A rather late posting…. I hope the pictures are worth the delay… Of course, I’ll post my pic with somebody I emulate, look up to and admire..

Finally I get to meet Bo Sanchez. And a lot of bloggers too.

Click the link to view all the pictures.

Last Monday, January 29, 2007, magandangbalita.com and MabutingBalita.net were featured in the Manila Bulletin through an email interview by Annaly Jusay of Annalyn.net (Thanks Ajay!). It was a great privilege to be chosen to grace Blog-o-Rama in the TechNews section.

Magandang balita and Mabuting Balita literally means good news, though the latter is more apt for God’s Word. The long term vision for both sites is to become a network that brings positive news, good information and sharing the Gospel values, specially for the Philippines and the Filipinos.

Lately, my entries in magandangbalita.com have been about blogging and bloggers. There is good reason to hope that the local blogosphere will contribute to society. As source and bringer of the Good News and good news themselves. As influencer. As an income-generating activity. As a medium for conversation dialogue and understanding, of peddling ideas, sharing knowledge and collaboration.

Would you like to join me?

Just before the parteeh, I found out many of my comment sections are having problems.

If you want to leave a comment, use please use this post if it works. If not, use the Read-or-die post instead.

I’m really contemplating on a re-design…

Foolish me. And I thought I would be the first to blog about it.
It was awesome! I’ve always known that there is really a blogging community in the Philippines, specially in Manila. This event was supposed to show that. It did and more. There were clamors for a next one. I am sure there will be. Bigger, better and blaster (ok, i just coined that word).

I arrived after working with Abe raffling off some minor prizes. Registering and getting my initial share of the loot - a nifty schwag bag with good things inside, I placed my backback and started signing autographs. No, I am not famous, there was just a “bingo” where you should know as many bloggers as you can. I got to know new bloggers and took pictures (to be posted when I get a faster connection that 56kbps). It was like blog-hopping and posting comments. I said hi, and introduced myself and asked about their blogs and spoke about mine.
Judging by the attendance and the reaction of the sponsors and donors who made the event possible, I can say that the Blog Parteeh was a success. Afterwards, the committee/organizers had an after-party assessment - and - we were already thinking of the next one. Bigger, better, blaster =) I just had to say thatagain.

To all those who attended the event, we would like to thank you for your support and presence. We look forward to seeing you again - offline or online.

Link loves and pictures later.

Not so long ago, from a university not so far away, there was someone who stood up vehemently against a beauty contest by a local IT organization.

This is the earliest recollection I had of Sacha, geek girl and tech evangelist (there should be extraordinaire after that). It was gutsy of her to speak out as she did. I thought she was a bigwig professor from Ateneo. It turned out that she was young and she calls herself a geek girl.
Life went on and I almost forgot about her.

I bumped into her name again when a post in PTB appeared about her million-dollar-laptop idea. Though that bit of advertising was done half-seriously, it generated quite a buzz. I liked the idea very much since in exudes creativity and playfulness. From that time, I re-connected with her blog and regularly checks it.

A couple of posts after, Sacha wrote an entry that struck the “Kuya-instincts” I have (even though I am the youngest in our family). She was in a far away place missing her family and feeling the blues. I made a draft to just encourage and affirm her but procrastination, fear and excuses got in the way. (I just hope this will make up for my “chicken-ness”).

Reading her blog, I assume that this is practically a good sampling of who she really is; though I have a feeling you’ll get more surprises once you know her personally. Someone who has random emacs in her posts template would certainly be interesting.

Digging deeper into her wiki, I’ve discovered early posts such as a Theological discussion, poems, fiction and cats. At the moment, she fancies she is going to be a story-teller, going deep into networking and consuming as much knowledge (and wisdom) as she can.

If Google, IBM or Microsoft are listening, they should sign her up. Now.

If I were GMA, I’d make her CTO of the Philippines.