Our family passes our condolences to the family of Corazon Aquino and the people of the Philippines. We join with you in the ten days of mourning for a great President and a great woman who contributed so much to Philippine history. I will keep this post short as I am at a loss for words at this time. Now she can join her husband Ninoy in a better place. We love you and appreciate your service to the Republic of the Philippines and democracy around the world.

In a previous post entitled Isn’t Technology Great  I discussed how we picked flooring from a website and relayed that information to the company in the Philippines that is doing the work. From all of our family who has seen the work it was a success. Since we have changed the floor from the original floor that we saw in our house when we were in the Philippines it was just natural to decide that we would reevaluate the colors of the walls in the same rooms.

This time we will be using a little different technology because when we picked the original colors we did it at Ace Hardware in SM Mall in Binan, Laguna. I was very happy when I discovered that Ace had stores near my house in the Philippines because I am a fan of hardware stores even though I’m not much of a handyman. It’s just good to know that there is a store that I have grown up shopping in for years close by. Ace Hardware was a staple store in many of the small towns in America and the town I lived was no different.

What we will do is go to the local Ace store and pick our colors and get the perfect match and the code numbers and relay them to our relatives in Binan. They will take them to SM Mall and the store employees will put them into their computer and mix our paint. I’ll say it again Isn’t Technology Great?

 If you’ve been following the progress of our move to the Philippines you will remember what the place looked like pretty much from the ground up. I just received this picture and others from the Philippines and I thought I’d share them with you. I especially like this one because it is of the front gate and was an original design thought up by my wife. Even though it is original I’ve heard that many people have been saying they liked it so it may not be the only one soon. This house is located in Binan Laguna close to the Pavillion Mall and we hope to have it completed soon. There are pictures of the inside where we have just tiled the downstairs and put wood laminate floors by Pergo Flooring. You can view those pictures if interested at Our House in Laguna.

As you all probably know I am a fan of Philippine History especially over the last 50 years as I have lived and studied things as they have happened. I think that Philippine history in the last 50 years is comparable to the time which the United States was seeking it’s independence from England. It must have been very exciting as the new nation was being born and although the Philippines is not that new of a nation I feel sometimes they are developing and growing into a powerful and great nation.

One of the families who has been very prominent in Philippine history recently is the Aquino family from Ninoy’s rise through the political system to Cory Aquino’s Presidental terms this family has given so much to the history of the Philippines. Recently while reading the NewsBreak Independent Journalism website I came across an article written by Maria Althea Teves entitled Timeline: Events in the life of Cory Aquino. This article starts with her birth in 1933 and follows her life up to present. Included in the timeline is her marriage in 1954 and her sufferings as her husband was jailed and sentenced for execution as well as their trip to the U.S. This is an interesting article concerning the Aquino family and Cory in particular and I recommend you click on the link provided and read the entire article. That link is Timeline: Events in the life of Cory Aquino.

Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will meet with U.S. President Barack Obama on July 30, 2009 at the White House. Arroyo will be the first Southeast Asian leader to visit the United States since Obama took office. Topics for discussion will include how both countries can work to fight terrorism and global warming (hopefully not related). President Arroyo will also meet with members of Congress and business groups while in the U.S.

I’m looking forward to fllowing how this meeting goes. I know that the Philippines and the U.S. have had a long history together and I am hoping that the two Presidents can work towards keeping this relationship going for many more years. Recently the U.S. President has been working more towards forming relationships with former adversaries and almost ignoring our friends. It is my belief that you should never take a friend for granted. President Arroyo let me be the first to welcome you here and I hope that the Americans treat you as well as I have been treated anytime I’ve been in the Philippines. I have the greatest neighbors in my compound in Laguna.

