DAVAO Bloggers Network

Christmas get-together

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 11:46:00 +0000

It's the 1st of December! And what do most people think about when it's the last month of the year? Christmas parties! I'm sure we've all got a few lined up already by now. But what of the bloggers' Christmas party in Davao?

Well, we won't have a full-blown party this time. But, we're going to have a year-end get-together somehwere. Just a gathering of like-minded individuals, somewhere in the city. More on that later!

If you have any ideas, please feel free to leave your comments / suggestions here.

Of I.T. blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 02:55:00 +0000

A new blog just got off the drawing board: ICT Davao (pretty misleading as it makes you think it's the website of the umbrella organization of Davao's I.T. associations...). This one's about information & communications technology in general. By the looks of it, the 4 or so current posts are just reposts or quoted content from other sources. I had hoped it would provide a more refreshing view of the city's I.T. industry.

Other tech blogs in the mix, to name a few, are: EricZoo, Convergent Perspectives, Alleba Blog, Davao Graphic Designer Forum, Davao Technopreneurship, Tech.MoroBlog, ubuntu living, ragingmon.com, Buddy Blogs, and of course, IT talks!.

Quite a comeback

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:29:00 +0000

Mindanao Bloggers Summit participant from Cotabato, Richard Diongson, had his Google account hijacked recently. He couldn't access his Gmail nor his Blogger accounts. What a drag!!

But he didn't let this get him down. Now he has a brand new blog, still named Pulse Circle, but now running on WordPress and hosted by Winston of Batang Yagit. Check it out!

Blog on, Chad!

More new blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 14:20:00 +0000

Andrew and Ria's cousin, Gwing Cabreira, now has her own blog. And the name's so witty, too: Bloggwing. Check it out!

The Usual Suspects group also now has its own site and cool domain: www.theusualsuspects.mobi. It's where the group discusses and presents future blogging-related activities for Davao and beyond.

Mam Bebs gets an online presence

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 17:09:00 +0000

Mam Bebs Bakeshop, whose delectable pastries we gave away to the speakers of the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit last 27 October 2007 as our tokens of appreciation, just got its own blog site: http://mambebs.blogspot.com. Check it out!

Speaking of new sites, I'm also going to do one for Swiss Deli, which was also a sponsor of MBS1. (They gave us tons of food for the bloggers' party!) To make it easy on myself -- and on the deli owners when they start updating their content -- I'm going to use WordPress. More on that later!

Hmmm... It seems more and more food establishments in Davao are getting their own websites and blogs. Good! More links for bloggers! :P

Blog Tees for all

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:37:00 +0000

One of The Usual Suspects, Dom Cimafranca, has a line of t-shirts that was a hit during the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. Take a look at these intriguing designs:

Click here to view more of these blog tees! Currently, they're selling for Php150.00 each. Hopefully, Dom will install a payment gateway, so that bloggers anywhere can order too. I got myself that "My PageRank is higher!" shirt... and the following day one of my blogs dropped one point. Oh well, it's just a number. (Yeah right! hehehe)

Davao Blogspace favico

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 06:44:00 +0000

Thanks to Jehzeel Laurente for the new favorite-icon of the Davao Blogspace!! Jehz has done quite a number of pro bono work for both the Blogspace and Mindanao Bloggers.

The favico is based on the logo design for the Blogspace by Eric Su.

By the way, Jehz and his partner in crime, Winston Almendras, have come up with a cool new blog: PRC Board Exam Results. It is a portal for all professional exams' results, with subscription services for timely reception of results, either by email or SMS. I'm proud to say that I am now a part of this worthy project.

MBS1 Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:59:00 +0000

The most active members of The Usual Suspects (from right): Jun (Paradise Philippines), Andrew, Dom, Blogie, Migs and Ria. Gwing (leftmost) was one of the MBS1 volunteers and a potential member of T.U.S. Kim was there too -- she gave a talk on niche blogging, and she took charge of the registration. Too bad she had to leave before the group photo!

