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?

 

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.

Ad Placement

Very often, after publishing a blog post, I will return to the scene of the crime, as it were, to reread the post, to check for misspellings, typos and that sort of thing. The truth be told, I'm not as good an editor as I should be.

While looking over my latest posts, I noticed the "random" Google ad that made it's appearance between Vern the Vlogger and The Interview .

As one can see from the screenshot I've posted, the Google ad is for a place called thecreationof hair.com - a product for quick hair regrowth. One can also see from the photos in those two posts and the accompanying Youtube video that both Vern and myself are.......how do you say it..... follically challenged.

It's hard for me to believe that this ad placement was simply a coincidence. You can't tell me that Google doesn't spy on our online activity.

Vern the Vlogger

Thursday is normally my day to meet a few of my fellow Americans for brunch. Today, we were scheduled to meet up at Thunder Road Bar and Grill. There was a bit of a mix up on my part (which I won't go into) and so I sent word that I couldn't attend our brunch this morning.

As I said, things were a little mixed up this morning and I ended up staying at home.

As it so happened, another fellow American dropped by for a visit. His name is Vern and he had, at one time been our neighbor when we were living in an apartment in Cangmating, Sibulan. He has since moved to Valencia.

Like so many foreigners living in Philippines, Vern has his own Youtube channel and has taken to vlogging. Sometimes, it feels like you can't swing a dead cat in Dumaguete without hitting a vlogger.

Vern had dropped by today with the intention of interviewing me for his vlog. He thought I might say something of interest for someone thinking of visiting Philippines. I managed to take a few photos while he was setting up in different locations. After our talk, he headed back to Valencia to edit his videos and post the final product to his Youtube channel. He'll be sending an email with a link to the video, and of course I'll share in on this blog.

My Return

One week after the death of my PC the computer is back from the shop and I'm ready to blog again.

The PC wasn't in the shop the entire week - I didn't bring it in to Algorithm Computer Services until Wednesday afternoon. The problem involved the power supply. I suppose the frequent lose of power, due to brown-outs while the PC was running, was finally too much. The power supply was replaced. Total cost - including labor - was 1,170 pesos (about $22 at today's exchange rate).

The tech at Algorithm managed to save my files - documents and photos etc. However, I lost the saved passwords on my web browser. Fortunately, I had most of the passwords saved elsewhere. There's a minor glitch with the Kindle for PC, but I can live with it. The worst part of the whole thing is that I've lost the Spotify app I had on my PC. I can't download another onto my PC because my operating system is prehistoric. I can listen to Spotify on my phone but it is inferior to the old PC app I once had. I could improve my Spotify experience on my phone if I were willing to go "premium", which I'm not at this point.

While I was without my computer, I made use of my Kindle. A week or so ago, I came across "The Gracie Allen Murder Case" online and I enjoyed the film so much that I looked into the entire Philo Vance series. The 12 crime novels in the series are in the public domain in Canada and are available for download at Fadedpage.com. I had uploaded the first in the series, The Benson Murder Case to my Kindle with plans to put the other eleven in as well. After reading the first novel, I decided to wait before reading any more. I just wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.

When I had finished reading The Benson Murder Case, I started on two others I had also downloaded from Fadedpage - Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away both by Flannery O'Connor.

I'll speak more about those two novels in another blog post.

The Vloggers

When a friend of mine - who was himself quite the blogger in the day - remarked that blogging was dead, I wasn't sure how to respond. True, the number of blog posts I myself had published had dropped considerably, but I still had an emotional attachment to the written word and didn't want to see it disappear from the Internet.

With the coming of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, folks could express their thoughts and feelings without much need for following the rules of grammar or paying attention to proper sentence structure. It was much easier to re-post or retweet someone's dig at Obama, or Trump or whoever your particular nemesis might be.

Blogging may well have been on life-support for a few years, but a new phenomenon has put the final proverbial nail in blogging's coffin......the Youtube Vlogger.

I know of four foreign vloggers in the Dumaguete area, doing videos of life here in Philippines. Two I know personally, while I've only come across the other two on the Internet.

