Yahoo! Philippines Answers blog

One of the many things Pinoys love to do online is uploading pictures that’s because we always find a reason to take a picture of anything and everything that’s happening in our lives.  No wonder the camera phone was quickly adapted in our country.  And no wonder as well that one of Yahoo!’s popular community-based services, Flickr, is very well-known and well-used in our country.

Photo by Stitch

As many of you may know already, Flickr is an image and video hosting website and online community platform that many use as a means to share personal photographs and also as a repository for blogs and websites.  It has more than 2 billions images already and continuously growing.  Almost all of the photos I use in the blog are from Flickr and I’m so proud to say that a lot of our fellow Pinoys are some of the best contributors of Flickr.

Photo by frozenjester™

Right now, Flickr’s largest group in the Philippines, the Flickristas, are running an online photo contest entitled “Flickrista 888: A Celebration of Life”, where photo hobbyists and professionals are challenged to explore the infinite meaning of the number 8 and capture it in a photo.  Why the number 8?  Well, this is the year of the Eight (we had 8-8-8 last August 8, 2008) and this number is considered a lucky number in Chinese culture because it sounds like the word “prosper” or “wealth”.

Photo by tacit requiem

What you see here are some of the entries but you can see all of it here - http://www.flickr.com/groups/pilipinas/discuss/72157606592922183/.  The event will culminate in a photo exhibit this coming October in one of the newest and coolest malls in Metro Manila and will showcase the photos that captured the essence of the number 8 and reward the winning entries.

Photo by imohthep

I’ll be updating everyone on the details of this upcoming event.  Also, the contest isn’t done yet so if you wish to join and be part of this celebration of life through photography, there’s still some time.  Just sign up for a Flickr account (you can easily do so with you Yahoo! account) and join the Flickrista group.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a professional photographer or a newbie who just got bitten by the photography bug, the important thing is if you have creatively taken a photo that captures the essence of the number Eight.  Check out the links and join now!

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I recently discovered this video from a friend of mine.  It’s an old footage of Metro Manila way back in 1938 that has been digitized and uploaded online.  The title of the footage is “Manila, Queen of the Pacific” and upon seeing this, it’s really like traveling back in time and seeing a familiar place from a very different point of view.

It’s almost tempting to wish for the return of the glory days of Manila.  However, Manila has indeed come a long way, and regardless of the many challenges it is facing in the present, the lyrics of that famous song will continue to ring in the hearts of Pinoys – “Manila, Manila, I keep coming back to Manila…”If there is one guy who truly believes that, it’s probably Mr. Carlos Celdran.  He’s an artist and a tour guide whose walking tours have appeared in Time Magazine Asia, Wallpaper and Discovery Channel’s Lonely Planet.  He is a man who is trying to change the way people look at Manila through his blog (http://www.carlosceldran.com) and he’s been featured as an expert in Yahoo! Answers before.

Carlos asked the community once what they think best symbolizes Manila and Charles gave the best answer for this – the Watch Tower at Manila City Hall and the colorful Calesa (horse-drawn carriages).  True enough, both have been around long enough to symbolize the uniqueness and enduring qualities of Manila.  In another question, he asked if you had a foreign friend visiting Manila, where would you take this person?  Bopols shared an in-depth itinerary, beginning with historical and cultural landmarks in the city (Luneta, CCP, malls, etc.) and then a drive to towns nearby Manila with tourist spots (Tagaytay, Laguna, Rizal, etc.).  Carlos also had this question – what does Manila need to make it more tourist friendly?  Papabol’s reply is both realistic and creative: more clean washrooms, sidewalks, free up-to-date maps and transportation guides, trustworthy money changers, clean restaurants, clean and safe hotels, especially for those tourists on a tight budget, and free tourists assistance centers.  Finally, Carlos asked the community “What makes Manila a great city? And how can we improve it further?” and Mac M shared the best answer – the history and the trees, respectively.  The first because of our rich and diverse background and the second because we definitely need more greenery in our beloved city.

Manila is indeed a unique and special place and it’s will always be one of the various places that best represents the Philippines and Pinoys as well.  After all, as the song goes, there’s “simply no place like Manila, Manila I’m coming home.”  And we all know that there’s no place like home.

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I’m sure all of us visit more than one website every time we go online.  Most likely we even have habits of what to check first (I always check my email first, hehehe) before moving on to other sites.  If you’re this type of person, then I’m sure you’ll appreciate My Yahoo!.

My Yahoo! (http://my.yahoo.com) is your personal starting page that you access with your Yahoo! username and password.  You can personalize this page to display the modules you frequently use, like for example your email, daily news, your favorite sports website, the groups you belong to, your favorite blogs, or any other service from the Web.  Of course, this includes Yahoo! Answers!

To add Answers to your My Yahoo! page, visit http://my.yahoo.com and sign in.  You will see a page like this:

To personalize your page, click any of these buttons at the top of the page:

• Clicking Add Content lets you select from a list of content modules and RSS feeds.

