Blue Pencil Chronicles

Ma’am Janette Toral tagged me earlier and it prompted me to write about this topic. Truth be told, I got a lot of insights from the last iBlog Mini held at the College of Law–brief as my stay is–and it prompted me to be more aware of the potentials of blogging during Elections in the country. Personally, as a (hopefully) future media practitioner, one of the fields I want to dabble in is Election reporting. I don’t know why but I get the kicks out of the election season. Maybe because it’s a sign that somehow, even after all the totalitarian measures imposed upon us by the government, the elections still gives us hope and the voice to speak out what’s on top of our heads.

Anyway, going back to Ma’am Janette’s tag, elections are a hotbed of personalities slugging it out to be the next people’s choice. But more vital than personalities, I believe, are issues and their responses to them. One barometer for gauging the viability of a candidate for a certain post is his stance on pertinent issues that concern the nation.

If I were to interview any candidate, here are a string of issues I would want them to have an opinion on:

• Foreign Policy. It’s as important as any other issue out there. Will the next president still allow himself/herself to be controlled by foreign forces (IMF/WB) or countries (US/Europe)? I believe we’ve had enough of the influence the States has over our domestic policies. It’s time to act on our own. How about JPEPA? OFWs and the Brain Drain? Exchange Rate? (more…)

So yeah, basically, once again, just like before, I bailed out on my blogging. Bleh. Hehe. I just couldn’t stand seeing that last entry over and over again for the past week so that basically pressured me to blog tonight. Haha. And what I’m gonna post isn’t very sensical, but a friend interviewed me about blogging for her Media Ethics class, and I’m posting my answers here. Yay, how fun! Now go read. (more…)

Hi guys! I apologize for the lack of updates these past few days. As always, I’ve been pretty much caught up with a lot of real-life stuff that I tend to neglect this blog of mine. In any case, to make up for the lost days of blogging, I decided to dip my toes in seemingly unchartered territory this time–video blogging.

Coy aka Cokskiblue has been encouraging bloggers to VLOG quite persistently, and I told him I’d try it out soon. Well, this is it! My video-editing skills were getting rusty but I managed to pull it off. Sorry if the video shots are quite amateurish, I’m not used to taping myself and shooting stuff. I’m more of a model than a… uhmmm… host. Hehe. I’m that camera-shy.

So without further ado, I’m proud to present… Blue Pencil VLOGS Episode 1 entitled “Joaqs”. Oh and by the way, please do excuse my twang. Hahaha. =P

And yes, in case you’re wondering, those are my geeky glasses. =P

Just like I mentioned in my first-ever weekend wrap-up, we scoured my hometown last Sunday in search of survey respondents for this semester’s Extension Program of the Communication Research Department of the UP College of Mass Communication. Every semester they perform studies on topics relating to communication and media, and this semester’s study focused on the Filipinos’ Reception of TV News.

The recent word-war and mudslinging between the two giant TV networks proved to be quite a blessing in disguise for us CommRes 101 students who were tasked to perform the data gathering part of the study. I’m not really keen on doing this data gathering thing, especially that my people skills seem to dwindle as I grow older. Thankfully all our neighbors were cooperative and in fact were very enthusiastic to be surveyed.

Whenever people would see us with our survey forms and the moment we ask them if they are willing to be interviewed about the local TV News Programs they watch, they would quickly retort, “Is this AGB?” in Filipino. If there’s anything positive that this recent controversy has wrought, it’s probably the fact that people became more aware of the workings behind these media companies. (more…)

So yeah, since weekend wrap-ups, round-ups and syntheses are the latest fad online, I jump in the bandwagon and provide you with my own version of a weekend recap. And this being a personal blog, I intend to do this in the old-fashioned, journalese, web-log kind of way, the one we got used to when blogging was just in its nurturing stage.

To tell you honestly I missed blogging by just simply narrating what transpired in my day, so that’s why I’m doing this. I don’t know why I keep on trying to be profound in coming up with “articles” instead of just “entries” for this blog. So suffice to say, this segment will attempt to fill that void.

