*title taken from Google’s post regarding SOPA*

****UPDATE! AS OF JANUARY 20, 2012, SOPA’s mastermind Lamar Smith POSTPONED and will review the bill once again along with the committee and various Internet entities. This is GOOD NEWS but I am sure isn’t the last act of this World War Web

It’s been so long since I made a REAL blog post and not just a filler video to keep my blog running. Priorities priorities I say! I even ran out of pre-made blog posts that I wrote before. This is how delayed I am -_-

Several serious issues have blotted the start of my 2012. In short, my too optimistic self who says that 2012 will be a better year is in for an extremely CHALLENGING YEAR. My successes will be greater but so will my failures. I’m willing to make that hundreds of TRIALS just to get that right formula or fix the light bulb and this, standing up to a great issue is one of the challenges that not only I but THE WHOLE 21ST CENTURY GENERATION will have to face.

Almost everyone on the online world must already know about the business regarding SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP) as last January 18, 2012, the world wide web witnessed the largest temporary shutdown of thousands of sites in protest to these US Bills that the US government wants to pass. Some known sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, and even simple blogs like ours joined hand in hand in this silent war against this atrocious bill. By January 19, 2012, US President Obama joined us netizens by going AGAINST SOPA and PIPA.

But what happened to this stand from Obama when just a FEW HOURS LATER, The US government and FBI sued and arrested 4 out of the 7 shareholders including the owner of file sharing sites of Megaupload and Megavideo. They took their domain and this what you see when you visit their page

I haven’t really explained SOPA or PIPA yet to you guys and maybe you think I’m just riding the bandwagon here because it’s “in” to be against them. NO! I think that everyone should be against this because of the “ripples” it creates for EVERYBODY. Do you realize that when SOPA is passed (or not, wtf did FBI just do? and HOW COME OBAMA DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS yet he claims to protest SOPA), not only is Megavideo and Megaupload targeted, but EVERY IMAGINABLE SITE (which includes ALL FILE SHARING SITES, YOUTUBE, 9GAG, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, TUMBLR, WORDPRESS HECK EVEN MY BLOG, WIKIPEDIA, AND 99% OF ALL SITES) that can host copyright materials is a potential threat and will be shutdown. The Internet as we know it will cease to exist. Think of this analogy, SOPA treats it as a cancer so if they see that for example your hand has a cancer, they not only will chop your hand off, but KILL THE WHOLE SELF AS WELL. So even though Youtube has this agreement or policy that it is not responsible for the ANYTHING that is uploaded in their site, the bill will still target Youtube once a user uploads a whole movie or used a song in his music video. Because I can’t really explain the bill well and only give you scenarios, it’s best for me to leave the explanation to the experts.

Watch UK Law Graduate and Professional Gaming Commentator “Total Biscuit” explain SOPA

For those who prefer American accents, watch David Sohn’s explanation

And of course, the ever reliable Wikipedia (don’t use this as sources in high school or university dear students! but for blogs you can

The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. After delivering a court order, the U.S. Attorney General could require US-directed Internet service providers, ad networks, and payment processors to suspend conducting business with sites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws. The Attorney General could also bar search engines from displaying links to the sites.
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from conducting business with websites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.
The bill also establishes a two-step process for intellectual property-rights holders to seek relief if they have been harmed by a site dedicated to infringement. The rights holder must first notify, in writing, related payment facilitators and ad networks of the identity of the website, who, in turn, must then forward that notification and suspend services to that identified website, unless that site provides a counter notification explaining how it is not in violation. The rights holder can then sue for limited injunctive relief against the site operator, if such a counter notification is provided, or if the payment or advertising services fail to suspend service in the absence of a counter notification.
The second section covers penalties for streaming video and for selling counterfeit drugs, military materials or consumer goods. The bill would expand penalties to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content and other intellectual property offenses. The bill would criminalize unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.
The bill provides immunity from liability to the ad and payment networks that comply with this Act or that take voluntary action to cut ties to such sites. Any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement would be liable for damages.

And after everything, we can ask, “IS PIRACY THE ONLY THING THEY REALLY CARE HERE?”

NO.

They want MORE PROFIT. MORE BUCKS. MORE DOLLARS. So they eliminate competition from Indie film makers, programmers, artists and writers. They don’t want to share and instead EAT THE WHOLE PIE. So please I hope that you can include a STOP CENSORSHIP ribbon on top of your website to protest against SOPA and PIPA (well the bill has been postponed but doesn’t mean we can’t stop expressing our views and beliefs and be ready for the next battle as the American government doesn’t seem like to be waiting for the bill to pass to take action. Rapidshare could be targeted next).

