Like all of my blogging hiatuses in the past, my last one, too, has it's own reason. But this time it's not the usual suspect, that is the "I'm busy with my work lately" line, that most of us lazy bloggers often use for an excuse. It's not even blogger's block; I have in my computer a number of unposted "blurbs" that would have been space-fillers in times that I feel too lazy to login to my blogger account but have something to say.

The reason, as you might guess (based on the title alone), was my addiction to Twitter. And in part, to a twitter client named Twinkle.

For those people who might not have an idea about twitter, I'll try my best to grossly oversimplify the damn thing. Twitter is a social networking and "micro-blogging" service that allows its users to send and read other users' posts or updates known as tweets which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

If we break it down to bits, Twitter is a social networking service, much like Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, etc., in that you'll get to know other people of same interest. I started using twitter when Dubai's internet governing body, the Telecoms Regulatory Authority decided to unblock sites that was initially thought as "inappropriate" with the UAE's policies. Twitter, among other popular social networking sites were unblocked. After registering to twitter and logged in I was greeted by a white box that reads "What are you doing?" and there I wrote something about the weather in Dubai which is pretty much meh to some but apparently interesting to people that uses twitter here in the Dubai. In twitterworld, if you're interested in what the other person is saying or going to say, you "follow" them by simply clicking the follow button under their names. In doing so, every time they post a tweet, you'll read it and be updated with what that person is doing at that time. The very first person I followed on twitter was Leo Laporte hoping that I can sneak a question in there from time-to-time; he never answered any of my queries! Well...

[Note: this is not a hard-and-fast rule at all, but it's advisable to post a tweet that is interesting as your first tweet so other people that reads it in the twitter timeline that happens to be interested with what you're saying will follow you. Found a site that you think is funny or useful, tweet it. Found a video that you think is good, tweet it. Tweeting about that zit on your ass that just won't pop isn't very "interesting" topic to read.]

Twitter also is a "micro-blogging" site which is useful for me or people who just don't want to spend time thinking about how they can pull off that small-penis joke regurgitated-all-over-the-Internet-by-people-who-really-don't-have-a-small-penis but think it's funny to say that [Disclaimer: author not included...I mean with people who really don't have a small penis just saying they do]. And while it's true that it's funny to tell the world that you have a baby penis even if it's a complete lie, you just can't tell the whole story in a 140-character tweet. Besides, come on, get over that joke already! It's micro-blogging because you're essentially blogging, just light years faster and in a very different platform. I can post a thought/tweet on twitter in less the hassle and time of proper blogging. What more can you ask for?

So I got hooked in this whole twitter brouhaha and now I'm thinking of ending this blog all together. Surprised? Don't be. You knew we'll come to this any moment. But I'm still in the process of weighing my love for both; though I'm inclined to go for twitter in posting my thoughts and read other people's tweets. It's just faster and people are more intelligent and informative (well, depending on the people you follow, that is). I'm following Leo Laporte, Chris Pirillo, Robert Scoble, Grammar Girl Mignon Fogarty, Cali Lewis, and the likes who mostly post tech stuff (except Grammar Girl who posts tips about, uh, grammar) and intelligent ones at that.

This is not yet a farewell post. I just wanted to explain why will I end my Shit Happens blog - it's all about twitter and how it influenced me. Besides, shit don't happen to me anymore so I guess it's so unnatural if I move on writing mishaps when I'm through with it now.

We shall see.

Testing iBlogger on iPhone that could potentially make me return to blogging, only this time I'm mobile.

[Edit: it's working, apparently. Although there is some certain amount of delay between the time you publish it from the phone and the time it actually shows up on my blog from the net; it's not instant publish; which I can tolerate considering the fact that I'm posting from my phone because I'm too lazy to login to my account from a computer and the app takes a little bit of time (about 5 minutes) to sync what I wrote from inside it to my actual blog, yada yada yada. I've always wanted to have an iPhone application that allows for mobile blogging and now I'm using it! At any rate, I'm back. With a bang! Sort of.]

Someday I'm gonna play this piece the way these two guitar maestros did. All I need is my guitar, a tablature, and about 99.99% of good luck! So start sending good vibes my way. Puh-leeaase.

Here’s the skinny of what’s been up lately (in a fucking lazy blogger and not even remotely funny style):

Sorry for the lack of posting lately as I was so enthralled with twitter, nay, twitter client Twinkle, on the iPhone. I had to find a way out of our problems with our ISP. If I haven’t mentioned it already we, here in Dubai, are not so privileged when it comes to websites we are allowed to visit. Our infamous Internet Service Provider (ISP) has this inexplicable predilection of blocking sites that the rest of the world deem useful or fun to use such as twitter and flickr, sites that are “in” now. You see the “in” thing when it comes to websites these days is something you can build or join a community at, you know, the whole “social networking” stuff, and those two sites that I cited are nothing short of that. But thanks to some muddy policy of our ISP when handling social networking sites, we couldn’t enjoy “most” of them. They key word being “most”.

