Blogging Mysteries

Mystery #1

A week or two ago my friend, Honey, who's based in Cagayan de Oro, buzzed me and asked me to check a blog she's been reading. So I did and got a bit hooked and I asked her who the blogger was.

She said, "Well that's precisely the reason why I'm making you read it coz I don't know who the blogger is." And the we proceeded to investigate through Google search using clues from her blog (she was obviously female). We came up with nothing and still no results in the days that followed. She's good at hiding her identity!

Funny, I uncovered the identity of the blogger, offline. I was chatting with a friend over lunch and managed to deduce based on our conversation that the mystery blogger is his friend! It was so funny because I wasn't even thinking about the "mystery" and we weren't even talking about it. But when he mentioned her blog's URL, a huge light went on in my head. Aha! And then I confirmed by telling him the clues that Honey and I got from her blog.

Mystery solved!

Mystery #2

Well, this is not a mystery, but more of a question. We all know that a lot of people don't use their real names for their blogs. Blog lurkers would also hide their identity under other names or pseudonyms. We all know why - for anonymity. But do you think bloggers who are popular and are known in the blogosphere would have separate blogs under a pseudonym?

Yes! And I know of some... but then it's a secret! And they don't want to disclose the URL even to me. Hmph. Maybe I should call in Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys or the Bobsey Twins to help me. Tsk tsk tsk.

Mystery #3

Did you know that when you search for my name on Google ("aileen"), I'm #6 on the list but the #1 slot goes to "Aileen Wuornos", a serial killer! Aaaaargggh!!! Maybe the members of SEO Philippines can do something about that. Hmmm... I wonder. Well, nothing to lose sleep over.

Anyway, because of that I asked my lunchmate this afternoon if he's seen a "Murder She Wrote" type blog. He asked, "A murderer who blogs?" And then, he laughed out loud. Siyempre, we were referring to mystery writing. Fiction! I haven't really surfed the net nor Google Blog Search for it. Maybe next week when I'm back from a short vacation. It would be an interesting read aside from ghost stories.

And so I'm going offline for the weekend...


Going offline to recharge my batteries and to ponder on this:

"God insists on choosing the most unimportant people to do His work."

That's from Bo Sanchez' email about the pilgrimage he's currently doing.

Oh! And congrats to the winners of the Digitalfilipino Web Awards!

Translation
Siyempre - of course

How to Cool Off on a Hot Summer Day

I can just imagine my Tita when she arrives from the US next week. She's coming home, permanently, after living in the US for almost 40 years.

I bet she's going to rant about the heat, day in, day out.

Some people say it's going to be hotter next month. And it's definitely been a really hot week! And to cool off this is what I've been doing:

(1) Drinking lots of water - jug of water with lots of ice at arm's length
(2) Drinking Coke! - yeah, I know it's bad (it's my Mom's fault!)
(3) Eating ice cream and frozen delights - the joys of Twin Popsies! And I've been twittering about this :)
(4) Wearing summer clothes - I went on a shopping binge last week for summer clothes (the advantages of working at home!)
(5) Miss Minchin hair (LOL) - I'm keeping my hair up, much as I'd want to cut my hair really short, I can't coz I'm going to look like in still in high school

Of course, nothing beats staying in an airconditioned room (I don't want to buy! I'm saving up for something else) or going swimming (beach! beach! beach!). But that's as cool as I could get while working in my little ol' basement.

*Tita - Aunt

Why Do You Read My Blog?

I remember my Kuya and Ate telling me when I got myself in the biggest scrape I've gotten into.

"Focus."

And that meant finding out at a very young age what I really wanted to do. I had to stop being the reckless, happy-go-lucky-I'll-do-whatever-I-want teenager and face my responsibilities. And that's why I know, more or less, what a want (well except in finding the one I think... tsk tsk tsk).

Anyway, things don't just pop out of my head. I don't get brain farts* like Archimedes. I study situations methodically (yeah, yeah nerdy nerdy!) and in the case of blogging - statistics!

