Wellness Wednesdays: Chronicling

I have now been blogging daily for 3 years and a month. It started as a 30-day challenge which I've been trying to do since 2014. I did it successfully for a few years, but there were years where I'd start but forget to do, haha. I remember I'd blog on the train on the way to work (originally an hour and 15 minutes commute). 

Back in 2020, I was on break when I started the challenge. Twelve days into the year, the Taal Volcano erupted. Soon after Miggy accompanied me back to Singapore. I ended the month with a blog post about "Jarring January". It was an interesting start of the year and I had a lot to share, so I continued blogging. By mid-February, things started to get weird. We wanted Miggy to stay with us in Singapore, but we couldn't extend his visa. He went home and shortly after that, borders were closed and lockdowns started to happen. 

I continued writing everyday because it helped me make sense of what was happening. The time I spend blogging helps me calm down. Writing forces me to organize my thoughts and ground me. It also forced me to be productive especially when I started getting sick. When my health declined my doctors made me promise to keep my brain working. Blogging has been the easiest way for me to consistently exercise my mind daily. 

The challenge of doing a daily activity is overcoming those days when I don't feel like writing. There are days when I just want to rest. It also gets stressful sometimes and it's better for me if I prepare the post a day before. It's less stressful that way (exactly what I'm doing right now, lol). There are days when I'm in the zone, I write two to three days in advance. Yeah! 

This year I thought I'd try something I've been attempting for a few years now. Vlogging isn't really my thing, but I think the next best thing I can do is chronicle one second everyday. I'm off to a good start and was able to take a photo or video everyday the month of January. Yay! Here's the vid!

Now let's see if it spills over to February! 

#BeKind #StaySafe 

Throwback Thursday: Required My Students to Blog

Once upon a time in the distant past, I was a college instructor. I was entrusted to prepare my students for the real world. I was given the last subject in their syllabus. It was essentially the summary class of their whole course.

Since the students were set to graduate with a degree in organizational communications, I knew they were going to do a lot of writing in their future job. They also needed to quickly understand issues and problems and figure out how best to communicate information and solutions. So, I forced them to blog to train them to assess information, identify important points and communicate it properly.

Blogger friends, c 2008-2009

I remembered what I did because of recent issues of vloggers. What happened was the result of very high emotions. It's nothing new because these things happen everywhere. There was a lot of tsismis in the blogosphere way back, haha. 

Well, what happened this week reminded me why I started blogging in the first place. I've been asking myself why should I continue to blog daily. I've been in a rut the past few weeks and it's been very difficult to write. 

I stopped attending and organizing blogger events before because I felt it wasn't aligned with the purpose of my blog. I blog mainly for myself to chronicle what's going on and what I learn from it. And that's what I wanted my students to learn, to be purposive and to keep learning. 

I did bump into some of my students. A number of them went into digital marketing. It was all still very new when they graduated. They said they went that direction because of me. I loved reading their weekly blog posts and I hope they did learn something from it. 

Give a holler if you were one of my students. I barely made it out of that term alive, haha.

#BeKind #StaySafe

I Enjoy Doing This

When I started my YouTube channel over a decade ago I used it to post videos from music events Sweetie and I frequented. Eventually I started to make travel vlogs. Then I started making tech vids. I was always so self-conscious in front of a camera. I never got used to it so I stopped. 

I've always been fascinated about creating videos. I used to make videos for my friends who were getting married. At that time it would mostly be a compilation of their photos with a few greetings from abroad. In late 2019 I wanted to resume creating videos again. I bought a camera and thought I'd pick up where I left off. I tried to make some travel vlogs, but I realized I prefer taking videos than being in videos. 

To lessen my camera time I shifted to making cooking videos for Miggy through Recipes for My Son. It certainly reduced my time in front of the camera. I only comb my hair twice a day so it just didn't work out for me. I eventually discovered that I could just put captions on the videos. No need for me to be seen or to talk! Ahhh, I think I finally found what I want to do with my interest in creating videos -- just make tutorial vids!

And that's what I've been enjoying doing nowadays. I've been making tutorial videos on quilting and gardening. I'll probably do cooking videos again once I have more energy. I've never enrolled in video editing classes, I just make videos based on how I think the viewer can learn. I enjoy making the videos because it spurs me to learn more about my crafts (and gardening). I hope it'll inspire others to get crafty too!

Here's a video I just made - how to make 8 half squares at a time! I just recently discovered this trick by chance through Pinterest! 

Come on now, just humor me, please subscribe to my YouTube channel! I've also started to post short versions of my vids on Instagram. And to keep updated on my new blog posts, you may want to follow my page on Facebook. Yay!

Day 23 Gratitude Challenge, Something Nice. I've been appreciating the moon tonight since I saw it through the window. It looks perfect and I tried to take photos of it, but my camera isn't made to take super zoom shots. So I'm just admiring it from where I'm sitting right now. And because of the moon I fired up the Sky View app to know what's around me. Venus and Mars are floating on my left side, while Jupiter and Saturn are to my right. The app also showed me where some popular stars are located like the Ursa Major. It's nice to have this app because I could barely see stars outside because everything is so well-lighted here. Try the app! :)

CB///*Yr2/106 #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/129 #NewG340 #Home98 #StayHome #BeKind 

 

Pause?

I've been blogging continuously for 532 days now. I used to do this for 30 days in a year. It became an annual challenge last year because things got weird (aka pandemic). I thought it would be interesting to journal my life through this period. I didn't expect it would flow over to this year. 

Things have been the same lately. Can't really go out, not even to the park. I've been thinking of pausing everyday blogging so I could focus on working on my other writing project. But then it doesn't take me long to write these posts and it keeps my mind active. Maybe this is just me making an excuse to spend more time quilting haha. 

Oh, I read that Feedburner email sign-up service for blogs is going away. If you want to be updated about my posts you may also want to follow my FB page. I have also been posting more tutorials on my YouTube channel (subscribe!). I'm also crazy with pinning pins on Pinterest, follow me! 

I'll probably continue blogging because I want to use this medium to raise awareness for pulmonary embolism. I was misdiagnosed several times before the huge blood clot was found and sadly in our region it's not something that doctors naturally look for. I had to advocate for myself to get properly diagnosed. 

I'm so lucky my guardian angel looked after me and found me an amazing doctor. Take shortness of breath seriously (especially if you had COVID19, read here). Make sure it's not just asthma or anxiety.  

CB///*Yr2/66  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/93 #StayHome #BeKind 

The Panic Button

The panic button got activated today! Nine of my blog posts from the month of March were deleted by Blogger! Writing everyday is hard so I got upset. The first thing I did was to look for a way to retrieve my posts. Reached a dead-end there so I checked the status of Blogger. Nothing amiss. Eventually I found a thread on the community forum where other bloggers were raising the same issue. 

Nothing much I can do about it right now. Sigh. :'(

CB//*Yr2/35  #StuckAtHomeDay/Yr2/62 #StayHome #BeKind   

How I Blog

I barely blogged in the last two years. Life got in the way and I just didn't make time for it. I know writing is good for me because it helps me calm down and allows me think more clearly. They say to develop a habit you need to do that same thing for about 30 days. I started doing the 30-day blogging challenge every January a few years ago.

I started this year's blogging challenge here in Manila. When I started it on new year's day I didn't really know what I wanted to write about. I know I've been a mess, but I know writing is the best way to bring me back on track. I think I'm slowly getting my groove back and I'm writing this post to guide me in the future in case I fall in a rut again (haha).

So how do I blog?

Honestly I don't really plan what to blog daily. I just go with the flow. Sometimes I get a brain fart during the day and if I remember it by the time I blog at night I write about it. I have a list of topics I loosely follow, but what I really hope to do through my blog is to inspire my readers to be the best that they could be. We all struggle in life, but remember God only gives us trials we can bear.

