Learning Experience

I started blogging last 2006. I discovered it through Coconuter. I was really inspired to document my life over the internet. During that time, blogging wasn't really a big hit and I do remember that I'll get ecstatic whenever I receive at least 10 page views per day. During that time, most blogs are just personal journals and niche blogs haven't sprouted yet.

Whenever I am bored, I read some of my previous blog posts. Reading those previous blog posts of mine brings back those bittersweet memories. Back then, most of my posts were full of complaints, rants and whatnots; a typical blog of a teenager (hehe). I'd always ranted how hectic my schedule was or how awful my professors were. And oh, my grammar was not that good, believe it or not.

I have learned so many things about blogging and I didn't regret of signing up at Blogger five years ago. This personal blog of mine used to be chocoholic-memories.blogspot.com (LOL IKR ang baduy ng URL) then after a year or two it became the-pseudoneuro (I used to dream to become a Neurosurgeon like Dr. Shepherd of Grey's Anatomy). My first purpose of making this blog is to document all of my childhood memories and publish it here. I told myself that blogging is an innovative tool since I don't need to waste another ink and papers (yes I do own and write on my diaries when I was younger). Eventually, it became a personal blog filled with, yeah, rants about my high school and college life.

At least whenever I am happy or sad, I have someone to share all of it; a channel of my emotions. At first I didn't care whether if I gain readers or not but I realize that the bigger the audience your blog has, the more it becomes interactive. It's one of the reasons why I have gained a LOT of online friends. I even met some of them and mind you, they're all awesome.

I may have transferred to Multiply last 2007 then to Tumblr last 2009, but I will never, ever leave my first cyber abode. This is where I seek refuge whenever I am emotionally unstable.

Some Tidbits and Updates of my Life after Graduation

Just four months ago, I marched and received my diploma from our dear Chancellor, smiled on millions of cameras and got teary-eyed while singing the UP Hymn wholeheartedly. On that moment, I really can't believe that I am about to embark on a new journey. Yeah, a new chapter of my so-called awesome life.

For four years, I struggled studying in UP. During my first year in college, I really got jealous to some of my classmates who were far more awesome and more intelligent than me. It's not that I'm complaining that I didn't come from a prestigious science high school, but I guess that's how life worked.

Little by little, I finally overcome this jealousy and learned to accept of my physical and mental capacities wholeheartedly. I know this sounds surprising knowing that I am a loquacious type of person - I underestimated my own capabilities and talents. There were days when I always think that I didn't deserveto become a UP student. But, I realized that having that kind of mentality would surely bring me down - both physically and mentally. That's why on my sophomore year, I switched to optimistic mode. Yes, it made me feel better. Whenever problems arose, I always think of this mantra, "In every problem comes with a big solution, no matter how bad it is."

Looking back, I once dreamed to become a Neurologist. It was just a spur-of-the-moment decision when I chose Biology as my first choice in UP. I was inspired by House MD and Grey's Anatomy. But, months before my graduation, I thought that pursuing a medical career won't bring me happiness. Mentally I can still endure another four to five years of studying medicine but physically? Nah. No matter how hard I try to convince myself to study medicine, I cringe.

No, don't get me wrong, I am not frustrated with my decision of not taking medicine. In fact, I am happy with the things I do right now. I just had my first job interview at a big pharmaceutical company three weeks ago but did not make it to the final cut. But that's okay. My family has been always supportive with my endeavors. Right now, I'm starting to take blogging into the next level. I got inspired with some of the prominent netizens from Davao Bloggers. They told me that I really have a big potential of earning a good amount of money through blogging. I was moved.

I am still considering of working as an Air Traffic Controller together with my uncle. The qualifying exam will be scheduled on the last quarter of 2011 or early 2012. Anyway, blogging and aviation has always been my passion as well as photography and traveling.

Lastly, I have gained 1.5 kgs. Kudos to me!

Literary Evolution

Over time, people have changed the way they express their thoughts through writing.

Renaissance Period: Greetings my lord! It is my honor to report to you that this gentleman went to a series of public humiliation due to his negligence; he accidentally stepped on a banana peel, slid and fell along the pathway. I reckon he had lost his self-confidence on a certain period of time.

20th century: The man accidentally stepped on a banana peel, lost his balance and fell on the ground.

Internet Age (circa 2008 and above): LOL @MAN! EPIC FAIL!

Keep on Hatin' this Yuletide Season

No matter how hard you try to be nice, uhhh, wait, let me rephrase that... No matter how nice you are, haters will keep on hating and bashing you with no valid reasons. I have encountered numerous haters and as far as I'm concerned, I didn't do something offensive or whatever things that will somehow cause a few people to hate me.

