Visit ToyCon 2007 at SM Megamall Megatrade Hall. Mister Vader will be there to perform his magic tricks, street style. I might be there tomorrow afternoon.
The Bloomfields will perform at the Music Hall of SM Mall of Asia this Sunday at 5PM. I might be there, too.
Yes, hopefully for a much needed R&R (though I doubt it). Sorry can’t share much.
Anyway, please visit my other blogs under the AWBHoldings.com network: TechWatch@AWBHoldings.com and The Lonely Vampire Chronicles. If you can link to them and subscribe to the RSS feeds, I will be most glad.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
This is to acknowledge the bloggers that I had met yesterday at Gerry’s Grill at the back of ABS-CBN.
* Brother Vince
* Kneeko
* Manilenya
* Master Betong
* Sasha
* Schumey
My impressions about them in another post. (Yari kayo he he. Joke.)
Thirty seven years ago today, the prominent political blogger, Manuel Quezon III, was born.
Happy birthday, Sir MLQ3!
I really wanted to participate in Ms. Janette Toral‘s cool writing project. Entitled “The Top Ten Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007“, participants must write about blogs that are gradually gaining considerable amount of readership and influence,
Unfortunately, most of the blogs that I read are already old, and I am lazy to find new ones. So here’s the twist: if your blog’s birthdate is on or after August 1, 2006, then leave your blog URL at the comments section. I will read your blog posts, and if I feel you are indeed a rising blog star, I will blog about your blog in The Lonely Vampire Chronicles.
Or you may opt to nominate someone else’s blog. Again, that blog must not be older than August 1, 2006. Leave the URL at the comments.
I will make a final blog post on this on July 21, 2007.
So if you feel you are qualified, just leave your blog URL on the comments section.
UPDATE:
The Road to the 10 Emerging Influential Blogs, One
The Road to the 10 Emerging Influential Blogs, Two
I started blogging in 2003 at LiveJournal. Entitled The Lonely Vampire Chronicles, it is a very personal blog. It had somehow managed to contain posts about politics and technology, so it is also a mashup of my musings about my interests.
Why The Lonely Vampire Chronicles?
At that time, I was playing Castlevania: Symphony of the Night on PS2. So there. (Don’t ask me about the Lonely part. I think it’s obvious. =P )
In August of 2005, I had decided to get my own domain, AWBHoldings.com, which then hosted just this blog. The next year, it also hosted The Lonely Vampire Chronicles.
Why?
Because in my previous workplace, LiveJournal was suddenly blocked. Asking around, the reason given me was stupidsilly: LJ “was” a dating site.
Anyway, with the beauty of LiveJournal Cross-poster plugin, I was able to update my LJ blog this way, though I couldn’t read my friends page. After a few months, it was unblocked.
So what’s the use, then?
The LiveJournal version contains all the blog posts under the AWBHoldings network. Also, it contains several personal posts that I am not comfortable sharing with a lot of people (these posts are locked). Nope, contrary to what others say, these locked entries are not searchable.
So The Lonely Vampire Chronicles under the AWBHoldings network will contain personal posts that I feel are safe to share with you. It will be a recollection of things past, observations about the environment I’m in, descriptions of people I meet and see. Just don’t expect love-related posts. =P
Anyway, please welcome back The Lonely Vampire Chronicles, and I hope you enjoy throwing tomatoes at your monitors. Just kidding. Sayang yung kamatis.
PS: You might wonder how come there are few posts. Actually it contained a lot more, but I had deleted them. Most of them are work-related rants, anyway.
When I was still a kid (I can’t remember what my age was back then), I got hold of this thick, yellow-covered book. I must not be too young by then, since I could understand the book; it was in English. It opened my eyes on the history and the story of other nations, of other people. That’s what hooked me with history.
By the time I stepped on high school, I had read enough books that my first year social studies teacher noticed that I knew more than what the textbook contained. After trying out two other students (one of them my brother; yes, we were in the same year, but that’s another story), she tapped me. For the division level history quiz. I should have kept my mouth shut during recitations. I should have flunked my exams.
Back then, I just came from a not-so-freak accident, and the doctor had just removed the plaster cast from my right leg. I was nervous. I was made to report to school on a Saturday for review sessions. I tried skipping these sessions, but of course I couldn’t.
While I did not win (there’s always someone better than you), the world did not end then. That was not the last contest I was entered in, either. I was tapped to be the school representative in the second and fourth years.
—
The fourth year was the most troublesome. I only joined one contest each for first year and second year. Fourth year, I was made to join five (one of them as an alternate). Good thing teachers then had foresight; they made schedules so that no two contests were held the same day (though they failed once). Luckily for me, I did not have to have mutant powers to attend to these “distractions”.
Of course, I did not win. There were close ones, though.
There was this contest about the United Nations. The rules were simple: those who got scores more than or equal to the cutoff will advance to the next round. In our year level, only one met the cutoff. I was one point less towards the next round.
Then there was one contest where honesty did me in. That contest had three rounds. The first one was a written exam, and the top ten scorers advance. The second one was an oral exam, and the top five scorers advance. And so on.
So I got in the second round. And there was that question that only I got the correct answer. Except that I misspelled it. The proctor marked it as correct; it seemed she did not know the spelling, either. And the honest boy I was, when I heard the answer being announced by the exam master, I raised my hand and pointed out the mistake. Foolish kid.
