Philippine Idol Bloggers Create Buzz

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(ME,Jove, Bridget, Jher, Patty and Pamy who took the photo)

A meeting of Philippine Idol bloggers just before we went inside the theater. Jove Francisco (to my right), a popular Philippine Idol Blogger and ABC reporter told me that Philippine Idol bloggers built up Philippine Idol’s popularity. Maybe it’s true that bloggers contributed to the popularity of Philippine Idol. I remember when I first blogged about Philippine Idol. There were not many readers reading my Philippine Idol entries compared to recent entries. I notice that commercial breaks are getting longer indicating that there are more advertisers. The presence of celebrity guest in tonight’s show compared to the past show a vote of confidence for the Philippine Idol shows.

Tonight’s Big Band Night was such a refreshing change. Philippine Idol felt so alive and exciting. The top 4 [tag]Philippine Idol[/tag] finalists sang songs from the Big Band Era. The elegance of the production design and the songs made me want to dance with my husband. I am such a sucker for old standard music. It might seem boring to the younger crowd but it’s soothing and relaxing. Big bands makes all music sound great.

Gian measured up to the international standards of Big Band music. He was meant to sing this kind of music. I am not too confident if Mau can warm up to western audiences during the competition of a “World Idol”.

Who will be Philippine Idol’s Top 3? My prediction is:

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Christmas Shopping at 168 Shopping Mall , Divisoria

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168 mallShopping with my daughters is always an opportunity to bond with them. Stress and worry from schoolwork sometimes makes it difficult for them to really talk to us. When I ask how they are , a usual reply is “okay lang”. I sometimes wonder if that means they are ok or they don’t feel like talking about it yet. When I notice a little downtime, I treat them to shopping or a rejuvenating spa. I suggest “Do you want to go shopping or need a massage?” More often than not, the sparkle in their eyes show that they appreciate this gesture. So this is what I told L . “Since you have no classes on Thursdays, maybe we can shop in Divisoria” .

shoppingOne unusual trait with L is her frugal nature. As a daughter, she is very generous giving everything she earns to us. But with clothes..no! She refuses to buy “branded” clothes. Her favorite shopping places are Divisoria or the “ukay-ukay” (thrift stores). I even gave her money to buy Levi’s jeans but she won’t hear of it. I often tell her that she should own at least a pair of Levi’s jeans or splurge once a year on a branded dress. One day, she finally got a Levi’s jeans only because she got it at a discounted price from a fund raising project of their Katipunan Magazine. L only buys if it is a bargain. Haayy. Her logic is clothes are so trendy that the next month, they just go out of fashion. She doesn’t want to spend unecessarily on clothes, shoes or bags. Maybe she will change when she is working.

168 mallIsn’t it silly that a mother is practically telling her daughter to splurge a little more on clothes?

Today, we went to Divisoria to buy materials for her crotchet gift project she planned to give her friends. We dropped by 168 Shopping Mall to see if there was anything new with this mall. Right now, 168 mall has more stalls and more interesting shopping finds compared to our June shopping adventure. The problem was the deluge of christmas shoppers.

168 mallThe crowd at 9:00 AM was hampering our movements especially in the first floor. I bought two handbags and I could barely walk down the crowded aisles. Moving around was difficult. L bought a dress worth 250 pesos , a pair of shoes worth 200 pesos and a few belts and accessories. After buying my gym outfits, I discovered I could not continue shopping . (TIP: bring an assistant to help you carry the load) . We carried shopping bags that we could barely hold on to.

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Screaming for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts

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krispy kreme[tag]Krispy Kreme Doughnuts[/tag] arrive in Manila. Sort of. A dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts were delivered at my doorstep today. What will I do with all these golden glazed doughnuts? I called up my daughters at the dorm if they wanted Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. “Of course, send it over”, my daughters yelled. “We will microwave it here”

krispy kremeI haven’t tried their favorite method of eating doughnuts aka microwave style. Maybe it’s the warmth and soft texture that adds to the pleasurable eating experience. Doughnuts are their number 1 comfort food. The 12 golden glazed doughnuts look perfectly glazed. Glazed doughnuts of Dunkin Doughnuts or Go Nuts look sloppily glazed to me. Hehe, there goes my compulsive-obsessive nature.

