Inspired by Guy Fawkes Night commemorated every year primarily in Great Britain, and brought into the spotlight in the movie V for Vendetta — Anonymous group vows to ‘destroy’ Facebook on Saturday, November 5th, 2011. How they are going to do it and will they succeed? I can not wait to find out!

I have not been active on Facebook at all until I got myself a smart phone with unlimited internet access and easy social network connect capabilities, now it is almost impossible NOT to be on it all the time! I would probably be secretly happy if they could in fact take down Facebook, DELETE it’s entire database!! That’s what I’d like. If only they could hack the social network even for a few hours, enough to remove forever its content then all users could start over. A clean slate!! Who wouldn’t want that?! It’ll give everyone an excuse to ‘unfriend’ and ‘unlike’ people and things forever!

Partial transcript of the video:

Attention Citizens of the World,

We are Anonymous. We wish to get your attention hoping you heed the warnings as follows. Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you’re a willing activist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill Facebook for the sake of your own privacy. Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so they can spy on people from all around the world.

#opfacebook . Engaged.

This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.

We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive
We do not forget
Expect us

Who are these people hiding behind masks?

According to good ol’ reliable Wikipedia: Anonymous (used as a mass noun) is a group initiating active civil disobedience and spread through the Internet while staying hidden, originating in 2003 on the imageboard 4chan, representing the concept of many online community users simultaneously existing as an anarchic, digitized global brain. It is also generally considered to be a blanket term for members of certain Internet subcultures, a way to refer to the actions of people in an environment where their actual identities are not known.

Anonymous have taken down websites representing banks, religions, and governments. What or who could stop them from stopping the social giant Facebook?

Go Ahead, share this news on your Facebook wall! Doesn’t that sound odd?! LOL.

I don’t usually fall into the “tourist trap” these stores are luring tourists into. I almost never buy anything, just window shop, take photos and play with their items!! Majority of the items sold are things you have totally no use for after buying them. Like these hats, what do you do with them and where do you wear them when you’re not at a theme park??! They’re not cheap either! Hats like these range from $30 to $50.00! How often do you go to a theme park to wear one and would you wear the same hat over and over?! I don’t think so. Unless you collect hats, these huge hats are totally useless. Then again it was a lot of FUN trying them on at that time…

Viva Mexico!

Another way of wearing it…

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“Hope is necessary in every condition. The miseries of poverty, sickness and captivity would, without this comfort, be insupportable.”

- Samuel Johnson

Happiness is relative.

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Filipinos in general are among the happiest in Asia. In general studies on poverty in the Philippines, one thing strikes researchers. They claim that the Filipino poor are among the happiest people in Asia if not the world as well. Living a huge part of my life in the Philippines, I’ve seen the worst of human conditions and it is disheartening and devastating. Yet mingling with the so-called poorest of the poor, you don’t see one bit of bitterness or anger in their eyes. They are happy.

Unexplainable as it is, I think that HOPE plays a huge part of it. Dictionary defines hope as “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best,”  “to believe, to desire and to trust.” The poor put their hope, faith and trust to each other, to other people, to the government and to God.

I must admit I have opposing feelings toward the poor in general because some of them are that way because they are simply lazy. All they want are dole outs. Teach them to fish and they ignore you. They just want the fish period. Most of them are drunks and gamblers who force their kids to work in the streets, take the money to buy alcohol and drugs and gamble. As though that’s not enough, they beat the heck out of these kids for fun!

Street kids and me | Outside the biggest public market in General Santos City, Philippines | March 2008

Then there are exceptions.

Most of the Philippines’ highly successful entrepreneurs are self-made men and women born in poverty, with hope in their eyes;  from very humble beginnings who rise up above the ordinary. There’s so much hope in that. Hope for the poor. Hope may just be an empty word for those who lost it, but to those who have it- it is everything and it makes all the difference. And I see them- hope, in the eyes of these kids…

You must have perfected the art of digital photography by now. You are adept in operating a digital camera, you can probably punch into the settings and menus with your eyes closed! I know I can (well, maybe half-closed). I am attached to my digital camera in as much as I am to my laptop. I never go out without a camera on my purse. I could leave home without a cellphone but never without a digital camera!

But what happens if you are handed a disposable camera? You remember those. You know, that kind where you wind up the wheel on the upper right corner and peek into this tiny window as you point and snap to take a picture at the same time you are pressing on that flash button on the front of the camera. That kind.

