December 2015 - Expat In Bacolod

Happy New Year 2016

Happy New Year 2016

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 31, 2015

Out with the Old – In with the New! Happy New Year 2016 to all of my readers no matter where in the world you are. I scheduled this to be published at 2359 hours on New Years Eve local time, so if it’s not yet midnight on December 31, 2015, where you are then it soon will be! I say that as most of you are way behind me in time (literally not metaphorically). I appreciate you visiting and reading my posts. I’m sure you know by now that they are a veritable potpourri of rants, raves and the occasional meaningful articles. Most forgive me my diatribes and even my good friend Steve Fleming of Retiring to the Philippines. fame hopefully has stopped trying to change…

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What is it like to work undercover?

What is it like to work undercover?

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 26, 2015

Undercover Work? – What’s it Like? As an undercover veteran, I was intrigued by this question when I spotted it in a Quora forum. I was even more intrigued by the first of the answers. That answer is reproduced in full below. It is written by Tim Dees, a criminal justice technology writer and consultant. His Quora profile adds that he is a retired police officer and criminal justice college professor, now writing on applications of technology in law enforcement and corrections. Dees is therefore an academic now and a popular one at that! His answers on Quora have exceeded 500k in the past 30 days! He is a retired cop from Reno. A lot of what he says below is correct, but I do take issue with…

Strange World

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 23, 2015

Strange World? There’s Nowt Queerer than Folk A strange world is encapsulated within that northern English saying in the heading just above. I can’t help concluding that it is a strange world we now inhabit. In the past few days the stories about Miss Universe and Star Wars have gone totally apeshit viral across the “connected universe.” At the same time I published a heart-breaking story about a mother’s wish to track down the man who had a vision in which he saw the mother’s murdered son. I asked people to read it and SHARE on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media they could possibly think of. I had one person share the link from this page. [my Facebook Writer Page] Not one of my…

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9 Reasons Why You Must Make This Go Viral

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 21, 2015

James Bulger Was Murdered in 1993 Viral? Did it go viral? I am updating this post as I write on January 4, 2016. It did to a degree. On two days I had a spike in views of the post reaching the 1000 mark. So, to a degree, the answer is yes, it was viral. I have to thank an anonymous donor for one of the spikes in views. He dipped into his own pocket to pay a social media guru to ‘viralize’ the post. Let’s keep sharing this post. Here’s why – Denise Fergus, the mother of James, is still desperate to find the man who saw a picture of James in a frame besides a flickering candle in a cave. He was on…

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Dreams and Songs – Fields of Anfield Road

Dreams and Songs – Fields of Anfield Road

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 19, 2015

The “Fields of Anfield Road” – “We had dreams and songs to sing” “Dreams and Songs” is taken from the “Fields of Anfield Road.” It is one of the iconic songs in the repertoire of Liverpool Football Club supporters on match days both at home and away. Shankly Family Foundation I have met some great people through Twitter and many Reds fans of course! They include @Dream-n-Songs. This is a guy who has set up a new website called “Dreams and Songs to Sing.” He has a product range of clothing (threads) that nods to the iconic “Fields of Anfield Road” anthem. I have no affiliation with the site or this guy at all. The products seem sound enough but what impressed me was his statement that…

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Faces – FavFotoFriday

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 18, 2015

FavFotoFriday Time Again – Faces “Faces” are the subject matter of this week’s post in the FavFotoFriday series inspired by my blogging friend Sandy. It appears that she took her inspiration from the WordPress Daily Post blog. The original idea was to write an article on your blog about photos that you took in the preceding week. Hell! I haven’t got time to shoot pictures these days with all the writing stuff! So, I cheat a little by rummaging through my old Flickr albums. But, I won’t tell if you don’t 🙂 It’s a bumper version of FavFotoFriday today as the feature will return in two weeks owing to Christmas Day falling on next Friday. These photographs of people’s faces in my Flickr collection were nearly all taken with a…

Philippines Customer Service – SKYserves – Oxymoron of Oxymora?

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 17, 2015

Customer Service in the Philippines SKYserves is the customer service department of the Philippines SKYcable digital TV company. Customer Service in the Philippines operates on a different level to that typically encountered in America or Europe. It takes some getting used to, but then again … I subscribe to one of SKYcable’s digital TV packages here where I live in Bacolod. When I first subscribed back in June of 2015 I was attracted by the Philippines wide advertising that promoted the fact that SKYcable held the franchise for Bein Sports. Bein Sports in turn hold the broadcast rights for Barclays Premier League football (the EPL). Disappointingly, after I had signed up, I learned that the Bein Sports channels were only available in Manila. I was…

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Donald Trump: Savior or Demagogue?

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 13, 2015

Donald Trump – How to Make America Great Again Donald Trump is undoubtedly a controversial man. Normally I don’t concern myself any longer with politics and politicians. Many, too many, are liars. This man, however, has grabbed my attention and it is time to speak up. Facebook Comments My attention was swung towards this man by various posts I saw on my Facebook timeline. I took a little time to read some of the comments beyond the ones that simply said, “Georgia rocks” or “Trump rocks.” I paid scant attention to such puerile comments owing to the lack of intellectual analysis contained within such slogans. Apparently “Georgia rocks” alludes to a poll in which a great majority of that state’s voters intend to support Donald Trump.…

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FavFotoFriday 12/11/2015

Published by Stephen Bentley on December 11, 2015

FavFotoFriday Time Again FavFotoFriday was inspired by a blogging friend Sandy of Scribbles and Musings . I wrote my first post on this theme last week. So, it’s #FavFotoFriday time again and this week I rummaged through my old Flickr photo albums and decided to make today’s theme all about buildings and architecture. Classical Architecture Please don’t yawn! One of my subjects while in 6th Form ( I think that is high school in the US?) in the UK was Art. At 6th Form in the UK, you study specialist subjects for two years for what was at that time called “A” Levels. “A ” meaning Advanced, as opposed to “O” Levels (Ordinary) which you completed at 16 years of age and comprised of all the general subjects…

When My Inner Anglophile Took Over My Life

Published by Carol Moulin on December 9, 2015

Guest Post from a self-confessed Anglophile Self-Proclaimed Anglophile I recall many conversations {with one of my high school best friends} about the idea of living in England “for a few years”, just to say we did. Anyone heavily into the music of British bands, anyone who had a fascination with The Royal Family or other aspects of British culture was a self-proclaimed Anglophile. America’s love of all things British has spanned decades, thanks to Julie Andrews, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Petula Clark, Elton John, Monty Python, Dr. Who, The Police, etc. By the mid-80’s, I had visions of getting a “flat” in London and immersing myself in the culture. Little did I know that, a decade later, I would have the chance to do…

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Month: December 2015