*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?

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

THEME IS A BIT WONKY ON FIREFOX. PLEASE BEAR WITH ME. Hope that you use Google Chrome or Safari first Thanks!

—> FIXED!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I love this holiday? Haha and I took this opportune moment to herald the total revamp of my site! I’ve finally updated my rotting pages (heck my bio hasn’t been updated in 2 years!) and fixed some broken links (still open to link exchange!) and also do you notice anything? Anything different at all? Nah you probably don’t…

BUT IF YOU DO……. It’s all thanks to my dearest and most awesome artist friend Liza! Please head on over to her site and give her some loving while you oooh and aah at her other works. I didn’t think a Harry Potter Panda theme was possible but she made it all happen. So what do you think? I decided to shake things up a bit here because I thought that I needed an “identity” and I felt lost amidst all the other blogs there and I needed a look that would scream me.

Man I can’t believe that 2011 is ending…
SOME PERSONAL CRAP. Read on only if you want to ▼

and (the end of the world OMG haha naah) 2012 is just right around the corner. Honestly for me, 2011 hasn’t been one of my best years. I’ve always thought that Senior Year would have been awesome because of what my friends have gone through but I absolutely feel NO SENTIMENTALITY at all. :/ It’s kinda crazy but I just want 2011 to be over and done with. I may sound like a cruel person (or maybe I am…) but this is just another phase that I will get through. Maybe because 2010 has been so awesome that 2011 is left behind the shadows but I doubt that this is the case. I’ll stick to the reason that I’m just not a sentimental person.

I won’t deny that 2011 has given me a LOT OF FIRSTS. Check out my about me page coz I added a few things there! I’ve started to bake, climbed a mountain, got drunk, blacked out, first time to go to Palawan, first k… okay so a lot of things happened but I seriously can’t wait for 2012 just because I have this bubbling optimism for it. I’m finally, FINALLY going to be able to work and make a difference with my life. I think that’s the biggest step anyone can achieve. To finally be able to plant a flag and say “I DID THIS ON MY OWN AND I CAN SUPPORT MYSELF”. Well to that effect anyway. I want to help my family and myself so much and I think that this is one of the only ways to do it. And really, working entails meeting new people and creating a new life, wherever I may go to. I don’t want to divulge anything yet but I’ve been applying here and there. Let’s just see how it goes.

So my only Christmas wish this year is for everything to fall in place. Vague but it stands true for me. I don’t want any material things (okay who am I kidding, if anyone can give me Steve Jobs’ biography or the Harry Potter Page to Screen book or any of the books in my shelfari, or a book shelf, or a trip to HK, etc. I’D LOVE YOU FOREVER!) so no Christmas lists for this year. Being stable is the most important thing for me now.

In my last post, I blogged about making Butterbeers and here’s one of the recipes I’ve used (Please add whipped cream). There are actually a lot of versions online and I didn’t even get to try this flaming butterbeer (do tell me if you do!) because Schnapps are hell expensive! And so are the other ingredients.

I did get to try butterbeer latte and my friend and I loved this! Better than the Cream Soda one I think but seriously, only drink small amounts because of the buttery-ness! For those who are health conscious… I’m not sure if Butterbeer is the best bet for you

Oh! And for your Christmas movie list, please PLEASE include Les Choristes (The Chorus in French) in your list. It may seem dark and depressing at first but I assure you that you’ll have tears in your eyes. Or at least a few drops! haha! We watched this for our European film class and so far this is the most heartwarming one. Good thing for youtube, the full movie can be seen online! Watch the trailer then hit the spoiler for it

On 15 January 1949, the former music teacher Clément Mathieu arrives in “Fond de l’ Etang” (“Bottom of the Well”), a boarding school for orphans and problematic boys, to work as an inspector. The place is administrated with iron fist by the cruel director Rachin, and most of the boys have severe punishments for their faults. Clément decides to teach the boys to sing in a choir in their spare time, and identify the musical potential of the rebel Pierre Morhange, the son of a beautiful single mother for whom he feels a crush. He also has a special feeling for the young Pépinot, a boy that expects the visit of his father every Saturday near the gate, but indeed lost his parents in the war. With his methods, Clément changes the lives of the boys, of the other employees and his own.

