WordCamp Philippines 2008 ramblings
So here I am, feeling strange blogging about WordCamp on the Blogger platform... but I fight on!
Yesterday was the much-awaited WordCamp Philippines 2008, a seminar on WordPress meant to educate the Philippine blogging community how to maximize WordPress, and encourage them to use that blogging platform. I had mentioned a couple of times in this blog that I had tried to switch from Blogger to Wordpress a couple of times. Although right now I *do* have a blog or two that I maintain using WordPress, I had long given up making it my main blogging platform.
Until yesterday.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's start at the beginning, which is a very good place to start, as that classic song goes.Read full post... I woke up really really really early, at five-thirty. ...FIVE-THIRTHY ON A SATURDAY!!! This is because I had voice lessons at 8:30 AM, and, because I was up until late the previous night due to a birthday outing with my closest friends, I had to wake up extra early so I could prepare my tired vocal cords properly. Well, that wasn't much help, I realized later in my voice class, because my teacher had, just by listenining to me vocalize, recognized my lack of sleep and overuse of my voice. ARGH. So that sucked.
Anyway.
Right after class I rushed to the nearest computer shop to print my WordCamp pass. Shyeah, I was SO unprepared. *ahem* So I had it printed, and then, realizing that I was already oh-so-very late and I had already missed two WordCamp sessions (one of which being the talk on WordPress Themes, which was the one I MOST wanted to attend) I decided to take a cab aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the venue instead of taking the trains. It cost me almost 300 bucks, but it's fine because I was spared walking in the rain and transfering from jeep to train to train to jeep.
When I finally got to the venue, I felt a bit weird because the conference was already in full swing, everybody was moving around and they knew where they were going, and there I was in the middle of it all, feeling... lost. Haha! Good thing Shari saw me, and had me register, gave me my badge, shirt and freebies, and Arbet had me choose which break-away session I wanted to attend first. (This whole time I was still a bit out of it, just letting me lead me where I was supposed to go.)
I went for Markku's talk on WordPress plug-ins. To be completely honest, I didn't get to absorb a lot because my brain was still a bit travel-shook. I (sort of) mechanically took notes, though, so I think I'll understand it more when I go back to my notes.
I left the room with Tina, Joni and Mae, and made our way to the session on Using Wordpress as a CME/CMS by Karla Redor. We saw Rory and Paul there, and we all sat in the first row, feeling all intelligent-like. Haha! Karla's talk was pretty informative... Although I already knew that you can use WordPress to manage a whole website (as opposed to simply managing a blog), Karla had me thinking if I should use it for my site, too.
After that we headed out to lunch, sponsored by ChowKing (yey). We saw Ganns enter the room later, and he goes appying what he learned in the videoblogging session. The room was really, really quiet: I think it's mainly because we were in a classroom, and the chairs were still arranged neatly... I dunno. But, whatever. The four of us made it a point to be noisy. Haha! AJ made rounds, as well, greeting us before he went to the next room to look for other bloggers. Hehe. Marc introduced himself to us after we've finished eating. The six of us (Me, Tina, Joni, Mae, Ganns and Marc) went to the cafeteria because I wanted Coke. (I ended up buying C2 instead of Coke, though.) And we discovered the place in La Salle Benilde where one building's third floor is the same level as another building's fourth floor. TIME SPACE WARP!
Anyway. We went back to the WordCamp area for the plenary sessions. Saw LA, Carlo and Jeric on the way in. There was a funny moment with Ganns in the starring role, but it's too complicated to explain in writing. I so wish we had video-ed that moment. Haha!
For the plenary sessions I sat beside Rory and Marc, plurking while listening to the talks... It was funny because almost everyone was plurking, and it felt like we were high school, passing notes around and talking about what the teacher was saying. Haha!
First up was Matt Mullenweg on State of the Word and the future of WordPress. A lot can be said about his talk, but I think I'll focus on this: I'M EXCITED FOR WORDPRESS 2.7!!! Heeheehee. That basically served as the final push for me to decide to use WordPress for my site.
Right. Anyway. There were several more talks including Aileen’s Demystifying Google Analytics talk, Regnard’s Web Standards, I.PH’s product demo, Performancing Ads… I think that pretty much covers it. I won a Google notebook, raffled out by...err...Google. It's a pretty simple notebook, but I LOVE it nonetheless, being a Google geek that I am. And then in Regnard's talk, everyone agreed heartily when he flashed the words KILL IE6!!! on the screen. Hehe.
After that was the powwow with Matt. I loved how he took the chair he was supposed to sit in, and then used it to climb up and sit on the stage, instead. Haha!
After that was the photo op with Matt. Supposedly. We were already queueing up, following the organizers' instructions, but then it was suddenly decided to have the class photo first. Following instructions again, I stepped forward, and then when I turned around I saw that almost nobody else was approaching the stage. Eyng? For a second I thought I was the one not following instructions, but they called "Class picture!" again, and then I found myself standing beside Matt in the smack center of the class picture. Haha! Okay. Good thing, too, because I think I'm too tall to stand in front of the other people.
