Hi old friend..

I missed you. I guess I'm just really lazy. Updating a blog is hard (well for me it is). Especially because I have this thing that makes me wanna delete blog posts because they're fugly. At this point, I already wanna delete this one because I seems pointless to continue such an ugly piece of literature.

hmm what to write?

not to boast, I'll talk about the new pc. Well, this new computer is really fast, there's a very significant upgrade from the last. The 22" screen makes my laptop look like crap. It's got quad core, 1 Tb of hdd, and 512mb graphics card. :D It runs on a genuine copy of Windows XP, it's got a genuine copy of Norton Internet Security 2009, It comes with a wonderful copy of Internet Exlploerer 5, thankgod! it's the best web browser to use when downloading Firefox or Chrome. XD I surf with chrome. Going incognito is just so awesome.

Running on a genuine copy of XP is really cool. For once, I didin't feel like a fugitive, and downloading a copy of Media player 11 was sooo cool. I'm like: "Ha! veryfy my copy all you want bitches! It's as genuine as my gold plated ass! buwahaha"

ok, I got sidetracked. till nextime buddy :D

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra

http://www.youtube.com/symphony

soon

s o o n

Drink and See (for yourself)

now this is love.

cursed

I found this in my gmail account. dated 06/07/08

this was before my ENGLCOM class, so expect the worst of my writing. haha!

------------------------------------------------

cursed

Pushing, or driving rather, the push cart -full of eggs, milk, tissue rolls, that new cheap shirt with the cool catch phrase "I am a ninja", and a week-long supply of back issue magazines- ,

I saw these group of middle aged people wearing the same shirt at mcdo, (well it wasn't a freakshow with alot of people in one huge shirt).

I tried reading their shirt's logo, but it was too small,

this woman, saw me while I was in total curiosity, she smiled at me, I smiled back to bid my farewell.

Then all of a sudden, my mom pulled my shoulder and told me of the person walking towards me,

It was about 2 feet before contact, I managed to stop the cart,

and there she was, my eyes made hundreds of observations in a fraction of a second,

*she's got nice chucks on,
*those pants really put the curves on your butt
*your phone is cute with that blinker
*that jacket fits nicely and gives you extra "hip cleavage"
*those folds on your pants make you look so vintage
*you're so hot
*your eyes are so cute and reminds me of that Korean I used to have a crush on
*I can feel your nose touching mine going left to right and again, and again, was that our noses kissing?
*your hand, I would love to hold your hand.
*those lips, that smile, your cheeks, perfect.

I could go on untill I reach 999 to satisfy "hundreds".

did I mention she was holding someone else's hands whilst texting on the other?

yes, she was holding the hand of a girl around 6 - 10 years old eating some ice cream.

back to the moment I almost hit her.

I was able to stop.

for a fraction of a second, I saw that look in her eyes. frightened, shocked, and that last emotion she had after that last text she was replying to before I caught her attention.

then she came into realization, that I, the clumsy fool was able to stop the car.

during this moment, I was in shock (whilst observing her of course)

she took a glance at me, it lasted for about half a second in time but about 4 days and still counting in my head.

Then she gave a smile,

*a smile that said everything.
*It was short enough to send me begging for more
*long enough to make me remember it
*honest as if saying "hello" to another kid on your first day at the park
*sweet enough that it would make flowers ashamed to bloom in it's presence
*a bit flirty, as if trying to say "Buy me a drink, and let's talk about how your hair looks like with that hairband"
*suggestive, like saying "Your shirt is cool, but wearing a sweater would make you look better"
*Mysterious, that made me ask why smile when they usually look with ridicule.
*meaningful enough to make me think of these words.

what was I supposed to do?

