All posts by Len Joson

Life & Love

Old and Rusty Pipe

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At a memorial park where my wife and I do our brisk walking and jogging, there are water pipes placed strategically all over the place used for watering the plants and greenery in this really big and wide park. When you go around the perimeter, it’s some 1.5 kilometers in my car’s odometer.

This old and rusty pipe is exposed to the weather 24 hours a day but it still continues to serve its purpose. This reminds me that as I reach 60 next year, I may be old and already considered a senior citizen but that should not stop me from doing what I can to be of service to others.

Life & Love, Photography

Giant Lantern Festival

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Last night, we went to the giant lantern festival. It was our first time. It’s a big event out here in the City of San Fernando, Pampanga every year. From what I’ve learned, this has become a tradition in this locality where a contest of really giant lanterns with a diameter of about 20 feet are held each year among the barangays of this city. These lanterns are intricately designed with all the dancing lights with thousands of bulbs and intricate electrical wirings controlled and operated by expert electricians and lantern designers. I understand that last night, the grand champion got One Hundred Twenty Thousand Pesos if I’m not mistaken.

giant lantern festival
Click to zoom.

Too bad, we did not have a good vantage point for me to take good photos. There were just too many people eagerly watching and we were stuck behind where the TV production crew and their monitors were placed. We were stuck and squeezed unable to move! Oh well, I just watched the TV monitor instead once in a while haha! It was fun though as my daughter enjoyed it as she really wanted to see the TV production crew do their thing because her college course, Animation, is related to that kind of stuff.

Life & Love, Photography

Abandoned Rocking Chair

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I once knew an old man. He was about 96 years old when we first met. Having spent all his life in the construction business, he was a strong and healthy man for his age. I admired the man for reaching that age and for having accomplished a lot in his life. But years later he got sick as everybody does. The last time I talked to him, I asked how he was doing. And he answered me in Tagalog, “Heto, buhay pa” meaning, “Here I am, I’m still alive.”

I thought that was an amusing answer coming from him but that was the last time I talked to him. He passed away already a few years ago. But I do remember him from time to time because of an abandoned rocking chair. What is left now is just the metal frame of a rocking chair once owned by a man I once knew and learned to admire and respect.

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Life has Meaning

Thankfully, life is not just “here today, then gone tomorrow.” It’s more than that. God has created us to live a life of love, joy and peace not just here on earth right now but also for all eternity. The Lord Jesus became one of us to bring us into union and communion with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Isn’t that great?

Life & Love

Web Development: Learning the Hard Way

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Sometime in 2001, I created my first website for my church using Microsoft FrontPage. I learned about web development and how to make a website through self-study. Back then, I had so much passion in learning how to make websites and thankfully, through persistence and diligent self-study, I eventually learned how to do it. I was already about 45 years old when I began to study about website design haha! Yes, I did not go through college and earn a degree on Information Technology. Rather, I learned it through the “school-of-hard-knocks!” And I was a full-time pastor at that time. I am proof that one can still learn in his old age haha!

Content Management Systems

Microsoft FrontPage was eventually phased out by Microsoft but thankfully, I also learned about Dreamweaver, another program used in making websites. That helped me a lot as I studied more and more about web development.

I also learned about Joomla! quite well—a content management system (CMS) as web developers call it. I built several websites using this CMS. I also learned another CMS called Drupal but I found it too cumbersome for me to use. I never created a site using this tool but did encounter a few times where I had been asked to fix a Drupal site.

Nowadays, I stick with WordPress which started out as a website making tool in blog format but has now developed to become a great CMS. I have moved all my Joomla! sites to WordPress because it’s easier to use and more user-friendly — as I see it. Others may disagree of course haha!

On Creating Websites

From time to time, somebody would ask me to make a website for them. I normally would use WordPress to make one for them especially since I have become more familiar with it over the years and I deal mostly with WordPress websites on a daily basis. This personal blog site was made using WordPress. I originally created this site using Joomla!  but moved it to WordPress after a number of years.

Web Evangelism, Cybermissions

Currently, I am still maintaining a handful of websites and one of those is a non-profit church-related organization. My sister who is a painter recently asked me to make an artist’s website for her and hopefully I will be able to do that sometime soon as time permits. I also used to maintain the website of the Philippine Missions Association, a non-profit missions organization — which I originally created — but not anymore. I do not earn anything from these non-profit organizations.

Since about 1995 and up to now, I continue to believe that the internet is a good avenue to share the good news of Jesus Christ throughout the whole world. Internet evangelism — it seems to me — will always be my passion for the Lord. Or rather, it is the passion of my heart that God has given to me. So I get involved and participate right there — where the Lord has placed me. So, I keep on blogging as time permits and as the Lord leads me.

Updated: 8/29/17

Life & Love, Photography

Photoshoot for a Cause

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portrait photography
An attempt at portrait photography

Back during my younger days, I loved photography but the cost of film, camera lenses and other camera accessories prevented me from making it a full-time hobby. I enjoyed my Nikon EM film camera (a gift from my sister) while it lasted. Then I shifted to ordinary point-and-shoot cameras which was what I can afford to buy. We used to call it as instamatic cameras — now it’s point-and-shoot (P & S). I did enjoy several P & S cameras over a span of many years and I was happy shooting photos of just about anything that interested me. I still enjoy shooting up to now.

But a year or so ago, my daughter gave me a second hand Panasonic Lumix GF1 camera. That sparked my interest again to study further about camera settings and all that stuff. The GF1 is a mirrorless camera different from a DSLR camera. It’s smaller and lighter—a compact camera. It’s technically called a micro four thirds camera. It is not a P & S camera too.

Photoshoot for a Cause

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In the photo above, I took a shot of my wife when she was still in college back in 1978. She was my favorite photo subject back then and up to now haha! We were still singles back then. I used my Nikon EM film camera with a 50mm lens. In the second photo, I used my GF1 digital camera but I attached the same old 50mm Nikon lens to it to take a shot of my wife during a “Photoshoot for a Cause” recently at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center in Quezon City. Without planning to, she became an instant model haha!

Joining that “Photoshoot for a Cause: Yolanda Project” has caused me to study again photography and learn some more about photo post processing. In the first photo above, I tried to revive the old photo and remove scratches and blemishes. It’s kind of tough to edit a scanned photo I realize. I still need to learn a lot. I’m kind of enjoying my hobby right now.