Philippines Archives - Page 9 of 15

September 25, 2008

The Blue Eagles — 2008 UAAP Champions!!!!!

After a 6-year drought, Ateneo de Manila University finally clinched the 2008 UAAP Championship with a win in Game 2 against its long-time arch rival, De La Salle University, 62-51.

C1 and C2 had classes in Ateneo but were able to get out in time to run to Escaler where they joined other schoolmates for the final moments of the game. I still need to find out where my sister and her family were all this time. My BIL used to be captain of the Blue Babble Battalion during his days; their only son and oldest daughter both graduated from ADMU; and my sister and their 3 younger daughters are naturally just as loyally blue. At championship games like this, they are almost always there in full force at Araneta too.

I was at home, watching on TV, dressed all in blue down to my blue & white Adidas gym rubber shoes.

I went into lotus pose to try & relax while watching the games. Didn't work! — Tried the lotus yoga pose to relax while watching the games. No dice!

M1 came home in time to catch the 4th quarter. Initially the lead of Ateneo widened to as much as 15 points at the end of the 2nd quarter (26-41) but in the 3rd quarter, La Salle cut this down to as narrow as 3 points and that really made me nervous. I felt a bit of relief when Maierhofer got his second technical foul which meant he was out of the game; and in the 4th quarter, JV Casio fouled out as well, leaving La Salle bereft of 2 of their star players.

This championship is so much sweeter as it comes when Ateneo is also preparing for its 150th anniversary, its Sesquicentennial, on December 10, 2009.

Ateneo also swept up majority of the UAAP and Studio 23 awards handed out as follows:

1. Finals MVP – Nonoy Baclao

2. Season MVP – Rabeh Al-Hussaini

3. Part of Mythical 5 – Rabeh Al-Hussaini, Chris Tiu

4. Rookie of the Year – Ryan Buenafe

5. Most Improved Player – Rabeh Al-Hussaini

6. Defensive Player of the Year – Nonoy Baclao

Several special sponsor awards were also handed out to some of the Blue Eagles.

The sweet smell of victory will only start to sink in beginning tomorrow and over the weekend. Already, my girls and I are excited to be at the bonfire which usually caps an Ateneo UAAP victory (It’s now definite – the bonfire will be on Tiu’s-day, Sept. 30, 7PM! It will be preceded by a thanksgiving Mass at the Church of the Gesu at 6PM. Watch out for more details!).

I found the final moments of the 4th Quarter on the ABS-CBN sports site:

[kyte.tv appKey=MarbachViewerEmbedded&uri=channels/71599/227500&embedId=49260108]

I am happy that my girls were able to experience a UAAP Championship during their school years in Ateneo. The school spirit and pride, I am sure, is now welling up in them. It is something they will remember forever.

And even if I am just the mother of 2 Ateneans (and hopefully 2 more waiting in the wings), I will always be one of those who will shriek and root excitedly every time the Blue Eagles play a UAAP game.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BLUE EAGLES TEAM (and that goes not just for the players but for coach Norman Black, the coaching team and everyone else who did so much behind-the-scenes work for the team). You truly are champions in every sense of the word.

Update: Found this on inboundpass’s YouTube channel. A view of the after-game celebration and a short clip of Norman Black:

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

July 15, 2008

1st WordCamp Philippines 2008 (Sept. 6, 2008)

I have been blogging on WordPress for over a year now. It was at iBlog3 summit last year when I met fellow bloggers who spoke about its impressive platform and stats. While I consider myself an intermediate blogger, there are still aspects of WordPress that stump me and challenge me to learn more and more.

So it was a delight to find out soon after iBlog4 summit last April that the Mindanao bloggers who I met at the summit were going to organize the first WordPress WordCamp right here in Manila. Wow, what better way is there to pursue my desire to learn how to blog better on the WordPress platform than attend a camp precisely for it!!!

The WordCamp will be on September 6, 2008 (Sat.) at the College of St. Benilde on Taft Avenue, Manila.

For those of you already using WordPress or just thinking of it, here are some details:

– The camp is free of charge. However, in lieu of the fee, you will need to do a blog post containing certain information as outlined in their instructions after you register.

– The organizers will need to verify your blog post. Once you are confirmed, you will get a confirmation email which will serve as your ticket to the event.

