I received the following e-mail earlier today. Since I publish my blog via FTP, I'm affected, so I'll see what options I have available to me. Ideally, my blog will be integrated seamlessly with my website. I'll mention any significant changes in the News section of my home page. If anyone has suggestions, I'm open to hearing them.

Dear FTP user:

You are receiving this e-mail because one or more of your blogs at Blogger.com are set up to publish via FTP. We recently announced a planned shut-down of FTP support on Blogger Buzz (the official Blogger blog),  and wanted to make sure you saw the announcement. We will be following up with more information via e-mail in the weeks ahead, and regularly updating a blog dedicated to this service shut-down here: http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/.

The full text of the announcement at Blogger Buzz follows.

    Last May, we discussed a number of challenges facing[1] Blogger users who relied on FTP to publish their blogs. FTP remains a significant drain on our ability to improve Blogger: only .5% of active blogs are published via FTP — yet the percentage of our engineering resources devoted to supporting FTP vastly exceeds that. On top of this, critical infrastructure that our FTP support relies on at Google will soon become unavailable, which would require that we completely rewrite the code that handles our FTP processing.

    Three years ago we launched Custom Domains[2] to give users the simplicity of Blogger, the scalability of Google hosting, and the flexibility of hosting your blog at your own URL. Last year's post discussed the advantages of custom domains over FTP[3] and addressed a number of reasons users have continued to use FTP publishing. (If you're interested in reading more about Custom Domains, our Help Center has a good overview[4] of how to use them on your blog.) In evaluating the investment needed to continue supporting FTP, we have decided that we could not justify diverting further engineering resources away from building new features for all users.

    For that reason, we are announcing today that we will no longer support FTP publishing in Blogger after March 26, 2010. We realize that this will not necessarily be welcome news for some users, and we are committed to making the transition as seamless as possible. To that end:

          * We are building a migration tool that will walk users through a migration from their current URL to a Blogger-managed URL (either a Custom Domain or a Blogspot URL) that will be available to all users the week of February 22. This tool will handle redirecting traffic from the old URL to the new URL, and will handle the vast majority of situations.
          * We will be providing a dedicated blog[5] and help documentation
          * Blogger team members will also be available to answer questions on the forum, comments on the blog, and in a few scheduled conference calls once the tool is released.


    We have a number of big releases planned in 2010. While we recognize that this decision will frustrate some users, we look forward to showing you the many great things on the way. Thanks for using Blogger.


Regards,

Rick Klau
Blogger Product Manager
Google
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

[1] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[2] http://buzz.blogger.com/2007/01/blogger-custom-domains.html
[3] http://buzz.blogger.com/2009/05/ftp-vs-custom-domains.html
[4] http://www.google.com/support/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55373
[5] http://blogger-ftp.blogspot.com/

----
This e-mail is being sent to notify you of important changes to your Blogger account.

Sitting in the business lounge of Hong Kong International Airport, I can't help but reflect on the time I've spent abroad. My stay in Manila was fun, exciting, challenging, at times frustrating, but also quite productive. I've had a number of experiences and have written a lot during the past three months. Most of my experiences have been good ones (people I've met and befriended; places I've seen) and some not so good (my run-ins with corrupt cab drivers; having my iPhone stolen). Still, I don't regret making the journey, though I'd really like my phone back.

Living in a third world country for a period of time will make you aware of certain things you wouldn't normally hear of or be exposed to. It probably sounds trite, but I have a new-found appreciation for the conveniences of living in New York, though I still intend to move out of the city at some point. Having access to a large variety of good quality food almost 24 hours a day, for example. That's a big one. Being single, I buy a lot of frozen vegetables because otherwise I would throw out a lot of food due to spoilage. When I was in Manila, I was only able to find frozen broccoli once when I went to the supermarket. Frozen. I would think frozen vegetables would be a staple in a place where so much produce need to be shipped from other countries. Some of the frozen foods were rife with frost and had obviously been thawed and refrozen. Needless to say, this was only one of numerous challenges I faced in adjusting to my new environment.

