Year: 2008

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Mostly Everything

Hi girls, ummm when was the last time you visited your OB? :D

To my 5 female readers,

Just curious. If you watched a movie in the last 4 months you may have come across this really depressing ad:

So have you? It gets the point across though and yeah, I was all set to watch a really funny comedy when all of a sudden, bummer! I’d turn my head to ask my movie buddy, “hey have you been to the OB lately?” but I was watching with my dad. Anyway…

It turns out that the ad forms part of a cervic cancer awareness advocacy and HPV prevention being spearheaded by Dr. Manalastas and the PGH. I found this out after being contacted by the good doctor – he’s the head of OB in PGH and a faculty member at the UP College of Medicine.

On the Internets

So BlogBank is helping out PGH and Dr. Manalastas in the cervic cancer awareness campaign. It is, apparently, the second most lethal death by cancer cause in the Philippines for women (the first is breast cancer). What makes it sad is that the awareness isn’t so huge because of a social stigma of visiting your OB for reasons other than pregnancy causes people to stare. Is this true?? Sorry, I’ve never been to an OB.

I learned that HPV can be easily prevented by regular check ups and a vaccine – even sadder the fact that not a lot of women know this. As for what the vaccine is – well consult your OB! We launched a series of ads for this month on the awareness campaign, and also held a small dinner (Peter Juan wrote about this).

Truth is, I feel really uncomfortable talking about such a topic because needles make me weak (I literally lose my grip) and well, I can’t relate. The campaign’s message to women is to please visit your OB and have yourself checked up. I hear a papsmear is like, what, P50.00 in a government hospital?

So there. To my 5 female readers, please ask your doctors about cervical cancer prevention. By the way, to my 7 male readers, guys can also be carriers of HPV. Eek!

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Mostly Everything

Just got home from Wordcamp 2008; Meeting Matt Mullenweg

Just got home from Wordcamp Philippines ’08 at CSB. I gave away something new to those who attended my talk today. I talked about dreams and goals ala Randy Pausche – and equated these to 3 important aspects of publishing: editorial, sales, and marketing. In detail, discussed one way to determine engagement, two sources in dealing with patrons, and four ways to determine media value for blogs in the Philippine setting that are actually being practiced. To those who attended, thanks so much!

“Serious” Photo Matt

“Let your hair down” Photo Matt

I also got to spend some time with Matt Mullenweg. This episode of Wordcamp is significant to the Philippines because it is the very first State of the Word address in South East Asia. It was also the first time globally that Matt did a live demo of the “CrazyHorse” WP 2.7 release (movable objects, security, better auto-plugin install, post stickies, etc). He also mentioned that the Philippines had the most kick ass WordCamp tees + logo ever designed. On an impressive note, Matt singled out Markku “Mr. Plugin” Segguera of Rebelpixel, being one of the first WP users in the Philippines.

Blogging is a huge global industry. And in South East Asia, the Philippines is leading.

Thanks to the Mindanao bloggers for setting up this event and see you next year for WordCamp 2009 in Manila! More photos from the event can be found here.

Matt Mullenweg is the founder of WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms used globally by consumers, corporations and government agencies.

BONUS: My inaudible recording of Matt talking during the impromptu press conference:


Matt Mullenweg in the Philippines from jayvee Fernandez on Vimeo.

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Mostly Everything

Welcome to the blogosphere, RJ Ledesma!

Guess who’s now in the blogosphere? RJ’s been intertwined in my life in several ways – it’s really no surprise considering this industry is really small. Welcome to the blogosphere, RJ Ledesma!

P.S. That’s RJ’s yaya on the banner, from his latest book release, Lies My Yaya Should Have Told Me.

Over the past three years, there were columns I’ve written that I’m pretty damned proud of and there are some columns I’ve written that were pretty damned to begin with. But, what the hell, I say let it all hang out. After all, what’s past is prologue. And, in this blog, we’re going to see a lot of prologue going on.

I hope to come out with a second book in early 2009 that collects the last half of my columns from The Manila Times, along with a couple of articles that I’ve written for MANUAL. In the meantime, I’ve had requests from family, friends and readers to reprint some of my older columns and other previously published work. So, by way of this blog, I plan to do the following:

1. Post the older columns that haven’t seen print since they were first published;

2. Post my current columns a week after they come out in the Star;

3. Post some articles that I’ve written for MANUAL;

4. Post columns that, for one reason or another, did not get published.

I also plan to post some totally random stuff as well – recommendations, ramblings, general lunacy. You know the drill.

Lastly, I also hope to use this blog as a sounding board to develop ideas for future columns and articles. So if you’ve got any ideas that you think would make for an interetsting column, please feel free to drop me a line. I would love to hear from you guys. [RJ Ledesma]

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Mostly Everything

Do you still read books? Or are you only reading the Internet?

“Read more books than blogs.” This is an ad from Analog Soul, a tee company.

I think the message isn’t to stop reading blogs OR to read more books. Neither is it about hating blogs or new media – heck, Analog Soul uses Multiply as their marketing tool. The disciplines of reading books and reading blogs (and stuff online) is very very different! I think the communication point is more of a commentary on how we need to balance our life. 🙂

They are a statement tee and apparel err … outfit (LOL!) and Analog Soul knows how to be pretty good at it. They need to be brazened and make these statements. Oh and they got great stuff by the way. Should drop by one time.

On another note, do you still read books despite your BUSY BUSY SCHEDULE? I still do – but much less nowadays. To cope with always being on the go, I listen to them on my iPod via Audible. That’s one book credit a month – 12 books in a year! I’m currently reading listening to the unabridged version of The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

In this endlessly fascinating book, New Yorker columnist James Surowiecki explores a deceptively simple idea that has profound implications: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future. [Random House]

Wrote about the book here, but only getting to actually listen this month. It’s fantastic!

Thanks to Richelle for the info I was looking for. Image credit is from Analog Soul.

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Mostly Everything

It only costs $4.00 to put Chuck Norris inside your phone

Strange, but true. And yet it really kicks ass. Last year I sat in a mobile gaming conference with the guys from Gameloft – one of the best mobile gaming developers today as they’ve got a solid philosophy when designing games for the mobile phone: they should be engaging, intuitive and fun. And while we’re on the subject of FUN …

I don’t see anything that can top this: Chuck Norris bashes guerrillas with their own jeep.

Features

// The official game of martial arts champ, action star, TV hero, and media phenomenon Chuck Norris!
// A hilarious dive into the life of the legend: martial arts, denim-clad justice, and commando fights!
// Enjoyable and simple gameplay inspired by old-school arcade beat-’em-ups.
// Loads of enemies, including memorable bosses such as Fidel Castro and Kim Jong-il.
// Fight with heavy weaponry or unleash furious combos, then hop on a motorcycle, car or helicopter.
// Take pictures of your friends and turn them into the game’s enemies.

Chuck Norris: Bring on the Pain is Gameloft’s craziest title thus far. It only costs $4.00 to have your mobile phone indulge in a hatful of Chuck Norris jokes followed by an absurd premise of Chuck fighting communism and everything evil.

More coverage at Cellphone9.