An event that rocked the blogosphere in 2010, the propagation of this year’s World Bloggers’ Day is truly widespread. From Cebu and to its local blogosphere, the core of the organizing committee reached out to other parts of the world where bloggers dwell, live, and blog.

World Bloggers’ Day 2012 brings the bloggers from different continents to join, interact, and simultaneously bring noise to the world about blogging.

Events can be online or offline. They may be meet-ups of new and old bloggers or blogging seminars or webinar, perhaps. A World Bloggers’ Day can be done in an auditorium or in a mall or just in a closed room in which your interaction with other bloggers can be done virtually. There are many things you can think of on how to celebrate World Bloggers’ Day. Think big and global and bring those actions local.

If you see any bugs, please don’t hesitate to reply back. Thank you, and expect new posts in the following days.

This is the first time I saw an online country drop-down where the “Philippines” selection is also written in our native script ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔ (Baybayin). I am not sure if it was intentional on the part of DuoSecurity or the server they are using have the Baybayin script by default written besides “Philippines".

If it was the latter, it only means one thing. GNU/Linux enthusiasts who are also Baybayin champions submitted a patch to, if my guess is correct, Apache. Updated servers and websites using Apache’s built-in country list will show that patch.

However, if you are using Chromium or Google Chrome, you may find it confusing reading the Baybayin because there is a known bug in Chrome/Chromium: bug 94577 filed on 28^th of August 2011 since Chromium 15.0.861.0 build 97996.

Yes it still is a bug. Check these screenshots taken today, 13^th of March 2012 for comparison:

Chromium 18.0.997.0 (Developer Build 116462 Linux) Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit

Chromium 18.0.997.0 (Developer Build 116462 Linux) Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit

Firefox 11.0 - Ubuntu 11.10 64-bit

In some Google Chrome versions however, Baybayin renders correctly, under Microsoft® Windows XP as last week when I last used an old PC.

Hopefully Chrome/Chromium’s bug will get fixed, so Filipinos who can read our real writing script - Baybayin, will not get confused, unless the Chromium/Chrome team are willing to lose their fans back to Firefox or Opera.

Oh, that selection: Philippines (ᜉᜒᜎᜒᜉᜒᜈᜐ᜔) - reads “Pilipinas". Next step, Baybayin translation of commonly used software and programs. (Which I used to do for b2evolution, and I haven’t started on quamplures.)

ᜋᜊᜓᜑᜌ᜔ (Mabuhay)

The movie will premier worldwide on May 25, in regular cinemas, 3D, and IMAX 3D.

Jang Woo Jae “JB” and Shin Hae-Sung, the new couple? Hopefully.

JB is played by actor Im Jae Bum “JB” while Shin Hae-Sung is played by actress Kang So-Ra.

Who’s your Dream High 2 couple?

I didn’t know they have a “label” for people like me who have a strong imagination and uses it more often than not: Visual-Spatial Learner/Thinker. When I was a kid, I relied a lot on it. Had a hard time in school.

The more I read and know about these things (VSL, Asperger’s Syndrome), the more I cry. The more I wish that I had ‘proper’ education fitting for someone like me, and wish I have known about these things early on to further help myself for the future.

Now at 30, a third (or maybe a fifth - long-life!) of my life has passed. I could have done a lot of things. I could have ended elsewhere better.

It is very important for a left-handed person like me who is an INFP (Introversion, iNtuition, Feeling, Perception), an AS, and VSL to know these things early, because we have to adjust, find ways to adapt, and are constantly struggling in many areas of our lives.

Today, my interests are varied and wide. Jack-of-All-Trades-Master-of-None. I sway from left and right. From logic to creative and back. I just now realized it is much harder. Harder because I ended up being someone that I am not. I ended up being someone the people around me, the world, wants me to be.

Time passed and it will never be recovered. I hate regrets and I don’t remember regretting anything. I guess this is the first regret in my life. But it was not within my reach, I had no idea about these things in the first place!

All I can do now is just go back to daydreaming. To imagine. It’s what I do best - to visualize things, to see the future, my future.

But despite all these, I can say that I am still happy with my life and my past. I wouldn’t be here if things didn’t happen the way it happened. I wouldn’t have known great people, even if just online, like YOU.

I probably wouldn’t have developed the attitude of “keep fighting, never give up". I wouldn’t probably have developed the techniques I use today to “control” my self.

