There’s something I have to admit… I’m also one of many people who disliked reading. Yet there’s a fine difference between people who just dislike it and those who criticize (re: bully) those who are very much into it. I thought reading is just not my thing, but I was totally wrong. I’m not saying that I don’t read at all, I used to be a tad less than the occasional reader though, having very infrequent reading habits; that has changed since the last couple of weeks when I realized how fun reading can be.

But back to the important point.

It pains me when I hear fellow teenagers of my age and a bit younger, stereotyping those who love to read. At first I thought I was the only one who noticed it and believed it to be an issue too small to be discussed, but when I jumped on a video created by one of my fellow Facebook users I realized how serious the matter has become.

Read before you judge.

Sounds odd, but it’s true. Those who judge readers tend to be those who haven’t tried it out yet. I can’t blame them for not reading, but it’s a total different issue when they start stereotyping and labeling those who do. Well, reading may not be for everyone, that’s a given, but I find it very cruel when those who judge others are those who ain’t had a firsthand experience with reading.

Let’s all campaign against stereotyping readers. Let’s all agree to read more this year and prove ‘em wrong; prove to them that reading isn’t just for the wealthy and the geeks, heck, nor is reading just for the females.

I personally think that females who love to read are more interesting and attractive. I figured that “those who read seemed to be more educated and better equipped in the academic field” was true in most females I had encountered. I wonder how well the country would do if more and more people would start to read, read and read.

A lot has changed since the post Filipinos Are Not Book Lovers has been written. It dates back decades ago, but it assumes to painstakingly truthful than ever. Why? Because we have reached the point at which readers are getting criticized for enjoying reading may that be the printed or digitalized word.

Sure, lot of the commenters on the post we published here proved that Philippines is far from an anti-Reading community… Yet there are still a lot of people out there who will tell you otherwise in both words and actions… and that, that needs to stop.

Be The Change. Read. And let those bullies go to hell.

“Stop Stereotyping Readers”, start reading instead! is a post from: Pinoy Teens

MOTION PICTURES
Motion Picture, Drama:

The Descendants

Motion Picture, Comedy or Musical:
The Artist

Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama:
George Clooney, The Descendants

Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama:
Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy:
Jean DuJardin, The Artist

Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy:
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture:
Octavia Spencer, The Help

Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture:
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Director:
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Screenplay, Motion Picture:
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Foreign Language Film:
A Separation, Iran

Animated Feature Film:
The Adventures of Tintin

Original Score, Motion Picture:
The Artist, Ludovic Bource

Original Song, Motion Picture:
“Masterpiece,” Madonna, Julie Frost, Jimmy Harry; W.E.

TELEVISION
TV Series, Drama:
Homeland

TV Series, Comedy:
Modern Family

TV Movie or Miniseries:
Downton Abbey

Actor in a TV Series, Drama:
Kelsey Grammer, Boss

Actress in a TV Series, Drama:
Claire Danes, Homeland

Actor, TV Series Comedy:
Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Actress in a TV Series, Comedy:
Laura Dern, Enlightened

Actor in a Miniseries or TV Movie:
Idris Elba, Luther

Actress in a Miniseries or TV Movie:
Kate Winslet, Mildred Pierce

Supporting Actress in a Series, Miniseries, or TV Movie:
Jessica Lange, American Horror Story

Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or TV Movie:
Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones

CECILE B. DEMILLE AWARD:
Morgan Freeman

Golden Globe Awards 2012 Winners is a post from: Pinoy Teens

Present at the scene will be Philippines premier Youth Bloggers Community, the Pinoy Teens New Media.

The Conference seems to be one of the most promising I.T related events in the region. Member schools of PSITS Region 9 include the following:

• Zamboanga del Sur Maritime Institute of Technology
• Southern Mindanao Colleges – Pagadian City
• Happy Hearts Colleges, Inc
• Eastern Mindanao College of Technology – Pagadian City
• Pagadian Capitol Colleges
• and a few more.

It’s a good guess to make that most attendees will coming from member schools of the regions’ Philippine Society of Information Technology Students (PSITS)

Pinoy Teens New Media to tackle: Blogging (etiquette), WordPress and Search Engine Optimization

One special role that the Pinoy Teens New Media plays during the 2nd PSITS Conference will be in the form of Kevin Paquet (which happens to be me) taking on the topics enlisted above.

I’m very excited about this because it’s going to be my very firs time outside of Davao City and Region 9 will be the first of many checkpoints of the Pinoy Teens New Media this year at which we want to encourage our audience to start blogging and be more responsible online whatever they might be doing.

