The Pacquiao vs. Solis match was held April 15, 2007 and was shown on television at 10am. About 80% of the Philippine population were glued to tv sets (not necessarily theirs) around the nation. It seemed as if the nation was put on hold. Everyone and everything was quiet. A momentary ceasefire. Who could have imagined that peace can be brought on simply by holding a boxing match with Pacquiao as contender?

Aint that great? Manny won. Aint that dandy?

HOWEVER, it wasnt great anymore when the next day, the whole 30 minutes of the news segment in Unang Hirit featured nothing but Manny Pacquiao. How Manny won… Where Manny stayed… What Manny felt… Who watched Manny… What Manny said… What his mom said… What Manny’s plans were… Manny this. Manny that. I had to turn the TV to ABS CBN who featured their usual news segments to my relief.

Hasn’t anyone gotten enough of the fight, which the whole nation watched anyway, that its already overkill to run a video of it over and over again?

There are other things and news happening around the world to warrant the 30 seconds of TV time. Even the evening news splashed Manny Pacquiao all over… 2 days after and he was still news.

College kids have been murdered on the other side of the world for Pete’s sake!! Geez. Enough Manny already.

Story Highlights courtesy of CNN.com:

• Former roommates say Cho Seung-Hui stalked women, spoke of suicide
• Thousands gather on campus for candlelight vigil
• Former English department chair pulled Cho Seung-Hui out of class
• Police say one of the guns recovered was used in both shooting incidents

The surest way to destroy a person’s spirit is to take away the purpose of his existence.
— Anonymous

[Start of Day 2]
Unfortunately, we arrived late and missed the first speaker – Abe Olandres who talked about his blogging success story. In addition to that, we also missed Anton’s narration of his own photoblogging success story.

We arrived just as Manuel L. Quezon III was closing his statements on Philippine politics and the Blogosphere. The one sentence that stuck to my mind that he said was : I’m not a big believer of objectivity.

Wilson Chua of eRadioportal touched on Podcasting and Videocasting and how putting media content into your site can definitely increase traffic. He was the first to talk about the Long Tail concept. He also invited all bloggers to join him in proving the Long Tail concept in the Philippines.

A few minutes after, Aileen Apolo of Google Philippines stepped up to the podium carrying several bags marked with the Google logo. She had hoped to make her presentation interactive thereby bringing gifts to give to anyone who can give out facts related to Google. There was a flurry of activity as the audience sat up craning their necks to and straining to hear what the question was so that they could get their hands on the goodie bag (containing a Google shirt). Aileen’s presentation focused on much the same concept as Wilson’s but related to Marketing. She mentioned that today there are more choices and that means more marketing opportunities and more marketing venues. Google helps by organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible.
– By the way, my hubby was the first one to get a free Google shirt.

Norman Agatep had very good statistics and information regarding prosumer and how blogging and bloggers fit into that concept. He delved into buzz marketing, niche marketing or narrow marketing and of course blogging. He talks about how bloggers are prosumers by blogging about our experiences with people, products and services thereby demanding that these people, products and services be of the highest standard possible.

During the Q&A for these 3 speakers (Wilson, Aileen, and Norman), Abe spoke to them about the numbers and statistics that were abundant in each speaker’s presentation. He continues to indicate that although these were very much helpful, it does not clearly illustrate how the picture looks like locally. There were no statistics on how many bloggers there were in the Philippines for example. And though Google has the most resources to be able to give us that kind of data, Aileen sadly says it is not information she could give out. Awww…

The afternoon brought topics related to Blogging and Journalism and Problogging. The speakers were Alecks Pabico, Angelo Racoma, and Malou Mangahas of GMA Network. They had very very informative and intense topics (that had hints of politics and law). And maybe because we just had lunch, but I or rather a lot of us were diverted to an interesting show in front of us… Abe was battling with… sleep. It really wasnt very noticeable at first as he was wearing sunglasses and he was facing his laptop… until the screen on it went blank because of inactivity. Gotcha! LOL.

Marc Macalua rocks!. I’m new to the blogging community really and have yet to keep up with all the blogging personalities. But his reputation precedes him and I have just realized why. I learned a lot just from a few minutes from hearing him talk about blogging to advance one’s career.

I just have to include this… (Thanks Marc!)

5 Ways to Carve your niche by Marc Macalua
1. Have your own tightly focused and compelling content (that needs to surround you even as you comment on other blogs)
2. Hang out with the right crowd (same niche)
3. Corner breaking news before they break (Time to market concept)
4. Beautify your blog
5. Get discovered.

