I know, this is a little late again. (yes what else is new).

But that’s how it has been for me lately, in case you haven’t figured it out yet.

I have been very busy and so everything I type up is mostly late. But who isn’t busy with something right?

But as they say, better late than never…

So to all our Asian Readers out there… HAPPY NEW LUNAR YEAR!

As for me, me and my son celebrated it by going to the LA18 Lunar Year celebrations at the Charles H. Wilson Park (here in the Southbay, California) last Sunday afternoon.

It was raining quite heavily but it was on and off but still we went and joined in the Festivities and many of the Asian communities were represented.

Of course we sampled (bought, ate and enjoyed) almost all of the Asian cuisine available. We tried the Korean beef first. Then the Japanese food next. And of course we went to the Chinese food stand and had to wait quite a long while as the line was among the longest.

Then we capped it off with the Filipino food and tried many of the dessert stands.

We were wet, we were tired and full but we had a good time.

And we went home with a free gift from LA 18 (which incidentally not only broadcasts Asian shows here in SoCal but also showcases the only US-made Filipino TV Show for and by Filipinos — Kababayan LA).

All in all, it was great day.

The only thing we miss now is that sticky cake we always have back home… locally known as “tikoy”. Now I may have to hunt it down and go to all the local Asian stores… Wish me luck… that is if you believe in luck.

God bless everyone!!!

January 30, 2011, that’s my son eating a snow-cone. And yes it was raining but still lots of people, mostly Asians. Kung Hei Fat Choy!

I know that this is kind of late for a New Blog for the New Year.

But for the past few weeks when I had the time of course, I was trying to do some much needed housekeeping on this YAP Blog which basically is now about 3 years old.

So I am happy to announce that finally I had TAKEN DOWN from this site some of the content that was most probably said too quickly and some regretfully of course

All of these are comments made by you YAPPERS old and new.

But as I couldn’t find an easier way to edit it, I just decided to just TAKE OUT ENTIRE BLOG POSTS.*

And again, all these blog posts have a lot of the old bickerings, the fightings and the name callings amongst the YAPPERs of Old, many who have now since moved out of YAP or just visit once in a while.

So FINALLY I can say that, yes this is a New Year and a time to move forward.

Hopefully this will be a Sign for a Better YAP.

I know it’s that time of year again, when the nights are longer, the weather is cooler and the lights, the sounds and the traffic all say one thing…

PASKO NA!

So to one and all, where ever you may be around the world…

MERRY CHRISTMAS

But amidst the holiday rush and as I write this, I am still pretty much saddened by a few things, among them the recent Supreme Court Ruling in the Visconde Massacre Case.  And it is purely because, either we have accused, convicted, sentenced and imprisoned innocent men and we have let the real killers free all this time.

Or we have made a mockery of this case by letting the guilty free.

And in either case there are no clear winner, only losers all. Today I offer my sympathies to all the partied involved.

Secondly, I also sympathize with our kababayans who have been allegedly victimized by STARGATE INTERNATIONAL CARGO, primarily the one in UAE.

I know this has been a long standing problem in YAP and we have seen dozens upon dozens of complaints against this forwarding company since 2007 or as far back as I first started YAPPING.

And I know, during the holidays our hard-working OCWs try to send some Christmas Cheer back home to family and friends especially if they cannot be home for Christmas to the Happiest Christmas Place On Earth. And being the modern day Filipino Heroes, they shouldn’t be subjected to any more maltreatments.

And so if you are allegedly victimized by this particular cargo forwarding company, then maybe it is high time to spread the word and let us help stop this nonsense once and for all.

Any STARGATE victim can follow this link from my previous blog post and read the ongoing discussions. And I encourage you to communicate with one another and get back what has been taken from you.

Again, MALIGAYANG PASKO at MANIGONG BAGONG TAON sa inyong lahat!

Japs

I apologize to those who answered the question I posted at YAP yesterday as I did something unprecedented, I “chatted” on the question details that I added after about a couple of hours and after reading the answers.

This grave YAP mistake led to somebody reporting the question and it was subsequently deleted. I do not want to guess as to who or how many reported it but all the same, that was most probably the only “correct” YA violation I have ever received. Regardless that the reporter have a new MO and that the reason given was not chatting but wrong Q&A format. Yes, go figure but this is a good idea to keep in mind as you might be targeted next.

Here was my question:

Bush was thrown a shoe, Obama a book, what do you want to throw to GMA and PNoy?

And I also added the first parts of the answers below, here we can “freely” chat about this Q and all the answers. And hopefully more people can answer and that the yappers below can complete their answers or comment back.

This made me add the first additional detail in which I said who were Bush, Obama, GMA and PNoy.