I try to stay positive as much as I could on my blog because there's already so much negativity out there. I have other blogs and hope I'd be able to resurrect them also this year. For now I'll focus on this blog so I can discipline myself to write every day first.

What about you? Do you prefer to blog or to vlog? 

2018 Blogging for Thirty Days

To keep the blogging habit I usually blog for 30 days straight during the month of January. I started the year on the wrong side of the bed so I delayed this annual project. I realize though that I tend to blog about mundane topics whenever I get stuck so what I'll do this year is post in my other blogs and just note the links here. Looking back I should have not diversified so much because having so many blogs became too overwhelming. I used to have more time to write too and now most of my blogs have been neglected.

Through the years I have painstakingly kept a good log of my photos. I kept them neatly in folders, by date and with easy to find album titles. I told myself that I would find time to blog about all of my adventures. I think I have almost 10 years worth of photos now that have been left unblogged... People change and I guess I just didn't feel like sharing so much about myself publicly anymore. I still like writing so I blog every so often when the mood strikes. My hobbies have also changed since I had to adjust to what my body can and cannot do.

Here's a rundown of my blogs (based on activity):

An Apple a Day - personal blog
Tea Completely - where I blog with Jay and Andrew on our favorite drink (tea/milk tea)
The Evening Quilter - newly renamed, this is where I blog about my hobby
Lakwatsera Ako - my travel blog, I still travel very often, just a bit lazy to blog
Twisted Wedding Planner - tips on organizing your wedding
Mabuhay ang Bagong Kasal - marriage and cooking blog
Paranaque City Life - supposed blog on Paranaque, but I don't go home often anymore
You Got Tech - group blog on tech stuff
Homegrown - my supposed inspirational blog

To get me going, I'm going to post here links to my daily blog for the next 30 days:
Day 1 - Craft Shop in the United States: Michaels + this post on my 30-day challenge
Day 2 - Guimaras Mango Festival and Mango Pizza
Day 3 - Melbourne: Bad Boys Gourmet Burger Bar
Day 4 - Quilt Project: Pillowcases for Dr. Koo
Day 5 - That Place Called "Toys R Us"
Day 6 - Why Yoda is My Here
Day 7 - Japan's Beautiful Cherry Blossoms
Day 8 - A Second Look at Yuzawaya
Day 9 - Kirin White Chocolate Milk Tea
Day 10 - I am Dependent on Him
Day 11 - Another Post about Sakura
Day 12 - Good Friday - no post
Day 13 - Black Saturday - no post
Day 14 - Easter 2018
Day 15 - Colorless Milk Tea by Suntory
Day 16 - Beautiful Churches Around the World (Part 1)
Day 17 - Plan Your Wedding with Family and Friends
Day 18 - Beautiful Butterflies
Day 19 - Inspiration

The Old Blogging Days

So there's been a lot of brouhaha in the blogosphere the past week due to a Tupperware incident. Nothing like good old tsismis to bring out old bloggers to converge in Plurk. There's been several incidents in the last few years and I usually just take it with a grain of salt. Kanya-kanyang trip naman yan and well we all have our own opinions. The only thought about this incident is just to provide a tip when attending events (or just generally when you go out) -- use ziplock bags! It's not bulky and you can always have one or two in your bag if you need to take out food.

Some bloggers mentioned about the Taste Asia food fest we had a couple of years back. I realized after doing a quick search on my Google Photos that it's not just a couple of years -- it's been ten years! The first event had about 150 bloggers and if I remember correctly more than 70% of those who attended blogged about the event. What we did was entirely an experiment and the arrangements we done purely on trust - provide the food, we'll invite blogger friends to come over. The goal of the evening was to provide an opportunity for bloggers to meet and sample the food at Taste Asia. It was originally meant for just 10 bloggers, but the list grew longer and SM said, "Let's do 150!"

It was an awesome event which resulted in the formation of long term friendships. I met a lot of people that night and it was super fun. I think it worked because we all just came together to learn about each other and what we blog about. It was just like your high school writing club where everyone was focused on their own niches. There was no competition, just pure respect for each others work.

