I Am Blogie

This year’s appointed local organizers of the premier bloggers event in Mindanao have now posted an official announcement regarding the third edition of this annual event in the Philippine South. CDO Bloggers, Inc. will host the 3rd Mindanao Bloggers Summit on the 24th of October 2009 in Cagayan de Oro City.

Online pre-registration is now open via mbscdo.com. All announcements regarding this upcoming event will be posted on MindanaoBloggers.com.

The 2nd MBS was held last year in General Santos City, and the first was in Davao City in 2007. This year’s theme means “Changing the way people see Mindanao”, and the whole conference will focus on Mindanao tourism.

Kudos to the Cagayan de Oro team, led by ChiQ Montes!

Need to publish events on your WordPress-powered blog? Here’s a great plugin for just that:   Events. It’s what I use for my Upcoming Events section on AngDabawenyo.com. See it in action

There are, however, a few things that I’d like to see added to this plugin’s features. My wish list:

• Image uploader and corresponding settings for display of uploaded images; or, integration with WordPress’ media library
• Improved html/php parser — when inserting event details text in the sidebar widget, html code is not parsed properly, which results in unterminated html containers
• Google Maps integration

[Updated: 2 July 2009]

Two seminars on WordPress will be held this month in Davao City. One is for bloggers, and the other one is for Web developers who are looking into using WordPress as a content management system (CMS).

Here are the schedules:

Seminar 1: WordPress as CMS

Date: 3 July 2009 (Friday)

Time: 5:00 – 8:00 P.M.

Venue: Lane Systems conference room, Wheels n’ More Drive, J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada, Davao City (in the compound where Urban Club & AutoShop are located)

Fee: ₱450 per person

This seminar will tackle the fundamentals of the WordPress engine: the templating system; built-in PHP functions for delivering & manipulating content; design elements; introduction to theme & plugin design. Installation and maintenance best practices will also be included. Prerequisites: PHP, XHTML & CSS.

Seminar 2: WordPress for Bloggers

Date: 4 July 2009 (Saturday)

Time: 2:00 – 6:00 P.M.

Venue: PhilNITS Lab, 5/F Mintrade Bldg, Monteverde cor. Sales Sts. (this is the building where DTI-11 is located; at the ground floor is PNB)

Fee: ₱300 per person  |  Student rate: ₱150

The seminar for bloggers will feature advanced coverage on WordPress deployment & utilization: how to make the most out of your self-hosted WordPress installation. Important topics: theme management; plugin management; SEO basics; introduction to the world of server hosting. Bonus topic: AdSense integration and optimization, c/o Lyle Santos.

The seminar fees will go towards renting of the venue and cost of materials. Payment will be collected at the door.

To join either of the seminars (or both), please register by fillling out this form.

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

A few months back, and up until 31 May 2009, adidas Philippines had a very attractive sales promo: Wanted Old Shoes. Shoppers were given a ₱500 to ₱1,000 discount on adidas purchases, provided they brought in a pair of old sports shoes for donation. adidas was able to collect thousands of pairs via 100+ participating stores nationwide.

These shoes were donated recently to the Pamulaan Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Education in Mintal, Davao City. In simple rites but in a festive setting, adidas executives, led by Country Manager Nolet Puno, turned over the shoes to the students of Pamulaan. All who study at Pamulaan are children of indigenous peoples from all over the country.

adidas assets graced the event, among them Purefoods cagers, Enrico Villanueva and Peter Jun Simon, who hails from Davao City.

Pamulaan, the first of its kind in Asia, is established in the Mintal campus of the University of South Eastern Philippines, which is about half an hour’s drive from downtown Davao City. At present, there are about 100 students taking up courses in education, agriculture and anthropology. At the turnover ceremony, students from various cultural minorities honored their guests with traditional dances: Manobo, Matigsalog, Mangyan, Ifugao, Teburay, and others.

The students, as well as everyone else in attendance, were treated to the antics of VJ Drei of MYX and the presence of TV idol Rayver Cruz, both of whom are also adidas assets. I’m sure that for both parties — the Pamulaan family and the adidas entourage — it was a first-of-a-kind encounter.

adidas chose Pamulaan as sole beneficiary of their corporate social responsibility project, according to Jillian Panganiban of adidas Philippines, because of the center’s uniqueness and worthy objectives. Pamulaan (from the Matigsalog word for ’seedbed’) is currently home to about 31 different indigenous peoples groups from all over the archipelago.

