Mary Jane's Niche

First of all I’d like to say sorry to all those who have lost their loved ones because of typhoon Ondoy. If you guys want to help out and share your blessings these links here you might wanna check out. Thank you!

So…I have not blogged for almost  three weeks! I have been so busy with work, my studies and activities with the Singles for Christ and the Iloilo Bloggers that I have neglected my blog. Anyway I’m here to welcome October! Can you believe it? The days are just passing by so fast. And I’m getting chubbier too. I really need to diet diet diet and exercise! And I’m also here to recount the things that I’ve done last September.

Last September 21st, the Iloilo Bloggers met for the third time at Joey’s Pizzeria. Contrary to what I’ve heard, Joey Pizzeria’s pizzas are actually yummy! Yes yummy. Lol. We discussed about our activities for the upcoming Iloilo IT Week Celebration and some of our plans for the group. And I also met more members of the org that day. As well as Junelle’s cute babies – Hannah and Hector.

And last September 28th I attended Ms. Janette Toral’s SEO Workshop. I only know basic SEO stuff so I’m grateful for all the stuffs that Ms. JT taught us that day , err I mean night. I’ll be using the tips I’ve learned one thing at a time until I get better at SEO. It’s really useful for my line of job too. Again thank you Ms. Janette!

Then the next day, September 29th I went to Robinson’s Place to check out the lectures and exhibits of the Iloilo IT Week Celebration. The Iloilo Bloggers were also given the chance to have lunch with Ms. JT, Ms. Aileen Apollo, and Jay de Jesus. Thanks to Green Mango and Marcos for the lunch! The food was totally awesome and I’ll definitely have lunch their again. Affordable too. We went back to Robinson’s later in the afternoon to listen to Ms. JT and Ms. Aileen’s lectures. Thanks to them more students now know about blogging and Google Adsense. Hopefully our group – the Iloilo Bloggers – will have more members soon. And I’d also like to thank Nang Claire for being patient with us. Kaya ta na Nang next time ah!

So that’s it, I still have to pack for my Hinigaran trip tomorrow. Tim, Sis Mira, Bro Art and I are attending the Singles for Christ’s Western Visayas Regional Conference.

I’ll leave you with this photos. Enjoy!

Original post can be found at SkyscraperCity.  Source: The Guardian Iloilo.

The 4th Iloilo Information Technology (IT) Week on September 28-30 will highlight jobs and business prospects in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry.

This year’s theme “Facing Global Challenges through I.T.” focuses on the opportunities for employment and economic advancement brought about by the ICT sector. The three-day event will feature exhibits, lectures, competitions and jobs fair.

The Iloilo Federation for Information Technology (IFIT) in cooperation with the city and provincial governments and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI-Iloilo) will spearhead the IT Week activities at Robinsons Place here.

The Iloilo IT Week is an annual event that brings together schools, business and government to celebrate the development of the ICT industry.

IFIT is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization founded in 2006 to develop the ICT sector in Iloilo through an active collaboration of the triumvirate of academe-government-industry. It seeks to help transform Iloilo into an ICT investment destination and major ICT and IT-enabled services (ITES) hub through proactive intervention in human resource development.

Dr. Adrian Arcelo, head of IFIT research team, will present in the afternoon of September 28 the result of the Iloilo ICT Human Resource Survey conducted by IFIT and funded by the provincial government and DTI-Iloilo.

Dr. Gregg Gabison of Cebu Educational Development Foundation for Information Technology (CEDF-IT) will also present the Philippine Information Technology General Certification Exam (Phil-IT GCE). It is the first certification exam for IT graduates adopted by IFIT to ensure that they master IT upon graduation. It also serves as a benchmarking tool for schools to determine areas of improvement in their ICT curriculum.

Meanwhile, ICT lectures include:

“Taking Your Business Online” in the morning of September 29 by Ramon Lizardo, president of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society and director of Yehey.com;

“Freelance 101: Turning Passion to Profit – Blogging from Home” by Ms. Janette Toral, professional writer/blogger, search engine optimization (SEO) consultant and producer of digitalfilipino.com;

“Alternative Income Opportunities on the Internet” by Ms. Aileen Apolo, consultant for the Philippines of Google; “Green ICT for Sustainable Future: ICT Environmental Sustainable Practices” by Ms. Beau Baconguis of Greenpeace, all in the afternoon of September 29; “Packaging Yourself for Success: How to Make Great First Impressions” by ePLDT Ventus; and “Don’t English Me, I’m Panic: The Importance of English Proficiency for Work” by Ms. Zsa Zsa Bacaling, marketing communications manager of Callbox, Inc., both in the morning of September 30. (PIO)

Repost of the FaceBook Invite:

Host: Iloilo Bloggers

Type: Meetings – Club/Group Meeting

Network: Global

Price: PYO (KKB)

Date: Saturday, September 5, 2009

Time: 4:00pm – 8:00pm

Location: JD Roadhouse (near San Ag)

Street: Gen Luna Street

City/Town: Iloilo, Philippines

Agenda:

More strategic planning for the org and aganda to discuss – esp. our upcoming activities.

