Guy Kawasaki and Making Meaning

Kawasaki. Sound familiar?

Nope, not the motorcycle, but yes, of Japanese-descent like the motorcycle. He is Guy Kawasaki - a Hawaii-born Japanese-descent American who was once notably known as an Apple evangelist. I think he is to be credited also for contributing greatly to making Apple very famous, very cool; and with Apple's rise, his popularity grew as well. If there are now millions of evangelists (if not fanatics) among the many Apple users, they are the making of Kawasaki himself. (or he would be the first among all of them)

I think before even the venerable Steve Jobs (Hail Steve Jobs!), or the highly regarded Filipino businessman Manny V. Pangilinan became famous or infamous for their memorable (Jobs) or forgettable/plagiarized (MVP) graduation speeches, there was Guy Kawasaki's take on "Hindsights that I've accumulated in the 20 years from where you are to where I am" - a top 10 list he gave graduating students at the Palo Alto High School in 1995. Probably came across that speech way back in 1998, but it's still going around even now in endless succession of email forwarding and social networking. Read it!

I bring up Guy Kawasaki because after he finished his stint as an Apple evangelist, he founded Garage.com (to support and help incubate start-up companies) and had written a book for start-ups called "The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything". I've read Art of the Start countless times (my habit when I really like a book) because, like last year, I put up 4 companies with friends. I don't know what it was about 2010 but you know - yeah, 4 companies all started in 2010. :)

And if you're starting your own company, you have to have plenty of ammunition to get you through the challenges ahead. The Art of the Start is an important book to read as it contains a great deal of simple, valuable real-world advice for you - the entrepreneur. Being honed in the Silicon Valley, Kawasaki's insights are pretty-much borne of his Silicon Valley experience. If you're dreaming of pitching your own Google or Facebook to Silicon Valley Venture Capitalists (VCs) for some kaching-kaching dollar-infusion, The Art of the Start may well be the How-To in making that happen. His insights are as true in Silicon Valley, as much as in... Marikina Valley.

I have shared the book (among many other books) to all of my business partners so that I don't have to explain to them what it says (hehe), and so that we can all proceed with our business coming from the framework that Kawasaki's book prescribes. In fact, we used it as basis when we were crafting our goals for our companies.

If I have to pick out one major learning from the book, it would be about "Making Meaning". In regular parlance, it would appear to be no more than what we'd call a company's Mission-Vision-Objectives. But Kawasaki rather puts it differently and captures it better in "Making Meaning". In other words:

• What is your company's reason for being?
• What wrong does it want to make right?
• What difficulty in the world does it want to make easy?
• What does it want to do to make the world a better place?

As I had also said in another post, it is really about the kind of value that one adds to other people's lives, to the world! It is not about crafting the most impressive Mission-Vision statements. Kawasaki actually wants us to do away with that because after all, he says, Who even remembers their company's Mission-Vision statements? "Making Meaning" and encapsulating it in a simple Mantra, is about being able to know by heart what ones reason for being is as a company. Simple - so that it is easily understood, better remembered, and easier realized; Close to the heart - so that it fires one up when the times get tough.

Think about it: What meaning does your company want to bring into the world?

Book Recommendations:
The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything
Rules For Revolutionaries: The Capitalist Manifesto for Creating and Marketing New Products and Services
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions

Dumbbells and Internet Money Machines

As I write this blog, a friend is across from me, writing website articles for a living. He makes good money off it, he tells me. He writes articles on various topics from science, to travel, music, and what-have-yous.

Today, he is writing about... dumbbells?!? 

I like to write, but I can't imagine writing about dumbbells. How many witticisms and profound thoughts can you cram into a 600-word article about dumbbells?

Can't even stretch that topic into a long conversation so we wander off to other ways in which people make money off the internet. I mention, as always, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. And there's this supposedly Pinoy internet marketing guru who I think makes money doing black hat techniques. There are others who make modest but respectable sums doing honest online-related work - from blogging, to selling, to internet marketing, etc. And there's this someone else I know who actually makes tons of money from the internet - to the tune of... a LOT of money.

Can you believe that?

But it's true. There is real money to be made from the internet. It requires work, too, of course. You should find plenty of opportunities if you really look, and several business models to emulate. One just needs to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff, the black hats from the white hats, the bogus from the legitimate, the scams from the real deals.

