Some bloggers have expressed their desire to attend press conferences related to their “fields of expertise.” I’ve been helping funnel bloggers to attend such conferences for several weeks now but there remains to be one obstacle which should be taken into account. Most press events happen on week days usually in the Makati area at around 11 AM.
If a blogger was invited, could he or she take time out of the day job to attend such events?
Here’s the (PHP120,000.00) beef!
Photo credit to Noemi Dado
Today I embarked on a walking tour of the Diamond Hotel courtesy of Carlos Celdran for the Wagyu Beef Fest. Alongside other traditional media folk were lifestyle new media mavens (aka bloggers) Lori Baltazar, Noemi Dado and Anton DIaz – and they all had cameras to take pictures of the event (sob! I left mine at home). I invited a couple more but they were not able to attend. I also had the chance to meet up with other media friends like Art Ilano and Nina Chua of HIP, Nicole de los Reyes of Summit, Elbert Cuenca of PhilMUG, freelancer Shaira Luna, Steph Ongkiko of RPN 9 and blog-o-rama columnist Annalyn Jusay.
Diamond Hotel Philippines will showcase the King of Premium Beef in a gastronomic exposition so decadent, it might actually be healthy. Backed by the expertise of the country’s portal for all things deliciously Japanese (where Wagyu traces is savory beginnings), we are inviting you to explore the poetically complex flavors of Wagyu as interpreted by the culinary expertise of Diamond Hotel’s team of chefs who have managed to achieve the Zen ideal of Wagyu cooking.
So here I am waiting for them to post pictures of the event. We sampled about 12 different dishes of Wagyu Beef. Carlos Celdran put up a good show touring us across the hotel to sample Wagyu prepared in the styles of Teppanyaki, Sukiyaki, fine dining slices and even locally prepared Wagyu bulalo and Wagyu burgers.. Oh god, that didn’t even sound appetizing. I’m definitely no food writer.
If a Haitian (specifically the one from Heroes) were to suddenly gag me from behind and erase my short term memory in a dramatic display of acting prowess, this is how I would try to spring back to remember the lost memories:
Prior to this occurrence, I would write down my email, social network and blog passwords somewhere where I would eventually chance upon within 24 hours, like the bottom of the lid of my toilet seat or something.
I would log into my Friendster account and view all the testimonials that people wrote. I’d contact them one by one with PMs with a message like “hey you wouldn’t believe this but I’m suffering from memory loss.” (If I accidentally sent it to an ex, she’d prolly slap me online and say “I’d prefer you stay lost!!!”)
I’d look into my LinkedIn profile to see who I’ve worked with in the past. Like that Darren Rowse guy.
I’d log into my Google account page and use the Google Web History tool to see what keywords I’ve typed in and what sites I visited for in the past several months. Have you tried this? It’s freaky. Google History records everything you’ve ever searched for on your browser.
I will check my blog and Technorati trackbacks to see what type of people read my stuff. I will read my blog entries from day 1.
Assuming my phone was dumped, I would buy a new phone and sync it with my Plaxo Online contact list to restore my database of phone contacts.
I would also keep a menagerie of files on my Mozy account. Then I’d restore files I found pertinent to my desktop. Speaking of which, I recently let my .Mac account expire and got myself a Dreamhost hosting account instead. It makes so much more sense in the long run and costs less too if you think about the offerings. So if you have my .Mac email address, it won’t work starting next month.
Lastly, I’d still probably buy a Macintosh 🙂
Well, doing these won’t restore all my memories, but it does give me a big springboard to finding out what happened to me. Technology isn’t very forgiving in these times. It’s actually scary. Anything to add?
I’ve been scouring the bookstores for this particular title. All of the Fully Booked and Powerbooks branches in the metro either have never heard of the book or have it on order basis. Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers by Henry Jenkins takes a look at how media influences the geek culture with focus on the digital age. The estimated price of the book is about P1,200.00 on order basis from Fully Booked.
Bringing together the highlights of a decade and a half of groundbreaking research into the cultural life of media consumers, Fans, Bloggers, and Gamers takes readers from Jenkins’s progressive early work defending fan culture against those who would marginalize or stigmatize it, through to his more recent work, combating moral panic and defending Goths and gamers in the wake of the Columbine shootings. Starting with an interview on the current state of fan studies, this volume maps the core theoretical and methodological issues in Fan Studies. It goes on to chart the growth of participatory culture on the web, discuss blogging as perhaps the most powerful illustration of how consumer participation impacts mainstream media, and debate the public policy implications surrounding participation and intellectual property.
Another book – this one I have on the shelf – is Dominic Gettins’ How to Write Great Copy: Learn the Unwritten Rules of Copywriting. It is an easy-to-follow book about .. err .. writing great copy. I appreciate the way Gettins tackles copywriting also from a technical standpoint, knowing when to apply which grammar rule to a particular situation for maximum effectiveness.
…”a shortcut to the sort of knowledge gained by trial and error over many years by the icons of the advertising business.”