On Softs and Sweets

Have you ever experienced working on something so hard, eventually finishing it, and in the end when you're supposed to celebrate, you find it hard to move just because you feel burned out? I just did.

Though to tell you the truth, this is simply something that's purely physical - the joy and excitement is still there deep in the complex networks of nerves we sometimes refer to as the brain. What I may be just pissed about is that without the recognition of such an accomplishment through (at least) a mini-celebration, things seem to be incomplete. You know, those moments where you just get to look back and shout your heart out because you did something. Or a small get-together because you know things are better that way. Then again though, it's been a staple that we rarely bake our cake and eat it too - though I've never believed in that too much. All you need is a little motivation, a bit of an inspiration, and some well-placed thought, and you can play the role of the genie in the lamp and grant your own wishes too.

A few weeks back, I was itching to get my own domain, and get another one for the school community site for a project some of my friends and I are working on. I did the research, calculated the costs, forum-hopped, and even plurked my way to getting the best possible deal out of what I had.

Then came yesterday.

In one day, and for the price of a little over a month's worth of hosting, I got two hosting accounts and two domains. Yes, I did. The first was an account I asked a friend to buy for me, because one hosting site was having a promotion which I jumped on right away. The second one was, shall we say, a blessing.

One of those sites is already up and running, being already indexed by Google in barely just a day and a half of existence. It's an online community portal for the college I go to, and I hope the team we're putting up can keep this site on track with the goals we originally meant for it. You can have a look at the soft launching over at UP Batibot, and get to read my post on the new enrollment procedures while you're there. It's really bare for now, so just check back in a few months once the site would rock your information gathering minds out.

The second one, which I am still disclosing for the moment because it's still under construction, will be a personal niche-ish blog I'm planning to run for a good while - a main site that will hopefully be a nucleus for the other projects I've lined up. I'll keep you posted on that, so I'll greatly appreciate it if you follow me.

It's been a great summer so far. And the sad part of it is that it may just end tonight. Enrollment, along with the rough experiences one goes through, will happen tomorrow. Talk about bittersweet, because I may just not be ready to face society too soon, but yet I have to admit that I do miss people. I'm also excited to meet up with a good old friend tomorrow night, too, a summer long plan we had that's going to be hopefully realized a good number of hours from now.

For a good part of my life, I've always reveled in taking the soft side of things - that way, one could just fit in whatever situation they are brought upon. But as with everything, it has disadvantages. And those disadvantages may have gone too far right now. There's a quote from a crappy movie that's been imprinted on my mind for a while now, and it simply says what simple logic can explain - if a man wants something he's never had before, he's got to do something he's never done before.

Tomorrow might just be a chance I've been longing for. Hey, you'll never know how cold the water is until you start to dip your toes into it. And when you do, someone might just be there to push you into the water with all your clothes on. Right now, the pool has been found - all I'm waiting for is that trusted friend who'd take a good laugh out of pushing me into the water.

And me learning how cold the water can really be.

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beginnings have always been relative.

Bring In The Olds

The English language has a queer way of giving names and definitions. As what my highschool teacher used to constantly remind us then, the language which you are now using to read this blog post is defined by a lot of rules, adding always that for every rule, there are exceptions to it. Talk about being consistently inconsistent.

There's a current trend that's masking itself as a form of rebellion, of freedom, and of breaking free. You might already have heard some of these making headlines on the news. Even a noontime gameshow has one segment that features the people who follow that trend and pit them against the people who decided to make their lives a little bit more interesting by tracking down and busting the followers of this current trend. However, I'll leave you all to think what you want on that topic, because as it seems today, it can lead to political bickering and mixed emotions. And that's something I do not want to have to deal with.

During the last Cebu Blog Camp, there was a segment by Tonyo Cruz about Citizen Journalism which I took a liking to. I had heard he studied at a UP campus, so there was a big chance I'd be getting his ideas and notions of loving our country and serving our people. There was one part of his talk wherein he polled the audience on whether we still buy a newspaper everyday. I quite remember I was the only one who raised my hand to respond in the affirmative, which then got me a bit thinking.

While it is true that access to the internet has boomed for the past year, and along with that instant access to information and sources, whether it be breaking news or the latest gossip, I still believe in the power of print. All my elementary and secondary schooling years always involved stopping by a newspaper stand on the way to school everyday. It was always me that did the honor of handing the ten-peso coin to our suki in exchange for the local daily. Even if I happened to be falling asleep when we were nearing that place, I'd always scramble to the window just so I could be the first one to get my hands on the newspaper. Trust me, I was that hooked.