Everyone must informed about this case. Everyone should be alarmed that this bill AFFECTS EVERYONE.

Questions:
1. Thoughts on this? Agree or Disagree?

*COMMENTS CLOSED. PLEASE COMMENT ON POST BELOW *

Hey guys! Just want to feature a rising Pinoy band that is composed of my fellow Atenean batchmates! Their music is actually quite different from the local Pinoy artists and it has a really good alternative so I’d suggest this to fellow 80s or 90s fans Check it out!

From their YouTube page:

Never the Strangers, after all, as the band members explained their name, comes from their love for music, how it is a common thread that brings people—even strangers—together. This unabashed idealism shows the age of its members, who are all still in college at Ateneo de Manila University.

Meet NEVER THE STRANGERS ACE Libre—lead vocals and keyboards, PJ LaViña—drums and percussion, FRANCIS Victa—bassist and JP del Mundo—guitars.

Never the Strangers is a band formerly known as Leonecast—the band Ace and JP carried over from high school to college. When they realized that they are already a different band from when they had started—half of the members are new, even the band’s sound has evolved—they decided to change the name to Never the Strangers.

When asked how they define their music, each member throws in: “New Wave synth rock,” also “keyboard-driven rock,” but they have songs that are guitar driven too—but they all agree that rock music is their main foundation, influenced by New Wave, alternative and synth.

Quick Site Updates! Added links, pages to my Europhotoblog, fixed Project 365 (now my instagram blog, having an iPhone can be handy dandy!), Project Filmography 2012, Project 50 Leaves 2012 (I FINALLY FINISHED 50 BOOKS LAST YEAR!! WOOT GONNA DO IT AGAIN!), added my old poem (will be making new ones soon!) and also added some Meme Questions that I got from Jess (do ask me questions! Would love to hear from you guys :D). So was able to spring clean my blog just in time for the first day of the year!

I got a story to tell though! Something happened right before the start of 2012. Remember my last post when I talked about the alien conspiracy theories and how people think that another reason why the Mayans predicted that December 21, 2012 is the end of the world is because the Mayans MET the aliens. Actually not only the Mayans but including ancient civilizations such as the Greeks (EVEN PLATO THOUGHT THERE WERE ALIENS, well the Earth is a made of grids and this is related to aliens coming here) and Egyptians (how were they able to build the pyramids with no pulleys and other forms of equipment in just a few years?) were visited by them too. Well the creepy thing is that at around 3am in our room, I saw two small dwarf-like creatures that had alien shapes with blinking eyes(????) were kinda moving at the 2 corners of the room beside the air-conditioner and on top of my cabinet. I WAS SERIOUSLY FREAKED OUT BUT I KINDA SUPPRESSED MY SCREAMS. I ran and opened the light but nothing was there O_O I decided not to look at the corners again and just sleep well. Oh gosh that was creepy and I think I hallucinated it because I haven’t been sleeping early the past nights and my brother has been bugging me with all this alien talk so maybe that’s it….

That has to be it right?

Oh and we kinda mistook a flying lantern on New Year’s eve as a U.F.O. Oh flying lanterns are the craze now! The Philippines by the way is always fun on New Year’s Eve since people LOVE to make a lot of noise and lights. Our family was treated to a free fireworks show as usual because our neighbors were kinda competing against each other on who had the best show. Well all of them were awesome! Here are some photos I took

Shower of Lights

Little Piper Boy and the Fountain of Youth

Scarlet Fever

Well back to the alien part… I’m not gonna deny that there might be other beings in the INFINITE universe. Maybe there’s an alternate reality or something and we might never know. But I am still a Catholic Christian at heart (though the Church is another matter, oh gosh) and just wanna share this amazing book by C.S. Lewis called Till We Have Faces. Religion is all about creating a way of life and this is how I choose to be and in Lewis’ book, which he claims to be his masterpiece, he tackles it in such a profound way by retelling the myth of Psyche and Cupid in the point of view of Psyche’s sister. It’s such a beautiful philosophical and theological book but requires a bit of deep reading (need to read it again! don’t worry it’s not too deep as reading Ricoeur or other German/French philosophers. Still enjoyable!). Like what a reviewer said, tt basically tackles the psychological honesty about the human sense of injustice by the gods. Who has not been tempted to say to God, “It’s not fair”?

The ending is one of the best endings I’ve read. I teared up just because of the honesty and revelation of it. It’s quite an experience reading it, nothing like I’ve felt before. LOL this is turning to be a love story by the way I’m talking about it. But seriously I loved it.

