Of relationships and I dos

It is human nature, regardless of age, to seek for relationships.

Whether it is found in some dark alley or casual/formal introductions or from adopting parents or, in this day and age - online - the bottom line is: it is human nature to seek for love, even in the most unexpected places or circumstances.

I am sure that each of you have stories about love found and love lost. The circle of life dictates that as long as we breath, we attempt to find the Shangrila in our lives. Is there really one? Can we really find happily ever afters? Is there a relationship that has a love ever after ending?

Even married couples, in spite of vows to love and to hold, in sickness and in health till death do them part have storms that come along their way. Perhaps because of the contract they are attached to or for the sake of the children or conjugal properties and investments, they attempt to work out the differences in spite of the odds that come their way. Some manage to stay together, but there's quite a hefty number that prefer to go their separate ways - in search of new relationships.

What draws people together to form a relationship?

There are two drawing points. LOVE is one of them. This four-letter word seems to be widely used and, often time, abused. Of course, for some, the more intimate part called SEX is usually the first reason to get attached. Yet the latter usually dissipates more quickly than love. People in search for a wham-bam-thank-you-Sam will perpetually be in search of relationships that find no meaning except the exercise of their libido. Whichever it is, having the best of both worlds would probably be the perfect scenario. But the strongest bond is that of LOVE.

Unconditional love allows both parties to grow. Each may falter somewhere, but because there is real love in a relationship, it will allow each person to understand the shortcomings that come along the way. After all, no one is perfect. And with that said, it's always a good reminder that when relationships begin to falter, one should remember how a relationship started and where it is at today. Often times, we forget to assess how the relationship began. It is ironic how many of us forget this.

Every relationship is a work in progress. It's based on promises made with the one you've fallen in love with or exchanged "I do". And while promises made are meant not to be kept, there are those that are. Strangely, we often times don't know the person whom we enter a relationship with. While some people lay their cards on the table as you get to know one other, there will always be skeletons in the closet with others. Eventually, these are discovered and while we sweep them under the rug at times, more often than not, there are more dirty or dark secrets revealed WHILE you're in a relationship that lead to a state of misery.

So now you're in a Catch 22 scenario. You can't get out of it or you're in too deep or you're miserable with a BUT! It's strange that we begin to dwell on WHAT IFs and WHYs and WHY NOTs. One party wishes that the other party would just bolt the relationship to end all misery.

We forget that the reason why, as human beings, and as human nature dictates, that we continuously search for relationships because we search for happiness. I am willing to bet that once upon a time, you were both happy, without a care in the world. That many of us had sworn to even beat all odds. Oddly, when push came to shove, we shoved more than we pushed.

Relationships are built on trust, loyalty and understanding. Without the three there would not be a reason to be together. Whether the relationship is one of friendship or two people in love or even an adopted child or family, the three fundamental instruments of maintaining a sustaining and durable relationship without finding fault in every single act should be considered.

It is easy to move in and out of a relationship. After all, finding what makes you happy is the most important goal in life. But this is a selfish outlook on life. It's only fair that while we try to find our happiness, we take into consideration the happiness of others as well.

After all, even the "happily ever afters" began with "once upon a time".

Memories of Boston

There's a Beatles song entitled "In My Life" that has the lyrics:

"There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends, I can still recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I've loved them all..."

My trip to Boston was in reality both business and pleasure. The American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its Annual Meeting here. This was the business part. After my training in the US, I frequently came home to Boston annually, until 10 years ago. My last trip to Boston was in 2001. I wanted to reminisce the old times and see the places that I remembered so vividly. The autumn season was the best time to be in Boston. This was the pleasure part.

I arrived on a balmy Thursday evening. Spent the night reminiscing the Copley area and Friday registering at the convention and attending the morning sessions before driving off to Maine in the afternoon. The fall foliage was not at its peak yet but you could see traces of it on the way.

