¿Cómo No?

1)  Whatsapp With That? -- in Cameroon, locals who don't have phone credit will call you and then hang up.  You then call them back and have to pay for the call.  They call this bipping someone.  In Panama, the locals use whatsapp because its apparently cheaper than paying for phone credit.  Unfortunately, I don't think I can put whatsapp on my dumbphone, so what ends up happening is that people who want to get a hold of me will not call me unless it was really important.  Wait a minute, that's actually not a bad deal.

2)  Down with Monopolies -- I just used a free online photo editor to redo the banner for my blog.  Better than paying who-knows-how-much for Photoshop.  Not bad for something free, eh?  Its not the first time I've used a free program instead of the more common or popular one.  I also use a free word processing and spreadsheet program (ie not Word or Excel) and they work just fine. 

3)  Reuse/Recycle -- making a cellphone case using a knitting needle and plastic bags:

Now I just need a rocking chair and about 100 cats.

4)  Site Visit -- my program manager dropped by to check out how work was going.  She also went with me to check out a potential accordion teacher:

What a cool boss.  Tiki would never have done that.  If they had accordions in Cameroon, that is. 

5)  The NFL -- Its Sunday and that usually means watching football back in the US.  But I don't really miss it.  I do miss this:

Throwing the Nerf in Ebolowa

Goodbye and Hello

Like Lazarus, I'm also trimming my blogroll by removing some blogs. I have to say goodbye to some of these blogs for one reason or another. Some of my reasons are reflected by Lazarus' reasons. Gotta make the blogroll leaner. hmmm.... maybe I should just make my blog like Ferdz's blog.... meaning no blogroll. That would make my blogroll really lean. hehe.

Anyway, although I'm saying goodbye to some of those bloggers on my blogroll by removing them (**sniff .... wipes tear from eye**hehe), I'm saying hello to other bloggers on my blogroll by meeting them... in real life ... as in EBs. :D The opportunity to meet some of my fellow bloggers happened last month during my trip to the Philippines. The first one I met was Verna, one of the coolest bloggers in the blogosphere. Here's a photo of my EB with her at Greenbelt in Makati:
I look like I just ate bad clams or something. hehe. Anyway, Verna is just as cool and friendly in person as she is on her blog. It wasn't hard to figure out why she's one of the more popular bloggers out there.

In Baguio, I then met bloggers Bill and Jean. Here's the three of us at a cafe on Session Road in Baguio:

Bill prefers to remain anonymous, hence the cropped photo, but that's really him wearing the red jacket. Jean joked that all three of us should've held our EB at Barrio Fiesta Restaurant. hehe.

The last blogger I met was my Manang Chyt. Actually, we've met before since she's family and we sometimes see each other at gatherings, but we never really communicated with each other until we started blogging. Funny, eh? :D She gave me a few CDs of the Pinoy band, Asin. Thanks, Manang! :) She told me that I should have Pinoy music other than Freddie Aguilar. In my defense, I do have some Binhi songs. ;)

So there you have it -- four cool bloggers I met last month. Meeting my fellow bloggers was definitely cool. I really enjoyed it. Who'd have thought that if it weren't for blogging, we'd all just be going about our lives not even aware of each other's existence?

Technorati tags: blogging

Meeting My Fellow Bloggers

Verns tagged me to do this meme. Well, she didn't exactly single me out -- she tagged EVERYBODY. hehe. Anyway, this meme involves meeting my fellow bloggers. If I should I ever meet my fellow bloggers, I wonder how it would go. I mean meeting other bloggers can be strange. There's a chance it might not go well. For instance, there might be lots of long, awkward silences. How will you know if the meeting didn't go well? Because they'll probably blog about it. :-D For example, they might say in their blog:

"He's not as tall as I thought he was."
"He kept blabbing on and on and on...."
"Geez, what a weirdo."

I would prefer that bloggers say the following in their blogs if they ever meet me:

"Definitely way better looking in person."
"Even funnier in person."
"His blog doesn't do justice to how great a person he is. More people should be like him. In fact, a cult should be started right now in his honor."
"I laughed. I cried. I would tell all my friends to go see it." Wait a minute, that last one is from a movie review. :-D

Anyway, enough intro, here's the meme:

Who is the first blogger you met?
My sister. hehe. Aside from her, haven't met any bloggers. Although everyone seems to have a blog nowadays so I have probably met bloggers but I just didn't know it. ;-) I did try to meet a blogger once, but.....well, let's not get into that. ;-)

Who is the blogger “you most want to meet”?
Kevin Sites because I like reading blogs by people who are actually on location covering what they blog about. It also takes a lot of courage to do what he does.

Who is the ‘I can meet, want to meet, but somehow never got to meet’ blogger?
Right now? Well, I don't know too many Bay Area bloggers so I guess no one.

Who are the group of bloggers that you most want to meet?
This is a weird question. Group of bloggers? Can I make up my own group? If so, then I would say I would like to meet the bloggers whose blogs I often visit and leave comments on. What an awkward sentence. ;-) These are bloggers who make me laugh and have the same sense of humor as me. Ka-lebol. hehe. I also like reading about their personal stories.

Do you have any bloggers/blog readers that you would like to meet right now?
Yes. hehe. Well, you didn't ask who. ;-) But seriously, just see the previous question. :-)

As far as tagging people, I 'm going to add a twist to the tag: I'm tagging everyone who DOESN'T have a blog. So if you don't have a blog, good luck doing the meme. hehe. But seriously, feel free to do this meme if it interests you. :-)

Technorati tags: blogging, meme