Showing posts with label friendster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friendster. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

wun manong: Alejandro

(Note: here's my very first blog written on my friendster account. Just reposting)

Alejandro is dead!
I have always though that death is a fascinating event. It happens every time, every moment and for me it is the ultimate gauge for short-term change. How death change lives in a second and how it easily turn smiles into grief is an enthralling and intriguing moment. How death brings out the best of true emotions in an individual make me believe that it is significant yet cruel. And so, death is such a fascinating event.
The news about Alejandro being dead provided me a moment to give myself a heavy sigh, that kind of sigh that we do not normally do. I have not heaved a sigh for a long time and thanks to Alejandro for giving me one.
Alejandro was never a friend. Though he belongs to my personal circle, he is one of those people I consider close but a distant one. I could not remember anything significant that we have done together to make me consider him as a friend. He was very distant. I could hardly ask him anything whenever I had questions.
But death is only a word with the blank meaning of a life lost/gone. It is nothing but an indication of a simple loss. Yet it is very mysterious. One moment a man is breathing with life and in split second it is cut and death is around.  Soon enough the music of life fades and the sound of death lurks. Death is such a fascinating and mysterious thing.
He saw me grow up together with my siblings. We used to spend summer days in his place and we would enjoy frolicking in mid afternoon sun. We would play in his garden of mango trees and pineapple patches located in a nearby school. We would climb and harvest fruits of his mangoes and he would be there assisting and instructing us to be careful.
Alejandro is an educator. He knows how to teach people the principles that he knows. He loves reading…especially pocket books. And I know he loves it because he could stand reading a whole paperback on romance and suspense thrillers and could finish one in three days. He is a lover of books and him being an educator, he’s got to be.
Death reminds us of life. It evokes us to value what is beautiful and precious, of what is a dream and reality. Death by any means is all but the destination of mortals and beyond death…..we will never know unless we experience it.
Alejandro too is a war veteran. And that I admire him for.
Alejandro surely knows what is beyond death. He is there. And I know he will always be an educator as I have known him. And perhaps when I too get there, we will be able to revive a friendship that never prospered on earth.

See you when I see you Daddy! And how I wished you finished your essay about your World War II experience. I have with me your unfinished essay…and I will try to bring it with me when I get there.
Alejandro is my grand father. And to all his grandchildren, we ironically call him “Daddy”.
Alejandro is dead. And for him this BLOG was created.

wun manong: whatever happened to friendster

Tired of Facebook? Why not open your Friendster account? And you'll be surprise..really.

Last night, I opened my Friendster account and damn...I have friends that are still hooked up in it. That's really surprising.

More than seeing old friends during that-thing-called Friendster era, opening my Friendster account was a  trip down memory lane..the testis (testimonials) and the old pictures from way back then are still there.

Bit of History. It was founded by Jonathan Abrams in 2002. According to Wikipedia, it was founded to "create a safer, more effective environment for meeting new people by browsing user profiles and connecting to friends, friends of friends and so on, allowing members to expand their network of friends more rapidly than in real life, face-to-face scenarios". Few months after its release, Friendster was a hit. But in 2009, it saw a decline in traffic from ranked 40 to 800 in November of 2010 based on Alexa webtraffic reports.

Before Facebook, most of us had MySpace, Friendster and Multiply. I totally gave up my Friendster in as much as I gave up my Yahoo email address.
Before, Friendster was hit as much as Facebook is today. Add friends, write testimonials, grab pictures and design your own site by putting background music and skins. That was before.

Now, Friendster got a facelift and its green. There are also a lot of new features like shoutouts reformatted, games, treasure chest and more. But really, you'll note, its really not something new..Facebook has it.

One thing I hate about Friendster, there's just too many nude pictures out there that I think it has turned into a soft-core porn-social networking site.

Friendster is still popular in most Asian countries and it is interesting to note  that the Philippines is one of the top users.

I last logged-in to my friendster roughly two years ago. Why I gave it up? Maybe it was due to Friendster fatigue. I just gave it up. I just don't like it anymore. It was a case of i'll-open-it-once-i'm-into-it-agan. But Facebook came, better, more user friendly and it has more features like interactive and level-up games. So I left my friendster behind.

Friendster is where I have posted my first-ever blog..and I'm reposting it.

Check out my friendster account at