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Review: Free Blog Providers

One of my goals this year, other than driving better than the last year, is to monetize my blog. To achieve that, I realized that getting more traffic or subscribers to my site should be on top of the to-do list. It’s a no-brainer that no one pays for a deserted blog site.

Of course, traffic doesn’t come that easy. Some finger-tapping, networking and a lot of thinking on how to improve the content of the blog site are just some factors that will dictate if who and how many get to be attracted to check the blog out. And after all the countless moments composing posts that at times seem to even interfere with my daily driving, I learned that more factors still have to be considered. Among these are the services from free blog providers.

Free blog providers are to bloggers as point-and-shoot cameras are to photographers. Simply put, both the free blog provider and the point-and-shoot camera are tools that offer beginners of each field the opportunity to experiment and learn the ins and outs of the process. And since I’m still trying to get rid of the urge to dig deeper into the world of photography, I decided that it would be best if I stick to my trusty keyboard, alcohol-enchanced thinking, and try reviewing other free blog providers to see which one fits for me to achieve getting payments thru PayPal once I pursue monetizing my blog.

I first got this idea when I revisited my often-ignored multiply.com account. While checking it out some time in December, I saw that cross-posting blogs is allowed. I learned that multiply blog allows feed from different blog providers which I really find convenient if I want to stay updated with both blogs and photos coming from my contacts without having to leave the multiply network. And these providers are what I have actually reviewed since the start of this year.

Note: I rated these free blog providers by comparing it to WordPress, my current provider. Likewise, I did my best (just within my kill-time periods) to test these blog sites and I’d appreciate comments if I did the right review or not.

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Yahoo 360!

Basics:

Appearance. Not so catchy. If you love text this is your dream site, but if you’re a graphics guy forget getting serious with this service.

Dashboard. WordPress need not worry. This service will need more bright minds to even match half of WordPress’ features.

New post. Fair.

Image uploading. Remember, text yes, graphics no — that is, there’s no point loading images here. Though I wonder if I missed the feature that would enable it to load directly from flickr.com.

Categories. Yahoo! does not categorize post. It only has Tags.

Tags. Yes.

Widget. Get WordPress. Period.

Ads. No. period.

Others: Poll. No.

Blogroll. Yes.

URL easy to remember? No.

Members. There could be a lot mainly due to its connection with Yahoo! but I haven’t seen any serious blogger here.

Recommendation: Does saying “Go get WordPress” deliver the message?

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Blogger Basics

Appearance. I find this somewhere near WordPress’ depending on the capability of the user to design his own theme. However, if the available themes are to be selected and applied to blogs, I’d be very biased to word- press’ appearance.

Dashboard. Blogger is affiliated to Google but it appears that they copied dashboard features from Yahoo!

New post. Fair enough.

Image uploading. 1 GB maximum space. Can be done thru direct uploading or by linking to a URL.

Categories. No categories, only tags.

Widget. I’ve read that there are available widgets, but I find it hard to use it on mine.

Ads. If there’s one thing that will make me leave WordPress, this is it. Blogger.com allows one blogger to get paid thru Adsense.

Others:

Blogroll. Yes, it is available. Your contacts will love you for this.

URL easy to remember? Yes. Just the same with WordPress, except for the domain (duh!).

Members. There’s a lot of good bloggers here.

Recommendation: If you want to monetize your blog then this is the place to be. And if you can come up with better themes than the available ones, then WordPress might be a thing of the past.

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WordPress Basics

Appearance. There’s a lot of great themes to choose from and most of it appears quite cool enough. Graphic-illiterate bloggers like me need not worry about having a boring blog site as there’s almost one theme that will match everyone’s taste.

Dashboard. Constantly getting better than the previous one.

New post. With the dashboard improving, posting a new blog has gotten easier every time (Although, I publish drafts and post thru MS Word 2007′s publish blog feature).

Image uploading. 3 GB maximum space. Images may be uploaded directly, by using a URL or by getting it thru the media library.