Tech bloggers from that era.

Nung naki-pa-pic ako with the travel bloggers.

I guess it was just pure serendipity that provided that opportunity to me. I had no idea then why SM wanted to meet me. What they pitched to me sounded like a good way to bring people together and that's why I agreed to do it. It cemented my reputation though that I'm a "blogger". I still view blogging as a hobby for me. I don't see it as means of livelihood for myself (uhhh I only get Adsense payouts every few years hahaha), I leave the revenue generating activities to the experts. I ended the Taste Asia events because I learned that there were others who started to earn from it and the brands had different expectations as well. My goal was community building that's why I decided not to continue doing it. I am forever grateful though to SM for providing that opportunity because I met awesome friends that have been around in the last ten years.

Taste Asia 1 Photos
Taste Asia 2 Photos

*This post is dedicated to AJ and Coy. Missing both of you a lot. 

Blog Everyday Month

I have been challenging myself to blog for 30 consecutive days in the last few years. I do this to make sure I don't go into a writing slump again which went on for eight years. There are days though when I feel like sharing a lot of things and then there are days when I just want to keep things to myself. When I used to be in charge of our parish newsletter I used to get a lot of instant feedback from neighbors. It encouraged me to write more.

In the last few years I have been doing this challenge I have been blogging whatever pops in my mind. I was thinking maybe this year I would make it a bit more structured and planned so I asked Sweetie what he thought I should blog about. He suggested I take a look at the most read posts from my blog to see what people like reading. I did and was surprised to see that the most read posts covered a wide variety of topics. Here's the top 10:

What It Means to be a Scholastican (November 2016)
Solar Bottle Light (March 2011)
My Epic Guide to Puerto Galera (March 2011)
The Most Horrible Taxi Ride Ever (August 2010)
The Convection Oven that Blogging Bought (September 2010)
Tulala (January 2008)
Single vs. Married? Which is Better? (June 2007)
Movie Review: In the Name of Love (May 2011)
Onboard the USS Blue Ridge (August 2010)
Handog Pangkabuhayan Text Scam (March 2008)

The last few weeks though a lot of my posts where I share thoughts about politics have been getting a lot of attention. I could write more about politics but I choose to have peace and just share ideas which I think could be helpful.

The list doesn't really resolve my issue on putting a structure to what I would be blogging about in the next few weeks. So I think I'll just follow my instincts and blog about a wide array of topics that I hope would be helpful/inspiring.

Balance

When I started blogging (on Friendster mind you) many, many years ago I discovered an entirely new world. I know I'm not the best writer. Never got in the Siliman Writers Workshop when I attempted back in college. I score low compared to other family members in vocabulary so I just string words together based on what I just know. But I still write because I like to and it's my Mom who started me on this with a diary when I was 8 years old. I write because my muse nags me.

In the last 2 years though I've gotten so busy with work so I haven't had the time to do the other things I love and well I realized today that a person really changes a lot as years go by. You discover things about yourself and try to grow more based on this discovery. And still try new things as you go along. I've had to let go of some of the things I like doing only because I just don't have time anymore (i.e. gave up all my bead jewelry stuff and gave it to my Mom).

Last week a dear friend passed away. It was so painful and a much more painful realization that sometimes things just go crazy in your life that you're not able to spend time with your family and friends. One good thing about that happening is everyone in that circle are reaching out to each other and re-connecting. Thank you for reminding us about our friendship Coy and for bringing us together again.

So the point of today's post is to dig up the things I love to do so I could use this post to remind myself to make time for these things so I don't burn out. And I guess this is a more detailed new year's resolution, haha.

I love... traveling and eating! I successfully changed my diet in the last two weeks by coincidence and I haven't been craving for meat (no more pork! no more beef!). On the traveling part, I seriously need to plot my vacations so I don't end up just taking my VLs during Christmas.

Vlogging for Davao FAT!

I love... hanging out with my family and friends! So I must cut down on weekend work so I have time to go out.

My offline family of friends.

