My own universe will be celebrating its 4th birthday (it’s my blog 4th anniversary!) and you are invited to join this simple-all-for-fun-contest. Mechanics and the prize ->[HERE].
Maraming Salamat po! Terima Kasih from Penang, Malaysia! 
*clap, clap*
When he was 4 years old at Nursery, he won 3rd place in their Declamation Contest in school with his poem, “For My Country.”
The feat was carried on to his Kindergarten when he was awarded 4th Place in the same annual contest with his piece, “Planting Rice.”
That was Gabby last year with his classmate, Chloie; then, a year after…
Yesterday, I had a few calls and sent SMS to my wife, Tina at lunch time but she missed them all. I forgot that she attended to our son, Gabby’s declamation contest held at one of the function rooms in Ateneo De Manila University. No, Gabby’s not enrolled in ADMU, but it has been always a venue for their preschool’s extracurricular activities including graduation rites (usually at Henry Lee Irwin Theater).
It was only few hours after that my wife answered my call then I heard the great news that Gabby won 2nd place in their declamation contest, beating few sections of Preparatory students. Congratulations, son! Ang husay mo, manang-mana!
We love you, Gabby! We’re so proud of you, son!
See you here in Penang in 3 weeks time!
PS : You may not have won first place in those contests, son, but always keep in mind that your mom and I have you as our champion forever! WE LOVE YOU SO!
Please CLICK–>THIS!
Blogging has been part of my quintessential social life. It’s one of the coolest benefits that the world wide web has offered. You don’t have any idea how smiley I am whenever you (yes, you!) drop comments on my posts. And reading someone’s posts is not only informative but entertaining as well, that has been a party of my daily routine to while away time especially after a day’s work.
One of the blogs I follow is Anton Diaz’ s OUR AWESOME PLANET. Do I need to explain why? 
His widely read site is all about my interests - food and dining, traveling and the thing that I like best – enjoying life with family. I only started reading his posts early this year and it became a habit. I usually comment on his entries whenever the topic catches my interest.
Last weekend, he’s one of the speakers of this EXPO DAD event at Rockwell, Makati which I failed to attend. A week prior to his talk, he conducted a blog contest to help him elaborate on his topic for the event. Anton asked his readers to voluntarily answer a question and the 3 entries with best answers win prizes. The question was “How are you creatively using the internet to help you in raising your kids?”
My simple entry revolved on how we use internet particularly facebook-ing as a source of our family bonding. My 4-year-old son has an account in facebook and uses one of its applications specifically Restaurant City where he becomes a chef and a restaurateur who finds ingredients and updates menu every now and then. Gabby enjoys it so much and it enriches and motivates his early-childhood dream of becoming a “Wolfgang Puck” or “Mario Batali or Anthony Bourdain” someday. —–> This was the synopsis of my short answer that won me 3RD PRIZE ! (applause, applause!)
And to quote OAP , PRIZES INCLUDE:
1st Prize: Overnight accommodation in a One-bedrrom suite for 2 people in Astoria Plaza inclusive of breakfast buffet (worth P5,279++) valid until Nov 2009. Astoria Plaza is located along J. Escriva Drive, Pasig City
2nd Prize: Regular Lunch or Dinner Buffet for 2 people at Cafe Astoria (worth P1,318++ ) valid until Nov 2009
Nevermind the first two top prizes, because my wife and I have been invited by Astoria Plaza staff few months ago for a FREE DINNER (which was nothing special to be honest) via a mobile call but the ‘catch’ was the fact that we’re invited to attend a promotional talk with the sales agents of that condo-hotel, or whatever they call their establishment for 2 HOURS!!! convincing us to sign and purchase a room to be paid on monthly basis etc. etc… How’s that for a modus operandi? Going back to the topic…God is really BEST because He knows I am more interested with the 3rd prize which I won…
The 3RD prize was GYMBOREE Annual membership Gift Certificate (worth P1,800) valid until May 10, 2010
To quote again OAP : On top of the top 3 prizes, I’m giving away one (1) complimentary seat to one Maven Secrets Hands-on Workshop of your choice for all the quality answers that I can use for my presentation in Expo Dad. You can choose from any of these Maven Hands-ON workshops:
August 8, Saturday: Photoblogging Workshop: The Art and Science of Story
Telling through photos (Fee: $99 or P5,000.00)
August 15, Saturday: Mastering the Google Adsense Game and Advertising
through Blogs (Fee: $99 or P5,000.00)September 5, Saturday: Professional Blogging Workshop: Writing Timeless and
Viral Articles Online and WordPress 101 (Fee: $99 or P5,000.00)
August 22, Saturday: Mastering Pay Per Click Marketing through Google
Adwords (Fee: $99 or P5,000.00)
According to the blog post, winner will be announce July 16, Thursday.
As I religiously follow my favorite sites including his, I am NOT SURE if I missed out as his postings the names of winners in the COMMENT thread on his OAP site in his entry with title Digital Daddy Blog Contest. Also, one of the rules in his contest was to CLAIM the PRIZE/S ONLY during the expo. In short, I failed to know that I am one of the 3 winners (out of 13 or so, submitted entries) and my prize was already forfeited for failing to claim it personally last Saturday at the expo’s venue.
I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, neither blaming myself for, the lack of better term, petty negligence on my part (???) to miss out the posting of the names of the blog contest winners. Actually, I’m posting this because despite the fact that I cannot claim my prize anymore, (I could have join them in that photoblogging workshop next month!) I am still glad because the blogger I follow have chosen my simple entry to his contest as one of the 3 winners and perhaps I can say that I have humbly contributed an idea to his talk last weekend. It’s really a pleasure.
Masaya po ito! Katuwaan lang…
To all my virtual blogger-friends, those who frequent and visit my blog, I’ll appreciate if you vote for my site as Filipino blog of the week by clicking this link : docgelo SCROLL down this site (of The Composed Gentleman who owns the contest) to the lower right corner, you’ll see the poll site, just click and vote docgelo! One unique vote daily is counted until the end of the week, so you can vote everyday and it will go a long way! vote daily!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Huwag lang po mangulelat hehehe…LOL. Salamat!
OPINION COUNTS…