Harvard Square. Beacon Hill. Fenway Park. Faneuil Hall. North End. South End. Boston College. Cambridge Circle. The Boston Public Gardens. The Charles River. Chinatown. Traveling by the T. This was how I remembered the days I would spend those lonely days and nights in Boston during my fellowship training.

Of course, time had changed many of these places. The Prudential is now one chic shopping mall but nothing could beat the high end stores on Newbury St. housed in the cement and brick walls that highlighted the architectural beauty of Boston. The Trinity Church at the heart of Copley Square reminded me of the grand architecture that made this building a landmark of Back Bay. The reflection of the church on a cool Sunday morning against the grand John Hancock Tower was the perfection of combining the architectural design of the old against the new. It was this landmark that made me fall in love with Boston. Even the Boston Public Library had a new look with the center of the library housing a fountain and an area where tourists and students could relax in the ambience of its grandeur.

The Hynes Convention Center has been home to many conventions but the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center replaced the former, in that it's bigger and more state-of-the-art. There are several hotels that have been built but several boutique hotels now stand side by side in amenities and luxury if you plan your trip to Boston.

No other city in America has as rich a heritage in history, culture and architecture as Boston. Aside from the Ivy League schools - Boston University and College (it has recently merged with Tufts University), Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to name a few, it is home to the Berkelee School of Music as well. The city of Boston has a young and elite crowd - perhaps owing to the fact that there are many distinguished schools in the area.

On my flight out of Logan airport, I felt a twitch in my heart on how much I missed this place, which became my second home far away from Manila during my training days. With so much memories still in place, like a newfound love that I left, Boston will remain a part of me.

PAL in transition

I had to go to Cebu to give a talk last Thursday.

The week before, I was skeptical on the flight arrangements on Philippine Airlines. The strike had practically put most of the flights on PAL to a standstill. The outsourcing plan of PAL was already approved by both the Department of Labor and Employment and of course the office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines. At least 2,600 employees of PAL had to go. They were spinning off most its ground staff and call center to other companies. The latter were also owned by PAL erstwhile owner - Lucio Tan.

When the employees who would be losing their jobs went of strike, both PAL and the riding public ended up losers. According to PAL, they have lost $3M - $5M a day in revenue losses. While PAL was giving chit chat excuses for their massive losses, the riding public was inconvenienced. PAL provided profuse apologies both in media and in flight. They are, according to PAL spokespersons, in a transition phase.

On Thursday, October 6, I had taken the 1245PM flight to Cebu for my talk. When I walked into the NAIA 2 terminal, it was like a ghost town. Only flights to Cebu and Davao as well as International Flights were flying out of NAIA 2. There was very little queue. On the Mabuhay Class lane, it took me about 10 minutes to get my boarding pass. I was tapping my fingers at the counter because the guy at the other end was taking forever. He kept looking at my ticket, then back to the monitor, frowned, back to my ticket, back to the monitor, frowned, then back to my ticket...I had no check in bag. Just myself. After all, I was coming home after my talk on the 1020PM flight. After 10 minutes, he gave my boarding pass but NO apologies for his taking gazillion years to process a boarding pass. I counted sheep - taking into account that PAL was in a transition phase.

At the security check in, the guard reminded me to remove my shoes. While I know that, there were no more baskets for shoes. I always remember that there's a basket for shoes. My Prada bag had to go into the dirty carousel? OMG! My bag was more expensive that the life of that pathetic guard and there were no baskets! Besides, the guy that went ahead of me DID NOT take off his shoes! I told the guard that the guy in front of me did not take off his shoes, so why is he asking me to take off mine? And my Prada bag had to go inside the dirty carousel. Where the hell were the baskets? He just shrugged. Counting sheep and taking into account that PAL was in transition...

Boarding was on time. We were only 6 on Mabuhay Class and the guy at the counter had to put someone beside me on the A330-300 plane. Watdfuk?!?!?!! We could have one seat each on business class and the section would still be spacious! Anyway, it was a good thing that the foreigner just sat somewhere else. He too, was scratching his head and wondering why the hell we were all being put seat together. And don't give me that crap that it provided balance to the airplane. The guy at the check in counter simply didn't know what he was doing. Then the automatic announcement went on - that PAL was apologetic for any inconvenience because they were in a transition phase....

