Nov
19
Digital Filipino Web Awards 2009
We won! My group, the Cebu Bloggers Society, won in the community category at the 3rd Digital Filipino Web Awards.
Sep
30
Ondoy
Filed under current events, opinion, personal
I was up until 4 a.m. last Saturday, studying for my Legal History and Constitutional Law classes, while the rain pounded on our glass windows. It had started raining around the time I got off work at 7 p.m, and started beating hard around midnight. It didn’t cease until I fell asleep before daybreak. It was still raining when I woke up and left for school at around 9:30 a.m., but I didn’t think much of it. If anything, I was just a bit annoyed at the rain, because I didn’t have an umbrella.
By the time I reached Katipunan extension, though, the cab had stalled. We were not moving, and I was getting late for class. I found out that another classmate was also stalled. By the time the cab got to the Ateneo area, cars bound for the north were turning back, because the flood had risen to almost knee-level. There were a couple of cars that braved the south-bound lane, but they were swimming in the water. We turned around to look for alternate routes to UP, but then I received a message from my classmate that all roads to UP had been blocked, and that classes had been suspended for the day. We couldn’t go anywhere, so she and I agreed to meet up at McDonald’s Katipunan to pass the time and wait for the rain to stop and the floods to subside.
Aug
20
Paradigm Shift
I grew up thinking that money was evil and that businessmen were shrewd. It didn’t help that I attended the University of the Philippines, said to be the bastion of the communists. I became a student activist, became an agnostic for awhile, and began to hate imperialist America.
But because of a twist of fate, I landed in the corporate world in a job I didn’t know existed before and never imagined to have. My employer was American, and so it didn’t come as a surprise that I had go to the land of milk and honey to meet the people I worked with and get some training. Anyone in my shoes would have jumped for joy, but I flatly refused to go. I did not want to go. I didn’t see the point in going, because I already knew how to do my job, and I did not want to sign the bond that came with the trip.
Fortunately for me though, I had a manager who had amazing convincing powers. She told me that I would come back a different person–that travel would change me, that there was an experience waiting for me on the other side of the world that I couldn’t get anywhere else. That was what convinced me to go. I signed the papers and packed up. That was how the shift began.
Jul
24
Buhay Law Student
It’s Friday again. At this time last year, I would either be heading to a hole in the city to hang out with friends, or packing to leave early for another adventure trip the following day. Now I can’t do that anymore. There are hundreds of pages waiting to be read when I get home, and that’s just for one subject, just for one night.
I so miss traveling. I miss seeing the world outside. I miss taking photos and writing about my discoveries. I miss going home from work to just drop on the couch and watch TV, uncaring about what the time is already. I miss waking up after lunch hour on weekends. I miss the trips to the mall, the unlimited blogging, the lazy afternoons. I miss the unlimited idle time with friends. I miss not having to watch the time.
Jul
8
I believe Michael Jackson was innocent
Filed under people
I grew up believing that he was a pedophile, that he was gay, that he had himself bleached because he didn’t like his color. At that time, in the 1990s, he had begun to lose his luster, and the child molestation charges against him were what greeted my consciousness. I wasn’t part of the generation that worshipped him. I knew nothing about his genius. The only songs that I could sing to were his Heal the World, because we sang it in class in third grade, and You Are Not Alone, because it was a hit in the mid-1990s. (I realize now that I’d heard most of his songs then, I just didn’t know that they were his). I knew that he was famous, but to me, he was just another name.
So when the news of his death broke out, I shrugged. But as it is impossible to get away from all the coverage on TV and on the web sites that I visit everyday, I got curious about him and dug deeper, and from what I pieced together from bits and pieces, I found a heart-breaking story of wasted genius, of someone who was so good at at what he did but was mocked for being himself.
Jun
21
Top 10 Emerging Influential Bloggers for 2009
Filed under blogging
Actually, that post title is wrong, because I am not going to vote for ten blogs. I am voting for only one. 
I’ve never came up with ten on my list anyway. Last year I came up with only three. The reason? I munch words for a living, so I take semantics seriously. For me, influence is not equal to visibility, nor popularity. Even Mr. Webster will tell you that.
So my lone vote this year goes to the Cebu Bloggers Society. I am a member of this group, but that’s not the reason I am voting for it. I will be the first to say that our group blog needs a lot of improvements here and there, but nevertheless, that blog, this group, has been making waves in Cebu since late last year.
Jun
20
Shu Uemura’s “The Beauty Art Make-Up Competition 2009″ Launch
A day before my birthday, I tagged along with my friend, Roanne, to the launching of Shu Uemura’s “The Beauty Art Make-Up Competition 2009.” It was my first time to be at a beauty event, and I was pleasantly surprised. Let me just say that it is a world way different from the one I am used to. 
Jun
10
The Hedgehog Concept
Filed under career, people, personal
When I was 19, I attended a career and leadership training wherein the speaker introduced us to the Hedgehog Concept. At that time, like many students about to finish college, I didn’t know where I was going or what was ahead of me. I was very passionate about journalism, but I wasn’t sure where it would take me or if it could support the life that I wanted. The Hedgehog Concept changed that. I applied it to my life, and it hasn’t left me ever since. I still use it in making important decisions.
Today, I think I already know where I want to be for the long haul. I feel immensely blessed that I found my niche early, and that it gives me the challenges that I need and provides for the lifestyle that I want. I am very grateful to that man for sharing what he knew. I was prepared early. I saved precious time.
The Hedgehog Concept is simply a Venn diagram of (1) your passion, interests, and hobbies, (2) specialties and skills, and (3) the job market or the times. Somewhere in the middle, the three intersect, and that is your place under the sun.
May
31
Buy a drawing and help the Pens of Hope project
These artists are selling their sketches for Pens of Hope, a project that gathers pens and pencils for poor schoolchildren in remote parts of the country. A pen may be a small thing to us, but it is a big thing for kids whose parents cannot even afford one for them.
No matter how often we convince ourselves that poverty is not an obstacle to success, it just isn’t true. A child needs to at least be properly nourished and have some writing materials to learn. How can a child learn to write when she doesn’t even have a pen?
Let us help these kids write their future. The drawings for sale will be put up for an exhibit at Turtle’s Nest, Gorordo Avenue, Cebu City on June 10, 13, 17, 20, 23, 27, & 30. See you!
May
24
In the Company of Mom: A Mother’s Day Special with The Company and Aiza Seguerra
A few friends and I were invited recently to the “In the Company of Mom: A Mother’s Day Special with The Company and Aiza Seguerra” concert at the Waterfront Hotel in Cebu City.
We went there straight from Maribago Beach Resort and we were halfway late, so we had to race against time. We were a bit ruffled, plus our cameras were confiscated at the entrance, but Aiza’s voice soothed us when we came in the door. I am not exaggerating.