Just some favorite quotes

“I have seen something like it happen in battle. A man was coming at me, I at him, to kill. Then came a sudden great gust of wind that wrapped out cloaks over our swords and almost over our eyes, so that we could do nothing to one another but must fight the wind itself. And that ridiculous contention, so foreign to the business we were on, set us both laughing, face to face – friends for a moment – and then at once enemies again and forever.”

“I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?”

I have this in PDF (I thought that it would be boring so I didn’t bother buying it, now I NEED to get a paperback copy!) and am willing to email it to those who want it.

Now I’m going to end this post with something light. All Asian girls have to relate to this video in some way or another. THIS IS FREAKING HILARIOUS! Been playing this every night before I go to sleep just to make me smile again What made this funny for me was the guy in the video dressing up as a girl and everyone keeping a straight face about it And the way he played the girl was kind of funny too. I’m not saying all asians girl do this but it’s funny how some do (like me! I do the starting today no fast food bit and break that promise after a few days or something XD) and how it’s portrayed her. Hope nobody takes offense (I’m asian and a girl too btw)

and I GOT THE SLATE PLANNER! (My other post talked about my planner dilemma but I solved it!) Am liking it so far especially the art, quotes, and there’s even a space for a Bucket list! I have my own list in my blog but I think I’ll make a list of things to do in 2012 (sort of a new year’s resolution, but nah, no deadlines or constraints for me Check out their site to order or you can go to any Fullybooked branch near you.

Toodles peepz!

Questions
1. What’s the first thing you did after you woke up on January 1, 2012?
2. Do you think you’ll read this book? What’s the most thought-provoking book you’ve read? If you don’t really like to read, what’s the most thought-provoking thing that happened to you last?
3. LOL Do you do any of the things that Asian girls do? (Doesn’t have to be Asian really, most girls do those too!)

*PLS COMMENT ON REAL POST BELOW hahaha! Play this as background music if u want haha! Comments are closed here*

For the sake of old times…..

Once upon a time….

A long long time ago….

Just wanted to share the real Scottish (I LOVE SCOTTS!) version of the song. It’s so beautiful ;-( ;-( ;-(

HAPPY 2012 EVERYONE!

and Satisfaction Brought It Back.

So which do you believe? The first phrase or the whole sentence? I kinda believe both and context is always important!

So when Discovery Channel started its Curiosity series, I was intrigued. Heck and they keep on showing the commerial for its episode on female orgasm and what it’s for narrated by maggie gylenhall. But what really interested me was their segment for….WAIT FOR IT….

WHAT IF U COULD LIVE FOREVER?

Yeah what would you do? Would u avail these medical treatments if it were possible? Andrew Sage (guy from myth busters) tries to explore this world and yep, freakily (is there such a word?) the technology we have today seems to be telling us that it is possible in the near 50 or so years. THEORY OF SINGULARITY GUYS! (try googling what it is. XD) I really liked the segment except for a few farfetched parts (a flying brain… Seriously? but…) anyway i’ll stop yapping and you can check it out now. Thank you Youtube for full videos and movies!

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY ▼

So it’s the New Year tomorrow. Besides asking a lot of questions, I do want 2012 to be a fresh start. So many thins will change and i am optimistic at saying that 2012 be an awesome year for me. I swear that today will be the last day of procrastination. I have to fix my life and find le reason! LE REASON! I even thought of a new tradition of writing down this year’s failures and achievements and burning it afterwards. Or maybe i should only burn the failures… Maybe oh dear i only have a few hours to decide xD.

So before I say goodbye and welcome the new year, a little plugging for my offline friends’ new spaces in the cyberworld!

1. Randz’ Randzomeness! I swear he has a knack for blogging and of course mixing and matching clothes! He even did a stint at Topman! So go scurry ahead please

2. Mariel’s Indeemand dot com! She’s a very curious girl who likes to snap pics at everything and anything! Also if she’s bored, she does these.

3. Nicole’s Fashion Blog! She’s an investigative journalist and writes well and is addicted to lashes, pink and SHOES! Man you should see this girl! Please head over to her blog!

4. JV’s Sociologist Chemist Chinese Blog! hahaha I hosted JV before but he’s on his own now with a new perspective in life especially shifting to BS Sociology. Go for what you want guys! But he’s still a Chemist at heart methinks!

5. Chair’s dreams and realities! One of my best friends and she has a lot of stuff to talk about especially gaming! She just recently returned to blogging (like me!) so please show her some lve. She also featured Inotia 3, A SUPER ADDICTIVE ANDROID AND IPHONE RPG GAME! I slept at 3 and 4am for this. And in 3 days am now a level 47 archmage. So yeah, TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF PROCRASTINATION!

