Behance Portfolio Review Cebu 2015

I still can't get over the fact that the venue had such grandiose Buddhist statues. It felt like I was desecrating the place the whole time. They even had an idol on a pedestal behind the bar inside. Awkward.

Behance Portfolio Reviews are volunteer-run events that highlight the local art scene. They invite established speakers and panelists to facilitate the reviews that are usually done by freelancers or students. A notable artist I recognized in the panel was !nodoro, whose work I first saw at GraphiCon Davao 3. Speakers included reputable companies like Happy Garaje who is responsible for branding Geeks On A Beach.

Portfolio reviews are put into divisions: Illustration, Photography and Graphic Design. Each have their own set of panelists as they have their own set of participants. Submissions are shortlisted down to thirty participants in total. These participants are then required to prepare a presentation of their best (or worst) works to show to the judges for their feedback. 

What I love most about this is that it isn't a competition; just a pure give-and-take learning session between the pros and soon-to-be pros, which is great!

My most favorite part of the whole event was that they had an Art Market!

I literally artgasmed with all the stuff for sale and spent over a thousand on everything that I bought; which isn't much at all for hand-made art.

The first stall I popped over to was by Idiosyncratic Crafts. They specialize in cross-stitch, calligraphy and a whimsy style that i really like. Their notebooks were pretty cute too! Especially with the witty and sassy quotes stitched on them.

The next stall I checked out was from Thimblecap. She specialized in custom pouches and wallets with screen printed designs on them which was really cute. I bought a clutch from her collection.

And the last one was by Bad Blood Collective an all-girl art group based in Cebu. They have beautiful illustrations and OMG MY OTP - ahem. Sorry my inner weeaboo just slipped. They have really cool stuff.

All in all I really enjoyed myself at the event. It went on for two days with half of the portfolio reviews happening in day one and the other half on day two. I honestly didn't stay long during the review sessions and opted to hang around the art market and surround myself with good company and buy myself some good art pieces. It was a day well spent. Literally.

Can't wait for the next one!

World's Largest Floating Library - The MV Logos Hope

After our Microsoft event at the University of San Carlos , the TechTalks team and I went wild at the thought of an after-event road trip, despite being as haggard as we were from the event. We talked about our options during dinner and decided on visiting the MV Logos Hope while it was docked by the pier.

The idea of a large cruise ship didn't appeal to me like most would but when the word "large library" was being passed around, they got me itching to go.

The MV Logos Hope is the fourth ship operated by the German Christian charity organization, GBA Ships. The ship itself has served under many names, being a car ferry when it was first built. Now, it serves as the world's largest floating book fair housing 400 volunteers as its crew and 5,000 different titles in its collection. The Logos Story, one of the books for sale there, talks about how the idea and service ship came to be. You should totally check it out.

The boat is designed to carry 800 visitors at a time in their large library sections, followed by multiple smaller sections that educates guests on the value of life, music, religion, diesel engines, and much more.

Books on board range from Classics to Business and Marketing, and Health to Teen Novels. Many of the books are at a discounted price, costing at about 100 to 250 pesos with 500 pesos being the largest amount I've seen. A lot of these books are rare and usually expensive when bought in regular bookstores so grab them while you can!

A large segment of the MV Logos Hope adventure will be the "Journey of Life". A visual display of a story loosely based off the Prodigal Son depicting the difficult choices in life and our desire to repent for the wrongdoings we commit. Volunteers hand out a pamphlet that immerses you into the story so I highly encourage everyone to read through it as you walk along the display instead of obnoxiously taking selfies without even understanding the display.

What's great about the MV Logos Hope is that even with the already lowered prices, they still prepare promos that make your experience even richer. I really appreciated their "Buy 5 books for only 250" section where you can just dig up whatever you can find, keeping you on the lookout for good books in the discount section.

I just wished the International Cafe had less people when we visited so I could check their menu out.

Other than being a big, floating library, the MV Logos Hope also has exhibits and interactive stations that encourage learning and life awareness to kids and adults alike. They even have programs that tap children's musical and social skills facilitated by some of the organizers on board.

Then there's this guy! I never found out what his name was but look out for him as he moves from section to section to take pictures or give a friendly wave and smile to visitors.

This last pictures sums up my takeaway from my MV Logos Hope experience pretty well so I'll end with this. If you look behind the mascot, you'll see a diesel engine cut in half and painted according to function to explain the mechanics of such a diesel engine. It used to be a part of the ship's main engine, too! And on the right is one of the volunteers and some kids they entertained on board. There were at least 6 of them that were surrounded just like this one in different parts of the vessel and that really struck me. 