It was sort of a routine where I simply went directly to the back portion, where the Sports section was. After reading through each column and article, I then proceeded to the middle part of the daily, where the Entertainment and Tech News were located. After pouring through all these, I took out my ballpen and proceeded on to fill out the crossword puzzle. I was doing this so much that there was a time my dad had to disallow me from being handed the newspaper because I would be too engrossed with it. What can I say - I simply loved reading, even if it meant my head would be spinning after the long ride to school.

Nowadays, I show no mercy when I get my hands on a newspaper. If it were a daily novel, I'd be reading it cover-to-cover and more. However, it saddens me to see that the original classic of distributing news is slowly being eaten up by the advent of the internet. Not that I am against it, because I love the internet and all the benefits and privileges it can give to the people. Mind you, I wouldn't be blogging if I did.

Perhaps this is just a rollover from my past of being someone who treasures people and things a lot (yes, I really hate goodbyes), but the simple newspaper and tabloid have gone through a lot - causing revolutions to start, spreading propaganda for those who knew how to use it, give more life to coffee shop talks, and even be the cause of celebration once a good friend gets featured in the lifestyle section. It's influence has stood out in the best and the worst of times, and honestly, information wouldn't have been as interesting if they used rocks instead of the traditional tree bark.

Part of the reason why I read a lot is the win-win situation it can give - one, being a firm in the belief that you can never have enough knowledge, and second, because we'd be able to improve on proper grammar and spelling. Again, it will be up to you to decide if this goes out to a certain trend today, but all I'm hoping for is that this won't give civilization a need for cleansing once all is said and done. Formality and technicality is something we can all use - it has been the backbone of many successful systems and structures throughout history, and it still continues to be.

Now, can anyone tell me, in the scope of the English language, what you would call news that's old?

I thought so.

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you got me smiling after a long time there.

Wow, A Wii!

Pasttimes are one of those things that can greatly qualify as a dictionary definition of 'ironic'. For something you do a lot, these activities are the ones that are rarely noticed and seldom given attention and recognition. For a lot of us, we have so much free time (or rather, decide to take some time off) that we are able to do hobbies, take a chill, venture into new waters, or even just take an afternoon off to watch the coolest movie at your favorite cinema house. Especially when the summer season comes, we're often faced with the notion of wishing that school days would be as laid-back as these days.

I'm not going to talk about a noontime show that just did a goodbye segment for one of it's temporary hosts, though watching that show would really qualify as a pasttime. Besides, there are some issues that a lot of people have with that, so I'm gonna play the role of the neutral middleman and leave you to make posts for that. Rather, there's something great about pasttimes that we often disregard. The essence of this might be trivial to some, but I write here in the hopes of making you realize what a great gauge our chosen pasttimes can say about the person it involves - us.

Have you ever taken time off lately, and once you find yourself in a rut of having nothing to do, do you try to notice the things that you are drawn to? More often than not, you'd be doing something you're passionate about - whether it involve school, academics, politics, and most especially hobbies, that line of being idle exposes the things you are willing to do that's out of your own. It can somehow level off on where you stand as a person, and shows the things that you do hold dear deep within.

One of the best professors I had last semester told us a thing or two about democracy and the benefits it should give once properly carried out. One of the best lessons we had was that true democracy allows us to have free time enough to be able to tap into our creativity potential. More commonly referred to as living "the good life" (which is what true democracy should bring), this situation pertains to that time when we don't worry too much about our next meal and the future of our children - and in effect allows us to be like a god and go creative. These are the times when ideas come in like floods on a real heavy storm, and if you've been living in a cave for the past few years, you would know that ideas can only bring about good things to one's life. Whether it be a new brand, a new business venture, or even a new approach to driving people to your blog site, ideas are given the most physical, literal value that's not even physical and material in the first place.

Having pasttimes, or rather the time to be able to do something for the sake of it, gives us the biggest chances of tapping into our creativity potential and bring out the best ideas that we could ever conjure. So next time you find yourself grumbling about nothing to do, look at the positive side of things and you might just get that eureka moment that would allow people to teleport. Now that would be cool.

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unchartered waters can seem like home to some.

