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The first meeting of ours dates back just a couple of days… Thursday, January 12, 2012 to be exact. It took us over 2-3 failed plans to finally push one of our plans through and see each other for the first time.

Meeting Maria Klara would have been an awesome experience, and no doubt it truly was, but I still had to get the monkey of my shoulder (my talk in Pagadian) which somehow entangled me and limited how much fun I should have then. Klara suggested we’d eat at one of her favorite places, Tita Fannie’s which very much resembles Davao’s very own Penongs.

I was so relieved to have finally settled down on a chair that wasn’t shaking me all the time. Finally, away from all the bus rides which have really taken toll on me. I never thought it would take me 9 hours just to get to Cagayan de Oro(!) as you might have figured out narin, the ride to Iligan from CDO was pretty much kiddie play compared to the 9 hours of my earlier ride; the CDO to Iligan route was about 2 hours, no more no less.

Back to the semi-dinner-date-eb or whatever you want to call it with Maria Klara though!

So here we are, sitting at one of Tita Fannie’s rocking tables waiting for our food. I had pretty much no idea what I should order so I ordered whatever she decided to order. I figured she knows best because it seemed to be one of her favorite dining places.

My pitiful Kodak Camera, dating back to 2008 wasn’t cooperating well that afternoon. The battery was as good as empty leaving me with little options to capture the moment somehow. Well I at least managed to take a picture of the food and that was about it. One more notable thing though was the waiting number we’ve been assigned to, which was the number 18.

Ang gulo lang ng article ko.  :p

After our sumptuous meal, we headed back to the nearby mall, Gaisano. One, for me to buy some food that I’d eat on my way to Pagadian, two to buy some batteries for my camera and third, to pick up my belongings that I left at the deposit counter.

I think it was still a little bit awkward-ish. I mean, we didn’t talk a lot that afternoon. I was still a bit shy, and I had difficulties hiding it aside from acting quiet. In truth though, I wanted to talk on and on but didn’t knew how to connect.

Maria Klara and I were roaming through the streets of Iligan after we did the 3 tasks at Gaisano. I have accompanied her to her friends house to pick up her bag which she had left there. We walked on again, roaming through the streets looking for a specific jeepney route which would part us when it reached the South Bus Terminal.

It started to rain a bit, and I noticed it just a little late. I suggested she’d cover her head with my polo shirt, but she pretty much confirmed what I was worried about it saying, kanina pa ako nabasa sa ulan, okay lang uy… Aside from the given that she was already pretty much soaked in the rain even prior our meetup, I had this hunch that she was a bit shy… :p

And there you go. Nothing much happened nor have been talked about as we boarded our jeepney bound for the terminal where she’d drop me off and her home.

Feeling ko talaga ay sobrang bitin ang aming pagkikita. I’ve waited so long for this day to come and all we did was eat together and roam around for a while, pegging in at just about 3 hours spent which the presence of one another. That’s when I thought we should meet again before I finally head back to Davao City…. but, I guess that’s something worthy of another post.

Something else to look forward to being published here and on the Pinoy Teens Media Blog are the following:

• PSITS IX Conference
• Finally meeting Mary Claire part 2

Stay in touch and keep reading!

New Year Celebration at Home

This new year belongs to one of the most special ones for me. For one, I’m thankful that both of my parents are still alive and kicking. I’ve always had the uncomfortable feeling that one of them may pass in the next twelve months… and that’s going to be even more intense this year. Lalo na’t na-stroke na si Papa last June 2011.

Even though this family is relatively small compared to other families, and even though we don’t really function as one most of the time because of conflicts, quarrels and misunderstanding; we still stand strong as one.

I’m happy because I haven’t seen any of the two smile as genuinely as they did last evening. I’m growing older, and so are they…

Another happy sight in few of my pictures is my girlfriend who joined us for this years Christmas. While she surely didn’t get along well with my mother throughout 2011… They’ve definitely looked good cooking and preparing our food yesterday!

