Category Archives: Uncategorized

Uncategorized

Book Giveaway at One More Page

My book blog is six months old and to celebrate this, I’m hosting my first book giveaway. :) Feed is one of my favorite books of the year so far, and when I heard that Fully Booked had copies, I immediately reserved two so I can give away the other one. Share the love and all, you know? They don’t need to give me club flyers to promote this book — I would have given away more if there was and if I can afford them. :P

What’s Feed about? Here’s the blurb, and related links:

Feed by Mira Grant
Book # 1 of the Newsflesh Trilogy
Published by: Orbit Books

The year was 2014. We had cured cancer. We had beat the common cold. But in doing so we created something new, something terrible that no one could stop. The infection spread, virus blocks taking over bodies and minds with one, unstoppable command: FEED.

NOW, twenty years after the Rising, Georgia and Shaun Mason are on the trail of the biggest story of their lives-the dark conspiracy behind the infected. The truth will out, even if it kills them.

→ Read my review of Feed at Pinoy Pop
→ Read an excerpt of Feed

Zombies + blogging = all sorts of awesomeness, and there’s not even a lot of gore. :) And would you just look at that bloody RSS logo on the cover? :)

How to enter the contest: just leave a comment on this entry (not this entry at Refine Me, but that entry on my book blog okay?), with an answer to this question: What would be your weapon of choice in the case of a zombie apocalypse? (I am serious about this question, I want to know your answers!)

To get an extra entry, just share this contest on Twitter (see that retweet button on that entry?). Leave a comment with the link to your tweet, or just include my twitter handle in your tweet — @tinamats .

More chances! Blog about this contest and leave a comment on this entry with the link to your blog! You can answer the zombie apocalypse entry there, too, if you want. :D I’d love to read your entries.

The contest will is open up to June 30, 2010. This contest is open to residents of the Philippines only (because international shipping is a bit too steep for my funds).

Zombies and blogging: how can you resist that combination?

Uncategorized

Commercial from The Sandwich Guy

Just a little public service announcement as a favor to a friend. :) Some of you may have heard of the “phlegm incident” from a branch of The Sandwich Guy. It’s too long to post here, but to make the long story short, someone ordered a sandwich from this branch, and found out there was “phlegm” in the other half of the sandwich.

Yeah, I know, gross, right? I bet not even Rocky Patel cigars can take the taste off that, but then again what do I know?

Anyway, if you search around the Net, I think you’ll find enough info on that. But as I said, as a favor to a friend who is the marketing guy of Sandwich Guy (redundancy alert?), I’m posting their statement on this incident to help clear the air up.

Oh, and I’m removing the names, just because. Like I said, if you search around, you’ll probably find it.

The Sandwich Guy abides by the high standards of the food industry in sanitation and food handling. All its branches have an open kitchen and are designed primarily for customers to view the preparation of their sandwiches from start to finish. All its crew inside the kitchen wear aprons and hairnets. When the crew handles food, they wear food grade gloves. All the crew has passed the training for the sanitation and food handling as upheld in the food industry and approved by the franchisor.

The ingredients of the country tuna sandwich include cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce which are vegetables with high water content. If these vegetables come in contact with freshly grilled warm wheat bread, it will give off some of its water content. The said customer states in his email that it was a colorless liquid that he found on his sandwich, the same colorless liquid which a cut cucumber, tomato or lettuce will give off when exposed to a warm surface such as a freshly grilled wheat bread, which we already explained to him.

The major allegations of the customer in his email blast against The Sandwich Guy are false. We have always been available to meet with him to try to address this issue in a professional way but after his email blast, we have no choice but to file legal charges against him.

To all our valued customers, we thank you for your continued patronage. We assure you that we are serving fresh and healthy food that you have been enjoying in the same high standards of sanitation and food handling upheld in the food industry. Thank you very much.

There are some lessons that can be learned from this situation:

  1. Always make sure to check what you’re eating.
  2. If there’s a way to fix things silently without any scandal or without involving other people, do so. It would save so much time and energy from both parties.
  3. Sometimes an apology is enough. Really. And maybe some kind of compensation.
  4. Whatever is posted online will forever be found online. So be careful what you email or post.

Okay commercial off, now back to regular programming. :)

Uncategorized

PinoyWrimos.com

2 Comments

I’m late a few days but better late than never. :) Everyone knows how much of a NaNoWriMo geek/fan/enthusiast I am, with all the early month posts and preparations and my sudden absence from blogging every November. It just feels so much like a holiday everytime November rolls around for the past four years — this is the only time I get to really write about anything I want, and find a way to insert wholesale fashion jewelry in a story, no matter how irrelevant or sudden it may seem. And on my fifth year of NaNoWriMo and my second year of being a Municipal Liaison, I thought of bringing everything up a notch. :D

Sooo…welcome to the second home of the Filipino NaNoWriMo community: PINOYWRIMOS.COM. :D To quote my welcoming message:

And we’re LIVE! Finally, after so many months of delays, the official website of the Philippine National Novel Writing Month community is now open!

