Exploring Anda by island hopping

Out of all the beaches I’ve been to in Pangasinan, Tondol White Sand Beach is so far the most fascinating. Its shallow water is a feature hard to miss. 

Delivering my spiel on the shore.

Festive atmosphere

8:31 PM

In a few hours, we'll be celebrating Jesus's birthday once again. We're hyped up because of the festivity. The excitement reaches the sky as we wait for the time that we can open our gifts. Our stomachs grumble as we prepare for Noche Buena awaiting in the dining room.

Christmas carols echo in the neighborhood. The Church's bell rings in the background. Christmas lights seem to be dancing, following the beat of every song cheerful children sing in front of every house.

Well, indeed, in a few hours, we'll celebrate Christmas, the time of the year we've all prepared for. When the clock strikes 12, let us all be merry and share holiday cheers with everyone.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS 2013!

Collaboration starts with GBG Pangasinan inaugural meet up

Map and hop with us!

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

These are the three guiding principles on which Google Business Groups (GBG) all over the world are founded. This is a living proof that even in the age of digital technology where everything seems to be impersonal and fast paced, many aim to use the web to connect with others to achieve a unified success.

A Blogapalooza Saturday---the event!

It was indeed a fun and jam packed Saturday event at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Aura Premier, Taguig. And I, together with my colleagues, was there to personally experience this annual gathering of bloggers.

A Blogapalooza Saturday awaits

If I remember it right, the first time I heard the word 'blog' was in second year high school (2006). Back then, I was still learning the ins and outs on the Internet, its benefits and other important things related to it.

It was two years after when I tried blogging, but it was in fourth year college that I became serious about it. Since then, I've been blogging about my cool adventures, fun experiences and exciting activities (and about realizations and life's harsh realities when the circumstances compel me to). That was when I got the hang of it and enjoyed blogging more.

And this coming Saturday, Nov. 16, I'll be receiving one of the perks of being a blogger. My colleagues and I will be attending Blogapalooza 2013, a gathering of small and big businesses 'who have something cool to share' and bloggers 'who love to share.'

As of now, 425 bloggers RSVP'd for the event at SM Aura in Taguig and few slots are left vacant, so sign up now and partake in this one of a kind experience! The event will start at 11 am and will end at 9 pm. With that long period, we can expect fun and exciting activities, and cool giveaways. On top of all that, entrance to the event is absolutely FREE!

Thanks to When in Manila for this one in a million chance. See you on Saturday, fellow bloggers!

Exploring Anda

Last week was another chance for me to travel and explore another place, this time, a beach in Anda, an island town in the western most part of Pangasinan.

Tondol White Sand Beach exudes beauty invigorating to the eyes and inviting to the soul which searches for a refreshing kind of adventure. We also did island hopping, visiting three islands away from Tondol beach. This and a lot more adventures will be featured on Talk TV Global's Traveldotcom this month, so watch for its next episode.

Pannacalan Island, one of the three islands we visited, boasts of this hut which changes location depending on the height of the tides.

More of my adventures on my next blog post and Traveldotcom's episode.

Shop, save and relieve stress

Three Day Sale, Three Way Save

What do you usually do to relieve yourself from stress caused by school work or your job? Do you spend the whole day at home, snuggle in bed and do a movie marathon? Or, you just relax and sleep to gain energy for another week of stress?

Well, this week, we might not do any of those things because something else will surely be a stress buster and a welcome break for our tired mind.

According to an article posted on Business News Daily in June 2012, a research had concluded that “retail therapy” was a mechanism for people to cope with stress, a reliever similar to stress eating. Retail therapy is done by going out and heading to a mall or your favorite store to buy things for yourself. In other words, shop to relieve stress.

It is, however, more grueling if our budget is scarce. But, worry not because the biggest mall chain in the country has made an effort to help us with that.

On Oct. 18, 19 and 20, SM City Baguio will conduct a “Three-Day Sale, Three-Way Save” promo where in 50 percent will be cut off the price of great selections. But, the excitement and stress relief does not stop there.

On the first day of the three-day sale, an additional 10 percent off the price of the chosen item will be offered on top of the existing discount from 9 am to 11 am. This promo, however, is exclusive to SM Advantage Card holders only.

Moreover, a 5 percent rebate will be offered for every P5,000 single receipt purchase using a BDO Credit Card.

Lastly, we can get a P100-coupon for every P2,000 single receipt purchase on Oct. 19 and 20.

But wait, there’s more! Every customer will also be entitled to an entry to a raffle draw where we can win an Internet TV!