And then, I felt a small fraction of what a celebrity might feel like, because we were just standing there, smiling for about two whole minutes. It may sound like a short time, but believe me, with cameras flashing at you form every direction, and you're just standing there trying to keep your smile even though your cheeks were getting tired, two minutes is long.
I involuntarily pointed this out, saying in a sing-song voice, "I'm getting tired smiling", and it got the people around me laughing. Hehe. Well, at least we had fresh fuel to get our smiles going. Haha!
After that, Mae basically turned around, and snapped a photo of me, Tina, and Matt since we were already there. (Too bad Ria wasn't included in the pic. She was beside Matt, too, I think.) And then we took our opportunity to get our individual photos with Matt. The guy was great, shaking hands, smiling for cameras, and not at all looking tired. Maybe it's the effect of the Filipino warmth and hospitality or something. :)
After that we got our WordCamp bags and the last of our freebies, and then headed out to Serendra where the after-party was to be. We (me, Tina, Joni and Mae) wanted to eat at Conti's, but the place was full, so we decided to eat at Brother's Burger. We hung out for a pretty long while there until we decided to walk to Mag:net to wait for the rest of the bloggers. Mike and Hans arrived a bit after we did, and Peter visited our table later. It was supposed to be a rockeoke night, and the band was already there, rocking out a couple of Beatles and Weezer songs. (Yup, you guessed it: I wanted to go and jam with the band.) I had a great time hanging out with Joni and Mae and Tina. It it was really too bad that we had to leave just when Matt, Ria, Andrew, Winston and the other bloggers arrived. Hay. But we managed to get a few shots before we left.
All in all, I had an awesome time. I will forever remember September 6 2008 as a day of fun, friends, and geekery! I can't wait for the next WordCamp!
And if you're wondering if I will switch to WordPress? The answer is YES. I still love Blogger, though, so some of my blogs might not move, but my main site will slowly transition to WP.
My gameplan:
Week 1: Install a local WordPress and look for a temporary theme
Week 2:Plan out import/linkage/however I'm going to go about the transition Check each page for formatting problems. *faint*
Week 3: Testing. And start writing, maybe? (Re-organize photos, too.)
Week 4: GO LIVE!!!
Um...yeah. Haha! Jehzlau has a list of all the WordCamp blog posts and photo galleries, by the way. Check 'em out, too!
Yesterday was the much-awaited WordCamp Philippines 2008, a seminar on WordPress meant to educate the Philippine blogging community how to maximize WordPress, and encourage them to use that blogging platform. I had mentioned a couple of times in this blog that I had tried to switch from Blogger to Wordpress a couple of times. Although right now I *do* have a blog or two that I maintain using WordPress, I had long given up making it my main blogging platform.Until yesterday.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Let's start at the beginning, which is a very good place to start, as that classic song goes.Read full post... I woke up really really really early, at five-thirty. ...FIVE-THIRTHY ON A SATURDAY!!! This is because I had voice lessons at 8:30 AM, and, because I was up until late the previous night due to a birthday outing with my closest friends, I had to wake up extra early so I could prepare my tired vocal cords properly. Well, that wasn't much help, I realized later in my voice class, because my teacher had, just by listenining to me vocalize, recognized my lack of sleep and overuse of my voice. ARGH. So that sucked.
Anyway.
Right after class I rushed to the nearest computer shop to print my WordCamp pass. Shyeah, I was SO unprepared. *ahem* So I had it printed, and then, realizing that I was already oh-so-very late and I had already missed two WordCamp sessions (one of which being the talk on WordPress Themes, which was the one I MOST wanted to attend) I decided to take a cab aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to the venue instead of taking the trains. It cost me almost 300 bucks, but it's fine because I was spared walking in the rain and transfering from jeep to train to train to jeep.
When I finally got to the venue, I felt a bit weird because the conference was already in full swing, everybody was moving around and they knew where they were going, and there I was in the middle of it all, feeling... lost. Haha! Good thing Shari saw me, and had me register, gave me my badge, shirt and freebies, and Arbet had me choose which break-away session I wanted to attend first. (This whole time I was still a bit out of it, just letting me lead me where I was supposed to go.)
I went for Markku's talk on WordPress plug-ins. To be completely honest, I didn't get to absorb a lot because my brain was still a bit travel-shook. I (sort of) mechanically took notes, though, so I think I'll understand it more when I go back to my notes.
I left the room with Tina, Joni and Mae, and made our way to the session on Using Wordpress as a CME/CMS by Karla Redor. We saw Rory and Paul there, and we all sat in the first row, feeling all intelligent-like. Haha! Karla's talk was pretty informative... Although I already knew that you can use WordPress to manage a whole website (as opposed to simply managing a blog), Karla had me thinking if I should use it for my site, too.
