A few years ago, Friendster was the coolest thing to ever hit cyberspace. It would have to be the biggest breakthrough in social networking (at least, in my unprofessional opinion).
Currently, though, it's competing neck-to-neck with many other service providers, such as Multiply, MySpace and Hi5, to name a few. Friendster may not be enjoying monopoly anymore, but I guess they could say that they have the singular honor of starting the snowball of social networks.
Enter Facebook.
My account is actually a few years old. I got a lot of invitations from FB buddies, along with the flood of others such as WAYN, Tagged, Hi5, LinkedIn, Multiply, etc. Truthfully, I opened some accounts just to get rid of the very persistent invites that some have been sending (read: to shut them up, hehehe). So my Facebook account was actually born out of that.
Up until recently, the only social networking tool that I've been faithfully updating was my Multiply account. My Friendster is, well, just there. I log in once in a while when there are message alerts, and sometimes to see my friends' new photos, but other than that, it's pretty dormant. I'm no longer interested to accumulate more friends there.
Ah, but Facebook is so different.
In the few weeks since I've resuscitated my account, I've made contact with former colleagues, old friends, long-lost buddies, classmates from primary school, even family members I had no idea existed (and who probably didn't know about me, either!). It also allowed me an opportunity to gain closure on an issue that I had long since buried and tried to forget about.
Now that I've got so much spare time in my hands, I'm quite surprised about the little discoveries I've been making. And I get dumbstruck when I think of how relevant those discoveries are to my life. Even a seemingly inane invite on Facebook now has a reason.
That's probably God super-poking me :)
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
On Patience
"Patience is a virtue."
"Good things come to those who wait."
"For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."
These all pertain to that wonderful virtue that I wish I had more of. And in my Divine Writer's eternal wisdom, He thought that now would be a good time for me to grow some.
It's not easy for someone like me. At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat (which my mother and husband both "lovingly" insist that I am), I'm used to getting my way. Immediately. Whether by coercion or sweet manipulation. I guess that is one of the downsides of being the youngest in the brood. Everybody pampers you and so you expect the whole world to lie at your feet. And you develop a sort of Machiavellian attitude towards life.
I'd like to think that, while my life isn't exactly charmed, I have been very privileged. But now that things aren't going according to my expectations, I vascillate between frustration and anger one day, and depression and self-pity the next. It's not a pretty picture.
But when you find nothing but blank walls, you recognize signs that you would normally miss during your humdrum march in life. And in the overwhelming silence, you learn to listen to your heart.
Whereas before I could only see a closed door, I now see the windows opening.
I marvel at my Divine Writer's sense of humor. I could never be half as witty as He is. He certainly deserves an Emmy.
"Good things come to those who wait."
"For everything, there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven."
These all pertain to that wonderful virtue that I wish I had more of. And in my Divine Writer's eternal wisdom, He thought that now would be a good time for me to grow some.
It's not easy for someone like me. At the risk of sounding like a spoiled brat (which my mother and husband both "lovingly" insist that I am), I'm used to getting my way. Immediately. Whether by coercion or sweet manipulation. I guess that is one of the downsides of being the youngest in the brood. Everybody pampers you and so you expect the whole world to lie at your feet. And you develop a sort of Machiavellian attitude towards life.
I'd like to think that, while my life isn't exactly charmed, I have been very privileged. But now that things aren't going according to my expectations, I vascillate between frustration and anger one day, and depression and self-pity the next. It's not a pretty picture.
But when you find nothing but blank walls, you recognize signs that you would normally miss during your humdrum march in life. And in the overwhelming silence, you learn to listen to your heart.
Whereas before I could only see a closed door, I now see the windows opening.
I marvel at my Divine Writer's sense of humor. I could never be half as witty as He is. He certainly deserves an Emmy.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Warding Off Forwarded Emails
Is there a nice way of doing this to your email contacts?
As the world today becomes increasingly dependent on technology, one of the pitfalls is the inevitable abuse of such mechanisms. A few months or years ago, this took the form of SMS. At the time, it was a free service. People kept forwarding useless messages to other mobile phone subscribers...and so now we paid the price when telcos decided each SMS should be charged accordingly. That step drastically curbed keypad-happy texters to become more prudent in their SMS activities, but of course, certain promos such as "unlitxt" still satisfies their compulsive texting needs.
And now the most logical alternative to SMS-ing would be emailing. It's free, and it's now very accessible to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Or Jane, Mary and Sally.
