Cordillera Coffee Experience: The Story Behind Their Coffees

Wazzup Pilipinas!

I attended an event at Cordillera Coffee or Cordicoffee’s advocacy, The Coffee AID Jam after braving traffic from a tourism conference in BGC. It was a night of homegrown music and coffee featuring independent musician Tao Aves and Ukelele Manila ambassadors.

Cordillera Coffee serves organically and highland grown pure Arabica coffee from Kalinga and Benguet. It has a unique taste due to the rich soil and unpolluted environment of the Cordillera region, they also have the exotic civet (alamid) coffee which is well-known in the region for strong aroma and good taste. If you are in the area it is worth the trip, they have good concoctions and great dishes such as house specialties, pastas, sandwiches, and toasts. Well-loved dishes include Chef Gene Gonzalez' Cordillera Risotto and new menu item Pinoy Kaya Toast, and home baked goodies like the Cordi tsokolate brownies and tsokasuy (chocolate with cashew) cookies, and their Tablea Arabica cupcakes.

One of the very reason why I attended is that, I’m an avid supporter of our local artists, advocacies, indigenous cultures and products and social enterprises. I heard from cordicoffee volunteers the sad fate of many cordillera coffee growers, some are exploited by businessman and not really getting the fair share, and the hardships of growing coffee in the mountains specially during rainy seasons. Coffee AID advocates fair trade and help support local coffee growers. The event is also the perfect time to sign up as a volunteer for their outreach activities like coffee tree-planting, harvest and processing, as well as community workshops.

Floy Quintos’ Ang Nawalang Kapatid Closes DUP’s 38th Season

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A musical adaptation of India’s greatest epic closes Dulaang UP’s 38th season. Ang Nawalang Kapatid, adapted from The Mahabharata by acclaimed playwright Floy Quintos, with original score by Ceejay Javier, directed and choreographed by Dexter M. Santos, is a re-telling of the epic battle between the Kaurava and Pandava families. The story focuses on the anti-hero Karna, a brave young man who must choose between loyalty to his family or to the state which made him a prince.

Ang Nawalang Kapatid was originally written as a children’s play for the Ateneo Children’s Theater and was first produced for their 2011 season. This new version allows for many more of the complexities of the original material to be dramatized. New arrangements of the original songs were created by Ceejay Javier, whose original works include “Isang Panaginip na Fili”, “Astig”, “Alex in Wonderland”, “Break Away Antigone”. He is best known as Musical Director for Atlantis Productions’ “Next To Normal”, Disney's “The Little Mermaid”, “Carrie”, “Addams Family”. As expected, the new staging will showcase Dexter Santos’ flair for images and movement as seen in his previous works “Maxie the Musical”, “Collection”, “Orosman at Zafira”.

In adapting the Indian epic, Floy Quintos has chosen to highlight the story of family and blood ties, and the conflicts that these bring about. Karna, who in Indian literature is traditionally the anti-hero, is now a young man searching for his dharma, his truth and destiny, while unaware of his true blood ties. The young and energetic cast is made up of the Dulaang UP Ensemble, with a live band. Krina Cayabyab is vocal director.

Financial Data Leads Malicious Spam Hit List for Third Year in a Row

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Spam in 2013 decreased by 2.5 percentage points compared last 2012. Kaspersky Lab experts said this is because more and more Internet users and subscribers are likely becoming aware of these spam materials.

However, Kaspersky Lab noticed that they see more fraudulent and malicious messages appearing and cybercriminals are adopting new tactics to steal confidential data, especially passwords and logins to banking systems.

The experts at Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, have summarized spammer activity for 2013:

• The proportion of spam in email flows was 69.6% in 2013, which is 2.5 percentage points lower than the previous year
• The percentage of emails with malicious attachments was 3.2% - 0.2 percentage points lower than in 2012
• 32.1% of phishing attacks targeted social networks
• The biggest sources of spam were China (23%) and the USA (18%)
• The proportion of spam in email traffic continues to fall. In the last three years, the share of unsolicited messages has fallen by 10.7 percentage points.

Magnus Eventus Mega Job Fair 2014 at Trinoma: A Huge Success and Plenty of Opportunities for Jobseekers

Wazzup Pilipinas!
Magnus Eventus Inc. grand opening of 2014 Mega Job Fair yesterday Tuesday January 28, was indeed a huge success. Attended by 1756 jobseekers, more than 40 employers, event partners, LGU officials namely Councilor Bong Liban of QC District 2 and Councilor Candy Medina of QC District 6, PESO Manager Mr. Carlo Abella, POEA representative Ms. Cathy Magda, DOLE representative Tita Nora and Ms. Angelu De Leon - Rivera the MEI Official Endorser.

During this day, Ms. Angelu De Leon-Rivera also announced the new co-endorser of Magnus Eventus Inc. namely, the showtime Ka-Loka-Like semi finalist, Ms. K Brosas , Jed Madella, Julia Clarete and Chariz Pampengco.

There are a total of 30 Participating Companies from different industries and supported by 10 Event Partners. The Magnus Eventus Mega Job Fair at Trinoma will be only until today January 28 between 10 am until 6 pm.

The Vhong Navarro Case: Are We Feeding You Dirty Entertainment Rather Than Balanced Well Proportioned News?

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Damn! It's currently the blockbuster news that's still scorchingly hot due to more shocking revelations coming out from both parties involved....and also from third parties joining the bandwagon of extreme controversy. It has overshadowed all other news in the Philippines, even the privilege speech of almost namesake senator with the name of "Bong."

