I Decided To Write About It After 10 Days: “Walang Basagan Ng Trip” (iBlog 8: The 8th Philippine Blogging Summit)

I had a lightbulb moment while scratching my chin, thinking of postponing my growing concern on procrastination:

“I was not procrastinating! I was just ‘greenhousing’ my ideas.”

That’s my vicious alter ego talking. We’re about to do a high five when… Nah, it’s just another excuse for not moving on a project.

But really, what does it take to be able to write about an event that happened 10 days ago?
And what would it cost me if I don’t?

Readership? Likeability? Investors? Traffic? Marketable media kit?

Wow. I have nothing to lose.

Maybe just yet. Because them, bloggers and us, wanna-bloggers were gathered into one event which shared nuggets of practical wisdom on how we can win them at

the ‘iBlog 8: The 8^th Philippine Blogging Summit on May 25-26, 2012 at the Malcolm Theater, UP College of Law, UP Diliman.
Yes, it’s FREE. The generosity of the spearheader, organizers, sponsors and attendees were heartwarming! It’s teeming with blog links, ideas and networking opportunities! Nobody was without a circle during lunch and breaks.

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When you mix 300 or so people in a wi-fi enabled room, you’d expect some sort of heckling, bickering, bashing and ego-tripping. I guess the first speaker (who, mind you, got just 2 hours of sleep) set the tone light, carefree and let’s-be-tolerant-here-yeah-we-got-our-own-style by leaving a short and sweet reminder. “Walang basagan ng trip!” An inside joke right there.

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The first day was about taking blogs to the next level. It’s targeted for bloggers, marketers, businesses and entrepreneurs wanting to understand how to tap blogs as a medium to promote their products and services to generate income. The second day was for everyone interested about blogging.

It might be interesting to know that 3.8 billion was spent on on-line advertising from June to September 2011 according to Nielsen. Mr. Carlo Ople shared about creating a ‘Media Kit’ that could give you edge when you present to PR, marketing companies and investor:

1. About the blog
2. Traffic (visitors and page views)
3. Social foot prints
4. Proposal and rates

Blog was firstly about passion, he reminded bloggers before he closed.
Hence,

Relentless Passion : Business Model =

Win!

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All bases were covered in two days.

SEO. Inbound Marketing. Online Branding. Social Media Traffic. Freedom of Expression. Social Change. Etiquettes. Youth Bloggers. PR. Financial Planning for Bloggers. Soul of Blogging. Politics of Blogging. Comedy Blogging. EduBlogging. Inspiration.  Narration. Advocacy. Legal Issues. Even Health.

Everything To Make Your Blog Stand Out From The Crowd!


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Mr. Boris Joaquin, who talked about “Bloggers, the New PR Community”, said,

“However, we are always excited to send information and photos and build relationship with new and up-and-coming blogs.”

It’s a ray of light for new talents out there.

Mr. Joaquin noted that there should be at least 100 unique daily visitors and 10k monthly viewers. And yes, comments show engagement.

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It’s not an event that’s debate-free.
Question and answer portion spiced up the room. But between, under, over, around and through
Ethics/Expression, Trad/New, Money/Passion, Free/Paid Domain, etc., it’s basically about Me.

Me, my core and credibility.

As Ms. Janette Toral of Digital Filipino listed, it’s for and to:

Be likeable. Be flexible. Influence. Network. Money. Deals. Support. Build brands. Opportunities. Recognition. Save lives.

With fast cycles and free, overflowing information, who can say what significance and shelf life a cyber piece like this has? Who cares?

Maybe that’s the deeper meaning of this 10-day delayed blog post.
More than ‘greenhousing’, some level of looking back was needed. This was why we have backward algorithm in decision-making. This was why we have Backtrax in MYX.

And

Hey, I just blogged this. And this is cheesy. So dear viewer, comment, maybe?

XOXO

Souvenir Shot!

How to take care of your wallet!?

Nothing ruins a wonderful day of shopping other than reaching for your pocket and realizing your leather wallet was lost and your back pocket was ripped. Desperate people with evil minds have roamed around the streets to get the money you worked very hard on. In times of poverty, despair, and misery, people will do anything to have cash for food or for drugs, maybe, we don’t know.

