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Farewell 2016. Hello 2017.

2016 in Pictures

2016 was a well-rounded year full of dramas, achievements, happy and sad moments.

Select Pictures from 2016

It’s hard to sum up such an eventful year in merely 12 pictures. It was really a great year.

01

My father returned to the Philippines following his medical treatment back home in Germany.

02

Girlfriend celebrated her 24th birthday, with the second ever bouquet I’ve given to someone (and yes, she was also the first one to receive a bouquet from me.)

03

We went to Jacksridge and hung out with some of her friends (before they buried us in their memory some time May, but that’s another story).

04

we’ve also had frequent trips to Samal early into 2016, again with friends who would bury is about a month later in their memories. :p

05

May was rather eventful. My half-sister from Cebu came over and had her vacation in Davao City, of course Semarfe and I accommodated her. Other happenings in this month: my mother got confined and I lost my iPhone 5c.

06

Yannah Claire gets enrolled at the Ateneo de Davao University – Nursery. Also in this month: I return to class for one last school year. Got elected as Supreme Student Council Officer. Celebrated my birthday on June 13.

07

In July I scored my first ever competitive victory, joining and winning my first Extemporaneous Competition – not just locally, but on a national level.

08

In August, Pokemon Go came and conquered – and just as quickly went away again. Also in this month, I got chosen as the Outstanding Information Technology Student for School Year 2016-2017 thanks to my aforementioned extemporaneous competition win in July. Other things in this month: Semarfe and I had fun celebrating Kadayawan. Late into the month, my mother got hospitalized. Again.

09

My mother got hospitalized again, this time on a slightly serious note. Also in this month, I got elected as Officer of the Davao Digital Influencers. We had our official launching as #teamDDI, and not to forget was our Economics paper defense where I have laid eyes on our paper THE FIRST TIME just as I was about to defend it. LOL.

10

In October, Semarfe had some of her classmates come over to our village to prepare and act-out a play required for their class.

11

In November I did badly in a city-wide extemporaneous contest only to become First Runner Up in a controversial National Extemporaneous Competition in Baguio City. It was a great experience that I’ve had with fellow students and our dearest OSA head. Thank you so much for the inspiration, words of wisdom and encouragements!

12

In December, of course, we prepared for the Christmas season. I spent new year’s at my girlfriends place (half asleep because I was fcking drunk) all in all, it was a great month to cap off 2016 which one of the better years that I have had in the Philippines. Here’s to more great experiences in 2017!

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Davao City and the Davao Digital Influencers

Writing this article comes at a rather untimely moment, as the city of Davao has suffered a huge blow to its “safest city in the world” title with the bombing of its famous Roxas Night Market. As it stands, I would like to correlate the incident at hand and why Davao City needs more of the #DigitalInfluencers like us.

At times of public crisis and uproar like this, it’s easy to get lost and be misinformed. Many people would just post away not necessarily with the intent of causing mass-panic and misinformation, but just because they are not familiar or say, knowledgeable about the importance of providing fact-based and verified information. It is in times like these that the need for the #TeamDDI arises, as we’ll be serving as the gateway and resource in facilitating and disseminating timely and necessary information for the public. Our city is not only in need of us in informing public on important whereabouts during crisis but even if there is none.

Many, if not all, of us serve a particular niche. Some are into fashion, some are into lifestyle, some are more into tourism. It varies. Given our accessibility and potential of unlimited reach thanks to the world wide web and the technology we have nowadays, we are the forefront in providing information, education and entertainment for and about the city of Davao. We complement our city well and given our best intentions, exposure and expertise in our respective fields, I suppose we do a good job representing the city and its beauty online. Think of us as the online concierge of Davao City.

With that said, our group is still rather young. We’re just about to officially launch, and we’re glad to have many brands showcase their faith and support in us.

Thank you to our generous sponsors for supporting Davao Digital Influencers, Inc. 

