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BK author of Symphony of Love
This is a blog that talks about love, inspiration and many more. Beautiful photographs are also featured which added more creativity to her blog.
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Adrian careened right into her. He was running the few remaining distance to the mountain crest, when she came out of nowhere and just stood there blocking his path. It was too late for him to stop. There was a loud thump and they both went down in a heap.
“I’m sorry, “Adrian gingerly helped her get up. “Are you okay? I didn’t see you coming.”
The woman said nothing. “C’mon, I’ll …” The woman turned, and Adrian stared at the wrinkled, ugliest face he had ever seen.
He almost dropped her arm, but he regained his composure and continued to help the old, ugly woman to her feet.
“Are you okay?” Adrian repeated the question, but she just nodded, and without a backward glance left him gaping at her departing figure.
“Wait,” he called out to her, but the woman limped onwards not bothering to look back.
What was that? Adrian thought. The old woman seemed to be aloof, or was she scared? Who was she? Perhaps she was one of the natives who opted to live in the forest?
He remembered the words of the caretaker at the hacienda. “Don’t stay late in the forest. Strange things happen at night.” But this is high noon! He shrugged his misgivings and continued his ascent toward the peak.
The sight from up there was something he had never imagined. It was a taste of heaven! The air was nifty and fresh, peace and calm reigned. There were white fluffy clouds drifting by like white marshmallows, etched in the clear, afternoon sky. He wanted to reach out and stuff them into his mouth.
At the foot of the mountain, the village was dotted with miniature houses. There was a river that snaked its way around it, enclosing the small nipa huts in a tight cluster. Towering mountains stood all around it like silent sentinels.
He turned around and tried to locate the town where he had come from, but the sight was only of smog rising up in the air from the flat lowlands. He was between two totally different worlds. At The other side of the mountain was the town, polluted, civilized and modernized, and at the opposite side, the pristine, unadulterated village. Perhaps one day, he would have enough time to visit the village below.
The melodious chirping of birds brought him back to reality. He settled himself in the lush, matted moss opening his packed lunch to devour his food as nature watched over him. He basked in the marvelous, invigorating environment. How he wished he could stay there forever. This was his idea of peace and quiet. He needed these rare, serene moments as his job had been demanding much from him lately, and he had bouts of insomnia during the night which was work-related.
He sat there quietly assimilating everything into his burnt out system. It was so “silent” he knew that if he shouted, this would reverberate across the mountain ranges. He closed his eyes and listened to the calming sounds of nature; the hum of the cicadas, the whisper of the wind, the chirping of birds and the murmur of distant brooks. He was in this state, when he heard an audible, chopping sound. His ears prickled and he listened closely.
“Chop, chop, chop…” there it was, resounding in the stillness of the forest.
He stood up and cautiously approached the origin of the sound. “Chop, chop chop.”
He came upon a clearing and to his surprise, he saw the old woman he had met earlier. She was painstakingly cutting up a big chunk of log into smaller sizes. Her back was bent at a dangerous angle, like it would break any moment. She seemed to be laboring under the weight of the ax.
Her abode was a small run- down house that had a big wooden door adorned with strange things: a deer antler, an apparent animal skin, and a roughly hewn digging tool. Piles of firewood were stacked on both sides of the entrance.
Adrian’s helpful nature responded to the situation. He approached the old woman who seemed not to be surprised to see him there. She continued with her laborious chore.
“Let me help you, “he offered.
The woman cast him a strange glance and went back to her task.
Adrian ventured closer, “I can do that for you…” he said uncertainly.
The woman stopped for the second time and studied him closely.
Without a word, Adrian got the ax from her. His sinewy arms rippled as he swang the hatchet repeatedly to divide the big log into pieces of firewood. This was a better exercise than lifting weights, he chuckled.
It felt good to be able to help someone again.
When the log had been neatly cut into small pieces and stacked below the hearth, he viewed his work contentedly.
“Here, have some water,” the old woman spoke at last, her hoarse voice quivered.
“Thank you.” Adrian drank thirstily from the plastic cup.
“Thanks for the help, but you have to go now,” she said.
Adrian was curious, “don’t you have anyone else here with you?”
She did not answer his question.
“Go now, before it gets dark,” she insisted, pushing him firmly out of the clearing.
Adrian left reluctantly. The old woman’s face became contorted and she was wildly motioning with her hands, urging him to leave.
He found it strange that an old woman would be living alone in the middle of the forest. Was this one of those Hansel and Gretel stories that he had read when he was a child? He enjoyed those bed time stories but he knew they were pure fiction. Witches and the supernatural just weren’t in his vocabulary.
Shaking his head in disbelief, he trekked back as the setting sun cast an orange hue in the approaching dusk.
The descent would take an hour at the most, he thought. As he was nearing the clear, bubbling stream which he had passed earlier, he heard singing.
The flowing, vibrant voice came from a woman seated in a gleaming stone. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever set eyes on. Her toes were immersed in the water and she was playfully wiggling them.
