1945.

There's nothing special about that year for me personally, I just happen to see it in an article I was reading. It made me think, it's 2011 now. Very random, right? It then brought me back to imagine what life must be like then, without the aid of technology we all enjoy now. And sadly, we can't live without at times, and I'm guilty of that as well.

I remember my "massage nights" with my Mom (read: me massaging her. Haha!) and while I don't exactly look forward to slaving the night away, I was always excited because it meant bonding and story-telling moments with her. We'd talk about her love life, "funny" ex-boyfriends, friends, school, and the most basic of girl talk. But what I enjoy the most, aside from the hilarious terms she used to describe her exes, are her childhood memories of  her life in the island of Marinduque, where everyone seems to know everyone and community activities are in abundance and attended by most families in town. I would beam at hearing her describe their make-shift toys from seashells and whatnot, the games they played, adolescence years, singing and dance contests she and her friends competed in, funny sister stories, and basically everything under the sun. Those were good times that seem to scream simplicity and joy. I've had my own share of memories in that town which are centered mostly in the swimming pool, playmates, clubhouse, makahiya plants (I was so amazed to see the plant close its leaves at the slightest touch), and the playground. And yes, I would use the same words to describe the first three to four years of my life I spent there.

Hearing these stories, I would look at my life in the city and be a bit saddened that I am almost always cooped up inside the house, afraid of strangers lurking about. I did enjoy school though as there I had friends I always hang out with. But still, a little part of me longed to be able to go out without fear and have neighbor playmates, and enjoy community curricular activities like the ones my Mom had. As a 90's kid, pastimes include watching cartoons (remember Remi, Ceddie, Cinderella, Heidi, Little Women, Mary And The Secret Garden?), going to the mall for some eats and movies, and reading books. Most playmates at home are fictional, the characters from the books I've read and cartoons I've watched.

While I know some of these simple activities are not totally lost in time, they sure have evolved into something more virtual. Games and activities now require a gadget or an internet connection to enjoy and mostly everyone owns a mobile phone. Simple cellphones are now even in the danger of extinction as we were introduced to smart phones. And of course, the idea of a phone's purpose not limited to talking and texting was most appealing and thus, well bought. I mean, being able to surf the internet, check your email, watch video, listen to music, and play games at a press of a button - what's not to love right? While we thought that was it, Apple had a multimillion idea, taking the "with a touch of your fingertips" idea literally and transforming it to what we now know as iTouch and iPhones. "Apps" are now what we depend on to help us what we need or to just pass the time. Internet, of course, is not far behind, with Google monopolizing the industry enough for us to coin the term, "Google it" to find information on anything we need to know. Anything. Internet has produced stars out of YouTube videos and bloggers, and created a whole new industry to supply to its growing needs, the online marketing where keywords and pay-per-click advertising matter as much as three meals a day.

Whew! That's a whole lot to take in right? But it doesn't end there.

For us not to lose "socializing skills," the genius by the name of Mark Zuckerberg invented Facebook; Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Evan Williams, and Biz Stone together put up Twitter; and Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai joined heads to create Foursquare. Everyone's now entitled to their own opinion in their very own personal space free of charge in the blogosphere world of Wordpress, Blogspot, Live Journal, Tumblr, to name a few. Photography is now almost everyone's hobby with the help of DSLRs and online sharing sites like Flickr and Photobucket. Instant messaging and video chatting through yahoo messenger and Skype have now made it so easy to connect to someone from across the globe. Online shopping and bidding made possible by Ebay and Amazon. Online social networking at its finest - everyone's now connected and always updated with news from around the world. Wow. Oh my gosh. We can all go on and on about these changes as we're all witnesses to these. It is so easy drown in them, right? It's so easy to be dependent 'cause they offer the ultimate convenience in our fingertips. All these within a span of what, 10 years? Wow, right? I mean, didn't we all use to rely on 3.5 floppy diskettes before to save up our reports and homeworks? Lol.

But what I love about these is that they don't only offer convenience and entertainment, but also knowledge. With the news sites taking to twitter to share their news, we're all informed of what news-worthy events are happening in other countries. History and vast information are at our beck and call should we want it. Everyone now has the chance to be creative and showcase their creativity in different platforms. People could become knowledgeable should they know how to utilize the different platforms technology has offered for us to use for our pleasure.

It seems the possibilities are endless.

For that, I shudder to to think what the coming years would bring, what new knowledge and technology people are going to come up with. Technology has become so far advanced in as little as a decade. What can 10, 20, 50 years bring? I cannot even wrap my head around the thought. The future technology might not come as a surprise at that time as everything evolves in an orderly manner, but if we compare it to what we have now, we might just get amazed.

I don't know for you, but if God-willing, I'd like to be there in 50 years time to see what has changed. And hopefully still sane enough to understand it all. ☺

And After Three Months...

... I'm back! I know I've said a number of times already that I'd be diligent in updating this blog but hey, I've got a life to live, and it has been crazy busy... in a good way. :) Thus, I've succumbed to micro-blogging that is Twitter and also started writing my innermost thoughts in a private journal. Not that my thoughts will harm anyone, mostly just my pride (haha), but it isn't wise to put all our thoughts out there in public, right?

A lot has happened in the past three months or so that I've been up and down so many times I lost count. March has come and brought in a bit of a good time, only to be taken away by the start of my birth month, April. I think I've had the worst April Fools in my life. So it wasn't that much of a good start and I've only dreaded the days to come as I near my 20-something birthday. April to the early part of June were spent trying to reprogram my life back to what was normal to me before, but a BIGGER part of it was spent cheering for the Vancouver Canucks! Yeah! (I don't wanna dwell on past aches anymore, so, on to the good parts!)

Anyone following me on twitter would have been (but I hope not) sick of my constant tweets about the Canucks, game day or not. Of course, it increases ten-fold if it's a great game and we're winning! Lol! I've had the pleasure of watching the Canucks' every step towards the Stanley Cup Championship Game. They made it! And all of VanCity was only too happy, for the third time, we went as far as be in the very deciding game. They say third time's a charm right? So all our hopes were so high up and almost everyone's favorite hockey team was suddenly the Canucks! Unfortunately, that saying didn't apply to us. We lost to a great team. It was heartbreaking and didn't feel at all like how a Stanley Cup Final Game 7 should be, with how the game was so against us, and in our own arena too. But oh well, that's how it goes, there's only one winner, and sadly, it wasn't the Canucks.

Moving on (I was sad for a while because of the loss), I decided that it is time. It is high time for me to get out there on my own, yep, I moved out! Yay me! Hahaha! So between watching the Canucks kick the puck's arse to the goal, and working mine off, I was stressing out over finding the best apartment. And oh my gosh did I stress out over that! I've literally had a few sleepless nights worrying over finding the right place and I was always on craigslist, checking if new apartments had been listed. I prayed about this so much like my life depended on it. And because God is so awesomely amazing, He gave me the perfect apartment! The rent's such a good deal too because it includes everything already, plus my landlords seem nice people. :) So, thank you Father God, all the glory to you! =D

Lookie here, some photos of my new place! It's so cute and neat, I ♥ it!

Isn't she lovely? Teehee. ^‿^