Let’s do this, guys! (more…)

Note: This is the Third part of a Three-part series on the Trinoma Bloggers’ Food Tour. Part 2 is here. Part 1 is here.

Our tummies were filled and we have a lot of restaurants to thank for that. However, the tour didn’t come with only the good stuff, because we experienced certain disappointments and frustrations as well.

Thank God our group wasn’t part of the bunch who went to Cabalen and got a mouthful from the manager. Come to think of it, even if my group insisted on going to Cabalen I think I know better because I’ve had some dining horrors with them before, plus I’ve had enough of Filipino food and would like to try something new for the tour. I love their Crispy Kangkong, though, simply one for the curious taste buds.

I enjoyed the Food Tour experience a lot therefore there weren’t much blunders. Here’re the restos that didn’t quite make an impression on me: (more…)

Note: This is the Second part of a Three-part series on the Trinoma Bloggers’ Food Tour. Part 1 is here.

After digesting nearly a dozen kind of cuisine in the food tour, it’s time to digest the impressions the different restaurants have made upon the bloggers. Different tastes and different flavors have melded so succinctly in my mouth that I tend to confuse one restaurant’s food over the other.

This part will showcase the most-recommended restaurants we’ve been to based on their food, the restaurant’s ambiance and their crew’s service. The next and last part will be for the bad publicity present to you the restaurants that didn’t make quite an impression on me, as well as on other bloggers. So here goes! (more…)

As most of my Twitter followers know, I lost my precious wallet the night I went home from the Trinoma Bloggers’ Food Tour. Of course the apparent conclusion that the heavens have smitten me because of being such a glutton during the tour rang up. But no matter how I looked at it, I could not hide the frustration and, quite pathetically, the pain that something so precious to me got lost.

I don’t quite know what happened. I may have dropped it in the jeepney on the way home. It may have slipped out of my jeans’ back pocket. Somebody may have stolen it. I don’t know. What I do know is that it’s gone.

Of course, had this been any other precious thing, I wouldn’t sound this pathetic. It didn’t have that much money in it, just enough to make me survive for a day or two. It wasn’t such an expensive wallet either, it’s just a Girbaud synthetic leather wallet given to me by a dear friend around three or four years ago. (more…)

Seven Years. Wow. That’s a long time. I can’t believe 7 years have already gone since we toppled a corrupt president, only to replace him with someone far worse than we’ve imagined.

I fondly remember that day. The people went out the streets in protest of the rejection of the Senator-juries to open the “Second Envelope,” an evidence rumored to be so compelling that it would assure the impeachment of then President Estrada.

I was actually frustrated that the revolt ended quickly. I wanted to stay tune to the TV more and see what else would transpire. My aunt, who then works at Robinson’s Galleria, always had fond stories to share. She had a hard time going to work everyday because of the volume of people assembline at the EDSA shrine, but she said that seeing the Filipino people in solidarity made the trip to work a bit less tedious. (more…)

At first, pigging out on over thirty different restaurants in a short span of time sounded like a good idea. But when it was time for the Trinoma Bloggers’ Food Tour last January 9, I believe everyone would agree that feeling satiated would be an understatement. Bellies bulged. Mouths were filled. Stomachs were filled to the brim. I swear a bucket would’ve come in handy that day, if only to throw out all the food we’ve tasted from the previous restaurants just to taste the next ones.

I believe I have tasted every possible dish available for pork, beef, chicken and shrimp out there. There were just a lot of food and cuisines around, all ready for tasting and sampling. But before I get to my reviews of the 32 or so restaurants who participated in the event, let me cue you in on my whole experience, and possibly tell a few behind-the-scene stories as well.

I was at the event quite early as always, but I found out some bloggers were even a lot earlier than me. And I thought I was punctual. Karlo arrived at Trinoma at around 10am. Excited? Not much.

Registration was a breeze and I was assigned to the Blue Group (which, as we found out later in the event, didn’t have that much significance anyway). They served cocktails near the registration booth, as well as some food so that we could eat properly (perhaps they foresaw that some restos were gonna feed us words instead of actual food). Several minutes later and the place was jampacked with bloggers, all hungry and ready to take on the food fest that’s coming their way. (more…)