Why do you blog?

28 February 2007     •     18 Comments
Tech Things

For the past few days, I’ve probably visited gazillion blogs (well, fine, make that just more than 200) in order to verify if the link that was provided works. I sometimes stay long enough to read a few lines, but I rarely leave comments. Some of you might have seen my MyBlogLog profile on your sidebar, and wondered why I didn’t leave my mark. Let’s just say that if I left a message on each and every site I’ve check, we’d be announcing winners for this year’s Blog Awards next year—it would just take too long.

Visiting all these blogs reminded me of Jayvee’s post where he asked his readers about their blog convictions. Since I would feel bad if I wasn’t included in his blogroll, I told a bit of mine. But sometimes you get to visit so many blogs of different views and convictions, you get to a point when you really ask yourself about your own.

Why do I blog?

There are many different things that come to mind. But let’s just look at five of them, shall we? Read more

Never send a man to do a woman’s job

27 February 2007     •     11 Comments
Family Stuff

I know it’s only been less than four months since we got married, and we’re both still adjusting. So pardon me for saying this, but I think I found it out the hard way that you really shouldn’t send a man to do a woman’s job.

Maybe it’s just my husband, but for some reason, I always end up with modified results of my grocery list every time I send him shopping. Tell him to buy chicken breasts, he brings home chicken legs. Put “2 cans of coconut milk” on the list, and he buys three! I can’t remember even a single instance when I sent Marc to the grocery and he brings home exactly the ones on my list.

I remember Markku asking me at the Ituloy AngSulong party last Friday how marriage is suiting me. My answer? “OMG, you’re not going to believe the pile of dirty dishes we have at home!” Markku was, as expected, amused. I mean, yeah, why in the world would we leave dirty dishes piled up for three days right?

Ask my husband. And he’ll tell you that it’s because washing only a few dirty dishes is “not challenging.” Ok fine. Dirty dishes, I can live with. There are times that I just couldn’t take seeing the pile of dirty dishes anymore that I eventually wash them myself.

But I don’t really know what to make of this: Read more

Kopiroti for the “kopi” addict

26 February 2007     •     3 Comments
Daily Dose

I’m a coffee addict. I probably down at least two mugs of coffee each day on the average. I guess coffee addiction is a common side effect of a designer working at night—you need caffeine to stay awake and meet project deadlines. I only get to sleep more than 6 hours a day when it’s the weekend, and caffeine does help me a lot when I desperately need a pick-me-up.

But the thing is, I’m so used to drinking coffee that sometimes it has no effect on me anymore. I would need to brew Barako coffee if I desperately needed to stay awake. Unfortunately, we only have coffee mix here at home. If I needed strong coffee, an Expresso at Starbucks in Katipunan was my best bet—Caramel Macchiato is my favorite, but it’s not enough to keep me awake.

Having coffee at an expensive coffee shop isn’t really economical. Besides, the nearest Starbucks branch is still a tad bit far—we need to take the car to get there. Was I glad when the first Kopiroti branch opened near us. Take this from a coffee addict… Kopiroti’s coffee is quite strong—it can really keep you wide awake till sunrise.

Kopi!!!

Another food in the Kopiroti menu that I really like is the boob-shaped Kopi bun. Read more

My first ever hang-over in six years

24 February 2007     •     12 Comments
Tech Things

That’s how long I’ve been sober: 6 years. In four of those years, I haven’t had a smoke (well, maybe except for one time… hehe). It’s not that I entered the convent or changed religions or anything—I just found the fulfillment of my concept of Camelot, my one true love.

Ugh. That’s so cheesy. But really. Marc was the one who made me renounce my drunken, smoke-belching old ways. He’s an athlete, and believes in healthy living. He didn’t want me throwing away valuable minutes of my life by getting wasted on a regular basis.

I used to drink a lot, you know—made the most out of my college years. I even had a few close shaves back then—like almost getting caught intoxicated while attending a Legal Management class. But I’ve reformed. You can even ask my friends for proof 😛

Today I’m suffering from the first hang-over I’ve ever had in six years. And it’s all birthday boy Abraham’s fault—he introduced me and Marc to one of the most delicious Weng-Weng (and probably the most ridiculously expensive) drink we’ve ever had. Hehe.

