It's been a year since my last post. The year 2010 was awesome in its own way. It sucked, yes. There's no doubting it. I still chose to tag 2010 as awesome simply because it tested my mettle. Challenging was an understatement. Torturous? Not even close. The pessimist in me screams suicide. The optimist in me simply says, "Hey, you lost about 20 pounds." I chose to go with the optimist. So why did I choose to say 2010 was awesome? Here's why it WAS NOT awesome, and why it WAS awesome: I changed careers early in the second quarter, with no definite place to transfer to. In short, I killed my cash cow. Bad move. I essentially stepped out of my comfort zone and treaded waters that were previously known to me. It made me realize how much had changed, job market-wise. It also made me ask myself important questions. Do I matter? Are my skills still relevant? AM I STILL RELEVANT? If I didn't leave my comfort zone, I wouldn't know the answer. Of course, leaving my comfort zone simply to find out if I do still matter, if I am still relevant, was NOT the best way to go about it. Still, it happened. And yes, I found my answer. The homestead was no picnic, either. Blood pressures rise, tempers flare, voices get raised, all for the littlest of things. The frustration builds up from the desperation to find a new cash cow. And soon. And, as if on queue, the househelp suddenly decides to leave us. We were still able to pay for wages, but I think she was in cahoots with the Universe to fuck with me. My "hiatus" wasn't really all bad, though. I get to spend most of my time with the wife and the willspawn. I was able to, sort of, reconnect with the people that may have been thinking I've forgotten about. Yay for reconnecting. There were times when everything seemed hopeless and that the only solution was to collect insurance from my death. Okay, not really. Because I'm not insured and I hate being in pain. At these times, which is most of the time, I turn to da innarnetz. Yes, I picked up quite a number of lolcatspeak vocabulary along the way. These... 'KADAs'  have brought a lot of LOLs that got me through the day. Through a lot of days, actually. Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook... well, not really as much from Facebook, and Plurk. The people there are awesome, and despite every sucky thing that's also happening to them, they manage to make an annoying animated GIF and make themselves, and others, laugh in the process. I made a mix of escapism and reality. Want some?

• blog.ademagnaye.com
• stream.ademagnaye.com
• facebook.com/noisynoisyman
• comicgasm.com
• iamkeysi.com
• hilarion.tumblr.com
• facebook.com/larrycayco
• twitter.com/hilarion
• larrycayco.blogspot.com
• comicology.i.ph
• facebuko.com
• ambigrams.tumblr.com
• pinoypickuplines.tumblr.com
• twitter.com/orasid
• facebook.com/jonasroque
• facebook.com/jmhighdef
• kikayrunner.com
• facebook.com/kikayrunner
• twitter.com/kikayrunner
• noelledeguzman.net
• twitter.com/noelledeg
• noelledeg.tumblr.com
• checkyoulater.net
• fozzard.asia
• baklaako.com
• kaininmo.com
• fritzified.com
• facebook.com/eishaddap
• weirdcontrovert.tumblr.com/
• twitter.com/blogie
• angdabawenyo.com
• robilloblog.com
• davaodeli.com
• ittalks.net
• mindanaobloggers.com
• electricdropkick.wordpress.com
• electricdropkick.tumblr.com
• electricdropkick.posterous.com

The above list is my way of saying thanks. The people behind the websites listed above are the same people I interacted with, annoyed, creeped out, and maybe disgusted, online. And for those times I was not feeling a hundred percent and bitchy about it, they knew to let me vent and rant my heart out. Good folks all around. I can't say the same thing about their sites, though. So click at your own risk. LOLJK. A year after my last post, I'm in my late-thirties. I'm officially a dirty-old-man if I hit on anyone below 30. As far as New Year's Resolutions go, here's mine: don't make any resolution and just do it, for fuck's sake. Stop complaining and do it, for fuck's sake. Yep. Totally mature of me. Fuck yeah. The challenges are still there, let's face it. They don't disappear. They just morph into something else, something unfamiliar, something terrifying, but it's still the same challenge. Bills still pile up. Debts are still unpaid. Well, some of them. The human-resembling squatters are still there and will still be as annoying as they want to be. The Philippine Government and its LGUs are still going to disappoint. Kotong cops are still going to, well, kotong. My grammar and whatever I wrote here is still going to be made fun of by juvenile geriatric fucks. But still, I rediscovered what I should have been doing at a time when everything was really falling apart. There's no one else to blame for whatever happened to me but myself. There's no use to beating myself up about it. There's no one else that can do something about it but me, and it's going to take some time to change an old habit. Nike helps a bit, though. I meant their slogan.

