The Bangus Ultimatum

Finals are over for me. Catching up on writing for the man-blog, and prepping for iBlog 2. Spare time will then be allocated to training in Ruby on Rails, the web application framework that lets you “punch above your weight”. I’ve been exposed to a lot of Rails buzz before, but I guess this quote from Nathan Torkington sold me to it:

“Ruby on Rails is astounding. Using it is like watching a kung-fu movie, where a dozen bad-ass frameworks prepare to beat up the little newcomer only to be handed their asses in a variety of imaginative ways.�

Rest assured that I will use these new powers only for good

Got to integrate my Flickr account via the flickrss plugin. Also got my Last.fm playlist into the sidebar (Yes, sometimes I can be such a frickin emo boy) via the Feed List plugin. Still trying to make sense of things (I’m not sure if 3 separate plugins for del.icio.us, flickr, and last fm makes sense, performance-wise). Looks like I’m really taken in by this media-enabled, ajaxified web 2.0 thing. Why, I just might get into podcasting next.

Tagged by elychari. “Name ten of life’s simple pleasures that you like most.”
1. finding a good book

2. fresh vegetable salad
3. sitting in front of the TV with a pint of ice cream

4. that look on your students’ faces, when you know they pick something up

5. mindful breathing
6. walking barefoot on the grass

7. learning something completely random
8. a pop-culture enabled escape

9. a friendly, playful dog
10. checking off an item on a list

Is now online. Please please join us.

I’m doing the Flickr thing now. I’ll think of a smoother way of integrating it with my blog after the finals. Any suggestions?

(or, Yes, Virginia, we will have another blogging summit this summer)

Bloggers!

Sorry for the long hiatus, fellas. A lot of things have happened in the world of blogs and we’ve somewhat been asleep at the switch.

The good news is that we’re not dead. We’ve began planning for the next iBlog Summit.

* It will be sometime this May. No definite date and venue yet, but we’ll keeep you posted.

* Something new this year: we’ll have an auditorium to hold 2 or 3 plenary sessions for 200+ individuals, and then a couple of smaller rooms to hold a dozen smaller, more intimate breakout sessions.

* The major themes for this year’s summit: Entertainment, Podcasting, Technology, Group Blogging, Law and Politics, Problogging. Things aren’t carved in stone yet though, and this lineup can change.

* We’re opening the planning process to the blogging community at large. Suggest specific topics or speakers for talks. Demo your code. You determine your level of participation. We’ve set up a mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/iblog2planners to get people together. Hope to see you there.

Do watch our blog, www.iblogph.org for developments. Expect things to start ramping up pretty soon

Love,

The iBlog Staff

I’m done with the Cyprus Paper, and just before the finals sneak in I plan to have a Really Good Time (TM)

First thing on my list is to watch V for Vendetta, which will be on theaters this Wednesday. I know comics-based movies really don’t scale well, but this title is so precious to me that you can slap it on a steaming pile of poo and I’d still buy it (assuming, of course, that Alan Moore gets a share of the profits) .

You see, this great work of sequential art saved my life back in 1998 (incidentally, the “future” year that’s the setting for most of V for Vendetta). Back then I was wrestling with a lot of messy “political” involvements, dealing with rejection, and just trying to stay sane. Alan Moore’s graphic novel kicked me out of my little pity party and taught me that a truly “examined life”, translates to action in a larger sphere, and thinking with a longer now.

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November.