This is the first time that a girlfriend of mine joined the three of us for Christmas, and hopefully it won’t be the last.

Our new year was nothing special. We had a few people over and a few workers as well to celebrate with us. All we did as the clock neared 12MN was watching Arsenal vs QPR and Chelsea vs Aston Villa on Star Sports and ESPN. We’re really very much into soccer and this new years eve shows no less than that. Manchester United lost at home to the Blackburn Rovers, but my evening got spoiled when Chelsea was humbled down by Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge as well. (soccer-geek-moments)

 A New House

My parents have built a new house right behind our main house. Prolly planning to have that one for rent soon once its finished. I also overheard that sooner or later, it’s gonna be the house where I’ll move in to!

It took them over a year to get going with the New House Project. Mostly because of financial constraints or crappy workers. But it’s on its final going as the work slowly gets completed.

–

I’ll keep it as short as this for now and get back with you soon. Keep blogging!

And.. before I forget… once again, a Happy New Year to all of us! May you guys be blessed and have a successful 2012!

2012 is going to be the biggest year yet for Pinoy Teens and my colleagues. It’s the year in which we hope to achieve beyond our expectations, and beyond anything that Pinoy Teens has ever reached before. Something inside me believes that 2012 is going to be a great year for me and for my blogging life. I hope it beholds truth.

Of course, there are other things away from the blogging world that will play a huge part in my 2012; things that are perhaps going to change the course of my life forever. Now, before this year ends, I’ve promised myself to delete all games that I have on my Mac and diligently followed my goodwill.

I’m pretty much left empty handed, with no means of entertainment aside from movies taken from YIFI. No games to entertain me, no FIFA, no Sims… but the whole blogging world to rediscover out there.

Restarting with Pinoy Teens New Media

Ambitious me has come up with a great plan again. A plan that I hope that I can fulfill. I want people around me to start their own blogs, I want them to realize how powerful of a tool blogging can be to share information, educate other people and entertain one another. While some see blogging as a dying art of independent journalism, I see it growing ever so strong in the recent years. It’s not going away anytime soon; so why not hop on to the blogging bandwagon?

Blogging seemed so fun back then…

I was in no need of games to keep my mood up high, that’s because blogging was a lot of fun for me back then. I loved playing with words, coming up with a decent post and have people appreciate (or sometimes, criticize) it. I’m far from that attitude today. I’m scared whenever I head into any of my various blogs’ WordPress dashboard… scared to fail, to displease my audience and to get labeled by people out there. You could say that I’m pretty much the opposite of who and what I used to be 2-3 years ago when I started.

It’s going to be a long and dwindling road, no doubt about that… but what can I do? What can anyone do about it? You just have to push yourself to write and write and write and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. It’ll look more like a chore and dirty work at the beginning, but I know sooner or later I find myself again.

Blogging is a way of life.

Blogging isn’t just a verb applied to people who create and write blogs, blogging becomes part of your way of life. That’s where it has become a hit and miss for me. Sometimes I feel like I’m a blogger, sometimes I uncertain about it.

I ain’t young and promising no more…

I am 20 years old now. I’m not the 16 year young boy who seemed so promising and full of potential. I’ve missed my chance to breakthrough in my earlier years but it doesn’t mean that I can’t make it at all.

Come, journey with me as I’m trying to find my place in this vast growing blogosphere.

What are you struggling about in your daily life as a blogger?

The Chef who accommodated the audience was no other than Niño Laus.

Aside from the delicious food that was presented to us and how we could DIY in our homes this Christmas season, the real star of the afternoon was the new lineup of Thermos Cookware!

I really thought that Thermos was all about Thermal Containers for beverages and food, but their product lineup has become so extensive that you can now cook using the Genuine Thermos Brand Cookware!