What I loved about the experience was that everywhere you looked, there was something new, engaging, and generally pleasant to look at and learn from. The crew was diverse. But despite that, each and every one of them had the same outlook and interactions. They all tried to engage, make a connection, and left no one out of it. They would talk to whomever listened and listened to whomever wanted to talk. Such an open acceptance to people in general is something I looked to be something we all forget as we go along the complexity that is our life.

Overall, I highly encourage everyone who happen to have the vessel docked in their local port to check it out. It's definitely worth a look!

Startup Camp Bohol and Cebu: Microsoft for Startups

Startup Camp Bohol and Cebu happened on May 7 and May 9 of 2015 respectively. Stars aligned that I was able to attend both which really gave me more insight on how the Bohol and Cebu communities worked. Other than that, I got to learn more about Microsoft's ventures into Startups through Mr. Arnie Locsin, the tech evangelist of Microsoft. They had more speakers in the Cebu camp though; the community being as diverse as it is. That's because the intended second speaker at the Bohol Startup Camp had to rest at the clinic for the day _{(lack of sleep and stress. poor sir Allan)}.

Two Microsoft programs were highlighted during the Startup Camp. Microsoft BizSpark and Microsoft Azure. The former is a program created by Microsoft for startups. Under it are similar programs like Microsoft BizSpark Plus and Microsoft Ventures, each with their own set of perks. Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform created by Microsoft for building, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network.

Microsoft BizSpark

Basically, if you get accepted into the Microsoft BizSpark program, you get $750 worth of Microsoft cloud services for three years. That includes Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Cloud Solutions and all Microsoft software. That's already $150 for five developers. 

"If you are a software startup and not a consulting firm, are in operation for less than 3 years, making less than 1M$ in annual revenue, you WILL be accepted. " *

In applying, it also helps to have a legitimate website domain name and custom email address.

If you are successful in your BizSpark application, you can then apply for BizSpark Plus with a stricter acceptance basis and regimen. Word of advice: before applying, sort out what resources you need and make sure that the BizSpark Plus program is really something you need at the current stage of your startup.

The BizSpark Plus program provides $5k per month as opposed to the $750 per month in the regular BizSpark program. Some startups fall out because they upgrade too early. Their consumption barely reaches a thousand dollars and yet they are applying for the BizSpark Plus program, only leading to their team's termination as their consumption is considerably less than what is given to them. So choose wisely.

Microsoft Azure

The portal enables you to create databases, websites, applications, virtual machines and everything on the cloud with your Microsoft account. It provides PaaS and IaaS services and supports many other languages and frameworks including many Microsoft software.

PaaS vs IaaS vs SaaS

IaaS, or Infrastructure as a Service, means that the cloud computing service provider takes care of setting up the Virtualization, Storage, Networking and everything it needs to setup an environment where you only have to worry about the operating systems and other stacks above that.

If you want to only worry about your code, the PaaS, or the Platform as a Service, is the model you're looking for.

Startup Camps will be happening at Ilo-Ilo and General Santos city next so if you're near the area, check them out! Stay tuned for updates via the TechTalks facebook page!

Takeaways from CBC's Basic Blogging Meetup

I haven't been to a CBC event in so long, I can't even remember the last time I went _{(seriously, I don't)} so, as timely as it was, they were having an event during my free weekend so I thought: why not?

For a little bit of background, the Cebu Blogging Community is a dynamic group of bloggers who are based in Cebu and provide an avenue for upcoming and new bloggers to hone their skill. Not that the entirety of the group is full of noobs, far from it! Many professional bloggers commit to the community and even host events on occasion for fellow members; even the team leads themselves are established members of the blogging community. So! That goes without saying that the CBC is reputable group of both professional and non-professional _{(but equally as passionate)} bloggers that aim for dynamism into becoming social good advocates of their communities.

Awesome people in the Cebu Blogging Community _{(don't mind Ace's sexy back as my wallpaper)}

This event is part one of a series of blogging seminars the group is planning to make regular. Mary Narvasa, the speaker of this class, is not only one of CBC's team leads but she has also worked in both digital and traditional journalism for years building up her portfolio and experience as a writer. She was really fun and interesting to listed to. Supplemented by the members' friendly banter, it made the half-day event just as meaningful.