He stood transfixed for some interminable minutes and then willed himself to move on.
But the woman noticed him, “Hello, are you new to this place?” He stopped in his tracks and looked back.
She had stood up and her flimsy, flowing clothing could not hide the voluptuous figure she had.
Adrian stared and became speechless, he nodded his assent.
“Come sit with me for a while, I need company.”
He could not take his eyes off her. Am I being hypnotized? Or being enchanted perhaps? What’s a beautiful woman doing in the forest alone? He asked himself.
He wanted to refuse but the woman pulled him closer and held his hand tenderly.
He went willingly. Vestiges of night shadows were beginning to take shape. The air seemed charged with numerous atoms that began to collide with each other.
As she sensuously caressed his hands, his pulses quickened and his spine tingled. When was the last time he had been with a woman? He couldn’t remember.
Just then, a piercing scream rang through the air. Adrian bolted up, like he was struck by lightning.
The scream echoed in the distance, he was almost certain it was the old woman! What was happening to her?
“That’s the old woman I met earlier. I have to see what’s wrong with her.” He blurted out and started to disengage himself.
The woman restrained him. “She’s just an old witch,” she said scornfully. “Stay here with me and I’ll make you happy.”
Another scream reverberated in the evening air.
Adrian firmly dislodged the woman’s creamy hand from his shoulders and ran. “I will have to see what’s wrong with her,” he insisted.
It was easier for him to go back to the old woman’s hut. It felt like he was going home. The old woman had her back to him and was staring at the distance. Adrian was at her side in an instant.
“What’s wrong?” He asked breathlessly.
The old woman turned and to Adrian’s utter amazement, her face transformed slowly into a lovely, young woman’s face. “You have a good heart that transcends the mundane. You have opted to help an ugly, old woman,” she said. ”And because of that, you have broken the evil spell. From now on, no one will die in these mountains, ever again.”
What’s this, the Lord of the Rings? Adrian thought. Am I imagining all of these things? He held back an urge to laugh.
“I met a young woman at the stream…” he said, wanting to know all the answers.
“She won’t bother anyone anymore with her deadly enchantments,” she smiled at him.
“Here take this as a reminder of the good you have done here.” She pressed something into Adrian’s hands.
“Hey, Adrian, wake up.”
Someone was shaking him not so gently. A bright light was shining directly into his face.
He sat up disoriented, and recognized his two friends hovering over him.
“Where is she? I was just talking to her,” he queried.
“Who?” Paul, the raconteur of the group asked, “the princess from far, far away?” and he laughed heartily.
“C’mon, you have fallen asleep. Who wouldn’t be? This environment is conducive to sleep,” Pete seconded. “You were dreaming, my friend.”
And together they helped him to his feet. “You were not answering your cell phone. We were worried. You’re lucky we found the man who saw you come up here.”
“But, I have seen this woman. I had talked to her, talked to them,” Adrian insisted.
“Hey, no one lives in this forest. Let’s get moving. It’s getting really dark. “
“Wait,” Adrian remembered what the woman pressed into his hands. He opened his palm and saw the tiny flash of light.
He scrutinized the object and noticed a tiny diamond winking at him beneath the dirty exterior. “Look,” he shouted jubilantly, “She gave me this.”
The three of them peered closely at what was obviously a diamond; caked with a little mud, but a diamond nevertheless.
“Why, yes, it’s a diamond,” Paul exclaimed. “Where’s this woman?”
Without replying, Adrian ran back towards the house in the forest, while the two were in hot pursuit. They arrived breathless at the clearing.
“Where is she?” Peter asked excitedly, “We’ll get rich.”
Adrian looked around him puzzled. The small house had been right there in the middle of the clearing. Now, there was only an enormous tree. There were fireflies on the tree making it appear like it was lighted with small incandescent bulbs.
“It was just here,” Adrian whispered. “She was right here.”
“Perhaps, this is not the right place.”
“No, this is the right place. I am certain.” Adrian stated positively.
Finally they decided it was futile to search for something that was apparently not there, so they hiked back to town cloaked in silence; each to his own thought.
Paul was thinking, “perhaps Adrian got a little mad, because of his insomnia? …But how could the diamond be explained?”
Peter was thinking, “We should trace where that diamond came from. Perhaps he just concocted that tall tale so that he would have an excuse not to reveal the source of the diamond? “
Adrian was thinking: “The two women were real. The diamond in his hand was proof. But would anyone believe him?”
**************************************************
Every year, Adrian went back to seek solace from that forest. He never came across the two women again. Whenever someone asked him to recount his “diamond story”, he would say, “a fairy gave it to me.” Everyone would laugh thinking it was a joke.
But to him nothing was more real than the two women he had encountered in the forest.
Photo 1 by Matt Phillips
Photo 2 by Fr Antunes
When I first started blogging, one of my intentions was to earn money online. I have read so many online articles advertising this notion. I was disappointed; however, when after three months, I still had no tangible income. All the ad review sites had rejected my blog application.