Free Domain, Free Setup, Host Unlimited Domains $6.95

So you’ve decided to Move to the Philippines and you’ve made all the preparations. You’ve learned the pitfalls of living in a different culture. You know how the weather will be and you expect to have a house full of family all the time. In fact, you’ve already developed a stomach for balut and you are slowly grasping the understanding of Tagalog or Bisaya or the many other dialects. There is only one thing left and that’s what type of visa will I need to be able to stay in the Philippines? You my friend are in luck.

There is a new publication out by my favorite author and THE expert on Americans living in the Philippines. Of course that man is Bob Martin or Mindanao Bob to most people. As I have followed along Bob and his wife Feyma’s writing careers I have been able to learn just everything there is for my move to the Philippines. I hope they aren’t done writing because I expect them to tell me EVERYTHING I need to know before I get there.

Bob’s latest offering is the Philippine Immigration Guide and he promotes it as a guide that “gives you all the information you need on what kind of visa you qualify for so that you can live in the Philippines!” He promised that there will be no more confusion when you need to know what visas are available and which ones you qualify for. As he says “Just open the book, answer a few questions, and the book will tell you exactly which Visas you qualify for.” If you’d like to pick up the newest publication entitled Philippine Immigration Guide What kind of Visa do you need to live in the Philippines Please click here

For other books and material by Bob and Feyma click on the links below.
49 Ways to Make a Living
Culture Clash
Retire Like a King
Bisaya Flash Cards – Lesson 1-10
Bisaya Flash Cards – Lesson 11-20

I can imagine when people first used the telephones. It must have been great not to have to send someone down the street or across town to relay a message to someone. And I wonder what those people would think that to get a pizza all you have to do is call the local pizza place and they drive one over to your house in less than 30 minutes or it is free. Of course, we are now so much more advanced that you can order by computer, but forget the 30 minute delivery.

The reason I’m all about technology is how it has helped recently in getting some work done on my house in the Philippines while I am in the states. You see, we’ve decided to have wood laminate flooring put in the upstairs of our house. Of course in the old days we would have to go to the hardware store while we were there and pick out the type before they could do the work. Since I just can’t go there tomorrow it would have to wait a few months until we arrive in the Philippines and then we could choose the color and all .

But now that there are computers, we have been able to go to the website of the manufacturer and choose what type we want. In turn, my niece goes to the hardware store, gets a sample, and  through the magic of Yahoo Messenger we can compare what the website shows to the actual color. In fact to keep from confusing names and such we get the manufacturers part number also from the website and we compare those. All in the space of a couple of days we have our floors down upstairs and a few pictures from a digital camera shows us how great it looks. By the way if you are interested in such types of flooring a good website to check what’s available in the Philippines is Pergo Flooring.

Designer handbags from Prada, Dooney & Bourke, Fendi, Gucci, Burberry, Marc Jacobs and more – shop at Designers Imports

Well just when our household settled down from American Idol mania and got back to our regular TV watching schedule (hardly any) we get sucked into Americas Got Talent. I don’t know how long this series goes on but I’m sure it plays into the Fall. They are in the preliminary stages right now where everyone is auditioning and the winners will be moving to Las Vegas.

Although we watched this series last summer and I believe the year before we kind of watched it with a passing interest. Until it got down to the end we didn’t really have a clear favorite but this year that has changed. Tuesday night my wife and I were blown away with the talented singing of Thia Megia from California. This 14 year old of Filipino Heritage has the voice of a much older and experienced singer. She does have a lot of experience since she has sung the National Anthem at various sports events and other venues as well as singing contests. She also did quite well in I believe the Little Miss Philippines USA pageant.

Thia has been singing and competing in contests for a long time and also has YouTube videos going back a couple years. On the show Thia impressed all three judges which are Sharon Osborne, Piers Morgan, and David Hasselhoff. Each judge made great comments about her singing and one or two commented that she had a chance to go far in this contest or even win it. Let’s all wish Thia, another example of Filipino talent, the best. Check out a video from YouTube below:

To see Thia’s America’s Got Talent Performance Click Here