I've been feeling quite giddy since I activated Google Analytics in my blogs. It shows me my traffic, where it's coming from, what people are reading, if my readers are mostly new or loyalists and a whole lot of other interesting things.

Well, this is my personal blog, a hodge podge of anything under the sun, from travels, food binges, ranting, blogging and whatever, but it's been quite hard to fathom why people read it. I have other blogs for my other interests (weddings, ghosts, work etc.). It's easy to understand why people are reading my other blogs, but my blog? I dunno since I usually write about stuff from all over the Milky Way.

So, if I may ask you, why do you read my blog?

*brain farts is a term my colleague, JV, taught me, it means "ideas that suddenly pop out of one's head"

5 Reasons Why I Twitter

It's been more than a week and for some reason "twittering" is still a discussion point among friends. Abe is still adamant about not using Twitter and has posted his 5 reasons (this post was actually born out of our discussion last night) and Ely, who uses Twitter, is currently looking into "the language of Twitter" ergo "reading between the lines".

So, why do I Twitter? This is what I've been telling Abe since last week.

(1) When you work at home, you have no one to bug. So it's my way of bugging people, unobtrusively of course. In short, nagpaparamdam lang po.

(2) Sometimes you just want to record mundane things like eating ice cream, drinking coffee... I was actually surprised several people went off to eat merienda because I posted I was eating yummy pistaccio ice cream.

(3) Twitter reminds me that there is a bigger picture and the world is moving as I sit here at home pounding on the keyboard.

(4) Abe and Ely told me Twitter opens one up for stalking. Well, that depends on what you Twitter about.

And finally,

(5) I get traffic from my Twitter!

Of course, one has to Twitter responsibly that's why I just Twitter about really mundane things like going out to play badminton, eating ice cream, nothing heavy. And now I can just imagine Abe saying "What for?" Eh gusto ko eh, bakit ba. LOL.

And Ely, you'll definitely have a hard time reading between the lines of my twittering. LOL.

Translations
nagpaparamdam lang po - just letting you know I'm here Eh gusto ko eh, bakit ba - Because I want to, so what

Would You Read Your Own Blog?

In this information overloaded world and with so many messages going around and with so much media input, in one defining moment before the latest Bobcast episode, we asked ourselves:

Would you read your own blog?

So much drama! (rolling eyes!).

I asked myself this question after I started checking out my blog stats closely. My stats were going up, yeah sure, but I wondered – why are people reading my blog? You see, I just started blogging (on a social networking site!) because I just wanted to write and not really to get any attention. A few weeks ago I blogged about looking into my blog traffic. And I was alarmed! I had readers! And not only from the Philippines, but from all over the world.

Uh-oh! Oh noes! <overwhelmed>

Anyway, I then asked myself, why are these people reading my blog? Frankly, I don’t know. Siguro naaaliw lang sila. Or natutuwa sa kakulitan ko? Well whatever the reason, thank you dear readers! I promise to get myself in more adventures and scrapes so I can tell another story that I lived! LOL.

Anyways, at the end of the day, would I read my blog? Notwithstanding the Pygmalion effect… I think I’d just skim through my personal blog, get details on how to go to vacation destinations and tips on how to enjoy the place, read my work blog, ghost (since I share posting in it with some friends) and wedding blog, and my other blogs? Never mind, panay emote lang yun. Hmmm, fair enough, I can't imagine being a fan of myself nor projecting myself more than who I really am, that’s going to be really weird. And besides, it's more fun reading about other people's stories. LOL.

Translations
Siguro naaliw lang sila – Maybe they find it entertaining.
Natutuwa sa kakulitan ko? – Fond of me being a scatterbrain.
Panay emote lang yun. – It’s all about ranting. And as Badar would say “She’s got that faraway look again.”

Food Binge: Breakfast at Antonio’s, Mannang’s, Gilly’s Island, Max’s, Café Nemoso, Miggy’s, Coffee Bean, Café M, Bubba Gump

I just realized that I’ve been binging on food again in the past week. No wonder I can’t wear my skinny jeans again! Argh! Gotta get those uber funny looking love handles burned before Bohol!

