Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

YouTube FanFest Creator Camp Highlights

Wazzup Pilipinas!

We are proud to have been a part of the YouTube FanFest Creator Camp held on May 11 at the World Trade Center. There were just a very few of us there since the seats are probably less than a hundred and since everyone was allowed to bring a plus one, then that could only mean only around 50 got the chance to be face-to-face with some of the leading local and foreign YouTubers or Content Creators led by Alex Wassabi, Mikey Bustos, Wil Dasovich, Lloyd Cafe Cadena, Erwan Heussaff and a lot more who joined the several panel discussions composed of three YouTube sensations per panel.

Bear in mind that only content creators with a minimum of 1K subscribers were allowed to be part of the YouTube FanFest Creator Camp so everyone there are naturally active in content creation to be able to garner such a number of followers. However, I would be on the modest side since I am only a minuscule of what the others have achieved on YouTube.

I got to meet a few more content creators that nearer my age, and a lot from the younger generations that are still at the start of the Millennials group. I am way beyond 35 so that makes me a little bit out of place among the majority there composed of the youth somewhere around their college levels.

I was surprised that some of them do know me or they probably just heard me ask a question during the Q&A portion of the first panel where I asked the panelist of their thoughts of being more globally competitive if you can fluently speak in English.

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At a press conference held at the Marco Polo Hotel on May 12, just a few days after the hugely attended and very grand Ragnarok Festival held at SM North EDSA Annex on May 7, the officials of Electronics Extreme, Managing Director Kamphee "Ken" Piromward, and Elite Global Sourcing, CEO Johnny Paek, announced that the Closed Beta Testing (CBT) of the returning Ragnarok Online in the Philippines will be on mid June. The registration for CBT is now open for everyone, and is said to be unlimited.

More juicy information and details can be found on the videos we took from the coverage of the press conference, including most of the Question and Answer portion. The special presscon for media and Ragnarok guild members was held that day because we couldn't hear each other during the Ragnarok Festival event a few days ago.

The Ragnarok Festival can be considered a huge success. We got most of the videos during that event and are also uploaded on our official YouTube channel as well as many photos at our official Facebook page. There are just so many that uploading is being done continuously on a daily basis. Hoping for your patience as we try to bring them all up online as soon as possible. There were just so many events that happened recently that we got so overwhelmed with too many event coverage that our Internet connection couldn't catch up.

Mostly everyone was nostalgic at the Ragnarok Festival, especially those who have really played with Ragnarok online since the very first years it got so popular in the gaming community as a MMORPG or a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game originating from Korea. I used to work for Level Up (now called Playpark PH), the original distributor, and I could still reminisce how we truly enjoyed the game. But I believe that these kind of games were quickly in competition with the online action games like First-Person Shooters (FPS) Special Force or Crossfire. I was also divided in playing other online games like Gunbound and other similar online games that makes you think fast and as accurate as possible.

Needless to say, Ragnarok was more of a leisure game where it is up to the player if he wants to keep on going and fight monsters to get loots or just stay in the market place to sell his items.

However, the hype was obviously still in and going hot as evident to the number of attendees that came. There were even reports of others unable to come in due to the limited space at the venue. The organizers couldn't believe it will be welcomed as big as this.

Models dressed up depicting the different jobs was a big hit too. But everyone had their own special favorite especially the boys who can't stop ogling at the pretty face of the priest, and the voluptuous physical attributes of the blacksmith.

From the head gear to the co-splay competition, and a surprising pizza eating competition among guild members, the fans had a chance to participate and win prizes from Ragnarok, including form the raffle draws where the grand prize allowed a lucky attendee to bring home a new Suzuki motorbike.

The event was even made more special with two popular bands playing quite a good a number of songs. Imago with its lead female singer heat up the event first, while Sandwich came in a few segments after. The awarding of prizes plus the grand raffle were the culminating segments that made the crowd roar in delight.

Ragnarok Online is truly back, and we are happy that the new distributors have well-organized plans to prevent the former issues like double standards and other significant issues and problems encountered mostly by the players.

Congratulations to Ragnarok Online Philippines!!

Calauit Game Preserve and Widlife Sanctuary of Palawan: The African Safari of the Philippines

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"Surprisingly, travel to Calauit Island is not so popular, and many are not aware of the existence of the herds of African animals roaming freely in the island. The relative inaccessibility, the lack of promotion, and the high cost of travel may have something to do with the low interest of the people."