These four - in no particular order - are:
Dumaguete Expat
Houston And Beyond To The Philippines
Gio in the Philippines
SwissHumanity

There are times when I feel like joining 'em since I can't beat 'em. I'm giving it thought, but should I decide to connect this blog to my own vlog, I'd want to do something unique. I'm not quite there, yet.

Nine Million Photo Views

This past August, I noted on this blog that the photos I have uploaded to Google Maps have received slightly more than 8,000,000 views. Now, less than 90 days after writing that post, I find the number of views have passed the 9,000,000 mark.

My #1 viewed photograph is of the Silliman University Anthropology Museum. Although the building is still there, it is no longer used as a museum.

At #2 - a photo of St. Paul University Dumaguete.

Saint Joseph the Patriarch Parish church in Cebu city is my 3rd most viewed photograph on Google Maps.

The #4 photograph is very curious. It is of FilOil-Airport Gas Station which is permanently closed. It has been torn down and replaced by Eco Oil. Just why this photo should receive almost 87,000 views is a mystery to me.

Ending at the 5th most viewed of my photographs uploaded to Google Maps is one taken of Silliman University Medical Center.

It would be nice, of course if I received some sort of payment for uploading these photos. It must forever remain a hobby.

This Blog at Nearly Thirteen Years

In about 3 months time, this humble blog will have been around for 13 years.

As one can see from the Blog Archive, I haven't been posting very often in the past few years but there have certainly been some years when I wrote quite a lot. Those were usually U.S. Presidential election years.

There was also a time when I frequently went to Google Analytics to check on the traffic. It's been a long time since I did that either. However, I did go to the Analytics site today and looked at the blog's analytics from the very beginning. The photo above is a screenshot of the countries from where I have received visitors these past 13 years. The map shows hits from nearly every country in the world - with the exception of Cuba, North Korea and a few in central Africa. According to Google, the total number of countries from where I've received visitors is 198.

I checked online and discovered that the generally accepted number of countries in this world is 196.

I haven't checked them all, but there are a few places recognized as countries by Google Analytics which aren't accepted by everyone else. Taiwan and Greenland are two examples.

According to the stats, slightly more than 91,000 visitors have come here. That really isn't very many - especially when compared to the more than eight million views my photos uploaded to Google Maps have received. Spread out over 13 years, the numbers look even less impressive.

A friend of mine, whose blog posts I greatly miss, said upon his discontinuing his blog, that blogging was dead. Maybe, but still I feel a need to slog on with this blog. Sometimes, I feel as if I am fighting the good fight. There are other times when I feel like the Vicar of Blackstable in W. Somerset Maugham's masterpiece, Of Human Bondage:

"He had a great idea that one should stick to whatever one had begun. Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind."

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.

Stupid Meme

In the past couple of weeks, I've seen an anti-muslim meme posted onto Facebook on at least two occasions. Posted as a jpg., the meme reads, as follows:

How stupid are we?
"We allow our government to flood our nation with Muslims, give them welfare for life (with multiple wives), and then tell us we must not offend them 'or we will go to prison'. Islamic immigration has destroyed every country in Europe, and it will destroy both Canada and the US.
Are we so stupid that we'll stand by and let this happen to our country?"

The first time I came upon this meme, I left a comment on the Facebook page where it appeared. I was highly critical of the meme but it was obvious that I wasn't going to change anyone's mind.

I came across the meme again yesterday, and I was tempted to leave another critical comment, when I was reminded of a quote by one of my favorite writers, Elizabeth von Arnim -

"............the less a person knows, the more certain he is that he is right, and that no weapons yet invented are of any use in a struggle with stupidity."

The person who had posted the meme was obviously a person described in the von Armin quote, and I'd be wasting my time trying to change the mind (such as it is) of that person.

However, I could not leave this unanswered. I could, at least comment on the meme in this blog.

From the content of the meme, there's no way of knowing if the original writer was American or Canadian. The posters I knew are Americans, so I will address it from the standpoint that they believe it applies to the USA.

I'll address the wording in sections.
"We allow our government to flood our nation with Muslims.......". According to the US Constitution, the government cannot exclude immigrants based on their religion. There's freedom of religion in the US and Muslims can't be prevented from immigrating.

