iBlog: The 8th Philippine Blogging Summit

I’ve become partly a schizoid for the past weeks. Whose conversations consisted primarily of asking for the answers which I didn’t hear during a test feedback or the other way around where I was the one answering the queries of my seatmates. It was really enriching to be in such little talk (as I wasn’t really fond of much talking) until I realized that I need to amuse myself with stories from other people. You know, non-nursing related people.

So I blocked off May 26 in my schedule and attended the second day of iBlog: The 8^th Philippine Blogging Summit at the Malcolm Theater of the University of the Philippines.

“I blog about love,” Rem Tanauan shared during our initial convention that morning. He was one of the speakers in the event who talked about “The Soul of Blogging”. He was very engaging to talk to. I found some his ideas on religion and spirituality similar to mine.  He advocates for the more philosophical take on love and how we can find it even in the most non-conspicuous of places. He invited me to join the Inner Peace Foundation during one of its meetings. I might give that a shot soon.

I was with my schoolmate, JR Quiambao of www.strifeofcloud.com, that day and we also got to meet other bloggers who are almost near our age range. I don’t know if the youth are getting more engaged in blogging or I’m just getting older.Haha!

As a soon-to-be nurse, one of the topics I was looking forward to was the one by Nurse Alvin Dakis who talked about increasing health information through blogging. I started a health blog once but had difficulty maintaining it since I found it too cumbersome. Alvin and I had a little talk after the event and he reaffirmed that the most challenging part of blogging about the topics is “katamaran.” I sure could relate!

During the event, I tweeted “I love the people at our back. Hilarious.” They were rather quite a rowdy audience but their quips and side comments were entertaining. Later on, we got to meet them. The girl, who is a nurse by profession, was also the vocalist of the band Ang Amihan. She was with her boyfriend who was the most unruly in the group behind us. During the raffle of the fun run of Unilab, he was very vocal about not wanting to be picked since he wanted the iBlog t-shirt. Guess who won the free fun run ticket?

Flow Galindez was there as the host of the event together with Ron Magaru.

Fritz Villafuerte, owner of Blogger Shirts, was also there. We didn’t have the chance talk much during the event but I would love to hear him talk about business and financing soon.

The very influential Ms. Janette Toral was one of the organizers. She seemed to be really nice and genuine woman. I wanted to hug her after the picture taking but I figured we’re hardly acquainted yet. PBB Teens?!?

After the event, our group had the chance to talk more with Rem about his views on spirituality. Ang saya nya kausap! J

It was nice to meet new and younger people from the blogosphere. Then again this question haunted me throughout the day, “Tungkol saan yung blog mo?” I cringed every time, not knowing what to answer. Politics? Society? Rantings? Food? Literary? Probably, “Personal” would be the best answer. But then again, there must be a topic which predominates my blog. Argg, wag na nga pagisipan, ayoko ma-stress.HAHA 

It was nice meeting people at iBlog8. I hope I meet more bloggers in the next blog summits!J

How to Start a Porn Blog

A lot of niche blogs are currently mushrooming over the net. Blogs on food, photography, music, and other interests have already gained considerable influence and following. But have you ever stumbled upon someone blogging about pornography? Given the big bucks that the porn industry gains, plus the huge number of virtual voyeurists, I am certain that this idea would be a big hit! Not that I am for these types of blogs but think about it, these blogs could haul all the advertising conglomerates and turn this taboo niche into a money making strategy. 

I am sorry to burst your bubble but this entry won’t teach you how to technically start a porn blog.(sorry for the misleading title) But rather I shall share to you my concept of a porn review blog should I decide to start one. 

Here they are:

BoyAcads at BloggersFest in Thunderbird Resort, Rizal

Blogging has definitely gone milestones in the Philippines. It has evolved into a total social experience from just mere visiting, commenting, and following other peoples’ blog to actual face-to-face interactions that allow bloggers to know more about their co-bloggers minus being in front of the computer screen. 

I recently attended BloggerFest, an event organized by Mr.Azrael Coladilla from the Manila Bloggers Network. It was a one day affair filled with workshops, talks, and mentorships, attended by almost 200 registered bloggers. It was held at the Thurderbird Resort Event Center at Binangonan, Rizal.

