I've done this annual blog post 6 times already but I have to say, this one has been the toughest. I feel like all the 2008 memories began in summer; everything between January and June are just a big fat blur. After June, it is just a rush of memories and significant moments. Anyways, here we go...

Read More

I have a ton of things to be thankful for these past few months. Lemme start from the beginning...I'm thankful that:

• a couple years ago, Meliss showed me some random vids of Gabe Bondoc, her YouTube Idol.
• back in July, I did a spontaneous weekend trip to San Diego after our plans for a beach day in Huntington fell through.
• back in August, Meliss showed me her favorite rendition of Getting Stronger performed by Cathy Nguyen and Randolph Permejo.
• Meliss flaked on some guy last minute one Saturday night in September so we could eat at The Boat instead.
• Meliss recognized Cathy and I recognized Gabe eating a few tables down from us that same night.
• I added Cathy on Myspace on couple days later.
• Cathy posted a bulletin on Myspace about broadcasting live on this new thing called BlogTV.com.
• a few days later, Jeremy "Passion" Manongdo was in Gabe's channel and took over when Gabe stopped broadcasting.
• That same night, Jeremy co-hosted Nessa, who is an amazing & beautiful talent. She invited everyone to see her perform at an It's A Grind coffee shop (IAG) in my area.
• I logged onto BlogTV during a slow day at the office and started chatting with bkeeeezy (Bryan Keith).
• Chris P. rolled with me to the USC Mabuhay performances where I bumped into and chilled with Bryan Keith & Cathy. If Chris hadn't rolled with me, I wouldn't have gone.
• I met a bunch of BlogTV people at IAG and In-N-Out the Friday after, including Adoboy, Janice, JecJec, Katzy, Kinh, Nessa, Nicole, Nina, Richard.
• I met even more people at Oktoberfest the next night and I got to introduce Meliss to BK and everyone.

The thing I'm most thankful for is how all the stuff mentioned above is just the beginning. Since Oktoberfest, there's been a bunch more things to be thankful for like:

• Halloween at Adoboy's
• Watching Emily Rose at BK's
• BK's Birthday Surprise at The Getty Museum
• the Expressions of Faith show
• the FAMS show...and how people came in from NorCal, SD, Chicago and even Alaska!
• Barkada Got Talent at Cal Poly
• Jam Sessions at In-N-Out
• Korean BBQ runs
• "Skype Orgies"
• everyone saying "goodnight" and then 30 mins later everyone is back online again. :rofl:

This list keeps going on and on...

And just to think, all this madness just started at the end of September! I've met more people in the past 2-3 months than I met all of last year. Just this morning I was rewatching that video of Jeremy co-hosting Nessa and it trips me out seeing all these names in there that I didn't know back then but I know so well now.

So much has happened since that recording, it feels like that was several month ago! It just goes to show how much can happen in just 30 days, and how even the smallest, most trivial things -- like Meliss flaking out on that one guy that one night -- can have such a profound affect on a person's life later on.

I'm lovin' every bit of it.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Much love to my BTVfam: (in order of when I added them as friends)

• gabebondoc
• lilcdawg
• ron_palustre
• nessarica
• listen2passion
• tl2eesa
• 0summerbreeze0
• randolphpermejo
• ajRAF
• yourstruly_melissa
• raelynnerosales
• johnsy204
• elwoodespiritu
• UrbanGermany
• krismark
• Reii
• bkeeeezy
• Adoboy
• HuskyboyDrew
• JaniceXP
• heyyclifford
• gotkatzy
• hazelb
• cynthiaroseyoung
• FranklinGervacio
• itstoofragile
• Mquerol
• TPM_Music
• dj_keeno
• RTran
• thatsajudy
• adrieee
• Jackielyn
• genethis
• heyitsloris
• iknowrenato
• kl0v3
• ajiiizzzle
• Kinh4theNguyen
• akachrisTOPS
• 9natran
• alerissasasa
• elyag
• lOrangutan
• Infamiz
• fallenxANGEL
• jecjec
• JPElchico
• ChristineL
• Nivette
• Jonjcp
• JayMarquez
• r0ckingreen
• n1kk117
• stanisms
• Marlo_T
• Moinz
• jaypwnsyou
• japstaboi
• whatevalex
• Genix
• LovAL
• MACHUCLORES
• natlielatanuy
• filpgal77
• JanelleDoes
• GummyBearsGalore
• chaaaany
• itsjamilerr
• janne
• Jaqqtmolina
• blinktwice4y
• JstNDuN
• mr_lalepa
• anthorny
• philchao
• stephbaloy
• njthepenguin

:grouphug:

// Originally recorded for Reii's birthday.

// thanks judy

October 23rd officially marked my second year of working. So much has changed in this year, it's ridiculous. We got a new CEO and over the past several months, he's been going department-by-department restructuring the company. I've seen my role changed considerably over the past few month too. Instead of doing bitch work, I'm being put in a position where I can really utilize my knowledge and experience.

I said last year that I love my job, and one year later I'm happy to say that still holds true. A big reason why is because of stupid shit like this:

Everyone subconsciously whistling Wesley's ringtone, the Super Mario theme, Rick Roll, Tetris theme and the A-Team theme.

Interviewee with a really bad lazy eye:

Harv: he did an excellent job of maintaining eye-contact...with the both of us...at the same time...

Cool idea for adding to the chat feature:

Wolfey: I should just throw in "WOLFEY RULEZ" into every other message

Meaning to say "drag and drop"?

Harv: Drug and Drop!