The Calauit Game Preserve and Widlife Sanctuary or Safari Park in Palawan, specifically located at Calauit Island, a 3,700 hectare island in the Calamian Islands chain that lies off the coast of Palawan in the MIMAROPA region of the Philippines, is like a spitting image of Africa in the Philippines.

"The sanctuary holds the single distinction as the first successful wildlife translocation experiment in Asia, and it is also one of the eight places outside of Africa that is hosts to African wildlife."

Aside from zebras and giraffes, the game reserve is also home to peacock pheasants, porcupines, sea eagles, wildcats, scaly anteaters, and pythons. Whether endemic or imported from Africa, the animals here seem to be mostly living in a peaceful co-existence. Though the animals are free to roam and make their own territories that they can claim as their own, there exist fighting among some animals ending to some dying from the wounds after the ruckus. Sadly, there were also reports of poaching.

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Thank you to Booze Online for inviting Wazzup Pilipinas to attend the extended celebration of Hoegaarden's win at the 2016 World Beer Cup which evaluates beers around the world and recognizes the most outstanding breweries and their beers every two years.

The celebration was held on May 12 at the rooftop of Manila House located at Net Park in Bonifacio Global City (BGC). The place was a little bit hard to find if you don't know the entrance that's near Green Pastures. Luckily I was told where exactly to find it.

Starting as early as 4 pm, attendees were treated to some craft-making activities along with eco-bags that they can personalize by picking stamp designs depicting ingredients of the beer as well as the Hoegaarden logo. Creativity is of course on your side as it was very easy to come up with your preferred look.

These eco-bags were given at the event registration where they would ask you to sign up. When I felt they were empty and plain dirty white, I knew there will some sort of activity at the event that will make use of the eco-bag.

You will also be getting the air plants (with an almost blooming flower in the middle) that can be placed on a wooden square with threads thingy where you could hang the air plants. They are said to grow bigger and the flower to fully bloom soon. Now, that would be fun to watch everyday as it progresses to become a beautiful flowery air plant. I just hope it survives long for I may no longer be a green thumb.

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The Underground River of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, also known as the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park, is best appreciated when personally seen because most photos do not give enough justice to how strikingly beautiful it really is.

However, I am pretty impressed with the photos seen here done by Professional photographer Collin Sarthou Yap, one of our partner photographers at Wazzup Pilipinas. He did a marvelous job of capturing the beauty of the underground river.

The underground river has placed Palawan in the forefront of tourism after it was hailed as one of the new seven wonders of nature.

"This park features a spectacular limestone karst landscape with an underground river. One of the river's distinguishing features is that it emerges directly into the sea, and its lower portion is subject to tidal influences. The area also represents a significant habitat for biodiversity conservation. The site contains a full 'mountain-to-sea' ecosystem and has some of the most important forests in Asia." - UNESCO

It may be just a short ride, but the experience seeing these wonders of nature is a sight to behold giving it a rightful place on all bucket lists. You should not miss seeing the beauty of the underground river.

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Be sure to check out Burgoo American Bar and Restaurant as they regularly come up with special meal combinations that allow you to save a lot. That's more value for your money when you partake of their special promo offers especially on special occasions like the recent Mother's Day where they had a special treat for moms celebrating the event with their families.

We recently announced their combo meals that was only worth P1,999, a definite big savings compared to buying the dishes individually. I believe the offer was now even worth every peso. So would they be offering another special combo on Father's Day? Wishful thinking!

My family and I have dine at Burgoo for a couple of times already and we find it really not just conducive to eating since they have plenty of tables and seats with enough space to feel more relaxed, but also because there's a lot of interesting stuff hanging on their walls showcasing american pop culture.

Their dishes are also very affordable that you don't really need to wait for any promos.

The spaghetti dish that came with the Mothers' Day Treat matched well everything else in the combo meal with rice, like the four-flavors of chicken, the fries, and of course the ribs! There's also two liters of iced tea so it was really is a great deal.

Wazzup Pilipinas Radio Airs First Episode with VAPreneur Team as Guest

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The members of the VAPreneur team was at Wazzup Pilipinas Radio as our very first guests during the pilot episode. Rochefel, Jezrel and Mas is just part of the entire team offering the VAPreneur workshop to be held soon in Pampanga this May.

The VAPreneur workshop is designed to level up the expertise of Virtual Assistants so they could negotiate for better and rewarding work arrangements and opportunities. It would be like being able to sell themselves better than what is commonly expected or assumed. Most of us do not know that a Virtual Assistant job could be more than the usual perception.