 
Platinum Sponsor

 

PLDT HOME is the country’s leading broadband and digital services provider that allows seamless, simultaneous streaming in all your devices at home. Enabling moments that bring your family closer together, PLDT HOME offers Fibr, DSL, Ultera and Telpad services. 
 
PLDT brings you the finest options when it comes to telecommunications solutions. Whether you need high-speed Internet connection, a landline or a combination of both, PLDT HOME has the right package for you.
 
Gold Sponsors

 

 

Coca-Cola FEMSA is the largest franchise bottler of Coca-Cola products in the world. The Company has 63 bottling facilities and serves more than 358 million consumers through more than 2,800,000 retailers and over 100,000 employees worldwide.
Locally, the Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines operates 19 plants and 53 sales offices and distribution centers across the country. It has operates two plants and one Distribution Center in Davao. The first plant was established in May 1950 and is located along MacArthur Highway. The second plant is located in Barangay Darong, Sta. Cruz. Collectively, both plants employ around 350 associates.
 
The Davao Digital Influencers Inc. is supported by Cebu Pacific, the largest airline operating flights to Davao. It offers seat sales that go as low as P599 all-in, and a network that spans Asia, Australia, the Middle East and Guam. It operates direct flights from Singapore, Manila, Cebu, Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Zamboanga to Davao. Book now through bit.ly/DavaoCEB or call 7020-888. The latest seat sales are also up on Cebu Pacific’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

 

Smart brings together the Eraserheads to go all out for a new, complete prepaid offer: the ‪#‎SmartAllOutSurf 30! 
 
This is the first complete call, text and data offer for Prepaid! For P30, prepaid subscribers get 2 days of: 
 
  • 300MB data with FREE Facebook 
  • Unlimited text to all networks 
  • 30 minutes free calls to Smart, TNT and Sun

 

 
Silver and Bronze Sponsors

 

PR, Events & Promotions | Jolly Heart Mate Canola Oil | Seda Abreeza Hotel
Park Inn by Radisson Davao | Marco Polo Davao | JG Summit Holdings, Inc.
 
Benefactors
 
 
TBR Concepts | Kai Artisan Chocolates | KaiserWebs | Biscoff Bren Ang Photography | M Magazine | San Miguel Brewery Inc.
 
 

 

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Hello New 3DS XL and Hello again Littleroot!

It’s almost halfway through the year and this is the first post that I have on my personal blog! Jeez! At least, my other blog has received much more attention than this site. At any rate, I’m merely writing about me having reacquired a 3DS unit once more. To be specific, I have managed to get hold of a New 3DS XL unit, courtesy of a facebook friend who is part of our vibrant 3DS Davao Community. It wasn’t a trouble-free affair though, since my girlfriend opposed of such purchase insisting that it’s just a waste of time and money given that we’ll enter our senior years in college with thesis awaiting bot of us this incoming school year.

However, despite her pleading me to reconsider, I have availed of his excellent bundle priced at 10,000 Philippine Pesos including Fire Emblem Birthright (Conquest/DLC), Final Fantasy Explorers, Fire Emblem Awakening and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. All these come with receipt for the 3DS and some of the games, as well as $10 eShop credit and a pouch for the 3DS unit. If you ask me, it was a pretty darn good deal that I just couldn’t pass off.

New 3DS with Games
New 3DS with Games

I tried hard to ride the Fire Emblem bandwagon, but as it seems, these type of games aren’t really my forte. Or maybe it’s just because I just wanted to play Pokemon again as soon as possible.

On the day of the purchase, I immediately swapped out Final Fantasy Explorers for Super Smash Bros. Some say I was at an disadvantage in the said trade, but it doesn’t really matter. I didn’t really liked Final Fantasy anyways and I really wanted to play some SSB – even back then when I still had my old 3DS. I also used the store credits to buy Pokemon Yellow which I have barely touched as of press time. On the following day, I managed to find a buyer for my Fire Emblem Birthright game. The money from that purchase helped me to reacquire one of my former favorites, Mario Kart 7 and of course, one of the two games that I so badly wanted, Pokemon Omega Ruby. 