I bet that will be a real challenge! Well, are you up for it?

When I seriously started blogging two years ago, I have this nagging idea of finding a way to interact with others but couldn’t figure out exactly how. Until recently when everything just sort of fell into place. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I had to just take action and put it into a whole new website (like I need another one, huh)!

On December 5th, onephotoproject.com is born.

If you only have one photo to take when a camera is handed to you, what would you take? Are you going to shoot randomly or think hard?

A traveling one-time use camera is sent out to the world and asks people it meets to take ONE PHOTO of any thing, any event, or of any one that triggers interest, inspires, disgusts them at that particular first chanced meeting with the camera.

Wanting to connect with people more than the internet has been the motivation for this project. To be able to interact with different people in different places utilizing something tangible, one that can be touched and leave a mark for the world to see is the inspiration.

Out of sheer curiosity, check out a latest project I am collaborating with my youngest sister. Learn more on how you can be part of it. See you at the other side!

Breakfast “Hawaiian Style”

Have you ever had rice for breakfast? If you’re of Asian descent, the answer would be a resounding YES! Add, “yeah, what kind of a question is that?! Of course I have had rice for breakfast! Lots of times…” Ok, pardon the question but living in America, I am still getting baffled looks from Westerners who think I’m strange and some kind of a weirdo for eating my bacon, sausage or eggs with RICE for breakfast! They can’t imagine it!!

Well, we Filipinos are huge rice eaters! In the Philippines, we would eat rice in every meal! Even eat rice with anything “fried” as midnight snack! I can not survive without rice. I go crazy when I go without rice for a couple of days! If our house burns down, I swear I’d save my laptop, digital camera and my rice cooker!

Spam, Rice and eggs + Coffee = $6.99

Mcdonald’s. Kuhio Highway. Lihue. Hawaii.

October 2008

I have never, ever seen rice being served anywhere for breakfast (or anytime) in the US- unless it is an Asian fast food or restaurant. Imagine my surprise and joy to find out that rice is almost like a staple in Hawaii!! Everywhere we went, you could order rice!! It wasn’t a special order or anything, it was part of the menu! Rice at Mcdonald’s, seriously what a treat!!

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Kalapaki Beach Hut. Kuhio Highway. Lihue. Hawaii

Kalapaki #2: two eggs with bacon and rice = $5.95

OR Kalapaki #2: two eggs with Portuguese sausage and hashbrowns= BORING!

Kalapaki #2: two eggs with Portuguese sausage and RICE= RIGHT ON!

If you’ve never had rice for breakfast, try it sometime! You’ll see we breakfast rice-eaters aren’t so strange or weird after all…

Mahalo (Thank you), come again!

met.al: [met-l] noun, verb, -aled, -al.ing or (especially British) -alled, -al.ling. –noun

1. any of a class of elementary substances, as gold, silver, or copper, all of which are crystalline when solid and many of which are characterized by opacity, ductility, conductivity, and a unique luster when freshly fractured.

“You see metals every day. Aluminum foil is a metal. Gold and silver are metals. If someone asks you whether an element is a metal, metalloid, or non-metal and you don’t know the answer, guess that it’s a metal.”

I chose Chemistry 101 for this week’s theme, that of the purest state of metals categorized under the periodic table of elements. Anybody still remember this from Junior High? We had to memorize the entire table along with its atomic symbol, atomic number and its atomic mass- all 103 at that time (I think!). As of 2006, there are now 117 elements. Glad I’m past memorization and I can just google everything! Yay!

According to this photo:

“Chemical elements (comprising the metals and non-metals) are the building blocks of everything. The Sun and stars, the silicon chips in our computers, and all the cells in our bodies are collection of elements.”

It’s kinda hard to imagine that our bodies are made up of metals, isn’t it? It’s because when we think of metals- we think of hard objects, coins, copper, iron, tin, lead, nickel, cast irons, railroads, bridges, wires, sheet metals, brass, alloys, jewelries, gold and silver, etc!

What’s in our Bodies?

Calcium (Ca), Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Iron (Fe), Magnesium (Mg), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn) are just some of the major elements in the metals category found in our body and yes, even traces of Lithium (Li), Aluminum (Al), Silicon (Si) and Arsenic (As) in the metalloids category.

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Properties of Metals

“Metals share some common properties. They are lustrous (shiny), malleable (can be hammered), and are good conductors of heat and electricity. These properties result from the ability to easily move the electrons in the outer shells of metal atoms.”

