One of the properties of the English language that makes it so beautiful is that it is rich in synonyms. One day, I was amusing myself with a mental exercise: to see how many one-word synonyms for ‘travel’ I could find. So here goes: tour, trip, voyage, journey, sojourn, odyssey, trek, passage, expedition, flight… On the flip side, the abundance of synonyms makes for difficulty in good diction.

A friend of mine recently had me read his blog post about a stalker he once had. In describing the disagreeable fellow, my friend used the word ‘egregious’. I pointed out to him that, since the character in question had no importance whatsoever to him, using that description was out of context. He should have used ‘blatant’ or ‘reprehensible’ instead.

In my view, the word ‘egregious’ (outstandingly, flagrantly bad behavior), probably due to its excessive formality, has a connotation of being significant. While it is entirely negative in tone, when used to describe someone or something, the speaker actually lends importance to the subject.

Thank heavens for Shift-F7, right? Yes, but do be careful. When you refer to a thesaurus, more often than not, the reference wouldn’t include instructions on how or when or where to employ the words. Even though two words are synonymous, each one’s usage may vary. For example, the word ‘voyage’ is normally reserved for trips across large bodies of water, and would be out of place when used to mean air passage.

There are synonyms that are seamlessly interchangeable, of course, and those come in handy when you don’t want to sound redundant. (For example, in the previous paragraph, I avoided saying the verb “use” more than once. There are 3 instances where I could’ve said “use” but did not. Can you identify all of them?)

The intuitive use of vocabulary comes with long experience. If you expose yourself to excellent publications, you’ll certainly be able to pick up a sense of good diction. Read novels because the language is dynamic and current in prose. Read poetry because it will make your imagination soar. Read famous people’s speeches because those will show you how to aptly use grandiose words and not sound pretentious. Read the news because… well, because it will teach you how to write concisely.

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

No problem, really, if the date were changed — we’ve only started the planning phase anyway. We will just have to start moving faster, because if we do move the date, it will definitely be a month or so earlier. Please refer to the official site for the final announcement.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank fellow WordPress enthusiasts, Juned Sonido and Chuckie Dreyfus, for wholeheartedly agreeing to be part of the WordCamp Philippines organizing team. Thank you, guys! Your contribution will certainly go a long way in making this event truly inspired.

Special mention to i.ph and WazzupManila for readily offering to become sponsors. And, although we haven’t made up our minds yet, we also want to thank the College of St. Benilde for volunteering their venue and facilities. It is really heartwarming, the immediate response from the community.

Padayon ta!

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

The date of this highly anticipated event is 25 October 2008, which is a Saturday.

We’ll have two tracks: one for WordPress developers (themes & plugins) and software programmers (especially those who use PHP), and one for users and beginners.

More announcements and details will be published on the official blog.

Photo courtesy of Ria.

You got that right — we’re gonna have our very own WordCamp in the Philippines this year!

The bloggers from down South, after successfully organizing the 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit in Davao last 27 October 2007, are aiming for a more nationwide scope this time. WordCamp is the premier social networking event for all WordPress users, developers and designers all over the world.

Watch out for this one! Official announcements will be made via the WordCamp Philippines site.

The noble purpose of this writing project is to give recognition to the blogosphere’s relatively new but prominent blogs. (To help them along the road to blogosphere fame, too!) Any blogger — not necessarily Filipino — may join this worthy endeavor. To do so, please start by reading this post. In short, you will need to nominate 10 blogs to your own list of emerging, influential blogs.

Below is my list. These are blogs that, in my opinion, have exerted some well-deserved authority over their chosen subject matter / advocacy. (Listed in alphabetical order.)

• Bariles Republic

This is a highly informative blog about the author’s hometown, General Santos City. It was started only in November 2007, and yet it feels like it’s been around for much longer. That’s probably because the content is honest, down-to-earth and focused.

• Davao Delicious

This is one of my own blogs. I thought I’d include it in my list — risking accusations of tooting my own horn — because I do believe the blog has become rather influential in its chosen milieu. I get quite a number of emails through the online contact form asking me about more places to eat in Davao City. I also get requests for other restaurants to be featured in the blog.

• Filipino Voices

A heroic effort to cast the voice of the Filipino to the world, this community blog is comprised of bloggers from a vast spectrum of backgrounds. But they have one common denominator, though: they are passionate about their homeland, and so they write about society and all its attendant issues, concerns, problems, triumphs.

• Migs Mobile Network

Author of the popular blog, migs.wordpress.com, Migs finally got his own self-hosted WordPress blog for his favorite blogging topic: mobile and all its attendant technologies. Migs Mobile Network is still so fresh it’s still covered in bubble wrap… but it’s already gaining so much ground in the mobile genre.

• PRC Board Exam Results

In less than half a year since it was launched, this site has garnered a popularity borne out of necessity (as opposed to SEO activity). It is now one of the most visited resources for information on exam results emanating from the Philippine Regulation Commission.

• Techy Kid

This blog, while no different from other tech-centric blogs focus-wise, is really in a niche, audience-wise. Since it’s written by a very young and just-recently-graduated student, his blog appeals to readers of his generation.

• Teknostik dawt com

A hodge-podge of personal takes on his surroundings, his efforts at weights training, and a smattering of technology-related articles, this blog serves up in-your-face posts that are quite entertaining. I think Teknostik has a great potential to retain a loyal audience, with the blogger’s unique voice and writing style.

• Visit Sagada

This community blog aims to promote Sagada, in the Philippines’ Mountain Province. Started only in January 2008, this site is a worthy effort, akin to what we’ve been doing for Mindanao. If you plan on making a trip to one of the country’s most visited spots, Visit Sagada should be your first order of business.

• Work With Ria

This blog, started in October 2007, document’s the author’s experiences in her various work-related environments. Plural, yes. Ria is an example of the young generation today — aggressive, connected, technology-savvy. Although it has some personal entries as well, those who are just starting out in the world can actually learn from this blog’s kilobytes of wisdom.

• You Got Tech

This community blog, in such a short span of time, has turned into a reference site for the ‘tech layman’. Populated by bloggers who are themselves newbies (more or less) to high technology, You Got Tech certainly appeals to its target audience.

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City

Sponsored By: DVO Bloggers Network - the Davao blogosphere

Although I don’t really do photography, it doesn’t hurt to learn about it, right? Juned delivered an easy-to-understand guide to photography for blogging, and gave us a taste of his own unique approach. He also brought out his impressive collection of cameras, from the ultra-professional to the basic point-and-shoot.

The centerpiece of the Summit this year was the exhortation by the main speakers for bloggers to give focus to the national elections in 2010. Since blogs are now approaching mainstream status in terms of readership and even in terms of scope of influence, bloggers have an opportunity to participate in the promotion of clean elections.

I’m also very happy that my colleague Ria Jose’s talk was a success. She talked about the activities of Mindanao bloggers, and what has transpired in our neck of the woods since we became a community in 2007.

Judging by the questions and comments, the bloggers there obviously got quite interested in our unique experience. One of them, Pierre of The Journal of The Jester-in-Exile, presented a challenge to us when he asked if the "success of MindanaoBloggers.com" (his words) was documented somewhere. This is something that I believe we must accomplish!

I’m proud to say that the Davaoeños — Andrew, Winston, Migs (an honorary Dabawenyo), Ria and myself — certainly made an impact at iBlog4. I hope that this is the start of the Davao bloggers community’s deeper participation in the national blogosphere.

And here are the Manila-based bloggers who’ve made an impact on me: Juned Sonido, Manuel L. Quezon III, Markku Seguerra, and of course, Janette Toral, Aileen Apolo and Jay de Jesus.

Some more link-love to new friends: Benj Espina, Jeffrey Villafranca, Ade Magnaye, Jane Uymatiao, Fritz Tentativa, Ade Magnaye, Dine Racoma, Coy Caballes, Ely Apao + his sweetie, Teacher Julie, and the tantalizing Japanophile, Kring Elenzano.

Earlier, after lunch, Aileen Apolo and Coy Caballes gave a presentation on video blogging and podcasting.

The present slot is made up of three speakers: Quezon, and a journalist, Luz Rimban, came before him. And then Janette Toral.

Rimban focused on Elections 2010. She encouraged the audience to blog about the coming national elections because the media is not expected to cover everything. The media, Rimban said, will focus only on what’s “newsworthy”, and so bloggers have a unique position, and that is in the bringing of man-on-the-street news to the voting public.

Interesting: Quezon says he uses Twitter a lot. He believes Twitter will be very useful during the elections. Thinking about the American grad student who was arrested in Egypt and who used Twitter to tell his friends about the arrest, I think Quezon has a point.

Janette Toral is up next. She will talk about “How bloggers can participate more effectively in the 2010 elections”. She is advocating freedom of expression and for bloggers to be more participatory in the coming elections.

The mom is here! She asked: Can we stop giving you allowance then?

The next speaker is Juned Sonido. His talk is entitled “pHoToBlOg”. Some of his blogs: pinoysnapshots.com, baratillo.net, dalanghita.com, etc. He also writes for b5media and is part of the Blog & Soul Movement.

Juned is telling us about how to create a photoblog. I’m feeling frustrated, because I don’t even own a digicam!

For the platform, Juned is praising Multiply and Blogger (blogspot.com) as excellent sites for photo-blogging. And now he’s showing us his tools of the trade: his cameras and lenses. (I’m drooling now.) Wow! He has sooo many cameras with him!

I’m gonna take a break from liveblogging. Winston of BatangYagit.com will borrow my laptop.

11:43AM
Winston is taking photos of the event. We’ll be uploading pictures later.

Just finished his talk is Jonas Diego (jonasdiego.com, what else?), who does Web comics. He uses blogging as a means of promoting his creations.

Lunch!

9:50 AM
Brian Gorrell says try not to get sucked into your blog, that we should be able to walk away. Good point. I should listen.

Gorrell says freedom of speech is very important… and that his blog is a prime example of it. Hmmm… Perhaps. Now I hope someone will talk about responsible blogging.

We’ve been asked to disconnect wifi for a while. I guess they’re fixing the Internet connection… More later!

9:58AM
Now the audience has a chance to introduce their blogs. I grabbed the opportunity to talk about MindanaoBloggers.com. Nice idea by the organizers.

A merienda break is gonna be called soon…

10:32AM
We’re still on break. People are milling about. I just had my caffeine fix after greeting my good friend, Janette Toral, who’s one of the main organizers of this event.

10:36AM
OK, people are starting to trickle back in. The conference should be back on track in a few minutes or so…

Janette is continuously live-casting the event via Justin.tv. Go to http://www.justin.tv and search for Janette’s page to view the live webcast.

Next up is Karlo Licudine: “From Student to Problogger”. Should be interesting. His blogs are pinoyblogero.com, blogcomics.net (in collaboration with Andrew dela Serna), etc.

10:42AM
Karlo’s on the podium now. He’s a Computer Engineering student at Mapua Institute of Technology, and he says he will pursue his problogging career after graduation.

Karlo: “Problogging is where a blogger sets out to earn more money thru the use of blogs and to maximize and furher its money-making capabilities.” He proceeds to call Malu Fernandez’s quip ‘Blogging is a slacker’s job’ as a misguided perception. Hurray Karlo!

He’s now talking about problogging in society: that it’s not yet viewed as a “real job” in Philippine society. He cited his experience with his girlfriend, who asked him what he would tell her parents when they asked him about his job.

The pros of problogging: 1) prospects of earning big money; 2) earning money from home; 3) you are your own boss; 4) you have full control of everything; 5) no hassle of looking for a job. Very simplistic view of the benefits of problogging, IMHO. But there are nuggets of wisdom here. However, there are the cons, of course. Karlo mentions the unpredictability in the world of problogging; the difficulty of promoting your blog(s); high risk of failure, etc.

Karlo’s advice: patience. Good call. He’s wrapping up now.

I’m cutting this post and continue liveblogging in a new post.

Continue here…

Sponsored By: 1st Mindanao Bloggers Summit - 27 Oct 2007, Davao City