BlogSnob for the Day

Here's another blog marketing (?) tip for all bloggers aspiring to make their site all popular. Go use BlogSnob.

BlogSnob is a free advertising service for members of the blogging community. It's simple to use, and easier to join. Just put some text onto your Web page and then every time someone looks at your site your ad will appear on someone else's site.

Learn More

It works sort of like the popular Google AdSense, only it's exclusive to blog ads, less the expenses.

It's good to know all my blog promotion efforts work. I've been recording more hits during the past weeks (read: since I totally changed my layout) than ever. I am so popular!

Happy Birthday!

It's so official. I'm 19. Happy Birthday to The Screwed One! Except for my mom and dad and little sis and big bro, only one has greeted me yet. And I do believe it's an automated message from Ticqle.com. Anyways, I'm still glad someone or something did greet me.

Dear MJ,

Let us be among the first to extend to you our heartfelt wishes for a happy
birthday and a wonderful year. Certainly, the scourge of Father Time is
working its evil magic against you, but that doesn't mean you should curl up
into a ball and await the impending arrival of the Grim Reaper. No, instead,
enjoy this birthday and the year ahead. Eat cake while you still can chew.
Reflect on the long-past heydays of your youth while your memory still
serves you. Look at the world while your eyes still work. Listen to the
sounds around you, while you can still hear. Today, be young, not old. You
have the rest of your life for that.

Happy Birthday!

From your friends at ticqle.

If you wanna greet me, well, it's okay. It's never too late to make me smile.

###

And because I've turned a bit older, I'm taking major steps toward a healthier living.

I'm quitting smoking. I've been smoking since exactly two years back, and it all started out of curiosity, you know, the whole what-does-it-taste-like-and-what-does-it-make-you-feel-like sort of thing. I still remember I wrote a position paper on this, strongly proposing a ban on tobacco products in the Philippines. Haha, I used to convince the whole class I wasn't smoking, silly works of a 17-year old.

I'm going to the gym more often than once a week.

I'm Rated...

My life is rated NC-17.
What is your life rated?

Click away. Take the test yourself. Let's see what you're gonna be rated.

Top Ten Tips on Promoting Your Blog

1) Aim to provide quality content. Whatever the topic or style, popular blogs are always well written. Good photographs and illustrations are also well sought after. Offer them if and when you can.

2) Blog regularly. If you don't update your blog often enough, blog readers will move on. There are too many blogs out there competing for attention. Blog readers will go where they can get enough of what they want. Read more...

Thanks to Sheila Ann Manuel Coggins for this wonderful checklist.

And I got another tip for my fellow bloggers. Provide an RSS/XML feed. You ask, what is RSS?

The acronym RSS means Rich Site Summary, or some may consider its meaning as Really Simple Syndication. Read more...

For RSS feed readers, I would recommend the famous RSSReader. It's available for free download on RSSReader.com.

Don't mind me. I'll be raving in the next few sentences.

My comment board got really hip! Check it out. Oh, come on! I'm sure you so wanna see it. Who could resist a little bit of powder blue here? Not me. Pastel is just very soothing to the eyes, especially after a long day of bloghopping and snobjumping. Haloscan is definitely the best!

Etisalat

My internet connection got disconnected yesterday. It appears I forgot to pay the bill and I'm too lazy to go somewhere to go online at, much more go to Etisalat to settle my only-a-month overdue phone bill. That's what life's like up here. The whole telecommunication business is being monopolized by only one company (that's why it's called monopoly, silly). There's no other way to connect to the internet if not over Etisalat (still, monopoly. Am I making myself clear enough?). So unlike back home, where there are so many prepaid and postpaid ISPs that you can hardly choose what's right for you (you know, in terms of how fast the connection they're offering is, how many attempts you so have to make before you get connected, how many times you get dropped from their server, that kind of stuff). There's Blast, E-volve, ISP Bonanza, I-tipid, the list goes on. Okay, the bottom line here is I'm trying to make a point. The question is, am I getting there? Anyways, sorry for the inconvenience.