I love... baking and cooking! I need willing victims though for my baked products. On cooking, I'm currently working on learning healthy dishes

I love... crafts! I just don't know where to start again.


I love... reading! Argh, I have a gazillion books on my bedside waiting to be read.

It's a simple list, but I think my main aim this year is to have balance. So we'll see.

Why I Continue to Blog

I was half-asleep early this morning when I felt Miguel checking on me. I sleepily asked, "Why?" and he said that I was too quiet (probably because I wasn't snoring). He then promptly went back to sleep when he saw I was okay.

These are moments I want to remember and that's why I blog and continue to blog. And my primary reason for blogging is to document things/events that are important to me. Sometimes I re-read old posts just to see what I've been doing years ago. Sometimes I come across old posts from search results and I laugh at myself for forgetting I had the information all along.

I have been managing a number of blogs. I have one for travel, tips for planning a wedding, a marriage blog and a smattering of tiny blogs that cater to my other interests. I don't really remember how my blogs multiplied, but I see it as a repository of information I think I'd find useful in the future. My travel blog covers the places I've been to and I write mostly about food. I have a lot of photos from different hotels I've stayed at but I haven't gotten around to posting about them.

I've been exchanging some blogging tips with friends on Twitter the past few days and they were asking me how I've managed to continue writing despite being busy. I haven't been really conscientious about blogging since I write only when I feel like it. I never run out of content though since I keep a journal through photos and by writing down on my planner significant things that have happened. I usually just go back to check photos and my planner to see if there's anything I could write about.

So, I basically blog to entertain myself and I keep it as a repository of information I may need in the future. And well I guess my grandkids and great-grandkids can get to know the younger me when I'm old and gray. 

Half-Way

I'm half-way through my 30-day blogging challenge and I'm pretty happy that I've so far held up. There are days though when I almost forget to blog but it's become a habit and I just instantly remember that I still need to do something before I sleep.

I've been blogging for more than 5 years now and I realized in the past few months that I haven't been blogging regularly that I needed to write. I just feel incomplete when I don't and when I see that I have a gazillion un-blogged adventures.

Things I want to blog about are still piling up and oftentimes I just find myself too tired to write, but at least I've managed to revive my blog. :)

The Convection Oven that Blogging Bought

Once in a blue moon I earn some money from blogging and usually the pay-out comes in time for my birthday. Last year I got myself a nice executive chair from 2 years worth of blogging. It was something that I really missed from my previous job, a nice executive chair that dwarfs me (mababaw lang kaligayahan ko). It was one of the two things that we managed to save during Typhoon Ondoy (whew! The other one was my desktop PC).

I love to bake, but I haven't been able to do so in the past few years because I didn't have a working oven and I've become allergic to LPG so I can't use my Mom's oven anymore. I wanted to get one last summer but I didn't have the budget for it. I started to scout around for the one my best friend in Singapore recommended, but found out that local appliance stores/department stores don't carry that many brands.

I settled for the Imarflex 3-in-1 convection and rotisserie.

I was so excited to bake again I bought 2 new baking pans and some ingredients the next day and immediately worked on baking some peanut butter cookies.

It didn't turn out the way I expected it to be (pan was too small), 

but the 2 dozen cookies I baked were gone in less than 24 hours. 

And then last weekend I baked some yummy chocolate crinkles!

Hopefully, I can get my online cooking tutors to teach me how to bake some yummy dinner dishes. Also have to get recipes from my Ate.

Why I Blog

I have been terribly busy the past few weeks and my blogs have suffered because I just haven't had the time to sit down and write. I'm writing this post while waiting to board a plane.

I have been maintaining my blog for about 5 years now. I started off blogging on my Friendster account and then eventually moved to Blogger. I just want to journal my activities and some things that interest me and not really bother with the techie side of blogging that's why I've been loyal to Blogger. Some friends have attempted to teach me how to use other blogging platforms, but despite their efforts it just didn't suit me. I guess I am already an old dog.

