Live in the Philippines

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My new baby

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I had an event filled weekend.  Saturday was Valentine’s Day, and it was a very busy day for me.  To be honest, Feyma and I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day too much.  Because of the nature of the business we are in, Gift Sales and Delivery, our two busiest seasons of the year are Christmas and Valentine’s Day.  They are both about equal in terms of busyness.  You see, our business is that people overseas who have a girlfriend here in the Philippines (or wife) can order things like flowers, chocolates and other such romantic gifts for delivery to their girlfriend here in the country.  We then deliver the gift to any address in the Philippines.  So, for holidays such as Valentines, we literally get hundreds of orders.  For us, the vast majority of the work comes in the days ahead of the holiday.  On the day of the holiday, we just have to monitor all of our delivery agents around the country and make sure that they get the deliveries done on time.

So, Saturday, I had a very busy day, but mostly just sitting around all day long monitoring which orders were delivered, and which were still pending.  While sitting here monitoring that information, I got started in a new project.

I had a new baby.

Yes, that’s right.  My new “baby” is a brand new website that I put together that day.  Let me tell you a little more about it.

As many of you know, my nickname is “Mindanao Bob.”  It is a nickname that I have had for a number of years now, and a nickname that I enjoy.  I love Mindanao, so it is a name that really fits for me.  It is also, in my opinion, a “unique” nickname that I am probably the only person in the world who has that name.

For years now, I have always kicked myself for not having gotten the Domain name “BobMartin.com” – I missed out on it, and it was registered by a photographer in Europe.  From time to time, I check the name, just in case he let it expire.  However, last week, I started thinking that I really should own “MindanaoBob.com” which I consider to be better than “BobMartin.com” because it is more identifiable.  You see, there are thousands of people named “Bob Martin,” but there is only one Mindanao Bob that I am aware of!

So, on Saturday morning, I registered the Domain Name, and I set up a website there.  I have lots of sites on the net, but this one is more my personal site.  You can, or will be able to, find information about me there.  I get lots of questions from people who want to find out information about me and my life here, so I plan to set up a “Frequently Asked Questions” area on the site.  Right now, I already have a basic site set up, and it will grow as time passes.  I don’t think it will ever be a super active site like LiP is, that is not what I intend.  But, it will be a repository about me, and I will keep it up to date as such.  For example, when I am going to attend events, or travel to certain places, I will announce it there, so that people can come and meet me and such.

One thing you may notice this year is that I intend to develop “Mindanao Bob” as my personal brand in 2009.  I will be using the name more, and especially online.  Any of my online presence will bear that name, because it is unique and very identifiable.  So, when you see my name on articles, comments, even products and such, you will be seeing it as “Mindanao Bob.”

So, this morning, I am happy to announce my “new baby” and you can visit at:  http://www.MindanaoBob.com

See you there!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Smart idea. I do have a similar site for my ventures, but nothing as nice as yours. And, importantly, yours is already more complete than mine!

  3. Hi Tom N – Thanks! I'm glad that you think it was a good move. I still have more to do there, no doubt. What you see there is only what I accomplished in my spare time on Saturday! 😆

  7. Am fine and busy. Thanks. We have a visitor from Norway – she pretty much entertains herself – very very active. Got her a mountain bike and she is biking all over Samal, even on trails I know nothing about. Soon, she will know every nook and corner of Samal. 🙂 The smartest thing I did was to give her the camera.

  8. Excellent move there, Bob! Actually, I thought you already had that domain registered. Looking forward to your new site! 🙂

  9. Bob,
    Congrats, I know what ever you do will work out, you have the knack for that.
    I thought of you last week, and something similar I had mentioned to you in the past.
    Elena and I was eating lunch and an Englishman walked up, excused himself for disturbing us then said "Are you Bruce?". I thought he would mentioning seeing my photo here from a comment, but instead he said he and his filipina wife found my blog about a year ago and read it all the time. I invited him and his wife to sit with us and now Elena and his wife talk on the landline.

  10. Hi MB – Congrats & mabuhay! Will have to take a look at the infant and, perhaps, learn a little more about these new-fangled internet whatchamajiggies. 😆

  12. Hi Ellen – I know what you mean when you say busy! It seems like I hardly have a second to spare these days.

    I have an American friend who is a cyclist. He peddled all around Samal a couple of years ago – even tells me about places I never visited or even heard of! Now, that makes me a little jealous! 😉

  13. Hi Henry – Nope, I just got the domain on Saturday morning. It was stupid of me to leave it out there for so long, I would have felt like an idiot if somebody else grabbed it!

  14. Hi Bruce -That is great to hear that somebody picked you out from the crowd like that! Happens to me all the time, and it still amazes me when it happens. I bet it made you feel good!

  17. Congratulations on your new web site Bob. I don't know how you find the time.
    I would be interested to know what your typical day/week is like.
    Your LIP web magazine has provided me with a great deal of useful information about the Philippines. I hope someday soon I will be able to relocate to Mindanao

  19. Hi Bob,

    Very nice, it’s a great idea, congratulations, and all the best. I’ll be sure too stop by and check it out.

    Frank

  21. Good luck with the very appropriately named website ! Looks good. The way you seem to be going with these Mindanao related websites, someday your sites could very well be a " one stop " for anything to do with Mindanao !

  22. Bob Hi Friend! Maybe somewhere you should list all your websites so we can have a geezer at them. I would not have a clue where any of your other sites are, or I am too lazy now to search for them. Good luck on the new baby. Which reminds me…….

  23. …….After I took my fiance shopping and to dinner and then to a night club on Valentines day we came home at 2am to the news that my sister in law was in labour.
    I get truly excited when a baby is about to be born.
    We turned up at our local public hospital and I was shaken to core. I nearly went into cardiac arrest when i saw the hospital.facilities, especially the maternity wing.
    I cannot put into print what I thought of the place. It would offend every Pino I know.

