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This day is the finale of a writing project I participated in a few months ago: My nominations.

During the Influential Bloggers event, my sister and I were asked if we were twins. We get this question a lot — ever since I let my curly hair grow back — which is why I’m actually taking pains to make sure that my outfits are vastly different from hers.

One of the major challenges in my line of work is how to keep myself comfy while looking my age at the same time. I’m a jeans-and-trainers kind of person because I fly from APC to UP to whatever event. The thought of walking around UP’s circle in heels is enough to make me cringe. Plus there are plenty of times when I’d find myself in APC’s art room, dealing with paints, tools, saws, hammers and cutters.

For this event, I grabbed my mother’s checkered shirt, my lacy top, a pair of jeans, bracelets I bought from Wellmanson’s Quiapo and…well, I asked my fashion stylist sister (Alex) if I could use key chains as accessories. She said yes. My design partner, Cris, gave me this Lego key chain and I turned it into a necklace charm. There. Other bloggers may think we are twins, but at least they could tell which sister is which.

Anyhoo…

We arrived early at LeBistroVert, which serves mostly organic food. My kind of place. I thought they were vegan at first but then I noticed that they also had meat in their menu. It’s a small, cozy restaurant quietly sitting at Valero Street.

Alex and I actually wondered how we would fit into such a small place. Well, we managed, since many of the bloggers that participated in this writing project were from various provinces. They can’t easily attend something like this.

We just met Leira of Patay Gutom and Kinney of Manila Shopaholic during the event. 

A plate of honey camote (sweet potato) chips was already waiting for us at our table. Am not quite sure what the soup is; my sister was the only one who got a bowl of it from the buffet.

This was also one of the appetizers. It was brought to our table and, like the honey camote chips, wasn’t part of the buffet. Another dish that wasn’t part of the buffet was this:

And uh…I did not touch this. Neither did my sister. I know Filipinos looooove their lechon, but since I don’t really eat pork, and since I gave my sister a slight scolding for stashing only sinful food in the condo fridge, she kept away from this. (I did wonder how pigs in organic farms are raised. Were they fed organic veggies and given a very zen life?)

Thank goodness, we had a food blogger at our table; Leira ate it. At least the pig didn’t die in vain.

And this is Leira’s dish, actually. I had much more stuff on my plate but she arranged hers so prettily that I couldn’t help taking a photo of it. This looks positively healthy!

Though there were only four of us, we had a lot of fun discussing blogging history and our day jobs. We talked about how we missed private blogging, when we were more concerned solely about journaling our own thoughts instead of being overly worried about what our readers want, PR etc. We agreed that looking at our stats can sometimes be a little bit stressful so…in Leira’s case, she removed hers. And me? I transferred my stats to the bottom of my blog so I wouldn’t see them.

Ms. Janette Toral, the pioneer of this endeavor, gave a more thorough historical account of how blogging shifted from being author-oriented to audience-oriented. I really admire this woman. She was one of the few successful Web 1.0 people who transitioned nicely into Web 2.0. Many of us weren’t so happy with Web 2.0 and had trouble adjusting to the new economy but she was one of the few who remained on top.

With good reason. The woman is a visionary through and through. I don’t think I need to enumerate her credentials anymore since very few people have not heard of her. (I mean, I live under a rock and yet I know of her.)

They served cocktails while the awarding ceremony was going on. Of course, I stuck to iced tea. I know I’m utterly boring this way, but I wasn’t going home with my sister so…

The Top 10 Emerging Influential Bloggers. I learned a lot of things this night, especially about these great blog authors. It’s awesome learning about everyone’s day jobs, really. I always end up surprised.

Well, except when it comes to Kinney, who kept winning the raffles. I notice that a lot of kikay (fashion or beauty) bloggers are into Information Technology. I guess kikayness is our way of coping with the rather cerebral nature of our work. It’s also our way of breaking the stereotypical image of your run-of-the-mill geek.

Oh, and I just had to take a photo of this guy, who also won in the raffle. I forgot what his blog was but his story is very inspiring. He is actually a fisherman and he explained that he isn’t very literate. He taught himself how to blog because he wanted a better life. I like hearing about highly determined people like him. No obstacle is too great when you have this kind of attitude. Bravo!

All in all, I had a great night. I also took home a couple of reading materials written by Ms. Toral herself. Thank you for this wonderful evening!