Apr 13, 2014
If you have your heart set on living in the Philippines, Mindanao in particular, are you sure Mindanao is where you want to be? No, I’m not referring to the notion that it’s dangerous here; all the (rare) activities that make the news – bombings, kidnappings, political killings, etc. I’m referring to the infrastructure.
Specifically I’m referring to the power supply issues, though the congested roads and flooding issues due to development are real problems, too.
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Feb 15, 2014
Late last year the contractors were stringing new cable lines across our subdivision. I wasn’t sure what it was all about as there was already Davao Light for electricity, and PLDT and Globe for phone/internet. Come to find out that SKYcable was coming into our area as well.
SKYcable provides cable internet, so we now have three hardwired options for internet. They also provide cable television. On the TV side they will compete with Cignal, which is a dish satellite offering (similar to DirectTV in the US).
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Feb 9, 2014
Options for buying Apple products in Davao are limited. We’ve got a few stores, but stock is slim in most cases. The other problem is there’s a bit of a premium added to the price over what you’d find online or back in the U.S.
Apple has offered educational discounts as far back as I can remember. I’ve taken advantage of those in the past for family members that qualified. It’s a nice way to get a slightly better price on a new Mac or other Apple product. I was pleased to find out that you can get that discount in Davao, too, under certain circumstances.
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Nov 9, 2013
This post is about carbon paper. But it’s not really about carbon paper, it’s about the perception I have of how fast the Philippines is progressing.
Let me just say that I hope the Philippines continues to advance, sooner than later. I’m (mostly) all for that. I’m just having a difficult time believing that things, the economy in particular, are as as great as they keep saying. Maybe I’m missing the point, and maybe the point is that they are just trying to build up public image and esteem.
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May 22, 2013
I spend enough time writing about the poor service that I get here. I will say that while it’s generally pretty bad here, there are occasions where I am surprised. And there are certainly times when I’ve had bad service in the US, too. I’m currently going through that with a company that I’m trying to order a custom speaker from.
So I thought I’d take the opportunity to write about a good experience I had here just recently. Really it was not what one might call extraordinary, just that things went as one would hope or a little better, and the employees were helpful and knowledgable.
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Apr 14, 2013
I’m not fond of Facebook. There I said it. Maybe I could have stated it stronger, but that’s the general idea. To me it is a necessary evil.
The things I don’t like about Facebook are probably the same things you don’t care for, with a few possible differences. One of the main differences might be the fact that I don’t know about 75% of my friends there since I mainly use it for my blog postings. That can have its positives though, as some of those new friends have become real friends. For my true friends and family it can be a great way to keep up to date. But there are other ways.
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Mar 12, 2013
There’s been much discussion about the return policy, or lack of one, in the Philippines. The other side of that story is the manufacturer’s warranty coverage for that product. Many large ticket items will have warranties of 1 year or much longer. So how do you deal with that here?
What I’ve learned in my short time here is that is very important to find out if the company that produced your product has a local service center. At the very least, they have an agreement with a company that handles their service. I don’t mean a service center somewhere in the Philippines, but local to where you are staying.
Feb 28, 2013
I suspect most of you have a Facebook account. At the very least, even if you refuse to partake in that social giant, you’ve seen it and discussed it. You’ve therefor undoubtably seen a few photos posted there. Some of your “friends” may even post quite a few. Facebook isn’t the only platform for this though. There are a lot of them.
Flickr used to be be quite popular, but it seems the latest venues are things like Instagram, Pinterest and even a number of ones dedicated specifically for showing photos on Twitter. Yes, there are any number of ways to get your photos published. And when I say “your” photos, I mean photos of you.
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Do You Really Want To Live In Mindanao? 
Why Litter? 
Sikwate 
The Moppers 
Davao Scheduled Brownouts Why are Streets Renamed? 
Bamboo Amp Stand Why is the Philippines So Loud? 
Davao Cable Television 
iCampus 
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