Shaped like Magellan's hat

We were at Sto. Nino Parish Church in Mactan to hear mass on a late Sunday afternoon. This is the first time I attended mass conducted in Cebuano dialect and saw young women in their ministry wear long veils like the very icons in the altar. We left with no idea what the entire one-hour sermon was all about. It felt like much being a foreigner in your own land. I hope they have English and Filipino versions during the day, and even Korean. This particular area in Mactan Island is a tourist belt.

Inside the hat-shaped church on a Sunday

So in between ho-hums, unimaginable boredom and missing church services at CCF, I managed to steal shots of the Sto. Nino Parish Church. The small church is right across two major roads leading to Cordova and Punta Engano. What’s amazing about this church is its unique architecture. The building was shaped like Magellan’s hat (I would have said Anakin Skywalker’s) and its glass panels depict the image of the Sto. Nino tinted with bright colors. It is no longer as backward as what a typical parish in the outskirts of a province should be, bamboo blinds and all. Cebu churches have actually come a long way to become one of the province’s heritage sites.

Pinoywriters blog workshop at Powerbooks Megamall

That was the first time I spoke to more than a dozen of people in a public place about profitable blogging. We were at Powerbooks Megamall last Saturday to conduct the second PinoyWriters workshop on web writing series called “Blog your passion and earn from it”.

Not that I have already achieved a six-digit income from Adsense. My online income since January is just enough to cover some of my monthly bills and set aside a portion for savings. The fact that I have already profited from this venture is already a rewarding experience. I don’t mind sharing to people about the things I know. There are people out there who went out of their way to teach me the craft. I felt it’s time to give back and spread the blessing. Watch out for it pretty soon.

PinoyWriters continues to offer its web writing series. This Saturday, Jude Cartalaba will teach bloggers and web writers how to write an engaging SEO copy.

I’d like to thank Aileen Santos of PinoyWriters for taking time out to train me together with a couple of new writer friends although I was not able to complete all three Saturdays. To those who attended the workshop last Saturday, I am so glad to have met you all so let’s keep in touch and buy the moon soon. And to Hey Jude, thank you for co-facilitating my first public workshop ever.

Welcome to MarCommAsia 2008

Let me skip the ceremonial parade of familiar faces and speeches by giving you a glimpse to a bunch of things I thought was more exciting than free food or free MP3 players. If you’re a marketing person like me, you might find these good finds suitable to your future campaigns.

A plane to catch

For example, this automated airship/promoflag flew across the venue and held people’s gazes for a couple of minutes. Kids would definitely love something like this flying on top of their heads.

Clear-Channels, one of the exhibit’s sponsors, also have this movable smart cart that could take you from one corner to another. You just have to lean forward or back to move it.

Dance Heads set-up

Former Lipa City Vice Mayor Boy Manguera and his wife volunteered to sample Dance Heads to the tune of An Achy Breaky Heart. Confetti Effects, Inc. is responsible for this piece of audio-visual entertainment that attracted more people to their booth.

Dancing to the tune of Achy Breaky Heart

It was fun and good to see old acquaintances and meet new people. MarCommAsia has ended yesterday but will definitely be back two years from now.

Anyway, while I’m on it, Tita Susie forwarded me the latest update on MARCOMMASIA and I already spread it to a number of people on my address book. The big event opens on September 24th until 26th at the World Trade Center. If you guys have time, please drop by. It’s free admission. Please bring a paying friend for the conference.

Click on the image below:

MoreNiche is a UK-based networking company open to humans anywhere in the world. Here’s how you make money as an affiliate:

1. As an affiliate, you receive $20 and 5% for every referral for life. There is an email format you can use to invite your friends.
2. Make commissions out of product sales. Choose whichever featured product you’d like to carry in your website. Commissions vary depending on the type of product.
3. You earn from sending traffic to MoreNiche website. Write an article about MoreNiche and post links at Digg, MySpace or any forums you want.

Here’s what you need to get started:

1. Your information
2. Your bank details so they would know where to wire your money. If you’re from the Philippines, you need your bank’s swift code which you can get here.
3. Your website. If you don’t have a website, they will help you create one at no charge at all.

To learn more about MoreNiche’s affiliate program, simply visit their website.

Here’s why WP asks you to upgrade. To quote:

Stefan Esser recently warned developers of the dangers of SQL Column Truncation and the weakness of mt_rand(). With his help we worked around these problems and are now releasing WordPress 2.6.2. If you allow open registration on your blog, you should definitely upgrade. With open registration enabled, it is possible in WordPress versions 2.6.1 and earlier to craft a username such that it will allow resetting another user’s password to a randomly generated password. The randomly generated password is not disclosed to the attacker, so this problem by itself is annoying but not a security exploit. However, this attack coupled with a weakness in the random number seeding in mt_rand() could be used to predict the randomly generated password. Stefan Esser will release details of the complete attack shortly. The attack is difficult to accomplish, but its mere possibility means we recommend upgrading to 2.6.2. Read more here.

It’s all about your website’s security and providing a blanket to prevent attackers from hacking your accounts and a cure to persistent bugs.

But thank God for someone who invented WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. It made my life easier after that very short and smooth transition. I was waiting for my screen to go blink-blink but it did not. My files were safe. It was definitely sweat-free compared to the agony of doing manual upgrades. No FTP clients needed.

Here’s how the process takes place:

Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
Puts the site in maintenance mode.
De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
Upgrades wordpress files.
Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
Re-activates the plugins.

If you haven’t updated yours, go get the plugin now.

If you’re a beginner caught in the WP maze, watch this simple guide to installing your new WordPress. If you have an existing blog and want to do an upgrade to WordPress 2.5, I suggest you do back-up first. How? Mmm…that is something I still have to figure out when I have time. Visit WP support forums. I advise that you rely solely on the reliability of your webhost technical support team, your common sense and courage as answers are not easily found. You’ll need those, my friend.

If you want to see how the new admin interface of WordPress 2.5 looks like, here’s a screenshot:

By the way, my new website can be found at http://visitarestaurant.com

US-based Pinoy blogger, The Composed Gentleman, created a poll rank survey of Filipino blogs in 2006. Every week, he would select 10 Filipino websites and allow visitors to his site to vote who they think should be awarded the Filipino Blog of the Week. For week 101, Travel Light has been nominated and to this I would like to say thank you for the recognition.

Here’s a suggestion – how about organizing a bloggers night out or a dinner party or something like it?

Fellow Kuro Mod and blogger, Mitch, has been very kind in helping me find gold mines in the blogosphere. I just want you to know that I have earned my first $200 after two months of getting the E-ON activated and already went shopping yesterday. Ha ha.

To those who want to know what it takes to be a pro-blogger, go to writer Connie Luayon. She knows the way and the exact tools to use.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

Opening Portrait House taught me a lot of things about the blogosphere. Not only I learned a whole lot about WP as a blogging platform, the experience allowed me to see where the blogging world is headed to. Bloggers have moved from the usual dear diary entries to writing about collective interests that cater to certain groups of people. It is old and fresh information that most people seek online from the US elections, the rice shortage in the Philippines, melting down of the Antarctic, the thriving kidney black market to something as trivial as the walk in tub. (Have you came across that one? I just did.)

Trendy Pinoy will concentrate on new things that catches the interest of any ordinary Filipino. Topics will cover latest trends in fashion, careers, internet technology, food, movies, business and a dozen more.