Another adjustment I had to make was in how things were done. There was a lack of urgency almost everywhere I went. This was something to which I, as a native New Yorker--albeit a very laid-back one--was unaccustomed. The one exception seemed to be the guy at the 7-Eleven downstairs from my apartment. That guy hustled.

Then there was my first haircut. I had no complaints with the haircut itself, but I was startled and almost shocked to the point of feeling violated when at the end the barber pushed me forward and started massaging my shoulders and upper back. Apparently, that's customary. That's nice. I think I'll pass. Now, if it was a pretty girl giving me the haircut...

Now for a more detailed experience. This took place early in September:

I stepped into the elevator with this guy I've seen in the gym downstairs on occasion. He's a muscular, bald guy with a goatee. Anyway, we ended up getting off on the same floor and walking down the same hall. We started talking. His name is Alex. He's 45 and living here with his wife, a Filipino woman named Wilma. He met her here 25 years ago. We didn't talk much and then returned to our respective apartments.

Then, a few days later, I ran into him in the gym, and we started talking again. He's Serbian and runs a private bodyguard business in Europe and is trying to extend his business down here. Most of his employees are ex-Israeli soldiers. His wife showed up. I met her, and we all talked for a few minutes, then they had to leave. Up until this point, I hadn't seen anyone in my section of this floor. It was actually a little eerie, and I've already got ideas for some kind of ghost story.

One evening, as I was locking the door of my apartment and getting ready to go to work, I looked up and this security guard dressed in a white uniform stood about twelve feet away from me. I'm usually fairly aware of my surroundings here, but I did just wake up and was running a little late. As far as I knew, the hall had been vacant.

"Good evening, sir," he said in his thick accent.

"Good evening," I replied. It may have been apparent that I was a little startled, but I don't know. 

"Can I help you with anything?" I asked. My apartment is at the very end of the hall near the fire exit, and I could see no justifiable reason he should be here at this time.

"No, sir," he said. Then he walked past me, opened the fire exit door, and entered the stairwell.

The incident struck me as beyond odd. It seemed just surreal.

The hallway was hot and humid as usual, and I wore my glasses. I proceeded to the elevator bank and hit the button.  Insects buzzed around the light fixtures, but they looked like little stars bouncing around.  At first, I didn't realize they were insects at all. At first, I thought someone was playing with a laser pointer.

When the elevator doors opened, I stepped inside, and it was literally frosty. The mirrors in the elevator were fogged up. When I reached the ground floor and left the elevator, of course my glasses fogged up as well.

As they say, it's in the details.

Labels: Hong Kong, Manila

Well, I can't say my time in Manila has been boring. Adjusting to the initial though expected culture shock, my sleep deprivation, and inclement weather has been challenging at times. Overall, it's been a good experience, and I would do it again.

I haven't blogged here in quite some time, and I know a lot of people must be wondering why I didn't blog about the typhoons. The truth is that I didn't have anything significant to report as far as my experience with the storms was concerned. Edgar, the shuttle van driver, had mentioned to me on the way to work that Friday night that a typhoon would hit us, but I didn't know how serious it could be. I worked my shift that night and came home in the rain the next morning, but I so no flooding or damage where I was at the time.

Later that night, I went out with some friends from work to Ascend, a night club at The Fort in Taguig. We saw only light rain, no flooding, nothing like any of the footage that would be broadcast on the news in the days to come. The club was only a fraction as busy as it normally would be, and we were informed it was because of the storm, but still we had no idea. The devastation caused by Ondoy has been compared to hurricane Katrina, but we didn't see any of that devastation in our area.

The next day, I received a number of calls and emails from friends and family back home and had to assure everyone of my safety. After watching the news, I could understand their concern. Many of the areas hit hardest were actually quite close to where I live and work. Fortunately, Rockwell Center, where I'm staying remained virtually unscathed.