In the middle of the flight, they served snacks. I was used to the original trays that PAL provided for Mabuhay Class customers. The old snack trays provided a bit of chic presentation for the crappy meal they served - some fruit salad, a cup for coffee or tea, some glasses for water or juice, a warm snack in the form of pizza or hors d'ouevre of mini sandwiches and some utensils to boot. This time, the stewardess came out with a tray for herself and started handing out beef calzone (that looked greasily deadly) and a roll of Goldilocks mamon. No tray, just put it on your tray. No white mantle gracing the tray table. She asked me if I wanted water or cola. I said a diet cola. She came out with a glass filled with cola, that looked so diluted that I said, I'd take the water instead. The guy on the other side of the plane was still yacking on his mobile phone while the plane was taxing on the runway. The flight attendants were noisily yakking away on the gallery and no one bothered to ask the guy on the mobile phone to turn it off. One of the flight attendants voice was so loud I wanted to stand up and ask him to shut the f*cK up! We were on the runway for about 20 minutes waiting for the plane to take off. And I could hear the attendants yakking yakking yakking away. There ought to be a requirement that the flight attendants do not talk to each other discussing their pathetic lives while the plane is waiting to take off. It's plain irritating.

We arrived at the Mactan International Airport, 5 minutes off schedule, which wasn't bad. Overall assessment for PAL was dismal. I had to remind myself that they were in transition.

Transition is a terrible and sordid excuse for inefficiency. PAL should have prepared for this. It is a reflection of poor management skills. While my heart bleeds out for the displaced employees, I think we need to see the outsourcing of PAL from the passenger's perspective.

First, I know that the revenues of PAL have been declining over the last year. The question is - WHY? Was it because of the large work force? Or are the top honchos getting more of the pie than what PAL was actually making? PAL management was copying the Cebu Pacific model where most of the ground staff and call center areas are outsourced. Fine. But PAL is not Cebu Pacific.

The airfare tickets of PAL, whether on economy or business class are far more expensive than the tickets on other airlines in the region OR in the world. I speak from experience. When my family and I had our annual Christmas vacation in HongKong 2 years ago, we took Cathay Pacific. The economy class ticket was cheaper by $40 per head on CX than on PAL. Last year, when we had our Christmas/New Year break in Singapore, we took Singapore Airlines. The economy class ticket was cheaper by $35 per head on SQ than on PAL. And these were all online rates and bookings! Flying to the US, the fares on PAL are also more expensive on business class than what Delta or Korean Air had to offer. And the flight carriers of other airlines are by far much better in terms of class of service, amenities, food and comfort than PAL. So why the hell would I want to fly PAL? If there's another airline that would take me from point A to point B offering a cheaper fare and YET better service, I'd just take the other airline.

Second, PAL and Cebu Pacific are not co-equal. In short, it's like comparing apples and oranges. You get what you pay for. CebuPac is a no frills airline. You know that it's an all economy budget plane. You know that meals on board should be bought and are not free. You know that extra baggages are paid for. What you see is what you get. That's why it can offer a lower airfare than PAL. But PAL has a business class that is 3x more expensive than the regular fare! And it's regular economy fare is more expensive than CebuPac. Why scrimp on the customer then? You cannot charge something more expensive for the same quality of service as a budget airline. After all, PAL has Air Philippines, it's budget airline that supposedly competes with CebuPac. In short, if I wanted to fly on a plane that would offer a no frills flight at the no frills fare, why would I want to pay more for it? Then everyone would just settle and fly CebuPac.

