Sweet World of Joan

I will be giving two of these precious cupcakes worth P100 pesos! To honor and celebrate the friendships I forged through the years I am giving away 2 “Limited Edition” cupcakes to my friends and former students when they purchase in my online store www.mylittlebaker.com . I will not be selling these. For my students (past and present), who are dear to me I am giving two Christmas cupcakes for a single purchase worth P300 and above. Just contact me through my phones or email me. So I can validate if you are really my student. I keep lists of them. Hehehe. For my friends, a minimum purchase of P500 and above to avail of the two Christmas Cupcakes. Two cupcakes per person policy will be applied regardless of how many times you order. I am doing this to make sure that you eat the cupcakes personally and not give it away. I'll be taking orders till December 20, 2009 only and might be delivering your orders personally. Hoping to hear for everybody soon!

They say that left-handed persons are known to be good graphics artists. I can say they are because I know a few who are really good. But, wait a minute. I am left-handed! And I can only draw people as sticks till now. It was my frustration since I was a child and considers myself exception to that rule. I don’t consider myself as an “ Art ist ”, maybe because I don’t like the conventional “Art” I do admire paintings but as an ordinary person maybe. Even my horoscope (I am a Pisces) says that I should be in the artistic field. I am starting to believe that I maybe an artist after all. Last Saturday I delivered the baptismal cupcakes that were ordered by a former student of mine. A few days before Saturday, I was already stressed and agonizing inside, doubting myself if I could ever pull off his order of 30 pcs of specialty cupcakes. The situation was not good, I don’t have anyone available to help me assemble and transport the cupcakes. The burden was great for I usual

I love history and very passionate in discussing country’s past and present. I love not just knowing the facts but of what could have been. There are times when I imagine myself living this or that era. What would have I felt and how fortunate I am to live at the present. I love to know the “untold stories” and how our present reflects our past, like history repeating itself. I would look for answers in our history why so many Filipinos act this or that way. Or question myself if our ancestors have chosen a different path what would we become. I am happy hear about Zero In: Periphery Series from Arvin’s blo g. He gives very informative descriptions of the different museums participating in the Zero In series this year. Here are some information I gathered from Arvin's blog The Intersections & Beyond . Photos I used in this blog courtesy of Arvin . Here are the Museums participating in this year's Zero In:Periphery Series : Ateneo Art Gallery Featu

I gave up going out at night when I had my son Lorenzo. I don’t stay out late because Lorenzo always waits for me to arrive before falling asleep and besides why go out to look for entertainment when you can cuddle him all night. But this time I broke my own rule, even my husband was surprised and tried to convince me to stay at home. It was the album launch of Callalily and I promised I’ll be there. Kean and Tatsi, members of Callalily are my students and since June keeps asking me to go to their “Gigs” but I would always decline because it was late at night. They would even kid me of course it should be at night and not at noon. It was also during that time when they were recording their third album and would come to class without sleep, I have seen how hard they worked at it. So I promised that when they launch the album I’ll be there with my son to boot. So the night arrived, I made sure my son and I had our longest afternoon nap to be able to last all night long.

I teach Interactive Multimedia to college students and one of the topics I include is about Blogging. I believe it is a relevant topic for the subject for multimedia today touches on topics like audio and video and a better way for students to appreciate multimedia is to let them try video blogging and podcasting. Mini iBlog @ CEL I love attending the iBlog Summit every summer for I learn lots of things about blogging. It was really fortunate that a Mini iBlog Summit was organized at the Consumer and Electronics Live trade show at the World Trade Center last Nov 15, 2009. My students were inspired and interested to blog and not just blog as a requirement for the subject but some of them were really determined to blog regularly. Thank you and congratulations to the organizers of the event, JJ Disin i and Janette Toral . And Thank you very much to the speakers, Michaela Rodriquez , Aileen Apolo , Noemi Lardizabal Dado and Anton Diaz for inspiring my students and making

Many say I am a great cook and baker, I admit and acknowledge that I have this gift that most if not all of what I make tastes really, really good. But it is not all instinct and genes(my mother is a kapampangan and my father is bicolano) I also did my part, I studied them. No I did not enroll in culinary school, I am an engineering graduate. But I have this great love for cooking and eating great food as well. My passion is eating pizzas and pasta. Anything with cheese on it I will eat but I am also very particular with my cheese recipes and how my food will taste. My secrets I love to watch cooking shows since elementary and practice cooking whatever recipes they shared. I practice. I started cooking my “experiments” in high school. During weekends I am the house cook so whatever I cook my family has to eat them. I continued to study how to cook. I enrolled in a basic baking class to formalize my knowledge in baking, and recently attended seminars on empanadas, cupcakes and