Advantages of Thermos Cookware

The Genuine Thermos Brand Cookware may come with a hefty price tag at first look, but you’ll later on realize that it’s actually pretty reasonable. You don’t get high quality products for free, you know

Thermal Cookware is basically a slow cooker or crock-pot that doesn’t need any electricity or the like and it has many advantages, especially for people who are camping, caravanning or four wheel driving. One big advantage is that you use a lot less gas, and with wood fires becoming harder and harder to use because of fire restrictions imposed by national parks, reserves or councils, campers find themselves cooking more and more on the gas stovetop. And it’s not always easy to just drop into the nearest gas refill store or garage and get the gas bottle topped up or exchanged.

For more information and updates about The Genuine Thermos Brand Cookware or other products, follow them on Twitter. If you’d like to see some demo videos yourself, refer to this link.

Photos, as always courtesy of: The Traveling Nomad

After over 17,000 profile views, 6,000 plurks, 18,000 responses, 1,500 friends and 1,600 fans… I’m pretty much back where I have started… at Plurk.

It was there where I met people with whom I’m still connected to to-date. It was there where I used to extend the reach of my blog. It was there, where I gained motivation and inspiration for all my work. And yes, it was there, where I learned to love and enjoy the feeling of being loved. It was there too, where I acted like a jerk and a complete a**hole.

Returning Home.

Plurk has always been a happy community for me to turn to, a place to get away from all the serious stuff. Plurk always rescued me from high levels of stress and depression and has always been a resource of funny quotes and cool people. That hasn’t changed a bit.

I’m happy that I decided to become more active on Plurk again. I’ve made new connections and friendship as early as my first 10 hours back on Plurk. It feels so strange yet so familiar roaming around the microblogging tool, nonetheless, I know that I am home.

Learned to love and be loved.

The biggest lesson that Plurk taught me was about love. You could throw the worst criticism at me and I would still accept it for what I’ve done to some people on Plurk. I feel terrible remembering those romantic relationship I had with a few Plurkers throughout my 1342 days on the site. Yet those have also been some of the most wonderful days I’ve had in my entire life. No place else have I felt being so loved and needed by someone but on Plurk. It was a long distance relationship, but I never felt being too far away from that person. But sabi ko nga, tanga tanga ko kasi at gago, it took a tragic end.

If you really love someone. Go for it. Take the chance while you have it!

Seeing Familiar Faces…

Some people have changed, some people are still the same. Others moved on to other social networks while some remain pretty active on Plurk. It’s a joy to see familiar names and faces on Plurk!

I wrote couple of times about this Social Network on other blogs, and I was pretty much spot on then, Plurk is gonna evolve into something big and it truly has. It may not seem as big as other people give it credit, but I challenge you to immerse yourself with the huge, vast and hyperactive communities that Plurk has to offer.

I am home at last; and I am going to build myself up from here.

Come and be my friend on Plurk now.

I may have lived in Davao City ever since I was still in Grade 5, yet I was never able to attend to a Christmas opening here in Davao, not even the first Pasko Fiesta opening that happened last year.

Now on its second run, the Christmas Season in Davao opened with a bang!

Featured Image courtesy of Renz Bulseco

Guada’s Villa Pension House in General Santos City

Your very own Student Blogger was one of the 8 or so bloggers who stayed at the Guada’s Villa. A place that will make you feel just like you’re at home, and in my case, even better

The whole house was well decorated and was very spacious. It has 3 rooms, including 1 master bedroom. Each of the other two rooms were priced at around 2,000 while the master bedroom comes in with a little price bump, but more aesthetics and comfort for those who need that extra feel.

No place better than Guada’s Villa

I have to agree with what my fellow blogger Mark has said about the luxos accommodation at the Guada’s Villa, that it has been by far the most pleasing and simply the best accommodation I’ve had in all 4 of my visits to the Tuna Capital.

Family and Barkada Packages

It’s not really named so, but you could rent the whole Guada’s Villa for 8,000 pesos. The price is very reasonable if you come with your family or group of friends to the place.
Guada’s Villa is located at 019 Blk. 3, Bughaw Street, Dadiangas Heights, General Santos City 9500.
For inquires and reservations, please contact +639495617664. You may also send them your queries online! Email them at alohablacksandbeach@yahoo.com

Photos are courtesy of Davao’s very own Traveling Nomad.

