by Negros Oriental State University - Main Campus with St. Paul University Dumaguete in third. Now, the two schools have switched places.

The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea

In August of 2019 I had serendipitously discovered the work of Japanese writer, Yukio Mishima. Mishima is considered one of the most important Japanese authors of the 20th century.

I was so impressed by what I had read about Mishima that I went into his work head-on, beginning with his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility. Even before I had finished reading the four novels in the tetralogy, I downloaded every e-book of Mishima's work that I could find.

I have a list of novels that I return to every few years, and The Sea of Fertility is definitely on the list.

I recently finished another of Mishima's novels, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea. Parts of the novel are quite disturbing, but the novel has become one of my favorites - along side, if not surpassing Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment.

I'm recommending the novel, however, I'm not inclined to give a synopsis. I'm afraid any description from me would contain "spoilers".

In 1976, the novel was adapted into a film starring Kris Kristofferson and Sarah Miles. The setting was changed from Japan to England. The film is available on OK.RU.  I've plans to watch the film in a day or so.

Lennon vs Zappa

 

During the first few days of December, we remember two musical icons who died this month; John Lennon, who was murdered on December 8, 1980 and Frank Zappa, who died of prostate cancer on December 4, 1993.

Lennon and Zappa were both born in 1940 and came of musical age in the 1960's. The two grew up listening to Rhythm and Blues, although they went off in different directions.

In the '60's, when the Beatles were playing , I preferred their music over the music being created by Zappa and his Mothers of Invention. Over the years, I have completely changed my views on Lennon and Zappa.

Lennon was obviously more well known and certainly more commercially successful. Unfortunately, I don't think Lennon was able to cope with fame and fortune, and as he became more involved with drugs, his music suffered.

Zappa, on the other hand, was anti-drug - with the tragic exception of nicotine. Zappa's music continued to grow and evolve through out his life, and today, twenty seven years after his death, his music is continuing to be released from his archives.

For several years after the break up of the Beatles, Lennon isolated himself and basically retired from the music scene, until just before his death. One obvious difference I see between the two artists was the way they each approached performing. Zappa was able to orchestrate and lead his group of musicians in a performance of Lennon's "I Am the Walrus".....something Lennon would not have been able to do. The orchestration of the Beatles' version was done by producer George Martin. Lennon would not have been able to to perform the song in concert.

The VWs of Davao

Since November 22, 2016 I've been posting photos of VW Beetles that I happen upon in Dumaguete and the surrounding areas. At this point, I've posted photos in excess of 70 Beetles.

Knowing my obsession with Volkswagens, my friend Dom sent two Hot Wheels Volkswagens to me in January. That was before the pandemic hit and it seems so long ago.

Today, Dom sent an email with photos of VW Beetles. He lives in Davao and I'm assuming these VWs are in Davao as well. From the look of the streets, they could be in Anytown, Philippines. With the exception of the "Sponge Bob" VW, these look pretty much like the ones I've seen in Dumaguete ......even down to the beat-up white one.

I'm curious to know the back story of these VWs from Davao. I suspect that they are either owned by one man or else there's a sort of local VW club there.

 

Sorry For The Omission

 

When I made mention, earlier this month, of the passing of actor Sean Connery at age 90, I had forgotten about the passing of one of Connery's co-stars in the film, Goldfinger - Honor Blackman. Blackman was age 95. Of course, Blackman played the part of Pussy Galore.

Although Blackman had done quite a lot of work in both television and films, I'm sorry to say that I don't recall seeing her in anything other than Goldfinger.

In 2012 Blackman publicly criticized Sean Connery for his status as a tax exile. 

 "I disapprove of him strongly now. Because I don't think you should accept a title from a country and then pay absolutely no tax towards it. He wants it both ways. I don't think his principles are very high."

In response to accusations that he was a tax exile, Connery released documents in 2003 showing he had paid £3.7 million in UK taxes between 1997 and 1998 and between 2002 and 2003. As for Connery's title - well, personally, I don't go in for all that knighthood baloney, but if someone can pay fewer taxes, more power to them.

Two VW Photos From 2014

I haven't published a post about Volkswagens in Dumaguete since March of this year when I posted a photo of a VW parked along Hibbard Ave. I haven't really been out and about in the city during these days of the pandemic, so I haven't taken too many new photos of any kind.

After having some work done on my PC , I've spent time going thru the photos stored on the PC and doing some much needed editing and culling.

While going thru my old photos, I came upon these two VW photos from a Silliman University Founder's Day parade in 2014.

