My Own Little Man-Diary: January 2012

Thursday, January 26

All That Remains

A friend told me of his plan of getting bald. He encouraged me to join him in his endeavor. When I asked why he was doing it, he told me because he wanted to be bald during his internship. Well, that was the gist of it.

The guy had never been bald, which is a lie of course. We all come out of the womb with little or no hair, and even then when you were inside growing you were bound to start from being hairless. I had been bald once only since my childhood. Why I did it, I don't know really.

The one thing I remember from that experience is the reaction of my mother. From getting my haircut, I went straight home and do the things that I do, which is first and foremost, turning on the computer. I idly sat down and left my door ajar. When my mother passed by my bedroom door to get to hers, she noticed that my head had been shaved. That moment was priceless.

Not all good memories emerge from hairless heads. Well, not then. A day in the city that never sleeps and my sister and I decide to go out and have a haircut. My sister had her minds set on having a mohawk. On the other hand, I wanted to have hair that swept my face. It was on the verge of my FOB(fall out boy) days, and the hairstyle was popular then.

We went to a barbershop that was up in Queens, far away from where we lived, but my sister said this was where she usually has her hair cut(or just in the area, I'm not quite sure anymore), so we went. It was like a Chinatown in Queens, the stores were mostly labeled in Chinese, and so were the people. Maybe it was Chinatown Queens. The barbershop, not surprising, was employed with Chinese people. The woman who cut our hair was not really good at speaking English, or when she did speak it was with her very heavy Chinese accent.

The poor woman could not grasp my sister's directions clearly, and the work she did on my sister's hair was nothing close to a mohawk. If only she could press Undo like in photoshop. So with the unsatisfactory hair my sister had, she told the woman to just shave it all off. The Chinese woman was shocked because, well, she must have thought she did a pretty good job, might as well have given herself a pat on the back. My sister didn't mind, this was option #2.

When we got home, we were waiting for our dad to arrive. He always arrived near dinner time. Our dad was carrying a bunch of papers for I don't know what (je ne sais quoi). When he opened the door, he glanced at me then to my sister then threw the papers at my direction and, in a fit of rage, walked out the door. Well, that turned out nicely.

Years have passed and my hair had evolved into different hairstyles. This was, in turn, thanks to hair wax. I could mold my hair any way I would liked. And this continued on until earlier this morning, when I took up my friend's offer, months before he did the same.

Why I did it? No reason, nothing but to try it again. It seems that there must be some reason to cut hair, especially if you wanted it bald. This is popularized by mainstream TV shows that sometimes show when a character is going through something. Sometimes, it is true though, all the more for cancer patients. When it comes to the that, going bald is more like a symbolic gesture of control.

This is the process of how it went down.

Before, During, After (or near)
The one thing I was really looking forward to was my friends' reactions. When I told them of my plans the day prior(or at some point before that), they were really against the whole idea, saying that I wouldn't look good bald-headed. I agreed with them. I often classify my hair as an asset, like my glasses. When they saw me, they were shocked, but were retracting their statements, some preferred my old hair.

I kind of miss my hair already. And I keep telling myself, it'll grow back. And it will.

I just wish some of it grew on my face.

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What was done cannot be undone, but what once was can be rebuilt from the ashes.



Wednesday, January 18

Dark Days of the Internet

It has begun.

The blackout has started, with the most popular site being Wikipedia. Other sites have also done the same, blocking/lessening any user interaction for the most of January 18, 2012.  Notable sites participating in the blackout: Google, Wordpress, Reddit, Mozilla, and many more. For a more detailed list: check here.

The strike is to fight against two bills proposed by US legislators: the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). When the SOPA was first introduced, it was met with very negative reactions, mainly from the web community.

SOPA, as it name entails, aims to stop online piracy but many believe that this is not actually going to do that. As I'm not really good at reading laws, or just lazy to do it. I'm gonna redirect you to http://blog.reddit.com/, which is part of the strike. The homepage shows an article on what they believe about the effects of passing SOPA and PIPA

Most people are unaware of the fact that SOPA can be damaging to the global community that is the internet. Casual users that go online for social media sites like facebook and twitter might not have the luxury on doing so. SOPA, as I've read, violates the First Amendment which prohibits  the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion, impeding the free exercise of religion, abridging the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the petitioning for a governmental redress of grievancesWith freedom of speech most affected.


If passed, search engines might have to censor links to other websites. Some websites might not be available to go to. And any site with at least a page of "infringement" could be gone for good. Well, until they make another one. Streaming media can also be considered a crime, this is a very big deal to frequent YouTube goers.




This mostly affects the United States. But with the US considered to be a leader in the world, other countries are bound to follow suit, enacting similar laws. To have a clearer image of what this will be like, this will be like living in China, a communist country. 