Breakfast at Antonio’s (Tagaytay) – Had a coffee break and pancakes with a friend on the way to Punta Fuego. The chocolate chip pancakes were so rich and filling! The ultimate sugar rush! On the way back to Manila from Punta Fuego we had lunch at Antonio’s again. I had the misfortune of eating their spaghetti. Grrrr! I'm still wondering why it had so much carrots in it! (My friend says it was used as an extender.) My spag’s better. But the place is so nice and romantic! (Mental note: bring a boyfriend next time!).

Mannang’s (Mall of Asia) – Regular Asian food. Sarap. Iced tea though had lemon in it and I’m allergic to citrus. We had to take out the calamares since the serving was so big. Well, nothing special then.

Gilly’s Island (Mall of Asia) – Miguel and I just had dessert. I had the mango pie and Miguel had the oreo cheesecake. Why is it I never learn not to order dessert from bars? They’re always, always, always frozen!

Max’s Fried Chicken (SM Bicutan) – Max’s never fails to fill me up and satisfy my craving for chicken. Jufran plus Max’s Fried Chicken = simply the best lunch with one’s family.

Café Nemoso (Better Living) – This is where I showed Sasha the sowsi way of eating barbecue, and their grilled hotdogs are the best! Dibah Jayvs? (barbecue photo by Sasha Manuel).

Miggy’s (BF Homes) – Still my favorite Mexican food place. I love their burrito! Too bad their Better Living branch is gone.

Coffee Bean (Greenbelt) – Note to self: their cakes aren’t good. I’m also allergic to their coffee. Geeez.

Café M (Greenbelt) – Really nice place for meetings, the waiters just walk by as if you don’t exist. My ka-meeting said that sometimes you have to ask 5 waiters to get your drink. Big pancake servings though. Service though wasn’t good, I had to wave my arms wildly to get the attention of the waiters.

Bubba Gump (Greenbelt) – Shrimps! Shrimps! Shrimps! I love shrimps! But I love my Tita Olive’s shrimps cooked with 7-Up better.

I think I’ll be sticking to homemade cooked food this week. I’m going to be financially and horizontally challenged soon if I keep eating all around town!

Playing on Ice

I always wondered how ice skaters could glide ever so gracefully on thin metal strips on slippery ice. I watch in awe whenever I get the chance to view competitions on TV. And I was simply awestruck when I watched an ice hockey game in the US last year.

You see, I couldn't even balance myself properly on a balance beam, much less stand up straight on roller skates. I remember getting all bruised up when I was 16 and my friends strapped on roller skates on my feet in Tagaytay. It was a disaster. I stuck it out with skateboards eversince.

I don't see myself as the super adventurous type, but I like trying out new things. So last night at the invitation of a friend who plays ice hockey, wobbly legs and all I wore the stinky ice skates and got on the ice.

First and foremost, the skates were heavy, stinky and it was difficult to stand on dry ground on it. It felt like I was on stilts. But I told myself I had to be brave since I brought Miguel along. How would you be able to teach your sheep if you don't know how to graze the land yourself? So, it was a challenge. I had to motivate myself and inspire Miguel to follow suit.

It was a liberating experience indeed. I was so surprised that we managed to go around the rink (holding on to dear life at the edges), but at least we managed to stand on ice without falling on our fannies and got to glide along a few meters at a time.

And methinks I'll be going back to Mall of Asia soon to try it out again.

Maybe I can still become a figure skater after all. Hmmm... NOT!

Travel: Punta Fuego

It was another adventure with the Band of Bloggers. The Punta Fuego trip was hosted by Rico's Tita. The sweethearts went ahead early in the morning with Jayvee and got to enjoy the beach before lunch. Abe and I followed after lunch because I had work to finish first.

