A couple of major changes have happened to my problogging in the past few weeks. One of them was my choice, the other was dropped into my lap from thin air.

The first, I resigned my post on PlanetEye Traveler, writing about Philippine Culture and Travel. It was just time for me to let it go.

The other one is harder to adjust to. Early this week, the entire entertainment channel of b5media was shut down. About 50 bloggers were given the boot and locked out of the blogs without even the chance to say goodbye to the communities around those blogs.

And so, I say goodbye to Merry Royals. Though it was never truly mine, I built that site from scratch, from the domain name (which I love!) and up. Save for a couple of guest posts, it was written solely by me. And while I understand economics and dwindling ad revenues, the firings came out of the blue and caught all of us unaware. It was hard to believe that five years of SEO, talent and contacts have been thrown out the door. I shed a few tears over what happened, but I’m glad to say I’m now steadily working out the shock of it. In the end, maybe it’s all for the better. There are some top-rate writers in that group, with loyal followers who will (and have!) followed the writers to their own new sites. As one of the writers put it, b5 just might have empowered these bloggers to branch out on their own and finally be their own bosses. And that is always a good thing.

I take many positive things from my b5 experience. I remember the early days of the company, when we were all passionate and excited and were a real community of bloggers. I have good memories of tetris tournaments.

I learned my blogging chops from the best. And, most of all, I made great friends. You’ll learn more about them in the coming days and weeks. We’re all just rather busy at the moment, reorganizing and restructuring our own endeavors. This is one tough (and wonderful and talented!) group of bloggers who are far from crushable. You haven’t seen the last of us, I promise.

MrsG, my friend from the lovely land of New Zealand, initiated Project 365 Days of 2010, where participants will capture “daily snippets of our lives in 2010 through the use of words and/or photos.”

A bunch of our friends are joining in, and I cheer them on! As I already told some of them in our email group, there’s no way I’ll be able to keep up a post/photo a day for 365 days. I know I’ll skip one, or two, or seven days and end up just throwing in the towel altogether. So, I’m not even starting.

But one of my plans for 2010 is to blog more for myself, here in my own little blog. So, I will shoot not for 365 posts, but for the more doable (for me, at least) 52. One for each week. That’s the goal – to have a post per week in this blog. If I happen to do more, then great. If not, it’s OK too. For now, I’m right on schedule, since my last post was last week!

Project 52 coincides with my scrapbooking goals this year. And that is to spend at least 30 minutes every week, preferably on Saturday night, to scrapbook. It’s a Saturday, so I’m off to play with some paper and glue, right about now.

There are a couple of things right now that are high on my want list. One is easier, or I should say more feasible, to get than the other. But the harder-to-get-one is the one that I need more.

First, the machine that “allows people to type with their minds”. Seriously, there have been many many many times I’ve wished that I could just think posts into existence. I have these ideas going through my head; I know how to begin, and what I want to say. The planning out takes just a few seconds, and happens even as I do the laundry, or cook, etc. It’s finding the mental space and time to sit down to type it out that’s the challenge. Too bad the machine is only in its infant stages. Maybe someday…

The other one that I’m itching to get is a new WordPress theme. Every 6 months or so, it seems, I get the urge to play around with colors, PhotoShop and blog re-design. I can’t, for the life of me, design a blog from scratch, but I have great fun tweaking themes.

The theme I’m looking at is a premium (ie., paid) theme. And therein lies the issue. I can’t justify paying for yet another theme when I just installed this one (was it just a few months ago). I don’t really need another theme, yet I think I do because I think Paper Goodness is due for a re-design.

I. Need. To. Exercise. Self. Control.

I finally got around to tweaking this blog’s template. I’m now on the awesome Thesis theme and  love how easy it is to use. I can change a lot of things with just one click! It totally satisfies my need to twiddle with things, without eating up a whole chunk of time.

