By Izah Morales

She’s 57 years old and is blogging for two years now.

“I’m not embarrassed to say my age because it proves that I’m still kicking and blogging,” says Marianita Girlie Villariba, educator, feminist and psychologist at the Education for Life Foundation.

Yes, Villariba is not your ordinary golden-aged woman who is afraid of technology and would rather stick with what is conventional.

“Parang may kulang sa araw ko ‘pag hindi ako nakapag-blog or nakapagbasa ng mga blogs [When I have not blogged for a day or have read others’ blogs, I feel that something’s lacking],” says Villariba.

Blogging has indeed become part of her daily routine aside from reading newspapers and magazines.

Her conversation with a friend who is into the study of babaylan or priestess led her to blogging.

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By Alexander Villafania
INQUIRER.net

Marcelle Fabie would better off be called a mentalist than just a mere magician. His style can be compared to a lot of street magicians but he adds a bit of theatrics. He can trick your eyes with the speed of his hands, mesmerize you with his predictions and even show you how to bend a metallic object as if it was paper. Incidentally, Fabie is also online.

The 24-year old Fabie is one of the few magicians who uses the Internet to draw crowds of people to his magic. His blogs at mistervader.blogspot.com and www.magikel.multiply.com contain a lot of his ramblings, not just about magic, after having been introduced to blogging and its uses several years back. He claims to be an “archivist” and fears eventually losing his memory so having a blog would remind him of the things that he used to do. One of the things he loves is wrestling and some of his entries are dedicated to his passion.

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I JUST recently discovered Manila Foodistas thanks to Tiffany Chua’s Twitter page, but I really like this food blog put up by a group of friends who are all undergrad students at UP Diliman.

Check out their blog — their latest entry is about Hannah’s Beijing adventure.

By Alex Villafania
INQUIRER.net

FROM WRITING about showbiz to politics to Davao City and even the whole of Mindanao, Maria Jose has been making the virtual rounds among Mindanao’s growing blogging community. She’s also become popular among Manila’s blogging community, even representing herself during the recently held iBlog4 conference at the University of the Philippines Diliman.

Jose, known as Ria to her friends and the blogging community, holds the distinction of having such a diverse string of blogs covering politics, lifestyle, entertainment and even gaming. The young Davaoeña, who works as a staffer for Davao City councilor Louie Bonguyan, still has time to write for her various blogs and even organize events for her colleagues in the blogging community as well as her gaming group. Her blogs include Alleba Politics, Chikadora.com, Shopchicks.com, Shoppingera.net, and the DotA Blog, among others.

Surprisingly, Jose said her motivation for blogging was to combat boredom. As a student of Environmental Science at the Ateneo De Manila University in the late 1990s, she had too much time on her hands. She started writing essays and posting them in a mailing list. Some of the her friends started commenting on her essays, so she moved to posting them on her personal website. Jose credits her knowledge in web development as well as her entry into the blogging community to Andrew de la Serna, a search engine expert working in Davao City.

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TV host Bianca Gonzalez talks about her blog, The Diary of a Supergirl Wannabe, which she started back in 2003 when she was in college.

Video taken by INQUIRER.net online videographer Janie Christine Octia.

IN THIS video, Lea Salonga talks about her blog on Multiply, The World According to Manang. She shares that the blog has become an outlet for her and a means to communicate with her fans.

Interview conducted by INQUIRER.net online videographer Janie Christine Octia. Video taken by INQUIRER.net reporter Relly Carpio.

Want more videos of Lea courtesy of INQUIRER.net VDO?

Check out this video of Lea talking about her role in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella,” which will have its world premiere in Manila this July. And this 30-second clip of Lea singing “There’s Music in You,” one of the songs in “Cinderella.”

CHECK out Filipino Nursing Herald, a blog that seeks to empower the “Global Filipino Nurse.”

Former tech journalist Geoffrey Ramos set up this blog.  As he shares in his profile:

Hundreds of Filipino nurses have gone on to build successful careers in many parts of the world. Many more are hoping to follow in their footsteps. I’m one of those people who’ve changed careers and is now trying to work out a successful career in nursing where demand is high in most parts of the world. Becoming a nurse is not the end goal of my aspirations. I’ve learned to love the work and I try to give it my best everytime. But becoming a nurse is just a stepping stone, a path I have chosen that I hope would allow me to do the things I really truly love: travel, writing and building a family.

HERE’S an interesting blog called Chuva of the Chenes maintained by the “nawawalang anak ni Gretchen Barreto at Jestoni Alarcon.”

In her most recent blog entry, the author waxes nostalgic over Cubao billboards.

Excerpt:

When I was a kid, we frequented Cubao a lot, usually on Sundays to shop or window-shop at Rustan’s, SM, Ali Mall, and Marikina Shoe Expo (now Cubao X). Whenever we needed to buy something or we needed to visit our pedia (Medispecialist Center 2nd floor Rustan’s), we went to Cubao. When my erpat’s with us, we would go to Perfect Pitch and all those music shops in the area. A trip to Cubao is usually punctuated with flavored popcorn from Goldilocks at Rustan’s (love apple popcorn!). Cubao is very much intertwined with my childhood; it’s a place of nostalgia and of good memories.

One particular Cubao fixture that is close to my aorta and vena cava is the gigantic movie billboard area found along the intersection of Aurora Blvd and EDSA. Unlike today’s printed billboards, these were made by hand, painted by artists.

CHECK out Toni’s blog Wifely Steps, where she details the never-ending adventures of married life.

Here’s an excerpt from her latest post:

Cute game alert! I’ve been enjoying this game called RayRay Parade because of the cute little characters. It’s a game of logic. The little RayRays run towards the center of the screen in various formations and flash their cute tummies when you solve the puzzle.

Wifely Steps won as Best Home and Living Blog in the 2007 Philippine Blog Awards, where I got to meet her. Hope to talk to you again soon, Toni

ARE you an otaku? Can’t get enough of manga and anime? Then check out this nifty blog called The Otaku Shrine.

Here’s an excerpt from the latest blog entry:

There was a time when I totally gave up on Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. While the fillers were a huge turn-off, BeeTrain’s animated rendition of TRC was a far cry from the CLAMP’s mouthwaterinly artistic manga. And I have to admit the theme song played whenever Syaoran battles someone to get Sakura’s feather gets old after a while. And the flashbacks to meeting Yuuko are not at all invigorating. So I stopped following Syaoran and Sakura’s story for months.

Two days ago, while in hot pursuit of Beck’s manga scanlations, I stumbled upon the latest chapters of TRC. I opted to read the chapter 145 which was the last update. Holy good lord my heavens! The very first page hooked me with an all out battle between Syaoran and Hikaru (Angelic Layer). Warning! Spoilers full speed ahead! Do not read if you don’t like S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S! CLAMP is a freakin’ genius for all the amazing plot twists and cliffhangers they throw at us slavering fans! This is the front cover of one of the latter chapters– good lord– two Syaorans!?! Spoilers Ahoy!!!