MMMiii!

Ah… My long delayed and almost forgotten post about an event last Saturday. I wrote this on notepad and forgot about it.

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Right after watching Dulaang UP’s As You Like It/Paano Man Ang Ibig, I went straight to Pisay to attend the first ever Blogger’s Kapihan event through The Four-Eyed Blogger’s invitation. I was planning to go home after the play to freshen up since usually, the plays only last for an hour and a half to two, but it lasted for three hours, so I rushed to Pisay.<–more–>To be honest, I didn’t really bother what the event was about. When I saw that the event would be in Pisay, I asked my friend who teachers there if she would be there, and she said she would. I thought she knew about the event and that they were required to be there too, so I went to Pisay thinking we’d get to have some time together. Unfortunately, it was Card-distribution day, like UPIS (though I didn’t attend that one), so she didn’t have time for me. *cry cry*

Sarah wasn’t able to come either, so I was left all alone~. I thought that being a teacher would cure me of my shyness. Apparently not. I didn’t even say a word inside the AVR, except for that time when I asked a person, who later on I discovered to be Bikoy of bikoy.net, if the seat beside him was taken.

Over the “coffee-break” of iced tea which I diluted in water and a sugary donut, I met a familiar face whose name know not. She said we were probably classmates in EDCO101, a subject I took in 2004. Her name is … umm.. I didn’t ask for the spelling, so I’m not sure if it’s Faith or Fate. According to her blog, her name is Poyt, so I’m confused.

Okay, about the talks.

The first one to talk was student blogger Victor Villanueva or Bikoy of bikoy.net. He’s a 19-year-old student in UPD who’s been known as a blogger for 7 years. One of his tips, be prepared for a confrontation, really struck me, because I’ve been confronted once already.

It was about my brother’s ex-girlfriend and I wrote her real name on my blog. And her new boyfriend googled her name and found the stuff I wrote about her. I just wrote about what I knew of her, which were things she told me. Which were all lies. Well, enough of that. I was just thinking, that if geocities hadn’t closed my website a few years ago, I would be having one of the oldest “blogs” in the Philippines as well since I wrote a sort of log about my life in school and on IRC (I’ve been chatting on IRC since 1996 and started making a “log” of events around 1998) though it wasn’t on a blog platform.

Other tips I remembered was to put pictures on your blog, even if it’s an everyday thing. It’s okay if it’s just a personal blog, things you did today, yesterday, the other day, or whenever, your insights from your perspective, these things make up your blog and that someone somewhere might be interested in what you have to say.

Another thing he said is that you have to go out… or something like that. If your life is boring, chances are your blog is boring too. However, what if I don’t go out (which I really don’t) but have an active online life? My online life is very colorful… Too darn colorful.

The second speaker was Abe Olandres of Yugatech.

Making money through blogging is no easy thing. It’s no overnight success. But darn, he’s earning a lot now. And Mr. Abe Oldandres is a proof of that.

One of his tips was finding a niche, or a targeted readership. Honestly, I want to do that, but there are just so many things running in my mind sometimes that I want to talk about it all. However, there’s one thing I have in mind–having a website that focuses on Education, Education in the Philippines, and what not. Maybe a resource website like Lesson Plans and Activities for the Filipino classroom. I think that would be a good idea. :D When I get my laptop and after I graduate, I’m probably going to push through with that. I want a .ph domain but it’s too darn exorbitant! Anyone willing to sponsor?

I should thank Mr. Abe, because if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have thought of that.

About suing… I remember writing something in one of my blog posts about … something, I can’t remember, and I even said “so sue me” … I’m never going to do that again. :D

The last speaker was Mr. Manuel L. Quezon III, a blogger and a journalist.

One of the first few things he said was very thought provoking. I can’t remember what he said exactly, but it’s something like “Everything is political and it begins with sex” (someone correct me if I’m wrong). And later on, he mentioned that everyone is either a voyeur or an exhibitionist. He kind of talked about how it was so different during his time and the time now. As a teacher, I see a little of these changes as well.

When I was in high school, I respected my teachers. I didn’t draw emoticons on my formal papers, nor put in side comments. The generation is very different now from before. One of the biggest problems of teens these days is that they do not like listening. They can hear, but they do not listen. This is probably because portable media players now are so affordable that a lot of them have their ears plugged, music blaring in their ears. Even during class.

The Open Forum was interesting. I wanted to ask some stuff like what if you want to have a niche but would like talking about everything as well… Saa… Maybe next time.

That’s about it for my first ever blogger event.
You can find other posts by blogger event n00bs and masters here.

I think they mentioned something about putting up links of the sponsors… but… Ah WELL. Might as well do it. =_= Para kumpleto!

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