    Pegnant women were being treated outside on the pathway, a couple of women had the luxury of lying down a a piece of plywood and breast feeding the newly born. But there's more. In the labour ward (nee pig stye ) I saw two rats running around while women were being interviewed. that didn't include the dogs and cats and the raw sewerage next the birthing rooms.
    Actually I can't go on, I don't think you'll believe me. Yet everyone I spoke to in the hospital didn't see anything wrong??? I think there is something wrong with me lol

  24. Hi Ron – Thank you for your kind words. Your comment has encouraged me, one day soon I will write an article documenting an average day in my life. It's not as exciting as you might think, though. 😉

  29. I regained my composure, I let my fiance proof read what I wrote and she said I was being too nice about what I saw lol. She said I am real Awssie.
    But I am not going to sit around and do nothing.
    I will test the pride of the Pinos and see if I can gather some voluntary labour together and splash some paint on a couple of rooms…….just to give the women who sleep in the recovery wards a sense of respect and decency……..
    As a footnote the it was a baby boy and sooooooo beautiful.

  31. Hi Pete – Well, I can't speak for what you saw. I have been in many a Philippine Hospital, though, and always found them clean, tidy and well cared for. I am sorry that your experience was not the same.

  32. Hi Pete, can you tell us which local public hospital is this. Patients that seemed to you being treated on the hallway are not uncommon. Maybe those pregnant women have yet to dilate, that's why in the interim, they are in the hallway. The cats & dogs ( maybe it was raining?) & raw sewage as well do stretch my imagination. Kindly provide us the name of the hospital & the ward you went to.
    Thanks.

  33. Roy,

    Truly the description didn't sound much worse than the provincial hospital in barangay Libertad , Butuan City. There I saw people crammed in rooms that where far over crowded, rats running through the hall, beds without foam on them, women breast feeding in public view in manner Pete described etc etc. Really a nasty and yucky place but then again even the nicest hospital there, Butuan Doctors, would be shut down in America for being to inferior in terms on cleanliness.

    Justin

  34. Bob,
    Yes it did feel good, and no offense to you and LiP, it was nice that they knew me from my site. In the past it was "I know you from your comments on LiP.
    One side line, Elena asked me to remove her from my Gravitar, she does not want to be recognized.
    I guess as "American in Davao" grows, I will get more of this. Fame has its problems, hahahaha

  35. Bob

    Got your new site locked in the favorites, im a bit suprised that you didn;t already have it.
    Do you have plans on consolidating the contents with LIP and having one website? Did you get it thru GoDaddy

  36. Hi Bruce – I'm glad that you had the experience. Indeed, if you follow what happened to me, it will really get to the point where you can't go anywhere without being recognized! 😆

  37. Hi Neal in RI – Yes, I buy all of my domains through GoDaddy, but I don't host anything there. I have my own server for that.

    No, I won't be consolidating anything with LiP. I have lots of websites, but they are on different topics. MindanaoBob.com is about me. LiP is about living in the Philippines. 😆 Better to keep those on different sites. 😀

  38. Hi Roy. I realise that I was off topic. Bob had mentioned his baby ( the new website ) and it happened that we waited for the arrival of a newborn baby on Valentines Day. No offense Roy but everything i wrote was proof read by my fiance and she said I was being polite about my description.
    I will not mention the name of the Hospital on this site as I don't want to belittle and embarrass the people in this city and the poor souls who have to work there.
    I will give you my email address and I will give you a blow by blow description of what i saw. [email protected] then I can tell it like it is.
    The problem is Roy what is common to you maybe acceptable but it is not common for me and very much unacceptable – doesn't matter what country we live in.
    My apologies to to you Bob for being off topic.

  39. Bob
    Sorry to pick your brain but.

    For this site did you have to buy .com and blog . Yes I am ignorant to the buying domains but I am going to jump on one that is available as it relates to us wanting to relocate to RP in the future. Thanks

  40. Hi Pete,

    Thank you for assuming that seeing cats & dogs, raw sewage, rats & all inside Philippine hospitals is common & acceptable for me. This is the first time that someone told me that what maybe common and acceptable to me is not common and acceptable to him. True, we have different degrees of tolerance for what is filthy and squalid. I wonder though what gave you such impression.
    Ah..the hall way being turned into holding area for women undergoing labor, mothers seen breast feeding?

    I was interested to know the name of the hospital because my experience to hospitals is limited to Manila hospitals. So mercifully, I have not experienced what you have. I have nursed a friend in a Muntinglupa hospital which pales in comparison to some Chicago hospitals I've been to and worked for. My father was hospitalized for a month at the Manila Doctor's and I didn't have any of those you said.

    If you are so outraged about what you saw in that hospital, you should name the hospital here in the interest of full disclosure. You have to be truly grossed out to care about the "poor souls who have to work there". And you should go out on a limb & have your embassy file a diplomatic protest on your behalf for subjecting you to inhumane conditions. Like you pointed out, "it doesn't matter what country you live in.

  41. Hi Neal in RI – Don't worry, I can help you out on this. The procedure is to go to GoDaddy.com or some other domain registrar (I personally use GoDaddy) and register the domain. It costs about $10 per year to register the domain. Your next step is that you need a place to host your domain. Hosting means that they will give you some space on a computer that is connected to the Internet. You can get this for anywhere from a few dollars per month to hundreds (even thousands) of dollars per month. For the kind of site that I would expect that you would have, I would recommend using HostGator.com or BlueHost.com for that, costing you less than $10/month. Once you do these things, you are all ready to go with your new site!