Categories. The parent category feature made blogging more organized. WordPress also has a converter from categories to tags and vice-versa.

Widget. Lots of cool widgets available.

Ads. Unfortunately, no. WordPress doesn’t allow its members to get paid.

Others:

Poll. Yes, thru polldaddy.com. I find this a very cool feature.

Blogroll. Yes.

URL easy to remember? Yes.

Members. Most of its members are prolific bloggers. And there was once a WordPress group for Filipinos. Unfortunately, it went out of service for reasons that I still don’t know.

Recommendation: I’m biased, but I think most will agree that this is among the best if not the only best free blog provider. Sign up to word- press if you don’t care about being paid at all.

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Windows Live Space Basics

Appearance. Yahoo! people can smile now. This is the least of my fa- vorites.

Dashboard. The appearance is a reflection of the dashboard. Need I say more?

New post. Fair.

Image uploading. Direct uploading only. I even cannot edit the image once I have my blog posted (I could be wrong, though).

Categories. Yes.

Tags. No? Widget. No. Ads. No.

Others:

URL easy to remember? I have so much hate with this blog provider and one reason for that is because I can’t even remember my own URL after I’ve subscribed and posted my first blog.

Members. Most likely many, but that’s because each one is probably sign- ing up for a new blog name after forgetting what their first URL was.

Recommendation: Good for spammers and bloggers with multiple personality.

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LiveJournal Basics

Appearance and Dashboard. A bit closer to WordPress.

New post. Fair. There’s also a feature to insert mood options right below the blog. Hopefully, they can come up with a honk-mood rating just like I use in my blogs.

Image uploading. This one has the most options. It can upload image directly or coming from a URL, scrapbook or photobucket.

Categories. No.

Tags. Yes. Ads. No. Others:

URL easy to remember? Yes.

Members. There’s also a lot.

Recommendation: As the name implies, most of the users here post articles in a manner like most journals are written. And upon browsing/lurking thru most of the post, I saw that this is the site if you want to let lose some rants and hot air. Paging all bosses, you might find your names here right after you have delivered some tough messages. Hahaha.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks!

Cold Blog

It’s been cold for days, literally, and the frigid temperature has brought some changes in my routines other than the mandatory blanket curl that made me look like a huge fetus for several early mornings already.

Yesterday, I had to don three layers of clothing on my way to work. Being on a motorcycle may be beginning to be a fun ride but the biting cold makes it necessary to add just another layer so that I don’t get stiff nipples. I’m now even considering riding gloves not for looks but rather for the insulation that it could provide. I just can’t imagine myself riding a motorcycle somewhere in Europe. Back there, I’m quite sure that Vespas are not among their favorite transport options right now.

Blogging has to be rescheduled as well. I now prefer sleeping earlier as the cold early evenings seem to suggest nothing but to hit the sack — that is, after everything about the baby has been taken care of. I now blog whenever I get up sometime between midnight to early morning which is at the very least an hour ahead of my wake up alarm. I find the cold and calm morning more conducive to write.

I heard from the news that this cold season may be until another month more or so. This means that I’d have to get used seeing our thermometer stuck at 22 degrees Celsius or less. This means more alarms to be snoozed. And every time I wake up, this means that that I’d be wondering for a few more weeks how much it would take me to install that water heater in the shower. Ti abi.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks!

2008: A Blog Year in Review

Two more days and 2008 will end. And couple more hours from now, I’d be functioning as a daddy and being Hobbes* again. So I’m thinking, why not grab these wee hours of the morning, while both wifey and baby are sleeping soundly, to review what has happened to this blog and the events that inspired it.

I made a run-through of the posts I did since January to date, and so far I killed time 79 times this year—79 posts overall. Like photographers, bands, singers, writers, and bloggers, each has their own favorites in their portfolio which when reviewed over and over again affirms that one has indeed performed a good job somehow. The opposite of which are those footprints that will come to haunt like a sequel to a previous nightmare.