From that, here are a few takeaways I can share:

1) Pop-up Marketing doesn't gain traction in the Philippines

Remember those stylishly annoying "Enjoy what you're reading? Subscribe to our newsletter!" floating windows that pop-up in a few blogs after you've scrolled through most of their page? I never click them. Maybe once or twice in I site I really like but generally I don't. And apparently I'm not alone in this revolution.

Pop-up marketing, as proven by our professional bloggers, doesn't work in the Philippine market. Unless you're target audience are people in places other than the Philippines, then you won't get very far in collecting e-mails. Why's that so important? We'll get into that in a bit.

2) Bounce Rate

The higher your bounce rate, the worse it is for your site. Personally, I haven't heard of this term up until it was mentioned when we talked about metrics at the meetup. Basically, bounce rate is the measure of how often a user visits your site but doesn't do anything, which is defined by them not clicking anything. There are various tools that can be used to measure this such as Google Analytics.

3) Use Flickr to host images for your blog

Storing your images in a separate image hosting site, flickr or photobucket are some examples, and retrieving them through direct links to your blog makes the images in your blog posts load faster and clears up some valuable space for more content from you, which is great!

4) Follow the 80/20 rule in publishing content

Obviously your blog can't live without some social media pages that'll make your content shareable and reputable, especially for those bloggers that are just starting out. On that note, nobody would even want to keep following you, despite how good they think your last post was, if you just post links of your latest blog posts or your latest product discount. Plugging yourself into every post just doesn't work.

The 80/20 rule states that 80% of what you post should be for your customers while 20% is for you. "For customers" could mean links to articles that aren't yours but you found interesting enough that you thought it might benefit your readers, product codes for various shops you were offered, giveaways even simple quotes! Engaging with your audience pays. Both figuratively and literally.

5) Collecting e-mails is important

The root cause of all these efforts, the optimizing, content planning and all that, is to establish a blogging network whose significance is measured through the number of e-mails you have in that network. With those e-mails, you can use tools to collect data from them, collect users like them to get their data, send out surveys, offers, discounts, announcement and, most importantly, build and audience and regular following for your blog and brand.

And that's it! The meetup was more extensive and talked about way more so I encourage all budding bloggers out there that are based in Cebu, or who are planning to visit Cebu, to meetup with CBC members. Share experiences, make friends and enjoy blogging! 

Check it. Look at it. Work it, powerpoint.

Little things you can do to live a more Sustainable Life

The Archival Eco-House, owned by Counselor Nestor Archival who spoke at a TEDx event at the University of San Carlos, Talmban Campus, Cebu, is a two-story installation built to uphold the counselor's advocacy to protecting the environment. Energy consumed by the building is sourced from renewable energy generated within the property.

Counselor Nestor Archival at TEDx University of San Carlos

He started off shaky as he begun his talk at the event, mostly because of his nervousness, not that I blame him, But gradually, he gained more confidence and had this contagious passion as he talked about his project and how he encourages everyone, in their own little way, to be responsible about caring for the environment. Sir Archival explains that if the power the house consumes is greater than the energy it can provide, he takes from the grid, but usually, he gives back to the grid as his installation's generated energy is more than enough to sustain their day-to-day operations. He has an in-door garden and a pig pen whose waste are re-used in the establishment. For example, black water, water from the septic tank, is processed and filtered organically through his system _{(with the help of the bandera espanola plant)} and is given back as the source for his plants in his garden and gray water, water drained after you take a bath or do the laundry, is again processed to be used as water for flushing in the toilets.

All of this sounds awesome, by the way and kudos to sir Archival for pulling this off! I'd love it if sometime someday, sometime _{(possibly tomorrow)} that all the houses in everywhere were like this. But facing reality, to have all the irrigation and filtering systems installed would probably cost us more than an arm and leg. Being a cheap-ass "be green" wannabe, here are a few things that I'm personally doing around the house to live sustainably:

1) Grow vegetables - I know, it sounds tiring _{(and it is)}, totally not sexy and I am definitely still a noob at this but tasting the sweet fruit of your hard mostly sweaty and back-aching labour makes it all worth it. Plus, you're helping the environment and your community! I grow a few onions, lemonsito, malunggay and alugbati which I just leave hanging at the gate for my neighbors to take for free.

