VW Beetle - number 73

Note:This will be simultaneously posted to all three of my blogs-
sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken
dumaguetewebsite
robertsimms

Anyone who has followed me for any length of time is aware of my occasional posting of photos of Volkswagen Beetles that I might happen upon while roaming about Dumaguete and Sibulan. This will be the 70th VW post published onto the first blog. Those 70 posts have featured 73 different Beetles - not including the VWs featured in a blog post on VWs in Davao.

As has been my routine for over a year, I went out early this morning on my bicycle. I don't always take the same route; I'm likely to go anywhere within a five or six mile radius of my home. Today, I took a slight detour toward the Negros Oriental Convention Center not far from the Main Campus of Negros Oriental State University.

As I passed an office of the Highway Patrol, I spotted the VW Beetle I'm featuring here.

Tetched

 

I just finished reading "Touch" by Claire North. A book about Joe Biden might be entitled "Tetched" as in "tetched (touched) in the head".

A VW Update

This afternoon I went with 3 American friends to have lunch at Cubiertos Restaurant in Sibulan. It was the first time I had visited this particular restaurant in quite some time......it's probably been more than a year.

Something new has been added.

My regular readers know that whenever I come upon a VW Beetle in the area, I will photograph said Beetle and post the photos to my blog. (now "blogs"). In Oct. 2018 I took photos of a VW parked at Cubiertos Restaurant that was basically serving as a large flower pot. One of the photos from that time is posted below.

 

Today, I find that that VW has been updated. Looking closely at the body, I'm sure it is the same VW....only now it's painted yellow and is no longer holding flowers.

I've no idea why the change was made. I'm simply reporting it.

 

A New VW Post

Having discovered the ends and outs of the road I called "entrance X" [And it Comes Out Where? ] the road has become a semi-regular part of my morning bicycle ride. The first time I traveled that road, I had come down Rovira Drive from Camanjac - the second time, from the Xuekashi Motorparts store and then left down Rovira Drive to Pulantubig. Today, it was my intention to enter at the motor parts store, then cross Rovira onto Boni Catarata, and ride to my friend's place on Motong Rd.

Unfortunately, my friend wasn't home, but the trip was not a total washout. While on Boni Catarata, I happened upon a old VW Beetle parked along the road.

Anyone familiar with my other blog, sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken will recall that a regular feature was my blog posts and photos of Volkswagen Beetles I came upon while wandering through Dumaguete.

With the coming of COVID, I spent less time driving around Dumaguete and I had not taken a new photo of a VW Beetle since March 04, 2020.

So naturally, coming across this VW this morning, I had to take a few photos and post them.

This post will be published in both blogs - sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken and robertsimms.blogspot.com.

 

Twenty Million Views

It's been several months since I last reported on the number of views my photos uploaded to Google Maps have received. In December of 2020, the total views had surpassed sixteen million. Yesterday, I received an email notice from the folks at Google Maps, letting me know that the number of views my photos have received are now over 20 million.

They wanted to let me know that I'm a "top photographer" and I had accomplished something very few have done. Of course, I receive nothing from this, other than bragging rights.

Be that as it may, I want to list my top five photos on Google Maps (with links provided for each of the five).

In reverse order of views, the top five are:

#5 - Holy Child Hospital in Dumaguete.
#4- Negros Oriental Provincial Hospital
#3-St. Paul University Dumaguete
#2-Negros Oriental State University
and #1- the building formerly known as Silliman University Anthropology Museum.

I'll be publishing this post on two of my blogs - the one which is banned from Facebook, and my Dumaguete blog.

Ad Placement

 

After publishing posts on all three of my blogs, concerning problems I was having with Google AdSense, I was finally able to post ads on all three. Coincidence? I'm sure.

Still, all is not perfect. Although the settings for the different blogs are the same, there are differences in ad placement.

With sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken ads are located along the side columns and between posts. This is the case whether the post is read via the main page or via a link to an individual post. With dumaguetewebsite, there are ads along the columns and between posts, but only when one is on the main page; no ads at all on individually linked posts.

On robertsimms ads are only available along the side columns.....none between posts, and only when one is on the main blog page.

The only blog that has ad placement the way I want (completely) is sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken and unfortunately, that blog is banned from Facebook. If I want my readers coming from Facebook to see my ads (on the un-banned blogs) I have to be creative in placing the links.

More About Ads

Not long after posting yesterday about my problems with Google AdSense, ads began to magically reappear on this blog. However, I noticed something odd about the appearance of these ads.

 When one arrives at this blog via a link to an individual post [ The Piggery: Day Three or Hello, Dalai for example ] AdSense ads do not appear on the individual post. However, if one arrives here via the main link - sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken.blogspot.com - the ads appear. Quite a lot of ads, actually.

I suppose there's some sort of super-duper code that needs to be added. I'll have to look into that.

Where Are the Ads?

 

For reasons unknown to me, although my Google AdSense account is supposed to be active for this blog, there are currently no ads being displayed.

As I wrote on another blog, I have to ask, Is Google AdSense Worth the Hassle?

Government Stimulus Checks Bring Out the Scammers

 

There was once a time, many, many years ago when a good portion of this blog dealt with my misadventures attempting to scam the scammers. I would use one or more Yahoo email addresses to correspond with what are generally referred to as Nigerian scammers.

