Poker's Pinoy Face.


     got this off a a tabulas blog. what's interesting to note (and i would dare say damn proud to be part of) is that the design team for the poker site that the e-release in the lower part of the blog post is talking about holds office right here in cebu. read on...

"Official PokerBarkada launch set for January 2006 with huge bonuses and great offers"
     A new poker site is coming, featuring a twist that’s both global and uniquely Filipino! PokerBarkada.com is your online portal to meeting Pinoy friends from across the globe for a bit of chitchat and fun!



     Conceived for the express purpose of drawing together Filipinos around the world, through an online venue, and through poker, PokerBarkada.com appeals to the very heart of the Pinoy psyche: The penchant for drawing together no matter where they are, and from what part of the Philippines they originally come from; and the innate love for card games. Playing card games is second nature to Pinoys and PokerBarkada.com takes that fondness to an entirely new level! You don’t have to wait for them to visit! You can play online poker with your friends and family, and other poker players from across the globe with Pokerbarkada.com!
     What makes PokerBarkada.com unique among the myriad of poker sites in the Internet is its creative use of online poker gaming software, and designing its entire service package around the Pinoy segment of the worldwide online poker gaming community, creating a niche that’s very Filipino in taste and style, yet uniquely global and accessible to everyone online!
     PokerBarkada.com is an online community for Filipino poker players all over the world! We welcome everyone; the average everyday poker aficionado to the suave, sultry, and complicated. We're welcoming Pinoys from every city, county, province, country, shape, size, mix and bend. And if you don't play poker yet, isn't it about time you did?
     PokerBarkada.com also introduces that fascinating poker game variation, Badugi. PokerBarkada.com is one of the very first sites to introduce this fast-paced triple-draw four-card low-hand wins game online! If you’re striking out at Hold’em, try Badugi and win! What’s more, PokerBarkada.com will be coming out with Filipino-themed wallpaper, screensavers, tutorials, banners, avatars and more!
     PokerBarkada.com's launch will also mean huge 25% bonus offer on your first purchase. Poker players can take advantage of this first bonus promotion immediately upon becoming members! So what are you waiting for? Join PokerBarkada.com now and take advantage of this great 25% bonus offer and exciting online poker action, and get the chance to meet other Pinoys across time zones and boundaries! Sali na!
     PokerBarkada.com’s poker play support is provided by the Doyle Brunson Poker Network, one of the premier online poker gaming networks in the world! This is where you can play the advantage of being global yet closely tied to your fellow Filipinos. We're inviting you to join a world-first! Be among the select few, be a part of PokerBarkada.com as it launches online on January 2006!

     amazing isn't it, how cebu has not only become a venue for corporate IT outsourcing services and solutions and call centers, but a verdant milieu for digital artists, web designers and software developers to log in hours working on sites of a lighter nature. i have a feeling that i'm talking over my head here and that i'm a bit naive in this regard --- will look up more info about local digital artists, web designers and software developers working on international projects of this same nature.

     recently, poddcorp played a collaborative role during the recent toyphilia event in handuraw which featured toys for the big and small boys. this january it will be celebrating its first anniversary, which coincides with pokerbarkada's launch, will be hosting an art exhibit featuring local artists in oil and canvas, as well as digital art. i've been able to touch lightly on subject with jagat rubio and leo guevarra, creatives supervisor and art director of poddcorp, respectively. more on that subject, soon. a good friend of mine, niel quisaba, will be part of this exhibit, as well. he had recently put up a digital art exhibit at turtle's nest, dubbed, "digital delight." ---- i'll be posting some of niel's stuff here as soon as i figure out how to do just that.






Penumbra:
     i talked with my wifey's cousin on the phone yesterday and she remarked if we didn't have any plans of working abroad, especially since the wife has a big chance of going abroad fairly easily. i told her that i see a great dynamism in cebu's IT industry and that, in this regard, there's no way but up for the lokals.

Celeste, Handuraw and a drinking contest.


Celeste Opolentisima, a dear, dear friend of mine and colleague, won a beer-drinking contest during Handuraw and Kahayag Cafe's Christmas party last night. She had returned to Handuraw to pick up some of the things we left there when our office had its Christmas party the other day. When she got there, she found a lot of people inside and, waving her to join them, were a few friends and the beginnings of a beer binge.

The rest, as they say, may be seen through the bottom of the beer mug.




Penumbra:
Celeste. now totes a new mantra and plans to swear by it tomorrow.
Her new mantra: "Drink with moderation."
Repeat ten times,
Then, alternate with ten situps and twenty pushups.

christmas parties and benefit concerts.