The night my internet connection got temporarily disconnected, my sister and I were doing blog stuff. She was editing her template. It really was her first time. That HTML crap Blogger uses (as if other blog servers don't use HTML) could be a real headache at times, and could leave your layout pretty banged up if you realized you're not in the zone for HTML codes right then. Add some links, share her profile, get her scrollbar to look a bit more teeny and pink (by the way, she's only 14, I think), well, that's what we were trying to do. And then this stupid computer went berserk and the copy-paste function just wouldn't work at all. It's funny how computers could carry on super complicated programs and sometimes forget how to process even the easiest instructions.

Todays, we had really yummy carroty mashed potatoes, Australian roast beef, butter-garlic toasts, and undressed vegetable salad. They dressed the salad with butter, I did gravy. Hahaha. My mom's the best chef in the world. We ate like we're gonna do a hunger strike or Arabic fasting the day after. It's so much fun to be not worrying about any diets.

I'm blogging with Word right now. And my computer's doing fine (this is so not normal). Please pray for me. So pray that the next time I post something, I would actually be on a terminal with internet access. I so hate this feeling.

Oh, and one more thing, I'm actually trying to write a book. It's kind of like an instruction manual, or a tip book. Check it out here.

Dr. Snake

One day in my Creative Writing class under Paran, we were discussing a poem of sorts, I forgot the title. Okay, I’m so entitled to not remember that because it’s been a long time (read: over a year) since this one day I’m talking about. I think it’s about a girl who’s not cool about her relationship with her father, who was a doctor. This girl was complaining about how her father was never home, never showed her as much affection as her mother did, that sort of girly stuff. We were having a good time sharing our opinions, laughing at the girl’s melodramatic ranting, and eating chips on the last row of seats, until we came to one paragraph that made our instructor raise a very good question.

“Snake tied around his neck, hmmm. Why do you think the author used snake here? What do you think is the meaning of all this?”

“Sir, maybe their talking about the stethoscope, you know. It sure looks like a snake.” One of the guys in class answered.

“Yeah, good point.” It was most of the class.

“Okay, but why not something else? Why snake?”

“Because you can’t use bird on his neck.”

The class burst into laughter. I didn’t.

“I guess the snake here we’re talking about kind of represents something. Although I must admit that stethoscope idea of his is a good point. Are you familiar with the emblem of medical people? You know, that winged staff thing with a snake coiled around it? Yeah, that somehow tells us he is indeed a doctor. See, it was never written that he was a doctor. The author just showed us stuff to point that out.”

The class clapped. I didn’t.

“Oh, and one more thing. Since it was pointed out, so pointed out that her father was a doctor, that snake also tells us the nature of his job. Sir, lemme ask you, what would you do if there was a snake around your neck?”

The instructor thought for a moment.

“Uh, forget it. It’s a rhetorical question. If there was a snake around your neck, you couldn’t do anything. Well, not anything physical. All you could do is accept the fact that then you’re dead meat. You’re not given any choice. Why? Because you wouldn’t have a snake around your neck if it hadn’t coiled around your entire body yet. What, you expect the snake to jump? So that’s exactly what being a doctor is like. When duty calls, you’re given no choice but to attend to it.”

The class clapped. The instructor smiled. I felt good.

Blog Edit 3: But it's not just the blog, baby!

Okay. I know. This new look isn't really new at all. Not even original. It's kind of a souped-up Blogger template. I think it's cool, though. Looks light, refreshing, enlightening, whatever. Just something positive. My old template so doesn't look very pleasing to me anymore. Well, I'm no longer into that Alanis Morissette-y, alternative, dark, like brooding, I-never-go-out-into-the-sunshine-and-my-life's-a-miserable-blackhole-of-depression kind of thing. I'm trying to take it easy on myself now. It's more like a driving around in a car with the top down, listening to R&B, loving life kind of thing I want to be sporting. Maybe, just maybe, this will work.