Now this is original.

Now originally I had no idea what Cherifer was, but a quick google on it is easy enough to do. First good answer.

Okay this answer was from Mr. or Ms. dot. Easy enough to report this answer as it does not really answer the question. But why bother right? Instead I gave it a thumbs up, like everyone else.

Okay, now the second of the two real answers so far. And nothing else. And that is when I added more details and there you go, all hell broke loose and somebody reported the question.

Now these next answers I did not see as the question in question was already deleted, but just the same here are parts of the next answers:

Mr. BCool, hard to comment as we cannot read the whole answer, you can comment on this blog post and give us your answer if you wish.

But I do have a comment for you, I am aware that the shoe thrown at Bush and the book thrown at Obama was entirely done with different motives. But that is not really the point of the question. But I thank you if you tried to enlighten me and our fellow yappers. Good show.

Hello pero, again, I wanted to read the rest of your answer and I hope you can find the link to this and comment.

Scary thought of being hated by you though.

Hello Joeyboy, again, I would have loved to read the rest but… [tawanan na lang ang tumatawa sa tuwa at nakareport nanaman]

Papa Alpha, baseball?

JKoolJ, you can assume anything you want.

Tomato at … ? And what at the others?

again, cut off… argh   lol

Okay then next came the dreaded Violation Notice Email:

Deleted Question: Bush was thrown a shoe, Obama a book, what do you want to throw to GMA and PNoy?

Violation Reason: Misuse of the question and answer format

In Yahoo! Answers you must phrase questions in question format, and your answer must attempt to answer the question. Questions or answers must be written in a comprehensible way, and must be written in the language specific to the Answers site to which it is uploaded. You may not post conversational content without an attempt to post a meaningful question or answer a question or otherwise misuse the question and answer format.

I know, a new name for the old reliable “chatting” reason.  ROFL

This open YAP Question was:

Philippines: Where is the world is Purple Tactics?

(yes, ala Carmen San Diego)

And of course, mainly only the YAP oldtimers who are still yapping gave a response. As battgirl noted, it really has been 3 years. Yes at least for the YAP Batch 2007 and earlier.

I myself is a batch 2007 Yapper, and I remember Purple Tactics well. Although I don’t know him enough to respond to this question or most other questions regarding him. So yes, I didn’t respond.

It was fun reading the answers though and hopefully Purple Tactics, finds out he is being missed at YAP. And of course, I know many of the other YAP oldtimers are missed as well. (Do we need to call them out at YAP as well?)

But as lakwatsa have noted the obvious, there seems to be not that much interesting questions to respond to anyway. So why hang around?

Well hopefully, the newer batch of YAPPERs can pump it up and hopefully members of the older batches can jump in once in a while.

Happy Yapping!

WANTED:

If seen or heard from

please have him visit YAP as soon as possible.

PT

I know that there have been a lot of new Yappers who have become regulars.

And I know that there have been a few old timers who have now slowly but surely starting to go back into the groove of things (or trying to).

But this one YAP Travel Philippines Question took me back to the good old days of YAP.

Here is the Question:

How do you help a Yapper that’s built an unhealthy obsession with you lately?

Now I have invited those involved to use this YAP Forum to talk things over.

And yes, no-holds-barred here and no thumb down, no reporting and no suspensions.

As the Philippines celebrate their new President and his new Administration and hope for better days ahead, we here in the US of A , pause to celebrate the 4th of July!

Freedom Day!

And I just wanted to say Happy 4th to all Americans and Happy New President to all Filipinos.

Mabuhay!

Going back to being free, I just would want to point out something that BoyP  (our resident lakwatsador yapper) told me about my question being under attack.

So for you askers in YAP, here is the thing, please, please choose a BA for your questions and do not let it inadvertently go into voting.

Because for some reason or another (all dumb of course) there is a yapper out there (or a group of yappers) who have voted NO BA (no best answer) on my YAP Question, even though as BoyP has pointed out, there were a number of great answers given.

And these yappers probably know more than I do, or they probably know or probably didn’t or they were probably just lucky, but we will never know until they come here in and tell us of course. 

But at any rate, my question was removed or deleted and my understanding is because of the numerous NO BEST ANSWER VOTES. Yes, can you believe that crap? I am now tempted to contact Jonas, our resident Yahoo Asia Community Manager, and have him investigate this seemingly new YAP modus operandi.