After that we headed out to lunch, sponsored by ChowKing (yey). We saw Ganns enter the room later, and he goes appying what he learned in the videoblogging session. The room was really, really quiet: I think it's mainly because we were in a classroom, and the chairs were still arranged neatly... I dunno. But, whatever. The four of us made it a point to be noisy. Haha! AJ made rounds, as well, greeting us before he went to the next room to look for other bloggers. Hehe. Marc introduced himself to us after we've finished eating. The six of us (Me, Tina, Joni, Mae, Ganns and Marc) went to the cafeteria because I wanted Coke. (I ended up buying C2 instead of Coke, though.) And we discovered the place in La Salle Benilde where one building's third floor is the same level as another building's fourth floor. TIME SPACE WARP!
Anyway. We went back to the WordCamp area for the plenary sessions. Saw LA, Carlo and Jeric on the way in. There was a funny moment with Ganns in the starring role, but it's too complicated to explain in writing. I so wish we had video-ed that moment. Haha!
For the plenary sessions I sat beside Rory and Marc, plurking while listening to the talks... It was funny because almost everyone was plurking, and it felt like we were high school, passing notes around and talking about what the teacher was saying. Haha!First up was Matt Mullenweg on State of the Word and the future of WordPress. A lot can be said about his talk, but I think I'll focus on this: I'M EXCITED FOR WORDPRESS 2.7!!! Heeheehee. That basically served as the final push for me to decide to use WordPress for my site.
Right. Anyway. There were several more talks including Aileen’s Demystifying Google Analytics talk, Regnard’s Web Standards, I.PH’s product demo, Performancing Ads… I think that pretty much covers it. I won a Google notebook, raffled out by...err...Google. It's a pretty simple notebook, but I LOVE it nonetheless, being a Google geek that I am. And then in Regnard's talk, everyone agreed heartily when he flashed the words KILL IE6!!! on the screen. Hehe.
After that was the powwow with Matt. I loved how he took the chair he was supposed to sit in, and then used it to climb up and sit on the stage, instead. Haha!
After that was the photo op with Matt. Supposedly. We were already queueing up, following the organizers' instructions, but then it was suddenly decided to have the class photo first. Following instructions again, I stepped forward, and then when I turned around I saw that almost nobody else was approaching the stage. Eyng? For a second I thought I was the one not following instructions, but they called "Class picture!" again, and then I found myself standing beside Matt in the smack center of the class picture. Haha! Okay. Good thing, too, because I think I'm too tall to stand in front of the other people.
And then, I felt a small fraction of what a celebrity might feel like, because we were just standing there, smiling for about two whole minutes. It may sound like a short time, but believe me, with cameras flashing at you form every direction, and you're just standing there trying to keep your smile even though your cheeks were getting tired, two minutes is long.
I involuntarily pointed this out, saying in a sing-song voice, "I'm getting tired smiling", and it got the people around me laughing. Hehe. Well, at least we had fresh fuel to get our smiles going. Haha!After that, Mae basically turned around, and snapped a photo of me, Tina, and Matt since we were already there. (Too bad Ria wasn't included in the pic. She was beside Matt, too, I think.) And then we took our opportunity to get our individual photos with Matt. The guy was great, shaking hands, smiling for cameras, and not at all looking tired. Maybe it's the effect of the Filipino warmth and hospitality or something. :)
After that we got our WordCamp bags and the last of our freebies, and then headed out to Serendra where the after-party was to be. We (me, Tina, Joni and Mae) wanted to eat at Conti's, but the place was full, so we decided to eat at Brother's Burger. We hung out for a pretty long while there until we decided to walk to Mag:net to wait for the rest of the bloggers. Mike and Hans arrived a bit after we did, and Peter visited our table later. It was supposed to be a rockeoke night, and the band was already there, rocking out a couple of Beatles and Weezer songs. (Yup, you guessed it: I wanted to go and jam with the band.) I had a great time hanging out with Joni and Mae and Tina. It it was really too bad that we had to leave just when Matt, Ria, Andrew, Winston and the other bloggers arrived. Hay. But we managed to get a few shots before we left.
All in all, I had an awesome time. I will forever remember September 6 2008 as a day of fun, friends, and geekery! I can't wait for the next WordCamp!
And if you're wondering if I will switch to WordPress? The answer is YES. I still love Blogger, though, so some of my blogs might not move, but my main site will slowly transition to WP.
My gameplan:
Week 2:
Week 3: Testing. And start writing, maybe? (Re-organize photos, too.)
Week 4: GO LIVE!!!
Um...yeah. Haha! Jehzlau has a list of all the WordCamp blog posts and photo galleries, by the way. Check 'em out, too!
Labels: geekiness, wordcamp, wordpress
| wishlisting :: September '08 »
Blue. Stars. Sky. Jazz. Choklit. Pasta. Sashimi. Green tea Frapp. Aroma of coffee. Books. Movies. Fanfics. PC. Google. Mobile phone. Mp3 player. Sleep.
Cockroaches. Shopping. Humidity. Migraines.
Ang galing ah, kasama mo yung creator ne Wordpress.
Posted by
Paul U
Whee finally your WordCamp post! :D Haha can't wait for your unveiling of your Wordpress powered blog though.
It was nice hanging out with you last weekend! Sa uulitin. :D
Posted by
Tina