Read any credible internet marketer and they will tell you that in the internet, as in any brick-and-mortar business, you must truly be able to provide real value to customers. That could be actual products, or information, or service that truly improves, enriches and serves the life of man. There is no going around it. Figure that one out, and you've got your internet money machine. (or brick-and-mortar business, if that's what you prefer.)

So what's your internet money machine? 

Book Recommendation:
Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires
The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Disclosure and the 10-minute Attention Span

Again, allow me to thank you for reading this blog. Thank you for reciprocating 10 minutes of my writing effort with 10 minutes of your attention span. (Bravo if you actually have a 10-minute attention span! LOL! That's more than most have in this truly digital world.)

Anyway, in the interest of disclosure, openness and honestly, I just want to say if you click on any of the Google Ads or Amazon links found in this blog, I might actually earn something. It's not much if only a few of you click or make purchases, but if you do click or make purchases on any of these links, I thank you. I hope the ads will continue to be relevant and appropriate and will truly be to your benefit. If you don't click on anything, no worries. (But you can tell me if they get annoying too.) This is not in any way an appeal for you to click on these links just for the sake of clicking them. Click only if you really find them worthy of your time and attention.

Sometimes I would put in links to business or opportunities that I might find on the internet, or maybe from friends; know that I put them in the interest of sharing something that you might like, that might benefit you (and me too, perhaps), or that might help give a friend's business a boost (or a vote of confidence). In any case, you make your own transactions with these opportunities at your own risk, I make no guarantees (except when I expressly state a guarantee); but should you have any unpleasant experiences with any of them, you could let me know so that I am warned, so we can warn others and then I can put down the post, ad or link.

Again, thank you for making time for this blog among the millions of other blogs out there. I hope I continue to see you around here. :)

P.S. Did you see the full moon last night? It was just really pretty. :) Framed by the tall trees at the Ayala Triangle Gardens, it was just magical.

Book Recommendation:
Google AdSense For Dummies

Spite, Mark Zuckerberg and the Origins of Facebook

It's been quite a busy few days.

First, there was the tour we had with ClubTravelNOW!^TM over the last weekend where we saw the 16th International Hot Air Balloon Festival and got to go around Pampanga on a very satisfying food tour. (See pics from that trip here.)

Then there's the various things I've had to do for this and my other blogs: learning a few tricks here and there, wrapping up my Facebook ad testing, devising plans to monetize my sites, discovering new apps I can use, and catching up on my readings (finally giving my Kindle some quality time).

Just before writing this post, I had finished reading Ben Mezrich's "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal". "The Social Network" - the movie that starred Jessie Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake - was based on this book. The film, to my estimation is around 85% faithful to the book. I don't know how close the book actually is to the true events, but in any case, it is a very riveting read, an interesting glimpse at the birth and growth of Facebook amidst all the S-M-G and B that the title of the book suggests.

Sex. Money. Genius. Betrayal.

Such big loaded words to associate with the founding of Facebook.

Really?

Maybe it was all for commercial points (or maybe SEO) because, to me at least, the book nor the movie, isn't so much about that.

Sure there is sex because, well, Mark Zuckerberg and his former best friend Eduardo Saverin were enticed by the idea of a website that would allow them to get laid (they did get laid). Zuckerberg in an interview refutes that that was the motivation behind it though.

Money - well, they didn't start Facebook for the money; Saverin provided most of it in the beginning (to get it started, buy some servers and such), until Sean Parker brought in the VCs that led to the million and eventually billion bucks of the company.

Genius - it's all over the place. For one, they were at Harvard (then later Stanford and the Silicon Valley). And all of the characters had such exceptional supply of brainpower: Zuckerberg providing most of the programming genius, Saverin with his business acumen, and Parker's own rockstar geekiness (he gained notoriety for Napster and Plaxo) and he is brilliant at spotting a goldmine (he sort of brought Zuckerberg and Facebook to the big leagues).

But as for betrayal, I don't know. Maybe there was, maybe there wasn't.

Parker might have orchestrated it - the part where Saverin's ownership in the company he co-founded got diluted. Zuckerberg's sin is that he allowed it to happen. (Or maybe, like he always had been with financial matters, he didn't really give it much thought - the same nonchalance with which he turned down a million dollars from Microsoft for a music program he made in high school). The Winklevoss twins may have thought they were betrayed by Zuckerberg - after he came up with Facebook while he was also supposedly working on a similar site that the twins had commissioned him to do. (But no, they didn't really pay him, he didn't sign any agreement with them; and if it was really their idea, why hadn't they made it already? - such was Zuckerberg's defense, among others.)

After watching the movie, and even after reading the book, I come away more amazed than anything - that someone as young as Zuckerberg could come up with something like Facebook that totally takes the Internet universe by storm. The problems he seems to have attracted around him I take to be a result of his social ineptness. Imagine that: Socially inept, and yet the God of Social Networking.

Were his actuations or omissions really a product of spite?

That's the billion dollar question.

Book Recommendation:
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook: A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius and Betrayal

A Standard of Love

No, this is not a valentine message. For this message is something that we ought to remind ourselves of EVERYDAY. I had meant not to post anything tantamount to a celebration of the day of hearts; no reason really, just... what for? Hehehe. And then I remembered these words from the bible, words that always strike me whenever I read it.

Always, my reflection on these words is that they really provide us a great standard of love. It is a high standard, I must say. I know that if I am to be measured against this standard, then I will fail.

But everyday, I try.

1 Corinthians 13:4

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Book Recommendations:
Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International)
The Prophet

7 Reasons to Visit Pampanga

I wrote this for members of our travel club, ClubTravelNOW!^TM, and titled it "7 Reasons why you should join the 'Mekeni: The Hot Air Balloon Festival + Pampanga Food Trip!' on Feb. 12, 2011". Of course, I was promoting our tour. :)

It will be too late for you to join us tomorrow (or, let me know, hehe), but I wanted anyway to be able to share this with all of you. Being an advocate of travel around the country, I hope this one gets you itching to come to Pampanga and see what surprises it has instore for you.

7 Reasons to Visit Pampanga

1. To see the Hot Air Balloons and various aerial exhibitions

Photo by Dio Delfino

The colors are as varied as the countries that will come to showcase their balloons: Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, France, United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Netherlands, Malaysia and more. If you have time, come today, til Sunday, or next year around the same time February.

2. To get a taste of Kabigting's Halo-halo, which rivals Razon's.

As Rina Jimenez-David on last Sunday's column said: "Kabigting's Halo-halo...teases the tongue with unexpected flavors and the contrast between the creamy milk, bits of ice and the sticky toffee-like texture of the yema." I am a big fan of halo-halo, and this one is really good.

Photo by Tristan Mirasol

Photo by John Baterna

Photo by Edwin Soriano

I cannot say which one is better, coz I like them all. (that includes Chowkings', or Iceberg's Mango-Caramel Flan - which is quite like Razon's, though it does not purport itself as a halo-halo.)

3. To sample chef Lilian Borromeo's buffet lunch (wait til you see what's for lunch!)

Chef Lilian Borromeo is a Cooking Show host and a famous Kapampangan Culinary Expert. She will be preparing the food for us this Saturday.

Atching Lilian Borromeo
Photo by Tristan Mirasol

Would you like to know what's for lunch? :) Okay, here it is:

1. Sisig (her own brand of sisig)
2. Chicken Galantina
3. Birenghe (their own version of the paella)
4. Dinuguan/Kilayin (one her best dishes)
5. Paksiw ng Demonyo (sounds interesting, isn't it?)
6. Pako Salad (delicious!)
7. Seafood dishes (surprise!)
8. Dessert: Maja Blanca
9. Bottomless Iced Tea or Pandan Tea

Photo by Jun Valbuena

4. To wander in Larry J. Cruz resthouse/spa/farm/resto at Abe's Farm

Photos by Tristan Mirasol

While Larry J. Cruz was known for his restaurants, the trip to Abe's Farm is a glimpse at his life and history. It will be a relaxing time looking around at his garden, his restaurant and his mini-museum. His life and his story is just as rich as the food he had all served us. (Admittedly though, I haven't tried many of his restos; this should inspire us to try his restos if we haven't.)

5. To enjoy the original Sisig Queen's Aling Lucing Sisig

Photos by Tristan Mirasol

Pampanga is the origin of the now ubiquitous sisig. But Aling Lucing Sisig is the best of them all, having won awards for the famous dish. You haven't tried real sisig if you haven't tried Aling Lucing's Sisig. (They used to have a franchised branch in Makati/Pasong Tamo - I used to supply them Bonuan Bangus, but the branch has since been replaced by Mang Inasal. Too bad.)

6. To try the different pasalubong shops with various kakanins

Nathaniel's @ Marquee Mall

Photos by Tristan Mirasol

There's Carreon's Sweets and Pastries (known for its tarts and yema), Susie's Cuisine (for its Tibok-tibok which is really totally exquisite; you can't get enough of it, believe me) and Nathaniels (for its buko pandan). If you could only join us, man, for sure, you'll be so full and wish you had more space to stuff all this food in. Good thing, you can always just bring these items home for yourself or as pasalubong to those you love. Their original stores are spread around Pampanga, but MarQuee mall has conveniently gathered them all at their mall so you can visit them all in one go.

7. To brave the authentic and exotic Kapampangan dishes of Everybody's Cafe

Photo by Tristan Mirasol

We went here on our last foor tour in October. It is owned by the Jorolan family - our friend Poch and my former co-worker Namee. They're both passionate about food, and make it their life to promote Pampanga, that's why we support them. Everybody's Cafe is a must-stop for anyone who wants to get to know the real Kapampangan food.

There you have it, folks. There are certainly more reasons to go to Pampanga for. Maybe I could add to this list next time (or comment with your suggestions). But for now, this is all my 10 minutes can muster. :)

P.S. If you'd like to join our Pampanga Food Tours, visit the ClubTravelNOW!^TM website or Facebook page for future schedules. Or email us at travelbuddies[at]clubtravelnow.org. (replace [at] with @).

Book Recommendation:
Food Tour: A Culinary Journal

How to Advertise on Facebook

1. Go to Ads and Pages.

2. Create a Fan Page or Create an Ad for the Fan Page or an External Website you want to advertise

3. Set the text and image of the ad

4. Set the target audience: by country, age, connections, etc.

5. Set Budget (per day or by Lifetime); min. USD1

6. Set Timeframe (Date range, or Continuous)

7. Set Pricing Option: Pay for Impressions or Pay for Clicks

• CPM = Cost per 1000 impressions (min. USD 0.01)
• CPC = Cost per Click (min. USD 0.02)

8. Review Ad
9. Set Payment (by Credit Card or by Paypal)
10. ACTIVATE!
11. Wait for Approval
12. Receive Approval
13. Pray!

P.S. Want to know my Facebook Ad Results are so far?

My initial strategy was set up my add so that I pay only for clicks. I only bid $0.01 for every click I get because I have a limited budget. After setting up my ad, getting the ad approved and running, Facebook only gave me nearly 500 impressions (meaning it only got to show my ad 500 times) within 36 hours. That's v-e-r-y, v-e-r-y s--l--o--w indeed!

Seeing that I wasn't getting any clicks despite the 36 hours that had passed, I changed the settings of my ad so that I instead will pay $0.02 for every 1000 impressions and regardless of how many clicks I get. I also modified my budget, lowered it some more so that Facebook does not take advantage of my limited budget and squanders it in one go.

Changing the ad settings requires that the ad goes through approval process, so I waited for that awhile, and once I got the approval, I set the ad to run. Within an hour, I received 10,300 impressions, and only 1 click. Since I am paying for every 1000 impressions, I ran up a total of $0.16 on my bill. That gives me a cost per click of $0.16, which I achieve every 10,000 impressions approximately. It teaches me that, moving forward, if I want to get 100 clicks, I just need to set aside a budget of about $16.

But my ad campaign isn't over yet, so I'll have to see as hours pass by if my average changes.

Hold tight!


Book Recommendation:
Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business

Want to be blessed financially?

It takes a little more than prayer. It takes some discipline, and some of these, as Bo Sanchez said in last Sunday's The Feast at the PICC. These are the 3Cs:

Competence
You have to grow your capabilities, talents and skills in the area of business or craft you'd like to earn in. You have to strive to be the best at what you do. But how many competent people do we know who are not rich? The reason for that is they also need...

Consciousness
You have to think that wealth is possible for you, you have to believe that being rich is okay, that having a lot is good, too. Strive for self-awareness: what mental programs could you possibly have that is holding you back from being wealthy? Why aren't you making more than you want? Or why don't you want more? You could have self-limiting beliefs, and it's important to be aware of them before you can overcome them.

Character
Nobody does business with someone with a loose and flaky character, T. Harv Eker said in his Millionaire Mind Seminar which I attended last November 2010 in Singapore. (Tell you more about that next time.) Strive to be someone people can trust, whose word people can count on. Your character attracts the kind of people that will bless you with the abundance you desire.

That's just the some of what I learned from Bo Sanchez in his new series entitled PESO-nality.

Curious? Find out more about it. You'd have missed the 1st part of the 4-part talk, but it's okay, you can catch up on his next talks, every Sunday at The Feast at the PICC. There's an 8AM and 10:45AM schedule, pick which suits you. It starts with a mass, then followed by his talk.

I myself am new to The Feast. It was only my 3rd time last Sunday. But coming away from it with something precious worthy of sharing, I thought, why don't I let you in on it?

See you there!

P.S. I attend the 10:45AM schedule. :)

Book Recommendation:
Think and Grow Rich

Google Doodles and Jules Verne

Google, that big awesome company founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, is the #1 search engine on the planet today. We all know it for its familiar logo, with the text Google in blue-red-orange-blue-green-red colors. The logo is very simple and clean, the same philosophy they applied to their search page which made Google the #1 name is search.

But while simple, clean and classic, it can get boring after a while. Thus, the Google Doodles. Once in a while, to commemorate an event or a holiday, Google doodles on its logo, turning it into various designs depicting the event or holiday being observed.

Today, is Jules Verne's birthday. Thus, when you open www.google.com, you won't see the usual blue-red-orange-blue-green-red Google logo, but rather one that looks like windows of an old submarine that is 20,000 leagues under the sea.

"20,000 Leagues under the Sea", BTW, is one of Jules Verne's famous science-fiction novels, along with A Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Around the World in Eighty Days. All have been turned into movies and cartoons.

Today, Jules Verne is 183 years old.

P.S.
See some of the past Google Doodles here: http://www.google.com/logos/

Book Recommendation:
Google Marketing Secrets

My First Facebook Ad

Woohoo! I had just made my first Facebook Ad. I won't tell you what it is, and I hope you do not click it unnecessarily if you figure out what it is, coz I don't want to have to pay for clicks that do not translate to sales. :)

This is more of an experiment on a limited advertising budget.

My goal for getting this done is:
(1) To learn how to actually do it
(2) To figure out how it works
(3) To get results/sales

I'll show you the ad once the campaign is done, and perhaps let you in as well on how well it worked.

My next goal: Google Ads!

Shameless Plugging:
Join us on our "Mekeni: The Hot Air Balloon Festival + Pampanga Food Trip!" this Feb. 12, 2011. To join, email travelbuddies@clubtravelnow.org, or visit our FB page or website. :)

Book Recommendation:
Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business

Aliens are real! (and they're afraid!)

See, told you aliens are real!

Check this out:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504784_162-20030494-10391705.html

Of course, Santa Claus is too!

P.S.
On a serious note, I actually do think aliens are real. They have been coming often, observing, studying us. And the only reason I think they have not made themselves known to us is this: They're afraid of us. They see all the conflicts and harm we have inflicted on one another, through the wars and riots they have observed through many years, or centuries. And they think, "If they can do this to humans just like themselves, what kind of hospitality would they likely extend to us, aliens?" And so, they have chosen to remain hidden in mystery.

DVD Recommendation:
The History Channel - UFO Files Box Set: 2 Disc DVD 400 Min.

Make Money Buying Domains

I was looking to buy a certain domain for a website I'm planning. But darn, somebody already beat me to it. And whoever this person is, is selling the domain at a premium. See screenshot below. (See me beg, hehe.)

What's amazing is I already bid on this same domain last year. And the minimum bid price I was given was only US$1000. Even then I already balked, what more now.

But from US$1000 to US$50000? I guess it's good business. I know when the internet was just starting, a lot of pioneers bought domains left and right, like pieces of real estate. Some of them even bought domains with the names of large multinationals before these big companies could even realize they would need to have their own websites someday. The domains were bought cheap, and they could sell it at a premium to the desperate multinational.

However, developments in World Intellectual Property Rights and through the arbitration and mediation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), these big companies have found remedy, by asserting their rights over domains that use their trademarked names.

Here are some articles that tackle such domain name legal battles:
IOC wins battle over domain name indianoil.org
I Hate Ryanair website forced to close after legal battle
Lance Armstrong Wins Domain Names

So I guess the trick is, buy a domain that you think would be a likely name for a multinational to use. (Might as well apply for a trademark too.) Because then, the multinational cannot claim they have an existing trademark on the domain, and so, if they really want your domain, they would have to pay you tons and tons of money! (And if you learned that trick from here, feel free to send me a minimal 10% of your windfall. Hehe.)

P.S. Shameless plug: In case you're looking to build a slew of internet domains for an asset, you can buy them at this site: www.stdomainhost.com  :)

Book Recommendation:
Buying And Selling Domain Names 101: How To Buy And Sell Domain Names For Fun And Profits

Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

I've just finished Rolf Pott's book called Vagabonding. And wow, what a truly great and inspiring read. It's the best kind of travel writing I've ever come across in a book. And it is a very thought-full book too; reading it you'll know that this guy truly knows what he's talking about. He rattles names of places he's been to, crazy things he's done - and you know he's just telling it like it is.

He gives a very sensible philosophy to travelling, one that we should all adapt. For one, an openness to everything that the place we visit has to offer, to see the place and the people for what it is and not coming from our own notions, our own experiences, or what we have read from brochures or travel books.

I realized that when I go to a certain place I almost always like it. And if people asked me which between this or that is a better experience, I never have an answer, because I like them all. I realize after reading Vagabonding it may be because I have adapted that kind of seeing that he espouses: one that only embraces and understands, and appreciates. As he or some author he quoted had said, if we had wanted to judge the places and people we visit with the same standards with which we judge the places we've come from, then what is the point of moving at all?

P.S. Readers beware: Reading this book will actually make you want to travel immediately and for long periods. Then again, that's not so bad. :)

Book Recommendation:
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel


Shameless Plugging:
Join us on our "Mekeni: The Hot Air Balloon Festival + Pampanga Food Trip!" this Feb. 12, 2011. To join, email travelbuddies@clubtravelnow.org, or visit our FB page or website. :)

Korea & Kimchi

My friend Mika (a kind and big-hearted Korean) gave me copies of some of his Korean movies - the ones with the likes of my favorite Sassy Girl and other pretty Korean ladies. I only got to watch half of 2 movies. One had English subtitles, but by the 2nd half of the movie, the subtitle wasn't synching anymore with the dialogue. That was confusing. The 2nd movie didn't have subtitles at all; I watched it anyway thinking I'll get it from the context. But nah.

I mentioned this because, I am here in a Starbucks cafe somewhere near the Manila Bay, and I hear Koreans talking. Makes me feel like I'm in the middle of some Korean film or novela.

Oops, 10 minutes up. :)

(What a great excuse for when I have no more thoughts to write!)

That's JP, me, and Mika: During Korea's winning game over some country I forget now; 2010 World Cup

P.S. (A 10-minute P.S.)

On Kimchi:
My friend, whom we shall call Xandra (not her real name), makes a mean Kimchi! Xandra looks Korean, but isn't Korean; though she knows how to speak the language (or I wouldn't really know if she's just showing off, haha). Back to her Kimchi: I discovered that they go well with Chicken Inasal (ask me where the best place for Inasal is) and also with Chicken Wings (I know a good place to find the best Chicken Wings, seriously!). Anyway, this friend of mine, Xandra, I know when she reads this (I hope she recognizes it's her I'm referring to despite the alias I assigned for her), I know she will dash off to her kitchen (or to the Baguio market in case she doesn't have stock) and immediately make me her oh-so-good Kimchi and surprise me by sending it to me either by bus or by personally delivering it. That's how kind and thoughtful she is. She really goes out of her way for friends like me. :) If this post doesn't work on her, next post will be a scathing retraction of this post, hehe.

Just kidding. :)

Book Recommendation:
Eating Korean: From Barbecue to Kimchi, Recipes from My Home