It was a tough call for me to make, since the seller did not have a package for the game, I went for it anyways, thinking that I am not going to resell this particular game in the future as I’ll be placing my competitive team here. The only game missing on my wishlist right now is Pokemon X or Pokemon Y. I will use Pokemon X or Pokemon Y as my breeding station. But, I shall try to find my old Pokemon Y cartridge here at home – since all my Dittos and breeding related items are readily available on there already.

Now, with a few cups of Mario Kart behind me, I started to give Pokemon Omega Ruby its debut on my New 3DS XL unit. And here we go, here we are. Hello once again, Littleroot Town! Hello once again Hoenn Region! I have chosen a female character and I her namesake, of course, is my girlfriend. I have consulted my girlfriend on which starter to pick and she says that I should go for the blue one which means I will start with a Mudkip to be nicknamed Blue Platoon.

PokemonOR

I’m looking forward to rebuild my old team revolving around Pachirisu, Medicham and Staraptor. Can’t wait for future competitive battles once again!

PS: Coffee, I love you!

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2014 in Review

Dinalian lang ni. Started at 10:30PM of December 31. Finished quite close to midnight. LOL

My 2014 was a rather passive one. It had its moments of joy. It had its moments of sorrow. If 2014 was an episode in a TV series, one could consider this to be a filler episode either preparing for something grand to come or just simply being a filler. In recent memory, of course, have been 2013 and 2012. 2013 served as the start of yours truly taking responsibility and delving into the world of work. It was then when I started having that kind of relationship in which, for a moment, I thought this could be it. Of course, I found out the hard way mid 2014 that it wasn’t the case. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though.

[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]2013[/tabtext] [tabtext]2012[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]Again, 2013 was the year wherein I started taking more responsibility and started exercising semi-independence from my parents. It’s due time that I do so, since I’m 23. My parents are somewhat clingy though which is understandable since I’m their only kiddo. It served as the start of something big – did it get anywhere? [/tab] [tab]Let’s flashback a little more. Yep. 2012. In 2012, my little daughter Yannah Claire was born. The relationship that I had with her mother was doomed for failure. It just didn’t want to work out. Our beliefs, outlook and ideals in life just wouldn’t align. It was a true mismatch, and despite all that, I’m thankful to have had Yannah Claire after all. [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]

[box type=”info”] How does all these stuff relate to 2014? Well, 2012 had its major event in the birth of Yannah Claire, 2013 served as the year where I took a bit more responsibility in the family and started becoming more independent… In 2014… Oh well… In 2014…[/box]

[learn_more caption=”2014″] The year started out bright. I was in love. I was in a great relationship. Everything was just perfect. As the saying goes, however, all good things must come to an end. Our relationship has reached a rock bottom just before our first year anniversary and despite efforts of salvaging what was left, it ended up to be an unfixable mess. I’m not mad about it. I’m thankful. Thankful that I had someone nurture me for over a year. Someone who built me up. Someone who sticked around until it was just not plausible anymore. The best kind of boyfriend/girlfriend are the ones who teach you how to live without them — and she did. Of course, I cried a river of tears after our breakup… but it was rather inevitable. 2014 was the year where I just had to experience a major setback and fight myself back alone. Equipped with all the lessons that I’ve learned, the confidence that was rebuilt in me, and of course, with my newfound friends in #3J, it felt like anything was possible. Again, I’m getting ahead of myself. [/learn_more]

[tabs slidertype=”top tabs”] [tabcontainer] [tabtext]MARCH[/tabtext] [tabtext]June[/tabtext] [tabtext]July[/tabtext] [tabtext]August[/tabtext] [/tabcontainer] [tabcontent] [tab]

I received my second Postpaid Plan. A 50/50 agreement with me and my mother. My first (and still active) Postpaid plan is with Globe, a Load Tipid 500 plan. The second plan that I’ve got is with Smart however. After the messy stricter implementation of Globe’s data-capping affecting Postpaid subscribers, I decided to make the #SmartChoice over to the other network… and it was the best choice Iv’e ever made. I’m sporting the Smart LTE Unlisurf 1500 Plan (iPhone 5C) and it’s the best kind of Internet experience that I’ve had. Oh, and it’s truly unlimited too.