What is more exciting is that after shopping, you can also take a tour around the city and go sightseeing amidst its cool temperature and enjoy everything it has to offer.

So, let’s mark our calendars and avail of this special offer from SM City Baguio where we can savor the fun and enjoy the excitement. Have a happy leisure time, guys!

Busier than ever

September was a busy month for me (well, which month wasn't and isn't). The last few weeks before this week were more hectic. And the last few days before today were quite stressful and exhausting.

But, I'm not dreading my busy schedule. Neither am I hating my job. In fact, I'm very enthusiastic about it especially now that we've been preparing for the very first Talk TV Global Media Congress which has kept me quite busy lately.

RealStew: Boiling the Next Big Thing

It’s a natural desire of human beings to feel that they truly belong to a community or a group. With the advent of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, quiet ones start to make some noise and the introverts now speak out the way extroverts do.

With the Internet’s power being recognized by people from the world over, some individuals have come up with an idea that will be a real deal of interaction between and among netizens.

The next big thing on the Internet is RealStew—your one stop site for making friends, socializing and interacting with them, sharing ideas, making deals, blogging and a whole lot more.

It can serve as your usual email service provider, a chat box to communicate with friends whom you haven’t seen in a while or with co-workers and colleagues, and a user group to interact with your teammates during brainstorming activities even if you’re miles apart from one another. Other users will also get to know more about you because you can link your accounts on social networking sites.

Planning a business and dreaming to become a successful entrepreneur? RealStew can also help you raise capital and find customers for your business.  And yes, you can ask users to look into your ideas and give you insights that may be quite helpful in patching up flaws in your plan.

Better yet, use it as your business tool. You can use it as your own online shop with its online store builder. It can also help you create that dream website for your business which you have long been putting off. You no longer need to worry where to keep your business’s records and files because you can use the Cloud Vault which gives you 10 GB of free storage space. Access and check your files anytime, anywhere—it’s your business at your fingertips.

It will never let you miss out a part of your personal life either. Who knows, with its RealDates application, you can find that person who complements your personality and who may be “the one.”

Indeed, it lets you communicate in more ways than one, without the hassle of logging on to your accounts on multiple social networking sites and email service providers. RealStew is definitely your all-in-one communicationplatform.

Preparing for your bride's ride

By Marie Lyn Tibule

Wedding is one of the occasions hardest to prepare for. There are a lot of stuff to consider—invitations, souvenirs, guests, bridal gown and the like. Your worries may seem endless but one thing you should not forget when planning for a wedding is the transportation service. This is one of the most important details you should not overlook because without it, there will be no bride. This is as special as the wedding cake and the wedding gown, so here are some things to consider in renting a bridal car:

A day on the sea

As part of the modernization program of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the government acquired two warships for the Philippine Navy from the US Coast Guard--BRP Gregorio del Pilar and BRP Ramon Alcaraz.

During this year's celebration of Pistay Dayat, PF15 or BRP Gregorio del Pilar docked on Lingayen Gulf with the Philippine Navy opening the ship to Pangasinenses from April 28 to May 2. Their curiosity and excitement could be felt as they waited for their turn on the motorboat that will take them to the ship's location anchored at 3 nautical miles from the shore.

BRP Gregorio del Pilar (PF15)

And being a broadcast journalist, doing a report on this special event required hopping into the ship and having a tour inside. My adventurous side entered the scene and I found myself feeling excited about this first time experience.

Ingenuous piece

Picbits

Wood. The Great Carpenter shapes the ingenuous piece into a creation he has conceived.

Going Google, going global

Today marks another milestone for Pangasinan and opens another door for opportunity--a wide one at that.

People from the world over will surely know more about Pangasinan as products made in the province will soon be much easier to find using the leading and widely used search engine in the world, Google.

The event titled "Pangasinan OTOP (One Town, One Product) Goes Google" is happening as of this writing. This advocacy by the provincial government in partnership with Google, Google Business Group Dagupan and the Department of Trade and Industry aims to promote unique products proudly made in Pangasinan and to help entrepreneurs improve their businesses using technology which will provide them with a cheaper way to enter the global market.

Coming from the heart

Being the capital town of Pangasinan, Lingayen is tagged as the heart of the province. It boasts of the best architectural structure in the Philippines—the Capitol Building—and its significant part in the country’s history.

On the upcoming episode of Talk TV Global’s Traveldotcom, I will feature this town, exploring every corner of the capitol compound and other attractions as well as the ever famous bagoong (fish sauce) which I previously discussed.

