Star student in high school starts failing Chemistry in college. [10 Nov 2009|09:45pm] auraroo I don't think I have fully realized that yet, but seriously, I might fail Chemistry!! I can't imagine myself repeating that class next term and being held back from the next subjects. Nag-aaral ako sa lagay na yan ah!  post comment

The problem is not the lack of initiative. [07 Nov 2009|10:08am] auraroo NAIINIS AKO. post comment

LiveJournal Major Notes: Spam counter-attack, RSS feeds again, CSI Deadly Intent contest [05 Nov 2009|01:15pm] news [theljstaff] The empire strikes back In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal. RSS feeds again If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience. Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests! c_s_i If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here. Enveloped in postcards Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits. Photos of the week If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too! ( Read more... ) 215 comments|post comment

on current events (environment, halalan 2010, and the RH Bill) [05 Nov 2009|08:43pm] ahnnabanana [ mood | excited ] I was recently called a “blogger-student activist.” I’m a blogger (five years now!) and a student, but I’m not sure about the activist part. I don’t really like that word because it connotes being anti-government, anti-Gloria, anti-everything. I’m not. I’m pro-change. I’m pro-implementation and enforcement. Props to Loren Legarda for authoring the Climate Change Act of 2009. It says that we should allocate somethingtrillion pesos to purchase pump boats, create a Climate Change Commission, reduce carbon emissions, increase forest cover, etc. Sounds nice, but I say we don’t need another environmental law. There is a compendium of existing environmental laws “languishing in the death bead of non-compliance” (Oposa, Antonio 2007). Not even 1% of that is being implemented. If we just enforced the existing ones, we wouldn’t need any more. Seriously. Let me give you two basic examples: 1) Rainwater Collection Law RA 6716 and 2) The Solid Waste Management Program RA 9003. The first states that there should be a rainwater collector in every barangay. This would help minimize flooding, provide a pond for fish (FOR FOOD), and recharge badly depleted ground water. Maybe the water can even be treated for it to be potable. There are more than 42, 000 barangays in the Philippines. Guess how many rainwater collectors we have? SEVEN. Nice one, DPWH! And to think Ebdane resigned to run for office?! Kapal ng mukha mo, kuya. The Solid Waste Management Program is the most basic, most fundamental of all environmental laws. It states that DepEd and CHED are supposed to include environmental education in curriculums, that the LGU should not collect waste that is not segregated, and that there should be no dumpsites, only sanitary landfills. Drive down C-5 and see how it has become a stretch of dumpsites. Don’t blame the recent flooding on Mother Nature and climate change; it’s solid waste mismanagement. And this is not just the government’s problem. This is OUR problem as a people. We contribute to this problem every time we carelessly throw our cigarette butts and use plastic bags/straws/styrofoam. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE rethink, reduce, reuse, and recycle. (Shameless plug: tips on how to reduce your trash here.) Kim sent me this video on the solid waste problem. It's alarming and heartbreaking. *** I’m pro-change of governance. When I was in Japan for DYEA, one of my co-delegates asked me about GMA. “When is she going to step down? Hasn’t she been your president for like, a hundred years?” I like Gibo. I think he has a shot at presidency, but he needs to be VERY CAREFUL about who he picks as VP. Last time I checked, Puno is no longer a choice which is good. He’s the embodiment of the word OPORTUNISTA. I just read that Lakas-Kampi CMD is considering Edu Manzano if Ate Vi says no. OKAAAAAYYYY the line between politics and showbiz is officially erased. Cebu governor Gwen Garcia is another awful choice. She had a contest before called CATCH ME IF YOU CAN. She had a group of photographers follow her around and take pictures of her. The best photo of her wins. Wtf. That’s the most narcissistic government project I’ve ever heard of. Those Cebuano taxes were hard-earned, Gov. Garcia! Noynoy’s music video is DISGUSTING. I needed three attempts to watch it in full kasi half-way nasusuka ako. I’m not kidding. 