Thieves and snatchers usually target big places with tons of people so they will stay incognito and unnoticed.  They’re like evil ninjas but they target our hard earned pesos. I myself got a taste of these evil ninjas’ evil ways. I got my wallet filched out of my pocket without my awareness and it pissed me off.. a lot.

SO here’s some tips to take care of your beloved leather money holders.

1.       Keep your wallet in front of your pocket

Since we cannot see our own behinds and have very little sensory nerves back there its advisable to keep our wallets on our front pockets. If you sensed a  pretty brave stranger reaching out for your wallet while its on your front pocket, you have all the rights to punch that person on the throat. That would hurt and it will teach him a lesson

2.       Don't thicken up your wallet

Putting a lot of things on your wallet seems pretty usual for most people. Receipts, cards, condoms, those little things adds up as time goes by and before you know it you've got more crap on your wallet than actual money. It's become very hard to fold and will cause a bigger bulge on your pockets. Remember: that the bigger the wallet, the easier it is to see. It will act as a signal for those evil ninjas who wants your money.

Keep your wallet thin. Throw away all the receipts you don't even know why its in there,  dispose all the business cards of people you don’t even talk to and dump  that condom because you aren’t gonna get laid anyway if you got your stolen by these snatchers.

Be Alert, Be Awake.

A thief would not target a person who gives full attention to his valuables and surroundings. Keep a good posture, walk with fast enough, scan the place left to right be confident and blend in.

Its also advisable to touch the pocket which holds your wallet from time to time for the assurance of it not being stolen.

 

4.       Think like a criminal

 I will not judge any of you but if you think like a criminal it will be easier for you to take care of your valuables. Always ask yourself “If I’m a thief, how would I make this hard for myself? What if someone put this here?” Put yourself in the mindset of someone looking to snatch a wallet not to do what they do but to make it difficult for them. 

5.       Your life is more important than your wallet

 There’s a thin line between bravery and stupidity. If there’s like five guys with knives and guns just give the wallet to them. Don’t fight back unless you’re Batman.

It is more important to be safe, alive and awesome rather than to lose some money.

A Gamer's Business Proposal

Nowadays, every time you go to Divisoria or any other tiange or nearby market you probably seen the overflowing number of Angry birds merchandise which are sold in stalls, kiosks, and boutiques. These birds are in a bunch of different stuff - shirts, toys, pens, tumblers and other items that have weird cartoon of an angry bird on it. But aren’t you just getting tired of these items?

Angry birds is a game developed by Rovio which was originally an application for the iPhone and iPad and lately became a computer game too due to insistent public demand and probably because not a lot of  people can afford an overpriced smart phone. The objective of the game is to kill all the sneaky green pigs who stole the birds’ eggs by throwing a bunch of these colorful birds by a interactive slingshot. If you haven’t played this game yet, I am congratulating you.

The game gained so much fame that entrepreneurs, shirt makers and other businessmen thought that if they have items that have these birds on them it might sell and people would love it. And as we can see now, markets and stalls, even some church and of course - the one, the only Divisoria has all these items all over the place.

Amazingly, these businessmen were right. The items sold quite well. We see a bunch of people wearing colorful angry birds shirt which have very cliché taglines like, “take them down”, “up, up and away” and “drop it like its hot”. We can also see students writing with their smartly designed angry birds pen that has a sling shot and a bird at the top of it - It’s a toy, it’s a colorful stick..  No, it’s just a pen.

At first, these merchandise looks fun. Witty shirts, colorful stuff, cute birds - who wouldn’t like that, right? But time quickly killed the angry birds fever. Its becoming old and overused. Even people who haven’t even played the game yet have these items because they think its cute. In a Filipino slang, it looks so “jeje” na..

When I asked a vendor in Divisoria about the sales of the angry birds items she claimed that when these things first got out a lot of people really craved and bought it. They think its cute and colorful that’s why they keep buying these things. But lately, angry birds merchandise buyers are not showing up in their shops anymore. The items remained to be in their shops wanting to be bought.

