2013-01-06 ~ Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Philippines Wins Best Tourist Destination Award in China

The Philippines won one of the “Best Tourist Destination” awards at the 2012 Oriental Morning Post’s annual World Travel – Special Trips Awards.

A statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs said the award was based on a consumer survey done by the Oriental Morning Post, one of the top news dailies in Shanghai. Other winning countries in the category were Ireland, Korea, Singapore and Finland, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

The awarding ceremony was held on January 9 at the Twelve At Hengshan (A Luxury Collection Hotel in Shanghai), where important personalities from the Shanghai travel trade and media were present.

I made an afternoon visit in Naples where the weather that day was around 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Naples is known as the crown jewel of Southwest Florida only a few steps away from island seclusion or the untamed tropical wilderness of The Everglades. It is nestled on the sun drenched beaches of the Gulf of Mexico. It is also popularly known as an ideal place for world class shopping, great dining experience, and abundant choices of challenging golf courses.

The city also boasts as having one of the nation's best sandboxes and calmest seas. This makes Naples very popular with water lovers and recreationists. A lot of parks with lovely green spaces and recreational facilities attract sports, health enthusiasts, and picnickers.

Temple Run : 5K Run To Make The Temple Done

Get ready for another running event called Temple Run based from the popular mobile device game app. Join this 5k run at the Newtown Puyat Compound of San Jose Del Monte Bulacan!

Temple Run

February 25, 2012 – 5:00 AM (Holiday)
Newtown Puyat Compound, San Jose Del Monte City, Bulacan

5k Run

Registration Fees:
5k – Php 350 / Php 250 for students

Inclusive of Race Bib and Singlet

Cash Prizes awaits for Top 3 Male and Female Finshers
1st place – Php 2,000
2nd place – Php 1,500
3rd place – Php 1,000

In the midst of a great war between mortals and monsters, a serpentine creature falls for a man, leading to the birth of a new civilization.

Tanghalang Pilipino caps its 26th season with a dance-theatre musical interpretation of the Bicolano epic, “Ibalon,” adapted for the stage by prolific playwright Rody Vera and directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio with Carol Bello’s musical direction, and Alden Lugnasin’s choreography.

Entitled after Legazpi City’s week-long festivity, “Ibalong,” the musical tells the story of Handyong and his warriors who come to Bicol – formerly known as Ibalon – and wage war against beasts and monsters pillaging the land’s natural wealth. Handyong mightily battles creatures bearing a solitary eye and three throats, several winged sharks, and wild carabaos.

Baguio 2wenty 1ne : Run to Restore Greenery

Get ready to run in Baguio this time as we all get ready for another race in the city of Pine trees and ukay-ukay jackets...hehehe. Seriously, this will another run most run fanatics will surely watch out for in March this year.

The event is themed, “RUN TO RESTORE GREENERY” which will support Baguio’s reforestation program. “Feel the hills, feel the cool Baguio morning and most of all Conquer Baguio 2wenty 1ne. Baguio 2wenty 1ne will be offering 3K, 5K, 10K, 21K and even 32K distances.

Ku Ikaika Marathon will start and end at the Kahuna beach in San Juan, La Union. The route would be scenic as part of La Union’s road have views of the sea making this a race that will have your eyes treated to wonderful peeks of the West Philippine Sea. Start refreshed with the splendid view of the beach and then go to several towns in San Juan, San Fernando and San Gabriel before heading back for another scenic look at the beach for the finish. Ku Ikaika means stand strong and with a distance ranging from 3k, 5K, 10K, 21K and 42K only the strong will endure. Be a part of the strong and the brave to conquer this terrains.

Ku Ikaika 2013 Marathon is organized by Render Farm. The same organizer that brought you the annual Baguio 21K Run, which will be offering a 21K distance this year.

After the successful releases of their Future Scheduler and Location Alerts apps, Appsicum has just released another new app they call Photo Album. From the name itself, it is obviously a photo organizer whom they boasts as currently the most unique and advanced photo book and album creating app as of this writing.

With this app you can automatically create albums, based on GPS Location data, Ratings, Tags, EXIF Data, Date etc. It is the only app which also works as a full-fledged photo organization tool! If you don’t want to use albums, you will still find it very useful to manage your photos with folders, tags, EXIF Metadata and so on.

Here are the other features of the Photo Album app:

* Add clipart and shapes to albums

* Text layers to spice up your albums with captions.

* Free drawing tool to add your creativity in albums.

* Export high resolution PDF files for your albums.

* Manage individual layers on album page. Reorder or Edit layers with context sensitive tools.

* EXIF/Metatag support to filter photos easily and create albums on the fly.

* Control shadow, opacity and colors for various elements in album

* Undo/Redo actions for ease of use.

* Borders/Frames to photos.

* Lock individual elements or whole pages.

