Software as a service, high tech startup :: Morph Code :: Schedule of Events

I read your blog and I see two issues that are bothering you: homesickness and "guilt" for being away from your country.

First, let me say that it is alright to feel homesick - in fact, we would worry if you never felt the pain of being away. It only means that you miss us - your family, your home, your cat, our pets, your friends, our weather, even the places where you hang out. We feel the same sadness and longing for you because we would prefer to see you everyday, to see you smile, to hear the excitement in your voice when you tell stories, to be able to tell if you are sad and to be able to hug you when you are. Which is why Skype is my preferred way of communicating with you - because I want "to be with you" as much as possible, even if it means listening to your voice on one computer and looking at you (webcam) on another. Since our schedules do not always allow "skyping," I depend on your blog, and your occasional emails -too few and too short =( to know what's happening with you. It's pain that we must bear, because we love you and want you to grow and become fulfilled.

But the "guilt" that you feel for being away from your country is unnecessary grief. As long as you carry your love for your country in your heart, then there is nothing to grieve for being somewhere else. Think of the Filipinos who have brought pride to their countrymen - they're not necessarily here. Patricia Evangelista won the speaking competition in London. Lea Salonga made her name in London, New York and Hollywood. Leo Oracion, Erwin Emata and Ching's friend, Romy Garduce could not have conquered Mt. Everest by staying here. In the same manner, Einstein was born in Germany but his genius flourished in the U.S. The Kennedys were originally Irish. Your papa's parents were from China. Pre-historic Filipinos were migrants from Malay Peninsula and Indonesia. You know what I am trying to say but you need to say this to yourself every now and then, especially when some people, or you yourself, make you feel guilty about being away from your country. Nobody should be limited by the physical boundaries of one's country - you need to climb your highest mountains, no matter where they are. And when you are on top, you plant the Philippine flag and proclaim to the world that you are a Filipina.

We love you and we are proud of you, and if the pain of loneliness is the price we have to pay so you can be the best that you can be, then so be it.

Love always,
Mom

On Technorati: homesick, philippines, :)

E-Mail from Mama

Check out the essay.

More thoughts: One of the things that frustrates me about the Philippines is that we've got this entire chicken-and-egg problem in the schools. Few companies do on-campus recruitment for challenging internships, so students don't get motivation or experience - which is why few companies bother to do on-campus recruitment or R&D. Programming competitions help, I guess, and we do still manage to find a couple of geeks who learn about open source and end up teaching themselves. Still...

On Technorati: development, management, hiring, hr, philippines

Lyrics by Jose Corazon de Jesus, melody by Constancio de Guzman

Ang bayan kong Pilipinas
Lupain ng ginto't bulaklak
Pag-ibig ang sa kanyang palad
Nag-alay ng ganda't dilag.
At sa kanyang yumi at ganda
Dayuhan ay nahalina
Bayan ko, binihag ka
Nasadlak sa dusa.

Ibon mang may layang lumipad
Kulungin mo at umiiyak
Bayan pa kayang sakdal dilag
Ang di magnasang makaalpas!
Pilipinas kong minumutya
Pugad ng luha ko't dalita
Aking adhika,
Makita kang sakdal laya!

On Technorati: lyrics, philippines, culture, filipino, tagalog

I came here from Hong Kong, I was doing a contract there. While there, I could not help but notice the filipinas in causeway bay. Upon talking to them, I noticed that they all seemed to really love the philippines. I said: "What the hell am I doing in Hong Kong, which I am not fond of, when everyone I meet from this country loves it?" So i came here to cebu and just lived here... did some offshore contracts for cash and now i'm (weeps) getting ready to leave. I do work with php/perl/java/groovy ( php as little as possible ) and some admin things. I am currently hacking drupal code right now YES NOW because I'm trying to get something working according to my desire.

I'll really miss this place though. If I had known it was this good, i would have targeted here instead of just dropping in for the year. Ah well. Who knows what the future holds ?

These are stories that need to be told.

E-Mail from Kevin

On Technorati: philippines

Maybe I should take all of my malongs home this Christmas, borrow a mannequin from somewhere, and borrow the studio cyclorama so that I'd have a seamless floor. Would be totally excellent for learning how to shoot. <laugh> Who knows—I might even get into lights!