This kind of phenomena also happened years before. Do you guys remember Plants vs. Zombies? Yeah. You  used to play that game right? Like last year yeah you remember.

There are also a bunch of people who made Plants vs. Zombies merchandise because of the game’s popularity a couple of years back. Same thing happened – it was sold, people bought it, time made it old, became over used and later on sales just went down.

Well, there’s nothing wrong with buying Angry Birds stuff but people will get tired of it easily, it will be out of fashion and later on it will be just another statement killed by the fast pace of time.

Why didn’t they make merchandise from Snake, Space Impact or Tetris? Retro games had more impact to us until now. These are the prototypes of almost all modern games.

So I’m going to make a business proposal that will blow entrepreneurs’ minds! Make merchandise with retro games theme.

Make a Sonic the Hedgehog pen, Mario tumblers, Pacman shirts or Pokemon stuff toys. That would be really cool. It will not go old easily and its more creative.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with buying Angry Birds stuff but it will become dead and old just like other time-kill, easily-finished, modern games. So let’s revive the video games that made our childhood fun and frustrating- the ones that really capture our minds and help made us solve the most ridiculous puzzles.

Kids of all ages will surely love it. It will make them curious and play these retro games that their kuyas and ates or even their parents loved as a child.

Let’s remember the time when Mario search and destroyed different castles to save his beloved Princess Peach, that annoying sound Pac-man make when he swallows pills on a maze while being chased by a bunch of weird looking multi-colored ghosts, and Link saving Hyrule and rescuing his beloved Princess Zelda which, unfortunately, friendzoned him after all his struggles. Bring back the awesome 8-bit animation and soundtracks.

So here’s for the businessmen, entrepreneurs, t-shirt makers, graphic designers and people who sell and make merchandise for a living, don’t just make stuff that will get old in just a couple of months, instead of thinking of another cliché and overused taglines for a bunch of silly birds for your shirt, try reviving the video games that really captured the heart and soul of the people who buy your stuff. Not only it will look cool, it will also give them that nostalgic flashbacks of their childhood and remember the first games that really made them angrier than those silly birds.

Kony 2012? More like Phony 2012!

On March 5, 2012, The advocacy group invisible children released a 30 minute video as part of campaign to raise awareness about Kony and his evil doings in Uganda and seek his capture. The video quickly goes viral and taken the internet by storm.

Invisible children?

Invisible children is an American NGO mainly composed of Filmmakers whose special advocacy are to inform people around the world know the chaotic world in Africa.

According to their website, “Half our work happens on the ground in Central Africa, and the other half happens in the United States.

In Central Africa, all of our programming is a partnership between Invisible Children and LRA-affected communities. We focus on long-term goals that enable children to take responsibility for their futures and the futures of their countries. Our programs are carefully developed initiatives that address the need for quality education, mentorships, the redevelopment of schools, and financial stability. In areas where the LRA is still active, we focus on civilian protection and rehabilitation.

Our work in the United States focuses on advocacy and inspiring America’s youth to “do more than just watch.” We believe that by uniting our voices we can use the systems, influence, and resources of the United States to expedite an end to the conflict.”

Who’s Joseph Kony and what in the world is the LRA?

Joseph Kony, a Ugandan Born leader of the Lord's Resistance Army. The video KONY 2012 by Invisible Children alleges the rebel group of kidnapping, rape and slavery of the children in Uganda. The boys are given guns and trained to fight against their own will.  The girls are turned into sex slaves

According to Discovery News, since he was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2005 on 33 charges including murder, enslavement, rape, pillaging, and forced fighting, he has left Uganda for the bush; his whereabouts are unknown. The LRA now operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic, and may now number in the hundreds.

The Lord’s Resistance Army began life in the early 1980’s as the Holy Spirit Movement, led by a woman called Alice Lakwena who claimed the Holy Spirit had ordered her to overthrow the Ugandan government, which was accused of treating the Acholi people of the North unfairly. As resentment towards the Ugandan government intensified, supporters flocked to Lakwena and the Holy Spirit movement gathered momentum, until a battle won by the government led to Lakwena’s exile.

