LimeTweetup2

More Saturday surprises, this time from Chef Arch's Lime 88 restaurant.


Last Saturday was the third time for me to visit Lime. Previously, I went to see an old LSGH grade school classmate, Eugene Claravall, who is also a part-owner of the restaurant. Among the other (original) owners are Chef Arch (who is in New Zealand) and his brother Vince (pictured below with his lovely wife, Sandz.


Among the food items we had were the Osso Bucco Kare-Kare with home made Bagoong, Green Mango Salad, and Crispy Dinuguan.





There will be more pictures on JP Manahan's multiply photo page.
Thanks to Vince, Sandz and the rest of Lime's staff for the drinks and awesome food! Till the next foodfest!

Breakfast

I have to say, I enjoy new food experiences.

These don't have to be exotic (Hakarl or the regurgitated rice from a dog that a former office mate was telling me about), nor expensively upscale (USD5,000 burger?), just something that tells me a new story about the maker, the chef or the person I'm sharing the meal with.

I was researching about my ideal weight, and given my age (mid-30s) and height (5'5.5"), I should be only around 135 pounds. My pessimistic weighing scale determines that I have to lose more than 20 pounds, which means I have to augment my exercise and decrease caloric intake. I don't want to go scientific about it yet. I want to try something that I can sustain, so I'm riding a mountain bike to work (with knobbied wheels to make the pedal resistance greater) and cutting down on rice (half-a-cup of rice or none at all) during regular meals.
I've lost an inch around my tummy area because of (starvation?) discipline. I feel a lot lighter when I engage in sports, though I have to take care of the knees.

This morning's meal was pan de sal with Santol spread.
In a past life, it would have been half-a-can of SPAM and garlic fried rice with a little turmeric. And coffee. Not anymore.


Compared to normal jams/jellies, this didn't remind me of childhood & Santol fruits from the backyard (both of the homes where I stay have Santol trees visible from the topographic Google maps). The taste was very mild citrus, clouded by the sugary mixture. It might a while to get used to, especially since I'm a fan of guava jelly (nothing comes close).

What's your favorite jam? Spread the word!

Future Tweetups in Philippines = To Help Business

I just wanted to share this article I came across today. I hope we can do this in Manila and build business AND business networks.

'TweetUP' is about new forms of communication
by MATT QUILLEN

SYLACAUGA – Business owners held their first “TweetUP” Tuesday, to discuss the various uses of Twitter and other social media.

The “meet ups” of people who “Tweet,” the common phrase for sending someone a message via Twitter, have become a regular occurrence nationwide.

Nick Lovelady, co-owner of Cupboards, organized the meeting with Wanda Craft of Just Vintage. Tabby Evans, owner of Gabby’s Coffee House, hosted the get-together.

Lovelady passed out flyers with “25 ideal ways to use social media.”

“There are probably 2,500 more reasons why you should do it,” he said. “I think that, especially in the business world, if you are not headed in that direction you are going to be left behind.”

Josh Andrews, owner of The Outsourced Associate law services, and Harris Bond, pastor at Knollwood Presbyterian Church, both attended the meeting. Andrews and Bond said they had found a variety of uses for Facebook and Twitter.

“Before I moved here, (Twitter and LinkedIn) is what got my business launched in Birmingham,” Andrews said. “I got on social media, and the effect it had on my business after just six months was exponential.”

Bond said he enjoyed passing along information to his friends through Facebook and Twitter, such as a good recommendation for a restaurant. But he also said it was a great way to relay information to his congregation.

“I can tell them what is happening on Sunday, I do a lot of that,” he said.

Chamber of Commerce director Carol Emlich-Bates also attended. She said social media could help keep the community better informed of what was going on and widen the chamber’s audience.

“We have people calling us and wanting to know why we aren’t (on Twitter),” Bates said. “We have a great website, and I can tie Twitter and Facebook to the website also. It’s the ‘old dog, new trick’ syndrome. We have to get out of old habits and try new forms of communicating too.”

The organizers said they planned on making the “TweetUP” a regular meeting. People with questions can contact participating businesses through Twitter at www.twitter.com/cupboards, www.twitter.com/JustVintage and www.twitter.com/GabbysCoffee2.

Article published at: The Daily Home website.

#TweetUp@thePark December 18, 2009

This tweetup was organized by the Ms. Leah Besa's group at Prox, whose office is in the Insular Life Building in Ayala. I used to work there early 2000s as an Assistant Manager for Business Development under Ms. Leah Castaneda (Chill Pare author, and sister of my good friend Paolo). Celine Esguerra, a long-time family friend, posted an article on Posterous.

The photos from the slideshow are all from Vimella's Facebook album. Enjoy & relive good times + yummy snacks at the park.

Easter Tweetup 2010 Flyer Design

Easter tweetup blog entry via eMz here. Awaiting twitter list of attendees.

World FourSquare Day Manila 2010

#T13Tweetup at Le Bistro Vert

Sustainable network?

