Me doing the "photocrawl". Lol

It’s that time of the year again where thousands of photographers from around the world flock to the streets and take pictures of random things.  And no, I’m not talking about a global holiday but rather the phenomenon that is Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk.

Three years (and my second one attending!) running, the Worldwide Photowalk shows no signs of slowing and continues to draw photographers from all skill levels to the streets of their cities to capture the essence of their hometowns and share them with the rest of the world.

The Davao City leg of the photowalk will be held at the Bankerohan Public Market on July 24, 2010 at 3:00 in the afternoon and will end at 5:30 sharp.  There’s going to be a pre-shoot orientation by one of Davao’s top photojournalists at 1:00 in the afternoon at the Lispher Inn and of course, true to Davaoeño style, there will be an after party immediately following the Photowalk.

What do you need to join in? A good pair of walking shoes and anything that can take photos.  Don’t worry if you have a camera phone or a point-and-shoot camera, remember that an image is only as good as the one taking it!

See you there!

I’m going with my good friend Xtian this year, so I hope I’ll get better pictures than the ones I got last year.

Everyone’s excited as Matt Mullenweg, the founder of Automattic (the company behind WordPress and Akismet) will be joining us.

For updates, please  follow our Twitter account or you may bookmark the official WordCampPH 2010 site.

For your questions and suggestions,  we have prepared a WordCampPH survey.

WordCamp Philippines 2010 is organized by Avatar Media.

We didn’t have anything scheduled for Day 2. I started the day with coffee, panini and choco dome from Coffee Club 101. Before noon, Orman picked us up and announced that we were going to have lunch somewhere with Francis Sablon of Zion Travel. It was Brendel and Lyle who told me that “somewhere” translates to Tupi. I didn’t have any idea how far it was from GenSan city proper until we got to the place. I turned on my GPS to check our exact location, and boy was I thrilled to find out that we actually traveled 37kms just to have lunch at the famous Nadie’s Chicken Hauz.

Naty's Chicken Barbecue

With Sir Francis Sablon of Zion Travel (Photo by Lyle Santos)

After the great lunch, we dropped by Blooming Petals to check out their flower produce. Too bad they were currently spraying the plants, so we were not allowed to check out the farm. I was able to take a few snapshots of the freshly picked flowers though.

White Chrysanthemums

Yellow Chrysanthemums

Pink Chrysanthemums

Green Chrysanthemums

The intense heat was making everybody uneasy and tired. We were about to go home when an angel, a.k.a. Sir Francis, mentioned that there’s this really good halo-halo place just a few kilometers away. In a blink of an eye, everyone was back in the cars. Halo-halo is what everybody needed that time, so off to Koronadal, South Cotabato we went.

Ohaithur, Koronadal City!

The Whole Gang at Apareja Buko Halo-Halo (photo by Orman)

Apareja Buko Halo-Halo boasts of using only the freshest ingredients. The halo-halos are served in fresh buko shells. If my memory serves me right, the halo-halo had corn, nata, kaong, banana, sweet potato, tapioca, buko juice, leche flan and of course, ube ice cream.

From Apareja's signage: Made from well-selected, naturally-ripe, and well-cooked ingredients.

Wala lang. I just like this quack-quack photo. I was chasing these ducks while waiting for my halo-halo.

Feeling refreshed , we went back to GenSan to meet up with Ria who wasn’t able to join our South Cotabato adventure because she had lunch with her cousins.  We still had time to burn, so Orman treated as to Ice Crops’ cheesy bacon melt sandwich.

Davao Bloggers at Ice Crops

Shared a sandwich with Brendel. But I only gave her the other half of the bun, some cheese and some mushrooms. :p

Dinner time came. Avel and Orman brought us to O-oh lang Fishing Resto & Seafoods Grill. I was planning not to eat dinner anymore because I’ve had too much food earlier, but my mind changed in a blink of an eye after seeing all these:

Curacha

Karagatan Soup

Nilasing na Hipon

And my favorites which I gave 5/5 ratings…

Pinaputok na Hipon

Seafood Casserole

The day ended where I started it. We hung out at Coffee Club 101. Lyle and Avel discussed how to go about with the streaming of Queen of South Mindanao Festivals pageant. The girls, on the other hand turned the coffee shop into a photo studio. Lols.

