Several months ago I interviewed Ala Paredes for the Mobile Philippines‘ “Fashionably Geek” section. Here is an excerpt from this article which was written by our assistant editor Eva Gubat (link withheld!) as I interviewed her at the Hotel Philippine Plaza. Note that this article was written a few days before she migrated to Australia, so this was one of the last interviews she did for local media before leaving. Take it away, Eva:
Ala shares that she might rename her blog to “Island Girl in Narnia,” or something of that sort. She religiously updates her blog every four or five days, and thinks that the frequency will be higher once she’s in Sydney. “I’ll probably be updating it more since I’ll be so lonely and depressed.” That’s why her theme for her blog is the jeepney with the tag, Manila-Sydney. Very apt for her sojourn in Australia with her family, a sort of crazy-slash-sensible family adventure. “Isang huling sakay,” she muses.
It’s her musing, raves and rants that keep the readers of her blog coming back for more trips on her jeepney blog. Sometimes, she’s top 2, sometimes 4. “I used to think it was such a loser thing to do. Like, ‘Yuck. Why would you want to post your thoughts online?’ And then I stumbled upon this one blog by two American girls and their blog was just funny and entertaining. Maybe I’ll try this kind of blog, I thought.”
She’s been blogging for almost three years, having started on July 15, 2003. She started out at Blogspot, then moved on to her Pansitan site. She’s happy to share that, apart from learning basic HTML, she started learning the craft of writing well. Although she updates often, she’s not the type of blogger who lugs around her PowerBook and blogs away, whenever, wherever.
Apart from her PowerBook, she has her iPod and a set of speakers, a Sony T1 with aqua case, a DV camcorder, an 80GB external hard drive and an Oxygen8 MIDI keyboard, a gift given by her geek boyfriend, Niño of the local band, Greyhoundz. “Imagine what other geek boyfriend would give you that for your birthday,” she says.
Her love of gadgets was apparently acquired from her dad. “Everytime something breaks down, like the WiFi, it’s always me or my dad who has to fix it. And my dad’s the one who always buys me gadgets. Everytime he goes on tour in the States, pagbalik niya meron siyang bagong reward for himself. He has a PowerBook also. Actually, I grew up using Mac. Of course, there was MS-DOS that everybody was used to. After that, Mac na kami. And then the first time I used Windows, it was in high school, Computer class. I was like ‘Why did this have two buttons? Ano ‘to?'”
“I think once you buy your own computer, it follows that you start buying stuff for it. Actually the iPod was a gift. I don’t know if I would have an iPod by now if no one had given me one. I wasn’t the type to carry my music around. Now, I can’t live without it. My T1 camera was a birthday gift also. The DV cam I bought myself because I was in Communications at the Ateneo, for projects. The Oxygen8 was a gift also. The Intuos was also something I bought myself since it seemed like something I’d use a lot.”
For the full text, try looking for the old April 2006 issue of Mobile Philippines. You can contact HIP for back issues I assume.
2 replies on “Ala Paredes on Blogging and Technology”
Hey Jayvsters! Thanks for writing about my blog 😀
Ang payat ko pa sa picture hahaha (and not to mention my hair is so long). The first world makes you gain weight :-p That’s a cute shot of us though.
i wish i was that thin! i gained christmas fat!