Facebook changed your email address without you knowing it

You may have not noticed it but Facebook changed your email address to xxx@facebook.com. It should be noted that they introduced their email service way back in 2010 but I think no one was/is using their address. Until lately when IT people noticed that emails found in the profile pages of FB users were automatically changed to @facebook.com!

But don't worry, Lifehacker is showing us how to change it. Here's how:

1. Click "About" on your profile and scroll down to your email address. Click "Edit" to change them.
2. Click on the circle next to your Facebook email address and change its setting to "Hidden From Timeline".
3. Click on the circle next to your other email addresses and change their settings to "Shown On Timeline".
4. Click the Save button at the bottom of the Edit popup (Don't forget this step).

More on this at this link: Facebook Changed Everyone’s Email to @Facebook.com; Here’s How to Fix Yours (Lifehacker)

What's in store for me in 2012?

I could not get hold of my brains when the New Year 2012 came. I was so relaxed I literally have nothing to write about the coming year. Or maybe not. Let us just say I have other priorities. LOL. In fact, I have been revisiting this draft again and again, revising it without even making it to the second paragraph.

So many things have happened since Christmas 2011, the impeachment of the Chief Justice among them, but I could not write a longer blog. Because of Facebook and Twitter, my blog has been neglected. Maybe because as we grow older, we want the meat and gist of things and no longer the flowery words? Or I am just too busy working to pay my outstanding debts? Living a life is a reality.

Facebook and Twitter allows me to share thoughts in limited words, therefore giving me time to read and share the real score. I blame them.

Blogging, however, takes time. Yes. Takes time. Blogging a paragraph-long or a single sentence-long is not blogging for me, unlike others. Using Twitter is recommended instead, to save face.

Blogging should be longer than a paragraph. Why? So you can give your readers time to analyze and share what and how you felt on certain issues or products. Especially if you are paid to do blogs. Blog-whoring, I call that. How does it feel to be a whore? LOL. That is why many of you noticed that I lack advertisements here in my blog. I am not here to earn money but to share you my experience. An independent blogger does not need to be forced to like or sell a certain thing to gain "fame" (OMG!) and money. I really hate that! 

Yes, I am babbling, actually, I write what comes to mind. Just to fill in my lack of blogging skills nowadays. I hope bloggers out there are not feeling the same way.

What's in store for me in 2012? I will have that "wait and see" attitude.

I had a great time at VBS2011

Getting wacky with Guest Speaker Chris Drucker. Photo by Ms Kath of USPF.

I was there at 6 in the morning because the organizers said they will entertain walk-ins on a first-come first-served basis. But past 7 o'clock, they were still missing and some bloggers who just came in were already dying to go inside SM City Cebu for the Visayas Bloggers Summit (VBS) 2011, blocking the gates of SM with the early birds squatting on the side.

But this did not hamper me to join the Summit. I patiently waited for my chance to go in. And my patience have been rewarded.

• My favorite bloggers were there in person and giving me tips on how to improve my blog.
• Got a chance to win freebies from sponsors. I got a pack of 3 beauty soaps. I need them, I think.
• Met friends and gained new blogger friends.
• Chance to have photo ops with speakers. Chris Drucker was a nice person who knew how to ignite the audience.
• Seen beautiful ladies vying for the Miss Earth 2011. Ms. England, Ms. Estonia, Ms Guatemala and Ms. Guam stayed for some photo ops. I love Ms. Guam especially when she told the group she has Filipino roots.
• Was moved by the speech of Ms. Lopez from the ABS-CBN Foundation on the effects of mining in Palawan and some parts of the Philippines. NO TO MINING! We never gained financial stability out of this.
• Learned how to monetize my blog. But wait- I hate seeing those adverts competing with my unpolished English. So it would take a while to see nasty and irritating adverts here in my site.
• I did not expect the bloggers summit to be so "peaceful" during the event (with exceptions on the arrival of Miss Earth candidates and the charismatic Ms Lopez), but Twitter was bombarded by tweets of bloggers who were in the site. This only means that bloggers were more engaged in the virtual world. No wonder most of the speakers insisted that bloggers should be out and become a real person.

All in all, my experience at the VBS2011 was a fruitful cause worth the absence from work. To all bloggers out there, be passionate with your new found career. Write for people. Re-write. Edit. Re-write while finding a voice of your own.

