The Breeze
Shooting The Breeze
If you have a reason to contact me in private, please do. If your question could be asked in public, please ask in public. I get more email that I can possibly ever answer. If you don’t know where to make a comment as it doesn’t quite fit any topic, make a comment here. Comments help me much more than a private message can. :)
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Why would someone that excels at search engine optimization need to spam? And yes, I have multiple first page listings.
I’ve figured out that “Darn Gravatar” thing. Had to do some tricks and things.
I see that and you’re such a pretty girl you should have your face on all your post. :)
I’m going to send you an email…
Right, flattery will get you everywhere ain’t it? We should nickname you COB – Casanova of Bogo LOL!
Every where? I’ll keep it up then….
I think I may already be gaining a reputation in Bogo. It being such a small city lots of tongues go wagging here. One thing I never do though is go sneaking around on a woman that treats me as wonderfully as Jessie does, MOST of the time.
Just going walking with two girls, one holding my hand and the other one not causes long stares. Oh well, give them something to talk about.
Dang it though, your married. :(
I wanted to through a big party for my 50th but I was broke, as usual. LOL Well, broke but within budget. I didn’t even stay in budget this month. Purchased my ticket to Bangkok and then blew the rest of my savings for a trip to Bantayan. Next month, back on budget and in savings mode again.
When is your b-day? I’m pretty sure you certainly have a reputation in Bogo by now. we won’t begrudge your admirations for Filipina beauties, shows you’re still a “hot-blooded, not so young Yankie” LOL! The Philippines produced some of the world’s most beautiful women. I’ve lost count how many Miss Universe winners have we had.
And what is my reputation, pray tell…… :) There’s been a lot of things flying around lately that I know about. Someone asked a girl a barely know if she is my girlfriend. :)
My birthday is sometime this year. LOL 1/22 Jessie’s is two days later.
Your reputation? I know how Filipino mind works, it will be along the lines of “here’s that Kano playboy with his slave girls”, or it might even sound like this; “here’s that Kano Kasanova with members of his harem” LOL! I wouldn’t be far off from either or. Oh, you’ve had the birthday, you don’t need a dancing girl….
Well, I can live with the idea of a harem but slaves? Naw, I like my girlS to have a choice. :) Means nothing without a choice.
I don’t like the smirks Jessie sometimes gets from guys. I enjoy the catty looks she gets from Filipina.
I don’t hang out too much with other expats so my reputation might be a little better than most, well it was until the last week or so. I went to the disco with Jessie and her friend, twice.
I don’t need a dancing girl? You must have me mixed up with someone else.
Yeah, you can just imagine the wild imaginations that accompanied that smirks, and I’m telling you, girls are no better. Most of my friends here are Filipinas and boy, oh boy, they don’t hold back when describing what they would do to a hunky young Aussie walking past! Did you know that belly dance actually originated in a harem 000′s of years ago? The harem girls invented the belly dance to entertain themselves. When the Sultan saw how nice the dances were, he wanted them to dance for him, and the rest is history. You better add a dancing girl in your x-mas wish list then.
Okay, dancing girl added to Easter, Christmas, July th 4th and weekday wish list….
If I ever did know that, I forgot about way to entertain themselves.
Oh I get the I’m going to devour you look fro many women here in the philippines. And girls, sometimes as young as 9 or even young which is just scary. They are more use to seeing me now, not as bad as it was.
Since I get out and walk a lot, people have bedcome more use to seeing me I think. Boy did I turn heads though when I first started walking around with George, my monkey, on my back. :) People couldn’t believe their eyes. A take monkey with a WHITE man. LOL
Jessie is gonna cause a wreck yet, she’s a very nice to look at Filipina both coming and going. Cant coun’t all the tricycle drivers that had bent heads as they ride past Jessie.
She’s so “hot” that even pinoy are impressed and they have had a lot of beauty to look at over the years!
Christine, about our Effexor conversation from HeyJoe.PH I’m replying here:
Effexor is a SSRI but it also slows the re-uptake of another type of “hormone’ or chemcial or whatever it is. Its the same chemcal that speed/methamphatimine causes to flood the brain. I tried plaxil once, it is the most similar to effexor but it made me too “up” and I felt that I was constantly at risk of going off on someone verbally. Effexor XR is what I need. But the generic will get the job done I think.
We found one Pharmacy that said they would order it for me but so far, no pharmacy has delivered on that promise. They have an order coming in today and they have ordered the XR that I need but even the hospital stopped carrying it becaue ther were no orders.