I decided then to forget about earning money online and concentrated instead on writing for my blogs. Writing has always been a great love for me so I wrote several topics in my field of interests and had updated my blogs weekly.
I enlisted my blogs in search engines and in several ranking sites to maximize their exposure. I joined blogging communities and tried all possible means to make my blogs known. I wanted people to read what I wrote.
At first, I could not access my blogs from any search engine, but as days passed, slowly trickles of articles are being displayed in search engines. As my viewership increased my Google page rank appeared and that was the start of my earnings on line. Ad review sites started approving my blog applications.
Here are some strategies that you could use to earn money online:
1. Create a blog.
There are many sites that provide the creation of blogs for free. Create one and maintain it regularly by posting interesting articles.
As mentioned above, add your blogs to all search engines like Google, yahoo, and msn. Enlist your blogs in various ranking sites like Blogtoplist, Alexa ranking, Blog Topsites, etc; this is to advertise your blogs.
Utilize all available gadgets in the internet to maximize your exposure to internet users. You can become a member of blogging communities like Entrecard, MyblogLog, Social Sparks, and many more.
Every three months or so, Google will be ranking your blog. If you had done well in the above-mentioned areas, you’ll be assigned a page rank. As your readership increases, your ranking increases too.
It is your content however, that would let your readers come back for more. Content is King, so be sure to write eye-catching titles and informative articles.
2. Apply to sites which pay for reviews.
After you have gained your Google page rank, you can now apply for the pay per post or paid reviews features.
These sites namely: pay per post, blogvertise, sponsored reviews, review me and many others would usually pay $ 10 to $ 50 for every review published in your blogs.
You could earn a good income from these sites. Be sure however that your ranking would not go down as Google will decrease your rank if you do not maintain the proper ratio of paid to unpaid posts, which is usually 1:3.
If your blog loses its rank, advertisers for paid reviews would not select your blog to advertise on, for the simple reason that no one will get to read your reviews.
3. Become a writer for writing sites.
This is one good source of making money online. You just have to be dedicated, disciplined and be hardworking in your quest as a writer. Do not get discouraged if at first you don’t earn good money. You have to write a lot of articles before you could really earn from their daily views. But remember, these are investments which could last a lifetime.
Examples of these writing sites are Helium, Triond, Associated Content, and many more. Helium has a lot of venues for earning money, like the marketplace, rewardathons, the writing contests, citizen’s contests and upfront payments for articles as long as you maintain one star. I have earned good money from Helium for the 4 months that I have joined this site.
These sites are all free. If a site asks you to pay for some fees, then don’t join; they should be the one paying you for your articles, and not you paying them.
While you’re writing for these sites, this will also improve your writing skills.
You learn as you write, and write as you learn; to top these all, you earn at the same time. What could be better than that?
4. Allow direct advertisers in your blogs.
There are several sites that you could apply your blog to. Adsense, bidvertiser are some of them. You have to do some research to determine which among them suits you the most.
Beware of scam sites, however. I have not yet reached payout with adsense but I have read several testimonies of users being paid by them.
5. Join Pay per click (PPC) and Pay to click (PTC) sites.
This is where most scam sites are found. Before you join, surf in the internet about personal experiences with these sites. If there are many complaints about the site, then don’t join. One red light for you to disregard the site is when they ask for payment upon registration and anytime during the membership. I don’t recommend any of these sites, as I did not receive yet any payouts from them. I stopped using them two months ago.
6. Join paid forums
These are forums on line in which you post questions/discussions that other forum members could reply to. You are then paid on the quality and quantity of your responses, the discussions that you post, and from the pictures that you have uploaded.
Active participation is needed. An example of this site is MyLot forum. I recommend this site as I have proven already that it really pays its members. I have been paid thrice from this site within the 4 months that I had joined them.
For other legitimate forum sites, surf in the Internet for users’ testimonies. Research well, as there are sites which pay late, and there are several scam sites.
There are still several strategies to earn money online. Open your ears and eyes to all these legitimate opportunities. Be wary of scam sites, though. Be persistent and dedicated in any money-making sites that you have decided to join and you’ll be earning good money in no time at all.
Angel Cuala has been one of my guest bloggers and contributors to the Inspirational Book. His wife is in the hospital right now, down with dengue fever.
Dengue fever is a condition which usually plagues the country during certain seasons of the year.
He needs all the help we can. It maybe in the form of prayers too.
Here is a link to a post which describes in full Angel’s dilemma. Thanks in advance for any kind of help. God bless.
Mel has created a link love for all Filipino bloggers entitled “Filipinos Unite”.
This prayer is intended for all Filipino bloggers. 
If you’re a Filipino and your blog is not included here, then visit the site and be part of this good movement. Feel free to use your own prayer as long as the concept is the same. Don’t forget to post the prayer together with the linky love. Mabuhay ang Filipino!