2) Instead of using artificial fertilizer, create a compost pit - After eating a scrumptious, satisfying meal, I dump all the bad leftovers, fruit peelings, poultry or fish bones into a tupperware and leave it in the freezer until its time for me to garden _{(which I do once a week)}. I thaw that gross mixture and dig a hole in the soil outside to bury them. A few weeks later, I use that soil for my plants. It helps a lot since the ground here is pretty rocky.

3) Use two teaspoons of baking soda and legit lemon juice as a drain cleaner - To get rid of the gunk in the kitchen and bathroom drains, I throw in that mixture to get rid of any excess organic stiff sticking inside the pipes. I let it set for five minutes and rinse with warm water. It works! Honest!

4) A mixture of water and white vinegar makes a great cleaning solution - From glass, to microwaves and even chocolate stains on my tile floor! I dump an even amount of both into a spray bottle and use that as a cleaner.

I know I'm not as fancy as the Archival Eco-House and I know I'll never be _{(until a few years, hopefully)} but a little is better than nothing and after hearing his talk, I though I'd share a few of these that I'm actually doing in to hopefully encourage, especially the younger generation, to think about the bigger picture when you go about your business everyday. The "turn off lights when not used", "flush maximum of twice after toilet use" and "sort your bio and non-bio" all go along with what I'm doing so there is action behind these words people! I just hope someday more people will realize that we only have one planet _{(that we have access to)} that can serve as our home and we owe it to them to take care of it as best as we can. We've got no where else to go, after all _{(for now)}.

Proud to be Bisaya: There is still Hope

Well this week's events were pretty consecutive. Wednesday was TEDx University of San Carlos and Thursday and Friday was Geeks on A Beach, which I was privileged enough to attend. I'll be posting about said events separately in different posts so we'll get to the details later. What I really felt like writing immediately about though was the urgency Kaloy Uypuanco, one of the GOAB speakers, and Insoy Niñyal, one of the TEDx speakers, talked about regarding the Visayan youth's lack of faith and respect of their own language. 

Daghan kaayo kog gihunahuna lately, until ganihang kadlawon it dawned on me.

— Sinugbang Sugbo (@SinugbangSugbo) August 17, 2014

"I've been thinking of a lot of things lately, until dawn came, it dawned on me."

  Insoy Niñyal's Sinugbang Sugbo is a Twitter account for his many witty and refreshing Visayan jokes

Although true that many of the youth today find our native tongue, which in this case is Bisaya, not the most appealing language to listen to perhaps due to our radical Westernization. I personally had the same prejudiced mindset until quite recently. But, it is also true that lately many of the youth have started realizing this paradox of "finding one's language baduy" as an error.

Many of you following this blog may have recalled us, my classmates and I, shooting films for our multimedia projects a year ago. The most popular one, which was our rendition of the Papictura ko nimu, Gwapo music video reached 35,651 views as of August 24, 2014 and a lot of comments from the Visayan youth complimenting the song and the film itself that was made in the modest island of Bohol.

I understand that number doesn't qualify the video to be "viral" but, to be fair, I personally hadn't expected such a response especially from our kabayan youth. I get at least 3 notifications a day, as of now, whether it be a comment or a share, from our youth praising the song's lyrics, quite specifically how endearing it was, and the artistry that was put into the work _{(especially Hannah, the leading lady's cuteness haha)}.

What I found funny was, while we were splitting up into groups before shooting began, all the teams decided, completely by coincidence, to work on purely Visayan songs for our music video project. We only realized it when we all stopped to compare our works mid-way. We all got so hyped up about it that we brought that excitement to our second project, the short film, and all groups still did them in Visayan.

Music Videos:

Balay ni Mayang

Chinita

Short Films:

Ikaw na ang Gitakna

The Short Film Project

After shooting and airing our works, we felt so proud that we did our stories justice. And it actually helped that we did them in Visayan because we could freely and fully express ourselves in our films without the fear of pronouncing anything wrong because the Visayan language made us feel at home. 

So there is a change. The youth will understand that your efforts, to those who strive for this cause, are not in vain. My suggestion, as proven by our Papiktura ko nimu, Gwapo music video, airing quality music videos that show a clear story about the Visayan song written will enormously help the understanding and relation the youth feel about the song. Because face it, we don't really understand all the Visayan words out there and a little shove would be great for us to be able to relate with it.

Oh, and for those curious to know which short film won over ours, it was Love, Alora. The language used was Tagalog.

