Get It Together with PageFlakes!

Man, I love Pageflakes! I've been at it since I discovered it last Friday when Andrian Lee of AsiaPay mentioned it at the Corporate Communications 2.0 Workshop at the Asian Institute of Management. Thanks, Andrian. I've only started to appreciate RSS feeds recently, and Pageflakes only makes it a lot more appealing.

Here's the deal: Pageflakes allows you to get all your favorite blogs and websites all together on one page, by the power of RSS feeds. In my case, I've used it to make my own homepage where all my favorite blogs are up there, headlines and updates ready to be read as soon as I fire up my Firefox browser.

Each blog or website comes in a little module that you can move around, depending on how you want your page laid out. Pageflakes also has a variety of all kinds of additional widgets- from task-lists to news services to add-ons of your favorite social media applications. The page is customizable, so you can go ahead and choose whatever look you want.

If you're a little bit more obsessive-compulsive, you may want to organize your interests a bit- by creating separate pages of whatever fancies you. Currently I have pages for:

• My personal stuff- where I keep tabs of my own blogs, Facebook, Multiply, Twitter, Technorati, etc. I call it Renzie's Flaix!
• The Blogosphere- where I check out other friends' and other people's blogs.
• Work-Life Balance- for effective and worry-free everyday living, so among other sites I have here Lifehacker and LOLCats- LOLZ!
• Fun with New Media- everything on blog-building, search engine marketing, podcasting, vlogging, RSS feeds is right here.
• All About Business- is just about that: marketing and management, e-commerce, outsourcing. Serious stuff which I find fun.
• Make Money Online- my quest for financial independence begins here! Favorite sites include ShoeMoney and Dosh Dosh.
• Personal Geekness- is rather self-explanatory. Here's where I have Engadget and Kotaku. I plan to fill this up with all things gaming, tech and geeky. Good fun.
• Entertainment- still have to fill this up with my favorite updates on the TV, film and music front.
• Philippines + Tourism- a future project in the works. This is where I'll keep an eye out on great stuff already written about the Philippines- where to go, what to check out, what to eat, etc.

Of course, I can make any other page I feel like later on- and share it with the world! Pageflakes gives you the option to "pagecast", or share your page to everyone else. So whenever you feel like it, you can go right ahead and check out other people's pages as well.

Which I haven't done just yet. Yesterday morning and last night were spent toying around with the options, filling up a profile and yeah, plugging in all those RSS feeds in whatever page I've created. And there's still so much to discover. Probably wouldn't be the new Facebook, but I like it for its functionality and convenience.

Lemme know if you're on Pageflakes too. Let's add each other up and check out our pagecasts.

Cheers, everyone!

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Who Are The Bloggers In Your Neighborhood? (2008)

Ever since I started blogging seriously (which was last October or November), I always made it a point to learn as much as I can about blogging and blog-building. Of course I can always pick up a book, or soak up on as much as I could from online sources, but I thought it would be a good idea to learn from some of the more established bloggers.

After all, they were newbies too at some point, right?

Besides, this makes for a great opportunity to meet the people behind the blogs, as well as a chance to do some serious networking.

So since then, I've taken an active effort to attend as many blogger events as I possibly could: like the one at Kape Isla with the good people of b5media, the Bloggers' Food Tour at TriNoma, the HappySlip event of Yehey.com, and this more recent Bloggers' Night with Delifrance at their cafe near Citibank Pasong Tamo.

What's interesting when meeting with bloggers is that oftentimes, they blog about stuff so totally off their current occupation- a doctor can be totally into photography, a lawyer into cooking, a country consultant into organizing weddings, even a mom into the latest in technology.

It is through blogs that bloggers live out their frustrations and fantasies. And it's all good on the blogging front- you can establish your authority easily with a well-positioned, well-conceived, well-put-together blog.

Which brings us to the point of this segment. "Who Are The Bloggers In Your Neighborhood?" aims to showcase all our new blogger friends- get to know them better, and hopefully learn a thing or two from them.

If you have someone in mind you'd like to feature, or if you want your blog to be featured, do let me know. And drop on in from time to time to see who we have featured here.