The drug is not a favorite of doctors, I think, because there are many law suits in the US from people killing themselves when they get off it. Right now, I can certainly understand that. I feel horrible. But I do want to make it 100% clear, I am not suicidial.
Effexor is not pure SSRI. They are known as SNRI, (Serotonin- Norephinephine Reuptake Inhibitors). A lof of people feel good with them. Several years ago, I see a lot of patients in the community managing with their deppression using Effexor alone. But it has been linked to suicide though, I guess that’s why we don’t use it much anymore. If you think you are running out in say, a week, it might be wise to start titrating to a dose lower, so that if you actaully ran out, you won’t suffer as much. The rebound withdrawal has been described as hell. Effexir XR might cost you a bit more. Hope you can get the generics. You should be able to.
I thought jessie had been trying to get the generic but she had asked for the brand name. So the pharmacy has now ordered the generic, I’ll loose the XR wth that but at least I’ll have something. It will be a week before I know. But we checked with the hospitals in Cebu and none of them have it! That is not a good sign.
I have been tapering off it as have experienced some of those side effects before when I missed a dose for a couple of days. I am always reminded by the side effects and it has been years since I did that. Once or twice was all I needed to get my attention.
I was on the min dose of only 75mg so last week when realized may not get this drug I cut it to 37.5 but what I felt this morning was horrible and taking only half a dose. I am probably going to take nothing tomorrow. I’ve got to prepare as if I am out of it in case that happens.
I’m scared after what I felt this morning.
See how you go with the generics. I suspect PI tends to get the generics because it is cheaper. If you want to order on line, I can give you some addresses on line from the US. They’re about US1.55-1.85 for 75mgs, depends which company you order from. There’s even one who’s offering 2 viagra’s for every 30packs of Effexor! I can give you addresses if you want to order from the US.
Last month, I pruchased vitamins from the US. Even after considering the postage costs and exchange rates, I find it is sometimes cheaper to buy them abroad.
BTW, have you tried that Dr. Horado from Catmon? Seeing he’s got that pharmacy next door, owned by him as well, he might be able to order some for you if you’re one of his patients.
No Christine, I do intend to see him, its just not in the budget yet. This month was a double whammy with trip to Bangkok being scheduled and the monitor blowing out completely, well its still limping along but its in bad shape.
Jessie needs a new monitor but I wont be able to get that for her until after I return from Bangkok in June. In August, I guess, I’ll have big fees to pay to BI, I think those will hit in August though I’m not 100% sure.
I’m really wanting to join the local beach club, they don’t have much of a beech, at least they don’t even talk about it on their website but they do have a pool which would be another way for me to excessive. The resort I stayed at last week had a pool, oh boy did I find some new muscles that I had long ago forgot. :) That’s P3000.
I didn’t have to go to the resort this month but I’m not sorry I did, I’m not very broke but you know, sometimes one just has to live and it is laying the foundation for a business.
This next month I may end up getting effexor in several different ways just trying to make sure I get it at all! :) Which means I have to pay for it in several different ways. LOL
Yeah, work sucks indeed. I’m really overdue for my holidays. My Nurse Manager does not think so. Nurses here do get paid well, a level 1 with more than 7 year’s experience working in a ward can expect to earn close to Ph3000000. Of course she/he doesn’t take it all home. Would be nice, but the taxman (like your former self) had to have his cut. They take $.30 for each $1 after $34,000 and onwards. No wonder we still complain we’re overworked and underpaid!
When I was talking to my brother, he said there’s an oversupply of nurses in the Phil. the govt is now paying them a small wage to work in rural areas just so they can have some kind of work and get experience. And they don’t get paid that well. I think Doug said an SM salesgirl would earn more than a nurse in PI, and yet, parents pay a lot of money to send daughters to nursing schools. I can’t understand colleges also increasing their nursing courses to 5 years. That still would not elevate Phil. qualifications to western level where a Phil nurse can just walk into a western position without having to upgrade or being downgraded to Enrolled nurse level or lower. One thing for sure, we can’t get enough nurses here. We’re always short staffed.
A tax rate of 30% at $34,000 per year is outrageous. That I have to pay tax at all is outrageous. I can barely make it and if I was in the USA I would have a pitiful existence. This is 100% absurd. Taxes should be on peoples disposable income. Someone making $20,000 in the USA has zero disposable income.
The tax man gets the brunt of the abuse but the tax man doesn’t do it. Congress in the US does. The tax man is only trying to not get slammed for not following what congress tells him to do. Then congress turns around and blames the IRS. Not that there were not some abuses going on in the IRS, there were, especially in the collection area. Much of that has changed.