Free coffee at the site from Coffee Dream

My favorite photoblogger- Evan Mendoza

The VBS2011 is full of students!

Miss Earth candidates gracing the event and were "attacked" by photomonsters LOL

Miss Guam is half Filipino and Miss England is sweet.

Read this- Chris Drucker on Effective Outsourcing, Virtual Lifestyles and The Entrepreneurial Mindset

My wish: Join the VBS Cebu 2011

I have missed so many opportunities offered by the Cebu Bloggers Society to join them or their activities for the main reason that I consider myself a very amateur blogger and despite my blog site dates back to 2006, I am still struggling with my blog. Reading from the blogs of the members of CBS, I am dwarfed by them. And so my inferiority complex dominated my desire to join in.

Now, a friend of mine invited me to join with her to the Visayas Blogging Summit 2011 on November 26 at the SM City Cebu. I am caught between enhancing my skills on blogging and work. But knowing this is again a missed opportunity if I won't come, I sent her feelers that I may come.

The Summit is, of course, initiated by the Cebu Bloggers Society Inc. Why interested? My interest is fired up again since I know that the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation is a regular sponsor of the event and RAFI has helped many groups and individuals realize their importance in the society, hence, my high expectation from them is also fired up. (Pssst, RAFI has a blogging contest with a big amount of monetary prizes! But sadly, there is an age limit to the contest. I wonder why RAFI is doing this. Blogging has no age boundaries.)

I also heard several speakers coming from the blogosphere are coming to give inputs on how to better improve my blogging skills, skills that are necessary to my amateurish writing style. At least, the event would give me a better outlook on the ins and outs of the blogging world. Perhaps earning money to add to my income.

As of this writing I am still trying to log in at the registration site but could not do so. Perhaps my connection won't allow me to. Damn!

I only wish they would allow me as walk-in participant.

Just because

photo from adbusters.org

Just because you can copy and paste words and steal pictures doesn't make you a blogger. Not even better.

Blogging my way for 4 years now

I started blogging in 2006. I admit I was only interested after several invitations to do some blogs without really knowing what it meant. Someone told me I would just do like some journals of which I actually did way back then. The thought of mumbling online with just about any topic under the sun amazed me. So this blog. (What is a blog?)

Online friends encouraged me to go proceed despite of the fact that my blog has no focus. Yes, like me, this blog has no focus I can brag about so that people would be interested to follow me. Very much unlike the more established bloggers who specifically put their niche on travel or food or photography, etc. Mine is a topsy-turvy of just about everything.

But despite of the fact that I am merely writing this to satisfy my need to write, that need to pour out so that my mind can rest, I gain some readers and followers. Not that big but enough to satisfy my ego.

Interestingly, I got enemies or shall we say critics, out of my blog. One fellow blogger reprimanded me because I copied the whole article in his blog despite of the fact that I put his name and links as the appropriate author. Blogs should not be like that, he said. You can comment about my article and quote me, but still you have to have your own.

One time (or was that many times?), I also blog about my clients who literally abandon me after completing our projects, without even thanking me for the designs I made. I mentioned their names and their companies as a revenge for not paying me a single cent. Those instances got me various feedbacks from their friends and my friends. It was unfair and a demolition process I should not be doing- was the drunken spiel I heard until it died down.

I got tips from well-meaning acquaintances on how to do with my blog. Some suggested that I advertise what I do. Others even wanted to design the look of my blog as if this was their own. Advertisers emailed me and told me what to do so I could get money, a dilemma that entailed complicated manipulation of my blog. Money or not, I do not want to complicate my life.

I have had enough of everyone’s bright ideas.

In the end, despite of their perception that my blog is without focus, I have survived four years of blogging and I have no plans of stopping. I decide what I should do with my blog and what I write on it. I would share with the online community and to my followers what are my thoughts, what I have seen and experienced, what I’ve done and planning to do, what I’ve eaten or cooked. I gain friends, I got enemies here.

After all, this is the world according to Melchizedik. And that is me.

Pic from fcmdsc.wordpress.com

Blogging her way to Libel: Ella's case

I am thankful for all the complaining I hear about our government because it means we have freedom of speech. ~Nancie J. Carmody

It used to be.