In his acceptance speech, Pamulaan founder Benjamin Abadiano stressed that this generous donation from adidas will benefit thousands of cultural minority students, a lot of whom walk to school across great distances. Pamulaan is based in Davao City, but extends its helping hands to indigenous peoples all over the country.

Davao-based bloggers were invited to the occasion, held last 19 June 2009 at the USEP campus. I’m glad that the PR agency hired by adidas, Primetime Creatives, made sure to get members of the Mindanao Bloggers Community involved. For one, we bloggers are now aware of Pamulaan and its highly-commendable activities.

In behalf of my fellow bloggers, I’d like to extend sincere greetings of congratulations to adidas Philippines for the very charitable contribution it has made to our indigenous peoples.

Here are photos of the event, courtesy of Chattee Lara.

Copyright © 2009, Oliver Robillo.
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My personal celebration of Philippine Independence Day got extended with a new pair of special havaianas® flip-flops that I got today. Havaianas Philippines sent me their limited-edition Filipinas, which are “emblazoned with renditions of Filipino pride.”

And they were serious about the nationalistic campaign. They sent the flip-flops along with truly Filipino icons: a miniature jeepney replica, a bag of dried mangoes, and a packet of Choc•Nuts!! Seeing the Choc•Nuts brought to mind images of my much younger days… Suddenly, comfortable tsinelas and those pseudo-chocolate goodies do make a nostalgic match.

“Emblazoned with renditions of Filipino pride, the Limited Edition Havaianas Filipinas Collection features the style Havaianas Filipinas Plain, which showcases a stylized pin of Philippine colors and the style Havaianas Filipinas Print, which features the ever-enduring symbol of Filipino culture, art and lifestyle, the Jeepney, rendered in edgy silver, with either black or metallic silver straps.”

Which is what I got, the pair with the silver straps, studded with the colors of the Philippine flag.

The Limited Edition Havaianas Filipinas Collection–specially designed and produced for the Philippines–arrived in stores on the 12th of June, in celebration of Independence Day. In Davao City, havaianas® flip-flops are available in SM City, Chimes, and other specialty stores.

What I enjoy about wearing havaianas®, it gives you a pretty valid — and sometimes fashionable — excuse to wear slippers outside. And in my line of work, where I’m not expected to come in formal attire too often, I can really get away with wearing casual footwear to a meeting with clients, or when I work at any of my favorite cafés.

Thanks to Havaianas Philippines for my ‘proudly Filipino’ flip-flops! And thanks to my friend, Marga, for getting me in the exclusive list of recipients of the Havaianas Filipinas Collection!

Speaking of matters nationalistic, today is the 118th birth anniversary of our national hero, Dr. José Rizal.

Copyright © 2009, Oliver Robillo.
This feed is for the exclusive use of the publishing site, AngDabawenyo.com. The unauthorized use of this feed is an infringement of copyright.
(Digital Fingerprint: c7433b3dc22ad0424c489ba1cdb79798 (74.125.44.136) )

It is always very pleasing when you discover a restaurant that gives you that warm, homey feeling as soon as you walk in. Thats how it is at Grub Resto•Café. There is in this place a delightful mix of cozy ambiance and good, hearty food.

Grub Resto•Café used to be located in another part of town, but has now transferred to Gov. Duterte St., across the street from Shakeys, in downtown Davao City. This area has always been known as a food district, and is showing no signs of slowing down.

You will surely love their large portions and the tastiness of their dishes. The Dino Chops (₱185 for the regular; ₱110 – Junior; ₱300 – Senior, which is served with two slabs) that I had was humongous! But more than that, it was prepared lovingly with finely-chopped parsley and golden garlic. It comes with brown rice, but I think you can order a side of mashed potatoes instead. Oh and the apple sauce thats served with this is a total taste match (but there’s no stopping you from asking for the good ol’ Filipino-style dip of soy sauce, calamansi and siling labuyo).

The appetizers that we had were winners — Cheese Loaf (₱140) and Buff Wings (₱128). The Cheese Loaf is a basket of sliced french bread, sprinkled with herbs, with two types of cheese melted over, slice of ham, and a dash of Tabasco.

The buffalo wings were promised to be very hot spicy, but, for me, it was just normal fare (well, I do eat chili for breakfast, so…). Still, it was finger-lickin’ good!

Weekends, they have special items not on the menu, and currently it’s Seafood Chowder, which has baby clam, fish, abalone. I still have to try it, but knowing that they prepare it from scratch, I will certainly be back very soon! Their coffee brews are also on my to-do list.

Proprietors Elisa and Dotty have created a comfortable setting for intimate gastronomic gatherings, one that will not fail to please both eyes and palates. The service is personalized, especially when the two ladies are in attendance. Do give Grub Resto•Café a try soon! They’re open everyday except Sunday, from 11:00 AM to 10:30 PM. Tel. 301-8069.

Here’s something that’s new — although not exactly unanticipated, considering the state of online-ness of Filipinos today — in the Philippine political arena. Exactly that, PoliticalArena.com. This “socio-political social networking site” aims to be an Internet venue for Filipinos to interact with presidential hopefuls and other candidates of the 2010 elections. The site, “developed to promote [...]

In the market for woot!-inspiring premium WordPress themes? Head on over to WooThemes.com — they’ve redesigned their entire site (calling it WOO2) and are now offering a 4-for-1 special sale.

Ever since I discovered the Woo rockstars, I’ve made over all my blogs with premium WordPress themes from their fantastic collection. They have themes for straightforward blogs, for magazine-type sites, online news, portfolio sites, even e-commerce webs. WooThemes are designed with function and form in mind. And as if it weren’t enough to give us professionally-crafted theme packages, each theme ships with several color schemes. Talk about major giveaways!

What’s more, WooThemes are avidly supported by their designers, as well as by a large community of “Woo ninjas” and users. Their support forum is an excellent resource that can help you explore how you can extend the functionality of your WordPress themes. And, problems do crop up once in a while — good thing is, chances are, you’ll find the solution in the forum.

Hurry! Their 4-for-1 deal lasts only up to 24 June 2009. But just in case you miss that one, there’s still the 2-for-1 perpetual promo at WooThemes.com.

(This is NOT a paid post.)

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

Do you blog about geeky stuff like coding how-to’s? Do you publish visible code on your blog posts? Here’s a nifty plugin for that: FV Code Highlighter. See how it works here and here.

It displays your code in its own space, and there’s even syntax highlighting! The plugin author’s site doesn’t say so, but it actually works with the <pre> HTML container. No need to use those curly braces thingies as detailed in the plugin homepage. Also, it works just fine on WordPress 2.8.

[Media Release]

HTC Country Manager Mark Sergio officially announced today that the HTC Magic™, the first Android-powered mobile phone in the Philippines, will be available exclusively through SMART Gold, the postpaid brand of leading wireless services provider Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART).

SMART and HTC Corporation will be launching HTC Magic™ very soon. The HTC Magic™ is the first of its kind to be introduced in the Philippines. The smartphone is equipped with the Android operating system, and is supported by SMART’s HSDPA network, the widest in the country.

“To truly maximize the power of advanced, all-in-one devices, they need to be powered by innovative operator technologies — offering the HTC Magic through SMART Gold is a natural fit,” said Miriam Choa, activations manager of SMART Gold.

The HTC Magic™ comes with a powerful mobile browser that provides easy access to Google services such as Google Search, Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Talk. It also has the Smart Dialer function, which allows users to either dial the phone number or simply type in the first few letters of the name of the person they want to call.

“Part of SMART’s efforts in putting the Internet in the hands of every Filipino is providing subscribers a broad selection of the latest, most advanced handset models that suit their lifestyles at very affordable rates,” said Choa.

SMART Gold is a pioneering postpaid brand which offers a wide variety of monthly plans, all offering free or subsidized handsets, free airtime and SMS. SMART Gold subscribers enjoy access to high-speed, mobile Internet and other value-added services powered by SMART’s nationwide mobile broadband coverage.

The HTC Magic will be available exclusively under SMART Gold subscription plans, and will be out in the market by the end of June 2009.

I wonder how the first Android phone in the Philippines will fare against the iPhone… Not that Apple’s mobile — being carried by SMART’s competitor — has really covered much ground to date, but there are droves of iPod/iPhone enthusiasts in the country, not to mention a few Apple App developers.

This should be interesting to follow.