Filipina Soul

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

May 2007 bring you health and greater joy than the past year!

Like most Filipinos, here at FS we try to be lighthearted and fun in our take of things.

And, like most patriotic/nationalist Filipinos (and I mean this in the most positive sense), we don’t back out from discussing relevant issues. Here’s a list of issues we looked at -

1. The decline of education.

2. Is our country really poor?

3. In search of kin of airline crash victim

4. Six Million Filipino kids malnourished

5. The National College Entrance Exam

6. The Philippine Economy is healthy.

7. An appeal to Manny Pacquiao

8. The Philippines’ best universities

9. Social relevance and the Filipino music

10. Pinoy pride

Continue reading The heavier side of FS 2006

Part of the joy of blogging is getting around to other blogs and interacting with them. Here’s a sampling of Filipino blogs we visited and those who came knocking on our doors, in no particular order (we’re not playing faves, ‘k, coz we really love the variety of Filipino blogs we’ve interacted with).

Arts and Literature

• 1.Notes from the Peanut Gallery by Dean Francis Alfar. He writes like he’s writing a literary and yet too like he’s just conversing with you. Riveting, was what I said then. Still is.
• 2.Philippine Art Scene and Gibbs Cadiz are great places for the art afficionados to check out.
• 3 . The art of Carlo Magno

Photo Blogs

• 1. Shoot & Scrap’s Jeff Lopez won Canon’s “Faces of Manila” Photo contest.
• 2. Snapshots of home is a post I made of several really really great photo-blogs: Manila Daily Photo is from the eye of someone who roams Manila. Eight Frames is provocative.
• 3. Kulay as I wrote -you want to study the photos like you do a great painting.

Foodie Blogs

• 1. Looking for Filipino recipes on the web? There’s a great list of blogs on this post.
• 2. The Jesuit Gourmet.
• 3. There was a Lasang Pinoy Blogging Event too!
• 4. The Pinoy Cook.
• 5. Dessert comes first, at least for an FS’er.
• 6. Pair your food with good wine.

My two cups o’ caffeine: Interviewing other bloggers

• 1.Maricris Sarino, advocate for Filipino pride, like the abaca for Yabang Pinoy campaign.
• 2. Ruth Schaffer of b5media has Let’s Visit Asia and Eating Fabulous. We talked at length here and here .
• 3. Angelo Fernandez a co-b5er writes NBA obsessed and shared two cups with him here and here.

Continue reading Filipina Soul pays tribute to Pinoy bloggers

Noemi Lardizabal-Dado, writing for Pinoy Food Photoblog, features the Vigan original empanada that can be found at the Mall of Asia. Honestly, I’ve never even known that Vigan’s empanada was any different from the others.

From the photos, it looks like each pastry has a whole egg in it. Interesting. I’ve never had it so I don’t know how it tastes. But, if ever I find myself at the Mall of Asia, I’ll hunt down this store to treat myself to it. Oh, the empanadas are as fresh as one can get since they’re cooked right in the store.

via Pinoy Food Photoblog

Tags: Vigan empanada, Filipino food

Yeepe! recently announced the launch of its newest online service, Yeepe Power Search.

Yeepe Power Search, is a tool that searches Yeepe’s entire site database consists of all filipino related websites.

Filipino webmasters can add “Yeepe Power Search” to their site and provide their users to search the Filipino Directory and generate relevant results right from their own homepage.

Yeepe.com is an online service that seeks to organize both Philippine and non-Philippine related information. You can find maps, images, jokes, an English-Tagalog dictionary, chat forums and much more.

via PR Leap

Tags: Yeepe, Philippine technology, Philippine search engine

On Christmas Day, after a bountiful feast for lunch, I watched the ABS-CBN show Wowowee with my in-laws. If you’ve seen this show hosted by Willie Revillame, you know that its whole point is to give money away.

Such is the generosity of the show’s donors that people are in line to get into it for days on end. For some, it’s the only way they can see to get out of poverty.

Where does the money come from?

From what I understand, there are corporate donors who give millions of pesos in cash, as well as house-and-lot packages, tricycles, mini-grocery stores and a whole lot more. There are also the generous balikbayan members of the audience. These countrymen of ours who come home from abroad to visit their families are seated in a special section of the show. I believe they pay an entrance fee for the privilege of being an arm’s length from the action. (If you’re interested in being among them, my sister-in-law said that you should call your travel agent to arrange for an appointment or ticket. This is not the official word, so if you know this to be right or wrong, do tell us.)

Continue reading ABS-CBN’s Wowowee

As the year winds down, we’d like to take a look at some of the newsworthy events we covered here at Filipina Soul.

Sports:

Filipinos did well in the International Pool Tour 8-Ball Championship in Las Vegas. The World Pool Championship was held in Manila.

Manny “The Pacman” Pacquiao fast became a boxing legend.

Filipino swimmers at the 30th Southeast Asian Age-Group Swimming Championships brought home the gold.

Continue reading Filipina Soul News of the Year 2006

I can’t believe it’s here! My favorite holiday of the year!

It’s been a crazy pre-Christmas week for me but I hope to get some rest for the next two days. We’ll see. Yesterday was the last day of work (yoohoo!) and getting everything done before the week-long holiday was tiresome. But DH and I did go to a date and saw the Nutcracker by the Russian ballet. Just dazzling! Today, our church went out to bless two nursing homes - sang to them, made them laugh, prayed for them. Tonight at 11 p.m., my youth group/band just finished practicing for a song they composed for tomorrow’s Christmas service. Really cool, and we’re so proud of them. In between that my dear daughter (DD) and I scoured the city for a white dress she has to wear as an angel tomorrow. Yes, I know. All the racks have been ransacked and it’s a rarity now, that dress. Found it though. Oops, need to wash that first! So it’s past midnight now, and I’m blogging my last posts before I take a break.

Tomorrow is Christmas eve. There’s a whole day of church tomorrow and we’re having a huge celebration/presentation/ play. A luncheon and a birthday dinner will make for a really long day.

Continue reading What a way to start Christmas

I’m off to have a break for Christmas. I wish you all a very merry Christmas with your families and loved ones!

Maligayang Pasko, mga kababayan!

Image: Gertrud Junker

As the year winds down, we’d like to revisit the posts we did here at Filipina Soul. Here are some of the personalities we featured this year:

Sports:

Efren “Bata” Reyes, The Magician of pool
Athletes at ASIAN Games (here and here)
Manny Pacquiao (here, here, here)

Music and Entertainment:

Pops Fernandez
Lea Salonga
Jericho Rosales
Kuh Ledesma
Sarah Geronimo
Continue reading Personalities of the Year 2006 at Filipina Soul