Me doing the "photocrawl". Lol

It’s that time of the year again where thousands of photographers from around the world flock to the streets and take pictures of random things.  And no, I’m not talking about a global holiday but rather the phenomenon that is Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk.

Three years (and my second one attending!) running, the Worldwide Photowalk shows no signs of slowing and continues to draw photographers from all skill levels to the streets of their cities to capture the essence of their hometowns and share them with the rest of the world.

The Davao City leg of the photowalk will be held at the Bankerohan Public Market on July 24, 2010 at 3:00 in the afternoon and will end at 5:30 sharp.  There’s going to be a pre-shoot orientation by one of Davao’s top photojournalists at 1:00 in the afternoon at the Lispher Inn and of course, true to Davaoeño style, there will be an after party immediately following the Photowalk.

What do you need to join in? A good pair of walking shoes and anything that can take photos.  Don’t worry if you have a camera phone or a point-and-shoot camera, remember that an image is only as good as the one taking it!

See you there!

I’m going with my good friend Xtian this year, so I hope I’ll get better pictures than the ones I got last year.

Zeh iPod touch

Being the klutz that I am, I accidentally cut the sync cable for my
old iPod video (don’t ask me how I did it, I just did.)  So rather
than take the risk of going to the local market and getting a fake
cable, I headed off to AyosDito.ph since I’ve heard a lot
of great things about them and their classified ads service.

I went through their classified ads and was surprised at
the number of great deals that were available for my search.  To make
a long story short, I ended up selling my old iPod video and got
myself a brand new iPod touch in the process.  Was I happy with
AyosDito.ph and their service?  Definitely, not only did I
get something more than I initially wanted but even made a bunch of
great deals along the way.

What really surprised me though is that my first impression of
AyosDito.ph was that it was a marketplace to buy and sell
stuff here in the Philippines but I never imagined it to be a place
where one can browse jobs online as well.  After I finished
buying and selling the stuff that I needed, I went through their jobs
online section and applied for a virtual assistant position for eComm
(crossing my fingers!)
This may sound rather cheesy, but ayos talaga dito sa AyosDito.ph

Everyone’s excited as Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic (the company behind WordPress and Akismet) will be joining us.

For updates, please  follow our Twitter account or you may bookmark the official WordCampPH 2010 site.

For your questions and suggestions,  we have prepared a WordCampPH survey.

WordCamp Philippines 2010 is organized by Avatar Media.

Pandan Green Tea

Si Aida or si Lorna o si Fe!

Wow, that song just played on the radio just as I went to pick up my
home-brewed pandan tea from the kitchen.  The song reminded me of how 3 of my bestest guy friends have been at one time or another been
sought after by a love-crazed individual.  Of course it’s not really a
big issue but it seemed like the song was made especially for her
(just change the names and gender… haha) and that it’s amazing how
a decades-old song can still hit like a ten-wheeler truck when it
comes down to the lyrics.

For me, I love the friendship that I share with my buddies.  I get to
spend time with them, have fun with them and even hang out with their families.  What’s there not to love anyway?  I get all the perks of
being a friend (since they’re really sweet guys)  all without the
issues and dramas of a “romantic” relationship!

Mmmm… must be the pandan tea talking.

Dating tips

I’ve been to many coffee shops, but sad to say, not many serve the kind of latte I want. In Davao, I frequent Kangaroo Coffee Company for my dose of caffeine. IMHO, they serve the best cafe latte. A 12oz mug costs Php71.00—quite cheap compared to the other fancy coffee shops. Aside from the great coffee, what I look forward to every time I order cafe latte at Kangaroo, is the unique latte art that John, the barista, would make for me.

Latte art is an art of creating patterns or designs on the surface of a latte. It can be done by either free pouring or etching. Rosetta (or fern), the most common latte art that you’ll see is done by free pouring. Etching on the other hand is done after the steamed milk has been poured. With the use of a coffee stirrer of some sort, the barista then etches a design on the surface.

Below are some of the latte art that John has made for me. I’m sure there are more, but I have yet to scour my archives for the photos.

Swan

Moomoo?

Mr. Sunshine

Love!

Love Without Fear. Naks!

Curly Boy?

Flower

Jupiter

Sunrise

Woman

I’ll post another batch of photos after a few more trips to Kangaroo.

Before dessert comes a meal of course, so each of us ordered pasta.

I had the grilled veggies pasta.  It’s pasta with grilled zuchinni, broccoli, bell peppers, tomatoes (that’s all I can remember for now), sauteed garlic and onion in olive oil. Talk about a guilt-free, post-badminton dinner.  :)

Grilled Veggies Pasta

Here’s what the rest of the gang ordered:

Shrimp Pasta

Pasta Alfredo

Spanish Chorizo Pasta

When it was time for us to nom cupcakes for dessert, they brought in a vanilla cupcake with a cute red candle on it.  Surprise!