Jayvee Fernandez tackled professional blogging and how to turn blogging into a viable career. He was the liveliest presenter (effective I must say). He talked very fast (maybe because of the time constraints.. hehe) that you just had to be awake to keep up. He showed us how income generated from writing for local magazines compare with income generated by problogging. You probably can already imagine how that looks like. But he mentioned some key items too – for those that were thinking about taking their blogging activities to a higher level. He mentioned the myths that were somehow tied to problogging. One was that it was a lifetime of blogging heaven. NOT!

I love blogging and I would want to do it more often than I usually am able to. However, having to blog 10 times a day with a quota on the number of lines per post, the number of posts per day and the number of posts per month is not something I want to be doing as a career. I look to blogging to take my mind off work and I am not about to turn blogging into work so to speak.

According to Jayvee: Content is King, Context is Crown and Conversation is Kingdom. I will definitely keep that in mind.

Gail Villanueva was the last speaker and she talked about increasing blog popularity. The famous duo (Gail with husband Marc) are known for their deal “No Blog No Sex”. She advises that to increase blog popularity, one must consider the following: blogs linking in, traffic, blog readers, rss subscribers, authority and reputation, and blog brand.

————————————————

Other highlights of the event:

• Jester was there wearing his trademark hat
• JJ was sitting with me and Shari for the longest time before I realized he was JJ – sorry!
• The other sleepers at the event aside from Abe were: ChrisH and Jomar
• Jomar kept AJ from winning a Google shirt
• The PM snack was delicioso and I will blog about it in Kubiertos.COM soon
• iBlog3 shirts were given out to everyone and we all had our picture taken wearing it
• I was able to watch Marcelle perform his magic SM fork trick at close range and I still cant believe my eyes.
• Jeff was there still holding his side for fear his stitches might come undone.
• The men, with myself, Jeff, Juned, Eugene talked about Men, Women, Equality and Sex while eating our lunch at the UP grandstand.

And that was the end of another successful blogging event. There was an after-party which we initially planned on going to but we had to go home to a little boy waiting back home so we just passed on that (I’m sure we missed a LOT).

Congratulations to the organizers of iBlog3 and to fellow blogger Janette Toral of Digital Filipino. Until next year!

I am at the iBlog3 event with several other bloggers in attendance to learn how to blog, what to blog and blogging in general.

He talked about what blogging is and what available venues and tools are there that exist to help any ordinary person to go out and write about any topic under the sun. He touched on free blog hosting, blog clients, blog themes, and monetizing blogs.

During the Q&A, Jester asked him about the difference between blogspot and wordpress. And of course, even I can talk a day just doing that. Sorry Jester!

More… in a few minutes…

[Next speaker...]

The next speaker is Lauren of laurganism.COM. She talked about the Do’s and Don’ts of personal blogging. She mentioned about not using your blog to launch personal attacks on other people. She also talked of not writing about what you hate about your friends or classmates or face having to deal with hostility which can make things awkward for anyone especially when the schoolyear is just starting.

She listed bloggable topics and bloggable things and ideas to talk about.

She advised that if your personal blog is not something you want other people to read then go open a livejournal and lock it so only those you allow can view it.

Apparently, this is her first speaking engagement. I must say it did not show. She spoke very well and the audience was very much engaged in the stories that she shared that appeared to come from her own personal experiences… or so her mom says.

[Posted 13-April-2007 09:50PM]
We broke out for a 30-minute break and we met up with friends and fellow bloggers… Aj, Poell and of course Jester so the “men” can talk about their new project.

When we went out to get snacks, I saw the Best Personal Blogger, Shari (who brought his very intelligent blogger-brother) and Jeff, who went out of his way to attend the event even if he just came from a recent operation.

Unfortunately, I had to leave earlier as I still had to go to work.

All in all, I was ecstatic about iBlog3 and excited about the next day’s activities.

The whole world is opening up to bloggers and events like these and the PBA can only bring the blogging community forward.

I want to share the key points and lessons I took away from the conference today.

Akiko Thompson – Filipina Olympian shares…

Find your talent. Find your skill and focus on that. What is important is to maintain the excellence and the passion. Nothing worthwhile is ever easy.

Roselle Ambubuyog – Filipina who graduated summa cum laude from the Ateneo De Manila University. Blind.

When faced with adversity, the first step to take is to take the first step.
Good leaders do the right things even when they are not sure if they will do things right.
Good character is not made in ease and quiet. Good character is made with experiences of trial and suffering.