Hear no Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

That’s it for NomNomNom Day2 . Prettified Day 3 post is coming up tomorrow. Be well!

We unpacked our stuff and waited for Sir Avel to pick us up. Lunch he said, was going to be at GenSan’s top pizza, pasta and chicken place— Giacomino’s!

Just as we were finishing our last bites, Orman dropped by to hand us our loot bags. We each got copies of the Gensan Gazer, the festival programme, a Kalilangan shirt, and an ID that screams, I’m a JUDGE!

Don't judge me because I'm the judge.

As Angel, Brendel and Lyle were judges of the the Lakan and Lakambini pageant, we had to rush back to the hotel immediately after lunch to freshen up. An hour before the pageant, we rushed to Robinsons Place to have the 2 lady judges prettified at Envy Me Salon and Spa.

Ria and I had 45 minutes to burn, so we toured Robinsons. We both bought accessories to match our outfits for the judging on Friday. Ria also got herself a pair of sunnies and even had spare Avatar Media business cards printed.

We finished our “mall tour” just in time for Brendel’s finishing touches. Left with only a few minutes before the judge’s call time, the gang wasted no time and rushed to Gaisano Mall for the pageant.

The Davao Bloggers sans Dulce. Angel

We initially sat on the seats reserved for Bloggers and Plurkers, but a few minutes before the show started, we were asked to move to the seats reserved for LGU Officials. Oha, front row seats, baby!

In GenSan, we always get the best seats in the house.

Every General is programmed to be warm, nice and hospitable. My list of general friends grew fast. Before the pageant started, Sir Avel introduced us to the genius behind GenSan Gazer, Mandi and the owner of Envy Me and Piyesta KTV and Restobar, Donna Congson. Sir Avel even introduced me to a bunch of Gensan-based photographers.

On to the pageant… All of the contenders were smashers, but my favorite was Lakan#12. He’s like the younger brother *cough* *cough* that I’ve always wanted.

Lakan #12: Lenard Kim.

Johnny Abad's Filipiniana Collection

Ryan Reyes and Hermany Shaine Lara , LLK 2009

Dave Barbero and Sarashvati Sarkar (2nd Runner Up); Caroline Lim and Gevic Romero (LLK 2010); Maureen Paolo and Jenel Labiana (1st Runner Up)

I’m not a fan of pageants, but I definitely enjoyed watching this one.  A round of applause to Dino Veloso for directing such a great show.

Ria and I had VIP passes to the Havaianas fashion show, so we went back to Robinson’s after the pageant. Having been more than an hour late, we missed it. We proceeded then to the Oval Plaza and caught up with the rest of the gang.

Feel na feel namin ang aming mga outfit, and rumampa ever pa sa Oval.. until we came face to face with the Bb. Gandanghari contestants. @&^$#@%!!!

We knew that the Search for Binibining Gandanghari was on, but we weren’t prepared for what we were about to see. There were 10 pretty, long-legged, fair-skinned, flab-free, gay contenders parading infront of us. The pageant squeezed out every ounce of self esteem I’ve got. Life can be unfair, I tell you. Lols

^%$#&^%^#!@#*($*!!!

Isa ka pa! ^#%$^#@%^#%!!!

We were famished (also read as:  We can’t watch them sexy, pretty gays for another minute else we’ll end up slashing our wrists because of envy) so we headed to Piyesta KTV and Restobar at Robinsons Place.

A group shot while waiting for our food.

The dinner, standing up to the resto’s name, was a feast.  I love vegetables, so my favorite would have to be the pinakbet.  I’m sorry though as there wouldn’t be any food shots here. If I did take photos of the food served that night, I might still be nursing at least 20 fork stab wounds until now. Lol

After dinner, it was camwhoring time. I decided to take portraits in black and white. Here are some of the shots.