There are also some shame nursing schools here. Seems like people are investing a lot of money in their education only to be getting very little training that will be helpful to them.
It is not uncommon for doctors here to go to the states to take nursing positions! Of course, they have to get re-trained too so they can have the proper certificates. Become a nurse practitioner is probably a good choice for doctors here. They could put much more of their doctor skills to good use and make more money.
I recently saw that doctors in the Philippines on average make a lot less than I do on retirement! I’m sure some make much more. The doctor I’ve seen here, Dr. Duyongco is the doctor I’ve seen here and he is very knowledgeable. He works at a private hospital so he’s probably making more but he shouldn’t be making any where near that kind of money. It should be a lot more.
You think it’s outrageous? I’m glad someone thinks so and this coming from a former tax man? I think it’s funny! Anyway, not only that,if your income rises to AU$80,000 then your tax rate rises to .40 for every dollar earned. And if you’re lucky enough to earn over AU$180,000, then your tax rises to .45 for every dollar. Our tax has actually been reduced about 3-4 years ago. I used to get taxed at .45 for every dollar I earned and no, I don’t earn AU$180,000!
The reason Phil. qualifications is not recognized in countries like Australia is because of poor training and college resources. Like some people set up nursing schools, but provide little facilities such as library and laboratory equipments. When I was doing my nursing training, there was a Filipina student with us, she actually finished her nursing training in PI, but did not pass the board exam. So she started right from year one here as well. I remember she was telling me that in PI, nursing students have to bring their own resources, i.e. lab equipments instead of the college providing them like we do here.
Some of the nursing schools here are considered to be shams. The government has shown some interest in cleaning it up. It is not uncommon for nurses to fail the board exams.
I know a girl that got threw nursing school without going to class, she just showed up for hospital work. She didn’t pass the boards. Big surprise. how did she pass class?
I said in my other post the tax man does not set the tax rate, The politicians do that.
No wonder western countries insists on some kind of bridging course before the Nursing Councils will register a Filipina nurse. With an education systme like the Phil. I can see why Board exams are necessary. I didn’t have to do that here. Once you pass your final exams and final in-hospital training (clinical placement), then you get registered. Hospitals here are desperate for nurses, I remembered being offered jobs even after 6 months after I started work.
Christine, nice to meet you!
I think some of the nursing school are very good. Others are a sham though. Designed to take the parents money and get nothing in return but broken dreams.
Rusty,
Nice site you have here. I wonder why you don’t more people to comment?
I don’t know. why they don’t. It sure would help me out of the would. Lots of readers, few comments.
Maybe they’re scared of you Rus? – LOL! :)
Nice to meet you too Randy! Are you Filipino or Kano?
When I spoke to my brother yesterday, he was bemoaning the fact that their pay rise has been witheld in favour of paying for nurses sent to rural areas, so they can get experience. Otherwise, they would be unemployed nurses.
And of course of they want to go abroad, experience is essential.
The Australian government has a list of Philippine Universities whose courses are deemed equivalent to Australian qualifications. But it will cost AU$50 to get a copy. I know University of the Philippines is one of those recognized universities.
Why on earth would they charge for that? that seems crazy to me. The people in Oz already paid for that list, it should be public unless its a matter of national security.
It’s the Department of Immigration who wants the money. Revenue raising I suppose?
Here we’ve got a saying that the ATO (Australian Taxation Office) can get blood out of a stone. Really means they can get money regardless.
Some Journalist mentioned a few years ago that Australia is the 3rd highest taxed country in the world. Wonder who’s the first? New Zealand must be second, because they get taxed heavily too, maybe worse than us. They also have a generous welfare system.
Christine….
I’m American
You seem to know a lot about the Phil. Have you lived there?
I’m PI born, but Aussie raised. I still have a lot of happy memories from PI. I’m planning to go back this year. I can hardly wait…..
According to suite101.com this would be the answer.
* Congo … 55.7% avg. tax rate
* China … 46.9%
* Argentina … 44.3%
* Brazil … 38.8%
* Germany … 38.1%
* United States … 38.0%
* Russia … 37.6%
* Canada … 36.6%
* Japan … 32.2%
]My first thought was Canada and it SEEMS like Sweeden is high but it didn’t make the list. You probably really need to compute it based on per capita income for over total taxes paid. It would be a nearly impossible number to compute. So called “sin tax” is very high in the US for things like tobacco and alcohol and the gasoline tax.