Fort Bonafacio in Taguig City, where I work and only minutes away from Ascend wasn't so fortunate, however. Three World Square, the building I work in, is at the bottom of a large hill on Upper McKinley Road. I didn't see any evidence of flooding or damage when I drifted into work at 11 p.m. that night, though. Most of the issues had been resolved by then, but for most of the day there was no power and no phone service. I was grateful power was restored by the time I got into work because it would be brutal trying to work in that building without air conditioning.

About half of the analysts didn't make it in that day, so a good portion of our call volume was redirected back to New York, but we still got slammed. I and the other mentors who flew down here to train the first-level analysts even had to jump on the phones and take some calls, something we hadn't had to do since we arrived here.

Thankfully, all the analysts and their families survived, though a good number of them were out for the week. They and their families have had to deal with getting their homes back in order. One of the guys was displaced altogether. He and his family lost everything, and his father lost all the tools he needs for his livelihood. Thomson Reuters, the company we work for, has set up something of a disaster relief fund which he has been able to take advantage of, so hopefully that will be enough to get him and his family back on their feet.

Some have attributed the ferocity of the typhoons to climate change. Personally, I don't doubt it. Ondoy created the heaviest flooding Metro Manila has seen in over 40 years. Is this just the beginning?

Labels: Ascend, Ketsana, Manila, Ondoy, Taguig, Thomson Reuters

So, I finally made it out of Makati. Saturday afternoon, a couple friends from work--Melvin and Duane--and I caught a plane to Boracay. We all work night shift, though I work the latest of the three of us, so we had to wait at least until 8 a.m. Our flight was pushed back from 12:45 to 1:30, which we weren't happy about because we'd already been up all night with no sleep and were due back Monday afternoon.

Our journey was uneventful until we disembarked the plane. We had to fly to Kalibo Airport because Caticlan Airport was closed for renovations until early October. This added an additional 90 minutes to our trip cramped up in a van with five other travelers - an old white man and his young Asian boyfriend; and three guys wearing medical masks who were probably of Middle Eastern descent. This cost us 200 pesos each for the privilege. We weren't told how long the trip would be. We'd spoken to others who'd visited Boracay and were told that the trip consists of a one-hour flight followed by a ten-minute boat ride. It sounded painless. It wasn't.

If Caticlan were open, it probably would have been a smooth trip. Instead, after about 40 minutes of driving in the van and seeing I had no phone service, I began to wonder if we'd been abducted. You really do have to wonder about such things. There are a number of vans waiting to pick people up at the airport, most of them unmarked. Anyone can drive up with their own van, pick up a group of people, and drive them to a remote location with no means of communicating with the outside world. Then what? No wonder there are movies like Touristas and Hostel out there.

We passed four cemeteries that I counted along the way; people burning trash in the fields; skinny children running around barefoot in the streets; dilapidated buildings; and people who looked like they just stepped out of National Geographic.We drove further into the jungle. Only towards the end of the drive when the first glimpses of the ocean appeared through the trees did my sense of unease abate. For photos and video of the trip check out these links:

http://www.youtube.com/kbdunn9
http://picasaweb.google.com/kbdunn/BoracaySept2009#

We finally made it to the boat ride, which was only about ten minutes long. There were additional fees we had to pay before boarding though the boat trip itself was included in the 200 pesos we paid for the van ride.

Another ride in a jeepney lasting about 20 minutes, and we reached the Fairways and Bluewater hotel. The accommodations were phenomenal, though there's room for improvement. I noticed at least three different species of insect in my bathroom as well as a gecko, whose life I decided to spare despite my policy on intruders big and small. I just made sure to close the bathroom door when I wasn't using it. I didn't want the little bastard crawling into my mouth while I slept, though that was no guarantee his brethren or other interlopers hadn't already made their way into my sleeping quarters.

The power failed several times before we hit the town that first night. Of course, my initial reaction was that the hotel was to blame, but later on while walking the beach strip in Boracay the power went out again. Everything but Starbucks went dark. The next day, we ran into a guy named John, who teaches scuba diving here. He's originally from California and taught scuba diving in Hawaii. He moved here and married a Filipino girl a number of years ago. He said Boracay's economy has been booming during the recession since it's beautiful and cheap. The only problem is that now it's developing too fast, which explains why the power went out four times Saturday. Still, there are other parts of the island that remain untouched, so hopefully development of those regions will be kept to a minimum.

