Philippine iBlog summit on April 18

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 13th, 2006

Go to iBlog 2 , the Philippines’ 2nd Blogging Summit. Attendance is FREE. Register now to save your seat!

There is a schedule of breakout sessions listed here. It is interesting to note that the blogging conference is pretty broad in its topics for bloggers.

The day is divided into different sessions where participants can choose which track to attend, whether it be blogging for politics, personal blogging, blogging for the arts and media, or professional blogging.

The whole day activity is free! Sign up now.

Titillating Text Scandals

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 12th, 2006

As reprinted in my m|PH March 2006 issue column titled The Prodigal Screen Protector and Other Bedtime Stories

There are those rare moments when the demo unit reveals all

There’s a reason why I love reviewing phones for m|PH. In the beginning I ‘d choose to review phones for the pure sake of gadget bliss. Lately however, I’ve wanted to get the last dib on mobile phones, from the long line of people from the press and the rest of the local tech community. You heard that right. I like being the last person to review a press unit. But why, pray tell am I so excited to get the tail end of this month’s tech?

The answer is quite simple – because I like counting on the fact that Filipinos are too lazy to reset devices back to factory settings. Most people think that once they let go of a unit, it will auto-reset itself erasing whatever evidence they left behind.

Evidence may include text messages in the inbox and sent folder, names and contact numbers of loved ones, videos and pictures if the phone happens to have a camera. If I were an ass, I could think of a hundred ways to have fun with these people. If.

On several occasions I get tech feedback from writers from other magazines. I remember the time when one of our editors was fiddling around with a certain mobile phone just last year. True enough there remained some text messages that formed part of a conversation between the previous user and someone who was asking feedback. “Dud, iksi ng battery nya” (‘the phone has a short battery life’) was the first message I read. Thanks for the feedback, Mr. Anonymous.

There was another time in 2004 when I kept a certain handheld device for a couple of weeks. Because it was a PDA-phone, it had an almost unlimited amount of space for messages. As a bonus, I had a ball reading the text conversation between two lovers. I had found out that the guy, perhaps from the media, had no time for his girlfriend. The girlfriend, insecure most likely, would ask him to send pictures from the phone just to prove that the guy was still at work burning the midnight oil, and not with friends. Alas, the trials and tribulations of young love.

Sometimes though I find interesting gems – like familiar numbers of people I know in the industry as well as camera phone shots of writers’ pets, children and the occasional “I love you Daddy!” that makes the heart melt. Sometimes I also grab interesting quotes and jokes, which people leave behind, on purpose I would guess.

There are many things one can learn from a person by just browsing through his or her mobile. It’s that human element that makes me want to see how individuals put their gadgets to use. Of course, in the real world, no one in their right mind would let me read their message inbox. Let’s just say that during these rare moments with the demo unit, I get to know a little bit more about the lives of our happy little tech community.

The moral of this bedtime story is obvious – be the last in line!

where are you going for the holy week?

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 10th, 2006

Family tradition states that I stay here at home. I was never one to go out during the Holy Week. It was pretty straightforward since I was young. “Jesus is dead, so you should stay home.”

And I guess it stuck. The only difference is that now, I have work and need to be in the office from Monday to Wednesday – and God forbid, Thursday and Friday since we’re rushing two magazines to be print-ready by next week.

A bunch of my friends are going to the beach. Some to out of town trips. Some on retreats. Me, well, if I’m not at work, Ill prolly be at home playing The Godfather.

I’m gonna make ‘im an offer he can’t refuse.

Taco Town !!!!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 8th, 2006

Thanks, Diane.

this blog has PR!!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 6th, 2006

Google dropped a PageRank pebble into the wireless blog pond and it seems that this personal blog of mine finally has rank! 4/10 to be exact! Woohoo!

This is also great news for my team blog, The AfterMac (currently being relaunched) which is seeing a PR of 5/10.

What does this mean? Well, “pogi points” is one thing, but advertisers usually look at blogs with a PR of 6 and up. That’s where the money is!

Check out your blog PR here.

odds and ends

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 3rd, 2006

Here’s my socio-political comic for the day.

Thanks to Denise for the pictures.

and the poetry comes and goes

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 2nd, 2006

Here’s another little something I wrote back in the days when I was inspired to really do poetry. I forgot why exactly I wrote this. Must have been an emotional tidal wave that hit me then. Anyway… here’s my art, 5 years ago.

Once, But Only Once

to all dreamers

Once, but only once at night
I dream to wake in sober delight,
To smell sheltered flowers
And chase the flight of birds.

Once, but only once at dawn
I impose my soul in helpless fright,
To ask for endless mercy
And cry tearless tears.

Once, but only once at day
I forget the night and her fragile dismay,
To smell real flowers,
To cry real tears.

Fly Away Cafe

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 2nd, 2006

I’ve been browsing through my network’s stable of blogs and we recently launched a rather interesting one called Fly Away Cafe that documents the travel adventures of flight attendant Mary Jo around the world.

Press release here.

your blog is your marketing tool!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at April 2nd, 2006

Before I continue, this post was based on two references which I’ve been reading and re-reading and re-re-reading:

Job hunting using your blog as a resume

“Making money because of your blog” as opposed to “Making money directly from your blog”

There is a demographically small and lucky bunch of people who know exactly what they want to write when they publish something online. The likes of authors, such as Butch Dalisay keep insightful and lenghty posts. Others bloggers seem to act like human news aggregators, compiling news of different topics together. Whatever the purpose may be, blogs and online pulishing are pretty much tangible pieces of work.

You know how authors always always seem to refer to that “last book I wrote” or how professor emmeriti always refer to that “dissertation i did?” The same can be said for blogging. For the aspiring joes like you and me, blogging can serve as a legit means of reference – so if your blog is public, you can actually put it on your resume for the entire world to see how you think, the stuff you’ve accomplished, and the network of readers you’ve built.

It’s like the little book you wrote which you can sell to the public. Except that with blogs, you’re constantly coming out with revised editions.

I guess this is what it means to self-market yourself in the digital age.

Photo taken from Stock Exchange

NBA Obsessed

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 28th, 2006

I always knew my brother Angelo was into basketball, particularly the NBA. But I didn’t know he was that obsessed with it.

Today, b5 launched a new blog entitled NBA Obsessed, a sports commentary blog on the intricacies of the NBA. As I was telling Aaron our channel editor, I wouldn’t have referred him if I knew he wasn’t obsessed with the sport.

He loves this game! Happy reading.

Desperate Housewives the Video Game

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at March 27th, 2006

Okay, hell just froze over. But you know what? I’m gonna play it!

In the game, players take on the role of a new Wisteria Lane housewife, who can uncover or create new scandals on the seemingly idyllic street where the show takes place.

[Read more here]

Afterwards, I’ll prolly settle for a New Jersey Hair Transplant.