If you’re a newbie to the entire NaNoWriMo thing, I suggest you read this or this first to get to know what this entire thing is, and then sign up and join the fun! If you’re an oldie, WELCOME BACK! :)

2007 has been a good year for the PinoyWrimos, with the meet ups and the seminars and the anthology, plus our very good rankings (as mentioned here) and 2008 is shaping to be an even better year! It’s the tenth anniversary of NaNoWriMo which means the NaNo HQ has a lot of stuff in store for everyone, and the local community is bringing it up a notch this year — which means, more fun stuff, more meet ups and hopefully, more winners! :)

This site will be a stop of all things NaNoWriMo for the Filipino participants. Whether you’re a Filipino Wrimo in the Philippines or a Filipino Wrimo outside of the Philippines or a half (even a fourth or an eighth) Filipino Wrimo OR you’re a Wrimo who is in the Philippines, you’re welcome here! Bookmark this site or add the blog to your RSS reader and get the latest news and events in the PinoyWrimo community. Browse around the site and get tips on writing and surviving the November noveling month and resources to help you with your adventure on November. If you’re short on inspiration, you can grab plot ninjas or read through some of the excerpts of the past novels of the PinoyWrimos!  If you’re interested in helping the community out (as we’re a volunteer powered community), you’re welcome to do so too!

Make your presence known at the NaNoWriMo boards (yes, it’s up!). Pretty soon, NaNoWriMo will come, and we’re going to have the best November yet. :D

So come on now, join the fun! Visit the boards, the site (and link us too — we’d really appreciate that! Again, it’s www.pinoywrimos.com!). If you’re a kind hearted person who would like to help out a group of writers, then we’d also welcome your help. :D

Expect more NaNoWriMo related posts soon…but I need to finish my blogging debt of events that happened recently. I promise, I will!

Uncategorized

Calling Cards and Logos

3 Comments

Early during my high school years, when having a computer is still a big thing and the Internet is not as popular, one of the things that we all love exchanging with each other besides letters and stationeries are calling cards. Weirdly shaped, differently designed calling cards that only contain our names, addresses and landline numbers. No cellphone numbers or email addresses yet because they’re not yet in; the most you can have in your calling card is a pager number, which only a few people did not have.

Of course I used to have one, and it was made in good old Microsoft Word…or was it Excel? Haha, anyway, I lost all of them, and I never got to make anything else because I never saw the need for it when I stepped into college. Oh, and I never got my own calling cards back in my first job because I resigned before I could have one made, and the only time I have my own calling card now at work, which I rarely use and has the wrong landline number. -_-;;

I meant to make blog calling cards for the next blogger event so people could remember my URL, which I never made because I got too busy with work and I totally lacked the design skills to make a kick-ass logo design. ^^; I could make a totally plain one with just my name and my URL but that’s just…a waste of paper. There are professional people and places to get nice business cards done, like LogoYes. LogoYes specializes in logo design, which can be used in your business cards to give them a professional feel. LogoYes provides a quick and easy to use step-by-step program tha helps you create your own logo AND business card. There’s a wide variety of logos for you to choose from with different themes to fit your business need. Also, there’s different layouts of calling cards to help you pick how you want your card to look like. There’s not too much fancy stuff, but the quality of design is pretty good. Look at this design I made for Godchicks:

Calling Card

Looks nice, doesn’t it? Not to flashy, but good enough. These card designs aren’t free though (Logo designs for $69 while Logo and Cards for $99), and it’s not that cheap for simple blog cards like that but I think, from the ease and flexibility for how things are done, it’s worth the bucks. :)

Uncategorized

Philippine Blog Awards 2008

Philippine Blog Awards 2008

And it’s back! :)

To quote (because they explained it way better than I can):

The Philippine Blog Awards aims to recognize notable Filipino-owned blogs in their respective niches. With topics ranging from the arts, culture, technology and politics, Filipinos have become more abreast because of the fast growing blogging industry here and abroad. The Philippine Blog Awards is a venue to showcase notable blogs with quality content that engages readers from around the globe.

Now on its second year, the Philippine Blog Awards continues to recognize Filipino blogging talent from around the world. This year, the awards extends its reach towards network blogs written by Filipinos, blogs written by mainstream media practitioners as well as local corporations that use blogs are effective communication tools.

