2nd Visayas Blogging Summit 2011

Yipee! Another blogging event to attend. This time it's Visayas Blogging Summit 2011. Bloggers all over Visayas islands are invited to join this largest gathering of Visayas bloggers on November 26, 2011 at SM City Cebu. So near and so convenient. :)

This year's theme is Blogging and Beyond. Sounds like the organizers are bringing blogging to the next level. Upholding to the bloggers its social responsibility to the community they were in. But I'm more interest with the talk about personal blogging. :) Plus, I'll going to meet again prominent Cebu Bloggers in town.

But just a few moments ago, I have read this slide presentation from Lloyd Tronco about "Why Visayans Should Blog". Since attending Cebu blog camp this year, I have been thinking about blogging those places I'm going to visit. I have been planning to make another blog, maybe a travel blog. But that plan never materialized. I had been to Canigao island, to Camotes, to Dumaguete, to Danasan Eco Park, Danao City. I could have written hundreds of blogs out from those visits I've done. This slide presentation reminds me of that plan.

I guess, as a Cebuano it is my social responsibility to my home province, Cebu to preserve her people's culture and past. I should have allowed myself to be a Guardian of Cebu's culture and history. I should have allowed myself to be a Chronicler of Cebu's events. Through blogging. Thanks to Mr. Lloyd Tronco for making me realized that. Guess it's not yet too late. I can always start now. Right?

Main organizer for 2011 Visayas Blogging Summit is Cebu Bloggers Society, Inc. With SM City Cebu and Ramon Aboitiz Foundation, Inc as this year's co-organizer. Sponsors include: Watsons, Geiser Maclang, Virtual staff finder, Solidhosting.ph, Cebu Directories and Bluewater Resorts, Honeycomb Finance Consultancy and Pinoy Great Deals. Can't wait for their freebies to be given away to the participants.

Media Partners include: Cebu Daily News, Sunstar, Freeman, ABS CBN and GMA.

Hope and pray that I can join this blogging event. I'll cross my fingers. Can't wait to meet Janette Toral again. And maybe, I could meet Lloyd Tronco, too. Maybe one of these days. Who knows?

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No to mining in Palawan

Lately I am having less television hours. I have read somewhere that it is not healthy to sit long hours in front of the tube. But I always try to watch news at TV to keep myself abreast with current events. It's just that this Saturday, me and my boardmates were hook to an MMK episode featuring a woman on her fight against irresponsible mining in Palawan. And just after one commercial, I was instantly one of her fan. This blog post is my response to her call to fight against irresponsible mining in Palawan (and in other parts of the Philippines).

I would love to visit Palawan one of these days. Palawan is my top places I would love to visit. To quote no2mininginpalawan.com :

National Geographic named Palawan as one of its top-20 destinations for 2011. It has 17 Key Biodiversity Areas and two UNESCO World Heritage Sites that are at risk from mining. If we don't do anything, the future for Palawan's indigenous people and rare endemic species is bleak.

So please sign the petition, then inform your friends. Then sign up at http://no2mininginpalawan.com/.

My Lakbayan grade is C!

How much of the Philippines have you visited? Find out at Lakbayan!

Created by Eugene Villar. Had fun mapping those place I have been to. Try and see for yourselves. :)

felt hopeless and afraid...

Just last week, I received a text message from my cousin. It was not just an ordinary text message. It contains bad news. Tiya Amada died. So you may know, Tiya Amada (or Tiya Mada – the way we cousins call her) was the eldest sister of my mother. She was the eldest among ten broods of children of my late maternal grandparents. And my mother was their pampered youngest one. Until now, even at their old age, my aunts and my uncles tend to pamper my mother.

