Do you need help monitoring your reputation? Want to know what bloggers think about you? Fear no more…Just have a photo taken with the Master Abe “Yuga” Olandres dressed for the first time ever in business suit and you’re all good. Haha. Kidding aside, you should have been at the recently concluded Search Engine Marketing Conference 2007 (SEMCON) and listened to Abe talk about Tracking Buzz: How to Manage Your Online Reputation– Do you need help monitoring your reputation? Want to know what bloggers think about your business and your products? When you undertake a search for your company name or brand is negative information relating to your company showing up in the search results? Is your company and brand reputation being adversely affected by these negative high ranking results? Protect and enhance your business by controlling how your name and brand appear online and in search results.
If I didn’t know what the Nintendo Wii Games Console was all about, I’d think Jayvee, AJ, Juned including my daughter are loonies waving their “wands” about in front of my TV set. Jayvee brought along his Nintendo Wii and lots of party games to amuse the bloggers. The gathering was intended to be a podcast event which included the guys behind The Man Blog. The Man bloggers took forever to arrive so the interactive Wii games filled the gap.
UPDATE: ‘Desperate Housewives’ apology over Philippines slur
[tag]Desperate Housewives[/tag]’ latest episode (the first episode of the 4th season) had Teri Hatcher’s character saying this: ““Okay, before going further, can I check these diplomas cause I would just like to make sure that they’re not from some med school in the Philippines.”
(This is the complete video of that scene)
I wonder if the writer meant it to be funny or what. Considering there are a large number of US-based doctors and nurses who are graduates of Philippine Medical Schools, then I think not. These Philippine Medical School graduates took up further training in the States. Before they can even practice in the US, our Filipino doctors called Foreign Medical Graduates have to take a USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exams) which consist of 3 parts to get into residency:
Part 1- Basic Subjects (can be taken in Philippines)
Part 2 CK – Clinical Knowledge (can be taken in Philippines)
Part 2 CS – Clinical Skills (to be taken in the US)
For the month of October, the Pinoy Moms Network Fam Pics Theme is Green. I’d like to share this green meadow called “Luijoe’s Meadow” located at my husband’s family vacation spot in Benguet. Butch’s parents own a lovely mountain retreat 5 hours away from Baguio City. You can imagine the distance it takes to get there. But whoa, the long travel time is worth it. Once you arrive at their hamlet (the girls call it hamlet), you are greeted with a super cool mountain breeze, lovely pine scent from the dense Benguet pine trees and lots of space to romp around. There’s nothing like clean mountain fresh air. It doesn’t feel like you live in the tropics.
Luijoe’s grandparents named this spot “Luijoe’s meadow” just like they named the town’s spring waters “Lamar Spring” after Lauren and M. Fortunately, Luijoe got to enjoy his meadow before he died. The girls and Luijoe played badminton and kickball without having to worry about heat stroke.
The day Lauren wrote her essay on “Generation Next, Generation Net” 11 years ago, I had no idea I’d end up being a blogger just like her. During those days, diarist or online journallers were relegated to the twenty something and below. Moms did not blog. Our kids must have been so influential in inspiring moms like me to blog. I am not alone. Take a look at JAngelo and his mom, Dine or Aaron Roselo and his mom blogging at AMomandMore.
Having read Lauren’s blog for many years sublimally prepared me for the launch of my blog 10 years later after she started in 1996. Let me count the ways:
1. Content (Good and Original) is King.
Good content shows the blogger’s own personality and flavor. Her story-telling style made it very interesting for her readers of all ages. Good content built a strong readership which she continues to enjoy until the present time. The power of stories to connect, captivate and persuade, creates a great way to grab hold of a reader.
The green landscape just took my breath away as we drove on to the countryside. The gust of wind sent a shiver down my spine. I love this place, I thought as we inspected the Sta. Rosa property in Laguna. The fresh countryside air is the best gift that I can ever give my family. Three family members are asthma prone and this is the ideal family home for us, as I hugged my husband. The year was January 2000. While my husband and I poured over the layout of the house, Luijoe was a bit distressed to see that he had his own room which I labeled “Luijoe”. He took my pencil and wrote Luijoe in OUR bedroom. “That’s where I am going to sleep”, he showed an impish grin.
Oh well, he is not ready to move to his own room. I looked at my husband.
Luijoe ran to the cul-de sac and romped on the greenery beside the house as it was slowly being constructed. The move to our country home was scheduled for April 2001.
The plan was simple enough. Lauren and M will finish high school somewhere in the south of Manila while Luijoe would study in Don Bosco at Sta. Rosa. When the girls are in college, they will live in dormitories and drive home for a weekend stay in our country home.
Destiny had other plans for us.
Every time I am invited to a new media event, I seek M’s opinion. “Do you think so-and-so event is worth attending?”. And if M is really gung-ho over it, she’d go “mom, it’s an excuse to go out of the house”. See, I don’t want to waste my time in an event if the product/service won’t add intrinsic value to my blogs. I could make better use of my precious time by working on my passive income-generating sites. So far the new media events of the past week were all fun, hip but too expensive.
1. Philippine School of Interior Design Graduation Exhibit dubbed as ““Forty, Filipino, and Fabulous”
Last Friday was the press preview of the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) Advanced Class of 2007 graduation exhibit dubbed as ““Forty, Filipino, and Fabulous” which is mounted in cooperation with the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines (CFIP). You can watch this exhibit starting September 29- October 31 , at the Paseo Center, Paseo de Roxas cor. Sedeno st., Salcedo Village, Makati City. If you’re in the lookout for an interior designer, you might be able to choose from among the graduating students exhibiting their work from the 19 booths. My favorite was this bathroom called “Salapid” which is a representation of the modern Filipino couple’s sanctuary. See, the problem with a His and Hers bathroom is that if your hubby takes too long to use the bath, you end up waiting for hours on end. The solution is to get inside the bathroom with him, lounge on this “modern interpretation of the sulihiya” chair and relax. View the 19 booths through the Photos of the ““Forty, Filipino, and Fabulous” Exhibit
Please join the survey on Filipino Bloggers (this is the last one, promise!)
My daughter and her groupmates are a group of Psychology undergraduate students from the University of the Philippines, Diliman. For their final study in Psychology 118 class (Field Methods in Psychology), they would like to explore the blogging phenomenon in the Philippines. To that end, they are asking your help to fill out this survey that will help them understand what motivates you to blog, how blogging has helped you and how much of yourself is present in your blogs.
They need 250 bloggers by Wednesday.
Qualifications:
1. Must be a Filipino by blood or citizenship
2. Must be residing in the Philippines
3. Must own and maintain a personal blog
They would like to assure you that they will respect your privacy, and will render all results anonymous. All blog URLs will be deleted after this study is completed. At the end of the survey, you have the option of receiving the survey results.
If you have any questions about this survey, please email them at: sikolohiya118@gmail.com
Once again, please join the survey on Filipino Bloggers.
Thanks for your help!

Photo Hunters theme this week is Plastic. I know I should be posting a photo of a thing that is made of Plastic. Instead , I chose an I am not Plastic canvas bag from the Not Plastic Project Launch I attended two months ago.
I often use my “I am not Plastic” bag, an earth friendly bag when I am out shopping at flea markets or bringing some extra stuff for the gym. This Not Plastic Project resusable bags as you can see from the photo is a 12″ x 16″ x 5″ cotton muslin carryall with an inside pocket and the catchy statement, “I Am Not Plastic” printed on one side, and Not Plastic logo on the other.
In the Filipino slang, “I am not Plastic” means “I am not a hypocrite”.
Does that statement speak of me?
In my last post, Manolo Quezon mentioned that “Everything is political, and it all begins with sex.”. I don’t claim to be an eloquent writer as the great Manolo but due to the recent issues on BoyBastos.Com allegedly owned by [tag]Mark Verzo[/tag], I feel I need to say a statement or two.
Sorry folks, but pornography is here to stay. You can write about porn, watch porn daily or host a porn site…but there are two things one needs to learn from the perils of [tag]pornography[/tag].
- Educate your kids on the dangers of the Internet.
- Educate parents (most important!).
- Educate lawmakers, law enforcers and their staff.
- Teach lawmakers and law enforcers how to handle the Internet as a medium.
Like I wrote in my earlier entry on Lauren, a young internet user in 1996, I made it my business to explore the online world a family affair. We educated ourselves on the wonders and dangers of the internet. Now if you don’t believe that, it’s your problem not mine.
2. Watch out for that part of Republic Act 9208, The Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003, which punishes ““advertisements” or ““propaganda” in the internet as acts that promote trafficking in persons:
