The Villar Bilyar Memo

Wooing the Friendsters

MySpace is now serious in wooing Filipinos from Friendster. Here's why.

L Blogger

Archu? Test here:

1. You post song lyrics of a song on your blog, as though the songwriter wrote it specially for your miserable soul. Ya, right.
2. You talk about how discriminated you feel against homophobes and concurrently, why you hate men. How ironic.
3. You have a category dedicated to your fluctuating emotions called, erm, Emotions.
4. You vengefully and viciously write about how your Ex has started dating your best friend.
5. You post eeeeeeendless photographs of yourself and that delicately waxed-to-death hair of yours.
6. You post eeeeeeendless photographs of your pussy. And I mean the cat.
7. You don’t blog on Thursday nights because you’re at Play with the girls.
8. A rainbow flag don the corner of your blog.
9. Your Google AdSense has ads promoting GAY COWBOYS and 12-INCH-DILDOS.
10. You have blankanvas on your Blogroll.

Another Blog Why Newspapers are Dying

But this one is quite in there. No more "It's the fault of Internet" but it's the fault of the owners. Hey Listen:

The creation of monopoly markets and, through consolidation, cartels of newspaper ownership. Economic history shows us that monopolies and cartels always commit suicide. Divorced from the imperatives of real competition, monopolies easily slip into a self-centered world of bureaucratic conformity and a desire to protect the status quo. They became slow and rigid, in other words, road kill for competitors.

The Life of a Blog

You write your blog. Then hit "Publish." Do you know where your blog goes? You have no idea

Renaldo Fever

Those in the Philippines would answer:
1) Good twin of evil John Lapuz
2) Casino dealer channelled by Liberace
3) Pinoy Big Brother Forever
4) Latest incarnation of Bob Dylan
5) Former Olongapo (from San Simon town that's why he has Simon on his hat) pimp

The Filipino Liberace

Viewed 300,000 times. He already has his own website. Want a Brothers Forever Tshirt?

Patheticus

65%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Looking for fubu? click?

Guess what the Pinoys Were Googling last November? Subject Verb Agreement!

peyups (slang for UP/University of the Philippines) autism smack that francis magalona (washed-up rapper) 30 seconds to mars

statue of liberty les miserables speech choir wedding souvenirs subject verb agreement

baki the grappler (cartoon character) iza calzado (batanes beauty) aya ueto (Japanese celebrity) black sabbath butalbital

The Top Pinoy alt.media Acts (The Dirty Version)

1) The Salgado PowerPoint
2) Gwen Garci Sikyu Act
3) Cindy Kurleto's nipple slip
4) iy%ttube
5) The (name your municipality) Scandal 16 in 1
6) The Baywalk scandal (inamin naman eh)
7) The Holy Grail (G**** with Chavit)
8) Katrina Halili's paa ng kamel
9) The real Cebu Penitentiary Thriller with Mr. Garcia and his prison gals
10)Alyssa Alano's YouTube Keys Me

email me. he he he

Top Pinoy Alt.media Acts (The Clean Version)

The Top 10 Pinoy alt.media acts:

1) YouTube Cebu Inmates Thriller. The 1,500 orange-clad members of the Cebu Penitentiary landed 5^th in Neatorama’s top viral videos. Its video garnered 10.5 hits as of January 2008. The UN Human Rights Commission will be including the video among President Arroyo's HR violations.

2) Fourteen-year-old Charice Pempengco only placed third in ABS-CBN’s Little Big Star when she was seven but this did not deter her from singing. Her video from Dreamgirls (And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going) early last year earned her an invitation to sing in teenybop shows in South Korea. Her stint was posted in the Internet and she was invited in the Ellen Degeneres Show last November 28. A Swedish music label also asked her to record a few songs.

3) A supposedly racial slur against Filipino doctors earned an online petition against Desperate Housewives. Angry words were exchanged and in the end, the Fil-Am community got what they wanted: more jobs for them on TV. As of writing, there were 1.8 million who signed their posting, some still pathetically angry three months after the whole thing fizzled.

