Gaaah! This is another belated blog event post. I really planned to post about the recently concluded (and apparently controversial) 2007 Philippine Blog Awards Night (official website) but due to unforeseen circumstances and nonexistent Internet connection, I am only able to blog about it now. Don’t worry, this post won’t be part of an echo chamber because I got my own picture gallery with some never-before-seen pictures! (Everybody loves pictures, right? Continue reading on. )

Of course, by posting late, I missed out on all the cross-linking and link-loving. But I’ve got a secret: active bloggers love to look at who’s linking to them via Technorati so I’ll link a lot and the eyeballs will come. Hehehe.

List of Winners

First off, kudos to the winners:

Main Awards

• Best Personal Blog: Misteryosa

• Best Home & Living Blog: Wifely Steps

• Best Socio-Political Blog: Philippine Commentary

• Best News & Media Blog: Inside PCIJ

• Best Fashion & Lifestyle Blog: Bryanboy: Le Superstar Fabuleux

• Podcast of the Year: HappySlip

• Best Technology Blog: Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments

• Best Business/Entrepreneur Blog: Reflections of a BizDrivenLife

• Best Entertainment Blog: Retzwerx

• Best Sports & Recreation Blog: Who rides a Vespa?

• Best Travel Blog: Ivan About Town

• PhotoBlog of the Year: Señor Enrique: Wish You Were Here

Special Awards

• Best Blog Design: Far from Neutral Notions

• Best Free Custom Theme: Blu3zin3

• Best Plugin/Extension: iPap

• Best OFW Blog: Kwentong Tambay

• Bloggers’ Choice Awards: MarketManila

Globe Broadband Awards

• Blog Achievement Award: The Mommy Journals

• Pinoy Ako Blog Award: ederic@cyberspace

• Family Blog Award: About My Recovery

• Blogirl Award: Well Whatever

• Deliblog Award: Dessert Comes First

Photo Gallery

Personal Notes

The controversial invocation. To get it out of the way, I’m a practicing Catholic. As a Christian, I found Fr. Cuyos’ prayer very witty. It’s definitely the geekiest prayer I’ve heard said in all seriousness. I, like many others who laughed, especially loved this part:

“Deliver us, Father, from spams and viruses, from pride and selfishness, and from the temptation to replicate images without permission and copy ideas without crediting the original authors.”

But given that this was a secular event, alarm bells rang off in my head when I heard the sign of the cross. And when Fr. Cuyos exhorted the bloggers present to use blogging as an instrument to do God’s will, I knew then that Benj, who was almost next to me, would definitely react. And react he did. I agree with practically every one of Benj’s points. Even the one where he said that just because he didn’t volunteer, it doesn’t mean that he can’t criticize. However, I think Benj overreacted and is blowing this out of proportion.

Anyway, Fr. Cuyos’ website seems to be gone since the domain is marked as parked. So you can’t see the prayer from the original source anymore.

The after-party. If you’re attending any of the local blogging events, do stay for the after-parties. They’re a great way to get to know your fellow bloggers, as well as a way to gain new friends or do some networking. For the Blog Awards, the after party was held at Hula-Hula at Shangri-la Mall’s Streetscape.

I was peer pressured to have a can of beer and a glass of vodka by my tablemates. It takes much more than that to get me drunk or tipsy but I generally avoid alcohol. Due to urgings by Markku, Juned, Karla, and I were regaled with the colorful love/sex life of Joey. And because of the teasing, Joey challenged that Sorsi, his female equivalent, was “all talk.” Hehehe. We were also educated on the Softdrink Beauties, 80’s movies, and Miag-ao ghost stories. It was quite fun.

Well, enough of that. I’d like to direct you to this excellent blog post round-up by Michael. I think that the Blog Awards will go down as the most talked-about topic in the Pinoy blogosphere this year.

Belated shout-outs (and link-love) go to Jeff (who was fashionably late), Mae, Tina, AJ, Pierre, Joni, Apples and Chris.