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Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, we consecrate to you our beloved country- the Philippines and all the Filipinos around the world. We acknowledge Father that apart from You, we can do nothing and it is only your divine providence and grace that can unite all Filipinos as one nation. We therefore humble ourselves before your throne. We confess all our sins to you individually and collectively as a nation. Forgive us our sins Father and wash us clean by the precious blood of Your beloved Son- Jesus Christ. Mend our wicked ways and let us experience a strong and genuine spiritual revival for ourselves and for our country. Let the Holy Spirit imbibe in us the power, love and wisdom to return to Your path of holiness and righteousness. Bless our country, heavenly father. Bless all Filipinos wherever they maybe. Let progress, unity, harmony, stability, justice, peace and prosperity reign in our country.
Bless our leaders, from the President down to the lowest Baranggay official. Touch their hearts that they may serve our country with all honesty and with love and integrity. Bless our children and our future generation. And bless us all Father in all aspects of our lives. This we pray to You heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
If you wish to be included in the master list just e-mail melalarilla@gmail.com or visit Filipinos Unite.
Filipino bloggers who have united
1. Mel Alarilla Bulacan, Philippines, Filipinos Unite!!!
2. Angel Cuala Batangas, Philippines Father Blogger dot com
3. Lavern Tan Las Pinas City, Philippines Pinoy Ambisyoso
4. Francis Daniel Maning Cebu, Philippines Istayl Sugbo
5. Snow Philippines Dear Bloggery
6. Bloggista Marikina, Philippines – Bloggista -
7. Chris A. – Cavite, Philippines – CMAQuest
8. Aisha – Eugene, Oregon, USA – The Holley Herald
9. Rowena – Davao City, Philippines – All Out My Naked Truth
10. Icymar Tagimacruz – Cebu, Philippines – Kreative Myndz
11. Pat Mangubat - Philippines – New Philippine Revolution
12. Empress – Cebu, Philippines – Empress of Drac.Com
13. Marilou Domingo – Philippines – Ibanag in the City
14. Ester Besmonde – Canada – Walk Through Money Online Journal
15. Ramon Paulino – Quezon City, Philippines – FatherlYours.com
16. Mindanaoan – Mindanao, Philippines – Mindanaoan
17. Bloggie – Davao City, Philippines – Davao Bloggers Network
18. Xerendipity – Dumaguete City, Philippines – Obnoxious Queer
19. Viviene C. (Bingkee) – Connecticut, USA – I Love/Hate America
20. Roy – Angeles City, Philippines – The Struggling Blogger
21. Janette Toral (Ada) – Marikina City, Philippines – Blogging From Home
22. Milton Coyne III (Bluedreamer27) – Cavite City, Philippines – Bluedreamer’s Top Five
23. Marites dlR - Davao City, Philippines – Me, the islands and the world
24. Mauie Flores – Cainta, Rizal, Philippines – Living a Sugar-free Sweet Life!
25. MsRay – Bacolod City, Philippines – Woman on a Journey
26. Pia Go Olano – Philippines – My Life’s Journey
27. Jena Isle – Pampanga, Philippines – Random Thoughts
28. Caca – Mindanao, Philippines – Mood Swings
29. Pinoy Apache – Cebu City, Philippines – Pinoy Apache
30. Jessie Simbulan – Philippines – The Reporter
31. Tony Roda – Manila, Philippines – MENstream
32. Fingertalks – Philippines – Fingertalks
33. Wendy Lopez-Redaon – Quezon City, Philippines – From The Eyes of My Heart
34. Marlene – Davao City, Philippines – Potpourri of Ramblings
35. Liza Cochico – Quezon City, Philippines – A Simple Life
36. Tricia Mazo-Galvez – Las Pinas City, Philippines – Proud Mommy
37. Wayne – New Zealand – Affiliate Crunch
38. Shiera Delusa – Osaka, Japan – Bisdak Babbles
39. Madz – Lunda Norte, Angola – Things I Did Not Know Before
40. Kcee – Makati City, Philippines – Barefooted Me
41. Yani – Davao City, Philippines – Banicmanic
42. Rodaflip – Ontario, Canada – FlipAntasticWeb
43. Ramvie Santiago – Philippines – Philippine Blog For All
44. Russell Bravo – Caloocan City, Philippines – Russell Dot Com
45. Michelle Valenzuela – San Francisco, California, USA – Tumawa K Kabayan
46. Pinay Wife – Cambodia – Pinay Wife Speaks
47. Lei – Pasig City, Philippines – Moon Goddess Lae
48. Shawie Gick – Orange County, California, USA – A Grateful Heart
49. Hariette Wendam – Iloilo City, Philippines – Praning’s Shoutout
50. Joan Joyce Absalon – Navotas City, Philippines – Joan Joyce dot com
51. Rashieka Estelle Absalon – Navotas City, Philippines – My Name Is Rashieka
52. Darlyn - Gen. Santos City, Philippines – Touched By An Angel With Love
53. Kate Cancio – Marikina City, Philippines – Becoming Kate Cancio
54. Ria – United Kingdom – Continental Fairy
55. Ginoray – Cainta, Rizal, Philippines – Profound Matters
56. Penlighted – New York, USA – Light It Up (Blogging for Jesus)
57. Lyn (Moccalyn) – Manila, Philippines – Life Spices
58. Ana Lindenhann – Denmark – The Filipina Mom in Denmark
59. Chris Red – Philippines – Christinchen’s Soapbox
60. Richies 2Ts Inspires – Stockholm, Sweden – Richies Inspirational Designs
61. Island Angel – Davao City, Philippines – Seashells Of Island Angel
62. Manilyn Tingcang – Iligan City, Philippines – LinGZ.spot
63. Joyoz Obsioma – Melbourne, Australia – Everyday Life…Generally Speaking
64. Gladita – Bacolod City, Philippines – PromdiLiving
65. Lesley Cucal – Tarlac City, Philippines – Bottomless Coffee
66. Rose Cottrill – West Virginia, USA – Rose’s Obstacles and Glory
67. Mys Lyke Meeh – Toronto, Canada – Mys Lyke Meeh
68. Gloria (Goyz) – Calamba City, Philippines – Good Health
69. Mitch (Annay Butakal) – Cebu, Philippines – Ramble Baboy
70. Ria Coleto – Cervantes – Dubai, UAE – It’s My Party
71. Luna Miranda – Makati City, Philippines – Miranda
72. Kit (Suplado) – Makati City, Philippines – Suplado Reviews
73. Rachel – Philippines – Heart of Rachel
74. Josie Santos – Sydney, Australia – Fragments of My Soul
75. Wella Jane- Misamis Occidental, Philippines – Thinking Pen- Blogging For A Cause
76. Kelvin Requiroso (Kebelle) – Quezon City, Philippines – Spirituality Page
77. Pusang Gala – Mandaluyong City, Philippines – Pusang – Gala
78. Jason – Paranaque, Philippines – Pinoy Updates
79. Onatdonuts – Taguig City, Philippines – OnatDonuts
80. Ibyang – NSW, Australia – A Wife’s Charmed Life
81. Mike Avenue – Philippines – Mga Tagalog Na Tula Sa Filipinas
82.Jhay Gamba – Cainta, Rizal, Philippines – I Blog Mo!