I'm so over this whole I'm-not-getting-as-many-blog-visitors-as-he/she/it-is thing. I mean, it doesn't matter if someone reads my posts or not. It's my own space for my own ruminations and stuff. I guess I was just making such a big deal out of visitors and comments and popular-websites stuff.

And, as a high school friend said, a past article of mine was one of the things that inspired her to write and keep a blog. Ah, it so feels good to know that. My existence touched her, somehow. That's just like a dream materialized (variant of dream come true). I'm not on my own anymore. It's good to realize that there are people who care and will be there for me in times of need. I was just either too blind, busy, materialistic, geeky, or too stupid to notice them. My special thanks go to Deah and Maven for giving me that wake-up call.

Trivia: Maven (Daniel) isn't actually my friend. He's just another blogger who came across my site, read Give Me An Ooohhh, and left a deep, encouraging mark. It's just true, no one's too far (geographically, or familiarity-wise) to lift you up, out of that deep shit you're in.

Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end.
--- Semisonics

LSS

I don't care if people don't post their comments or even read this friggin' blog. I just wanna post this song here. I so relate to it. I'm feeling so, ugh, I don't know.

Behind Blue Eyes
Limp Bizkit

No one knows what it's like
To be the bad man
To be the sad man
Behind blue eyes

And no one knows
What it's like to be hated
To be faded to telling only lies

But my dreams they aren't as empty
As my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
My love is vengeance
That's never free

No one knows what its like
To feel these feelings
Like i do, and i blame you!

No one bites back as hard
On their anger
None of my pain woe
Can show through

No one knows what its like
To be mistreated, to be defeated
Behind blue eyes

No one know how to say
That they're sorry and don't worry
I'm not telling lies

No one knows what its like
To be the bad man, to be the sad man
Behind blue eyes.

Give Me An Ooohhh

I'm not posting anything new until this post collects 20 Ooohhhs from 20 different people. Yeah, I only need 20. Seems to me that no one's even friggin' interested to read my posts. Come on, you can say whatever you want.

GMail

Ever wondered if you could have a giga-mailbox to receive mega-mail and share mega-files with? Well, now you don't have to do all the wondering. GMail's here. It's so here. Oh I forgot, I mean not really here. Google stopped processing signups as of the moment. No idea when it's gonna be opened to the public, but since it's already in its beta stage, it should be any time soon.

Signed up for a mailbox like weeks back and I see the service is great. You get to send and receive lots of email, and you never have to delete your mail (imagine how much mail it takes to fill up a gig of mailbox space). And if, after years of use, your mailbox gets full, sign up for another account. Maybe that's one thing the Google people didn't look into, because I've been looking at all the options and settings and stuff, and I've never found a DELETE button since.

There are a lot of people whose principles and ideals and other political crap are against GMail's Privacy Policy, though. A legislator from California even plans on getting a bill banning the service passed. But Tim O'Reilly pointed out some few real good points that should clear this mess up.

CNET News has also reported that GMail accounts are up for bidding on eBay.

Gmail accounts go up for bid
Last modified: April 30, 2004, 11:51 AM PDT
By Dawn Kawamoto
Staff Writer, CNET News.com


Google's initial stock offering isn't the only piece of the search engine company that's up for bid.

Beta testers invited by Google to take part in its new free e-mail service also received invitations to give to another person, but many are being auctioned on eBay, so far fetching bids as high as $61.

"Gmail is still in beta testing, so Google is strictly limiting how many people are using the service at this time," wrote one seller, who has five days left on the auction and six interested bidders. "This is an opportunity to get in 'on the ground floor' with this interesting new e-mail service."

Currently, 42 testers have listed their invitations on eBay, with one offering to sell an additional invitation outright--for a mere $199.

Google, which last month announced it was testing a new e-mail system, invited 1,000 people to join the trial. Gmail offers 1 gigabyte of storage and includes a news aggregation page and newsgroup interface, and allows users to search through their e-mail. The service has generated excitement, but not as much as Google's upcoming IPO.