And I encourage you, young Filipino artists, to please please please make homage to your home country and language. Do not accept that our culture is dying and that we have to do something to keep it alive. I have a few plans myself on how I can contribute to this and you should start thinking about your master plan too. As a parody to Aomine's catchphrase, 

"No one can save us but us."

GDays Mandaue 2014: Secrets of Gmail

Overview of GDays Mandaue here.

Participants of GDays were required to select a category upon registering. Google for Management, Business or Marketing. I, obviously, wanted to join all of them but that option wasn't available so I had to choose a topic that I was most interested in. At the time, I had been mulling over studying business on the side but the more specific aspect of business I was slightly obsessing over from a distance was Management.

Our segment was facilitated by Jane Vestil, a Google for Educators partner and Cheer Garciano, owner of Cebu Web Services and Digital marketing.

Jane Vestil talks about Google Collaboration and Productivity Tools

The talk started out with an overview of the basic Google tools we're all currently using such as Gmail, Google Drive and Google Calendar. As it progressed, they started talking about a Google Apps Account. How is that different from a regular Google account when you sign up for Gmail? The features are basically the same, being able to use Google tools and whatnot, the difference is just that a Google Apps Account will enable you to use tools powered by Google, like plug-ins submitted by developers for example.

The first Google tool they delved into was Gmail and this feature was such a surprise to me when they first introduced it. Google Advanced Search uses a set of queries that perform specific functions in Gmail Search. For example, you want to look for an email sent by thatperson@gmail.com to you with a file named testfile attached. Among the hundreds of mail you receive daily, it would be time consuming for you to browse through all the possible mails containing that person's e-mail. So, with the specifics in mind, you type:

from : thatperson@gmail.com filename: testfile

And boom! The mail that you were specifically looking for is presented. More keywords are listed in this documentation conveniently compiled by Google. Next up was something called E-mail Delegation, whose concept wasn't that new to me but setting it up was still quite hazy. Basically its being able to let someone view your inbox and reply to messages on your behalf. It's pretty convenient if you're a founder and have a business trip out of town with limited internet. You can give your co-founder or a trusted employee to keep you and your company updated by replying to important e-mails for you. Learn more about E-mail Delegation through this link ma'am Jane sent me after all my annoying questioning hehe.

A similar feature is forwarding where you can automatically forward your e-mails received from your website e-mail to your personal Gmail address for convenience:

e-mail sent to contact@me.com >> forwarded to >> me@gmail.com

After running through Gmail's built-in features, we then moved to Google Labs - experimental features created by Google Developers. A lot of them may have some bugs and imperfect features but you always have the option to disable them after you've installed them. Some labs ma'am Jane uses herself are Canned Responses, which enables her to create and use a preset response to a specific type of mail, and Quick Links, a lab that allows you to save and create a link of a frequent search result in your inbox. You can look through more Labs by going to Settings >> Labs in your Gmail page.

Cheer Garciano gives a short presentation about The Internet

I personally don't use this feature but maybe when I'm more embedded into my career, I see a future use for this feature. Google Tasks help you keep track of the things you need to do, set deadlines and even use e-mail messages as the reminder itself in Gmail Tasks. I raised my hand and being the kiss-ass, thick-faced chick that I am, I asked a few questions along with a few others in the room. Apparently, Google Labs won't work on mobile _{(unless some genius codes something for it)} and Google Apps aren't free either. To create an account, there's a $5 monthly subscription fee.

"Don't be impressed with technology. Be amazed by what you can do with it."

In between ma'am Cheer's talk, she mentioned something called Internet Penetration which basically just means how many people in an area have access or are using the Internet. This data is considerably important to digital marketers, with their efforts revolving around how many people they can reach.

"Think. Create. Engage. Optimize." Strategy of doing Digital Marketing.

Ma'am Cheer shared the general steps of using Digital marketing to gain customers.

1) Generate Traffic - get people interested in what you're doing and basically, have an audience.
2) Convert Traffic to Leads - Make this audience interested enough that they are willing to pay for your service.
3) Nurture Leads into Customers - Turn this willingness into action. Baby your prospective customers into actual customers.
4) After the cycle is done, Analyze the Process to look at what you did wrong, what you did right, and how to engage the next batch of customers.

Google Analytics is a great tool to monitor activity in your site. It shows you the number of viewers currently in the site, what they are doing, what category they belong to, their location and more. Consider signing up for Google Analytics to keep a better eye on your users and possible customers.