I foresee constantly tweaking clothes, and it would be nice to be able to document that. Totally small-budget. No models, no model releases, etc. ;) It's not going to be high fashion or anything like that, but it will be fun!

On Technorati: photography, malong, philippines, culture

When some friends and I were at the Taste of the Danforth (a Greek food festival), a shop owner asked me if she could buy the malong off me. She wasn't the first to ask me where to get these malongs. I wonder if I can start a little side business that'll also make it easier for me to get the malongs I like... <laugh>

Sourcing the cloth would probably be the hardest thing. Quality is so variable. One of my favorite malongs had a brilliantly coloured red, purple and gold pattern in the beginning. The dye runs each time I wash it, which is a pain. I have to wash it separately and make sure there's enough space between it and the other items on my clothes-drying rack.

I wonder where to find malong cloth: embroidered, printed, etc. I want quality malongs and accessories with the same patterns. Imagine wearing a matching scarf, or a cute bag, or even shoes...

Hmm. It would be a good excuse to learn how to build an e-commerce site, too. Also, I've been doing lots of strange things with wearing a malong that I haven't seen other people do yet, so that might be fun to pick up.

Something to look into. First thing I'd need to do is to find a source for ready-made high-quality malong cloth and make a few samples.

Hmm. I'd love to pass this idea to someone else. It's not part of my core competency (sewing bags? making shoes? I'd have to learn so much first!), but it's something I wouldn't mind taking a risk on to help make it happen...

On Technorati: malong, philippines, culture, fashion, filipina, clothing

Comments:

From Simon Ditner:

<rant> It kind of throws me for a loop that your blog doesn't have a display of user submitted feedback. It's very unsatisfying putting comments in this little box, and not seeing them go anywhere, like I'm pitching bits to the wind. It seems like the complete antithesis of your research.</rant>

On Queen St., between Spadina and Bathurst, you'll find yourself in the fashion design district with some of the best deals on fabric in town. I sent an email off to my friend Lyn, a local vietnamese fashion designer, to see if she knows of a local source of malongs.

From Charo Nuguid:

I have a friend who lives in Iligan City. He's a photojournalist, and being that your dad was formerly one, you'd know how small the pay is for this job. What he does to raise money for lenses and bodies is to buy and sell beautifully crafted native swords. He'd auction them off on eBay and have people send money to his brother's account in the States.

Selling Philippine-made malongs would be a great idea. It's just a matter of sourcing them out here in the Philippines. :)

From Kelly Drahzal:

I love the ideas of an e-commerce site making(?) and selling ethnic clothes of good quality. I'd be their best customer as well, I think.

I'm also into sewing and quilting. Have an old Bernina sewing machine that is my pride and joy, and have been dropping hints for months that I'd like a mannequin/dress form for birthday/christmas.

If you decide to seriously pursue something like this, let me know. I'd be interested in a joint venture. :-)

From Jay Goldman:

Some thoughts on your malong project:

• Go for it! It may not be part of your core competency, but you might just surprise yourself. I just read Leila's post about Bob Parson's rules right before yours (http://www.hyperbio.net/fric_frac/2006/08/bob_parsons_rul.html) and was struck by the overlap. His rule #1? Get and stay out of your comfort zone. He's right you know.
• There are some excellent fabric shops along Queen St. W., in the few blocks west of Spadina. I'm not sure if malongs require special fabric, but there's a good chance you'll find what you need in there (and, if not, some good leads on where to track it down). Take a malong with you when you go and you'll have much better luck explaining what you want.
• Craislist is a great resource for finding things. A quick search for mannequin turns up a few that might work for you (like http://toronto.craigslist.org/clo/193412155.html, though lacking legs). There's also a "wanted" section, so you could post a request for a proper one in there. You would likely also find people who could make malongs for you (i.e.: a "Production Team") if you wanted to focus on the design and order taking aspects.
• The Shopify folks out in Ottawa (who are awesome and part of the barcamp crew out there), have a great solution for setting up a simple ecommerce store, which we're about to use it to sell torcamp t-shirts. Although it may offend your open source sensibilities, check it out as a possibility.
• Last thought: this is a low risk opportunity with a potentially high reward. All you really have to do is set up a website, print some business cards, and see what happens. Your worst case is that no one is interested and you spent some time building a site, and your best case is that it takes off wildly and you end up enthroned on a global fashion empire :)

Good luck!

