PSAP-PAROLA.org for Filipino Seafarers

Saturday, December 24, 2005 @ 3:03 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I finished updating the site of PSAP-PAROLA.org yesterday evening. Philippine Seafarers Assistance Programme (PSAP) is a non-stock, non-profit foundation based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It primarily aims to support the Filipino seafarers’ quest for better and humane working and living conditions.

The Filipino Seafarers

PSAP has been publishing its newsletter/magazine called “PAROLA” for the Filipino seafarers. Parola has no ads at all but next year, they will start accommodating commercial advertisers at the Parola newsletter. Why advertise in Parola? The magazine is quite very informative for the seafarers and its family. I do not wonder that Parola newsletter is quite popular among the Filipino seafarers.

Some of the officers and staff of PSAP would visit one of the ships every month just to see the Filipino seafarers. The ship and crew that they visit is being featured at the SHIP and CREW of the MONTH, which I think very noble indeed. By merely looking at their photos, you will have the tendency to have some mixed emotions. For one thing, they are away from their loved ones, like right now, instead of spending Christmas with their family, they’re somewhere out there sailing at sea with their colleagues, while we are here enjoying on the ground.

May I ask everyone to please pray for them everyday, for their safety and wish them happiness even if they are away from their family especially this Christmas season.

May I also appeal to everyone to please support Parola newsletter by advertising with the magazine. Parola is circulated to over 10,000 individual Filipino seafarers and their families. You can download the latest issue of Parola, just visit PSAP-PAROLA.org website.

That’s all and have a wonderful day! Tomorrow is Christmas day!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year!!!

For a Cause,Picture Post,Site Update

Babushka

Thursday, December 22, 2005 @ 8:32 pm by Sofie Hofmann

Last Monday, December 19, 2005, I updated the start pages of the French, Italian and English version of the site of Green Cross Switzerland. The last time I updated it, I only inserted a pop-up window at the start page of the German version. The pop-up window is all about the “Babushka Painting Competition” of Green Cross Switzerland in relation to the Chernobyl accident 20 years ago.

The solidarity gathering by Swiss children for the children of Chernobyl will be on the 26th of April, 2006 in “Waisenhausplatz” in Bern. If you are a resident of Switzerland and would like to participate in this competition, sample patterns of Babushka can be ordered at Green Cross.

Herewith are few samples of the works of the children from Switzerland, courtesy of Green Cross Switzerland. Read my past blog entry, 20 Years after Chernobyl, to know what does Babushka mean.

Babushka

Today, I uploaded some documents, press releases, regarding the Social and Medical Care Programme of Green Cross Switzerland. The press releases are only in German and French languages. If you can read either of the two, you can check the media pages of the German and French version. It is about the help that Green Cross Switzerland is extending to one of the contaminated areas in Russia, “Chelyabinsk”, as well as Ukraine, through their Social and Medical Care Programme.

Chelyabinsk, in the former USSR, was the center of the Russian nuclear industry, also known as the “Mother of the Atomic Bomb”. Due to the unprofessional handling of the radioactive waste during that time, and as the area was producing nuclear weapons in high quantity, waste accumulated and contaminated Chelyabinsk and its neighboring areas.

Aside from that, there were also two serious radioactive accidents that occurred in 1994 and 1995 which contaminated the area. The radioactive wastes overflowed to the Techa river and it led to the radiation contamination of about 124,000 people, 28,000 of those were residents of the place “Brodokalmak”. At present, there are 1,100 children living in Brodokalmak, 800 of those are registered to be sick.

There’s still a lot of them out there… and they need our help…

As we are about to celebrate Christmas, if you can extend your help, just help… anyone… help anyway you can. People will appreciate it!

For a Cause,Picture Post,Site Update

Swiss Big Game Fishing

Wednesday, December 21, 2005 @ 10:49 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I updated the site of Swiss Big Game Fishing few days ago regarding Swiss Salmo Perl “News” 2006. Today, I added some pictures of the Swiss Salmo Perl fishing baits. Swiss Big Game Fishing will be introducing new Swiss Salmo Perl products for the year 2006. It will have a some sort of an exhibit on the 24th of December 2005 at Vitznauerweg 17, Weggis, Switzerland from 8am to 5pm.

Swiss Salmo Perl

Swiss Big Game Fishing is a hobby site of Peter Hofmann. Swiss Salmo Perl became known as “Hofmann Loeffel” which was named after him. He is into big game fishing and if you visit his site, you will see that he is quite successful in it considering that it is just his hobby. He and his friends would travel to Kenya most of the time, and they could really catch sharks, as in big sharks. You can visit this particular page, Fangerfolge, if you would like to know what I mean.

