in retrospect…

ok, i know i have been too remiss in my posts this past month… i actually have several in my plate right now, and i am having a hard time dealing with them… but slowly and surely, they’re all going away one at a time, and i hope to be back regularly posting in the next week or so…

to give all of you a rundown:

have you ever been fired from the company you were working from?? if you were and you want to get back, then, your bestfriend will be the National Labor Relations Commission (NLRC)… if you really have a valid claim, then go to the NLRC along E. Rodriguez Avenue in Quezon City, file a simple form detailing the owner/general manager of the company you are filing a claim against, then have your claim raffled off to an arbiter… the arbiter will then set a date for a conference between you and the company or its representative at a later date…

if, during or after the conference, which is set for 2 days, you or the company representative do not agree on a settlement and decided to bring this to court, you have 2 choices: either 1) you get a lawyer to create and file a position paper for you; or 2) you can drop your claim if you think you don’t have the time or resources to go through with your suit…

me? i decided to go through with it since i know i have a very strong and very valid case… or at least, that’s what my lawyer was telling…. LOL

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i will be going to several blogging activities during this month… two of which will be A Taste of Asia at the Mall of Asia [July 3] and a food writing workshop [July 14]… last Tuesday [June 26], we also went to the opening of the Krispy Kreme DriveThrough in Greenhills, the 1st ever in Asia and the Philippines… we got to bring home to big boxes of their very tasty [but very fattening] donuts for free!! weeee….

we will now become regulars of the blogger badminton every Thursdays which include the likes of Abe, Gail with husband Marc, Bimbo and wife Des, and others… Abe invited us specifically to challenge the husband and wife teamup of Bimbo and Des… hehehe…

———–

i am now an avid player of PerfectWorld from LevelUp… you’ll be able to read a very extensive review of the game [at least from my point of view] from my game site…

a softlaunch of the game was held July 1 at the Robinson’s in Malate and i was able to get a set of installer CDs for the open beta which will start on the 18th…. but again, that news is not meant for this… watch out for that in my game site…

———–

it was a very good thing that i wasn’t very active in any activities, if there, where i need to take pictures, since i don’t have my Pentax with me… i have to bring it back to where i bought it from, and they, in turn, have to send it back to Japan, for repairs on the built-in flash… this i did last May 6, and only got my camera back last Friday, June 29, in time for the softlaunch yesterday afternoon…

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and finally, i have a new job… it is a project management job, and the guys i work with are all very good at what they do… as far as relationships go, i still am very new at the company, and will find out about that in the coming weeks and months… but we came off a good start, at least… so i am keeping my fingers crossed…

that’s it?? that’s it!! for now…

Ciao, sweetie…

for all my very loyal readers [yes, all 1 of you... my wife...] so sorry if this was a day late [2 days now, actually]… i had to prepare for my first day at work today yesterday that i wasn’t able to do this post…

anyway, all throughout the summit, there were numerous quotable ‘quotes’ heard from speakers or from the audience themselves…

do you write the way you speak or the way you think??

this was from jester-in-exile… there was a speaker for whom this quote would be most apt… incoherent though he may be in real-life, but his posts are so straight to the point that, if you know this person, you’d wonder if maybe he has a ghostwriter…

blog to express, not to impress…

this was one quote that hit the nail right on the head for some people… i used to write this way because i want people flocking to my site… i used to want people to say that i write so well, and that my posts are so apt, that i forgot the essence of why i wanted to maintain a blog in the first place… but now, i don’t care anymore… i write simply to express what i want when i want… and…

boring naman nitong speaker na ito!!

[this speaker is so boring!!] heard from one person in the audience… true enough, as far as i am concerned… he was reading HIS presentation to his audience, that it all but lulled us to sleep… it would’ve been better if he just sent his presentation to us, and we could read it in our free time… goodness!! i wonder how i was perceived by my audience!!

anyway, here’s a ‘class’ picture all in uniform after the last speaker of the 2nd day…

click here for pictures of the 2nd day…

Globe Girls

Teh Cham Sisters

jester-in-exile and Mike Abundo fights!!

