Changes…

Have you noticed the several PR updates that happened across the blogosphere the other day? Well I have! Imagine my surprise when I opened Sasha says and saw the Google toolbar in my Firefox browser went green in the PR side… PR2! Yeah baby!

I immediately checked it with a PR checker and yes, it said 2/10! Boy am I so glad!

God is really good!

Did your blog get an update as well?

After the slap, I was not really expecting an update anymore. But this is really a great gift. I must admit that the slap depressed me a bit when it happened. But hey, I tried to stay positive amidst it all. Hard but doable. And I did it.

Now all I can say is thank you and expect something new from this blog.

Sasha says’ 1st blogoversary will be on the 10th. And I will be announcing a contest by then. Plus this blog will be joining Entrecard very, very soon.

Happy Friday everyone!

Alexa ranking

Alexa ranking has been acting up for a few days now. It has been erratic in its ranking that most of my blogs have swinging ranks. I know that the rank changes daily. But the swing is really in big numbers. This blog for instance. I have been in the 120K for quite some time now. And then all of a sudden, despite the traffic, my Alexa rank dipped. I went to the 130K ranking. When I opened my blog today, it was already in the 230K ranks! That’s a 100K dip. Wow.

I also checked my other blog, My Own Utopia and the Alexa rank dipped by 300K! Ridiculous!

Have you experienced a big dip yourself?

Arranging your bookmarks toolbar

Starting today, whenever I come across something that I think will benefit me and another person or two, you will see this button and you’d know right away that I will be dishing out Tips and Tricks.

I love using the “Bookmark This Page” function of my browser. I use two browsers right now. Firefox and Opera. This Tips and Tricks post will be about using the Bookmark function in a Firefox browser.

Whenever I come across a web site or a blog that I like, I bookmark it. Sometimes five or so sites a day that I have a very long list of bookmarked sites. Honestly, I sometimes get confused why I bookmarked that particular site. Thanks to a blogging resource web site that I’ve come across today, I learned how to organize my bookmarked sites.

Click on the screenshot that I took to show you what I did to my Bookmarks Toolbar. I organized the sites that I bookmarked into folders. Yes, you can use folders in your bookmarks toolbar. Label your folders accordingly. I had mine as Fave (For sites that I love and would like to read daily), Check! (For sites that I need to check once more), WP (For anything wordpress related), Memes, Entrecard (Posts related to Entrecard as I am still thinking of whether to join or not) and Problogging (For anything related to making money online). Labeling your folder will make sure you don’t forget why you bookmarked a particular site.

Makes sense?

I hope I was able to teach you a thing or two about your Bookmarks Toolbar today.

Happy blogging!

Blog: Is it good or bad?

There has been an ongoing controversy with regards to blogs being used to dish out ‘libelous’ information. I believe this has been an ongoing issue for quite some time now, ever since blogging has been in the spotlight due to its gaining media power. But the Australian Brian Gorrell’s blog about his Filipino ex-boyfriend whom he is accusing of swindling him some $70,000 and being backed up by his high society “Gucci Gang’ friends has put blogging at an even more glaring spot.

Brian Gorrell is spewing mud all over kingdom come with his revelations on certain well-known personalities here in the country. Loathe as I was to admit it, he lends credibility to his revelations through the photos that accompany his blog entries. And he has been very consistent with his entries. Well, personally, as I have read it, that is. I watched Delfin (DJ) Justiniano Ocampo Montano II in Korina Today with his family and godfather when they were interviewed about the controversy. DJ Montano was inconsistent in his answers. There were just certain questions that I believe nailed it for me.

• Why would an HIV-positive man, who sold his property in Australia to be with you in the Philippines and who requires expensive medication in order to survive, squander all that money just to live like a king, as you and your stepfather put it? If he did, did it ever occur to you to stop him, knock some sense into him?
• You claim that Brian is just using his blog to extort money from you. Normally, an extortion act goes like this: the extortionist calls up the, uh, extortionee and demands that if the extortionee doesn’t pay up, he will expose the skeletons in your closet. In his blog, Brian has exposed so much dirt about you that it would make a fertilizer factory extremely happy. Why would he risk his chances of not getting that money from you, if indeed it was extortion?
• And if indeed it was extortion, why threaten to sue him with libel and defamation, and not extortion or some such related crime?

These are just some of the questions that made me think that Brian Gorrell might indeed be telling the truth. You can read Brian’s blog yourself. Just go to this link and see for yourself if he indeed is telling the truth.

Anyway, back to the main issue here. Is blogging good or bad? Why is there a campaign that says people beware of the blog?

Personally, I believe that a blog is a great medium to express oneself. Yes, it can be abused just like any other form of media. But it can be really powerful if it’s put to good use. We should not generalize all blogs out there. Not all blogs are engaged in mudslinging. And bloggers and their family and friends know that. Yes, there are blogs that we should stir clear from. I can name a few (but I won’t). All in all, only a few blogs can be put in the category like Brian Gorrell’s. Most are good and informative.