Finally, the possible solution to the financial woes of PAL are most probably internal. They need to hire more intelligent people to run the business. If PAL is losing out on its domestic flights to CebuPac, then PAL should shut down all its domestic flights and simply convert half the PAL carriers to AirPhil. Offer all domestic flights as a no frills flight. End of story. If PAL is losing out on its international flights, it should probably review why its airfares are far more expensive than other airlines. Of course, many of the foreign airlines are subsidized by their governments. Because PAL is privatized, there will be no government subsidy. But even on a simple frequent flyer level, PAL offers the worst kind of redemption because it has no other global alliance. So you're really stuck with a raw deal. Even HSBC has pulled out of an exclusive PAL mileage program because Lucio Tan's Allied Bank offer a better exchange for peso spend on ABs credit card. A program like this - where only Lucio Tan will profit - will eventually fail and fall flat on its face. In order to prop up the sales of PAL and lower its airfare, it should sit down with the Department of Tourism and other government agencies in helping PAL be the face of Philippine Tourism. And someone has to give in (especially Lucio Tan). Otherwise, its doom is inevitable.

Being in transition is a lame excuse for inefficiency and poor management. It doesn't placate a lousy customer service. PAL has had its financial woes for the longest period of time. It has never understood the airline industry.

It is time the government look deeper and understand further why PAL is turning out to be the Philippines Lousiest Airline. It may be sunset soon for Asia's supposedly sunniest airline.

The final Job

Like many of the Mac-addicts, I was one of the rabid followers who woke up early morning of October 5 (October 4 in the US) awaiting for the launch of the iPhone 5. It was a sordid disappointment to see instead an upgraded version of the iPhone 4 which Apple called iPhone 4S. It would be available in stores on October 14. I guess most of the Mac-followers were also quite disappointed with the upgraded version as they (like me) were expecting something out of the extraordinary. After all, with all the fanfare and secretiveness behind the launching of a new iPhone, it was anyone's wild guess what Apple still had under its sleeves.

But nothing, I guess nothing at all, would have been the greater surprise than the news the day after iPhone 4S was launched - STEVE JOBS passed away.

The icon behind all the Apple gadgets was gone. And while many of us knew that he was battling cancer and that his stepping down from the helm a few months ago was a sign that his health was taking a turn probably for the worse, the rabid fans had just held on to hope that a new techie gadget would be around the corner. The news and speculations about iPhone 5 was probably leaked out by Apple insiders as well. Sneaky, yes. It probably was a way to throw out all speculations surrounding the impending exit of Steve Jobs from this world.

And what a way to go! The day after iPhone 4S was launched, Steve Jobs death is announced.

When my niece informed me that Jobs' death was all over the news I was flabbergasted and saddened. I grew up with Apple. My first Apple computer was like my baby. It had this odd yet funky modern design. My mom would wonder why I opted to buy an oblong like desktop with a weird location for the floppy disk. After being hooked on the Apple computers (mind you, this was way before all the newbie styles of Apple came into being), I have never looked back at any other computer brand again. I remember that I used to carry that candy colored (BLUE) laptop that looked like a space capsule to school. Everyone stared at the cool gadget I had. It was distinctly an Apple. It was uniquely Me.

Today, I have a MacBook Pro for my office, a MacAir for my travel, a Mac desktop for my study room, an iPad, an iPhone4 and an iPod. To me, Mac is everything my techie directed life has put me. Thanks to the man behind the discovery and the dream.

My hats off to Steve Jobs and this generation owes much to the icon behind Apple. He has left a legacy that would be a hard act to follow. It is amazing how one man has changed the technology of this world. After all that hard word, today he rests forever - free from all the worries and pain of health uncertainties. Today he rests forever, knowing that he his life in this world though brief, created an immeasurable impact on all.

Steve Jobs will be missed. But Apple will live on.

Bad eggs

Last week, a few minors hogged the local headlines in what were alarming considering that they committed criminal acts.

The first was a 11 year old boy in Baguio who apparently strangled to death his 10 year old classmate after an argument. News was that he hit by another boy against the blackboard then strangled was strangled by another. What is unknown in this trail of events was what the classmates did while this was going on. While authorities went on the blame game to the teacher, it was odd that the news did not cover what the kibitzer classmates were doing while the older boy was strangulating his classmate.