My life was hard. I can guarantee to most of you – “normal” humans, that my life was hard. It will probably only get harder. But at least now, I have additional weapons because I am now aware of who I am. That nothing is wrong with me. That I’m not superman (– people always tell me: We are not you; you can do it but we can’t), or even abnormal.

I’m just like you. As much as you are unique, I am also unique. We are no different but at the same time very different.

Call me eccentric, weird, or whatever word you want to use, because I know that I am. That’s me. That’s what defines me.

So from hereon out, it is time for me to narrow down my life and find that one or two or three things I want to be and excel at. If you encounter me in your life’s travel, know that, I am an INFP, I am an Aspie (Asperger’s Syndrome), a left-handed (they say we’re evil, haha), and a VSL (Visual-Spatial Learner).

It’s time to take back control and live the life of who I really am. Enough of the world dictating to me that I should be like the rest. It’s not who I am. I’ll do things that best fit us. Not things that best fits the rest of the world.

Description source: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (film)

I just finished watching episodes 1 & 2 of Dream High 2 and I was a little bit disappointed with the pilot episodes. The show airs on KBS2 every Mondays and Tuesdays at 9:55pm Korean Time (UTC+0900), which will have a total of 16 episodes just like Dream High before it.

The story of Dream High 2 is set three (3) years after the Dream High 1 batch graduated from Kirin Arts High School. The school deteriorated into a low type school that barely produces talented graduates. After the government of Korea passed a law requiring underaged K-pop celebrities to complete at least 20 hours of school and no working by 10:00 in the evening, Oz Entertainment decided to buy Kirin Arts and put their idols there.

This quickly turned into a Kirin Arts students vs. Oz Entertainment idols. But that’s not what disappointed me but rather that the first two episodes was reeking of Dream High characters. Take for example the character Shin Hae-Sung played by actress Kang So-Ra.

Shin Hae-Sung is every bit a clone of Kim Pil Suk (played by IU). A typical girl who is soo much in love with a handsome guy that doesn’t see her the same way she does. Naive, simple, and has a knack on things that makes them weird – in a good way. The only thing that differs between these two characters is the Pil Suk is has a talent in composing and singing while Hae-Sung is a complete opposite.

Then there was also the Hyun Si Hyuk aka Jin Guk (played by 2PM’s Taecyeon) and Jason (played by 2PM’s Wooyoung) rivalry in Dream High duplicated in this new batch of students. A rivalry, though of a different reason, between Jang Woo Jae aka JB (played by actor Im Jae Bum aka JB) and Jin Yoo-Jin (played by 2AM’s Jinwoon). Although Jin Guk and Jason’s rivalry didn’t last long, JB and Yoo-Jin will probably stretch all throughout season 2.

But it is not without any positives. In fact, I have high hopes for Dream High 2 to be at par or exceed Dream High 1. I am expecting to see more in-depth character development and storyline twists in this season. For one, some of these new students were already K-pop idols.

The group Eden that’s composed of JB and Si Woo (played by actor Park Seo Joon) are one of the most popular already. They themselves, as it appeared in the pilot episodes, were students of Kirin Arts High School but for some reason they left early to form their group. Now they’re back to finish their “High School” which at the same time, they are at odds with each other.

How these idols and original students will solve their differences and compete with each other to be the top, is more than enough to pique my interest. I’m hopeful that the show will get better just like how it was when I started watching Dream High 1.

The main cast of Dream High 2 are:

• Actress Kang So-Ra as “Shin Hae-Sung”
• 2AM’s Jinwoon as “Jin Yoo-Jin”
• T-ara’s Park Ji-Yeon as “Rian”
• SISTAR’s Hyorin as “Nana”
• Actor Im Jae Bum “JB” as “Jang Woo Jae ‘JB’
• Actor Park Seo Joon as “Si Woo”

With others like:

• Former After School’s Yoo So-Young as “Park Soon-Dong”
• After School’s Kahi as Dance Instructor “Hyun Ji-Soo”
• JY Entertainment owner J.Y. Park recurring his role as Instructor “Yang Jin Man”
• and many others…

There’s no time like the present…
…If you’re running from the past.

One Magic Moment is the latest in the “de Piaget – MacLeod” world created by author Lynn Kurland. It is a historical romance book - and don’t dismissed it just because, the world of the de Piaget’s and MacLeod’s is full of paranormal, adventure, time travel, drama, and chivalrous knights-in-shining-armour.

