Filipina Soul

Recently, I posted that wine might be a good pair for our local dishes, and mentioned Ellaine Villamin of Eden Canyon Winery. She’s the daughter half of a father-daughter who “run the first Filipino American-owned winery in the country to grow its own grapes and bottle its own wine“.
Not knowing anything about wines and Filipino dishes, I couldn’t really give you anything specific other than for us to try something new and find pairings that you like. I casually mentioned that Spanish wines and sangrias might go well with some stronger flavors. Well, Miss Villamin probably got wind of this …read more

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Last night, I turned on the TV to NBC just in time to hear Carlos Ponce say “Philippines” during the Miss Universe beauty pageant. I waited for more and learned that, for the umpteenth time, the Philippine candidate to the yearly pageant has won the Miss Photogenic award.
Lia Andrea Ramos won in an online vote for “the delegate who exemplifies beauty through the lens of a camera”. Above is a photo of her when she was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe. Lovely, isn’t she?
Congratulations to Lia, and pats on the backs of the countless Filipinos who sent in their votes.
Oh, …read more

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Like all Philippine legends, there’s more than one story that attempt to capture the essence of the majesty that is Mount Mayon. Mayon is derived from “Magayon”, which means beautiful in Bicolano.
There’s the story of two lovers not unlike Romeo and Juliet, as told by Laura Agpay, a native of Bicol:
Once there was a princess named Daragang Magayon (Daraga means lady, Magayon is beautiful) who lived in Bicol. She’s so beautiful. She came from the family that reigns over the entire Bicol.
Because of her beauty and influence, warriors, princes and datus from different parts of the country desired to …read more

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That’s the vision of one man, Jason Banico, a Stanford University fellow, former chief technology officer of Yehey.com, and a native of Davao City.

“The larger objective is to move forward the state of ICT in Davao City in two to three years in areas of job creation and innovation. The personal objective is to assist the government, the chamber, and one pilot school with activities that will help improve academe-industry collaboration, IT promotion and research and development activities,” he added, in an online chat with INQ7.net.

Banico is collaborating with Davao’s ICT Council, and hopes to involve the academe as well. …read more

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What started out ten years ago as a watered-down search engine and e-commerce service, YEHEY! has eventually become a competitive portal for everything Filipino. The site has almost 30 mllion page views a month, with 1.8 million unique hits and 300,000 registered users.
And with a P27.9-million cash fund from its parent company iVantage Corporation, Yehey.com might finally evolve into the primary Filipino portal for online advertisements and e-commerce payment transactions.
And that’s a cause for a YEHEY!
Plans for the portal include a major facelift to become an online magazine and marketing solutions provider having world-class standards. In partnership with Google, Yehey! …read more

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Volcanologists continue to monitor Mayon Volcano since it starting erupting quietly last Friday. Residents have been asked to evacuate the villages at the foot of the mountain as lava flowed down the slopes and clouds of ash were seen shooting into the sky Wednesday morning.
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) raised alert level 3 on the volcano. Phivolcs director Renato Solidum said the volcano is showing signs of a major eruption, citing events leading to similar major eruptions in 1993, 2000, and 2001.
Volcanologist Ed Laguerta said Sunday that red-hot boulders, some the size of cars, broke into smaller …read more

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You never know where wanderings take you.
I took a couple of days off to work on this. It’s a personal project which caused me some late nights, not being highly experienced in coding. But the bones are there and I like how it came out. In the course of my wandering in the name of that hobby (scrapbooking, not coding), I came across this guy’s blog:

His name is Paolo Liloc, and he has self-published the book you see above.

Professor Stickman lectures on 12 lessons that he’s learned from life. Humorous and practical, funny and imaginative, this book is sure to …read more

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He has no script. He has but one camera, one light and one location. He is today’s independent filmmaker. And he is the future of Philippine cinema.

That’s how the independent film director is described in ABS-CBN’s feature about Cinemalaya 2006, which will show screenings of the ten finalists in the short film and full feature film category from the 17th to the 23rd of July at athe Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).
That this is the exact opposite of the Manila Film Fest (which feature celebrity-studded films by the mega-showbiz networks) this is pure competition for art’s sake.
In the spirit …read more

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I’ve never heard of Bob Ong before this week, but Ruel S. De Vera of the Sunday Inquirer seems to be in the know.
According to De Vera, Bob Ong is “a publishing phenomenon whose blockbuster book sales are equaled only by the anonymity he maintains”. Apparently, the author hides behind the name Bob Ong and no one knows who is really is. His publisher protects his identity, although Ong says some of his fans have met him. This lends an air of mystery and people become more intrigued and curious. Those who read his work say that his writings are …read more

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Continued airstrikes prompted the Philippine Embassy in Lebanon to call for evacuation of the more than 30,0000 Filipino overseas workers still trapped in the country. Unfortunately, because of limited resources, we do not have any ships or military aircraft that could be flown into Lebanon so the embassy has asked the Philippine consul in Syria to find a chartered ship for the Filipinos.
DFA spokesperson Gilberto Asuque said the two possible evacuation routes remained the Beirut-Cyprus route by sea and the Beirut-Syria route by land, on trucks and buses. Although land evacuations are riskier than sea, it costs much less than …read more

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