Well, I’m not going to share photos or videos from the recent natural calamity that the Philippines had experienced during the last weekend because they are already everywhere – from YouTube to Facebook. But I just want to share my experience.

It was just like an ordinary rainy Saturday morning for me. I was really hurrying up to the office because I am going to assist a training that day. I  first went to the office because some of my office mates and I have agreed to go all together to Amorsolo street where we will have our training. Unfortunately, we were still in the office at 9am. Heavy rain poured, though we all still think that it’s just normal. What’s really on my mind during that time is to arrive as fast as we could in the training center.

The training started at 9:30 am. I am waiting for the training to be finished because I have plans of going to the mall after. I was sitting beside our VP who was also inside the training room. I wondered why she was covering her nose. I began to think if she finds the smell of my perfume irritating or if I have bad breath. Well, she was covering her nose because the smell of rugby from the outside is entering the room. She cancelled the training. A girl entered the room apologizing for the inconvenience. She then said, “besides, it’s already flooding outside.” We all went down and saw flood in Amorsolo street. I just told myself “I didn’t know it’s flooding in this area.” The rain was really heavy that time that we rushed inside the car of one of the managers in our office.

It was really surprising to see flooded areas on our way back to our office. I already thought that some areas are surely really flooded by that time since it’s already flooding in Makati. We arived in the office still thinking that it was just a normal rain. I was waiting for the rain to stop so I can go home. I really wanted to go home that time because I know there was a typhoon.

After few minutes, we saw shocking news in the internet…

I began to feel afraid because the rain doesn’t seem to stop. Instead, it seems like it was getting harder. News came in one by one and I had no choice but to stay first in the office, which is actually a safe place that time. I waited for hours until I can go back home. But it was really not a good timing to do so. We left the office by Sunday morning. I was really excited to reach home and see my family.

Well, it’s a natural calamity and we can’t just blame anybody for what happened. But I do believe that global warming has something to do with this. I have seen films about global warming and they actually mentioned that big floods may happen.

I give credits to the armed forces, etc. who are doing their best to rescue people who are trapped. I understand if people might think that they are moving slow. Of course, everybody wants to be rescued as soon as possible.

Watching the stories of the victims makes me feel lucky and thankful. I know that my Ondoy experience is really nothing compared to the stories of those who were really affected by Ondoy. But I feel for them. It hurts to see our fellow Filipinos who seem to be hopeless because they already have nothing. What’s really sadder is those who lost their loved ones as well.

Besides all of these, it’s really heart warming to see Filipinos helping each other during these times. And it seems like everybody feels like they wanted to help in anyway that they can. There are really alot ways to help and I am thankful to Inquirer for coming up with this list: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20090928-227308/How-to-help-Ondoy-victims

I hope that we can able to stand up as soon as possible from this disaster and I hope this won’t happen again. Thank you Lord.

Posted in Global Warming, Philippines Tagged: Facebook, Inquirer, Ondoy, YouTube

Two weeks ago, I purchased a tumbler from Starbucks which you can design on your own. This is actually a long planned project. I just had the time and idea last night.

I attempted before to create a design for my tumbler but I realized that it’s hard considering that I had to design something round. But as they say, ideas usually come all of a sudden, and when it’s there, you should not let go of it. Well, I really had an idea of putting all together the images of my favorite music albums, etc. It’s like saying “these are the things that I like and things that I believe.

Yehey! I already have my first design for a tumbler. Now, my tumbler will be an outlet of my mood and ideas.

Posted in Rowjienetics Tagged: Starbucks Tumbler

The second WordCamp Philippines was held yesterday in Asian Institute of Management in Makati.

• 09:00 AM – Welcome Remarks, Backgrounder: Mindanao Bloggers Community (Blogie Robillo)
• 09:30 AM – Meet the WordPress Family (Beau Lebens)
• 10:30 AM – WordPress In The Wild (Markku Seguerra)
• 11:15 AM – Citizen Journalism In The Context of the 2010 Elections (Danilo Arao)
• 11:45 AM – A Quick Look into the Mozilla Community through the Lens of Localization (Seth Bindemagel)
• 12:25 PM – LUNCH
• 01:30 PM – The Editorial Voice and Taste in Writing Tech (Jeff Villafranca)
• 02:30 PM – Vlogging Mythbusters (Coy Caballes)
• 03:15 PM – Advanced WP: Portfolio & Directory Sites (Gail Villanueva)
• 04:15 PM – WP: The Ultimate Content Management System (Karla Redor)
• 05:15 PM – Q&A with WP Experts

The emcee of the vent is Migs Hipolito.