[/tab] [tab]

For the second time in my measly life, I’ve received a cake that did not come from my parents. It was awesome. But hey, let’s fast forward on that now, shall we?

In June, I decided to go back to school. I told myself, I want to finish my course ASAP and I had a really well start into my first trimester back at the Philippine Women’s College of Davao’s IT Department. Aside from taking my classes serious (with lots of 1s) I was also re-elected as officer of the I.T Community, le Vice President!

I celebrated my anniversary with my ex in this month yadayadayada…

[/tab] [tab]

Fuck. Midway July, that perfect relationship ended. A lot of factors led to the breakup… I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Enough with the finger pointing and with the blame game. It’s done, and I’m glad that it happened so. Even though I was somewhat dying inside at that time, I managed to get over it within a month. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, I guess.

One thing that amazed me even more about this is the fact that I did not lose interest in attending classes. I continued with my classes and finished with good remarks. Cheers for that.

GERMANY FUCKED THE BRAINS OUT OF BRAZIL, BEATING THEM AT HOME, AT THE BELA HORIZONTE 7:1 IN ONE OF THE MOST HISTORIC AND EPIC FOOTBALL GAMES OF OUR GENERATION. OF COURSE, IT WAS ONLY LOGICAL FOR THEM TO WIN THE WORLD CUP AS WELL. 🙂 #GG

[/tab] [tab]#3J – after the said breakup, I was able to socialize more with people that were off limits to me before. A fling here and there… but more importantly, the coming together of #3J. We started out in the weirdest way possible. The three of us started becoming friends because I had a crush on Alyssa’s friend and thus befriended her… then came Jonas.. and poof, it became #3J. [/tab] [/tabcontent] [/tabs]

[box type=”warning”] Oh Coffee. I could go on and on and on and on about this girl. I’ll keep it short here though, since it’s already quite a long flashback. Coffee is my current girlfriend. I love her. I don’t want to be too cheesy about her here publicly letting the world know about how much I love her. Let’s leave it at that, I love her a lot… and next year’s flashback will be full of our memories, moments and escapades! <3[/box]

To sum it up, 2014 has been a decent year. It wasn’t notably EPIC but it wasn’t bad either. I had worse years. I’m thankful because I’ve become more socially active. I’ve started removing my antisocial attitude. I have a supportive girlfriend now who really pours lot of vacant time unto me when possible. I have made great friends in Jonas and Alyssa. What else could I ask for? 2015 will be a big year. I call dibs on 2015 being my year at last.

WORST MOMENTS OF 2014:

  • Bayern Munich getting routed by Real Madrid 4:0
  • The Worst Breakup Ever – it was close to the middle of the night. I came over to the apartment where we lived. My things were all ready and packed. We hugged. We said our goodbyes and I rushed out of the apartment carrying all my clothes and things and leaving behind all the good and bad memories with mere 20 pesos in hand.
  • Frequent Fights at Home – My Parents have fought quite a lot this year… right up to the end of 2014.

EPIC MOMENTS OF 2014:

  •  #3J
  • Coffee
  • Going back to school
  • Germany routing Brazil 7:1 in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Semi Finals
  • #SAS beating Miami
  • Germany winning the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a goal by Bayern Munich midfielder Mario Götze against Argentina
  • My first LTE Plan by SMART
  • My only Christmas gift this year (make that the second Christmas gift since I also got a jacket from Coffee): Bracelet from #3J Alyssa – first time that I got something aside from a girlfriend. LOL. (Heck even my parents don’t have something for me)

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! LET’S HOPE FOR A BETTER AND BRIGHTER 2015!