Facebook is eating me alive!

This was an old post I did for our class on Social-Networking a little while back. It's kinda funny how Facebook and its similar genres changed the lives of people around the world, and yet here I smirk and imagine the faces of 500 million users of Facebook, just as Mark Zuckerberg presses the SHUTDOWN button. Evil me. :D

Everyone aboard the “social” bandwagon are required to at least know of the popular social networking and blogging sites like FaceBook, Multiply, MySpace, Twitter and Friendster, just to name a few. To them, it’s already a way of life, something to augment their daily existence, something to spice it up – albeit the consequences it could bring.

It may be fun for you and me at the alpha-stage of our “social-networking” stage, with all the status updates like what’s on the minds of our friends, what do our friends think of us via testimonials, what are their thoughts about our blog. Yes, we want to know. It’s human to err, and it’s also human to thirst for knowledge, nonetheless our unending search for it.

Does it not make you curious whether or not your crush likes you the same way you do?

What’s the latest gigs your favorite bands have to offer?

Who was that girl I met at the party?

Bombarded by questions, yet answers could always lie in the internet. You could always try asking Google for answers, but I don’t think it’d give you the answers you’d want. Heck, that’s not enough – mind you. It searches for definite things, not things we barely know of its existence.

‘Nuff said, the whole paragraph summarizes to the internet as an endless plethora of knowledge, and social-networks amps your virtual experiences up. Let’s be honest, who can’t live without ‘em? I can’t.

Now unto the darker side of things. Social-Networking is a drug. Constant usage, then turning into an addiction; may it be the applications that keeps you going or it’s the status of your friends that keep you pushing the refresh button. Have you the guts to overcome an addiction nearly 500 million people haven’t gotten over? That’d be something of a marvel.

Oh guess what, I can call your cellphone now. Thanks for supplying your personal info in your social page. I also know where you live. Oh, and in case I don’t see you, I could always ask anyone in your naive little family. Now ain’t that a bummer, you’ve got nowhere to run thanks your “social-networking” page. And may I also complement you for being such a wonderful prey to stalk.

Stalking isn’t a rarity these days, no one has to get the binoculars out just so someone could see some skin (forgive me for the words I used, I couldn’t find anything else befitting the situation at hand). It’s not the stalkers fault if the user hasn’t learned how to set things to “private”.
On lighter terms, we’d like to call it “public profiling”, viewing only the things the users have set to public, admiration over the person would most likely prevail. Why would some people stalk at someone’s profile, befriend and get to know them better? Because the victim has left themselves vulnerable and open in the first place; that my friends, is either stupidity, carelessness or both.

I’ve nothing else to add nor to say, and I’ve also passed through the 350 words mark. But before I bid you my dear readers adieu, I’d like to impart a few words of care.
The information superhighway has limitless possibilities, possibilities that could make you or break you. Take things into careful consideration, because everything can “virtually” happen.

Trivia Time!

Valentine's Day's just around the corner, but I've had enough of hearts and doodles for this month. Now my randomness strikes out and I'll present to you guys some useless info from around the world.

We, the Filipino people, have some things to share too.

Di dahil Pinoy ka, wala kang maibubuga sa mga banyaga.

Pinoy-trivia I've compiled, and info from the information superhighway itself. So, here goes nothin'.

• PINOY MARTIAL ARTS

When I was a tot, I used to envy the Orientals for their uncanny abilities to defy the universal laws of Physics and how they’d apply gravity on the jaws of their spectators as they gaze upon purely epic Kung-Fu moves.

But did you know that the roots of Filipino history also has its own set of deadly moves? I’m not talking about the movies that show the sluggish Filipino tribesmen dim-wittingly charging into an enemy with advanced weaponry, heck NO.

I’m talkin’ about lightning-fast deathblows, wrist-bending boxing, eye-popping throat-slitting knife-action, ankle-breaking footwork and adrenaline-pumping stick fighting. The art of killing, crafted by none other than our very own Filipino tribesmen.

Government Warning: Filipino Martial Arts is not for the faint-hearted, but who freakin’ cares about what the government says anyways?

• WORST DI-SEAS-TER

I’d rather fall out of a plane than to sink off with a ship. Why? Because I can’t swim; yet others can. At least when we’d all fall down from the sky, we’re all equal – trying our best to fly. Setting jokes aside, according to the Guinness Book of World Records:

The MV Doña Paz was a Philippine-registered passenger ferry that sank after colliding with the MT Vector on December 20, 1987. With a death toll of at most 4,375 people, the collision resulted in the deadliest ferry disaster in history and is widely cited as the worst ever peace-time maritime disaster.

No one listens to warnings anymore, overloading a boat is like pushing its luck to stay afloat. Asia’s very own Titanic. Wait, remember the M.V. Princess of the Stars? Both are (were) operated by Sulpicio Lines, now ain't that scary?

