MySpace Hoax

How would you feel if somebody tells you that the world would be a better place without you? Would you get upset? Would you get mad at the person? Or would you kill yourself to satisfy him or her?

Last Friday, I got the chance to watch TV alone and had full control of the remote.. (harhar).. I was changing and browsing channels when something caught my attention. It was CNN's report about a young girl who committed suicide over an online hoax. Is this not interesting? I focused and listened very well to the news because I thought it was.

The story is about Megan Meiers, a thirteen-year-old girl who suffered depression and attention deficit. Megan thought that she made a new friend in cyberspace when Josh Evans who claimed to be sixteen-year-old contacted her on MySpace. "Josh" told her he thinks Megan is attractive and so they began exchanging messages online. Their online friendship lasted over a month and Megan's family started to notice that she was becoming more cheerful and described her as having had her "spirits lifted".

After over a month of exchanging messages, Josh abruptly ended their friendship telling Megan he heard that she was cruel, saying "I don't think I want to be friends with you because I heard that you are not very nice to your friends." Josh also sent Megan other troubling messages, shared Megan's messages to others and posted bulletins about her.

Megan got so depressed about this (who wouldn't?) and told her mom about the hurtful messages Josh sent her and went upstairs to her messages afterwards. She was found twenty minutes later, hanging by the neck in a closet. Despite attempts to revive her, she was pronounced dead the following day.

Megan's family later learned that Josh never actually existed. The last message Josh sent Megan? "The world would be a better place without you."

It really is a sad story. What's sadder is, the person behind the MySpace account, behind the Josh Evans identity is a mom who just laughed about it and told reporters that the whole hoax was a "joke"..

Blog No More??!!

I know, I know.. I have not blogged for days.. I have not been writing things with sense.. or things that might update you on how I am doing now...There are two reasons behind this. The first, and most impotant is, they have blocked Blogspot.com in the office where I blog most of the time (I usually do it during lunch and break times). The IT dept also blocked many blogging-related sites that I always visit and this pisses not only me but other bloggers in the office.. Grrrr.. We can't really blame them, though. They're just doing their jobs. The second reason is I always go home to Pampanga on my days off. We don't have internet access at home since we dont really need it there and I dont go to internet cafes that much when I'm there because I want to spend my time with the family.

Those two are the major reasons why I have not been blogging, visiting sites, and dropping entrecards.. The minor reasons are proxies where also blocked and our access to other computer programs were also restricted.. This is really sad.. My officemates are not happy about this, too. They joke and say that one of these days, we might just all be resigning because we simply are bored.. Because there are no more movies to watch.. No more online streaming.. No more online games.. No more blogging.. No more network societies..No more internet access.. LOL

I will still be blogging, though.. I'm sure my techi officemates will still come up with work-arounds, as always (harhar)... And I, too, will find one.. LOL... :D

Happiliest

I was reading the newspaper earlier when this particular article caught my eyes:

"ASHTON KUTCHER, WORLD'S HAPPILIEST MARRIED MAN"

Yes, you read it right, happiliest NOT happiest. What's 'happiliest'?, I asked myself. I really got intrigued so I opened the entertainment section and read through the rest of the article.It was about the interview with Ashton Kutcher, Cameron Diaz's leading man in the film "What happens in Vegas".

Ashton tells the press how happy he is as a married man. He said he never really thought he would ever get married. He further said that he saw his parents go throught divorce and thought, "this is not something that anybody shoud do. Why put a legal document on top of a
good relationship?".

The article also said that when Ashton started going out with Demi Moore in 2003, Holywood watchers believed that their relationship will not last long because of their 15 years age gap. But to the surprise of all, they got married in 2005, by all accounts, happy with each other.

What was really touching about the interview was the part when Ashton said,

"I knew she was the person I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I am the HAPPILIEST--I think I just invented that word--married guy on the planet."

Isn't that sweet? Knowing that your partner feels that way seems very romantic.. And to hear him say that on national television and see it printed on international newspapers and mags? It's like him letting the whole world know that you are a dream come true to him, that because of you, he will be happy the rest of his life...

Ashton said that he got his ideas about marriage from Rabbi Yehuda Berg in Babblah Centre in Los Angeles where he and Demi and other holywood celebrities are studying.

While men treats sex as an apex of a relationship and women are focused on marriage, "everybody is missing what happens afters that," he said.

"It's like if you got hired at a new job and you shwed up and didn't wok, you'd probably get fired pretty quickly," Ashton said. "Once they get married, people think , 'all right, the work is done', when really, you just got the job..." -- a very good point, right?

New 7 Wonders of the World

Last Night I saw on the news that the Puerto Princesa Subterranean River National Park better known as the Underground River located in Palawan is one of the so-may beautiful worl spots running to be decalared as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

The Philippines is undergoing through a lot of crisis. Hearing this on national television somehow makes a Filipino smile and feel proud about it (I myself am).

The Underground River in Palawan has already attracted so many tuorist around the globe and has helped promote our tourism. It's main attraction is, of course, the navigable underground river where you'll find stalactites and stalagmites and the limestone karst Mountain Landscape.

Another entry from our country is the Tubbataha Reef in Sulu Sea which has been previously declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This is famous not only for its large marine sanctuary but is also a popular site for sports divers.

Currently, the Underground River and the Tubbataha Reef ranks number 128 and number 8 respectively. We should, as Filipinos, be proud of this. Let's support our entries. Let's vote for them.

Rice on the Rise

It has been a consistent part of the everyday news on TV, has been occupying newspapers' headlines and has become the number one topic on group conversations. Rice on the rise! Yes, that's right. Every Filipino's favorite part of the meal is becoming more popular because of it's decreasing supply and increasing price in the market.

According to news, the Department of Agriculture, together with other government agencies, have been discussing this issue thoroughly to come up with a resolution. They said they are allocating billions of Pesos for farmers, fertilizers, irrigation, and other agricultural infrastructures and facilities and are trying to find more ways to alleviate the damages that this has done to our country in general.

So why am I writing this?

Because like every ordinary Filipinos, I and my family are being affected. I have to work on my budget again because of the sudden and continuous increase in price, not only of rice, but also of other everyday commodities. Right now, I'm even thinking of resorting to cheaper rice substitution, like camote.. But then again, maybe not.. LOL

I hope the government finds a way to resolve this as soon as possible.. haaayyyy..