With no clear direction for the movement, a man claiming to be Lakwena’s cousin, Joseph Kony, took over as leader and rebranded the movement in 1986 as the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony initially stated that the LRA’s mission was to overthrow `the government and rule Uganda based on the Ten Commandments. He rapidly lost support, however, and in frustration Kony began abducting thousands of children to swell its ranks, turning them into killers and unleashing them on villages.

The LRA, a sectarian religious and military group that has operated in northern Uganda and Southern Sudan since 1987. They have since spread their operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. The U.S. Treasury has Kony on its list of “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

Make Kony Famous?

The Kony 2012 goal is to increase awareness of Kony - make him famous. As they said on the video "not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice"

As Jason Russell says that less than one percent of the world knows who Joseph Kony is. If people knew what he had done the American people and the whole world would lead them to do some action.

“The dream would be for Kony to be captured, not killed, and brought to the International Criminal Court to face trial

"The world would know about his crimes and they would watch the trial play out on an international level, seeing a man face justice who got away with abducting children, raping little girls, and mutilating people's faces for 26 years," says Russell.

The American government would send troops in Uganda and assist the Ugandan army in capturing the notorious leader.

The goal of KONY 2012 is for the world to unite to see Kony arrested and prosecuted for his crimes against humanity.

Judel Arugay's Views

It’s funny how my friends and other people suddenly turned into social activists after they watched the Kony 2012 video. In a drop of a hat they cared about these poor abducted kids in Africa and sickened by this Joseph Kony guy. And now they think they’re doing something good and helping by sharing this 30 minute, well-edited, brilliantly explained video by Invisible Children. 

Well, guess what? The internet is mightier and more powerful than they thought it will be. The medium that made it famous is also the thing that will destroy this scam!

Yes, it is a scam. And people from the internet, including me, quickly figured it all out.

People who made this documentary pockets 8 million dollars - 30% goes to Africa and 70% on their wallets.

America wants Africa’s Resources!

Kony 2012 has nothing to do with saving children, nothing to do with getting rid of a warlord, its about getting Africa’s resources. What does Africa got? Oil, Minerals and whole lot of resources and America wants it.

Do you guys really think America can just go to Africa and arrest one warlord? There are thousands of other warlords in Africa more brutal than Kony! Why don’t they show this?

Don’t get me wrong, Joseph Kony is not a good man. What he did to Ugandan children is just disgusting and evil. But do you know that the video is made from 2003? That was nine years ago when Joseph Kony is still strong and in the height of his power. Now he's in an African Rainforest not doing anything and just holding on for dear life. There are even rumors that he is now dead. So what the hell are these American troops doing in Africa if Kony is not a threat anymore? Military intervention seems to be America's solution to problems that have little or nothing to do with them.

And look closely, KONY 2012 is pro-war propaganda film. Do you guys really like another war? Are you freaking crazy? Sending US troops to Uganda for what? Get their resources, have their oil, WAKE UP AMERICA! Don’t make this country turn into another Middle east. It doesn’t work! Its stupid, racist, and pro-war. READ A BOOK! USE YOUR COMMON SENSE!

Here's a video of a ugandan girl talking about this brilliant Kony 2012 scam.

Here are some articles and videos from other people regarding this issue.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/uganda/9131469/Joseph-Kony-2012-growing-outrage-in-Uganda-over-film.html 

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble 

http://justiceinconflict.org/2012/03/07/taking-kony-2012-down-a-notch/ 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/world/africa/uganda-welcomes-oil-but-fears-graft-it-attracts.html?_r=1 

A Museum of Broken Relationships

Just before the love month say ta-ta!,  and while wondering about the number of ladies that flew to Dublin today, I stumbled upon an interesting article about love, upside down. Read on...

What becomes of a garden gnome hurled in fury at a car during a stormy breakup?
Or a teddy bear that was once a Valentine's Day present? A wedding dress from a marriage gone awry? An ax that smashed through household furnitures?

