Its Christmas at SM CDO

November 12, 2011. Christmas is in the air at SM Cagayan de Oro. They officially kick off the celebration with the Christmas Centerpiece Light Up Ceremony with bossa nova princess Sitti as the guest. The event started with a Christmas musical followed with a Christmas carol from the Lourdes College Choir and then a Christmas message from SM.

They have also officially introduce Maria Aragon, the international YouTube sensation, as the SM Supermalls Voice of SM Christmas.


The lightning ceremony was serenaded with ChriSMs Jingle sung by a choral group.



After the light up of the SM centerpiece bossa nova princess Sitti serenade everyone with her hit sigles from her album.


Special thanks to SM City CDO for inviting CDO Bloggers to witness this grand light up ceremony. And also for the delicious cocktails serve with us.




Cadayunan Primary School Outreach and Feeding Program

Christmas is coming soon as well as the new year. Month of December is really a month of merriment and thanksgiving. This is also the best time to give back from all the blessings you receive the whole year round.

In connection to this CDObloggers organization will be having a Christmas Outreach and Feeding Program at Cadayunan Primary School on December 2, 2011.


Its a new primary school in Sitio Mamboloso, Besigan.

Besigan is 52 kilometers away from the city proper and most of the people in the area are farmers with no regular transportation except dump trucks from the city government to help the people transport their farm products, the resolution cited. --cagayandeoro.gov.ph
CDObloggers objective is to donate books and other supplementary learning materilas and conduct a feeding activity to the school. The beneficiary is estimated 60 and more students. CDOBloggers members monetary contribution will be Php 300.00 which is P250 for books and other materials, Php 50 for the feeding activity.
If you want to be part of this charity event you can donate any amount. If you're away from Cagayan de Oro you can send donations through Paypal --francis.siason@gmail.com. Or you could also optionally donate in kind school materials like books, notebooks, writing and coloring materials, etc. As well as food and drinks for the feeding program. Deadline of contributions is on November 30, 2011.


Checkout CDObloggers blog on this event:

Meet Emotera Goddess!


Meet the blogger me Emoteragoddess and the simply me Venussmileygal :D It's time that I should make use of both nick and separate 2 different sides of me.
Is it a goodbye for Venussmileygal? Nah she will still be here to stay and make you smile online!

Do drop by at my other blogs...
Emotera's Food Trip
Emotera Clicks

Reality check: Working Individual vs Inday!


This is circulating online specifically in Facebook. Looking at the comparison table above it made wanna jump unto getting Inday's job. :D Added to fact that house help or Yaya jobs is the most in demand position nowadays even I myself is hiring for someone to help me look after my kiddo. Hiring "Inday's" position is getting harder each day because of so many reasons like; How much is the salary going to be? Is your house complete with appliance (which would make work easier)? Age of kids they would take care. And many other questions that would give Inday an idea what her  life would be working in your house. And if your not lucky some "Inday's" are pain in the neck specially the younger one's because they tend to have lots of issues; elope with boyfriend, poor hygiene, lazy that boss needs to follow every move/work and worst would be a thief. However, don't lose hope because there are still good people who serve their boss with tender-loving-care. This is one of the reasons Filipinos are in-demand domestic helpers in foreign countries. :)
On the other hand, I still prefer to have the job I have now. Working on something which you are passionate about is more fulfilling and fun. Though we cannot avoid struggles, stress and tough responsibilities, but this things makes life challenging and gives color to our life. It's all about passion and perseverance.

Chef Hasset's Baking Workshop Series


Last February 19, 2012 I along with fellow CDObloggers attended the  Culinary Institute in Cagayan de Oro Open House. This is actually my second time to visit CIC because I have also been invited to the All You Want Bars!  Pastry Workshop of Chef Hasset go.

This time around its another pastry workshop which is the favorite cakes cooking demo still with Chef Hasset Go. It started early in the morning and I was even late for the orientation. After that we were toured around there school rooms and facilities. In one of the rooms there was an on going class on international cuisine. Ahhh! I cant wait for April to come so I can start with my International Cuisine 5-Day Workshop. ;)

Finally, the workshop started. We were given the menu of each 4 cakes to be baked; Caramel Custard Cake, Concorde, Purple-Jackfruit Cake and Chocolate Truffle Cake. Since the baking is long we were able to witness the baking demo for Caramel Custard Cake and Chocolate Truffle Cake because the other half resume on the afternoon.

 



Its really fun and interesting learning on how to bake cakes. I myself would love to learn more of it because I want to bake and decorate it according to my taste. However, I opted for the international cuisine workshop this summer because I wanna learn cooking delicious cuisines from different parts of the world first.