* Background Image or color for albums.

* Share your creation with world on social media, email or save to library.

* Import photos wirelessly from PC or Mac or add from library/camera

* Create folders to organize photos

* Gesture controlled intuitive interface. Use standard iOS gestures to copy/move your photos in albums, transfer between folders, rotate and so on.

* Filter photos based on tags, EXIF, Meta Tags, rating, size, date range etc.

* Sort photos on multiple parameters at once.

* Show photos on map with location data.

* Slideshow with Music. Duh! (Albums and photos)

Note: When adding photos from library, iOS doesn’t provide date or original name of the photos so the Photo Album app uses a custom naming convention and takes transfer date as creation date.

The Photo Album app is priced at only $ 4.99

Appsicum takes pride in introducing themselves as an expert in mobile software products, catering to the needs of the vastly popular mobile platforms.

For more information about Appsicum and their apps please check on the following links:

iPhone link - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-album-photobook/id586997137?ls=1&mt=8

Website - http://appsicum.com/

Email id - pj@appsicum.com

Soundfreaq and AIAIAI Audio Products

From home to portable speakers, Soundfreaq offers a line-up that matches every kind of lifestyle. Meanwhile, high quality, accessible audio products, AIAIAI deliver value far beyond trend-driven aesthetics. With a group of craftsmen and audio technicians developing these gadgets, you will definitely have a high-quality music experience.

Soundfreaq speakers are available in the following stores: 8Telcom, Astrovision, Beyond The Box, Buzz, Digital Hub, Digital Walker, E-Central Electronics, FutureWorld, Gadgets in Style, Gui, iCenter, iStore, iStudio, Listening Room, Meetrovii, Mobile 1, Power Hub, Power Mac Center, Sights and Sounds, and Technoholics.

AIAIAI headphones are available in the following stores: Astrovision, Beyond The Box, Digital Hub, Digital Walker, Egghead, Futureworld, PC Hub, and Technoholics.

You may also visit http://www.facebook.com/digitstrading or follow https://twitter.com/digitstrading for more information on Soundfreaq and AIAIAI.

Quiznos Rice Bowl Meals

The all-American toasted sub restaurant, Quiznos Philippines, announces the addition of rice bowl meals to its menu. The local franchise is the first Quiznos restaurant out of 40 regions globally to offer rice meals to its list of food offerings.

The arrival of the rice bowl meals aims to meet the demand of Filipinos for a traditional, staple meal, which chiefly includes rice. The menu expansion is indicative of Quiznos’ commitment to provide dishes that are close to the hearts of its local customers.

Running has always been a passion for many. It gives us quite a rewarding experience once we are able to compete and finish a run. We feel strong, alive and fully high-spirited after every run. It's also great if we're running with friends and colleagues who share the same passion as we do. It also adds greater pleasure to know that we are running for a cause - the best reason there is.

The Phi Kappa Mu Fraternity of the UP College of Medicine invites you to the Empowerment Through Mobility Run on January 12, 2013, 5:30 am, at the Quirino Grandstand, for the benefit of people with disabilities!

Les Miserables : Soon at SM Cinemas Nationwide

Les Miserables tells the story of a former prisoner, Jean Valjean, who becomes the mayor of a town in France who agreed to take care of Cosette, the illegitimate child of Fantine, and Jean must avoid being captured again by a police officer, Javert.

The movie features a powerhouse cast including Hugh Jackman as Jean Valjean, Russel Crowe as Javert plus Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried playing Fantine and Cosette respectively, and is led by Tom Hooper, the winner of Best Director during the 2010 Academy Awards for The King’s Speech.

There’s this company that tries to change the rules of giving support to startups, and they call themselves iZone-iHub.

They advertise themselves as a tech venue where every I.T. person (that includes the nerds, dorks, dweebs and geeks) can go and make use of their FREE services and facilities – Internet access, coffee, computers, even digital projectors, and even assistance form an onsite techie.

http://www.wheninmanila.com/izone-ihub-advocates-of-technology-in-the-philippines/

The big plus is iZone-iHUB has an on-going contest were an individual or group can win as much as fifty thousand pesos worth of prizes, and will provide additional funding and support if they see your ideas to be the next Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Watch out for their Grand Launch on January 18 and their Techno Summit on February 16 and get to rub elbows with popular personalities like Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, Representative Angelo Palmones, and Business Magnate Dan Pena.

Big Cypress National Preserve : A Tour of the Wildside

Visits to parks like the Big Cypress National Preserve where there's a gator to your left, a gator to your right, an osprey overhead, and a heron right in front of you does a great job to remind me how lucky I am to be able to visit a country with so much biodiversity in addition to parks and preserves that ensure I'm not the last generation that gets to enjoy it.

