Being idle sometimes does have its own benefits. Late this afternoon, I tinkered with my blog and came up with an idea of creating a portal for the SOCCSKSARGEN Bloggers. What's a blogging group doing without its own blog, yes? I ended up with a kewl site with a free domain and (drumroll) hosted on Blogger! The site uses Google Docs to power its Registration Page, and the blog URLs of everyone who registers automatically appears on the Member Blogs page. Kewl, huh?

The Browser Wars! Image from Choose Opera

Nowadays, the world seems to be filled with all sorts of products that are either destined to improve our lives (though unecessary in the first place), or to ruin it.

Equally, my friends, are the number of corporations claiming to be number one and creating mere assumptions that their products are the best that the world has ever seen. But the crazy problem about the market ranks game is that if there are fifty companies competing for a slice of the market for plastic bags, forty-five of them would say that they are 'number one'. That leaves the remaining five to settle for the 'number two' spot. Or if they would be humble enough, they'd go for the third, fourth, and fifth spots.

Photo credits: Yahoo! Philippines

Monday's hostage drama that turned into a tragedy was an unprecedented blow to the Philippine government, and the nation as a whole. At least eight of tourists from Hong Kong were killed in a 10-hour hostage drama in the vicinity of Quirino Grandstand, in the tourist belt of Manila. What seems to promise a good end to the situation turned into a bloody resolution.

I join the people of Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China in mourning for the loss of its people. I join our country and its people in condemning this tragedy. I join the Filipino people in the shame for the wrongdoings of not just one, but many of my people. 我们很抱歉。

Forget the ampersand. I would have to do the image all over again just to remove it. :p

Blogging has indeed redefined how netizens express themselves. Through this expression of oneself through blogging, one may positively influence others. Interestingly, many new blogs have the common goal of having an good impact on others. And this entry aims to list the TOP 10 of the most positively-influencing new blogs in the blogosphere. Here are my bets for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs for 2010:

Aside from being a movie buff, I am also a self-proclaimed 'mall' person. Nothing beats hanging out in the mall during hot, lazy, full-wallet days. In recent times, the people of General Santos City have been beaming with pride of the rapid rise of places to go, even surpassing many cities that were once ahead of GenSan.

As a frequent mall-goer, I have learned to see what's hot and what's not in the mall industry. Just when I thought that what the malls in General Santos have been giving to us were just enough, Robinsons Place opened its doors to the public, bringing the best of the nation's shopping experiences under one elegant roof.

I encountered the Big O way before GandaEverSoMuch.com was born. It was during one of my 'pumapapel' stints at the Yaman Gensan 2009. The Sir Orman was one of the judges in the Business Plan competition, and I was one of the representatives of our university whose business plan was to be bashed with no mercy by the judges.

Yes, our paper was judged and critiqued to our hearts' despair. He delved into the complexities of our business plan, as we have expected and prepared for. But as the session came to an end, the Big O complained of our below-standard thickness of paper, as well as the single-spaced document that we submitted. "Wala bang matinong photocopier sa school n'yo?". My colleagues know me as someone who'll never stop defending something that we worked on for a week of bloody, sleepless nights, but instead of speaking further to defend myself, I was amused and got no words to speak anymore! (Speech cloud above me: "'T*** **a, 'di ko naisip yun ah!") 'Hell, he's right. Our school in the desert lacks a decent photocopier, and we have misunderstood the instructions for the business plan.