It all began with a very mysterious email. Do we dare RSVP for this blogger event at M Cafe, Ayala Museum, Makati?
My curiosity tickled, I replied to confirm. Then, we were told to “dress to impress”. When I asked what that meant, I was just told to dress up as though we would go clubbing. Conversations online among my mommy blogger friends did not give us any better clue as to what was going on. This was how we looked when we met up.
While canapes were being served at M Cafe, we started wondering what was going on as 1 hour passed and nothing was happening. Finally after a long wait, we were asked to step out into the fountain area of Ayala Museum. There we saw several bikers in maong, leather gloves and shades with their Harley-Davidson bikes!
Globe DARED us to ride on the Harleys. One of our girl bloggers, Cher, volunteered. I also wanted to ride on one of the bikes but they ran out of helmets! This was as far as I got.
So instead, my mommy blogger friends and I rode one of 5 coasters Globe readied for us and we went down Ayala Ave., through Buendia, till we reached Polaris St. where we ended up at our final destination — Handlebar, a bikers’ bar!
Finally, we were told what the event was all about. Globe Tattoo, which previously launched as a USB-based broadband service, will be launched this Aug. 30, 2009 via a Tattoo SIM which is already call-, text- and internet-enabled. With your Tattoo SIM you can do all 3 with just one single top-up.
In addition, they have a new, no-expiry text offer called ImmortalTXT. For only P10, you get 50 texts to Globe/TM and 10 texts to other networks that will never expire.
Globe also announced its new Globe Tattoo website. What’s new about this site is that it is widget-based. Every application is a separate widget you can drag around and rearrange on your screen the way you want. Not all of its applications are live as of now but watch for these.
Each of us came away with our very own Tattoo prepaid SIM card so we could try the all-in-one features.
The event’s highlight for the bloggers was a big D-A-R-E.
Anyone willing to get a REAL tattoo from a nearby tattoo place would be awarded a Dell Mini.
OK, I confess I was sorely tempted to raise my hand. Our son will be traveling abroad soon and he’ll need a netbook. But — a tattoo? A permanent one at that? GULP. I chickened out. Haha…
Well, several brave bloggers actually volunteered and when the organizers fished a name out of the bowl, it was LAUREN DADO! Brave girl! She ended up with a tattoo on her back (a barcode design) and went home with the netbook. Whoooo!
Thanks, Globe, for that innovative, fun, fun, fun blogger event. And finally, we have a text service where load does not expire.
Kids now are so techy savvy that their whole life revolves around computers and the internet. My own kids would rather be online than watch TV these days. And when school’s out, like today — the last day of exams, they are with friends at the nearest internet cafe to play games. Their interests and lingo have become worlds apart from those who have remained in the era before the advent of computers.
I am one of the lucky parents who have kept pace with our children in terms of technology use. But when I go to visit my Mom who is in her 80s, I still see a person who does not know how to use a mobile phone, writes letters by hand and sends them via snail mail, and does most of her written activities with a pen and paper still. She prefers it that way but it also saddens me since there is not much common interest to keep conversations going between her and my kids for long. After a while, my kids drift off to their own conversations while Mom ends up conversing with us, her children.
Then, just the other day, I got the surprise of my life when Mom’s decades-long American penpal added me up on Facebook. It really made me think that if only my Mom (who is now widowed) became comfortable using a computer, how much more meaningful her life could be if she had direct contact with all her friends and relatives instead of being limited to snail mail.
In the book “The Five Things You Must Discover Before You Die”, author John Izzo wrote about cultures that have lost this connection between the young and the old. This can be observed mostly in cultures with very advanced technology. Tribes and clans, where the senior citizens continue to play a large role in leading and are looked up to, are few and seem to be a dying tradition. And yet, Izzo discovered that in talking with the seniors to gather data for this book, there was a richness to the wisdom and life experiences of the seniors that the youth would truly benefit from. Likewise, seniors seem to gain back some of their youthfulness and vitality when engaged with the very young generation.
MUSIC was the generation gap of my youth. My parents could not understand the “noise” that my friends and I would often love to listen to or dance to at discos. In the generation of our children, the generation gap is TECHNOLOGY.
How do we get the very young communicating again with their much older family members?
