Month: March 2006

Bugging ‘Fight Pompe’

I’m not sure if you would agree with me but it seems that in today’s long list of links to our friends on our personal blogs, the longer the list gets the less personal it becomes. I’m here to start a small experiment of sorts where every now and then I do a spotlight on one blog that I link to.

The objective is really to give a face to each link, in the same way that this great book called the Cluetrain Manifesto sees the market as people and not a list of demographics.

In a way, this project is a sign of thanks to the many people who link back to me. I can’t promise that I’ll cover everyone immediately. This is because I want to post something more meaningful than “this guy’s blog is nice. I met him several months ago in a conference.” So please pardon the intro. I felt that I needed to explain this project in detail. Besides, it finally gives some direction as to why I call my blog ‘A Bugged Life.’

I would actually encourage bloggers to do this on their blogs. Though the Internet is the new social tool, blogrolls are like a stack of kiddie toys you line up on the stands – they all look the same. As a reader, the first thing I’d like to know when I read someone’s blog is who he or she reads and why.

Hoookay that was long. *whew* Up first is Fight Pompe, written by Juan “Dickoy” Magdaraog. You can find him listed as “Dickoy” in my blogroll.

Fight Pompe is an advocacy started by Dickoy to make people aware of the complication known as Pompe’s disease. I’ll allow Dickoy to say a little bit about himself from his blog

My name is Juan Magdaraog. I suffer from Pompe Disease, a rare metabolic disorder. This blog was made to chronicle my fight against Pompe’s Disease as well as to hopefully impart whatever I’ve learned going through this illness. Read more about me.

I have met Dickoy in many occassions. I used to work for his father in an HR consulting firm as an intern. Dicks and I also share the same affiliation to PhilMUG as well as other our love for technology and online publishing (blogging).

Dicks has touched my life in a way that no other person has, with his cheery disposition, sharp mind and humor which emanates from his chair and breathing apparatus. I’m glued to the guy when he talks about his aspirations and believing that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. You see, the guy has achieved so much in spite of the many odds working against him.

Fight Pompe is one of his latter projects that also serves as his personal blog. He talks about life as the “Chairman,” his encounters with young people like us who have Pompe’s, as well as promoting a fund-raising campaign. One of the fund raisers is a really cute shirt designed by his friend May Ann (art on left). You can read more about the shirt design here. Bili na!

Dickoy is the creative director for a web design company which he started with a bunch of friends and his brother. He is also a regular columnist for m|PH.

it is time for new blood


Photo courtesy of Abe in his blog

A few days ago, I was invited by a friend to observe a workshop on blogging and podcasting on the subject of politics. This two day endeavor was sponsored by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation (FNF) and had prominent internet personalities such as Manolo Quezon, Angelo Racoma and Abe Olandres give talks on the art of political blogging, podcasting, and the technical science behind blogging respectively.

The end-result of the workshop were actual podcasts and blogs set up by the participants from scratch. New blood. Fresh thoughts. From average joes like you and me, but know a little bit more about politics.

On a very personal level, I feel that local politics has been saturated with the SAME hulabahoo from the SAME people who have been in politics for the past 10 years or so. It is time for new blood. They used to say that Math is the great equalizer. Times have changed – it is the Internet that gives people opportunities to be heard by anyone around the world. Thank God for this. And thank God that not a lot of these politicians that say the same thing have online journals. Manolo says it better,

“All bloggers compete in the free market of ideas”

The workshop was facilitated by Dr. Ronald Meinardus, the resident representative from FNF. I was also shocked to hear (in a very good way) that FNF (liberal democrats are now sexy in my book!) buys mPH and made reference to the January-February ’06 issue because it had the collectible on ‘podcasting in 5 easy steps.’

You can view more pictures here.

let the GAME! begin

By the time you’ve read this, GAME! would have prolly already been placed on the racks.

There were many people involved with the creation of the second local gaming title (the first is Games Master) in the Philippines. But it is also important to note that this is the first all-Filipino gaming magazine. This means that content isn’t syndicated from abroad (unlike Games Master that syndicates some of its content from the West).

Going back to the people involved, there are many many many of them who labored hard, enduring sleepless nights to get this thing conceptualized, laid-out, flattened, CMYK-ed, and printed. There’s Mitch, Aiza, Adel, Poch, Topper, and Joey to name a few, as well as the writers – I apologize if I forget to name all – Karl, Kiven, Ryu, Raphy, Jones, Karen … there’s just so many, I’m overwhelmed at the amount of support you’ve all given.

Now for the juicy part.

For those who’ve been paying attention to the gaming industry, there was a rumor back then that an Inquirer sister company (hi there!) was going to bring in a local franchise of Electronic Gaming Monthly, one of, if not the best magazine gamers my age (I’m 25) have grown up with. This wasn’t a rumor. In fact, it was highly possible for something like this to happen since this sister company (hello again!) was already publishing the local franchise of PC Magazine Philippines, which, like EGM is also a Ziff Davis title. There was a lot of emotion involved in this decision making process, whether to pursue EGM or not.

In the end, the following points were raised:

First. EGM’s target market was very different from the market we intended to reach. I grew up reading EGM. I can remember that since the 1980’s, there was a magazine that featured the very best of the 8-bit era. So that era has come and gone, and the gamers that we were before .. well a lot of us evolved to the online scene. Some of us have moved on and stopped playing altogether. A few have gone totally hardcore. But, truth be told, the market has changed. The gamers now aren’t the gamers of before. My generation has a nostalgic excitement for EGM. But the youth of today don’t really care (it showed in several of our studies). They grew up with Wytch, Anime, the Internet …

Second. The gaming culture here is very different from the States. Though we are also a console-playing country, we get most of our games from bootleg sources (aka piracy). That’s why the gaming industry here in the Philippines takes the online gaming model where a series of checks and controls are implemented to make sure that pirating a game is impossible. Thus you have Ragnarok, Khan, RAN Online, PangYa, O2 Jam and many many more. That brings in the bucks.

Third. We decided that it is much better to invest in the Philippines. With all the things going on now in this country, we do need a pep talk. One thing about GAME! that a lot of you prolly don’t know is that we have on board with us Joey Alarilla, a fellow gamer, the guy behind hackenslash, the founder of the Asian Gaming Journalists Association (AGJA), and a bunch of other embarassing things he’d rather not disclose.

So there you have it. P80.00 for a full glossy gaming magazine. 100% Filipino. Made by the publishing group of the nation’s biggest broadsheet. Oh, nice poster inside too 🙂

Categories
Mostly Everything

9:55 am,

Me: Excuse me, but are you Manolo Quezon?

Him: Yes I am.

Me: Hi. I’m Jayvee from m|PH. I read you blog. You’re speaking today right?

Manolo: Ah yes Jayvee. Kaw pala yung sa m|PH! Yes I am.

Me: Great. I hear Abe is coming too right?

Manolo: Yep. In fact, this is going to be the first time I’m ever going to meet him!

Me: Same here. The Internet is such a small place.

Digital Exchange in Greenbelt

I’m currently in Digital Exchange, Greenbelt waiting for our new graphics retainer. I’m hungry and sleepy. I’m leeching off the free WiFi at the palmOne Podcentral store. And after browsing through my iPhoto library for old pictures of my dog, I wish I had his problems.

He deserves the George Lindemann Jr. Award!