I Won a Car from the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2007 Party

I'm still not feeling that silly. I must be really exhausted. Uh-oh.

I was in a daze last night coz I walked from Ayala to Max's and that's the kwento behind my "Sometimes when I'm alone, I Google myself" shirt from Y.R.Y.S. (I had to buy one coz the long walk made me look like I joined a marathon). Anyway, I was 45 minutes late, but good thing the program didn't start yet.

Last night was the culminating activity of Janette Toral's writing project for the "Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2007". She arranged for an eyeball of those who joined and raffled off ten $100 and a lot more of goodies. Dinner was sponsored by our country's local search engine Yehey.com (Yehey!) and Iggy spoke about their new online game Dangka (more about that in a future post).

Anyway, anyway! Let's get to the car chase! I mean... the car! Yes! I won a car! And here it is:


Hehehe. Asa pa ako. The only other raffle I've won in my whole life was during the 2003 Ad Congress and I won PhP100,000. It all went to my Mom and Miguel. Hehehe.

After all the prizes were raffled off, Janette announced the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs of 2007 and An Apple a Day was one of the first. Wow! I never really dreamed that my blog would earn such an accolade since I only mainly write to amuse myself. It was also great that my other blogs - Stitching, Lakwatsera Ako, and Tales from the Moonless Sky (I don't think the Twisted Wedding Planner got any mentions though) garnered some mentions. I'd like to thank all those who included any of my blogs in their entry for this writing project. HUGS! Believe me, I was really surprised An Apple a Day was there in all the 11 weeks of the project coz I only got my best friends to join in the last week (thanks Darwin, Anne and Harry!).


Here's the list:

1. An Apple a Day
   The Philosophical Bastard
2. The D Spot
3. CokskiBlue
4. Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old
5. Culture Shiok!
   Utakgago
6. Kubiertos
7. FruityOaty
   PinoyBlogero
8. The Dork Factor
   The Anitokid Chronikos
9. Gibbs Cadiz
10. Confessions of a Hopeless Romantic

I hate making speeches and good thing Janette didn't make me say something last night. LOL. I think I'm able to gather my thoughts better on paper than when I'm forced to speak. I still don't know what to say. I'm still quite overwhelmed by all this attention and am quite embarassed coz I know I've been writing a lot, and a mean a lot, of silly things here in An Apple a Day (ummm... I think it would be better for your sanity if you just read Stitching hehe).

Well, since I've made it a point to go beyond amusing myself, ummm, I guess I just wanna leave these thoughts:

1. Blogging is just a platform - use it to express whatever is on your mind. You can use it for personal use or for your business. There are no rules. No existing code of ethics. And nobody should force you to disclose anything about your blog. And nobody can claim that he/she is the overlord of blogging. So you can basically do anything with it.

2. Be a responsible blogger - always remember that bloggers are human beings and they have feelings. I've noticed some bloggers who attack/criticize other bloggers. Be constructive. Controversy does bring traffic, but it does not really gain anything. It is counter-productive.

3. Check your blogger ego - don't let it get out of hand. Blogging is just blogging. There's a whole world out there who doesn't read you and doesn't know that you exist.

4. Bring Good News - I've said this time and time again (online and offline). Let's help our country. Talk about good news. Help the media with it. I am glad that Inquirer.net and the Philippine Daily Inquirer now have a section on The Good News. Check out iGMA. They've got loads of good news as well.

5. Love the Philippines - the SEO community has a huge project called the Bayanihan SEO Contest which is supposed to promote the keyword "Paradise Philippines" and that is precisely what we need.

Now, this doesn't sound like me. LOL. I know it's not a silly post. But then again, being silly is just my writing style for this blog and it does get the message across (I think). Hehehe.

Before I end this post, I'd like to sincerely thank Janette for pushing me to blog more. She gave me a lot of tips and really encouraged me when I was just starting to blog. We need more generous people like Janette in our country. Will you be one?

What about you? What are your objectives for blogging? Have you thought of how it can help others? Your community? Your country?

And, now for the photos...

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You know what I realized about the photo opt part? There were more cameras than any media event I've attended! I think about 70% of people had cameras trained on us when we posed with our certificates.

Oh and please don't forget!

SM Hypermarket Blog Writing Contest
Wika 2007 Blog Writing Contest
Digitalfilipino.com & Mindanaobloggers.com Review-a-Blog

And mark your calendars for August 23! Planning is still underway, so kindly await further announcements!