EMPRESSOFDRAC.COM, A Media Blog

From the people who brought us HOBCON (June 2009) and Satin Eclipse (November 2009), here’s another cosplay and fashion event that would surely captivate the hearts of all cosplay and anime fanatics here in Cebu: Cane Events’ Ai (Love).

Ai (Love) will be held in Parkmall, Mandaue, Cebu this 21st of February.  Click here to check the cosplay competition guidelines, or visit Cane Events for more details.

CBS was invited to attend the MusicFest 2010 Press Conference (with Kris Allen, Jabbawockeez and Boyce Avenue) last 4th of February at SM Northwing Atrium.  Press people from different corners of the city flocked the venue to welcome and interview the international stars who just finished their concert a few hours ago.

Click here for more photos.

(Artists Profiles)

About KRIS ALLEN:
An American singer-songwriter from Conway, Arkansas, and the winner of the 8th season of American Idol. Prior to Idol, he self-released a 2007 album entitled Brand New Shoes.

Allen`s Idol coronation song, “No Boundaries” and his version of “Heartless” both charted within the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. Allen`s post-Idol self-titled album was released on November 17, 2009, through Jive Records. The album debuted at #11 on the U.S. Billboard 200 shifting over 90,000 copies. The album`s lead single, “Live Like We`re Dying”, was released on September 21, 2009, and has peaked at #30 in the U.S.

BOYCE AVENUE:
The debut album, titled “All You’re Meant To Be,” was released by Boyce Avenue on March 25, 2008. All of the songs were mixed by Austin Deptula (Eisley, New Found Glory), and the entire project was mastered by Rodney Mills (Pearl Jam, REM, Sheryl Crow). Since the album`s release, it has been written about in CNN Money, the Kings of A&R, and in other press, its songs have been featured on various MTV shows, and the band has established itself as one of the top 8 Artists of All-Time on YouTube, with over 90 million hits. Most recently, “All You`re Meant To Be” has been licensed for sale nationwide in the Philippines through MCA Music, and is on path to Gold status. On the strength of the band`s touring success in the United States and the Philippines, the band is poised to launch a worldwide tour in 2009.

JABBAWOCKEEZ
JabbaWockeeZ is an all-male hip-hop dance crew from California who gained fame by appearing on the first season of America`s Got Talent, and later becoming the inaugural winners of MTV`s hip-hop dance competition America`s Best Dance Crew. The group name is derived from the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky.

Thanks to Miss Jaja Chiongbian of BIGSEED MEDIA & MARKETING SOLUTIONS (PRESS CONTACT for Fearless Productions in Cebu) for the invitation.

Sashi Buri! Do you know that your most beloved Facebook was created by a 20 year-old geek in his college dorm (5 years ago), and a movie about it will be released this year starring no other than Justine Timberlake?

Well, if you are reading this post, it’s 99.9 percent that you are a Facebook user and you are somewhat curious with the title above.  The only thing you and I know is that, Facebook is the best social networking site ever existed in this friggin’ universe.  And you know that I’m not making a baseless statement.  I can attest to this and I can personally go into detail why Facebook is the most superior social networking site in the world wide web.

Aside from the usual social networking features (well, they are really not usual but I will go into details about this in my next post), there is this main factor which makes FB superior among other social networking sites.  I’m referring to TOUCH.  Touch is a term in psychology which is parallel to ATTENTION.  From infanthood to adulthood (an even from conception), the human consciousness always craves for this kind of warmth and bliss.  Everyone loves attention.  Well, not necessarily to become the center of it, but attention from the people they treasure like friends, lovers, family members, and the likes.  Most children who lack attention have high probability of becoming rebellious and tend to develop self hate and low confidence when they grow up.

So, what is the physical or rather virtual manifestation of attention in Facebook?  We can start with its “like” feature.  Believe it or not, you can’t find this feature in other social networking sites.  FB pioneered the use of the “like” button that enables users to like theirs or other users’ statuses, photos, notes, posts, quizzes results, and all activities published on their newsfeeds and walls.  This button looks like any other button out there but if you will examine it closely, it is actually one of the reasons why most FB users are active and love to share their online activities with friends.  If your status is being liked by your friends, it’s a positive form of attention and you will surely post another one again and again.

Another feature that triggers the manifestation of attention is the “tag” feature. If you found out that someone tagged you in his/her note (or post, or photo), the very first thing that would come into mind is that, that person remembers you and he/she wanted to share something with you.  Being tagged would give you a feeling of belongingness and can actually hype up your self-esteem.  Being tagged means that the person who tagged you has given an ounce of his time in paying attention to who you are.

The last feature that would make a complete combo to the features I mentioned above, is the “comment” feature.  This is rather a common one, but it is only in FB wherein you can comment in every activity your friends published (on their walls or newsfeeds).  Just like the like button, comments are one of the strongest manifestation of attention you can get after posting your activities on your wall.  But, it could result to positive or negative reinforcement.  Unlike the like button which only gives positive reinforcement, the comment feature can actually affect your temperament especially if the comments are bashful and indifferent, and contain personal attacks.  This is actually the form of attention that most users wanted to avoid.  Uhmn, well, there are actually deviant ones.  These are FB users who would do everything to anger or irritate anyone in their networks just to gather lots of comments.  They are called KSP (Kulang Sa Pansin).

