Archive for May 23rd, 2009

Summertime in Sugarland: The 48th National Writers Workshop

Summertime in Sugarland: The 48th National Writers Workshop

48th-dumaguete-national-writers-workshop

The 48th Dumaguete National Writers Workshop fellows.  From left: Gabrielle Nakpil, Monique Francisco, Mariane Abuan, Philip Kimpo, Jr., Keith Cortez, Marck Rimorin, Jonathan Gonzales, Niño Manaog, Ana Margarita del Rosario, Aleck Maramag, Patricia Magno, Arkaye Kierulf, Stanley Geronimo, Gabriel Millado, Joy Rodriguez.
Photo montage by Fred Jordan Carnice.

I’m a writer, but I don’t write those summer vacation essays anymore than the student who’ll write it next week.  The sandbars become stockpiles for construction work, the sparkling seas get replaced by shiny office windows, and you’re swimming – literally – for breathing space at any one of the three lines of the train system.  So much for memories of summer.

No, at least not this year, though.

This is how I spent my summer vacation: as a fellow of the 48th Dumaguete National Writers Workshop, held from May 4 to 15, 2009, at Dumaguete City, Oriental Negros.

May 23, 2009 5 comments Read More
Line in the Sandbox

Line in the Sandbox

sandbox-picMobile blogging isn’t exactly my favorite thing to do in the world, but I believe that it has its potentials.  Unless you make the whole country wi-fi ready (that is not difficult to accomplish, as long as you’re ready for political scams), the best way to “democratize” blogging would be to use the platform available for almost everybody: the cellphone.

I’ve been using the SandBox service of Smart Communications for quite a while now.  I’m not a techie or what, but I think that Smart had a great idea in making the SandBox service an all-in-one place for social networking, blogging, picture hosting, forums, groups, bulletin boards, video, and just about everything else.

I like the idea of SandBox.  I like the idea of mobile blogging (even if my idea of it is still to lug a laptop to a wi-fi hotspot).  I like the idea of making blogging available to the people.  Yet my problem with SandBox – for the while that I’ve been using it, anyway – is that it’s just too much of a jack-of-all-trades, and a master of none.  I want to see SandBox improve, I want to see more people using SandBox, but it’s just too much of a work-in-progress for me, at least.

May 23, 2009 1 comment Read More