Cheers, everyone!

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iBlog4: The 4th Philippine Blogging Summit!

Janette Toral of DigitalFilipino.com shared this with us on Facebook.

iBlog4: the 4th Philippine Blogging Summit will be held at Malcolm Theater, College of Law, in UP Diliman, Quezon City this April 26, 2008. This event is organized by the University of the Philippines - Internet Society Program.

We would like to thank Alfox Computer Center for being our name badge sponsor. Parties interested to support this event can e-mail me at digitalfilipino@gmail.com

Registration, which will reserve your seats, stuff and schwag, and get you into our announcements mailing list, is now open.

Of course iBlog 4 is still FREE in the beer sense, as long as we can help it, free in the speech sense.

The program as follows:

9:00 - 9:20 Flag Ceremony, Welcome Remarks, Keynote
9:20 - 9:45 How to Blog (from a non-problogger point-of-view) - Charo Nuguid

You want to start a blog. You ask your problogger friend for help. The problem is he starts talking about keywords, SEO, and a few other things that you have totally no clue about. Google Ad-what? "I just want to start a blog!" If you're just looking for a way to post your thoughts on the web for posterity (and give your readers a few kicks every now and then) without the business talk, click here! (Or just walk through the door, sit down and listen!)

9:45 - 10:00 Sponsor Talk
10:00 - 10:30 Break
10:30 - 11:00 Student Blogging - Juan Karlo Licudine (http://www.pinoyblogero.com) A perspective and experience sharing from a student / blogger.

11:00 - 11: 30 Photoblogging - Juned Sonido (http://www.baratillo.net)

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And there have been instances that it really has. A couple kissing. Soldiers hoisting a flag in a battlefield. A child fleeing a village bombed with Napalm. Or even a man skipping a puddle.
All are powerful images. As humans we have this drive to show pictures whether it be a holiday, a dinner, friends and family. And as such it comes to no surprise that a lot of people have been posting things on line from Facebook to Flickr. And then there are the photoblogs.
What are photoblogs? Are they the same photo galleries? Do you really need a digital camera to set up a photoblog? How does one set-up a photoblog? Will it cost much? What are the basics? Well this discussion will try to answer that and more.

11:30 - 12:00 Blog to Print - Jonas Diego (http://www.jonasdiego.com)
Bringing your blog content to the printed page. Updates on what happened so far with Jonas initiative on blog comics.

12:00 - 1:00 Lunch

1:00 - 1:40 Vlog and Podcasting Prospects in the Philippines (Aileen Apolo - http://www.yougottech.com and Coy Caballes - http://www.thisiscoy.net)

1:45 - 2;45 Blogging and 2010 Elections Panel
(Janette Toral - http://philippineselection.blogspot.com)
- also invited Manuel L. Quezon III and Luz Rimban - to be confirmed

2:40 - 3:00 Sponsor Talk
3:00 - 3:30 Break
3:30 - 3:50 Blogging for Advocacy - Noemi Lardizabal Dado - http://www.filipinaimages.com

3:50 - 4:30 Blogging from the Countryside
Blogging case studies outside of Metro Manila

4:30 - 5:00 Closing Remarks / Group Picture / Raffle

At the very least, it gives me a chance to meet up with fellow bloggers, swap stories with old acquaintances, and meet new blogger buds. It's all about sharin' some linkage love!

Also, it's a great time to hang out in UP again- I think it's been at least 5 or 6 years since I last visited UP Diliman. They got great food places to check out- and that's another bunch of things to blog about.

Anyway, I just signed up for the event- I hope to see you guys there too!

Cheers!

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You Gotta Multiply!

Every blogger has to have a social networking service that allows storage of media files. The more notable of these sites are Photobucket, Picturetrail, Shutterfly and Flickr. But personally, I go for Multiply.

Just like many other social networking sites, Multiply allows you to post videos, photos and blog entries and share them with your friends (assuming they're in your network of course). It allows you to form groups and communities with other people who share your interests. And if you know a thing or two about CSS, you can go ahead and customize your Multiply page however you like. If not, there are a lot of templates you could use for your site, anyway.

