As many of you already know, Metro Manila and nearby provinces have been badly hit by typhoon Ondoy (international code name: Ketsana) over the weekend. It is estimated that more than eighty percent of the metropolis was flooded during the height of the storm and several areas (Marikina, Pasig and Rizal) are still under water as I post this article. Many lives were lost and thousands are needing our help.
Menardconnect.com is supporting TXTpower call for donation via paypal.
Quoting TXTpower statement:
TXTPower urges its members, supporters and friends abroad to make donations via Paypal. You may also donate via SmartMoney (5577-5144-1866-7103) or GCash 0917-9751092. All donations coursed through TXTPower will be sent to the Philippine National Red Cross.
You may also donate directly to the Red Cross.
Thank you very much!
Update 2009.10.11
I heard yesterday from Tonyo Cruz that Paypal prohibited online donations to charitable institution coursed thru them. See details at
Now it can be told: Paypal ruined online donation drives for Ondoy victims
Facebook Mafia Wars recently launched the Moscow Expansion. And in the tradition of my free six video, six mybrute cheats and tips posts and my six farm town cheats and tips post, I am sharing my six Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips for the Moscow expansion.
1. Mafia Wars announced that Moscow is now open:
Level requirement is 70. Nice!
2. Here’s a great tip: Just go and travel to Moscow
and win an Mafia Wars Achievement 🙂
I think “Rossiya Matushka” means Mother Russia.
3. Moscow Jobs have six episodes. Free Six FTW!
First episode is Baklany.
and it offers cool new jobs too:
4. Rubles, Rubles and Rubles. This is the new mafia wars currency in Moscow
And it seems its not as scarce as the Mafia Wars Cuban Pesos
5. And speaking of jobs, Zynga is giving away some special loots called Mafia Wars Tigers Unleashed!!!
The Mafia wars site advises to
Act fast, because the special event and loot ends Monday, September 28 at midnight (Pacific Time)
6. Don’t forget to buy the Russian Bears at the store
Hope you like my Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips Part 3 featuring the Moscow Expansion.
If you miss my other Mafia Wars cheats and tips post kindly visit:
Menardconnect is in Philippine Daily Inquirer print edition (Page C2) and inquirer.net today. They featured the Goldilocks and Nuffnang event last month. I am quoting Inquirer.net’s Blog tilt winners recall family celebrations article below:
By Jake Ramirez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 07:32:00 09/24/2009
Filed Under: Food, blogging
Goldilocks Bakeshop, Inc., with Nuff Nang Philippines, Inc., recently paid tribute to the growing online Filipino community by hosting a bloggers’ party at Fully Booked Event Center, Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City.
In the celebration, the country’s number one bakeshop announced the 10 winners (four finalists, five runners-up and one grand prize winner) of the “You’re the One Goldilocks Blog Contest.”
Celebrity endorser Dingdong Dantes and Goldilocks marketing director Pinky Yee handed the prizes, including Goldilocks gift certificates, mini laptops and one business edition laptop.
The grand prize winner, Naomi Lardizabal-Dado (http://pinoyfood.nimrodel.net/2009/07/13/youre-the-1-goldilocks) bested almost 200 entries with her heartwarming story.
Her story was about her young son who passed away in 2000, but whose fondest memories in life included Goldilocks birthday celebrations.
Other winners were Maureen Flores (24 Hour Mommy); Jonnie Aristorenas Anzures (My Third Childhood); Mei-li Liezl A. Buenaventura (Lizziebuenaventura.com); Menard Osena (Mernard Connect); Marvin Raden de Guzman, MD (Kuwentong Duktor); Luis Reginaldo L. Medilo (Loy Meets World); Maureen C. Arevalo (MeComposing); Amy Rizza Cruz (Aimzter); and Filomena Agonia (Markfe).
There are some minor typo on the name of this blog, but I’m not complaining 🙂 (Already sent some note to Inquirer.net folks via their feedback channel)
Last Wednesday (September 16) was TrendLabs Blogcon Day 02. This is my 3rd post on the TrendLabs Blogcon event.