1) I don’t like Regine Valasquez and her forever screaming voice 2) Noynoy’s belly is just so OUT THERE and 3) gamitan kung gamitan! I lose respect for anyone who wants to vote for Noynoy because “hindi siya corrupt” or “itutuloy niya ang laban.” How do you know he’s not corrupt!?!?! Because Kris is so open about paying for everything he has? At anong laban ang itutuloy niya? He’s only passed two bills during his entire career as a legislator. One was to make April 19 Tarlac Day, a non-working holiday. *confetti* In the upcoming Cory biopic, he wants JOHN LLOYD CRUZ TO PLAY HIMSELF. OMIGHAD HINDI KO KINAYA!!! I LOVE JOHN LLOYD PA NAMAN!!! But JLC as Abnoynoy? NO WAY!!!!!! Mar Roxas, his runningmate, is now in Japan, frolicking with new wife Korina “Bitchessa Sanchez”. “Di ko ma-take yung wedding nila. Kulang nalang mag-flash sa screen ‘FAKE LOVE!!!!’ (citation withheld, 2009) Ito namang si Chiz Escudero, masyadong ambisyoso. And it’s not a good kind of ambitious, it’s ambition without vision. If we distill his verbose speeches, siguro mga 2% nalang matitira. He should take a cue from William Shakespeare: BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT. He claims he left NPC because his party is the Filipino people. Whuuuut. He really should stop talking and start doing. He’s only famous for his eloquence and bitching about the Administration. He claims that he doesn’t wanna be MV’s runningmate because he stands for “good governance.” BUT HE SUPPORTS ERAP, A MAN WHO WAS CONVICTED FOR PLUNDER. ANO??? He should wait another ten-fifteen years before he runs. A Villar-Legarda team-up would be solid. Villar’s getting a lot of bad press now for disturbing Pacquiao and the never-ending C-5 insertion issue. His “sipag at tiyaga” tagline should be renamed to “C-5 at Taga” (Oposa, U. & Ortilla, M. 2009). I don’t get why people are making a big deal out of the food pack that said “Tulong handog ni Manny Villar” during the Ondoy relief drives. Publicized help is better than no help. A political party (which will remain nameless as of now) asked me to be their consultant for environmental projects for the youth. It’s my first meeting with them tomorrow, so we’ll see how this pans out. People keep asking me who I’m voting for president and I always say the same thing: no one has officially filed for candidacy. So let’s play it by ear from November 30 onwards. But I am openly rooting for Ace Durano, Adel Tamano, and Risa Baraquel-Hontiveros for the Senate. We need more thinking legislators, not idiots like Bong Revilla who claimed he’d beat up Alec Baldwin if he ever came here. I hope you are registered. If you didn’t get to register because of the long lines, don’t blame COMELEC and its inefficiency. You had 10 months to do it. Okay? Okay. I did my part and sent them a letter with suggestions to improve their system. They sent me a letter in reply, in fairness. I am pro-RH Bill. I have four awesome sources of current events: 1) my family 2) Facebook 3) the newspapers and 4) Vicky Chan. Vicky sent me the link of a documentary on the RH Bill. I don’t get the slogan “Say NO to the RH BILL AND THE CULTURE OF IMMORALITY and Say YES to LIFE.” If the Catholic church bothered to read the bill, they’d see that it’s not anti-life or pro-abortion. It’s pro-contraceptives and pro-sex education. One of the members of the clergy said saying yes to the RH bill won’t solve overpopulation and poverty. Maybe it won’t, but it will certainly alleviate it. They have to accept that people are horny and they just won’t stop going forth and multiplying. And why why WHY are the priests talking about sex when (IN THEORY) they aren’t getting any? Those who do not play the game should not make the rules. Isa pang tanga’t kalahati to si Lito Atienza. Saying yes daw to the RH Bill is the start of saying yes to divorce, abortion, and gay marriage. Isn’t that the most fallacious thing to say?!?!?!?! What kind of reasoning is THAT??? He also said that the population increase is a GOOD THING because it’s directly proportional to economic growth. *@#$%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don’t see how an unemployed father, a tindera mother, and their eleven kids = economic growth. He should just shut up about the RH Bill and focus on his real job, being the (useless) secretary of DENR. My dad is working on having the DENR abolished. I’m right behind him. *** I haven’t done a full-length musical in two years. Sometimes I miss it. But when I get involved in what Ma calls “nation-building activities,” I know my heart is exactly where it’s supposed to be.   6 comments|post comment