Bayan Telecommunications conducted an informal poll via Plurk and Facebook (2 social networking sites), which revealed that, given the chance, 87% of young people want to continue communicating with their grandparents (lolos and lolas). This same poll revealed that 81% of Filipinos are still close to their grandparents and 57% still visit from time to time. And yet, ironically, the Internet Age is also responsible for further widening the generational gap between a younger set that is used to the internet as a communications and research tool and an older generation that does not know where to begin and is in danger of being left behind.
This realization became the foundation for Bayan’s newest advocacy, Teach Lola – an initiative to bridge the communication gap between the younger and older generation.
This advocacy rides on the initial resounding success of Lola Techie, who has been seen in tarps all over the metro besides TV ads. Lola Techie aims to show that senior citizens are just as capable of enjoying the benefits of the internet just as the generations after them.
“Project Lola endeavors to teach the older set about the computer and the internet. It offers training on such diverse topics as how to operate a computer, where to find the appropriate icons to click, how to write and manage e-mail, how to go about instant messaging, and how to navigate the intricate world of social networking sites,” Tunde Fafunwa, Chief Executive Officer of Bayan Telecommunications, shares.
The program has 2 components:
1. Teach Lola trainers;
2. An official website (www.teachlola.com) where anyone can download manuals for free.
For the first wave, Bayan employees’ grandparents were the first targets. 20 trainers from all departments in Bayan were taught by teaching partner, Learn.ph, to educate the targetted grandparents as well as spearhead events that will aim to bring more apos together with their lolos and lolas.
Aside from recruiting more people to become Teach Lola trainers, Bayan is enabling other people as well to participate through a do-it-yourself process. An online manual is available at the official website which anyone can download. Anyone can likewise update the Teach Lola modules, akin to how user-generated updates are done in Wikipedia. This means that more people nationwide and globally can get involved in this initiative.
It is really not far-fetched that lolos and lolas will eventually latch on to the internet.
Lola Techie’s presence on Plurk, Facebook, Twitter, Multiply and YouTube gives us a glimpse of what could be. And guess what! A large majority of her followers are my kids’ generation! Just 2 months into the launch of Lola Techie, she already had over 90,000 Facebook fans, more than 4,000 Multiply contacts, and almost 2,000 followers in both Twitter and Plurk. This does not include hundreds of thousands of views of her videos on YouTube. And Lola Techie interacts with all her contacts on these sites. Imagine what it would be like for your children and their grandparents — sitting together in front of a computer, interacting and playing or chatting! How wonderful that would be to behold.
I am personally very happy that such an advocacy is being launched. I hope we can really get many of the youth involved to bring what comes naturally to them to their grandparents, for whom this can sometimes be a very intimidating obstacle.
One last thing. Here’s a teaser for the Teach Lola program.What a world it would be to see our seniors become tech savvy…
A day Pres. Corazon Aquino passed away last Aug. 1, a website (peaceloveandrevolution.com) was put up on the web by a very young graphic designer. Within a week, the site got more than 20,000 hits, the idea of the couple on one yellow bill caught the attention of the newspapers, became the talk of social networking sites, landed on a Facebook page and snowballed. The graphic designer was Rev Naval.
At about the same time, a former Cabinet Secretary, who happens to be a good friend, stumbled on the same idea, proposed it to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), and got positive feedback that it was going to be considered in the next redesign of the Philippine currency. This person was former Energy Secretary Vincent S. Perez.
(taken from www.vinceperez.net)
At the recent Manila Design Week, I sought Rev Naval out, borne out of a curiosity and desire to meet the guy behind the popular P500 design. He graciously spoke with me for a short while then gifted me with a facsimile of his P500 bill.
The Biggest Loser Asia is coming to Asia for the first time and Fitness First is its major sponsor. Fitness First clubs around Asia (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) will be exclusive venues for the live screen test auditions for participants who want to be part of the show. In the Philippines, LIVE screen test auditions were held at Fitness First at SM Megamall from August 15-16, 2009.
Since its debut in 2004 in the US by NBC reality television, The Biggest Loser has become a worldwide hit viewed by millions, airing in over 90 countries and produced in 25 countries. This is the first reality show where obese contestants are challenged and encouraged under guided expert supervision to undergo strenuous physical and mental training in order to shed kilos. The one who loses the most weight not only wins a grand cash prize of USD 100, 000 but also gains a healthier and better quality life!