As I mentioned on my first TrendLabs Blogcon post, I’m anticipating this session since this is Master Yuga’s session. Master Yuga is none other than Abe Olandres of Yugatech.com. I am sharing some highlights and my learnings from the session:
Master Yugatech wisdom on blogging
It is advisable to view blogging as a pastime or hobby, and not a work.
Blogging is less about writing but more on communicating.
His tips on how to blog effectively:
Find a blogging voice
Keep It Short and Simple
Keep it bite-size. Bullets are better than paragraphs
Illustrate
Make parallels
I am trying these tips on my post today 🙂
Another helpful tip on blogging was “Wash, rinse and repeat”. As I understand this phrase, he mentions that the tricks he shares on blogging may not all be applicable to all situations, so each individual blogger must pick what fits then, modify some to fit them and then repeat the effective processes.
On some defining moments on blogging: He shared that after guesting on TV show and sharing how much he earns online, he drew some flak from one of the host. But he also started receiving many sms messages asking advise on blogging (starting with “Kuya, ang nanay ko labandera…”) and since then he is sharing his knowledge in blogging like “paying it forward”.
What motivates him to blog?
The challenge
The fun
The recognition
And the profit. Earnings and profits was more icing on the cake. Naks!
But my take on this statement is this: If the icing on the cake is 6-figures a month (he shared some estimates on how much he is earning online a month now, not confirming if its PHP or USD) I want to be a cake-maker too!!! Even part-time 🙂
I really enjoyed TrendLabs Blogcon Day 2. Jayvee provided a good session on TrendLabs Blogcon Day 1 and Yuga really raised the bar in Day 2.
I had some great time at WorkCampPH 2009 yesterday at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) in Makati. The event was organized by MindanaoBloggers.com folks. This was my 2nd blogger event (first one was the Nuffnang and Goldilocks event at the Fort last month). Some highlights:
Blogie Robillio welcomed the WordCampers and introduced the Mindanao Bloggers Community. Migs Hipolito was the emcee.
Beau Lebens of Automattic presented the WordPress family. bbPress, BuddyPress, Backpress and GlotPress are new stuffs for me (WP and WP-MU are oldies). I think BuddyPress is cool. I like how Beau and the lead dev coined it as Facebook BYOTOS (Bring Your Own Terms of Service).
Markku Seguerra shared his WordPress in the Wild. The way he titled his session as “in the wild”, I know it would be related to IT-security related so this got me very much interested. The preso was cool and I appreciate his “security in mind” discussions. I also liked his advise on content theft (which is to Blog about it!). Nice 🙂
Danny Arao, a professor in UP and a writer from Bulatlat.com talked about Citizen Journalism and the next year’s election. I love his “hirits” and opinions on politics as well as his explanation on Responsible expression. I now have a better understanding on of how can blogger and journalist help each other on the coming elections
Seth Bindernagel of Mozilla came in next to discuss Mozilla and its open source initiatives. I feel that a localized (Filipino) version of FireFox will be on the roll soon.
Regnard Raquedan shared AIM background and excellence and invited the attendees to check out what AIM can offer for them.
Jeff Villafranca talked about Editorial Voice in Tech Blogging after lunch. I don’t consider myself as 100% tech blogger, but since I also write about techie stuffs in my blog and I understand Jeff points especially on “taste” and other finer points in his presentation.
Coy Caballes busted some myths on video-blogging. His preso is a good eye opener to me on vlogging and It made me think to consider to try making one in the future
Gail Villanueva discussed some advance WordPress topics: Portfolio and Directory site. Preso was colorful and full of tricks, WordPress magic nga!
Last preso was done by Karla Redor on WordPress as the ultimate CMS (Content Management System).
I’m happy that little by little I am getting over my shyness and have some good time interacting with the blogging community. How?
Met, greeted and chat with other WordCampers: Randy Marasigan and some fellow Mapuan bloggers (they are the folks behind apendiks.com and soon to be released technewsngayon.com) and Ederic.