Here are some reasons why some people hate you sooooooo much despite you didn't do anything wrong or offensive.



1) Mistaken 'identity'. You try to crack a joke. Everybody laughed at it, except for a few. Well, let's just say that you unconsciously do not know that your humor is a bit offensive to someone. The fun begins when those offended people start to send you hate mails everyday. "Hey you fucking retard, that's not funny!" or "SHUT THE FUCK UP BITCH THAT WAS NOT FUNNY". People, if you think his humor is offensive, please tell him in a NICE manner.


2) Lots of followers. If you create cool and awesome posts and receives a lot of compliment, expect lots of detractors too. Envy is the primary reason for this.



3) You didn't follow them on Twitter/Tumblr or you rejected their friend request in Facebook and other online accounts. I guess people should understand this. We own our personal blog. We have our own set of rules. It doesn't mean that if you follow a certain person, he/she MUST automatically follow you too. That's bullcrap.


4) You have a happy life. You posted a picture of you and your girlfriend or boyfriend and then you'll receive this kind of hate mail, "PUTANGINAAAA MO ANG ARTE ARTE MO PURO KALANDIAN LANG ALAM MO". Whoa, that is totally rude. So what? I am happy and you're not. LOSER.


Well whatever the reasons, as long as you didn't do anything wrong, just ignore them. Sometimes those hate mails are the source of entertainment. Imagine when you receive a very long hate mail full of profanity and you only replied "K". I wonder what would be the reaction of that certain hater.


This yuletide season, let's share some love, not hate.


Merry Christmas!

Tumblrific

I have joined Tumblr three days ago and I must say that I really enjoyed that site. I just post/publish anything under the sun. I'm getting weird lately. Kahit ano nalang lumalabas sa utak ko. Well I think Tumblr is the best remedy for this predicament.


Lemme share some cute images from my Tumblr.

I LOVE THIS. Loooool

Courtesy of Nate's sister. Beautiful. The fury of Mother Nature.

WOOHOO! My favorite monster, Domokun! :))

Thesaurus, the geeky dinosaur.

Want more?

Follow me, stalker! http://themarinegeek.tumblr.com

See you on Tumblr!!!

Twitty Bird

Almost everyday, when I check my Yahoo! Mail, I get numerous invites from my friends and online buddies telling me to join Twitter.

I am pretty much familiar with the platform of Twitter. It is the same as Plurk, minus the Karma madness. Both of are social networking sites which allow users to shout their current state of mind, their status shout outs, whatnots, sweet nothings, greetings and etc. Users are allowed to write anything as long as it's only a hundred forty (140) characters long. Now this is what you call microblogging. You don't need to blog something in more than a thousand words, but instead you need to state your points directly.


I already have an account in Plurk. I joined Plurk last September 20-something 2008. At first I thought microblogging was more exciting than anything else. Plus, people are becoming crazy of accumulating more karma points, more smileys to choose from and more friends and fans to add with. But when you reach Nirvana (starting from 81.00 karma points), the drama starts to unfold and everything gets dull and boring as time goes by.



You know, I already have accounts from different social networking sites (as well as blog sites).

I have 3 accounts in Multiply.
I have an account in Friendster and I rarely open it.
I have an account in Tagged.com and God, why did I sign up on that site in the first place?! Maybe I should cancel it though.
I have a Plurk too and karma’s almost 97. Like who cares.
I have a Facebook and somehow it connects me to my old classmates and distant relatives which I think will play a significant role in the near future.
I have several accounts on different blog sites namely Blogger (my first home), Livejournal, Wordpress, I.ph, Windows Live Spaces, AlivenotDead.com, Imeem.com, and in G-blog (because I had to have an account there).
I also have an account on YouTube, well just for commenting and video streaming purposes.

I have watched a news clip from Yahoo! and it tackles about different Hollywood celebrities who have recently joined Twitter (boo Plurk for having less celebrities on your site, lol). It all started with Ashton Kutcher’s dare and I think it had attracted internet users to join Twitter. According to the news, in just three months, the number of registered users has increased by up to 700%, thanks to the advertising powers of the stars. Even Oprah Winfrey had just signed to Twitter about a week ago or two.



So, should I join the bandwagon?


The answer is NO.




Why?



The answer is simple. Hindi ko na siya ma-follow up or ma-update ng todo-todo. Plurk seemed enough already and the platform is pretty much the same.


But then again, my behavior is not inevitable. If you possess this “ultimate convincing powers”, then convince me why should I join Twitter.