Ciao, sweetie…

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aside: i just arrived home from work… not much done today, met and talked to several people, observed around, ate with Coy in Mexicalli [too bad i didn't bring my camera along], found several bloggers working for the same company, and went home at about 3:30… so much for my first day…

Tags: [ iBlog3 ]

so, i was in UP School of Economics early today [the wife and i actually arrived around 7:30 simply because we don't know the state of traffic in QC during Fridays] to talk about “Blogging101: setting up your 1st blog”, and it was kinda successful… kinda…

this was because most of my audience early in the morning were already bloggers themselves… you can count on your hands those who don’t have blogs yet, and they are those kids at the back of the auditorium where the event was held… if Janet Toral is reading this, maybe we can create a separate track specifically for those who don’t have blogs yet, and only for them… sayang kse yung opportunity to advocate kanina…

anyway, i got to hear Lauren’s and her mom Noemi’s presentations, as well as Marcelle’s magic tricks… i left around 1pm [after lunch... hehehe... eat and run] because i still have something to do that afternoon…

and so, a rundown of the people/bloggers i met today:

• the usual circle composed of jester-in-exile, AJ, Poell, Ramsey [no link-love anymore for you guys...]
• Dean Jorge Bocobo
• sexy mom Dine Racoma
• fellow-gamer Joel Tan

and many others… whew!! i guess i’d see you guys again tomorrow, eh? you can find pictures of the 1st day here…

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ iBlog3 ]

i will be out the whole day tomorrow and Saturday for the iBlog3 where i will be a speaker… my topic tomorrow, which starts at 9:30am, will be Blogging for Newbies… it basically is a topic geared towards teaching those who don’t have their own blogs yet… so, if you are one of those, then head on over to the School of Economics Auditorium in UP Diliman as early as 8am for the registration…

following is the iBlog3 program:

April 13, 2007

Morning: Newbies track
9:00-9:15 Opening (National Anthem, Prayer)
9:15 - 9:30 Keynote and Welcome Remarks (Atty. JJ Disini, UP-ISP)
9:30-10:00 Blogging for Newbies (Chris Haravata)
10:00 - 10:20 Do’s and Don’ts of Personal Blogging (Lauren Dado)
10-20 - 10:50 Break
10:50 - 11: 15 Personal Blogging Success Story (Noemi Lardizabal Dado)
11:15 - 11:35 Unlocking your creative blogging potential (Marcelle Fabie)
11:35 - 12:00 What every business person should know about blogging (Arelle Valla)
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:20 - 1:40 Building Communities: One Blog at a time. The E-Games Experience (Jaime Enrique Y. Gonzalez, CEO, IPVG)

Art & Literary Track
1:40 - 2:10 Blogging as alternative publishing for comic book creators (Jonas Diego)
2:10 -2:30 Literary Blogging Experience, Observations, and Trends (Dean Alfar)
2:30 - 3:00 Break
Legal Track
3:00 - 3:30 Blogging and Freedom of Expression in ASEAN (Roby Alampay, SEAPA)
3:30 - 4:00 Bloggers Code of Ethics (Emerson Banez)
4:00 - 4:30 Blogging and Copyright Law (Atty. Jaime Soriano)
4:30 - 6:00 Raffle, Networking

