crumb trails

WordCamp Philippines, the first ever in Asia, was successfully held last Saturday, September 6 at the College of St. Benilde in Taft Ave. Manila. More than 400 individuals participated in the said event.

All of us who attended should congratulate WordCamp Philippines 2008 organizers, especially mindanaobloggers.com, the group who spearheaded and made WordCamp Philippines possible. Everything was organized, from the gate of the venue, to the registration, the talks, etc.

I went to the Camp with two friends: Brainteaser and MJ. We were able to attend the lectures facilitated by Jayvee Fernandez, Blogie Robillo, and Danny Arao during the morning sessions. After lunch, activity was resumed at the Augusto-Rosario Theater where Mr. WordPress himself, Matt Mullenweg, shared to the excited audience the latest developments in WordPress and did a demo of WordPress 2.7 which will be released around November (I’m already looking forward to it!). Sponsors of the event also shared information about their product and services that will make blogging even more exciting and dynamic.

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Last night two of my colleagues and I covered an event in Katipunan called “One Smoke-Free Night,” a benefit concert for project Brave Kids. It was also an avenue to raise public awareness on the health hazards of cigarette smoking. One of the event’s organizer was FCAP or Framework Convention on tobacco control Alliance Philippines. Currently, the organization is pursuing the passing of House Bill (HB) 3364 or the Picture-Based Health Warning Bill, which, when approved, graphic photos of the effects of smoking to ones health will replace the usual text warning in cigarette packs. The picture-based warning will be placed on the back panel of the cigarette package, the picture will occupy at least fifty percent of the back panel and the text warning must be in Filipino. In addition, no misleading descriptions should be placed in cigarette packs like “light or low tar,” because no matter how “light” or “low” the tar content is, it will still have the same effect in a person’s health.

a sample of how the picture-based warning will look like in cigarette packs

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National Book Store is celebrating National Children’s Book Day with fun activities at Robinsons Galleria from July 25 until July 27. It’s a perfect opportunity for parents to start engaging their kids in books and to help them see that reading is also fun!

Here’s the press release from NBS and the schedule of activities:

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I’m sure all of us are excited about the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, which will officially open in less than a month(look at the countdown in the sidebar). Wherever we are in the globe, we’d want to take part in this event, right? You must have listened and watched Jackie Chan sing “We Are Ready,” even if you barely understand the lyrics of the song. I am also very sure that you’d like to have a souvenir of the Olympics, no matter how little it is as long as the Beijing 2008 Olympic logo is carved on it.

We’ll, I’ve got mine already, and you can grab one too. Because at McDonald’s - one of the official partners of the Olympics - for only 20 pesos, you can have a Limited Edition Luminarc glass with the Coca-Cola logo on one side and an Olympic event and the Olympic logo on the other. There are five designs (Olympic event) to choose from. All you need to do is buy any of McDonald’s value meals, add 20 pesos to buy one glass or you can buy all five. Me I bought all the five glasses!

My Olympic glasses from McDonal’s