Produced by Imagine Omnimedia (producers of Contender Asia) for the Hallmark Channel in Asia, Biggest Loser Asia will help change the lives of obese Filipinos who want to take up the challenge of shedding bad lifestyle habits and embracing healthier ones. The Biggest Loser Asia will not just look into the physical challenges of the contestants’ personal journeys but also their emotional and psychological trials and tribulations as they lose the kilos while inspiring and empowering others to do the same.
When my girl C2 and I got to Fitness First, we were met by a long line of applicants, all looking like they really could lose all that extra weight but looking hopeful as well that they would be chosen as one of the wanna-be losers.
Applicants were ushered into THE screen test room in batches of 6. They were told that the panel of judges could ask them any questions like why they joined The Biggest Loser or even personal questions that could have contributed to their obesity or desire to lose weight.
Simon Flint and Mark Ellis of Fitness First brief the applicants
Here are some snippets from a jolly group of guys who I thought were friends since they were very animated as they sat around waiting for their turn. But they all just met each other on that day.
And I did an ambush interview with actress Ruby Rodriguez, who I chanced upon also lining up:
The show is expected to come out on TV by end of this year. Watch for it and see who becomes the biggest Asian LOSER!
Left-handers (popularly called Lefties) comprise only about 7-10% of the world’s population.
Up until the last generation, left-handed children were forced to switch to the right hand by most parents. It’s only now that lefties are acknowledged for their uniqueness and creativity.
Based on studies, here are some interesting trivia about left-handed people:
– Some famous Lefty personalities are US President Barack H. Obama, Henry L. Ford, Mark Twain, Jimi Hendrix, Michelangelo, and our very own Rafael “Paeng’’ Nepomucen and Emmanuel “Manny’’ Pacquiao.
– Men are slightly more likely to be left-handed than women.
– When NASA began searching for imaginative, reliable, multi-talented people for the moon, 1 in 4 Apollo astronauts turned out to be left-handed (a figure 250% greater than statistical probability).
– Left-handers reach puberty 4-5 months later than right-handed people.
– Lefties tend to draw figures that face the RIGHT.
– Probably because they use the right side of the brain more, lefties appear to be better in the music and arts scene.
– According to neurologists, lefties adjust more readily to seeing underwater.
– Left-handers seem to excel in sports such as tennis, baseball, swimming and fencing.
– The probabilities of producing a lefty are as follows: 1 in 10 if both parents are right-handed; 2 in 10 if one parent is left-handed; 1 in 4 if both parents are left-handed.
– 4 of the 5 original designers of the Macintosh computer were left-handed.
– Lefties account for a large percentage of those in remedial reading classes.
In my family, three of my kids were born Lefties. Our second daughter, C2, was born left-handed but since I did not know any better then, I taught her to use her right hand so she would not have difficulty in a right-handed world. However, our 2 succeeding children, both boys, also turned out to be Lefties. And to this day, I wonder about this because while we have other lefties in the family (my sister and some in-laws), both me and my hubby are right-handed.
We are fortunate that in the boys’ school, they took pains to accommodate lefties by providing desks with left-sided arm rests. It’s not so bad anymore now that they are in high school because the desks are tables with ample room for you whether you are right- or left-handed. But at home, I still have to contend with bumping elbows with M2 at the dinner table.
In 1990, the Left-Handers Club was established and on Aug. 13, 1992, they launched International Left-Handers’ Day. According to their website:
This event is now celebrated worldwide, and in the U.K. alone there were over 20 regional events to mark the day in 2001- including left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs using left-handed corkscrews where patrons drank and played pub games with the left hand only, and nationwide “Lefty Zones” where left-handers creativity, adaptability and sporting prowess were celebrated, whilst right-handers were encouraged to try out everyday left-handed objects to see just how awkward it can feel using the wrong equipment!
These events have contributed more than anything else to the general awareness of the difficulties and frustrations left-handers experience in everyday life, and have successfully led to improved product design and greater consideration of our needs by the right-handed majority – although there is still a long way to go!!
Today, I greet all Left-Handers, including my lefty kids and blog readers. You are unique and in a class all your own. You have your own place in this world and can make a great contribution with your creativity and artistic talents.