It usually takes just about 2 hours to get to Nasugbu, Batangas, but it took Abe and I four hours! We stopped over at Petron SLEX to have lunch and buy some bilins from Sasha, coffee break at Breakfast at Antonio's in Tagaytay (yummy chocolate chip pancakes!), 7-Eleven at Nasugbu and then Abe just had to go back to shoot some photos at Kawayan Cove.

The photos I took do not do justice to beauty of the place. Here take a look:




Thank God there was wifi and Jayvee's Globe Visibility dongle! We were still connected to the world (much to Sasha's consternation!). Anyway, we spent the next day getting a tan at the beach and did a Bobcast recording in the evening at the Punta Fuego point. It was so dark on the way there that we just had to scare each other. (Some of the photos are by Sasha and I think Rico)



Of course, fun times always have to end. Three horror movies, lots endless pork inihaw, my Sexy Sling (tsktsktsk!), learning how to sleep on a bean bag and finding the coldest corner in the house, we had to go back to reality. And since we were in the area we spent some time more in Tagaytay and had lunch at Breakfast at Antonio's and merienda at that nook overlooking Taal Volcano.


Sigh. Back in hot, hot, hot Manila!

Hot Summer Weekend!

Temperatures have been rising since March and we're just a quarter through with summer! Good thing my basement's quite cool and my fan's still standing up.

Some things that made my weekend:

1. A funny, geeky video link sent by my friend. Watched it with Miggy and we laughed the whole time the video was playing.

2. Celebrating The Macalua's birthday.

3. iBlog3! Happiness! Happiness! Joy! Joy!

4. Going around UP with an alumni as tourist guide! And, of course, the photo shoot at the Sunken Garden. Plus! Tried out the yummy, sumptuous spag and choco cheesecake at Chocolate Kiss at breakneck speed with a friend! (Always wanted to go there since Liza, a colleague from EYP, used to bring dessert in the office. Too bad I finished the food before I remembered to take a photo of it! Grrrr!)

5. Lunch with the family at Wendy's (wish though their crew would be more attentive). 3-day sale at SM Bicutan! Bought some stuff... well not only some stuff grrrrr...

It was one fun, fab, quiet weekend (well half of it anyway). Can't wait for the week to start!

Wish I was at the beach though...

Blogger, Why Do I Love Thee?

I was talking with Pierre during lunch at the iBlog3 Convention about sticking to Blogger. You see, his friends have been convincing him to switch to another blogging platform. This started our conversation on why we love using Blogger. (Hey Pierre, hope you wear your cool hat tomorrow!).

Blogger, why do I love thee?

(1) It's so easy to use. I have to admit I sometimes don't have the patience in dealing with highly technical stuff. I learned how to use Blogger on my own. I just signed up for it and next thing I knew I was adding photos and then going the next step by using Picasa and then adding widgets. Atty. Noel Punzalan also agreed that Blogger is so easy to use. Dean Jorge Bocobo also uses Blogger. So, if you just want to write (blog in techie terms) then use Blogger.

(2) It's a no-brainer to add widgets. My best friend who lives in Singapore buzzes me once in a while with questions on blogging. She asked once how to add widgets. I just told her once - click on the layout link, then click on the add html link and then copy and paste the code, save and that's all you have to do. After saying thanks she was lost in her own little blogging world.

I was toying with my Google Calendar and Googlegroups and found cool widgets to add in my blog. Google Reader also has a new gadget. Read about it here.

(3) Want to use your own domain? All you have to do is purchase one and then register it in the Blogger console. I have one too, but I'm just having it redirected to my Blogger account.

(4) I've never experienced my blog going offline. And I don't have to think about hosting and other stuff.

With Blogger all you have to do is write! Dibah Pierre?

I Love Data... Click, Click, Click

Yeah, I know that sounds so geeky (I don't mind being called one). But I've been fascinated with data since I was a kid and that's why I really enjoyed spending so much time with Lolo Ned (Dr. Ned Roberto), one of Asia's top marketing/research gurus. He taught me what to do with my fascination with data (kindred souls!). Geeky! Geeky!