The preserve is actually more like a swamp that is often called a park. It is a vast area being approximately 720,000 acres in size. The really big virgin cypress trees were cut down several years ago but the preserve maintained its name. The cypress swamp is sort of dry in the dry season and the rest of the year is a swamp.

The preserve also gets rather busy during hunting season. Rifle and bow hunting are allowed at different times of the year so you better check their web page for these seasons.

Just checked in at the Marriott hotel in Marco Island, Florida Resort near Naples. Its a beautiful property with an amazing view of the beach and truly perfect for weekend getaways.This world-class resort is situated on three miles of pristine beachfront property and offers an exhilarating retreat from the ordinary.

Marco Island was originally named San Marco Island by Spanish explorers. It is is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States, located on an island by the same name in the Gulf of Mexico located at Southwest Florida's Gulf coast. It is graced with miles of white-sand beaches, luxurious real estate, beautiful year-round weather, sumptuous restaurants, fine shopping, dining, lively entertainment, attractions and plenty of recreational activities from boating and fishing, to golf and tennis, and more. All set amid the stunning subtropical beauty that is unique to Southwest Florida's Gulf coast.

For the first weekend of 2013, let me share with you my trip in Homestead, Florida where my friends and I visited the Wat Buddharangsi - a Thai Buddhist Temple.

Wat Buddharangsi is located on five acres of property at the rural town of Homestead, a short drive from Miami, Florida. The Buddhist temple welcomes everyone who is interested or practices Buddhism. It serves not just as a religious function but also as a welcome center.

Entrance is free and the temple is open every day from 5 Am to 7 PM. Everyone is welcome to visit during those hours and talk with the monks.

I would surely tweet right now, and every second and every day, until it goes trending #B'sCupcakes to let the world know about the heavenly sweets known as B's Cupcakes.

It's pure sweetness for my tummy all baked to perfection, and creatively designed by hand. You can see and feel the love that is given to create every piece of the mouth-watering cute and adorable cupcakes. My favorite was the vanilla flavor, ......and the chocolate flavor, ......and the.......actually every flavor was yum, yum, yum....so good!!!

What you see on the picture above is an empty box of B's Cupcake. It's empty because everyone in the family loved B's Cupcake so much that these cupcakes disappeared immediately the very first minute I placed them on the dining table.

Can you say " I have 1 terabyte of storage in my pocket?"

Maybe not yet but soon you can!...... with the introduction of the world's largest capacity USB 3.0 Flash drive - a 1TB DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0! Very soon you can say "I have my whole world in my pocket, and a few more to spare for my friends!"

Kingston Digital, Inc., the Flash memory affiliate of Kingston Technology Company, Inc., the independent world leader in memory products, announced the DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 USB Flash drive. DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is the world's largest-capacity USB 3.0 Flash drive as it will be available in a 1TB capacity later in the first quarter of this year. It is shipping now in 512GB capacity. DT HyperX Predator 3.0 is the fastest USB 3.0 Flash drive in the Kingston family, with speeds of up to 240MB/s read and 160MB/s write. It has also achieved SuperSpeed USB 3.0 certification.

Capacities up to 1TB allow users to store their entire digital world on the DT HyperX Predator. This prestigious drive is compliant with next-generation USB 3.0 specifications and is backwards compatible with USB 2.0 systems. DT HyperX Predator offers superior quality in a high-end design and also features a custom Kingston key ring and HyperX Valet Keychain for added value.

More information here: http://www.kingston.com/us/company/press/article/6487

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Chicken Charlie Starts the New Year with a Lot of Children's Smile

Wazzup Pilipinas!

I have a new chicken meal favorite and its called Chicken Charlie!

Just take a look at my souvenir that I brought home from the Virlanie Foundation. It may not look like much from afar, but when you look at it closer, you'll see that it has memorable writings on it.

It says "Giving back the smile to street children", and this is highly sentimental because it will forever remind me of my experience with the kids of the Virlanie Foundation, and how generous Chicken Charlie was in organizing such a heart-warming event for the homeless, abandoned and abused youth.

The first kid that I met was "BJ", a young teenager who is also a member of the Virlanie choir. He said he will be graduating this March from elementary studies, and was so proud in telling me about it. Aside from singing, he said he also loves to dance with his friends at the foundation. Wow! such a talented kid - he can sing, dance, and tell a story so vibrant and hopeful of the future.

The airports in the Philippines are among the worst in the world. Is that so?

There will always be a few cases of unpleasant bathrooms, lost or misplaced baggage, delayed flights, and the list goes on, but these are the same problems that other airports in the world are also experiencing.

Well, If compared to the other airports I've been to, ours is not really that impressive.,,,,but I agree to the statement that you get to reach the bathroom quicker in Philippine airports as compared to the huge airports of other countries.

I've been to Bangkok, and I had the longest time reaching their toilets. I swear I almost went pee-pee on my pants....hahaha.