In Cebu, it was reported that a boy together with an accomplice killed his pregnant mother and 5 year old sister. The boy, a drug addict, admitted to killing his mother and sister because he felt neglected.

Last week at the SM in Pampanga, a 13 year old boy shot his alleged male lover, a 16 year old boy in front of the Astrovision store. After shooting his lover, he turned the gun on himself. Apparently the story trails back to the Facebook account of the 13 year old where he planned the shooting all along. He allegedly was willing to die with his lover. He planned the killing because he found out that there was a third party, another male teenager, involved with his 16 year old lover. After the shooting incident, both boys were brought to the hospital where they eventually died after a few days. A crime of passion. Case closed.

Worst of all is that in one of the pinoyexchange threads, some idiot who calls himself GreenPeas commented "aba violente si atchiii!!! Ayon nga sa kasabihan marz, lokohin mo na ang lasing, wag lang ang bading na nawalan ng booking! etcho" about the incident at SM Pampanga. While the idiot thought it was a joke, the incident poses some critical thinking about the random thoughts and lunacy of a gay boy trying to humor a tragic event. Which shows you the kind of support the community has with an incident requiring empathy and understanding rather than mockery!

The parent of a patient of mine had popped up the question - what's happening to our youth of today?

My expert opinion was sought and I was saddened by the turn of events in the last week.

These were minors. In the words of Etta Rosales, the Commission on Human Rights chair, it is always the parents responsibility on what happens to minors. And while I agree completely with Ms. Rosales on this, I told the mother of my patient - "the youth of today are very different from our generation. I guess the internet age and the technological advancements have made access to information and misinformation much easier to all."

Children do not understand fully the responsibilities of too much information. Parents today are busy juggling between work and career that the child is left to fend off for himself or herself. Many parents think that getting a nanny or having granny take care of the kid is enough. After all, they reason out that they need to make a life for themselves. Most parents today are career-oriented. It's like, the kid or kids they have was the bonus in their relationship. Hence, they're busy making money. Bonding is time shared in a car or in a mall on a Sunday or on a plane and in Hong Kong Disneyland or in a beach somewhere.

I see many patients at my clinic where either the nanny or the granny is the accompanying person. Some of the parents may be reading my blog and if you think you're alluded to, my apologies. It's a personal opinion and I think you need to look at your kids again.

In short, many parents today are not "hands on" with their children. They feel helpless if the nanny isn't around. They need to dump the kids at Kumon because they can't seem to find the time or the brains to tutor their children. And there is always granny to take them to the doctor. They are, sad to say, ambivalent of what is going on in their children's life. The kids are in my waiting room methodically and rabidly texting on their phones or playing with their iPads or DS Lite some violent game. But to the parents, as long as the child is quiet in some dark corner of their house or church or restaurant where in the silence of it all, the parents are not disturbed from their own comfort zone, everything is picture perfect.

Unfortunately, this is not the case.

I've always told parents time and again that there are no bad kids or bad eggs born. We make them. The environment they grow up to is the perfect milieu for either creating a good kid or a bad one. When the milieu is filled with violence, anger, poor supervision, neglect, abuse and a reward system that is altogether wrong, one creates the perfect storm - the product of which is a bad kid. Our children are a mere reflection of ourselves. They mirror our lives and the way we raise them. Kids come into the world without a conscience. The latter needs to get formed. The formation of proper conduct, conscience, and respect actually comes from role modeling. A rotten child does not grow from perfect trees. It grows from trees that are rotten as well.

We cannot and should not keep blaming society or teachers or nannies or grannies for the way our children are today. We cannot and should not keep making our kids happy simply by providing them gratification through gifts and gadgets and money while we are absent in heart and mind. To the young mind, what they grow up with and grow up to during the formative years are what they will grow up to be.

Bad eggs only come from bad breeding.

The dangers of auto-debit

Why do banks and credit card companies encourage auto-debit for utilities, cellphone bills, country club dues, car loans, housing loans, and the like?

There are pros and cons for both the company and the client.