Met NuffnangPH folks. Exchanged cards with Carlos Palma. Didn’t see Judd Sta. Maria although Carlos said he was in the event
To the rest of the Campers there that I greeted (and I forgot to mention here) or was in the event but I was not able to mingle with, kindly drop some comments and I will return the favor by visiting your blog/sites. Promise 🙂
To the #WordCampPH tweeps, I’ll follow you in twitter too.
Lastly, my congratulations to the organizers and volunteers of the WordCamp Philippines 2009 event. See you in WordCamp Philippines 2010!!!
Update: Mayweather Jr wins over Marquez by decision!!!
Floyd “Pretty Boy” Mayweather Jr.(39-W, 0-L, 25 KO) will slug it out with Juan Manuel “Dinamita” Marquez (50-W, 4-L, 1-D, 37-KO) on September 19, 2009 in MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (September 20, 2009, Sunday in Manila). The fight is dubbed as Number One versus Numero Uno and will be available via HBO Pay-per-view. But unlike the Pacquiao-Hatton match which luckily I’m in the Bay Area and PPV seems more accessible, I may be watching it in free TV. Better yet, I am in the lookout for the Mayweather Marquez Live Streaming in the internet (maybe just like some of you 🙂 )
For me I’m excited with this bout because of the victor of this fight may face the winner of the Pacquiao-Cotto match. But you know what made me finally decide to create a post about this match? Simple. The best trash-talker slash amateur trainer is making some cheap talks about Manny Pacquiao. Read more on Floydie Mayweather Sr. sourgraping. So for me the die is cast: I’m for Dinamita Marquez starting today!!!
Overall I think this is a good fight! Good luck to both Marquez and Mayweather Jr.! And good luck to me too on my Mayweather Marquez Live Video Streaming search.
Are you rooting for Marquez too? Or are you for a Mayweather Jr. win? Kindly leave some comments below.
Last week’s Thursday (September 10) was TrendLabs Blogcon Day 01 and this post is my second post on the TrendLabs Blogcon 2009 event.
And in the In the tradition of my free six video, my six Mybrute cheats and tips post, my six Facebook Farm Town cheats post, my six Mafia Wars Cheats and Tips and my six tagalog love quotes post, I am sharing some six updates (highlights, quotes, learning’s etc.) on the TrendLabs Blogcon.
#1. Some Highlights: We had Jayvee Fernandez of Abuggedlife.com. He discussed his story on blogging: how he started, his memorable experiences and of course he answered the lively Q&A portion. I’m following Jayvee on twitter and added his blogsite to my blogroll/links page 🙂
#2. One memorable quote from Jayvee that stuck into my mind was
“Fight in Public. Apologize in public”.
This is his response to a question given to him on how he handled some difficult times (criticisms) in his blog. It’s difficult to explain the background of the quote, but the key learning for me is that as a blogger, you should be responsible for what you post. If ever you bring your discussion and arguments online, you should be responsible to apologize online if needed.
#3. Another key learning/reinforcement for me is his advise on (how to start) blogging: “The best way to start is to just start blogging”. Yup, free tools are available in the web and they are very easy to use. You will hear this advise very often especially from those who are spreading the word about blogging (they call it blogging evangelism). I agree 100% to this statement and I have written similar learnings in other post here at my blog.
#4. On blogging community. I’m happy meet and greet with other Trender bloggers (and soon-to-be-bloggers). Hope to meet more on the next sessions 🙂
#5. One of lowlights (on the personal level I guess): I missed the last part (some 30 minutes) because I need to attend to some urgent official tasks. Thanks to Myla and the organizers, they were kind enough to lend us one of the meeting rooms for our conference call.
#6. So what’s the sixth to complete the free six?
Definitely one of the highlights: The Freebies, especially the TrendLabs Blogcon shirt!
The shirts tagline is “me kwenta kwento ko”. And I will let the team translate it in the comments section 🙂
But definitely one of the best shirts that TM has given away!!!
This is the part 5 of my Facebook Farm Town Cheats and Tips post.
Farm Town developers rolled out some up recently. They call it FarmCash.
That is the green dollar sign below the Farm Town coins.
What does it do?
Farmcash allows the farmers to buy premium items. What Premium items? Read on…
Given the introduction of FarmCash there are also some new additions on the Farm Town Store.
