fruityoaty.com

Dear Faithful Reader… I’m b-a-a-a-c-k from a 3-week blogging hibernation. Ya, this post is over a week late, but better late than never. I tied for 7th (amongst wow 517 blogs cited by 193 writing project participants… mostly in the Philippines) in the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007 contest. Umm, I’m so not gonna muck around in that flak about popularity contests, the meaning of influential, etc. I’m going to gracefully mind my p’s and q’s, salute Janette Toral, and do a little pirouette… Now put your right foot in. Your right foot out. Right foot in. Then you shake it all about… And then you do the Hokey Pokey. Turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about.

I’m warning y’all, this is a l-o-o-o-n-g link love spam. Flee for your lives!

I have a massive round of blog hopping and commenting to do, I promise.

If you’ve linked me up, please contact me so that I can reciprocate the favour.

My sister, “Dessert Queen”… begged me to write a new entry. Very weird.

I could recite my generated speech when I won my Biggest Whiner award, but I won’t. That blog entry actually influenced Misteryosa’s Philippine Blog Awards 2007 Acceptance Speech. Damn shame Shari didn’t get to say it out loud on the podium. Incidentally, it’s really super nice to see that Shari is trying to blog more regularly again… with some lively spark. You go, girl!

My good online pal Jim Caro asked, “How lucky could this blogger get?” I’m the only Cocky Bastard who made it to the Top 10 and also won US $100 in the raffle! Cha-ching! Well, make that US $100 (less $3.20 PayPal fee) converted to Canadian moolah = $99.05. I couldn’t attend the awards night (free dinner!), but Ma’am Janette will ship out my framed certificate.

Lucky? That’s the name of my neighbour’s black cat who practically lives in our garden! Lucky is me finding a four-leaf clover on the day that my Dad came home from a long stay in the hospital: May 11, 2007. Since I was a kid, I’ve always looked for four-leaf clovers, but never found one until that day when I wasn’t ACTUALLY LOOKING for one! (Note to self: try doing the opposite of everything I would normally do.) Google sez that you have a 1 in 10,000 probability of finding a four-leaf clover in a patch of grass. I was cleaning up the front garden… and suddenly… there it was! A few hours later, my Dad called to say he was coming home. Lucky, indeed, eh?

May is when I slowed down in blogging… although I was never a prolific blogger to begin with. Four lame entries in May, four in June, and two (2!) in July. Yeah, Emerging Influential Slacker. Don’t make me question my readers’ taste, please. Hey, it’s no small feat to train one’s fat cat to blog.

7 is seen as a lucky number in many cultures. In mathematics, 7 is the smallest happy number except for the trivial example of 1. In religion, God rested on and sanctified the 7th day. Yahweh is the divine name, whose letters’ places alphabetically equal 70, a product of the divine number 7… Seventy-seven things you need to know about 07. A mystical number.

7:11 AM/PM is the posting time on ALL my blog entries. Coincidence?
____________________________________________________________

Congrats to my fellow Top 10 winners:
1. An Apple a Day / The Fishbowl 2. The D Spot 3. CokskiBlue 4. Make Money Online with a 13-Year Old 5. Culture Shiok! / Menthol Guy 6. Kubiertos 7. FruityOaty / PinoyBlogero 8. .PHLICKS / The AnitoKid Chronikos 9. Gibbs Cadiz 10. Confessions Of A Hopeless Romantic

Congrats to my fellow US $100 raffle winners:
1. Maryrose 2. Sofia for BiSEAN 3. J. Angelo Racoma 4. Heneroso 5. FruityOaty 6. Annamanila 7. Webbyman 8. Marie Casas 9. Mira 10. Jehzlau
____________________________________________________________

Luck had everything to do with my $100 raffle win, but the Top 10 win I owe to all the lovely people who nominated me: C5 @ What’s On My Mind, Zen @ A Zestful Life, Fmontserrat @ Blue Train, Kiro @ Kironobu, Leyteño @ SELaplana, Ann @ Unwritten, Bean @ Culture Shiok! (even though his entry didn’t officially count because it was submitted 4 hrs. and 41 min. too late)… and the following dudes who were kind enough to write testimonials (love ‘em all but the first 3 are my fave blurbs about ME):

Gibbs Cadiz won 9th (theater, travel, movies, music, books, bloviations):

“She writes long, snappy, quick-witted posts brimming with her brand of intelligent chatter and off-kilter humor. She can unearth the unexpected from something thoroughly mundane (Knorr’s vegetable ad as an insidious plot to push MSG, anyone?). FruityOaty looks at daily life with tongue firmly in cheek, and the view she shares with us is wonderful.”