Call me strange, weird, unusual, peculiar or whatever, but I have other concerns about Tiya Mada’s death. Tiya Mada died lonely (or so I thought she was). She did not marry. She didn’t have a child. She died as an old maid. She was not even able to celebrate her birthday this year, because she died two days prior her birthday (That’s was so sad). They said, during her younger years, she is sooo maldita and heartless. She would spank and scold her younger siblings at a slight mistake. My mother managed to escape most of the time, because she would just play around most of the time. J A few of my older cousins experienced the wrath of Tiya Mada. Because during school breaks, my aunts and uncles would send my older counsins to Caceres (a small barrio at Oslob, a town almost 3-hour drive south of Cebu City). Good thing, I grew up somewhere else.

One of my cousins told me I was a lot like Tiya Mada. Maldita, aggressive, strong-willed and dominant. And now I becoming also an old maid. Huhuhu…. I don’t want to die lonely (in bed). I don’t want to die unmarried. I don’t want to die childless. I don’t want to die an old maid. And above all, I don’t want to die maldita and heartless. So, help me God.

I know, I know, I shouldn’t use His name in vain. But I’m dead serious about this. I don’t want to be like Tiya Mada. I want to be….. I want to be just me, the way You want me to be. My God, please grant my prayers. Make myself worthy for your ‘chosen one’ you prepared for me. Make me a worthy mother for my future children (this I strongly pray). Make me a better person everyday. Make me a lot wiser in love, in relationship, in work, in money, in faith and in life. Make me strong against all the battle I’m going to face in this life knowing You’ll be there by my side always.

Heavenly Father, please do not allow us to grief too long for Tiya Mada. She won’t like it either. She won’t be happy if she saw us grieving.  I love her, unknowingly. Not because she’s my aunt, but because she showed to us that it’s ok to be alone, that it’s ok to be unmarried, that it’s ok to be an old maid. She showed to us how to be strong in life despite her lonesome. I admire her somehow on her firm belief in God. That’s the only characteristic in her I still has to master. Make me like her, who strongly believes in You.

And above all, help me fulfill my promise to her to bring Nanay to Oslob soon. I’ll cross my fingers. 

Lost Friendships

Just recently, I was reconnected with two old friends. Thanks to the social networking site facebook. Facebook has now been my sounding board, lately. Funny but true :”). They were now working together abroad. Both remained together. Both decided to stay together. They had happy years together as friends. I’m happy for both of them.

But our cyber reunion was quite unusual. Because we parted ways during the time when we were not in speaking terms. Our friendship suffered a major blow then and I gave up to them. We didn’t try hard enough to talk and to settle things up. I even forgot now what were the reasons and circumstances back then that broke us apart. This experience simply proves to me that merely forgetting is not enough. It is still best to seek and grant forgiveness.

After a few exchange of messages, we promised to start anew. I guess all of us were now busy browsing each others’ photo album and wall. And what’s more, all of us were still single! (Sigh.) I am now happy that finally I am reconciled with both of my old, good friends. I missed them both. And I wish we could spend some time together again. To make up with lost time. It’s not yet too late, isn’t it? It’s been almost five years I haven’t seen both of them. All of us admitted we have been searching each other in various social networking sites.

I still have other friends I’ve lost before. And maybe some other friends I might also lost along the way as I journey through my life. But I guess, it’s not important how many friends I have. What’s matters most is to keep those friends and loveones that could accept me as who I am. Those ones that truly loves me and I truly love.

As for now, I’m trying hard not to lose Him. I’m trying hard not to be His lost friend no more.

Always Undecided

Girls always change their minds. It’s an excuse I always give to my male friends whenever they would ask me to make a decision. Tatay and my brothers hate it when I reasoned to them that way. Even my married female friends do that to their husbands. It is a perennial habit for girls, for women, for female gender and for the whole feminine world. (At least, that’s what I know from all those female species I know. Though I don’t know if they were enough population to be considered as world).

This awful habit is especially unacceptable when you’re trying to make an impression to someone. And it is most especially unthinkable when you’re making a decision about your future. Like about life or death, about your happiness or misery and about success or downfall.