In those by-gone days, I would use characters such as Wanda Tuinphro, Misty Meaner, Fred and Lamont Sanford and a host of others, to keep these scammers occupied - usually leading them down a rabbit hole.

I had a website which I would use to create fake news sites to make some of my tall tales more believable. Unfortunately, I no longer have that website, so links in those earlier blog posts lead nowhere.

The last of these adventures ended in 2011 with Capt. Eddie Shields.......Nigerian Scammer. I had become bored and no longer interested in maintaining these charades.

Of course, like everyone else with an email account, I continue to get the occasional scam-spam.

I received one recently which had me scratching my head. Could there be folks so gullible as to believe some of these obvious swindles. I'm sure there are quite a few people who are upset at not having received the latest stimulus payment from Uncle Sam. There will be, of course lots of bad guys looking to take advantage of the situation by sending fraudulent emails; but, seriously - look at the return email address on the scam email photo at the beginning of this post. Does anyone think that such a bizarre email address would come from some U.S. Federal agency set up to assist people?

An email coming from QPVYBPBW...@ndvfsqyrh etc. should set off alarms for anyone. I'd really hate to think that this scam is successful. Surely, people can't be this stupid......can they?

The Scaffolding and the Metal Posts

Our new project began in earnest yesterday, and I'm continuing to document the progress. Today, I've taken 18 photos of the work done so far. That's way too many photos for one blog post, so I'll be doing as I did with the installation of the new gate and the construction of the wall going around our property.

I'm going to divide these 18 photos and put them into a post on each of my three blogs simultaneously:
Scaffolding and Metal Posts
The Scaffolding and the Metal Posts
Metal Posts and Scaffolding

Anyone interested in seeing all the work done today can simply click on another link to be led to another blog post.

 

Another Post on My Kerfuffle with Facebook

 

On Sunday, I wrote a post on My On Going Kerfuffle with Google and Facebook . Of course, nothing has changed since then. I did, however, attempt to post a link to this blog onto Facebook so I could get screenshots of the Facebook banning process.

 

What can you do?

 

My On Going Kerfuffle with Google and Facebook

I've mentioned on a number of occasions that my blogs have had problems dealing with both Facebook and Google adsense. This blog has been banned from Facebook, supposedly due to the blog being a "spam site" because of my ads.

Funny thing, my dumaguetewebsite blog probably contains more Google ads than this blog, and I have no problem posting links to it on Facebook.

This Facebook ban has led to the creation of a third blog - robertsimms.blogspot.com with which Facebook evidently doesn't have a problem. Unfortunately, Google adsense has yet to approve that blog for ads, sighting the lack of content. I've attempting to address this by making a concerted effort to post to the new blog on a regular basis.

Oddly, my posts on sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken have been far less frequent of late than the newer Robert Simms blog. This has not affected my Google ads on that blog whats so ever.

I've tried getting around these problems by linking all three blogs onto MeWe.com, trying to bring in traffic. I'm also frequently linking the non-banned blogs onto Facebook. So far, none of these stratagems has increased my revenue.

Hello, Dalai

A few years ago, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama said that when he turns 90, he would decide whether he should be reincarnated. I suppose some of us have a choice.

The Dalai Lama is now 85 and CNN believes that when the Dalai Lama dies, his reincarnation will be a religious crisis.

When the current Dalai Lama shuffles off this mortal coil most observers believe the Chinese Communist Party will attempt to pick the 15th incarnation.

Should the D.L. choose to reincarnate, he says the responsibility for locating the 15th D.L. rests with a group he founded, the Gaden Phodrang Trust.

As I wrote in June, 2015, the D.L. as gone so far as to hint that the 15th D.L. might be an attractive blonde female. At the time, quite a few progressive, Western Buddhists took offense to the D.L.'s "sexist" remarks. I'm surprised he hasn't been cancelled.

According to the CNN report, in December 2020, the US threatened to sanction any Chinese government officials who chose a reincarnation of the Dalai Lama over the wishes of the Tibetan people. Of course, that was when Trump was POTUS and I'm sure POTUS Biden will soon sign an executive order overriding that - if he hasn't already done so.

The New Gate

Its been one week since I last posted on the wall we had built around our property in Magatas, Sibulan. The photos today are of the gate that has been installed.

Of course, we're very pleased with the work, although the gate is heavier than we expected. I'm not complaining......I was just surprised. I said I wanted a top quality gate, and that's exactly what we have.

We're to keep the gate closed for the rest of the day. There is some cement that will need to set up.

It's been my practice to divide the photos I've taken, using half on each of my blogs.

Links to both blogs will follow below.

Our New Gate
The New Gate

 

Tuesday's Wall Photos

As I wrote yesterday, these will be the final wall construction photos until the new gate is installed.

As there are only six photos remaining, I will post the same photos on both blogs - with links provided down below.

tuesdays-wall-photos
photos-for-tuesday

 

Wall Photos for Monday

As I mentioned earlier, the wall construction on the property in Magatas, Sibulan is pretty much completed. It only lacks smooth "finishing" which will be done at a future date.

There will be a gate, but it is being build off site. When it is finished, photos of the gate will also make the blog.

As before, the photos today will be divided between 2 blogs. Links will be below. Tomorrow should be the final wall photos until we have the gate and smooth finishing.

Wall Photos for Monday
Monday's Wall Photos