April 14, 2007
9:00 - 9:20 Abraham Olandres: Blogging Success Story (Philippines’ Most Read Blogger)
9:20 - 9:40 Photoblogging Success Story (Anton Diaz)
9:40 - 10:00 Philippine Politics and the Blogosphere (Manuel L. Quezon III)
10:00 to 10:30 Break
Blogging Trends Track
10:30 to 10:50 Podcasting/Videocasting Growth Trends (Wilson Chua of eRadioPortal.)
10:50 to 11:10 Blogging / Web Marketing Trends (Aileen Apolo of Google.)
11:10 to 11:30 The New Prosumer (Norman Agatep of Euro 4D.)
11:30 to 12:00 Panel Discussion (Moderated by Janette Toral)
12:00 - 1:00 Lunch
1:00 to 1:15 Sponsor Talk by Globe
Blogging and Journalism Track
1:15 - 1:40 Blogging and Investigative Journalism (Alecks Pabico of PCIJ)
1:40 - 2:00 Blogging as Mainstream Media (Angelo Racoma of the Blog Herald)
2:00 - 2:20 TV Journalism and Blogging (Malou Mangahas of GMA Network)
2:20- 240 Panel Discussion (Moderated by Rachel Khan)
2:40 - 3:00 Break
Professional Blogging Track
3:00 - 3:30 Blogging for advancing one’s career (Marc Hil Macalua)
3:30 - 4:00 Professional blogging (Jayvee Fernandez)
4:00 - 4:30 Increasing blog popularity (Gail Dela Cruz - Villanueva)
4:30 - 5:00 Raffle, group picture, networking

so, if you have nothing better to do tomorrow but work :D, then head on over to UP for the iBlog3… see you all there!!

Ciao, sweetie…

Tags: [ iBlog3 ]

it is not very often that i get to see my share of stars and celebrities all in one night… i am not a starry-eyed buck, mind you… in fact, i abhor treating celebrities any other way than i would treat a normal person… just last Sunday during the Pinoy Photography badminton tournament [where my partner and i won the level B medals], you can see me trading jokes with the likes of Rachel Lobangco and Daisy Reyes… i still consider celebrities as normal people with normal wants and needs, and that was why i don’t go ga-ga over them…

but last night was a very different night for me… i am a part of the blogging community and i consider the top honchos of the community as MY stars… i still get edgy around the likes of Yuga, Gail, and Jayvee, the trio who spearheaded last night’s 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, considered as the wacky trio of the blogosphere… the beautiful duo of Aileen Apollo and Sasha Manuel who emceed the affair… uber-bloggers Noemi and Connie Veneracion [aka sassylawyer], Carlo “Waukeen” Ople, the Brand Manager for Philippine Ragnarok Online, and so many others that if i list them all down here one-by-one, it will probably take one whole day to do it…

i also got to trade jokes with bloggers AJ, Piere, LA, Poelle, Jeff, and Shari, [who, by-the way won the Best Personal Blog award] during the post-event party held later at the Hula-Hula in EDSA ShangriLa…

but let me keep this short and let you instead enjoy the pictures of the event found in my gallery… again, you can get as many pictures as you want, but don’t forget to give me credit, ok??

congratulations go to all volunteers [of which, i am a part of] of the event for without you guys, we wouldn’t have a successful one…

kudos go to all judges who tirelessly went to, and read, each and every blog-nominee, and to finally come up with the winners…

and finally, thank you go to all the event sponsors for giving us something which we cannot give back to you except for posts like this…

Ciao, sweetie…

(y) aside: i don’t believe in organized religion or any church, for that matter, ergo, i don’t believe in prayers, either… but this invocation prayer by Fr Stephen Cuyos [who is also a Linux advocate like moi] really tickled the funny bone of all the bloggers present last night… an excerpt can be found below:

Make our hearts meek and humble
that we may treat our readers as friends, not as unique hits,
that we may strive to change ourselves for the better more often than we pimp our site templates,
that we may find more time to ease the pain of someone in our own home than to reply to comments left by strangers,
that we may interact with our next door neighbors as often as we chat with our blogrolled friends,
that we may be more concerned about helping the less privileged than about the number of subscribers to our RSS feeds.

Deliver us, Father, from spams and viruses, from pride and selfishness, and from the temptation to replicate images without permission and copy ideas without crediting the original authors.

nyehehehe…

Tags: [ 2007 Philippine Blog Awards ]