But right now, I am still in my Freedom Day Spirit and I am still giving these yappers some FREEDOM as well. But, I know one of these days I might just have to tell on Jonas about them and because I am now asking and answering under Yahoo Answers Philippines (YAP), Jonas has jurisdiction over all my Q and As, all my content and he can very easily investigate all my concerns and ACT on them. Unlike in the previous years when I used to ask and answer in Yahoo Main (USA) and that was my undoing until Jonas himself pointed this out to me, as  he had somewhat limited leeway to work with as it was not under YAP.

And that is just to forewarn these yappers who think they are above the (YAP) law.

Let’s see who will have the last laugh now…. LOL

And talk about getting a life here…

Anyway, as I have said, it’s still the 4th of July over here in Sunny California. We are having a great Sunday so far and we will be having some more barbeques at one of our friend’s house for dinner. later on, we will walk a few streets down to a nearby park to watch the festivities and the fireworks.

So, hasta la vista baby!

AND TO ALL THOSE WHO ANSWERED MY LAST QUESTION, I APOLOGIZE AND I THANK ALL OF YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO ANSWER IT.

	Wow, how did you DO that? Congrats on reaching Level 6. Wooo hooo! Your brain is a superstar! You can take pride in the hundreds of people you’ve enlightened, all over the world. Check out the chart below, and you’ll see that the next stop is the top. So keep it up! Thanks for sharing what you know with the world! The Yahoo! Answers Team
Level Points Range Ratings you can give per day Votes you can give per day Questions you can ask per day Answers you can give per day Comments you can make per day     7 25000+ unlimited 100 unlimited unlimited unlimited     6 10000 – 24999 unlimited 100 unlimited unlimited unlimited     5 5000 – 9999 unlimited 100 unlimited unlimited unlimited     4 2500 – 4999 unlimited 80 20 80 40     3 1000 – 2499 unlimited 60 15 60 30     2 250 – 999 unlimited 40 10 40 20     1 1 – 249 0 20 5 20 10

Mind boggling really on how I have managed to do that and joining an elite YA group who have done so ahead of me. Of course the Level 7 people are saying, ho hum. But I never had any intentions of getting so much points and this high up. It’s making me feel dizzy. LOL

Anyway, to you who are thinking that you cannot reach these kind of numbers too, believe me you can and yes even without trying and/or cheating. And who really want to do that? It’s not like we are going to get a prize or something.

But as the email has said…

THANK YOU FOR SHARING WHAT YOU KNOW WITH THE WORLD!

and that’s more than good enough for me.

So to all YAPPERs, to infinity and beyond…

People, we are not talking about the Philippine elections anymore.

There will always be winners and losers in every election, get over it people!

Anyway, I am talking about the Best Answers Percentages In Yahoo Answers, and I know those percentages (of best answers to total number of answers, 12-13%) are a bit low.

But I just wanted to ask it over here. This is not my own question but rather I saw this interesting question over of all place in the YA>Sports>Boxing section. You know with Manny Pacquio, still a big name in professional boxing the world over, the boxing forum in Yahoo Answers still is a pretty interesting site for Filipino boxing fans to visit.

Anyway, the original question is, the same as the title of this post.

Do you think that the people with over 12% or 13% best answers are cheating?

I have been consistently in the low 20s, normally within 21-23% myself, but that does not mean that I cheat.

You see if I do cheat or if I do really want to cheat, I could easily reverse that and make 77 to 79% of my answers as Best Answers. Easy, and it’s not really rocket science. But the question would be why?

Here was my response to that question: What’s yours?

It depends on the category, and partly in the way you select the questions that you answer.

But if you only answer in one category, which I suppose is the one where in you have the most knowledge in, then even 20-25% is reasonable, especially if you choose your questions well and answer only the ones which are really questions and not those where the asker is not really interested in the answers.

If you give out fairly decent answers consistently then 1 BA out of every 5 questions, is not hard to achieve.

But you have a point, it does tend to be suspicious the higher the percentages go, much like some people believe that Pacquiao must be on something, because he looks like he is on something.

Maybe we can tell YA to give all of us random IQ tests.

Yes like how Mayweather wanted Pacquiao to first take blood tests because they suspect him of being on performance enhancing drugs. Just agree you guys and let’s fight!

I was blocked again. I tried clicking on a question of the yapper who blocked me and still blocked. (The unusual thing about this is that I fondly remember answering a few of this askers questions and I even remember that in the last question of his (or hers) that I have answered, he (or she) even gave me the BA, so I am just surprised about all this).

But then I clicked on the question of the next person who asked a question in YAP a few minutes after the yapper who blocked me. And lo and behold. I was blocked by her (him too). So blocked again.

But here is the question, what are the ODDS that these seemingly two different YAPPERs who each asked a question in Yahoo Answers Travel Philippines about 5 minutes of each other, are one and the same?

You tell me?

Curses, blocked again.