The Surprise Birthday Cupcake

I turned 27 today, but my Avatar Media friends decided to give me an advanced birthday surprise last night.  Aside from the yummy cupcake, the gang also gave me this vintage necklace with a camera pendant. Just perfect for the shutterbug me.

My surprise gift: A super cool bling bling.

I told my friends beforehand that I wouldn’t treat them to food on my birthday, but that I’d give them Swish wallets instead.   It’s been months since I told them that, so I thought of giving it to them yesterday as a surprise treat. Little did I know that it was I who was going to be surprised.  Crybaby me tried so hard to hold back the tears. LOL

The Swish wallet gang at Johnny Cupcakes

There goes my 27th birthday celebration.  We actually went somewhere else for coffee and pancakes, but that’s going to be another post.

We didn’t have anything scheduled for Day 2. I started the day with coffee, panini and choco dome from Coffee Club 101. Before noon, Orman picked us up and announced that we were going to have lunch somewhere with Francis Sablon of Zion Travel. It was Brendel and Lyle who told me that “somewhere” translates to Tupi. I didn’t have any idea how far it was from GenSan city proper until we got to the place. I turned on my GPS to check our exact location, and boy was I thrilled to find out that we actually traveled 37kms just to have lunch at the famous Nadie’s Chicken Hauz.

Naty's Chicken Barbecue

With Sir Francis Sablon of Zion Travel (Photo by Lyle Santos)

After the great lunch, we dropped by Blooming Petals to check out their flower produce. Too bad they were currently spraying the plants, so we were not allowed to check out the farm. I was able to take a few snapshots of the freshly picked flowers though.

White Chrysanthemums

Yellow Chrysanthemums

Pink Chrysanthemums

Green Chrysanthemums

The intense heat was making everybody uneasy and tired. We were about to go home when an angel, a.k.a. Sir Francis, mentioned that there’s this really good halo-halo place just a few kilometers away. In a blink of an eye, everyone was back in the cars. Halo-halo is what everybody needed that time, so off to Koronadal, South Cotabato we went.

Ohaithur, Koronadal City!

The Whole Gang at Apareja Buko Halo-Halo (photo by Orman)

Apareja Buko Halo-Halo boasts of using only the freshest ingredients. The halo-halos are served in fresh buko shells. If my memory serves me right, the halo-halo had corn, nata, kaong, banana, sweet potato, tapioca, buko juice, leche flan and of course, ube ice cream.

From Apareja's signage: Made from well-selected, naturally-ripe, and well-cooked ingredients.

Wala lang. I just like this quack-quack photo. I was chasing these ducks while waiting for my halo-halo.

Feeling refreshed , we went back to GenSan to meet up with Ria who wasn’t able to join our South Cotabato adventure because she had lunch with her cousins.  We still had time to burn, so Orman treated as to Ice Crops’ cheesy bacon melt sandwich.

Davao Bloggers at Ice Crops

Shared a sandwich with Brendel. But I only gave her the other half of the bun, some cheese and some mushrooms. :p

Dinner time came. Avel and Orman brought us to O-oh lang Fishing Resto & Seafoods Grill. I was planning not to eat dinner anymore because I’ve had too much food earlier, but my mind changed in a blink of an eye after seeing all these:

Curacha

Karagatan Soup

Nilasing na Hipon

And my favorites which I gave 5/5 ratings…

Pinaputok na Hipon

Seafood Casserole

The day ended where I started it. We hung out at Coffee Club 101. Lyle and Avel discussed how to go about with the streaming of Queen of South Mindanao Festivals pageant. The girls, on the other hand turned the coffee shop into a photo studio. Lols.

Hear no Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

That’s it for NomNomNom Day2 . Prettified Day 3 post is coming up tomorrow. Be well!

We unpacked our stuff and waited for Sir Avel to pick us up. Lunch he said, was going to be at GenSan’s top pizza, pasta and chicken place— Giacomino’s!

Just as we were finishing our last bites, Orman dropped by to hand us our loot bags. We each got copies of the Gensan Gazer, the festival programme, a Kalilangan shirt, and an ID that screams, I’m a JUDGE!

Don't judge me because I'm the judge.

As Angel, Brendel and Lyle were judges of the the Lakan and Lakambini pageant, we had to rush back to the hotel immediately after lunch to freshen up. An hour before the pageant, we rushed to Robinsons Place to have the 2 lady judges prettified at Envy Me Salon and Spa.

Ria and I had 45 minutes to burn, so we toured Robinsons. We both bought accessories to match our outfits for the judging on Friday. Ria also got herself a pair of sunnies and even had spare Avatar Media business cards printed.

We finished our “mall tour” just in time for Brendel’s finishing touches. Left with only a few minutes before the judge’s call time, the gang wasted no time and rushed to Gaisano Mall for the pageant.

