Author: ajay

Kusina Salud is definitely one of the must-go-to destinations in San Pablo City, a favorite on many a foodies’ list. There is something about this resto which makes one trek the country roads, for the close to two hours of travel it takes to get here from Manila. The food is simply exquisite. There might be similar establishments of exquisite food sprouting in the city (like Greenbelt 5) but none quite poses the same challenge of getting here, or savoring the shabby chic ambiance, with even an aviary nearby.

Brown rice paella topped with crabs, chorizo, assorted veggies and seafood. Note the arroz caldo in the background too. I’ve never eaten paella for breakfast before, but it was gooood.

Another Kusina Salud favorite is the pako (wild fern ) salad, with grated cheese! We tell you,nothing about this salad is unpleasant, even if you’re a non-veggie fan.

Turon! (banana spring rolls, sprinkled with sesame)

Kusina Salud’s sprawling compound features lush gardens, an aviary, the Pillar Plants and Novelties Shop, a day spa…. Inside, tourists will get an idea of how Philippine houses of yore were furnished.

My pic with the bubbly Nina Poblador, who with husband & chef Paul, owns Kusina Salud.

(to be continued)

As a busy city dweller, am not the most environmentally-active person around. That is why am thankful when internationally-known groups like Greenpeace get in touch with me, as what happened with this site’s reports on the e-jeeps. Their work keeps me up-to-date on their tireless lobby for sustainability and the protection of Mother Nature (even now as we speak, they were hailing the passage of the Renewable Energy bill).

So many things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. Take for example, our knowledge of rice, the basic Filipino staple. All I really know about is how rice has become expensive these days, and the irony of importing from countries like Thailand which learned from us on rice technologies a few decades ago. Now, Greenpeace has raised the alarm on the possibility of GMO-contaminated rice having reached our shores. Through our road trip last week, I was able to learn that organic is still the best, and how local farmers should be lauded for hanging on to age-old practices that never use fertilizers and such, because they are harmful to the environment.

First things first, GMO means Genetically Modified Organism. The guidebook says ” GMOs are products of genetic engineering in which the genes of one species are inserted randomly into the DNA of an entirely different organism in a way that can never happen naturally. An example is a tomato inserted with genes from a fish to create a vegetable with a longer shelf life, or corn inserted with bacteria genes to create a crop that has its own built-in insecticide.”

Greenpeace’s take on the matter is that GMOs are experimental; therefore, they may not be safe as their long-term effects on humans and the environment are unknown. Also, GMO seeds and their patents are controlled by large agri-business interests, giving rise to fears that this could impact on food prices and their supply in general.

According to Daniel Ocampo, Greenpeace Southeast Asia’s genetic engineering campaigner, they would like to prevent the dumping of GMO-tainted rice in the Philippines, even as those GMO stocks from the US could already have arrived in the country. Back in 2006, US rice imports were rejected by governments in Europe, Asia and the Americas for being tainted with GMO. Back then, it was found out that banned US rice were being sold in Philippine supermarkets. After an expose, the rice stocks in question were pulled out and the NFA required US rice imports to be certified GMO-free.

Ventosa cupping has been on my to-do list for a long time now. As a spa enthusiast, I’ve always been curious how it goes. All I know is that you’re supposed to end up with round little splotches on your back. At an event recently, I finally had the chance to have it done, but almost backed out when I saw the suction cups being pressed on somebody and witnessed the not-so-savory sight of raised flesh!

Me : Ewwwwe! Doesn’t it hurt?

Therapist : Don’t think about it. You won’t see your back looking like this, right? You’ll be lying face down.

That’s how I imagined it to be: 12 injections on my back which lasted for something like 10 minutes. Would be hypocritical to say pain was negligible, because it’s not. But as humans with built-in mechanism for tolerance, I would say you’ll get used to it. It’s only ten minutes anyhow. Just get it over and done with.

Ventosa cupping is otherwise known as Korean Bu-hang, so I presume that it has its origins in the Land of the Rising Sun. It’s an ancient form of Oriental medicine that is used to check for blood circulation. The suction cups that are placed on the skin come in a kit like this:

After the attendant takes out the suction cups, she will check for any abnormal discoloration of the skin. Placement of the cups signify important areas of the body like liver, lungs, gall bladder and such. A spot that’s either too pale or too darkened signifies organ weakness.