But before you guys start pouting and hold a protest up at the Blogging Overlord’s pad for your own glass of Weng-Weng… Let me tell you that it wasn’t intentional 😀 Marc and I weren’t really planning on staying too long at Marc Macalua’s Ituloy AngSulong party, but since it was held just right beside Starbucks in Metro Walk where we had the Philippine Blog Awards Night volunteers’ meeting… Well, could you blame us for not wanting to pass up a free dinner and have a night out again for the first time in years? Read more

What’s up with the 2007 Phil. Blog Awards?

21 February 2007     •     14 Comments
Tech Things

A lot! For one thing, we’ve released the first batch of nominees for the Main Awards Categories and updated the FAQs page. We called for volunteers for the committee organizing the Awards Night, and there have been some issues raised so we had to give some answers. Jayvee’s already working on updating the content on the site (ahem, ahem), so you can expect more updates coming in the next few days.

Since this is my blog, I can tell you my personal views on what’s happening—but they’re not going to be official statements.

Abe and I were just talking a few days ago about how really happy we were with the response. We received a lot of entries (especially in the Personal category), and quite a number have also pledge their support for sponsorship. Not to mention the many good souls volunteering to help us out with the Awards Night. We knew we were in for hard work (and a few headaches) when we thought of re-launching this award-giving body, but really, it’s worth it.

We’re glad people are taking part in the blogging community—that’s basically the whole point of it all. Aside from giving recognition to the best of the best, we also figured that this event would be another venue to foster camaraderie. And so far, it seems to be that way 🙂 I still get this feeling of wanting to faint whenever I see my disaster-of-an-inbox, but at the same time, I can’t help but feel glad that a lot have shown interest in our project.

But that’s not all. Read more

Celebrating four years of Kutitots and blogging

19 February 2007     •     10 Comments
Tech Things

Yep, you’re now looking at the ninth redesign made in four years of Kutitots existence.

The nine designs of Kutitots from 2004 to present:





I was just marveling at Marc this morning about how long we’ve been together (we’ve endured each other for six years already, and we still have a whole lifetime to spend hehe). It made me realize that I’ve been a slacker working at home for four years already. Time really does passes by fast when you’re having fun.

So why am I going sentimental over this blog? Well, this post of Jayvee’s made me think. Really think. I remember telling him in Yahoo Messenger about how and why I started Kutitots sometime before my wedding. Jayvee asked me why I never blogged it, he thought it was quite an interesting story to tell. Simple. I wasn’t ready.

But now I am. I’ll tell you the story behind this whole thing you’re looking at this moment.

Through some interviews, you probably know by now that I’ve been doing design since high school and freelance work since college. But very few know that I’ve worked as a call center agent right after my last year in college. Although my parents raised me with an entrepreneurial spirit, I was scared of failing. I didn’t want to risk having no future and losing money in business.

Five months after my employment as a tech support agent, my family encountered one of our worst moments. My sister’s schizophrenia was going out of hand (her psychiatrist at that time was totally useless)—my office colleagues were used to seeing me go to work with bruises and scratches all over (the struggles we had with my sister were unbelievable, we even thought she was possessed or something). But the worst was having two successive deaths in the family: two of the people I loved the most passed away.

My favorite grandma passed away a few days before my birthday. Obviously, I was heart-broken. Then it was made worse by my favorite uncle’s (he’s also my godfather) demise not more than a month after my grandma died. And when the worse things happen to you (and happen simultaneously), you cannot help but ponder about the meaning of your life. Read more

It’s time for a redesign

16 February 2007     •     3 Comments
Tech Things

As usual, I didn’t make my planned Valentines’ Day release. Just like last year, I didn’t finish the new Kutitots design on time 😛 Maybe it’s meant to be that way. Hehe.

So, what’s so special about Valentines’ Day anyway? Well, for one thing, that’s the day when I acquired the Kutitots domain. I thought that it would be “meaningful” if I re-launched my site’s design every time the site turns a year older, but for some reason, I can’t seem to meet the deadline I set for myself.

