I Am Blogie

A group of aggressively talented individuals, among them my blogger-friend, Kring E. of FunnySexy.ph, is gearing up for the launch of a bold and exciting project: Flippish.com. Dubbed as “the First Online Pinoy Video Channel”, Flippish promises to be the death of TV.

In fact, that’s what they’re calling their launch: TV is dead.

If you think that’s hilarious, you should check out Kring’s blog! Anyway, here’s the press release for the launching party of this brave venture. (I wish I could say “See you there!” but — alas! — I’m all the way down south and probably won’t have the opportunity to visit the capital in July.)

FLIPPISH is a play on the word Filipino. It means anything that has Filipino flavor or could also mean something that is odd, crazy or weird. Flippish.com is the first Pinoy online video channel that produces original online shows that are of broadcast quality. The people behind flippish believe that it is about time that we Filipinos take on the challenge of coming up with online entertainment that is of international standards.

THE SHOWS

Flippish.com pushes the creative boundaries by creating a variety of bite-sized (5-8 minutes) videos that appeal to Filipinos of all shapes and sizes!

Shows that cover diverse genres such as Direk, a comedy about a hot-headed, emotional and over-the-top director who allows you to see what goes on in the world of production when the cameras stop rolling and LSS, which showcases some of the most talented, unsigned Filipino artists, whose songs might be the next big hit playing in your head. Another show is Flippish Specials, which is a collection of featured videos, event coverages, and documentaries made by the team.
Flippish.com will tickle your funny bone, get you up to speed on the latest hotspots and goings-on around and outside the Metro, stimulate you brain cells with thought-provoking reality shows and most importantly, entertain you until it becomes an essential part of your daily internet habit!

BEHIND THE SCENES

Flippish.com is spearheaded by Chris Tan, the Co-Founder and the Managing Director of Ideal Minds and Kring Elenzano, the Creative Director of Ideal Minds and Flippish.com. Chris is also currently the director for the Asian Poker Tour Series and was recognized as one of the Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the Year by Entrepreneur Magazine in 2005. Kring, on the other hand, is one of the hottest young TV directors in the industry with several projects under her belt such as the reality TV show RIVERMAYA: BAGONG LIWANAG! In the blogosphere, she is known by her handle, FunnySexy.

R.I.P., TV

Flippish.com will finally be officially launched on July 2, 2009 at Fiamma at Jupiter St., Makati. With the availability of the internet and increasing broadband speed, more people spend more time online nowadays and for these reasons, the people behind Flippish.com believe that “Television is Dead.” and that online entertainment is the wave of the future. Appropriately, this, too, is the theme of the launch party. New shows and talents will be introduced that night and viewers and fans may register on the site to receive special invites for the party.

For more information about the website, its shows and the launch party, do check out www.flippish.com.

I bought this domain almost exactly a year ago (4 June 2008, to be exact), because my friend Markku jokingly threatened to hijack it after I’d told him about a word I thought I had coined: “foodnography”. I was already blogging about food for some time, and the way we bloggers take photos of food before eating amused me as something akin to that less decent activity by shady filmmakers.

For about a year — because I really had no plans of taking up photography on any serious level — Foodnography.com was relegated to the backburner. I just put up a definition page with a Google search engine on it. But that all changed last May 2009 when I decided to transform it into a WordPress photo blog dedicated to food. And hopefully populate it with orgasmic shots of gustatory photography.

Today, I have decided to open the blog up to contributors. For the growth of Foodnography.com, I welcome submissions of high-quality photographs of food and beverages from all over the world. Naturally, there’ll be lots of link-love to go around for those generous enough to help make the site a success!

Foodnography.com is currently running on WordPress 2.8, and sports the über-cool premium theme, Aperture, from WooThemes.com. Important plugins used: WP-PostRatings and cforms. As with my other blogs, you can also view Foodnography.com on your iPhone or iPod touch, thanks to another plugin, WPtouch iPhone Theme.

The much-anticipated annual exercise initiated by Janette Toral in 2007 is now upon us once more, and the blogosphere is again abuzz with bloggers and their top 10 offerings. Each year, the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs writing project catapults into fame new blogs that have a great potential to influence thought and opinion in the blogosphere and beyond.

And so, in an attempt to contribute to this worthy endeavor, here are my top 10 choice picks (not listed in any order). According to the rules, these are blogs that were created on or after 1 May 2008.

A Photographic Saga: Photography and Lifestyle

Leonard Pe is an accomplished photographer, and this blog is his expression. He definitely has an eye for composition, and everything else that comes naturally to talented photographers. His blog is certainly one that can become an inspiration to other photographers.

Batang Lakwatsero

The Batang Yagit recounts experiences of his travels in this new blog. Winston, although he professes to be from very modest roots, is destined to go places, so I think his new blog will be an interesting read now and in the future.

The Philippine Blog Press

This new blog aims to be a news portal that covers bloggers’ activities, blogging events, and other readables regarding the Philippine blogosphere.

RP Elections 2010 – The Election Watchblog

A community blog, RP2010.com hopes to deliver timely news and opinion regarding the upcoming electoral exercise in the Philippines this May 2010, and thus become a useful resource for Filipino voters.

Regnard Raquedan: Self-Titled

This self-titled personal blog is owned by Regnard Raquedan, a Web & Usability consultant. Think UX — user experience for websites, that’s Regnard’s domain.

The Thirsty Blogger

I love this food blog’s name! And I love the fact that it focuses on drinks in particular. I hope this blog will gain more popularity in the coming months! (There’s another blog whose name I also admire: A Scientist in the Kitchen. Too bad, though, because that blog was started in 2007, so I can’t nominate it here any longer.)

Patay Gutom

It seems foodie bloggers have a penchant for coming up with catchy blog titles, and Patay Gutom tops ‘em all! A group effort, it’s not far-fetched to think that this blog will go far indeed (what with the appetites of the member bloggers).

Father Blogger Dot Com

It’s refreshing to see a personal blog written from the point of view of a father. For some reason, there’s a dearth of such blogs… I’m sure Father Blogger will become a helpful resource for fathers and would-be fathers.

Let’s Go Sago!

Let’s Go Sago! is a travel blog, and a personal journal of an adventurer. The blogger relates his travel experiences, as well as his excursions into various cuisines.

New Media Philippines

A marketer’s blog, I think New Media Philippines has the potential to provide invaluable knowledge to those in the marketing arena, as well as to businessmen who would like to be kept abreast of this field of expertise.

That’s it! I hope my selections make it to the final Top 10!

I began revamping my blogs’ themes about two weeks ago, starting with my food blog, and finally came to a satisfying conclusion with IT talks!. All in all, I was able to completely change the designs of 5 personal blogs — that is to say, those blogs for which I personally write. It has been an exhilarating, although at times frustrating, experience!

The main reason why I switched themes was to keep up with WordPress technologies. Since version 2.7, new-fangled features have already been made available to WordPress bloggers (and those who use this awesome platform as a CMS). However, themes and plugins needed to be upgraded as well. Plugins are easy: when authors upgrade them, they’re readily available for deployment. Themes, on the other hand, need a bit more tweaking to make them WP2.7-ready.

So, since my blogs had already been sporting those old designs for long enough (except for Blogie Blog, but that’s beside the point), and because I was able to get my hands on a set of terrific WP themes from WooThemes.com, I decided to take the plunge.

I hope you like the new “look and feel” of my IT blog.

Welcome to the new look and feel of my personal blog!!!

I’d gotten tired of the old one already, although it did serve me well. Truth is, when I chose that old theme, it was simply meant to be temporary while I hunted around for a more suitable one. But my other blogs got more attention from me then, and that’s why that old theme stuck with Blogie Blog for quite some time.

The new WordPress theme that you see now, called Angel, is from Jai Nischal Verma of Blog Oh! Blog. He has quite a number of awesome packages for your WP installation. My favorite blog, Ang Dabawenyo, uses one of their themes.

Speaking of this WP theme designer, Jai is running a “mega contest” for bloggers. He’s giving away 10 Super Premium WordPress Themes, worth a total of $700! All you have to do to join this blogging contest is subscribe to his RSS feed, and post an entry about the contest on your own blog (make sure to trackback to his contest post). Good luck!!

If you’re the type who wants more out of your whole WordPress experience, some of the themes Jai is offering in this contest are really worth having. I happen to have one of his premium themes, but I’m not using it yet… I’m saving it for a future blog project.

So, how do you like my new blog design?