83. Carla Farnesyl Fundales Idago – Malabon City, Philippines – Heterotripper: Anong Maskara Mo Today
84. Tet Garchitorena – Naga City, Philippines – The Life Of An Oregano Addict
85. Rael Denoman – Imus, Cavite, Philippines – Manikang Papel
86. Liezl F. – Valenzuela City, Philippines – Breezing My Confined Emotions
87. Kengkay – Germany – Kwentong Kengkay
88. Earthlingorgeous – Manila, Philippines – Earthlingorgeous.com
89. Pinay Key Point – Tarlac City, Philippines – PinayKeyPoint
90. Ria Stevenson – Texas, USA – Live Love Laugh
91. Pajay – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Klasrum Ni Pajay
92. Texas Sweetie – Texas, USA – My Virtual Diary
93. Aquamarine – Hongkong – Aquamarine
94. Shemistry – Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, Philippines – Foolishly Overacting -
95. Dines – Winona, Minnesotta, USA – Kalei Dines Scope
96. Che (Chorva) – Philippines – Chorva Entertainment Blog
97. Arnel Gara Artes – Cebu City, Philippines – A Hunter
98. Donald Pal (Dhon) – Cebu, Philippines – Life Love Lust
99. Fermin Absalon – Navotas, Metro Manila, Philippines – Beyond Feron Dot Com
100. Dzerom – Calamba, Laguna, Philippines – Blogging Without A Cause
101. K (Knoizki) – Hongkong – A Dialogue With K
102 Orville Hitadle – Cebu City, Philippines – Downloader’s Stuffs and Freebies for All
103. Cindyrella – Hongkong – Cindyrella From Hongkong
104. Rimewire – Cavite, Philippines – Disproving the Genius
105. Edelweiza Mabalay – Manila, Philippines – The Life of a Breadwinner
106. Manolito Montala – Philippines – The Filipino Enterpreneur
107. Leona Khan- Pasig City, Philippines – Vanidosang Panda
108. Pepe Mckunat – Philippines – Life is Tough, but prove You are Tougher
109. Batopik – Taguig City, Philippines – Batopik
110. Gin E – Manila, Philippines – Mommy in Manila
111. B’ley Villones (Dyosa) – Paranaque City, Philippines – Blagalag
112. Donald Serrano (don_ser) – Philippines – don_ser The Feeling ProBlogger
113. Love Lot – San Francisco, California, USA – Lov-A-Lot
114. Enchie – Manila, Philippines – Sweet Nothings
115. Iceah Marie – Gen. Santos City, Philippines – Chicken Heart
116. Mee*I Velasco – Antipolo City, Rizal, Philippines – Waiting On The World To Change
117. Kuyanin – Philippines – Kuyanin: Starting Afresh
118. Chyng Reyes – Manila, Philippines – No Spam, No Virus, No Kiddin’!
119. JuanDerPul – Philippines – JuanDerPul Pinoy
120. Kenneth Mendoza – Laguna, Philippines – Kenneth Mendoza- Speaking Out, Blogging, Ranting and Fooling Around
121. Grace – Michigan, USA – We Live To Tell God’s “Amazing Grace”
122. Carnation – Antique, Philippines – Carnation
123. Jed Chua – Mandaluyong City, Philippines – Reel Advice
124. Pammyboo83 – Dumaguete City, Philippines – Filipino Lifestyle
125. Sagada- Igorot – Mountain Province, Philippines/Chicago, USA – Blog of The Sagada- Igorot
126. Bai Maleiha Candao – Cotabato City, Philippines – Soulful Images
127. Jehzeel Laurente – Philippines – Jehzlau Concepts
128. Poohgahk – Philippines – Shout Out
129. Norman Novio – Occidental Mindoro, Philippines – Pamatok
130. Bien Nillos – Negros Occidental, Philippines – The Freudian Slip
131. Madelyn Basalo-Sells – Cafunfo, Lunda Norte, Angola – “The Pride of Hingotanan, Bohol”- My Life’s Journey To Success
132. Jannesse – Las Pinas City, Philippines – The Wifey Diaries – url -
133. Willa Stock – Ontario, Canada – Fickle Minded- A Life That Is Less Ordinary
134. Aihara (Tessah) Ramintessah Sanchez – Japan – The Economics of Life
135. Ron Albert – Quezon City, Philippines – A Slice of Turon
136. Elyong – Davao City, Philippines – Elyong
137. Kokoi – Baguio City, Philippines – Blog ni Kokoi
138. Fat – Japan – Anything Goes
139. Mye De Leon – Rizal, Philippines – Blog Appetite
