Twitter Challenge

The little blue bird (term borrowed from friend Dale)infection has been really massively spreading. With many people (which includes myself) getting into the tweet craze, the Twitter Challenge has been put into place. Two significant names battle to be the first Twitter account to gain 1 million Followers. Ashton Kutcher up against the CNN News team. Who will win? We are all waiting. I think few moments from now, someone will already hit the throne.

Follow me on Twitter, anyone? elguevara is the user name =)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Yes, I have to squeeze in this post amidst my amazingly busy working life now. I need some breather and of course, I need to articulate the joy in knowing Barack Obama won the 2008 US Presidential elections. I defy the idea that his campaign was grand. He got this attention from mainstream media and all over because people believe in his advocacy for change. All kudos to the first (physically and by blood) black president of the powerhouse of the United States!

Another thing that makes me happy is when I saw the news last night. Aside from the lowering price of gas and public transport fares, one of our fellow Filipino blogger (vlogger actually) was featured in CNN’s ireport. George Putong, a creative man working for one of the largest TV network in our country, made a video themed to support Barack Obama. It was simple, full of wits and yes, very definitive. No wonder it was chosen. I don’t know, but it was like a breath of fresh air seeing how bloggers these days are lifted for strong opinions and high articulations of views and perspectives.

To view George’s video drop by here http://vimeo.com/2134720

BOB ONG

I have read a lot of books before but never have I seen a book written so fluid, it can actually throw you away from the constraints of the physical world. Yes, I am talking about the books of Bob Ong. Oh well, to put it in a more correct manner, the author that I am referring to is really named as Roberto Ong. Let me tell you about the origin of his name “BOB ONG”. (As if you haven’t heard of this, let’s just say that’s the case.) Roberto Ong started as a web developer and a teacher. When moments call for some spare time, he plays on his website tagged by himself as “Bobong Pinoy” which became prominent as “Dumbed Filipino”. This site was named People’s Choice Philippine Web Award for Weird/Humor in 1998. Ironically, this diminutive writings turned him into a famous Pinoy author known as Bob Ong.

His popular quotable quotes are now most forwarded text message around the text society. I haven’t really finished any of his books and I’m planning to buy all of them to see just why people are talking about him.

Here are BOB ONG’s works:

ABNKKBSNPLAko?! (Aba nakakabasa na pala ako?!) (Wow, I can really read now?!)

Bakit Baliktad Magbasa ng Libro Ang Mga Pilipino?(Why do Filipinos read books in reverse?)

Ang Paboritong Libro ni Hudas (Judas' favorite book)

Alamat ng Gubat (Fable of the forest)

Stainless Longganisa (Stainless Chorizo)

Macarthur

My Blogger's Choice

It’s the season to give recognition again to quality blogs as Philippine Blog Awards 2008 gives shining moment for deserving bloggers. I like the idea of awards. Through these, we are challenged to bring out quality content and tall orders of information dissemination. So, on this note I would like to send my kudos to The Philippine Blog Awards!

Now, together with all of my widgets and finger-counted readers, we would like to endorse our vote for the Blogger’s Choice award. Greenfields of my Menace votes for Makoy’s Memoirs of a Certified Blogger. This blog will help any urbanite go through day to day get go with all of its timely posts. The author is simply effortless in bringing out worthy information any urbanite would care to know. Certainly, reading this blog is like reading a compact version of an upbeat broadsheet.

Now, if you are someone who believes in my taste, please follow my trail and let’s all root for Makoy’s blog. I believe that MMCB blog simply cuts across the borders of blogs that rants and blogs that flaunt social frauds and boastful stance. I hope quality and responsible blogging prevail.

Goodluck to all the nominees!