* France … 32.1%
I’m curious why Congo tax rate is so high? As far as I know, they don’t even have a welfare system – to build more Presidential palaces perhaps?
I have no idea or even if the numbers are accurate. That’s what I found on the net.
I wouldn’t even dream of computing it – the mind boggles! I just pay my dues… :)
Haha, I dreamed of it. You see I had this finance teacher that nearly worked me to death but he was an awesome teacher just the same.. He got me thinking. He still gets criticized from students as requiring too much of their time. The rewards though, if one really digs in, last a life time.
I was thinking about it but its a project that might take months or years. he’s the one that got me thinking about those numbers and taking them apart.
Rusty, maths, taxes and anything with numbers are all yours.
I started hating maths when my grade 3 maths teacher used to pinch me on the side (and it hurt like hell too!) whenever I answered wrongly. I’ve never been the same since. I’ve got phobias with numbers. I get by with simple medications calculations, they’re just simple arithmetic. Wonder how I got through chemistry and pharmacology?
Was this a nun that was pinching you? They were often shown that way in movies. :)
I hated math in the 3rd grade too. I still hate the mathematics. I love analyzing them to find meanings that others have not seen.
I’m kind of like that in everything I do though. I don’t stay on the surface for long. The truth is rarely found on the surface.
No, she wasn’t a nun. Just a nearly blind old teacher. I still hate maths. I think she traumatized me. I think she gav me PTSD :)
Well, I hear belly dancing for me is a great treatment for PTSD.
Jessie said she had nuns for teachers for a few years. They made the kids stand up in the back of the room or on their chairs if they missed a question so they studied all the time. Maybe not such a bad idea. The old knuckle rap would be quicker though. LOL
You haven’t got PTSD!(have you?!) Well, if you have, you can start learning belly dance then! :)
I did go to a catholic school for a short time, then I left for Oz. I think they waste too much time praying, like we pray before the class started, morning, recess and lunch. I’m pretty sure we prayed before leaving the classroom for meals too. They didn’t convert me to become a hardline catholic at all.
Nope, I have enough problems without adding that one to it.
But if you’ll teach me bell dancing, I’ll say I have it. :)
Growing up in the south, we had religion in school even after it was outlawed. It wasn’t as much as I’m surer they have here.
When I see laws here with God at the heart of it, I’m kind of amazed. That would NEVER fly in the US and I’m glad. Ii know people say that the fighting in Mindanao has nothing to do with religion, that’s just not true. That is where it all started. Wrapping up your government in religion is going to cause conflict, it always will because some will not agree.
I’m Methodist/Proestant but its nto a big deal to me. God is the head office, there are just several different branches all working toward the same thing. None of them are perfect.
Teaching you belly dance would be a sight, LOL! :)
I would be a slow learner I suspect. I’d probably have to feel how you do it, just watching over and over and over and over probably would do the trick…..
No you can’t feel how it’s done, you’ll have to try it. First lesson is shimmy. Guaranteed to lose the belly flab :)
I can feel if you let me. You see, I will watch you then put my hands on you to feel the movement. All in the interest of education you see…. :P
If Jess reads this you’re gonna be “Dead Man Walking!” :)
LOL, Naw…. She wouldn’t expect anything else from me. :) You’ve predicted my death and dismemberment before. We are good. :) She’s awesome. She knows who I belong too.
my computer is driving me batty…..
Its starting to get to me. Its taking up to 30 minutes to get a webapte fully displayed.
I may end up re-installing my OS, I don’t know.
This in NO way affects the web sites. The websites are not on my computers.
Just venting and frustrated becaue its hard for me to get to comments. I’m really tense at the moment. I keep having this vision of my keyboard bouncing off the wall when I geet mad enough..:)
Rusty, you’re hallucinating? Let me know if you need a Pscyh assessment… :)
BTW, there has beed a few times I tried to open your website and it’s taking ages than normal. It’s only your site because then I went to Bob’s and there was no problem there. If Globe is unrealiable, can you change IP’s?
Sorry, I overlooked this comment..
I’ve told you a few times my connection has nothing to do with the performance of the website.
No, I can’t change it. I talked with the landlord about it and she indicated she had to pay a lot of extra “fees” to actually get off the waiting list and get it installed. I do think it is unreliable though.
I’ve rarely received what I paid for. I’m suppose to have a lot of extra speed, more than five times the speed Bob has for example but he said his net was much faster than mine.
yeah, conncections had nothing to do with it. I asked Dawg why your internet is slow, he said it had something to do with the frequent brown outs you’ve neen having. You know the electricity thing? They were doing major works in some parts of the city and northern Cebu was affected most. So it’s not your site.