The first speech came from no less than the organizer himself, Mr. Coladilla who talked about the basics of blogging. Now, if he was a salesman, blogging as his product, he would definitely put me to a deal with the advantages and opportunities one could get from blogging.

The next talk came from blogger celebrity Mica Rodriguez of www.micamyx.com who shared her experience and tips in personal blogging. Listening to her made me think about the current status and the lacking elements in my previous blog design. She also pointed out the importance of blogging ethics, discerning what is bloggable and not.

I automatically used to block all technical sides of blogging from my brain when bloggers start to talk about feed, traffic, etc. , thinking I wouldn’t understand its complexity. Jonel Uy’s talk was very important since I got to understand basically what SEO is, the importance of keywords, and how to maximize weight of the posts in the search engines. For some reason he reminded me of my classmate, Carl Ortiz. Perhaps, it’s because their similar way of talking.

Another niche blogger, Anton Carranza of www.pusangkalye.net, shared his opinions on Photo blogging and responsibility of taking quality photos.

Several workshop sessions also set up. Niche blogging on Music, Food, and Photography were the topics of choice. I attended the Music and Coverage blogging where Justin Gabriel of www.justinbreathes.com and Mr. Coladilla shared their experiences on event coverage. I personally like the idea of Justin that goes like, “There is no such thing as good and bad music, only music that you like and don’t like.” After the talk we were introduced to a band named INDIOS, where we had a sort of press conference and applied what we learned from the talk.

The next talk was from Arvin Ello who talked about the importance of revision and beating the writer’s block. While the tips on getting inspiration from writing were particularly helpful, I didn’t quite get the part about the muse and the dwende. I must be spacing out that time.

JP De Leon or www.kampeonngpagibig.com seems to be a real fun guy. I loved the theatrical sense of his music-ushered entrance as he walked on the stage. His humor really stood out among the speakers of the day. Oh yeah, he talked about domain and DNS Management for blogs.

Fitz Villafuerte or www.fitzvillafuerte.com talked about “How to Write Awesome Blog Posts”. I was really looking forward to hearing this part of the program. His tips were practical as they were easy to apply in writing posts.

Overall, BloggerFest seems to be a success not only to the organizers but also to the attendees. I definitely learned a lot and got to meet people from the online community in my first attended blogger’s event. I’d be looking forward to BloggersFest next year!

** Special thanks to Kuya Anton for lending me his pictures. :)

How Blogging could Revolutionize Philippine Education

In Francis Bacon’s “Of Studies”, he said that it is in the act of writing that makes a man precise and it is in reading where a man is made whole. Granting that the first statement is true, I wonder why hasn’t blogging been utilized in educating the youth? In an article by BBC News UK entitled “Academics give lessons on blogs” by Shola Adenekan, it was mentioned that Warwick University already noticed the benefits of blogging and gave its students free space on their server, allowing them to have their own blogs for academic and personal use. 

While we may not have the monetary resources to provide computer stations in every school similar to the university above, we have internet cafes in every corner and street. We have cafes going low as 5 pesos per quarter-hour and 15 pesos for a whole. With regard to the issues of that keeping a blog may be too tedious, we now have blogging platforms such as Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr where setting up a blog only requires the technical skills of clicking, dragging, and reading instructions.

I dream of a Philippines where you no longer take the hassle of printing out college papers only to be read by your professor, kept in a cabinet, and disposed of when the semester ends. 

By blogging, you take your papers/essays/reflections to the next level by sharing to the online community your work. This allows students to:

• Share their perspective on different issues that plague our country today. This may contribute to the holistic development of students making them socially aware and proactive citizens
• Become more accurate with their facts and more responsible for what they write since they are accountable for what they post
• Interact with other people via online means by reading, subscribing, and commenting on other’s post as blogging is a form a social media.
• Improve their grammar and writing styles. According to educationworld.com, several researchers already stated that students who blog “write more, write in greater detail, and take greater care with spelling, grammar, and punctuation, when they are writing to an authentic audience over the Internet”.
• Be exposed to different perspectives, opinions, and experiences that may facilitate their understanding, enrich their knowledge, and supplement their learning obtained from the traditional classroom set up. This is in congruence with an article by Stephen Downes (2004) where he said that the blogging, especially those that reflect the teachings in class, brings life into learning.

