I was a finalist in the Best Personal Blog category in the recently concluded Philippine Blog Awards 2008. I wasn’t expecting to win— not when the competition was mostly made up of better bloggers— and win I did not! The fact that I made it past the long ass list of eligible blogs and into the final list surprised me, considering I’ve long stopped taking blogging seriously. There was a time when I found some sort of joy in cannibalizing and whoring my life to the public, documenting my too-occasional (drunken) mishaps (usually involving sex and/with the wrong kind of men and acne. K, so not rly acne) and throwing in half-naked pictures of myself every now and then (which surprisingly has not rendered me highly unemployable…yet). I can only run the same shtick over and over again until it gets old, really, and I’ll be the first to admit that I have little to write when it comes to other areas of interest. Let me share with you a secret, though: if you get me drunk enough, I start spewing out my life and college learnings like why I think Asian sweatshops actually do the world good or why I don’t need an imaginary friend named God. Nifty stuff, though most of the time, I end up a babbling idiot demanding for more rum.

Lately, I find myself updating mostly to meet sponsored posts deadlines (pshaw at me all you want for selling out; I’ve been at this for almost ten years and it was about time I made easy money out of it). I would like to fool myself (and you) into thinking that I’ve simply moved on to more important things, like focusing on my career (which, by the way, has got nothing to do with what I took up in college) but we all know that’s not true. I’m still very visible on the internet, polluting the e-space with my nonsense which often has nothing to do with what I do for a living.

I’m like a tin can, really. Hey, at least I’m shiny. Sometimes.

Anyway, call it corny but being a finalist was enough for me. That said, I gladly lost to Benj Espina from atheista.net (whom I went to high school with, reprazent). Two of our fellow finalists (and eventual loser— ok, no) were my good friends and co-TMB members Fritz Tentativa and Mike Villar. The awesome Bim Barbieto, another TMB member, won in the Best Hobby/Recreation category. As Ganns joked: “It’s the most powerful barkada (clique) in the history of Pinoy blogging!” There might not be any truth to that statement but I agree whole-heartedly when Lauren said: “I choose my friends wisely”. Or something along those lines (we were attacking the desserts table when she stated that).

So. Can I put this on my resume?

MY LOVELY GIRLS & I AT PBA 08
L-R: LAUREN, ANNE, PENNY, ME

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you, PBA organizers. I found a bunch of new RSS feeds to subscribe to, yay.