There really isn’t much to expect from the new design really. I’m sticking with my nature-and-green scheme. Blue is actually my favorite color, but green has somehow already gotten stuck with Kutitots so let’s just leave it like that. I made a promise to myself that I would be updating blog more often than once every four days, so I re-designed the layout in such a way that I would seem to be updating regularly 🙂 To be honest, I intentionally made this current design to show only the latest post on the home page for the simple reason that I didn’t want to call attention to my lack of updates.

What else to expect? Nothing much, except maybe for the fact that it would have a more “bloggy feel” into it as opposed to the current’s “news type” style. Just so I would get pressured to finish the layout, here’s a screenshot:

k-kutitotspreview.jpg

I swear I’ll have this up soon. We already got some good souls volunteering to help out at the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, so I guess I’ll have a tad bit more time in my hands (not much, but enough). Right now, my inbox is a total disaster area (that’s a good thing really, it means there are a lot of Awards entries!). If you already sent me an email about volunteering for the event, I’m sorry I haven’t replied yet. The amount of emails I’ve been getting… Let’s just say I nearly fainted when I opened my inbox after being gone for just a day. So please don’t think I ignored you—we really appreciate the help (and we need it), but I’m just taking a bit of time going through my mail at the moment.

Up, up, and away!

12 February 2007     •     8 Comments
Daily Dose

I’m probably one of the latest to blog this (Rico even forgot me, wah!!! Hehe), but I’m still not the latest. That honor is reserved for Markku 🙂

Anyhoo, with all the excitement of my now-publicized sex life (not! Haha) and the recent announcement of the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, I almost forgot that I went to see hot-air balloons for the first time in my life last Saturday with some of my blogger friends. My dad thought I was not yet worthy to carry his precious Nikon digital cameras, so I was stuck with my lowly semi-pro Olympus.

Take a look at my shots! But if you want to use my photos, don’t forget to credit me and link back to Kutitots.Com!

The Philippine Flag in the sky
Pretty cool way to sing the national anthem!

Hot Air Balloon Fiesta
This Festo balloon was such an attention-seeker!

Read more

Recognizing the finest in the Philippine blogosphere

9 February 2007     •     7 Comments
Tech Things

Abe contemplated on his blog if 2007 is the year of the Filipino Blogger. I would like to think that it is, and add that this year would bring about the start of a new phenomenon. It began with a blast at the Blog Parteeh, which aimed to take the Philippine blogosphere online. And it succeeded. More people seemed to want to take part in this growing community.

Even as early as the second month of 2007, we already saw a lot of advancement in the blogosphere. Aside from the first blog-marketed party, we saw the birth of the Philippines’ first blog network. A small design firm even decided to specialize in blog design and customization (you know I just had to plug my company! Hehe).

Together with Abe and Jayvee, we thought of taking this a tad bit further by recognizing the finest Filipino blogs online through The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards.

The 2007 Philippine Blog Awards

Nomination period will run from February 14 to February 28, 2007. Visit the official website for details and updates.

The Nokia 5300 and N70 that blogging bought

7 February 2007     •     22 Comments
Tech Things

Well, kinda. Sorta. Marc purchased the mobile phones using his credit card, but we’ll be paying for them monthly using my blogging earnings. I would have preferred full payment upfront, but Marc (probably in his excitement) inputted the wrong ATM PIN code thrice! Our ATM card got captured, so we weren’t able to withdraw Php10,000 from that account. These babies cost more than that, but we were planning on withdrawing from our different bank accounts because of the Php10,000 withdrawal limit per transaction.

Our new gadgets!

So anyway, Marc insisted on getting the “better” phone since he’s the one who goes to the office and attends client meetings (I’m just the lowly, work-at-home designer huhuhu). I got the Nokia 5300.

My new phone: Nokia 5300

I’m not really a music person, but it has a sliding function. I don’t know why, but I just find this phone cute. It’s so… small! I even lucked out and was able to avail Nokia’s special offer. It came free with those sleek Bluetooth earphones (I think this promo is only until February 10). Read more

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