Anyway, because of Ely's post about his ranking in Alexa.com I got curious and checked out my rankings. Well, it's far off from Ely's and light years away from Abe's, but I'm happy to note that my traffic rank changed by 1,604,170 within 3 months, so it's now at 273,265 on a weekly basis. Aside from that my Technorati.com rank grew from 370k something to about 65k last night. Woohoo! Not bad since I only started blogging seriously since January 2007. And, not bad at all, since I just blog because I like writing. And now my personal blog is a PR3 and my work blog's at PR4 (ask The Macalua why). Hmmm... And guess who's number 1 when you search for my job title (without the country)? Hihihi. Thanks to the friendly SEOs! Check out their forum if you want to learn more about search engine optimization.

Sorry, that's the nerd in me coming out.

Some of my friends tell me it's unfair that I'm a natural at getting traffic. Must be because of my long stay the the Yellow Pages where I think by category/classifications. I think how people search and well at the age of 4 I was already reading the Yellow Pages. So, if you want to learn how to increase traffic in your website check out Google's Website Optimizer.

On Blog Stalking and Plagiarism

The past week has been a noisy week in the Pinoy blogosphere and Abe made a post on helping out in writing a Blogger's Code of Conduct. I have been target of some nasty comments and I've just managed to shrug it off (well after some friends rallied to bring the sunshine back in my life).

I've come to realize it's part of my work and I cannot make everybody happy. I'm a happy person and I know what I am doing. People are entitled to their own opinion, PROVIDED it's something that's not hurtful. We are not showbiz celebrities here who are trained to handle these things. My Mom and Dad always told me, if it ain't good, don't say it. And I say, I'm just going to raise a brow and give you a smile. The art of diplomacy. Amen.

I think aside from a code of conduct there should be something that would help bloggers respond to these:

Stalking - I have a friend who ranted to me this afternoon that she has an online stalker! Whenever she changes her way of writing in her blog, the stalker follows suit. And whenever she adds a new friend in her Friendster account, the stalker adds that same friend as well. This is creepy! I know the feeling of getting stalked, both online and offline, but like my friend I wouldn't want my concepts and content to be copied/shadowed!

Plagiarism - I have another prolific blogger friend whose posts have been copied again and again despite repeated emails to the person copying her posts. I remember back in college as part of the Council for Editors we had to decide on dismissing from school (a.k.a. kick-out) one of the writers because he was caught submitting a plagiarized entry in the DLSU Literary Awards. Yes, he got kicked out. That's how serious we took plagiarism. Fortunately, the person who plagiarized my friend's blog took his site down. (That's why it's important to do some ego surfing - to countercheck as well if someone's copying your blog.)

If the blog has Google Adsense in it then you may report it to the Google Adsense Support Team. Plagiarism clearly "infringes on the legal rights of others" (check the Google Adsense policies on site content here).

Oh BTW, you can get a free copy of Blog This: How Blogs Empower Every Internet User.

*Photo by Sasha Manuel.

Food Binge: Chaikofi

Mabel woke me up promptly at 9 a.m. for our holiday lakwatsa at the Mall of Asia. We went there to check out some furniture at Our Home. I was sorely disappointed coz I thought it was a huge showroom. Mabel and I suddenly missed the huge Ikea building in Singapore where I bought 2 cool lamps. Geeezzzz, I should visit the upcoming Manila FAME International show later this month.

I was still feeling stuffed from the food binge in Pampanga and an after movie, late night dinner at Giligan's last night, but Mabel was hungry so we hunted for a new place to dine at. Mabel wanted to eat rice so Sbarro and Mexicali were out of the question (thought I would've wanted to eat some chicken enchilada). So she chose Chaikofi. The resto serves different types of Asian food like Sate Ayam (chicken) and Sate Babi (pork). the Dutch Chicken looked yummy, but I was still quite full so I just had a chicken sandwich. Mabel said the pork barbecue she ordered tasted like the ones she's been having at Malaysia. The chicken sandwich I got? My gawd at PhP95 pesos I could make myself. And they didn't have soda! (I'm off my failed soda sacrifice). Aaarggghhh.

