Purple is Coming Your Way!

Last night, Yahoo! Philippines officially unveiled the Purple Hunt at the Ayala Museum. It is a campaign that aims to empower Pinoy passions by encouraging the Filipino's creativity, innovativeness and drive to excel in whatever field they take interest in.

Purple is the New Black

Why the color purple? Because it is the color that best reflects one's individualism, the color that showcases one's spirited self. It is the catalyst that motivates a person to bask in her creativity and to take the road less traveled. It is also Yahoo's corporate color.

The Purple Hunt

It is Yahoo's version of a treasure hunt with a purple twist. Interesting insights about the web and the Philippines will be uncovered through the Yahoo! Purple Hunt micro-site. Participants will be asked to solve online clues and find items located around Metro Manila.

Log on to the Yahoo! Philippines' front page (http://www.yahoo.ph/) and click on the Purple Hunt to join. The fun begins on June 02, 2009 and culminates on July 25, 2009.

The Prizes at Stake

Up for grabs are Purple Krispy Kreme doughnuts and other Yahoo! prizes like Canon digital cameras, Blackberry mobile phones specially designed by Pinoy artists, Apple iTouch, Apple Macbook Air, Bose iPod Dock and Sony Play Station 3.

For the grand prize, one lucky purple hunter will drive away with a one-of-a-kind Honda Jazz car sporting purple artwork created by WeWillDoodle.

Personally, I am salivating over the "purplized" Apple Macbook Air and the Blackberry Storm. Wouldn't you want them for yourselves?

For purple updates, please check the official Yahoo! Philippines front page and stay tuned to this blog.

Happy Hunting!

Botanical Garden

After our tour of Wright Park, my friend was stumped on where else to go. The night before, I declined her offer to climb up the hundred stairs of the Grotto of Lourdes as my feet were aching and I was just so tired. As she was enumerating more places to go to like the Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the religious sisters' place where I could buy the best jams etc, I shook my head on each option as they held little appeal to me. When she mentioned the Botanical Garden, my eyes lit up and I eagerly said yes.

I love gardens and flowers, as mentioned before in my previous post about wanting a garden. There's something eye-catching in their vibrant colors, something that manages to elicit serenity every time I gaze at them.

In the entrance of the Botanical Garden were locals in their finery. Tourists who wanted to have their picture taken with them had to pay them though and I refused to do it as in a way, I felt as if I were exploiting them. I mean, why would I allow myself to be part of it when I knew that they were only donning their costume and dancing their native dance in exchange for money? That's commercializing their heritage!

Thus I just took a photo of this, which was in their entrance. I had to wait for like 15 minutes though as their were just a lot of tourists!

Inside, I was greeted with this walkway. Isn't it lovely?

There weren't a lot of flowers though and my friend says I should visit it during the summer, when almost all flowers are abloom.

There's a replica of their native house too and statues.

On one end of the garden is a field of Bandera Española in a color so rare as I only see these in yellow or red. This one is pinkish in color. What a bevy of beauties!

Too bad that when I visited the place, the flowers weren't all in bloom. Maybe I'll drop by there during the summer season so I can see them in all their magnificence. Hopefully this happens next year.

Animal Cruelty

While I was sitting in the steps of a shed in Wright Park, I saw children enjoying themselves while horseback-riding. Parents and horse handlers cheered them on. I was happy for these kids but felt sad for the horses. Not only did they appear thin and poorly fed. Some had their forelocks painted pink!

Maybe the handlers wanted these horses to look like Starlite and Sunriser, the horses in the kiddie show, Rainbow Brite, so they can be more appealing to children but I must say it made the horses look ridiculous!

I love animals. When I was a child, my mom would watch me like a hawk each time I came home from playing because I almost always had an animal with me. It may be a friend's dog or cat that I'd love to play with or some stray that I brought home to feed.

I remember that when I was 10, I saw some kittens crying in one of the bushes at school. On the street was their dead mom that got hit by a tricyle. Worried that they would not be able to fend for themselves, I brought them home, hid them in our backyard, made a makeshift "house" for them and secretly brought them food thrice a day (think of the movie Beethoven, except that these were kittens, not a dog). And since the kittens were too young, I remember trying to bottle-feed them with my baby brother's milk bottle but since they could not suck yet, I had to find a way to feed them. In the end, I had to dip my pinkie finger in milk then painstakingly put it in the kittens' mouths. When mom found out, they were already 2 months old and were eating solid food. LOL.

I love animals. Thus it angers me to see what they did to those hapless horses!