Has It Been That Long?

Wow, I never thought I have been away that long! A three-month absence? I have been trying out some services (quite a lot of them, actually) to see whether Blogger still has an edge over the new services that have been cropping up ever since the RatherGate Scandal. I actually set up a Make My Day blog site at BlogSome, a service that runs on WordPress MultiUser. I also tried a Strayhorn service at Gnuker and found that it was quite wonderful, especially since the webmaster is so helpful and considerate. However, I still find Blogger.Com up by several notches over these new services. With Blogger's partnership with Google and a host of other services, I think the best service is still offered here. Perhaps in a few more years when the other services mature, they can give Blogger a run for its money. But until then, it would be wise to remain with Blogger and get as much exposure for your blogs with it.

Testing Hello

Just testing Hello with a picture of me actually blogging. This is the second test since the first one didn't come out well.

Hmmm. Looks like Google has come up with a lot of improvements on Blogger. With Picasa, Hello and Photobucket partnerships, remote blogging has become a possibility. This is definitely a big plus to be considered. MSN's Spaces may have the facility for a photo gallery, but Blogger offers a lot by way of Photo Blogging, apart from the professional looking templates it employs.

Myself at Forty Three

More about my birthday celebration here

My Birthday Is Coming Up

My birthday is coming up. Tomorrow, I turn forty-three. I must tell you that ever since I turned forty, everything has become more interesting. I am still waiting for the moment when my mid-life crisis hits me though. Or has it hit me but I just didn't notice it?

To The Beat of the Drums

Cebu and Panay will be celebrating their Sto. Niño festivities this month of January. But while the Augustinian friars will try to remind their flocks that the feast of Sto. Niño is a celebration of the Christianization of the Philippines and of the responsibility of making their faith grow in faith and obedience, the Mardi Gras atmosphere will just stifle their voices. The Santo Niño festivities is no longer a religious festival, it has been reduced to a mere tourist attraction.

So dance, Pedro and Clara,
to the beat of the drums;
to the rhythm of your pagan ancestors.
Hold up high the image
of the red-gowned child and shout "Pit Senyor."
But don't think you are like David
dancing before the ark.
For David didn't dance to an idol
but he danced for His God.
To dance before an idol,
is to dance without piety.

LiveJournal Bought By Six Apart

LiveJournal is now a subdivision of Six Apart, the maker of Movable Type and TypePad.

Six Apart, makers of the highly acclaimed Movable Type publishing platform and TypePad personal weblogging service, today announced that it has acquired Danga Interactive, Inc., the operators of the popular service LiveJournal, for an undisclosed amount of stock and cash. With the acquisition, Six Apart solidifies its position as the industry's recognized leader in weblogging software across all markets, and LiveJournal can continue its rapid growth trajectory under Six Apart's umbrella. As of today, the combined user base of both companies exceeds 6.5 million users, with thousands more added daily.

The acquisition, however, will not affect how LiveJournal operates.

As part of Six Apart, LiveJournal will continue to operate as a separate division and will continue to foster an active community around the globe. Brad Fitzpatrick, Danga's founder, president and lead developer, will join Six Apart as the company's chief architect, extending his proven skills in scaling large services to the rest of Six Apart's products. The Danga staff will remain dedicated to LiveJournal and Six Apart expects the staff to grow as it invests in the service. LiveJournal will continue to distribute a large portion of its software under various open source licenses. Six Apart intends to invest in the LiveJournal software, which will remain separate from Six Apart's Movable Type and TypePad products, with dedicated engineering and support teams for each product.

There is however something that bothers me about this: Will LiveJournal's program script continue to be available to other programmers?

Make My Day

"Make My Day" was Dirty Harry's characteristic quote. To whomever he said it, it was an invitation to get hurt. In the context of these blogs, "Make My Day" is an invitation for discussion. I'd like to learn; and I'd be happy to learn from you. I am not a blogger; I am just one of those who are enthusiastic about the possibilities of keeping one's own weblog. I used to keep a "thought" journal but circumstances have changed and I now find myself more and more logged into the web than seated at my writing desk. I was hoping to keep this blog as a kind of annotated clipbook for the things I find on the web.

The way I see it, weblogging is a kind of "show-and-tell" activity. One finds something on the web, make notes about it, and tells others about it. This, at least, was the way weblogs originated, although teenagers have turned it into an online diary and news reporters have carried it a step further by posting their news reports through a blog application. (It is more convenient that way, I think, instead of writing it on a desk and submitting it afterwards. For a news reporter, blogging only requires an internet connection and a publishing utility.) Whether done by a web dweller, journalist, news reporter or a teenager blogging will always require links. And this is what I'd like to do, for now: read, comment, link and post.