It has been years since I last tasted a Krispy Kreme doughnut. Sipping my aromatic Kenya Coffee brew, I took my first bite. The first thing that I notice is the very tender texture of the doughnut. The taste is practically the same if one compares Go Nuts and Cello’s. I can feel my blood sugar rising because Krispy Kreme Doughnuts are just too sweet. One doughnut is all you need to eat to get over the doughnut cravings. Later on, I will have to bike for 30 minutes to burn this excess sugar. Krispy Kreme better come up with a sugar free version.

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Pow Chavez eliminated from Philippine Idol

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Pow Chavez gets the boot but this is not the end of her journey.

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What touched me was her good-bye speech that made me tear and everyone else in the audience: (thanks Jove for the transcript)

Pow Chavez: (before the announcement)
““Gusto ko lang magpasalamat sa lahat ng taong tumanggap sa akin, ah, iyun pong dalhin nyo ako sa stage na ito malaki na pong karangalan sa akin!”

Pow Chavez: (teary goodbye)
““Baka hindi na ako makakanta (pause) di ako umiiyak (pause) ah gusto ko lang pong magpasalamat sa (pause MR C hands her a hanky) mula po sa puso ko (pause) nagpapasalamat po ako tinanggap ninyo ako at nakarating ako ganito kalayo (pause) di po ako sumasali sa mga singing contest kasi natatakot ako na baka hindi nyo ko tanggapin, isang taong kagaya ko, pero kaya po ako narito kasi po gusto ko kumanta….

Of course, we accepted her for who she is. It’s just people like old school [tag]Philippine Idol[/tag] judge, Pilita Corales who insist on seeing her wear a dress. Forunately , Lea Salonga is more open minded and advised Pow that a dress doesn’t suit her. But Pow was game, she wore a dress for her movie clip (View Youtube video of her movie)
There may still be homophobics in the Philippines but when they see raw talent, they forget their homophobia like the homophobic parents of this blogger

My mom voted for Pow for all the weeks that she was competing. A huge feat for my mom given that she and my dad are majorly, majorly homophobic. Ang lungkot di ba? My parents are so homophobic but Pow somehow managed to win over my mom while I’ve been trying to get their tiny approval for years. An average of 75 votes kaya siya per week!

Pow has a strong fan base to keep her in the music industry. After every show, a crowd of adoring fans gather around her just to take photos with her. She is humble, charming and likeable to her fans taking time to thank them for their support after every photo ops. You don’t see a lot of fans hover around Miguel and Jan , the weaker performers but these two have powerful voting blocs. Pow wanted to stay in the competition while Miguel was lukewarm about his stay:

Ryan Agoncillo:
““Miguel for the past two weeks you’ve been scratching your head after results night kinakabahan ka lagi especially last night, it struck me when you said -I’m ready to go-. Gusto mo pa ba mag continue sa competition na ito, Miguel?”

Miguel Mendoza:
““Oo, if there are people who will still vote for me, okay lang, okay lang din hindi”

He tears after every results night. Maybe he is sad that the better Idol Finalists leave before him knowing they are so much better.

Haay naku. But that’s life. Life is unfair but it doesn’t have to be unfair forever. It is not the end of the road for Pow. We will be seeing more of Pow in concerts, album launching and tours.

More POWer to your future . You have a lot of fans, Pow.
mepow with Lpow with M

To read more about Pow’s elimination, read fellow blogger and ABC insider, Jove Francisco’s entry. If you missed Pow’s performance, here is the youtube video (below) of her song in the Movie Themes portion where she sang “So Far So Good” and the YouTube video “I’ll Give my Life for you”
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My Canon PowerShot A710 IS

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canon powershot a710A month ago, I bought a new digital camera, a Canon Powershot A710 IS (Image Stablizer). You might have recalled I also bought a Canon Powershot A530 last June for a Boracay trip that never materialized. So why buy two cameras in a span of 4 months? Well I gave my old Canon Powershot A530 to L. Deprived of a digital camera for more than one year, L begged to have a new camera because it’s her last year in Ateneo. I thought “L has learned her lesson so maybe it’s time to give her a digital camera”.