There wasn't much for us to do Saturday, getting in so late, so after eating dinner in the hotel restaurant, we cleaned up and headed to D-Mall, the main area where all the action takes place. Boracay has a very active night life, even off season, which it was while we were there. We walked around a bit then found a bar called Summer Place, which was really hopping. We went inside, ordered some drinks, and hung out. We'd walked up and down the beach strip a few times, and this was the most happening place. We'd been told by the people at the front desk of Fairways and Bluewater that Cocomangas was the place to be, but that was on the main road a couple blocks away from the beach. So, we hung out at Summer Place, partied, and had a good time. The music was loud just like ever other club, so I would head outside every so often for some fresh air and quiet. The only problem I had then was dealing with the prostitutes and ladyboys.

"Sir, would you like a massage?"

"No."

"How about a blowjob on the beach with a happy ending?"

I shook my head and kept walking.

One time, a ladyboy--that's what transvestites are referred to here--latched onto my arm.

"Sir, would you like some company," he said in a pseudo-female voice.

I shook him off and kept walking. I was disgusted.

That was it. I was ready to call it a night. We called for the hotel's shuttle van and walked up to the main road to wait for it. We bought a few rolls at 5 pesos a piece at an all night bakery, the most appetizing thing available at that time in my opinion.

We passed Cocomangas on the ride back, and it did seem to be hopping, but one of the prostitutes we'd spoken to earlier said it was a hangout for ladyboys. Whether she lied or not didn't matter. It's location was too inconvenient for us anyway. We just wanted to hang out on the beach, have a few beers, and relax.

The hotel serves a complimentary breakfast from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. We headed down to the hotel restaurant around 9:30 the following morning to get ours. It was a typical buffet with all the usual stuff: fruit, eggs, bacon, rolls, coffee, etc. There were also a few unexpected dishes on hand such as chicken noodle soup and rice. Breakfast was okay but nothing to rave about.

The Mayweather/Marquez fight was on TV live, and we were still lazy from insufficient sleep and the previous day's journey, so we decided to stay and watch while we talked and accessed the complimentary wi-fi on our iPhones. We wanted to order up some mimosas, but that wasn't an option--I assumed they didn't have champagne--so we each ordered other mixed drinks. I don't recall what the other guys had, but I had a pina colada and a sombrero. We had two drinks each, finished watching the fight, then toured the grounds, which were amazing. I would recommend this place for family vacations or anyone who wants to stay in a quiet place with a lot of amenities including a private beach, golf course, and butterfly farm.

We lingered awhile, taking pictures and video, then headed back to our rooms to clean up and head out for the day.

We returned to D-Mall and perused the little shops and restaurants on the way down to the beach. We stopped at a shake shop and bought some mango and fruit shakes which were pretty damned good. The strangest place we came across had to be the Hobbit House, which is a bar run by midgets. Exploitative, I know, but I couldn't help but be amused. I assume that was the purpose. The concept certainly draws attention.

We were hungry again, so we decided to look for a place to eat. We ended up at the Red Coconut hotel's beachside restaurant. I wasn't feeling too adventurous, so I just ordered up a personal pepperoni pizza; Duane had paella, and Melvin had chicken curry. We washed that down with a couple beers, and we were good to go. I can't speak for the other guys, but my pizza was only okay. I'm a little spoiled on New York pizza, so take it for what it is.

Of course, we were still not all that energetic, so we decided to find some lounge chairs on the beach where we could order up some drinks and relax. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the place--blogging was the last thing on my mind at the time--but it wasn't far from the Red Coconut, and such places are plentiful along the beach. While we were there, we met John, who I mentioned earlier, and talked to him awhile.

A heavyset woman carrying what looked like a tackle box offered us pedicures, and Melvin took her up on it while we sipped our drinks. We were having a fairly good day, certainly better than the previous one.