140. Jan Geronimo – Oriental Mindoro, Philippines – salabasngmandaluyong (Rx For A Better Life)
141. Chuva – Philippines – Chizmizan With Chuva
142. E. J. Bautista – Quezon City, Philippines – Bogcess
143. Maree Tee – Philippines – I Am Mrs. Tee
144. Alma Cafe – Davao oriental, Philippines – Reach Beyond Your Limits
145. Arlene Collado – Philippines – Joys in Life
146. Juvy – Philippines – Pinoy Portals
147. Jan Mckingley Hilado – Cebu City, Philippines – The Ultralife of Student Nurses
148. Carlos – Davao City, Philippines – Carlos Ideas
149. Mentor – Cebu, Philippines – The Image of Cebu
150. Emma Ballada – Laguna, Philippines – Life Momento
151. Darkspark – Philippines – Papermills
152. Your name, address, name of blog and its url
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Eric of Chihuatude
(His stories about chihuahuas are interesting and worth a read)
Ken of Ken Armstrong Writing Stuff
( He replies graciously to each of his guests, need I say more?)
(Variety of superb stories I have heard for a long while, the unique content of the blog is priceless and makes it worthy of the title Best Blog of all Time.)
Patricia Rockwell of Communication Exchange
Almost everyone you know talk about their wonderful blogs and how they enjoy blogging. Some of them even claim to have earned a sizable income from blogging. You are interested and you would like to visit their blogs, and eventually, create a blog of your own. You do not know; however, where to start because you are not a computer savvy.
Well, fret not! Here is a step by step outline of how you should go about making your first blogging experience a truly memorable one.
What is a blog?
A blog is a web site which features articles, videos, pictures, journals and many possible means of communication. They could be categorized according to niches or interests. There are blogs for writing and the arts, health and education, IT and computer technology, Travel and photo blogs, money-making blogs and many more.
Blogs gained popularity in 1999 when the first web hosting tools were discovered. From then on, the number of bloggers increased steadily with majority writing their personal journals.
Eventually, blogging areas broadened and more and more topics were included.
Today, there are blogs on all topics under the sun and it still continues to grow in leaps and bounds around the world.
How can you create your own blog? Below are simple steps to follow.
Chronological steps in creating a blog.
1. Determine the purpose of your blog.
Before you create your blog, be certain of what you would like the content to be. What would be the name of your blog? The name of your blog should be in congruence with your content. What is the purpose of your blog? Who are your intended readers? All of these should be taken into account.
2. Choose a domain name.
The domain name should be in congruence with the purpose, the theme and the content of your blog. Choose a name that is catchy and that could easily be remembered by a casual reader.
3. Selecting your web host carefully.
After you have carefully chosen the name of your blog, you have to select now your web host. A web host is a site that owns a server which is accessible in the World Wide Web (www) for internet users. This host will allow your blog to be available in the internet.
There are two most common hostings and these are the free hosting and the paid hosting.
If your blog is for business purposes or other significant enterprise then you should opt for paid hosting. If you just want to experience blogging, then free hosting would be sufficient.
The two most popular free hosting sites are wordpress.com and blogger.com. If you blog for fun, there would be no problems with these two sites. They both have user-friendly features.