The place was quite spiffy though with it's yellow booth seats, fresh flowers and bossa nova background music. I would've been impressed, but the cold welcome we got from the order taker (yup, you have to go to the counter and pay as you order... so not sowsi), miffed me. Buti pa McDo, you always get a smile when you order. Now that's warmth.

I'm no food connoiseur. I just like eating and it doesn't take much to make me happy. Eighteen pesos grilled hotdogs at Cafe Nemoso gives me a high. The seven pesos each barbecue at the kanto is dinner for me, but when you pay 95 pesos for a home-made sandwich a smile and basic courtesy goes a long way (ayan lumabas tuloy pagka-kuripot ko!). Hehehe. Bitter! Bitter!

Travel: Bataan and Pampanga

I was home alone during Holy Week since my family left for Bicol. I, unfortunately, was not able to attend the Bo Sanchez retreat I signed up for and it was too late for me to go home to Bicol. Fortunately, the ever generous Marc invited us to tag along with him and the Sharms.

Traffic was bad on Maundy Thursday. We left the Olandres manor at around 9:30 a.m., fetched The Jayvee at Starbucks, Magallanes and reached Shell at NLEX by noon. We had another stop over at Total and had a sumptuous Tapa King meal with iceless iced tea, bought lots of chips and proceeded to Bataan. The scenery was... uh... I was asleep most of the way since I was in some kind of torturous pain from playing badminton the previous night.







We reached the Macalua mansion in Bataan at around three in the afternoon and was served yummy palabok with pusit. The guys were grossed out with the inky black pusit and just got servings from the sides of the bilao. The palabok with pusit was so good, Sharms and I had a feast. As with tradition, we did visita iglesia and visited seven churches. It was a photography feast for Abe and Jayvee and I just basically did my prayers and thanksgiving. I realized though that churches in the provinces look alike. I thought I was in Cebu in one of the churches and in Quezon in another.

The next day we missed the flagellants. Marc's tita said that there were over a hundred this year and she also gave a very gory description "dugo all over the place". Whew! I thought. Good thing I didn't see that. We tried to catch the "nailing on the cross", but after going back to the church several times we just gave up and had dirty ice cream and ice scramble outside of the church. In the evening we witnessed the procession and I was pleasantly surprised that there were a lot of people who joined the procession. The number of people who attend in our parish have been dwindling through the years. :(










Mount Samat isn't as huge as I thought it was. I think it's about 55 meters high. I was 10 years old and a dwarf the last time I went to see Mount Samat with my Kuya. And I really thought it was a towering cross. Anyway, the majesty of the cross is still the same and it seems to have been rehabilitated during the Ramos adminsitration. What's interesting to see inside are the "secret message" memos sent by generals to each other. Seeing the cross I also remembered the grandfather I never met. He was part of the death march, but luckily survived.









After Mount Samat we proceeded to Clark, Angeles, Pampanga. We had "lunch" (at 8 pm!) at the Historic Camalig Restaurant. The spaghetti and pizza I had were delicious. Aside from the yummy food it was an interesting place since it is the ancestral home of one of the prominent families in Pampanga. I wondered if there were any ghosts floating around the place. Good thing I was too hungry to notice. The "Turn Back Time" band was charming, laid back and their 60s and 70s song selection brought out the "my Dad has LPs..." stories. Later in the evening, after checking in a hotel, we found ourselves eating once again and trading more stories.

Before leaving for Manila, we just couldn't resist and visited SM Clark, Pampanga. It looked a lot like the Mall of Asia with the wide spaces and the shops were almost the same. We had to wait a long time though before Pancake House managed to serve our food. The steak wasn't bad though... now I couldn't wait to play badminton again. Gotta get off these unwanted fats!

So what do bloggers do when on vacation? I stayed offline, but the guys? Check out Jayvee's post on this.