This can also have a beneficial effect for the faculty members should they make their own academic blogs since blogging can be employed as a means of:

• Distributing supplemental notes online in a jiffy so that it could be accessible to all
• Having as an out-of-the-classroom interaction venue where students can post questions about the topics left unanswered or unasked in class.

In a nutshell, I believe blogging can be an effective tool in revolutionizing the Philippine educational system. Just imagine your teacher requiring the class to come up with their blogs where they can post their reflections and essays. The teacher gives then feedback in the form of comments left on the student’s blog. Wouldn’t that be more convenient and cost effective than the students printing their work and submitting it personally to the teacher who is then left with layers and layers of paper? 

*Click the names of the author for the complete source material
Photo from here

BoyAcads in Party Pilipinas!

 Last Sunday, me and some blogger friends were invited to watch GMA’s newest Sunday musical variety show, Party Pilipinas. Although I’m not very fond of watching the television, Party Pilipinas also dubbed as PP, proved to me that Filipino shows can do as much as their foreign counterparts.

Although there may be glitches here and there as would in any live show expect to have, the professionalism the artists had shown was very remarkable. We actually arrived at the PP studio really early at 9:00am (the show starts at 11:00 since it’s live)   that’s why we got to witness the dry runs and the final polishing of the production numbers. By the way I want to thank Kuya JR for assisting us at GMA and giving us seats near the stage and Kuya Richard for inviting us.

There were also some social media people with us, the moderators of the Party Pilipinas group in Facebook and some Twitter users.

The productions were very enjoyable while the performers were themselves stunning. I saw Kyla and Mark Bautista, who looked even better live. Exceptionally breathtaking were Rhian Ramos, Heart Evangelista, Bianca King, Sarah Labahti and and Iza Calzado. Equally dashing are Starstruck hunk Aljur Abrenica who bare-chestedly danced through the stage and the fair skinned Gian Magdangal.

The song number of teenage tandem of Elmo Magalona and Julie Ann San Jose were one of my favorites. Julie’s voice was really powerful… she can actually be the next Charice! While Elmo’s rapping reminded me of his late father, Francis Magalona.

La Diva was very really good. Having a background in singing, I can tell that they are actually one of the best performers in the show since their voices really blended well and nakakaumay na rin kasi ang birit ng birit. Overall, they sounded real good, worthy of the title of “La Diva”.

Of course who would miss the “oldies” in the show – Jaya, Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez. Upon seeing Jaya, I could say that she wasn’t so dark after all and she was in my opinion, the most accommodating and the nicest of the artists. 

There was also a Filipino boy group of KPop wannabes who performed. I didn’t even bother to google the name of the group since it was an epic fail for me. They should be removed from the show. I was like poker faced with my jaw dropping  while they were performing. Good thing there was a real KPop group of girls who performed after. It was such a relief. They were really cute and colorful.

April Boy Regino was also there. It was actually a perfect time for him to guest since its Halloween that day. Joke. He performed his decade enduring song, "Di Ko Kayang Tanggapin" with his son and some singers from PP. 

One setback I noticed is the repetition of the cast, unlike their counterpart in Channel 2 where there was a more even distribution of the cast. Probably, the director of PP should do something similar – say, recruit more artists perhaps or ask the singers to host and vice versa?  

Another thing is that, that the admin of GMA should’ve allowed bloggers to bring in their cameras. We were only allowed to bring one for the group so I still have to wait for Kuya Anton’s photos.  Kaya wala pa muna akong pics sa entry na to.

Overall, the people behind Party Pilipinas did a great job of revamping the network's Sunday noontime variety show. The stage design leveled up while artists were themselves very promising. I expect to see better productions soon!

Bino, John, and Me

P.S. I’m currently suffering from LSS from the theme song.. Were gonaa paarrteyyy.. Party Pilipinas na!

Ang Sarap Magging Blogger!

At muling nagbabalik si BoyAcads! Namiss nyo siguro ako no? Actually wala naman nakakapansin talaga na di na ako naguupdate except sa girlfriend ko at si Kuya Anton. Siguro nagtataka kayo kung bakit Prelim exam week namin at nakakapag blog ako no?  Syempre bakasyon au grande ako ngayon..maraming salamat sa aking German measles na akala ko nung una ay allergic reaction lang (pasosyal kasi eh.. allergy daw)

Waw ah.. every year na lang may sakit akong viral.  Suki na yata ako ng UST Health Service pagdating sa mga infectious diseases. Lagi nalang Acute Viral Exanthem ung nasa reseta. At masama pa, laging muka ko ang natatamaan ng beke,bulutong o tigdas. WTF diba? But please.. not the face! Spare the face!