– As of this posting, the organizers plan that the camp will have the following components:

Deployment (Usage) Track
Development Track
Panel Discussions
WP Install-Fest
After Party!

To register, click HERE.

This event would not be possible without the help of sponsors. These are:

Of course, thanks also go to DLSU-CSB for hosting the event.

Hope to see you there!

June 24, 2008

The Great Iloilo Flood: Typhoon Frank’s Wrath

I was born in Iloilo City (Jaro, to be specific) and most of my parents’ relatives still live there as well as in Bacolod City.

So when Typhoon Frank lashed at Panay Island over the weekend, I was very concerned about them. Our driver who had children there told me that the water rose so fast (up to their necks) that the children had to evacuate to neighbors on higher ground.

My brother forwarded to me a text from a relative who described the situation as “serious”. They have no phones, no electricity, no water. And they expect this situation to last several months. This sounded like a step back into the Dark Ages!

I just came from the Multiply blog of my niece and read through her account about how water rose 8-15 feet in Jaro in just 10-15 minutes (how could that be????). Friends of her Mom called to say that their relatives were stuck on trees as water swelled around their barangay. People were caught unaware; many were still having breakfast as the waters rose. So many lives lost, so many homes destroyed completely, so many people’s livelihoods shattered.

I do not have a complete picture yet of how our relatives there are. We are still trying to contact them one by one to check on their situation.

This site carries pictures of the storm’s aftermath in Iloilo. The scope of the devastation just leaves me without words. On TV earlier, I looked at Boracay and could not even recognize it as a tourist spot with pristine waters and white sandy beaches.

As we follow news of the ill-fated Sulpicio ship that sank and the number of passengers who died, even more questions are in my mind concerning the flash floods in Panay:

– How could torrential rains, no matter how strong, inundate such a wide area in just a few minutes?

– Was this a result again of illegal logging?

– Who should be held accountable, if ever illegal activities were behind the floods?

For now, I am helpless here in Manila. All I can do is pray for my family over there and hope they are able to weather this trial. Please pray with me for all those who lost loved ones and shelter and if it is within your means, help by donating your excess to the various institutions accepting them for the people of Panay.

June 22, 2008August 28, 2011

Typhoon Frank: The Aftermath

This is what our yard looks like right now. A “war zone” after Typhoon Frank made a direct pass over Metro Manila packing winds of about 120 kph. Every time a typhoon passes, our yard looks like this owing to the mango and starapple trees we have. We have had worse storms which had these trees swaying so much that I actually stretched my hands out in prayer that they would not snap and fall towards the house!

Power was cut around 4 AM but thankfully, I had the foresight to have everyone charge their cellphones the night before. We also had our flashlights ready and the kids had done most of their homework.

The only worrisome thought was that M2 and a whole bunch of other teens had gone up yesterday to Antipolo for a 2-day retreat. I had been communicating with their adult supervisors since last night and they had decided that it was safer for the kids to stay till around 4 PM today (expecting that the worse of the typhoon would have already passed).

Power was restored around noon and internet access about an hour later. Now, it is clean-up time. I reckon we would use up a lot of those large 40-gallon trash bags just for all these leaves. But we are all just so thankful that everyone at home is safe and no damage was done to property (ours and neighbors).

Now, I am just waiting out the time when M2 and his car pool of 3 other schoolmates come down later. The worse is over.

How did you fare during the storm?

June 21, 2008June 16, 2011

Italianni’s EXTRA Treat

It says something when, in the midst of crisis (rice shortage, escalating gas prices, reeling food prices) an institution decides NOT to pare down its service or hike its prices but instead decides to give EXTRA to its dining customers — no charge, without questions, without being asked. Just like that!

That is exactly what I experienced when I got a special invite from Ann of Yehey.com to be one of 15 bloggers last June 16 to experience and taste Italianni’s EXTRA treat at Bonifacio High Street.

I was the first to arrive at the venue so I chatted briefly with Ann and Jori of Yehey (Jori was wearing a cute panda cap that made him look like Po of Kung Fu Panda fame).

I also got to meet Cyril Reyes, the General Manager of Italianni’s Boni High Street, who indulged me as I did an ambush interview.

Continue reading “Italianni’s EXTRA Treat”