Pros:

1. No more hassle of having to figure out when your due date is. This avoids the occurrence of late charges and fines ending up in disputes with the credit card companies later on.

2. The banks/credit card companies get paid in full way ahead! Which means that when we have problems in the statement of account or any dispute arising from contestable charges, we take it up with the utility firm or cellphone company, or country club or whoever is the merchant that is charging you. The credit card company simply sits back and relaxes and waits for the reversal of that disputed charge.

3. You earn points for every peso spent or charged! Which means that aside from the fact that your bills can be paid through either a deferred plan or a later deferred date or a minimum amount, you still get to earn points which at the end of the day can result in a free plane fare or gadget or points to waive your annual dues.

Cons:

So here's the story. My monthly statement dues for the Palms Country Club is enrolled in one of my credit cards. I make sure that I check the statement of account when I receive it. I don't know how many people actually check their statements of account when the bills arrive. But I do. This month's statement of account charged me for an EAT and RUN event that was sponsored by the country club last August 28, Sunday. I had four charges for the following people - Faisal Amiv, Bianca Velayo, Enzo Chavez, Robert Borjal! I don't even know these people and I don't f*ckng care about them. What peeves me is the fact that I was charged a total of P1850.00 for their participation and meals in the damn fun run!

Golly gee!!

The statement of account has four columns - Date, Reference (receipt number), Description, and Amount. For these EAT and RUN people, there was no reference at all. It was strange that the billing section of the Palms Country Club had decided to charge it to my account. If that isn't stupid, I don't know what being bright is. Why the hell would you just charge it to my account? Was it a matter of guessing game on whom to bill? Who authorized the charging?

Worst of all is the fact that the charges have been made to my card. Which means that any dispute is between the country club and I. As far as the credit card company is concerned (I called to check if I can stop the payment of the charges to the country club), it is a valid transaction. And that I would need to go to the billing section of the country club, dispute the charges, and have it reversed. Of course, I can always go the extreme of just suing the country club for every last centavo it has left. It would throw the Gotianums and Filinvest a bit poorer.

The fiasco with this statement of account led me to checking all the other bills I had.

Lo and behold, I discovered that my PLDT bill had also something new inserted! It's extra P59 a month for the call forwarding, speed dialing, and call waiting inserted into my billing statement! Watdfuk is happening to our bills? These companies just keep inserting things without notifying us! My Lord! They are like the Bureau of Internal Revenue - they think that when we take a shit, cash comes out of our asses!

There was a time I refused to enroll my Globe Telecom bill in an auto-debit scheme. There have been several occasions wherein I have been billed for calls I never made to God knows which country on this Earth or Mars, but for internet charges which are supposed to be free as it comes with my Platinum plan! And yes, my dear Globe, I do turn off the internet when I am roaming. And no, I do not accidentally turn it on. There is usually free wifi abroad anyway so why bother about turning my cellular data of my iPhone on?

I blog about this topic, to warn everyone of the potential hazard of auto-debitting your utilities. While some of the charges may be small in amount (and some of them extremely large), it's not a nice feeling to get these hidden or unauthorized charges in your bills. It's like thieves robbing you of your hard earned money. No matter, how you look at it, it is still a robbery! And it is a crime!

Someone must punish these erring merchants and shut down the business or pay damages to the customers who are inconvenienced. This is only fair to all. They should also fire the incompetent bastards who made a booboo or their bosses who authorized the illegal charges made.

While technology has provided us massive ease in settling bills via a supposedly hassle-free environment, with matching perks to boot, it has also been the very core of cheating and stealing by large companies in connivance with banking institutions.

Be wary, Beware, and Be Careful! Even your next door banking neighbor can be a wolf in sheep's clothing!

The Twitters

I have nothing against social networking. And while I use Facebook or Twitter, I think that some people have just taken this social networking thing to the extreme.

There is no exact defining principle on how to use social networking. You can Twit the whole day or just look at your Facebook site and keep posting non-sensical things for all I care. After all, some of your friends may be actually interested in what you're doing or what you have to say. That is, if you're really someone popular or worth "following".

