Showing posts with label Traveler On Foot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Traveler On Foot. Show all posts

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Of XMLs, dotcom woes, and point ohs

Welcome back to La Familia Viajera!

We haven't been blogging for the past several weeks. The last official blogpost we had was about our impromptu visit to historic Calle Escolta in Binondo, Manila last November 30. (thankfully we did a photo ops in front of the old PNB headquarters before it was mysteriously gutted away by fire just last week). I posted that visit last December 3. Then after that, nothing else followed. Our beloved family travel blog was also gutted away not by fire but clumsiness.

www.lafamiliaviajera.com is no more. =(

It's all my fault. I totally forgot about the one-year deal that I signed up for with our internet domain registrar. I didn't know that they've been sending us several emails reminding us that the deal is about to expire. The problem is I've been too busy taking care of other troubles that I failed to check my emails for weeks on end (learn from my mistake, fellow online being). I just found out about the bad news when one cold day in December, as I was about to blog about a Christmas party we attended in Parañaque, our site's URL led me to nothing but a network error.

More than a year's worth of blogposts... all gone!

However, I was a bit surprised to notice that it was Yeyette who was more disappointed than me. She has learned to love this blog so much. Rightly so because La Familia Viajera is virtually a repository of our family's travel memories. And it's nice to see our kids growing up with each blogpost and at different places.

It was too late to contact and make an appeal to our internet domain registrar, so I just decided to start from scratch. No use crying over spilled milk. Thankfully, we still have all photographs of our travels stored in our Facebook page.

And so that should explain why our URL now is http://lafamiliaviajera2015.blogspot.com. And that should also explain why last Monday's blogpost sounds as if we're starting over again.

Inside the San Agustín Museum in Intramuros last January 11 (click here for the complete photo album).

Good thing I remembered the time when good 'ol buddy Arnaldo taught me how to import and export a blog's XML a few year's ago (he too had experienced a rather similar fiasco with his blog). And last Monday morning, it occurred to me that although "version 1.0" of La Familia Viajera was no longer around, the Gmail account attached to it could still be accessed. And through it, I could still access the blog's dashboard where I could export version 1.0's XML! And that's exactly what I did. After downloading the XML, I logged in to "version 2.0" and imported the whole thing (for fellow bloggers using Blogger, click here for the procedure).

¡Gracias a Dios! Versions 1.0 and 2.0 were merged yesterday!

And thank goodness that technology is siding with us. So grateful are we that is why we insist on using "version-digit-point-ohs" (and it makes me sound techie, hehe!). The downside here is that we no longer own the domain name. But that's OK. Might as well keep things simpler (something I learned from Traveler On Foot). Yeyette is still intent of buying a domain for this site, but it's not one of my priorities. I'll just leave it up to her.

The most important thing is that La Familia Viajera is back to regular programming! BIGGER! BETTER! Simpler! =)

¡Vamos a viajar!

Sunday, February 2, 2014

¡Gracias! Thank you! ¡Salamat!

We would like to thank our online friends for promoting our young family travel blog. You have no idea how much we appreciate your time and efforts! We are humbled!


Image credit: Tic Tac, Se me pasa el arroz.

Here they are and their encouraging blogposts/reviews/comments about LA FAMILIA VIAJERA (in order of date of publication):

◕ Satcheil Amamangpang of Aco... Si LOLA KERPS  "La Familia VIAJERA!"
◕ León Pañgilinan, Jr. of tadonggeniuskuno — "La Familia Viajera"
◕ Laiza Felise Fernández of Inconsistencies. — "Sup, homies?"
◕ Juanlu García of VIAJAR EN FILIPINAS — "EL BLOG DE LA FAMILIA VIAJERA"
◕ Arnaldo Arnáiz of with one's past... — "The Traveling Bunch. The Alas' as La Familia Viajera"
◕ Rachel Calixtro of STUFF by rhey — "A NOTABLE COLLECTION OF TRAVEL BLOGS"
◕ Joey Dionisio of MANILA LABYRINTH — "Travel Blogging: La Familia Way"
◕ José Miguel García of PATRIA — "Presenting:"

"It is very inspiring to see a family of six discover our heritage together. Meet the Familia Alas. Thank you for allowing us to walk with you in your family outings through La Familia Viajera. ¡Enhorabuena Pepe and Yeyette!"
Traveler on Foot

"Great new blog by Pepe Alas and his family: La Familia Viajera. Check out his post on Intramuros. Some great (although somewhat sad) photographs of the Walled City… Great having you and your family on my tour. ¡Hasta luego!"

Carlos Celdrán

"Great tips for traveling families here!"

Pinay Travel Junkie

We would also like to show our appreciation to multi-awarded writer and veteran blogger Joe Bert Lazarte, computer whiz kid and OurByte creator Ronnel de la Cruz, and renowned travel blogger Journeying James for their valuable contributions in the construction of this blog. Thank you so much for sharing your technical know-how, inputs, and blogging knowledge! You guys have helped us so much to make this blog possible!

Of course there are also our handful of faithful readers (composed mostly of friends and family members). Thank you so much for the continuous support!

Once again, from the bottom of our hearts: thank you, thank you, thank you! =)

Familia Alas


❤L❤A❤F❤A❤M❤ILIAVIAJERA

Our belated Filipiniana wedding last year at the San Pedro Apóstol Parish Church. Standing behind us from left to right: my cousin Jam Alas of Magic 89.9; her mom Tita Joji Alas (sponsor); Mayor Lourdes Catáquiz of San Pedro, La Laguna (sponsor); my maternal grandmother Norma Soriano; Yeyette’s dad Jaime Perey; my dad Josefino Alas; former San Pedro mayor Calixto Catáquiz, and; Señor Guillermo Gómez of the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española. Seated: Krystal, Jefe, me, Yeyette, Juanito, and Momay.


Pues José Mario Alas y familia
decidieron viajar a la manera 
de turistas por toda Filipinas.
Irán de pueblo en pueblo para ver 
quiénes son las familias prominentes; 
notar sus apellidos y negocios; 
conocer a sus padres y a sus nietos;
averiguar si hablaban español 
y medir la cultura que les queda 
y la visión histórica que tienen...
Y, de paso, saber de su cocina, 
de sus cantos, sus bailes y otras artes, 
si los tienen; y darles las nociones 
de cultura é historia que precisen... 
Pues lo que es de esperar es que lo gringo, 
de la clase más torpe todavía 
nos lo exhiban como su “cultura”.
¡Qué lástima que Pepe no les lleve 
un pequeño librito de la historia
veraz de Filipinas en tagalo 
para que las personas que conozca 
durante su visita, un recuerdo 
grato tengan de él y de su familia! 
Entonces los siguientes intercambios 
por e-mail tendrán su razón de ser. 
La Familia Viajera tiene todas 
las de ganar con creces permanentes. 
¡Adelante con Alas Filipinas!