Donna, who I nicknamed Prettiness, owns Envy Me and Piyesta

The genius behind Gensan Gazer, Mandi and Bariles himself, Sir Avel Manansala

Orman with the kids.

The Love Triangle. One of my favorite shots from this day's set.

Long day it was, and yes, long post this is.  This is still the first of my 5-part Kalilangan 2010 series.  There’s more photos to post and even more stories to tell.  Thank you for reading this and please stay tuned for the Day 2 post.  Be well!

The Kalilangan Festival fever is on!

Kalilangan is from the Maguindanao word “kalilang” which means celebration. Every February 27th of the year, the Tuna Capital of the Philippines commemorates the landing of the city’s founder, Gen. Paulino Santos, at the shores of Sarangani Bay.

Next week, Avatar Media and other blogger friends will be spending 5 days in General Santos City. Aside from experiencing Kalilangan, we’ll hang out with our awesome GenSan friends, meet new Generals, enjoy great food, meet stars, and if time permits, enjoy the beaches!

The festival will include the following activities:  Lakan and Lakambini Pageant, Dance Sports Competition, Live Concerts,  Strings Acoustics Competition, Queen of the Festivals Pageant, Street Parties, and more.

Click HERE to view all Kalilangan activities.

P.S.

Every visit to GenSan is memorable. I was browsing my GenSan gallery earlier, and I can’t help but reminisce, smile, and even drool. Let me share with you some of the photos from last year’s Tuna Festival.

[View with PicLens]

We challenged Kring to try  zorbing at Zorb Park and ziplining at Zip City. The Avatar Media gang was in tow to help document the dares, and boy was it fun “torturing” Kring.

First stop, the Zorb.

FunnySexy being strapped to the Zorb

The giant ball, with Kring and Ria inside, ready to roll down the hill.

Getting out of the Zorb.

Next, was Zipline.

Oh noes! What have I gotten myself into? (O.o)

A speck against the lush greens.

So there, Kring gloriously finished the dares with the help of her magic boots (plus helluva prayers).  Kring has just posted the Flippish video of her Davao dare. Let’s grab some popcorn and brace ourselves for buckets of LOLs.

—-

Thank you heaps to Mr. Sonny Dizon of Zorb Park and Zip City for the accommodation.

Havaianas Mood Bracelet

Here are some quick questions for you, my dear reader:

1.  Are you a permanent resident of the Philippines?
2.  Are you of legal age (at least 18 years old)?
3.  Are you fit to travel?
4.  Do you have a valid passport?
5.  Do you have a creative answer to this question: “If anything was possible, what would you do to make the world happy for a day?”

If you answered Yes to ALL of the questions above, then you are only steps away from winning the Havaianas Happy Soles Will Travel To Brazil video contest. And the prize? An all-expense paid vacation for 4 to the land of endless summer, Brazil.

The winner of the Happy Soles Will Travel to Brazil contest, together with 3 friends, will experience an unforgettable, 12-day vacation in Brazil. The trip will include a shopping spree at the Havaianas Concept Store, dinners at world-class restaurants, visits to Daslu and some of the fanciest boutiques of Brazil.  The group will also experience everything from football at Morumbi and Maracana to the breath-taking tropical landscape of Jardim Botanico to the laid-back beaches like Copacabana.  And remember, this is an all-expense paid trip.

Excited now? I’m not quite through yet with the goodies.

The happy soles will also get products from Havaianas (of course!), Sony (I read somewhere that a VAIO laptop, a Sony handycam, and a Sony MP3 player will be given away), David & Goliath tees (their shirts are way too cute), and Aloha board shorts.

Sounds good, eh?  Nah.  It is AWESOME!

So how do you join? There’s 3 ways to submit your entries.

1.  Through roving video booths. These will be set up in key malls around the Philippines.  Since this is a creative video contest, props may be brought inside the roving booth.

For Davao City, the Havaianas roving booth will be in Gaisano Mall-Davao from April 5-11, 2010.

