Friends Archives - Page 3 of 9

December 13, 2008

Cinemalaya Indie Film Festival’s ‘100’: How to Live — and Die — with Meaning

What would you do with what remains of your life if you knew you were to die soon?

I cannot remember the last time I purposely went to a cinema to watch a Filipino movie. But after reading Cathy’s review of this film, something prodded me very strongly to go see it. And I did tonight — with my yogini friend Chona. It is one of the most moving films I have ever seen and what makes it even more special is the fact that it is a Filipino film.

‘100’, I just learned tonight, won 5 major awards in the recently concluded Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival: Best Actress Award to Mylene Dizon (Joyce), Best Supporting Actress to Eugene Domingo (Ruby, Joyce’s best friend), Best Director to Chris Martinez, Best Screenplay, as well as Audience Choice Award.

Joyce finds out she does not have long to live. She faces her impending death with bravado and determination to make it the most meaningful days of her life. She organizes her death with such order and calm as though organizing an event. With her loved ones beside her, including best friend Ruby, she fulfills her “bucket list” (the 100 things she most wanted to do before she died) one at a time. There are also points in the film where she gets to have closure in her life with some people (no spoilers here!).

The film effectively portrays Joyce’s many relationships. Foremost here was her special friendship with long-time best friend from school, Ruby. Their solid friendship through thick and thin, their adventures together as they go through Joyce’s bucket list, made me appreciate true friends even more. Then there is her relationship with her mom (played by Tessie Tomas). Joyce did not know how to break the news to her newly widowed Mom, eventually does, and they go through their personal grief and finally, acceptance, of Joyce’s fate. Also, there are the loves of Joyce’s life with whom she had to have closure.

I found myself in tears at many points of this movie for many personal reasons. For one, I have gone through life events that have made me truly wish for a meaningful “rest of my life”. Two, I started a bucket list of my own several years back and have had friends help me fulfill some of them (though some were not even aware they were doing so). Three, the plot and acting (Mylene’s and Eugene’s most specially) were downright real and very convincing. They truly deserved their acting awards!

Chona and I, over dinner, chatted about how the film impressed certain realizations on us. We both planned to blog about it, that’s for sure. I promised myself I would go over and review my bucket list and continue working on actually DOING what remained and add to it as well. She promised to start hers. We resolved to be a little “naughtier” and “freer” and “less serious” about life next year. We shared a little more of our lives in the past (and actually found several more connections between us in terms of life events) and how we could make life ahead better, purposeful, memorable, lovable.

Try to catch “100”, which is on an extended run in some theaters. It will make you think more deeply about your life, appreciate WHAT and WHO matter most in the end, and hopefully get you started on your own bucket list to make your life that much more meaningful.

Here is a sample trailer I got off YouTube:

September 17, 2008

California Pizza Kitchen’s Bloggers Night

Manila’s famous (or more aptly, infamous) rains and floods could not dampen the bloggers’ enthusiasm and determination to attend California Pizza Kitchen’s (CPK) bloggers night at CPK Glorietta 3 last Sept. 10.

It had been raining all day and fiercely at times. Some bloggers were deliberating whether they would still go or not. So I thought that if I left the office at 7pm, I would still be in time for the event. What a surprise met me when I got there a little past 7 pm to see the 2nd floor function room of CPK practically full of bloggers already!

At the registration area, I saw several CPK boxes marked with themes. We were supposed to pick out a theme we wanted. I selected the theme “More Than a Massage” as I was fascinated by its health theme. We found out later that whatever theme we chose corresponded with a new pizza flavor which CPK arranged for us to make.

This was a meet & greet affair. Got to meet Archie Rodriguez, the President of the CPK franchise in the Philippines.

Also had time to chat up emcee RJ Ledesma. I told RJ that I knew he was a yoga teacher and first saw him at Vinyasa. When I introduced myself as the one behind the yoga blog, The Yogini from Manila, it turned out he actually heard of my blog. There and then, we began chatting like 2 people who found something common to talk about.

Later, I also met Brad Geiser, one of the partners behind Geiser Maclang which prepared this event for CPK. I had long wanted to meet Brad who was just a buddy on a social networking site. Another buddy on that network was Jen who was there with her husband Stan.