After the session, I was literally mind blown about all the things you can do with Google Apps and Tools. And to think what we discussed that day was just a fraction of the Management features Google has. I guess my overall reaction to everything I learned was that there really is no excuse for you to not build a kick-ass product/business. Every resource is available to you through the Internet. It's just a matter of being motivated, persistent and smart with your resources and decisions in life and/or in your career.

Cafe Hopping in (a small area of) Cebu

Coffee hasn't always been one of my favorite drinks and I suppose it never will be but cafes have always piqued my interest. I've been to my fair share of the more popular ones such as Starbucks and Bo's but it was the smaller, more quaint shops that made me want to explore and experience every coffee house that ever existed. So, I made it my mission to visit as many cafes as I can while I finish my internship here in Cebu City. I made it a point to visit a different one each week but I haven't been as regular as I would've liked so updates to this post will come and go. If anyone has a favorite coffee shop worth visiting, leave a comment and let me know.

Tomo Cafe: A Maid and Butler Cafe 
86 Gov. M. Cuenco Ave., Nasipit, Talamban

The view from my little corner of the cafe

This cafe was definitely number one on my to-go list _{(I mean helooo? Maid and buter cafe??)} so I jumped at the timing and went straight to the cafe that weekend. It was cute, especially the way how the maid or butler on duty would rush to open the door for you before you entered/left. They'd greet you and thank you in Japanese which I thought was a nice subtle touch. I was expecting them to fawn and fuss over you like the many depictions of cafes of this genre on TV and in some anime so I was relieved that they'd more or less leave you to your devices unless you requested otherwise. 

I'm not much of a food photographer but I couldn't help taking a picture of the Omu Rice _{(the specialty of the house)} message Hitomi, the maid assigned to me, wrote with ketchup.

1st at ♥Tomo

I enjoyed myself in my little corner eating my meal, drinking my chocolate shake and reading my Startup Weekend Book. But if you're not into the whole "alone time" gig, they have an assortment of board games you can play, manga and anime magazines you can read and a flat screen playing anime series to movies all day so you have a lot to keep you occupied _{(free wifi too)}. So overall it was a great first visit.

The Brown Cup

Skyrise 1, Cebu IT Park, Lahug

The view from my little corner of the cafe

The Brown Cup was a sort of impromptu visit since it was the cafe closest to my workplace and I had to eat a quick lunch there. It was pretty cozy like most cafes but I relatively do not want to dine-in if given a choice. Their food is good and so is their coffee so I usually do take-outs from them.

The tables that I've sat in mostly are wobbly and make you spill you coffee as you eat, it occasionally has flies around and, it was a one-time thing so far but, their staff weren't that accommodating. One thing that I found endearing about the cafe though was that their chairs had cute ass-molds on them.

Ass-molds on chairs

Bo's Coffee

inside Fully Booked, Ayala Fairview Terraces

The view from my little corner of the cafe

I swore to myself that I wouldn't visit the more well-known cafes because that would just be boring but the moment I smelled coffee inside a bookstore _{(in this case it was Fully Booked)}

I just had to know where the smell was coming from. I went up a floor and realized that there was a Bo's Coffee stall build inside Fully Booked, which I thought was awesome. You could take a book on the shelf, bring it to your table as you drink your coffee and enjoy the smell of paper and coffee mixing in the air _{(I know . Sounds gross but don't judge me, I like the smell)}. 

I came with my own book, which was The Lean Startup, ordered a marble cake and a mug of cafe latte and spent a relaxing two hours before I had to to go to mass. The stool I sat in wasn't the most comfortable though since I had to flex my shoulders a bit after an hour _{(but that was because most of the other seats were taken)}

. I was giddy and thanked the genius who thought of this glorious mix up and, even though it's against my personal rule of "different cafes every week", I might just spend an afternoon there again a few more times just to enjoy the fusion.

Topokki Man

ground floor of a building next to University of San Carlos and Donya Rita Village, Talamban 

The view from my little corner of the cafe restaurant

So technically this isn't a cafe but it was a fun experience and it was something new so I decided to add this experience to my list _{(As long as it's a good experience where I can eat and relax, I think I'll include it to this list)}. Topokki Man is aKorean restaurant not far from USC-TC and my first Korean cuisine experience. The menu made no sense to me except for a few titles like "Rice" and "Drinks". I was super hungry so I didn't feel that adventurous and settled with an ordinary spicy chicken rice topping. Topokki, which was the restaurant's main dish, is a Korean snack that consists of a rice cake, some vegetables and chilli sauce based on this food blog. 

