Age, Fac ut gaudeam!

Roughly translated, that means "Go Ahead, Make my day!" It's written in another language (one that's dead by the way, latin) because...

1. It was said by another person
2. It was quoted during another time
3. It is very unlikely that a person will say that in latin
4. It is very unlikely that a person will say that -ever-

Anyways... I digress... I just thought of them fighting words by Clint Eastwood because of this rather interesting conversation I had earlier with one of my friends. It would seem that some people take the shield of being online one step too far. Being really timid and nice in the real world, while having a brash and agressive personality online. It really does make one wonder tho on which one is the real... well... personality.

I guess this has become a staple of internet personalities as I remember fights online from old BB systems, IRC, groups and whatnot (some dating as much at 12 years ago) that were started by the most unlikely of characters and in between the characters that you usually see at the far end of the table and is quiet during eyeballs and meetings... but o well...

Is it really that unavoidable? Has it become a virtual outlet? Does the internet bring out the worse in us? Or is it just that typing something on a computer screen amplify our own feelings and dehumanizes our target's at the same time?

I wonder...

Mindanao Blog Awards

We're still finalizing the mechanics and other minutiae for the Mindanao Blog Awards, but I'm proud to give you the logo of the Awards! I thought that the vinta would be a very recognizable image of Mindanao, hence the choice. And how do you like the colors? :) I think Andrew did a swell job rendering this logo (considering that he says graphics design isn't his strong suit).

The Mindanao Blog Awards 2007 (MBA2007) is an attached event to the Mindanao Bloggers Summit -- the awarding will be done after the Summit on the 27th of October, and during the bloggers' party.

Mindanao blogs submitted and accepted into the Mindanao Blog Directory are eligible for nomination. We still have to come up with the technical side of this undertaking, but rest assured, you'll have your say in this! Click here for the MBA2007 info page.

BisayaBloggers get-together

Ayeza, the founder of BisayaBloggers.com, is going to be in town this week (I think she's in Manila now). She's based in Canada, but hails from Davao. BisayaBloggers.com is an aggregator site of all blogs owned by Bisaya-speaking Filipinos -- Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray....

So, Ayeza's calling all BisayaBloggers for a get-together this 18 August at Yellow Hauz, around 6pm. Actually, I heard that some bloggers are hanging out at Yellow Hauz on a daily basis.

Also, Ayeza and I will be partying at cups&lowercase this 15th. It's a party called Delirium. Tickets are sold at P250 each, but it's a drink-all-you-can gig the whole night, so it should be worth it. I do have a couple more tickets I can give away, so if you're interested, just say so!

Geeky night-out with Aileen et al

The title says it all. But yeah, it was fun. Read all about it over at Aileen's blog.


Here's Ria, Dennis, Jun, yours truly, Aileen and Drew, at Casa Leticia yesterday. Marc didn't show up, but he made an appearance for pizza today at Boyd's.

Blog and Soul

I was chatting with Jayvee Fernandez just now, about his contribution to the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit. I'm happy to report that he is very enthusiastic about delivering a presentation on problogging and new media. The working title of his talk is "Blogging as a Way of Life".

This tech-savvy mediaman will also talk about the blogging community that he started last May called The Blog and Soul Movement. Blog and Soul is an admirable undertaking that I'm certain will help push blogging into the mainstream.

Jayvee is a Technology channel editor for b5media Inc, which is probably the largest blog network in the world. Another way of looking at this network is, it's problogger central. That's why The Usual Suspects made sure to invite Jayvee to be a part of the upcoming Summit. Good thing Jayvee's been to Davao (for Davao Bloggers Party #1 last March), so it was super easy to convince him to come back!

We're now finalizing our program of activities for the Summit. And by the way, it's now a whole-day affair. And yes, not only free registration, but free lunch as well!

New blogbase for Pete

About a week ago our blogging councilor, Hon. Peter Laviña, has transferred his home blog to WordPress. For those of you who haven't yet, please update your blogrolls to reflect this URL: http://ptlavina.wordpress.com. In a big way I'm happy that he did, because WordPress is a proven and powerful platform. Makes me wonder, though, why he didn't just get his own domain and hosted service....

But I'm also sad that Councilor Pete has abandoned Funchain. This SNS -- which also offers its own blog medium -- was created by a Dabawenyo, Jason Banico, so it's something that we should be proud of. Unfortunately, it's been experiencing some technical problems, and that's why the good councilor felt he had to transfer to something more stable.

But I'm pleased to report that, in the Davao Blogspace, we still have two fervent advocates of Funchain: tj_brewed and Mo. Also, very recently I corresponded with Jason regarding a problem with Funchain's feeds, and he acted on it post-haste. So there's still hope, folks!

Here's another new blog by Councilor Pete, a journal of his motions and actions and other -ions in the Sangguniang Panlungsod: http://lavinavotes.blogspot.com.

Proudly Pinoy!

As much as I am proud to be a Dabawenyo, I'm also very proud to be a Filipino. I take pride in my heritage, in my nation's history (even though it's a bit tarnished by unfortunate events). That's why I'm posting this beautifully-crafted "Proudly Pinoy" logo on all my blogs.

This visual creation is the masterpiece of Joe Talisic of Guba, Cebu. Out of 297 entries in this nationalistic logo design competition, this one was ajudged the best. There were countless others that could've made the top of the list -- and I'm sure the judges had a difficult time deciding on one winning entry.

In an interview with Mr Talisic, I found out that the guy's based in Qatar, working as a senior art director for an ad agency in Doha. You're having mixed feelings right now, aren't you? You feel proud that we have such talent being gainfully employed by powerful corporations... but somewhat disappointed that we couldn't keep him here? That's how I feel anyway.

And yet, we mustn't forget that these overseas Filipino workers are what's propping our nation up. Let's be proud of them. Let's be proud to be Filipino.