This is a relatively new spot (with free Wi Fi to boot) in the heart of Bicolandia. Avenue Square has a rich mix of dining establishments and a classy hotel right in the heart of Naga City. There’s ample parking space, everything is clean and the lights just seem to de-stress you. Complete your stay in Camarines Sur by hanging out in Avenue Square.

Personal: Happy Birthday Gina from me, Iani and Tesa.

Update:

HappySlip Meet and Greet on February 7 at the Mag:net Cafe at Bonifacio High Street. I had to decline because it’s a regular work day. Must pay the bills and feed the children first. =) Registration is (or was) at happyslip.yehey.com though the link is not working for me (maybe there is just too much traffic or the registration is over).

Have fun !

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385 484 642 comments (and counting) for her touching first-day post. Wow. Phenomenal!

Christine Gambito, that gorgeous, talented, famous and “rooted” Filipina of HappySlip.com is here in Manila courtesy of the Department of Tourism’s Experience Philippines project. She has been recently appointed as Ambassador for Philippine Tourism (source: Wikipedia)
An RN, Christine she chose to pursue her passion for acting and established her own “broadcast station” - the internet. She created her own channel in YouTube. She has a following that continues to grow. It is safe to think that she has not even begun yet. You can bet she will be guesting in several talk shows, game shows and sitcoms. TV crews will be following her wherever she goes.
As I’ve told many people who have the talent and skill, you can do it (be known, appreciated, acknowledge, make a living, sell, etc) through the web.

Take a cue from one internet celebrity we can call our own, Christine “HappySlip” Gambito.

It would be cool to have a picture taken with her.

Cooler if I can record a video of us talking. Or maybe in a skit. (Jun’s delusions of grandeur)
Via Anton of OurAweSomePlanet.com his post here.

Photo from HappySlip.com’s About page.

Question: How much of what you read online (or offline) is good or positive?

After reading or watching bad news, ask your self: How do I feel? Better or worse? Especially reading or watching negative news before sleeping, you would find yourself more tired or stressed when you wake up.

Try this: read an inspirational story such as those from Chicken Soup for the soul before sleeping for a week. Or find small-town news of ordinary people helping each other out, of that young buy who risked his life to save his friend, you know, the little things that do not make it to the front page. You will notice that you wake up more relaxed and in a better frame of mind.
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The current state of this site is not what I’ve envisioned it to be. The CNN-ish fonts are intentional. I want this site to be the bearer of good tidings and news. ( My other site, MabutingBalita.net is the site for the Good News).

Consider this a beta version. When the site becomes gold, it will be more community-based and less mainstream (meaning, it will not focus on what the big media outfits put out). The real stories and lives of the Filipinos around the world and events that affect them will be its main feature. This is no little task for a full-time employee and family man who also is involved with several organizations and advocacies. (One has to sleep too, you know). If you have ideas on how this can be done or you are willing to help, just drop me a note and let us exchange ideas and collaborate.
For now, I just scour the blogs and my everyday experiences for inspirations. Like these:

Shakey’s Pizza delivers (and no, this is not a paid post) and now you can pay with your Credit Card. I’ve been wondering why there are so few businesses which are taking advantage of this. PLDT has its SWUP after all but I have not heard much after the launch. Taking it a step further, how about a roving “Pay Your Bills through Credit Card” guy? He can take cash too, though that makes him a likely target of mugging but these are just details. The technology and feasibility is there.

Thank God It’s Friday! from Noemi. She left a Macbook, and maybe can include the byline ..Aboutmyrecoveredmacbook hehehe! It was returned (Though I’m not sure if she had fries with that=). Hats off to you guys. That’s customer service, honesty and good guy values we want to see more of everyday. I’m sure that there are a lot more examples of these that are not being reported or discussed. If there are some more, please ping me so we can put them here.

If I become a TV news producer, I would make good deeds the headlines rather than novelty or feel-good fillers. I wish one government station or major network would dare to be the source of good news more than the bad news. On second thought, why not a YouTube-like streaming good news? Paging Karlo, Greg and Web 2.0 guys…

Another great find is from Pedestrian Observer. Filipinos have great talent and artistry, and Charmaine Clamor is making waves in the Jazz scene. She describes her style as Jazzipino, a testament to her roots and influence. More details here.

To cap it off, Chris features an item from Entrepreneur.com.sg praising Filipinos for their friendliness and even suggesting the Philippines may be the Blogging Capital of the World.

Wouldn’t that be great?

Give us more of these good news everyday.

Do we really have our own? Do we need it?  

Yes there is one.

And yes, we need it.

From the CC website:

Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright terms from “All Rights Reserved” to “Some Rights Reserved.”

Though I am not a lawyer, I see  the benefits of having a license that defines what one can or cannot do with a “work.” You can just head on to the Creative Commons or Philippine Commons site (an affiliate of CC and are the lead to make CC compatible with Philippine Laws) for more details .

We applaud the efforts of CC-PH led by Atty. Soriano and Atty. Guerrero with the recent launch last January 14.
PS: PH Bloggers and those who are interested in CC (PH or otherwise): The Deputy Lead, Atty Berne Guerrero also blogs and is a friend. We can set things up with him and his group.

This effort has a lot of implications, especially in this much digitized world. A lot of movements in different industries are already using these licenses with their work. Blogs are the most common I’ve seen so far. Music and other “artistic” outputs can put out their creativity and have the whole world benefit from it. On its social effect, it makes innovation easier with the “Share, Remix, Reuse, - Legally” concept. The CCs just tell you up front what can be done.

This has led to a more “open” world. I dare say that about 90 - 95% of the world is willing to share his work with very little constraints and just a little recognition. Which brings me to EDUCATION.

Bayanihanbooks.org of Greg Moreno had something going with the this post, which I agree with in principle. (we hope to get together with other like-minded people and see what we can come up with.) I hope to do the same for eLearning using the open content or open education concepts. A lot of software have been released under these licenses or have equivalent licenses (am still confused with the lingo) and other sectors have their own contributions too.
The main idea of the CC license I think not only giving credit where it is due, but also sharing and innovation and improvement and moving forward.

So, on this date, Magandangbalita.com and MabutingBalita.net articles are released under Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Philippines.

We all feel for OLPC’s XO.

Though I’ve come aware of Ewayco’s $150 laptop PC since two years ago.

But now, everybody wants to get our hands on an Asus EEE.

As we eagerly await Intel’s Classmate PC proliferation.

Then CES 2008 gives us the Everex cloudbook.

And then Noahpad decides to show up.

Should I trade in my old iBook G4 which has served me quite well and still do?