6. GEORGIE’S FREE WORDPRESS THEMES! Hahah I haven’t really met Georgina personally but I loved her themes so much and have been a follower of her blog for YEARS now, I think that it’s just right to promote it. PLEASE DO CHECK HER FREE THEMES OUT

7. Oh this is just shameless plugging but do visit my Europe photoblog and instagram blog! Currently updating them. Can’t believe I left it alone for months now. Again 2012 WILL BE A NEW YEAR.

LOTS OF LOVE!

Thank you so much for the new visitors of my blog! Hallo and hope you guys don’t get bored here Sorry if I annoy some people but heck, you’re still here hahaha

I WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY FANTASTIC AND YES NOT THE LAST HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 (UNLESS YOU BELIEVE ANOTHER THEORY LIKE ALIENS– CHECKTHISVIDEOSERIES :alien: :alien: ) TO YOU!!!
(stop 9gagging! XD)

Lol I forgot to put the…
Questions:
1. So would you want to live forever if you could?
2. Please visit one of my friend’s blogs and tell me what you think
3. 2012 will be… I will…

OF THE BEGINNING! *oh also the beginning of a new rebranded look of my site! Pls read my previous post on explanation THANKS!*

Sorry just wanted to twist the words a bit! But you know with the impending Mayan prediction that 2012 is gonna be our last year ever… I’ve been thinking a lot… like which planner to get. (Okay the least of all my worries but I’m a realist-optimist-ifthere’ssuchathing and in my gut feeling, the earth still has many years to come -andheckIdontwantittoendyetcoz…) Everybody has been raving about the 2012 Starbucks planner and as my brother and I’s annual Christmas tradition of collecting at least 3, we indeed were able to get 3! Maybe we might even get a 4th in January, all these thanks to the help of our friends! We gave away 2 and 1′s for my brother. Actually one was set aside for me but I didn’t find it appealing enough and I needed bigger space. I’m not really a planner person but I want to sort out my life on 2012, it’ll be a good change.

Another planner that I’ve been hearing about is the moonleaf planner. But I’m not that much of a fan of moonleaf to actually want a planner from moonleaf but I can’t deny the sleek and wonderful design.

More info on this blog

And I figured that a lot of people would be eyeing this planner and I’d spot everyone using that planner now (do you also get that feeling of wanting to be unique? I’m kinda like that especially with clothes. The minute I see someone who wears the same shirt as I do, I don’t wanna wear that shirt again and I might stop buying clothes from there. Just like what happened to me and Zara though I still like Zara!). Belle de jour is also out of the question since it’s too thick for me.

So where can I find this unique, inescapable, awesome planner? Well I think I have a few choices and maybe you can help me? Being Little Miss Fickle, I need help!

So there’s

1. Slate – liking the planner because of the color, simple front cover and the art inside! More info here and photos of pages

2. Because I love food and this planner is by Our Awesome Planet food blogger so there’s definitely a lot of food tips in here. And the design isn’t too bad too!

3. Cover says it all. And I doubt that this is sold in stores.

Hmmm so there, am in a pickle…

On other news… WE JUST GOT A NEW DOG! We wanted to preserve the lineage of our first favorite poodle, Hollywood the first (R.I.P. ), we asked for one of Pawpi’s pups. So we got little Hailey! Isn’t she adorable? The great thing about her is she isn’t too boisterous nor too timid. She’s just right (ala Goldilocks LOL)!

Isn’t she adorable? 8D

OH AND I CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT TO BLOG ABOUT THIS! OMG! After that long disappearance and that stint with cooking (please check out my gastronomic food post!), I’ve decided to try my hand at…

BAKING!

YES! I HAVE ALWAYS DREAMED OF BAKING AND I’VE DONE IT!! Crosses off bucket list

*EVIL CACKLE*

So I’ve done Butterbeers and such, BUT WHAT ABOUT…. BUTTERBEER CUPCAKES? My love for Harry Potter is still alive and will always be alive, so I decided to celebrate Halloween by baking my very first batch with the help of Chair! The first 6 didn’t come out that nice but the rest were like natural cupcakes! I lacked moisture and softness but they were edible and looked like cupcakes! I then tried Carrot Cupcakes on my own and I can say that my cream cheese icing was AWESOME! hahaha And they turned out better too. So here’s to MORE BAKING STUFFS!

Creamy Buttebeer cupcakes!

Adding ze ganache

I suck at icing decors. Well I think coz I have the wrong icing tip.