An eyeball with Jen who I only knew as "jencc" for the longest time — An eyeball with Jen "jencc"

It was a night of pure fun. I think most of the bloggers there were a lot younger so you can imagine the energy filling the room.

We watched a video about CPK’s beginnings. Gift certificates were later given to those who successfully answered the trivia questions. Next, we were asked to decorate our CPK boxes (they dumped art supplies on each table like colored glue, ribbons, decals, crayons, etc) with the best PICK-UP LINE we could think of. This was really hilarious because these bloggers turned out to have really HOT minds! For the life of me, I could not think of any pick-up line. I began with one that said “Taste Heaven With Me” but stopped after seeing that this was sooo tame compared to some others. Haha…

The best part, at least for me, was when we made our own pizzas depending on the theme we chose. Very aptly, my pizza was the Thai Chicken one, which was so healthy because of its ingredients: scallions, chicken, bean sprouts, carrots and peanuts AND garnished with cilantro. I started out with a pizza crust, then one by one added the ingredients with the help of CPK’s friendly staff. My finished pizza was then marched off to be cooked in a hearth oven (the secret to the delicious CPK taste).

My pizza BEFORE it is cooked — My pizza BEFORE it was baked

The pizza I made! — My Thai Chicken pizza after it was baked

Next time you visit CPK, try one of their other pizza flavors:

1. BBQ Chicken Pizza – the most popular pizza and one of the original recipes of the founders

2. Greek Pizza – made from Mediterranean spiced grilled chicken and Mozzarella cheese, topped with a chilled Greek salad of cucumbers, red onions, fresh tomatoes, Greek olives, Feta cheese and lemon-herb vinaigrett and served with homemade Tzatziki sauce and chopped Italian parsley

3. Jamaican Jerk Chicken – made from grilled Jamaican Jerk spiced chicken breast with spicy sweet Caribbgean sauce, Mozzarella cheese, applewood smoked bacon, mild onions, roasted red & yellow peppers and green onions

4. Cajun Pizza – made from blackened chicken and spicy Andouille sausage with Creole sauce, roasted red and yellow peppers, mild onions and Mozzarella cheese

Here are more pics of the night:

September 12, 2008

Concert for Tara Santelices (Sept. 24, 2008)

By now, many of you have heard of, read about, or even blogged about Tara Santelices, the girl who was shot in the head during a jeepney holdup.

I have been remiss in posting this but I hope to make up now because friends and family of Tara are putting up a concert for this brave young lady.

The latest news I gathered from the blog of my friend Cathy is that Tara is now able to open her right eye and yawn. Baby miracles give us hope that one day we may witness THE BIG ONE for Tara. All these are by God’s grace and in His time. Meanwhile, you can do your bit for Tara by supporting the concert.

Tickets are available at the door.

September 8, 2008February 1, 2023

Experiencing WordCamp Philippines 2008

September 6 marked a milestone in blogging history in the Philippines as the first WordCamp in the entire Southeast Asia was hosted by none other than the Philippines (specifically Davao and Manila).

With most of my blogs on the WordPress platform AND with Mr. WordPress himself, Matt Mullenweg coming to the event, there was NO WAY I was going to miss this event! Even the ADMU-DLSU UAAP games took second place (even if only for a few hours!

Mica rode along with me to the venue site, the College of St. Benilde. We exchanged our campers passes for real badges (complete with barcode scanning!). I was excited to meet Ria and Blogie again and met Gwen for the first time (although we had been Plurk buddies already for some time).

Wordcamp 2008 registration — Registration table complete with barcode scanners to record attendance

We opened with a plenary session that had the head of CSB and Blogie welcoming all the campers.While all this was going on, I spotted Matt sitting a few rows behind me and took this shot of Mr. WordPress —

and here —

The morning sessions were breakaway ones, depending on whether you were on the user or developer track. Obviously, I chose the user track.

My first session was Blogging 102 with Jayvee.