2.  Via the internet. Visit http://havaianasphilippines.com/happysoles.  This is where you’ll fill up the online form and upload the video or record it via webcam.

3.  By email. Email your entries to happysoles@havaianasphilippines.com and attach a properly filled-out downloadable entry form.

Submission of entries will be from January 26, 2010 until May 2, 2010 only.

What are you all waiting for? Squeeze those creative juices now and start conceptualizing your video.  Anyway, you can submit as many videos as you want. The more entries, the more chances of winning.

For questions and more information, please email happysoles@havaianasphilippines.com.  You may also call 840 1788 local 177.

Esteja feliz!

Me at the Happy Soles Campaign Launch

Me, Dulce, Tish and Marga of Martish, and Ria

My Davao Jobs

Are you looking for a job in Davao? Or, are you looking for an employee from Davao? Then check out, MyDavaoJobs.com.

My Davao Jobs is an online jobs directory that connects employers with jobseekers and vice versa.  It is dedicated to job openings in Davao City and the Davao Regions: Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, and Davao Oriental.

For employers, posting a job is FREE and is as easy as 1,2,3 — Write, Verify, and Confirm.

For job seekers, you can check out the jobs database and choose from part time, full time, or freelance jobs.

Avatar Media, a new media outfit in Davao city, operates MyDavaoJobs.

Cignal is the first satellite pay TV broadcast to offer HDTV nationwide. It also boasts of having the most HD channels that covers the varied interests of TV viewers.

Cignal Subscription Bundles

The 8 HD channels that offer unbelievably real images are:
*Full HD – HBO, Star Movies, National Geographic and History Channel
*Digitally Enchanced – Playhouse Disney, Sony Entertainment, ESPN and Star Sports

The 21 premium channels with DVD-like pictures and crisp sound include ABS-CBN, GMA, CNN, HBO, AXN and Cartoon Network.

Currently, Cignal is offering a SateLite Promo. You can get the Cignal Satellite Kit for only Php1500. The kit includes the Set Top Box, card, and dish.  This excludes the installation fee of at least Php1000.

Make the shift now from regular TV to HD with Cignal Digital TV and enjoy clear, crisp images and the best audio that digital TV viewing can offer.

Offered by MediaScape Inc., a subsidiary of MediaQuest Holdings Inc., Cignal Digital TV is now available in Davao via ComWorks. For inquiries, call (082) 228-6006.

My oh-so-awesome Globe Digital Tribe Award trophy

An unexpected thing happened last month: this blog won a Globe Digital Tribe Award.

I was in Cebu to attend a family gathering so I missed Mindanao Bloggers Summit 3 and Philippine Blog Awards-Mindanao. A few days before MBS3 though, I got an email informing me that my blog was a candidate for the Chikka Readers’ Choice award.  I was able to sway 4 of my cousins and my mom to vote for me. Do the math:  5 x 3 votes per text to 2929 equals 15 votes. Definitely not enough for me to win, but heck, 15 votes is definitely better than zilch. Yay!

On the night of MBS3, I remember getting a call from Brendel informing me that my personal blog won a Globe Digital Tribe Award. Knowing my friends, there’s a pretty good chance that it was just a prank, so I shrugged the idea off. A few minutes after the call, I received a couple of SMS congratulating me for bagging the award. That’s when I knew it was for real.

Only one thing I can say, it’s very flattering to be sharing the award with these blogging royalties from Mindanao:  Ria Jose of Life With Ria, Lyle Santos of Thinking Out Loud, Andrew Dela Serna of Alleba Blog, Migs Hipolito of Migs Mobile, Avel Manansala of GenSantos.com , Chiq Montes, Pete Lavina, Bob Martin and Blogie Robillo.

To Globe Telecom, Philippine Blog Awards and my subscribers, thank you heaps! This award means so much to me as it’s one of the few good things that happened to me in oh-nine.

P.S.
And oh, this award gave me another reason to stick to my Globe mobile network and Globe Tattoo plug-in internet. Woot!