We've seen the rise and fall of Friendster, and now Facebook has come, conquered. Which social platform can maximize the six degrees of the human web? Maybe a combination of all these, integrated with LinkedIn, Flickr, and future unnamed apps will be what brings us together in efficiency and productivity. I personally think it's time to start bringing people together and intertwine each one's social circles. Tweetups are a great start, being innocent-mababaw, fun, easy-to-plan, and there's immediate common ground (RP Twitter users).

Ria Juan planned and produced the #T13Tweetup, which was held at Le Bistro Vert in Salcedo Village, Makati last May 13, 2010. It was originally dubbed Thursday the 13th tweetup, then a name suggestion conversation started on Twitter. I live a couple of buildings away from Le Bistro Vert, but had to drive from the clinic in Laguna. The traffic along SLEX wasn't too bad. There were raincloud reminders again but it didn't rain.

I arrived third, with Kevin and Janette already enjoying the plush seats, Fraser Place Wifi & hot coffee. A few minutes & a lasagna bowl later, I see Ria distributing gum labels and colored markers for our DIY name tags. We then request for the bar menu & FORMALLY start happy hour. Kevin, Janette and I were in a table with Carl, Poch, Rian (pronounced Ryan), and Tonyo. When Sherwin arrived, the program/Quiz portion started. A photo op with Yves was the highlight of the evening. Photos of T13tweetup are available from JP's Multiply site. Ria has a list of all twitterers who went to #t13tweetup.

BHSTweetup at Texas Roadhouse Grill 10 June 2010

I never expected to see so many prizes.

I came from a drippy drive from Southwoods, via SLEX. Traffic was light (rainclouds made it dark) to moderate and the only congestion I faced was at the northbound C-5 ramp to Market! Market!, Taguig City. (I wonder if they took down Cy's/Silverfilter's billboard with Ivan Man Dy.)
I park behind Pancake House and walk across a conveniently-covered walkway to Texas Roadhouse grill. The first person I recognized was Janette, whose eyes, smile & expression are always a warm, welcome sight. I also noticed her Mojito, two-thirds full. Post-work alcohol at a familiar watering hole leads to an interesting exchange of stories and ideas. She was in an informal session with one of her bloggers, so I ordered a regular burger with extra pickles & mustard, and a liter of draft.
The sight/size of the burger almost instantly devoured my appetite. The translucent, tall beer glasses have been around since the days of Silhouette Tower in Greenhills (Macho Mugs) and Third World Cafe in Malate. After Janette says goodbye to her colleague, we check our Foursquare & Twitter clients.
Apparently, Grace, Sherwin, and Jeff were in the function room, preparing the name tags, quiz materials, and the ABS-CBN interview. Two crew-members from the station were there to supervise the recording, albeit without a reporter. A few more people came in, like Bob and John. We were positioned in an eight-seater table in front of the door - an opportune place to see everyone walking in (you should try it sometime).

AT 7:30PM, there were approximately twenty attendees and Grace was being teased to dole out prizes. Foursquare users were secretly pining for a possible Swarm badge. Curiously, ACSlater states this about Swarms: And yes, if you are number 49, you get the badge when number 50 checks in. Then Yves (aka @PCOSMachine) posted this yesterday: LOL. 1st time I use foursquare here in the US swarm badge agad.ü http://yfrog.com/mgnbfj. I'm beggin the Q: does the badge go to all or just number 49?

As the BHSTweetup crowd grew, Grace started her intro and flaunted the swag (including gift certificates from Lime 88, Carnipure, a pair of Anthology shoes, a ten-dollar iTunes card, Mozilla Firefox buttons, Karrots Cases for iPod, reams of Marlboro Lights in flip-top boxes, Royce chocolates, Nokia portable speakers, Yahoo pens, Microsoft Office 2010 bags, among others). A quiz initiated the Games portion. The tweeps were grouped into five teams (depending on which table one was seated), given writing implements and five minutes to complete a writing task. Each team had to choose a letter (we choose H, pronounced "etch"). The teams would have to enumerate all possible (English & Filipino) descriptive words that started with their chosen letter.

If the decibel level was an indication of the fun that people were having, then I have to mention that I couldn't hear the host who was standing 3 feet away. Rod had to tweet the winning team for us to find out the results. Norbs mentioned that security was considering crowd control. There was a Quiz portion that followed, and a Bring Me game that lasted until 10:00+ because of all the prizes. Another highlight of the evening was the arrival (and subsequent photo ops) of Cecile, the brains & beauty behind Chuvaness. I also learned from Bob about the denotation/connotation of "Chuva." Chubby Rain = Chuva Rain? More than fifty people braved the drizzle & Makati traffic. The tweetup lasted until midnight, with the remainder catching up, paying up, and downing their drinks. If this tweetup was a burger, it surely had everything on it.

I'm looking forward to the other pics & blog entries. Please share if you have any, and hope to see you at the next networking event.