• STARSHIP PINOYTROOPERS

I guess you’ve squished some bugs so nicely you’ve seen their insides spew out like a toothpaste-filled watermelon dropped off a 1083-ft high skyscraper. Now reminisce those gigantic, butt-ugly bugs from Klendathu on Starship Troopers and start asking yourselves this question, “What if they fought back?”

Have no fear, Johnnie Rico is here!

And now I’m guessing you weren’t expecting him to be a Kababayan after all, with a matching “WHAT? REALLY?!” monologue. Pinoy si Johnnie Rico, kaya itaas mo na ang baba mo.

Juan "Johnnie" Rico is the fictitious protagonist of Robert A. Heinlein's 1958 science-fiction novel Starship Troopers. Rico is the son of a wealthy Filipino family who joined the Terran Mobile Infantry almost on impulse and over his parents' objections. -Wikipedia-

• A GUN, JUST FOR US.

Resiliency. The ability to spring back from and successfully adapt to adversity.

But did you know that we’re also known for our persistence to live and motivation? Traits feared from all across the globe. A trait so frightening that the Americans even designed a gun AGAINST us.

No Image Attached. Gun Too Awesome To Post.

Introducing the 1911 .45 ACP Automatic Pistol, with a stopping power enough to blow away a full-grown adult 3 meters away from where the poor fellow used to stand.

During the same time frame that John Browning was working on many of his 128 patents, a tribe of warriors, the Moro, were giving the U.S. Army a very hard time in the Philippines. To prepare for battle, the Moro would bind their limbs with leather, take narcotics, and use religious ritual to gain an altered state of consciousness, this turned them into virtual Supermen. The .38 Long Colt pistol round the U.S. soldiers had simply would not stop the Moro. Of note is the fact that the Krag rifles the U.S. issued were also barely more than useless. [Article link]

Those warriors, the Moro, do you know the fighting-style they used? Refer to the first trivia above. They were that scary.

Minstrel of Misery: Act I

- I once said to myself -

I'd rather not have you,

Than lose you when I have the chance to love you.

- And I asked myself -

If Fate shows me a damsel whose distress I cannot fathom,

Yet a beauty that pars with her agony;

Will I take the risk or lie sideways in the shadows?

- Yet I took the risk -

But ALAS, I accidentally broke my heart into countless pieces.

If there's one thing I could do nothing about right now,

Then it'd be taping my heart back like before;

The same way I imagined how you and I used to piece together.

- Mistakes were made -

I will never again try to write a thousand lines

That'd only emphasize those three words

That streams

In the lips of many

Three words...

A distortion of fragmented memories;

Breaks an unkempt heart into two,

And deluges one's life into endless torment.

- Out of the worst, I loved -

You were once a dream that nearly came true,

Now you have just become a nightmare in the flesh,

How I wish

I never saw you

again,

Then I would've kept

My sanity a bit longer.

Untitled, Left for the Heart to Guess

I know who you are,

That's why I could only say "I Love You" to myself for you,

I just wish you wouldn't hear it,

so that I could say it behind your back over and over again,

I know you,

and you know me but you don't know what's inside of me.

That's better,

now I know my eyes can still rest on you.

I. Love. You

I see you everyday,

that's enough for me

I won't talk to you,

my heart will.

I find it puzzling how you are right now.

You're a classical beauty,

not only in my eyes, but them too.

As long as you're there,

then I've no anguish within me.

I find you charming,

though I don't know why,

but this little charade of mine - 'tis my only way of appreciation.

It's passive to you, yet it's active in my heart.

I just wish, that as I lay down on my deathbed.

And as soon as I smell the sepulchral air adrift,

I just hope that I could still hold your arms around me,

your tears in my lips ~ your soft, loving cry makes me smile.

Keep me in your heart, that's all I ask,

And I shall keep you in mine, even though I'm already gone.

Memories are supposed to be remembered,

but I have your's to keep my mine alive.

First Impressions Last

I've never really been good with introductions, but they say the female species distinguishes you for who you are the way you introduce yourself to them. Either way, I've always had the dilemma of introducing myself to the ladies; thus I skip the formalities, laugh along with the crowd and let the good times roll.

“Let's take the good times as they go, and I'll meet you further on up the road...”

-Bruce Springsteen-

The frustrated poet that I am, I've taken a liking to matters of the proverbial heart. Listen to peoples stories, whether they're hurt or in-love, and string their emotions together; to ease someone's pain by listening to them won't gain you anything but the thought of helping them rise from the fall's an ethereal award of sort.

I stand 5'10'', weighs around 120 ~ 130 lbs, slightly skinny with a sense of

-unnatural- humor. Likes to sulk around when he's bored, eyes in the skies if he has unanswered questions, and down for frustrations. My epic randomness strikes sometimes though not always, heaving a bland, serious discussion into an out-of-this-world potpourri of thoughts.

Though there's this small piece of info you might want to look into. I ain't me all the time. Misery, so they say, loves company. An apprentice of schadenfreude, the Minstrel of Misery, a second me.

And so, my dear readers, I bid adieu. My primordial post, hopefully, hasn't disturbed you nor bored you.