Along with the spicy chicken rice topping I ordered, which shockingly smelled and tasted great by the way, I think they served something along with it as a side dish. I had no idea what it was, it looked like a bunch of leafy vegetables piled up and then dunked with chili sauce. I assumed it was kimchi so then I thought "how do we eat kimchi?". In the end, I didn't touch the side dish and I never found out what dish that was. The meal and feel of the place was great and, if I ever want to eat healthy, I definitely see myself ordering from them again. 

Cafe Talk

Gaisano Country Mall, Talamban 

The view from my little corner of the cafe

It seems like this week's theme is "Korean". Cafe Talk is an actual cafe this time with a more human menu like "Javachip" and "Vanilla" in their list. The cafe caught my attention last week as I passed by it while grocery shopping since I didn't see it have any tables from the outside and it said "cafe" in its sign. I decided to check it out this week and man was my expectations met. It was a clean, cozy place with two sets of small alcoves, the bottom ones having monitors available for customer's use _{(you were able to watch movies I heard)}. 

The alcove I chose

I chose the quieter alcove at the back in the upper floor so I could eat my chicken salad and continue to read  The Lean Startup in peace. My only pointers if you decide to stay here for more than an hour is to wear cozy pants and choose a not-too-warm-but-not-too-cold alcove _{(in my case, it got too cold for me after an hour and thirty minutes)}.

Coffee Cat

JP Morgan and Chase Co, Cebu IT Park, Lahug

Unfortunately I didn't get to take pictures since I had lunch with my father there and he finds it weird.

I've noticed a lot of university students hang around there and study. The cafe itself is pretty quiet which is I guess the best place to cram for finals. The coffee was quite bland when I first tried it but the food, cakes and shakes were awesome. I ordered a Red Velvet Cheesecake for dessert and it was the creamiest most heavenly thing, you might get too bored with it though if you have too much.

I recommend going with a friend or two when visiting Coffee Cat, just to help you enjoy the food.

Tambahayan

Ma. Clara St. Tagbilaran City

Entrance is near University of Bohol by a convenience store

The view from my little corner of the cafe

You might notice that I'm completely biased with this specific cafe since I obviously have more than the usual one photo of it. The reason is mostly because it was this cafe that inspired me to go cafe hopping around Cebu.

Acoustic structure and bookshelf

A few months ago we decided to shoot a music video for our friends Alexis and Cyril to help kickstart their musical career. We needed a place to shoot it, a music lounge most preferably. Aphet, one of the volunteers at StartupWeekend Bohol, owns a local music lounge in my home city, Tagbilaran, Bohol. Unfortunately it was unavailable due to equipment upgrades so he directed us to a place he was helping construct, Tambahayan Cafe. 

Small stage full of art and music

The cafe and music school right beside it is owned by Mrs and Mr de Juan, respectively. Kids from the music school often relax or perform inside the cafe. It's cozy and has a very relaxed ambiance, not to mention good food and coffee. They host art exhibits, karaoke and movie nights for everyone to enjoy. It's something fresh and new in our little island and is definitely worth a visit if you ever find yourself in town.

As much fun as I'm having visiting these cafes I feel they won't get the credit they deserve if I just post about them here in my run-of-the-mill blog post, so give the banner above some love and visit an introvert's cafe review blog. Unlike other food blog or cafe review blogs that cater the Bohol-Cebu area, Introvert's Dessert specifically targets a cafe's ability to house those that belong to the meager 40% of our population: the introverts. If you empathize with them or have a friend that is one, this blog is the one for you. Any suggestions on which cafe they should visit next, feel free to leave them a comment. Hail the introverts!

Bon Odori Cebu 2014: A Japanese Summer Festival

Bon Odori last Friday and Saturday _{(August 8 and 9, 2014)} went better than I expected! It was fun, had really authentic booths and Cebu's Japanese community were very accommodating and fun to be around.

Me with the guys and the pair who led the Bon-Odori dance

We first arrived on the first night of the event on Friday and my honest first thought as i entered the areas was that it desperately needed more lights in the field. We'll get back to the importance of that _{(at least in my opinion)} later in the post. 

The first thing you'll notice at the event is the colorfully decorated stage at the center which we later learned was called the Yagura. For a little history, the yagura was originally a storehouse for bows and arrows or a fort during the feudal times. Now, during the summer festival, it is used as a stage where the musicians play Obon music and is the centerpiece that people dance around in a counter-clockwise direction. 