Ice

Depending on who you ask, that drink can really taste good.

There's a big chance that once you read this post's title, the first thing that pops out in your head is that alcoholic beverage that's best served cold. I'd also like to comment on the other products from that company brand - there's one that talks of years, and another one wherein you add 60 more - but then again, you can't really criticize something you haven't tasted. And no, I got no plans on doing so anytime soon.

Before you go on your train of thought and think that you'd be getting more information on the latest bars and the coolest cocktails, I might have to disappoint you. The next set of paragraphs would even be lucky to have any of those ideas being mentioned at all. Though I will assure you this - if there's an invite for a drink or two somewhere in the Cebu nightlife scene, call me and I'll be there.

Yesterday was a day gone wild. And by 'wild' I mean things spiraled out of control in the best possible way it could have. You see, as I was riding the local jeep towards the city, I didn't expect to see much of my peers. The plan was to go to school, have a sign-up form be posted for my co-eds, take care of some business-related matters, and go back home to help my mom out. I took care of my medical check-up and tuition bracketing the week before, so if you're a fellow Hugpong from UP Cebu reading this, you won't find me in the college clinic anytime soon.

A sudden vibration somewhere in my pocket opted me to grab my phone and check to see the new message that just arrived. It took a bit of time though, as you can probably relate when you yourself would be riding the local transportation. So here comes the first surprise - a friend from another college asked about where I was. It was quite a while that we hadn't seen each other, so we decided to meet up since she had a bit of an idle time too.

As I finished my business over at school and at a park, I proceeded to our supposed meet-up place and waited. Now comes the second surprise - a fellow UPian who just came from summer classes at Diliman was also there. We talked for a bit, exchanging experiences and thoughts on topics along the way. As we were sitting down though, my phone rang - again. This time, an old friend of mine from highschool - and a really good one, mind you - called me up asking about my whereabouts. When I told him I was at this mall, he reacted positively and told me he'd be on his way to where I was - and along with it, the third surprise.

If I had a choice, I'd rather not use cliches when I can, but this time is just so opportune that I'm going to go ahead and use one - But wait! There's more! As I waiting for people to come to where I was, I noticed someone just next to our table - and the familiarity was there. The first thought that came was that he was my highschool classmate who I haven't seen since..uhh, highschool. But for some reason, I was engrossed in talking that I didn't mind it at first. However, I was wrong - dead wrong. Because as the time passed away and my old friend arrived, I found to my surprise that we all had plans in meeting up. Think of it as a mini-reunion, but whatever you call it, it happened.

This wasn't the end though. Another one of my college friends and I were also communicating and decided to meet up too. At the same place where my highschool friends were, no less. Talk about reunions, and it was one great experience yesterday. What added more fun to that meet up was that my college friend brought along another classmate of ours which I hadn't seen all break. Need I say more reunions? Yes, it was that kind of day where surprises get to you, and you love every moment of it. In fact, I was smiling so much I brought them all to a pizza place to have lunch. Days like these don't come often, and it was great to spend time with people like them.

I was treated to more laughs and even more reunions after lunch. The highschool gang was just talking about the most random of stuff, and along with it more and more laughters.We even had a dilemma on what movie to actually watch, only to conclude that the movie that would come out the day after was the best possible choice. After more talks and more reunions with people that came, I decided to go home earlier than them, because of the long trip and because I had things to do at home.

Maybe we didn't have the Ice beverage with a black-and-silver label that day, but we sure did have a lot of fun. And maybe that's all we need to enjoy our time together. I'm looking forward to enrolment, where I assume more meet-ups will happen.

And oh, before I forget. As I was settling in for the night, my mom called me from the store to tell me that I had a visitor. Would you believe this was a college friend who I hadn't seen in a while too? Believe it.

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interest was never a finance-only term.

A Simple Jeepney Ride

I love our country, period. I've always believed there's something good we can all get by helping the Pearl of the Orient get the recognition it deserves, and not mainly because I myself am a Filipino by birth and by blood. Perhaps this is what inspires me so much about activists, and activism as a whole - that with all the things going around the country today, it is always them that have the greatest passion in serving the masses and looking after the welfare of the ones in the lower levels of society. Before this post turns into a political issue though, let me just point out that indeed, our country deserves to be loved.