As any other self-respecting person would do, I will list only my favorite posts for this year and here they are in order of posting date (starting from January to December).

1000 Kilometers, 1 B-Movie, 3 Coffee. I wrote this blog for the first time from our company’s (after my shift, FYI) parking lot while waiting for wifey and while trying to compose it with the draining battery of my old, yet trusty T42 IBM laptop.

2008: Year of Change?. A start of the year reflection on what has hap- pened and things that may yet to come.

We Could Steal Cars. Not well composed, but this reminds me of the time when my wife and I spent several hours lock picking our brand new Honda during a gas stop to Clark.

The Rock Star in Me. Any fictitious story coming true is worth writing. This is my first Arnel Pineda blog. And by the way, this is the most read (or clicked) – it registered 394 views to date.

Rio and Gino. Almost landed a writing job for an automotive site but unfortunately, the auto financing subject caught me unguarded—reason why I haven’t heard from the forum folks anymore.

Ship is Sinking II. Another blog sequel but which I find better than the first because the “sinking” here is more imminent.

House For Sale? My eBay venture blog. I learned a lot from it and have sold several items thru the internet.

Something Looks Familiar. An F1 related post inspired by a familiar corporate logo which contains one of the historic events during this year’s season.

Back on 2 Wheels. One of the things I did this year to save on gas is to have a motorcycle in July. I now bring it to work every chance I can.

Heroes Wanted: Dead or Alive. The truth is, I’m one of those who has the hatred and shame of being a Filipino but is constantly thinking how I can do my own part to get out of that sentiment. So when the “I am Ninoy” movement came out, I eagerly gave it a chance to sink in.

We’re Moving Out. Despite my low emotional state, this blog is one of my wackiest compositions.

Photo Loco. Inspired after attending a basic photography class, the photo enthusiast in me kicked in. I posted several shots that got some compliments from other friends who are also into photography. A couple of related blogs followed next.

We Are Now Parents. An early Christmas gift for us. We now have a baby.

Ghost Sightings. My first post written while in wifey’s place in Batangas. This is also when I started using the “Honks!” scale in my blogs.

Changes and Transitions. This is what this year is all about.

Filipino Pride. This is one of those days when the news all over the country is that crime has ceased to exist – at least every time Manny Pacquiao is up on the ring to fight.

Next year will be another blogging year and I’m hoping that I’ll do more and better blogs. If there are things I’d like to have for me to continue doing so, these will be time, inspiration and wisdom. Oh by the way, I’d like to get paid as well. Hahaha.

*I was wondering why my wife’s been calling me Hobbes, but then I figure it’s better than hubby so let it be.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks!

Treasure Hunting After Four

Having started reporting to work (back) on a regular shift this week, I started to appreciate once again the perks of going home after a 7-4 work day. I’ve spent almost half of my employment life in my current job enjoying this time scheme. Not until I moved to the 12-hour shift just more than a year ago, being assigned from night shift to day shift and vice versa every other two weeks.

Now I’m free (to be more free in three months) again and this gives me lots of time to kill. I’m back to doing things such as watching our local news that has become more like a slap fest as suspects are un-rightfully shamed in front of the media (one sane PNP leader has ordered to stop this practice), motorcycle accident count off (one news I’d like my wife to miss), and lately an inventory of Chinese milk products that seem to get more every news update. Being home every 4 PM makes me feel like a normal parent (soon, soon). Yesterday, I was able to do my wife’s long standing wish of placing Christmas lights around our live pine tree right in front of our home.

Of course, since I now have the freedom to choose what I’d like to do by afternoon, I now have the time to give more focus on blogging. I’ve been doing this for more than two years already although in 2008 I’ve done it more frequently. Next year, I may run out of ideas as I’d like to spend more time at home before I go out and join the thousands of job hunters but then again a baby at home may just bring more light bulb moments. Hopefully.