The attendant from Amezcua did say I am quite “stressed” and that I need to improve on my digestion. She further recommended a live blood analysis to be done. Err, this is another “needle pricking” exercise to reveal nutritional deficiency, cholesterol, uric acid crystals, digestive problems, presence of bacteria and organ stress. Haven’t really heard of these things before, but after undergoing ventosa cupping, I must say they are desired pre-requisites if, like me, you’re going to have your annual medical exam soon.

Wellness as a way of life now happens at The Red Oak, Two Serendra’s newest lifestyle wing. What you’ll see rising in this one-of-a-kind condo by Alveo Land: reflection ponds, tranquil gardens, a prayer room, sunken decks, massage pavilions, leisure pools, state-of-the-art Kinesis exercise equipment, a music room, a theater room with baby grand piano, etc. A condo being built as a total wellness zone is something we haven’t seen before. Suddenly, I wanna win the lotto!

My Blog-O-rama interview with WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg came out last Monday; it was cut due to space considerations, full transcript is here. The bad news is that I wasn’t able to attend the historic first WordCamp in St. Benilde The good news is that I was able to chase him down just the same. It was over a buffet breakfast, and we were both sleepless: him from drinking the night before, me from working the graveyard shift. Hehe. Also in company were two of the WordCamp organizers, Mr. Batang Yagit, Winston Almendras and Blogie Robillo. Anyway, we all agreed he was such a cool guy, that Matt

Here goes:

He’s only 24 years old but made history by creating and founding the platform that changed the blogging world - WordPress. Visiting Asia, and the Philippines for the first time during the most recent WordCamp 2008 here, Matt Mullenweg (named by PC World as one of the Top 50 Most Important People on the Web in 2007, most recently one of Inc.com’s Top 30 Entrepreneurs Under 30 ) sat down with us for a not-so-geeky interview on playing in casinos,eating pansit and why he thinks bloggers should dissociate themselves from all the PR hoopla, in order to remain “authentic.”

Q. How were you as a student?

A. I was taking up political science and philosophy in college,and only finished two years. Back then, I hated computers, or computer classes. I’ve always loved technology but to me computer classes were never interesting; one, because they were working in non-open source technology. To me, technology was always a means to an end, and I wasn’t interested in technology the way they were teaching it in school. I was pretty bad as a student ’cause I was always focusing on other things, like music. I scored high in my SATs, but I never passed my papers, showed up late, things like that.

Q. It’s your first visit to the Philippines and spent some time at the maiden Philippine edition of the WordCamp. First impressions?

A. People love taking pictures here and I prolly had more than a hundred of that in the WordCamp. It just blew my mind. It’s a little bit common in other parts but not the same here. During the event, I saw that Plurk was really big. Everyone was plurking!

Filipinos are very warm, very outgoing. I think it’s cultural. In places like Germany, they’re a little more reserved. Filipinos like talking and communicating. You have big families, it seems. I was hanging out and this person has, like, five cousins in the room. I love that all the warmth and openness creates a very vibrant blogging community.

Q. Please tell us more about your company, Automattic.

A. We’re 27 in the company. Out of 27, eight is support, 10 or 11 are developers. We don’t have an office, we’re a virtual company, everyone works at home and we’re all in different time zones.

I didn’t think we’d be that big, really, even though the nearest competitor has 200 people. This is technology, you don’t need lots of people. Craigslist, one of the largest websites in the world, only has 25 people.

Q. So Matt, I guess you’ve reached that stature where you just sit in your desk, signing papers?

A. Not really. There’s no bureaucracy. My most important job is really setting the culture and hiring the best people and, I guess, more broad strategic things. But I still code, most days.

My official title is Chief Barbecue Taste Tester or CBTT. We all have funny titles like that . One colleague is the Happiness Engineer, another is the Anti-Chaos Engineer, one calls himself the Band Manager.

Q. What do you think accounts for the huge success of WordPress to bloggers and publishers alike?

A. From very early on, we were bloggers. Everyone in the company blogged, everyone was attuned to the needs of the people, everyone was listening closely. We were responsive and that was at the time when other companies were stagnant, they weren’t updating their features, and Blogger had downtime all the time.

Also, we have a vibrant plug-in and theme community. There isn’t just one WordPress, there’s a thousand WordPresses because every combination of plug-ins and themes creates community. You can get something that fits your needs perfectly.

Q. Can you say that you’ve edged out Blogger at this point?

A. The difference between us is that Blogspot has more bloggers in terms of quantity and they have more of people, but we have smarter bloggers. They’ve been doing some of these features lately, they didn’t for years. A lot of people start with Blogger and may graduate to WordPress when they become smarter or more savvy. I mean, a lot of the podcasters and video bloggers now use our platform. If you want customized control of your site, you’d probably end up with WordPress eventually.The more technical you are and the more complicated it is you’re doing, the more likely you’ll end up with WordPress.