on the sem break thus far [03 Nov 2009|12:54pm] ahnnabanana [ mood | annoyed ]  For the first semester, I woke up at 6AM every weekday for my 7AM classes. Ever since I got back from Japan, I have been making up for sleeping past 2AM (catching up on Greek, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, House, Brothers and Sisters, and How I Met Your Mother) and waking up past 10AM. I arrived a week before SSEAYP '09 left, so I spent a lot of time helping them prepare for their departure, which included running errands in Manila. Miggy and I managed to charm our way out of multiple traffic violations worth over PhP 6, 000: not stopping when the Manong asked us to (Miggy), use of an expired commemorative plate (my fault), driving without a license (Miggy), not having the OR/CR (my fault again). Yan ang magagaling na YOUTH AMBASSADORS OF GOODWILL. CAN I JUST SAY I have lost count of how many times I’ve gotten caught by the MMDA. Siguro by now double-digit na siya kasi as of early this year 8 na. Other forms of help were making epal in their music video/photo shoot, looking for 13 black ties, and walking around Gateway and SM Cubao in giraffe ears while we were at it (it de-stressed Miggy so that's considered help!). The ears were later passed on to my real long-limbed friend, Mariel Alfonso, at Ria’s 21st birthday party. I donned my zebra ears instead.   Wore them also the following night at the Alab ‘08-Balanghay ’09 party which would’ve been memorable if not for the Absolut vodka c/o the most awesome Commissioner Princess Abante, the woman you can always count on for a good time. My memory is a blur from 1-5AM. (Which is okay because what matters is what happened when the sun was coming up.) For the past two years I have acted as the adviser of the YLs. And so here I am with the YLs of ’08 and ’09.  The past and the present. In more ways than one. (Chos!)   my SSEAYP batchmates who have redefined what love is (naman!)   '08 and '09 Ben trying to steal a kiss (AHAHAHAHAHA) and Mon who's got my back waist Caught (500) Days of Summer with Zoe and Donns. Summer: “I woke up one morning and just knew... what I was never sure of with you.” Yun na yun eh. And “Robin is better than the girl of my dreams. She's real.” I like what Donns said after the movie over Razon’s halo-halo: “We are all someone’s Summer, Tom, and Autumn.” So true. Mon and I stayed ‘til 4AM of the 27th to send SSEAYP ‘09 off. In fairness, I was a tiny bit sad. Just tiny because SSEAYP’s first stop is the Philippines so I’m going to see them in NINE DAYS! (I'm counting down via my Countdown Widget.) Juanch, Ria, Ma, and I saw This is It on its first day. HOW AWESOME IS THIS MOVIE? We know of the crotch-grabbing, moon-walking, nasal-sounding, pedophile-ing MJ, but in this film we see him as an extremely hands-on, meticulous musical genius. If this had pushed through, I really think it would’ve been the Greatest Concert of All Time. Ma and I were literally clapping our hands and cheering as if we were in the concert.  On the same day, Donna’s sister was born.  Welcome to the world Alexa :) Your ate and her friends are doing all sorts of things so you have a better (and cleaner) Philippines to live in. We can't wait to meet you! We all love you already. While we’re on the topic of nation-building activities, I now write for Definitely Filipino, the biggest online Filipino Facebook community and WWF-Philippines. Do join to learn and celebrate what it is to be Filipino :) Mikki and I had the privilege of hosting Circa Manila, the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH) party, thanks to the byootiful Rizzy Alejandro. We ate so much fries and dirty ice cream. ANG DAMING GUAPO AT MAGANDA SA ASMPH. I'm not kidding. It was like, HELLO MCDREAMY! Nalurkee ako sa mga tanong sa Q&A ng Mr. & Ms. ASMPH c/o THE FACULTY. “If you were a peripheral nerve, what would you be and why?” “If you could flex any muscle for me, what would it be and why?” For Halloween I thought my friends and I were spending it in Makati. In between Pacific Malayan and eggplant parmigiana, we decided to go to Tagaytay with no idea where we were going to spend the night. But things fell into place, the stars aligned, and the turtle won the race. Tagaytay was teeming with love. Love and happiness. Pictures to follow, Digoy. Promise! In a few hours I have to wake up and enroll for what would’ve been my last semester in college. (UP Enrollment... Challenge na naman itetch. FIGHT!) But SSEAYP happened and lots of other changes happened. I wanna dedicate an entire entry on that, so for now Ria's pong pagong-induced scribble sums it up: "I feel like everything is messy and yet JUST AS IT SHOULD BE." Good night and namaste <3 First published on Facebook, 2:26AM Edit: Fuck you, UP ENROLLMENT. post comment