Several of us almost did not make it to Jayvee’s talk because we were told to go to Rm. 409. There we were, sitting in this room for over 10 minutes when Shari came dashing into the room to tell us we were in the wrong room! Apparently, there was ANOTHER Rm. 409 in another wing of the building! Yikes…we all half walked, half ran to the right room and thankfully still caught a great part of Jayvee’s talk which was so well prepared and so educational.

My 2nd session was with Ely Apao who spoke on Organizing and Optimizing Your WordPress Blog. A lot of what he spoke about affected those who were on WordPress.org so I could not relate to all of them but I did take down some notes and took pictures of some of his presentation and am filing it away somewhere for future reference.

The 3rd session for the morning was one of the most hilarious but very informative sessions — Video Blogging by Kring Elenzano.

Kring produces videos and took us through the pros and cons of video blogging (vlogging), how to make a vlog “kick-ass” as she called it. Her presentation was done in a very humorous way (combined of course with spiels from Kring that can only come from….Kring — including a not-to-be-named comment that got us laughing because she did not realize she was being live-streamed. But I did take pics of every slide she put up because they were filled with great tips (including where lights should be positioned so the subject comes out as well as how to reduce noise and amplify the subject’s voice). I absolutely did not regret going to this particular session!!

After a Chowking lunch, I made my way back to the auditorium for the afternoon plenary sessions.

Matt was first in line, regaling us first with interesting stats on the use of WordPress in the Philippines. (Trivia: Did you know that the Philippines ranked #24 worldwide in terms of WordPress users?)

He also talked about the future of WordPress including a live demo of WP version 2.7 which is coming out in November. WOW! We were all eyes and ears!

Aileen (aka Ms. Google Philippines) took us next through Google Analytics (very interesting things you can find about your blog, where visitors come from, what converts more visitors to your site, etc). I think I will spend the next few weeks learning more about this one!

A few more sessions followed after this. Matt later came back on for a Q&A portion (a much awaited opportunity for the campers to ask questions of THE MAN OF THE HOUR). Unfortunately, I could not stay long as the car was already coming for me. I missed the photo op with Matt but came away with a WP bag filled with goodies from the sponsors. And had a chance to get Ria (one of the Mindanao bloggers) to myself for this —

Thanks to the Mindanao bloggers who spearheaded this event. You managed to pull this thing off with aplomb! Looking forward to our next WordCamp Philippines!!!

Here’s some link love to people who blogged about WordCamp (I “stole” an initial list from AJ who likewise got it from Jehzlau) and added as I came across other posts:

The Old Media Coverage:
1. WordPress developer previews new version in RP by Inquirer.net
2. WordPress enthusiasts meet for WordCamp by GMANews.tv
3. WordPress Developer lauds RP blogging community by Alexander Villafania
4. WordPress Creator on the future of RP Blogging Community by Inquirer.net

Some WordCamp Photos from WordCampers:
1. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Jehzeel Laurente
2. WordCamp 2008 Photos by Jayvee Fernandez
3. First WordCamp in Southeast Asia by Hannah Rika Villasis
4. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Tess Termulo
5. WordCamp Philippines by Ada Lajara
6. WordCamp 2008 by Regnard Raquedan
7. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by AJ Matela
8. WordCamp at Benilde by Normz
9. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Micaela Rodriguez
10. WordPress Philippines 2008 by Shari
11. WordCamp Philippines by Sofimi
12. WordCamp Philippines 2008 by Andrew Dela Serna
13. WordCamp Candy by Flair Candy

August 23, 2008August 28, 2011

An Ode to Family and Friends

Not many people outside of close family and friends knew that I quietly celebrated my birthday while the whole Philippines was celebrating Ninoy Aquino’s 25th death anniversary.

I am not one to make a big fuss about my birthday, really. In fact, I went to work and no one there was the wiser.

At this stage of my life, I treasure moments shared with people I love. My kids tease me because I take pictures of everthing when we go out — the food, the place, them (I herd them here & there for pics). When you are on your second life (as I call it), it becomes even more important to make memories for your self and for those you love. These pictures will always serve to remind me of these moments as time and age could erase many precious moments from one’s mind as one goes into the senior years.

But quiet though it was, it was nevertheless memorable for me in many ways because I had my family and close friends to celebrate it with.