Taken from IMDB.

The beautiful angelic voices shall serenade you this Christmas eve

Watch the WHOLE thing ▼

Another reason why I like this film ▼

OMG OMG OMG OMG I have somebody new to fangirl about! Although I’m sure not everyone will agree with me on this but please bear with me. Or you can click close on this spoiler. haha!

Wasn’t Pierre Mohrange’s voice DIVINE? Seriously his voice is so angelic and kinda makes you want him to sing you to sleep. I researched about the film more and also the choir that went on tour after this film was released last 2003 and lo and behold, I found out that Jean-Baptiste Maunier, the actor/singer with the awesome voice who played Pierre, is just the same age as moi! 8D Well it was his birthday 2 days ago! It’s so hard to fangirl about him though because there’s hardly anything on him save for a few movies. Even his main site doesn’t look that updated. Oh well, I shall enlist the help of my expert-stalker friend and help me! hahaha! Well here’s an eye candy pic for ya’ll! 8D <3 <3 <3

Oh by the way, this friendly doggy also wants to say Merry Christmas!

Watch some feel good movies such as It’s a Wonderful life or Les Choristes and enjoy it with your family! Or read a book or something. Or just do something joyous! Oh and another crazy thing to think about this Christmas (got this from a friend, not sure if he composed it himself XD)

Is there a Santa Claus? – a physicist view

Consider the following:

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn’t (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total – 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that’s 91.8 million homes. One presumes there’s at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding and etc. This means that Santa’s sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man- made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second – a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that ‘flying reindeer’ (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload – not even counting the weight of the sleigh – to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison – this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance – this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force. In conclusion – If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now. Say what?..

Hope you all have a merry holiday! *dance*dance*dance*

Questions are back!
1. Any Christmas 2011 plans?
2. What’s your Christmas wish?
3. If you could change anything in your Christmas tradition (or have one if you don’t), what would it be?

Who here has been called up by some mysterious caller who suspiciously knows your mobile, landline numbers, your university, schools and your name and is being offered an “executive” or “junior executive” position in some company like NU Skin, Synergy, Pharmanex, Biotechnological US-based firm?

*raises hands*

and who here has turned down the offer?

*raises hands*

and who here has showed up for the meeting?

*MAY RAISE HAND*

NU Skin or the Octagon Building in San Miguel Ave. in Ortigas has been the TALK of blogs since 2009 or even earlier! You had friends telling you that you have been contacted by so and so and with such a shady conversation with no concrete answers, you decide to “research”, google it and lo and behold hundreds of blogs talking how it is a SCAM because hey it could be a modus operandi of some kidnapping gang or something or it could lead to a PYRAMID SCHEME.

“A pyramid scheme is a non-sustainable business model that involves promising participants payment or services, primarily for enrolling other people into the scheme, rather than supplying any real investment or sale of products or services to the public. Pyramid schemes are a form of fraud.” – thank you Wikipedia

People then avoid it like a plague but haven’t you ever wondered why IT DOESN’T SEEM TO STOP? Is this strategy by NU Skin actually working? I mean now you have LOTS of people talking about it and as they say, news have wings in Filipino, news whether good and bad (oh especially bad) fly around a lot. Is this what NU Skin exactly wants and why isn’t the government doing anything when clearly a lot of people have been or almost been “scammed?”

Well I did a little research and I found 2 very helpful blogs that shed some positivity into this negativity. I am not saying that what they’re doing is a scam or what they’re doing is correct, it’s all about research and UNDERSTANDING the strategy behind this.

I will preview some excerpts from these 2 blogs,

This 15th floor of Octagon Building is actually the HEADQUARTERS of NU Skin.

