Six Barangay Halls

This morning I wanted to indulge in four of my hobbies - bicycling, photography, blogging and posting to Google Maps. With that goal in mind, I decided to ride to six of the barangay halls located within cycling distance from my house. While there, I'd snap a photo.

For those reading this who aren't familiar with some of the ways of Philippines, each city and municipal area is made up of "neighborhood areas" called barangay. For the most part, the barangay will have a barangay hall / health center, although I have been in some barangay so small that a barangay hall is nowhere to be found.
The six barangay hall I rode past today are - 1) Magatas 2) Camanjac 3) Motong 4) Pulantubig 5) Boloc-boloc and 6) Tubtubon. According to Google Maps the distance traveled was 10.5 kilometers.
Magatas
This is my home barangay. Our house is less than 200 meters from the barangay hall and it's impossible to travel from our house without passing the hall. The old brgy. hall has been torn down and a new one is being built. There is a temporary health center just across the road from the hall.

Camanjac
Turning south at the Magatas Brgy. hall, my first destination is Camanjac. It's a 2.1 km ride with a slight upgrade. Of the six Brgy. halls I will visit this morning, three are actually located in Dumaguete - Camanjac, Motong and Pulantubig.

Motong
Heading east at Camanjac, I rode the 2.7 km to Motong. There are two different routes I can take. To me, turning right at Boni Catarata to Motong Rd. seems the most direct route, but according to Google Maps, turning later at Larena Dr. to Motong Rd. is 200 meters shorter. This seems counter intuitive to me so I went the (so called) longer route via Boni Catarata.

Pulantubig
This Brgy. hall is located about 1 kilometer from the hall in Motong.
The name Pulantubig translates to "red water". According to one source, there is a large red rock within the barangay, with water running over it; the rock making the water turn red. Where exactly this is located is unknown to me.

Boloc-boloc
Arriving at this barangay hall, I'm back in Sibulan. A distance of 2.2 km from Pulantubig.

Tubtubon
From Boloc-boloc, the ride is 1 km to the Tubtubon Brgy. hall. After Magatas Brgy. hall, this is the Brgy. hall I most frequently pass while bike riding. From here, I'll ride 1.6 km to my house in Magatas.The ride this morning was quite enjoyable. I can see making this a regular run. 

Motong Brgy. Hall

Motong Brgy. Hall - Dumaguete, Negros Oriental. 

 

 

20 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.

New Location for Ride N Go Bicycle Shop

In order to take advantage of a more centralized location, Ride N Go Bicycle shop has moved from Diputado Street in Sibulan to it's new location, near the Sibulan Public Plaza, on Yapsutco St.

Anyone in the market for a quality bicycle, at a competitive price, can follow the directions given on the Google Map below.

 

Several Areas in Philippines Under MECQ.

Beginning June 16 until at least June 30, 2021, the entire province of Negros Oriental will be placed under MECQ. Negros is not the only region in the Philippines to be placed under these new restrictions. Other areas include Davao City, Zamboanga City, and 18 other areas.

Prohibited in areas under MECQ are:
a) Entertainment venues with live performers such as karaoke bars, bars, clubs, concert halls, theaters, and cinemas;
b) Recreational venues such as internet cafes, billiard halls, amusement arcades, bowling alleys, and similar venues;
c) Amusement parks or theme parks, fairs/peryas, kid amusement industries such as playgrounds, playroom, and kiddie rides;
d) Outdoor sports courts or venues for contact sports, scrimmages, games, or activities;
e) Indoor sports courts or venues, fitness studios, gyms, spas or other indoor leisure centers or facilities, and swimming pools;
f) Casinos, horse racing, cockfighting and operation of cockpits, lottery and betting shops, and other gaming establishments except for the draws conducted by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office;
g) Indoor visitor or tourist attractions, libraries, archives, museums, galleries, and cultural shows and exhibits;
h) Outdoor tourist attractions;
i) Venues for meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions;
j) Personal care services which include beauty salons, beauty parlors, medical aesthetic clinics, cosmetic or derma clinics, make-up salons, nail spas, reflexology, aesthetics, wellness, and holistic centers, and other similar establishments; acupuncture and electrocautery establishments, and massage therapy including sports therapy establishments. It also includes establishments providing tanning services, body piercings, tattooing, and similar services. Home service for these activities are likewise not permitted;
k) Indoor dine-in services of food preparation establishments such as commissaries, restaurants, and eateries.

Also, during MECQ:
Gatherings outside of residences shall be prohibited. Gatherings at residences with any person outside of one’s immediate household shall likewise be prohibited. However, gatherings that are essential for the provision of health services, government services, or humanitarian activities authorized by the appropriate government agency or instrumentality shall be allowed. Religious gatherings shall be allowed up to ten percent (10%) of the venue capacity.
Provided, that, there is no objection from the local government unit where the religious gathering may take place. Provided, further, that the LGU may increase the allowable venue capacity up to thirty percent (30%). The religious denominations should strictly observe their submitted protocols and the minimum public health standards.
Gatherings for necrological services, wakes, internment, funerals for those who died of causes other than COVID-19 shall be allowed, provided that the same shall be limited to immediate family members, upon satisfactory proof of their relationship with the deceased and with full compliance with the prescribed minimum public health standards for the duration of the activity.

These restrictions are mandated until June 30, 2021. Hopefully, progress will be made and the restrictions will be removed July 01.

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 blog 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 Concerning Ads

I wrote on all three blogs yesterday that I was having difficulties with Google AdSense ads. My robertsimms.blogspot.com blog has yet to be approved for AdSense although my other blogs have displayed ads for several years.

As I mentioned in the posts from yesterday, the two blogs which normally display ads were not doing so yesterday. However, not long after posting yesterday, ads began to magically reappear.

The odd thing about the ads now, is that they will show up fine when getting to the blog via the main link, but will not appear on the individual post links. As far as I can tell, my AdSense settings should display the ads automatically on every page. Why this isn't happening is beyond me.

No Ads?

 

According to Google AdSense, my account for this blog is active. However, as anyone can see, there are no ads displayed now on the blog.

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

A Mango Shake from Scooby's

There are quite a few Scooby's located in Dumaguete, but for the purposes of this mango shake review, I choose the Scooby's Fastfood located on San Jose Street - across from Hotel Nicanor.

Of course, I'm not privy to the secrets involved in making Scooby's mango shakes, but I didn't taste any dairy in the shake I had there. I'm not holding that against them. The shake was quite good and at only 50 pesos, you can't beat the price.

Auto Body Work Done

We found ourselves with a little extra money this month, so on Monday, my wife and I dropped off our car at a nearby auto-body repair shop to have some much needed work done on our car. Naturally, I took a few "before" photos.

The work was completed on Thursday. When the car was originally dropped off, the technician sanded the vehicle and applied - what I believe we call in the U.S., bondo - After it was applied, my wife was able to bring the car home over night, which is when I took the second set of photos.

The final photos were taken this morning after I returned home from bike riding. I'm happy with job done.

 

Metal Posts and Scaffolding

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.

 

An Earlier Project

There was an earlier project around the house, which I've neglected blogging about. On March 05, we had small gates put up, basically to prevent our dog from getting out of the yard and into the garden.

Not quite sure why I neglected posting these photos, but as they say, better late than never.