At the height of her blogging days, she had quite a collection of digital gadgets to enhance her blog entries. Unfortunately L seems to have a jinx with digital toys. I love L very much. Sadly, L just hasn’t been lucky with anything containing “electronic chips” for the past two years. Let me count the ways:

1. For her 18th birthday, I bought her this nice camera phone. Two months after, the phone drowned as she slipped into the shallow waters of Tali Beach. She wanted to capture the breathtaking sunset. The dumbest thing one can ever do when a cellphone gets wet is to turn it on. Naturally, the battery will cause a short circuit, I told L. “Just remember to remove the battery when this happens and dry the phone”

2. Her Sony Cybershot digi cam together with her Panasonic Digital Camcorder w/ Still Mode/MP3/Voice Recording were stolen as she played a video game in the Power Plant Mall. She had placed the bag on the floor and was too preoccupied blasting away the enemies in the video screen . Little did she know that her bag was already snatched just a few feet away from her.

3. A sympathetic reader donated a part of the cost of a new digital camera, a Canon Ixus 430 in 2004. L used her savings and I pitched in the rest to buy this new camera costing 35,000 pesos in 2004. It was expensive because a 4 megapixel camera was a new thing back then. Barely a year after, she vacationed in San Francisco. As she toured one of San Francisco’s aquariums, she slipped and the contents of her handbag fell into a pond. Her handbag’s zipper was not zipped and the camera fell off head first . What did she do? She picked her camera and turned it on. ugh, read number 1 above. Don’t turn on a wet electronic gadget.

There are a lot more. I cannot even fathom how her CPU’s motherboard ended up in smoke.

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Mo Twister will wear a dress if…(Philippine Idol Alert)

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philippine idol(Updated November 13: Mo Twister spared from wearing a dress)
Controversial DJ Mo Twister vowed to wear a dress for one week if KEN DINGLE continues to stay on as a [tag]Philippine Idol[/tag] Finalist. When asked by Ryan to choose their top Idol finalist, Mo blurted out his fearless forecast that it is Ken’s time to go. This announcement brought so much laughter from the live audience. I think I might have laughed too much. My husband and daughters teased me that my wish might finally come true. Ryan Agoncillo mentioned that they will have a dress on standby in tonight’s results night, if Ken manages to stay in the competition. Mamita will even provide the dress and dared Mo to don a mini-skirt. Mo Twister then ran up the ramp to rehearse his catwalk in case he needed to model the dress. Sometimes I think some kind soul is voting for Ken like crazy just so Philippine Idol comes out controversial. Controversy=More talk. More talk=Higher ratings. But this is getting ridiculous. Ken sticks out like a sore thumb among the more talented Idol finalists. Much as I want to see Mo Twister prancing around the ramp wearing a mini-skirt, I ‘d rather see Ken out of the competition. Glancing at Ken during the closing of the show, I noted his sour expression as if he had drank some vinegar earlier. I can’t blame him for looking that way after the way the audience guffawed over Mo’s declaration.

Don’t I look tacky posing with my top 3 Philippine Idol finalists? I’m not really a showbiz person or a huge fan of any music artist except for the Idol reality TV shows. Since I’ve watched Philippine Idol from the start, I might as well see how far these talented singers go. They can’t be called Idols if fans don’t pose with them. The photos will speak for itself. My husband and daughters are rooting for Pow because she has such sweet vocals that shows clarity and wide projection. I love Pow, Mau and Gian. I ‘ll just see how they perform in the next 5 weeks. I need to sleep.

me and Gianme and maume and Pow
(Photos from left to right: Posing with Gian, Mau and Pow)

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Photo Blogging Philippine Idol