Network Maintenance - Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 04:00-05:00 GMT/UTC [30 Oct 2009|05:17pm] lj_maintenance [dwell] EDIT: If you're reading this, our maintenance is OVER! The problem was not found on our equipment, which means we'll have to work with our ISP to fix this small problem -- which also means another maintenance window in the future -- but at least we have eliminated our side. Thank you everyone, and a special shout out to rekoil for giving me a great suggestion AND also the opportunity to feel like I've just called in to a local radio station. Have a great day, night or afternoon wherever you may be. --- Hi everyone, sorry for the late notice but I'm going to have to do some testing on 1 of our 4 internet circuits TONIGHT; Friday night or Saturday morning depending on which time zone you're in. Most of us shouldn't notice any impact, though there may be some slowness or lag when I switch traffic on to our other ISP circuits and then another hit when I stop the tests. If a page won't load or times out, try hitting refresh 1 or 2 times and it should load then. If it doesn't work at all... trust me, I'll be typing really really really fast to try to undo whatever I just did. Hopefully you'll have some Halloween candy (if you're in the USA and celebrate that kind of thing) nearby to take away the bitterness of a small site outage. :( Here's the handy-dandy Website That I Always Use to get a feel for when the maintenance will start in your area. Our site traffic historically dips on Friday afternoons until Saturday morning which is why we tend to pick this time for maintenance work. ( tech details ) status.livejournal.org will, of course be updated before and after the maintenance window. Or else marta will get mad at me. :D bt 51 comments|post comment

LiveJournal Major Notes: Search super-tweak, postcards, and amazing user content! [29 Oct 2009|10:53am] news [theljstaff] In response to user comments from last week, we want to let you know that we'll remain LJ cut-free for the next month in order to get more eyeballs on our evolving newsletter. As for product coverage, that continues to be our top priority. For more granular detail, however, we recommend you join lj_releases. Super-tweak for Yandex search Some of our beta testers expressed privacy concerns using the Yandex search engine. Here's why: Last week, when you ran a search, you could see the usernames (and only the usernames) of everyone who commented on an entry, even if that entry was switched to Private or Friends Only after it was originally indexed. You could NOT see the actual comments from Friends Only or Private posts. In response to your input, we've implemented a fix to keep all user activity currently marked Friends Only or Private completely hidden. If you'd prefer your public content not to be indexed by Yandex, click here and use the settings labeled Search Inclusion (this covers your entire journal) and/or Comment Search Inclusion (which covers comments only). To test drive Yandex search now, click here. Postcards from the edge Several years ago, we asked LiveJournal users to send postcards to help us decorate our dull, white-washed offices. Since a good idea warrants repetition, we're at it again (same issue, new address). We hope you'll surround us with LiveJournal love by sending your postcards to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. We'll post snapshots right here. Be sure to include your username, since we'll randomly pick 10 lucky recipients to win free paid account time. Conquer Writer's Block Here are some excerpts from this week's most popular question of the day: If a friend or relative makes a racist or homophobic remark, do you tend to confront them or let it slide? Are you more likely to confront them if it offends you directly or someone else who seems reluctant to speak up? I find it easier to stand up for other people, and i wouldn't let it slide if they made a rude or hurtful comment. Usually if a friend makes a racist or homophobic remark, I tend to let it slide. I think that while i would not say such things myself, I have no right to censor those around me. This happens all of the time. I confront some relatives, but I refuse to if they are drunk or watch Fox News. I'd let it slide if it was just a private remark... As much as I despise bigotry and intolerance, I know that you can't change people-they have to change themselves ... Confront! confront! confront! Politely, but without equivocation. SPEAK UP. Always, always, always speak up. Letting something slide lets ignorance win. No matter if it offends me directly, or someone else, I will confront the speaker and let them know that's not ok. I don't get offended personally. As an immigrant, woman, gay and person of color if I took every single potentially offensive remark seriously I wouldn't get anything done. I punch them in the balls. With my mind. I do speak up, but often very timidly because I feel that I'm white and therefore I don't really have any authority to lecture someone on what's racist and what isn't... Generally speaking, I do not let this shit fly, because it reduces me as a person, to this non-person and it replicates the destructive discourse that makes sure that sexual minorities, racial minorities, women, people with disabilities, trans people and every intersection thereof into something other than human... And sometimes... I'm just too tired to deal with it, so I roll my eyes, make a sarcastic remark and hope the conversation moves on quickly. For more daily questions and user comments, join writersblock. FYI, we don't want to invade your privacy, so we haven't credited individual users for their responses. We'd appreciate your feedback on this! Spotlight community of the week We can't resist making one last midnight trip to the ol' pumpkin patch. If you adore crazy costumes, fiendish festivities, and bottomless candy consumption as much as we do, this community has just what it takes to light up your jack-o-lantern. halloween_fan Photos of the week We received so many incredible photos, we had to close our eyes and point. We uploaded a selection of awesome images at our new lj_photophile community. Please join and start posting (try to keep the width at around 625 for the sake of consistency)! We'd love for you to tell us more about your photos! You can help us select spotlight photos by commenting on your favorites. Once again, we thank you for making our online world more beautiful! shutter pancetta ilya_gorokhov Curtains Thanks, again, for tuning in. We look forward to seeing you next week. 698 comments|post comment

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