Bisaya Bloggers

…I thought of taking a break to post here.

I’ve been doing Japanese-to-English translation work for a consulting firm based out of Makati for a couple of years now. I really can’t talk about the documents I translate because they’re sealed under a non-disclosure agreement. But I suppose I can hint at the contents a bit. I see a lot of material about the Philippine I.T. industry in those documents. Shame I can’t reveal them here yet — but my principal told me that, as soon as they get published, I can quote them already. (more…)

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Today, the last day of 2007, I was reflecting on the events of the last 12 months. My realization: they were good months. Not exactly as I’d planned, but highly satisfactory.

My greatest achievement for this year was the very successful conduct of the first-ever Mindanao Bloggers Summit in October. Surrounded by bloggers and supporters all throughout, I had no doubts that we could pull it off. What I hadn’t counted on was the way MindanaoBloggers.com turned out to be so viral. Long after the Summit was concluded, more and more bloggers from Mindanao are participating in the community.

In my work as an I.T. consultant and marketer, I’ve also seen some new developments this year. After several years of trying to promote Davao City to the Japanese market, it was only this year that these efforts have begun to pay off. Beginning in August, I’ve been monitoring an increased interest by Japanese I.T. companies in Davao City as an outsourcing and investment destination. This will hopefully continue into 2008 and beyond. (more…)

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

Had a wonderful night-out with a close friend of mine last night. Pam’s been in Cagayan de Oro all these years, so we rarely see each other anymore. So we made sure to spend some quality time together yesterday.

We met up at my favorite coffee shop, Basti’s, then proceeded to Nezz74 Café for dinner. Someone had told me that the food there was good, so we checked it out. It’s a nice enough place… but the food’s nothing fantastic, sad to say. Pam had the lechon kawali, and it wasn’t really all that great. My sweet and sour fish fillet of malasugui was OK though. Their coffee? I’m sticking to Basti’s. (more…)

It’s been quite some time since I last participated in a tag game. So I thought I’d jump in and do one, which I got from Aileen Apolo. It’s about why it’s so much better to spend Christmas in the Philippines than overseas. (Did I get that right, Aileen?).

What to do: Just share a warm, fuzzy Pinoy Christmas story or anecdote or photo or whatever it is you love about Christmas (as a Filipino). Link to Aileen’s blog post so she can share your story in her compilation. Copy & paste the instructions (this paragraph) and then leave a comment on Aileen’s blog post so she can check out your post. (more…)

Grrrr!!! I was supposed to go to NCCC Mall this afternoon and show off my red WordPress t-shirt, but the rain decided to show me off. And it’s so rare for me to even think of going to NCCC — I go to Victoria Plaza most times (because Basti’s Brew is there).

Mondays are depressing enough.

Well, at least the weekend was perfect.

Funny how the rain — just your run-of-the-mill kind of downpour — can stop Dabawenyos in their tracks. Parties are not attended, not very important meetings are often delayed, get-togethers are either held indoors or postponed…. We’re spoiled by the year-round good weather in Davao!

I remember my first tropical storm, it was during my first year in college. I was in Makati, in a village that’s considered posh. But I saw a huge, tattered piece of a roofing fly above me! And the wind was howling like crazy, it drove shivers up and down my spine. Whenever the family would go to Manila on vacation, it would invariably be in summer, so I never saw storms before that. It was fascinatingly scary and new to me.

Good thing rains don’t last long in Davao.

See this?

I still have three of these WordPress t-shirts, left over from the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. My colleagues in The Usual Suspects are going to whip up another online contest to raffle off these collectibles. Watch out for it! I’ll announce it right here soon.

Thing is, they’re all women’s tees, size small, so maybe the contest’s gonna be limited to girls. Well, including bloggers’ girlfriends.

Thanks to Matt and Maya for the t-shirts!!!

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

Brader Migs, the funny man of The Usual Suspects, has come up with another gimmick for the gang. Migs is constantly cooking up these playful and interesting ideas. This time, he’s given each member of The Usual Suspects a cute mascot.

Check mine out! I’d like to think it’s a very apt representation. Migs has certainly overdone himself this time!

The other Suspects have their own mascots too. I think they’re hairy hippos or cows or something… They’re free to download, designed by alexinger. Go read Migs’ post »

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

The Christmas season is again nearly upon us. For those who are no longer at the receiving end but are in fact at the giving end of Christmas gifts, it’s a yearly struggle to think of that adorable gift for family, friends and colleagues.

