Entries Tagged 'Family' ↓

Today, my parents celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. We had lunch at the Bellevue in Alabang.

I did the math and since I’m turning 28 this year, being the eldest means that I came into the picture five years into their married life. Apparently in those five years my parents thrived with a lot of dogs, in the absence of children, to the extent that it was part of their home’s blueprint to have a cemented kennel to house our two German Shepherds beside the wet kitchen (today it serves the purpose of a stock room). The pugs and German Shepherds gave way to a single beagle which was then replaced in modern day by Hondo, our family dog and third pillow in bed.

We practically grew up with dogs. Here’s a photo of my brother with our first beagle which was stylized from the Joe Cool “Snoopy” franchise (Snoopy is Charlie Brown’s beagle):

In all its entirety - taking my parents’ wedding anniversary and mothers day celebration tomorrow, it is thus that I declare how I seem to attract and pacify animals, namely dogs, stray cats and some breeds of freshwater fish.

Wala lang.

Happy Mothers Day

I’ve only been to three ocean parks in my lifetime - Ocean Park and Sea World in Hong Kong and the Oceanarium in KLCC, Kuala Lumpur. This is thus the fourth ocean park I’ve set foot on in spite memories of the house being a “little ocean park” by itself when I was growing up.

There have been mixed reactions of the public with the soft opening of the Manila Ocean Park: I would actually call this post a biased perspective because I’m a “hobbyist in recession” - put me in a room with fish and I’m happy. We used to keep several tanks of freshwater fish, where my favorite keeps were gouramis, corydoras, loaches, certain types of cichlids and livebearers.
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The family has been quite busy with our grandma’s funeral preparations. One thing that my cousins realized is that it was a little difficult finding a lot of stock photos of her. We’d have to segregate everything from the seven children’s families, scan them and then push them all to iPhoto for a themed slideshow.

I was having a conversation with my cousin who’s a film director and we came to agree that if it were our generation, finding photos would be so much easier as our lives are pretty much public in Facebook, Multiply and Friendster. Not to mention our blogs as well. What would it be like, 50 years from now when it came to storing our memories online?

One of the resolutions among the cousins would be to start a centralized photo repository. Maybe on Flickr or Multiply because it is very easy to batch upload. And then maybe link them all to a blog or something. The objective would be to come up with an organized way for anyone in the family to have access to these gems and contribute.

Any suggestions?

EDIT 2: Photos of the last mass and burial rites are here for family and friends to view.

Those close to the Fernandez and Javellana side of my family have always considered my grandmother “Mommy Darling” to be larger than life. She has always been the epitome of grace and art and an inspiration to us, especially to the cousins to be excellent in our pursuit of everything creative. I am lucky to be blessed by a huge clan (we’re the typical noisy Ilonggo clan ) that spend regular Sunday reunions in Blue Ridge. We’re all pretty close. In these fast times, it is hard to keep close to family. All of us 35 grandchildren are great.

Mommy Darling (she didn’t like being called lola — and so yes, lolo was also ‘Daddy Darling’ to us) was especially influential to me because of how she supported my musical endeavors (In her 70’s she was still dancing ballet!). She bought me a Washburn Festival series when I was in college so that I could play for her 75th birthday. She is the root cause of why I love writing, why I love photography and why I’ve learned to appreciate art.

My fondest memory of her was when she decided to treat all her grandchildren to a European tour a few years back. She would have to stress that if the parents wanted to go (her 7 children), they would have to pay for their own fares. So there we were in a tour of Europe for a month with my grandma, nephews and nieces.

Mommy Darling passed away silently on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes, on February 11 2008 while praying the rosary. It is no coincidence that she wished to die on the feast day of her namesake.

I would also like to thank those who visited last night - Sasha and Rico, Juned and Markku and Phoebe of course. Thank you as well to everyone who sent emails and SMS. Really sorry that I cannot always reply but yes, I got them all. My grandma’s remains lie at Christ the King in Greenmeadows and her remains will be transferred this Saturday after the 8:30 am mass to Loyola Marikina, where Daddy Darling waits for her.

There were no tears last night. Everyone was happy. Mommy Darling lived a full life filled with so much love. It is such an envied way to pass through to the next life.