But the service has also generated criticism before even rolling out to the masses. Gmail is under fire for inserting advertisements into messages based, in part, on contents. That controversy has led to one legislator calling for its ban.

That doesn't seem to be stopping folks from jumping into the bidding process to snatch up a Gmail account during this three-to-six-month beta test, however.

Blog Edit 2

Edited my template quite a bit. Made it a bit more hip. Got rid of the archives links and kind of simplified it. The Screwed Collection link has been created to point to a catalog of all the articles posted on this blog. Changed the design of my blog links a little too. You know, just the font face.

I think it gives a little something extra, don't you think?
--- Elle Woods

The Good of Blogging

Cool. Found this really interesting news when I logged on to Blogger to update my template. A blog that's been given a book deal is now to be made into a film. See? Habitual blogging isn't that bad. You get to do what you like and, if you write well and just got enough luck to be discovered by big [media] people, you get as perky as signing a book deal, or even a film deal. BBC News has more.

E-mail this to a friend

Printable Version

Film deal for 'Baghdad blogger'


The journal gave an insight into Iraqi life
The Baghdad Blog, a book based on an online diary written by an Iraqi man about life during the conflict there, is to be made into a film.


Media group Intermedia is searching for a scriptwriter to adapt the book by the man, who calls himself Salam Pax.

"He's like a Nick Hornby in the middle of a war," Scott Kroopf, chairman of the company's film division, told film industry website ScreenDaily.com.

Salam Pax's diary, Dear Raed, became an internet sensation during the Iraq war.

Popular

Salam Pax, whose real name has never been revealed, spent months writing an often bleakly humorous weblog which detailed the fears and hardships of Iraqi citizens.

The diary began as a way for the 29-year-old architectural student to keep in touch with his friend Raed in Jordan.

"It was just simple things about what was happening in Baghdad so he could stay in touch with what was happening," he told the BBC's Today programme last year.

Salam Pax began a fortnightly column in The Guardian newspaper in May last year.

Blogger, Helen, Birthdays, Etc.

Wow. Blogger's got a new look and feel. So techie. So XP-ish. So teeny. I guess that's one good sign. I'm gonna be blogging more often than I've always been!

Ack. I just read Helen's comment on my last post. Found out she changed her layout (again) and switched blog servers (again). I wish she'd stick to one for at least year, I mean the server. And for that matter, I'm so proud to announce that Screwed Prophet's turned one! Don't know exactly when, though. Gotta check my archives and see the date of my very first blog post. And I'm just so sure I'm gonna be reading extra mushy stuff. In case y'all don't know, the name of this blog used to be MushExchange. Ah, pathetic, silly old me.

Speaking of old, I'm getting old now. But not really old. I'm turning 19 on the 29th. A year after that, I'll be turning 20. That'll be the end of my super fun teenage years. And that I can't quite accept. Oh well, losing the -teen doesn't mean having less fun than I used to. I'm getting older, and getting bolder.

Haven't shopped for like a week already. But that's because I've been engaging myself in more productive tasks, like movie marathons and night-outs. For your record, this is the list of movies I've watched in a few days:

Underworld
Identity (so freaky, so cool, I so love it)
Gothika
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Home Alone 3
Back to the Future
Back to the Future 2
Back to the Future 3
Clock Stoppers
The Passion of the Christ
Say It Isn't So
Get Over It
What A Girl Wants
X2
Tomb Raider 2: The Cradle of Life
The Crow
Just Married
My Boss's Daughter
Agent Cody Banks
Cody Banks 2: Destination London
Hell Boy
Dumb and Dumberer
LOTR: Fellowship of the Ring (Yeah, I know. That's so last decade)
LOTR: The Two Towers
LOTR: Return of the King
The Others
Shanghai Noon
Shanghai Knights
The Medallion
Student Seduction (This is like so twisted, I'm telling yah)

I don't know if I missed something. Whoa, looks like a Video City DVD rental catalog. I guess that so makes me a real movie buff. And the night-outs, jeez, I'm gonna miss them when I come home. Nights at the beach, sharing stupidly funny stories over some chips while playing poker, club nights (clubs here are so different, I don't think I could even tell you all the differences) with my DBC friends, evening camp with my family - I'm having the time of my life.

