Allow me some bragging rights, okay? Congratulations to my daughter, Lauren for being chosen as one of the WikiPinoys of the Year: Bloggers (for People and Society) given by Wikipilipinas.org. Wiki Pilipinas chose the Filipino Bloggers as the WikiPinoys of the Year. Why?
[tag]Andrew Olmsted[/tag], also known as G’Kar the blogger, was killed yesterday in Iraq. Andy gave a friend a post to publish in the event of his death; the last revisions to it were made in July. Here is Andy’s final post. His actual blog is here. Andy must have known of his imminent death since he prepared his final post last July. Losing someone who can write well from the dreaded war zone is a tremendous loss – most people never get the chance to know how, when, and where they might probably die. Andrew knew death was a possible outcome enough to write this last post . For me, some of the most insightful parts are the following: (The quotes are from Andy and my comments are below it.)
It’s not easy asking anyone to do something for you in the event of your death, and it is a testament to her quality that she didn’t hesitate to accept the charge. As with many bloggers, I have a disgustingly large ego, and so I just couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to have the last word if the need arose.
I would never ask anyone to post a final post for me. I know we will all die eventually. I guess if you’re a blogger and based in Iraq, death is a big possibility. It was Andy’s way of immortalizing his life through this last post.
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Happy New Year 2008! I greeted the New Year by taking a slice of this evil Dairy Queen Peppermint Ice Cream cake. Let’s all greet the new year on a positive note by setting goals for ourselves. It’s a good thing that my sister reminded me of my New Year goals last year. Yesterday, she read the Review of New Year Goals for 2007 and it reminded her to set her goals. Butch loved the idea of writing down my goals when I told him that I achieved 8 out of my 11 goals for the New Year.
I realize that goals need to be written down. It serves as an affirmation of myself, my life, and my ability to choose. Then I let it go. New Year goals are something we need to dig within and discover what we would like to happen in our life this year. It is an affirmation that we are interested in living life in the year to come.
So the questions evolved. What would I like to attain? Where would I like to go? What would I like to happen in my marriage and family life? I have to remember that I am not out to control others with my goals but rather giving direction to my life. So I continue on pondering. What problems would I like to be solved? What decisions would I like to make? What would I like to happen in my business?
I’m preparing for the New Year celebration tonight. While preparing for our noche buena, Butch and I reflected on this year and the 2007 goals we achieved or did not achieve. I’ve learned to be grateful for the positive and negative experiences. They made me a better blogger and person. For everything that happened to me as a blogger this year, there is a reason for which I am grateful. I will list them all but will not mention the specifics of the negative experience.
1. I received three awards for my blog this year.
The truth is I believe other blogs are more deserving than mine. Despite that nagging thought, I accept the judges’ perception and decision with heartfelt gratitude.
If this is your first time to visit my blog, you’d naturally be curious about the blog owner and this blog. To get straight to the point, read this interview by Mao Hermitanio , Her Life as a Blogger. Next question is “which entry should I read first?”. For first time visitors, it’s a great idea to list down interesting blog entries. In any blog, posts with the most comments, trackbacks or technorati and other links are said to be the popular ones but what about search engine queries? Let me list down all the interesting posts which others found entertaining, titillating or gave some sort of value and knowledge.
Most Number of Queries from Search Engines
A few days ago, Lauren announced that her interview appeared in the December 2007 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine, Philippine Edition.
I cringed Ugh. Don’t tell me it’s about dating escapades? My voice raised a notch higher than usual. Most of Cosmo articles I read in the beauty salon revolve around dating and sex lives with a mishmash of fashion makeovers and token articles. Not that I am a prude, but uh please, sex escapades on cheating boyfriends/girlfriends or one-night stands are best kept private. Is that something to be proud of? Anyway, I digress.
“No mom, it’s about my blog”.
I heaved a sigh of relief. Not that I was doubting Lauren’s integrity but I didn’t have much faith in Cosmopolitan’s ability to churn out relevant self-help articles for young adult women.
The feature article, Why More Women Blog, is perfect timing for Lauren’s 11th year in blogging. I believe it is one of Cosmo’s token feature article to tone down the sex-life-themed magazine.
I always like to discover the person behind a family business. Who are the people running it? What makes it tick? What sustained the family business to continue on? I had the opportunity to chat with the charming and amiable Cristiano Barbazza the global president of Rudy Project and son of Rudy, the founder over dinner at the Podium. The little I know of Rudy project is that my darling husband wears this famous Italian Technically Cool Eyewear whenever he drives out on a sunny day. Another tidbit is that it’s also expensive but definitley high quality eyewear. Lastly, Rudy Project rings a bell because they often sponsor athletes. Not much is written behind the people of the Rudy Project.
Munching his pizza (strange to order pizza outside Italy), I was fascinated that as a 17 year old boy he started helping out with his dad’s business even after school days. More than money itself, he is passionate over developing technological advances in eyewear and sports gear every year. Money just follows. I believe it’s good business policy to develop the best product and the income will just come along with it.
The great thing about blogger meet-ups is the fact that I am usually the oldest in the group.
Mingling with young bloggers means that I get to babble endlessly about techie topics which I can never really discuss with my husband or non-blogger friends. Oh I talk with my daughters but I seem to know more about computer gadgets and other tech topics than they do. Last night, Shai Coggins, co-founder of B5 Media took time off from her vacation to the Philippines for a meet and greet in Kape Isla at Serendra. Shai was one of the first bloggers that I often visited when I launched this blog. In fact, I lovingly stole her Tell Me About You idea which paved the way for me to explore other blog topics other than grief education. Meeting Shai and other blogger friends in the cozy cafe covered a lot of activities like ranting about Google’s Page Rank Penalty, the Trillanes Revolt , the curfew, Monetizing Blogs, raving over the B5 media Schwags, Shai’s personalized prints and Sasha’s fashion loot. But aside from the company of Shai Coggins and the bloggers, the other limelight of the party was this cute little thing…
What a timely theme for this week’s Photo Hunt, RED. It’s my favorite color of the Holiday Season. That’s Lauren, my daughter showing off her RED wordpress t-shirt. I am raffling off three red shirts for those who have FilipinaImages.com linked entries. Your old Filipina themed entries will do as long as you link them to FilipinaImages.com. I am giving away three shirts and the deadline is December 5. If you haven’t joined yet, sign up here.
For some of you who feel left out of the red wordpress shirt, here’s another red photo of Lady, my daughter’s pet cat.