I wasn’t really into paintings but my parents were. We had a couple of Amorsolo’s and Goya’s at home and they were, if I recall correctly, gifts. Behind one of the Goya’s, which was a portrait of my mom, she had a photo with him stuck on the canvas.
So it’s pretty cool how art appreciation is slowly taking advantage of new media. The latest is The Amorsolo Retrospective, which is an online collaboration of collectors to upload Amorsolo art that they own, and embed them on blogs. I guess it’s sort of like turning your blog into an online art gallery, which is kick ass. It’s nice to know we have local new media efforts to preserve our sense of art and culture.
Fernando Amorsolo,
First National Artist.
He portrayed his ideals through his art, capturing the essence of Filipino beauty and sunlight on canvas.
The Amorsolo Retrospective aims to take another look at our first National Artist Fernando Amorsolo through a four-month multi-venue exhibition of his finest works. This is all made possible by our many sponsors, particularly our co-presenter, Metrobank.
This rare gathering of his paintings, illustrations and sketches hopes to cultivate a deeper understanding of Filipino culture and values as seen through the eyes of Amorsolo. His art was a reflection of his values. They depicted a fervent idealism, a sense of community, the respect of women, the love of beauty, the dignity of hard work, and a celebration of our country’s history.
Join us as we celebrate one of the greatest Filipino painters and the beauty he saw in everything.
If you want to showcase Amorsolo’s works on your blog or website, just follow these simple instructions or go to http://amorsoloretro.com/hangyourown. If you OWN an Amorsolo, you can actually showcase it to the world! Check out www.amorsoloretro.com and click on “Upload your own Amorsolo.”
Stuck in a rut with the same old redundant radio copy? Having a hard time cramming everything in 30 seconds or less? Gabe Mercado introduces the Antennanator. It’s concept is pretty simple: if you need better ideas, get a better antenna.
For more details, please call 813-1315 and get your free Antennanator today! You can also visit the Official Antennanator Blog.
Never fear, for the Antennanator is now making waves (radio waves that is!) in local shores. And what good timing as well, because the KBP radio awards is up and coming!
I’ve put off writing about Ventaja for the longest time. It wasn’t a scoop from a press launch or a dinner invitation to try out their service. In fact the circumstances to meeting up with them was brought about by a whole day workshop I gave for ITMC many months ago.
I was amazed that a service like this existed. And quite glad too that at the very least we have someone, who is not from the government, taking care of this effort. So here’s the deal. Ever since I went freelance, I had stopped paying my SSS contribution. It was one of the things I wanted to pay independently, and going through this transition is in theory very easy to do. But the government officials who I talked to behind the desk made payment so hard to do! Talk about making things difficult. I mean, I’m already giving you my money and you’re making it hard for me to do so (click here for radio drama)!
This is why I find SSS payments to be so not worth it. For something that could give you a little cash when you retire, you have to go through so much trouble. What’s stopping me from getting other forms of security instead (mutual funds, time deposit, etc)? And what more if you live overseas? It’s really not worth it because you’ll be earning so much more money compared to the measly amounts you’ll be getting in return if you had paid for SSS (I think the total pay amounts to about P16,000 to P20,000 across your working career if I’m not mistaken).
SSS has its benefits. Among all the government services, others pale in comparison because these guys can deliver.
The guys behind Ventajaexplained their service carefully to me. In a nutshell, they wanted to make SSS payments easier for OFW’s who really won’t see the benefit of availing because the traditional system takes 10 months (!!!) to propagate payments (ikaw nga nagbayad, ikaw pa yung na-hassle!).
Social Security System is part of the Philippine government effort to increase collection of contributions from its members based overseas. The coverage of the SSS program are primarily for retirement, disability, sickness, maternity, death/funeral and loan assistance. Every Filipinos including overseas workers may avail of the membership and it will remain active for lifetime.
SSS On-line Payment is a web based technology that records contribution payments via our website, is it part of the service available within Ventaja’s Remit Load system. Every transaction will have a unique Reference number from SSS. The system is directly link to SSS server for automatic upload of all records of payment every end of day. Transactions are posted within five (5) working days. The system will have an inquiry tool and provides payment history of customers, it is 100% electronic and completely paperless.
Guess what? I asked them a favor if they could help me with my SSS so I could pay. Tadah. Done. No hassles.
I attended an intimate dinner with representatives from Google yesterday evening as they publicly unveiled Google Map Maker to the Philippine Internet community and other stakeholders.
A friend half-jokingly said that if we joined the Amazing Race, it would be my fault that we would lose, primarily because I have a very bad sense of direction. Funny that I score really high in the Abstract Reasoning section of these IQ tests but really suck when it comes to map reading.
As someone who lives in the south of the metro (aka “the not-so-dirty south” of Paranaque), I never found the need to know what lies after Katipunan. For me it was enough to know that after EDSA, there was a huge SM that blocked my way forcing me to go either left (Mushroom Burger) or right (who knows what’s there?!?), and after Katipunan, there’s a school called UP. And that pretty much sums up 28 years of living in the Philippines.
That’s why I stick to my little niche of Paranaque, BF Homes and Makati as I fill up what I know of the not so little sandbox that is Google Map Maker.
Google Map Maker
EDIT: I had “Venus” from Google approve some of my cartography from last night with some comments such as “pls align the polygon.” So I guess it takes a little less than 24 hours to approve a few items.
Google Map Maker is not Google Maps. What it is, simply, is the “sandbox mode” of Google Maps where user-generated content populates the cartography with establishments, city landmarks, fault lines (hmmm bad for real estate companies??!!), and other objects of interest. The content is purely generated by users, and just like in Wikipedia and Digg a moderation system is enforced with checks from the community itself. When a piece of information is considered to be credible enough (via user comments and algorithms), Google moves this piece of information to Google Maps.
According to Google, organizing the world’s information entails having a better understanding of search. Since search can be traced to a geographic location, “where it is searched from” adds an entirely new dimension to your queries. Thus, Google Map Maker addresses the problem of not having high quality maps with up to date and fresh info, while giving historical information on landmarks (like demolished structures, relocated establishments and historical points of interest).
In the Philippine setting, Google Map Maker helps bring to light rural and suburban localities and their businesses with the ultimate goal of boosting commerce and tourism (searching for zoos, beaches, hotels, etc).
The process of mapping can actually be quite addicting. I’ve noticed that aside from mapping gated communities, I’ve concentrated on my niche (I’m not as hardcore as Eugene) which is to map out the locations of my favorite restaurants and bars (Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Burger Avenue, Kopi Roti, Murphy’s).
From a blogger perspective, I’m seeing that you can edit details of establishments to include photos and URL’s. So that means when you mark, say, a restaurant, you can actually enter your food review URL from your blog under the website category. Obviously, I’m not sure how this will rank in “authority” to be moved to Google Maps (this by the way does not happen overnight), but an extra bona fide public link to your post shouldn’t hurt. Besides, once the 3rd party apps get rolled out, we’re bound to see a lot of “geotagging” or “geoblogging” taking place in conjunction with the Map Maker. This was a huge request for the Google devs from people around the world and they’re very aware of the potential. No release date for these as of late (I’m not claiming that these apps will be available — I’m just saying that they make sense with the release of an API).
So why not give it a try? All you need to do is sign in with your Google account and go to http://google.com/mapmaker to map the city at your leisure.
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I was standing at the back of the room, left arm folded over my right. I’d twitch, and switch position (left hand over my mouth perpendicular to my right arm) every time one of the promo people on stage would forget the script.
And then I’m joined by RJ Ledesma who positions himself beside me, and gives me the look.
“So what are you doing all the way back here?” I asked.
“It’s the guys on stage. I’m getting all tensed up when they forget their lines.”
“Oh you too? That’s good. I thought it was just me! It’s really stressful. It really makes me cringe.”