4) The Indie film never had it good. Kudos to Jim Libiran’s “Tribu,” Bong Ramos’ “Hwa-Ang,” Brilliante Mendoza’s “Kaleldo,” Jeffrey Jeturian’s “Kubrador” and Aureaus Solito and Raya Martin.

5) The Filipina Writing Searchword Project was initiated so that when you type in “Filipina” in major search engines you will get more positive impressions of Filipinas. Not sex or dating prospects. About fifty bloggers participated and The Funniest Filipina Vloggers, Ako si Pina.. At ito ang aking kuwento... and Superiority of Women in the Philippine Society received the grand prizes of $100. Not a typo. And don't give me jokes about Filipinas being cheap. I will strangle you.

6) Citizen blogging came to the fore during the Glorietta blast and the Manila Pen standoff with thousands of Filipino bloggers posting their YouTube and reactions and even theories on the incidents. One even came out with a site where you can send virtual flowers to those who died in Glorietta.

7) Lagalag Project. Willi Pascual wrote: “Eight months ago, I went to the Napa Valley post office to mail two Moleskine notebooks. On its first pages are my photos and stories -- the rest of the pages were blank. The notebooks were passed on among Filipinos around the world, all coming from different walks of life. They wrote their stories and shared their images on its pages. They have never met each other, but through the notebooks they have shared one amazing journey, one that is homeward bound.
The two notebooks are now in the Philippines.Twenty different ways on how Filipinos see the world. Twenty photos. Twenty stories. One destination. Your doorstep.”

8) The Singaporeans knew about the power of Pinoy texting that they created a glitch so that all those millions of texts from the Philippines would not make it on time to make Philippine Idol Mau Marcelo as the Asian Idol. Yes, a Singaporean dork won.

9) Inday jokes about a Filipina maid who speaks English circuitously became a running text joke. People didn’t know this was started by the telcom sweatshops but who cares? It made fun of conos, call center agents and Sen. Miriam Santiago.

10) Alt.media icons Quentin Tarantino, David Byrne (Talking Heads), Neil Gaiman and Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung came to visit. But then so did the Paul Williams, John Ford Coley, what’s left of The Associations and America and Matt Monroe Jr. Yes, Junior!!!

Spider

Technorati Profile

Sad

Sometimes news websites are too smart for comfort. They pair their ads with the news content without considering what news is was. Take these examples:

Elvis Sighting at the Glorietta Bombing

From GMA 7's actual list of injured during the Glorietta Bombing:

(Makati Medical Center, 3 in ICU, 1 in operating room)
Arayon, Maria Isabel (discharged)
Arroyo, Melanie (discharged)
Balendrez, Jerick (discharged)
Bolano, Shirley (discharged)
Burcer, Jeffrey (discharged)
Calope, Christine (discharged)
De Asis, Jennie (discharged)
De la Cruz, Christopher (discharged)
De Leon, Evangeline (discharged)
Dela Cruz, Teresita (discharged)
Enriquez, Carmen (discharged)
Estiller, John Kenneth (discharged)
Estiller, Ma. Generosa (discharged)
Gannaban, Rolando (discharged)
Gonzalez, Alberto III (discharged)
Honopre, Sally (discharged)
Layo, Irene (discharged)
Liwanag, Gerard Florence (discharged)
Monteniz, Grace (discharged)
Orna, Lodevina (discharged)
Pableo, Lailani T. (discharged)
Pamplina, Red (discharged)
Pasamba, Mylene (discharged)
Pascual, John Henry (discharged)
Peregrino, Airish Lou (discharged)
Peregrino, June Lester (discharged)
Pineda, Christopher (discharged)
Punsal, Ailene (discharged)
Racelia, Ma. Cecilia (discharged)
Raymaro, Mary Grace (discharged)
Regachuelo, Gina (discharged)
Reyes, Fely (discharged)
Sampiano, Erwin (discharged)
Santos, Donald (discharged)
Santos, Lady Christine (discharged)
Sapitan, Annabelle (discharged)
Soriano, Angela Marie (discharged)
Talingting, Silvestre (discharged)
Villareal, Ana Patricia (discharged)
Yap, Shiela Marie (discharged)
Tingson, Sheila Mae (forwarded to operating room)
Cañada, Yvonne (from Acute Care Center)
Dunca, Cristina (from Acute Care Center)
Yvonne Kim (from Acute Care Center)
Kim, Haewoon (Rm. 421)
Romasanta, Mia Therese (Rm. 919)
Romasanta, Stephanie (Rm. 919)
Romasanta. Rafael Antonio (Rm. 919)
Marcelo, Maricel (ICU-6)
Escoto, Bodie (ICU-7)
Robinson, Orlanda (ICU-8)
Bajar, Cesaria
Dela Cruz, Sarah Jane
Elvis
Gallien, Marilou
Garcia, Mabini Jr.
Garcia, May Flor
Magdale, Custodio Jr.
Mappala, Rosalino
Molet, Ma. Corazon
Montenegro, Melvin
Montenegro, Regina
Ong, Roman
Ortiz, Athea Rose
Ramilo, Agnes
Reynaro, Mary Grace
Rodriguez, Wilson
Santos, Josephine
Torres, Irene

But seriously, I Googled the names of the casualties, and Janine Marcos and Rainier Tan have Friendster accountss. Rainier (if he is this) is from Sariaya and a CEU graduate. He was sure to get the job as an ad man. Rainier sounds to be full of hope and confidence. We hope he is not the one as much as we hope no one would die for all these political maneuverings aka terroristic acts. Janine loves anime and started Friendstering only last June. She still has no friends.

Update: It was an older Rainier who died.

I Do This For You

Arnel was a seminarian in Baguio who published a novel as Gothically grotesque as a purple gargoyle. Then all Hell broke loose. He became a dean and starred in one of the most famous sex scandals in the country (so there is a long version!). He was sued. He came out with a torturous (to him and to his readers) novel. He plans to join his former comrades on the mountain (not mountains but mountain). We knew all this through Ian Casocot who is on a trail as funny as Roger Rabbit and potentially dangerous like "Se7en." Yes, Ian. Remember this clue from Arnel's Friendster: an image from one of Arnel's female fans:

Good luck, Ian

Friendster

The title of the thread is "Going Loco Over Friendster" which I did not edit. Promise:

clar-kuN: Noong high school ako baliw na baliw ako sa friendster. First exposure sa internet networking. ;D Napaka-superficial ng friendster para sa akin ngayon. Lahat gusto magpapansin. Saang forum/chatroom tayo hindi nakakita ng mga taong walang sawa at to the next level magpa-add? :D

pristine_precision: Not to mention "testi". Lol, I'm SICK of seeing "check out mah pro! qt kc aq dun."

clar-kuN: ^ ;D haha! At ang walang kamatayan na paraan para makakuha ng mga comments gamit ang friendster shout-outs: "(insert qoute). HuHUhu...testi aNd cOmmenTs nmAn poh plzzz..." Talagang polluted na ang friendster.

pristine_precision: ^Those kinds of things cheapened the service, IMHO.

alienfromjupiter:
dati ou..
kso ngaun..ndi na!
ang corny n kc minsan...
i transferred na sa myspace

The exchange of clar-kuN and pristine_precision was full of wisdom na nga until the alien came to blast everything to friendsterdom. myspace? friendster? What's the difference?

Alien

The US military finally decided that those who use MySpace are alien life forms with their strange language and acronyms.

Cat Science

Here's a post on What makes a Post that draws the most comments.

It's Complicated

This was brought to my attention two years ago when Eve had a crush with a friend only to find out in his Friendster that he is "male, it's complicated."
How can being a male be complicated unless he's gay, Eve said. I agreed. That he's gay because he really is and not because it's complicated.
It was only a week ago, naive me, did I learn from another friend that "it's complicated" refers to "relationship" in friendster.
So it could be male, married etc. If it's hard to explain, "it's complicated" is the answer.
And from what I see now, "it's complicated" is already a trademark. And in a few years, it would be standard answer in standard documents like the residence certificate.
But being single is already complicated and more so, if you are married.
Being 25 is complicated. Being male is complicated.
You can't hide your relationship under the complex cloud.

HOw Google Works

How Google works