I’ll be waiting for your replies. :)

The Realm of Lord Internetus

Right at this moment, more than half of the entire population of the Philippines are hooked and connected on the internet. If we combine the total population of the internet users worldwide, this would account of more than one third of the entire world population. Applying for an internet connection on selected service providers (according to your area) is relatively easy and it’s becoming cheaper with more promos that await interested clients. It may come to various forms. Some may opt to dial-up connection (no offense but I think it's an obsolete type of connection), some may have the standard DSL connection while others may enjoy the WiFi connection or steal their neighbor’s WiFi signal.


The question is: What is the reason of its subsistence?

The history of the internet is vague but to cut the crap short, it was first developed as an important tool in the office and was later modified for home use until such time those computer programming geeks have modified and redeveloped a software that allows users to surf the internet and basically share some important information in various areas.


Today, one can do virtually anything in the cyberweb. One can find an online buddy through instant messaging such as Y!M (Yahoo! Messenger), MSN and other IM service providers. One can share his thoughts through online journals or commonly known as blogs. One can also watch videos on various television programs such as the video sharing community YouTube or one can listen and download songs on Imeem, iTunes and other P2P programs such as Limewire, uTorrent, etc.

People nowadays are in loved with the internet. It is already the part of every individual’s life. Around the world, people are connected for some various reasons. These are some reasons on why people love this technological advancement:

One. It is relatively easy to find friends online. The style is this, you just say hi, hello, engage in some interesting topics and poof! You have just won an instant online buddy! As long as you share the same interests, then it won’t be a problem.

Two. It’s relatively easy to fake emotions in the cyberweb. C’mon guys, admit it. When something’s not that funny, you still type the ROFL smiley on Y!M or if you’re angry, you simply type your message on all caps but in reality, you are actually not angry, not at all! But there are some cases wherein people are really pissed off that they destroy their computers. Pffft. That’s an absurd idea. The computer is just following your commands.

Three. There’s an easy access to almost every websites, even the ones that are restricted due to the content of the website. There’s no way that the internet can determine your biological age. You can just fake your personal data through email, or just click the YES button, stating that you’re 18 years old, which in reality, you’re not. These common predicaments would lead to various problems in the society.

Now, these are some main problems brought about by the internet:

Number one, cyber bullying is one. It’s is so easy to bully and ideally, it is VERY easy to be a victim of it. Racial discrimination is common to the internet too! I have read some comments on YouTube and there are some people who are just racists. One thing for sure, you can type anything WHAT YOU WANT in the cyberweb. Besides, the only solution for it is to block you on a certain site. Of course, you can change your identity in just a few clicks. That’s it. According to my own research last year (because this is my topic on my Comm III project) there’s a young boy in America who committed suicide because of cyberbullying. This is very alarming since the internet can also be a tool to afflict damage and danger to someone, most especially to people with very low self esteem.


And number two, child pornography and child trafficking are also common problems brought about by internet. As what I have mentioned earlier, every one of us has a free access to restricted sites, like the porn sites. Even a 12 year old teenager can have a full access on millions of porn sites (and may even lead to porn addiction) available on the internet. It may have detrimental effects on man’s behavior. Thus their “horniness” would somehow be transferred to innocent children. I think the reason of this psychological addiction is to seek pleasure NO MATTER WHAT. I have seen numerous police entrapment videos on a certain TV show against child trafficking and this is somehow an effective way to eliminate such scoundrels in the society. But then again, it won’t be totally eliminated. It is such a sad truth to our society.

Well, there are some good things in the internet. Disseminating information is relatively faster than any other forms of mass media, aside from television. Nowadays, politicians are creating fan pages on Facebook (and other blog and social networking sites) and they just post their propagandas, ambitious promises and plans when they won the certain position that they vie (and die) for. In this way people will share their views and perspectives on to their certain bet.


Human beings are known to be the most intelligent organism living on this planet. For the past thousands and even tens of thousands of years, we have shaped our planet through different forms of advancements, particularly in technology. Advancements may add comfort to our life, but sometimes we fail to recognize its negative attributes to our society. So far, there are no provisions or constitutional laws regarding on prohibiting and limiting users to visit restricted sites. Each one of us has the capability to shape and modify the cyber web. There are some institutions wherein it regulates the internet access but above all, everyone can OWN their own spaces in the realm of cyberweb.

The world may be a cruel place to live in but our alternate home, which is the internet, is a more vindictive place to delve with. But still, people love to lurk and stay on their respective alternative places on the cyberweb.


This is a sad reality – the drawback of human advancements.