That 2 workshops I have attended in CIC, hype up my interest and inspired me to really pursue cooking and baking class. Watching and listening to Chef Hasset Go made it more inspiring because he started young on the pastry industry which dubbed him the youngest pastry chef in the country.  Other than that, because of he knows how to cook different delicious food and he bakes pastries and sweets he found a career and eventually build his own business. And of course not to mention his good-looking features (you guys know what I mean. :D) which every girls weakness is already inspiring because you will be seeing Chef Hasset at CIC as one of the instructors.





Me on Social Media Promotions

I know I've been off the hook in this blog for a month already but anyhow ill post updates soon. For now I just want to invite all who are interested to learn about blogging, web marketing and working from home.
I will be one of the speakers of CDOBloggers 3rd Blogging Workshop. I will be sharing my knowledge on social media promotions. Unlike my previous talks this one I think is more on the serious business talk. I'll share a bit of an overview on my topic...

Social media has different web based technology tools which allow folks to connect quickly online to share reviews and information. Regardless what type of media you will be sharing online, with the click of a button you could already reach local or global audiences. As a matter of fact Youtube is the second largest search engine in the word and in the US, there are 149M active Facebook users, 70% log in once a day. So imagine the impact in using this on web marketing and promotion along with other popular and interactive social media platforms.

To know more on maximizing your social media promotion CDO Bloggers group will be having a 3rd Blogging Workshop on October 22 · 1:00PM - 5:00PM at Loreto's Grill and Restaurant.

Buy tickets now because seats will be limited. Ticket is inclusive with not only the web marketing tips but also with 1 snack and certificate.

And earlier today, I just received a packaged from Miss Aileen Apolo-De Jesus with Google freebies. This freebies will be swags at the workshop. You might be the next one wearing this hot items from Google so buy you're tickets now!


For more details visit: CDOBloggers 3rd Blogging Workshop

Solar Energy for Mindanao

I just attended Cepalco's Solar Power Awareness last Saturday at the Dynasty Court Hotel. The aim of that meeting was to educate us on the current Mindanao capacity shortage problem, how to address the shortage problem and importance as well as benefits of solar energy in Mindanao.

Engineer Celio Sumaoy did pretty will in explaining to us the Solar Photovoltaic 101 without making us nosebleeding on the technical terms. We really did understand solar photovoltaic technology after.
So here is my summary on the conference.
Power demand in Mindanao is continuously increasing that even the power reserves can no longer sustain the demand. Thus when one of the National Power Corporation’s (NPC) stop functioning National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) will demand Cepalco for curtailment, meaning some customers will experience block outs anytime. And despite of the heavy rains nowadays, this demand is still in red alert and needs a complement. This is the main reason why Cepalco sort out to renewable energy technology to help address the demand. As of the moment there are renewable energy technologies already tested and utilized in every parts of the country as seen in the image below.
Hydro plants is currently the main source of power here in Mindanao. Iligan and Cagayan de Oro has the biggest plants so far. The biggest power load is in Davao and second is General Santos. Cagayan de Oro's load is actually half of Davao only.
Cepalco have already established a solar plant in Indahag, Cagayan de Oro in 2004 which was ranked 54 in the worlds most largest solar plant. (Personally, this knowledge was new to me.) A lot of students from all over the country has visited the solar plant already. And this Saturday bloggers will also have its 2nd tour there.
Solar Power Plant in CDO Photo by Rob Bana

Why solar energy for Mindanao is important?
  • Solar energy is the most simple technology on renewable energy since it only utilizes the sun to gain electricity. It can come from the suns heat or the suns light. Every 1 megawatt of solar energy can already provide power to 1.5 hectares land.
  • It is abundant anywhere in the country.
  • Compared to fossil fuels are finite and dwindling.
  • Solar can supply the worlds total energy requirement for the next hundred of years.
  • It is not a fancy technology.
    The accumulated installed capacity from year 2000 - 2010 is doubled every year, 2010 - 39.6 gigawatts.
  • The installed cost is declining.
    However, we must not wait because there is no local supply for the materials and we need to impot. It is also good to start solar energy as early as now to cover financing and gain required experience to lower system cost.
  • Consumers pay the Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All)
    The advantage of solar energy Mindanao is that the overall cost is divided throughout the overall Philippines electric consumers, meaning not only the Mindanaoan consumers will paid in the tarriff but also Visayas and Luzon. This is fair enough since I just learn that under the Renewable Energy Law. For more info read it here; Mindanao Solar Capacity Development.
  • Feed-in Tariff Allowance (FIT-All) trend is going down over the years.
  • Solar panels may last for more than 30 years.
  • Solar energy technology is less maintenance and low operating cost.