The Old Blogging Days

I've been blogging now for more than 15 years. I started on Friendster and eventually moved to Blogger. I still use Blogger because it's easy to use and I never have to worry about back-end stuff. It's also been easy for me to find old posts. In the event I decide to stop blogging I could easily take it out and keep an archive of everything I've written. 

I've been blogging everyday since 2020. It started as a 30-day challenge which I try to do at the beginning of the year. I blog everyday to keep my mind active. My doctors were worried I'd deteriorate after being forced to slow down. They made me promise to keep my brain working, so I blog. 

I miss the old blogging days. I gained a lot of new friends back then. My involvement with the community started when SM Hypermarket asked if I could invite bloggers to try out their new resto, Taste Asia. It was supposed to be a small group, but ballooned to over a hundred bloggers. We had a few of those parties, but I eventually disengaged when it felt it was becoming too commercial. The parteehs was where I gained a lot of new friends across the country. 

My blogger friends were the ones who organized the original Philippine Blogger Awards. It ran for a couple of years and grew because of the support of some brands. It was fun, but it was really hard to organize and andaming tsismis! Hahaha. There were a lot of blogger events. There was iBlog, blogfests across the country, DFAT and many meetups. Those days were enriching since you can learn so much from other bloggers. 

Jayvee had an idea to collate photos, so I thought I'd start some albums where other bloggers can add their photos. Here are some:

Blog parteeh/Makati meet-up, January 2007

Philippine Blog Awards, March 2007

Davao Blog Parteeh, March 2007

iBlog3

Taste Asia Blog Parteeh 1, July 2007

Digitalfilipino Emerging Influential Blogs, August 2007

Taste Asia Blog Parteeh 2, August 2007

Come as Your Blog Parteeh, April 2008

iBlog4

Digitalfilipino Emerging Influential Blogs, August 2008

*Let me know if you have an album of an old blog event where you want people to contribute to and I'll add it here :)

#BeKind #StaySafe #VoteWisely

Parteeh in My Dreams

I had the most fun dream last night. I was thinking of friends I haven't seen in a long time, specifically my blogger friends I met over a decade ago. I met a lot of them through the blog parties I used to organize and through the Philippine Blog Awards. It was so lucky to meet so many people across the country who had a passion for blogging. We'd meet up when I traveled and for events (and of course pig-out at yummy restos). 

iBlog will always be memorable.

Most of my blogger friends don't blog anymore. I blogged sparingly since I moved to Singapore. I had the chance to meet my blogger friends when they come here to Singapore or when I travel. Some I'd bump into at the airport! It's been awhile since I've done any domestic travel so it's been hard to see everyone. I honestly don't really like video calling since that's all I do at work, so I keep in touch through chat (yeah old school!). 

At the Blog Awards Visayas 2010.

Last night I was thinking about friends I haven't seen for a long time and how they tie up to my life story. I was thinking about that because I want to remember how I was before life got so busy. I need to understand my core and what makes me happy. I think it's important for me to work that out so I can heal completely. 

The first Philippine Blog Awards. Still don't know why they had me host lol. 

So the tggss tggss party became a dream. I was with my blogger friends, including those who have passed away - Juned, Coy, AJ, Eric and Hershey. They were all there together with my other friends. We were all just very happy and giggling as always. And there was a lot of food, just like the blog parties at Taste Asia. 

That time LuzViMin Bloggers conspired with Sweetie for his proposal!

So just like Harry, Hermione and Ron when they were looking for the horcruxes, I think I found one part of me. I am a blogger. Writing has always been a part of me because that's what my Mom encouraged me to do since I was 8 (see the description above haha). 

If I remember correctly this was at a workshop in Davao. (With Ria, Andrew and Kring).

I haven't done any video calls for almost two months now. I still get breathless when talking (I let Sweetie do most of the talking for now hehe). Maybe once my lungs can take doing VCs I should organize a blogger Meets call (of course it has to be Google Meets and not Zoom hrhr). 

If you're one of my blogger friends and want to see more photos, here's more!

Blog Parteeh, January 2007

Davao Bloggers Party, March 2007

Philippine Blog Awards, June 2007

Taste Asia bloggers party, July 2007

Digital Filipino Inflential Bloggers Awards, August 2007

88db.com Bloggers Party, April 2008

iBlog 4, April 2008

Buhay Coke Bloggers Party, June 2008

Ponds Bloggers Party, July 2008

Mindanao Bloggers Summit, October 2010

Visayas Blogging Summit, November 2010

Blog and Soul Adsense Seminar, June 2011

Blog and Soul Photo Workshop, July 2011

Blogfest Soccskargen, November 2011

*I have more photos but my album names are a mess. Ping me if you're looking for a blogger community related photo from those years. Can't seem to find my DFAT photos! Grrrrrr.

CB///299 #StuckAtHomeDay/329 #StayHome #BeKind

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
  

Summer Lovin', Summer Bloggin',

I'm very excited over the upcoming activities happening in the Pinoyblogosphere and I toiled over this little video for a couple of weeks, hope you enjoy it -



The fourth iBlog Summit will be held on April 26, 2008 at the Malcolm Theater, College of Law, in UP Diliman, Quezon City . Register for iBlog4.

Here's the info from 88db.com for the first blogger party this summer -

What: 88DB.com Bloggers' Night
When: April 26, 2008 @ 7pm
Who: bloggers of any size, age, status or whatever
How: Just leave a comment below or register through any of the coordinators blogs
Why: Booze, Music, Prizes and 88DB.com
Where: Katips Bar in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City

Come as your blog* and get a chance to win a brand new Sony PSP.

To confirm attendance, kindly leave your name and blog address as a comment here in my blog or visit any of your other favorite blogs. Check the list here.

*Come as your blog means you have to dress up like your blog. With all my blogs I wonder how I'm going to dress up... I'll probably come as an apple! Remember, the blogger who represents his/her blog the best wins the Sony PSP.

Coordinators (please let me know if you've made a post) -
Migs, AJ, Andrew, JayDJ, Anton, Sexymom, Noemi, Cokskiblue, Janette, Jayvee, Jomar, Jozzua, Jun Asis, Juned, Markku, Regnard, Winston, Gail