Live life agelessly, purposefully, mindfully, happily…
I am not the original blogger in the family, although many think I am because of my writings to this day. Decades ago, we already had someone in our family who wrote almost daily about her life — our Mom.
Continue reading “Preserving the posts of our original family ‘blogger’ — our Mom!”
This year, I celebrate my 15th year as a blogger. That is almost as long as the amount of time I spent on my first job with a leading accounting firm, much longer than my stint with a bank, and about half the number of years I’ve been married.
I started my blogging journey back in 2005/2006 on the Multiply platform before it transformed into an e-commerce platform then shut down in 2013. I learned to improve my craft through the years by attending annual iBlog summits, organized by internet marketing specialist Janette Toral. In the last years of iBlog, I had several opportunities to become a speaker or panelist and share my own insights with new batches of bloggers.
It has been a while since I had a relatively free weekend. Normally, I would have a list of articles from a bevy of media events that need writing up. Or there would be Zoom meetings to attend. Or I had accounting-related work for hubby.
I looked at my phone’s calendar today and realized there was…nothing. So I’m using this weekend to catch up on what got me started with blogging way back in 2006 — the plain and simple desire to write.
Back then, blogging was personal and up close. It was all about us, our life, our thoughts and ideas, sharing what we knew, getting people to help in different situations. Today, I find most of my blogging time is taken up by media events. Not that I am complaining. I enjoy attending those events. But I relegated my personal blogging to a low priority and I miss it. It is the essence of who I am as a blogger.
Of all my blogs, this blog is the one least updated because I’m reserving it for my personal posts. I was horrified today when I realized that my last post was in January as 2021 came round the corner. Almost half a year ago! That never happened when I first started writing in 2006.
So, when I have free weekends like today, I will write about things closest to my heart. No need to look for pictures to add to them. No pressure to include anchor texts, backlinks, keywords, and all that SEO stuff. Just plain ol’ writing of what’s inside me.
See you around!
I have not really had time to blog about what I had been doing these past months. It’s been a whirlwind time doing my usual mommy activities while participating in a new advocacy. Since October of 2009, I became part of a group of concerned citizen bloggers who wanted to do something other than our normal blogging. We wanted to push voter education and thought we could do something as there was quite a large online community if we put our readership together.
With my mommy blogger friend Noemi starting the whole effort, Blog Watch was put together. Starting with 16 bloggers, we grew to 31 by the time the May 10, 2010 elections came. By then, we had interviewed 7 of the 9 presidential aspirants (see pics below. I missed out on Bro. Eddie’s interview), some running for VP and senators, and a few local government candidates.
I just realized that it was May 26, 2007 (just over a year ago) when a group of mommy bloggers came together and met for the FIRST TIME over lunch organized by the Pinoy Moms Network which included Connie.
Wow, has it been one year already???
Most of these mommy bloggers are still active bloggers who I bump into every so often. Of course, the likes of Noemi and Dine are already steep into blogging and you can be sure that at almost every major event, they would be in the crowd and never without their laptops. However, every so often, I would also bump into the others like Chats who joined a recent dinner/reunion with Raquel at Dine’s bday celebration. Or twit with her, Feng, Cess, Julie and Kongkong.
Since I met this group of bloggers, life has not been the same, at least for me. My blogging has escalated several notches and my network of bloggers has expanded. We greet each other on birthdays and anniversaries and exchange tips of all kinds. Isn’t that just wonderful?
Lately, there have been a handful of DADDY bloggers already in some events and I hazard a guess there would be more. Husband-wife tandem bloggers are starting to crop up and recently, even brother-sister combinations. Family blogs are sprouting with each member of the family contributing articles to a blog. Wow, family blogging is born!
I can see so much potential in family blogs and who knows, this could very well be a topic in the next iblog5 summit! If technology is one bonding tool with this multimedia generation, why not in the form of blogging? Family events can be blogged about with each member contributing his/her own view and having all these combined into one post. Family memoirs preserved through blogs.
What do you think?
Yes, I am a sucker for underdogs. It’s just me.
Of course, the underdog has to be one of decent stock and integrity. Someone credible. Someone vulnerable. Someone unable to fight on his/her own. And recently, another such person has caught everyone in the throes of controversy that has gotten incredible media mileage.
Brian Gorrell has captured the hearts and minds of bloggers and web surfers globally, including Pinoys (one of whom he accuses of having allegedly scammed him of his life savings of 70,000 dollars). Brian could not get it back and resorted to blogging in an attempt to force this Pinoy to hand his money back — money he desperately needs for his medicines. Brian has HIV.
I won’t go into detailed comments about what Brian claims he knows or what he blogged about. You can go to Brian’s blog and read all about it there.
But what is really core to all these is his exposure of what we already have a glimpse of — the huge abyss between the rich and the poor of our country and what perks it gives to the high and mighty, to the detriment of those who merely survive from day to day and learn to go without.
If, through Brian’s blog, we Filipinos can see the real view of our country (its good side as well as its sickening ills), maybe we can now be stirred to move towards changing society, help in whatever way we can to make life better for millions of our own, bring back honesty, integrity, good governance at every level of society, and give back the dignity of the Pinoy that has been stripped bare by countless scandals not just in government but also, apparently, in our high society circles.
Kitty Go’s amazingly candid interview was so refreshing. While being herself a socialite now based in HK, she shows the better side of what real high society should be made of — finesse, social concern, clean living, honest profession, etc. There are still many of those in this country. Those who use their money to engage in housing projects, set up foundations for education, for better provincial infrastructure, and so forth. It is the few who live like there was no tomorrow, indulging in wild lifestyles, liquor and drugs, living in their intoxicated world, engaging in corruption to continue building up their empire, who bring a bad image to high society (and government, as well).
Some creative person came up with an image which Brian posted on his blog. It does not look like it is copyrighted as it has “Team Brian” on it. So I am putting it up here as well.
Good luck to you, Brian. Many people are praying you stay healthy. Many are hoping you get back your money. Thank you for exposing what many in this country have known for some time now but never dared talk (or write) about.