Kurland’s books are for all types of readers, for all fans of different genres. Exactly what got me hook, and was the bridge for me to start reading romance - particularly historical romance books.

One Magic Moment is the story about Tess Alexander and John de Piaget. Published on May 3, 2011, Lynn Kurland continues the story of the Alexander sisters (which started in One Enchanted Evening) and the de Piaget brothers (numerous books to list).

This is the first “latest” (in publication and timeline) book I have read in the de Piaget – MacLeod world and having read a few of the earliest stories, I felt like I missed a lot. For in OMM, a lot of the characters from previous books either made an appearance or was mentioned in passing, and I can’t help but wonder about their stories.

However, that’s what I like with Kurland, her books are all stand-alone. One does not need to start from some earlier publication to grasp and get inside her creations. Whenever characters from previous stories were mentioned or made an appearance, no critical information is included that will only make the reader feel like having missed something important.

In this book, the story tell of the lives of Tess Alexander – who lives in our time; and John de Piaget – who was from the 13^th century. Two characters trapped in a world trying to forget their past, their pains. Tess having lost her sister to a marriage with John’s twin brother Montgomery and chose to live in 1214. And John who had a row with his father and lord of Artane castle, Rhys de Piaget; and secondly, trapped in our time, no means of going back.

He looked at her in silence for several long moments, then took a step backward. And then he sank to one knee.

John took a deep breath. “Tess", he bagan slowly, sounding a little more nervous than she’d ever heard him sound, “I have little to offer you –”

“Besides a Vanquish", Jake put in, sounding disgusted, “and no doubt numerous Swiss safe-deposit boxes overflowing with cash.”

John shot his brother-in-law a warning look, then turned back to her. “I have a few quid", he conceded, “which means nothing in either century except that I’ll be able to provide for you as you deserve. I vow I will shield you with my name, protect you with my sword, and sheepdog you until you beg me to stop.” He paused, then looked at her seriously. “I want forever, Tess.”

It was a play worth rereading, a play between two people knowing who the other one is and a person who wants to hide his true identity. Yet deep inside they both long for each others embrace and touch, but afraid they’ll both run away if they find out the secrets they both were hiding.

Although it sounds like a typical story, especially if you have read Kurland’s other books like Dreams of Stardust, OMM still stands out and presented itself as a fresh story that will make one wish he or she is one of the two main characters. In fact, this is the first romantic book that I was able to connect to a female character. Her dreams, her wishes, her desires, the world from her eyes.

Near the end, the two characters were thrown back in the time of John de Piaget. This pulled out the best in Tess Alexander - our modern lady. Even though she is a scholar with degrees in Medieval Studies, it still did not save her from the shock of reality in breathing and living in medieval England. Yet she showed her strength both physically by enduring the stress, and mentally by staying sane, despite the fact that she almost died in the 13^th century.

John on the other hand finally embraced his reality, his “present time". This coming-at-peace-with-yourself enabled him to tackle clearly the problems they are facing as well as being able to protect the love of his life - Tess. Having stopped denying his true identity, it only made him face the dangers and hardship of his life - medieval or modern England.

Finally but not the least, the way the previous characters were presented made me love this book even more. The joy of seeing Jake Kilchurn and Amanda de Piaget Kilchurn from the book Dreams of Stardust; Montgomery de Piaget and Pippa Alexander de Piaget from One Enchanted Evening; Nicholas de Piaget and Jennifer MacLeod McKinnon de Piaget from When I Fall in Love; to mention a few, kind of updated the reader to what happened to these couples after their story ended in their respective book publications.

For example, in Dreams of Stardust, the story ended with Jake Kilchurn and Amanda de Piaget getting married and moving to their own castle. In One Magic Moment when they made their appearance, I was glad to see that Jake, being the man from our time, have successfully adjusted to living in the 13^th century, as a number one painter and gem-cutter, as a great husband to Amanda de Piaget, and as a loving father to their kids. Their kids who were only mentioned in DoS while Kendrick de Piaget was telling the genealogy of the couple.

I give this book a 10 out of 10 stars. Highly recommended for your reading pleasure and adventure. Buy One Magic Moment here.

Thank you to my lovely girlfriend, Sherlene, for this book gift.