When Love Is Not Enough (by krystal)

I so have to post this. I first read this article by krystal on peyups.com like years back and I have to admit, it never fails to amuse me, to give me that feeling she wants to convey. I just hope no one sues me. I'm giving credit to the author and the site, right? To krystal, you're just amazing, absolutely amazing. Now here it is, folks. Have your piece of krystal's wonderful work.

#######

Love Stories : When Love is not Enough
Contributed by krystal (Edited by karl)
Saturday, December 08, 2001 @ 01:57:35 PM (read 31120 times)
Print | Send | Comment


I picked up the phone, and all I heard was the sound of the radio on the other line.

“Don’t give up on us baby, we’re still worth one more try …”

Dang. Who’s this freak on the other side of the phone? It’s too early for pranks. It’s just 6AM on a freakin’ Sunday! Who is awake by this time? And I really had a lousy night trying to fix my PC. I’m pissed, and this person’s in big trouble. I could look up his number and report him to the police for ‘interference of a peaceful and much-needed sleep’.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Krystal? Sorry nagising yata kita. Si Jerome ito.”

I felt like I was doused with ice cold water. How could I forget the voice? After all these years, it still sounded so sweet. It still has that effect on me. Suddenly, my heart is beating faster.

Jerome. How could I not remember? I didn’t just used to know him. I used to love him.

“Gusto ko lang marinig ang boses mo. Marinig lang kita, ang tawa mo, sumasaya na ako uli.”

I can hear him. He is crying on the other end. Somehow, my heart bleeds for him too. I know what he feels. Because I have been in the same situation – when he left me.

We were once an ‘us’. We were the envy of our peers back in highschool. He was THE heartthrob, and I can say I’m not that bad looking either. We had things going for us. I can still remember how in love I was. I can still remember walking in clouds, and believing my own little fairy tales in my own little world. I believed in all his promises – of forevers, and happy endings and love like no other.

I loved him so much I could have offered him the world. I was ready to sacrifice anything for him. True, I know he’s a playboy, but I accepted that fact and was even ready to become a martyr if I had to. I loved him so much that nothing else mattered.

But as all sob stories go, he left me. And when he left me, he gave me no reasons. He just said it’s over. And for a while there, my life was too. A part of me died, without even knowing why.

“Oo nga, ngayon ko lang nare-realize lahat ng ginawa ko. Ang dami kong pagkukulang sa iyo. Totoo nga yung sabi nila, kung kailan wala na sa iyo ang tao, saka mo lang mare realize ang worth nya.”

I was a wreck when he left me. It took me years to let the wounds heal. Everyday, I would stay late at school – just watching him in the CAT training they have every afternoon. I’d watch him flirt with other girls. I’d watch in one corner, crying my heart out. I didn’t care if other people thought I was too pathetic. I didn’t care the sight of him being sweet with another girl killed me over again. The sight of him was my only life.

“Iba ka. Oo maraming babae, pero iisa ka lang. Wala na akong makikitang tulad mo. Iba kang magmahal. Naalala ko pa kung paano mo ako inaasikaso noon. Naaalala ko kung paano mo ako ipinaglaban sa parents mo.”

He left me when my parents knew of our relationship. He was afraid of my parents. And he didn’t want to take responsibility. While I fought for him, he was there, exchanging sweet nothings with another.

Highschool passed. When I got into college, the pain was still there. I remember walking back to my dorm every afternoon, secretly hoping that he somehow looked up where I stayed. And went there. And knelt down and said he’s sorry he’s been a jerk. And make it up with me. Then that would make me the happiest girl in the world.

But that never came. It remained a dream I secretly wished in my heart. Years passed since he said goodbye, and still no Jerome.

And now he calls, after all those years. Pleading for me to go back home to the Philippines. To meet him again.