Had our office christmas party last night at this fine self-styled events cafe just off the city circle called Handuraw Cafe --- Have great food, will come! Woohooo!



The pizza was great; the pasta with pesto sauce was to die for; the Hors D'oeuvre spread was tantalizing, and so was the roasted porker (Minus that "Oh traditional fruit-in-mouth, wherefore art thou?!" apostrophe, that is).



By the by, Handuraw will be holding its christmas party in tandem with Kahayag Cafe. I had briefly shared a smoke with Miches Bianan who mentioned that there will be between 15 and 20 local bands participating in this year's festivity. Jr Kilat, Cattiski, The Ambassadors, Urbandub, Pandora and a host of other local greats will be joining the party. I'd like to add my congratulations to Jr. Kilat for bagging the 2005 NU Rock Awards "Song of the Year" for Ako si M-16!!!

Grabe kabulabog ang katung last year, bai, Bianan laughs, recalling how the guys from the different bands wrapped condom, cans of sardines, and other assorted market items as gifts for the traditional gift-giving. Bianan, who dabbles in software development and web design when not strumming the bass for Zarah Smith, says that a gift he would never forget was a neatly wrapped present that Budoy gave to Jr. Kilat cohort Gina Pestaño. Accompanying the gift was a dedication that spoke of his heartfelt sincerity and undying friendship. As she took the present, a musical rattling could be heard. When Gina opened her gift --- lo and behold! it was a container filled with munggo beans!

it's two in the morning now. perhaps the party has ended. most likely, the more serious business of getting drunk is just getting under way, who knows? one thing's for sure, that once in a year, the denizens of the local music scene will get what they deserve: One happy night of song and cheer, where the music and alcohol flow freely; and where musicians sing their hearts out to their fellows in this season of joy and love.



Penumbra:
The Rasta Claus benefit concert will be this friday, December 23, 2005, at the Kukuk's Nest (adjacent to Golden Peak Hotel, Gorordo Avenue). In lieu of the cover fee, bring canned food, goods and clothing. The concert is for the benefit of the urban poor.

marc nadela, leo guevarra and JDLC


marc nadela. erstwhile classmate and good friend in elementary. he and i met again at talentfolio where i was the erstwhile resident copywriter-slash-PA. he had come in with his band to discuss the future of their band with our company.
fast forward to four years later, 2005. met him again through my wifey's colleague, who happened to be marc's guitarist. after their gig, we got around to talking about writing something about the lokal music scene. he'd be my source, i'd be the journeyman telling the tales. nice arrangement, now that i've consciously decided to write a blog about all things cebu and lokal. talked to ms mimi about my idea of featuring some lokal musicians, and got a positive on featuring them in her section at Cebu Daily News. nice. very nice.

leo guevarra. art director, old-school musician, neverending artist and dreamer. heard mainly from buddy niel quisaba about leo. i still don't know a lot about him, but i did broach the topic about this blog to him. he replied in the positive and said he'd introduce me to a few people he knew who were still active in the lokal music scene. cool.

JDLC, Juan de la Cruz. Wikipedia has a short entry about them, stating that, "After "Up In Arms", Joey "Pepe" Smith and Mike Hanopol joined the band. Along with remaining member Wally Gonzales, the trio arguably started the "Pinoy Rock" movement with the song "Himig Natin". Although it wasn't the first song to be sung in Tagalog, it was the first song of its kind that was sung in the country's native tongue." See: JDLC

in lokal music, it isn't everyday that you hear youngbloods play old tunes. in a way, playing the classics has something to do with both respecting the roots of your own music at the same time offering a rhythmic libation to the gods of music, imploring for smooth sailing throught the seas of adversity and the changing tides of trend.

online poker and then some.



i just celebrated the last wee hours of my first two months with PODD, about two hours ago (2:17AM, my time). or is it three? two is more like it. PODD is a outsourcing web design company. we're in the thick of designing several online poker gaming sites for quite a few big poker networks abroad. it's interesting really, because i've always been curious about poker.

i've seen it in a lot of american films, among others and have seen several episodes of celebrity poker and world series of poker, and other poker tournaments on solar sports channel. while it is a gambling game, a perception of it as a sporting game is steadily growing ---- in my opinion, this aspect of it being a gambling won't ever change, even years from now. but then again, even billiards had risen from being a bar game where hustlers elbowed each other for room, to an international sport, where filipinos are collectively known for their skill and mastery of the game. albeit being a gambler's game, poker does have the potential for becoming a really big sporting event. maybe even as legit as chess, if i may be allowed to say so.

(apart from these websites that PODD works on, our other clients are as varied in nature as there are poker hands, from
poetry to software dev --- but that's for another blog article.)

the blog commandments.


got this off another blog (thanks, jeff ooi!).

useful stuff to know...

M-16s and Fingers Crossed.


Saw a story in yesterday's Manila Bulletin about Jr Kilat being one of the nominees of this year's NU 107's Rock Awards, for "Ako si M-16." Nice.

They're up against some of the music scene's heavy hitters, namely The Dawn, Orange and Lemons, and Bamboo. Am waiting for a message from Budoy about how they did --- ataya! left my phone home --- of all the --- aaaaaaaarrrrrrgh!


Keeping my fingers crossed.


***

Several hours ago, a friend of mine, Marc Nadela, invited me to Handuraw, where several lokal bands were slated to play. I forgot their names now, but i do recall Marc telling me that the line-up will be playing good ol' classic rock. Had to work nightshift, so there. atay.

Here in Cebu, the lokal music scene is divided between indie and pop; indie bands steeped their indie sounds (read: individual, unique, original) and showbands playing their popular music (read: covers, mostly). sure, there are other bands who cover other bands as much as there are record labels with offices or distributors scattered throughout the metropolis. but the bigwigs who do the deciding have their eyes set on imperial manila, where the plethora of bands have a better chance of making it to the biggies because of two key elements. One, geography (you don't need to catch the next boat to watch a concert in the next province); and two, the audience is legion.

In lokal cebu, there are three main elements: there's reggae, the myriad genres of rock, and pop.

and then there's that ol' bastion made of hard, solid riffs, classic rock. another friend of mine, Luigi, once lent me a cassette tape of a Hendrix compilation. for a week, i was in nirvana (pun intended). then i had to return his tape back. atay napud.

for marc, luigi, tim (marc's longtime friend and bassist), and a throng of others rooted in the classics, it's become second skin; to play the music in their blood, to sing in the face of shifting prefential faddism and strive on, spreading the music to lokals who cared to listen at venues that dared to take them in.

in lokal music scene, it's not the bragging rights, nor the tracks recorded that matter in the long run. to these fellows of the rhythm, it's all about keeping the faith, playing the music, and enriching the lives they touch.

for now, whether the lokal audience still craves for lokal rock 'n roll or not, i'm keeping my fingers crossed. Jimi Hendrix waxed poetic and said it best,

Purple haze all in my brain
Lately things just don’t seem the same
Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why
’scuse me while I kiss the sky





(lots of love to www.lyricsfreak.com/ for that piece of poetic lyric.)

writing to keep myself in coffee and cigarettes

had a talk with a friend of mine, last week and i swear, i did not know about it, until then that outsourcing has been here in the philippines since the late 80s in one form or another.... ataya.

* * *


a friend of mine got me into this NDS thing, which is a copywriting thing that you send online and get paid for through your bank account. it's actually something interesting because all you have to do is write a 250-word article about anything; they'll email you the topic and the keywords, and all you have to do is come up with a workable draft and send it back to them. you get a several pesos for it, i think.

i haven't really started on it yet --- still settling into a groove with both my fiancee and my own workshifts, so there. the trick there, the lady behind the NDS wrote, is writing as many as you can in, say, a week, to make it worth your time in coffee and cigarettes. i used to do that. occasionally, i'd help out a friends who were having trouble with their thesis papers, for a pack and a brew. not bad for an afternoon's worth of hanging out and reading through some very interesting theories on optimization, engineering theory and application, reading comprehension and statistical data on local newspaper writing.

so, instead of lolling about in the mid-afternoon sun drinking coffee and doing nothing, i guess i could give this NDS a try.

job out.

i also remember outsourcing being locally referred to as "job-outs." while it is an affectation and may not necessarily be apt in defining outsourcing in the strictest sense, the term often meant having an outside company, or a subcontractor handle the manufacture or facility of the product and service.

is outsourcing comparable to companies hiring out certain workloads to other companies who specialize in accomplishing these loads? here in cebu, most companies hire out for their janitorial services, as well as messengerial, or courier services. would this be an equivalent? what the difference between outsourcing your need for such services, and say, courier services? there's a company called safefreight that does the billing sendouts of local companies to their clients and subscribers. utilities and credit companies employ their services, mostly. when i worked with a local sports club, we'd get them to send out our members' billing every month.

or, does geography have to play a big part in the definition? the first time i heard of outsourcing was when i worked for cannoncreek. a little later, call centers started popping around in and around the metropolis. soon, website design was being outsourced. in fact, i work at a company that provides such outsourcing services.

i realize that one must be knowledgeable of the field that he or she is working in, so the need to define outsourcing beyond what it connotes, i.e., call centers and website design companies. i'll work on answering my own question soon. for now, sleep beckons and i must not deny her satisfaction.

focusing and being reborn.

i have no idea how many times i've unsuccessfully tried to be faithful to a blog. i'm hoping that this time, i'll get the focus i need from the daily pack of marlboros i've fallen back in with. stream-of-consciousness doesn't seem to work well, especially if you don't have DSL... tsk. ah, to be writing again! it's like being reborn, but without the hand-raising and the sporadic "amens."

is there a study out there that suggests that your focus (in writing, mainly) is directly proportional to the nicotine (and caffeine --- i've taken it in more ample amounts, these days) levels in your body? that the more you take, the more focused you become? i gotta have me a copy of that... two, or three maybe, and give the other copies to couple of friends i know having trouble focusing their attention on their relationships. man, the things people share when having coffee....

it's interesting how a lot of things can be tied in with the kind of work i do as a copywriter for an outsourcing company. you'll never know what kind of information you pick up just being in the office for eight hours of the day. just yesterday, i learned about viral marketing. curious.... i looked it up in Wikipedia and realized "word-of-mouth" IS viral marketing. makes you think about foot-and-mouth disease... about mad cow, avian flu and red tide. let's hope nothing happens to soy, or we're out of protein alternatives to sink our teeth in. or, we may have to outsource,

you see, i work in a web design outsourcing company. i don't know anything about web design, but i can write. or, at least i try to. outsourcing is big business here in cebu. what was once thought of as "subcontracting" is now reinvented as "outsourcing." i remember doing several articles where "subcontracting" was turn of phrase. later on, when i did try out a deskjob and still maintained a few moonlit writing on the side, everything i did was called outsourced content. funny... how is a freelance writer who contributes to magazines called then, i wonder.

i first got acquainted with outsourcing when i worked as a junior copyeditor (my third deskjob as a copywriter) at CannonCreek Asia, which maintained an online business newsletter ("... with corporate subscribers from Europe, Asia and the United States!" or something like that, i dunno now). i had also worked as a correspondent for the lifestyle section of a local newspaper, half to support my college tuition and keep me in ciggies and caffeine. occasionally, i did the odd thesis paper or two, just to keep in practice, and more often, because i collect trivia, odd facts and other sorts of useless info, which, you'll never know, may come in handy in the offing --- did you know that "offing" is synonymous to suicide? urbandictionary, you are my online drug. well, one of them. my thanks.

as always is the case, you'll never get rich writing in this country. not unless you write books on law, taxation, advanced grammar, and values education, and then require it at school ---- maybe some teachers were on to something about making their own syllabus-dictated-must-have textbooks...... try multiplying 150/book with 500 students and then multiply that by two semesters. wow.

writing or proofreading college thesis papers was one, albeit narrow, way of trading in information and currency. i remember editing this engineering paper where i charged a paltry 5-pesos per page (at 207 pages, i was content). or of another one that i did for a pack of cigarettes and two cups of coffee. i always knew that there was money in the education sector, but i didn't want to grow old writing thesis papers for students too lazy to do their own material. so, i tried the school paper and found my hook, line and synch-er.

in this line of business, it's always good to be a, er, man of your word. writing copy for private individuals and groups relies much on word of mouth. i've had my fair share of bad reviews and insults thrown my way, as well as tips in token of my great copy. but always, a hack writer always looks for the good word his clients may put in to his future clients. as is the case in relatively small island cities, everyone knows everyone. half the people didn't like doing business with me, while the other half kept my hope up by saying they'll pass the word on. because you need to keep in shape, you write. because you need to eat, you write. man, there were times when i'd go hungry....

and maybe this is my ticket to consistency --- sure, i've been inconsistent, especially with deadlines. just ask my old editors and clients. i never squealed on quality, but was a total nutcase when it came to beating deadlines (i never was a violent person). i've had to learn discipline and focus the hard way: by threats of a failing grade, expulsion, bad business rep, lethargy, and loss of income. but, perhaps, i will be reborn, my focus renewed, my drive restored, my writing consistent and regular, and my lungs belabored... *sigh* the price we pay for our craft.

took this off a desk bauble:
"I love to write."
"I love to write.."
"I love to write..."
"I love to write...."
"I love to write....."
"I need the money."
(ms. mimi lijauco, you're an inspiration and one of my greatest teachers in professional writing. i think this was printed on your mug, or stapler, or something...)