FINALLY CARROT CUPCAKES!

Next on the agenda is baking a REAL CAKE! I have to study a few youtube videos still though. Baking cakes are definitely WAAY harder now. I’ll start with chocolate cakes. Nothing too fancy yet. Hope that I’ll be able to do it!

WELLL TOODLES NOW

Questions:
1. Which planner did you like best? Do you have a planner or planning to have one?
2. DOGGIES?
3. Do you cook? Bake? What’s the last thing you cooked/bake/what’s your fave food? LOL

I haven’t written anything personal for a while… okay maybe I have but I haven’t really blogged because I wanted to just write for the heck of it. I’ve always been writing as if I were in a mission or something lately like that NU Skin Scam (part 2 is coming right up!) and Ensemble E-Travel/Metrodeal Scam but now I just wanna share what’s been going on lately (which isn’t much… i think I’m becoming as useful as a fly… which isn’t really useful more of a pest… *talks more to self* ) through photos! Narration is just too long and I know that everyone’s busier than a bee these days! Also tune in for a GREAT REBRANDING/MAKEOVER of my site!

I’ve also got a new tutorial for Mac users concerning how to use and add subtitles. I’ve done a bit of research and have found a way to play subtitles with MKV files. So if you got a problem with it, check this out.

Ever since becoming a Pottermore beta tester, I’ve been actively participating with Order of the Lions, a Gryffindor order where we share tips and tricks of Pottermore and share other Gryffindor creations. I’m really happy because I found such good friends and we were even able to put up an Unofficialy Daily Prophet. Please check out Issue#3: Halloween Issue and read on what’s happening in the Wizarding World My favorite part is you can read up on your Astrology news and Trelawney will predict all sorts of things for you. Read all about it here!

So I’ll stop and leave you guys with some things… HOPE YOU GUYS HAD A HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Do tell me how did yours went

I’ve always hated cooking because one, HOT environment and I always thought that it’s such a waste to prepare something and have it disappear at once. It turns out this selfish notion disappeared because I now feel so worthwhile when somebody says, IT TASTES FANTASTIC!, after having someone eat your cooked meal. Brother and I made Roasted Iberian Chicken, Garbanzos, Yogurt sauce and I think we did well! My brother is a great cook really.

Got meself a panda iPhone 4 case. <3

Addiction to Angry Birds made my brother and me want to perfect each rounds

I’ve always hated cooking because one, HOT environment and I always thought that it’s such a waste to prepare something and have it disappear at once. It turns out this selfish notion disappeared because I now feel so worthwhile when somebody says, IT TASTES FANTASTIC!, after having someone eat your cooked meal. Brother and I made Roasted Iberian Chicken, Garbanzos, Yogurt sauce and I think we did well! My brother is a great cook really.

New iPhone 4 wallpaper

Needed a haircut. Nothing new really

New Leopard print headband. Haven’t bought a headband in years!

AND NOW ANOTHER DREAM COME TRUE! Whenever I read JK Rowling’s description of butterbeer. I can’t help but IMAGINE tasting it and LOVING IT. And when Halloween came and brother didn’t allow me to cook a Halloween dinner, I then decided to make drinks, Butterbeer Latte (milk version) and Cream Soda version with my friend and BOY did I love making it! For recipes, comment here and I shall show you Next time I’ll be baking cupcakes, another thing to cross off my bucket list. Oh I do love latte version better, especially after leaving it in the fridge for a while. I wish I could have trick or treated though NEXT YEAR I SHALL PREPARE!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

The picture is in no way related to the video below. Okay maybe it does. Sort of. It relates to the emotions that I felt when watching this video. I didn’t know whether I should laugh, cry, shout, scream, or do all so I’m as confuzzled as this sign here. This is a real clip taken from an actual Indian sci-fi movie called Enthiran which features an android that has the powers of Robocop and magnets and…. loads of magnets! Maybe magnemite even… you guys have just got to watch this to believe it. I swear that you’ll either hate me or love me for wasting your 9 minutes Enjoy

I will actually be updating something on my life in the next post and also…. POTTERMORE ACCOUNT GIVEAWAY!!

It’s Holy Week everybody! Hope that you guys are doing well. This isn’t an official post yet because that would contain a lot! Been out for the past few days having fun and working. haha! Just want to share this for now. Do you Mikey Bustos? He’s a Filipino living in Canada right now and he also got in Canadian Idol. He’s got some SUPER FUNNY videos showing lots of Filipino “tutorials”. You HAVE TO WATCH IT! Especially my foreign friends!