So why do I blog? I always ask myself this question when I get stressed out from blogging. I get stressed out when I have backlog. And that's the time I ask myself, why do I blog? Why do I go through all the trouble? Why do I force myself to sit down in front of my PC a few nights a week to write. I don't get paid for it, nor do I earn much from it. So why do I do it?

Because I have to.
Because if I don't my writing muse is going to bug me to write even when I sleep.
I blog because I need to write.

That may sound strange to some (or many) people, but for me (and my college friends from Malate Literary Folio) it's normal. It would be more painful not to let it out through writing. I know I'm still a long way from how I used to write (or I have had any improvement at all). I know that what I write may not be relevant to others (or anyone for that matter), but I blog because I do it for myself.

And I am in blog nirvana when I write about the stuff that are relevant to me. I know that is so selfish, but this (writing) is for me and I will do it whether or not is published online. Providing relevance or being able to inspire others would just be icing on the cake.

Plurk, Plurk-Plurkan Na!

I received an invitation to join the newest craze in the blogosphere - Plurk.com - through a Twitter message (thanks Rom!). I tried signing up immediately but for some strange reason it wouldn't accept my registration, so I let it stew for awhile until I got an email invitation from AJ.

I'm now "plurking"!


So does this mean I'm going to abandon Twitter? Hmmm, I'm not really sure yet though a lot of my friends from Twitter have signed up on Plurk as well.


I've just been using Plurk for a couple of hours but it's been fun so far and here are the things I like about it:

1. It's easy to catch up if you went offline for a couple of hours.
2. You can just scroll through the plurks and you see it on a timeline.
3. Like Gmail, plurk-back (or answer backs) are threaded together.
4. I like the interface, it's not boring.
5. It's easier to add/remove friends.

So what do you think of Plurk? And what do you call people who Plurk? Plurkers? Plurkaholics? Plurkanoids? Plurkees?

Maybe if I get a new set of hamsters I'm going to name them "Twitty" "Plurkee" and "Jaikee". Heh.

Lessons I Learned from iBlog4

Last year I did a post of the same title for iBlog3 and I'd like to say congratulations first to Janette and the UP College of Law for a very successful and fun-filled iBlog4!

I unfortunately arrived only in time for Juned's talk, but here's a rundown of what I picked up from the speakers:

Juned Sonido, Photo Blogging - if you are passionate about photography then just keep on taking photos! I've been actually bugging him the past few weeks for tips on taking photos and he's given me a couple of reading assignments. It helps!

Jonas Diego, Blog to Print - he shared that he managed to make his passion (which is comics) work for him. His web comics was immortalized in print and he's doing good business as well in making storyboards (shared that bit in Stitching). He also uses his blog to promote his business and hobby.

Coy and me, Podcasting and Vlogging - we weren't able to show our "conclusion" but what we wanted to say is "follow your passion". If you're shy, then try out podcasting, but if you feel like you can wing video blogging, then go! Just do it! Our videos are up, check this out for the podcasting bit and this for vlogging.

Luz Rimban, Manolo Quezon, and Janette Toral, Political Blogging - I agree with what they said that media focuses more on the candidates during elections rather than the real issues. The speakers surmised that blogging about politics will help stir things up and bring out the real issues. They also said that this will work especiallyf or provinces which really don't get any media coverage.

Atty. JJ Disini, Legal Challenges in Blogging - ahhh there are legal challenge in blogging, copyright infringement was much talked about during this segment. Coy and I also mentioned during our talk that one must use original material at all times. JJ also mentioned that in following "fair use" don't quote more than 10% of the whole blog post if you must mention it as a referral. It reminded me of a certain blogger who copied 75% of my post and just said one line about it in the end of his entry. It made me freaking mad! I was supposed to give a short talk about "How to deal with blogger abuse", but due to time constraints (good thing!!!) JJ didn't call me anymore. I have a video for it, I'll probably post it sometime soon in You Got Tech.

Noemi Dado, Blogging for Advocacy - Noemi shared her story about FilipinaImages.com where they tried to show the other side of the Filipina. We all know that when you search for Filipina in search engines, the not-nice side always comes out. I think it's a worthwhile project and should not be shot at because of search engine semantics.

