skysenshi.com

Actually…

Those trophies are not mine. While my anime-gaming website, The Otaku Fridge, did end up as a finalist for the Entertainment Category of the Philippine Blog Awards 2010, it was my absentee sister (of Reluctant Stylista) who had me climbing up the stage THRICE:

1. For when she won the Best Design award.
2. For when she won the Best Fashion and Beauty Blog award.
3. For when she demanded I have my photos taken onstage, with all of the other winners. She actually required me to wear something fashionable, in case she wins, since I would be representing a fashion blog. Wut. So yeah…I hope the jacket I grabbed from her closet would suffice. Hehehe.

Anyhoo, congrats, sis!! I wish you had been there. Even your representative for the raffle, my BFF Cris, enjoyed the momentous occasion.

On to the event.
This was exactly what the organizers captured and projected on the screen when they were showing my blog among the Entertainment category finalists:

I think I heard some of the gamer dudes (finalists and their guests?) gasp when they saw this. That sort of made my heart soar even though I only made it into the final round.

(I actually worried that since I already climbed onstage twice for my sister, that I wouldn’t get to climb the stage for ME. Heh, turns out I was right…but I think Without Wang², the winner in the Entertainment category, well deserved the award.)

This was a test shot, but I also wanted a clear view of the audience.

Gosh, I totally forgot the host’s name but I remember him quite well in that “Ok ka ba, tiyan?” Yakult commercial. This dude is freakishly hilarious!

And yup, he was wearing his slippers and jammies while loudly correcting his script. (“There’s a dangling modifier right there!”)

Manuel L. Quezon III, also known as Manolo, was the keynote speaker. His speech — so erudite and timely — hit it right on the nose. In fact, he inspired us so much that Cris wants to write about the blogging subculture at Sarimanok.PH.

Accepting the award in my sister’s place. We didn’t prepare any acceptance spiels since we weren’t expecting to win.

I did give credit to her boyfriend, Paolo Lazatin, for doing the divine illustrations on her masthead.

Posing with some of the winning bloggers onstage.

Hirits of the night, from the hosts and presentors:

• About travel bloggers being absent because they were traveling.
• About food bloggers not hearing that they won because they were outside having coffee.
• About winners who claimed they were unprepared but were reading their acceptance speeches through their “generic” tablets. (Generic because Nokia was a sponsor. Bwahahahaha!)
• About the audience itching to leave early because they needed to blog. Lots of “stuck on keyboard” jokes here.

Posing with all the awardees. It’s a good thing I look like my sister. She can actually just use this photo and no one would know that it was me up there. LOL.

I was sort of ambushed for an interview and I told them honestly that those trophies were my sister’s. They still wanted the interview and they did ask me about The Otaku Fridge.

Told them that my sister runs a fashion blog and that she’s an upcoming stylist. I don’t remember what else I said; I just recall the grammatical errors I uttered out of nervousness. Haha!

After the event, Cris rewarded me with a late dinner, saying I deserved a treat for making it into the finals. She’s so sweet! =^.^=

Since I actually am battling a fever, she suggested we find a noodle place and ended up at North Park in Makati Avenue.

I asked for prawn dumplings.

And my usual order of “3 Kinds of Mushroom” noodle soup. This was actually the first time I’ve seen this dish served in a cast iron bowl. Then again, this was also the first time I ate at this particular branch.

Cris, for a change, ordered Soy Chicken.

We had a wonderful night overall. I didn’t expect Cris to find herself laughing and having fun at such a crowd-drawing affair. (We’re both afraid of people.)

I’m so thankful to the organizers of the Philippine Blog Awards 2010, not only for picking me as one of the finalists (and giving my sis two awards) among hundreds that competed, but also for inspiring Cris enough that she now wants to write again.