Jigs @ Harsh Poetic Chaos (abstract thoughts by an aspiring chef):

“I think everyone would agree that there’d be no way of me not including this blog. Fruity personifies influential. She has charmed the blogging world in ways only the categorically insane could fully comprehend. It’s just unbelievable! When I first started reading her blog, my short attention span, the enticing call of the 300 movie I was supposed to be watching and the heavenly taste of my Mozzarella Sticks couldn’t pull me away from reading her posts, one after the other. I actually think I’m scaring her because I am such a stalker! Hahaha!”

Kubi @ Baguio Below (a writer trying to stay afloat in a sea of apathy):

“I like the randomness of it all. In Finding Forrester when William Forrester edits Jamal Wallace’s journals, he writes “Where are you taking me?” That’s exactly how one feels with Massa P’s posts, and what a grand way to get lost.”

Jasmin Toral aka “Archeia” @ deviantART (loves to draw and write):

“I like the hilarity. ”

Evilgenius @ evilgeniuses.ca (obsessed with food and photography)

“Sometimes she writes strange stuff ( hmmm… ok maybe most of the time ). Sometimes it takes me a while to read one post (a few times I just don’t get it… HAHAHA). But I flag her blog in my RSS reader anyway. Maybe that makes me strange… but then again, strange is relative. LOL! But she does have posts that are interesting and neat. Besides, I don’t want to miss her posts on food and her “well-fed well-loved” cat Max.”

Joyfulchicken @ chickenmafia.com (chickens of the world, unite!):

“This one is influential because it was most likely created under the influence of some kind of drugs. She earns bonus points for having a morbidly obese cat that looks like Garfield.”

Kevin @ Menthol Guy tied 5th (a smart-ass deep thinker who writes well):

“Okay, I’ve got to admit that I drooled over her Nutella post. From the technicalities of her organized blog up to her writing, maybe this blog got what it takes to own the words “emerging” and “influential”.”

Lei @ Cheese to go with my whine* (it’s a wonderful combination):

“Massa P! I’m such a fan of this blog. She had me at spaghetti.”

Jhed @ .PHLICKS tied 8th (misadventures & transparent thoughts):

“The queen of food porn! Haha! Reading her blog is like talking to her face-to-face. No shits or whatsoever, which I really like. It’s refreshing with a hint of retardness! Haha!”

Shari @ Misteryosa (Best Personal Blog, 2007 Philippine Blog Awards):

“Simply one of my most favorite blogs since… forever. Massa P is the bomb, I tell you all! The funniest thing about reading her blog is that I really have no idea what she’s talking about. ‘Nuff said, haha. ”

Jim Caro @ Blogbastic! (Philippine news, media and current events):

“Massa P was nominated and I believe she deserves it more with the following she’s getting over at fruityoaty considering that she just started a few days after I went blogbastic!”

Abet @ The Day’s Eye: Abet’s Musings atbp:

“… engaging and warmly personal. You can really feel the author’s self ooze in those articles.”

Jehzeel @ Jehzlau Concepts (personal blog of a web developer):

“It’s not only fruity, it’s also oaty! To tell you, this blog is very delicious and nutritious. Hehehe. ”

Tina @ Life is Meant to be Abundant (tagged with a Thoughtful Blogger Award):

“She has a nice blog… she is fruity and oaty. Ok I’m korni na. Anyway… I’m sure she will get a high chance of being in the top 5 now. She should… she shoullllddd!”

Lastly, a shout-out to my own Top 10 picks: Blogbastic!, Unwritten, Jun.anteola, Culture Shiok!, Cheese to go with my whine*, .PHLICKS, JJ (formerly of messagesendingfailed.blogspot.com), yummeh.net, Diventare, and LongCountdown.com.

OMG… DONE. Thanks for the memories. I’ll be back with ______ and stuff.

Adieu for now,

Massa P