One word, epic… It was simply epic.

I’ve not only enjoined company from fellow Davao Bloggers and fellow Bloggers from Mindanao, but have learned a lot from all the outstanding speakers at the event. I’ll speak more on that later on, though.

It was a perfect affair for me, it was also the first event that I have attended with my fellow Pinoy Teens colleague and girlfriend, Princess Salan. Making it even more special.

BlogFest 2.0 was definitely a special event for her, because it was her first ever major blogging event. Lucky, her debut in the blogging scene happened in General Santos City!

On Philippine Blog Awards – Mindanao

I’m very happy that Faust and Olan from GeekyFaust.info and TheTravelTeller.com have won in their respective categories at the Philippine Blog Awards – Mindanao. They truly deserve the recognition for all their hard work and dedication; this goes out to all other nominees and winners from Mindanao!

On Philippine Blog Awards – National

Pinoy Teens has been nominated in two categories, the Readers and Bloggers Choice category at the Philippine Blog Awards 2011 – National. It makes me feel happy and has definitely boosted my motivation. It doesn’t look though as if Pinoy Teens is going to win anything in the nationwide scene just yet, maybe next year or so… but still, I’m very happy about it that we’ve passed the screening and are one of the finalists in those categories.

Thanks to everyone who believes in Pinoy Teens and has voted for Pinoy Teens.

Paramihan ng Likes for Readers Choice Award?

One thing that I can’t understand is the mechanics to vote for your favorite blog in the Readers Choice Award. I know, I’m not the only one who’s going to react on this, but this certainly doesn’t seem right. This doesn’t count for only the PBA nomination but for various other contest that have been going on at Facebook in the past. In my experience, whoever gets away with the most number of likes isn’t the one who is most preferred by readers.. but the one who campaigns best among their friends.

Indeed, I’m also promoting my entry to all my friends and colleagues as well. But this criteria for future “Readers Choice Awards” needs to change.

I think it’s best if next time, it won’t be based on likes, but on some certain criteria, like who has the most active readership (based on comments) on their most recent articles or so, or maybe based on how often certain articles have been shared or on how active ones blog has been over all and the average comments per article from one set date to another (Jan 2011 – Dec 2011, to avoid giving established blogs with thousands of comments an advantage like mine would have then).

Of course I’ll go with the flow and play the game with the most likes no matter how it’ll end up, but like I said above, it won’t be the one with the most outstanding readership that’ll win, but the one who campaigns best among their friends.

Disclaimer: I’m aware that one of my friends has also been nominated for the Readers Choice Award. But I just have to get this word out, because it’s so wrong, I already wrote about this in other contest, too.

• Meeting Avel and Orman – I’ve seen either of the two at some occasions throughout the year, but I’ve barely caught two birds with a single stone! Meh, it’s gonna be another bun, meat, bun (sandwich) photo again when I’m amidst the two!
• It’s going to be more epic than the former! – BlogFest 1.0 was one heck of an event already, and this one is looking to be much more fun, and more epic! I don’t intend to undermine or underrate the first version, hah, even that event was great, but the way things shape up and all the hype that’s going on around BlogFest 2.0, this is certainly the blogging event of the year in Mindanao!
• Davao Bloggers galore in Gensan! – Olan, Faust, Lyle, Brendel, Alma, you name ‘em! Most, of the Davao Bloggers will head out to our neighbors from General Santos City to attend this once in a life time event (next year it’ll be BlogFest 3.0, so technically, BlogFest 2.0 is a once in a lifetime event :p)!
• Pinoy Teens represented by my girlfriend – This will be the first major blogging event that my girlfriend will attend to, how lucky she must be that her debut blogging event is going to be the BlogFest! The first major event that I attended though, also happened in Gensan which dates back 3 years… Mindanao Bloggers Summit 2.0!
• Getting my blogging vibes back! – I’m so positive about it that after this event, I’m going to be ubber inspired to keep blogging again the way I used to.