I Am Blogie

I’m flying to Washington, D.C. in a couple of hours, to attend a conference where U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will deliver a talk on global freedom of speech vis-à-vis the Internet, and where I’m to participate in a panel discussion on the same topic. It’s a great honor, and I’m looking forward to the learning experiences ahead of me.

There is also a San Francisco leg of this Voluntary Visitor’s Program that I’ve been invited to by the State Department. I will hopefully be able to visit the offices of online media enablers such as Facebook and Twitter.

I shall document my official business in America via BlogPress.ph, with the direction of my friend and colleague, Janette Toral.

And since I’m going to be in the States already, I might as well stay and take a short vacation, yes? Yes! So, my personal itinerary will include New York City, Los Angeles, and possibly a few more destinations. I can’t wait!! This is my first time to go to America, by the way. And it won’t be my last (I got a 10-year valid, multiple-entry visa!!) this year, if plans to go back in July or August push through.

My flight’s boarding in an hour. Wish me luck!

It was pure delight to find out that GoDaddy — arguably the #1 domain registrar in the world — has an app for the iPhone / iPod touch. According to the App Store, it was posted late last year. Sometimes I get an inspiration for a domain name, and it’s now so much easier and more convenient for me to just whip out my trustee mobile device and access GoDaddy.com via mobile.

It’s a great little app: you can do pretty much all the basic domain-name registration stuff, plus a little more. Purchasing domain names, of course, is the main feature. But aside from that, you can also manage your domains, including updating nameservers and other DNS-specific records, domain ownership details, auto-renew settings, etc.

Here are a few screen shots of the GoDaddy iPod app in action, taken when I was acquiring yet another piece of Web real estate.

Domain Registration

Domain Administration

There’s even a way for you to check who beat you to that domain name you’d wanted to get. An online whois service right on the palm of your hand. Actually, you can also do a whois on the domain name search results screen.

I have 60+ domain names registered, and as heavy user of mobile platforms, this GoDaddy app is now one of the most indispensable tools in my iPod touch. There are still some glitches, but I’m fairly certain GoDaddy’s going to be updating this application faithfully. Also, there’s only one way to pay: credit card; no PayPal payments accepted via this app yet. But other than that, it’s awesome!

Problem is, it might cause even more domain-buying sprees…

I now have my very own WooThemes.com MasterCard! :woot: About two months ago, I applied for this debit card at WooThemes, the creators of my favorite WordPress magazine, business, CMS & blog themes. The card (as well as the online bank account) is part of their affiliate program, and can be used to receive earnings [...]

The year 2009 was marred with quite a few happenings that caused a lot of heartaches, to say the least — natural and man-made disasters, unconscionable acts by governments, clashes between rival parties, economic downturns… And yet, we have survived and we have forged on.

The reason for our endurance may be attributed to the successes that we have witnessed as well in 2009. We Filipinos have found heroes among our ranks, in spite of a government that has left more to be desired… if indeed this present regime intends to leave.

So now we’re on the threshold of a new year, and at the tail-end of a waning decade. I pray we will have much opportunities to conclude the first ten years of the new millennium on a positive note!

And on a lighter note, here are photos of the Christmas lights display that has become a tradition in the city, courtesy of Mana-Davao. Last Christmas was when I started documenting this spectacle, although I’d been making a point of enjoying Mana’s Christmas lights for some years already. This year, most probably due to a growing audience each year, they’ve put on a more spectacular exhibit.

Here’s a short video I took of Mana yesterday. It’s amazing how many people now visit the place, just to take in the sights.

Happy New Year, everyone!