Innovating with WordPress and Blogging

We at Pinoy Teens believe that WordPress is going to play a huge role in helping bloggers innovate. It’s just such a reliable, flexible and scalable platform that both bloggers and developers alike prefer most. No wonder it’s considered as the #1 Open Source CMS for some time now.

Everyone should start a blog where they can post their opinions and experiences where other people can take a lesson from or be informed.

PSITS Conference Round 3

Not to undermine the maiden conference that PSITS XI has hosted nor the second… but there’s no doubt that the third run of the PSITS Conference will be even better and brighter. So… Just in case you’re around on the 13th and 14th of January, come and join us as we aim to turn visions to actions… through innovation!

3rd PSITS Conference 2012 – Region IX is a post from: Pinoy Teens

This is the first post published on Pinoy Teens for year 2012. 2012, which to our beliefs is going to be the best year yet for our humble community of 5 or so writers.

We have silently rolled out our new name, our new branding today, which is Pinoy Teens New Media. We shall carry with us the tag line “The New Media Frontier of the Filipino Youth” as we aim to broaden our reach to the far extend of the world wide web and the offline (real life) arena. Pinoy Teens has been just a blog for far too long, it’s time that we do more for our country and for the society we live in; that’s gonna happen with the Pinoy Teens New Media.

I don’t really fancy writing when I’m very sleepy, but I just had to get the word out.

2011 has been a great year for me. Maybe not blog-wise but from the from a personal point of view. I’m so happy that I have made a lot of new connections last year and that I’ve become closer with people that I’ve met in 2010 and 2009. I can only hope that our friendships will last long

The year ahead of me actually scares me a bit, but like my friend has said, I should avoid being too pessimistic about how things would go.

2012 – PINOY TEENS NEW MEDIA YEAR

Like I said above, we’ll try to be more than just a blog this year. We’re going to engage more with the communities around us and of course, write more content that we’ve done in 2011. We have written more articles in the period between April – June 2010 than in whole of 2011…. which clearly shows how low the activity has fallen.

I’m inviting all High School and College Students who love to create content, write, video blog or photoblog to join us at Pinoy Teens New Media. We’re in need of talented but most importantly dedicated people to join us. Let us be one in creating content while informing, entertaining and educating our readers!

All that you have to do is comment on this post that you’re interested to join us!

I seriously don’t know what else I should add to this post… but I really want to blog before I’m going to bed… so here I go again, greeting all of you a happy new year and thanking each and everyone who has become part of my 2011 and the part of Pinoy Teens’ 2011 as well. No, I won’t mention names… I don’t want to disappoint someone whom I might left out. I know that you know who you are!

God bless us, all!

2012 – The year of PTNM is a post from: Pinoy Teens

A bit of a surprise that the day has started early for me today… I’d usually just stay asleep ‘til around past nine, yet it’s just 7:20 in the morning and I’ve already taken my breakfast. Here we go with my unique write up of a day at Pinoy Teens HQ!

Breakfast time at Pinoy Teens HQ

I have to admit that I forgot about this post and just recalled it after we had breakfast. Don’t wonder why the table is empty! Haha!

Princess and my dad are the two people pictured above. Aside from those two, there’s of course my mother who joins us at breakfast. All in all, there are four of us. It should’ve been five, but our maid went home for her Christmas/New Year vacation.

Breakfast at PT HQ starts usually a bit early, sometimes too early for my taste. I so badly wanted to stay asleep, but here I am, writing this post now! Zzzzz!

Like I said, it’s still a bit early for me right now, but anyways…

8AM – 10AM: The day Starts at Pinoy Teens

It’s around 8-10 when I can convince myself out of bed. I’d end up lying there for another hour or so, after which I’m going to take a bath and then head to my Mac not to blog, but to Plurk!

Just my usual morning routine on Plurk, searching for “morning” and responding to as many Plurkers as possible with “Good Morning (wave)”

It can be a bit tedious, but it can also be a lot of fun because I usually make at least 1 new friend each day through it. It’s a really cool way to get connected with fellow people across the web. Imaging how spammy I would look if I’d tweet each and everyone out there that I could find with “Good Morning.” XD

Some Good Time, Before Crunch Time

After my 30 minutes to 1 hour escapade on Plurk, I usually end up texting for a while. Nokia 1280 for my Smart friends, and my precious christmas gift to myself, the Galaxy Y for my friends from the Globe side of things. It’s around past eleven now, and still no “blogging” in sight!

So, when does blogging come into play?

The art of blogging has become more of a tedious task, to be honest. I’ve really lost touch with blogging, just like I noted in multiple occasions by now.

