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Happenings this week

June 20th, 2008 | Posted in Electronics | Personal - (15 Comments)

Around 6:30am last Tuesday, I woke up to the sound of my mom and dad’s voices telling me that we need to bring my dad to the hospital. The moment my sleeping brain had processed their words, I got up immediately to check on my dad who was sitting on his bed, stricken with fear . The sight of him having a hard time breathing scared the shit out of me. Then I rushed to change my clothes, wash my face, find the key, and started the car — all in under 2 minutes. Moments later, we were traversing the long C5 road to Medical City.

Because it was rush hour we got stuck in a horrific traffic in Ortigas Avenue. Considering that was the only road going to Medical City, I don’t know how an ambulance could speed up through that kind of traffic to get the patient to the hospital on time! I pity the employees who are on their way to their Ortigas offices too. Made me kinda glad that my way to my office isn’t as bad as that one. Fortunately, my dad got his breathing back to normal right after we stepped out of the house. Even so, I still brought him to the hospital to find out what was wrong.

The doctor’s findings were nothing new. My dad has been a smoker and drinker for years which is why we were no longer shocked to hear the doctor’s news. His breathing trouble was caused by the boxes of cigarettes he had smoked, and his diabetes (and that slight liver problem) was caused by the gallons of alcohol he had drank for years since before I was born. Well, gallons is an understatement. It’s a miracle he hasn’t gotten either of the two big “C’s” yet. Thank you, Jesus.

He and my mom stayed in the hospital for two days, where he was given a bunch of medicines, tests, and insulin shots that I could no longer count. His doctor wanted him to stay for another 5 days but my dad insisted on leaving yesterday so he could help prepare for my brother’s wedding this Sunday. He’s not in a critical condition or anything like that, so the doctor just let him sign a waiver. My dad’s probably the most stubborn person I know.

I’m glad he’s hanging on. He says he’s not gonna drink again and that he will try to phase out the smoking. Like I haven’t heard him say that many times before. I hope he’s serious this time, though.

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Learning it the Hard Way

June 3rd, 2008 | Posted in Web - (15 Comments)

Did you recently encounter a sudden decrease in your Adsense earnings and site traffic? Well, I did. And that line graph’s downward slope didn’t paint a pretty picture. I’m referring to what happened to my niche blogs that I’ve been nurturing for a time now. I’m highly relying on my monthly Adsense income, which isn’t really much, but enough to send me into panic mode when one day I discovered that the clicks and page impressions of my sites have dropped significantly.

The first time I noticed the drop, I thought it wasn’t something that I should be worried about. But it went on for two, three, then four days! I figured it must be because I haven’t been updating those sites as often as I initially intended to, or that I haven’t been building links, or maybe there was another Google update that affected the rankings — but the fact that the “change” happened all at once to all my sites was a bit suspicious. I must have done something terrible to set Google off!

Desperate and confused, I googled (ironically) for a solution to my problem. I went back to read the Google Adsense Program Policies, explored the Google Adsense blog for clarifications, and landed on this page. I was guilty of violating guideline #1:

1. Ads shouldn’t be placed under a title or section heading in a way that implies that the ads are not ads. For example, ads shouldn’t be placed under titles such as “Dallas Business Opportunities” or “Today’s Hot Deals”. Placing ads directly below titles such as these implies to your users that the links in the ads are publisher-created content. The example below shows a placement that does not follow this guideline.

Right after I read that post I immediately removed the ads I placed just below the post titles of my blogs. Then I checked if my sites are violating any other policy, crossed my fingers, and went to bed. It was more of a “trial and error” thing so I was surprised to see that a day after I made those changes, my sites’ figures went back to normal.

I’ve known about this ad placement guideline before yet I never thought Google would actually flag my sites! What a dork. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wished I could get away with it. Lesson learned: Do not undermine Google!

Of course I’m not entirely sure if what caused the “drop” was indeed the ad placement policy violation, however, removing those ads did help my sites get back on track. If my theory is right, then it’s apparent that Google is in the business of correcting the way Adsense publishers behave.

Has this happened to you?

The “Rebound” Book

May 19th, 2008 | Posted in Books - (29 Comments)

Influenced by the book reviews I read over the last few weeks, I bought a copy and began reading the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer exactly a week ago. Six days later, I finished reading it and its sequel called New Moon. And because the story does leave you thirsting for more (pun intended), I searched far and wide for the third book in the series called Eclipse. By “far and wide” I mean all the bookstores in Glorietta, Greenbelt, SM Megamall, Robinson’s Galleria, Bonifacio High Street, and Eastwood City. I swear my heart breaks a little every time they tell me, “Sold out na po yung Eclipse.” Boohoo.

Twilight is only the second novel I’ve read about vampires. The first one was The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova, a fiction that delved deep into the world of vampires and Dracula. Obviously, I didn’t think I would find vampire stories interesting until I read those two. I’ve never read any of Anne Rice’s works, except Christ The Lord which clearly isn’t anything vampiric. Heh. Between the two, my fascination with Twilight (the series) is a lot more intense!

After DarkSo what’s this “rebound” book that I’m referring to in the title of this post? At the end of my Quest, when I finally gave up and told the Customer Service at Powerbooks to just reserve me a copy of Eclipse once they have it, I decided to get another book — After Dark by Haruki Murakami — just so I don’t disrupt my current reading streak. The last time I broke this kind of momentum, it took me 5 months to finish a single book! Lol. Truth is, I’ve actually been waiting for the cheaper edition of After Dark to be released. I find the original edition too expensive (probably around P800), while the one I bought sells for only P299. I haven’t read it, so I’ve got nothing to say about it yet.

While it’s true that I’ve also been wanting to read After Dark since last year (and that I’m really a fan of Haruki Murakami’s works), I still consider it a “rebound” book because the deeper truth is right now I, without-a-doubt, want to read Eclipse instead. :(

Check out the updates of the Twilight movie that’s coming in December! Edward Cullen is going to be played by Robert Pattinson (the guy who played Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter) and Bella Swan by Kristen Stewart (the two playful boys’ elder sister in Zathura).

Pardon me for writing this very trivial post. This is what my “over-fascination” with something usually compels me to do.