While editing is ongoing, delve into this sneak peek.

Posing at the back of the Capitol Bldg.

A thousand jewels

Picbits

JEWELS. Limit not yourself, for in reaching for jewels glimmering high above us, we gain a thousand more.

I got sucked!

Blood went streaming out of my veins...passing through a narrow pipe...coursing towards a vessel...

Yes, I got sucked. Not by a vampire, though—thank heavens.

On June 20, 2013, for the first time, I donated blood during the mobile blood donation activity of the Provincial Health Office of Pangasinan in partnership with Red Cross. Honestly, all I planned to do that day was to cover the activity held at the Provincial Hospital in San Carlos City, Pangasinan for a news report—not to donate blood. That wasn't because I was selfish and didn't want to share my blood to those who might need it. I just thought I wouldn't qualify because of my underweight look.

But the weighing scale said I qualified, having a total weight of 55 kg, so I went to the registration area and signed the form. Further screening revealed that my blood pressure was (and is) normal, therefore I am neither hypertensive nor anemic. Thank heavens again.

The bloodletting activity was conducted in the conference room of the hospital where 77 good Samaritans, including me, donated 450 ml each of blood.

Drenched with dryness

Picbits

DRENCHED. The coldness enveloping us. The emptiness embracing us. The distance that vows to heal the wounds.

When you reach this age

When you reach this age, you think you've got everything in control. You've grown mature enough to battle the world, so there you go engaging in a head-on collision with the way people once lived their lives in accordance with the norms of the society. The good news is you're a challenger. The bad news is you're fighting against the people close to your heart, your family.

When you reach this age, you think there are no boundaries. So, you move, move and move until you hit an invisible wall.

Fragile like jars

Picbits

FRAGILE. Jars. We're like jars. We're fragile. We get broken. Damaged. Smashed into bits and pieces. But unlike jars, we can fix ourselves. Gather the pieces together. Stick them together although we know some parts get weaker than they were before.

Something fishy

Pangasinan, particularly Lingayen, is very famous for its trademark product--bagoong (fish sauce). For health conscious individuals (and those who despise its smell), bagoong should never be on their table, but for Pangasinenses, this is a staple in every meal that can be a perfect match for its salty taste.

So, how is this very famous sauce that every Pangasinense is craving for being produced? That's what I intended to discover as I featured the product on Talk TV Global's Traveldotcom.

Bringing a cameraman (Kuya Rom) and our brand manager (Reg Agsalon) with me, I visited JB Bernal Bagoong's plant and asked the owner and manager, Daniel Jun Bernal, to discuss with me and my team the process of bagoong making.

This is what greets us as we enter the factory. It's clean and doesn't exhibit any sign of grossness. The smell? The bagoong scent is present of course, but it's not a stench that you will surely hate. As Sir Jun puts it, you can smell the fish sauce's "aroma."

Preparing for the taping. That's Reg Agsalon, Talk TV Global's brand manager, on the laptop and Kuya Rom, our videographer/editor

New project

Picbits

Probably out of stress one afternoon, I thought of putting up a new project here on my blog. I've been active on Instagram lately and been loving staring at photos taken in different places, at different times. They tell stories, touch hearts, stir emotions, fuel dreams and desires. There I thought, what about sharing my stories on my blog through pictures? It's not a unique concept, but still a great idea and thing to do, so I'm now putting to action.

I call this project 'Picbits.' Pictures are also tasty bits of life that tell and stress reality and stimulate our mind to imagine fantasy. The subjects don't move, but the whole picture move us. Well, this is another part of me which I am sharing with you. Here are sample photos I posted on my Instagram profile.

SPACE. Something about the day I took this photo got me staring far beyond the subject--something that got into my ego and pumped up my fighting spirit.

GoSAKTO with Globe (Unli call plus 100 texts to all networks)

Looking for an unlimited call promo that suits your budget? Try the Globe GoSAKTO unlimited call promo. For only P20, you can make unlimited calls to Globe/TM plus you can send 100 messages to all networks.

Here’s how to get the promo. Simply dial *143#. A menu will appear and show you the items to choose from. Enter the number that corresponds to your choice and press send. Do this for the next steps. For the first one, pick number 1 for GoSAKTO.

The road less taken

A few months before, I had faced the situation of asking myself where I would go after college. Going back to the university where I graduated from to teach and train other mass communication students became an option. Later on, I met a good opportunity along the way which made me realize teaching was not the path I wanted to take.