"......give them welfare for life......". I know a few Muslims and none are on welfare.

".....(with multiple wives)...". I worked with a Muslim whose family had immigrated from the Middle East. At the time of their immigration, his father had two wives. The US government would only allow him to bring one wife.

".........and then tell us we must not offend them 'or we will go to prison'.......". This is a totally ridiculous notion. No one is in prison in the United States for offending Muslims.

As I said, I don't expect to change anyone's opinion, but I feel better after putting in my 2 cent's worth.

Farewell, VIS

After nearly fifteen years of blogging, my friend Dom Cimafranca has put an end to his blog Village Idiot Savant. I've seen the end coming, but that does not make it any easier. Where once he would post frequently, for the past year - or longer - he has posted less than once a month.

In his final post, Dom writes that blogging is dead and social media killed it. Perhaps. I know that I don't post with the frequency I once did, but I put the blame for that on my own laziness.

I know that I am not the writer that Dom is and his blog has been, over the years, an inspiration to me. It has been difficult doing without his updates, and it will be more difficult knowing that I won't be able to read his thoughts in the future.

One consolation is that he and I have become friends and we exchange emails from time to time. He and his wife do, on occasion make it to Dumaguete and my wife and I enjoy their company when they are here.

I'm saddened by the thought he will no longer be a blogger. The blogosphere - such as it is in 2018 - will feel the loss.

A Year on Google Maps

It was just a little more than a year ago that I first received an email from Google Maps letting me know that some photos I had uploaded of San Antonio de Padua parish church in Sibulan had been viewed more than 5,000 times.

At the time, I believed that to be quite an achievement. In the year since then, my photos of the church have topped over 12,000 views, but the number of views for all the photos I've uploaded to Google Maps have gone well over 2 million (+) views.

For quite some time now, my top two photos (by views) have been one of my photos of St. Joseph parish church on Pope John Paul II avenue in Cebu, and one of my photos of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Redemptorist church in Dumaguete.

 Earlier this month, I expressed surprise that my photo of the Star Oil gas station located near the airport had reached 4th place with more than 30,000 views. Now, I find the photo is my 3rd most viewed photo with more than 35,000 views, finally passing Manhattan Suites Inn by 2,000 views. That photo is only 4,000 views behind the 2nd placed photo, and could pass Our Mother of Perpetual Help church. It is 23,000 views behind the number one photo. I will be very shocked if a photo of a gas station overtakes first place.

National Catholic Reporter Should Become National Islamic Reporter

I mentioned in Friday's post that the high cost of electricity here on Negros island, and the surprisingly large amount of electricity used by my PC, has put a dent in the time I've been spending on the computer lately. That has naturally put a crimp in my blogging.

I haven't been totally absent from the Internet, however. My iPhone uses a relatively small amount of electricity, so checking my email and Facebook hasn't been a problem. I can even read my favorite blogs on the iPhone.

Earlier today, I was visiting the creativeminorityreport and going through their blog links. Unfortunately, most of the links go to blogs that haven't had an updated post in years, or in some cases to blogs that no longer exist.

One of the blog links that is still active and current is to Dymphna's Road. In a post from Saturday, Dymphna provides a link to a "distasteful article from National Catholic Reporter" entitled "The Muslim Jesus provides common ground for Christianity, Islam".

The writer of this particular article bemoans the increase of "Islamaphobia" in Trump's America. The writer tries to bring together Christians and Muslims by letting Christians know in what high regard the Quran places Jesus.

The writer mentions that the Quran refers to Jesus as "Spirit from God, "Word from/of God", "Prophet-Messenger of God," and the "Messiah" who will come back on the Day of Judgment to destroy the Antichrist. He goes on to write that "naturally there are theological differences between Muslims and Christians regarding Jesus" but fails to mention that Islam teaches that Jesus was "the precursor to Muhammad" and a prophet, not God incarnate, nor the Son of God. He also fails to mention that Islam teaches that Jesus was not crucified nor raised from the dead.

The idea that "the Muslim Jesus provides common ground for Christianity, Islam" is an insult to Christianity. The writer, obviously does not understand the teachings of Christianity.