Wolfey picking on the mini-mart asian lady:

Wolfey: I think Asian lady has this OCD thing where she has to straighten out every dollar bill
Wolfey: I'm gonna fold every corner of every bill that I give her from now on to test her

Diego's optimistic Facebook status after getting fired:

Diego: I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Diego's Facebook status on his new engagement:

Diego: I'M ENGAAAAAAAAGED!!!

Diego's optimistic Facebook status on the called off engagement:

Diego: I'M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Adam on how to deal with a shitty applicant:

Harv: i'm gonna shred his resume
Adam: nah, don't even shred it.
Adam: don't waste the power.

Andrew on quality control:

Andrew: how do I hide all these freakin' errors??
Adam: WTF
Adam: you're supposed to fix the fucking errors, not hide them!!

Nerds fighting over stuff:

Adam: I wanna go to the MySQL Conference
Thomas: I wanna go to the MySQL Conference!
Harv: like a spoiled kid
Harv: but I wanna go to the MySQL Conference!!

Adam asking Shezaan what he missed out on after someone's birthday:

Adam: oh, there was a birthday?
Adam: what did I miss?
Shezaan: not much
Shezaan: just the usual
Shezaan: cutting the cake and Mel eating it all.

Majid asking Adam to explain something during a demo:

Majid: Adam, how would you explain "API" in two words or less.

A client noticing an inappropriate test forum:

Client: teabagging forum???

Ray on explaining my new promotion:

Ray: Mel is somewhere in between a programmer and designer
Ray: he's somewhat of a hybrid
Ray: I like to think of him as a "morphidite"
Adam: Mel is a hermaphridite!!

Wolfey suggesting a new company chatroom for AIM:

Adam: please keep this chat reserved only for work related issues.
Adam: I've been receiving complaints from individuals that our side talk is spamming them and distracting them from work.
Ryan: gaaay
Wolfey: can we have [Office_Fun]
Wolfey: and rename this to [Office_Not_Fun]
Adam: asshole.

// I'm way behind on this post so I'm gonna have to keep make this the extremely abridged version...

For the past couple weeks I've kicked it with a ton of friends from BlogTV. As far as I know, BlogTV started to pick up a little over a month ago. And since then, we've all grown pretty close.

It's a little interesting meeting people from the internet. For each person you meet, you gotta remember three things: a face, a screenname and a real name. But since you've already been talking, you kinda already know the person.

So yeah, a couple Fridays ago I went to a local It's A Grind for the weekly open mic night and bumped into some familiar faces/screennames. We chilled then migrated to In-N-Out for an amazing jam session.

That Saturday was Oktoberfest, which was a festival hosted by my church. The church is predominately filipino so the festival always brings in popular filipino musicians and performers. This year was Gabe, Leejay and Passion (You gotta check out this video of 'em rehearsing).

I've been surrounded by some good musicians all my life...but never quite like this. We had:

• Jeremy "Passion" Manongdo -- reminds me of a younger Usher
• Gabe Bondoc -- John Mayer-ish.. David Ryan Harris-y.. Corrine Bailey Rae-esque type deal
• Bryan Keith -- musical genius who can make any good song sound even better.
• Deland -- awesome R&B vocalist.
• Harry -- the human guitar jukebox who can play anything on guitar.
• Glenn Clancy -- awesome vocalist.
• Randolph -- the guy that can sing the high part, hahahaa.
• Nessarica -- hands down the most beautiful voice I've ever heard live.
• Nina Tran -- beautiful voice.
• Nicole Yvette -- beautiful voice.
• Cathy Nguyen -- didn't sing with us that weeekend but she's great when she does.

My favorite songs from that weekend:

• Wait Another Minute by Hi-Five
• How Deep is Your Love by The Bee Gees
• My Kinda Girl by Brian McKnight, Justin Timberlake
• Do You Remember by Boyz II Men
• This Christmas by Joe
• The Growing Pains (Theme)

Oh, one thing that is really awkward is when people are totally not what you expect in real life... I got a taste of that before the weekend when Katzy discovered that I was a dude, not a chick.

And it didn't end there...

melmyfinger: btw, after meeting up with a bunch of blogtv people last night...i wanna make it clear that i am a DUDE, not a chick
heyitsloris: LOL i tripped out when i met up with people too
krismark: LOL mel
melmyfinger: apparently everyone thinks i'm a girl
thatsajudy: oh really mel? i thought you were a girl
melmyfinger: HAHAHAHAHAAH
krismark: HAHAHHAAH
melmyfinger: damnit!!!
heyitsloris: HAHA
krismark: LOL
JuJuBeanz: lol
hollisterloser: same thing for me... ):
melmyfinger: judy, you're like the 15th person!
JuJuBeanz: MELODY
krismark: melissa my finger
JuJuBeanz: melony
darrelld23: or melissa
krismark: LOL
melmyfinger: DAMNIT
heyitsloris: AHHAHAH wtf kris!

The ongoing tally of who thinks "melmyfinger" is a guy or not:

• Mel is a Guy -- BK, Chrstine, Melissa, Raelynne, Randolph.
• Mel is a Girl -- Adoboy, Adriee, Alerissa, Cathy, Doowop, Jackielyn, Janice, JecJec, Jeremy, JR, Judy, Hazel, Katzy, Nessa, Rich, and many many more...

In closing, I'll leave you with my buddy, Jeremy, singing "Melissa" outside of Albertacos.

Peace, Love and BlogTV.

View Photos: Oktoberfest '08 (197 Photos)

Well Done by Jeremy "Passion" Manongdo:

Four years ago from today. We miss you, Uncle.

June 11, 1951 - October 22, 2004

Deep thought of the moment:

What if everyone could read everyone else's mind? How would people evolve?

No more secrets. No more lies. No more hidden agendas. Just everybody knowing everything about everybody.

Would the world become a better place? Would we evolve into a better society? Would we become better people?