In the history of Philippine presidents, she is the only one I know who did not seek the position, reluctantly assumed it, stayed faithful to her Presidential oath and to the Constitution, and willingly gave it up to her elected successor.
Yes, she was not always popular to everyone. The 7 coups under her Administration showed the restlessness of some military quarters. After she left government, she supported some issues that did not sit well with some people. Some thought the Cory magic was gone and questioned her moves.
But she proved that what is popular is not always right. She followed her intuition, guided by the Divine, and did what she thought was right. And I believe she has been vindicated. When the people first learned of her cancer last year, the entire nation prayed for her till the very end. And we all came out in droves, in the driving rain and heat, waited patiently in line for hours just to catch a 3-second glimpse of her, brought our children into the streets to hail her funeral cortege wherever it passed, and mourned her loss as though she were our very own mother. We embraced her family as though they were our own. And when they cried, we cried with them.
Tita Cory proved in the end that gentleness overpowers might. Everyone agrees she was the most honest President we have ever had. She never spoke about herself but always asked about others and clearly loved country and countrymen second only to God. As a civilian after her Administration, she continued her quest to better the lives of Filipinos via her microfinance endeavors. For her, uplifting the Filipino women who were home-based and who mostly had no livelihood means not only allowed them to augment their family income but also imbued these women with self-respect and self-esteem.
I have personal reasons for my own deep sense of loss at her passing:
– I was in the States around the time they were in exile and while I never met Ninoy as he made his campus tours, I did get to meet Charito Planas who was in exile with him and learned from her how they left the Philippines, how she coped with a meager livelihood there, and how they all longed to return one day.
– Ninoy was shot on my birthday. Every year since then, my birthday always took on a more somber atmosphere as I could not help recalling that day as the country commemorates his death.
– I was an active Namfrel Operation Quick Count volunteer (in the 1984 elections as well as in the 1986 snap elections). I sat at pre-election meetings with the Namfrel leadership including Joe Concepcion and Gus Lagman to work out the tabulation process (both automated and the manual backup system using CPA volunteers). I remember the days that stretched into nights as we took our duty turns at La Salle Greenhills. I was there when we heard stories of ballot snatching in precincts as well as accounts of cars parked outside LSGH that had paint splattered on them by unknown persons. I was present when Cardinal Sin, Senator Lugar (with his US observation team) and other dignitaries visited to take a look at our operations. I felt the sense of worth in what we were doing when the PICC tabulators walked out in disgust over the manipulation of electoral reports on their tally board which differed from their own tabulations.
– When EDSA 1 broke out, my siblings and I plus our Dad headed for EDSA to be one with the people. We had a tiny transistor radio with us as we monitored developments reported by Radyo Bandido.
On the evening of Aug. 1 (Saturday), my daughter and I tried to visit Tita Cory at LSGH but the hard rains and long lines that stretched from the gym all the way to Ortigas Ave. and beyond Gate 1 near EDSA prevented us from lining up, especially since I needed to be up early the next day. I was resigned to the fact I would have to just watch everything from my TV set.
On Aug. 3 (Monday), I woke up early, checked my online messages, and found out that my blogger friend Noemi, who was in the media group at LSGH, had posted a message that public viewing was allowed before the 9 AM Mass (prior to the transfer to Manila Cathedral) and that THERE WERE NO LINES!
I literally jumped out of bed and into my clothes, rushed to LSGH, and true enough, breezed right through the gate. In 5 minutes, I was already in line with a few others to view Tita Cory.
NAMFREL's 1986 tally board (lovingly preserved by the La Salle brothers) is displayed as one final tribute
Then the following day, Aug. 4, I acted on a compulsion to visit EDSA Shrine. I bought a single yellow Carnation along the way, with a tiny card, and laid it at the feet of the statue of the Blessed Mother.
And as one final, loving tribute to the only President in recent history who, to my mind, truly loved and served this country the best way she could and without taking advantage of position or power, this is the view from my bedroom window:
Goodbye, Tita Cory. Thank you for everything you have done for our country and for us individually. Rest now with our good Lord and with your beloved Ninoy. Continue to pray for and guide the Philippines. Mahal ka namin. Hindi ka namin makakalimutan. Sana lahat ng pinangarap mo at pinagdasal para sa ating bansa ay magkatotoo.
(taken from www.vinceperez.net)