But one of the coolest things about Multiply is that it provides cross-posting of blog entries. Which means your posts from Blogger/Blogspot, TypePad or LiveJournal can automatically get posted to Multiply (after a while), or the other way around.

Me, the most useful function of Multiply for me is that it acts as a repository of all images I might need for my blogs. There is virtually no limit to uploading photos- not that I need to upload so much. I just find it convenient to store all my pics in one site- organize em, share em, put notes and tags and all that.

There are a lot of other useful built-in modules as well, but I really haven't had the chance to make good use of them. Still, while I think I'm more of a no-frills kind of guy, it's nice to have the option of having the modules around in the event that I might feel like exploring that space sometime.

So go ahead and get Multiply. It's not only great for storing your media online- pics, vids and blog entries- it's also great for sharing and fulfilling all your community needs. Feel free to add me up when you've checked it out.

Cheers!

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A Chat with Elaine of Yehey.com

Interaction outside the usual blog channels should always be a part of your development as a blogger. It is through interaction that you learn not only how your blog fares along with other bloggers', but also far more importantly, gives you a chance to develop friendly, working relationships with other bloggers like yourself.

I see it as this blog's mission to somehow paint a picture of the blogosphere- both local and global. And as a naturally chummy person, I like tossing ideas around with fellow bloggers, clients and industry partners.

The guys of Yehey.com have been rather active in the New Media scene lately- and they have to! After all, the bulk of their business is pretty much online.

They've just wrapped up a very successful Bloggers' Food Tour (the one at TriNoma, some three weeks ago), and now they're inviting another one hundred bloggers to come hang with the brains and talent behind the HappySlip vlog series on YouTube- Christine Gambito herself.

(Which, incidentally is Thursday next week, 07 Feb 2008, at the Mag:net Cafe in Bonifacio High Street. The fun starts at 11 AM, so make sure you register with Yehey here so you don't miss out on all the HappySlip Gambito goodness!)

Anyway, I was able to catch up with Elaine Uy, Marketing Manager of Yehey (who was nice enough to invite me to the HappySlip event! Yay!), and I asked her how the Bloggers' Food Tour worked out for Yehey.com.

First off, I asked her whose idea it was to make use of blogs and bloggers to promote the TriNoma restaurants. Here's what Elaine said:

Yehey! has been in contact with TriNoma even before they opened their mall, trying to cook up a partnership on how to create a buzz online. Then the Taste Asia in MOA (The SM Mall of Asia) happened. Since Yehey! has been supporting the blogger community and because of the obvious success of the Taste Asia event, we thought of organizing our own for TriNoma.

I also wondered if Yehey! would be tapping blogs and bloggers for their upcoming promotional activities. Elaine gives us a rather interesting tip:

We will try to incorporate the blogging medium in most of our campaigns. Just like in our second event of the year, the Happy Slip Meet-and-Greet (done) in coordination with the Department of Tourism.
We’ve been also receiving inquiries from other companies such as Chowing, P&G, among others in organizing a blogger event for them. I guess most major companies now see the benefits of blogs and how it could greatly influence other people in patronizing their products or service.

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? But who's to say an event is an actual success? Take for example the last Bloggers' Found Tour at TriNoma, what would be Yehey's tangible measures to say, "Yeah, that event was a success"? Elaine says Yehey! keeps tabs on the results in the search engines and other community-based sites and the whole viral marketing effect.

So just how successful was it?

The result of the food tour is phenomenal that in just one week, there are 19 results for “Trinoma food tour” at Technorati, and a thousand plus results for Trinoma at Technorati. In Google, first page alone (of keyword "Trinoma food tour") is all about the event – first result is the Trinoma co-branded site. There are over 10,000 search results. And in Multiply, there are more than 400 blog results for "Trinoma Food Tour" and 750+ photo album results for the same keyword.

And so was TriNoma and Ayala Malls happy with the outcome of the event?

Yup, very much and better expect more events hosted by Trinoma. Given the results, TriNoma is planning on making succeeding events for their mall and possibly extend it to the rest of the Ayala malls.

