Category: Blog

The Chain Game

 

I’ve always talked about the benefits we’ve been getting with the continuous improvement of how we communicate with one another through the Internet and computers. Everything from the basics to the complex things we do years ago has evolved though along with it comes its own pros and cons. The split-second rate of how we get in contact with each other has greatly affected the exchange of information and reactions. To the gullible this is a life changing moment.

Let’s talk  about seemingly innocent emails that ask you to forward it to others. Like an unending terrorist threat, this one affects everyone. No one is free from it. It is how you deal with it that makes the difference. I really don’t why these emails exist. Maybe these were circulated in good faith, to inspire, to motivate or to spread good news. Or could it be plain prank? So have you got one recently? Did you forward or did you delete?

Until now I still get those on my inbox and most of it were neither from susiexxx@horny.com nor from pass2survive@faithinme.net but from my friends. And it always surprises me every time when one who has been sending me pornographic pictures (not that I entertain these types) would later send me an email requesting me to pass on to every contacts I have a slide show with the Immaculate Concepcion’s picture on it just because some celebrity died after ignoring it. Ti abi. I believe in change and conversion, but this does not count.

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One of those that got through my inbox.

The reasons behind such instantaneous forwarding requests–pass this to 5 people in 30 seconds and you’ll see your life change–in my opinion may be the following:

Very shallow faith. Ever wondered if someone from the heavens did actually track if you send the religious email to everyone.

Lack of simple logic. Who in his right mind from Microsoft or Intel will give you $10000 cash or the latest computer just by forwarding an email.

Getting even. “Damn, I got scared with that. Might as well send it to others”.

10 GPBS office internet connection. Kung sabagay, why not. Can relate?

I’m not a quick deleter and I normally read emails especially if it does come from the people I know. I’m not even saying that all chain letters are bad. Most of it actually makes sense. So what I always do is to read the mail and if I think it is good enough, I “share” it to my friends but without the part that I know might get someone anxious or scared thinking that he’s just been asked by someone from the high heavens to pass it to others or get ran over by a truck on his next trip to work; OR that perhaps a CEO from Nokia is shaking his head for a recipient’s stupidity of passing off a good deal by ignoring the request to forward the enticing free N90 email to friends. Well, that’s not me.

Wait. I just got an email from Paris Hilton. Hey, that’s indecent proposal but it just needs me to forward to 3 friends in 10 seconds.

“Dear Mo, Mojo and Andi, please forward this to picture and you’ll get the time of your life…..”

 

Blog’s 1st Year

 

I can’t believe that a year has passed since I started writing and blogging. It was Aug 30, 2006 when I first got myself out of the couch, turned the TV off and approached my then lowly but dependable PC and started composing my Rockstar post. The result was actually surprising. I wrote one that actually made me pat myself on the back even with the uncertainty that grammatical errors could exist and await for one keen grammar Nazi’s eye or any smart elementary kid to take notice.

But there’s always something for encouragement to just do it. As if by coincidence our Daily Quote calendar has this for Aug 30: “A life spent making mistakes is not only honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing – George Bernard Shaw”. So timely, so appropriate. One more reason to make mistakes, or in this case, write blogs. I smiled and nodded when I read it. This calendar was given to me by my wife.

My wife. Two words that I’ve been including in most of my blogs either consciously or unconsciously . Well it’s no wonder, she’s the one who inspired and encouraged me to try writing. As far as I know, she is the leader of my few readers who visit my blogspot every now and then. My Technorati rank will attest to that – Rank: 3,915,745 . Ti abi.

My Blog Machine 2.0

”Every new beginning comes from other beginning’s end…” Closing Time by Semisonic.

Finally, my old Blog Machine has to go. The five-year old Pentium III 800 MHz PC has to give up his throne in our bedroom and give way to what I will call my Blog Machine 2.0 powered with one of the latest Intel Core 2 Duo 2.13 GHz PC.

The old machine has been a part of our life since it was given to us for free. During its early days it has opened our eyes to the wonderful world of the Internet. It has helped us appreciate the then famous (or infamous) Napster. Despite enduring the dragging speed of dial-up connection, I endured nights of downloading of what I knew before as just free music (it’s now technically known as piracy). I still can recall one person begging me to keep my connection open just to download Midge Ure’s Dear God—which happens to be one of my favorite songs (hint: 80‘s fan).

Of course, the old Intel machine also introduced me to one of the wonders of Web 2.0—web blogging or just blog. As a frustrated writer, I finally found one medium to share my thoughts and practice my writing skills, if I may call it. It was through this old machine that I drafted and published my first blog.

As everything will come to an end, the old guy is laid to rest. Some of its parts were taken out (i.e., cannibalized) for the new guy. Some were given away, to maybe meet other old PCs that hopefully will start other people to learn the basics and be awed by the World Wide Web. If there’s a PC heaven, I know his soul will be there.

For the new guy, he still has got a lot to prove. It’s been with us for just two days but so far the promises of an Intel Dual Core processor haven’t failed and continue to amaze me with its power. I’ve already made it to download applications from the internet, rip music and capture videos from our Sony HandyCam—all of which were done simultaneously. The result was just great. No glitch. Yet. If only writing skills improve together with the upgrade of a PC.

Oh, before I forget. I’m now playing a new game in this PC. It’s the modern, action-packed and adrenaline-pumping graphics—-the unforgiving game of…Spider Solitaire. LOL. I’m growing old. Ti abi.

My Blog Machine and I are Ill

Just lately, the blog machine is showing signs of illness. Just when I thought it would be doing its job effectively, it all of a sudden displayed a “throbbing” monitor. It would intermittently dim as if breathing heavily to keep up with what I am doing. It looks like I am just now waiting for it to die on me while writing a blog post. Whenever it will be, I can’t tell.

The monitor will have to go soon & a replacement is needed. CRT or LCD? I’m thinking now if by any chance my blog machine wants to sympathize with my recent headache attacks. Well, I wonder. If there is such thing as resistentialism, which is a belief that a thing is acting against one person, this one I don’t know how it is called.

A few weeks back (it’s been years actually) I had these strange headaches which would come out of nowhere. Being a paranoid myself, I have checked the Internet and the symptoms are that of stroke and migraine. I’ll gladly accept anytime that it’s the latter. Hopefully, the next few days, I’ll have the answer.

My Blog Machine is Up!

Other than not having time to compose my blogs, my Blog Machine bogged down due to a defective UPS. This is my HP VL400 Desktop which runs on Intel Pentium III 800 MHz, 128MB SDRAM 133Mhz bus speed. More than 5 years ago, this could have put me on the bragging rights level if you compare it with other computers of its time. Sadly, technology is cruel. This week you are fast, the next couple of weeks you are slower than slow. In this world of F1-like “Giga” CPUs, mine is that one car that would have retired sooner even before the other cars have settled in their pole positions prior to the race start. But fear not! The Blog machine is at least still good for word processing, which is all I need to do my blog posts. It is also still good for the adrenalin-pumping, heart-stopping, mind-boggling game of Solitaire! At least I’ve got something to do while waiting for the next blog page to load through my56 kbps internet connection—actually, it has never or rarely reached that much speed. ti abi.