Here are some more photos of the very successful MBS1, courtesy of Tope Cubos:

And these are from Christian Te:

A gigantic THANK YOU to our Sponsors:

Councilor Peter T. Laviña

Join the DigitalFilipino.com Club!

Dimsum Diner

Swiss Deli

Globe Broadband

ACT for Peace Programme

NoKiAHOST.COM P5/day webhosting

Bitstop Networks

Paradise Philippines

BisayaBloggers.com

Davao's Food Huntress

Web Design Philippines

Orange County Real Estate

Web Developer Philippines

Fwendz Diner

Motorcycle Davao

Artcom Printing Services

Cubepixels Design Studio

Eric Clark Su

Lane Systems

Casa Leticia - a boutique business hotel

Mam Bebs Bakeshop

Snap Graphic & Sign

Ecotrans Car Rentals

Judge not lest ye be judged.

noreply@blogger.com (tianx) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:08:00 +0000

Now, that's one catchy blog title.

On to the content then.

What's all the ruckus about the Desperate Housewives racial slur or with The daily show calling the former president a slut, come on, she's been called worse before. These shows are meant to be funny guys... who hasnt laughed at at one point or another when watching either show? Who hasnt laughed at stereotyped races before? Who here has not made fun of any minority? Who here has not laughed when our local comedians do stupid impressions of other people / races / personalities. People, people, people... these are COMEDY shows, they're funny... o well some people just never get it, or they just take things too literally I guess.

Back to my rather long rant... Dont deny it, there ARE sub-par medical schools (and facilities) here in the Philippines. I know of people that refuse to be treated at some of the lesser equipped medical facilities here, and yet, they get offended by that slur on D.H. Come on people... stop being so onion-skinned and face the truth, the Philippines isnt perfect. If we are being made fun of by other people, then it's because of our own doing. Are the Filipinos Perfect? far from it Im sorry to say...

Plus, when all of this is said and done... Im willing to bet some parts of my anatomy that the same people that got "outraged" by the Desperate Housewives slur... will probably buy pirated copies of that show from their friendly neighborhood pirates.

On another note... How come we dont see the heads of state of other countries (plus their citizens) go apeshit when our more "reputable" periodicals portray their leaders or their citizens as evil beings/creatures/-insert nasty description here-. Why? because maybe, just maybe, that they know that these things cant really hurt them.

If you want to make sure that slurs like the one on DH dont happen? maybe you can start with yourself, make you that you dont do it first. We dont live in a perfect world and everyone deserves to get shot at once in a while, and in our case, we have a -lot- of things that we deserve to get shot with.

Bloggers and travel agents together

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 08:56:00 +0000

After some juggling of dates due to the busy schedules of both groups, I was finally able to bring some bloggers and Davao travel agents together for an informal powwow. Five travel agency owners and managers attended, as well as five bloggers including myself. We got together yesterday at Coffee SPOT, whose owner generously sponsored our refreshments. Thanks Rhea!

This was the first of a series of gatherings I've been cooking up for bloggers and other groups. The objecive is two-fold: for more people to appreciate blogs and blogging; and for bloggers to be able to connect with people directly involved in the things that the former write about.

Yesterday was all about the travel and tourism industry. Since some of us blog about places to see in Davao, what better way to get fresh insights and more material than to talk to travel professionals?

The travel agents were clearly eager to know more about the world of blogs. So much so that they've invited me to conduct a blogging workshop for their group, the Davao Association of Tour Operators (DATO). And thanks to that get-together, they've come to realize how powerful bloggers' voices can be. Now they're starting to see that blogs are an effective way to promote their products, namely, tours and travel destinations.

The bloggers, on the other hand, now have access to travel consultants; ergo, now they have sources for richer and broader content for their blogs. For example, Ria Jose of MyDavaoCity.com has been invited to join a major tour to be conducted by DATO this week. The Association is expecting 100+ visitors and will run a special tour of Davao and Samal Island this weekend. And Ria will surely be able to get tons of bloggable material from that -- stuff she might not be able to do on her own.

