Fame is Ostensible: People of the Year Awards

Roar! Oink-oink! 2009 is imminent and I don’t know the natural cry of Ox. But that’s not my concern, for crying out loud.

After the semi-boring revelation of how wonderful my year was, it’s now time to unveil top five people who made their way to eminence in the cyberworld!

As you can see, gaining fame in the cyberworld is relatively easier than in the real world. In reality, you have to get drunk in front of the itchy paparazzi, shave your blond hair ‘til you’re bald without any valid reasons or by not wearing panties in a social gathering just to attract attention. Nah, just kidding! What I’m trying to imply is this: getting the attention of multitude is hard due to emotion. But in the cyber realm, one must not evoke real emotion, for crying out loud. Like for any instances, smileys are good examples. I can put a happy smiley without smiling at all! I can type Lol (laughing out loud) without laughing my ass off. You can evoke anger by typing in all-caps. That’s simple, isn’t it?

So let’s start with the list, a special list of people that made and even meddled their way to fame.

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Number Five. Posers and Rippers

Friendster is one of the social network sites that are susceptible to posers. A poser is a person who disguises himself, say as an infamous actor. He may post a primary picture of a certain celebrity and just write something that is superficial and sometimes waywardly fictitious. Some people would think that the celebrity profile is genuine and would even request a meet up or what not. But hey, the information can be easily changed and altered. Sometimes it can be that hard to determine whether if the alleged profile is true or not.

Rippers are different. They just rip one’s artwork and claim it’s their work. Bullcrap is the best word to describe them.

The real deal: I can’t surmise the real agenda of posing as a celebrity. I think this is pure obsession and boy, it is dangerous as hell. You be the judge of a ripper’s subsistence.


Number Four. Harriette the PolSci Freshie

Apparently, she’s just your ordinary freshman who embarked on a new adventure in Diliman until one day, she wrote a blog entry on UP’s official multiply site (http://yoopee.multiply.com) and posted something about the current conditions of the nation and her stand for it. But actually, it created an instant mayhem on that certain blog entry. In just a few hours, it generated more than 600 comments. It is likewise OKAY to express your opinions about the current situation of our country. But I construe her points were off and inane. Hundreds of flaming comments and other ‘curse’ words flooded the page and the entry was somehow republished and began circulating to different social networking and forum sites.


Where can you find her: Her life is at stake since July. Snipers are out there waiting for her. Nonetheless, she underwent series major plastic surgeries just to change her physical features. One thing for sure, her name’s not Harriette anymore. KIDDING! Hahaha.


Number Three. Ekakawaii, UP’s shabby detractor.

Every UPian would surely remember her, at least. My classmate gave me the link of her site (which was already unavailable due to some reasons). The entry was really appalling for she detested UP for these reasons: The comparison of UP and UST’s grading system which she claimed that UP’s not fair and should follow UST’s standard. Also, in another entry, her hatred in UP had grown exponentially for she didn’t pass the application of her admission in the said school. She was really disappointed and even blamed the person in charge to be cruel because she was lambasted on her interview. Take note, she even claimed that she committed flaws in her grammar during the interview. She asserted that grammar isn’t important since she was nervous at that time. Lots of VIOLENT reactions flocked on her entry. Even some Thomasians were aghast by her bigotry. There were some comments who just criticized her grammar. I pity the feeble detractor. She didn’t even know the people she’s facing. After a month, she cancelled her account for good.


Ekakawaii’s motto in life: I wants to be a successful fashion designers and I will never love UP. They’re such a losser. Ooops.


Number Two. Princess Tracy and the Aetas

Ateneo is a Catholic institution and encourages the community to be sensitive to the less fortunate brothers and sisters and thus requires students to attend the immersion program. And here comes Princess Tracy, who keeps on ranting about the untidiness of the indigenous tribe. The primary goal of her entry was sheer derision and cynical entertainment. She thought it was funny and assumed that some of her friends would liked it too. But lo and behold, Spiderpig came and treachery made her way to fame. Funny thing was the infamous Pablo Banila even blogged about his reaction to Princess Tracy’s entry. In a forum, she had made an apology and was still ‘recuperating’ from the ‘trauma’ she had experienced.


What her Psychiatrist said: “She will be forever haunted by those pygmy people. At one time she may be eaten by them. Sometimes, she would dream that she’s already one of them. This rare psychiatric behavior will continue until she’s 90 OR if she’ll develop Alzheimer’s disease. She’ll get used to it and she’ll be fine after three days.”


Number One. Pablo Banila, the man behind the never-ending Guestbook party

One day, you opened your multiply or friendster account. You have decided to view the viewing history. All of the sudden, you were glued on an animated avatar. You waited for the animation to finish. You felt alarmed after reading and realizing the message of the avatar: Pablo Banila has a crush on you, that’s why he viewed your account! Cutenun! Lololol. But wait, you clicked on his site and were stunned by his sheer wit. But you find him weird and have logged out from your network. The next day was worse. You checked your viewing history and you’re shocked upon seeing his infamous avatar, again and this time, they’re five of them.

Pablo Banila indeed became famous because of his guestbook party. People thought he’s a stalker, a virus, or just a psychological experiment. People have read his blogs and somehow noted his insane! Apparently, he’s not harmful. He’s just fond of viewing your site on a daily basis, with different accounts. That’s it. But curiosity reigned on Juan’s subconscious thoughts and decided to search for his true identity. Nonetheless, Pablo Banila was but a fabricated character of the cyberworld.

Pablo Banila or Paolo Bantolo in real life became an instant celebrity. He was featured in numerous blogs and he even made it to the mainstream! He was even interviewed twice or thrice in Philippine Daily Inquirer and there he confessed and clarified his stand. Apparently, the guestbook party was indeed made possible by a program similar to search engine sites like Google. It can open millions of websites in just a few minutes.

Today, the guestbook party had finally receded but the legacy of Pablo Banila still continues up to this time.


President GMA’s reaction on Pablo Banila’s never-ending guestbook party: He’s onehelluvah intelligent motherfucker! I love you Pablo! Lololol. Noh? Hmmm?

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These people may have touched fame unintentionally (except of Pablo Banila’s case).

Above all, this serves as an important lesson to us. We should be more careful on posting things in the cyberworld. We never know, the realm of internet in uncontrollable and as of this moment, no country has implemented serious protocols on the internet. Everyone reserves a space and right in the internet.

“Be careful that what you write does not offend anybody or cause problems within the company. The safest approach is to remove all useful information.”

--Scott Adams.

Wait... I think Pablo Banila shares his triumph on to this list. He used to rule the world. Seas would rise if he gave a word. Now in the morning he sleeps alone, and sweeps the street that he used to own.

You know him? It’s me. HAHAHAAHHA. Just kidding guys. :))

So who will be the next five people on the list? Let’s find out on the third week of December, 2009.

Cheers for the wonderful year.

Let’s welcome 2009 with a blast!