Don't you hate it when people send you messages with this subject: "Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Chain letter...don't break it unless you want to die!!!!!!!" How utterly childish and nonsensical! I may sound like an old prude but I really hate it.
Come on, do we seriously believe that committing a "sin of omission" (such as deliberately not forwarding chain letters) would really be enough cause for us to keel over and die? I may be a non-practising Christian, but, hey, I have a high opinion of God. He's not gonna strike me dead just because I refuse to forward a useless message, which, for all I know, contains a Trojan virus or a worm that could do some effing damage to my friends' motherboards or files.
I will not play hypocrite and say that I've never done this before. Like I said, it's a pitfall. I did that in the past, but I guess I matured and thought that I might possibly be pissing off my email contacts!
From time to time, I have to be honest that I forward email messages on occasion. But that's when I really think the contents are worth sharing. Otherwise, I don't even bother reading them. I've actually identified a few of my email contacts as "spammers" and automatically delete their forwarded messages.
And FYI, sending forwarded messages doesn't exactly fall under "keeping in touch". If you ask me, I would rather receive a short "hi, just dropping by to say good morning" or something like that, rather than get slews of crappy "Fwd: fwd: fwd".
So there. If you're really my friend, please, you MUST know me better. Don't wait for me to tell it to you straight, and then run back crying for your mommy when your feelings are hurt. Choose the things you share.
Or better yet, GROW UP.
As the world today becomes increasingly dependent on technology, one of the pitfalls is the inevitable abuse of such mechanisms. A few months or years ago, this took the form of SMS. At the time, it was a free service. People kept forwarding useless messages to other mobile phone subscribers...and so now we paid the price when telcos decided each SMS should be charged accordingly. That step drastically curbed keypad-happy texters to become more prudent in their SMS activities, but of course, certain promos such as "unlitxt" still satisfies their compulsive texting needs.
And now the most logical alternative to SMS-ing would be emailing. It's free, and it's now very accessible to every Tom, Dick and Harry. Or Jane, Mary and Sally.
Don't you hate it when people send you messages with this subject: "Fwd: Fwd: Fwd: Chain letter...don't break it unless you want to die!!!!!!!" How utterly childish and nonsensical! I may sound like an old prude but I really hate it.
Come on, do we seriously believe that committing a "sin of omission" (such as deliberately not forwarding chain letters) would really be enough cause for us to keel over and die? I may be a non-practising Christian, but, hey, I have a high opinion of God. He's not gonna strike me dead just because I refuse to forward a useless message, which, for all I know, contains a Trojan virus or a worm that could do some effing damage to my friends' motherboards or files.
I will not play hypocrite and say that I've never done this before. Like I said, it's a pitfall. I did that in the past, but I guess I matured and thought that I might possibly be pissing off my email contacts!
From time to time, I have to be honest that I forward email messages on occasion. But that's when I really think the contents are worth sharing. Otherwise, I don't even bother reading them. I've actually identified a few of my email contacts as "spammers" and automatically delete their forwarded messages.
And FYI, sending forwarded messages doesn't exactly fall under "keeping in touch". If you ask me, I would rather receive a short "hi, just dropping by to say good morning" or something like that, rather than get slews of crappy "Fwd: fwd: fwd".
So there. If you're really my friend, please, you MUST know me better. Don't wait for me to tell it to you straight, and then run back crying for your mommy when your feelings are hurt. Choose the things you share.
Or better yet, GROW UP.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Tagged by Dementia: 5 factoids you may not know about me blogtag game
I've actually been tagged before but I never got around doing it. Today, I got tagged by my good friend Dementia, and so, what with all the free time I have on my hands, now may be a good time to pass on some factoids about moi:
1. I like eating hotdogs fried in butter and sprinkled with sugar. It's good, really. You should try it sometime (given that you have a sweet tooth, of course). The trick is to cook the hotdogs till they're almost done, then sprinkle the sugar just until you're about to take them out of the pan. That'll give it a sweet, slightly caramelized shell. Yum. (note: for some reason, this only works with regular Purefoods TJ hotdogs).
2. Most of my friends know that I went to a Catholic school for my primary and secondary education. What people don't know is the first question I asked when I took up Religion as a subject. I was about 5 years old, we were having a conversation over dinner, and my contribution was: "Mama, why is Mama Mary called "Virgin Mary"? What is a virgin?" Needless to say, dinner ended quite early that day.