Q. If some giant company attempts to buy you out, how would you respond?

A. We’ve had acquisition offers before, but I would say am not interested in short- term financial gains but in our long term impact on the web. By staying independent, I think we can have a bigger role.

If I had $10 million, I would still be doing what am doing now. I wouldn’t change anything, so why cash out?

Q. Any role models from your industry where you find inspiration from?

A. Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster of Craiglist, because their site is community-oriented.

Om Malik of GigaOm - he’s a journalist with a good sense of ethics, a friend who keeps me on the right path.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.I find him hugely inspiring.

I admire Microsoft a lot because of how they built the platform that survived several generational changes. The value of Windows is not Windows, but the software. They also did a good job with Office. Bill Gates? He’s got a good image now but there was a time when I hated him. I thought he was the devil Anti Christ. But then as WordPress got bigger, I began to realize what Microsoft has done.

Q. What advice can you give to young people who want to be like you?

A. You have to really keep trying. I put up little businesses and written software before but none of that you have heard of any of it, but I just kept trying. Don’t be afraid of failure. You should be able to move on quickly if something’s not working. Keep trying.

When I was much younger, I didn’t focus on school that much, I focused on WordPress to the exclusion of other things. I always joked that WordPress was my girlfriend and the girl I was dating was my mistress.

Q. Now that blogging is a big thing and publicists are discovering the bloggers, what can you say about it?

A. There’s a danger if you get started being invited to more events and start to be treated like traditional media. Bloggers, then, become more like traditional media. They’re afraid to publish something because they might offend someone who gives them money or advertises on their blog. And that is dangerous because then, you’re no different from traditional folks.

It’s great that people are making money from their blogs but, just like journalists, you should try to balance the editorial and the business side. Focus on the long term, not short term.

Q. Can you tell us what your gadgets are?

A. I have an Iphone 3G.I like photography so I have a Nikon D3 and a set of lenses for that. I have a couple of laptops - a Macbook Air which I really like. I brought a Sony to Manila, it’s really thin and I have a double battery on it,more functional than a Mac actually. Most of the time am on a peecee but I have Macs at home.

I have a Zoom H-4 portable recording unit with surround sound and four channel recording.It creates great great sound, I go to live jazz shows and just record the whole show.

My favorite gadget is the Amazon Kindle. I love it. You just log on to amazon.com and buy and download books on it. I have forty books on my Kindle right now and it has reinvogorated my book reading.

Q. What’s the craziest thing you’ve done?

A. Hmmm, wake up at 9am for this interview. Just kidding. (laughs) It was gliding over Lake Tahoe. They hook you up with a rope to a plane and the plane tows you and they take you up to 800 feet then unhook. It’s really cool coz there’s no motor and you just glide all around.

-end-

This modest space congratulates the finalists and winners of the Philippine Blog Awards 2008 which just had its successful run at One Esplanade last Sept. 21. It was blogger power at its finest, the awards having been organized by a group of bloggers and carried to fruition by a big army of blogger-volunteers. Everything, from the smashin’ AVPs to the emceeing and last-minute details, was done by bloggers.

I can still remember the first blogger event I attended in 2004 which filled a long table at Cabalen. Now, blogging in the country has come a long way!

Each year I feel obsolete, and each year I feel amazed at the wealth of blogging talents that keep cropping up. This is how I look at it because I judged the Blog Awards in some categories again this year. Doing so has always been an enlightening experience as it opens my mind to great blogs I haven’t added yet to my Google Reader. These are the blogs who we don’t get to see in the blog events, or get monetized, or who don’t receive 75 comments. Read: underestimated. I will always doff my hat to fellow bloggers who blog with aplomb and blog for the sheer love of it, treating it almost like science, or a well-researched dissertation. All i can say is: wow, people!

Souvenir photo with Noemi Dado and the PBA keynote speaker, Sen. Mar Roxas whose blog was also one of the finalists

Batang Yagit emerged the Blogger’s Choice through a well-managed campaign among Vis-Min peers. Senor Enrique appeared to be the winning-est gentleman with three awards in the best single post category, followed by The Jester-In-Exile who won two. Three blogging doctors brought home prizes as well (including an avowed atheist, who won for Best Personal Blog.) And I think Arpee Lazaro received the cutest award for his “It’s The Blogger, Not The Blog” citation. The rest of the winners over at the official PBA site.