I, personally, am having trouble in writing this post. Not having the backing of my usual knowledge-to-go site, Wikipedia, I've come to realize at how much I've relied on the site. But that's what it's for, it's for the community. Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, was in a good place starting this website. And I fear if SOPA is made law, internet websites won't have the luxury of booming like others did. 


Wikipedia on Jan 18, 2012, 24 hours of darkness


Casual users may not appreciate acting against this right now, but if and when social media starts getting censored, they'll have a more active role. By then, it would be a little too late. So, start fighting against SOPA and PIPA now. 


Censorship is a  ████ .


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LOL, I get how stop SOPA sounds stupid. (Stop, stop..) 


Do your part now!


Links to oppose SOPA:  (most of the petitions are for US residents only, but you can still help)
http://americancensorship.org/modal/state-dept-petition/index.html
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
http://stopcensorship.org/
If you have a facebook, twitter account or on any other social media account, say something about SOPA, raise awareness.

Click here to change your profile picture to show your for stopping SOPA.http://blackoutsopa.org/goddre

#sopastrike #stopsopa


Further reading:
http://blog.reddit.com/
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112s968 

BTW, it's possible to circumvent the Wikipedia blackout, https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_SOPA_blackout/Technical_FAQ%20






Monday, January 9

Zero 2 Twenty

Since the ringing of the New Year, I have been counting down the days 'til my birthday. And that day is now upon us. But few people knew that already. FEW. Many people didn't know, or didn't realize.

I had thought about doing an experiment whether people actually remembered my birthday. Nowadays, people have a habit of relying on facebook to tell them that it is, in fact, someone's birthday. Well, I'm not exactly one to talk. In times, I do check facebook for whoever is celebrating his/her birthdays, but most of the time really, I don't. I have my phone's calendar for that.

I really had a mind of going on about removing my birthday from my profile, so people won't actually see it. They just had to know it was that day, my nameday! But I thought about how people might really not remember, and don't really greet at all and how it might get me down.

Not telling people was not going well when I was having a celebration a few days my actual birthday. Saturday evening, I had my party and invited a few of my friends over. They would ask what occasion there was, I would respond that there just was. Some people got the hint that it was me celebrating my birthday. Sadly, knowing I don't dole out invitations to eat somewhere on a daily basis, some people didn't get it.

My mother and I had posted some pictures of the event, and some people who saw it actually thought that my birthday was on that day. So, some people posted on my timeline (for ancient users, "wall") on facebook and mentioned me on twitter, and I replied that it wasn't yet. It was just the party that was advanced, family members didn't greet me on that day which was right. Well, one did start greeting me on the sixth. And again on the seventh.

The time had come! January 9th had come! My 20th nameday! On the strike of midnight, I tweeted, "0 to 20." This meant the end of my countdown, which to some became pretty obvious what I was counting down to. Two friends greeted since the ninth started, and I haven't even slept yet. On facebook, two again posted on my timeline, one my dad and the other, the same person who texted me, he greeted again on twitter. Then I slept, but it took awhile before I got to it.

The morning of the ninth, I wasn't expecting much. Living in the day and age of technology, memory could easily be erased from storage, or in the case of the brain, hidden under many layers of other memories. Family greetings are almost always the first to come, they should know when you were born. It's like a requirement for their living, and the same responsibility is bestowed upon you.

When I had gotten to school, the same people who went to my party were the first to greet me. And this was in front of the class, so naturally, classmates started greeting. And non-classmates chimed in as well, when mutual friends told one another. Such is the word of mouth, a very powerful tool indeed.

People have a way of thinking that something is missing, or ought to be happening, that "oh yeah" moment when you realize that you know what it really is. When older friends got to that moment, they texted me. Text messages varied on the time of day. Some greeted in the morning and in the evening, but most really were in the afternoon. I was glad to know my high school friends remembered even without the notification on facebook.

Nothing noteworthy really happened on my birthday, but it's nice to get recognition for being born; even if it's social media that makes it happen. When I got home a number of people had posted on my timeline, I could literally count how many.

It's kind of sad how I want people to greet me on facebook for my birthday, but truthfully it's a nice feeling when they do, even if they barely know you. Or if you've since grown apart by time or location.

To all my friends who greeted me, in person or in any social media site I'm on, thank you. Really. To those who just forgot, were busy, or had something else on their mind, I hope you see I had my notification on again. Greet me nao! ;)

Now, I'm just giving out thank yous like a whore.

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Highlights of my day today:

  • Went back to the gym
  • Controversial test got null and void. #dueprocess
  • Bought myself a new pair of shoes (for the gym)