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dance night at Philippine IdolYou all know that I watch Philippine Idol as part of the live audience, at least in most of their shows. I take photos as I view the show because I blog about Philippine Idol. Let me give you a brief background on my reasons for blogging Philippine Idol. I am an avid fan of American Idol ever since Season 3 and have blogged about it since then. Excited that Philippine Idol finally reached the Philippines. I also blogged about it. I didn’t know that Google loved that entry so much . I found my Philippine Idol Blog ranking no 2 or 3 with “Philippine Idol” keyword. By sheer coincidence, my husband announced that we have tickets to all of the Philippine Idol shows because of his friend in Freemantle (the franchise owner of the Idol concept?). Since then , I have been watching the live shows.

my 2 daughtersSince it’s my daugher’s semestral break the past two weeks, I dragged them with me. Knowing they could be a snob to Philippine showbiz, I assured them that they will be entertained. Anyway, I know there are other bloggers who watch it live. One of my favorite Philippine Idol blogger is an ABC reporter, Jove Francisco because he reveals juicy insider tibdbits. Although I hear some gossip inside the studio , I keep mum about it.

After I uploaded my photos and wrote my entry, I visited Jove Francisco’s Philippine Idol Dance night entry and I was caught by surprise:

I also enjoyed the company of this great woman. Magkasundo kami sa comments, and it was as if, magkakilala kami kahit hindi. I know she blogs though, I read her kasi, all the time! Good thing siya nakatabi ko. (One forum guest noted na ““parang galit” ako last night sa upuan ko, my seatmate can attest to the fact that I wasn’t, ang saya saya nga namin eh, hehehe)

Could that be me? I clicked the link and lo and behold, it was my Philippine Idol Photo Blog. Talk about mutual admiration society! I didn’t know he sat beside me. (see screencap below) Haha, it’s a good thing I didn’t make a fool of myself or else Jove Francisco would have blogged “…There was this crazy woman seated beside me bouncing on her seat and waving her camera all night .” I am just kidding. Of course he wouldn’t do that. I wrapped some glow sticks around my wrist that night and clapped and danced on my seat as the Idol performers crooned and cavorted onstage. You must know that as live audience and especially those that are seated right across the judges, are told to do the following:

1. Look cheerful and energetic. Don’t look bored. Frowning is a no-no.
2. Clap everytime the show goes live after commercial break.
3. Don’t talk to your seatmate. Don’t text.

That night, the ticket ladies assigned our seats right across the three judges . I didn’t want to complain because earlier, I had whined over our initial seat assignments. It wasn’t the usual center seats. They gave us side seating arrangement but changed their minds as we weaved ourselves to our assigned seats. My two daughters didn’t want to be caught live on TV and requested back seats. In an earlier episode, I didn’t know that we would get panned by an inconspicuous camera set behind the stage. Horrified, I saw myself during a replay the next day. There I was oblivious of the cameras, snapping photos while my husband had this dropped jaw look. How embarassing. Talk about another one of my misdaventure as a photo blogger Part 3! Conscious of the cameras, I resolved to take photos only during the performance and quickly tucked the camera under my shawl when the judges started their critique. My husband straightened his jaw as the cameras panned towards him.

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On Sharing Grief and Grief Share

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For the newly bereaved, November 1 hits them with the reality that it’s their first All Saint’s Day with their precious loved one. It’s their first time to honor the dead with the rest of the country. No wonder, grief is once again featured in the magazines , TV and radio. Last Sunday, Cory Quirino invited The Compassionate Friends to her DZMM radio program with the topic of “Handling Grief and Loss” . The thought of discussing the basics of the grief process in Tagalog caused me to panic. Can you imagine me struggling with words like “pagdalumbhati”? (if I even spelled that right) . How does one say “positive resolution of grief?” The best testimonials would definitely come from the newly bereaved parents who actively worked on their grief with help of The Compassionate Friends. I asked if I could invite more parents to the interview. I dragged 3 newly bereaved parents and Alma Miclat, a co-founder of The Compassionate Friends. A psychiatrist, Dr. Josefina Sayo served as the resource person on the grief process and explained that there is so much stigma attached to grief.

Typhoon Paeng’s update interrrupted the show that the one hour and half show seemed like thirty minutes.