The travel agents who met up with us were: Alex Divinagracia (Global Wings Travel); Edmund "Mon" Mayormita (Travel Advantage Tours); Ruben Neri (Surelite Travel & Tours); Dizon Namuag (Dizerlin Travel & Tours, based in Panabo); and, Pia Partoza-Montaño (Par Travel & Tours).

The bloggers: Andrew, Blogie, Christian, Dom and Ria.

I'll be coming up with more of these meet-ups real soon. Potential target groups include: hoteliers, restaurateurs, and real estate brokers. Watch out for that!

[Photo courtesy of Christian Te]

Age, Fac ut gaudeam!

noreply@blogger.com (tianx) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 08:48:00 +0000

Roughly translated, that means "Go Ahead, Make my day!" It's written in another language (one that's dead by the way, latin) because...

1. It was said by another person
2. It was quoted during another time
3. It is very unlikely that a person will say that in latin
4. It is very unlikely that a person will say that -ever-

Anyways... I digress... I just thought of them fighting words by Clint Eastwood because of this rather interesting conversation I had earlier with one of my friends. It would seem that some people take the shield of being online one step too far. Being really timid and nice in the real world, while having a brash and agressive personality online. It really does make one wonder tho on which one is the real... well... personality.

I guess this has become a staple of internet personalities as I remember fights online from old BB systems, IRC, groups and whatnot (some dating as much at 12 years ago) that were started by the most unlikely of characters and in between the characters that you usually see at the far end of the table and is quiet during eyeballs and meetings... but o well...

Is it really that unavoidable? Has it become a virtual outlet? Does the internet bring out the worse in us? Or is it just that typing something on a computer screen amplify our own feelings and dehumanizes our target's at the same time?

I wonder...

Mindanao Blog Awards

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 11:30:00 +0000

We're still finalizing the mechanics and other minutiae for the Mindanao Blog Awards, but I'm proud to give you the logo of the Awards! I thought that the vinta would be a very recognizable image of Mindanao, hence the choice. And how do you like the colors? :) I think Andrew did a swell job rendering this logo (considering that he says graphics design isn't his strong suit).

The Mindanao Blog Awards 2007 (MBA2007) is an attached event to the Mindanao Bloggers Summit -- the awarding will be done after the Summit on the 27th of October, and during the bloggers' party.

Mindanao blogs submitted and accepted into the Mindanao Blog Directory are eligible for nomination. We still have to come up with the technical side of this undertaking, but rest assured, you'll have your say in this! Click here for the MBA2007 info page.

BisayaBloggers get-together

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 06:22:00 +0000

Ayeza, the founder of BisayaBloggers.com, is going to be in town this week (I think she's in Manila now). She's based in Canada, but hails from Davao. BisayaBloggers.com is an aggregator site of all blogs owned by Bisaya-speaking Filipinos -- Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray....

So, Ayeza's calling all BisayaBloggers for a get-together this 18 August at Yellow Hauz, around 6pm. Actually, I heard that some bloggers are hanging out at Yellow Hauz on a daily basis.

Also, Ayeza and I will be partying at cups&lowercase this 15th. It's a party called Delirium. Tickets are sold at P250 each, but it's a drink-all-you-can gig the whole night, so it should be worth it. I do have a couple more tickets I can give away, so if you're interested, just say so!

Geeky night-out with Aileen et al

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 09:59:00 +0000

The title says it all. But yeah, it was fun. Read all about it over at Aileen's blog.

Here's Ria, Dennis, Jun, yours truly, Aileen and Drew, at Casa Leticia yesterday. Marc didn't show up, but he made an appearance for pizza today at Boyd's.

Blog and Soul

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:23:00 +0000

I was chatting with Jayvee Fernandez just now, about his contribution to the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. I'm happy to report that he is very enthusiastic about delivering a presentation on problogging and new media. The working title of his talk is "Blogging as a Way of Life".

This tech-savvy mediaman will also talk about the blogging community that he started last May called The Blog and Soul Movement. Blog and Soul is an admirable undertaking that I'm certain will help push blogging into the mainstream.

Jayvee is a Technology channel editor for b5media Inc, which is probably the largest blog network in the world. Another way of looking at this network is, it's problogger central. That's why The Usual Suspects made sure to invite Jayvee to be a part of the upcoming Summit. Good thing Jayvee's been to Davao (for Davao Bloggers Party #1 last March), so it was super easy to convince him to come back!

We're now finalizing our program of activities for the Summit. And by the way, it's now a whole-day affair. And yes, not only free registration, but free lunch as well!

New blogbase for Pete

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 00:35:00 +0000

About a week ago our blogging councilor, Hon. Peter Laviña, has transferred his home blog to WordPress. For those of you who haven't yet, please update your blogrolls to reflect this URL: http://ptlavina.wordpress.com. In a big way I'm happy that he did, because WordPress is a proven and powerful platform. Makes me wonder, though, why he didn't just get his own domain and hosted service....

But I'm also sad that Councilor Pete has abandoned Funchain. This SNS -- which also offers its own blog medium -- was created by a Dabawenyo, Jason Banico, so it's something that we should be proud of. Unfortunately, it's been experiencing some technical problems, and that's why the good councilor felt he had to transfer to something more stable.

But I'm pleased to report that, in the Davao Blogspace, we still have two fervent advocates of Funchain: tj_brewed and Mo. Also, very recently I corresponded with Jason regarding a problem with Funchain's feeds, and he acted on it post-haste. So there's still hope, folks!

Here's another new blog by Councilor Pete, a journal of his motions and actions and other -ions in the Sangguniang Panlungsod: http://lavinavotes.blogspot.com.

Proudly Pinoy!

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:21:00 +0000

As much as I am proud to be a Dabawenyo, I'm also very proud to be a Filipino. I take pride in my heritage, in my nation's history (even though it's a bit tarnished by unfortunate events). That's why I'm posting this beautifully-crafted "Proudly Pinoy" logo on all my blogs.

This visual creation is the masterpiece of Joe Talisic of Guba, Cebu. Out of 297 entries in this nationalistic logo design competition, this one was ajudged the best. There were countless others that could've made the top of the list -- and I'm sure the judges had a difficult time deciding on one winning entry.

In an interview with Mr Talisic, I found out that the guy's based in Qatar, working as a senior art director for an ad agency in Doha. You're having mixed feelings right now, aren't you? You feel proud that we have such talent being gainfully employed by powerful corporations... but somewhat disappointed that we couldn't keep him here? That's how I feel anyway.

And yet, we mustn't forget that these overseas Filipino workers are what's propping our nation up. Let's be proud of them. Let's be proud to be Filipino.

You got blogged!

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 10:13:00 +0000

The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit just got more interesting. In the hopes of promoting the Summit and the blogs of Mindanao, the organizers have come up with a unique blogging contest for everyone: You got blogged! DigitalFilipino.com / MinanaoBloggers.com Review-a-Blog Competition. The official announcement is on this page.

Check it out: three winners will get $150, $100 and $50 to start with. Depending on how many more sponsors come on board, the prizes just might go higher!

Are you a Mindanaoan blogger? Submit your blog to the Mindanao Blog Directory and get a chance to have your blog reviewed! Winning reviews will also mean prizes for the owners or authors of the reviewed blogs. And you can join the competition as well -- but try not to review your own blog. ;)

This competition is co-presented by DigitalFilipino.com -- join the DigitalFilipino.com Club! The "You got blogged!" title was Migs' idea, and the link badge was designed and created by Jehz.

Shameless Plug

noreply@blogger.com (tianx) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:25:00 +0000

I knew I forgot something... Anyways, Me, Myself and I decided to start another blog and I think Im running out of split personalities in which to blog in. I usually get in character when typing up a blog, but sometimes, things just get too messy and I forget which blog Im typing on (the consequence of having more blogs than fingers on a hand).

Anyways, feel free to visit my new (one week old) blog. The tianx project. Nothing fancy, just some stuff to make you laugh, or go WTF.

Winning the 1st race of your life

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 05:57:00 +0000

To my friend and fellow blogger Dennis, Happy Conception Day!!!