What about the various participating food merchants of TriNoma? What sort of feedback has Yehey! received from them? Elaine shares this:

The best example would be the La Maison (hope you were able to meet the most accommodating manger, Mr. Robi Caguiat) that hosted an appreciation dinner for teamyehey the following week, thanking us for the exposure and raves they got from the tour. Even the band – Sound got in touch with us to see what bloggers got to say about their music.

Of course, who can forget Cabalen? I heard they offered AJ (of Bakla ako blog) for a free dinner for 5 or something like that. As you can see, these establishments- whether aware or unaware of what blogs are and what the internet is all about- have identified the promotional effect it could do to their brands.

Now there are a lot of other bloggers that have heard about the last Food Tour, and want to join the next event for bloggers. If Yehey! plans to mount more promotional activities with blogs and bloggers thrown in the media mix, and if there are other bloggers out there who would want to get in on the action, I asked Elaine what her advice would be for those who missed out on the last Bloggers' Food Tour.

Be more proactive and join the fast growing blogging community. More and more companies are sponsoring events for the bloggers. And who wouldn’t want free food, entertainment or what-have-you in exchange of your opinion and influence which you freely give out anyway?

Who wouldn't indeed? As for me, well, as long as there's free food, I'm there. I even have pictures to prove it :)

Cheers, everyone!

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Yehey, TriNoma and the Hundred Hungry Bloggers: an Epilogue

It's been a full two weeks since the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour organized by Yehey.com, and I thought I should do my fellow bloggers a service by posting a compilation of blog entries pertaining to the event (at least the known ones, to this point).

Sidenote: I received an email from the guys of Yehey! that the photos from the Bloggers' Food Tour have all been turned in for your scrutiny and approval, and voting is now open- so go check out the photos and root for your favorites.

A Compilation of Blog Entries on the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour.

As you know, the whole group of one-hundred thirty bloggers that attended the event was divvied up to five teams. We were all lumped together in the 'pink' team. As far as our team is concerned, we have these great reads...

• Jomar Carlos' entry on "Java Joe's Coffee Corner"
• Chef Myra's blog entry on "Myra's Site".
• Christine Arteta's photos on her blog "Every Little Thing I Do Is Magic"
• Pics on my Multiply site, "Get Your Geek On!"
• JP on "Livin' La Venti Loca".
• Paolo in "Your Mind Will Go Pi".
• Omar has stuff in "Ohmski is the Law".
• Betsy has two blog entries, here and here on "Psychcafe".

Here are our other fellow food bloggers' stuff...

• Alvin Chua has a blog entry as well as a whole bunch of photos here on his Multiply.
• Noreen Ponce-Lazaro and Arpee Lazaro on "Pinoy Life At Large". Lovely pics, guys.
• AJ Matela's much-discussed, much-read experience at the Trinoma Bloggers' Food Tour! Oh, you'll want to read this one too.
• Ed Arevalo has his posts here, plus a photo album on Flickr here.
  
