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.

The Piglets at Nine Weeks

Our piglets were born June 23. This past Friday ( August 25 ) they were nine weeks old.

After taking these photos this morning, we sold one of the pink piglets to one of my wife's sisters and her husband. That piglet will be moved into one of the empty pens until the in-laws have a place ready on their property.

One less mouth to feed.

The Tabili

My wife and I drove out to the property in Magatas, Sibulan this morning to bring feed for the pigs. After feeding the pigs, I walked around the property a bit and spied this lizard crawling along the fence. Naturally, having my camera ready, I had to take a few photos.

When I my wife saw the photos, she told me this particular lizard is called tabili. Doing a little web-surfing, I find it is the Lamprolepis smaragdina AKA the "Emerald Tree Skink", "green tree skink" or "emerald green skink".

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.

Next on the Reading List

Here in Sibulan, our electricity comes from a geothermal power station located less than 15 miles from our home. In spite of the fact that it is geothermal, the electricity here is very expensive.

After looking at our meter, I've discovered that my PC uses a tremendous amount of power - much more than I would have imagined. Consequently, I've been using my PC less than I have been. That is partly why I haven't posted anything on to my blog recently. I can check my email and Facebook using the less costly iPhone, but blogging with the phone isn't my cup of green tea.

Having finished books 1 and 2 of C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, and finding book to be incredibly boring, I've gone back to reading Elizabeth von Arnim. I've just finished my tenth novel by her for this year (having read 1 of her novels in late 2016). I've begun on #11 - The Enchanted April. As only 12 of her novels are available for download at Project Gutenberg, this will be the last of her novels for me this year, unless, perhaps more will be available at a later date - copyright laws differ from country to country; I'll check to see if any of her novels are available on Canadian or Australian websites.

Breaking from my recent habit, when I've finished this last novel by von Arnim, I will read 2 printed, paper books - Volumes I and II of Sister Lucia's Fatima memoirs. I was reading these memoirs in 2005 when Sister Lucia died. These two books are among those cloth and paperback books shipped to Philippines via balikbayan box when we moved to Philippines in 2014.