The Davao Bloggers sans Dulce. Angel

We initially sat on the seats reserved for Bloggers and Plurkers, but a few minutes before the show started, we were asked to move to the seats reserved for LGU Officials. Oha, front row seats, baby!

In GenSan, we always get the best seats in the house.

Every General is programmed to be warm, nice and hospitable. My list of general friends grew fast. Before the pageant started, Sir Avel introduced us to the genius behind GenSan Gazer, Mandi and the owner of Envy Me and Piyesta KTV and Restobar, Donna Congson. Sir Avel even introduced me to a bunch of Gensan-based photographers.

On to the pageant… All of the contenders were smashers, but my favorite was Lakan#12. He’s like the younger brother *cough* *cough* that I’ve always wanted.

Lakan #12: Lenard Kim.

Johnny Abad's Filipiniana Collection

Ryan Reyes and Hermany Shaine Lara , LLK 2009

Dave Barbero and Sarashvati Sarkar (2nd Runner Up); Caroline Lim and Gevic Romero (LLK 2010); Maureen Paolo and Jenel Labiana (1st Runner Up)

I’m not a fan of pageants, but I definitely enjoyed watching this one.  A round of applause to Dino Veloso for directing such a great show.

Ria and I had VIP passes to the Havaianas fashion show, so we went back to Robinson’s after the pageant. Having been more than an hour late, we missed it. We proceeded then to the Oval Plaza and caught up with the rest of the gang.

Feel na feel namin ang aming mga outfit, and rumampa ever pa sa Oval.. until we came face to face with the Bb. Gandanghari contestants. @&^$#@%!!!

We knew that the Search for Binibining Gandanghari was on, but we weren’t prepared for what we were about to see. There were 10 pretty, long-legged, fair-skinned, flab-free, gay contenders parading infront of us. The pageant squeezed out every ounce of self esteem I’ve got. Life can be unfair, I tell you. Lols

^%$#&^%^#!@#*($*!!!

Isa ka pa! ^#%$^#@%^#%!!!

We were famished (also read as:  We can’t watch them sexy, pretty gays for another minute else we’ll end up slashing our wrists because of envy) so we headed to Piyesta KTV and Restobar at Robinsons Place.

A group shot while waiting for our food.

The dinner, standing up to the resto’s name, was a feast.  I love vegetables, so my favorite would have to be the pinakbet.  I’m sorry though as there wouldn’t be any food shots here. If I did take photos of the food served that night, I might still be nursing at least 20 fork stab wounds until now. Lol

After dinner, it was camwhoring time. I decided to take portraits in black and white. Here are some of the shots.

Donna, who I nicknamed Prettiness, owns Envy Me and Piyesta

The genius behind Gensan Gazer, Mandi and Bariles himself, Sir Avel Manansala

Orman with the kids.

The Love Triangle. One of my favorite shots from this day's set.

Long day it was, and yes, long post this is.  This is still the first of my 5-part Kalilangan 2010 series.  There’s more photos to post and even more stories to tell.  Thank you for reading this and please stay tuned for the Day 2 post.  Be well!

The Kalilangan Festival fever is on!

Kalilangan is from the Maguindanao word “kalilang” which means celebration. Every February 27th of the year, the Tuna Capital of the Philippines commemorates the landing of the city’s founder, Gen. Paulino Santos, at the shores of Sarangani Bay.

Next week, Avatar Media and other blogger friends will be spending 5 days in General Santos City. Aside from experiencing Kalilangan, we’ll hang out with our awesome GenSan friends, meet new Generals, enjoy great food, meet stars, and if time permits, enjoy the beaches!

The festival will include the following activities:  Lakan and Lakambini Pageant, Dance Sports Competition, Live Concerts,  Strings Acoustics Competition, Queen of the Festivals Pageant, Street Parties, and more.

Click HERE to view all Kalilangan activities.

P.S.

Every visit to GenSan is memorable. I was browsing my GenSan gallery earlier, and I can’t help but reminisce, smile, and even drool. Let me share with you some of the photos from last year’s Tuna Festival.

[View with PicLens]

We challenged Kring to try  zorbing at Zorb Park and ziplining at Zip City. The Avatar Media gang was in tow to help document the dares, and boy was it fun “torturing” Kring.

First stop, the Zorb.

FunnySexy being strapped to the Zorb

The giant ball, with Kring and Ria inside, ready to roll down the hill.

Getting out of the Zorb.

Next, was Zipline.

Oh noes! What have I gotten myself into? (O.o)

A speck against the lush greens.

So there, Kring gloriously finished the dares with the help of her magic boots (plus helluva prayers).  Kring has just posted the Flippish video of her Davao dare. Let’s grab some popcorn and brace ourselves for buckets of LOLs.

—-

Thank you heaps to Mr. Sonny Dizon of Zorb Park and Zip City for the accommodation.