So now that I got template tweaks out of the way (for now, at least), I thought I’d take you on a stroll of the blogs I currently write. There have been some changes in the past months. Sometimes, even I’m surprised at how much has really changed since I started blogging. Anyway, the blogs…

Philippine Culture

For those of you who follow, or followed, me on Filipina Soul, of course you know by now that it’s been retired. I started on FS back in 2006, team-blogging with my sister Grace. We had a series or two going, plus a really awesome post that generated more than 5,000 comments! (Is that a record? I definitely think that must be a record of sorts somehow.)

Well, Filipina Soul has been retired by b5media. Posts until December 2008 remain at the site, but everything from this year was moved to PlanetEye Traveler’s Philippine Culture site. So that’s where I write about Philippine travel and culture now.

I really like the magazine format of PlanetEye Traveler. I get to share online space with some awesome destination writers. Their photos are often excellent, and the writing lets me see a glimpse of these places that I only hope to visit someday!

I revived the old discussion on the Philippines’ best universities, and am happy to read the highly intelligent comments from many readers. Thanks, guys! Shall we make a goal to surpass 5000 comments on this new forum?

Royal Families

I continue to write at Merry Royals, b5media’s site about royal families. I love love love watching the royals and getting to write about them! They are some awesome people, who do a lot of good with their charities and causes. Of course, the fact that they are princes and princesses, kings and queens (for real!) adds a lot to the mix. Like, come on, who isn’t fascinated by royalty, right?

Merry Royals was born in 2006. I’m very proud of the fact that the idea for a royal blog on b5media was my own. When I started, I didn’t realize just how many royals there are! It’s a treat keeping up with their activities, new babies, and weddings! I love a good royal wedding. There are a couple coming up in the next year, which I’m so looking forward to.

Scrapbooking

I still have the online scrapbooking site, Paper Goodness, which covers scrapbooking products, news and inspiration. The awesome Leirs writes over there for me.

I’ve been a little busy lately, so I’ve not been able to do any scrapbooking. Oh, I sorely miss it! Things have just come up, one after the other, that time is very much in short supply. But I’ve loaded up a stack (or two or three!) of gorgeous new paper, and it’s just waiting for me to get my butt over to my scrapbooking corner. I have a project I really do need to finish, so I’m seeing myself carving out the time soon to sit down to it. If you scrapbook and love to ogle the new products that are always coming out, Paper Goodness is the site for you!

Books

I have just started covering books and the publishing industry at the brand-spanking-new GadAbout Media. I’ve always wanted to blog solely about books, so I jumped on it when the chance presented itself. I always have a pile of books that I’m either reading or want to read. I love the smell of paper, even 100-year-old paper! (I once found a very old geography book at a garage sale, and couldn’t resist taking it home.)

GadAbout is made up of hardworking, ass-kicking people, whom I’ve known online for a while. I am one of 20 core writers (oooh, I’ve always wanted to be able to say that!). Yep, we are a team and we are going to take this baby places!

This Blog

I know that this blog hasn’t received the TLC that it deserves. I hope to change that from this point on. I’ll try, ok? It’s good to have a place to dump thoughts on, quite like a  Pensieve. Anyway, I do like my shiny-to-me template, so I’ll really try to keep it updated somehow.

So, these sites are where you’ll find me online. These blogs keep me busy, on top of regular mommy stuff. Some days, I think these blogs are what keep me sane.

Early this week, I mailed my proposal for a blogging class at the university. The class, if approved, will run for seven weeks and will cover the basics of blogging, WordPress, blog monetization, and SEO. I structured it for people who would like to set up their own blogs for their families as well as for business use.

I’ve learned a lot from more than 3 years of professional blogging. I distilled that knowledge into material that can be covered in seven 2-hour sessions. Granted, there is much more to blogging than can be taught in a course like this. But my hope is that the sessions will help others have a good understanding of blogs and how they can be used, without having to spend the time I did learning the ropes over the years.