It was in late 1997 or early 1998, during my gap year before starting at university. I had returned from Muscat, Oman to Metro Manila in October 1997 and was waiting for the academic year to begin in June 1998.

2006 was Twenty Years ago. Yeah, let that sink in.

Here’s a throwback to May 2006 when I was a guest on a local radio show. The topic of the episode was “Pinoy Podcasting”, which started gaining popularity the year before. The DJ invited a couple of local podcasts that had hosts who were available for the show on a Thursday night. It also helped that Jay was friends with Ea, who worked at the station.

Somehow, I ended up as an organizer on the Sponsors Team for WordCamp Asia 2025. During the event, a member of the Design Team, Hsu Che Wei / Tetsuya Hsu from Taipei and who is “Also kendama player” would walk around with a kendama around his neck. He often let fellow organizers try their luck and have a little fun with the traditional Japanese skill toy during brief periods of downtime in the organizers’ room. I would glance over for a few seconds of amusement and didn’t give it much thought at the time. I was too overstimulated zooming around the PICC. This was in February.