Be there and be one of us!

Mga Sigurado nga Topiko:
- Philippine Blog Awards
- Bloggers meet-up with Luzon bloggers during IT event
- Org reg
- T-shirt printing
- ID

To those who are attending please RSVP here. You must have a FaceBook account.
Palihog hagad sang inyo mga amigo o amiga nga Iloilo Blogger man, whether official member or not – welcome gid!

Iloilo Bloggers (photo courtesy of Junelle)

I had an awesome weekend! And this post is so late. LOL. Last Saturday August 15th was the first meet-up of the Iloilo Bloggers. We had lunch at Fort San Pedro and discussed the future of our group. We elected a new set of officers and planned for future events and meet-ups. Congrats to Claire – our new President! The lunch and meeting was fun because everyone really had the best sense of humor. You should hear Efren and Junelle laugh! It was also great to see Marcos again and I’m glad to meet Antoine Greg in person. We are also recruiting Ronald to become a member of the group as well as some of Junnjun’s friends!

To know more about the meet-up you can go here and for pictures you can click here.

And last Sunday, Tim went home to Kabankalan so I had the chance to hang out with my best pals Monica and Amy. We had lunch and coffee. I haven’t seen Amy since we went to Guimaras in May so we had so much stuff to ‘talk’ about. LOL. Monica and I meet often so I don’t miss her. Joke lang Nix!harhar!

MJ, Nicay & Mimay

For more photos of my Sunday please check out my photoblog.

Calling all members of IloiloBloggers.com, we are having our very first meet-up this Saturday, August 15th so all members are invited to attend. We are having lunch at Fort San Pedro so please come on or before 12PM alright? Don’t worry about the tab because some members are going to take care of it but if you want to contribute you are very welcome to do so too. We will discuss the following agenda:

Meeting Agenda:

• Getting to know
• Event to put up
• Site / Group administrators
• Fund raising activities
• Mode of communication
• Suggestions for improvement

So for those who want to attend please RSVP here. You can also state your suggestions and expectations there. Hope to see more Iloilo Bloggers this Saturday!

“SM believes that no customer should be left behind.”

-Mr. Abraham Imas

Last Friday, July 31st, I attended SM City Iloilo’s Free WiFi Launch with the Iloilo Bloggers and some of my blogger and VA friends. It was not as great as we expected because for one it didn’t start on time but still we managed to have fun and fulfill our duties as bloggers. We took photos and now I am writing my blog post. I met more members of the Iloilo Bloggers (it was really nice to finally meet Efren, Vincent Juanga of Inicenti, Alvin of Oh My Iloilo and Vincent of ExploreAklan!) and I also saw some popular Pinoy billiard players too and an upcoming presidentiable (although he’s not part of the WiFi event). I thought the launch was for bloggers, forumers and IT people only but it actually was not. It was also for the Senior Citizens, the families of the OFWs, people from OWWA, and various IT organizations and students from the different schools here in Iloilo as well. Everyone received freebies from SM and their sponsors.  Jonha, Monica and I also won a GC courtesy of Figaro from the raffle . A Lola Techie from the Senior Citizens organization won a Nokia Phone too! Congratulations to her!

I would like to thank SM City Iloilo for inviting the Iloilo Bloggers and of course for the freebies and the free Wifi. A big thank you to all the sponsors; Jollibee (for the free meal), Netopia (for the Click Club membership card and Microsoft Training gift card), Café Celina,  Mister Donut, Our Home, Saint Café, Picture City, Bo’s Café, SM Cinema, Text Terminal, Q-Solutions, Figaro and Philcom.

Here’s a copy of the program of SM City Iloilo’s Free WiFi Launch:

SM Wi-Fi Launch

July 31, 2009

3:00            Registration

Program Proper

3:15            Opening Remarks         -Majella P. Liboon (Mall Manager, SM City Iloilo)

3:20            Message                          -Nimfa Hirang (Sales and Marketing, Philcom)

3:25            Raffle                               -15 Gcs

3:30            Message                         -Steve Santos (Operations Manager, SM Cyberzone)

Countdown to the launching of the WiFi (test the system by by connecting to the SM Website)

Smash Collection Dancers

3:45            Raffle                              -15 GCs

3:50            Live Video Conferencing with SM City Bacolod

4:10            Closing Remarks        -Abraham Imas (Educ. Supervisor, SPED, DepEd, Division of Iloilo)

Final Raffle                     1 Unit Nokia Cellphone

4:10            Seminar                          -Angelo Arendain (Network & Systems Administrator, DepEd)

Free Tutorial                -for OFWs and Elderly (Facilitated by STI College)

***the live video conference with Bacolod didn’t happen because SM City Iloilo started their program late.

And here are our photos:

And by the way I have another blog post about the event somewhere on one of my web accounts. And it isn’t as nice as this one.