Now I think I have to send some love to these brands for helping out PBA stage this beautiful project: Level Up! Games, Nokia, Blog Bank, Smart Communications, Josiah’s catering, Rsun Technology Store, Yahoo, XFM 92.3, Buddy Gancencia Reality TV, Ultravision Photo and Video, Click Booth, Aloha Board Sports, Sheero Media Solutions, YourPinoyBroker.com, Belo Medical Group, Inquirer.net, Toshiba, ROAM Magazine, PLDT, Red Box, Coffee Bean and Tea leaf, 2go, Havaianas, and California Pizza Kitchen.

Advertising War: TV vs. PC

Looks like blogs have made it to the real mainstream. No one or nothing shall be blamed but the active lowdown of internet access power brought by the Supremes of mobile communications technology: Smart on front, Globe at the center and Sun cellular in the sidelines. Now, that were done tracing what fueled easy access to the web domain, let’s try to discern how blogs are now a hot stuff in town. My personal take on this is the fact that blogs function in a real time manner. Bloggers are like mobile journalists scattered in places where most incidents happen on an “in your face” manner. It is also likely to happen that bloggers will publish stories first before news people can. But of course, the comprehensive details of most stories are still found in Mainstream media.

My heart lighted with a tiny spark when I saw this news item saying that online advertising earned more revenues than mainstream media in UK. Certainly, broadband connection providers also took a massive price slash in their services which paved way to a great number of Briton web users. It has been found that 19% of the total advertising bulk of the whole UK communications industry goes to online media. Also extracted from Reuters research is the fact that most Britons spend four times more of their time compared to what they spend for TV. Most Britons will also see videos in Google’s Youtube for scenes they missed on TV. The use of mobile phones has also doubled in UK. Most Briton will also prefer to use VOIP internet service like Skype in calling their loved ones instead of using the landline. There are 58% of internet users now in the whole 60 million population of Britain.

Certainly, internet is simply getting more powerful as the face of technology continues to propel. This puts more challenge to people having the substantial hand in the internet. Like us bloggers, it is a challenge for us to put up better contents with quality information- Ahem, no pressure.

Don't Ask Me what Google can Answer

I heard this line from an officemate who said that this was once used by her friend as a status message in her YM. I immediately thought that its quite bitchy and a little too mean, but I think that its also truthful at the same time. The World Wide Webb has been gaining prominence as more and more people get wired. Internet providers are deliberately formulating more flexible systems which makes internet more close at hand.

Google for once has gained the top name in being the most admired company in America. Also, Google has been leading the way in almost all aspects of internet domain. There has been news circulating around saying that Google has already merged with Yahoo. This is one big shake in the digital world because the two giants have been in a scorching beat since internet was born. The two companies are currently working on shared ideas of online advertising that may lead to more creative means.

Moving along, to say that Google can provide almost all the answers to our questions is quite an understatement. Google power many online sites that has been gaining more and more power over the whole face of the Internet. Friendster is just one of the said online sites; and have you heard about it lately? If not, well maybe you’ve done too much of curling your hair.
So, next time you have a question in mind or anything that bugs you, try some clicks in the net and Google it out and avoid asking Know-it-all bastards for information you can actually extract from the web. Trust me, it will gain you more credibility that way.

Star Bloggers in Asia

It has been said over and over again since internet became too ubiquitous- Blogs now can equal the reign of traditional media. True to the sentiment; because blogs can easily put up updates on the currents events and minute by minute get go since internet has become so powerful. Not to mention the many numbers of blog hosts that can help any blabber mouths transform their words into something worthy to read.

Hence, I bring to you the so- called stars of Asia when it comes to the crap oh I mean craft ( no pun intended) of blogging! This has been originally compiled by Shefali Rekhi of the Straits Times/Asia News Network in Singapore. The article appeared on the “Talk of the Town” segment of the Opinion page of Philippine Daily Inquirer under Editor Juan V. Sarmiento Jr. dated June 22, 2008 (Sunday).