• Dementia of "Bury Me In This Dress" has her blog entries here, and her pics here.
• Jan Renes' blog entry can be found on "JanMania".
• You can find JM Tuazon's pictures here, and his blog entries here.
• Jonas Diego on "The Blurb!"
• Karen of "Kengkeedee" has her stuff here.
• KingDaddyRich on "Row: Morning Boleros' Journey To The Seas".
• Lalon dela Rosa has pics on "Underrated".
• Laszlo of "...Does Anybody Remember Laughter..." has his stuff here.
• Lord Artworks has his blog entry here.
• Isay Almo has her blog entry here on "The World According to Nherz".
• You can find some of Noemi Dado's TriNoma pics here, and Lauren has a post over here as well.
• Here's Caint's stuff on "Coming Out...Almost".
• Ade Magnaye has this to say on "Noisy! Noisy! Man!" Sorry about your work, dude.
• Kring wrote this post about her experiences on the food tour.
• And you have to check out this Video of Doom by Coy.
• Poyt has her blog entry here on "Tanggera: Drunken Antics and Misadventures of a Vlogger".
• Raffy of "Raffy's Sanctuary" has this entry goin' on.
• Rens of "Pansit-eating Maderpaking Blog!" has this to share.
• Here's Jonas' take on the whole affair on "Techieevangelism".
• Brian of "Following Your Footsteps... Every Step of the Way"- pictures on Multiply.
• Joriben of "My Divine Refuge" with his blog entry here.
• Celeni of "Life Is Colourful with Souped Vegetables" has this rather extensive coverage on her blog.
• Fritz of "Fritzified.com" covers the TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour here.
• Darwin wrote this one on his "JuiceLog".
• Here's Jehzeel Laurente of "Jehzlau Concepts" and his posts on the Yehey! event. What's cool is that he's also got blurbs from other bloggers from the Food Tour. Including mine- cheers, mate!
• Tess Termulo of "Prudence and Madness" has the first of her blog entries here.
• Enrico Dee of "Byahilo: Ito ang Trip Ko" has some kick-ass pics here.
• The guys behind "Barat Mode" have this to say about the Food Tour.
• Here's something from Iggy Javellana of "Ka-Boom"

You can check out my other write-ups of the Bloggers' Food Tour here:

• The floor-by-floor coverage. Part 1 of 5, Part 2 of 5, Part 3 of 5, Part 4 of 5, Part 5 of 5.
• You can find pics on my Multiply site, "Get Your Geek On!"
• Other sides to the story can be found here on my other blog, "Blog. Blogger. Bloggest!"

You could check out my individual resto reviews on:

• La Maison
• Cyma Greek Taverna
  
• Abe
• Heaven N' Eggs
• Others To Follow (Sizzlin' Pepper Steak, Jack's Loft and The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company)

Thanks to all the restaurants that participated! Special thanks to La Maison, Cabalen, Abe, Hossein's, Haiku, Cyma, The Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, Holy Cow!, Jack's Loft, TGIFridays, Italianni's, Fish & Co., Conti's, Mann Hann, Pho Hoa, Marina, Sizzlin' Pepper Steak, Mangan, Bangus and Heaven N' Eggs for allowing us to check out your wares.

To Bread Talk, Bacolod Chicken Inasal, Madison Grill, Superbowl of China, Good Earth Tea Room, Oki Oki and Teriyaki Boy- I totally missed out on you guys. I've read so much about your restos from other blogs. Too bad I haven't had time to check you guys out during the Food Tour, but I will soon when I drop by TriNoma in the coming weeks.

To my fellow bloggers- spread some linkage love whydont'cha? I hope to see you guys again soon at future blogging events. Also add me up on your Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Multiply or whatever networking service you guys have as well.

Thanks to TriNoma- you guys have a pretty kickass mall. We'll be visiting more often. Definitely much more often. Thanks to the guys of Yehey.com- we hope you guys have more events for bloggers coming up- and we hope you can let us know how we can make your efforts more successful- that's just the marketing/events dude in me wanting you to keep your clients happy so we can do this again :)

Cheers everyone!

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Diddling with Del.icio.us

I was playing around with my del.icio.us account the whole day today, mainly trying to figure out how to slap a del.icio.us script at the footer of each post, versus just having one at the side of my blog.

Del.icio.us is a free social software web service for sharing web bookmarks. See, there used to be a time when you'd bookmark your favorite websites from whatever PC you'd be using at the moment.

Del.icio.us takes all that bookmarking several steps further because, not only can you store all your personal bookmarks on an easy-to-use, easy-to-access online account, you can also share your bookmarks with other people, as well as check out what other people are bookmarking.

Read the rest of the post on my blog on The Blogging Lifestyle, "Renzie on Blogging".

Cheers, everyone!

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Twitter, Twitter!

I've just successfully put up Twitter on a few of my blogs.

Twitter is a free micro-blogging service, which enables you to post updates of about 140 characters long- enough for a short sentence, and enough to tell people what you're doing, what you feel or what you're going through with just a few words.

You can go sign up quickly for a Twitter account here on their website. Once there, you'll want to start looking for friends who are also on Twitter. Eventually, you'll be able to 'follow' each other through little updates you leave online.

Read the rest of my article on Twitter here on my blog about The Blogging Lifestyle, "Renzie On Blogging".

Cheers, everyone!

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Toying with Technorati

Seems like a real fun site. Technorati is an online service that allows you to keep track of other blogs from all over the world.

It works just like a search engine, you can search by topic, tags or keywords, keep track of your favorites, and visit blogs based on your searches, or by other people's recommendations.

Signing up to Technorati involves letting them know which blogs are yours- so you not only create a short profile (so other people can know a little bit about you), but you also create a list of all the blogs you author.

Read the rest of this article on Technorati here, on my other blog, "Renzie On Blogging".

Cheers, everyone!

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Trinoma, Yehey.com and The Hundred Hungry Bloggers.

Renzie's Note: The TriNoma Bloggers' Food Tour finally pushed through on 09 January 2008. One-hundred fifty bloggers were invited- and with an invitation to eat the best TriNoma has to offer + win some prizes- how could you say 'no' to that, huh?

Read up on my blow-by-blow coverage starting here. You can also check out Food Tour pics here on my Multiply, and read another of my write-ups here.

Cheers!
-------------------------------

The Trinoma Food Tour kicks off in a couple of days, and already the local blogosphere is abuzz with promises of real-life networking coupled with feats of rampant and wanton gluttony.

OK, so maybe I'm exaggerating.

But Yehey.com did make the announcement last week, and one hundred brave bloggers answered the call- already licking their chops, readying their gear and doing some preliminary networking with the others.

The destination: TriNoma- that swank new mall at the corner of EDSA and Quezon Avenue. To be completely honest, I've never been there myself, and I suppose this Food Tour would be the perfect opportunity for me to check it out.

Are You On The List?

The Food Tour happens on Thursday, 13 December, at 2-ish in the afternoon. As you would probably expect, the invitations were snapped up like hotcakes, as bloggers were required to register beforehand with Yehey.com.

Special thanks to Ms. Noemi for giving me an early heads-up- I think I was the 45th person to have made it on the list. If for some reason you've submitted your details to Yehey, but haven't been contacted yet, it's probably worth your while to check if you're on it. Have a quick look the list The Hundred Hungry Bloggers here, or maybe you can give Yehey! a quick call, just to make sure.

I've actually been in touch with a few who have submitted their details but haven't received their confirmation emails yet. But that was a few days ago, and I'm sure Yehey has been able to straighten things out by now.

What's The Plan, Stan?

Quite an ambitious feat, I would imagine, for Yehey to keep the bloggers organized for the duration of the event. Check out Trinoma's participating restos here.

All bloggers have to register when they get to TriNoma on Thursday. They will then be grouped into five "expedition parties"; each group (of 20 bloggers) being marshalled by a Yehey! rep, and then led to one of five food areas to check out.

Each group has 30 minutes to sample as much as they can from the food merchants in the designated area before moving on to the next area. Eventually, all groups will have tried out all the food 'zones', and be totally stuffed out of their mind.

Dude, that's two-and-a-half hours worth of eating. You move to a merchant, eat some, then move to another, and eat again, and keep on doing that for 150 minutes.

The event will be capped off by cocktails, a raffle, and swag bags for everyone.


Things To Do at the TriNoma Food Tour.

Just a little heads up for all those attending- more than being just a massive food treat from the good guys of TriNoma and Yehey, the Food Tour is a great time to do some real-life networking, not just with fellow bloggers, but also with potential clients from the food merchants.

Take lots of pictures, and take down a lot of notes, maybe even blogging on the fly. There's sure to be whole bunch of things to write about.

If you feel like doing a little homework, get to know some of your fellow bloggers beforehand- especially you share common interests with. Trade contact details, swap stories, and exchange those very valuable links to each others' sites!

That being said, I will see all you other ninety-nine chicks and dudes at the Food Tour. Let's eat, drink, be merry and blog all about it!

Cheers!

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Who Are The Bloggers In Your Neighborhood?