Naalala ko last year, sobrang depressed ko kasi tila nagging uncemented road ang muka ko dail sa dami ng bakubako. Siguro ung theme song ng mga bulutong ko non ay ung "Breaking Free" ng High School Musical sa sobrang dame. Di ko talaga kinaya yun. Dun ko na lang naexperience na gawan at implementan ng sariling Nursing Care Plan ang sarili ko. Dyahe diba?  Pero ok na ngayon, pogi parn naman diba?

Dahil sa sobrang ka ep-s ko, minsan sa bahay pa lang ina-assess ko na sarili ko using the knowledge that I have earned. (Me ganun?) Bago pa ako pumunta sa clinic, may diagnosis na ako na ako mismo gumawa. Parang for confirmation na lang talaga para makakuha ng medical certificate. Parang nung thursday, pumunta ako sa clinic at sabi ko lang, "may measles po yata ako". Pero sa loob looban ko medyo sure naman ako na measles nga iyon. Todo explain pa si doktora kung ano sakit na yun pero ok naman, magaling naman sya magexplain. Pero sa isip ko, sinasabi ko nang "I know riigghhht!?!" habang nageexplain sya kung bakit di ako pwede lumapit sa buntis at kung bakit kelangan taasan ko ang oral fluid intake.

Nagdaan ang dalawang araw, at ang isolation for 7 days instruction ko ay medyo hindi nagging isolation dahil nakipagmeet ako sa mga bloggers. Sina Kuya John, Ate Anna, Kuya Rico, Ate Kaitee, Kuya Jepoy, Kuya Glenn, at Kuya Anton. Ayun kain kain, kwento kwento, lakad lakad. Sarap talaga pag libre! :)

P.S.: Nais ko po magpasalamat kay Ate Ana Crispino at sa kanyang asawa sa pagsponsor sa akin ng NBA fully loaded meal at mga chocolates na galing Saudi. Naway di po kayo magsawa sa pagtulong sa mga higit na nangangailangan. Joke lang po :)

1st Blogger's Meet and Greet

One thing I learned as I finished reading Tuesday's with Morrie is to "invest" in people. Surround yourself with people, indulge in meaningful conversations, enjoy their diversity, and cultivate these relationships. Truly, my investment came a long way in the 1st blogger's meet up (Oo, First sa akin, second na sakanila.hehe). 

I got to meet the some of the wonderful people of the blogosphere.  It was really a fun night at Pier One, Mall of Asia Grounds except for the fact na nawala ako at napa-alay lakad ng di oras. (Lecheng guard kasi! Pinapunta ba naman ako sa pinakadulo ng MOA tapos wala naman pala dun ang Pier One).  Nagenjoy din ako sa pag commute going to the venue kasi nag-LRT ako. Ang babaw nanaman ng blog post ko, nahiya tuloy ako sa mga ibang bloggers dyan na may sense talaga ang sinasabi at sobrang galing magsulat (At maganda ang structure nila.LOL) 

Dyahe lang din kasi nakauniform pa ako. Kakagaling ko lang sa duty nyan eh, buti nga agad natapos at around 8:30 (Tsaka na ung post ko about the duty, badtrip din un eh.)

Anyway , I really enjoyed the night, sobrang laugh trip kasi. I've never really thought about how blogging could be a social thing. Andame ko talaga natutunan sa mga grown up people. este, sa mga wise people pala. 

I'm so looking forward to the next bloggers' meet up. :)

P.S. Currently nagbabasa ako ngayon ng mga blogs ng mga tao.hehe Enjoy pala. :)

I'm staying with Blogspot. :)

Pagkatapos ng aking pagninilay-nilay ukol sa desisyon kung anong plataporma ang akin gagamitin para sa aking palanet (Filipino translation of the word "blog" - thanks YJ!), aking napagtanto na babalik na lamang ako sa dati kong palanet, ang Boy Acads sa kadahilanang maayos na ang koneksyon ng aking internet sa Blogger.com. Ayun! Dito na ako ulit! :)