 

Rest In Peace, Mr. Bond

I noted in February, that I had discovered the first four James Bond films at ok.ru. In addition to watching the four films, I also went to fadedpage.com to download copies of Ian Fleming's Bond novels. It had been my intention to read all 15 in the series, but so far, I've only read the first five.

It stands as a testament to Sean Connery that even when I read the Bond novels, I see him as James Bond.

Like millions of others, I've been a fan of Sean Connery for most of my life. I can remember the first time I saw a James Bond film. It was in 1965. Goldfinger had just recently been released, and I was almost 13. My oldest cousin, who was 18 at the time, took his younger brother, myself and my younger brother to a triple feature of the three Bond films being shown at a local drive-in theater in Atlanta.

The three films were shown in the order they were released - Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. This was my first time seeing a Bond film, and I was especially looking forward to seeing Goldfinger......it was the latest one at the time, so it had to be the best.

1965 was a long, long time ago and things have certainly changed. In those days, kids weren't allowed to stay up all hours of the night and by the time Goldfinger started, it was way past my normal bedtime. As near as I can recall from those fifty-five years ago, I fell asleep in the back of my cousin's car before the final movie started.

It would be years before I was finally able to watch Goldfinger.

15 Million Views

Two days after posting, on another blog how the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps have received 15 million views, I got an email from Google Maps acknowledging my accomplishment.

Of course, I would have preferred to receive some of the elusive spondulicks, but it is what it is.

My Love/Hate Relationship With The Internet

I've often written that my primary way of getting ebooks to read is by going to the Project Gutenberg website. 

Many books that are now in the public domain can be downloaded from the website. FadedPage is a great source for books that might not be in the public domain in the U.S. but are in Canada.

The reason for my deciding to write of my feelings for the Internet came to me while I was listening to music online. This afternoon I was listening to an album released in 1982 by Jean Luc Ponty - Mystical Adventures. I loved that album when it was released. In those days, however, it wasn't always easy listening to music such as this. It certainly wasn't being played on the radio in Georgia - not even on FM.

It's remarkable to me that I have lived long enough to be able to listen to nearly every piece of music ever recorded. I wanted to write about this and I wanted to refresh myself on Jean Luc Ponty for the post.

I typed the musician's name into the Google search engine and immediatel had to prove I was not a "robot". This has been happening to me quite a lot recently, and I was tired of having to go through this crap. This time, I clicked on "why is this happening" and I read some terms of service garbage. After reading the terms of service, I attempted to search again but received the same robot crap for three or four more attemps.

I signed into my Google account and tried again. This time the search engine worked fine - no problem.

Of course, this could have very well have been a coincidence, but who knows? With algorithms you can never be certain.

Hence, my new title for this blog post - "My Love/Hate Relationship With The Internet".

Facebook Bans

On a number of occasions, I've complained on this blog that sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken has been banned by Facebook for violating "community standards" though, for the life of me, I can't see how I've done so.

The result of that ban has been the creation of another blog, robertsimms.blogspot.com, which seems to be harmless as far as Facebook is concerned.

I'm Facebook friends with Matt Archbold, creator of the blog, Creative Minority Report. Matt has recently published a book, American Antigone, which Facebook refuses to advertise. On a Facebook post today, Matt wrote:

"Instapundit wrote: 'Abandoning the decentralized Blogosphere for the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was a huge mistake, particularly for conservatives.'

I couldn't agree more. This election season has proven it. The mask is off. Big Tech is censoring, shadow banning, and demonetizing conservatives. Facebook, just this week, banned ads for my pro life book. Why? They said it could influence the election

. We should get back to blogging. We could write what we wanted, without concern that Big Tech would limit our reach.

I recently began posting more at CMR exactly because of this. We cant allow our speech to be censored."

I'm reasonably sure that the banning of my blog from Facebook was not part of the overall ban on Conservatives, but rather due to someone I had "unfriended" on Facebook flagging my links to the blog as an act of petty revenge. However, I do see a trend by "the walled gardens of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube" to make it hard for Conservatives to express their views.

I've missed going the Matt's blog every day. I'm glad to see that he's back to blogging.

Michael Moore's Insane Rant

According to news reports,Director Michael Moore is claiming that President Donald Trump is "pretending to have COVID-19 to win sympathy amid his dwindling poll numbers, or attempting to have the election day pushed back from November 3."

First of all, where is the sympathy? Immediately following the reports of Trump having COVID-19, many of the Left went to social media to express their joy at the news and their wish that Trump die of the disease.

Secondly, to believe that Trump is lying, you have to believe that the medical professionals in charge of treating the President are also lying. There's no whistle blower at Walter Reed hospital willing to expose the lie?