I gave her something, I wouldnt call it a smile because I was neither a fan nor an expert of smiling. but I gave her something that looked like a smile. well, that was what I thought.

she slowly moved to the side, knowing that she had the easier option.

and again, slowly walked away to the direction from where I came from, but

this time, she was looking at me,

I was also looking back at her,

at around 2 meters, we had our second eye to eye. then at about 10 meters, while I was looking at her, we had our 3rd. this time, the little girl was also looking and gave me a childish wave free of critisizing comments of the world.

trying not to be rude, I waved back to the little girl with my fingers like a queer would, and to the lady that has cursed me untill now. she gave a small gesture with her right hand with an open palm bidding a simple farewell.

and here I am still cursed.

-cut

Pride of a generation [Cause and Effect - Englcom essays 5/5]

Pride of a generation

A decade back, the Filipino airwaves was dominated by foreign bands and musicians. The Eraserheads, Rivermaya, P.O.T. and the rest of the early 90’s Filipino bands had to compete with international acts such as the Backstreet Boys, Westlife, A1 and other overseas boy-bands alike. Though this was the situation then, our musicians, our bands pushed through and firmly stood their ground, showing that they can contest the foreign wave of music. Years have passed and now, the booming band scene in the Philippines is encouraging the formation of new bands, giving a new reputation for the then-folk-styled music to the now more-globally-competitive type of music, and giving the international recognition that Filipino musicians deserve.

The boom in the Philippines’s band scene is giving a new batch of aspiring musicians the chance to be a part of it. Since the 90’s, there has been a large increase in the number of bands in the Filipino band scene. Mainstream, Indie or even underground, it has seen its fair share of young bloods, making their way to nationwide, and even international stardom. These new bands aren’t limited to the typical genres. They’re even making their own brand of genre like the indie band “Up Dharma Down” that keeps defying the barriers of musical genres with their own brew of indefinable and uncategorized music style. Also popular in pioneering the new age of Filipino band music is the Rock and Soul band, “Sinosikat?” that’s making heads nod in time with their contra-tempo and old-school funk beats. The soft-core-electronica band, “Taken by cars” bridges the gap between club/disco or DJ mixed techno music and band music.
This new batch of musicians is also making headlines around the world like the band “Up Dharma Down”, after being featured in only if not, most read magazine in the world, TIME. “Urbandub”, a Cebu based band hat got to participate in the annual Bay beats festival in Singapore with fellow Filipino bands “Up Dharma Down”, “Kjuan” and “Typecast”. And who could forget “Rivermaya” for winning the “Favorite Artist Award” during the MTV ASIA Awards Bankok 2006 proving that Filipinos are globally competitive and deserve respect and the international spotlight.

Before the 90’s, Filipino music was tagged as usually mushy, melancholic, slow, non-innovative and is heavily influenced by the current western music. All that because most of our earlier musicians that got international recognition like Pilita Coralles, Ryan Cayabyab, Kuh Ledesma, Basil Valdez and Regine Velasquez were mostly ballad singers. Now, because of the new wave of musicians that we have, we definitely made a strong statement that Filipino musicians aren’t one trick ponies, that they also have their own distinct style of music that they themselves defined and are pioneering and that he what is now the Filipino band scene, is more globally competitive and unique in context.

This new scene, this Filipino band explosion is giving the Philippines an increase in the number of Filipino bands, is giving not only the bands but the Philippines as well an international recognition and the music scene a new reputation. Something to be truly proud of.

The Peer to Peer Dilemma [Argumentative - Englcom essays 4/5]

