i am woman, hear me rawr!

While watching TV this afternoon while nomnoming some Haagén Dazs ice cream (wanna know why I bought the ice cream? stay tuned or scroll down!), I saw a contest about SATC2 hosted by Sky Cable…win 2 tickets to a special screening on Jun 2, 2010, Wed, 7.30 pm at Powerplant’s Cinema 2. All you have to do is answer the following question:

In Sex and the City 2 only one of the four main female characters is not married. Name this character.

For all fans, I’m sure you know the answer…right? RIGHT!!! Send your entry to satc2@skycable.com with the following details:

• SKYCABLE Account Name
• SKYCABLE Account Number
• Age
• Contact Numbers

Deadline for entries is on May 24, 2010. 10 valid emails will be drawn on May 27 and winners will be notified via email and phone. Winners must pick up tickets during office hours in Sky Cable’s office at the 33/F, East Tower, Tektite Building, Exchange Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

Now, back to my ice cream…yes…promo got me again (plus of course the yummy-ness of Haagen Dazs!)

Get a SATC2 journal for a purchase of Haagen Dazs!!! Certain restrictions apply, so please check out posters and print ads for details. I got too excited to take it down hehe

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Today my blog turns 1!

It’s been a truly wonderful year in the blogosphere for me and I am forever going to be grateful to all those who have supported and encouraged this venture of mine. Blogging has brought me a lot of blessings and opportunities this past year and I look forward to more in the coming years ahead.

Because I believe in the importance of giving back, here’s a contest for all of you who read, comment, support and subscribe to my blog. It is also a chance for those who do not yet to do so!

Before going to the contest mechanics, let me outline for a minute my 1st Anniversary theme:  I Blog to Thank.  As I mentioned, I want to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been with me in my year’s journey in blogging and so what better theme but thankfulness or gratitude. I hope to be able to inspire you, too, to take time out to see what you are grateful for this past year.

With that, here are the mechanics of the Three Cheers and Many Thanks Blog Contest by Yapatoots Read the rest of this entry »

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Earlier this month I got to attend the iBlog 6, a yearly convention/summit centered on blogging and online marketing. I had initially wanted to attend both days but due to deadlines and other circumstances, I missed the first day, which was said to be quite interesting, particularly for monetizing and maximizing the earning potential of your blog. Nonetheless, while the line up for the second day seemed more basic, I still decided to go.

I am really glad I did because I learned more about blogging and how I really want to do this even more. Blogging for me started only as an online journal for me to release my emotions and to rant about things. Now it has evolved a lot. I will admit that some of my sites have lost a bit of personality because I am exploring monetizing potentials, but I still feel this does not make me less of a blogger. Whether it is writing a personal post or a sponsored one, I still try my best to be true to who I am, and that’s something I took with me from the iBlog 6.

Other insights, opinions and realizations from the summit are as follows:

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It’s hard to believe that in one week, www.yapatoots.com turns 1! This blog has been very special to me because it was a first for me in many ways. This is the first one I really purchased on my own and set-up, transferred and tweaked with support from very helpful blogger friends! It has also been quite lucky for me. Through this blog, I have won many contests, landed new jobs, made more friends, got to interact with various PR and advertising firms, and even gained a lot of personal life experiences. It truly has been a great year.

I am truly grateful to all those who have supported me and this blog. In celebration of the many firsts this blog has accomplished, I will be launching the first contest hosted by i am woman, hear me rawr! This will coincide with my blogs first anniversary on May 2.

I would also like to take this opportunity to invite you to be a SPONSOR for this contest You can offer any prize you’d like: gc’s, EC credits, web hosting, cold hard cash via Pay Pal, ad spaces, and whatever goodies you would like to share. Of course, for supporting my contest, you will be linked as sponsors in all entries and I will personally allocate ad spaces for your blog in my side bar for the next month For non-bloggers or product sponsors, I will make a post about the product to build buzz around it. As sponsors, you can also still join the contest! Please leave me a comment below or fill up this form to signify your interest in supporting my contest. Staying true to form (I am the queen of last minute after all!), I know this is short notice! Deadline for pledges will be on or before noon of Saturday, May 1, 2010. Contest will be up by May 2!

Thank you again so much to everyone who have made my year of blogging so memorable, exciting, lucrative and life-changing!!!

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A few days after my Coron trip earlier this month, I came across several calls for entries to the OVI contests hosted by several bloggers. I quickly scanned my set of photos taken from the trip and selected a few then sent it in to Maki of makieduardo.com.

A few days later, I got the great news! I was the Week 2 Travel DiscOVIries Winner!

I sent in my entry via my OVI email, which is one of the mechanics of the contest. As far as I know, there’s still a week or two in the contest run, but the themes change per week. Anyway, here was what I shared with Maki and why Coron is definitely a Must-Visit Travel DiscOVIry:

There are so many gorgeous places in the Philippines and I was lucky enough to be able to go to Coron, Palawan for a second time this year. This island, which is part of the Calamian group of islands, is definitely a Must-visit travel destination!