They enhanced the Decorations and they added the Topiary tab. Topiary is the art of making sculpture with trees and shrubs.
For the Decorations here are some new Premium items additions such as:
The flags are cool. I hope that all the major countries that play and support the Farm Town game will have their own flags (sorry Pinoy Farm Towners, no Philippines flag yet, but maybe we can do feature request to Slashkey).
On the Topiary page:
Cool trees and shrub sculptures!!! Want to have some?
FarmCash is available via Farm Town Bank. How much?
Paypal and major credit cards accepted 🙂
Hope you like my facebook farm town cheats and tips post.
If you are playing another facebook game called Mafia Wars, please visit my Mafia Wars cheats and tips post. If you are a MyBrute fan, please visit my Mybrute cheats and tips post.
TrendLabs BlogCon is a blogging awareness campaign and conference for employees of TrendLabs, Trend Micro’s Research, Development, and Support center based in Manila, Philippines. The organizers are launching the event this week and it will be a month-long activity for the whole of September 2009.
For this week they will have Anton Diaz of Our Awesome Planet to discuss the answers to the questions on basic blogging. And for the succeeding weeks they will have Janette Toral of Digital Filipino, Abe Olandes of Yugatech, TNL (Tunay na Lalake) blog author and TM’s Ryan Flores for Malware Blog.
The group organizing is the same cool team behind the Trend Micro’s Malware Blog and this post is a testament of my unwavering support to them. I wish you guys and gals all the best in this event!!!
On a personal note, I’m looking forward for Ms. Jannette’s, Master Yuga’s and Ryan’s session, but definitely I will attend all the sessions that I can.
So to my fellow Trendlabs dudes (and dudettes too), let’s support the event and join in. For the Trendlabs tweeps, kindly follow TL_Blogcon on Twitter.
To end this post, let me do it the Warcraft world way: “TrendLabs BlogCon FTW!!!”
Update on 2009.09.21
Anton and Jannette did not make it for TrendLabs Blogcon due to some schedule conflict (my guess)
Visit my other TrendLabs BlogCon posts
I’m a Mogul so my next mafia wars cheats and tips may be suited best for moguls or more to the cash oriented Mafiosi.
On Properties
As soon as you have some cash already, you can buy some properties in Mafia Wars. Properties let you earn recurring money over time (every 3 hours). There are 2 major types of properties: undeveloped space (land) and properties. You should buy land first then build properties in it.
Some important tips:
Buy land or properties in bulk (say in 5’s or 10’s or 20’s) not one piece at a time, since the price goes up after 1 transaction
After buying land or properties, take some time to check the price and buy again if the price is low
For high-end properties, they will have health points. It is advisable to protect them and repair them if they are damaged, since you will be a target of robberies/heists as soon as you have them
If you are really serious on properties you should learn how to protect them with boosts and items (like bodyguard, mutts, bulldog, etc)
Collect your take (your income) at least once very 24 hours to maximize the earnings, since if you don’t they will deduct some thing from your earnings
On Bank
When you deposit the bank takes away 10% of the total amount of the deposit. I have observed that the they are times that if you log out and have cash in your account and its big enough and you lose fights, your opponent mafia can get up to 65,000 dollars. This amount is big for beginners (but imho cheap for mid levels). So what I suggest is that for beginning stages use the bank. If somebody is milking you (fighting you all over again to get cash) use bank also.
In Cuba, always use the bank before you logout, since money situation is Cuba beta is lot different compared to New York.
Also depositing large amount of money is related to achievement. Your first one million and one trillion deposits (after charges) will earn you achievement points so make good use of this chance.
On Hospital
Don’t allow yourself to get killed. When you noticed your mafia’s health is low, go to the hospital and heal. Before you log out, make it a habit to heal yourself.
That’s all for now. I will post some mafia energy, jobs and fights soon. Stay tuned!
If you have mafia wars questions, or have mafia wars cheats or mafia wars tips to share, or you simply like this kind of post, feel free to leave some comments here.
That is the green dollar sign below the Farm Town coins.
Farmcash allows the farmers to buy premium items. What Premium items? Read on…