People say women were gifted with intuition. Merriam-Webster defined it as the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference. Or simply put – quick insight. No scientific basis or rational reasons. Just plain gut feeling.  I’m a heart-over-head type of person. I’m a left-thumb type of person. My emotions prevail over what my reasons say. But my emotions vary from time to time. So that’s make sense. I always ended up changing my mind.

I called home and Nanay just simply told me: Think what makes you happy. Whatever makes me happy is what matters most. Think what I want, not what others want.

Now, decide.

Your Silence Kills Me

I have formally met this man a year and a half ago. I have known him for some time though from afar, but I never had a chance to personally talk to him. He was unreachable then until that formal introduction. We were introduced by his boss whom I was barely acquainted to. Since then, his boss (and all other persons who knew both of us) has been playing matchmaker. And every time I met those people or got a call from them, we would chat and stop for a while and they would tease me about him. I am happy because through this man, I get to have a chance to know these wonderful people, to share a good laugh with them and to cherish an enjoyable conversation with them. I wouldn’t have a chance to rub elbows with these great people if not because of this man. I wish them to be my friends for life. I have many friends, but I only have few friends for life. Hope you got the difference. :’)


Ironic as it may be, this man seems to be an elusive man. Hard to pin down. Mysterious. I can’t get closer to him. I can’t get into him. He is still unreachable. He manages to build a wall around him, which makes it harder to know him. I was forbidden to call. I was forbidden to do missed calls. I was even forbidden to post status updates about him because he was ashamed to people who might know it was about him. (When he sent me that message I made a firm promise to be someone that my man would be proud of! What are my strategies how to achieve it? Well, that’s another blog to read.) What’s left is sending text messages to him, but even that I seldom received replies. Whenever he managed to reply, it was sheer happiness to me. Exaggerated? Nope. But to be honest, his replies makes me happy. That’s it. I hate it when someone is telling me what to do and what not to do. I just don’t understand why I obeyed his rules nevertheless.

He is interesting, I must admit that. He is the complete opposite of me. People around him have only good things to say about him, while people around me have all the bad things to say about me. He is a saint-like person, I’m a perpetual sinner. He is a goody-good stuff; I’m the rotten-one. He lives uprightly; I’m living a not-so-decent life (so they say). People say he is a responsible man, while I can’t even make myself accountable on my own disrespectful acts. Damn. Just realized that I’m not even worthy to be his friend.

A friend told me to always look on the brighter side. Well in this case, there are a lot of good things happened (is happening and will be happening) since I met this man. First, I have gained more acquaintances and more friends through him. One of them is now my confidant. We got to talk not only about him, but also about life, about family, about my relationship with Him, about work, about friendship and about anything under the sun.

Second, during one of our rare chats, I have learned about his passionate love to his mother which made me remember my own mother. I always love my mother. She knew how much I love her. Nanay and I (and even the whole family) has been very vocal about our love for each other. We were never ashamed to say and to declare to the whole world how much we love each other. I have even dedicated a blog about her. (Just check my archive.) But my point here is this: men who love their mothers are good men. Hope he’s no mama’s boy.


And I guess unknowingly he taught me what patience and chastity are all about. Enough said.

Why I wish to attend CEBU BLOG CAMP 2011 ♥♥♥

Been waiting for this event for so long. Finally, I have already filed my vacation leave to attend this year's Cebu Blog Camp. I'm still new to blogging and attending this blog camp would keep the fire inside me to pursue blogging. After reading this year's programme I decided this one going to be great. Why? Ask me why.

Because I will never regret attending this blog camp. You want specific reasons? Read on.

Photography 101

Just got a new digicam last year. It’s a Canon A3300 IS. I had a hard time browsing the manual to learn my camera settings. I have read somewhere that as the owner I’ve got to learn those settings to maximize my camera’s full usage and of course to get good pictures. This topic would help me a lot to ensure that pictures I attached to my blogs were picture perfect. Who knows after this blog camp I might buy myself a new DSLR camera. Being a blogger and photographer is not a bad idea, is it?

