Today, my mom reminded me that it’s been thirteen years since I started my blog on Angelfire. I was ten then and I am twenty-three now, and while blog may have changed URLs and platforms over the years, I never really stopped putting my life on the Internet for all sorts of normal and creepy people to read. The fact that I started my blog when most people didn’t know what the Internet is and kept my blog for this long makes me the “first Filipino blogger”. Flattering as that might be, I’m going to be honest here – I still don’t see why people make such a big deal out of it. I feel awkward whenever people introduce me as such because the title carries so much weight and makes me seem more important than I really am. The truth is that I haven’t done a single thing to shape blogging into the way it is today. I never encouraged other people to start their own blogs, nor did I help foster the sense of community now present in the local blogosphere. In fact, I resisted my mom’s early attempts to introduce me to local bloggers when Abe and Jayvee started organizing meet-ups in 2007, not to mention I viewed the increasing use of blogs as an advertising platform with the disdain and disappointment of my youthful idealism. This blog isn’t even particularly relevant – just the collected apolitical ramblings and interests of a Filipino girl in the age of the Internet. You know those teenage girls on Tumblr who post all these pretty but useless nothings? That was me, thirteen years ago, and still me to some extent.
I was an ugly child at 10
Part of the reason why I very rarely ever write in here anymore is that too many people know who I am and know where to find this blog. As I mentioned earlier, I started keeping a personal blog when hardly anyone in the Philippines knew what the Internet was. My blog used to be my haven from our conservative, family-oriented society during the height of my teenage angst. Thirteen years later, everyone and their mother is on the Internet, which means I can’t be as open about who I am anymore. While I still don’t give a shit about what people think of me, I do care about what people think of my mom, and I don’t want her critics to use my unusual interests as ammunition against her.
I suppose that’s the most important lesson I learned after keeping a blog for so long: don’t get too personal. Keeping an impersonal personal blog seems to defeat the purpose of personal blogging, but unless you can manage to keep yourself truly anonymous, be your own censor. If you’re a fiery person with not so “normal” interests, keep your blog PG, because there are people out there who will use your blog to hurt you or someone you love.
So yeah, I learned a bunch of other things too!
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I have a bad habit of starting new blogs and abandoning them after I’ve made ten posts, but my new project is something I’m passionate about. Nope, this new blog has nothing to do with politics or theory – which is not to say that it isn’t politically motivated.
Welcome to Ukay Manila, a fashion blog where I post my favorite ukay finds from my favorite ukay stores. It’s a couple of days old and I’ve already made three or four entries, but I doubt that I’ll run out of things to write about because ukay-ukay is a very important part of my consumer lifestyle. Around 60-70% of my clothes are ukay-bought because I usually buy a couple of pieces every week; I rarely ever do my shopping at malls these days and I’d like to keep it that way.
Non-Filipino readers of my blog are probably wondering what ukay-ukay means and why I say this blog is “politically motivated”. I wrote a short introductory post on ukay-ukay to kind of contextualize the blog and I hope it makes some sort of sense.
The Bloggers’ Choice Award of the Philippine Blog Awards is the only award given to a blog chosen by a bloggers’ votes. Apparently, the only way for your vote to count is for you to blog about it. Gah, I hate making things like these public knowledge but since there’s no way to go around it, I’ve cast my vote and my vote goes to….
MIKE VILLAR, RISING INTERNET STAR
(the same guy who brought you The Atrocities of Friendster series) *
I’m not voting for him because he’s my friend (to be perfectly honest, I rarely ever read my friends’ blogs). I’m not voting for him because his blog is “useful”, “educational”, “inspirational”, or “socially relevant” either (though his blog is hardly any of those things, I have to admit that a quick visit makes me feel a little bit better about my life and myself). Mike’s blog recounts a life of debauchery, girlfriend problems, anxiety attacks, and hangovers. This guy has some serious issues, both real and imagined, and that’s exactly why I love reading what he writes.
In an age where content is dominated more by the promotion of consumer goods than personal insight about life, Mike’s blog is one of the very few out there that retains the voyeuristic appeal of a personal blog. He rarely, if ever at all, writes about where he has his dinner, where he buys his polos, or the latest gadget he acquired (mostly because he’s always broke. Every time The Man Blog people go out for drinks, we have to pay for his beer). Instead, he shares with us the pains of daily living, mid-life crisis angst, his thoughts on Things That Matter. Mike’s blog is of a rare and dying sort.
Besides the content, what makes Mike’s blog superior to most (at least, in my opinion) is the quality of his writing. His entries are cleverly framed, appropriately paced, and contains a balanced mix of wit, sarcasm, crass sexual references, and irony. The best thing about Mike’s blog, however, is that it is funny. A lot of writing that contains self-deprecating humor still comes off as whiny because the joke just doesn’t quite hit its mark. Besides, you can kind of tell when the humor is employed to try to disguise the author’s true whiny bitch self. Mike’s blog isn’t like that at all. His self-deprecation is intelligent and effortless, and it works because you end up loving him for his flaws, in a really-cute-but-mangy-puppy-stuck-in-the-rain kind of way.
Oh, and I take back what I said about his blog being socially irrelevant. Every now and then, he does address important social issues, like substance abuse. Let me end this post with an excerpt from one of my favorite entries, A Post to Appease My Young Readers’ Parents (AKA the Fuck You Post).
Take it from someone who’s been sober and clean for over a year now (lie. I meant 2 days): a life of alcohol and drugs is nothing but one big clusterfuck. If you’re someone who hasn’t fucked with this shit before and intend to do so because you read on a rising internet star’s diary how totally boss is and how it makes you look cool and more fuckable in the eyes of the opposite sex; DON’T. Some of the drugs I’ve tried aren’t cool if you smoke too few or snort fewer than 5 lines, and if you get the low grade shit they sell in the side streets of Commonwealth avenue, it’s not worth it.
More importantly, if you’re an overweight, stressed 26 year old whose heart feels like it’s going to explode every time you engage yourself in physical activities that last longer than 3 minutes then you really REALLY should not fuck around with alcohol and drugs. If you do, you’re going to have a crazy, awkward night when you decide to drive yourself to a hospital emergency room at 2am on a Monday because you could’ve sworn you lost your hearing and part of your vision and think you’re going about to get a stroke and have the following conversation with the attending physician:
Physician: Sir, are you certain you’re having a stroke? Does your family have a history of heart disease or hypertension?
You: “Yes and yes”
Physician: “Have you done any drugs in the last 4 hours?”
You: [feigning a facial expression that looks somewhat offended] “What?! NO! OF COURSE NOT!”
Physician: [Suspicious. Taking notes] “Are you certain sir?”
You: [Raising hands in the sheer “ridiculousness” of it all] “Of course I’m certain! Why are you asking me all these questions?”
Physician: “So, if I were to collect urine from you and run a drug test on it, the results would be negative right?”
You: [Realizing that the game is over] “Well–you know what? You’re right. I’m high as a kite. You’re not like required to call the police or anything are you?”
Physician: “No, but I suggest you call a relative to pick you up. I don’t think you’re fit to drive.”
You: “Okay, let me call King Arthur”
* Disclaimer: Mike paid me to vote for him, and I needed the money.**
** Just kidding. He didn’t pay me to do this. Really.
The Philippine Blog Awards is sponsored by:
Level Up! Games
Nokia
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Buddy Gancencia Reality TV
Ultravision Photo and Video
Click Booth
Aloha Board Sports
Sheero Media Solutions
YourPinoyBroker.com
Belo Medical Group
Inquirer.Net
Toshiba
ROAM Magazine
PLDT
Red Box
Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf
