Ang Dabawenyo

Landed in Davao City a couple of hours ago. I must say, although I love living in Davao, the less-than-a-week stint in the capital felt like it was cut short (although I actually extended my stay a few days). It had been nearly 3 years since I’d been to Manila before this trip, and it felt like I wasn’t able to do enough catching-up.

Still, the six days were productive. I was able to recruit some talented contributors to my current project, PinoyTech.TV, and I was able to touch base with my long-time friends in the industry, like Janette and Richard Eldridge of Infinit-O.

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I live in a compound that sits right beside the Ateneo de Davao High School campus. I’m up early for my flight to Manila — actually, I’ve been up for an hour already. From last night till this early morning, I’d been hearing rambunctious noises over at the campus. Kids. Must’ve spent the night there for a school activity.

If my folks could’ve heard them, they would’ve thrown a fit. My folks, I mean. But I didn’t mind. Hearing them chat and hoot and guffaw and go about their antics made me recollect my own time in high school (which wasn’t all that long ago… or so I try to convince myself).

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I’m flying to Manila tomorrow and will stay there till the 30th. It’s been more than two years that I haven’t been to the capital! The last time was in 2005 when I lived there for half the year to take care of a couple of business projects. How time flies!

I look forward to reconnecting with old friends in Makati, and to meet new ones during the iBlog4 Conference on the 26th. That’s going to be at the UP Diliman campus. Meaning, I’m going to see my alma mater on the way — it’s been ages since I last saw the Ateneo de Manila. I wonder if I’ll still recognize it…

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This morning I was at a planning session for the promotions activities of the Kadayawan sa Dabaw festival. Marco Polo’s Art Boncato invited me just this morning to be a part of this committee. It was rather sudden and spur-of-the-moment, but I gladly obliged. I wouldn’t miss the chance of helping organize Davao’s own traditional festival.

I don’t want to jump the gun on the Kadayawan organizers, so I’m not going to divulge anything before the official announcements. But I would like to mention that this year is going to be different. For one thing, the younger generation is starting to take over the reins, and we’re bringing in fresh ideas.

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When you go around town, you’ll notice quite a few ongoing construction projects and new restaurants and coffee shops. There are more businesses registered with the Department of Trade & Industry, albeit mostly SMEs. It really looks like Davao City is a boomtown again. But if you look closely, you might notice some things that are a bit disappointing. Like how they’re half-baked.

For example, a restaurant that looks magnificent on the outside, and might even be quite presentable inside… but doesn’t spend a peso on staff training. Or — and here’s a pet peeve of mine — a well-designed and glossy brochure that you know cost an arm and a leg to produce… but the literature is poorly written.

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When I was in college, I had my ears pierced with tiny gold studs. If memory serves me right, I was the only guy in campus with both ears pierced. It was a statement, yes — aren’t all body ornamentations (rings, studs, tattoos, what have you) done to declare something to the world? For me, it was a way to say that I was comfortable with my own being.

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I got this email from my family’s e-group, and I thought I’d blog about it. I’m not exactly sure if this could work, but, like it says in the email, if enough people join in, it just might have an effect.

The gist of it is, if millions of people stop buying gas from the big oil companies, they’d be forced to lower their prices. For example, we could top up at Phoenix (which is a homegrown fuel company, by the way) or at other local gas stations.

But… don’t these local companies get their gas and diesel from the big oil companies? The scheme presented by the email sender sounds simplistic to me, but why not you be the judge?

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A pioneering effort in print media was launched today — a locally-published magazine intriguingly called m.

To quote its publishers, M is "the first-ever glossy travel and lifestyle magazine that will showcase the best that Mindanao has to offer. M features stories ranging from adventure destinations, culinary pursuits, nocturnal activities, unique fashion creations, beauty and wellness, gainful business endeavors, to little known secrets about this island paradise; it is the primary source of information on Mindanao’s contemporary lifestyle."

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I’d been planning a look-and-feel change for my I-love-Davao blog for sometime now, but I just couldn’t find the right timing. But when WordPress came out with version 2.5, I knew I’d found the inspiration and the impetus to give Ang Dabawenyo a makeover.

Of course, having a brand new logo helped, too! (Thanks again, Winston.)

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I’ve been on a logo rampage since late last month, feverishly thinking up cool logos — if I do say so myself — for my blogs. Blogie Blog, IT talks!, and now Ang Dabawenyo have gotten their own stamps of identity.

The mélange of Davao symbols inside the blog bubble, that was the logo of my old Davao e-zine, which used to be found on davao.net. (Too bad, though, because that domain got hijacked years ago… but that’s a long story.)

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