UPDATE:

Because of insistent public demand (as if! LOL) Here’s the link to the not so nice blog post.

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately..

I have been busy with:

• Work.
• Studying Module 1 of Sociology 1 – Anthropology (interesting read!).
• Tim’s problem at work.
• Plurk
• Pacman (the Flash Pacman)
• Facebook
• Reading “Bakit Baliktad Magbasa ng Libro ang mga Pilipino” by Bob Ong
• The Eclipse yesterday.

I will attend:

• Bloggers Event at SM City – Iloilo on July 31^st (so if you’re a blogger or an IT person you can attend the event too by commenting here)
• The first Iloilo Bloggers meet-up on the 1^st week of August.

I want to attend:

• Wordcamp Philippines 2009 on the 19^th of September.

I watched:

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• And still watching House MD – Season 1

I want to watch:

• Up
• The Lake House

I have been listening to:

• Waking Up in Vegas by Katy Perry
• 21 Guns by Greenday
• One Love by Bob Marley
• Kristy, Are You Doing Okay by The Offspring (Tim introduced me to this song)
• Straight from the Heart by Bryan Adams

I am fascinated with:

• 2NE1 – They’re the first Kpop band that I actually liked! And it’s not only because of Sandara Park mind you, it’s because their songs are addicting.
• Nobody by the Wondergirls – major LSS (last song syndrome)

I have been wanting to meet fellow bloggers ever since I became a member of  IloiloBloggers.com. And last Saturday – July 4th at the Casino Filipino PAGCOR Bacolod I was able to meet my fellow Ilonggo bloggers! And not only that – we got to network with other bloggers from Bacolod and the Negros Island too. Add to that meeting Ms. Janette Toral in person! The event we attended was the DigitalFilipino Club & Bloggers Meet-Up which was hosted by Casino Filipino PAGCOR Bacolod.  Obviously it’s the first  bloggers networking event I have attended so I was curious what the turn out would be. It was a huge success because Casino Filipino Bacolod provided us with a delicious dinner, beer and an awesome band! Of course the freebies was one of the best parts of the night. Most of us were lucky to bring home cool stuffs given away by PAGCOR and some of us won in the raffle too. We also got to learn about the current status of the Philippine e-commerce and the blogosphere  from Ms. Janette Toral. Some online social network users and business owners attended as well to learn a thing or two about blogging from the seasoned bloggers and SEO professionals. Hope they learned something from the event and be inspired to make a blog of their own too!

Miss Janette Toral encouraged us to participate on the following activities of the DigitalFilipino Club:

• Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs 2009 Update
• DigitalFilipino Web Awards 2009
• Philippine Schools Cyberfair 2010

And guess what guys! I have finally proven that my online friends are real! Weeeeee! Which means it really is possible to make relationships online and of course nurture it by having the proper online ethics and attitude. So yes I finally got to meet Junelle of Pinay SEO (she owns a lot of blogs), Marcos of Explore Iloilo, Junnjun of Junntrekker,  Donald of Don_Ser, and Mommy Ruby of Pinay Mommy Online! It was also nice meeting Marie Claire of Maditang Pinay and Enrico Dee of Byahilo – I am a frequent visitor of their blogs.  And it was nice to see Ace again who was  a co-worker from Callbox and Tim’s classmate.  Tim got to meet his college teacher Neil Alado as well. And it was really cool to meet other bloggers from Bacolod too. Thank you for making us feel welcome guys, after all it was your meet-up not ours but still you welcomed us. We really appreciate it. Too bad Efren, Bernie and the other Iloilo Bloggers weren’t able to go. But once we have our own meet-up we’ll have fun too.

I have proven to myself that blogging is not boring because of this kind of events. As bloggers we can also  share our lives offline! I am hoping to meet more Ilonggo bloggers on our very own upcoming meet-up this August. It’s time we get ourselves organized. Hopefully everyone will cooperate and share their time. Thank you very much to Ms. Janette Toral, the DigitalFilipino Club and Casino Filipino PAGCOR Bacolod for hosting the networking event last Saturday. This will pave our way to having our own events here in Iloilo and I know it’s going to be the same in Bacolod. Hopefully we could get sponsors here. So until then see you all online and until the next event!

Here’s a glimpse of the event:

Link to this post:

http://www.maryjanecabrera.com/2009/07/07/digitalfilipino-club-networking-event/

Link to the photo album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/maryjane.cabrera/DigitalFilipinoClubAndBloggersMeetUpHostedByCasinoFilipinoPAGCORBacolod?feat=directlink