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By Izah Morales Sheâs 57 years old and is blogging for two years now. âIâm not embarrassed to say my age because it proves that Iâm still kicking and blogging,â says Marianita Girlie Villariba, educator, feminist and psychologis t at the Education for Life Foundation. Yes, Villariba is not your ordinary golden-aged woman who is afraid of technolo gy and would rather stick with what is conventional. âParang may kulang sa araw ko âpag hindi ako nakapag-blog or nakapagbasa ng mga blogs [When I have not blogged for a day or have read othersâ blogs, I feel th at somethingâs lacking],â says Villariba. Blogging has indeed become part of her daily routine aside from reading newspap ers and magazines. Her conversation with a friend who is into the study of babaylan or priestess l ed her to blogging. âShe asked me about my blogsite. Sabi ko, ano âyun? [She asked me ab out my blogsite. I asked, whatâs that?],â Villariba recalls. Villaraba became interested when she learned that blogs can be a venue of her a rticles about babaylan. âI want to blog about babaylan because I want to find out about other women and culture,â she says. She began writing blogs at blogger.com but then she realized that she doesnât want to be confin ed by just writing about babaylan. Hence, she put up two more blogs at Multiply and Wordpress and writes various topics, such as spirituality, sexuality, culture, women and Filipino psychology . Writing blogs also allowed her to reconnect with friends whom she has not met f or a long time. But not only friends communicate with her but also other blogge rs who can relate with what she writes. âI learned to phrase my ideas that it resonates to other bloggers. It makes you part of a community,â shares Villariba. Though Villariba blogs to express her ideas, she values feedback from her reade rs because she learns whether she got her message across when someone reacts to her blogs. Even if she welcomes comments, whether positive or negative, she could not forg et when someone posted a pornographic video as comment to her blog. As an educator, Villariba was used to writing formal articles. But when she bec ame a blogger, she found a way to humanize her stories and go beyond the confin es of theories. âBy blogging, Iâm still able to organize what I think and feel and make myself clear,â said Villariba. Who says a golden woman canât blog?

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 t heatrics. He can trick your eyes with the speed of his hands, mesmerize you wit h 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 event ually 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 ar e dedicated to his passion. He has also been nicknamed the "Blogger Boggler" as he has attended several eve nts where he performed tricks for various communities of bloggers. He has been a regular fixture in blog meetings and is very popular among the large group of bloggers in Metro Manila. He also does a bit of hosting on the side since he d oes have experience as a DJ for Wave 89.1 and is now training in Campus Radio 9 9.5. Fabie also garnered the Best Philippine Blog prize at the Asian Blog Awards in 2003. Fabie is passionate about magic, illusions and mentalism and went professional a few years ago despite having done some magic tricks since he was eight years old. However, the onset of street magicians, as well as the lucrative business it could generate, also made Fabie interested in pursuing it in a professional level. One of the most interesting trends in magic is mentalism, which Fabie is quite enthusiastic in describing. According to him, mentalism is a mix of mind readin g, psychokinesis and hypnosis, which allows some extremely impossible tricks se em possible. In a demonstration, Fabie would write down on a piece of paper wha t colored chip a volunteer would choose. The paper would be given to the volunt eer, who then proceeds to make the selection. The volunteer would later read th e piece of paper to find out that Fabie had already written down what the volun teer would choose. In another demonstration, Fabie twisted a metal fork by a mere wave of his hand . Fabie likes the idea of street magic because audiences are captivated by tricks done in the open. At times, some of his friends would take videos of him durin g performances and have them posted online, usually in YouTube. However, Fabie also detests magicians who reveal their secrets to a mass market . In particular was the one conducted by Val Valentino, who hid in the guise of a masked magician and revealed on TV many of the techniques used by magicians and illusionists. Fabie said that people like Valentino have broken long-guarde d secrets that are essentially the livelihood of magicians. Nevertheless, Fabie believes magic will always be there. Magicians, especially younger ones, will continue to create new tricks that captivate people. Of cour se, Fabie would still blog about his rants, raves and his magic.

I JUST recently discovered Manila Foodistas thanks to Tiffany Chua's Twitter page, but I really like this food b log put up by a group of friends who are all undergrad students at UP Diliman. Check out their blog -- their latest entry is about Ha nnah'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 virt ual rounds among Mindanao's growing blogging community. She's also become popul ar among Manila's blogging community, even representing herself during the rece ntly held iBlog4 conference at the University of the Philippines Diliman. Jose, known as Ria to her friends and the blogging community, holds the distinc tion of having such a diverse string of blogs covering politics, lifestyle, ent ertainment and even gaming. The young Davaoeña, who works as a staffer for Dav ao 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.ne t, 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 lat e 1990s, she had too much time on her hands. She started writing essays and pos ting 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 t o Andrew de la Serna, a search engine expert working in Davao City. In the early years of 2000 Jose wrote more about politics. She also wrote a pie ce that landed in the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Youngblood section sometime i n 2003. Jose's online posts got the attention of many bloggers in the Mindanao area, and even that of Davao councilor Peter Laviña, who has his own blog and is probably one of the most prolif ic politician-bloggers in the country. Jose and De la Serna, with the help of some Manila-based bloggers, organized a small gathering of bloggers in Davao. Though they expected only 20 people, the event drew about 50 other bloggers in the same area, which she said goes to sho w that there is a healthy community of bloggers in Davao. Later on, the group h eld the first Mindan ao Bloggers Summit last year to help strengthen their community in the sout h. Jose said that she's turning her eyes now towards promoting the cultural aspect s of Mindanao and Davao City. While much has been written about Mindanao, Jose emphasized that much has not been spoken about Mindanao and Davao. In fact, man y of the articles written about Mindanao are negative, pertaining to the insurg ency in the area, as well as the Abu Sayyaf. "What other people think about Mindanao and Davao is that it's a war-torn place . In reality, there are only small places in Mindanao where violence occurs and most of it remains intact. There are so many things other people don't know ab out us that I think that perception should change," Jose said. Editor's note: Video taken by INQUIRER.net community evangelist Alex Villaf ania.

TV host Bianca Gonzalez talks about her blog, The Diary of a Supergirl Wannabe, which she start ed 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 h as 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-seco nd clip of Lea singing "There's Music in You," one of the songs in "Cindere lla."

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 p rofile:

Hundreds of Filipino nurses have gone on to build successful career s 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 t he 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 thing s 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 n i Gretchen Barreto at Jestoni Alarcon." In her most recent blog entry, the author waxes nostalgic o ver 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 Cuba o X). Whenever we needed to buy something or we needed to visit our pedia (Medi specialist Center 2nd floor Rustan's), we went to Cubao. When my erpat's with u s, we would go to Perfect Pitch and all those music shops in the area. A trip t o 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 gig antic movie billboard area found along the intersection of Aurora Blvd and EDSA . Unlike today's printed billboards, these were made by hand, painted by artist s.

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! Iâve been enjoying this game called RayRa y Parade because of the cute little characters. Itâs a game of logic. The little RayRays run towards the center of the screen in various formations a nd flash their cute tummies when you solve the puzzle.

Wifely Steps won as Be st 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 g et enough of manga and anime? Then check out this nifty blog called The Otaku Shrine. Here's an excerpt from the latest blog entry< /a>:

There was a time when I totally gave up on Tsubasa Reservoir Chroni cle. While the fillers were a huge turn-off, BeeTrainâs animated rendition of T RC was a far cry from the CLAMPâs mouthwaterinly artistic manga. And I have to admit the theme song played whenever Syaoran battles someone to get Sakuraâs fe ather gets old after a while. And the flashbacks to meeting Yuuko are not at al l invigorating. So I stopped following Syaoran and Sakuraâs story for months. Two days ago, while in hot pursuit of Beckâs 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 o ut battle between Syaoran and Hikaru (Angelic Layer). Warning! Spoilers full sp eed ahead! Do not read if you donât like S-P-O-I-L-E-R-S! CLAMP is a freakinâ g enius for all the amazing plot twists and cliffhangers they throw at us slaveri ng fans! This is the front cover of one of the latter chaptersâ good lordâ two Syaorans!?! Spoilers Ahoy!!!