To add an Answers RSS feed:

• Click “Add RSS Feed”.
• Type “http://ph.answers.yahoo.com” in the box.
• Click the “Add” button.

• Clicking Change Appearance allows you to change the colors and style of your page.

• Clicking More Options lets you fine-tune your settings.

You can drag and drop the modules to place them exactly where you want (for example, you move your most favorite content to the top of your page).  Check out how my My Yahoo! page looks like:

Adding an Answers module on your My Yahoo! page will keep you up-to-date on everything that’s going on in the community.  And you can also add the Answers blog to My Yahoo! to keep track of my latest posts.  If you haven’t done this yet try it now and discover the convenience of being organized online.

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Photo by laszlo.lim

This seems to be a solution many people in Netherlands see as a means to combat the rising price of fuel.  I just read this in the news, more Dutchmen and women are buying bikes this year because of high gas prices, in doing so they also help lessen pollution.  I’m not sure if riding a bike to work or school is applicable in the country although I’ve noticed there more motorcycles now in the roads compared to a few years ago.  This made me think, what about us Pinoys, what have we done to address this issue that we know is not going away anytime soon.

The Yahoo! Philippines Editor recently asked the community – “How can we save money on our daily commute?”  When she says “daily commute” this can refer to both driving your own vehicle or taking the public transport.  Click now and share your thoughts, let’s learn from each other on how to best save money with this ongoing gas crisis.

To anyone who’s driving their own cars, I checked Answers and got a lot of information on how to save gas.  Thomas M asked this question and Lover not a Fighter shared these tips: keep proper tire air pressure, keep air filters clean, tune-up (spark plugs and wires in good condition), don’t accelerate and slow down a lot.  In the same question by Eric C, John Carlo shared more tips: be familiar with the traffic flow/signals around your town and area; slow down when you see a red light and coast up to it; don’t haul around dead weight, if you don’t need a full tank of gas then keep your tank only 1/2 full, less weight means less gas used; accelerate moderately but get to higher gears quickly, this allows the engine to turn more slowly; plan your trips, go the furthest destination first to warm up the car then work your way back home; consider car pool, ride a bike, or walk.

I think we should seriously consider the two of the last three suggestions – car pool and walking.  I know car pooling is not popular in the Philippines because of safety issues but it’s not impossible to do.  If you live in a neighborhood and you know the people around, you can actually coordinate with them and start a car pool with people you know.  And of course, walking is the most practical.  Not only do you save, it’s also good exercise.  I think we can all apply this, we just need to integrate it in our daily commute.  This means planning what part of your way to work or home you can walk, where the ideal route will be (so you won’t be walking under the heat), etc.

Tonytong01 asked if it’s okay to constantly shift to neutral and let the car coast in order to save gas and Mark F gave him advice that it’s not.  On the contrary, it’s dangerous since you lose control over the driveline while in neutral and you don’t save gas because when the transmission is in neutral the engine returns to idle. In order to stay running the fuel injectors have to start firing in order to maintain idle speed.  Cody Z asked if it’s true that one can save gas by turning off the car while sitting in heavy traffic.  Jay gave the best answer – it depends a lot on how long you stop in traffic.  While it does take more gas to start a car than it does to idle for a minute, again the safety issues come into play.  Plus, you wear and tear on the ignition, the starter, and other parts that engage the engine when you start and stop.

There you have it, just some of the many ways we can save on gas in the ongoing gas crisis.  If you’ve heard this before, it’s always nice to be reminded every now and then.  If this is just your first time to learn about this, feel free to apply it and share it to others who need to know.  We may not be able to bring down the price of gas but we can be smart about it and find ways not to consume too much of it.

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Photo by Stitch

September just sneaked in on us and we’re now in the first “ber” month of the year, which usually means one thing for us Pinoys – Christmas is near!  To be exact, from the time I make this post, it’s exactly 111 days before Christmas.  I don’t really know why but there’s something about Pinoys wanting to celebrate Christmas early and seeing the “Ber” months as the start of the Christmas countdown.

Maybe that’s why Choco Crunchies is Miguel asked the Answers community when the official start of the Christmas season here in our country – is it September 1 or December 16?  Maej said that technically, according to the Catholic Church the Christmas season starts on the Advent which is December 16, but knowing Pinoys, he admits that as early as September 1, we start looking forward to Pasko.

Allan Y asked maybe we should capitalize on this by promoting our country as the Christmas destination of the world and maybe even try to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest Christmas season in the world.  Windblown agrees completely and sees it helping our tourism industry.

In case you’re wondering what the suffix “ber” means, considering 4 of our months end with it, Rock shandy asked it already and Bruhaha shared the best answer – it is widely thought that most of the names of the months originally ended with “ber”, a form of the word for “month”.  And because we’re in the first “ber” month, Roxy <3 wants to know what we love most about the “Ber” months.  Why not share to her what makes the last four months of the year so special for you.

Whatever reason it may be, for all of us Pinoys, the Ber months mean Christmas is around the corner, and it certainly something to look forward to.  Welcome to September everyone, looking forward to October, November and especially December!

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