That's us dancing around the Yagura

Nanaho-san, the beautiful Japanese lady in the first picture, was someone Dan, Sym.ph's lead designer, introduced us to and was one of the dancers that led the Bon-Odori. The dance was very elegant and graceful and not one person in the audience did it justice. We were flailing our arms around like monkeys desperately trying to figure out how to work it. My friend, Clint, eventually found a pattern and translated it for us simple-minded folk. "Dive, dive, wave left, wave right, wave left, wave right, clap - clap - clap" and you had to repeatedly do that in a loop until the music ends, which was a pretty long time. In time with the beat, dancers would yell "A Sore!" _(ah-so-re) as a sort of "yell of encouragement" the Japanese call a Kakegoe. If you're new to the tradition and in the spirit of experiencing the culture, you would have so much fun dancing around for good fortune, which I did with a friend. We danced around for at least a good thirty minutes even though the circling crowd was thinning. 

It disappointed me, though, that most of the people who attended the event didn't have enough spirit to enjoy and experience the culture the Japanese community tried sharing with us. The simple yelling of the kakegoe and clapping of hands should have had life and joy and would have added so much more to the event had everyone participated.

After dancing the Bon-Odori the Mikoshi were brought around the yagura while everyone yelled "Wa shai!", another sort of kakegoe. The mikoshi were portable shrines believed to be vessels of the deities as they were transferred from one shrine to another. Yelling and volunteering to carry these shrines symbolized respect for the ancestors and good fortune for the year. Four mikoshis were being carried around, two for adults and two for children with both sets being carried by volunteers _{(not to mention the big-ass fan that followed them all around)}. Anyone could ride on the adult mikoshi which was a lot of fun. Carrying it around also gets you in the spirit of the event but it was hard reaching the poles when everyone else carrying it were at least two heads taller than you _{(the pains of short people)}.

Children's mikoshi

Adult's mikoshi

There were a lot of fun booths around in the field ranging from food stalls to festival games. Many of the goods sold at the festival were  pricey but I assumed that was because of the rent. A lot of them were good though and offered either Japanese food or products. There was also a CosCafe in one corner where you could pay for some cosplayers to dance for you.

Catch a ballon by it's string with a small hook and you get a water yo-yo

Chimpa's shop. Cebu's official association mascot

Catch the most fish with the least number of poi _{(paper nets)}

The CosCafe with the event's cosplayers

Levi in his cleaning weirdness with Haruhi

I'm honestly not quite sure which anime they're from but I found them really cute

The Bon-Odori, the booths and a beautiful fireworks display symbolizing the end of each night were constants on both nights, all being the best parts of the two-day event for me. 

There were more programs though like the Yukata/Cosplay competition _{(that I missed huhu)}, a Wind Instrument children's orchestra, a Taekwon exhibition and a song number from Aisaku Yokogawa, a Japanese Original Pinoy Music singer. All of which were amazing to watch, for the ones that I managed to come across. And before I forget to mention, they threw Japanese-blessed candy at us taht would grand us good fortune! The experience was a lot like the mochi-throwing scene in the anime Barakamon for those who can relate with me _{(I feel you, Sensei)}.

I only caught one :(

Speaking at a technical point of view, a few suggestions I could give to the event organizers are 1) As I mentioned earlier, it would have been better to brighten up the field with proper lighting. Probably cut the costs from the fireworks display and spend it on the in-ground lighting. It'll give more spirit and energy to the people sitting on the field and the brightness would make event attendees more participative adding positively to the experience and 2) during the Bon-Odori, it would have been nice to have a few organizers in the grounds to help facilitate and start the flow of the circle surrounding the yagura. The reason many didn't participate long or didn't participate at all was that the circle created at random by the crowd was rowdy, had no sense of order and was quite dangerous for children to join in with the bodies squished together. Also, nobody could properly see the steps being demonstrated by the people on the yagura since the perspective was awkward and the decorative lanterns were in the way.

Overall the event was really fun for me and I feel really grateful to be able to experience the culture the Japanese community were so willing to share with us. It definitely fueled my inner otaku and made me appreciate the Japanese culture even more. I've always wanted to spend a year or so in japan to study their culture and language and hopefully that'll come true but this experience was pretty close.

And for you fujoshis out there, I just found my Bon Odori Cebu 2014 OTP.