Well, he did say that he was conceived a couple of decades ago on this day. :)

I have a similar anecdote. My folks say I was conceived in Rome when they were on their honeymoon. So they'd wanted to name me "Jerome" -- also because they liked J-names -- but my cousin beat me to it. Hahaha! He was born in May, and I was born... well whaddaya know! I was born in July. ;)

Second Davao blog party?

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 18:26:00 +0000

People have been asking me when The Usual Suspects will organize a sequel to the Davao Blog Party #1. Well, let's see now... Why not a get-together in time for Kadayawan? It doesn't really have to be something that's so planned like the first one. We could just meet up somewhere during the Kadayawan festivities, right?

What say you, my fellow Dabawenyo bloggers?

Si Ako

noreply@blogger.com (MANDAYA MOORE: Ang bayot sa bukid) — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 06:16:00 +0000

Ako si Mandaya Moore-Orlis, ang bayot sa bukid. You can call me Mandy.

Eto ang itsura ko.

Ewan ko ba kay Blogie at bakit ako inimbitahang magsulat dito. Ako naman, feeling artista, tanggap agad ng offer.

Bilang panimula, eto na muna:

May kaibigan akong nurse sa US na umuwi ng Pilipinas. Tinanong niya ako kung saan maganda magpa-rebond ng buhok. Sinabi ko sa kanya kung saan sosyal at may kamahalan ang singil.

Pero ang kinalabasan, parang di na-rebond. P5,000 ang siningil sa kanya.

Tinawagan ko ang salon. Sabi sa akin, pabalikin daw ang friend ko at aayusin nila.

Bumalik naman ang bakla. Pero paglabas nya ng salon, ganito pa rin ang resulta:

Eto pa.

At eto pa.

Ang name ng salon? PHILOSOPHY SPA.

Davao Blogspace is back online!

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:26:00 +0000

At last, I've been able to get the Davao Blogspace -- this blog's big brother -- up and running again! Whew!! I've tried to put it back to its original form, and I think I've managed just that. However, I'm now thinking of redesigning the aggregator site... Anyone care to help me out?

Also, I'm happy to announce that the DVO Bloggers Network now has one more contributor in its stable of bloggers. Please welcome Mandaya Moore!!! Oh I'm sorry, it's Moore-Orlis now. I'll let him do his own introduction, because frankly I wouldn't know how to, he/she is so complex... ;)

Quick Evolution of Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (tianx) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 10:30:00 +0000

For a long time it was all right for a woman to keep a diary, but it sounded too fruity for men.

So men decided to call it a journal , now sensitive men can set down their thoughts without appearing too sensitive.

But that wasn't enough, even though they didn't want to appear too sensitive, they still wanted people to know what they were thinking, so they renamed it to blogging.

Now, Everyone knows everyone else's innermost thoughts, criticisms, likes and dislikes, but then they no longer call it a diary or a journal, but a blog. Just a change in name, and everyone's ok with it.

Isn't it time you made one for yourself?

The Usual Suspects

noreply@blogger.com (Blogie) — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 08:51:00 +0000

When our group made a splash in the Davao blogging scene last 17 March 2007, we made such a wonderful mess that bloggers started pointing fingers in our direction when people asked about blog-related activities here.

"Who organized the blog party?" "Who came up with this seminar?" "Who's bright idea is this blogging event?" And in answer: "the usual suspects."

Hence the name of this group of bloggers in Davao City, The Usual Suspects™. We are: Andrew, Dennis, Dom, Jun, Kim, Marc, and Ria (you'll find our links on the blogroll). I guess I'm the de facto head honcho of the bunch, but that's only because of generational seniority. But in terms of blogging, Andrew and Dennis surpass me by a few Zodiacs.

We come from different backgrounds, aspire to various dreams, but we are of the same mind when it comes to our goal: to enhance and push forward the Davao blogosphere. During the first-ever Davao bloggers party last March, we were pleasantly surprised that we were able to gather more than 50 people together. This gave us the inspiration to organize more stuff to do for local bloggers.

And not only that! We're also gearing up for the heightened awareness of blogging as a communications tool among the city's businesses. We've been getting requests for how-to seminars, etc. And we're going to do just that in the near future.

Care to join us?