THE PHILIPPINES

Bryan Boy

Web developer-turned-fashion writer
Blog address: http://www.bryanboy.com/

Blogs about: Fashion, accessories, pop culture

Popularity: 180,000 visitors a day

CHINA

Xu Jinglei, 34

Actress-turned-director
Blog address: blog.sina.com.cn/xujinglei

Blogs about: Her work and daily life

Popularity: Page views of more than 149 million since October 2005

TAIWAN

Hu Jia-wei (Wanwan), 27

Comic artist

Blog address: www.wretch.cc/blog/cwwany

Blogs about: Everyday life

Popularity : Has drawn more than 120 million visitors since October 2004

SINGAPORE

Lee Kin Mun, 38

Full-time writer/Podcaster/TV host

Blog address: http://www.mrbrown.com/

Blogs about: Current events, music, gadgets, family

Popularity: About 10,000 people read his blog daily

JAPAN

Naoto Amaki, 60

Former ambassador to Lebanon

Blog address: http://www.amakiblog.com/

Blogs about: Diplomatic and political affairs

Popularity: Figures among the top 10 political bloggers in the country

INDIA

Amit Agarwal, 31

Personal technology columnist

Blog address: labnol.org

Blogs about: Technology

MALAYSIA

Ahiruddin Attan, 47

Former editor of Business Times and Malay Mail

Blog address: rockybru.blogspot.com/index.html

Blogs about: Political affairs

Popularity: Has attracted more than 4.3 million visitors since May 2006

My Very First Youtube.

Yes everyone, this is the very first video ever posted in Youtube with my face on it. This is an Audio Visual Presentation our class did (BAPR 3-2n) for an advertising seminar held in Baguio.

The editing was done by Marco Solas and the yours truly served as the Creative Director and Copywriter of this whole visual presentation. Please be guided that this is the very first video I/we ever made, so please understand some inferior quality and if spell check will hit us in the head.

Enjoy! Ha Ha Ha

oh, what can you say? please drop a comment. Nice make up noh? Ha Ha Ha

Brian Gorell @ iblog 4 Summit

Alright, I have to admit that this article is little too late, but I really did plan on having a special post on Brian Gorell’s participation on the Philippine Blog Summit recently held at UP Diliman. I have to say that there was really nothing special about his video. He was situated in his pond, with a not-so well angled camera and with mosquitoes feeding on his Australian skin. He discussed how he started blogging and his primary aim in doing his page- that is to send big bos to the people who have done him wrong ( Oh well, that is how he presented them in his blog) According to Brian, there are a lot of stress in blogging; from comments to the daily updates and all of the things that are accorded to the blog. This is quite a nuisance for me, because I primarily consider blogging as a therapy and an outlet of releasing things which can actually cause stress. Anyhow, I know a lot of bloggers are experiencing this co called “WWW stress” especially if you are the kind of blogger who spends more than half of the day in drooling and rambling at your blog and maybe dropping by at other people’s site.

What I like about Brian’s video is the candid and unedited presentation that made it entertaining and okay, informative. I am actually quite impressed on how his blog captured so many followers. I guess gossip really sells here in our country.

Sakto lang

Ahoi!

With the advent of Cell phones and internet chat, we tend to coin words (or different spelling for words) to create variation or say things that can only be expressed through our personally-coined terms. Lets start with Internet chatting; Terms used in this domain has become a “by-line” for many of us. Say for an example, The term LOL or laughing out loud was used to create a comedy relief in one of Sun Cellular’s TV commercial. Some people use BRB even in personal conversations to say that will leave for a while but be back in just a sec. For hardcore YM users, ASL is too prevalent in getting to know the what abouts of their so-called strange friends. The chat domain also started the terms EB ( eyeball) and GEB ( group eyeball) and this interesting acronym SEB ( oppz you know what it is). It goes out to say that with sleazy matters, SOP has been long defuncted. Ha Ha Ha.

Now lets go to Cell phone terms. We all use He He He or Ha Ha Ha to signify our laughing reaction to the text we received. We can also use a smiley emoticon or Ha Ha Ha/ He He He again to say that what we just sent is a joke or that its nothing serious. One thing that really annoys me is when people change the spelling to the point that it cant be understood. The text language has also paved the way to giving wrong answers to questions like; Q : “san ka Na?” A: “malapit na”. Some may use terms that are beyond ordinary just to sound cool or new like Orayt, Olryti, Aryt which all means Alright or I agree. One funny thought is the spelling of OKAY; from the right spelling OKAY to OKEY and then OK to Otei and it can be understood by simply typing “K”.

Within our personal get goes, some terms are also being coined like “angas” or “astig” which mean super or cool or maybe fantastic. Now, this is actually the most prevalent one these days, which is actually quite confusing – answering “pwede na” or “sakto lang” when asked with a yes or no question.

Tama ba yun? ( is that right?)

Brian Gorell Hysteria

I think that most of us already heard or know about this blog authored and syndicated by Brian Dorell, an Australlian blogger who is running a site that is currently a hot stuff here in the Philippines because it basically tackles the lives of High profile people in the society in a not so pleasant taste. The young blog has already received 2 million hits and is currently getting tons and tons of comments and Paypal donations. According to Brian, this blog aims to hit those people who have done him wrong in order for them to pay for their bad doings. This issue sparked up so bright that our local media has already spawned to tell the story. ABS-CBN and a local radio station did an interview of Brian Dorell respectively. Now, will all of this high buzz, the Philippine government was alarmed about the growing numbers of blogs and is now planning to pass a bill that will censor Philippine blog sites. It is in the light of copyright and responsible blogging that they will focus on. They want to end blogs that cause attacks to personalities without proof or concrete basis.

It is just fair to create a law that shall moderate the contents of blogs in order to make sure that we take care of the credibility of the World Wide Web. It is really a matter of honest writing and clean motives that we can all continue to have this great freedom to express ourselves. As a blogger, I would always advocate the saying – “with great freedom comes a greater responsibility.”

(hu u???) virtual world phenomena

in this day and age of really complicated and pocket-snatching technology, everything ( as in everything) now have their own counterparts and/or replacements.

mad tellers in the bank now are almost overshadowed by e-banking and ATMs.

going to the market which was dimmed filthy and tiring is no longer dominant because of the online shopping.

patintero, agawan base and Chinese garter are now replaced by online games and RPGs. ( no wonder kids of today are growing fatter and lamer.)

television now is threatened by You Tube. people are just tired of following every inch of celebrity breaths, they now want to be on the boob tube and be their own star. fair enough.

snail mail and the classic telegram are so much written in history and are well-kept in the archive of no return. thanks to the ever reliable Gmail, hot mail, yahoo,AOL, and the like for making it much easier to send mails. Of course, thanks to Globe, Smart, touch and Sun for bringing unlimited services of text and call- people now do everything over cellphone.

libraries are echoing not just because they lack books but because students and nerdies are lured by yahoo and goooooooooogle.

even social networking is now made digital with friendster, multiply, ym, myspace, and others.

Sure, technology makes life a breeze, but when used without any sense of responsibility can cause real and serious problems-

Identity thief.

This is one big phenomenon in virtual world. People using the image, name and personality of other people to gain friends, money and a pseudo partner.

Royalty scams.

In the system of "copy and paste" it is very easy to claim rights of the works of others. For those who do this, your all are bastard losers!

Web related crimes.

We all know minors petrified by insane adults luring them out for sex and money.

They say human will never be satisfied. No matter how world feeds them with good things that aim to help them, they will always be looking for more and worst, abuse these things.

Virtual world was not created to replace reality. It is our most friendly aid to do human task more efficient and effective.

Just like our reality, we don't want this Internet domain gone.

so please, do ourselves a favor.

Use Internet responsibly.

Identity thieft photo from blog.earthlink.net