If you are into fishing and living in Switzerland, well, why not visit his place and you’ll probably find something that you have been looking for. Swiss Big Game Fishing have a lot of products with regard to fishing like fishing rolls, fishing rods, fishing lines, fishing hooks and fishing tools, not only fishing baits. You’ll probably find more there aside from what I mentioned but that is all that I can remember.

Ok, till next time, have fun fishing… Have a wonderful day!

Picture Post,Site Update

Launching SofieHofmann.com!

Saturday, December 17, 2005 @ 11:45 pm by Sofie Hofmann

SofieHofmann.com is now online!

SofieHofmann.com is my latest web design. It is actually our personal website. It took me a while before I got satisfied with the design. It took me, more or less 8 weeks to finish this website. It could have been faster, but I kept on changing the web design. Well, here it is!

The truth is, we have a free homepage, geocities.com/sofiehofmann, and it’s been years that I told myself that I need to revise that free homepage. I no longer like the design of that site. Our personal homepage is actually not my priority. I ‘d rather revise my other pages about Pandan, Antique than revise our personal site but I think I owe it to ourselves to have a nice personal website. If I could make a nice web design for Pandan, Antique, why not for us. It would be nice sharing something to my relatives and friends especially those I haven’t seen for several years.

SofieHofmann.com replaces geocities.com/sofiehofmann free homepage. SofieHofmann.com/blog replaces sofiehofmann.blogspot.com. It’s not completely finished yet since I still have to add more pictures at the Travel section. I still need to scan a lot of pictures. Why scan? Well, some of those photos were taken when we were still using a non-digital camera. Even if that camera was worth 1,000 thousand pesos only when Hub bought it, I was able to take a lot of nice photos with that camera. I really like that camera but it gave up. Ops, I’m digressing…

Anyway, I’ve written what I want to say. I think this is all for now. I just would like to let you all know that SofieHofmann.com is now online.

I hope you’ll enjoy surfing and viewing our personal website. I will definitely write it in my blog if I have added some pictures. Just keep on checking our personal website, SofieHofmann.com especially SofieHofmann.com Blog.

Ok, Ciao! Have fun and have a wonderful day!

Web Design

Pandan.gov.ph, Web Contest Finalist

Thursday, December 15, 2005 @ 2:38 am by Sofie Hofmann

I updated the Official Website of the Municipality of Pandan, Antique, Philippines, several days ago. It was really exciting. Pandan.gov.ph is one of the 5 finalists at the “2005 LGU Website Contest”. I was like a kid giggling and jumping when I told the good news to my husband. You can read the news at www.pandan.gov.ph.

I installed a new guestbook and I even modified it so it will look like the other pages of www.pandan.gov.ph. I also reinstalled the web forum but a newer version. Even if I did a back-up of the database of the old one, I was not able to reconfigure it. I lost all the names of those who registered already, so it’s back to square one. I hope you’ll register again and let us make use of the web forum of the site.

I also installed a simple site search. When I say simple, it is really simple. If you view the search page of the www.pandan.gov.ph you will be able to read my tips there. It’s not perfect but it could somehow help you. Try it out so you know how it functions. Just don’t search the words like bugang river, malumpati, municipality and the menu words because it will give you unnecessary results. As I see it, when you search malumpati, it seems like it’s also giving you the search result for municipality. That’s just one of the shortcomings of this simple site search.

Don’t worry, sooner or later, if the other pages have been indexed by either google, msn or yahoo, I will probably use their site search but for the meantime, this one will suffice.

Well, that’s all for now. Have a wonderful day!

I have been signing out with that phrase today. I guess, it reflects that I had a wonderful day today. I feel like singing and dancing just like when I told Hub that good news, but it’s already past midnight here so I’d better go to bed now. Tomorrow is another wonderful day and I’m looking forward to it! Ciao!!!

General,Site Update,Web Design

20 Years after Chernobyl

Friday, November 25, 2005 @ 2:38 am by Sofie Hofmann

I just updated the site of Green Cross Schweiz last Wednesday night. As I’ve written before, Green Cross will have a Painting Competition, actually a “Babushka” Painting Competition. I just created a pop-up window at the startpage of the German version site announcing the event on the 26th of April 2006.

The event is a demonstration of solidarity of the school children from Switzerland for the children of Chernobyl. I just hope that you still remember what happened in Chernobyl 20 years ago. The nuclear power plant accident occured in Chernobyl in the former USSR, now Ukraine, on April 25-26, 1986. For more information about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, please visit this website, www.chernobyl.info.