One of the fascinating things with blogging other than being able to expand my network is discovering lots of things that seem unthinkable to ordinary to other people outside the blogging world. Anyone heard of treasure hunting thru the web log? Well, at least for me this is a new one. The last time I joined a treasure hunting contest was way back in Boracay with my wife — it’s more of an Amazing Race-like game but still a treasure hunting activity in context.

Frankly speaking, I don’t fully understand yet what is at stake here but I’m joining it nevertheless. Who knows, I might find a new treasure in this contest after all. Wish me luck.

WPP Treasure Hunting Contest Sponsors:

PanelHoster.net flipclan.com

zaldydalisay.com

wpthemedesigner.com

digdesignz.net

Postscript: I wasn’t supposed to be qualified to join this contest as one of the rules require a WPP member to have at least 100 post and despite my best effort to meet it, I was only able to have 49 on the deadline. Now after giving up and just contended to check out the forums, I was so happy when I read that they’re extending it and changing the post requirement to only 50 (my last reply counted as another 1 post. Hahaha.)

Corporate Lessons from the Bible

Today is Sunday. Just another Sunday and I’m tempted to call it another SSDD—same Sunday different date. But it won’t be because this is the second Sunday since I’ve started paying more attention to priest’s homilies. I’m thinking that God is most likely looking at my logbook right now and chances are he must be writing another tick mark beside his many categories of me. I assume that this time I got one tick again for being unfair with a comment written beside it “in trouble and seeking help again.”

But that’s the good thing about God. At least it’s what I learned from my years under Catholic (surprised?) education in my elementary and high school years that no matter how his followers deviate away from him, he’s always (yes, ALWAYS) willing to accept anyone who repents and goes back under his care. Remember the parable of the prodigal son?

Before you find my posts reminiscent of some religious leader standing and speaking spastically in front of thousands of his followers, I’d like to cut it off. I know I’m not the best man to write about this topic (and many of my friends would wonder if this is me writing) but right now I’m inspired of what I’ve heard for two successive Sundays already. It’s one of those times when I’d concede that the Bible is indeed the best book ever made.

Last week’s gospel was about the landowner who picked several laborers to work in his vineyard. These groups of men were however picked on three different times of the day. The first group got going early morning, the second were made to work by midday and the last group was hired and started working late in the afternoon. The catch of this parable comes when the landowner called all the men to be paid of their day’s work. The payment was done starting from those who were hired late then to those who came in during the first hours of the harvest. Unbelievably, the landowner paid all three groups the same amount of money. And as anticipated, those who worked all day complained.

“These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.” The landowner then explained, “My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?’ Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matthew 20:1-16A)

On whose side would I be if were in that situation? But wait there’s more.

The next gospel is still from the book of Matthew and is similar to the first. Also set in a vineyard but this time it is about a man who had two sons. Each was given a task. But each had different response to it. The first one said “Yes, I will” while the other said “No, I won’t.”Later, however, the one who answered yes did not go and on the other hand the one who declined had a change of heart and eventually went to perform the task.

Now the question Jesus asked is: “Which of the two did his father’s will?” They people answered, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him.” (Matthew 21:28-32)

If the first gospel confused and made me think for a while, the second was equally puzzling. Both gospels though made me realize that whether we’re living in the period when leather sandals is the fad and tax collection is considered the dirtiest job (other than the oldest job, prostitution) or if we are now in the present under the era of Bill Gates, Donald Trump and Chinese milk manufacturers, the rule (and reasoning) that most corporations are following are eerily the same. That is, they pay you whatever they deemed fair and your answer to their expectations just won’t matter in the end. Believe it or not. Whether you like it or not, that’s corporate lessons from the Bible in your face.

Things (or People) To Avoid When Writing

I’m writing an article and this is not supposed to be it. I drafted my first choice and set it aside for later retrieval and continuation as I can’t concentrate on how to properly compose it. I have made a lengthy piece but the words and phrases seem to be similar to that of a drunken line of ants. No go.