All are on display at the museum of Broken Relationships in the Croatian capital, each with written testimonies telling tales of passion, romance and heartbreak.

 On Valentine's Day, the museum sees its visits almost double.

"The objects that are here represent all the stages of a breakup... and how people go through love," said Drazen Grubisic, a designer and artist who cofounded the museum in 2010 in the Croatian capital.

"We might say it's love museum, just upside down," he said.

The mementos - collected from all over the world - are random and varied, ranging from fake rubber breasts to a cast from a broken leg. Each items come with dates and locations of the relationships, and notes by their anonymous donors.

Some are funny. The note next to a garter belt says: "I never put them on. The relationship might have lasted long if I had."

Some are bitter. The garden gnome flew over a car driven by a husband who turned "arrogant and heartless." It bounced on the asphalt, shattering its face.

"It was a long loop, drawing an arc of time... that defined the end of love," the note from Slovenia said.

An ax from Berlin was used by a woman to smash every piece of furniture her girlfriend had left behind.

"The more the room filled with chopped furniture, (the more) I felt better."

The text by a blue frisbee reads: "Darling, should you ever get a ridiculous idea to walk into a cultural institution like a museum for the first time in your life, you'll remember me."

The museum, located just across from Zagreb's City Hall where couples get married, currently displays some 100 "relics" out of about 1,000 that have been collected from around the world.

Parts of the collection have traveled as far as Manila, London and Singapore to be put on display. In each city, the heartbroken can donate their stuff to the Zagreb museum. 

A prosthetic leg currently showcased in England at the National Centre for Craft and Design , was donated by a war veteran who fell in love with his physical therapist.

A note says it lasted longer than the relationship because it was made of "sturdier material."

The museum itself is the brainchild of a breakup. When Grubisic and cofounder Olinka Vistica, a filmmaker, split up, they got stuck when it came to dividing their sentimental memorabilia. They didn't want to just get rid of it, so they created a museum.

"Maybe sometime in your life you will want to remember some of the good parts of the relationship," Grubisic said.

He said that donors of mementos find the giving therapeutic.

"They can move on," he said. "They also show there's something universal: We all have been brokenhearted at least once."

 

- AP, Philippine Daily Inquirer, February 15, 2012. Images from Google Image.

Cosplay What? I know. Haha!

Up to now, I do not have interest for Cosplays (whether Japanese of Korean). Pardon me cosplayers and enthusiasts.

Oh well, just days ago, I was booked to shoot for a Cosplay. 4 cosplayers.

What my mind told me: "Hay nako. Cosplay yan. Wala ako gaano alam jan no. Kunin ang booking sa shoot o hindi? Okay, sige, sayang... kunin ko na. (sarcastic)."

What the --- I literally freaked with excitement and enthusiasm!

I know not much about cosplays, but I know much about lighting.

Cosplays are just becoming so in this year ( I just realized now).

Shooting fashion is one of my interests in the field of photography. So interesting!

Fashion photographers are in demand these days, and so cosplay photographers too. I realized once again. I enjoy shooting, and so my clients too. I am glad and empowered! :)

Above is my friend Ate Den! She is the one who personally chose me to photoshoot. So happy I had their trust : )

Book now your shoot!

View my photoblog here.

Power!:)

What Do You Do? Turned 360 Degrees.

Few days ago, I found this on my Facebook news feed and thought it’s hilarious! \m/

What do you do? We usually ask people to start a conversation.

What pictures are they seeing, you think, when you share what wakes you up in the a.m.and keeps you up at night?

This site found a blithesome (annoying to some) way to go around the perspective 360 degrees, to see:

what your friends think you do; 

what your parents thinks you do; 

what society thinks you do; 

what your boss thinks you do; 

what you think you do;

what you actually do

After few minutes and few memes other versions appeared on my news feed too... Talk about viral!

 

 

Netizens keep on foraging these True story/You don’t say/Seems Legit-provoking-comments photos and one can create her very own version too!

 

How to Make "This Is What I Think I Do" Image, Step by Step: