The Guinea Pig Chronicles

My Web Two Point Oh-ing Adventures

I'm a late bloomer to this thing called blogging.

Web Adventures!

I have a confession to make. I made the leap from "earth-dweller" (A term I picked up from my online friend Kevin M. Keating through one of his tweets last June.) to "cyberspace trawler" (Not sure who made that one up but I started calling myself that when I wrote myself a short profile on my tumblr and Pownce pages.) just February of this year.

Not that I was an internet-virgin before this. I did my share of Google and Yahoo and MSN. And most certainly had my fill of e-mail creating. But nothing came as close to actually venturing out beyond the confines of Multiply to "put myself on the web". Oh, wait! I'm forgetting friendster. Can I please forget friendster? (Can't bring myself to Cancel/Delete my account!)

The mere thought of being Googled made me shudder. Reading about my morning show and our station was fine but stuff about me me?!

And then Wikipedia happened. From my quiet and obscure existence, I found myself having to contribute to the website for work. Mediation was required and it was me who was tasked with doing the deed of making the request. In all honesty, I lost sleep thinking how easy it had become to Google my name and not just find me but only ONE facet of my life. A facet that is hardly wholistic and defining.

Debbie Weil came to my rescue. I read her book, The Corporate Blogging Book, and decided to define myself online through blogging.

I had two choices: let others define who I am through their own limited perception; or introduce myself and let people know more about who I am

I chose the latter and haven't turned back.  From my humble Multiply beginnings, I signed up for WordPress, Blogger and Vox in the span of one week. The username I chose for all four? Mine. My thinking is that since there are ways to find one's real name and address anyway, there's no use hiding. And in my observation, it only takes one blog to find out the other links that a person cares and blogs about, so why bother trying?

I would rather people knew about me, from me. How I think; how I feel; what I'm passionate about. Or how emotionally-adjusted I am; how spiritually-inclined; how intellectually-competent (Or think I am!)

So here is where I am:

1. Twitter
2. Jaiku
3. Pownce
4. iLike
5. Multiply
6. del.icio.us
7. tumblr
8. friendster
9. youtube
10. flickr
11. Spock
12. VOX
13. Stylehive
14. Wikipedia
    

So far.

I've met some fascinating people along the way. Now if only I can remember all these passwords and e-mail combinations!

How about you? Why do you Web 2.0? Where else are you?

QotD: My 15 Minutes

What would you consider to be your 15 minutes of fame so far in life?

July 13, 1998 to March 10, 2003.

Zach and Joey in the Morning on NU 107 DWNU 107.5FM.

It came complete with Philippine celebrity guests that ranged from models, actors, bands, magazine editors, movie premieres, product launches, the works. We even got to interview photographer R. Ian Lloyd of National Geographic and world-famous entomologist Georges Brossard.

Hands down some of the best years of my life. And regretfully, some of my wildest.

My partner, Zach, has since continued being a celebrity. He plays the drums for local rock group, Imago.

This was us in FWD Magazine. And this was me doing the 'rockstar hair' thing.

Nowadays, of course, I'm totally anonymous.

QotD: Celebrity Look-Alike

What celebrity do you most often get told you resemble? 
Submitted by Leets.  

To my delight and to her chagrin, we've been mistaken for sisters, cousins, friends, aunt and niece, but rarely mother and daughter.

Here I am with the future famous ballerina I am proud to call my kid.

Us at Alabang Town Center

Me and 17

Vox Hunt: Let The Sun Shine

Show us some sunshine. 
Submitted by Cath. 

Catch_some_rays_by_FilMFlaM

Almost Normal

The Every Nation World Conference is over and almost entirely off my table. Just the post-event communications to get out and life goes back to normal and I can finally focus all my energy on moving back to the US.

EN07 was great! It was like this huge family reunion! We got to see people from forty-six three nations at Araneta Coliseum!

Parade of Flags

Here is one of are the final two videos from the Boy Kulot Series. The Welcome video was used to open the conference. It flowed into footage of countries to serve as the backdrop for the parade of flags.

Here's one of my tweets from that day:

it is the coolest things to meet twitter friends in person and to see a video you conceptualized on a gigantic screen. i'm teary. 01:51 PM July 20, 2007 from web

The next conference will be in 2010. Destination to be decided. Maybe see you there!
 

Boy Kulot's Hap-EN-ess Adventures Episode 5!

Boy Kulot Araneta Welcome

Crazy Like That

Too busy to do anything beyond woooooork.

Have impending To Do's on my "Move Back to the US List" waiting to get done, too.

Life until Monday next week revolves around this and this.

But I am loving every minute of it. I seem to thrive on multi-tasking and interweaving work and life. Gotta be all the Mind Maps in front of me.

Here's more of the videos we worked on!

Boy Kulot's Hap-EN-ess Adventures Episode 3!

Boy Kulot's Hap-EN-ess Adventures Episode 4!