3. I almost did not make it into this world. My mom didn't know I was there until about five months into her pregnancy. Then her doctor suggested an abortion because the risks were too high; she just had two major kidney operations and had an artificial ureter. There was a possibility that we would both die. My mom refused and signed a waiver, to absolve that Makati hospital from whatever responsibilities. Funny how they (hospital) never thought about their moral obligations. And now I'm here...wreaking havoc, hahaha.
4. I sniff each and every article of freshly laundered clothing, just before I fold them. (Don't give me that look...I will not wear them unless they smell like fabric conditioner)
5. I used to be a lefty but my parents "corrected" it and now I'm a righty. However, it is still apparent, in that I use my left hand for things that require force (such as opening a bottle of soda). It also shows in my target shooting, as I am cross-dominant (I hold the gun in my right hand but look at the target with my left eye).
So there are my factoids. And here are the rules of the game, copy-pasted from Dementia:
1) Once you are tagged, you have to give 5 factoids about yourself that other people may not know about you.
2) You have to acknowledge who tagged you by putting the name, alias or blogsite of the tagger on the subject of your blog, together with the title of the blog game. To illustrate, your title should appear like so..."tagged by iluzionada: 5 factoids you may not know about me blogtag game"
3) You have to enumerate 5 factoids about you that people may not know. These could either be personal stuff, embarrasing moments in your life, weird habits, a funny pet name and so on and so forth.
4) You have to tag three other bloggers to do the same. To do this, you have to call them out in your blog and make sure they get the message by however means necessary. (Suggest that you comment in their blogsite, or send them a text or email. Show them your blog and hope that they keep this rolling.)
5) Once a blogger has been tagged, then he or she can no longer be tagged again.
And now, the responsibility to keep this game going falls on these three friends:
http://teopaco.multiply.com
http://purplewalrus.multiply.com
http://19sodashop.multiply.com
1. I like eating hotdogs fried in butter and sprinkled with sugar. It's good, really. You should try it sometime (given that you have a sweet tooth, of course). The trick is to cook the hotdogs till they're almost done, then sprinkle the sugar just until you're about to take them out of the pan. That'll give it a sweet, slightly caramelized shell. Yum. (note: for some reason, this only works with regular Purefoods TJ hotdogs).
2. Most of my friends know that I went to a Catholic school for my primary and secondary education. What people don't know is the first question I asked when I took up Religion as a subject. I was about 5 years old, we were having a conversation over dinner, and my contribution was: "Mama, why is Mama Mary called "Virgin Mary"? What is a virgin?" Needless to say, dinner ended quite early that day.
3. I almost did not make it into this world. My mom didn't know I was there until about five months into her pregnancy. Then her doctor suggested an abortion because the risks were too high; she just had two major kidney operations and had an artificial ureter. There was a possibility that we would both die. My mom refused and signed a waiver, to absolve that Makati hospital from whatever responsibilities. Funny how they (hospital) never thought about their moral obligations. And now I'm here...wreaking havoc, hahaha.
4. I sniff each and every article of freshly laundered clothing, just before I fold them. (Don't give me that look...I will not wear them unless they smell like fabric conditioner)
5. I used to be a lefty but my parents "corrected" it and now I'm a righty. However, it is still apparent, in that I use my left hand for things that require force (such as opening a bottle of soda). It also shows in my target shooting, as I am cross-dominant (I hold the gun in my right hand but look at the target with my left eye).
So there are my factoids. And here are the rules of the game, copy-pasted from Dementia:
1) Once you are tagged, you have to give 5 factoids about yourself that other people may not know about you.
2) You have to acknowledge who tagged you by putting the name, alias or blogsite of the tagger on the subject of your blog, together with the title of the blog game. To illustrate, your title should appear like so..."tagged by iluzionada: 5 factoids you may not know about me blogtag game"
3) You have to enumerate 5 factoids about you that people may not know. These could either be personal stuff, embarrasing moments in your life, weird habits, a funny pet name and so on and so forth.
4) You have to tag three other bloggers to do the same. To do this, you have to call them out in your blog and make sure they get the message by however means necessary. (Suggest that you comment in their blogsite, or send them a text or email. Show them your blog and hope that they keep this rolling.)
5) Once a blogger has been tagged, then he or she can no longer be tagged again.
And now, the responsibility to keep this game going falls on these three friends:
http://teopaco.multiply.com
http://purplewalrus.multiply.com
http://19sodashop.multiply.com
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