—
Shy kid that I was (I will never be a politician), I was not able to get to know a lot of people. Joining contests is a dream come true for those who wants to expand their social circle. For me, contests were just a bunch of faces lumped together for a day.
And funny thing was, you get to see the same faces. One of them I considered the worthy adversary. And why not? The combination of brains and looks is very rare; he was the embodiment of it. He came from one of the best public schools in Manila. He finished high school with honors (valedictorian). And he was one constant face in that bunch of faces.
In all the contests that I had joined (except for two), he was there. And since he is a bright kid, he got all the medals, while I get to go home with certificates of participation.
I call him the worthy adversary because he was that kid who met the cutoff score.
—
Don’t get the idea that I am bright. I am not. I just read a lot. The truth is, I’m very poor at math; heck I can’t even recite the multiplication table! (So please don’t ask me to.)
That yellow-covered book was not mine. But a high school classmate, upon learning that I love history, gave me a history book. The same yellow-covered book. It’s in tatters now, but still readable.
As for the worthy adversary: I have no news. Maybe he’s overseas, swimming in dollars. Or worse, a drunkard in a dingy alley in Sampaloc, with five kids. The “or” is highly unlikely, though.
For me, events like iBlog (held at the auditorium of the UP School of Economics) are not only for learning purposes. It is more of a chance to meet and exchange ideas with bloggers offline. As such, I am presenting my observations about the people I met at iBlog.
The first people that I saw were Pierre and Ajay, before the program for the first day had started. (Actually, the first person I saw at the registration was Atty. Noel Punzalan, aka Atty. Punzi). I really wanted to introduce myself, but my inherent shyness prevented me from doing so. A mistake. Anyway, when Mam Janette delivered the invocation, I was hoping that it would not cause controversy. Directly in the row infront of me were Dean Jorge Bocobo and Atty. Punzi. I also saw Shari with her brother.
Off-topic, but we Pinoys really have problems with our concept of time.
At lunch, I met Josh of chickenmafia.com and Dhon of islandboyinthecity (that’s a long one). And courtesy of Juned, I finally got to chat with DJB. The fact that he’s entertaining the idea of voting for Richard Gomez surprised me, and hearing his reasons why surprises me still.
After the first day ended, some of the participants (me included) went to the University Hotel for some drinks. I was seated together with Juned, Mam Noemi Dado, Jeff, and Eugene. Mam Noemi was one of the speakers of the day, and her blogging success is inspiring; her goal is inspiring too. From now on, I will read her blog; who knows, someone might need comfort, and at least I would know what to do.
I was looking forward for the second day, which included top-heavy topics. As I arrived, I saw Mam Ellen Tordesillas, who introduced me to Ms. Yvonne Chua (formerly of PCIJ) and Wilson Chua (president of Bitstop). Then I saw MLQ3, and to this day I chide myself for not introducing myself to him. Ditto with Ricky Carandang (it’s nice to know he got his domain name back, I hope he blogs again soon).
During the afternoon break, I also failed to introduce myself and congratulate Alecks Pabico, one of the bloggers behind the PCIJ blog, the winner of the Philippine Blog Awards for News and Media Category.
The second day session was an abbreviated one, due to lack of time (I don’t like to blame anyone, but read the off-topic comment above for the reason why).
For me, the best presentations were by Marcelle Fabie and Dean Francis Alfar (not in any order). Both of them had their audience at the edge of their seats. I really think there are born communicators, born teachers, and born teachers-communicators.
Hopefully, the presentations slides will be available soon.
Thanks to Atty. JJ Disini, Mam Janette Toral, and the volunteers for such a great program, and hopefully I’ll see all of them (and meet new ones) at iBlog4.
And please remind me to chain my shyness outside the venue when iBlog4 is on. Thanks.
—
Missed at iBlog 3:
Jove Francisco
Victor Villanueva (Bikoy; I really wanted to ask him a question)
Julius Rocas (Four-Eyed Journal; thought I saw him, but apparently he was not there)
Sasha (apparently she was there)
…the iPod Video in the raffle. =P
That’s me with Jayvee (Image by Chris)
(Image by Pierre)
I feel that I was the biggest winner in last night’s Philippine Blog Awards 2007 Awarding Ceremonies.
Anyway congratulations to the winners:
MAIN CATEGORY:
Best Personal Blog: Misteryosa
Best Home & Living Blog: Wifely Steps
Best Socio-Political Blog: Philippine Commentary
Best News & Media Blog: Inside PCIJ
Best Fashion & Lifestyle Blog: Bryanboy: Le Superstar Fabuleux
Podcast of the Year: HappySlip
Best Technology Blog: Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments
Best Business/Entrepreneur Blog: Reflections of a BizDrivenLife
Best Entertainment Blog: Retzwerx
Best Sports & Recreation Blog: Who rides a Vespa?
Best Travel Blog: Ivan About Town
PhotoBlog of the Year: Señor Enrique: Wish You Were Here
SPECIAL CATEGORY:
Best Blog Design: Far from Neutral Notions
Best Free Custom Theme: Blu3zin3
Best Plugin/Extension: iPap
Best OFW Blog: Kwentong Tambay
Bloggers’ Choice Awards: MarketManila
GLOBE BROADBAND SPECIAL AWARDS:
Blog Achievement Award: The Mommy Journals
Pinoy Ako Blog Award: ederic@cyberspace
Family Blog Award: About My Recovery
Blogirl Award: Well Whatever
Deliblog Award: Dessert Comes First
Also congratulations to the organizers and volunteers. See you next year!