What Work Looks Like

Here are a couple of the videos we worked on to promote our conference. We were going for a very basic "man on the street" feel. Truthfully, I just didn't have the time to get permits left and right so we did what any sensible videomaker would do - guerilla style.

It was fun and exhausting. I'll post the rest soon.

Boy Kulot's Hap-EN-ess Adventures Arrives

Boy Kulot's Hap-EN-ess Adventures Episode 2

When Push Comes to Shove

(I try not to cross-post if I can help it, but sometimes, I just have to because I'm in that zone wherein everything is colliding and there are no more demarcation lines.

I'll be back to my normal VOX-self in no time but for now, please indulge this post from my Blogger entry.)

Real Life has been unkind to me these past days since my last post. Not in a bad way mind you. We did, after all get great news in the mail!

But with this fantastic package comes the reality of my massive TaDaList getting even loooooonger than it already was. Am now having to add the mundane task of cleaning out and sorting out our apartment before leaving in two months. Two months!!!

I am so grateful that in the years following my mother's death - and our subsequent moves to twelve different apartments - I have subtracted and/or lost so much of what I once used to own. Having inherited a fully-furnished, four-bedroom house, K and I are now down to two beds, a given dining table, a computer table, a fridge, and a various assortment of this's and that's.

My task is not as gargantuan as it would have been had I not downsized considerably since 1997.

I have documents that need to be secured from government agencies; entertainment for a world conference that needs to be organized; books to be given away; a video collection that needs to be sold; furniture that needs to be donated; and a mini-dachshund that needs to be adopted.

All this while still deciding on where to live in the US.

The choices are now:

1. Orlando, Florida
2. Tallahassee, Florida
3. Jersey City, New Jersey
4. New York, New York

And I haven't even started allowing myself to think about the possibility of having to leave K for a month or two first before she follows.

Without this peace that transcends all understanding, I would certainly be partially insane by now.

Thank God I've been through worse!

This is nothing.

I am in the water, untethered to anything that keeps me safe, thankful that the One who commands the wind and the waves is with me.

Where would I be without my Jesus?

The Perils of Platform Shoes and Little Green Gods

Don't mind me. I'm just in a dark and twisty mood.

I tripped and twisted my left ankle Saturday afternoon en route to a friend's bridal shower. No, I didn't land on my gluteus maximus but would have were it not for a strategically placed railing along the sidewalk. It was my fault, really. I was irked that the guard at said friend's gated community was frisking me for ID. The nerve!

Of course, he was only doing his job.

As I stormed away on the downhill sloped sidewalk in my favorite four-inch clogs that my daughter hates, I failed to notice a clump of leftover dried cement from the sidewalk's inception. On it I stepped and on it my ankle turned.

I pretended to not notice and acted like it was nothing; I then proceeded in my huffed direction down the road.

Only a few hours later did I start to notice the throbbing. Ice was promptly applied and I ended up sitting out the rest of the games on my friend's expensive couch.

In her beautifully furnished home complete with surround sound piped-in music.

It was an added arsenal launched by the god of jealousy at my heart; the part wherein I say to myself, "Why do I not have money like this?"

It got uglier. "My other friend lives in a house where there are more cars than people"; "Friend from church owns a gorgeous mansion complete with 2:1 ratio for house help to family members"; "Other friend just bought a brand new car... again". One thought after another mercilessly hit me.

I stop myself now in mid-blog. I sigh and take a deep breath.

I force my mind to come up with at least three things I am thankful for today.

1. My ankle is almost completely healed;
2. Got to hitch a ride to work again;
3. K got home safe and sound from her evening ballet class;
4. I'm one step closer to maturity in the character molding process called wisdom;
   
5. Tomorrow is a new day.

In true micro-blogging fashion, here is my earlier tweet:

current state of mind: jennifer aniston's in 'friends with money'. reminding self that this season shall pass. it always does.

I'll be fine. It was just one of those days.
 

Pedestrian Confession

My new pedometer has been underused. My summertime walking obsession has evolved into a lukewarm pursuit due to the many kind rides from friends to and from work and church.

What can I say? They're free rides. Who says no to that? Especially when money is tight.

My previous post found me high on the waves of getting a replacement for my lost pedometer. Visions of picking up where I last left off at an average of 10,000 steps per day had me excited and thoroughly convinced I would be back at my regular pace like I never stopped.

Yet here I am, lackluster in my pursuit.

And I don't really mind.

I'm spending more time with K, like I should be doing, in my final months here in the Philippines before moving back to the US.

My post-work walking time is now spent watching her in Advanced Ballet class; soaking up every moment of seeing her dance and fulfill her dream.

The 5,000 steps I'm now averaging are a small price to pay for doing what I'd like to think I do best - being a mom.

My walking can wait for my destination in Somewhere, America.

You'll know where that will be when I finally know.

Here's a picture of K in her pointe shoes taken using the Self-timer function of the Olympus mu-725sw I reviewed.

Tendu pose