Bloggers with Bling

I finally met a famous person. For a moment in time, I was within breathing distance of Blogie, a Mindanao blogger so exceptional that fate had decreed him worthy to in turn swap air with WordPress founder and every female blogger’s dream geek charming, Matt Mullenweg. If there is any truth to the new age, self-help, photocopied teaching available in Gullible Alley, my recent association with greatness will prompt the universe to reward me with an equally promising future in the blogosphere.

I guess the positive energies of the universe are taking longer than usual to reward me maybe because it can’t find my tiny corner in its vastness. Either that or the universe doesn’t know enough SEO to give me a lift. Nonetheless, the meeting with Blogie did not disappoint. Surprisingly though, the greatest insight I got from it was not the fact that earning through blogging is more difficult than curing hernia through positive thinking. It was the realization that Cagayan de Oro (CDO) may be missing an identity.

Apparently, there is a big chance that CDO will host next year’s Mindanao Bloggers’ Summit. One requirement is a standard logo for CDO bloggers. We’ve got a fabulous green logo actually but it seems we don’t have the equivalent of Gen San’s tuna and Davao’s eagle on it. Mistress of WordPress themes, ChiQ Montes mentioned that it could be because CDO lacks an identity.



As a Cebuana born in Baguio, ChiQ’s observation seemed accurate to me. My first few years in CDO did not give me a strong sensation of the city’s uniqueness like the scent of Baguio’s pine and the feel of Cebu’s queenship did.



It was only after the meeting concluded that I remembered that CDO did have an identity. Long before it became an adventure capital, long before Emano attached 3Bs to its name (Bloom, Blossom, Boom?), long before it became popular as an open entry port, it was (still is?) the City of Golden Friendship. It is uncertain whether this second name is an intended or an accidental reference to its name, Cagayan de Oro which has a number of translations depending on who you’re asking. It may roughly mean river of gold/ to rake the soil for rocks or gold ore.



Indeed before the city’s hospitality bore a resemblance to the value of gold, CDO’s river sputtered gold. I remember how a former city counselor, who was once my host before I decided to finally live in the city, took gold from the river and fashioned it into two rings, one for him and one for his Visayan bride. When opportunity gave him the chance to leave for an adventure abroad, he gave it up to return to his golden city and his golden friendships.



This is a golden city, a literal and figurative modern El Dorado at the mouth of Mindanao. But because I’m not a creative designer I wouldn’t know how to fit that into a logo. Besides, the gold concept can’t help but bring to my mind CDO bloggers sporting bling bling in gold which is just plain freaky.

*Photo credits to ChiQ, Butiti and that PJoe’s waiter