"How many geeks does it take to..." is a standard joke whenever my barkada (close group of friends) in the Philippines gets together. Just like last year, they celebrated my actual birthday with a tele-party. Instead of hanging out at some wireless cafe in Glorietta, they trooped over to my parents' new place, bringing flowers for my mom. (Awwww! After all, she did all the hard work on my zeroth birthday!)

It took me a while to get my side up and running. I hadn't figured out how to set up sound under Ubuntu, so I booted to Microsoft Windows. Troubleshooting a network connection in a Japanese language operating system was Not Fun, though. Through trial and error I figured out that I needed to disable the firewall. Then I realized that the network was blocking my MAC address because it detected a duplicate registration. The network had worked under Linux because I'd cloned the MAC address for my Lifebook onto my Vaio, but I hadn't set it up under Windows. I switched back to copy the MAC address and then figured out how to set the MAC address under Windows (again, still working in Japanese). Skype kept crashing, too, which was decidedly not fun.

So we decided to go with Yahoo Messenger. My friends set up the wireless router and got three laptops on the network. It's a good thing, too, as we needed all three just to keep up with the chatter! We set up the webcams and made funny faces at each other. There was also that interesting bit with the identity musical chairs. Heh.

It was so nice to see and talk to my friends again. I so miss them and my family. Iba talaga ang barkada. I guess Canadians might know what it's like. Still... Maybe it's just the people I know or the culture here, but it still doesn't have quite the same feel as our hell-or-high-water crazy-as-anything barkadas with gimmicks and dramas and in-jokes galore. I miss my friends back home, and I love them them to bits!

Clair and Peppy blogged about the party, too. Check out their stories!

On Technorati: barkada, friends, philippines, party, birthday

I watched a documentary about the difficulties domestic helpers face when they reunite with their families after years apart. "When Strangers Meet" - it's available at the Canadian Film Board.

I want to watch a documentary on techie migration, too. I'd love to help make that happen.

On Technorati: philippines, filipino, overseas, ofw

My mom sent two more malongs through Von Totanes. Slowly building a malong collection and coming up with different ways to wear it. When I go home, I should learn the kappa kappa malong dance... ;)

• More of my malong pics
• Malong-related blog entries

On Technorati: malong, philippines, fashion, clothing, culture, filipino, filipina

He dresses the First Ladies in fabulous ternos. What about the common tao?

I wonder what can I do to get in touch with him and to convince him to give it a try. Hmm. Something to work on every now and then...

On Technorati: philippines, fashion, clothing, culture

E-Mail from Richi's server

One of the good things about Canada is that I can wear funky ethnic outfits. I invariably get complimented whether I'm at a geek get-together or a fashion boutique. I stand out in a crowd. It gives people something to talk to me about, which has led to quite a few interesting conversations. This is great when I'm among strangers, as I don't have to chat people up - people come to me!

My favorite ethnic outfit is the malong, a tubular piece of cloth frequently embellished with batik designs or embroidery. I love it for its versatility. Not only can it go from casual to formal and back again, but I can also make it a skirt or a dress or a bag with just the strategic repositioning of safety pins.

This malong:

1. Slip into the malong's tube and hold it so that the extra part is to your right.
2. Loop the extra part behind and over your right arm.
3. Fasten the part to both sides of the tube using a safety pin.
4. Pin the fold to the opposite side.

Granted, I'm making things up as I go along. I don't even have the vocabulary to describe what I'm doing. <laugh> I'll just have to record a video sometime.

I've seen only one other person wear a malong regularly, and she was one of the hippest dressers in Ateneo de Manila University. I have three full malongs and two skirt-type malongs, which could probably double as short dresses in a pinch. I want more!

Promoting traditional Filipino costumes is one of my little crusades. I think we don't give our culture enough credit, and we don't have nearly as much fun wearing traditional outfits as we could. I love wearing my terno, and wish I had a more casual version that I could wear during summer. I'd wear a Maria Clara if I had one, full skirt and all. I would love to wear the Ifugao belt with the cute pompoms and the tapis with intricate weaving. And I want to discover all the other costumes that have sprung out of the multifaceted culture of an archipelago.