For paid hosting, there are hundreds or more, available in the net. Some of them are HostGator, Blue Host, Go Daddy, etc. You have to select the one that best fits your purpose of blogging.
You must consider whether they would provide technical support or not. This is very important if you are a newbie to blogging.
4. Select appropriate theme/template design
Your template design should match your purpose. A formal looking template would be appropriate for a money making blog instead of the flowery, colorful ones.
There are several to choose from:
Two column or three column or more, templates are available. Do not clutter your blog with two many useless columns.
5. Post interesting and related contents to your blog.
After the steps 1 to 4 are done, you are now ready to post your first article. Your article’s title should be carefully selected. More specific titles are preferred than short, general titles.
6. Insert pictures, images or videos to enhance your post.
An all text article would look drab without any picture or image. Be sure to double check your spelling and grammar before posting. 
There are spell-checkers and grammar checkers in your blog templates.
7. Be sure to save your article after posting.
Label and assign tags so that web crawlers would be able to pick them up. These crawlers are responsible in updating your blog every now and then.
8. Maximize your blog exposure.
You can do this by enlisting it in ranking sites like Technorati, Blogtopsites, Alexa ranking, Blogtoplist and many others. You could also “Add your URL to Google Search” and “Add your site to Yahoo.”
You could also join blogging communities like Entrecard.com, MyBlogLog, Twitter, Mixx, etc. to increase your ranking and readership.
9. Update your blog regularly.
This may be done three times a week or daily. It all depends upon your goals. A consistently updated blog would be visited more often by crawlers of search engines, thus increasing the exposure of your blogs.
You should also be familiar with the general features of a blog to be able to interact with bloggers properly. These features are:
General features of blogs:
1. Comment section
This makes blog unique because of this interactive feature. Readers could comment on posts they find interesting. The comment section maybe moderated or not. If you want to screen the comments, then you should choose “enable comment moderation”. The comments then would only be posted after your approval. This would prevent “spam” (unwanted comments) from being published.
2. Customize/edit features
You could customize/edit your posts/articles anytime you want to. You could download pictures, upload videos and create external links to other website or blogs.
3. Archives of old articles
Old articles are arranged chronologically according to the date they were written. Labels and tags are also included to further categorize the posts.
4. Feeds
These are machine generated updates of the content of your blog; they maybe RSS (Rich Site Summary) or Atom feeds.
They can be subscribed too and are easily available through emails or Google readers.
5. Blog roll
These are links from other blogs or sites. You can add or delete the links anytime you want to, by entering the customized mode of your template.
6. External links
You could link your article to any source in the internet just by clicking at the link icon.
Blogging would be more meaningful if you could interact with other bloggers.
How could you interact with blogs/bloggers?
You could interact with blogs through the following:
1.
Commenting on articles you find interesting.
Your comment should leave your email address or your back link where the owner of the blog would be able to reply to your comment. Comment only on articles that are of real interest to you; that way your comments would be well thought of and of real value to the discussion.
2. Promote the blog or an article in the blog.
You can Digg, stumble, mixx or Yahoo Buzz the article to promote it. You could also post the URL at MyFace, Yahoo answers, MyLot forum and several forums.
3. Find blogs in your area of interests
The best way to search for blogs is through Google or Yahoo search. You could also visit blogging communities like Entrecard.com to browse their different blog categories.
At Entrecard there are various niches, like arts and culture, mixed bag, personal diary, education, books, blogging, cartoons, and several others. In lifestyle the top three blogs are:
In writing:
You could also search blogs in several blog ranking sites like Technorati, Blogtopsites, Alexa ranking, Blogtoplist, etc.
The blogs are usually categorized into different niches or areas of interests, so it would be easy searching and browsing through these sites.
If you want to follow a certain blog or writer, you can subscribe to his RSS (Rich Site Summary) or Atom feed.
This machine-generated summary, will update you through your mailbox of new articles written in the blogs that you have selected.
4. Creating your own blog would maximize your interaction with other blogs/bloggers.
Your blog URL (blog internet address) would show up every time you comment or interact with a blog. This would allow you also to follow your favorite blogger.
These are the basics of blogging. As you “blog” along, you’ll be learning more about how to tweak your HTML and many more.
Blogging is a dynamic and challenging activity. You write, learn and interact simultaneously. Be a blogger and be part of this exciting blogosphere!
By: Patricia Rockwell
Language scholar and philosopher Paul Grice developed a theory of communication in 1975 that linguists use today. It is such a simple, elegant theory that it goes beyond the realm of scientists and teachers, and truly enlightens the daily communication activities of everyday communicators. Grice describes one common underlying principle—what he calls the cooperative principle and four conversational maxims. He suggests that all communication can be understood by understanding this principle and its four accompanying maxims.