Christine, my sites are in the USA, The connection issues in the Philippines have nothing to do with the sites.
GREAT SITE & lovely pictures
I like yr lifestyle there in BOGO
It is still the same for me.
It opens up OK and then I have to wait approx. up to one minute for everything to be down-loded.
It works … that is what counts, but is slow to open on my side.
PS. I may be relocating to PR in a few months.
I will try Palawan, but only If my health is fine. Rustic environment is what I like.
Its not taking that long for me. Anyone else?
there is one ad that could and probably is slowing things down a bit. I’m going to remove that one.
Do you wait until the page is complete before you start scrolling down? I don’t. My PC iss pretty old with slow vid card and not enough memory. I have a fast internet connection but only when its working like it should.
Try this, go to dos and type “ping http://www.rustyferguson.com” without the quotes. Do it several times and see if you get any packloss/errors. If you do, then its the connection between here and there.
I tried your ”ping” connection and it works normally.
Here is what appeared : http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/410/sanstitrekfu.jpg
However when I return to here it is still the same … between 30 to 60 sec waiting.
Notice the appearance of ”bing” instead of ”ping” … it is not a typing error.
I entered ”ping” and not ”bing”.
You didn’t follow me. Not a search you need to go to DOS to type that.
Click start then run on the menu that comes up in the input box type cmd and you’ll get a black window that you can type in. Then type ping http://www.rustyferguson.com
I’m assuming you’re using Windows and not a MAC, if a MAC you’re own your own. :)
I left out some steps that I thought you might already know.
You’re not seeing an improvement? It takes some time for the flash “self portrait” to load and longer than it use to as I increased the size. However, after you last post I cut the size in half as I noticed that it took longer to fully load, however, I can browse the page text long before that loads. There’s no reason to wait for all elements to load….
If you’re having problems reading the site, I will keep working on it. The amazon ad at the bottom of the page slows it down to before everything stops loading but you don’t have to wait till it says done or complete or whatever it says down in the status bar. Webpages are designed to load partially so the reader can get started before everything loads.
Robert, I removed an ad that may have been slowing things down..
Have not heard from you in a while. Please let me know!
I wanted to ask you something off topic – but is it hard to pass your 3 year medical exams for SSI over there?
where do you go for that – the US Embassy?
You know any good Psychiatrists over there? – im gonna need to keep seeing one for my SSI.
I want to move there next year – actually thinking about moving to Bogo.
I want to live next to the ocean if i can – i like to swim a lot.
i need a cheaper place to rent when i move there – a nice house preferably (no apartments please) – any advise?
i will be getting like 40,000 pesos monthly which is $1000 a month here – my SSI
payment.
Do you use a bank in the USA to get your SSI or do you have a bank in the Phil you use?
which is the best way to go for banking?
Thank You!
Hi Todd, sorry I didn’t know this comment was here.
I don’t get SSI. I don’t know anything about it. :(
I know a guy living in Bogo on even less. He’s been here for several months now. Has a pretty young Filipina wife. It can be a little hard to find a place in Bogo. Todd, visit http://cebuexperience.com and get my free ebook on how to send money to the Philippines. My money goes to my US bank account.
I’ve never even seen a psychiatrist in practice here but they must have them as there are mentally ill people here too. You are not likely to find that in Bogo. You’ll need Cebu or Manila for that. I’d be surprised if they even have one at our hospital in Bogo.
Hi there. My name is Joyce and I am working for a BPO (call center) company here in the Philippines. We are currently in need of Americans who would like to apply as a North American Language and Culture trainer. This is a for a project based employment that can go from 6mos up to 1 year. If you happen to be interested or have friends that would like to apply, you can reach me at the email address that I have indicated. Thanks and I hope to hear from you soon.
Hi Joyce,
Where in the PI are you located? I will be coming that way, but it may be a years time. Is it difficult to get a work permit If I plan on permanent residency? Just curious.
Hey Rusty….Just a quick question. I’m a 100% disabled vet living on about 3500 a month. Will that be enough for a decent life in the PI?
Hey Robert,
There is no speed change for me and you’re a lot closer to the server than I am. I suspect there is trouble between you and the site. I have that happen from time to time, for a couple of months it was horrible for me.
Anyone else see a change? its loading the same for me. Let me know Robert.. I’m showing more ads but its not slower for me so it shouldn’t noticeable on your end either. Gotta have the ads. I plan to offer an option to turn them off soon.