Dr. Josette Biyo – Educator. Filipina who was chosen by MIT to name a minor planet after – Planet Biyo. She says…

Continue learning.. because you cannot give what you do not have.

Maria Ressa – Head of ABS CBN news and current affairs and ABS CBN News Channel (ANC).

Clarity of thought.
You have to have a vision and then work hard to make your vision a reality.

Of all these speakers, all of which moved me – I was most inspired by Maria Ressa. Her stories and her experiences in her 20 years of working as a journalist in CNN and now in the Philippines have provided a lot of insight to the strengths and weaknesses of our culture and how it can help or hinder our nation’s success.

She mentions that most of the time our “padrino system” – an example of which would be to network with influential people for your own purposes – when brought to the workplace hurts more than it helps. When loyalties are valued more than performance, then something is terribly wrong.

It is quite an experience to be part of this affair and I am glad I got the invitation to be part of it.

Empowerment. Leadership. Excellence.

Apparently, several girls will be chosen from thousands who will audition… live together, practice together, perform together… catfights, hair-pulling, whining, and backstabbing expected… LOL

Reminds me of Rockstar INXS and Rockstar Supernova… But you would have to agree that the Rockstar competition is hugely different.

Why don’t we have our own reality show to find the next member of Orange and Lemons? Or the next vocalist for Mojofly? … or NOT!

I just learned a while ago that in Makati, the workers and motorists will have to start their day by participating in the Tigil Buga undertaking.

At exactly 8am, motorists traversing the Makati streets will be asked to down their engines for one minute (of silence) in observance of Earth Month.

The report indicated that the….

thoroughfares tapped for the undertaking include J.P. Rizal Street, Kalayaan Avenue corner Reposo Street, Sen. Gil Puyat corner Ayala Avenues, Sen. Gil Puyat corner Makati Avenues, and Paseo de Roxas corner Sen. Gil Puyat Avenues.

Since I go to work in Makati and usually travel those streets at around that time, I will be affected. If you work in Makati and bring a car to work – you also need to plan for this one minute participation.

I just hope the Makati Traffic police have managed to plan for this as we very well know that the 5 seconds it takes for one car to suddenly stop can cause more than an hour of heavy traffic.

Happy Easter!

Even if I am not, I still found it fun navigating through this cool dress up community site called Stardoll.COM. I had to borrow my sisters login information so I could get into the site.

Its the newest craze among young and teenage girls aged 7-17 (supposedly). But I can relate to the what the site is all about. Its like having your own Barbie doll. And in this case, it would be a whole community of Barbie dolls.

Let’s face it, kids these days know more about computer and the internet than most adults do so this is an ingenius way to have kids enjoy the internet and at the same time pacifying parent’s worries about inappropriate material. The site has a guide for parents and addresses questions parents may have on the site and how it is used.

Now I wish I had a girl… hmm. It would surely be a mother-daughter bonding moment to try and dress up Angelina Jolie in very stylish or grubby clothes. I dont expect a lot of other parents to agree but I do love the site myself and wish I could work on its stuff more.

Here are some of the stuff I got to make…. LOL

This is called the me-doll.

And you can dress it up this way…or that way.

There are jewelry, accessories, sceneries… oh did I mention, there are male dolls too?

So moms – see this site and check if you are interested in having your kid join a friendster-like community without the risk of exposing them to adult content.

Check out Stardoll.COM now!

** Picture courtesy of American Idol.COM

So how come he has survived elimination each time? Is it the hair? Or is it because he reminds you of a previous Michael Jackson? Or is it because Howard Stern has been a staunch supporter of the Sanjaya Revolution? LOL

I know! I think its because he was smart enough to think about dancing with Paula Abdul during his performance. Sheesh people! LOL.

Read more at Reality TV.COM

So why are non-Catholics not disagreeing with this celebration? Why are my officemates who are not at all Catholics applying for extended leaves to take advantage of the long weekend? Why are most people preparing to pack up and head out to the beach just because the country defined Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to be non-working Holy-days. I should think that those who do not believe in the celebration should appeal to be allowed to come to work. Same should be said for those who earn their income on an hourly basis – the no work no pay type.

I think the non-working day given when Ramadan ends came about because Muslims form a big chunk of the Philippine population. But what about the INC? Mormon? Jehova’s Witness? Atheists? Agnostics? Protestants? Baptists? Don’t they have special days that they would like to be given time off for – to celebrate it? When are these holidays?

I mean really – someone should complain. Everything should be equal. Everyone should be given the same chances, opportunities and holidays. Dont you think so?

** Thinking out loud