Pinoy Passenger

PDA Little Dreamer Winner Cristina de Leon - and she has been a winner, most consistent in bringing outstanding, flawless performance as mentioned by her mentors and jurors. The sad part is either, the ABS CBN network is more inclined to promote the more “marketable” contestant, or that Filipinos may not be voting for talent, instead going for the kawawa and “underdog” type. I was there in their first ever live gala night, September 21 PDA Little Dreamer Gala Night.

Pinoys love underdogs, especially those who are having a poor plight in life. Yes, the poor deserves so much more in this life… but I hope that in cases like this, fairness should prevail regardless of social status. Yes, Cristina de Leon’s family is also financially struggling, and yes this contest is one of their best hopes in experience a better life. But this sad reality isn’t their main weapon in the PDA Little Dreamer battlefield - it’s mere outstanding talent.

She’s been exerting her best efforts not to make flats, and sharps, and to perfectly express the emotions of the songs well. Oh yes, the judges take notice of these remarkable qualities of her, saying she’s always giving an exemplary performance ABOVE the rest.. yet the results seem not to be on her side.

None in the viewing public are seeing the tally of text votes, right? None of us has ever seen who’s got the most text votes. So you can imagine how fertile these sort of popularity contests for manipulation.

That night, I think everybody was shocked even the parents of other contestants with the announcement of the winners. No offense to Philip and Amy because I do believe both kids are talented. But how could a contest who sings with flats, or someone not in the right tempo, be announced as the most outstanding PDA Little Dreamer?

The in-house PDA Little Dreamer mentors would now have a hard time deciding who among the kids need improvement - because the obvious one was named most outstanding. Too bad.

This post isn’t just meant to campaign for Cristina de Leon of Cavite. This is to urge the viewing public to VOTE FOR TALENT in the PDA Little Dreamer competition. And also, just a memo to ABS CBN that contest manipulation isn’t at all behind a dark veil. It can be so obvious, too!

PDA Blog Awards

Blog and Vote for Cristina de Leon: PDA Little Dreamer Winner!

Oh yes, I’m giving away prizes for the best blog posts about Cristina de Leon! Free tickets to Star City’s Snow World!

Here are the Mechanics:

1. In 150 words minimum, blog about Cristina de Leon of the PDA Little Dreamer 2008. Tell us why you think she should win.

2. Link to http://www.pinoypassenger.com/ using the Text: PDA Little Dreamer Winner. Link again to http://www.pinoypassenger.com/ in the last part of your blog post using the text: Vote for Talent! Vote for Cristina!

3. Send me the your blog address (your blog post about Cristina) by email at pdablogawards@gmail.com

4. I will then decide the best (top 3) blog posts by October 6 (Monday)

5. Wait for my email reply to check if you were chosen (will also post the winners here in this blog). I will send your tickets for Snow World at Star City via courier by October 7 Tuesday.

• 2nd and 3rd Price - free entrance at Star City & Snow World worth Php 160.00
• 1st Price - free entrance at Star City & Snow World plus ride all you can worth Php 325.00

And please do vote for her via text every Gala night! Go go go Cristina!

I will always be in awe of the generation of today. Young entrepreneurs becoming NETpreneurs, young professionals adopting new skills to become net-savvy, even kids learning to practise wise buying through thrift online shopping.

Now that more and more of the youth are getting into the online sphere, who wouldn’t want to attend a free tech gathering like the WordCamp Philippines 2008? I read about this from Joni’s blog, a good friend of mine. And I found out this event is initiated by our dear Mindanao bloggers. Wow.

I must admit I got freakin’ excited to register because a segment of the camp will be talking about Wordpress and SEO. I’ve been asked to blog about the advantage of Wordpress in terms of SEO, and this WordCamp will definitely equip me

WordCamp Philippines 2008 is brought to you by the following sponsors (link away, baby!)