What totally amazed me were these 3 newly bereaved parents who were able to express their loss and testified how sharing their grief truly unburdened some of their pain. We know that pain can never be totally taken away but somehow sharing it to others ease the burden in our hearts. And so The Compassionate Friends continue to come monthly…to meet, to hug, to cry, to laugh to listen and to try to understand another’s story. We come to love each other’s children that we never got to meet. Their faces become almost as familiar as our own children’s countenance and so incredibly dear because they were so special to our friends. In sharing our children’s lives and their deaths, they continue to live on through our stories and our pictures and we are comforted as we grieve together.

Sharing grief is a crucial step in grief work. No wonder my dear friend, Cathy Babao-Guballa started Grief Share, a new grief ministry for all types of losses.

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Globe Visibility (HSDPA) mobile broadband on my Macbook

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Globe VisibilityWhile waiting for our purchase at the drugstore, my husband starts “playing” with his laptop’s Globe Visibility Mobile Internet feature. Hehe, how I wish I had [tag]mobile broadband[/tag].

This afternoon, we dropped by at The Hub in Glorietta Mall to see if they could provide a demo for my Macbook. Well, we couldn’t because my Macbook needs this Nova Media launch2net (which cost Eur 75 ) to support Huawei E220 USB Modem. Haay. The [tag]Globe Visibility[/tag] sales representative in The Hub have limited knowledge and I am not a very patient person when my questions are answered stupidly. Simple questions on “what is the speed of [tag]GPRS[/tag]/[tag]EDGE[/tag]?” have to be asked from another sales rep. I better visit The Hub in the Podium since Marc swears it has better sales representative. (Edit- Visibility is now compatible with Mac . Software can be downloaded at betterthan3g.com)

I might postpone getting the Visibility [tag]Moblie Internet service[/tag] for now. You know, the only reason I need it is when I vacation in the mountains where my husband’s hometown is located 5 hours away from Baguio City. I told him I cannot be internet-less for more than 2 days for economic reasons. Not that I want to be online 24/7 but I just want it there when I need it. The nearest internet cafe is a 30 minutes rough road drive. Travel time to the mountains is no joke and I don’t want to just stay there for 2 days and traverse down the rough mountain trail on my third day. I envision lying down in a hammock, enjoying the cool pine scented breeze with my dear husband. That is my ultimate dream vacation.

I am not even sure if Globe has a 3G network in Benguet towns. The National People’s Army (NPA) maks it impossible for Globe networks to grow in these far flung areas. “sigh”. Smart’s 3G alternative seems cumbersome as it needs rotating the antenna to the right direction. Which leads me to the question: connectivity versus convenience. If I have to , I will choose connectivity and use my daughter’s laptop.

Now if only I can just test Globe’s Visibility mobile internet service before I get locked in the 24 month period.

Early Christmas Decor Shopping

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On the way home from Baguio, I caught the colorful array of Christmas lanterns on the roadside of Gerona, Tarlac.

“I want to take photos” I begged my husband to stop.

The long stretch of bright [tag]Christmas Lanterns[/tag] was captivating. I had no plans of buying [tag]Christmas decors[/tag] but my husband (the Grinch) thought it was rude to take photos and not buy anything from the poor vendors. Strictly speaking, my husband isn’t really a Christmas Grinch. Ever since my son died in 2000, the holidays are the most depressing season for him. Next to Halloween day, the most difficult holiday of the year is Christmas. Christmas decors just remind him that Christmas is lonely without our little boy. Of course, we grieve differently . Christmas is a happy occasion for me. I digress. Anyway…

“Okay, let’s shop”. M and I started our search for the traditional Christmas lantern, the parol . There were probably more than 20 vendors all selling the same design ranging from flowers, butterflies, snowmen, stars, trees even a papaya tree, capiz lanterns and more.
lanternssnowmanlanternschristmas lanternschristmas lanternslanterns

My husband ventured to the other side of the roadside stand. Much later, he surprised me with 10 colorful star lanterns strung together. I never expected him to actually shop for himself. Joy filled my heart. It shows that Christmas shopping wasn’t a difficult task anymore. Look at what we got…

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