Guitarchic Dot Net*

I got an email from one of the clients I was doing SEO with last night, just as the Makati coup was subsiding.

The Philippines is headline news here in the UK at the moment. I hope that all is well and that you were not in the Peninsula Hotel area of Manila yesterday. If, however, you are involved, then please, can I tell you that violence is never the answer, Riz, and I urge you to put down your weapons and get back to work on [inserts site name here].

Haha, really funny. Pfft.

Then again, this whole brouhaha is funny. Trillanes is funny. This curfew thing is funny. The Philippine politics is a laughingstock and is made of lots of funny people.

Boohoo. Welcome to the Pilipins. ;)

Remember that night? Were you there? If you were, well, you witnessed the fun, here’s more partying for you! But if not, here’s a chance to redeem yourself. :)

SM Hypermarket is hosting another party for bloggers slash the announcement of the SM Hypermarket Blog Writing Contest. The biggest blogger party evaah is happening on August 23, 2007, Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at the Taste Asia, SM Mall of Asia (beside SM Hypermarket).

SM Hypermarket is looking at hosting this party for 500 bloggers and friends! Kamusta naman sa dame.

So here are the specs:

What: SM Hypermarket Invites Bloggers to Party!
When: August 23, 2007, Thursday, 7:30 pm
Who: bloggers of any size, age, status or whatever
How: Just leave a comment on any of the coordinators blogs
Why: Party and awarding ceremonies for the winner of the SM Hypermarket blog writing contest
Where: Taste of Asia (beside SM Hypermarket), SM Mall of Asia

Marc and I were assigned as point persons for the SEO crowd, hence, if you’re an SEO blogger, specialist, project manager, whatever, (or if you’re simply my friend hehe) and you want to be part of history, just leave a comment to this post and have yourself listed. Or, you can navigate over to Aileen’s post and find your specific niche there.

Join na. You don’t want to miss this one! ;)

You can view the master list here.

Time backtracked. It’s past midnight, I’ve got stuff to do, and I’m feeling a bit drained and gloomy for some reason, but look, here I go, browsing through MobiusGames, particularly the kids section, and having a grand time testing one game after another. So far, I’ve tried Eve Online (a galactic adventure ala Star Wars), I’m loving ToonTown (who wouldn’t love creating your own Disney-like cartoon in the form of a game?), and I’m currently hooked up on Diner Dash (again).

And let me just add that I had a super time laughing over GM Charo, Mobius’ resident love guru, whose love advices you can find on their recently launched online gaming magazine.

Yup. At a time like this. (I can’t believe myself either.)

I know I really have to move on from this break-now-pay-later phase like, real’ soon, but I can’t help myself. I’m extending the streak another night. I guess it’s true what they say — you know a person is pressured when she keeps stalling and making excuses. Take it from someone who has a tendency to do everything BUT that one thing she’s supposed to do.

Thanks to online gaming sites such as Mobius, stalling becomes worth the while. LOL. I mean, seriously. Sometimes I wonder to whom online games are meant for. Evidently, they’re meant for kids, and geeks, but come to think of it, they’re also meant for busy people who need to chill and have a break. Quite an irony, if I may say so, since most of us won’t even bother playing online games because we just don’t have the time. Thing is, if we don’t have time for stress-relievers such as this, maybe we need to make time for it. Get what I’m saying? (And no, I’m not just justifying myself.)

It’s just like that “gorgeous” night at Serendra with three lovely lovely ladies, where, in the midst of coffee and jazz music and yuppies having their own adult conversations, we found ourselves talking about things that usually don’t cross an adult’s mind.

THE Joni Ang, MOI, THE Liz Buenaflor & THE Mae Paulino

And it was fun, and refreshing, and feel-good. As if we allowed ourselves, for one night, to forget the race that this life is, that there are bills to be paid, and that there’s work the next day. Classic girl bonding moment.

Earlier that night, actually, we also met up with THE Eric Roceles and THE Riane Garfin of Digital Media Exchange, and just like the play of words to which this blog post is entitled with, we spent a good two hours talking about a plaything of sorts in an adult-ish and professional way. God knows I was never an online gamer (and the only games I got myself addicted with in my entire life were Theme Hospital, SIMS, and Diner Dash), but to be given a chance to get in touch with that kid inside again was something that’s pretty appealing to me.

So hey, my point is this. Encouraging you, my dear readers, to play Mobius’ Games takes the backseat, lest you start to think that this is a sponsored post (LOL). Sure, Mobius’ gaming portal is proudly crafted by among the best talents in the country, successfully targeting both local and international gamers from the South East Asia. Sure, they offer world-class gaming products that can really get you hooked. Sure, I’d recommend it anytime. But more important than this, gaming sites such as Mobius exist to remind people that there’s always ALWAYS a room, in our daily hectic existence, to relax, chill, and play.

So there goes my Mobius Experience. Plaything, but not really.

A few weeks ago, I posted about our paperclip project, asking you, my dear readers, what you think about paperclips. A week later, I blogged about where that paperclip project brought me.