Blogger Lingo 101

I guess I've spent so much time with bloggers that I've managed to assimilate blogger lingo in my vocabulary. Now being the nerdy/geeky person I am, some people think I speak inanities, but in fact I'm just speaking my everyday language. And I'm hopefully not boring!

Blogger Talk 101:

(1) That's not bloggable!

Of course, bloggers spend time offline and we talk about many, many things under the sun. If you tell a reporter "that's off the record", then you have to tell a blogger "that's unbloggable!". Read Ely's recount on non-bloggable things.

(2) Link baiter!

Sometimes there are bloggers who write about stuff in the hopes of getting link backs. In layman's (offline) terms it means you are a social climber. You try to network with people in the hopes that you get recognized and become famous like the Philippines most influential and top blogger (that's based on stats).

Note: When talking offline, bloggers say "topic baiter!".

(3) Zero PR

This means the blog (or website) has zero page rank. Page rank mainly shows the level of relevance of your page (and how important it is). In layman's term, are you making any sense or is your content relevant at all? If you're PR is zero, you'd need to talk to a SEO or do some marketing through Google Adwords. Coupons anyone?

(4) Blog roll

Your list of personal blog favorites, usually found either on the left or right (usually) side of your blog posts. I call it my "friendly friends"

(5) Some favorite blogger expressions

Gulp!...Whew!...Uhh... Err... Gawd... Oh noes!... Noooooo!.... No way!

From Abe: Ego Search

Searching your name on Google to find out who and what people are saying about you.

I'm sure my blog roll can provide more terms :)

Oh BTW, you can get a free copy of Blog This: How Blogs Empower Every Internet User. It's written by a friend.

Alanis Sings My Humps

The past few days have been tension-filled! Time to break-out from the rut!

My friendly-friend, Jay, told me about this video... and I was pleasantly surprised to see Alanis Morissette with a very, very different sexy look! I just saw one of her old videos last night on Myx (You Live, You Learn) and I would say this is a must see video.

Notes from the Podium: Philippine Blog Awards

I would say it was all worth the effort for the organizers of the Philippine Blog Awards. Yehey! President Donald asked me during the cocktails who the president of bloggers were, but I surprised him by saying that the PBA was just an effort of volunteers. It is much more fun to help out in events initiated by pure volunteerism and I salute the efforts of Abe, Gail and Jayvee for organizing the Philippine Blog Awards. That's why I didn't hesitate in helping out when they asked me and Sasha to be the emcee for the evening (uh I didn't know what I was getting into, I thought they weren't really serious about it LOL). Anyway, it was a pleasure to work with friends and see how the blogging community has grown. (That's me and Sasha during rehearsals. Photo by Karla)

The audience was quite... quiet! Well, they're bloggers! And bloggers are supposed to be noisy online and not really offline. (And I was right, the blogosphere's full of PBA stories). Pffft! I hope we didn't bore the audience. Jomar's Dad, Mr. Frank Hilario said that the event was simple but he could feel the anticipation. Retz, winner for Best Entertainment Blog, said that the adlib Sasha and I were doing when we were waiting for the presentor to announce the winner almost killed him and someone in the Pinoyblogosphere mailing list said, "Masaya yung blog awards no...". And a lot thought that Sasha and I were best friends! Hihihi. Well what's important is everyone had a grand time and appreciated the efforts of the organizers. Whew! (That's me with Noemi, Sasha, Bryanboy, Abe, Marc and Jayvee. Photo by Chris Haravata)

The fun continued afterwards at the Hula-Hula Bar at the EDSA Shangri-la Mall. The party was sponsored by 2BU of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and we had loads of fun together with Franklin, my visitor from MV. Afterwards we had a post-dinner feast at Jay-jays Grill.

Super duper congratulations to the organizers and the volunteers! It may have been a really simple ceremony, but it is definitely a milestone in the Philippine internet industry. And, of course, congratulations to the winners! (Photo by Karla)

Main Category Winners

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 Awards Winners

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 Awards Winners

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