What do you think on this issue?

Mind stump

I know a lot of you have experienced this at one time or another. I, myself, have been in this situation numerous times. I am talking about a slump in blogging juice. Blog juice stops running through your veins for a period of time.

If you noticed, this blog suffered through the worse of my slump. I was able to schedule posts in My Own Utopia so the entries keep coming in. But this blog had no scheduled posts so all you see for quite a few days now were sporadic short entries and a dose of the paid ones.

What do you do if you are having one of those days when your mind just shuts down and refuses to acknowledge the fact that there are a lot of issues out there that you can write about? Me? I just rough it out and wait until the blog juice comes pouring in again.

*Dad’s birthday today. On April 4 to 7, my whole family will be off to Baguio for a vacation. I will schedule posts so this blog will not look unattended. I will return visits when I get back.

Happy blogging everyone!

WordPress 2.5

The latest version of wordpress, WordPress 2.5, is now released! For all of you who wants to be using the latest wordpress version, just click on the button below and you will be directed to the wordpress download page.

Paypal Bank Codes

Still looking for Bank Codes for your Paypal account? Below is the list…

Paypal-Philippines Bank Code List

Allied Bank 010320013
Asia United Bank (AUB) 011020011
Australia New Zealand (ANZ) 010700015
Banco de Oro (BDO) 010530667
Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) 010030015
Bank of China 011140014
Bank of Commerce 010440016
Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) 010040018
Bank of Tokyo 010460012
China Bank 010100013
Chinatrust 010690015
Citibank N.A. 010070017
Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) 010590018
Deutsche Bank 010650013
East West Bank 010620014
Equitable PCI Bank (EPCIB) 010530667
Export and Industry Bank (Exportbank) 010860010
Fuji Bank 010640010
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank (HSBC) 010060014
International Commercial Bank of China 010560019
International Exchange Bank (iBank) 010680012
JP Morgan Chase Bank 010720011
Korea Exchange Bank 010710018
International Nederland Bank 010660016
Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) 010350025
Maybank of the Philippines 010220016
Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) 010269996
Philippine Bank of Communication (PBCom) 010110016
Philippine Trust Company (Philtrust Bank) 010090039
Philippine NATIONAL BANK (PNB) 010080010
Prudential Bank 010150018
Philippine Veterans Bank 010330016
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) 010280014
Security Bank and Trust Company (Security Bank) 010140015
Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) 010050011
United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB) 010299995
Union Bank of the Philippines (Unionbank) 010419995
United Overseas Bank (UOB) 010270189

*Thank you, Paetechie Philippines!

So true! :)

Admit it! If you have been away from your blog long enough, you exactly think this way! Hahaha

WordPress theme that loads way faster

I changed my theme again The old one has problems with the plugins I have activated and some friends have noticed that the old theme loads way too slow. I thought it was just on my end but apparently, others experienced it, too.

I looked for a simple, 2-column wordpress theme that has a white background and found this Blue Zinfandel Squared Enhanced 2.0 by Brian Gardner. I tweaked it a bit and put a header image, raindrops caught on cobwebs. I also darkened the navigation bar and the footer.

This is the original look of this theme.

I am satisfied with the outcome. My blog now loads way faster than the previous themes I had. I also like the light blue and black font colors here.

Anyway, since I love changing themes, I will start recommending great, functional themes that I find. Plus sites where you can get wordpress themes and blogger templates as well.

It’s Palm Sunday today. Gone to church yet? Enjoy the rest of your weekend everyone!

*Just updated to the wordpress 2.3.3 version. If you find something weird going on here, please drop me a line, will you?

PR is coming back!!!

Hey Matt Cutts, what’s up with the returning PageRanks???

Good news, friends! Apparently, some blogs are getting their PageRanks (PRs) back. Both blogs of tita Liza slapped with a PR0 less than a month of getting a PR4 are now given back their PRs. Ate Ghee’s blog got a +1 in her PR. From PR3 it is now back to PR4. Most bloggers given a PR4 before the big slap where given back their PRs. Again, mostly PR2s. Rach’s, Ate Thess’, Teacher Julie’s blogs got their PRs back. Lucky them!

There is hope, people.

I just wish this blog’s PR will come back one day soon And I wish I know what’s the criteria in getting a blog’s PR back. Oh Google!

Happy Friday weekend everyone!

And I am back!!!

Had one hell of a webhost transfer! But everything seems fine now. I will just take a much needed shut eye and will be back in an hour or two.

I will make some changes in this blog once more. I will also announce something later.

See you in a jiffy!

The end and the beginning

I am now going to transfer to a new webhost. This site will be down for a day and will be back up with some changes. Hopefully, this new webhost will deliver.

I have recommended my previous webhost to several friends of mine. Napahiya ako talaga. And for that, I apologize to the friends who are suffering from the erratic server connection of the said webhost. If you need to transfer, just email me. But because of what happened to my former webhost, I will not recommend webhosts anymore. You can email me, especially Cess.

Happy weekend everyone!

See yah in a bit!