About
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The Making of a Blog
I have been blogging since March 2005 thru Friendster and I have always called it Sinigang. I still keep it for nostalgic reasons though not updated.
I’ve had an account with Blogger since 2005 too but I opted to use Friendster Blog because it was convenient at the time when I was busy finding old friends and colleagues in Friendster. Then I longed for more freedom with blogging. Friendster blog is too restrictive and exclusive. Templates are limited to two columns with very few designs to choose from. You can’t tweak the HTML. Other people can’t comment if they don’t have a Friendster account. Members are blogging their hearts out for free while Friendster gets all the revenues from the Google ads appearing on the blog! (Is there fair play in that?!)
So on September 30th, 2007 Sinigang in Blogger was born! Again, I chose Blogger over Wordpress for convenience. Despite its better designs and degree of prestige, I just found Wordpress too complicated for me as I was checking it out. I wasn’t also ready to buy hosting and domain which is an $85.00 per year expense for me from hereon. For three months I used Blogger as my playground, learned HTML and other codes, discovered a huge amount of resources available for bloggers, and enjoying the “freedom” of blogging in all respects. Until Google had to spoil the fun for me…
They made some changes in their formats and I wasn’t happy with them anymore. I’ve written an article and another related to it. The clincher is Google placing a permanent rel=”nofollow” attribute on the comments page! I knew I had to move to Wordpress!
Here I am now in Wordpress along with my other blog, The Postcard Collector and a rejuvenated Tatay Pepes.com, hoping, truly hoping that my blogs have found it’s permanent home at last…
I didn’t dismiss Blogger altogether. Despite some issues, it is still the best start-off to any newbie blogger because its ease of use is topnotch. I even recommend it to friends! I have a lot of ‘claimed’ sites with them just because the dot coms are no longer available. One of which is Filipino Quotes. I love quotes! I think there’s so much we can learn from famous people who made some of the best immortal lines. I started this blog in March 2008.
Sinigang Anyone?
I don’t know what my blog would be about today. Just like my favorite Filipino dish of all time, Sinigang. Sinigang is a classic comfort food of the Philippines as Chicken soup is to America and in some other countries. It may be prepared simply or elaborately. It may be spicy or mild. You know whether it is ordered at a restaurant or cooked at home that it is going to be sour- but how sour? You know there would be loads of ingredients but how much? You know it’s going to be good but how good? Or perhaps bad, but how bad? Ugh. You know you can cook the soup with fish, shellfish, shrimp, pork, beef or even chicken but what’s it gonna be today? You know you can cook it laboriously, the way your lola (grandma) does- boiling the tamarind, mashing and squeezing the juice out of it for the broth, letting the meat simmer for what seem like eternity, carefully choosing the vegetables to put in the pot- OR cook it the quickest way, thank heavens for Sinigang mix (pre-packaged sour soup mix)! It would be that- predictable in its unpredictability, evolving over time, hoping it is something one would want to taste again and again like a very good leftover Sinigang soup!
Sinigang and On Being Filipina
Other than it’s the only leftover food I could eat everyday for a week and loving every taste of it, I picked Sinigang as part of my blog name because I want the name to stick and be recognizable not only to Filipinos but most especially to foreign readers! I’d like them to know one great Filipino dish that is, Sinigang. It may be an acquired taste but soon after, one will be craving for it! I wish Sinigang will become a well-known dish worldwide one day, as recognizable as hot and sour soup, pad thai, sushi and sashimi or Indian curry!
I’m also proud to note that I am a Filipina, born and raised in the Philippines, particularly Davao and General Santos City. I love my heritage and where I come from! I still believe to this day, Davao City is the best City in the Philippines and if I could, I’d love to retire there!! I love the Philippines (except the political monkeys that run the Philippine government!) and doing my best to give a great impression of what and who a Filipina is while here abroad!
The Filipina image has not been portrayed all too well in the world wide web and I am among those who support changing the Filipina image in the internet. Sure Filipinas are among the beautiful, sexy, alluring, hot babes most foreigners view Asian women BUT we’re so much more than that! And we’re so not mail-order-brides! We can write, think and speak our minds in various topics and even take you up for a debate on any random subject!
What I’m saying is, we may be some things but we’re more than just a piece of meat, we’re human beings too- intelligent, independent, and very hardworking- so treat us like one! Respect and sensibility for another is all that’s asked for each of us.
Filipina Ako. I am A Filipina.
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