The awards night is scheduled sometime in the second quarter of 2008, but volunteers and sponsors are already welcome. :) I’ve already volunteered, and based from experience, being an awards night volunteer is a fun thing — you get to see all the things going on behind the scenes, work with a lot of great people and everyone’s input is always welcome so as we could come up with a great awards night. :)

You may also help out by posting an entry on your blog about the awards night (just like this), or creating a PBA 2008 badge for use in other blogs (which will be credited to you, of course).

For news/updates about the Philippine Blog Awards, visit the official website or add the official blog to your RSS feed. :)

See you guys there!

Uncategorized

A Writing Request

4 Comments

Hi friends,

Just this month, a big literary event happened. You may not know about it, but as of this counting, there are about 300+ Filipinos involved in it. This November, the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) happened. NaNoWriMo is a month-long challenge for everyday people who ever wanted to write a novel, a.k.a. the one day novelist. You know, those people who say, “One day, I’m going to write a novel.” NaNoWriMo provides you with that one day. This is a challenge to write 50,000 words in the span of 30 days — approximately 1,667 words per day. This is one of the biggest writing events of the year participated in by 100,000 people of all ages from all over the world.

In case you don’t know (or maybe you haven’t been paying attention), I am the Municipal Liaison (ML) for the Philippines for NaNoWriMo 2007. Being an ML means I was put in charge in encouraging these fine Pinoy novelists for the month of November, as well as organize events for them. These writers have toiled their way to writing a novel this November, and even if some did not reach the 50,000 word mark, they are still considered as winners for the simple fact that they allowed themselves to be challenged by NaNoWriMo this month. This, then, deserves some sort of a victory party. The first ever victory party of the Filipino NaNoWriMo community to celebrate the end of the event, and to celebrate our own personal writing victories.

In connection with this, I, as the Municipal Liaison of the Filipino NaNoWriMo community, would like to ask for some help from any of the readers of my blog. See, although we are starting to be supported by a really great group, we are not funded by anyone. Most of the participants are students, and I am not as filthy rich as I want to. :D So I am asking for your kind help for any kind of prize donations that you may want to give to inspire these novelists. These prizes will be used as a raffle for all the participants who will join the victory party tentatively scheduled on December 8. These prizes could be anything that would inspire a writer to continue writing, such as:

  • a journal
  • a nice pen
  • a writing book/manual — especially a copy of No Plot, No Problem!
  • a book written during NaNoWriMo and published
  • a novel about writing or reading (Jasper Fforde, anyone?)
  • any book would do, actually :D
  • coffee shop GCs, since writers like having write-a-thon’s at coffee shops
  • bookstore GCs
  • food – chocolates, potato chips — writers have to eat too
  • bookmarks
  • anything from The Office of Letters and Light Store (which ships here, I think)

Possible prizes are not limited to that. It could be as simple as a pin or as personal as a handwritten inspirational letter to a participant for NaNo 2008. It does not have to be as expensive as say, tickets to a Van Halen tour, just something a budding novelist could use to inspire him to continue to write. Cash donations will also be accepted, although I’m kind of wary with that. But if you do decide to give that, I assure you that (insert number here) stomachs will be happily filled by December 8.

If you would be kind enough to help me out and continue to inspire these Pinoy writers, kindly post a comment here so I can contact you, or just use the contact form and please put NaNoWriMo 2007 on the subject field so I know it’s about NaNo.

Thank you for reading this post, and I hope to hear from any of you readers (however few you may be) soon. :)

Tina (tinamats)
ML for the Philippines
NaNoWriMo 2007

Disclaimer: This is not an official NaNoWriMo site, nor is this request sponsored by NaNoWriMo. The content has not been reviewed by National Novel Writing Month. For more information on National Novel Writing Month, visit www.nanowrimo.org.

Uncategorized

The Holy Rosary Podcast

The month of October reminds me of three things: lots of horror stories and Halloween specials on TV, my dad’s birthday and the month of the Holy Rosary. I remember back in high school, everytime it was October, we’d be asked to decorate our bulletin board for October and put up a small altar at one corner of the classroom and pray all five mysteries for the day of the rosary. I end up leading the rosary on most days, which I don’t really mind, and which is also why I memorized all the prayers and the mysteries.

But…I’d have to admit. I’m not the biggest fan of the Holy Rosary. :-s I liked that I can do it, but I don’t really like doing it. I’m not proud of this, and I’m trying my best to learn to love this form of prayer. I don’t doubt how powerful praying the rosary can be (and it really helped me calm down and be still in God during the time I was waiting for my exam results in my current employer); it’s just that sometimes it can get so repetitive that I get too antsy and I feel like my prayers aren’t getting through.