It hasn’t totally gone out of my workflow though. It’s still a solid part of my day to day activities, or should I say weekly, rather, since I’m writing about 2-3 posts per week only. Back then, I used to get around 15 per week out, some of them of decent quality, others just plain generic content. The difference now? Even though I’m writing less and less, the quality hasn’t improved much either. Boo!

(Sometimes) Blogging On

Lunch happens at around 12:15PM here at Pinoy Teens. After which I usually manage to write a lot of drafts… literally hundreds of them have never seen the light of day [made it to the blog] because I feel like their quality is subpar and that the content of them is very uninteresting. Writing is not the problem here, I write a lot, but it’s what I’m writing about that truly nags me!

This is pretty much my workspace. Oh yeah. The only beautiful thing on the desk is my Macbook Pro which I bought in Christmas 2009. Next to it is my old NEO Vivid 2121. Even though that notebook totally sucks, it’s a bit ironic that I’ve earned more money with the ‘ol Neo than with my Macbook Pro.

Lot of temptations are in the air with this one. Whenever I feel being productive I usually end up playing Real Racing 2 or GTA San Andreas, or just watching a movie.

It was a lot worse before, because I used to play FIFA12 and The Sims 3 on it… yet for some odd reasons, it’s just not working anymore. Doh!

Some Technical Goodies

It only seems just to show you my Work Desktop as well.

That’s pretty much everything I need to publish content right now.

• Chrome/Safari
• Mars Edit
• Omnifocus
• and the occasional upbeat music from my iTunes library.

My dock usually sports the following apps:

• Finder
• Mail
• Omnifocus (GTD)
• Omnioutliner Pro
• iTunes
• Safari
• Chrome
• Firefox
• ByWord/IA Writer/Ommwriter (depending on my mood)
• Mars Edit (quick access to post drafts across all blogs)
• VMWare Fusion (for my Programming class)
• Activity Monitor (to check on my RAM usage)
• Coolbook Controller (avoid my Mac to overheat, my fans are broke)
• Transmission (ehem)
• Evernote (to sync notes I make on my Galaxy Y)
• Aperture
• GTA: San Andreas
• Real Racing 2

How I start with a blog post.

Blog posts of mines usually start being an idea that I have on the road or when I’m doing nothing. If I’m not too lazy, those ideas usually turn into decent articles. That’s if I’m able to capture that idea and put them on paper or on Evernote to sync to my Mac for later use. Whenever I have spare time (and I feel to blog) I browse through all those ideas and pick the one that I’m most interested in and which I believe has the most likelihood to be read and commented on.

I’m not really following suit my workflow anymore, but I’ll get there again this 2012!

Another way for me to get started with an article are ideas from the various blogs I am subscribed to in Google Reader, or just something like many bloggers do, going with the trend and writing about what’s going on in society at the moment. I could’ve written about the death of a certain actor right now, but decided to pass on it for now.

There are a lot of other things that I’m doing as well, things that are actually of use. Hehe. I’m hosting several sites aside from my own couple of domains that I have. The most prominent of them is Olan’s The Travel Teller which is hosted on the same server as Pinoy Teens, Student Blogger and my newly acquired BloggersHQ.org. You know, just the typical stuff of updating themes, plugins and WordPress, as well as optimizing the databases across all sites.

How about you? How do you start your day on your blog and what do you do on daily basis with it?

A Moment behind the scene of PT HQ! is a post from: Pinoy Teens

Well pretty much in real life, but I think playing Angry Birds in life sized version suits a bit better – since it’s all still pretty much digitalized.

Nonetheless, why not enjoy your Christmas vacation by playing the Angry Birds Christmas Lights Game?

Using over 20,000 lights, the game is powered by two computers and ten Light-O-Rama 16-channel controllers. Apparently the ‘joystick’ has a long enough cord to let motorists play without leaving their cars, and they can even tune in to 99.1 FM to hear the game’s audio. – Y

Now tell me, isn’t that a neat idea to have some fun this Christmas? Unless you’re a bit sensitive about the overwhelming merchandise and hype about Angry Birds, I’m sure you’ll have fun playing it, too.