All the while we thought that we would start the show just discussing our plans for the show as a preliminary announcement that we have gone on air, but after our social media announcement about the show, there were already plenty of volunteers willing to guest.

It seems radio shows still has that prestige visible to listeners especially that the show is also going live on Facebook and YouTube livestreams as well as seen on the 8Trimedia site. Of course, we have shared the links of the Facebook Live video so our own followers at our respective social media pages will get to watch the show.

I am obviously so nervous that morning since aside from having less time for preparation since we were just notified a couple of days before, I was also lacking sleep due to my many previous events happening everyday all throughout the entire week. I was even on my way to another event after our early morning show that day.

Wazzup Pilipinas Radio airs every Sunday from 6 to 7 am at DZRJ 810 am and 8Trimedia network social media sites so we are heard and seen on radio, and online at Facebook, YouTube and the 8Trimedia site via livestreaming.

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I may no longer be a kid since I'm way past schooling and have worked for so many years already, but I would always be a kid-at-heart even when I'm older and reached beyond my prime years.

I would continue to be playful and less worrisome since life is boring if you're too stiff to find fun out of the things around you. But don't get me wrong, I am serious with my being child-like with regards to still finding it interesting to play with stuff, especially toys that are specifically designed to be played with.

Yup! I still adore receiving toys but the ones designed for all ages to play with. Building blocks are great examples of toys that would never be just for the young ones. Even the young once can play with them and have lots of fun times. Whether to be collected or played with for several hours, it is fascinating that these kind of toys are ageless. Just like rubics cube, or card and board games, that are even fun playing with even though console games and mobile apps are everywhere. The ball, regardless of sport (basketball, volleyball, tennis, etc., has always been a very flexible toy where we can use our imagination to come up with other forms of play time with it. I see myself bouncing those balls at every wall of our rooms at home endlessly.

The great thing about Funtastic International, a company where we visited its showroom one day, is that they are the ones who designed the toys themselves. They may have patterned some from existing bestsellers, but still they made it a level up above the existing, and matched it with affordability that would be very hard to match by the foreign branded ones.

Wazzup Pilipinas!

Nigeria is a beautiful country from the point of view of tropical nature and African culture. This is a safe decision to combine adventures with a relaxing lay-on-a-tropical beach way of travel. Most students are looking for an adrenaline buzz. Nigeria is a perfect country to get a dose. This is a country of contrasts where you can find architectural beauties like Third Mainland Bridge, fancy hotels and natural beauties like Yankari National Park with its crystal clean wild spa and constant +31C water Wikki warm springs.

Is it a place for students?

Nigeria is a place of interest for every traveler. If you have doubts, you may explore Naij.com and find all the necessary information there. Be it a student, a freelancer or a travel addicted person, Nigeria is a perfect solution for gaining exotic emotions and exclusive traveling experience. The country is not the cheapest place in Africa though. It is a combination of fancy hotels and Couchsurfing solutions like everywhere else in the world. How to save money without being cheated, tour sightseeing places of interest without getting in trouble? This is exactly what makes your heart beat faster during your trip to Africa.

Main expenses

It is nice to have a plan of a trip, especially when you have already bought return tickets. For planning budget, it is important to include:

Flight tickets
Insurance
Airport transport (sometimes it is unexpectedly expensive)
Local transport (bus, taxi, car/bike rental)
Food
Host
Entertainment
Souvenirs

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Over at Barangay Caylaway (Kaylaway) of Batulao at Nasugbu, Batangas lies the Caleruega church and all its glory. Some people spell its name as Calaruega and is often mistaken as located in Tagaytay, Cavite. Just as how we mistaken the Taal Volcano as part of Tagaytay, but in reality it is part of Batangas.

Regardless of where this church is located, it probably ranks lower than the many splendid architectural masterpieces because of its simplicity. But I believe there is greatness in being simple since too much complexity may become too "noisy" or complicated to the eye.

Many have said that the church is "a peaceful sanctuary to meditate and pray. You don't only commune with God but also with nature Albeit going there is an uphill climb with rough and rugged roads, but once you get there, it's all worth it!"

The church is small, but you will feel the solemnity and serenity of the area. However, it becomes crowded when mass is going on since not too many people can fit inside.

There's a Php 20 environment fee collected on our way to the church and an entrance fee Php 30 at the gate. Parking is small and majority of which are along the road prior to the entrance. You can rent a trike from the highway to go there. The fare is around Php 50 going in, and would become Php 60 when going out.