One of the greatest things I see in the Philippine society today is our fellow countrymen and the great joy they can find in simplicity. From the carenderia setting to the everyday routine of going to work, there's always something that would amaze us in our everyday lives, through the joys and smiles from the people we meet everyday. On paper, our country may not be the richest - yes, we are far from dominating that list. But then again, that list only takes into account the material aspect of things. Not that I'm degrading the value of material wealth. But as it seems, our country has what only a few do - wealth in values, and more importantly, wealth in being able to live a simple life and love it at the same time.

This does not mean to say that most of us Filipinos are simple-minded beings that are contented in being one, because for a fact, we aren't. On the sights we see everyday, this may be true, but the fact behind all of this is a heart of a Filipino wanting to see his and her beloved country get the recognition and value it's supposed to have.

One thing that's really a staple of the amazing Filipino simplicity can be read as the title of this post. Jeepney rides can last a long time, especially when you live in a municipality far away from the city. In this case, you'd be one of the few that's going to last the whole trip, and along the way you'd be riding along different personas and varied groups. It's not really normal to just talk to anybody though, but there can be times when you chance upon someone you do already know and you guys delve into a conversation the whole trip through. Then, there are the short trips, which mostly happens in and around the city and it's different locales. (In the case of the UP Cebu student though, the jeep code 04L would surely ring a lot of memories, but that's only for special cases. Especially when you do laag regularly.)

For the general public, a lot of things can happen during a jeepney ride. Some see it as a time for reflection, where they can go deep into their personal selves while waiting to arrive at their destination. For others, it is mainly a routine that prepares one for the tasks of the day ahead, perhaps even go as far as calling it the calm before the storm on a big day ahead. No matter our situations and backgrounds, every Filipino will always have a jeepney ride story to tell. I've had my own few stories, too. But a great friend of mine deserves more recognition here, simply because he is starting out an entire blog dedicated to the staple of riding a jeep and the amazing things that can happen in one. You should check it out over at Plite Palihug!, as I'm sure there will be a lot more fun and interesting things about to be posted over there.

My personal mind has always been awed by the beauty one can find in simplicity. This "beauty" pertains to both the figurative and the physical, and even the best solutions to the most complex problems tend to be more simple than we originally thought they were. Even through coding a lot of lines this summer, I've come to realize that the more complex functions one has to do in order to achieve something so simple, the better. It's simplicity that allows us to actually live life, and at the same time allows us to recognize the beauty that is life.

Here's a cliche for you - kiss it. No, I don't mean you should do the thing that adds spice to a blooming relationship between a male and a female.

Just keep it sweet and simple. Kiss it.

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jeepney rides can offer the best memories to anyone.

The Experience of Success and Fun - Cebu Blog Camp 2010

What a blast.

Yesterday was a day more than a hundred people won't easily forget. Over at the CAP Art Center along Jones, the first ever Cebu Blog Camp was held, with participants ranging from seasoned, veteran bloggers to those enthusiast bloggers, and even those who have just been welcomed to the world that is the blogosphere we all love. Hey, even we were all amused as early as the introduction of participants when one of us told the audience he started his blog site just last Monday. That just showed that this event is taking out the 'elitist' notion attached to the 'blogger' title for some, and allowed us to take a back seat as we all were about to witness history in the making, the pioneer of what will be a big event in the years to come.(credits to Winston Almendras for the pic used on this post. He runs BatangYagit.com)


Much to the delight of the participants (and I will admit, more especially to me), there were a lot of freebies given away even as early as the registration booth. Over there, I met up with one of the primary organizers of the event, and the owner of Through the Focal Glass, Evanjohn. He's more popularly known in the blogosphere as the Photoblogger, and he did a very good job of mixing up humor and content into delivering a great talk about photoblogging and vblogging. Yes, there were a lot of topics throughout the whole event, and these weren't given just by anybody - all the resource speakers were the masters at their field, and with this I give a great kudos to the organizers for having organized such a pool of speakers for the different fields. Marketing, Blogging platforms, Google Adsense, niches, Community building, Branding, SEO - you name it, and it was there. Such was the nature and ambience of the whole event - a venue where beginners could start off in a big way, where adept bloggers could improve more on what they had already built up, and where the seasoned veterans learned more through sharing their experiences with the good number of bloggers present. In a great way, nobody could ever feel lost or left behind with the range of topics being given, and as such, I don't think anybody ever did.