Moore also believes the lying is an attempt to postpone the election. Sorry, Michael, the election cannot legally be postponed regardless of Trump's (or Biden's) health.

Not wanting to waste an opportunity to concoct a conspiracy theory extraordinaire, Moore also believes this could be Trump's way of stepping down before the election so that President Pence can pardon Trump of any crimes he may have committed.

Moore finished his rant by admitting that Trump 'probably does' have COVID-19.

The Prodigal Son Returns

Sad to say, I haven't been blogging lately. Staying home during the recent quarantine(s) should have been the ideal time. What else was there to do?

As it turned out, reading and watching Netflix were more vital than blogging.

I've decided now to get back to it and update my three blogs - robertsimms.blogspot.com-sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com-dumaguetewebsite.blogspot.com .

This post will be simultaneously published on all three blogs as a sort of welcoming back, as it were.

There had been snafus; sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com had been banned from Facebook for going against "community standards". Anyone familiar with that blog knows I am not guilty of that. I won't mention names, but I believe someone I had a disagreement with (and unfriended on Facebook) may have sent a complaint to Facebook out of petty spite.

This bit of foolishness was gotten around by starting the new blog, robertsimms.blogspot.com. The person I suspect is unaware of this new blog and will never see links to it on Facebook.

The only minor problem I had was that the new blog could not immediately display adsense ads....a problem which should be cleared up soon.

I checked this morning, and the older blog is still banned from Facebook. So be it. I'll continue to add posts to my other two blogs and put links to those two on Facebook.

Am I Welcomed Back?

As anyone can see, I haven't been posting on this blog recently. Part of the reason for this has been the banning of this blog on Facebook. As I write this post, I do not know if the ban is still in effect.

I will attempt to post this, and I'll include the results of this test at a later time.

Wish me luck.

Pineapple Cake

Last Friday, I published a post on one of my other blogs, about my adventures with baking banana cake (AKA banana bread) using 3rd class flour. The banana cake turned out so well that I decided to try making a pineapple cake.

The photo is above.

I'll be making this again. We all enjoyed it, and it's quick and easy.

The recipe is essentially the same as a banana cake with a few minor changes. Of course, the bananas are substituted with crushed pineapple. I use white sugar instead of brown, and I completely leave out the vanilla and cinnamon.

Living Room Ceiling - Day One.

It's been quite a long time since I last posted anything about the work being done on the house. In this post, I'll be publishing some photos of the recent work on the living room ceiling.

We're hoping to completely finish the entire ceiling (including dining room and kitchen) soon. There will be more photos to follow.

Fun With GIMP

Music Most Lame

For the first time in his fifty eight year career, Bob Dylan has finally charted a number hit on Billboard with a 17 minute "song" entitled Murder Most Foul.

I was tempted to refer to it as Music Most Foul after my attempt to listen to it, but that changed to Music Most Boring until finally deciding on the title of this post, Music Most Lame.

 I couldn't force myself to listen to the entire song, although I was able to scan over the lyrics found online.

Dylan was 22 when JFK was assassinated - I was 11 - and he's still processing it's meaning today. For many years, when I was growing up, no one spoke any ill of President Kennedy. We were convinced that he had been a saint. My generation came to hate the Vietnam War and the U.S. Presidents involved in the war - particularly Johnson and Nixon, but we were ignorant for the most part, of Kennedy's role in the war.

Being currently trapped at home during this covid19 pandemic I've been spending a good deal of my time watching Netflix. As I write this, I've just finished watching two episodes of Ken Burn's documentary of the Vietnam war and my opinion of JFK has fallen. Kennedy's reputation had suffered in my view years ago when I first learned of his extramarital affairs and now it's at rock bottom.

Little wonder that he was so admired by Bill Clinton.

No Via Crucis in 2020

Today is Good Friday, and normally in Philippines we'd be participating in a massive Via Crucis procession. This is my fifth Good Friday in Sibulan, and I've been looking forward to joining the procession again this year. This was to be my sixth Via Crucis in a row, and my seventh total. The first one I attended was during our visit in 2007.

Unfortunately, this year's Via Crucis was canceled due the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) brought about in response to the covid19 pandemic.

To my understanding, this is the first time the Via Crucis has been canceled nation wide. I don't know if even an isolated, local procession has ever been canceled, for that matter.

No Palm Sunday Masses; no Maundy Thursday observance. It's not been a typical Holy Week in Philippines.

Unless extended by the provincial Governor, the ECQ is scheduled to be over by the end of next week. It's unfortunate that the 14 days that the authorities believed was needed to stem the advance of the virus had to include Holy Week.

