Where are you now at Angry Birds? I’m currently at level 2, getting addicted to it day by day that I have to make a conscious effort of limiting my play time to an hour at least. Last time I played, it took me 4 hours, which lasted up until midnight and a splitting headache the following day. Angry Birds is better played using a touch-screen pad (IPad’s, Tablet, etc.) while you’re in a traffic jam or taking a break from administering conference call services. A hundred times easier than hitting the laptop keyboard.

Anyway, let’s go stone and roast some pig.

Facebook has achieved everyone a demi-god status, being omniscient and all, but within your own network of course. It is not the typical response to breakdown service report, or a hacking issue. It’s already beyond that.

What threat does it post to us users? Technically, with the new Facebook interface, we were automatically subscribed to follow everyone’s move. Like what Twitter does. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a celebrity or not, but somehow you lose whatever is left of your online private life. Facebook has simply exposed us to people we do not know.

Now that I have achieved that typical zen through my unconventional means (sleeping and going internet-less), I was reminded of the meeting I had with a mall marketing person about the degree she was getting online. It was an online course in Digital Marketing being run by Ateneo Center of Continuing Education and IMMAP. Since I’ve been like online for more than a decade, managing 4 blogs in my very limited free time, not to mention supervising all digital marketing initiatives at work, I think I should take this course. It’s the new media and the future will be built on the wires. And it’s Ateneo (yeah, the dream school with quality and price tags to it). So why the heck not be an EXPERT on these matters than be content doing regular tech jobs? Companies pay for big ideas…and names.

Here’s the catch: The fall-off-your-seat price is around P6,500 per course. To complete all 11 digital courses, you have to pay P65,000. That would certainly kill any vacation plans abroad. No Singapore this year.

GMA7 News created a Facebook page for EDSA, including profiles of known personalities of that time:

Cory created an invitation to Ninoy’s funeral. Over a million members confirmed their attendance.

Former General Fabian Ver’s wall post:

Gringo Honasan’s Fan Page:

People were actually questioning Time’s choice, as many put much credit on Assange’s contribution to solving press censorship. While Zuckerberg has managed to connect almost half a billion of people in the planet, and earned billions from it, Assange rocked governments with the release of various classified information that could either make or break international relations.

They are two people from different backgrounds. Zuckerberg is a Harvard tech guy who at a young age managed to create a name for himself quite on a positive note. Assange’s younger years were defined by constant movements – schooled in various locations, lived in different places and is constantly under the watch of Swedish and American federal authorities. He has been known as a programmer and computer hacker, and lately as an internet activist known to have founded WikiLeaks.

Zuckerberg appears to be a less complicated choice. His work has affected the lives of millions of people who are now connected with a click, not to mention everything about him looks promising like a lifetime laptop warranty. But how does it compare to the battles of Assange: his stand for press freedom and truth?

Anyway, that saves me from the tremendous headache I would normally get from building a website from the scratch. Not to mention that my Dreamweaver has gone pretty rusty these days because of sheer lack of practice. Having a Shroggle could definitely save my day from further complications. So I might try it next week and see what it can do.

Maybe you have seen the Facebook page called “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” with over 100,000 members since it first went online in May 20th. Its creator, Molly Norris, a cartoonist from Seattle, got her inspiration from the news of South Park show producers receiving a death threat from a radical Muslim group after the show censored one of its episodes. That particular episode depicted the prophet Mohammed in a bear suit.

And as of today, Norris has become a prime target of assassination by an Al Qaeda group. FBI had to warn her that a death sentence has already been issued by a Muslim cleric. She apparently struck an artery and its about to burst on her.

The Facebook page has been pulled out and Norris issued an explanation in her website (which is currently down too):

“I make cartoons about current, cultural events. I made a cartoon of a ‘poster’ entitled “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” with a nonexistent group’s name — Citizens Against Citizens Against Humor — drawn on the cartoon also. I did not intend for my cartoon to go viral. I did not intend to be the focus of any ‘group’. I practice the first amendment by drawing what I wish. This particular cartoon of a ‘poster’ seems to have struck a gigantic nerve, something I was totally unprepared for. I am going back to the drawing table now!”

The moral of the story is about respecting people no matter what they believe in.

Having experienced the trauma of having an ex-wife who cheated on him through Facebook, Ken Savage created his own website called FacebookCheating.com. The website provides stories of cheating spouses, tips on how to spot an growing affair, internet dating, Facebook stalking, and all other things you can think of that relate to online cheating.

In a recent survey on 5000 lawyers, 20% of their divorce cases mentioned Facebook. That’s a lot.

I find this one not just funny but true. Maybe Hallmark should have these satirical lines on their cardboard displays.

Here’s the question to ordinary techie Juan: Just how powerful have you become these days that you can even unseat a president with just a tweet?

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s president, certainly knew about this so he tried both diplomatic and torturous ways. He put up his own blog five to six years ago where he recounted his sad life to the public. While it was an obvious publicity stunt to endear him to people, he couldn’t simply fool them. What he did in public contradicted the kind of show he was putting up. He had cyberdogs snooping around for anti-Mahmoud sentiments on the Internet.

To date, there are around 700,000 Persian bloggers in Iran. They have become the third largest blogging community after the United States and China. A vast majority of them are kept under the careful watch of the Iranian government. Persian journalists and bloggers whose unfavorable views towards the government have been hunted down and sent to prison. Those who luckily survived the crackdown managed to escape to other countries and continued to chronicle their horrible experiences in their blogs that earned them public sympathy and their government outrage.

China’s situation is no different. The government has been censoring search results in Google that have something to do with the Tiananmen Square massacre photos; news networks like BBC and New York Times; Facebook and Twitter access; and keywords “Tiananmen”, “democracy” and “human rights”. On the page result, you’ll find this: “According to local laws, regulations and policies, part of the searching result is not shown.”

Indeed, the battle for freedom these days no longer necessarily means sending in troops and nuking people. It has taken itself into a different level with the use of the social media allowing people to connect in a viral fashion, render damage to an aggressor with just a click and finally secure justice.

But this famous virtual farm game earned the title as one of the 50 worst inventions compiled by Time. Honestly, virtual farmers thought there was nothing wrong with plowing our own lands, planting crops and raising chickens. To people who have been chained to their computers all day, Farmville becomes a form of relaxation which is as easy as popping a slimming pill without the need for an exercise. But the bad news is some offices have banned Facebook from their servers to curb the growing appetite for “farming” and give these “farmers” their own dose of reality.

Time sees Farmville as “a series of mindless chores on a digital farm, requiring the endless clicking of a mouse to plant and harvest crops.”

Let’s try Cafe World then.