When the DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2009 was first announced a few months ago I knew I had to attend the event. I decided that whatever happens I would attend for it will provide such an important opportunity for me to learn and connect with fellow E-Commerce enthusiasts and friends. The topics discussed were informative and important for people like me who have an online store/website, educator and managers who would like to maximize their websites capabilities. There was also the exhibitors and sponsors’ booth at the event that offers value added services for website/ecommerce owners. What have I learned during the 2 day event? That e-commerce is here to stay and would continuously grow in the coming years Creating a niche and identifying your target market is a key to make your online business grow and sustain itself Designing your website to make your visitors not just view your site but to buy from you Making a brand for your business in crucial and like tradit

The world is celebrating the 40 th anniversary of Sesame Street this week. Sesame Street is an American educational TV Series that started November 10, 1969 and is the longest running children’s program in US television and is show all over the world. Sesame street is special to me for I grew up watching those Muppets, Big Bird and the gang. It was my first school, I learned to read, write and count numbers with them. I remember begging my parents to attend classes already for I know already how to read and write(on the walls all over the house) but it took 2 more years for me to attend one. So for years they were my classmates and friends. When I had my baby in 2003 aside from the nursery rhymes CDs, I bought a set of Sesame Street VCDs. Lorenzo was 6months old when he started watching Sesame Street and like me they provide educational fun adventures for my son. At times we would watch it together and I was amazed of the new characters and topics they tackle on the sh

As IT professionals my husband and I see to it that we are always connected to the Internet and always updated in the latest development in Information Technology. He says that it is our responsibility as an IT person to be always in the “know” of our field. Since the late 1990’s one of the biggest slice in our budget is our Internet connection, other people have their stereos, cars, entertainment center, cellphones, clothes as passions while ours is the internet. Lately, we became aware of the importance of having internet connection 24/7, anywhere / anytime(we have a landline DSL broadband connection at home), and I started broaching the matter to my husband that maybe it’s time to get a second broadband connection – “One" that we can bring anywhere with us and we can even use even during power outages. That’s when Globe Tattoo Broadband came to my attention, my brother has one and he even surf and chat while their buying groceries. Globe Tattoo Broadband modem is easy to use,

It’s Christmas time again! This is my third year of going online to sell my chocolates and baked products. I admit that I have not fully maximized the advantages of having an online business. I’m not in a hurry, I am taking my time, studying all angles and taking it all in. You might say I’m still a reluctant entrepreneur and have not taken major risks. I am trying to change all that and looking for ways to improve my knowledge and mindset about E-commerce. I have found what I am looking for, it came just at the right time the “E-Commerce Summit 2009 Doing E-Commerce for Real!” I want to transform my business to a real E-Commerce one and with this summit I believe I can. The DigitalFilipino E-Commerce Summit 2009 is an intensive 2-day educational seminar on e-commerce strategies scheduled to take place on November 12 & 13, 2009 at the Hotel Intercontinental, Makati City . The event targets entrepreneur and business owners like me, managers, investors, business develop

The first time I heard of Ninoy Aquino was the day he was assassinated. I was in the third grade and was playing near my father when the news from the radio broke that Ninoy Aquino is dead. It was the first time I saw my father cried, shock and anger was reflected in his face, I was puzzled for I personally don’t know any Ninoy Aquino that is related to my family. As a child I was aware of the changes happening around me after Ninoy Aquino’s assassination. Living near Araneta Center , I witnessed rallies with people wearing yellow and making Laban sign. I first got to know about Cory Aquino thru a comics about her life during the Snap Presidential election campaign, as a child I was really impressed about her life. My parents were very active followers of Cory Aquino, importance of what is happening in the country is taught to us at home. Family friends and relatives were active during the EDSA Revolution. Living near EDSA brought excitement for a child like me during that E

I had a hard time completing my Top 10 Emerging and Influential Blogs of 2009 . Maybe because I have certain criteria or things that I want in the blogs I follow and read. Anyways here is my list: 1. http://tunaynalalake.blogspot.com Nakakaaliw, I always love blogs that take your minds of problems, even recommend this blog for my husband to read 2. http://www.pataygutom.com/ So yummy dishes. Nice catchy name :D 3. http://fatherblogger.com/ An intriguing blog to read, interesting topics specially if you have children 4. http://theaccidentalteacher.com How can I not read this? I'm a teacher too. 5. http://www.letsgosago.net/ Travel and food can't go wrong there 6. http://www.marikinalife.com/ Love the up-to-date info and trivia about Marikina, can't help it I love this city 7. http://lipstickaddict.blogspot.com/ I may not me that kikay but still, when it comes to beauty fill me in 8. http://goodtimes