Angry Birds Christmas Lights Game is a post from: Pinoy Teens

The Pinoy Siri: Vangie

If you’re looking for an alternative to SIRI in the Philippines, look no further ’cause we’ve got it here and it’s Vangie (also known as Ate Vangie on Twitter)

The exclusive Pinoy-tailored features of the Pinoy Siri include the following:

• She understands you – Speak to her in Pinoy English, maybe even Carabao English and of course Tagalog. Pwde pud siguro mag-bisaya sa iyaha!
• The most personal virtual assistant yet – The more you’ll use her, the more personal she gets. Mabibisto ka niyan kung dami kang girlfriend!
• Answers like a real human – If you’re worried that you’ll head into a boring digital VA – Human Being talk, you’re wrong. She’s gonna answer back like you wouldn’t expect it, and sometimes in a way you wouldn’t want her to.

Ask her without an iPhone 4S

You can still keep up with the Pinoy Siri: Ate Vangie even if you don’t have an iPhone 4S yet. You can always tweet your questions to her!

Well of course, it’s all parody at the moment, until we’ll see it live in the Appstore!

Funny thought though!

Introducing the Pinoy Siri: Ate Vangie is a post from: Pinoy Teens

And your mobile phone might just change as well!

The #1 in Postpaid, Globe has launched the Blackberry Christmas Promo, offering 4 of the most craved after Blackberry smartphones for users to enjoy. These include the Bold 9780 for the top of the line plan, and the Curve 8520 for the most affordable Blackberry plan that you can avail.

Bring the internet with you starting at 599

Keep all your Facebook friends, Plurk buddies and Twitter tweeps close to you all day, anytime any where! Avail of the most affordable Blackberry Christmas Promo plan of Globe yet:

BlackBerry Curve 8520
FREE at UnliSurf Combo Plan 599 with unlimited mobile surfing

Don’t just surf, but call and text as well.

No doubt, the internet won’t be enough for most of you. Texting and calling is still an integral part of every Filipino teen. While Social Media is a good way to connect with the world, texting and calling is still the way to go for personal conversations.

That’s why you can avail of the 999 plan that Globe has to offer:

BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300
FREE at UnliSurf Combo Plan 999 with:
• unlimited mobile surfing
• P400 consumable amount
• 1 freebie from A to C, E

Bongga! Upgraded pa ang smartphone mo, ‘diba?

As you can see, the higher you go with the plan, the more extraordinary your Blackberry smartphone becomes. It’s not just that, but the more consumable load is being made available for you.

It’s a win-win situation however you look at it.

The third plan priced at 1799 features the following:

BlackBerry Curve 9360
FREE at UnliSurf Combo Plan 1799 with:
• unlimited mobile surfing
• P1,200 consumable amount
• 3 freebies from A to C, E

While the last Blackberry package will give you:

BlackBerry Bold 9780
FREE at UnliSurf Combo Plan 2499 with:
• unlimited mobile surfing
• P1,900 consumable amount
• 5 freebies from A to C, E

—

The higher you go with your plan, the more freebies you can avail of and the better your handset will be. Tska may freebies pa ‘yan!

Oh? Saan ka pa pupunta? ‘dito ka na sa #1 in Postpaid in the Philippines, Globe! Apply for a Blackberry smartphone today.

Globe’s Special Blackberry Christmas Promo is a post from: Pinoy Teens

Like noted in an earlier post, the topics to be discussed were divided into two different sessions. The morning session tackled WordPress, SEO and Blogging which was hosted by yours truly, Georg Kevin A. Paquet.

The afternoon discussion was hosted by Jaymar Sumosot who discussed HTML5 and CSS3.

Just as promised, I have a link pointing to my Prezi presentation that I gave during my talk below!

Watch my Prezi Presentation.

PSITS XI Seminar Presentation is a post from: Pinoy Teens

Oh how dear can this time of the year be? It’s noted to be the time when people are supposed to become generous and share their blessings with other people… that’s why beggars on the street have become very rampant.

No, I have nothing against them personally. I know a lot of tragic stories ’bout how these people end up on the street… but you know, there’s a particular kind of people that I just hate to see around begging on the street and using Christmas as a lame excuse to get money from others.

Major turn-offs about beggars during Christmas Season:

• The Use of Children when asking money
• Singing… and singing… Until they get the money, or until there’s a clear sign they won’t get any. And if they get a few bucks, they’ll stop singing without finishing the song.
• People who get mad when they’re not given anything for their so-called “effort” in caroling.
• Those who use “Christmas” to get money from others whilst not believing in Christmas

How pitiful people on the street may seem, I see to it that those who receive the few spare bucks that I have are worth it, and not just those who act out being amongst the poorest of poor.

Call me mean, arrogant, naive or whatever… but seriously, not everyone who lives on the street deserves Christmas.

Don’t you agree that it’s annoying?

Photo Credit: Darnok

A “Not So” Merry Christmas Reminder is a post from: Pinoy Teens