Q. Please tell us something about yourself.

A. I'm Aaron Roselo, college junior at the Ateneo de Manila. I'm taking up *takes a deep breath and waves a huge banner* Interdisciplinary Studies in Management Information Systems and Information Design. My original ambition in life was to be an economist like my parents but God never gave me the talent to even pass basic college algebra (I have a minor degree in Math 11, diploma pending in the school department). Instead, he gave me a consolation prize of a larger right brain so I'm stuck being an aspiring multimedia designer, artist, whatever you call it – and I'm not complaining. I'm also a pop culture junkie of sorts and I collect graphic designed tees and caps if anyone cares to ask.

Q.  How did you start to blog? Did anybody influence you?

A. The notion of blogging sprung to me around 2002 or 2003 when my rich friend Kevin Kempis decided to offer me free web space for my personal site since he still had a lot of space he won't use anyway. I totally got hooked with HTML codes, paint and designs which I found intriguing since I studied them in seventh grade.  From initially just wanting a personal website and blogging, which was then a very new medium in the WWW, I decided to try making a 'blog', or back then just an 'online journal,' for kicks. A lot of friends were also making journals so I decided to join the bandwagon and the rest is history.

I remember that I made primitive, manually archived layouts. The average length of my entries would take only two lines or so – say, "I watched TV. I slept today" and that's about it. Time progressed and I eventually got hooked to writing very lengthy stories about my mundane life. Like my friend Vanya's blog title, my blog is a 'vent machine' where I couldn’t care less what people would think about me. Also as John Mayer would have put it, my blog is now 'bigger than my body' and I've gotten into a lot of trouble in the 'real world' for my sometimes controversial entries.

Q. What's the best thing that blogging has brought you since you started?

A. A lot, actually. I'd be lying if I won't say that blogging hasn't brought me popularity – my blog made me an online rock star in my own right. Besides the initial notion of trying to sell myself and my services (not the ones you're thinking of right now), blogging has opened up such a huge world for me, giving me more than what I initially asked for. People I don't know personally approach me at random times and places and tell me they read my blog and I go spaced out for a minute and say to myself…woah. Someone's actually reading!

Blogging got me to learn to appreciate myself in more ways than one. From being an oppressed geeky kid back in high school, I actually became more outgoing through my blog because I was getting all these cooked up thoughts for the world to consume.

Q.  Can you tell us more about the design of your blog and the blogging platform you're using? Are you happy with it?

A. Contrary to popular belief, I rarely mingle with codes. I stopped memorizing those ugly tags and whatnot since I bought a domain and installed the greatest web application in the world, Wordpress.  Because of WP I have been more productive in writing entries because I don't have to manually code stuff anymore, and it's archived somewhere  on my website. As for the design of my blog, I usually rotate my themes depending on my mood and I've gotten job offers and sidelines for it. Design wise, I'd say that I like to experiment with different modes of portraying myself – people call me vain for doing that but I'd say na kanya kanyang diskarte lang 'yan. I tend to move away from the oh-so-dark color schemes that almost every other blogger has and instead splash my layouts with unusual colors that are still soothing to the eye. My blog's unique designs would probably rate as one of the major factors of my readership. Sometimes I even wonder if they come for my daily boring angsty rants about my college life or they're just there to stare and gawk at the colorific photo posts.

Q. Being a blog designer yourself, what do you think are the elements of a good blog design? Are there any blogs you admire for their designs?

A. Initially, blogs should function in the way they're meant to function. My personal notion of a good blog design would be something along the lines in which first, it is can easily be navigated and the text is considerably readable. I'm not throwing in a fight over a lot of local bloggers here but the green text and black background simply doesn't work when you want people to read your stuff. Also, those blinking text and overabundant video and music clips definitely need to go. I personally think that they are hindrances to what should initially be presented – ideas. If one's notion of presenting an idea lies in text language on a blinding background then I suggest you hit the books. Not being arrogant here, but people should actually try to make an effort and try to realize that hey – my blog's layout sucks. Stick to the default if I were you.

As for good blogs, I really like the feel of Markku Seguerra's (http://rebelpixel.com/) blog because it simply works. Someday I want to code and design like him.

Q. Which do you think is more important, design or content?

A. It all comes down to what you want to present. As my great mentor Ali Figueroa told me in his class, neither of the two would be greater than the other because they should always work as a tag team. There are a lot of designers that sacrifice the content of the writers for the sake of the aesthetic pleasure his or her work brings, and on the other hand there are also content writers who don't care how bad their text is placed, or what font size they would use that most of the time they don't really care if the book's font size is 16 or 12 and it makes a lot of difference from a designer's point of view. That's where information design comes in. As humans, we should try to present information in such a way that it would be easily understood and retained in our minds for the longest time. I’d say that my blog is in a sense contradictory to this balance because I love to exaggerate what I place, both design and content wise. Masyado na akong nagpapa-rockstar in a sense, but I'd definitely say that neither one is more important than the other because they should both work to present an idea.

Q. Would you recommend blogging as a personal activity for young people?

A. Definitely. I'm pimping blogging to the world in every single way I can. As one of the younger prominent bloggers in the Pinoy blogosphere I could go on and on like that battery rabbit on how blogging can change your life – because it really changed mine.  I'd tell them that there are a plethora of possibilities that CONSTANT blogging can bring. Ang daming benefits, ika nga ng isang Sotanghon commercial. Not only do you meet a lot of new people who share the same brain waves as you, you also get to improve on things you never imagined. Take it from me, I never really liked reading or writing and blogging definitely changed my perspective on that. It's an experience no one should miss. Write entries, take photos, just do it.

Q. What do you think are the qualities of a good blogger?

A. I guess I'm not really in the position of pinpointing what qualities bloggers should have. Blogs gives off a sense of the bohemian to its readers and writers because it's a free-for-all kind of thing. The sky's the limit when you blog except that you're the one limiting yourself in what you want to read and write about. More often than not, blogs revolve around a certain theme of interest and I guess it really depends on what qualities you're actually looking for. In my case, as long as the blogger actually has something to talk about and people care enough to read it, I'd say that the blog/blogger has good qualities because it delivered the message in a way that was understood – whether it was appreciated or rejected.

Q. Plans for your blog?

A. Although my blog still retains its focus of having my long college-themed entries, I have a lot of things in mind in expanding my blog to more than just that. A lot of friends both online and offline told me that blogging about design tutorials geared for people in our local blogosphere is a yet uncharted territory. I'm having extensive debate sessions with my friend Gela right this moment whether I'm going to upgrade my website's server or not with the increased traffic. With this in mind, I recently started a Photoshop tutorial section earlier last month and it's quickly becoming a hit, given that learning a graphics application such as Photoshop among others is very hard and I'm sharing to the world what I've learned through the years – making blogs and the Philippines a better place to live in. Just kidding. I also had a short-running blog on the Philippine design industry that I didn't get to maintain because I don't have the resources to go to every single exhibit given that I don't have  a car *hints*.

(For comments and inquiries, please email annalyn.jusay@gmail.com)