But lately the government is trying to go after bloggers who blog about its inefficiency. Take the case of Ella who has now a pending libel case against her because she was telling what she saw in the Department of Social Welfare and Development warehouse- hoarded relief goods.

While hundreds suffered during that terrible Ondoy and Pepeng typhoons that hit mostly the Luzon areas, DSWD was slow to distribute its relief goods from international donors saying they lack volunteers to re-pack the goods.

Blogger Ella was there, with a hidden camera to document what happened in that warehouse.

With everyone pestering the DSWD to distribute those goods, mostly after the published blog, (FYI- various private entities have already distributed theirs way ahead of that government agency that was tasked to give welfare to the people), Ella's blog confirmed how slow government acted on calamities like Ondoy and Pepeng. In fact, our government is more reactive than proactive not just in times of calamities.

And bloggers like Ella are persecuted because of this report. And maybe, just maybe, they will hunt me too.

More can be read here:

• DSWD slams blogger with libel case for posting about 'rotting' relief goods
• Solons defend blogger sued by DSWD for libel
• Do not delay the already delayed Philippine government relief goods (My blog)
• Aanhin pa ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo (Ella's original blog)

Update from Mon Tulfo of Inquirer.net on the harassment done by DSWD to Ella: It pays to be honest.

Even God suffers the crunch

One of my favorite blog site, Dear God, a site for those who wanted to share their hopes and fears, suddenly stops posting questions and prayers asked to God. The reason- they do not have enough funds to run the site, hence, they are selling God now.

I am quite affected.

The site is literally an eye candy, a visual feast aside from the fact that it is also a prayer outlet! The pics posted there are dramatic and unique, to say the least. And the questions asked by its readers are sometimes distracting or disturbing- from commiting suicide to suggesting how God should run his affairs.

I am sad they are now selling it.

Disturbing but very artistic pics from that site:

Featured Blog: Jen Lemen

As I was searching for a pic on letting go, I came across a beautiful website with inspirational messages for everyone. So beautiful are they that I can't have it all by myself. As she said in her profile, she is- "messy, hopeful, enthusiastic and helplessly in love with the idea that stories can change you and me forever." She is also an artist and have beautiful downloadable, ready to print art works.

So I am posting her link here so I can share with you the beautiful reading I had tonight.

Go ahead. Click on her header.

Cartoons from Smorty Blog

Me Getting Published?

I am no bigtime. Honest.

A columnist of a local Bohol paper text me asking me if he can publish a blind item using my blog about that client who did not pay me. I readily approved and give him the clearance to use my name. I did not expect my blog was copied in toto.

A politician-friend called my attention yesterday and told me my name is again in the papers. I was quite amused actually, knowing the permission I gave to use my name.

But when I read the paper, I was literally shocked because I never allowed my blog (although this was written for public consumption) to be published in that paper. The article did not even mentioned it was taken from my blog and readers would think I wrote it for that post. Whew! But well- it has been published.

Goodluck to me and that person who did not pay my services.

For the full text please click here.

Featuring Some Boholano Delicacies

The Boholano Processed Foods Business Association (Bohol PROFOODS Inc) is getting themselves blogged. Because they will be one of the featured groups in the 5th International Food Exhibition Philippines in Manila this May 16. (Click on the links please.)

The group is more than excited to be part of the show. This will be their first international exposure. Let us support them. Drop some words of encouragement and support at their blogspot address.

Enchanted Later

Had it not for a blog about the movie Enchanted, I would not have seen it today.

The blog (I'm really frustrated for not being able to remember which one) alleged that the writer or director of this movie must be Filipino because of his storytelling style. The obligatory singing and dancing is so Pinoy, the witch of a mother plot, the fantasy, the happy ever after ending and the name of the director which is Lima. The author in that blog said that that surname is close to Apat and Anim.

Well- the movie is a relief from all the gore in the Philippine setting. And the never ending problems, notwithstanding the whining, wining and what have you in politics, in our society and even the church.

I am truly amazed at how they infused animation to "real life". But unlike in our movies, their animation is much much better. Our movies could not perfect it despite of the talents of Pinoys in the world of animation. That I don't really know.

All's well that ends well. As usual.

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