I never really got around to disclosing how our little paperclip quest came to be. It was merely a dare: I blog, he writes a song. (And yep, we were fully aware that there’s something unfair about that dare, LOL.) Consequently, the helpless random object we thought about was, yup, you got it, a paperclip. The rest was history. Anyway, you can navigate over to that post again to listen to the song my friend, David, made ;)

On another note, look what I found.

I wasn’t really looking for it but spending time in Powerbooks last night unintentionally brought me to the children’s section, and lead me to this.

Yellow Paperclip with Bright Purple Spots by Nikki Dy-Liacco

I’ve read the paperclip story online already (thanks to Jun for pointing me to that direction), but I knew I just had to get myself a copy. For only 65 pesos, I got myself a keepsake. I love it! ♥

Simple joys, that’s what this is about, definitely. :)

Meanwhile, Lots of blogging to do. Up next this weekend, my date with them lovely ladies, and something about the latest gaming thing in the net today. ;)

Edit. Miss Nikki Dy-Liacco just gave us a heads up on her blog, which you can view here. Wee. We’re famous. LOL. :P She’s right, what’s more interesting here is the simple truth that worlds continue to collide. Yup. I couldn’t agree more.

Tuesday night was a success, definitely. The food, the drinks, the schwags. 150+ bloggers coming together in one place (and coming out with satisfied tummies) is no joke. And I managed to be there to witness it all. What? You didn’t see me? I have proof, look. 1. 2. 3. 4.

With me in the booth: Sasha, Sharm, Aileen, Markku, Marc, Ely and his friend.

That’s me with the “Band of Bloggers”, and I don’t even know what I was doing there, I just happened to be outside the booth and someone pulled me in. LOL. Let me just say, Cliquebooth rocks. You have to remember them next time you hold an event, seriously. Check it out. (In case you start to wonder how this picture set happened, I edited it. It’s impossible to have four shots with different people in one set, yup.)

I’m tempted to send some link love to everyone I saw there, but they’re just too many. So I’m sending this one to the organizer of all organizers, Miss Aileen Apolo, and SM Hypermarket, for that very successful Taste Asia event. Clapclap (standing).

Oh, and because I promised, here’s some link lovin’ for Ely for the pink umbrella that made my night (thank you!!). And Markku, the guy who every girl wants to have an issue with because he’s cute and single, and because you know no one will strangle you to death or send you anonymous hate comments when you post pa-cute pictures of yourself with him (ha!). And Sharmskee for the endless talk about cute Swiss hockey players and those camwhore moments. And Jayvee, for making takas for me one of those coke tumblers (oh, wait, sorry, am I not allowed to tell everyone that? hehe). And Mikey and TJ for being on bodyguard-slash-kuya mode to me the whole night. And Jomar who took us in, gatecrashers that we are. And Miss Janette, and Ganns, for expressing their concern towards my emotional state, judging from my twits (don’t worry Ma’am, Sir, those are just twits. Hehe.)

But really now. The real highlight of my night (but of course Markku’s still a close second) was finally meeting Abel’s family: Chel, who I only knew through multiply and twitter, and their adorable little princess, Tiana.

There’s something about watching Tiana twirl in her cute flowery dress in the middle of a noisy and crowded party that made me want to tear up right there and then. And I wouldn’t elaborate lest I start emo-ing again, but really, candid moments like that (of a little girl twirling, or clutching her Mom’s hand, or hugging her Daddy as he carries her, oblivious to the noise going around her) sends my world to a halt, making me wish that life is as simple as that which is seen through her eyes.

Gaah. Didn’t I just say that I won’t elaborate? :)

It was lovely finally meeting you, Abel, Chel, and Tiana. ♥

Oh, and by the way, there was not a moment in that party that I didn’t wish Liz, Mae, and Joni were there. It was a relief making up and spending quality girl bonding session with these gorgeous bloggers at Serendra last night (Wednesday), though. But yup, that one deserves a separate post.

And for some reason, I chose to blog it here because I want to keep that blog, as much as possible, sanitized from occasional outbursts such as this one unless the outburst is because of a new pink gadget, or me getting an email from, say, Search Engine Journal or Matt Cutts (LOL!) telling me that they want to interview me (pathetic, I know) or they want me to write with them (dream on Riz!) or something like that. Anyway.

I have a pending meme to work on, plus piles of SEO stuff to do, and some backlogs at 901am. In short, there are a lot of things I should be doing now. But let me pause everything else for this overwhelming, funny, and unbelievably cool news flash.

Oh WOW. Guitarchic.Net ranking fifth is unbelievable enough. Getting 5th and 6th places is outofthisworld!! :upsidedown: So hey, Andrew, I don’t know you (and I’m sure you don’t know me either) but because I’m benefiting a lot from your little project over there, and because I love that you’re promoting the local, Filipino-powered blogosphere, you’re now officially my most favorite person in the whole wide web.

