E-Services Philippines, Christian Bautista, IMMAP Induction, PTTC Seminar, SEO Ituloy-Angsulong Awards Night, High School Musical and a Party!

Whew! It's been a really busy month! By Sunday afternoon I just basically conked out already.

I've been on the run, online and offline the whole week and a half. And because of that my muse ran away after I blogged about the Google job openings.

A rundown:

(1) E-Services Philippines (February 15 & 16)

E-Services Philippines

It's been a long time since I actually stayed in a booth for an event. I used to handle the events at DPC Yellow Pages, but I gave it up because my boss asked me if there was something I wanted to delegate to someone else. Since events do take a lot of time and effort I gave it up so I could concentrate on doing other nerdy stuff. And so I found myself lugging away my red luggage bag and the banner stand an hour before opening time. And so, there I was, for 2 days holding the fort all by myself. Thank God some Google Advertising Professionals dropped by. Thanks also to Donald and Jay for lunch! And Ely and Jay for helping me with my stuff during egress.

(2) Christian Bautista Sings Josh Groban (February 16)

After the show and some kwentuhan with Ely, Jay and I proceeded to the Josh Groban "Awake" album launch. I was again a "PA" and enjoyed watching Christian Bautista render Josh Groban songs. Check out this video.






(3) Internet and Mobile Marketing Association (IMMAP)

Attended the IMMAP general membership meeting where I was inducated as an associate member. I didn't really know which committee to join. Mon Duremdes wanted me in the membership and meetings committee, while Mike Palacios wanted me to join him in education and research, I wanted to sign up under Manny's annual conference and awards committee, but after fixing up the membership list I saw there were a lot of volunteers already. So I signed up in 2 committees: membership and meetings (quite easy to do) and education and research (ahhh a challenge!). Anyhoo, IMMAP's got loads of planned activities. Abangan!

(4) Putting Your Business Online Seminar (PTTC)

It is always a joy for me to give seminars, even though I'm bulol most of the time and I feel I talk a mile a minute (and hopefully my audience does pick up something)... well it's something I enjoy. Thanks to Jeffrey Gumasing of the Philippine Trade Training Center for inviting me. Sa uulitin!

(5) SEO Philippines Ituloy-Angsulong Awards Night and Abe's Birthday Bash

SEO Ituloy-Angsulong Awards Night

Something really funny happened on my way to Metrowalk. I found it strange that the cab driver spoke in English. I thought he was just sowsi, so I replied to him in English as well. When we were going down the bridge near Metrowalk I commented, "Haaay salamat nakarating din!" (traffic was sooo heavy!). And then he laughed out loud and said he thought I was pure Chinese because I was wearing a cheongsam shirt. Now I understand why I'm always mistaken to be Singaporean/Malay.

Anyway, good thing I left a bit early. It took me an hour and a half from Paranaque to get to Metrowalk. Upon arrival some bloggers, Jayvee, Gail and Marc etc. were already there looking for a table at Starbucks. They were there to do some planning for the Philippine Blog Awards. I was surprised by Jun's arrival. He flew in just to attend the Ituloy-Angsulong awards night. I hang-out for a while until Marc asked me to go up to Phi Bar since the program was about to start.

I saw a lot of familiar faces during the event. Janette and Abby joined me at my table, Jun and Dennis, both from Davao, Zaldy and Marhil who I met during the Blog Parteeh, Gwen, Ely (as host), Eli (from EYP days) and Jill showed up with her Yehey goodies. And finally meeting some people in person, Benj and Mike. Marc then awarded about PhP300,000 worth of prizes. The evening was made more interesting with games like the Best Pick Up Line (congrats Benj for the "Can I Google dance you?" pick up line) and the SEO Babe and Hunk of the night. Arrghh let's not talk about that haha. Congratulations to the winners!

As the SEO event was winding down, the bloggers arrived from their meeting downstairs at Starbucks. It was a fun-filled evening celebrating Abe's birthday and I might say, you should watch how Abe celebrated his party (well... no one has dared to upload the video yet...). And next week... Galera!

(7) High School Musical, the play (February 24)

Watched High School Musical at Megamall with Miguel, Jaja and Janice. The play was okay, just like watching the movie, but I think the stage was too small for all those people to be on it, the sound system was definitely not good and the singers were a bit hoarse already. Tsk tsk tsk.

(8) Party!

Fr. Edward's Party

Fr. Edward Diviny, C.P. is here for a visit, so my Mom invited neighbors and my friends (yup she did the inviting) to party at home. I arrived just in time and had to do the beso-beso rounds with all my Titos and Titas. (I think they still all see me as a 4-year old...).

It was a good thing my Mom invited my friends to come over. I haven't spent any time with my friends for the past few weeks because I've been travelling. Well, my Mom didn't invite them to hang-out with me she wanted us to sing for Fr. Edward, but we only managed 1 song since we had 2 major voice groups missing. Anyway, I realized I missed them a lot and that it's really different when you're with people you grew up with.