It left me no choice but to press CTRL+N–or in layman’s term, make a new post instead. As a release mechanism, what I’m doing now is share some of the distractions that need to be avoided or eliminated when writing. By the way, this is in no particular order. I repeat: In. No. Particular. Order.

Clouded mind. It’s one thing I avoid when writing or even replying to emails. Blogging is like driving and a clouded thinking doesn’t give good judgment and direction. So avoid it if you can. Anger, frustrations, and depression are just some factors that will result to clouded thinking. To solve it, listen to your favorite music over the headset before and during a blog composition.
TV. Boob tube. Turn it off unless your topic of choice is what you’re currently watching.
Videoke. No point explaining this one. Pray for rain instead, it helps disperse your neighbor’s drunken party.
Empty stomach. Write satiated if your topic is not about how it feels like to be hungry. Then lastly…

The wife. Yes, that’s right. Wife. As lovely as she seems to be and might even contribute blog ideas, she on the other hand could be sneaky, unpredictable and a potent factor of ruining a good blog. If her mood isn’t right, she may even be the cause of unexplained deleted post or worse a deleted blog. To neutralize or tame this threat, I make sure that she’s fully asleep. But I still always remain cautious because a snore isn’t an indication of a deep sleep. I’m always prepared of any sudden or unsuspecting pillow movement as that may prove that she’s sneaking behind watching for that telltale sign that of a naughty blog.

Although, this isn’t the complete list, these distractions are often the reason my fingers freeze, mind stops running and usually makes me end up sleeping beside my lovely, sneaky wifey. Not bad after all. Ti abi.

Posting From Microsoft Office Word 2007

I love Bill Gates. I love Microsoft. No, this isn’t obsession but just a recent appreciation of how MS Word 2007 makes life more convenient for bloggers. I was hesitant at first to use this feature as I’m one paranoid especially when a pop-up asks me about my personal info including my password. Previous training (and common sense) tell me that passwords should never be shared. Only the paranoid survive. Yes?

MS login — I dread options like this more than not having a helmet while on a motorcycle.

Come to think of it though at some point of our lives, and if some are still not aware of it, we just have to give our trusts to other people especially now that information technology is unavoidable. Gone are the days when browsing through files in the filing cabinet is cumbersome. And nowadays it’s not only those nerdy (pardon the word, but some people appreciate it when they called nerdy) IT people that holds your life’s info in their hands. Does Big Brother ring a bell? And so you’ll wonder who these people are anyhow? Let me name a few and their respective potentials.

Network admins – they have the privilege to access your emails, blogs and any other IT-related matters. I consider them the highest threat in the exchange of information. That’s why most of them are among the highest paid positions other than nurses.
Credit card companies – they know how you spend, know what you buy (and your compulsion), what’s your salary and any other financial info you’ve submitted to them when you applied for that unarmed robber inside your wallet.
Your friendly doctor or physician – they know your body more than you do unless you’ve personally probed your behind to look for lumps (ouch!).
NBI (or FBI in the US) – they know your fingers better and has the capability to exchange it with someone else’s. So be extra careful with your fingerprints among soooo many other things that could be taken against you.
Morgue personnel – morbid as it may seem, they are the least of your worries for unavoidable embarrassment. You know what I’m talking about. At least, your next of kin will be the one who will entrust you to them.

(That’s funny, but when I typed the title I never knew that I’ll somehow end up relating it to the last bullet. It must be a result of another bloody CSI episode this week.)

Anyway, getting back to the topic, since it’s imminent that I’ll be spending quite some time blogging in the days to come, I finally have to give in (again) to entrusting my secret alphanumeric code–a.k.a passwords to those behind this MS Word 2007 feature of publishing a blog directly without having to open an internet. It’s a compromise, I give my trust to them and they give me the publish menu in my MS Word in return. That’s just the way it works.

And today, while the Jetman is probably still fast asleep after setting the first English channel crossing by using his wing invention, I on the other hand is celebrating in my own petty way for having my first blog published thru MS Office Word 2007. To each his own.