Star (Oil) Performance

About one month ago, my photos on Google Maps had received 2 million views. In that month, there have been over an additional 200,000 views, and I was informed today, in an email, that my photo of the Star Oil gas station, located on the National Highway near the airport, had received over 30,000 views to date.

That number for Star Oil is a 3,000 view increase since last month's post.

That photo is still my fourth most popular photo on Google Maps, and I can't understand why the photo is receiving so many views. It's a photo of a flippin' gas station.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro

In yesterday's post [The Snow Job of Kilimanjaro] I wrote of the impossibility of my being able to watch the 1952 movie, The Snows of Kilimanjaro on Youtube, due to this dismally slow Internet I'm forced to deal with. As I write this on WordPad, I am having a difficult time reaching the blog site.

Strangely enough, however, I was able to view the movie yesterday afternoon. I had absolutely no problem streaming the video.

After watching the video, I have to say that the movie was enjoyable - if one over looks the fact that it does not follow Hemingway's short story. Forget that it's supposed to be Hemingway and view it as 1950s era movie and there are merits to be found in it. Viewing it as a Hemingway story, I'd give the movie a 3 1/2, but as a non-Hemingway story, I'd give the film a 7 1/2 or even an 8.

The Snow Job of Kilimanjaro

It was through his work with Alfred Hitchcock [Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo] that I first became a fan of composer Bernard Hermann. Recently, I'm been listening to one of Hermann's scores for a film I haven't seen - The Snows of Kilimanjaro, starring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward and Ava Gardner.

The film is in the public domain and available for viewing on Youtube, but sadly with the dismally slow Internet that I have to live with here, it is impossible for me to watch it. It seems a bit odd to me that I can stream music via Spotify (including the original soundtrack to The Snows of Kilimanjaro) but not videos.

With the film being in the public domain, it's unlikely that it will be shown on TCM. Someone has to make money, after all. So, it's unlikely that I'll see the movie any time in the near future.

After looking for an image to include with this post, the one I've chosen to use has an odd statement regarding the film - "Ernest Hemingway's Greatest Love Story!".

What a bunch of B.S.

Although I haven't seen the film, I know that the short story, as written by Hemingway can hardly be called a love story - great or otherwise. Ava Gardner's character isn't even in Hemingway's story. We know that Hollywood can't let artistic accuracy stand in the way of making a buck. Maybe the poster should say The Snow Job of Kilimanjaro.

Problems With Facebook

Unlike probably everyone else on the planet, I still prefer to take photos using my DSLR over photos taken with a Smartphone. To me, the quality of the photos is superior when using the DSLR.

If I have a reason to edit or enhance the photo, I find the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) downloaded onto my PC to be all I need.

Generally, this has worked well for me when uploading images for this blog as well as Google Maps and until recently, it has worked well when uploading the occasional photo to Facebook. I say recently, because about two weeks ago, I began experiencing problems using Facebook on my desktop computer.

I'm not quite sure if my problems involving Facebook stem from a shoddy Internet connection or the fact that my operating system is pre-historic. Could be a combination of the two. I can access pretty much every other site I need - with few problems. My wife has continued to use Facebook on her Smartphone with no problem, so I suspect the main culprit is Facebook cookies putting a burden on my pre-Facebook PC.

I don't really like using a phone for Facebook, but if I want to use Facebook at all now, it has to be with my iPhone. It's actually for the best, I'm sure. I find I don't bother to use the website nearly as much as I once did. I liked to "share" my blog posts onto Facebook, but I can do that well enough with the phone. I don't leave as many comments on other folks' posts as I might have in the past, and that's just as well.

Two Million Views

The photos I've uploaded to Google Maps have surpassed two million views. The top four photos haven't changed since I last wrote on this nearly two weeks ago.

1) St Joseph parish church on Pope John Paul II ave in Cebu. (50,000+ views)
2)Our Mother of Perpetual Help Redemptorist Church in Dumaguete. (33,000+ views)
3)The Manhattan Suites Inn - also in Dumaguete. (32,000+ views)
4)The Star Oil gas station located near the airport on the National Highway. (27,000+ views)

The fact that more than 27,000 people would want to look at a photo of a gas station continues to amaze me.