After last Friday night's event, I thought it would be a great idea to feature some of the blogs (and possibly, other works online) of the bloggers I have actually met. Expect to see some of the ones I met last Friday featured here in the following days & weeks. Naturally, we'll be hearing and reading more from others as I keep attending these cool blogger mix-ups and other special events.

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In The Company of Bloggers.

Shai Coggins and the local crew of B5Media organized a quaint little Bloggers' Mix-Up last night at Kape Isla in Serendra at the Bonifacio Global City. No agenda, really- just a wonderful opportunity for fellow bloggers to meet, hang out and relax a bit, talk shop, and do some networking through good ol' fashioned human interaction.

It was the first time I attended an event like that. See, I was thinking that if I wanted to be a serious blogger, I might as well check out how the other (more serious, more seasoned) veteran bloggers are doing. Plus, I like the idea of socializing outside my usual circle- make some new friends, gain a few new contacts, relax with people into the same thing as I am- sounds good, right?

And it was good! The organizers (the b5Media crew) were able to close off Kape Isla that night just for the party, and it was filled with a sizeable band of 20 to 30 bloggers from everywhere- many of whom already know each other, but there were also those just like me, who just started blogging, and also just started getting to know these cool chicks and dudes! That's me, by the way, chatting it up with Carlos Castellon of MarketPlace 2.1.

Shai played the gracious host, spending a little facetime with everybody who showed up- and I gotta hand it to her and Sasha (of StyleManila.com, who I found out last night, turned out to be her sister!) for working up the crowd really well with great company, with food and drink for everyone, even raffling off some cool prizes for those present. That's Shai, btw with Toni Tiu and Noemi Lardizabal-Dado.

I won myself one of these cute little art journals- which I found out later on, was handcrafted by Shai herself (so I had her autograph it!). She sells these babies online as it turns out. I thought it would've been cool if it were locally available; they'd actually make great Christmas gifts and giveaways :).

Of course, just as in any fun social gatherings like these, you have cameras flashing everywhere! So, here are some pics- these in particular were taken on Noemi's cam (and posted on Facebook for all to see!).

All in all, it was a great night. I met several new friends, learned a lot of new stuff, snagged myself a cool art journal, scoped out the new Asus Eee PC (which we'll talk about more on another post), realized that digital photography and blogging go hand-in-hand (which means, after I get me that sexy little Asus Eee PC, I should get me a good SLR), tried out a cool new venue at Serendra (first time I checked out Kape Isla- you should come visit when you're in the area), ranted about the whole Trillanes fiasco, and traded insights and ideas with fellow local bloggers.

Cool. This should be a great opportunity to check out their stuff online too. Which I will do, right after adding them up to my Facebook account!

Thanks Noemi for the pictures! Cheers!

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My First Bloggers' Mix-up.

One thing I noticed back at that Bloggers' Mix-up was that, apart from blogging, everyone was trying to capture the moment somehow.

You had at least 5 or 6 cameras on at any given time, taking pictures not only of everyone who was there, but pretty much taking pictures of things that caught their attention- like Juned's Asus Eee PC at the time.

At another table across the room was Azrael capturing the whole occasion on video through his laptop, and even interviewing guests for his internet show.

Being the newbie blogger that I was, I was watching everything unfold before me, soaking up on the experience. What I did realize was that, being a blogger means you would eventually get yourself into:

1. Digital Photography (so yeah, this is my first assignment for myself. So I have to bring a camera with me wherever I go. That's a pic of my cat- Chloe.)
2. Digital Audio-video: viral videos and podcasts (I think I can already do podcasts- being a radio dude. Still learning how to do viral vids.)
3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) (This I'm already learning actively now. Thus the blogs.)
4. Programming. (I admit, this will probably be the hardest for me, since I'm not exactly the IT-oriented type.)
5. Photoshop. (I admit, I'm not exactly the most artistic dude in the neighborhood. But I suppose learning the basics will still be well worth it.)

And probably any other marketable skills you can imagine overlapping into your blogging lifestyle.

The event was a melding pot of talent and creativity. I like it that ideas were continuously sloshing around- everyone contributing and sharing and discussing with everyone else.