• i.PH: the Domain for Individuals
• Free Online Flash Games
• Wazzup Manila Philippines
• Real Estate CRM
• Real Estate Website Designers
• Orange County Real Estate
• Auto Insurance Quotes
• Lane Systems Inc.
• RedMedia
• Orange County Business Lawyer

PS: Just now I received news from News Central at Channel 23 that there is a competition threat against Google. Rebel Google Engineers will be launching a new search engine named “Cuil“. According to the news, it has a sleek interface (well, you can see that as you visit www.cuil.com), and that the search engine can detect the concepts behind every page, and the concepts behind every search. No definite details are reported about this, though. I wonder, how will the SEO’s face this challenge. I’ve tried the engine myself, and it swells!

PDA Little Dreamer from Cavite (and my cousin!!!), Maria Cristina Angela de Leon won the Outstanding Little Dreamer award last night in their third Gala Night. Singing Leah Navarro’s piece: Isang Mundo, Isang Awit, Cris or TinTin as we fondly call her, made a remarkable rendition of the song. Until now, i still could not get where she’s getting that powerful high-pitched voice of hers.

Given that tiny frame, she’s hitting the high octaves correctly. Nice voice quality (as told by the judges - and not just because she’s my cousin hehe!). What I like about her voice is that it’s really the sound of a child - not pretentious or trying-hard, or anything of that sort. Kids should be singing these kinds of songs… not those of the sensual love song ones, or those super ka-cheapan chants as popularized by afternoon variety shows. Yuck!

Here: Watch how she sang the piece:

(sorry I can’t embed the video.. it’s not on Youtube kse…

I am tempted to launch a SEO Contest for the keyword: PDA Little Dreamer Winner - and all entries should be about Cristina de Leon! Hahaha! Biased talaga.

Anyways, you can cast your vote for the Little Dreamer Winner. Please vote for Cris! Why?

1. Talent, and not popularity. She’s got the talent really.

2. Determination - she used to be a shy kid, only plays with a couple of cousins her age in the family. But look at her now - how she has transformed.

3. Hope for their family’s future - Cris’ family struggles financially, with 3 more little siblings (1 an infant), and only has my uncle to provide for their needs. Winning the PDA Little Dreamer award would really be a great great help for them.

So vote now! http://www.celebritypeeps.com/cristina-pda-2-little-dreamer/

Riding along with the Philippine national flag bandwagon, just to recall - the longest trail of Philippine flag holders was witnessed here in my hometown Cavite, from Imus to Dasmarinas last June 1st. It is known as the First Wagayway Festival.

I was not exactly compelled to blog about it because the event simply brought me heavy traffic when I was on my way to pay my bills at SM Dasmarinas. But I was taken aback by Joey Velasco’s painting “Heal Our Land”. It was just so moving and meaningful to see Christ praying with our Philippine flag on his arms.

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For the pioneer post of Pinoy Passenger, I thought it good to feature the Philippine’s “Pambansang Kamao” - Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.

After a very controversial match with Juan Manuel Marquez, the latest issue now is Pacman’s call for unity among his countrymen - which of course is well-applauded by Malacañang.

Here’s a line from his speech:

“My only appeal is for all of us to be united. We are all one family and we have to be together … Now that I have won, let us have unity.”

This is not exactly wrong. Who wouldn’t want unity in this lie-infested political landscape of the country. But then again, there could have been a more suitable message that Pacquiao could have sent in his post-fight interview. In fact, this proves to be relevant to his Las Vegas match - the call for TRUTH.

Just to end the controversy hounding the results of his fight, authorities and speculators will better be off searching for the truth in the split decision. Did Manny really win?

In our national situation, the same recommendation goes. I guess Filipinos are more aware of the fact that Malacañang can always bend the story to favor them, but that doesn’t mean everyone must stop in the fight for truth. We all have our duty in this land. As much as Pacquiao has the duty to defend his title and bring pride in the Filipino, we are to be the defenders of the truth.

If there were anything good out of the fight (apart from Pacquiao “winning” in the end), it would be the:

• decrease in traffic jam (jeepney drivers were glued on the TV set)
• decrease in crime rate (yes, even attempting robbers love to see how Pacquiao makes his punches)
• new linkbait content in the blogosphere (yeah, like this one)

As for national unity - yes it can be achieved only if everyone will decide to fight for the truth.