"Just do it." "You said tomorrow yesterday."

Yeah, it hits the spot, right there. So why was 2010 awesome? I learned more from that year alone than the previous years combined, both professionally and personally. I learned that it doesn't matter if you do or do not matter, that it only matters if you want to. I learned that my skills, all of them, aren't relevant all the time, and that some of it are relevant some of the time, and not having any skills at all are what makes you not relevant. I learned that being relevant is directly proportional to how relevant you want to be. Skills are learned. Relevance is relative. Attitude matters.

I'm half of a septuagenarian already but it is only now that I ask myself profound questions that doesn't force me to think of an answer of the wise-ass kind. Ten years ago, I think, in a job interview, I was asked what I see myself doing five years from then. I always had a canned response of someday being one of the supervisors or managers of the company I was trying to get into. That, or owning and managing my own business. At one point, I had this delusion of becoming a rock star playing the guitar in a rock band. A few years passed and a few grand spent, and I got nothing to show for it. I feel embarrassed as I remember what I was doing back then. And this was a VERY LONG time ago. I also thought I can make it in the digital age by becoming a digital graphic artist, learning the tools of the trade that is Corel Draw and Photoshop. Or become a mountaineer, climbing all sorts of peaks and trudging through valleys for Discovery Channel. Yeah, I want my fifteen minutes of fame. I'm not really sure if I have ADD or something because I easily get distracted by a new gadget or some other weird stuff; I lose interest easily. Also, mountaineering got in the way of my smoking, so I quit mountaineering. I occasionally go hiking at least once a year, though, so quitting mountaineering isn't really set in stone. Then, more delusions of grandeur in the digital age crept up my mind by way of becoming a professional blogger. Yeah, the cause of this blog. Unfortunately, I'm a friggin' introvert, and the only way I interact with other people socially is through the anonymity of a username and an avatar. And that's basically the reason I don't attend events and other PR-related stuff. That, and lack of money and time. Fast forward to today and I take look at what I've been doing. I got married. My wife gave birth to a son that I shall refer to from this point on as Willspawn. I get by one day at a time, paying the bills and providing for my family, to the best of my capability, along the way. The downside of my current profession is that I work at nights, effectively killing off any kind of social life. Oh yes, I can make time to go out and enjoy what people-with-regular-working-hours have, but at this stage of my life, sleep is a rare commodity highly prioritized and taken advantage of in every chance presented. Ten years ago, I basically lied my ass off in that job interview. I lied NOT to the company, but to myself. I should have my own business right now. I should be the boss already. I should be thriving on my own. A lot of should-have's, but not enough of what-is's. Today marks not only my 35th birthday, but also an alarm clock going off telling me that I have five more years left before my life "begins." I want to know if life truly begins at 40. And I want to be prepared to do anything and everything I want to do when that time comes. That is, if I live long enough past it to enjoy it. In the meantime, I think I'll just ramble on... sing my song...