I'd also love to have suits with ethnic accents, whether it's in terms of materials (I miss my barong dress!) or embellishments such as weaving or embroidery. Does anyone know a fashion designer in touch with the Filipina soul? I can't afford an entire wardrobe of custom-made suits, but I don't mind slowly accumulating pieces of quality. (Very slowly, given my graduate student budget!) I want to promote Philippine culture, and this will be a lifelong endeavor.

I'm Filipina, and I want people to know it. I want people to think of Filipinas as not just domestic helpers or nurses or potential wives. I want them to think of Philippine culture as not just Western-aping blandness but rather something richly textured. My body is my billboard, and I want to be a walking advertisement for what is beautiful about my home.

• Previous malong entry
• Wikipedia: Malong
• People who linked here: Filipino Librarian

On Technorati: fashion, philippines, clothing, malong, culture

I love wearing ethnic clothes. Traditional outfits are hip enough to pass off as casual but dignified enough to go formal, possible with a little creative re-pinning. I love wearing batik-dyed or embroidered malongs, the simple tubular skirts that can be turned into dresses and sashes and sleeping bags depending on need. I love wearing my butterfly-sleeved terno and wish I had one that looked less formal. The gold-threaded cream blouse makes it too dressy, but I wear it anyway!

Of all the costumes I wear—from hacked computer T-shirts to flowing skirts to jeans and a tee—I like the traditional ones the most.

Thanks, Mom, for sending me two more malongs and a few black tops! Thanks to Pavel and Emily for bringing them from the Philippines! I want more outfits...

On Technorati: fashion, philippines, clothing, malong, filipino, filipina

I had such a strong reaction against his ideas that I had to stop myself from being frustrated. I recognized that I felt he didn't understand what unconferences were about. I also recognized that I couldn't yet articulate the differences between unconferences and conferences in a way that would make the changes and benefits clear. I was frustrated, yes, but I was frustrated with myself for being unable to figure out how to hack unconferences into Filipino culture without turning the event into yet another thing that divides speakers from audience instead of creating a community of participants.

I knew Dominique wanted to help me think things through, but the strength and irrationality of my reaction made me realize that I needed to first think things over with people who know the unconference culture and who may have insights into helping a new community adapt.

I need more insight from people like Chris Messina and David Crow. How does one hack unconferences into a society's culture? How can I help people go from a strongly hierarchical culture to a flatter one? Must ask Don Marti, too...

I don't have answers. I don't even know where to start. One good thing is that I can recognize when I'm hitting a wall, though. When I heard Dominique repeat his suggestion for inviting talks from outside disciplines and I knew I just couldn't listen well enough to do him credit, I thanked Dominique for sharing his thoughts and confessed my inability to discuss things further at this time. I need to talk to the others first. I need to figure things out.

You know, it's just _so_ tempting to not think about how to hack something like unconferences into Philippine society. It would be so easy to just enjoy the fruits of other people's labor in a tech culture that's starting to take off. But I want to bring these ideas home...

And you know what? Maybe I don't need to figure out how to get people out of their chairs and into the conversation. Maybe I can focus on just meeting the Web 2.0 entrepreneurs, the connectors who are reaching out to me and to each other. I'd like to meet them in person and get them to talk to each other. Maybe I don't have to think about doing that this August. Maybe I can do that this December, if I can afford to go home.

I don't feel bad about being asked tough questions. I feel bad about not knowing the answers and not even being able to explain why something doesn't feel right. I just need to talk to more people and try more things in order to figure out what to do.

And I seriously need hot chocolate and a hug, but that's just because I'm feeling all lost again... I'll try to postpone thinking about it until Friday, as I'm booked until then.

On Technorati: :(, purpose, philippines, barcamp, unconference

Random Japanese sentence: うちの猫って甘えん坊で、どこでも私のあと着いて来るのよね。 My cat is such a baby, she follows me around wherever I go.

(Incidentally, Joey's from Manila, and he now works at Tucows in Toronto.)

On Technorati: philippines, geek, entrepreneurship

Random Japanese sentence: 猫がネズミを嗅ぎつけたようですね。 Seems like the cat had the wind of a rat.