Well, there were two opportunities actually. They were both so good they made me feel as if I were the luckiest man alive. One was a ride along a shortcut route (somehow) to my ultimate dream; the other was another ride (a rough one) leading to multiple forks where many uncertainties come waiting (whoa, don't get me wrong, boss).

Many would think I went for the obvious, taking the shortcut to the mainstream media. It's not really a big jump to the big fish, but at least, had I grabbed that, I would be part of the big fish. I guess the only uncertainty I would encounter would be, "When will I be one of the giants?"

TGIF—Thank God it’s the finish line!

Four years ago when I stepped onto college, I was a clueless boy wondering what new challenges stood awaiting my curiosity. Like everyone else, I was excited to attend my classes and listen attentively to discussions with an expensive binder at hand to write notes on.

My college education was a very big blessing as I got the chance to study and take up the course Mass Communication which I really wanted—for free because of the presidential scholarship offered to me. To maintain it, I had to endure sleepless nights, drink immeasurable amount of coffee to stay awake, and experience the harsh stress derived from piles of tasks (not to mention the extreme pressure caused by professors and instructors ).

Experiencing Albay

Upon stepping down from the plane, we grabbed the opportunity to have our pictures taken with the Mayon Volcano in the background.

We weren’t able to take many pictures, though, when the guard shooed us away already. We then proceeded to the arrival area and looked for our service. A van from The Oriental Hotel Legazpi, the venue of the conference, stood waiting for us. We hopped in and off we went to the hotel.

In the cabin

The take off

“Cabin crew, prepare for departure.” Then the plane zoomed up to the clear blue sky.

I was Wright (pun intended). The feeling was as euphoric as that of the inventors of the airplane when finally, I was flying up in the sky, over white fluffy clouds. Waiting for four hours for the check in counters to open, and then another hour for the boarding gate to let the passengers in, was all worth it.

Yes, it was my first time on a plane, so I savoured every bit and inch of the ride. Among the nine of us, only three had previously experienced it, but they were as excited as the rest of us because of the majestic Mayon Volcano awaiting our arrival.

Early birds

The day that I have been waiting for has finally arrived! It's been one of my life long dreams to ride on a plane that will take me wherever I want. I can only imagine how euphoric the Wright Brothers were during the first successful flights of the Wright Flyer.

1903 Wright Flyer

The 1903 Wright Flyer made four flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, the best covering 852 feet in 59 seconds. It was the first heavier-than-air, powered aircraft to make a sustained, controlled flight with a pilot aboard.

The Wrights used their proven canard biplane configuration which was rooted in their initial 1899 kite design. Key to the Flyer's success was its three-axis control system, which featured wing-warping for lateral balance, a moveable rudder, and an elevator for pitch control.

The right wing was four inches longer than the left to compensate for the engine being heavier than and mounted to the right of the pilot. The wings were rigged with a slight droop to reduce the effects of crosswinds.
Gift of the Estate of Orville Wright
http://airandspace.si.edu/wrightbrothers/

Getting high...literally

“Cause I’m leaving on a jet plane... I don’t know when I’ll be back again...”

This song has recently come to my mind as two weeks from now, I’ll be riding on a plane for the first time!

On February 10, I together with my colleagues in our student publication will board a domestic flight to Legazpi City in Albay for a three-day journalism contest. That’s the next level of the competition after winning at the regional level in December last year in the City of San Fernando, La Union.

This is one of the few perks I enjoy as an editor of the publication, going places with colorful historical relevance in the country and having a taste of their rich culture. This time, I’ll be seeing Mayon Volcano in person, that volcano with the almost perfect cone shape that I’ve only been seeing in pictures since childhood.

The trip’s still several days ahead and I’m excited. Meantime, “I’ll pack my bags and get ready to go.”

More on Balungao

Well, forgive me for writing too much on this trip, but I just would like to share more adventures that I experienced at the Balungao Hilltop Adventure.

The first time I went there, I wasn't able to try the bungee trampoline because it needed to undergo some maintenance. I thought I would never ever get the chance to jump on it, but on January 9, there I went flying high in the air.

These pictures were taken before the rubber harness (which would aid in sending you up in the air) was attached to me.

Zipping away in Balungao (again)

For the second time around since the taping of my segment at the Balungao Hilltop Adventure in Balungao, Pangasinan last August, I went back there for another taping, this time for TalkTV Global's TravelDotCom which I am hosting. I tried all the amenities once again and enjoyed them as if it were my first time.

That tarp in the background is the same tarp that you will find along highways, one way of promoting the tourist destination.