It's always a great feeling to be able to meet the people behind the blogsites they maintain. This was a great event to be able to do so, and though I did not  get to talk personally to most of them, I was still awed by their speeches and the aura they bring when they're 'in real life'. Come to think of it, there were a lot of well-known bloggers over at that event, and to be in their presence just makes you feel more than blessed to have joined such a gathering.

I sadly don't have a digital camera, because if I did, this post would have been laden with a lot of pictures from the event. However, there were a lot who did bring their cameras, and perhaps I can get the chance to grab some of the pictures soon. Of course, that will be in another blog, so please do wait for them.

Before I forget though, allow me to give some recognition to the pink team, aptly named "Team Baboy" because of the color of the swine. We were able to win the first group activity, and yes, we won prizes for it too. Cheers to Team Baboy!

As a whole, I could really say that the day was great. As with everything, you go into something having a set of expectations. With this event, there were great expectations I had coming in - I was excited as hell to meet fellow bloggers and listen to talks on how to enrich everyone's blogging experience. What surprised me though, was that not only did the event meet the expectations, they left them behind to eat their dust and overtake them as great as any race car could. It was an experience that's really worth having, and right now I'm already looking forward to next year's blog camp. By then, it's going to be a lot bigger, and hopefully we'll have more of the same yet improved topics to listen to.

Congratulations to everyone that made this event a memory that will last a lifetime. :)

(side notes)
Whoever said that giveaways and prizes were scarce, were not present at CBC 2010. Here's a rundown of the things I got after the dust settled and the Cebu Blog Camp success was born:

• A Flashdrive, courtesy of 88DB.com
• A limited edition Microsoft Windows 7 shirt, courtesy of Ng Khai
• An orange Mozilla baller band, courtesy of Mozilla.org
• A Mozilla Firefox pin, courtesy of Mozilla.org
• A roll of Mozilla stickers, courtesy of Drake (check out his blog, wazupdrake )
• A new notepad, courtesy of Nokia
• An original DVD copy of Passionata, courtesy of the organizers
• An original CD of Classical Visayan music, courtesy of the organizers
• Free lunch, rather, two free lunches, courtesy of Jolibee
• Krispy Kreme donuts!

..and many more, would you believe? I loved the event, because honestly, who wouldn't?


(more side notes)
If you were following this blog for the past few weeks and noticed that I didn't have any new posts except the one required by the CBC organizers, I apologize. I was going through a tough time, with confusions popping up here and there. That was mainly the cause of my decision to forego blogging until after CBC 2010, after I cleared up a few things with regards to my relationships to some people, among other things. But here I am, and I'll be back to posting regularly as the days wear on and as school season looms over the horizon. Hope this long post made up for the absence. I'll be more than glad to catch up on you guys, so please leave a comment if you would. Thanks!


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i couldn't take my eyes off you.

Here We Go! Cebu Blog Camp 2010

-Blogging, Expressions and Opportunities-

May 22, 2010 is going to be a big day for a lot of people. Different events are going to be held simultaneously, in different places in and around the country. Whether this be a formal suit-required event or a get-together island hopping day, we all are surely going to be engrossed in the activities wherever we may be.

For a lot of these people, this Saturday WILL be a big day. With the theme set at "Blogging, Expressions and Opportunities", the first ever Cebu Blog Camp 2010 is going to be held at the CAP Art Center, right in the heart of the Queen City of the South. It's going to be a venue not only for meeting fellow bloggers offline, but also present the chance to boost each other's passion for blogging online.

People really get excited by a big event such as this - and you can't spare me from that. I'm way excited as hell too.

The Cebu Blog Camp 2010

is co-presented by

Gold Sponsors

Sponsor and Media Partner

Bronze Sponsors

Geiser Maclang Marketing Communications, Inc.

Custom Wordpress Theme by Padd Solutions

South Florida Party Planner Magazine
Weddings, Quinceanera, Sweet Sixteen and Events Magazine

Winston Delawar Photography, a Premiere South Florida Wedding Photographer

Black Friday Deals by Jehzlau Concepts

Jupiter Suites – Free Internet and Breakfast Hotel in Makati

Media and Institution Partners

Mozilla

RCTV 36 – Official Online and TV Media Partner

Cebu Daily News – Official Print Media Partner

Blog4Reviews

Donors

Jaypee Habaradas of JaypeeOnline.net

Cebu Blog Camp 2010 is an event organized by a group of Cebu Bloggers.