But I’m trying harder now. I’m trying harder to appreciate the rosary for all it is worth, because I know that it’s a beautiful prayer as a whole. Plus there are also these things, which Mr. Matt Smith from Lifeteen.com pointed out:

  1. The rosary isn’t all about me. (True!)
  2. A lot can happen when I pray for 20 minutes (approximately how long praying the entire rosary will take)
  3. It’s an interactive Biblical experience (gives me time to reflect at the important parts of Jesus’ life — yes, the rosary is still about Jesus, despite the number of Hail Mary’s prayed)
  4. It can make ordinary situations extraordinary (because I spent it in prayer)
    .

Like I said, I’m trying harder. Which is why I’d like to thank Jun and Fr. Stephen for starting the Filipino Holy Rosary (or Santo Rosaryo) podcast. For everyone who wants to pray the rosary but is not quite familiar with it, here’s a guide for you. You may download these podcasts, put them in your mp3 player and just pray with it while you walk, commute, drive or work or while going through your favorite hobby shop. You can use this to teach kids or students how to pray the rosary in Filipino, or have a group of friends say the prayer together. You can send these to your Filipino friends abroad too. :)

If you’d prefer the English version, you may download podcasts at RosaryArmy.com. I will be putting these up for download by tomorrow at my Multiply too, so you can also download it from there in case you can’t access the two sites. :)

Uncategorized

Reasons to watch the Switchfoot concert on September 10

3 Comments

Don’t tell me you still don’t have a ticket for Switchfoot‘s concert in Manila on September 10 at the Cuneta Astrodome! If you are still thinking of buying a ticket, here are some reasons why you should watch this concert.

1. Because Jerome Fontamillas, their keyboardist, is a Filipino from Pasay City who moved to San Diego. Filipino pride, mehn!

2.Because they might sing something like this:

[youtube]heiswnjSVuU[/youtube]

I don’t really like Beyonce or the song, but this one just rocks. Agree?

3. And finally, the biggest reason of all is this:

[youtube]EUM5pY1xK6A[/youtube]

For every ticket you buy, you are helping the International Justice Mission to save exploited children in the Philippines. For those who don’t know, IJM is a group of lawyers and volunteers who help in stopping child trafficking, prostitution and get minors who are convicted of crime out of prison where they shouldn’t be in because of their age and into better places like juvenile centers where they can recover. By just buying a P250 ticket, it will go a long long way!

So what are you waiting for? Mosh pit and Floor seat tickets are sold out, but you can still get 1000, 800, 600, 400 and 250 tickets! The venue is pretty small, so don’t worry about not being able to see them perform, because you will still be able to. :) Reserve your tickets from me, or you may also contact other Street Team members in your area to get your tickets.

See you at the concert!

Uncategorized

Switchfoot Mosh Pit Tickets Promo

If you still don’t have a mosh pit ticket, then this should convince you! :) For all mosh pit ticket buyers until August 6, you will get the following:

  • Free limited edition poster autographed by the entire band for every mosh pit ticket purchased.
  • Free Sunchild Redeemer T-Shirt for every two tickets purchased (Sunchild Redeemer shirts were sold during the Reuben Morgan worship two years ago.)

This promo is only up to AUGUST 6, 2007, only for MOSH PIT TICKETS (Php 1,400 each). So what are you waiting for? Get your tickets now!

We have very friendly Street Team members who will accommodate your ticket questions. :D

Fans who purchased the tickets before this promo is announced is also included in the promo, so don’t worry about not getting your posters. See you at the concert!

Uncategorized

Off to Sydney we go!

7 Comments

After a long short while of preparations, I actually made it on time to launch this newest blog in the Refine Me family. Friends, I welcome you to my yearlong mission, my first ever travel escapade that I will save up for with my own money, plan for and will make sure it comes true:

Mission: Sydney
A Pilgrim’s Dream to visit the Harbour City and join WYD 2008.

It’s exactly one year before the WYD 2008 in Sydney, and I’ve mentioned it a couple of times before: I’m going to Sydney in 2008 to be a part of this event, and visit Hillsong Church on the side. :) Itaga sa bato!

WYD 2008 in SydneyAnd just like the geek blogger I am, I just had to document this journey. So hello, Mission: Sydney, my blog to share with the entire blogosphere all about my pre-, during and post-WYD2008 adventures (yes, even if I have not yet saved and have not yet registered, I’m claiming that I will be able to go there. :D Wohoo!). :)

So all Sydney/WYD2008 related posts will be in Mission: Sydney, starting now. I’ve got a year to get ready for this, and if you want to join me in this adventure, let me know so we can plan together!

This is the great adventure! Off we go!