Muffled Noise

So I finally paid for my domain hosting LOL, and I think I’ll start writing again. I miss it. I know, something’s wrong with me. :)

But also let me take this opportunity to plug, ever so shamelessly, so you know that I have not abandoned the internet during my hiatus. Tumblr has been eating up a lot of my time, so visit if you have nothing better to do (chances are you do, but whatever woot!)

And also, my 365 Project — where I basically take one picture every day for one year (365 days) and post them. I’m a month into it, and hoping I can keep it up. I have it on Flickr and on Tumblr.

Oh blog, how I missed you, but I must get back to work now. I’ll think of something substantial to write on you soon.

Let me count the ways. Google has been a big part of my Netizenship, and along with m’dear pal Wikipedia, has been among the first I run to for help when I’m feeling noobish. Now I know you all love Google too, but I’ve come to give you some more reasons to finally buy that diamond ring, get down on one knee and ask Google if it would like to have little search engine babies. Uhm, or something like that. Let’s begin!

5. Because of the changing Google logos, occasionally reminding me to celebrate people that I don’t know wouldn’t normally pay tribute to.

125th Birthday of Walter Gropius (May 18, 2008)

4. Because of Google Maps, which have been the cause of many arguments between people who think they know rooftops, and have brought us Atlantis.

Because I refuse to believe their “logical” explanation. Lulz.

3. Because when you search for “french military victories” and click “I’m Feeling Lucky”, it will lead you of this very sad history lesson:

Try it. And if you’re French, I’m sorry.

2. Because you can come up with very interesting search suggestions as you type.

Click it or open in a new window, it’s surprisingly insightful (and funny).

1. Last but not least, because Google co-founder Sergey Brin reminds me of both Zach Braff and Jerry Seinfeld.

And this is reason enough.

So for all you Google-lovers out there, don’t take her for granted. If I missed a good reason in this short list, let me know! :P

Plurk 404′d me. I don’t know if that was really as routine a maintenance as you’d think, because the 404’s came at least an hour before they flashed the “routine maintenance” message.

And I find this highly amusing. This whole microblogging thing seems so addictive that when Plurk goes down, people don’t just drop it and do something more productive. They (rather, we, after all I did blog about it) move to Twitter to tweet that that Plurk is down. Not sure if it happens the other way around too.

I still love you Plurk, but you’ve been having a lot of problems lately. Feel better soon. (cozy)

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Some of us humans like to think that the world outside our doors is a mad and dangerous one, but I beg to differ. I think there’s a world far crazier, far more twisted and unsafe, and it’s right under our noses. I call it… The Internet.

Today, to celebrate (?) the madness that is the internet, let us go over some important men of the Intarweb. They are the ones that have graced our webpages for many moons, and offered laughs and constant content for memes all around the world.

One. George Dubya.

The internet has not been kind to him. Okay I must admit, I really feel sorry for the guy, all things considered. I won’t lie, some stuff are funny as heck, but yeah. I wonder who got the shoes he so skillfully dodged. Somebody check eBay!

Two. The Hoff.

Because you know you’ll never be as cool as he is.

Three. The Generic Sad Cosplayer Dude.

The internet is full of him. And the internet cannot get enough of him.

Four. Michael Jackson.

I love him (in Thriller and his old stuff), but dang. I don’t believe everything I hear, but I don’t blame the media (and the internet) for eating it all up. LOL.

Five. Colonel Sanders.

And according to the wise Russel Peters, that hand motion, in Italian, means “WTF”.

Six. Osama Bin Laden.

Well, I can’t really say anything witty about him. Good thing I have this cool picture to make up for it.

Seven. Devastatin’ Dave.

Because he was probably really cool back then. You cannot go wrong with a name (and a get-up) like that.

Eight. Ronald McDonald.

He used to be someone we could look up to.

Nine. You all know this one.

<There was an explanation here, but it exploded on contact with his name>

It is at this day and age where being on the internet may be the worst thing that happens to you, so stop Googling your name for Pete’s sake! Hahaha! Hope you all liked this one, and let me know if I missed anyone important. ;]

So I recently got hooked on Plurk, in case that isn’t already evident. Safe to say that right now, Plurk is giving me what was apparently lacking in my Twitter experience. Lacking, you ask? Well, Twitter did a mighty fine job in the micro-blogging business, but that was just about it for me. On the other hand, Plurk manages to tip-toe up from the realm of micro-blogging to more of social networking, so I think a bit of assessment is in order.

For starters, Plurk gives you more credit for updating your profile information — the fact that they give you credit (see: karma) at all gives it a huge advantage. The feel seems more similar to Facebook feeds than it does to Twitter, because it’s more flexible with the type of content a user can “plurk”. Heck, it even seems more similar to a multiplayer game, what with the points and all. And ultimately, looking at the Plurk timeline actually makes you feel like you’re part of a social network, and non-linear replying seals the deal for me.

But what does Twitter have over Plurk? The blue bird. Let’s face it, save the yellow platypus thing, Plurk creatures are butt-ugly.

But seriously, I think Twitter does have some advantages over Plurk. The very thing that seems to have Twitter left behind is actually it’s strongest advantage to many people — simplicity. And I have a few of my own concerns. Though I’m certainly not at that point, what happens when you get hundreds of friends? Should you be forced to “un-follow” them to avoid a cluttered timeline? Does it end up using way more of a user’s time than what it’s worth? Will no 3rd party tool come to rescue it from the website?

It’s for these reasons that I’m not truly confident in Plurk’s shelf life. After all, from what I see, most if not all social networks reach their saturation point. After that they slowly fade away — or others take their place. I wonder what (or when) Plurk’s downfall is gonna be?

Click it.

I CAN REST (and chat more) NOW.

I’m not going to work tomorrow yay! Well technically I shouldn’t considering I just finished working from home and it’s 2:31 AM. I really must be insane.

Btw I’m joining NaNoWriMo! I know I’m late but I really really think I can do it. And SHOULD do it, for my sanity’s sake. I hope I finish! :]

I highly recommend it. In fact I’ve been pushing it like a drug on some people.

The pros. First off, it’s like unlocking the best of the internet. You’ve probably seen dozens of sites on a certain topic, but how much are you getting out of them? For how accessible the internet seems (what with Google, Technorati, so on), for most of us, sorting out the good sites from the bad is a bit of a challenge. SU does it for you, based on your actual interests. In fact, I found more great sites in a few hours (including actually going through those sites) than I could’ve found in a couple of days normally. The way I see it, you can’t go wrong.

The cons. If you’re anything like me, you may end up spending more time on the internet than you normally do. And if you’ve any game-related sites ticked in your preferences, it won’t be long till you catch a site that catches you back. Not to mention, without SU, you’d probably be a straight-to-the-point kind of person — if you need sites on Web Development, you head for those right away. But with SU, you’d probably spend some time on that nice photography site you… well, stumbled upon, before snapping out of it and remembering the task at hand. Of course you could always tick everything else off in your prefs, but I doubt you’d do that if you’re anything like me. Then again, I may just be going through a hype phase, who knows?

So despite the slightly longer paragraph on cons, I still do highly recommend it. It’s helped me get some ideas for design, art, marketing and even for this blog. Not to mention I get my regular dose of entertainment while I’m at it.