Travel 101

I always dream to travel the whole Philippines, then someday to travel the whole world. I took small steps at a time to achieve that dream. Been hanging out with friends who also love to travel. First, we’ve been roaming the whole island of Cebu (and still roaming – Cebu is so full of wonderful nature spots all of us Cebuano can be proud of). Then my friends and I went to Pagadian, Cagayan de Oro, Bohol, Leyte then our farthest so far – Baguio. Soon we will conquer Hongkong and Singapore. And a lot more places to explore. This topic is interesting to get me ready for our upcoming travel trips, here and abroad. Sounds exciting, isn’t it?

Bloggers’ Etiquette 101

I have been working in a corporate office for quiet sometime. Dealing with big boss and middle management down to the rank and file requires certain codes of behavior on most situations.  During meetings, company gatherings, company events. There are certain expectations for social behavior we have to comply.  Been wondering since I received this blog camp invitation what was expected for bloggers since I’m a newbie here. Would love to hear this topic. 

Janette Toral

The first and only time I met her was when I’m a graduating accountancy student almost eight (8) years ago. She was one of the speakers during our e-commerce seminar which was conducted by FINEX Cebu Chapter in coordination with our school’s JFINEX officers. Then a few months after our seminar I’ve started to read her articles in Sun.Star Cebu. Since I’m not a newspaper enthusiast and had a hard time sitting around to read spreadsheet, I’ve read only a few of her articles. I am glad she’s one of the speakers for this blog camp and I would love to meet her again. Too bad I was not able to make it on last year’s blog camp. 

Cebu bloggers

This is obvious. Cebu blog camp is a gathering of Cebu bloggers. And I would love to meet them all. I would love to meet the authors of various blogs I’ve been reading and following.  Guess, I will enjoy this blog camp. Great.

The Cebu blog Camp  is an event organized annually by the Cebu Bloggers of the Blog and Soul Movement which is the educating leg of the Philippine Blog Awards Inc. which has been running for already four years. This is the largest gathering of bloggers in Cebu.

Another reason why I'm excited to attend this blog camp are the sponsors.

THE CEBU BLOG CAMP 2011

is co-presented by

Bronze Sponsors

Geiser Maclang Marketing Communications, Inc.

Media and Institution Partners

Official Web Browser

Official TV Media Partner

Official Online Print Media

Official Photo-Social Media Partner

DONOR

Academy for International Culinary Arts

He loves me. He loves me not.

January 26, 2011


I'm in the middle of a basketball game when a text message came, which I ignored right away. Playing that time were Meralco Bolts, a PBA team against our local shooters, MLhuillier Niños. Mark Cardona looks so cute and so masculine. Everyone was amazed with his patented running hook shots. A man from the audience called him "Captain Hook", which later I have learned was his nickname in the hard court.

A few minutes later, came another text message. It came from an unknown number. The unfamiliar sender identified himself. Yes, he is a HE. He is a cousin of my high school classmate. He asked if he could be friends. I replied yes. And that’s it; I was already distracted from watching that basketball game. And I guess my life has been distracted too because of that text message.

January 29, 2011

My newfound friend has a name. His name is James but my friends call him Papang. (Why? Ask them.) He is an AFP soldier from an armor unit. I don’t know what that unit means. He came from Bicol. He came also from a large family. He said all of the male siblings in their family became a soldier. Also most of his cousins and uncles.

The usual get-to-know-you-more questions via text continue. Then we decided to see each other thru webcam. He looks fine only that he have his comrades all around him goggling on the cam. But what’s peculiar today was his blunt remark on what he feels towards me. And that he would like us to be together for the rest of our lives. I don’t believe in love at first sight. Certainly, not also in love at first webcam chat. Duh!

February 14, 2011

Everyone was busy with flowers, cards, chocolates and gifts. Love is in the air, so they say. But my question is: will my love story be a happy ever after? Hhmmm… Let’s wait and see.



P. S.

Papang greeted me a happy valentines early in the morning (only because he had a hard time to call me during the day because of his training) and it felt nice. Really.