Vhong Navarro says it couldn't be rape since Deniece Cornejo and him already had a previous sexual relationship. Apparently, Deniece had performed oral sex on Vhong several days before the "attempted rape" broke out and created a resounding noise all over the Philippine archipelago.

The CCTV footages at Forbeswood Heights condo also seems to side with the declarations of Vhong seemingly making it strong that it was a planned and deliberate setup. Poor Cedric Lee and his minions which includes a Mixed Martial Arts expert and body-builder friend. You guys are the bad guys in this movie.

Now former MTV Philippines VJ, Kat Alano, enter the picture, and blows the story to a whole new level once again. While Alano never mentioned names in any of her posts, Twitter was immediately abuzz with speculation that she may have been a victim of Navarro’s advances. Her strong cryptic social media posts about rape believed to be in support of Deniece,  Kat is now widely believed to be a victim of Vhong 9 years ago.

Sugarhigh: Good and Clean Teen Fun with the Newest Boy Group

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Teen pop never fails to put in a lot of "kilig" factor to the youth of today especially the young teenage girls who's probably also into anime, Glee TV series, and similar cutesy stuff composed of sugar, spice and everything else nice.

Undoubtedly, these are exciting times for teen pop. We see several young pop idol groups sprouting left and right. But who's complaining? Fans couldn’t be so happier! The more, the merrier!!

However, some groups just stand out among the rest and one of the very few is the newest boy teen pop group that's armed with disarming cuteness and the catchiest of songs - Sugarhigh, a quintet of charming personalities. 

Sugarhigh, the newest boy group to make you fall in love, consists of Luis, Daniel, Carlos, Julius and Carl.

Let's start with Luis, the assured voice of the group, steady, talented and reliable at a young age. Daniel, who sings the hook, is all curly cuteness and is the R&B and soccer guy of the group. Meanwhile, Carlos is the low booming voice–tall, brooding, mysterious and is into drums and beat-boxing. Julius is the adorable chinito with a ready smile ready to greet everybody and an experienced model having worked at Hotdog commercials at a young age . Last but not the least is Carl who balances the group with his every guy attitude, is sporty and good looking of course.

D3000: A Smarter Photo Solution Exhibit from Epson

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A 7-day exhibit will be launched by Epson Philippines Corporation (EPC) from January 31 to February 6 at SM Lanang Premier in Davao. The exhibit will highlight EPC’s first inkjet-based dry photo lab: the Epson Surelab SL-D3000.

Epson will leverage its strong experience as the world’s top large format photo printer maker at the event titled as D3000: A Smarter Photo Solution.

Epson’s SureLab SL-D3000 dry lab promises superior quality, low cost per print, improved flexibility, and simpler maintenance for photo print service providers.

This is made possible by the system’s key features as listed below:

· An ultra-reliable, 1440 x 1440 dpi resolution-capable Epson Micro Piezo print head
· A newly developed UltraChrome D6 ink set
· A sophisticated Look Up Table (LUT)

Tabang Tambayan: Makihataw! Makitulong! Para sa Bagong Bukas!

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Makihataw! Makatulong! Groove with the best Pinoy crews this January 31 from 9PM at B-Side in support of our Yolanda survivors medical mission at Coron, Palawan.

Tabang Tambayan is a series of events whether gigs or workshops, aimed to bring together artists and artisans from the creative and music industries to pool together their talents as a means of providing assistance to our Yolanda survivors.

Tabang is a Visayan word that means tulong in Tagalog and help in English. Tambayan is a Tagalog word, translated in english as a comfi (comfortable) place.

Tabang Tambayan is a project by The Silver Lining Project, Primarch Entertainment, SparkMyIdeas and individual volunteers, Kamilla Sumagui and Bryan Favorito.

Vhong Navarro Camp Versus Deniece Cornejo Camp

Wazzup Pilipinas!

"You want a Bugatti?
You want a Maserati?
You want a Lamborghini?
Sippin' martinis,
Look hot in a bikini,
You wanna live fancy?
Live in a big mansion?
Party in France?
You better work, b!tch"

Want to get rich quickly? Aside from trying your luck in Lotto, you could probably consider setting up a church, a school, or join the glamorous world of showbiz.

You could also run for a government position aka Congresswoman or Senator, do a Napoles NGO scam, and lastly, extort celebrities for 2M - Nah! the last one won't work especially when it's a Vhong Navarro you're dealing with!

Now that the number of characters involved in this hot fiasco involving affluent personalities have grown huge, we are expecting a very colorful news drama ala teleserye. Cedric Lee, Deniece Cornejo, Jinggoy Estrada, Laila De Lima, Bianca Lapuz, ABS-CBN, GMA 7, Southern Police District, their respective lawyers, fans and supporters, etc.

Celebrate Chinese New Year at Scream Park Manila

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Have you already thought about where you'll be spending your Chinese New Year? How about at a place filled with lots of suspense and thrills?

Scream Park Manila is the first in Asia with the most terrifying and anticipated new horror theme parks designed for the young and old. This attraction is the first of its kind in the Philippines and Asia bringing high-level, US style Halloween-themed attractions to Manila. Everyone in the Philippines and Asia will enjoy the thrills, haunts and frights that thrilled millions every year in the US.

Experience the horror with the terrifying scare mazes
• Haunted Mansion – Curse of the White Lady
• The Living Dead – Hungry for your Flesh
• Old Town inspired by Vigan and Intramuros– Walking Dead