Post No. 100

It has been 2 1/2 years since I started this blog. I can't believe that this is my 100th posting already. I originally sought out to enter the world of blogging to keep family and friends updated and informed of my life in Germany; relate my musings, rants, and raves; share photos from past travels, as well as current ones; and share my experiences overseas. I was receiving numerous e-mails from friends and families on how I was doing. I usually managed to send regular but separate e-mail updates to family, friends from school, and friends from my previous workplaces. Creating a blog site made it all easier for me because I did not have to send separate e-mail updates to different groups of people. Also, the sharing of photos was to cumbersome via e-mail. This blog and my flickr site make photo sharing simple.

I have been overseas for the past 5 1/2 years now. I have been to Iraq, Bosnia, Germany, and now in the UAE for work. Looking back, I should have started this blogging bit when I first left the US. I have many stories and photos to share about my experiences in Iraq and Bosnia, and work and personal travels while working in Bosnia. I have tried to include some of them in this blog, bit by bit. I plan to provide more postings from that time. I have travelled throughout Europe for work and for personal holidays, while I was working in Germany. For the most part, these have been well documented in this blog, as well as in my flickr account. There are still quite a bit that I have not included, especially travels within Germany. Eventually, I plan to explore the Middle East and neighboring areas; for now, I will explore what I can within the UAE. I will continue to post these adventures. Traveling to new lands and further exploration of places I already have been to are pursuits that really excite me -- they are my passion. I have tried to capture the essence of the places I have visited and the sites I have seen. I enjoy sharing chronicles and snapshots from these journeys.

Even though I am far away, my family is still a big part of my life. I have tried to cover my visits back to Seattle, family gatherings during my visits, and sometimes even family events that I am not there for. Some friends have been reluctant to comment on this blog because they think it is targeted for family only since I have covered my family extensively. They will usually send me comments or notes via e-mail instead. I have somewhat opened up a bit by detailing times when I am homesick and lonely. I have covered heartrending occasions, but also covered joyous events. I will continue to post narratives and pictures of my family. Writing about family and sharing pictures of them serve almost as a therapy for me when homesickness sets in. Sometimes, I goad (that may be too strong of a word), I encourage family members to comment or add to the discussion to some of my posts, but to no avail. Only a few have been regular comment contributors.

I have been gutsy (maybe even too bold) to post myself with my guitar and show my feeble attempt at singing. I will continue to make a fool of myself by continuing to posts a few of these just to surprise a few. It's always worth a good laugh. Once in a while, my creative juices start flowing and I am able to produce, at least what I think are imaginative pieces of prose. I also try to get some humor in a few of my posts. Sporadically, I will add narratives from my past, even as far back as my youth in the Philippines.

Early on, I have only shared this website with family and a few friends, but the site is virtually open to anyone in cyberworld without any restrictions. Many acquaintances, past and current, have come upon this site and sent me comments or e-mails on how delighted they are that they were able to find my blog. I have visitors that come upon my blog when performing searches in the internet. The two most common search words used to access my site by accident are "Tagtagumbao or Cuyapo", my village and town birthplace, most likely from fellow Filipinos from my hometown; and "Mek Mek", a nephew's nickname, that is somehow a common word in Central and Eastern Europe. A few have become regular blog visitors. I also have been more openly sharing this website with other relatives and friends when I see them. Instead of explaining what I have been up to for the last 5 1/2 years, I give a quick recap and tell them to check out my blog for more details.

There have been a few times in the past when this blog was in a lull with limited updates. Recently, I have had more time to provide regular updates. I have tried to balance the content of my blog by providing updates about life overseas, past and present travels, family anecdotes, personal experiences that stand out in my memory bank, and other assorted topics. Give me some feedback. What do you guys think of this site? What improvements can I make? I welcome all comments, good and bad. You can make "anonymous" comments, if you don't want to identify yourself. In the meantime, I hope you continue to follow me for the next 100 postings.