As a Harry Potter fan, I am very satisfied with this movie. It showed all the important parts of the 6 th book and laid the foundation for movie viewers to understand or ready them for the conclusion of the Harry Potter series. The young actors in this movie showcasing maturity in their portrayal of their characters and the veteran actors that played Prof. Dumbledore, Prof. Snape and even Prof. Slughorn showed us more than what we read in the book. The movie showed us the side of Voldermort from being a child to a young wizard like Harry it lets us get to known him. The movie focused on the struggles the young wizards undergoes during this difficult teenage year, we saw them make bad choices and how they survive them. But in my opinion the kissing scene of Harry and Ginny is too tame for book 6. Ha ha ha. I was satisfied with the Quidditch Game, the best! I know there is not much action in this movie but so is in the book. All in all I gave The Harry Potter and the

Ice Age is my son’s favorite movie, he memorized all the dialogs of the first 2 movies and was waiting since last year for this movie. We had big plans for this movie, my husband thought that it will be shown in IMAX but was disappointed that it will not be shown. He wanted the movie to be the first movie my son will experience in IMAX. Since the posters were advertising that Ice Age3 is a 3D movie, we started asking around for theaters offering 3D days before the movie will be shown. The SM North’s The Block was highly recommended, and since The Block is new we decided to watch there. The first disappointment came from the Digital Theater of the Block was undergoing repairs on that day a Saturday, July 4, the second day of showing and it was too late to go to other Malls and Lorenzo is already panicking about the delay of his watching the movie. We had no choice but to watch the movie in their regular theater and since the line for buying tickets was long we had to wait fo

Watching Ice Age 3 is a very big event to my family for it’s the first time we will watch a movie as a family and a great opportunity to check out the changes at SM North, their Sky Garden and The Block. We had a great time even though there were setbacks, watched the movie, eat at Wham! and Mang Inasal bought some things and went home tired but at least Lorenzo was happy.

Things that were important to me while growing up were school, cartoons and playing outdoors. Growing up in the 80’s was a real treat for a kid, Voltes V, Sesame Street, Carebears, Transformers and GIJoe were the staple of my life. I was even a member of Uncle BoB’s Lucky 7 Club at GMA 7. When movie companies started making live action movies of my childhood cartoons I was really excited but somewhat concerned, could they live up to the original? Would it be just a waste to time to go and watch? Did you know that I watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen alone? Why? Well first, I had this free time and there was no one else to go with. The pull of the movie is so strong, watching transformers is a must for me for I grew up with them, played with transformer toys. Watching the movie is like paying a visit to a very dear friend, the movie did not disappoint seeing bumblebee(my fave) and the other autobots and decepticons and hearing Optimus Prime (dubbed by Peter Cul

I attended last week the wedding of my former student Jhay Surmeda. I don’t usually socialize with my students outside school events or even attend personal events happening in their lives. I am reluctant attending those kinds of events, I am aware of the respect they give me and at times I know they avoid talking to me if they can help it. It can be very awkward. But you can say there are special students I hold dear in my heart that even the passing of time can’t erase that. I do have students becoming my close friends after they graduated and would meet up or communicate with each other once in a while. So when Jhay requested me to attend his wedding I just can’t refuse him(although it took me a month to really agree attending). It was an honor really, for him to still think of me after all these years and even felt I am special enough to witness a very important milestone in his life. The wedding of Jhay & Lea Surmeda was held last June 16, 2009, 3:00 pm at the I

I often wonder why people cry at weddings, on weddings I've watched on TV or weddings I witnessed myself. Oftentimes it is the bride that is crying or the mother of the bride or the groom sometimes is the one that’s crying. There are even instances that the wedding guests are the ones doing it. It is a mystery to me for no one cried at my wedding, it was a joyous event and everyone was happy. I have a sensitive nature being a Pisces and am really a crier if it’s a very sad story. I cried very hard when Dobby died while reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; read it three times cried three times too. But I don’t cry even if I am very happy. Asked people, friends and family why they think people cry at weddings and here is what I found out: They are so happy They cry because their child will leave them (sudden realization) They are overwhelmed with strong emotions They envy the love between the bride and groom They feel self pity They cry because of the life the