Saan Nagtatago si Happiness?

Where is happiness? Where is the love? (the love, the loooove...)

Moving forward to more happy and bubbly, ala lava lamp, thoughts...

I just came back from the premiere of "Saan Nagtatago si Happiness?"

The movie was a box office hit in last year's Cinemalaya film festival. It's a semi-musical, light and funny with a little choreography on the side. Starring Andy Bais and veteran actors Ricky Davao, Caridad Sanchez, Nanette Inventor, Rez Cortez, Nonie Buencamino, January Isaac and "Little Big Star" child sensation Mica Torre and 2006 Singapore filmfest best actor winner Elijah Castillo. The movie showed some stark realities that reminded me I should live simply and what's important in life are relationships. What was funny about it was it didn't use the teeny-bopper loveteam formula for kilig moments. I still can't believe how I got kilig over Rez Cortez and Nanette Inventor. :)

It's refreshing to watch a non-commercial movie. It made me laugh and it made me think and it showed me a different side of our people. I know it's there on the news, sensationalized on tabloids, barked on radio by reporters, but the real emotion is not really captured. This was grassroots, the way it should be seen. I think if I have time I'm going to try and watch all the other Cinemalaya films.

So, where is happiness hiding? Andy Bais explained it before he sang the movie theme with Mica Torre, too bad you weren't there.

"Saan Nagtatago si Happiness" will be showing on March 7-13 at your nearest SM cinemas - SM Cebu, Clark, Davao, Fairview, Mall of Asia, Manila, North Edsa, Pampanga, San Lazaro, Southmall, Sta.Mesa, and Megamall. For more info please visit http://www.mediarevolution.com.ph/

And so I find myself looking for something brainless to do. Checked all the blogs I usually read - most of them haven't updated yet. Went in the forums I check-out, but it gave an database error message. Pffft... A friend said, go surf the web... so lazy! So I thought... aha! Blogthings! Might as well do some click-clicking (just to force my mind to go blank).

So I took the "How Rare is Your Personality Test" and this is what I got:

Your Personality is Very Rare (INFP)

Your personality type is dreamy, romantic, elegant, and expressive. Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 6% of all women and 4% of all men You are Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving.

How Rare Is Your Personality?

Now I know why I get along with different types of people - from quiet ones to really loud ones, young ones to ancient people, simple to extraordinary people. I remember taking this exam when I was in sixth grade. The school wanted to determine if our talents was geared towards math/sciences vs. communication. They made a big thing about this. Invited parents to come over and they even shooed us away from the library. I remember it was my Kuya who attended and not my Mom and Dad. All he said was my tests showed I had a gift for communication and then I guess I blocked off the other things he was telling me (me and my short attention span). Well since he's arriving on Wednesday, maybe I should go and ask him what it really was about. I guess that's also why my Kuya knows me best. :)

Galera, Tuloy Po Tayo!

Notice how hot it's been lately? Just means one thing! It's time to head for the beach!

For those who want to come we're meeting up on March 3, Saturday at the following venues:

South People: 5 a.m. BF McDo,

North People: 5:45 a.m. Petron Station, South Super Highway (the one near the Southwoods exit)

Check here for the itinerary. Also check Sasha' s blog.

Look Out!

Have you looked at the sky lately?

I was on my way home one day and saw how pretty the sky was.

Sometimes when I am so bothered about something, buying several sets of curtains (yes curtains) isn't enough... just looking out and seeing that the sky is blue (or peach, pink and not gray) reminds me that tomorrow might be a better day.

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.

Google is Hiring Pinoys!

This is an exciting opportunity that you shouldn't pass up!

Don't wait for three months before you actually apply (like I did).

APPLY NOW!

Adwords Account Coordinator (Tagalog)
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=53651

Adwords Associate (Tagalog)
http://www.google.com/support/jobs/bin/answer.py?answer=53652

Jobs will be based in Singapore.

Do you want to get important announcements like this? Then join the GPhilippines Googlegroup. Sign-up today.

Why I Didn't Have a Valentine

I lost the bet.

And good thing, she lost too!

So we’re going to Bora! Yipee!!!

I was still up working at past 12 in the morning on February 14 when a friend of mine buzzed in and greeted me a happy V-day. Happy-happy! Joy-joy! May bumati!

I had a hard time waking up in the morning since I slept at around 3 a.m. It was the incessant beeping of my phone alerting me for messages that actually woke me up. All of them were Valentine greetings.

I was happy and pleased with all the greetings, but I must have left the Valentine spirit in the hotel when I left for work. I guess all of us didn't have it on our minds. I was so harassed the whole day, I almost missed the plane coz I was still answering emails at the airport. When I got back home in Manila, I had to finalize things for my participation at the E-Services Philippines show and my printer even delivered my materials at midnight. I finished up at around 3 a.m. and completely forgot about V-day until Donald brought it up over lunch.

“How was your Valentine? Nakalabas ka ba?”

Oh great. I completely forgot about V-day and that I had a bet with Honey. And I lost.

So I gave Donald, Martin and Jill a huge smile and whined about why I didn’t have a Valentine.

Oh and for the record, I did get some offers, but I said I was going to be out of the country.

And the little cake with the heart on top? It's from Max's, the house that fried chicken built. I had it as dessert with a good friendly-friend. Order it, it's yummy.