Let's hope life returns to normal soon, and we have a wonderful Holy Week in 2021.

An Update

As I've mentioned a number of times, I recently attempted to post a link from this blog onto my Facebook page. Although I had done so in the past, I was no longer allowed to do so because this blog now goes against Facebook's Community Standards.

I've continued to try and post links from this blog with no success. I have tried to contact Facebook to find out why this has happened, also with no success.

The only possible explanation to my mind is that someone must have flagged one of my posts as inappropriate, though for the life of me, I can't imagine which of the posts I've written could've offended anyone.

A few months ago, I got into a row of sorts with someone here in Dumaguete. Because of our disagreement, I unfriended that person on Facebook. It's quite possible that in an act of revenge, this person complained to Facebook about a blog post - not because of anything inappropriate I might have written, but purely from spite.

Of course, I have no way of proving this, but it seems to me to be the only logical explanation.

As I'm no longer friends with this individual, I'm sure this person is unaware of my new blog. Hopefully, it won't have a problem on Facebook.

Redirect

In order for my new blog to eventually qualify for Goole Adsense, I'm told I need to have unique content published on the blog. Of course, that's a relatively simple matter, but I'd also like to maintain some readers here as well.

I don't want to simply post the exact content onto both blogs. I can, however direct the readers here to the other blog by way of a link.

Today, I published a piece entitled Camus During COVID19 Days.

Here's hoping this will lead folks there.

Sorry, Not Sorry

When I created my new blog a few days ago, the plan was to phase out this older blog, Sorry, All The Clever Names Are Taken. As I explained earlier, the older blog suffered under a name that was difficult to pass on to other folks by word of mouth. I had also experienced a problem with Facebook, which had inexplicably banned the older blog for going against Facebook's "community standards". I have absolutely no idea why that was done. Like a certain Captain Beefheart LP, this blog is safe as milk.

However, I've decided to delay the ending of this blog for the time being. I'll do my best to keep up this blog, the new one, and the Dumaguete Website blog, which I have shamefully neglected.

My two older blogs feature Google ads, and naturally I wanted this for the new blog. Unfortunately, it appears that I may have to wait, possibly two weeks before Google allows ads to be featured on the new blog.

So, for the time being, I will continue all three blogs.

My New Blog

I've been blogging since 2006. I've started, and finished a number of blogs, but the one I've used most consistently over the years is Sorry, All The Clever Names Are Taken.

I've been thinking that the name of that blog was just a bit too clever. It works with using a link, but it's cumbersome when telling the name to someone and expecting them to remember it. I've been lazy, and in spite of wanting to create a new blog with a easier name, I've been putting it off.

Circumstances have pushed me to finally follow through on the plan to create that new blog.

Due to the COVID19 causing havoc around the globe, the area where I'm living in Philippines has been placed under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and I wanted to begin writing about the situation and my experiences living under the ECQ. I wrote that post this morning, (ECQ Day One ) and attempted to put a link to that post onto my Facebook page.

Unfortunately, I was unable to post the link. Facebook said the blog was banned due it's not following community standards. I couldn't understand how or why that happened. I put the same post onto another of my blogs, and the link was accepted on Facebook. With all that, I've decided the time was right to create a new blog under an easier name to get across - hence, robertsimms.blogspot.com. Perhaps, one day, if the url is available, I'll use my name with a dot com or dot net.

This will mark the first post on the new blog. It will also be simultaneously posted on Sorry, All The Clever Names Are Taken.

ECQ Day One

Today is the first day of what we've been told will be a two week Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in an attempt by the Provincial Governor of Negros Oriental to stem the tide of the corona virus here.

We've been pretty much on a lock down status for a few weeks, but this will be Quarantine on Steroids.

Students and seniors, 65 and older had been ordered to stay at home a while back, and that rule remains in effect. We've all been under a 9:00PM to 5:00 AM curfew for weeks, however now the restrictions on everyone else in the province have gotten tighter.

Only one person from a household will be allowed outside the home, and that person is severely limited as to where and when he can go out. Each household has been issued a quarantine pass which must be presented at checkpoints. I've been told that the person going out must surrender his ID at the checkpoint and must return home through the same checkpoint within a certain time frame in order to retrieve the ID.

I'm pretty much a homebody, so the quarantine hasn't been a burden for me, although now it will be a little more complicated getting my money from the bank. That is my main complain now.

This call for an ECQ apparently comes a recent event at a port in Sibulan, Negros Oriental. The borders of the Province had been closed, with only cargo being allowed to enter. Out of humanitarian concerns, a passenger ferry was allowed to bring home stranded residents of Negros from Cebu island. Photos of the arriving passengers were posted onto social media. These photos showed that these passengers were not practicing "social distancing" and most were not wearing masks. None of these arriving passengers underwent any medical exam, we're told that the passengers were not instructed to self quarantine.