“Nu Skin Enterprises is a US based multi-level marketing company that’s been in operation since 1984, worldwide…it’s completely legit, and what they say about the company is true…They are publicly listed in the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and has been featured numerous times in CNN and other world news. They are also the corporate owners of Pharmanex and Big Planet.” – from RandyPau’s blog

From what I understand, Pau has experience with NU skin and based from his commenters, they too have benefited from working at NU Skin (as retailers? sellers? marketers? they don’t really specify how which puts the skeptic in me in thinking mode… is NU Skin telling them to do all these but NU Skin is an established brand. I mean 25 years!) so they have a right to defend NU Skin. Unlike other blogs there who just base their opinions on hearsay and gossip and say it’s a SCAM without really trying it. But we can’t blame them too really for being very cautious. Based on the readings we had for our liberation theology class, Filipinos are very PERSONAL which leads also to extreme personalism to the point they also do not care about others anymore and they take everything personally. Which is hard to do in sales and business so does this make Filipinos bad salesmen? No I’m not saying that at all but there’s a reason why Filipinos are aversive towards Sales and this kind of Networking when it has been going on for a longtime in Western countries. Networking is actually used here in the blogosphere when sites get referrals to boost up their ratings. I have another excerpt from another blog.

Network marketing has created millionaires and multi-millionaires for over 50 years and I expect it to end anytime soon. So when I see a person bashing the industry in general or bashing a company in particular by claiming “nuskin scam” or some other derogatory… it really makes me made. Because the reality is, for whatever reason, the company or business did not work for them. And they’re mad. So they tend to point fingers versus taking personal responsibility for the result they produced or didn’t produce…are seriously considering joining Nuskin to start your own business, then you deserve to hear the truth about the company and not read someone foaming at the mouth because it did not work for them. Because, regardless of the company you are considering, the unfortunately reality is you will always find more than a few people who joined, didn’t do anything, and now… to save face… seem compelled to scream something ridiculous like “nuskin scams – avoid them”… – from Rob’s blog

So what they’re trying to say is that NUSkin is merely PRESENTING AN OPPORTUNITY. As they say in their phone call, this is a no-commitments gig so you don’t need to join IF YOU REALLY DON’T WANT TO. Don’t go around saying it’s a scam. And for those who know how to utilize this opportunity, then GOOD FOR YOU and you might strike big. This isn’t the perfect job for everyone and I guess they employ this strategy to sift the risk takers from those who are not. What is wrong though for me is they actually (based from the comments that I’ve read) HAVE PEOPLE who go to these seminars and make them write down a list of other people to call. That’s really not cool with me. The people or agents they have us calling aren’t properly trained in my opinion because of the amount of negative reactions that they are getting. So their “plan on expounding to Southeast Asia” isn’t really working out despite being a multi-million dollar company. They have to change their tactic a bit. If you’re wondering where they get your numbers, they probably bought it from companies or checked jobstreet or your friend actually wrote down your name in the list of people to contact. So BE PREPARED guys. Be wary but be informative and do proper research.

I actually have a rescheduled meeting for tomorrow 3pm since I’m not feeling well today. I clarified that I DIDN’T WANT TO DO ANY NETWORKING OR SALES such as that (heck i don’t even use the products… well not now) and I DON’T WANT TO SHELL OUT MONEY (i don’t have any, i’m kinda broke…) AS STARTUP OF WHATEVER and this lady actually agreed that I have the ability to choose the projects I wanted and that the friend who referred me will actually be in the meeting. Unlike other comments, I will be going to an “interview” and not a seminar. WE’LL SEE ABOUT THAT. I really want to get to the bottom of this all and tell people what really goes on inside of that building. I’ve already read both positive and negative comments from people who actually WENT to the orientation and they did say it is a seminar. But if it isn’t… then I don’t know. I do want to meet my friend who referred me there and get to the bottom of this. It’s quite shady that they actually DON’T ask for a resume. Really weird.

Be safe everyone and understand things before going on saying it’s a scam or not. I shall update this with a new post after tomorrow’s “meeting” Wish me luck!