.:Today's LSS:.

What you say? You want it that way?

I Want It That Way
by Backstreet Boys

Yeah

You are my fire
The one desire
Believe when I say
I want it that way

But we are two worlds apart
Can't reach to your heart
When you say
That I want it that way

[Chorus:]
Tell me why
Ain't nothin' but a heartache
Tell me why
Ain't nothin' but a mistake
Tell me why
I never wanna hear you say
I want it that way

Am I your fire
Your one desire
Yes I know it's too late
But I want it that way

[Chorus]

Now I can see that we're falling apart
From the way that it used to be, yeah
No matter the distance
I want you to know
That deep down inside of me...

You are my fire
The one desire
You are
You are, you are, you are

Don't wanna hear you say
Ain't nothin' but a heartache
Ain't nothin' but a mistake
(Don't wanna hear you say)
I never wanna hear you say
I want it that way

Tell me why
Ain't nothin' but a heartache
Tell me why
Ain't nothin but a mistake
Tell me why
I never wanna hear you say
(Don't wanna hear you say it)
I want it that way
I want it that way

.:An Awesome Start To An Awesome Day:.

\/\/007!!!

I had a fairly fun show at WAVE as Ekai requested “Hope” from Faith Evans and Twista, and Gia and I were hitting it off on the show pretty well, so the show was running pretty smoothly for the most part. Half of the time, I was even announcing that I'd be going to the Blogging Summit, and all that.

One thing that just made me completely happy was that I got to talk to Pomelo while I was on YM. It certainly was a great way to start the day for me. If my grin wasn't silly enough before that, it certainly was afterwards.

.:An Amazing Summit:.

The first-ever I Blog Blogging Summit was, without a doubt, a major success. There were around a hundred and fifty-five participants, which was pretty good for a first-ever event, to say the least.

A funny thing that happened at the start was that I was texting a friend of mine, Daphne, about the good news. The two-word SMS. Apparently, after exchanging a few messages with her, it turns out I wasn't texting Daph, but her mom. That was pretty embarrassing, but it wasn't so bad... heh.

In any case, I arrived at the forum a bit late, as I didn't get there at the start of the program, since my show ended at ten in the morning. That being said, I walked into a mini-open forum where some guy was plugging the Hades out of his weblog by going to the mic and introducing himself, then giving his weblog URL. I think his name was Mike Abundo or something. Nonetheless, it was pretty funny when that happened. I went up there a while later to ask about plagiarism, which was a pretty hot topic for the day.

Anyways, I sat myself beside Sean, and to my other side was Jonas, which proved to be an interesting occurrence, as the two were finally acquainted... pretty amusing how that went, really. I knew Sach was outside, and Diane and Clair ate out, and when Sach went in, she was about to ask a question, only to have to answer what a wiki was before she got to ask her question. I personally found that amusing how she had to work for her question... Dominique then walked into the auditorium while Sach was talking, so it was perfect timing, to say the least.

After the open forum, lunch started, and people began pouring in, including Ron and Jill, and the barkada started hanging out, and lunch went pretty smoothly. I was still giddy as heck, and I'm very glad how the feeling has managed to sustain itself for quite a while already... truth be told, I'm grateful. Here was a group of friends who were nothing short of splendid, and the conversations were interesting all throughout. Soon enough, we had our fill, then went back to the auditorium to listen to Commissioner Dondi Mapa talk about blogging and governance, which showed how into blogging he happened to be. Yes, Mike did his usual schtick there again, which showed his persistence.

After Commissioner Mapa, Dean Alfar finally showed up, and that was a very entertaining hour from him, as he talked about blogging creatively as a writer outlet, and how he managed to incorporate his apparent glee over Scott Savol's being taken out of American Idol, and how he managed to sneak in disses against the president by saying something along the lines of “I mean, I didn't say that she's a b!7ch, right? Oh, I just did.”

He was very animated, and I found his commentary very interesting. He was definitely hamming it up with how he laid praise on his wife, but I personally found that very sweet of him to do. He had a lot of moments where he'd just say something and get applauded for it out and out because of the way he said it. Simply an amazing speaker, to say the least.

When the open forum came along, Mike Abundo did his usual schtick again, and asked his question. This time, though, it was Attorney Dicini who announced his weblog by going up to the mic and saying Mike's name and URL rapidly. Lol. Some of the librarian bloggers also made their presence felt, which proved to be amusing. When I got to ask my question, though, I played up my being a part of WAVE 89.1, and asked what more I could do to promote blogging, as I do a lot of plugging on my radio show when the opportunity presented itself. He then made it a point to underscore evangelizing, and found “Kel the Mushroom” to be a pretty amusing name. All in all, I definitely enjoyed his run on the program.

After his turn, most of us went out to talk to each other a bit, although what was fairly amusing was how one of the people took notice of how I introduced myself as a DJ from WAVE, and gave me his card if in case I was interested in being a voice talent and all that. It was pretty amazing how that opportunity presented itself. The same thing happened soon enough with the people from I.ph, who were wondering about the chances for having an ex-deal between them and WAVE.

Clair and I were talking with each other when we suddenly ran into Chin Wong, who was certainly fun talking to. It was pretty amusing because I've been in ADMU in COM Arts for four years, yet I never seem to have run into Mr. Wong throughout my tenure as a COM student. Pretty odd, but I was thankful he remembered me for that one or two times I e-mailed him about his columns. I'm not exactly a geek (Though everyone insists I am nowadays.), so I don't quite feel I'm part of the technological 1337 just yet, but whatever, neh?