I didn't realize I have writer's block until I decided to write a few entries in my blog. Well, one of the ways I know of getting over said block is to keep writing, even if it doesn't make sense, although one can hope it does. I sure hope so. One of the things that keep popping up into mind, which reminds me to install a pop-up blocker up there, is the socio-economic status of most of my fellow Filipinos. Everything revolves around money, and I can't fault them for that simply because my world revolves around it too, though not as tight of a grip it has on others. The truth is, the Philippines is a poor country. Most of the people live in sub-humane conditions. More people are out begging in the streets if statistics are compared year-over-year. There are a number of possible causes as to why the country's condition continues to deteriorate. One of the ones I can think of is overpopulation. The city is bursting at the seams with too many people. But then again, you can't fault people for that. The Filipinos' favorite line quoted from scripture is "go forth and multiply." And with a predominantly Catholic country that encourages sex, well, you can't argue with that. The meaning of morality, however, is lost. The Church might be partially to blame for this as they keep a firm stand on contraception. And please, don't get me started with abortion. Also, people can't help it. We're humans. We will fuck. And fuck the consequences, it feels good. It's a fact, AND a truth. But the consequences are real, like unemployment, overcrowding, and poverty. The more people you have in one place, the more the place needs to scale to provide for those people. Also, the more people there is, the more garbage gets produced, the more plastic gets manufactured, disposed improperly, and impacts the fucking environment. So essentially, I'm not blaming people for fucking around with the devil-may-care attitude towards un/wanted pregnancies and STDs. Let their genitals fall off, see if I care. And people who want big families with no particular plan on how to raise them is, in Baddie's words, "just begging for some face-kicking." Yes, people are stupid. No exceptions. It's a fact, AND a truth. But some people are more stupid than others. Like those people who voted AND will be voting again for the same dickhole that had his hand caught in the cookie jar. I'm looking at you, Erap supporters. The solution I am proposing is for politicians to have a heart transplant. Get a new heart with responsibility, accountability, and transparency bundled in. I heard the price was half-off. It now only costs half a moral sense. Also, you get a free moral compass if you buy now. Promo ends just the moment before you realize you're going to die. Seriously, though, here's what I think would help, if not solve, the Philippines's problems with unemployment and poverty. (Fuck overcrowding. I like brushing up to greasy, sweaty, smelly men in public transportation.) And this would also help make the country a little bit greener in the end. Recycling Plant. Two words that might get some of the shit done on the epic to-do list for the country's improvement, and might be noticed by other countries and be used as a revenue-generating model for other developing countries. So how does this work? I'll tell you how. Fuck. I've been watching too much of Craig Ferguson lately that I'm starting to think like him. Bad or not, I don't mind. So it works like this. You get someone to fund the government... wait... I think it just failed there. Oh fuck it. Since this is my blog, entries can be fictional. So in my world, which has cheap gadgets and without a corrupt government official, other entities, sentient beings or otherwise, will provide funding to the government to build a big-ass recycling plant. This will provide jobs for the construction industry. And why stop at just one plant. When it picks up and is self-sustaining, construct more recycling plants as needed. By the country or by the world, it doesn't matter. People will still be consuming stuff, dumping stuff, etc. These stuff need recycling. To motivate people to segregate trash for recycling and proper disposal, every one who does just that gets thru the day without being kicked in the face. Good enough? No? Okay. Everyone who does this will get to kick those who didn't in the face. How's that for motivation? *wink* Of course, plants need workers. And no, robots shouldn't be employed to simplify the process. No offense to the future robot overlords, but this is self-preservation, nothing personal. Besides, people are becoming overweight anyway. Humans need the exercise. So employ as many hobos as needed, even the coffee machine guy. Salaries will be paid commensurate to the amount of work output. No executives here with bloated salaries and "special" bonuses. Fuck you and your status fuckin quo. For this to work, scientists will have to come up with a way on properly disposing both biodegradable and recyclable stuff. I heard plastics can be made into carpets. Whatever, just make something from crap. Investors should also foot the bill on this one. Now, why will investors put their money on something without getting guaranteed of a return on their investment? How about I put my foot up their ass? No? Too much extortion? Okay. Well, whatever is recycled should be sold to some other industry. This is where the marketing industry comes in. This should create a positive cash flow simply because the raw materials / recyclables costs next to nothing. Investment returns are assured. The question is how soon. Outside my world, if this plan ever came this far, there is no return of investment. Aren't you glad you're in my world? This plan addresses some of the employment deficit, hopes to alleviate poverty, and make the country a little cleaner, greener. This plan is not new, but in my world, it works. My world looks better than the real one. If only the government would start listening to its people instead of their own voice, things would be a lot different. Hey, Noynoy, Villar, and other presidentiables (except Erap)! Are you listening?!

It would not be right to say goodbye to the previous year, as it helped me learn a thing or two with what I wanted to do with, well, basically, my life. This blog has grown from something that contains trivial stuff to something that contains not-so-trivial stuff. Well, at least from a WordPress-related standpoint.

Read the rest of this post »

Here's something I've been pondering about over the weekend. How do I make my family and friends blog using WordPress? Then it follows, Why would they want to use it? So ultimately, What if WordPress released a version that has everything you wanted in it, what would those features be? Ease of use The Dashboard is ok. I can see how many comments need moderating, shortcuts to write a post, change the theme, etc. Would it be possible to integrate Stats into the core? All you need is a WordPress.com account anyway. And a well-developed theme. Aesthetics The Admin is a bit...generic. People want to personalize their stuff. So why not include some themes for the Admin? It surely wouldn't hurt to look good. Unless it gets too slow to load. Management The post/page management is excellent. Tag management, however, is non-existent. Will someone please put something that resemebles one on the next release of WP? Ability to choose tags from a list that would display existing tags or tag suggestions from a reputable search engine would really be great. And if there are sub-categories, should there be sub-tags? This post may seem like a rant, but it's actually not. Because if it is, I would have switched to another blogging platform. I like WordPress. I learned a lot from it, from creating themes to developing plugins, WP helped me develop my own skills, however noob they may be. This is not a rant. This is a rambling.