When in Coron, one must definitely go see Kayangan Lake. While the trek to the lake can be a bit physically demanding, it definitely is worth the effort. Half-way through your climb you can detour a bit to the left from the rest area where there is a cave and across, the fabulous view of the island. When you finally make it to the top, you will once again be greeted by serene blue waters and beautiful greens all around.

Island hopping is also a must-do in this must-visit travel destination. Snorkling in Siete Picados is amazing, but even more than that, there is an actual shipwreck of an old Japanese war ship in what the boatmen would call Skeleton Island. If you look close enough and the waters still, you can see the bow of the sunken ship from your banka.

For a beach bum like me, Coron is an island paradise.

Atuwayan beach is a little strip of beach near the shipwreck site and it is a perfect destination for a liesurely afternoon soak in the sun, or sea if you’d prefer. There are many other beaches to go to (last year I went to Banol Beach) but what I liked about Atuwayan is that it is really isolated and quiet. The water is so clear that even if you don’t have snorkels, you can see the fish swimming around you Be careful though as there are some sea urchins around.

Any trip to an island would not be complete without catching the sunset. Coron is definitely no exception. By the pier, all you can do is sit back and watch the amazing beauty of nature right in front of your eyes.

There are still so many other beautiful places in Coron, like the Twin Lagoon, Maquinit Lake and so much more, but this entry is longer than a blog post already Let me end with saying, however, that for me, Coron should be your next must-visit travel destination.

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Today just didn’t start right. I got up on the wrong side of bed, literally. You wanna know how? I turned the wrong way and my hand went right smack at the coffee mug placed nearby. Yup, hot coffee all over my bed by 6:30 this morning. Then I finally got up and bang….my head went right smack at the bed frame. Then….I made it to work in less than 20 minutes but my client was late for about an hour. And to top things off…I missed a yummy blogger event!!! Talk about a bad day, right? Well, thanks to Earth and her reminder of finding SHOEs daily (for those unaware, SHOEs are your Seven Heavens on Earth, or seven things you appreciate or are grateful for), I decided to go get some SHOEs and swat away this bad day.

So here’s my SHOE today:

1. I opened my email at 12:30 am and saw a note from Melo Villareal telling me I won an autographed Jessica Zafra book for this contest entry!

2. Getting to work in less than 20 minutes, despite all the stresses of the morning.

3. Coming home and taking a nap that really refreshed me.

4. No more psych eval backlogs!!! Yup, I caught up already I do have pending reports, but they’re still on track.

5. A nice assignment for my next POC article! It’s quite close to my heart as this was my project last year. Hopefully this could translate to a new project again. Hmmmm…..

6. Having time to blog

7. A good dinner: danggit from Coron, sinangag, egg and tomatoes. Yum! Oh…and a glass of Coke hehehe.

Well, those are my SHOEs today. Stresses not completely swatted away, but it’s definitely much better now!

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Last Wednesday, I finally bid my preschoolers farewell for the year and yes, summer’s here!!! Much as I love teaching, I really love the reprieve summer brings because a.) I don’t have to wake up so early and b.) I get to do a lot of lounging around with my Bubba, which I don’t often have time to do when there are classes.

For this summer, I hope to be able to take Bubba back to Laiya for our summer bonding trip.
yes, yan ang bonding namin. sana nga matuto na siya mag-picture para ako naman nasa shots!

Being part Labrador, he enjoys running around in vast open spaces and he also loves swimming in the water and he’s so cute when he does it!

I really hope we get to go do this soon, maybe for my birthday weekend? Anyway, this is my official entry to Earth’s Blogversary and  Thanksgiving Treat Giveaway where I hope to win a Neutrogena Wave for me and the Pawnaceal All Natural Paw Balm. These two items would be great after the beach trip, too, wouldn’t you think? The last time we went to the beach he ended up with cracked and sore paws because of the hot sand and the rocks that he climbed. I bet that balm would have been a great relief for him. Just take a look at how pitiful he looked then:

As for me, I’ve been dying to get a Neutrogena Wave since I first read about it in Rowena’s blog post a few months back. Earth, the host of this contest, also raved about it both in her blog and during our surfing trip last August. I have not yet gotten one because every time I go to Watson’s to try to get one, it’s either I don’t have enough spare cash for it or there was none. So, now that it’s summertime, I hope that I get this prize so I can care for my skin better and keep it moisturized and thoroughly clean so Bubba and I can continue to have great photo moments like this:

don’t we just look so relaxed, refreshed and rejuvenated after our last beach adventure?

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For her blog anniversary, my blogger friend Rowena of  Animetric’s World pulled an Oprah with her “Animetric’s Favorite Things Year 1 Contest”. I love all her giveaways but of all, the one I’d love to win from her is one of the two Starbucks Clean and Green Tumblers that are up for grabs. Why this of all the other nice stuff? Well for one, I’m not called addicted to Starbucks for nothing right?

I would love to win this tumbler because for one, it would be a great addition to my growing collection. I have different themes in my collection, from local merchandise to City Mugs from countries I or my family and friends have traveled to, and even Holiday and Anniversary tumblers too!

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