Ria Jose, Blogging from the Countryside - Ria's talk was the most fun talk! I have been to Davao a couple of times and I think it's a more fun place to live in. Manolo asked the question, "What should an outsider do when he comes to visit so that the locals won't be freaked out?" Ahhh, I've experienced that a couple of times since I've managed to visit and meet bloggers from other cities. My tip, just make sure you know somebody in the city you are visiting and make sure you don't come off as someone who's going to dominate the place. LOL.

Here's a short video of my iBlog4 experience!



Up next (well hopefully soon!) will be my video about the party. And here's some photos I took -



Some more posts about iBlog4

• iBlog 4 and The 88db.com Blogger’s Night: Because I Felt The Need To Embarrass Myself More
• iBlog4 ramblings
• Snippets from the iBlog4 and 88db.com Bloggers Party
• Lost Money But Was Happy
• Being Offline is Fun
• iBlog4 and Morphxchange
• Avi Siwa at iBlog4
• iBlog4 experience
• Morph at iBlog4
• iBlog4 Summit
• iBlog4 Summit bloggers party with 88db.com
• iblog4 Summit
• iblog4 Blogging Summit and Meet Up
• Anger always come from frustrated expectations
• Umleo23.com at iBlog4 Summit???
• Unofficial Philippine Blogger Day
• So wassup?
• iBlog4, Altar Boyz Mosh Pit Party, Nick Weekend Carnival, & 88DB Bloggers Party
• iBlog4
• FilipinaImages.com in iBlog4 Summit
• iblog4 (old friends, new friends)
• Jester-in-Exile Goes to iBlog 4 and the 88DB.com Bloggers’ Party (or, the floppy hat has gone out of style boohoohoo)
• iBlog 4 and The 88db.com Blogger’s Night: Because I Felt The Need To Embarass Myself More
• iblog4 Philippine Blogging Summit
• Of a very long week
• iblog4: the day after
• iBlog4 Summit
• Chickens invade iBlog4
• iBlog4 summit and 88db.com party
• Blog events
• The 4th Philippine Blogging Summit iBlog4
• iBlog4 Experience
  

Mindanao Bloggers Summit

I'm going to miss it today... huhuhu...

Here's what I was supposed to talk about -



Miss you guys!

P.S. Pasensya na po, nakalimutan ko magsuklay LOL.

On Writing and Blogging

A few months ago we made a claim in a Bobcast that Doogie Howser is the first blogger and Carrie Bradshaw in "Sex in the City" was also kinda blogging. Both were just actually writing an electronic diary (coz I never saw them publish it online). Blogging after all is one's online journal - may it be a personal blog, a photoblog, art blog, micro-blog or whatever - it IS still a diary of sorts.

I've been writing since I was a kid (8 to be exact). It was my Mom who encouraged me to write by giving me a small hardbound notebook (it's still around here somewhere). I started out just writing down stuff I did for the day (i.e. Today Dad and I went to Jollibee, may Jollibee na nun!) and I also wrote a lot of letters to my friends and sent it by postal mail (I collected stamps too!). And then I eventually wrote through my PC most of the time and just kept a planner for all the daily, mundane stuff.

Eventually, I started writing short stories, tried to write poetry and then scripts and then dabbled writing in Filipino under the tutelage of Bryan Supan Siy who was the EIC of Malate Literary Folio then (his claim to fame are the Fita Best Friend and Fairy commercials). My writing froze up when Cirilo Bautista gave good reviews for a short story I wrote. My muse got scared coz he basically said the story was probably going to be my obra maestra. Bye-bye muse! LOL. After that I stopped writing for 8 years, for many, many reasons.

My muse slowly came back when I started a diary again. That was 4 years ago and I eventually started this blog - for work, to educate myself and push myself to eventually start writing stories again (some effort can be seen at Tales of the Moonless Sky). I guess that's how my writing has evolved. I've gotten offers to write a book, but I declined since I don't think I'm ready for it. Maybe someday.