“Ok, theoretical question. Suppose I go home, and we meet again. Then what?”

“Pag nagkita tayo uli, at binigyan mo ako ng pagkakataon, di na kita pakakawalan. Alam ko marami akong naging pagkukulang. Babawiin ko lahat yun. Hinding hindi ka na iiyak sa piling ko.”

How I’ve longed to hear those words from him! I just know those words would have sent me to heaven and back. How I have longed to hear from him that he wants me. That he needs me. That he loves me. But why did he have to wait this long to tell me all these?

“ … … Kung hindi rin lang ikaw, huwag na. Ikaw lang ang hihintayin ko. Ito ang tandaan mo. Kahit anong mangyari, mahal na mahal kita……”

“Sige, pahinga ka na uli. Pasensya ka na nagising kita.”

Click.

The phone rang again.

“Krystal? Tumatawag ako kanina pero nobody was picking up the phone.”

That’s my boyfriend. The person who has shown me what love really is. The person who has stuck with me all the way through. Who never got tired of me. Who has never made me cry. Who helped me pick up the pieces of my life, and lifted me up when I needed it most.

“Sorry. There was some freaky guy who called at 6AM, talked and talked … pero wrong number pala. Sheesh.”

I think the conversation with Jerome’s best left here… with me. With every other memory of him stashed away somewhere, in a far corner of my heart.




###############
Krystal believes in second chances, but she believes too, that some things are just not meant to be.

UPCC Memories: SND (Still Not Done)

I was told that the group was rehearsing a presentation to be held by the end of July and it’d be quite impossible for me to catch up already, so I’d better start training a month later. Well, that was okay for me. The moment I left the building (by the way it was the College of Music), I called Rachelle and Kaye. They were the first few people who knew about me going to an audition and actually getting in.

So I waited for a month. And then it was time.

#####

Still to be continued.

UPCC Memories

UPCC. University of the Philippines Concert Chorus. The official choir of the country’s top university.

I auditioned for admission (acceptance?) to the choral group on July 17th 2002. That was a Wednesday, I believe. Yeah, it was a Wednesday. I went to school after my tenpin bowling PE class, after doing some light shopping, and after grabbing some Starbucks treat at SM North EDSA. I had to do these things to pass time because the auditions start at 5:30 in the afternoon. I asked a lot of questions from a lot of people because I didn’t know where I could find the auditioners (Word says there’s no such word but heck, that’s exactly what I wanna use).

Okay, so I found them, whom later I had come to know as Papa Bear (his real name is Raymond, and I don’t know how the hell everyone came up with that) and Jeanelle. Papa Bear warmed me up with a few vocal exercises to test my range and see if my tone was actually vocal or just plain nasal crap. After the warm up, Jeanelle asked me if I had an audition tape of some sort. I thought, “Cool, I totally forgot that.” We ended up having Papa Bear accompanying me with the piano. Then they told me to wait outside the chorus room and wait for the decision.

So I waited. I so waited. I waited so.

“Congratulations, you made it. You passed the audition.” It was Jeanelle. Gee, I felt a sense of pride for myself. It was definitely totally cool. I made it. I’m now a member of the UPCC!

Or so I thought.

#######

This is so gonna be continued.

Friendster

Your Friendster account has been suspended, because it violates Friendster's Terms of Service: http://www.friendster.com/info/tos.jsp

If you have reviewed the Terms of Service, and do not believe your account is in violation, please reply to custservice@friendster.com, and include the following information:

First name: Mj
Last name: Joquico
Email: jiminabottle@sexmagnet.com
ID #: 3369939

We will review your account, and re-instate it if it has been inappropriately suspended.

Thank you,
Friendster Customer Service

#############

This is super weird. My account has been so suspended. I so didn't do anything that could be violating their fucking Terms of fucking Service with my account. Oh well, it's just an account. I could sign up for another one. On second thought, why should I? Friendster might just suspend it for no apparently logical reason. Friendster is so fired.