1, 2 entries made me a writer (haha!)

Last Thursday, I met up with a writer for a newsletter.

I sent  a special article entry once, then another. I wasn't sure if they featured the 2nd one until last Thursday. The girl gave me a copy of the published write-up for the week, and at the back, my name was written as one of the writers. As in, swoooon. It swept me off my feet but I gave a chuckle and said, "Wow, writer na ako, 1 entry pa lang."

Well, apparently, I was unaware the 2nd one was also featured coz I think I didn't receive confirmation that she got the post. Anyway, it made my day. I think, it even made my year. haha!

Left the place and was trying to read the newsletter while walking along the street then heard a sort of mumble when I passed by a boy & a girl. And he said, "You're one of the writers dba?". I was deeply astounded. I didn't know the words to say. I was more like dumbfounded. hahah!

Anyway, to cut it short, I'm invited to write for the entire year for the special articles section, and it starts January next year. They have monthly themes already but I can choose whatever since special article. hihi!

Thank you Lord. And I'm praying I could inspire people with whatever I write. Like, truly inspirational. haha!

black art of social media

if there's such thing as black magic, then I can just create such thing as the black art of social media. :p

Social Media - the easiest, fastest way to reach end-consumers without having to think much of logistics (warehouse and office rentals, etc) and a whole lot. You can create businesses and market them online and voila! big time winner.

It's the weirdest way of building friendships, sometimes even destroying too. For me, there is what I call..the Black Art of Social Media.

Why is it black art? Well, I guess when social media was created, it was created for a very good reason: helping the people get informed, bridging gaps, etc. But as always, men use freewill differently.

The Black Art of Social Media, as it goes:

1 Virtual Friendships - Sometimes we only create friends online. When we see our virtual friends in reality - along the street or mall or wherever - it's as if we never got to know them, or we never chatted in FB/Instagram, etc. (Well, that's why they're called virtual. haha!)

Virtual friendships are somewhat helpful; in the sense that you have additional friends but sometimes when they're the only people we have, it's quite disturbing. Nothing beats real-life friends. You have to go out of your house, and make real good friends.

2 The Camouflage Effect - A lot of us have different images in social media. We pretend to be the people we're not. We pretend to be happy; all smiles with a bunch of friends we're not really close with actually (but we have bunch of pics with them :p). We just pretend and sometimes we become one with that mask, we just camouflage.

Sometimes we're not aware of this but sometimes we fully are. And that's the more alarming one. When you are conscious of your social media facade, yet you continue to be.

3 Invasion of Privacy - Yes, there's such thing as private settings but there's always a loophole - like friends of friends, or simply, google, or whatever accounts you linked your FB/IG/twitter with. The best way is to keep it real private, no links, no whatever.

4 the Monkey Business - Not all people are well aware of the roundabouts of social media so sometimes when we click sites and all the logos and sorts of licenses are visible there, we believe it's legit. But really, it's not. Sometimes, authentication stuffs are also being mimicked so the only way we can protect ourselves is be cynical/paranoid. :p


Social Media was not created for this. Let's try to give justice to what the brilliant people of these world has created - FB/IG/Twitter Creators, and all sorts.

Be yourself. Be transparent. Respect. Do honest business. I guess that's what a best social media campaign should be.

The Era of mIRC

mIRC began during the ?th generation (that’s not an error you’re seeing, it’s really “?” coz I dunno when it actually started). It has been a good form of communication and networking for a long while, until technology has taken its beat and introduced the new social media. But looking back, mIRC had its limelight, its pinnacle, its golden years.

I, for once was an IRC addict. Yes, a chatter at that. I started early high school and maintained the same craze until I graduated high school. I did hang on to it a few years in college but for some, it remains to be in their system til now. What is really in IRC that got the ? generation so hooked up?

mIRC only opens doors for new friendships, new acquaintances; sustaining them is totally up to you. You can be present in all different channels all at the same time. You can carry one name in a channel (even many names in one channel but you’re a bit psycho already if you do that – well, just my opinion) and other names in other channels. You can be multiple persons all at the same time (sounds psycho again l0l!) but hey, you can seriously be in all different places in one chat session and literally be different persons in all different channels.

Showing pictures is never a requisite. You can totally skip that part if you opt not to show yourself. Again, my most favorite, you can be a different person anytime you want; different personality every time you log in. You can still do this in the new social media (twitter, FB, etc.); pretend someone you’re not; pretend to be living a life you don’t really live up to, etc. but it’s quite a hassle though to make such different accounts, not to mention, it suggests some psychological disorder already if you do make an effort to make multiple accounts just for the purposes I’ve mentioned. mIRC saves all these kind of inconveniences and makes it much simpler for users and so.. the wonder of mIRC unfolds. 

Joining is easy. Being part of a channel is another ‘chicken’ thing. (Is that how ‘sisiw’ is translated? L0l!!!!) Everything is totally easy with mIRC. It’s actually most convenient for people who just want to talk and people who on the other hand, also just want to have someone to talk to or simply just wanna kill time. It’s a totally different thing if you share stories with a real friend you really see face to face with and it’s another if you want to vent on something you don’t really want your real friends to know, well, at least, not just yet. (So I guess you’re now getting the idea why I chat at IRC. :p)

As I said, IRC opens doors for new friendships. It’s not all about pretensions, letting loose of things you don’t really want friends to know, nor is it just about profanities and immoral purposes, as how others use it. It builds unique relationships and networks with other IRC chatters. Some of my interesting talks happened in IRC. I talked to all races, ages, and genders. Although talking to the same gender is quite awkward for me so that’s not quite on my list and it’s rare that same genders feel like mysteriously talking to each other online unless you use a nick common to both guys and girls, like Alex, Toni, Joey, etc (that you’ll surely bump into boys/girls users).

the new social media, IRC helps find love. It even allows you to chat with crushes in school (oh, this I like hahah!), especially if you know your crush’s nick :p. It has quite cool games too. (Do you find trivia games cool? :o I kinda meant that kind of game hahah!) It helps you interact with other online chatters via trivia games hosted by the admins and you get kicked out too if you’re talking too much non-sense or ultimate profane words. (omg, I really feel it’s like mIRC fever all over again l0l! flashbackfridays haha!)

IRC gives you the chance to be the person you want to be, without people having to judge you for your looks because they haven’t really seen a picture of you, yet. Unlike FB, wherein people see you via profile pictures, well, that is if you posted a real picture of you. Let’s face it, there are really some people picky with people they talk too. If they see you and you kind of failed with their expectations of you, they won’t talk to you the next time, or sometimes, at least, no longer that often. With that, I admire the privacy and the freedom IRC gives. The only chances others get to know who you are, are 1) you send them a copy of your picture and 2) eyeball (I don’t know if this is even a term nowadays. Well, I guess it still does exist in the ‘text world’. ). Other than those two, your life remains private unless you have a friend who knows your nick and tells your chatmates who you really are ;) but again, at least you have those 2 options for people quite far from your circle of real life friends.

IRC is such an amazing, soothing and stress-relieving realm. You have the choice to reveal the real you or just be there, be present and socialize. So the next time you wonder why IRC still exists? Try it and you’ll know why. ;) But I guess what my sister’s IRC chatmate told her is also true, ‘IRC will die with its chatters’. ;) And by that, I believe he meant, ‘will die with the generation it was born in’.