Yesterday, I was interviewed by a good friend way back theatre days. Chillz and I met in one of the acting workshop sessions of Gantimpala Theatre Foundation in 1998. After the workshop, we both auditioned for a theatre outfit and later on worked for 2 years in and out of Luzon. Our friendship started 10 years ago when we barely able to improvise and talk to an imaginary character. Well, that was acting and the essence of it all.
The most memorable stage play we were both in was the famous “Noli Me Tangere” which had school tours all over Luzon. Our “Kanser” counterpart then was enjoying its popularity in Manila while “Noli” was conquering the hearts of High School students in Pasay, Quezon City, Makati, Cavite, Bataan and Laguna. We then later auditioned for ‘Florante at Laura”, “Ibong Adarna” and so the list went on.
Here it is:
Chillz: What took you so long? No. Seriously, what was it that made you decide to migrate thehellyoucare to an independent domain?
TH: I thought it was about time. The original blog was a hit. I don’t want to say though that it was huge but one thing for sure, I had good followers, so to speak. Well, a couple of reasons really. For one, having an independent domain will highly identify the blog as solely mine. Searching-wise, the search portal engines have more accessibility to cache and the activities of the blog. Look who’s being technical here, huh? Second, the weblog publishing service where thehellyoucare was in had limited features, well, most of them did, but I was happy with blogdrive it was just that the templates, layouts and add-ons were kind of limited and, customization, was I think, not really customizing the website entirely to your own liking.
Chillz: I noticed that there were changes in your blog. Does that mean, you’re changing the personality of your site?
TH: Hmmm… I don’t want to call it changes. I prefer calling it “addition”. I am not changing the personality of the blog. It still is “fun” and “kalog” and “humurously-naive”. There are additional articles and topics to make it appear more “readable” to my patronizers. The resident topics which are usually funny are for those who have been with thehellyoucare for the last 4 years while the additional topics are for those passers by. I would like to eventually have them as my readers too. I hope with these additions, I am able to make their surfing worth it.
Chillz: How is thehellyoucare.com different from other blogs?
TH: I don’t know really [laughs]. I guess… well, it is more of office humors which evetually “butterflied” to a format as ambitious as it is now. Ah there’s one thing I just remembered, well, since thehellyoucare is a personal blog, majority of the posts are connected to my personal life, which actually makes it different from other blogs under this category. Most of the blogs [their personal blogs] include posts which are entirely not theirs. I am not saying that they copy. I was meaning to say that, let say, the headline and news articles of thehellyoucare are the events in my everyday life. I don’t want to sound self-centered though. It’s personal blog right? I just hope readers get something from what I want to say in words. I make it sure that I write my own article. I interview people. I research. I get opinions. I report. – All translated to this format.
Chillz: What are you excited about thehellyoucare.com?
TH: Bunch of them. For one, I invited someone to be a guest writer for thehellyoucare.com. She said YES already. I am excited about that. I am adding character and personality to my blog. I think, if this is a television show, I would say that thehellyoucare.com format or genre is new and young. I am also excited with upcoming contributions from fellow bloggers [short stories]. What else? Ah, of course, the interviews. I am excited to go out and interview people. See, I guess, it’s kind of different, don’t you think?
Chillz: Cool! How about getting an award?
TH: Thehellyoucare.com is yet to get an award. I ambition that too. But being nominated twice was enough for me, really. And being nominated along with other good reads was flattering in itself. I was just totally overwhelmed. I read all their blogs too. I am a fan.
Chillz: What are the recent achievement/citations of thehellyoucare?
TH: Hmmm… the website and the design, the migration and the addition of categories. I guess. Yeah, they are. Few weeks ago, thehellyoucare was nominated for Filipino Blog of the Week. Unfortunately, I was in a long hiatus when the website was nominated.
Chillz: Any upcoming event for thehellyoucare?
TH: None so far, I just started the website, so it will stay they way it is now and probably will for a considerable amount of time. But in the future, I would like to sponsor community events.
Chillz: Why is your advertisement fee so cheap?
TH: It’s because most of the ads are relative-related businesses like the Airconditioning Repair and Services, Pearl Shake Powders and Spices, the School and GrabMyBags. I could have advertised the products or services for free, anyways. For now, provisions for advertisement are on hold. I am currently working on the demography of the website. I would like to focus on family business first. Family first [laughs]
Chillz: When do you update thehellyoucare?
TH: It must be on a daily basis. Well, I will try. I hope. I should. I ought. But there are categories which are updated on a specific day of the week, like for the guest writer, the column would be updated every Wednesday.
Chillz: What kind of computer/s and OS do you use?
TH: [laughs]. That is, I reckon, was off topic! It’s P4 Dual Core 2.1Ghz 1G RAM 160G HDD Nvidia Gforce 8000 running Windows XP MS OFFICE 2007. This is hardcore.
Chillz: Do you consider concentrating on blogs and internet income?
TH: Oh, No. No. This is purely a hobby. And I don’t think I will be compensated enough by the resources I get from the Internet. No. Really I don’t.
Chillz: How do you promote thehellyoucare?
TH: Rimelda, I don’t promote my website. [laughs]
Chillz: You really know what pisses me off. Hahahhaha.
TH: Come on, what’s with your name that you don’t like about. Ang cute nga e, Rimelda.
Chillz: I’m the one conducting the interview! Going back, last question. Please. What do you want to tell your visitors?
TH: This is so showbiz Chillz! Ok, Uhmmm. Let me… I hope they’d leave their links so I can visit their websites once in a while. I am a big fan of blogs really. I enjoying reading. What’s the term? Yeah, blogworm. Hahahaha. And… uhm.. that they continue to visit and I’d appreciate if they can send in their comments and views and all. There.
End of Interview. 11.19.2008
Now, Chillz has resigned from stage acting [so did I] but still enjoys theatre stuff once in a while [with me]. She is currently in New York strutting her way to the ladder of advertising world. Working on her podcast website, my InternetView would be her maiden issue.