Some special birthday moments:

* Waking up to a slew of text messages from family and friends greeting me and keeping me replying the whole day

* Sending bday greetings to my boys’ School Director (a Jesuit priest) with whom I share the same birth date (and….getting back his reply with prayers)

* Getting a beautiful birthday card from the kids, my Mom & siblings (and C1 even let her good friends who I have known since their elementary years sign too)

* Dinner out with Chona, my yogini friend, who shares the birth month with me and with whom I have had many girl friend moments

* Dinner with my family at Gloriamaris (with hubby making a beautiful prayer and wishes for me)

* Getting to talk to my father-inlaw (who never fails to send me a card year after year but could not this year as he is in the hospital) and hearing him greet me over the cellphone

* A surprise birthday greeting via email from someone in the US who played an important part in my second life

* Receiving a beautiful book on grace from a dear friend

* Receiving a surprise cake from the people over at Geiser Maclang (thanks guys!)

To all of you (my dearest family & friends) I share this haiku I made today:

My full heart beats strong

Every beat a memory of time together

Special corners in my soul.

🙂

August 12, 2008

Will You Help Tara Santelices?

I saw this email first on my niece’s Multiply. Then Cathy blogged about it. On both those times, I sort of glossed over the email thinking it was one of those “help someone” calls that I can read some other time. The third time, however, it showed up at a forum I was enrolled in. So curious me read the entire email (when you see something over and over again, there must be a message there somewhere for me!). The story of Tara Santelices hit me so hard that without knowing her, I promised to blog about what happened. All this happened, I hear, because she resisted the holdupper who was trying to take her laptop.

But things do happen for a purpose. There was a connection to her even stronger than just receiving 3 notices. Last night, I learned that her sister Lila is the English blockmate in school of our eldest girl, C1.

Wow! Now I really need to post this.

After you read this and you feel compelled to help in whatever way, act on your feelings. You can forward this story to your email contacts, pass on my URL post to others, or even help the family in any way as described below. Or you could pause from whatever you are doing and say a fervent prayer for Tara. Whatever it is, JUST DO IT!

As a parent myself, I pray that all parents be spared having to undergo this kind of horrible nightmare and that all our kids who travel to and from school and work be given divine protection always. God bless us all.

——————————————————————-

Word spreads around fast and almost everyone has already heard about what happened to our dear friend, Tara Santelices (Assumption Antipolo’s Batch 2003 and Ateneo de Manila University’s Class of 2007, AB Political Science).

On the eve of her 23^rd birthday, Tara was shot in the head during a hold-up while riding a jeepney along Imelda Avenue, Cainta, Rizal. Joee Mejias, who was with her at that time, rushed her to Amang Rodriguez Memorial Hospital in Marikina City. The parents of Tara and Joee arrived at the hospital shortly thereafter. When morning came, Tara’s parents finally decided to transfer her to the Medical City, Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City. Since 8:00am of August 6, Tara has been in the ICU fighting for her dear life. Her parents have decided not to push through with the operation.

Although it might seem that there is nothing else that we can do but wait for Tara to wake up from this horrific nightmare, we, the friends of Tara, have decided to raise funds for Tara’s hospital bills. This is the least we can do to ease the unbearable pain her family is going through. We have been given the go-signal from Tara’s dad, Tito Larry, and here are the details:

The temporary bank account is under Anne Marie F. Santelices, Banco de Oro, SA 2140-062201. For direct cash donations, please proceed to the ICU Waiting Room of the Medical City (Ortigas Avenue, Pasig City). Please look for Joee Mejias or Lila Santelices.

Any amount will be gratefully accepted. Anonymous donations are also welcome. Please spread the word. Forward this to your family, friends and even to everyone else you know. Please post this on Friendster, Multiply, Facebook and wherever else you can think of. Please send group messages on Yahoo Messenger. This will mean so much to us, her friends.

Please continue praying for Tara, for Joee and for both of their families. If you want to come see Tara, visiting hours at the ICU are at 9:00 am to 11:00 am and 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

Thank you so much for your time and kind consideration.

For inquiries, please contact Joee Mejias (09228154987) for calls and Jac Ledonio (09167243071) or Myka Francisco (09163695148) for text messages