What are the Metals?

“Most elements are metals. There are so many metals, they are divided into groups: alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, and transition metals. The transition metals can be divided into smaller groups, such as the lanthanides and actinides.”

Griffith Observatory . Los Angeles . California

September 2008

Whew, that was some lessons! If you want to refresh your memory some more on the elements, the quoted items and further readings are lifted from here.

By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.

- Confucius

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The current global economic crisis is a chain of events, primarily blamed on man’s dependency on foreign oil and the manufacturing companies’ dependency on petroleum for food production. Couple it with the mismanagement of creditors to lend money to people and businesses living beyond their means, which leads to more debts and not making enough money to pay the debts. In the end, all these contribute to foreclosures, bankruptcies, unemployment, high oil prices, high food prices, world wide inflation, and global crash or recession not necessarily in that order.

The United States regarded as a superpower based on its ability to influence the world in all respects, is the most hurt among nations. We wake up with the realization that there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow…

This sense of hopelessness and fear isn’t only felt domestically. What it means for the rest of the world is that they will most likely be in an even deeper mess if a superpower like America can in fact suffer the way it has. For most anti-US countries, it is a cause for rejoicing but whether other nations favor the United States or not, sooner or later what is happening to the US will have a domino effect to the rest of the world. It is only a matter of time.

Already, in a surprising twist of event, Iceland- a highly-developed country in Western Europe has announced national bankruptcy. How can that be? People declare bankruptcy, companies file for bankruptcy but a country? an entire country?!

For those who think China is the new superpower, think again. They are a Socialist Republic run by communists. They have strong censorship dictating people what they can and can’t read or know. No freedom of expression at all. They even ban certain websites from being accessed. Can you imagine that if you live in China, you can’t even access Youtube or Wikipedia?! They practically control how people live there.  Despite its huge economy, it’s not as strong as some might believe. They are as vulnerable as the next country especially when part of their economy is based on US manufacturing companies, outsourcing jobs in their country. These US companies have declining funds and they are shutting down plants abroad and closing stores domestically. China workers are suffering.

For the Philippines who rely hugely on overseas remittances, what is happening to the world around it most especially to the United States is utterly disconcerting. Last year, the 11 million strong overseas workers (that’s about 11% of the Philippine population!) sent $14 billion to pump the economy. There are 4 million expatriates from the US alone and about 2 million from the Middle East sending remittances, buying properties and creating businesses (=jobs) in the Philippines. This year while it is expected to remain the same, it is already forecasting a decline in 2009. Who knows how many of these 11 million overseas workers will be sent back home or will lose their jobs in the coming months?

While the US dependency on foreign oil is believed to be the major culprit of its economic fall, the Philippines’ major dependency on its biggest export- its human resources doesn’t seem to be a cause for concern at all for the government. In fact they even brag to the whole world that the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) are the lifeblood of the economy pumping those dollars to support the country’s stability and economy.

In short, thanking the overseas workers for NOT having have to lift a hand, for NOT having have to do their own laundry or wash their own dishes, for NOT getting their hands dirty, for NOT having have to sweat blood and tears because the overseas workers are doing it for them! They can be lazy on their jobs because they are getting huge financial support from overseas workers. They can continue with graft and corruption, the things they do best!

Oh as a consolation, they get to call us “modern-day heroes.” Did you hear about Pres. Gloria’s recent announcement that “From now on, call them Expats not OFWs!” She says further that “we should begin to call our overseas Filipinos expatriates because the nature of their job is increasingly more on skilled professions, and they should be called expatriates because expatriates usually get higher pay.” Huh, say that again Madam president?! Are you high?! OFW, Overseas workers, expatriates, slaves, servants- just semantics.

Seriously, that is not something to be proud about! It is a shame to say that your own countrymen are leaving the country of birth for greener pastures and opportunity. That is blatantly admitting that you the government, failed to protect your own people from poverty and unemployment and lack of better paying jobs! I would go back to the Philippines in a heart beat if I know I could survive there and live comfortably the way I can! The Philippines for all its inadequacy and destitution is a paradise to live in.

Does the government actually think we’re here abroad to enjoy the Grand Canyon or Disneyland or just enjoy the view at the Petronas towers where we can relish in the beaches of Boracay or Palawan or explore the rest of the 7,001 islands? We would not have to go to other nations and suffer if you the government can offer more decent jobs for us “expatriates.” This article shows how delusional President Arroyo is!

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