At this point, Maia and Ekai showed up, and I managed to catch up with them a bit. Funny how they knew Sacha and Clair so well despite not having ever met them both, mainly through my LJ. Clair then mentioned that JM was on his way to the seminar, and all of us filed back into the auditorium towards the tail end of the PCIJ presentation. The open forum was particularly funny when Mike asked a very long-winded question and all Alecks of the PCIJ could say was “I don't know.” He got pretty good applause for that. Later on, Sach and Mike had a mild confrontation about what types of news were more interesting, whether the factual or the spurious. Of course, I was looking carefully at Dom at that point, and most everyone knew Sacha was right on that point, really...

So finally, the main event came: Sassy Lawyer made her presentation on how to make a bookmark-worthy weblog, and I found her living up to her monicker. She was a lawyer, and boy she was sassy, all right. It was fun how she went about stories of net stalkers, plagiarists, and blogs worthy of consideration. Truth be told, the one thing more well-received than her presentation was the open forum itself. She was pretty catty with Mike when he made some questions, and I think the “no shameless plugging” line sort of hit home. The way ma'am Connie addressed it by saying stuff like “I didn't say that. You're putting words in my mouth.” was sheer brilliance.

Clair got up to ask a question, and ma'am Connie promptly waved like a beauty queen at Clair. It was funny. Talk about giving Clair the rub, as though she weren't a celebrity in her own right already... heh. She asked about stalkers, and ma'am Connie had no love for net stalkers when she answered...

When it was my turn to ask, she also remembered me. I decided to introduce myself as Marcelle as she knew me as that and not as Kel. I first thanked her for helping me with my paper, and how I got a Cum Laude for that A, so I was definitely grateful to her for that. The only time a speaker would receive applause before someone finished asking a question to her... heh.

When I asked her a beauty queen question (Because it suits her, so I said. A little complimenting never hurt...), it was a pretty nice question, really. Simply put, when you've been the epitome of Philippine blogging, what would be next for you? To her, it was a bridge she'd cross when she got there.

Maia then went up and introduced herself as my friend. I found that amusing, especially when she mentioned how it was her who got me into blogging and now I'm more “famous” than her (Not through blogging, I presume. Methinks it's due to my job... heh.), which elicited laughs from the audience. She then touched on the issue of plagiarism, and ma'am Connie commiserated with her on that point. All in all, I think that things went really well for the most part, and I'm just glad the plagiarism has ended... for now. Or at least, for cases we know of.

After a few more questions, the forum finally ended. We made history.

.:The Aftermath:.

I went up to ma'am Connie to just say hi to her and have a picture taken with her. She was definitely a wonderful person to speak to, and her candidness was definitely something few people manage to exude in this fairly politically correct-oriented world that lost its intestinal fortitude for the most part.

Afterwards, I just went and stayed around to talk to people. Jonas didn't stay for much longer, and said goodbye. Mario arrived, and with Mario, Sean, JM, and Ranulf all in the same place, the innuendo kicked into high gear. This was compounded when I got introduced to “Head Geekette”, aka Charo, who was a nice person to talk to. When I started using the Clean And Clear oil paper, the first dialogue worthy of quoting happened...

Charo: Wow! I finally met a Filipino who cares about how he looks like and isn't gay!

Clair: *sniggers*

Marcelle: ::walks up to Mario and holds him:: Oh, Mario...

Mario freaked out as Charo sure set us up the bomb for that. What you say? Yes, she set us up the bomb!

And then came her turn to tell us about the story of how they shoved a siomai up an obnoxious guy by jumping him. Boy, that was scary... mental note: don't cross the Head Geekette.

Mario: How'd you do that, Charo?

Marcelle: Turn around, Mario, and I'll gladly demonstrate. Oh! I dropped my phone. Would you mind picking it up, Mario?

After some more interesting conversations, and some good pictures, we then headed out for the Philippine Linux Users Group party. Uhh... no, I don't use Linux.

.:Teh Party:.

So everyone got there soon enough, but Sach, Dom, and I went to Cherry Foodarama to buy soft drinks. Sach asked me what I wanted to talk to her about, and I told her about how things have been going lately. Nothing big, really. I was glad she and Dom were there to talk to me, though, and it didn't take long before we got back, and the cooking started, as Migs prepared some episodes of Star Wars: Clone Wars for people to watch.

Just a quick dialogue snippet...

Ranulf: Your fly's open.

Marcelle: I knew you'd take notice, that's why...

Clair and I had an incredible bonding session while it was our turn to cook food. I was very happy the both of us found time to talk to each other, as it was definitely nothing short of an eye-opener to the both of us how we managed to become such good friends through fifty-two chat conversations, five phone conversations, and seven personal conversations. All in all, it's been a wonderful friendship that I've learned to treasure, and I'm grateful she was there to listen to me.

Later on, Mario started preparing gin Pomelo. In any case, it was all good, and a little before ten, the barkada left already (Ranulf left a bit earlier, though.). I said my goodbyes to them, and finally went home, perfectly satisfied with the day, and very happy with everything that's happened so far.

::melts::

Life is good...