Well, let's see where this blog would go, for the meantime, if you're a blogger (or would want to start blogging), here's something to do -



All you need to do is to make a post about the environment on October 15 - anything goes, you can write about your thoughts on the environment, organize a clean-up day, write a short story or whatever. Be creative! And don't forget to register your blog to be counted in the effort.

Oh! And it's Mama Mary's month! Don't forget to pray the rosary! And you may want to download a rosary podcast so you can listen and pray the rosary through your MP3 or MP4 player.

365 Days of An Apple a Day

It's been a year since I set-up this blog in Mountain View, California last year (that's why my dates are messed up a bit). I remember being so very dazed (due to jetlag) when someone gave us a talk about Blogger and all I could remember then was that we should sign-up for an account. I signed-up after and copy-pasted one of my favorite posts from my Friendster blog. I never took blogging seriously then (well it's still a pasttime for me until now) and just did posts sparingly until Janette urged me to blog more and gave me tips and directed me to try out other stuff like Technorati, Digg etc.

I would've started blogging more by December 2006 but I got stuck for a while in Jakarta and then the earthquake hit, accessing the internet over there was next to impossible. So it was only in January that I really started blogging a lot, then I attended the Blog Parteeh and then the rest is what you could say is history.

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Get your own

The past year has definitely been a journey for me. As Sorsi keeps telling me lately, "Makulay masyado ang buhay mo mare." Not that I want it to be that way (LOL), but I'd say that it's been a really exciting year for me. I'm sure if you've been following An Apple a Day in the past year you'd know that my life's been riddled with ups and downs, triumphs and failures, but hey isn't that the way one is supposed to live life? I'd say, just do it, be happy, but don't forget about the important stuff such as values and responsibilities.

Gawd, I write too much and I still wanna make another post on my work blog before I turn in to sleep. Anyway, here are some posts which may be significant to me, made favorite by others or just whatever -

I am Filipino and Proud to be One

Travel: Bohol and Cebu

Bloggers Raid Puerto Galera

Meme: Funniest Childhood Memory

I am M.E. Miguel Escueta

Cebu Love Thoughts: How Will I Know if He is the One?

Meme: The Ideal Guy

Single vs. Married? Which is Better?

On Philippine IT News

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

Taste Asia Blogger Food Fest: A Smashing Success

Blogger Lingo 101

I have a smattering of serious posts as well, but I noticed people like reading more about relationships and stuff about being Filipino. It's really funny how a lot of my search engine traffic come from the following keywords: my name, relationship keywords, childhood memories and other really silly stuff. Does this mean I'm silly? Yes. I mean, no, I mean yes. I mean, I guess I'm just not one to brood much. I like having lots sunshine in my life as much as possible.

Blogging I guess is my past time. I stopped writing for 8 years and I guess this is my way of forcing myself to write again (and hopefully start writing stories again) and besides I'm a very sociable person and since I don't have colleagues in the next cubicle or room to bug, blogging keeps me sane (at least my Mom doesn't catch me talking to myself anymore haha, kidding). It has also allowed me to meet many new people and gain many new friends and experience many new things. On the serious side, well, I'm going to make that post in my other blog.

You're probably bored by now... go... blog hop... to my other blogs wehehehe:

Stitching
Lakwatsera Ako
Twisted Wedding Planner
Homegrown
See all my blogs in my Google Page (get a page like this, just sign-up for Google Apps for Your Domain, it's free!)

And this day is a very significant day for me as well and I would just like to say THANK YOU SWEETIE, you made me really, really happy.

Now, I'm off to dreamland. Very bad jetlag indeed.

My Name is Aileen, I'm a Blog Addict

Egads!

90%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

The score says it all! My score is even higher than Abe's (where I got the exam from).

Oh noes! Is there a cure for this?

So, all ye fellow blog addicts! Tomorrow's THE TASTE ASIA NIGHT! Please don't forget to bring blogger calling cards!