Okay. Just for today, lest you start to think I’m psycho or something. Hehe. :)

And because I’m overjoyed, here’s more link love to Andrew dela Serna the man behind all of this, and to Ratified.Org.

Ratified.Org. Ratified.Org. Ratified.Org.

Ok. I’m stopping now and will try working on my composure offline. Hehe. Be back later. :)

This morning, I was welcomed to my virtual office (read: my Gmail Inbox) by 10 Multiply invitations waiting to be approved. As I accepted one invitation after the other, I couldn’t help but smile at the weird “relationships” that these people are tagging me.

• Jeffrey Zamora has invited you to be his sister. (When he’s my high school best friend. Sister?? No way. :P)
• Andrew Aleta has invited you to be his second cousin. (When he’s my college friend/orgmate.)
• Nikos Sanchez has invited you to be his distant relative. (When he’s my brother.)
• Gino Carteciano has invited you to be his online buddy. (When he’s my online stalker, not buddy. LOL. Peace baddie!)
• Josiah’s Catering has invited you to be his business partner. (Uhh, okay.)
• MyKid’s World has invited you to be her business partner. (Acceptable.)
• Noemi Dado has invited you to be her friend. (Finally. Something that actually matched! Then again, it’s the safest network connection other than “online buddy”.)
  
• Chel Quitoriano has invited you to be her sorority sister. (When she’s a Twitter friend, and the wife of a blogger friend.)

And well, 2 out of the 10 invites, I declined, so I won’t mention them anymore. Heehee.

Looking at my multiply connections, I realized that I currently have 4 sorority sisters, 3 life partners, 2 fiances, 1 fraternity brother, 1 mother, 1 boyfriend, 1 neighbor, 1 distant relative (in the form of my brother) and 1 ex-husband.

Multiply is funny that way. With their limited network relationship options, you have no choice but to tag your enemy your “Friend” (then again, why would you add your enemy to your network? hehe), or your friend’s friend your “Online Buddy”, or your roommate your “Neighbor”, or your friend’s mother your “Mother”.

Read the rest of this entry »

I wouldn’t have known this if Jayvee didn’t holler me about it. This site, Guitarchic Dot Net, ranks number 4 over at Ratified.Org, a local site that acknowleges the Philippines’ TOP 100 blogs.

I had to laugh. How could that be? I mean, there’s simply no way I could have gotten ahead of Macalua.Com! (Haha, yun eh.) Joni and I were laughing about it coz apparently, she ranks 6th. Curious, we searched the website to find out how Ratified.Org ranks blogs.

Ratified.org is a new directory featuring the best Filipino blogs in the blogosphere. Using data from Technorati.com, each blog’s statistics such as rank, links and other information are gathered and stored, therefore “ratifying” it. The data is then used as the basis for ranking Ratified.org’s top 100 Philippine blogs. (From Ratified.Org.)

I guess that’s why Joni and I are up on top. *insert evil laugh* Backlinks, yepyep. Thanks, WP. :P

Anyway, what made me smile even more was when I saw that this girl, Me-anne, of Enchantedlilypad.blogspot.com, made it to number 5. Three years ago, when I was still creating blogger templates (for a cause), Me-anne was actually one of those people who contacted me to redesign her blog, and it’s heartwarming to see that up to now, the design’s still up! Thanks, girl.

Sigh. Simple joys. Wala lang. :)

One death was more than enough for a family to bear, what more 32 young lives to the whole State of Virginia — including thousands of dreams that came with each life.

It’s quite disturbing to know that the guy who was responsible for the, by far, worst mass killing in the whole of United States was a 23 year old Asian (my age), who, quite obviously, kept a lot of angst and confusion in his heart while he was still alive. More than hating him for what he did, I feel sorry that he had to live and end his life that way.

Like Xai, I’ve been thinking a lot about death lately, and how it should be more of a celebration (of life) rather than grieving for the loss. Xai said in her blog (and I quote coz I couldn’t have said it any better):

Come to think of it, life and death are two inseparable extremes. What bridges them is an eternally debated concept of a greater power [yes, greater than the big bang]. Death is reflective of the kind of life you lead. Similarly, life is an image on the kind of death you perceive.

Life is more than being the absence of death because for some people living means dying and dying is living. Point is, they’re so correlated, and you can’t have one without the other.

The tragic Virginia Tech Massacre is another lesson learned for all of us. While some are saying that the Columbine Massacre should have warned us already, and security should have been given more attention to, this recent tragedy is ultimately beyond our control. To celebrate life each day as if it’s our last, to say “I love you” to those we love while we still can, to make a difference in the lives of those people God sends our way, and to reach out to those who feel unloved — perhaps these are the real lessons to be learned from all of these.

On April 30, this blog will take part in the One Day Blog Silence, in honor of the victims of the Virginia Tech Tragedy. You might want to join too. All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect, reflect and empathy.

Navigate to Onedayblogsilence.com to know more. Or see who is also writing about this @ Technorati.