Conclusion: Like button + tag + comment = The FB Attention Combo.

Ja Mata Ne!

Photo by Atty. Ethelbert Ouano

There’s a new pizza house in town and it is located in the newly built lifestyle district  in Juan Luna Avenue.  Brasco Pizza & Pasta invited CBS to check their newly opened pizza store, housed inside the sophisticated building of The Gallery.  Ingrid, the sister of the owner, was the one who personally entertained us.

Brasco Pizza & Pasta is owned by Ingrid’s brother, Brian Espina.  Brasco is not actually an Italian word and it actually means Brian’s Aspirations and Company.  Brasco doesn’t only offer pizza and pasta, but home-made ice cream and desserts as well.

It’s their Crazy Bliss dessert which has surpassed my expectation.  It is a hot brownie topped with home-made vanilla iced cream.  The combination of these two luscious palatable mixtures is sweetly unforgettable.  La Marea’s version fades in comparison.

Photo by Atty. Ethelbert Ouano

Other than that, we also tried their Brasco (a must try pizza), Meaty Spaghetti with Pepperoni, Pasta with tomatoes and aligue (pasta with tomato sauce and and crab roe), and Four Seasons.  (I love their Pasta with tomatoes and aligue.)

Brasco’s thin crust pizza comes in three sizes: Big (10″), Bigger (14″), and Biggest (20″).  Each pizza toppings is Brian’s original recipe which he studied and researched for four years.  This goes as well to all their home-made desserts in the menu.

At the later part of our pizza trip, Brian came and told us why he ventured to a Pizza business.  He said that he’s a pizza lover himself, and it’s his dream to build a pizza house.  Since his family is already into the food industry (his parents are the owner of MyJoy formerly known as McJoy), it’s not that difficult for him to start one.

Brasco Pizza and Pasta is located at The Gallery, San Jose dela Montaña/Juan Luna Avenue, Mabolo, Cebu City, in front of San Carlos Seminary and IPI.  They accept delivery, and you can contact their store thru these numbers: 5057924 and 5114018.

Photo screen shot from Neo’s website.

That’s the very first question that popped up in my head when Nancy Cudis and Max Limpag of Sunstar News invited a few CBS members to attend the product launching of Neo’s EDGE laptops, the thinnest laptop/netbook in the country.  The EDGE is 0.87 inch thick while MacBook Air is 0.76.  Basing from this single specification, it is obvious that the latter is thinner.  But, the thickness is not really that important.  What I’m up to is how functional and economical it is.

While some people would definitely prefer MacBook Air because of its unquestionable functionality, many would still go for Neo’s line up of ultra thin laptops not just because of the obvious reason that it’s affordable, but because it has superior functionality that is at par with those expensive ones in the market.

Why would you buy a very expensive MacBook Air when you can have almost the same functionality and style with Neo’s latest offering, the EDGE series, the ultra slim netbook which has beyond cutting edge mobility features?  With the global recession and all, we must be cautious enough in spending our hard-earned money.

The Neo EDGE line of ultra-portables were carefully designed to strike an amazing balance between utra-portability and performance.  This series has three exciting models that would surely fit the fast-paced lifestyle of the users in the information technology age.

• EDGE Z3265 - Specs include a core 2 duo processor (3 MB L2 cache, 1.30 GHz, 800 MHz), a genuine Windows 7 Home Premium operating system, a 2 GB DDR3 memory,  a 13.3″ High-Definition LCD monitor, 320 GB SATA hard disk drive, Wifi ready with a speed of 802.11 b/g/n, has bluetooth connectivity and 3-G capability.  Click here to read more.
• EDGE Z3260 - Specs include an Intel Pentium processor SU4100 processor (2 MB L2 cache, 1.30 GHz, 800 MHz), genuine Windows 7 Home Basic operating system,  2 GB DDR3 of memory, 13.3″ High-Definition LCD monitor, 320 GB SATA of hard disk drive, has bluetooth connectivity and Wifi ready.  Click here to read more.
• EDGE Z3240 - Specs include an Intel Pentium processor U2700 (2 MB L2 cache, 1.30 GHz, 800 MHz), a genuine Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, a 3 GB DDR2 memory, 13.3″ WXGA LCD monitor, 120 GB SATA (slim type) of hard disk drive, has bluetooth connectivity and 3-G capability.  Click here to read more.

Now, with its consumer friendly packages, Neo EDGE successfully disproves the long running myth that laptops need to be expensive to be powerful and efficient. For more information about this latest product release, click here.  If you wanted to know more about NEO Manufacturing and Services, a Philippine based company, click here.

References: Neo’s Press Release, Neo’s Website