So for all of you who'd want to get into blogging, there you have it- get ready to get into a whole new bunch of crafts, and not just blogging.

As for me, well it seems that I may have to get myself a decent SLR soon enough. Give me a few weeks to save up for one. :)

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New Job, New Challenges!

It can only be a good thing, I suppose.

I've recently been fortunate enough to land a stint as Program Director for 105.1 Crossover. Yes, I've joined up with the station last month, and while there's a whole lot of work to do, it sure is very exciting stuff!

For a while there, after my "retirement" from Mellow 94.7, I thought I had enough of the radio biz- which was why I ventured into setting up my own small businesses, the whole SEO-SEM-SMO stint, the consulting gigs, etc. It wasn't long before I realized that, once a radio dude, you're forever a radio dude.

In fact, Silvio Dante couldn't have quoted The Godfather 3 better: Just when I thought that I was out, they pull me back in. Always did love The Sopranos (watch it if you haven't already! Get the DVDs!).

No there wouldn't be a reformat- we'll still be playing all the good ol' smooth jazz, R&B and easy listening favorites everyone has enjoyed all these years. If anything, we'll probably throw in more of those favorites- especially more 90's and maybe some more 2000's. Maybe we'll toy around with some music genres we can throw into the Crossover mix, who knows? Hey, as long as it sounds good- let's go for it, right?

Expect a more lifestyle-oriented, interactive Crossover. While we do have quite a number of grand plans oozing out of our skull-holes, it would be great to collaborate with other great minds. In fact, I've been on the lookout for people and groups that would want to be a part of mutually beneficial experimentation. Feel free to swing my way if you'd like to toy with fresh, new ideas.

Email me at 105.1Crossover (at) gmail.com, or just drop me a message at +63918.937.2147, or leave a post here on Blogspot- it's all good, mah babies!

Dude, it's gonna be great, I know it.

Cheers, everyone!

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Blogging For Beginners

Hey, we all gotta start somewhere. One of the reasons why I left my last couple jobs was due to the fact that, despite having written so much about the company and stuff, I've hardly done any writing for myself. And man, did I have a lot of stuff to vent back then!

Anyway, I only started blogging last March- totally inspired after an invigorating trip from Singapore. Yeah, I've had a few friends who have already been regular bloggers at the time, but other than that- I have had no experience at blogging at all.

A friend of mine gave me a few tips to help me start out (thanks Gabby! -you can check out her blogs here). I now include those tips here, together with some of mine.

Later on, after setting up my first few blogs, I've ran into other bloggers- some a lot more into serious than me, others more casual- you really get all kinds, you know?

Blogology 101

Blogs start off with the idea of putting your thoughts online- think of a blog as a diary, a notebook, a bulletin board, a review column, a collection of media, or any mix thereof. The beauty is that it can be pretty much anything you want it to be.

Many people write for various reasons. Traditionally bloggers write for the purpose of informing and communicating. But a lot of bloggers do so because it makes for a great outlet to get creative, go crazy, or get into an experimental mindset.

It's great for socializing- think of it as setting up a room online where others can visit you, and from which you can also visit others. Be a good neighbor, and you can see others be good to you and your blog when they drop by too.

So how does one start getting in on the Blogging Bandwagon?

Setting Up Your Blog Empire

For starters, let's set up your blog. I would suggest you make use of free blog services like Blogger, Wordpress or LiveJournal.

Blogger/Blogspot is a great blog service to start with, being extremely user-friendly, simple to use, and allows you a number of widgets (nice little applications you add on to your basic blog).

Wordpress is also good, allowing you more applications to play with. While not as easy to use as Blogspot, it looks a great deal sharper and more professional. Also, if you plan to go professional, there's a pretty good chance you might be using the Wordpress interface, so you might as well get used to it now.

LiveJournal is great because, while it has the most simple features compared to Blogspot and Wordpress, it seems to allow you the greatest deal of privacy- so you can choose who gets to view your blog.

Later on, when you've gained more experience and think you can handle your own hosted domain, you could choose to do so.

Good luck, and let me know how your blogs turn out!

Cheers!

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