60DAYSTOHOTNESS.COM

November 10, 2008 at 10:56 pm | Filed under the internets

Almost a year after coming up with the idea and eight months after purchasing the domain, my good friend Drew finally launched his human guinea pig project called 60 Days To Hotness. For those people who aren’t acquainted with the guy we fondly call Mother Nature (yes, he’s gay), let me tell you a few things about him. He lives in an old building in the Katipunan Avenue area. He has a red Toyota named Bruce, a white laptop with 256MB of RAM named Mr Flowers, and an electric fan named Electra. If you think a person is odd for naming their things and/or random inanimate objects (whether or not belonging to them), wait ’til you meet the whole gang.

The concept behind 60daystohotness is this: everyday for the next two months, Drew will be blogging hanggang pumogi siya/until he gets hot. Judging by his current entries, he hasn’t exactly been doing as planned but let’s cut the dude some slack. Last I checked, he had a sexy 22″ LCD monitor connected to his laptop so who knows how many B-list arthouse (lol) films (like Trash House) have him pre-occupied. Perhaps a blog entry in his honor could serve as a nudge and encourage him to

To Drew’s cause, I pledge a piece of fitness equipment: a (does-this-really-work-I-don’t-think-this-works) slimming waist belt!

Less than 200 pesos at your nearest Mercury Drug outlet! Perhaps you’d like to send some hottifying goodies Drew’s way? A bottle of nearing-its-expiration-date glutathione pills? A two-month supply of Master Eskinol (sikreto ng mga guwapo)? A whole ream of Marlboro Reds (as we all know, a cigarette is one’s best accessory)? Measuring tape to track his progress? Membership at Mr O’s Gym along Xavierville Avenue? All kinds of donations are welcome!

Comments (8)

‘LAUNCH’ IS A FUNNY WORD, AND OTHER THINGS.

October 24, 2008 at 3:33 pm | Filed under the helga manual, the internets

A couple of weeks ago, I purchased the domain manilabarbie.com on a whim. I was at the office and doing my usual pre-actual work internet dilly-dallying (checking Smashing Magazine and other career-related sites) when I, for no reason other than it has a nice ring to it, googled ‘manila mania’. And because my brain works in such a way that random things pop up at the same time, I thought “Hey, Manila Barbie sounds nice”. I plurked about it and people told me to go ahead and get the domain.

And so I— with no clue what to do with it— did.

Setting it up took a week; I got hosting from my e-friend Jon over at kinohost.net (a very affordable $5/year, I get 5gigs of space and unmetered bandwidth) and I modified one of my older pre-widget themes and came up with the very girly and very pink(!!!) design.

I launched Manila Barbie a week ago and until now, people are still asking me what my plans are for it. Truthfully, I still don’t know and what it basically is now is my uncontrollable spending in blog form. A fledgling shopping blog, if you may; eventually, it would also make sense to start blogging about fashion since most my purchases are clothes and such. Except…

I’m no fashion maven, I don’t follow and obsess about what’s trendy or parrot stuff I see in magazines. My taste in clothing and objects in general have remained the same since time immemorial (let’s just pretend my funny t-shirts and YRYS phase never happened): I like pretty things with a bit of an attitude (or a dash or double-dash of funky). I feel most comfortable in a miniskirt and flip-flops which is something the boyfriend has criticized in the past. He says he’s a fan of shoes and I am, too, especially heels. But I do a lot of walking (and I walk fast) and though you can find me in my pink and white Nikes most days, I still hate the goddamn things. I’m a middle-class shopper (a term my friend Sanya used last Saturday when we were making fun of each other’s spending problems) with my 1000-peso jackets from FnH and bought-on-sale tops from Mango. But even if it seems like I’ve been exercising all my best efforts at looking disastrous, I’d still like to think that I’m not a fashion fiasco. Or something like that.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that there’s always room for improvement. Lolz.

Another thing I’d like to put on MB is my love for (Metropolitan) Manila. There is much to hate about the big city (crazy weather, stupid people, traffic, pollution, perverts etc etc) and many days I find myself wanting to pack my bags and move up north to San Juan. Thankfully, Manila’s sub- and cultural diversity is enough to make me stay put (at least for now). I don’t know how I’ll go about doing that, having no decent camera at the moment, but I’ll figure something out.

So, check out Manila Barbie and maybe add it to your Netvibes or Google Reader, ya?

Comments (12)

GOOGLE’S FILIPINO TRANSLATION OF MY BLOG BOGGLES ME.

October 20, 2008 at 4:09 pm | Filed under the internets

Last Saturday afternoon, I was in a meeting for the Philippine Web Design Conference (website coming soon, hee) and during our off-topic moments, Shari mentioned that Google’s Filipino translation of sex and boobs were iyotan and boobella, respectively. Iyotan, I somehow understand because as far as I know, that’s the Ilocano term for sex (which still isn’t Filipino). But boobella?! Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t boobella gay lingo? I wouldn’t be surprised (but I’d be appalled) if Google translated whatever as churva.

Of course I had to Google-translate my blog. As expected, it barely made any sense and it was a barrel of lulz. Some screencaps:

This Google, What A Funny!

Comments (26)

ON THE PBA 08 AND BEING A LOSER. WELL, NOT REALLY.

September 23, 2008 at 8:40 pm | Filed under events, photos, the internets

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.

Comments (23)

TATTOO LOVERS!

September 17, 2008 at 6:30 pm | Filed under the internets

Well, I think this is cute: an online dating community created specifically for tattooed women and men. I guess there are some is a market out there consisting of people who require potential partners to have a tattoo (or two).

I am neither inked nor am I single (and looking for a boyfriend), but if anyone out there is: registration for tattoolovers.com is free.

Comments off