I have attended last year’s WordCamp Philippines and it was huge and successful last year that’s why I decided to join this year’s WordCamp. One of the differences is that bloggers who wanted to join this year should pay a registration fee. Thinking about it, I considered that maybe they don’t have sufficient funds to organize this event, which is actually okay for me. Well at least, I see the effort that they want to continue what has been started last year. But of course, as someone who paid a fee for this event, I was expecting that this year will be better compared to last year.

Just some of my disappointments yesterday… During lunch, we had a buffet style for lunch. People had to line up to get food from the buffet table. Unfortunately, we were not able to get all the menu that has been served. In my opinion, through the registrations, they should have been able to get the total number of attendees, and through that number, they should have budgeted the food for all the attendees. Isn’t it annoying to hear some got more than one piece of fried chicken when you were not able to get even half of a piece? Well, this isn’t about really about the food, but I hope at least they tried to give everyone an equal share.

After eating, I tried to get the WP merchandise I bought. To my dismay, they asked me “What did you purchase?”. I mean, isn’t it they should have a list of those who bought online? I purchased a small lilac WP t-shirt. But they told me that the lilac is for women only. But why it was in the website in the first place? They just let me chose from a maroon and yellow shirt. I had no choice but to choose from the two. Well of course, I paid for it so I should get it.

But, with my disappointments mentioned above, it wouldn’t be fair if I say that yesterday’s event was a mess. I also want to give credits to the efforts of organizers and some speakers. It’s also a pleasure to have someone from WordPress and Mozilla as guest speakers.

I actually enjoyed the presentations of Beau Lebens of WordPress, Danilo Arao, Seth Bindemagel of Mozilla, and Coy Caballes.

For more than two years, I’ve been using the free WordPress. But I am considering of using the .org version for one of the sites that I will develop in the next few months and I’ve been able to get some ideas and tips in yesterday’s event.

In my opinion, last year’s WordCamp is better compared to this year. Well, that’s my opinon. And just like what Mr. Danilo Arao mentioned in his presentation, “Bloggers don’t lie”. But still, I try to be fair and responsible in this blog entry. Just a constructive criticism.

Posted in Events, Wordpress Tagged: Asian Institute of Management, Beau Lebens, Blogie Robillo, Coy Caballes, Danilo Arao, Gail Villanueva, Jeff Villafranca, Karla Redor, Markku Seguerra, Migs Hipolito, Mozilla Firefox, Seth Bindemagel, WordCamp, WordCamp Philippines 2009

I already went through a series of tests to check the status of my lungs and I thank God that my lungs are okay. Thanks to my mom for accompanying me, and thanks to our health card.

Last week, it was somehow hard for me to work as the last day of my boss came near. Honestly, after he announced his resignation, it seems like my plans changed a lot. Sadly but there is somehow a lost of interest in what I am doing at work. I don’t know if is it because I’m still adjusting, but for now, that is how I feel.

But of course, I don’t want to look for a new job without finishing all the projects assigned to me. I also want to study first other technologies before I finally file my resignation. And most of all, I want a new job by then. I haven’t sent my “previous” boss my thank yous because he will still be around some time this month in the office to finish some documents.

I am trying to regain my interest. I still give myself a chance. But if this will really not work out, then I guess I’ll be moving on.

Posted in My Blogged Life, Work Files

I am Rowjie. Twitting since April 17, 2007 (876 Days), with 721 tweets, as of this moment…

With my little upgrade of my Rowjielogy blog, it crossed my mind to have a little reformat with my Twitter account and I wanted to do it today, 09/09/09.

Twitter may be considered a “microblog”. It is limited to 140 characters as of this moment. I don’t know if they have plans of allowing more characters. We may say that they set the trend in this kind of microblogging or lifestream services. There are really a lot of sites offering the same service as Twitter like Plurk, Jaiku, etc. But let’s admit that Twitter is the most famous of them all, though I think there are other services that are better than Twitter.

One good thing is that we can connect Twitter with our Facebook accounts. So our FB status gets updated when we update our Twitter accounts. Recently, I followed the format of Plurk when I update my status. But as I mentioned, I want to try doing something else with my Twitter account.

There are really a lot of things we can share on the web that sometimes we tend to forget when we are already in front of our computers. Thank you to technology because we can now update our Twitter accounts even with our mobile phones. Now, sharing thoughts, opinions, and ideas is easy!

Posted in Plugs, rowjietwits Tagged: Facebook, Jaiku, Microblog, Plurk, Twitter