Here's another victory we can be proud of. Tell your friends about it. A team of Filipino MIT students headed by Illac Diaz won the Grand Prize for the US$ 100K MIT Entrepreneurship Competition's development track for their business, CentroMigrante, Inc. Read on.

Their project, focused on a business model for social entrepreneurship in the Philippines, beat out several other amazing ideas. Impoverished people in developing countries leave their rural hometowns and flock to urban areas to seek employment but are usually unable to afford decent lodging while searching and waiting for jobs. In the Philippines, as many as 1 million Filipinos a year spend up to 3 months away from their home provinces and in Manila's port areas looking for jobs as seafarers, most of them living in shanties under depressed and undignified living conditions. CentroMigrante Inc. combines developmental architecture with a self-help business model to offer a sustainable solution that provides clean, safe and affordable urban housing for such indigent, transient job seekers.

The MIT $50K Entrepreneurship Competition is designed to encourage students and researchers in the MIT community to act on their talent, ideas and energy to produce tomorrow's leading firms. Now in its 16th year, the Competition has awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and business startup services to outstanding teams of student entrepreneurs who submitted business plans for new ventures showing significant business potential. The refinement process of the Competition, its network of mentors, investors and potential partners, and the cash prizes awarded have helped many of these teams to act on their dreams and build their own companies and fortunes.

The MIT Entrepreneurship Competition provides teams who enter with valuable resources in the following areas crucial to successful entrepreneurship:

• Networks of world-class entrepreneurs, investors, and potential partners
• Mentorship by successful and seasoned professionals
• Content rich feedback on their business model from world class entrepreneurs, investors, and professional service providers on our Judging [panel?]
• Teambuilding opportunities to create a winning team of founders
• Broad media exposure and PR buzz

See attached photo or at:

http://mit100k.net

Way cool!

E-Mail from Harvey V. Chua

On Technorati: philippines, entrepreneurship, business

Random Japanese sentence: 休暇中、近所の人がうちの猫の世話をしてくれた。 While we were on holiday, a neighbor took care of our cat.

sa mga hilig ug web/2 one page lang na guide; gamit kaayo.. http://www.vipedio.com/roman/blog/20culture_full.html

sa mga hackers ug novell fans http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=1003

The first link is a quick guide to typical Web 2.0 interface stuff. http://msippey.tadalist.com/lists/public/155420 is an even shorter list. ;) (Heh. Also read http://blog.unitedheroes.net/archives/p/2051/ )

I read KLUG every so often even though I can't understand Bisaya... =) It's fun, and I've found a number of interesting people that way. For example, Botp Peña (who posted these links) conducts free Ruby on Rails training, and it looks like Botp Peña is also interested in entrepreneurship...

On Technorati: web2.0, entrepreneurship, philippines

E-Mail from Botp Peña

Random Japanese sentence: ボップ・ボップ・キャット・ボップ。 Bop, bop cat bop.

On Technorati: web2.0, philippines

Random Japanese sentence: 秘密をばくろするのは、心理的に最も効果のある時である。 It is the psychological moment to let the cat out of the bag.

if you're interested to learn ruby, i can provide training session for free. just provide the place and at least 10 people to join. dili nako kaya tudlo isa-isa. ma-luoy mo. dapat naa whiteboard (kung wala projector), mga desk/silya, printer para sa handouts/exercises, and notebooks or desktops na ma-gamit ninyo ug nako (wala koy notebook, sorry). Also, dapat naa mo programming background (any language will do. di nako gusto lurat inyo mata. dapat naka-smile pirmi). i prefer to hold trainings monthly/semi-monthly lang kay para dili kaayo ko hago. one training session will cover the whole day (puwede sab ma-hangyo half-day)

• Peña, Botp (botp AT delmonte-phil.com)

E-Mail from Peña

On Technorati: ruby, philippines, geek

Random Japanese sentence: 私はあの店で猫を買った。 I bought a cat at that shop.

 *explodes with glee*

Thanks Ate! That just made my day. I can't wait to get to learn from real geeks (I've been missing out on so much...*sigh*).

("Ate" = older sister, also used as a term of respect)

He then went on to describe the .NET coding he's doing as part of his internship. Winston mentioned the rapid start training program that his company does so that new grads can be brought up to speed on open source. =) That sounds like a great way to get into fun and interesting work! winston.karma++.

On Technorati: geek, philippines