EDIT: So funny that today, she was wearing blue and yesterday she was in a white dress! Thanks to Juned, Noemi and Lauren for passing by tonight as well, together with the SMS messages from everyone else.

The caption says:

Noemi Lardizabal-Dado and Butch Dado said their vows and made it clear on Facebook. They’re married.

I got a pleasant surprise today in my Facebook feed. Congratulations to Butch and Noemi for tying the knot! We’re all happy for the two of you and I’m sure that all your online friends wish you the best

(Isn’t Facebook just too funny sometimes?)

Easily one of the more fascinating press conferences I attended this year was last week’s dinner with eLBC’s Express Regalo. I’ve never really been in touch with the local shipping industry and found LBC’s online store to be quite a remarkable set up. They ship anything from lechon, to balloons, to consumer goods, Boyoyong Clown party packages — and get this - even pedicabs (yes dear friends, our local pedicab industry is championed by eLBC)!
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Every year, the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) gives out a set of Anvil Awards for remarkable public relations campaigns done in the Philippines.

The ANVIL is a symbol of excellence in public relations in the Philippines awarded by a distinguished multi-sectoral jury for outstanding public relations programs and tools designed and implemented in the past year. The Anvil Awards competition is conducted annually by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines.

The Anvil symbolizes excellence and quality. The standards for winning are high. No award is given unless the standards are met.

There are four award categories:

The Anvil Award of Merit
The Anvil Award of Excellence
The Bronze Anvil Award
THE GRAND ANVIL AWARD

What exactly am I pitching? Why can’t we pitch the ongoing Filipinas Campaign as an entry in the 44th Anvil Awards happening in February 2009. This February 2008 is the awarding for the Anvil for campaigns done between October 31 2006 to October 31 2007. Though it would be too late to include the Filipinas Campaign as an entry to the 43rd Anvil Awards, it can still very well make it into the 44th.
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Props to the owners of Kape Isla, that little coffee shop at the entrance of Serendra, right across Market! Market! There’s more to the quaint coffee shop than meets the eye. In fact, some people may think that the establishment is a bit out of place compared to the other restaurants in the area. Truth be told, Kape Isla is a “coffee museum” that is supported by the Philippine Coffee Board. Yes, it is an NGO.

Kape Isla is the Philippine Coffee Board’s cooperative marketing program. The Board issues the Kape Isla name as a national umbrella label for coffee to signify that a coffee product uses Philippine-grown coffee beans. The label is used in tandem with existing brand names and blend trademarks as a complimenting label to signify its Philippine origin.

The marketing and events of the establishment is being handled by Rock Ed Philippines and Gang Badoy. I’m helping out as well promote the establishment as a truly Filipino coffee shop that’s geek friendly as well. The coffee is affordable, strong and can be accompanied with free wireless Internet (Serendra itself also has free WiFi but Kape Isla is a good alternative if you want to spend a few hours working on something on your laptop).

Blog and Soul will be doing a small event at Kape Isla sometime during the latter part of the month.

There’s a rumor that the Bayanihan Blog Network might be doing their official launch there very soon

Surprisingly, a lot of people greeted before November 3. I even got an advanced birthday cake from a good friend. I’ll be spending my birthday somewhere in Jakarta, Indonesia for work related matters till the 7th (I made sure I would be back by the 7th, as Apple launches Leopard in the PH on the 8th). Nope, this trip has nothing to do with blogs and such. It’s enough to say that I’m helping a multinational company enter the Philippines. It’s really just some copywriting here and there. I’ll be moving about Indonesia and Malaysia for the next seven days.

And I’ll be alone for my birthday tomorrow *sniff*

Juned: It was fun

Jayvee: Is that the correct word?

Juned: It was fulfilling!

We talked about blogs, blogging, and using blogs as a teaching instrument in lesson plans. According to the teachers, high school students are very familiar with Friendster blogs as their means of self expression. Why not channel this enthusiasm into a learning tool in the classroom? The teachers were very receptive and although the session was short, we’re working on phase two of our school penetration program. We’ll be working with the top journalism students of Lagro National High School and help them use blogs in a number of class projects. The possibilities are numerous. [Blog and Soul]

Thank you to Arpee and Juned for working on this project. Do you want to volunteer your time to talk about blogs to students? Click here.