What does “Babushka” mean? Babushka is a Russian word meaning “grandmother” or “old woman”. I found out that some english dictionaries defined the word Babushka as a “woman’s head scarf” but in Russia it is never used to mean “woman’s head scarf”.

If they defined it as a “woman’s head scarf”, what an imagination, the evolution of the words, huh! In this case, the word “Babushka”! I guess, they called it that way, probably because most of the “Babushkas”, the grandmothers in Russia and Ukraine are always wearing a scarf covering their head.

Anyway, if you already click the link Green Cross Schweiz, you probably read the details of the event at the pop up window. If you want to participate, just inquire at Green Cross Switzerland.

For a Cause,Site Update

Pandan.ph Portal

Friday, November 11, 2005 @ 5:12 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I just updated Pandan.ph Portal. You can read some news updates about Antique, Panay as well as Visayas. I regulary check 3 newspapers providing news online about Panay Island.

If you don’t feel like reading all the news reports and articles provided by these online newspapers, then you can check what I provided for you. You will be redirected to these newspapers, but at least I already did you a favor, looking for some news about Antique. Once you are in that particular page, you always have the option to surf other pages of the site.

Once in a while, I might insert pages from way back, old articles just like “Pandan’s Bugang River bags ‘Dangal Ng Ilog’ distinction” dated April 27, 2005. That is because, I may have found those articles before but forgot to share it with you.

Well, enjoy reading and have a nice weekend to all!

News Report,Site Update

Green Cross Competition

Monday, November 7, 2005 @ 4:07 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I almost forgot to write it here. I updated the site of Green Cross Switzerland last week. The new issue of Green Cross Newsletter is out, both in German and French. Newsletter update is always at the publications pages.

Another update was done at the media pages. What’s the good news? Well, Green Cross is again having a Painting Competition. If you want to know more about the details please check the media pages.

By the way, the competition is open only to the residents of Switzerland.

So, if you’re a resident of Switzerland, check it out. Who knows!

Good luck!

Site Update

Green Cross and Pandan-Antique.com

Sunday, October 9, 2005 @ 2:34 pm by Sofie Hofmann

I finished redesigning www.pandan-antique.com few days ago but still was refining it up to this day. Now it’s all ok. You’ll still be able to view the old design at www.sehdi.com/pandan or www.pandan-antique.8m.com. The design is finished but the content is not completely done yet. I still have a lot to add to that site but I’ll do it slowly.

I would like to have a directory at www.pandan-antique.com just like what I did at www.pandan.8k.com but of course the web design would be different. The web design of www.pandan.8k.com is so outdated. My, my… I have not been able to update the Pandan Site Directory and hope to include such at Pandan-Antique.com Philippines Website.

I also just finished updating the site of Green Cross Switzerland. I just added the following text:

In German at http://www.greencross.ch/de/organisation/stiftungsrat.html
Der Stiftungsrat arbeitet vollumfänglich ehrenamtlich und erhält entsprechend keine Entschägungen.

In French at http://www.greencross.ch/fr/organisation/conseil.html
Le conseil de fondation de Green Cross Suisse est totalement bénévole et ne perçoit donc aucune indemnité.

In Italian at http://www.greencross.ch/it/organizzazione/consiglio.html
Il Consiglio di Fondazione di Green Cross Svizzera lavora a titolo onorifico e non percepisce percio’ alcuna indennità.

In English at http://www.greencross.ch/en/organization/board.html
The Green Cross Switzerland Board Members work completely in voluntary, honorary functions and accordingly receive no remuneration for their work.

I especially copied those sentences in 4 languages. I may not be a fan of any politician but once in a while I admire them for such things.

For a Cause,Site Update,Web Design

Green Cross Update

Friday, October 7, 2005 @ 2:33 pm by Sofie Hofmann

Yesterday, I updated the media pages of Green Cross Switzerland. I always say pages because I designed the website of Green Cross in 4 languages, in German, French, Italian and English.

If you understand any of the languages, please check the media pages of Green Cross Switzerland.

Actually, I also updated the second paragraph of the history pages, changing the number of organizations under the umbrella of Green Cross International from 26 to 28.

On September 23, 2005, I already updated the media pages of Green Cross, an update on the Chernobyl victims.

On September 21, 2005, I updated the number of members of the States Council supporting Green Cross from 23 to 27, and the members of the National Council from 72 to 90. I really think that it’s good because more people are seeing what Green Cross is doing for a good cause.

If you want to know about Green Cross Switzerland, kindly visit the website at http://www.greencross.ch.

Make yourself more informed! Have fun reading!

Have a nice weekend!

For a Cause,Site Update