Posting Word

Not Guinness book-worthy, but a record nevertheless.

Destined to Blog?

I have not been into my top form lately and been desperately trying to convince my body to go back to the gym or spend some time playing badminton with my friends. But then since almost three weeks ago I’m in the state where the cliché the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak applies. Just lazy in short.

So to entertain myself I’ve been at the mercy of technology. If I’m not in front of the sofa watching TV, I’d be in front of my PC killing time by surfing the net,blog-hopping, lurking forums,etc. The bright side here is that while my body is waiting for it to be in action, my mind is enjoying its time in front of the PC and I think it has taken quite an interest in reading blogs. This time more intently, more geeky.

Instead of self-pity for not being in the court or on a treadmill doing 5K, I began to feel contented feeding my mind, if not overload it, with info from the World Wide Web. I started visiting more blog sites, participated in blog forums, and reviewed some basic grammar—a never ending quest. Additionally, I felt like I’m seeing some potential in monetizing my blogs. These sites must have been some sort of premonition as today I officially become a dead-employee-walking-man. Today, I start counting down my time out of corporate life. Ninety days from now, I’d be free, I’d be jobless. Thankfully, I won’t be money-less at least for a good 6 months. I guess.

For now the question is, Am I destined to blog? Whatever the answer is, I’d like it to be yes. And if it is yes, I’d like myself to be paid for doing so. Hopefully, I’ll start small and hopefully I’ll at least earn an amount just enough keep me from being tagged as a full-fledged bum — well, that’s the plan. I love writing, I love blogging. It’s something to keep me occupied after I’m done potty training our baby (to be). Now where is my red English writing book? If killing time is a crime, then consider me a serial killer in the days to come.

***

For the past few weeks, I’ve frequented the wordpress pinoy community and I saw its improvement today. I love the way it looks now as it has a more WordPress feel to it than before.

This is not the exact look of the site but a cached version from my new search engine -homepages friends. This too, pays. How?

Then the site improved and new theme is better. Anything that shows a cup of coffee is attractive for me.

***

Like Writers and Photographers

“…I remember coming home a few days after EDSA 1 and playing it on the piano without interruption, and completing this five minute song in an unbelievable two minutes. How was that possible, if the song takes five minutes to sing…” – Jim Paredes

Athletes call it the playing the zone. It is the level where most play their best games and the performance continues as soon as they get into it and ends until they tire themselves out. Similarly, this applies to everything we do, day in and day out. There are times when we spontaneously do something without even having to think about it, when everything just seems fluid. Even doing a simple household chore has its own zone.

This must be why all of a sudden there’s that void of well-composed photos on my multiply.com network. Just a few months back there was a barrage of spectacular pictures coming from my online buddies but lately it seems no one has posted much or not one has shot anything worthy to be considered photography. Hopefully, their pricey Canon SLRs aren’t sitting in a corner, collecting molds and dusts.

This is also true with bloggers and reviewers. I miss the days when I’d read write ups so nice that I’d wonder if the man behind the harmony of words are pro incognito or just plain individuals like me who don’t have the bucks to purchase expensive cameras and therefore decided to write instead. While creativity is involved, this is what sets the two hobbies or pastimes apart. Photography enthusiasts need at least a high-end SLR while all bloggers need is just an intangible idea.

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed some of my previous (more than a year ago) posts and some made me smile and pat myself on the back, while some not so much. My only consolation is that my blog traffic isn’t so high thereby reaching only a few unlucky individuals. Having no proofreader or editor is my ultimate alibi.

But I still remember the times when I’d write better (as far as I’m concerned), when I’d feel like I’m immersed in the zone. These are when a favorite music either plays in the background or just inside my head. I think the rhythm does something with the composition especially if it goes with the emotions behind the idea that is set at that very moment. My keyboard becomes the piano sans the melody.