It was late afternoon already, and the sun was setting. We would have done more, but this was only a weekend trip. You need at least three days and a better commute. With enough time, there's a lot more to do: jetskis, sailing, boat rides, snorkling, scuba classes, etc.

Still, we wanted to make the most of the time we had, and aside from being bombarded with illegitimate massage offers from local prostitutes, we'd heard from a number of people that we should take advantage of massages on the beach. We opted to check out a spa along the beach strip instead. Duane and I went for the 1-hour full body massage, which cost 600 pesos; Melvin went for a foot massage to top off the pedicure he had earlier on the beach. We all nodded off to sleep at some point, and when we left we were loose and relaxed.

We were also hungry, and Duane had been scoping out lobsters all day. We stopped at a beachside grill that offered fresh lobster and a buffet. Melvin went for the buffet at only 250 pesos; Duane and I opted for the lobster at a combined cost of 1,600 pesos plus drinks or $16 a lobster. I forget how much they weighed, but they weighed the same. The lobsters were grilled and admittedly not terribly pretty, but they tasted good, and we didn't get sick, so it wasn't a bad experience.

We finished off the night by staying out late at the Summer Place bar again--not a wise idea. We were up until past three and had to be out by 7 a.m. to be able to make our 10:15 flight.

The trip back to Manila went smoothly until we reached the Kalibo Airport. We knew to expect the long van ride, but it was a holiday and traffic was light. We reached the airport on time, but when we arrived the computers were down, so takeoff was delayed. Again, we weren't happy. And now we suffered even deeper fatigue than before. Still, delays and all, we managed to get back to Manila only an hour later than scheduled.

In retrospect, not a bad trip. Initial expenses totaled $248 per person including airfare, hotel accommodations, and taxes for the weekend, and we didn't spend much more than that on additional meals and incidentals. With better planning--especially after the beginning of October when Caticlan Airport's renovations are complete--and a longer stay, it will be a much better overall experience for anyone planning to vacation in Boracay. We may even return there for a longer weekend before heading back to New York. We'll see.

Labels: boracay, Fairways and Bluewater

Okay, so my experience in Manila has been less than extraordinary so far. I attribute that mostly to the fact that I've been working graveyard shift and having trouble sleeping. Here's a breakdown of a typical working day in my life here:

9:30 p.m. - Wake up, shower, eat.

10:30 p.m. - Shuttle van to work.

11 p.m. - 8 a.m. - Work.

8 a.m. - Catch shuttle van back to Rockwell Center.

8:30 a.m. - Workout or sleep; or eat, sleep, and workout later. It depends on how I feel. Lately, I've been hitting the gym about 9 a.m. every morning right after I get home.

10 a.m. - Shower, breakfast.

10:30 a.m. - 3 or 4 p.m. - Run errands, grocery shopping, etc. On a more relaxed day, I might watch a movie, read, write, or surf the net. Thursdays, my maid cleans my place from about 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. I can't confirm the latter time since I'm always asleep when she leaves, but my place is clean, so I can't complain. ;-)

I sleep anytime between 3 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. On a bad day, I will nap a little when I get home from work because I'm exhausted then won't be able to sleep until 6 or 6:30 p.m. Sleeping pills require a prescription here, and I'd rather not take them anyway, so I'm taking herbal supplements containing melatonin in staggered doses on alternate days. If I take them daily they become ineffective.

And that's a typical day for me here. I am getting used to it now, after five weeks, but I still feel the need to recharge a bit on the weekends. All of us working here have had the same issues. Getting coordinated hasn't been easy, so mostly it's been going out with friends from work on Saturday nights, and not every Saturday night, either.

Right now, a few guys from work and I am planning a weekend trip to Boracay, an island about 200 miles south of Manila. If all goes well, we'll leave on September 19th. The Wikipedia entry on it says, "Boracay is also known as gateway to paradise due to its natural beauty." It should be a nice trip.

I'm still looking to make at least one other major trip while I'm here--either, the three country trip to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, or the trip/extended layover in Hong Kong. Ideally, I would do both, but I don't know if that will be possible. We'll see. I have seven weeks left.

Labels: boracay, wikipedia