The hills and mountains of Zamboanga in aptly named Buenavista, which means "Beautiful View".

On my 27th birthday

Buenas! I am Flisha Fernandez, a Filipino; firstborn to a prominent newspaper editor-in-chief (rest in peace, Papa) and a Philosophy teacher (now Vice President of Academics of my alma mater); and eldest of three sisters.

I consider Chavacano my first language. I speak fluent English, passable Tagalog, unrecognizable Visayan and am learning Japanese.

I entered school at the age of four, at a nursery called Tanglao. I spent two years of kindergarten, six years of elementary, four years of high school and four years of college at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University. I graduated cum laude, top of my class and top 3 in my batch in 2003.

Journalism and I have a love-hate relationship. I grew up writing poetry and short stories (I even attempted a novel at the tender age of twelve, and I hold my cheesy, unpublished and unread work dear to my heart. ;-P). In high school, I joined The Blue Eagle, our school paper. I won many awards and writing competitions in my time, mostly from my news and feature articles. I failed to garner the top position of editor-in-chief in my senior year, which contributed to my disillusionment with journalism.

A girl on the brink

I took up Computer Science in college, in a bid to challenge myself (Math, next to Filipino, was always my weakest subject) and separate myself from the world of literature. I was quite active in organizations — helping to revive the fading debate society, becoming one of the core founders of the computer society and working as the editor-in-chief of the Beacon Yearbook. After graduation, I found work as a programmer for the local government before returning to my alma mater to become a systems developer and part-time instructor.

I completed two years of a masteral degree at the Ateneo de Manila University. I am currently working as a SAP specialist for Hewlett-Packard.

Gracias con vos otros and I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

*Updated October 2009

Remember a few weeks ago I blogged about Yugatech and Tradeport giving away five iPod shuffles for the launch of the Tradeport forums?

Well, guess what?? Yugatech released the contest winners a few days ago, and I actually won an iPod shuffle!!! Yeah!!!

I’ve joined quite a few online competitions over the years but this is the best prize I’ve ever gotten hehehe. I think it’s karma. I gave the same exact iPod shuffle (except it was silver) to my sister for her high school graduation last March. Now I have one too, in blue! (It’s really more of a violet color but since my favorite color is blue and it’s close enough when the light shines on it in a certain way, why not call it blue?)

Have a look at my new iPod! Hehehe.

Isn’t it pretty? And just because lately my traffic’s been rising (due to Entrecard, thank you very much!) and I’m elated at being able to monetize this blog (due to SocialSpark, thank you thank you!) and I’m feeling pretty (due to Gimmi telling me so, thank you love)…

Hehehehehehehe!!! That’s me right after a bath! I was so excited to use my new iPod I couldn’t wait!

Thank you Yuga and Tradeport!!!

The last time I won anything from the Internet was when I was bloghopping for credits on BlogExplosion. The first time was back in 1999, when I gave a certain website a rave review. I won a book. My (late) father once won an HP printer from the Internet.

Which is why I love joining online competitions. If you’re careful in choosing which competitions to join, then most of the time it’s risk-free and, if you’re lucky, you’ll be amply rewarded. Well, so far I’ve been lucky. And good luck has struck me once more!

I regularly visit tech-related blogs, one of which is YugaTech. Two weeks ago, Yuga posted an e-money giveaway contest, sponsored by Auction.ph. Today I checked back and the results were in, and I won! I get 300 pesos worth of e-money! Yay!

What’s more is that they’ve extended the contest to December 26, so you can actually join the contest and maybe you’ll win, too. Good luck and happy holidays!