Even the people I admire and envy for having been gifted enough to possess such wonderful talents in both literature and photography, such as Jim Paredes and James Deakin don’t come free from blunders. I’ve read and seen some of their works and I can’t help but think “Hey, this isn’t them” or “Did they really do this?” But then, these are busy guys and the pressure of the deadlines sometimes affects the outcome.

With Christmas season getting nearer each day, work activities piling up, vacations to consider, parties to attend to are all joining our already chaotic schedule, I still hope that people could still find time to focus and be in the zone. Let those great articles come back again and let those lenses capture the beauty of everyday life.

Circus Now Showing on TV

“A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it.” – Sir Winston Churchill

“Ang hindi marunong tumingin sa pinanggalingan hindi makararating sa paroroonan.” – JR

I was coming from our last graveyard shift this week and upon waking up from a 4-hour deep slumber courtesy of the rain and cold weather, I switched on the TV and was surprised by what I saw. I must still be dreaming. Did the cable channel provider changed programming? Am I on the History channel? Did my remote control conk out?

While trying to make senses of what’s on the tube, the Live caption on the side of the screen made me realize that what I’m watching is indeed happening real time. Standing in front of the camera is Sen. Trillanes flanked by some personnel, a priest who became famous for running, and a lady thanking the media for their perseverance to stay despite the tear gas bombardment–she doesn’t have to say that, these guys will stay like leeches even if a bomb is about to explode.

This scene greeted me from my wonderful siesta like a post-sleep nightmare. Here we go again. Fill in the blanks: EDSA (type number here).

Besides being pissed by what is actually happening hundreds of kilometers from where I am, I recalled of a then angry Jim Paredes’ post Equal Right to Lawlessness on his blog site wherein I placed the commented: “Jim, so what’s next? Edsa 4?”

Just like Neo who suspects that a déjà vu occurs when someone is tweaking the Matrix, me thinks that someone out there is calmly running his fingers through the rim of a rum glass, massaging his bearded chin just as this event progresses and most likely while doing a revision of his master plan–conspiracy theories entertain me.

I hate to say this but it looks like we are a bunch of people with 64kb memory–we forget too soon.

***

I’m tired of seeing on TV a cliche of events that would humble even the plot of the telenovelas:

People get angry at the President
TRAPOs gather
People + TRAPOs oust the President
TRAPOs hug and attend mass with bishops.
New President
(Repeat # 1 if necessary)

Only in the Philippines.”

Why?

This is because I am now concluding that behind this Trillanes character is a bigger group (or individuals) so eager to topple the current regime so that they can serve the Filipino people. After all, I believe that this senator (sadly, yes) is a coward and should have never been voted in the first place. But again, we tend to forget.

If we rewind what this ex-soldier and coup-plotter has done, we will see that he’s cowered in hotels to make his point–or the lack of it–known to everyone. (I think it is about time that all hotels run a memorandum to close its doors once they see this man coming in.) So far I could not recall that he’s made a good impression for Philippine hotel economy.

Of course to prove that Trillanes is mainly out there to stir the Edsa spirit, tagging along with him are a number of characters to summon the majority–the so called masses–of the short-minded Filipinos and a bunch of media newscasters willing once again to insult if not to challenge the intellect of the resilient pinoys. Interestingly, Jim Paredes has a blog about it also: 23 tools to brainwash and influence people through mass media:

Repetition is key. Repeat important messages as often as possible.
Repetition is key.
Repetition is key.
Bypass rationality by any means People don’t need logic to accept information. Belief is emotional. Always remember: WAR=PEACE.
Remember –- two half-truths make up a whole truth….

So yes, repetition is the key. We all know that tiny drops of water will eventually make an impression on a hard stone. Unfortunately, this is being used for the wrong objective.

So while I’m a few hours away from my birthday, I might as well grab the opportunity to entertain myself with the circus on TV. Who knows, the next time I click on the boob tube a new clown is already out there to serve our beloved nation. Mabuhay!