A friend of mine, Aloysius, has a great set of gift ideas for Dabawenyos. He calls his shop Photo Story. I guess that’s because he and his wife Beng believe that photographs should be presented in such a way that they can tell you their stories.

View their catalogue of gifts that can frame your photos and your memories so well: Christmas 2007 Offerings. They’ve got Photo Pillows, Desk Clocks with a photo on the face, Jelly Belts (a string of framed photos that you can hang on your Christmas tree). Here’s a unique gift: the ru-PIX Cube. Check out the online catalogue to see them all!

Photo Story is located in Buhangin. The website should have their contact numbers.

As some of my readers might already know, I’ve created a new blog for my food escapades: Davao Delicious. From now on, that’s now where I will write about eating, cuisine, restaurants, coffee shops, what have you…. It’s my newest blog, and probably not my last.

It wasn’t planned, though, this baby blog. You see, I’m doing a website for my friends, Rochelle and Romano Venuti (owners of Swiss Deli, Picobello Ristorante Italiano and Prego Café). In search of a domain name late at night several days ago, I came across a catchy and available name, davaodeli.com. Without delay, I purchased the domain, and told the husband-and-wife team about it the following day. However, they weren’t too keen on it. They still preferred to have their real company name in the upcoming website’s URL. (They eventually settled for dbutcherdbaker.com — coming soon!) (more…)

Recently, a blogger acquaintance of mine got his Gmail account hacked into and hijacked. The hijacker then proceeded to send out scam emails to this blogger’s contacts, basically asking for money. My friend, Richard, may have been a victim of phishing. As a result, he couldn’t access his Blogger account either, so he had to create a whole new blog.

I’ve also received quite a number of phishing attempts, but there’s one that almost convinced me it was authentic. The email came from a spoofed address (service@paypal.com), so it passed through my spam filters. However, after reading through half the letter, it felt like it didn’t come from PayPal. For one, there was no greeting. Two, there were several grammatical errors. Here’s the email in toto: (more…)

The 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit was satisfyingly successful. We could’ve gotten more participants from more areas of Mindanao, but for a first-time effort for a unique event, I was happy with the turnout. The important thing is, my colleagues and I have gotten the ball rolling. I’m counting on the viral nature of blogs: each blogger has his or her own set of readers, so when he or she writes about the Summit and its objectives, the word gets around pretty quickly. (more…)

For those of you who are into online poker, blackjack, roulette and other popular online casino games, it might be a good idea for you to check out this Web portal first: Online Casino Bluebook. It’s a resource site that shows a list of the top 10 online casinos, among other things. (more…)

Durian, mangosteen, marang, lanzones, rambutan, pineapple, watermelon, pomelo, papaya, atis, and more durian!

The streets of Davao are awash with a variety of tropical fruits in season. Just walk around and you won’t miss it! From August to October each year, Dabawenyos are blessed with an abundance of fruits, you wouldn’t believe it! Just stroll around the city and you’re sure to bump into a sidewalk vendor or an open-air fruit stand.

Come to Davao and experience paradise!

From 7 July to 1 September, this poll on popular blog platforms got 45 total votes — honestly, I would’ve wanted it a bit higher than that number… oh well. Anyway, although I myself currently author / administer 7 sites using WordPress, I was actually expecting Blogspot (Blogger.com) to lead this survey. The reason I say this is, in the two blog directories that I maintain (Davao Blogs Directory & Mindanao Blog Directory), majority of the listed blogs are on Google’s Blogspot service. (more…)

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

Recenly, Mike Thomas of BlogInterviewer.com emailed me and said that a kind soul had recommended my blog to be interviewed. Whoever you are, thanks very much!!

That site is a unique service that helps blogs get promoted through link-love and ratings. What’s good about BlogInterviewer.com, as far as I know, is that it brings out the blogger from behind the blog. In fact, the interview is mostly about the person rather than the blog itself. Since many bloggers do not take the time to write an About page, being interviewed by this service might spur them to do so. Also, readers are given the chance to get to know their favorite blogs’ authors on a bit more personal level.

If you feel like it, vote for my blog interview by clicking here. You could help me win some moolah, which I intend to donate to charity. You could win too — BlogInterviewer.com gives away prizes to randomly-chosen commenters on my interview.

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere