Go Blog Hopping about the 1st BlogCon here.

Bloggers who wrote about this event

(copy pasted from Noemi’s site and the BlogCon Wiki)

Good old friends, good new friends, very good free food and beer. And of course the glory of being the final winner of the raffle even without writing my name on the stub (identified by a drop of water (read: beer) ).

All in all a pretty cool event, more talk from the Blog gurus and more insight into how this blogging thing really works. It was finally good to meet Gail and Marc since we didn’t have time to meet up during the first Blog Meet. Good to make new friends, Gloria, Sasha (friends forever na tayo remember), Karl, Mike and all the others there.

Kudos to the people at Globe Innove for making this possible, this should be a regular thing.

Let me end by spreading the link love…….
Abe Olandres YugaTech
Jayvee Fernandez A Bugged Life
Rico Mossesgeld Fool for Five
Sasha Manuel The Parody
Gloria Gamat Daragang Magayon
Kevin Codamon Kiven
Gail Dela Cruz Kutitots
Marc Villanueva marcvill
Marc Macalua Macalua.com
Christine Ocampo Shobeceo
J. Angelo Racoma The J Spot
Markku Seguerra rebelpixel productions
Anne Bailon sencillez
Ade Magnaye Noisy, Noisy Man
Noemi Dado Touched by An Angel
Karl de Leon Mimi and Karl
Sonnie Santos Sonnie’s.Porch
Mike Abundo The Mike Abundo Effect
Jun Asis MabutingBalita.Netand MagandangBalita.Com.

And all the others there! Congratulations!!

Pinoy Vespa riders Daniel Coquilla and Eugene Jarque have been awarded the CCP’s Thirteen Artists Award.

This batch is deemed refreshing in that they are unfettered by the demands of the art market.

The CCP recently announced the awardees: Ronald Anading, Jeho Bitancor, Mariano Ching, Lena Cobangbang, Daniel Coquilla, Luisito Cordero, Lyra Abueg Garcellano, Eugene Jarque, Jayson Oliveria, Gary-Ross Pastrana, Yasmin Sison-Ching, Ma. Cristina Valdezco, and Jevijoe Vitug.

More about the Thirteen Artists Award

The Thirteen Artists Award is named in honor of the pioneering group of thirteen Modernists in Philippine art, namely: Victorio Edades, Galo B. Ocampo, Carlos “Botong” Francisco, Diosdado Lorenzo, Vicente Manansala Jr., Hernando R. Ocampo, Cesar T. Legaspi, Demetrio Diego, Bonifacio Cristobal, Jose Pardo, Arsenio Capili, Ricarte Purungganan, and Anita Magsaysay-Ho.

The Thirteen Artists Award began as a curatorial project of the CCP Museum under its first curator Roberto Chabet. It evolved to become a recognition of progressive, young artists who were chosen based on: a body of work characterized by artistic integrity; innovativeness and cogency of ideas; responsiveness to contemporary realities; and sustained artistic activity demonstrated in individual and collective exhibitions. The Award is now given every three years.

Daniel Coquilla, is known as Dansoy in the Vespinoy forums. He had contributed this design to the Vespinoy cause. I have yet to meet Eugene Jarque, but in behalf of everyone on the forum and on the road, congratulations to you two. Hindi lang pangVespa, pang Awards pa! w00t w00t!

More about the CCP’s Thriteen Artists Awards here.

Tonight is the very 1st BlogCon to be held at the National Sports Grill in Greenbelt.
Sponsored by Globe Innove, this will most likely be a mega meet and greet among bloggers. A chance for us newbies to rub elbows with the blogging gods.

Hey as long as there’s free beer, I’d rub my elbows in sandpaper. It’s a good chance to touch base with some good friends I’ve made during the last Globe Innove sponsored blogger meet.

Check Abe’s blog for more details about this event.

Switching from Japs to Italians and falling in love…

I can honestly say I’m an old motorbike rider.. I’ve been riding sice I was in third grade on village roads. Born into a family of motorbike enthusiasts. My dad, brothers, even my sister- we all had our bikes to go around in the village since the time Ateneo last became UAAP college champions prior to their victory two years ago(there, if you know you’re history, that was REALLY a long time ago) But it was all japanese bikes then- I had no idea what a Vespa what, knowing me, I’d probably see one on the road and not mind it. It was all sport bikes for me and motocross, the newer your sport bike was and the more gears, the “cooler” you were. It was all speed and colors then..

Read more…  

It was nice to see new and old faces again after a long time of not “hanging-out-every-Tuesday” at MetroWalk in Pasig. At first I was not quite that looking-forward to it (my apologies) but as it turned out, it was one of the best gatherings i was in. For starters, i was there at 5:30pm. Well, my Pop was in town so i decided to have dinner with my family in the same area to make it easy for me to hang out. 7:30 came i saw 3 wasps buzzing around in front looking for a place to park. As I excused myself, i hurriedly approached the guys and I saw two old faces and one new. Then I moved my vespa closer to join the “Swarm”. A few bla-blas and I went back to my folks.

Read more…  

i’ve had my vespa for close to 7 years. having it has changed my life. and like most of the vespa owners and riders i know, i’ve named mine – max (short for maxine; i consider her female). but truth to tell, it’s only in the last couple of years that i’ve really felt her influence on my daily life. (well, maybe closer to 4 years.)

Read more…  

It’s 2006 and I start the year reading the latest CAR magazine (no joke he title of the magazine really is CAR- it’s a UK publication.) Anyhow, the mag featured the current heir to the Agnelli family, Lapo Elkann, grandson of Gianni Agnelli, founder and owner of Fiat and Piaggio and how he, even though he is the heir to their gigantic italian empire, had to start from the bottom pits of their company(s) to gain the respect and learn the hard work the “real” way.

His story is really a nice one. He was saying that any family member of theirs who want to work for their company would have to assume a false name and work from the blue collar job positions available and work their way up. He worked in Piaggio, stationed at production line 2 , second man on the team. He installed the shock absorbers on PX model vespas and it was because of this job of his that he learned a few very important things. He learned the value of hard labor-hard work, he learned how to earn the respect of his peers, and he learned to value their product when the trend was on a downturn for FIAT and PIAGGIO.

Now, he is the company’s youngest executive and hold the title VP for Brand Management for FIAT, Alfa Romeo and Lancia. In his control is gazillions in advertising budget and in the 2005 Geneva Motor Show won Best in Display for their Fiat brand. He considers the two best rides in the world to be the Fiat Cinqucento and of course the Vespa! He rides his bike occassionally when the weather allows it and now actually uses his real name in the office.

Their company the Fiat Group owns such brand as of course, FIAT, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, FERRARI and Piaggio..

Tignan mo nga naman, in this guy sits some of the best cars the world has ever seen and he chooses to go to the office in a VESPA (GT nga lang)
Again. yung vespa came up on top.. It maybe just a machine but it taught this guy real lessons in life and with the values learned has turned heads and stereotypes… Mabuhay ang VESPA!

Article by Louie Fong
Originally posted in TheVespaLife.Com
January 6, 2006

Not Anka’s.

Everyone gets stuck in traffic.

No matter where you live or how your profession affects your commute, everyone encounters some measure of road queue at some point in time. Whether you blame it on the sheer volume of vehicles on the road, the dire state of traffic management, human behavior, or even the weather, getting from Point A to Point B will always be the life-sucking ordeal prophesied by turn-of-the century doomsday soothsayers lamenting the fate of the horse-drawn carriage at the onset of the Industrial Age.

You may have come across studies showing that a significant percentage of our lives are lost, forever gone and never to be recovered again, due to traffic. We involuntarily commit three out of every sixteen hours that we are awake stuck in traffic on a daily basis – a fifth of our productive life. A fifth. That’s more time than history allotted for two World Wars, including the uneasy peace in between the two.

And still we attest to our sub-2-liter petrol burners in much the same way many of us would reply when asked what possession would compel us to rush into a burning house to rescue our most important possession – the TV set. Should it be 50+ inches of LCD or plasmatic goodness, the higher is our status in life, and the more ardent is our fervor to pluck it out of an infernal fate. It’s the same thing with cars.

How does this state of affairs play in light of today’s fuel prices and next week’s fateful arrival of the Expanded Value-Added Tax or the E-VAT? Sheer lunacy.

In the meantime, allow me to maneuver my erstwhile 35km/liter Piaggio Vespa PX-150E within the three feet or so of space conveniently left in between your stationary conveyances, as I head for the stoplight.

I might even work on World War Three in my spare time.

Article by Boo Blanco
Originally posted in TheVespaLife.Com
October 21, 2005