The one underlying principle of all communication, says Grice, is that we use language to accomplish goals and we do so by sharing information (the cooperative principle). We (or rather our ancestors) devised language and communication in order to get things done. Obviously, some of our ancestors wanted to accomplish some things and others wanted to accomplish other things. Today, we probably want to accomplish things our ancestors never thought of. In other words, in any language act, there are multiple goals, for a person and for people in general. However, language would not have been invented (if that is the best word) if our ancestors had not needed it to accomplish something (e.g., maybe warning their neighbor of an approaching wooly mammoth).
Today, language works as long as it satisfies this cooperative principle. As long as language allows us to accomplish our goals, we continue to use it. In most instances, our goals involve sharing our ideas with others and language allows us to do that. It would be difficult to share our ideas with other people without the use of language. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your language is or my language is, if we do not share the same language, we will not be sharing our ideas.
Of course, communication doesn’t stop there. Just the fact that we share the same language doesn’t necessarily mean that we will understand each other completely. This is where Grice’s four conversational maxims come into play. These maxims are the specifics of how we put the conversational principle into practice in every day communication. Grice says there are four conversational maxims: 1) quantity, 2) quality, 3) relevance, and 4) manner. Let’s look at each one and see how each can both enhance and diminish communication.
First, let’s look at quantity. Grice tells us that all messages should contain the appropriate amount of information—not too much, not too little. If, for example, you are trying to bake a cake and the recipe calls for flour, sugar, milk, butter, and chocolate, you would probably say to yourself, “well, that’s not enough information. I need to know how much of each ingredient I need.” In this case, the message producer has not supplied the necessary amount of information. On the other hand, if the recipe gave the ingredients and the amount, but then went on to describe how the cake was originally developed and what famous people had eaten it, and multiple different sources where you could purchase the ingredients needed in the cake, you might think, “that’s nice, but I really just need the recipe.” 
In this case, the message producer has given more than enough, probably too much information. I am certain that you have experienced both of these situations many times (maybe even while blogging). If there is too much information, you have to wade through a lot of extra stuff until you find the meat of the message. If there is insufficient information, you cannot use the information you are given because something is missing. Quantity is a maxim most of us take for granted. We don’t recognize its importance until we discover a violation against it.
Second, we have the maxim of quality. Here, quality implies truth. Grice suggests that all communicators are expected to be truthful. Of course, this does not always happen. However, he argues, it is an expectation of normal conversation. For example, when you stop and ask for directions, you don’t expect that someone will intentionally give you false directions. When someone asks you if it’s raining outside, you will more than likely answer truthfully. When we lie, we generally do so for a reason that has something to do with our relationship with the other person in the conversation. People list numerous acceptable reasons for lying—typically to prevent a person from suffering hurt feelings is often listed. However, most research indicates that the most common reason for actually violating the maxim of quality is to protect oneself from losing face. Other acceptable reasons for violating or flaunting the quality maxim include humor and sarcasm. However, with sarcasm and humor, most individuals indicate with nonverbal cues that they are providing false information so that the listener will not take them literally.
Third, Grice mentions the maxim of relevance. That is, communicators are expected to provide information that is relevant to the conversation at hand. If you ask me what time it is and I respond, “I like bananas,” then you might say my answer is not relevant. The maxim of relevance is violated rather frequently in conversation. Obviously, what is relevant to one speaker is not always relevant to another. However, speakers who constantly fail to maintain relevance in their conversations will annoy (at the least) their conversational partners. Often, failure to be relevant in a conversation can be traced back to poor listening habits. People become wrapped up in their own concerns and worry more about what they are going to say next rather than listening and understanding what the other person is saying at the moment.
Finally, the maxim of manner is described by Grice. Whereas the other three maxims involve content (the what), this maxim involves procedure (the how). Grice says that effective communicators use a manner appropriate to the situation. For example, if speaking to a child, communicators should probably use shorter sentences, simpler words, and speak more slowly than they would with an adult. Or, if a man is proposing marriage to his beloved over a romantic dinner in a restaurant, he should probably not use the same language and style that he would when cheering at a football game.
Choosing the best style for communicating a particular message is not easy. Should you be energetic? Relaxed? Friendly? Reserved? Just how should your message be conveyed? Obviously, the more important the message, the more effort you will put into determining the manner of its delivery.
It’s amazing how one simple principle—the cooperative principle (language allows us to accomplish goals) and its four subsidiary maxims of quantity, quality, relevance, and manner, work together so beautifully to explain how communication functions in our daily lives. We have Paul Grice to thank for these ideas—and good ideas they are for all of us to remember if we wish to be better communicators.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Patricia Rockwell 
is a retired professor from Illinois and is the author of two blogs , Subjective Soup and Communication Exchange .
These two blogs are rich in significant information and well written articles, that I could not refuse her entry to my soon to be published book. I guess without good communication, inspiration can’t take place, right?
She says, “Life is a bowl of soup, chock full of adventure. Here is my take.”
Thanks Patricia for being a contributor. I am honored.
If you want to be more informed about academics and on a lot of a variety of topics visit her dynamic blogs.
Patricia’s Post about this article .
Photo 1 by pedrosimoes7
Photo 2 by Dru Bloomfield – At Home…