I've noticed lately, how some people use their Twitter account to "update" people on each and every step of what they are doing and where they are. While Twitter encourages people or friends to "follow you", it doesn't literally mean that you're followed all the way to the bathroom or to the gas station!

I'll give you an example of a Twit for the day (this is an actual Twit timeline):

24 hrs ago - Good morning! @DeepakChopra: Encourage unity, discourage divisions
24 hrs ago - I'm at ______________________ (Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City)
24 hrs ago - I knew I left something! My water bottle! :-(
17 hrs ago - Hangdami lang patients today! Waaahhh
16 hrs ago - I look so haggard already. I'm wearing my best yet surmounted by the amount of patient & d'type of cases. Anobamerontoday? World Clinic Day?
14 hrs ago - Ok since a good friend tweeted about it already, let me announce that I'll be at @dj______________ podcast tonight. Stay tuned!:)
13 hrs ago - I'm at Shell (Kamias Road cor Kasing-Kasing St. Quezon City)
12 hrs ago - I'm at Starbucks (Ground Level, Easton Place, Valero St. cor VA Rufino St. Salcedo Village, Makati City)
12 hrs ago - Didn't get lost. Luckily. Thanks to those who helped me with directions stuff. :-))
11 hrs ago - I'm at Easton Place (Valero, Herrera, Makati)
11 hrs ago - So I'm here!!!! Will start in a few minute... :-)
11 hrs ago - Finally here guys! We're ready to start!
11 hrs ago - I'm at @dj_______________ podcast tonight! Love/Sex/Life probs? Call us! 659-6969
11 hrs ago - RT @mnelizedMD: Watch gwapong-gwapo Dr._____ on GTWM now!!! LOL.
10 hrs ago - We're accepting questions! Call us!
10 hrs ago - That caller sounds like Maria Ozawa. No offense. Hahaha. :))
9 hrs ago - Love/Sex/Life probs? We're accepting more calls with @dj___________ podcast tonight! Call us! 659-6969
9 hrs ago - We're giving away a cellphone! :-)
9 hrs ago - Really had fun with GTWM podcast crew! Waaah! Owell. :-) heading home now
8 hrs ago - Home! I love EDSA traffic during this time/ :-)
8 hrs ago - Oh wow. Now I believe it's really her.
8 hrs ago - Thanks to @dj__________ and @GTWMPodcast crew for the opportunity! I really had fun! TC guys! Gnyt!:)
8 hrs ago - There were a lot of unexpected things that happened today! From the _____ to podcasting...Gosh! thank good Lord for today. Gnyt tweeps!


I thought the guy was going to sleep already and was almost grateful that his narration of his life for the day was about to end....

7 hrs ago - Here's the link about tonight's show.
6 hrs ago - I can very much hear the brother @_______ in the other room listening to the podcast...He missed the show so he'll sleep late for it.

And finally, he went to bed....And I clicked on "Unfollow" because it was getting to be irritating already.

For my readers information, I actually deleted some of the tweets in between because it was getting to be a bore.

Like I said, there is nothing wrong with using social networking, but this is an example of how some tweets can get to the extreme! The interaction between the twitter tapping in wild abandon on trying to update people on where you are, what you're doing, what's going on in your life is left to the fab and famous. We cannot create what we're not. Some people just need to get a life!

And it's sad that some people are simply preoccupied with trying to look famous (image making) than to make a life.

Added to that fact is providing more information than what your followers need to know creates a scenario where you're probably looking for trouble. When parents don't know what their kids are doing or are risking themselves especially when exposing too much of themselves in an attempt of trying to create an image. Parents are the last to know when their kids get in trouble because of a senseless random act of being socially carefree.

Take home message is to use the social network responsibly. And while we are personally responsible for what goes on in our lives, we need to utilize social networking sites to promote the better good rather than the interest of one.

[My apologies to the twitter whose twits was used. For your information, it gets a bit irritating when I'm online as well and my phone just keeps alarming each time I get a Twit message that's non-informative.]