The Peer to Peer Dilemma

The information age, also known as the computer age or information era, is an age where individuals will have the ability to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge. The information era started during the early 90’s, with the development of the internet playing a major role in this change. A few years later, computer scientists invented the peer to peer system. The peer to peer system is a type of transient internet network that allows a group of computer users with the same networking program to connect with each other and directly access files from one another's hard drives. (Wolff, 2004).
Peer to peer technology has given us a better appreciation for the internet because of the new features it offers such as the integration of computer telephony that improved online calls, real time data streaming that facilitates media streaming like video and audio, and file sharing which enabled the sharing of almost anything in virtual space. Among these features, one caught the eye of millions of cyber rebels across this digital world, the ability of file sharing. And because of the goodness in us humans, we share, uncontrollably and immeasurable in number, giving the content owning community something to remember the information age by. An age when their content had more illegal copies shared through copyright infringing methods than legal copies sold.
In short, although peer to peer technology infringers the copyright laws, it should still be supported because it offers computer telephony integration which enables online phone calls, it presents data streaming used in media such as audio and video, and it allows file sharing which enables the sharing of almost anything in virtual space.
But is it reasonable to abolish the peer to peer system? A system that has been in service for so long, that it has been the basis of such companies like YouTube’s, Skype and Yahoo!’s Yahoo! Messenger software. Such technology is necessary for products and services like YouTube -a website company that uses the data streaming ability of the peer to peer technology- basically streams videos that can be watched by everybody who can gain access to it. These videos are uploaded by registered users who before uploading, must conform to certain rules and conditions set by the company to ensure that they do not infringe copyright laws. Skype is a software that uses the computer telephony feature of peer to peer technology. It makes possible for free online video calls that can connect anybody with a computer, an internet connection and a copy of the free software to others around the globe. Yahoo!’s Yahoo! Messenger is a software that allows internet relay chat and video streaming. Yahoo! Messenger or YM, is similar to Skype in terms of the services offered, although YM has more features than Skype like file sharing, the photo share function which allows real-time photo sharing. Those were some of the basic products and services that most of us use, others even rely on it.
The continuation of peer to peer technology does not only benefit the people utilizing its services, but also the companies whose major product or service relies on peer to peer technology. There are a large number of people that benefit from online chat to communicate with their loved ones who are far from them. Online communication like chatting, video calls, and online calls are currently the cheapest option here in the Philippines to communicate with people overseas, costing for as low as 15 pesos per hour or 25 centavos a minute for computer rental in computer shops. When compared to long distance phone calls that can cost up to more than 10 pesos per minute, it is clear why this service is preferred. Companies like Google who owns YouTube, Skype and Yahoo also benefit from these technological innovations. Google’s YouTube relies on data streaming to stream it’s videos on the websites to be viewed by the users. YouTube currently has more than 60 million registered users and more than a billion videos uploaded. It is currently third in the ALEXA ranking list which makes it the third most visited website in the world next to Yahoo!.(Alexa, 2009) The website traffic that YouTube and Yahoo get makes them prime sites to advertise and therefore attracts a lot groups and companies who are willing to pay to be advertised. Yahoo! offers its services by distributing their free Yahoo! Messenger software which allows a variety of services making communication and file sharing easier. Aside from the free services that Skype offers, it also has a premium-level service which provides better services than the basic-level service for a price which by the way is very affordable. They also attract people who are willing to advertise in their website. On the other side of things, abolishing the peer to peer technology will not solve the problem with illegal sharing and infringement of the copyright laws. Note that peer to peer technology only made it easier to share files and that there are many other ways to share files like the server-client method where a client uploads files to a server and clients download these files for free. Professor Lawrence Lessig - an American academic and political activist best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright and trademark, particularly in technology applications- included in his blog that Fred von Lohmann and his colleagues at EFF have suggested an innovative alternative to litigation and traditional compulsory licenses. Their approach, described as a "voluntary collective licensing" system, is aimed at compensating artists while ensuring that new technology will flourish. (Lessig, 2004)

The most feasible option to appease those who are fighting against piracy is to conceive a plan that will eliminate the current problem in the file sharing feature of the peer to peer system. That way, we could carry on with the peer to peer technology and prevent any more problems with the pro-peer to peer community.
The peer to peer system is now a significant and permanent aspect of the internet and it should not be abolished. It should not be blamed for the infringement of copyright laws because it is only being taken advantage of therefore it is only an instrument. You cannot sue a knife for killing a man. The technology and the laws regarding copyright materials are the ones that should be improved.