These photos sent the local medical community into a frenzy; generating a petition from front liners to the Governor demanding an ECQ.

I suspect this move by the Governor is based more on politics than on anything else.

The powers that be in our area are notorious for not enforcing laws and regulations. It remains to be seen how this will work out.

Enhanced Community Quarantine

In a few short days, our province will go under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in order to get a handle on the COVID19 virus currently terrorizing the planet.

Each household will be issued one pass in order for one member of the household to leave the home under certain circumstances.

Those being for medical emergencies, trips to pharmacies, banks and grocery stores, and a few others.

The first image shows the ins and outs of the ECQ. The second image is of actual passes. My understanding is that the ECQ will last 14 days, unless the Provincial Governor feels it should be extended.

We'll see how this plays out.

Number 62 - Revisited

While taking my son to school this morning, I spotted this VW Beetle parked along Hibbard Ave. When I returned home, I checked my records and it turns out that this Beetle is one I posted on April 26, 2019 - VW Number Sixty Two .

Clint, Say It Ain't So

It's not easy for me to criticize Clint Eastwood. I've been a fan of his since the days when he played Rowdy Yates in the t.v. series, Rawhide. I'm a bit confused, however after reading about a couple of comments he is reported to have made in a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal.

For the article, he spoke briefly on his two year term as mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea in the late 1980s.

One of Mayor Eastwood’s first acts—widely reported at the time—was to reduce the onerous municipal prohibitions on the public sale of ice cream. More than three decades later, he laments that the Golden State is “like Regulation City right now.” An excess of rules is “making California a place other than a democracy.”

Fine, I certainly approve of any attempt to reduce government regulations. However, at the very end of the article, Eastwood is quoted as saying, regarding the upcoming Presidential election, "The best thing we could do is just get Mike Bloomberg in there".

Wait a minute. As mayor of NYC, Bloomberg was the emperor of the "sugary drinks portion cap rule" (aka soda ban). As mayor, Michael Bloomberg never saw a government regulation he didn't love.

If Eastwood is critical of California being "Regulation City right now", how could he support a candidate that would make the entire U.S. just like California?

Eleven Million - Plus

In January of this year, I made note of the fact that the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps had received more than 10 million views. Today, I am pleased to say that my photos have now received in excess of eleven million views.

As I've mentioned before, I don't receive any financial benefit from these photos - this is strictly a hobby for me. Never the less, I'm proud that my photos have been viewed so many times by folks looking for information about the locations I've photographed.

Two Toned Beetle

After dropping my son off at school this morning, I thought I'd take an alternate route home in order to take a few photos for Google Maps.
Mission accomplished. I was able to add photos of Hayahay Treehouse Bar - Lantaw Native Restaurant - and - Cafe Racer.

Just as I passed Cafe Racer, I spotted a VW Beetle parked on the opposite side of the street. I parked my car and took these photos. This VW is # 68 in my collection.

From Russia With Love

Earlier this month, I noted that I had been watching the early James Bond films on the ok.ru website. Watching the films led me on a hunt for the Ian Fleming novels as e-books. I discovered that the books are in the public domain in Canada and thus available at fadedpage.com.

It was my original intention to read all 15 books in the series in the order they were published. My favorite of the early Bond films is From Russia With Love, and it turns out that it's also my favorite of the first five Bond books I've read. I like that the film and the novel are so similar - we all know that isn't always the case. The only difference between the two is the very different endings. I'm not the sort to do spoilers (even for 63 year old spy novels). I'll just say the endings are not the same.

I thought I'd be taking a break from James Bond after From Russia With Love, but I've gone back to my original plan, however, after reading it. Because of the ending, I wanted to go straight into book #6 - Dr. No.

The revised plan is to take a short break after Dr. No and read something unrelated. I'm thinking of reading a book recommended by Dr. Jordan Peterson - The Charterhouse of Parma.

A Hidden VW.

A few days ago, while passing Rusi Ball Field on San Jose St., I saw a dilapidated VW Beetle parked at a house across from the ball field. I drive thru that area quite often, but had never seen this VW before this. The gate was opened that day, which explains why it was noticeable to me for the first time.

I didn't have my camera with me that day, so I wasn't able to photograph the Beetle until this morning as I returned home from taking my son to school.

The gate was closed, so I wasn't able to get as clear a shot as the view I got a few days ago. Also, it was 7:00 AM on a cloudy morning; the light wasn't the best for taking photos.