Why do they feel the need to block twitter and not rejaw? Why do they block flickr and not photobucket? Why do they block orkut and not friendster (this is for my Indian friends, I don’t really use or care about orkut but the point here is they’re blocking “some” of these sites but letting others of its ilk slide)? Why do they allow muxtape and block last.fm? Why do they block akotube and not yosibreak? Oops! And if you haven’t noticed it yet, they’re only blocking the good ones! It’s ridiculous!

I don’t know if I should start rejoicing when I read the news a few weeks back saying that on or before August 29, 2008, they’re going to unblock more than 1,000 websites according to the TRA (Telecommunications Regulatory Authority). I’m still not convinced though until I see what they promised. So here’s my wish-list of sites that I hope they unblock:

1) twitter;

2) flickr;

3) last.fm;

4) akotube;

5) skype;

6) pownce;

7) imeem;

[There’s an odd-looking website in this selection. I’ll leave it all to you to think which one it is.]

**********

I undergone an eye-test last week as a requirement for my driving license and all I can say is I HAZ FAIL! The first test was a breeze where the optometrist covered one of my eyes and had me read really small letters from their Snellen Chart to test my visual acuity. It literally was a cakewalk! So we moved on to the other test known as the Ishihara Color Vision Test where they had me identify the number in a book they showed me with round plates and in it a gamut of colorful circles. The first page was a joke! One could literally see the number “16” in there! The second and the subsequent pages after that, however, were like “huh?” I could see the round plates and the colorful little circles but NO FRIGGIN’ NUMBERS! Then they showed the book to Rose and as if the number wasn’t hidden at all, she read it easily. That’s something I can swallow. I mean I know my wife is intelligent – a valedictorian from Kindergarten to Grade 6. Meanwhile, the only academic “success” I can really be proud of was the “Best In Religion” award that I got in high school which I still believe to this day was some kind of a satirical joke of our Religion teacher who happens to be a priest too when he learned that I “used” his name as an excuse to go to that gimmick in some random resort in Pampanga, so even if I really know the history of Israel I still feel I didn’t deserve that award. Also, I struggled, and still am struggling discerning green and brown, yellow and orange, orange-ish red and orange, violet and blue, the list goes on. And please don’t ask me to identify a color that is not included in the basic 8-color Crayola crayons box like magenta, or fuchsia, or flesh, or mahogany, or ask me to identify the colors of the rainbow because I will seriously punch you in the face if you did. So I understand when my wife just said the number the moment she was shown the plate. She smart. I dumb! Simple.

But then, Rose asked the optometrist to check if Kail is also color blind. And guess what? He can see the numbers! Easily! Which means I’m dumber than the family dog! Fuck!

To be continued…(I hope)

Forget what I said about superheroes with tormented souls having no appeal to the masses [read: me] especially when they learned that a superhero could be as cool as the Iron Man – you know, he’s the only one I know who doesn’t hide his true identity, in fact, he’s all proud of it. Save probably for Anung un Rama – that’s Hellboy for you, nitwit – who is a government owned superhero so basically everybody and their dogs know him as such, but also who I frankly don’t know if he’s even up there in superhero statuses of Superman, Batman, etc. to be called a superhero. I mean if you don’t even know his real name is Anung un Rama, how can you consider him as a superhero, right? Right?

(Sorry if I got the term “superhero” muddled there. Just read will you?)

Forget what I said about “Iron Man is a kick-ass movie is probably the understatement of the year” because, ostensibly, it isn’t. The Dark Knight is! Hands down!

There really is no chance that I’m letting this movie slip away like Batman Begins did because aside from the rave reviews (which I’m not really paying attention to; I mean, who cares about the reviews when they’re all pretty much subjective anyway? But if a movie gets a 94% tomatometer in rottentomatoes.com, well, you know there’s something special in that movie and you’ll want to find out what it is), just the fact that the Joker, who happens to be Batman’s greatest foe EVER, is Batman’s next rival makes me want to watch it even in the first day of screening. Plus, I grew up watching Michael Keaton’s Batman and Jack Nicholson’s Joker slug it out in that famous Batman movie so in a way, there’s nostalgia in this movie. Also, I had a Batman suit and my brother had Superman when we were still small so there’s a connection between me and Batman. Uh…whatever.

But just like all movies that I watched and desperately want to write a review for, I couldn’t think of anything to describe the feeling while watching The Dark Knight mostly because I’m a moron. All I can say is that without a doubt, The Dark Knight is the movie of the year. It’s all action from beginning to end. I always thought I’m going to have a heart attack when there’s some random scene accompanied by a heart-pounding score that just makes my heart racing in anticipation of a really crazy action following in a bit. Talk about edge-of-your-seat moments? The Dark Knight delivers that and more. In fact, I never felt comfortable in my seat the whole damn movie especially in any scene when the Joker is on!

I have to concur with one of the reviewers in rottentomatoes that this is THE JOKER’s movie. Heath Ledger’s Joker movie, to be exact. Heath is astounding in his portrayal of arguably the Villain of all Villains. I never thought Jack Nicholson’s performance as the Joker in the 1989’s Batman movie will ever be surpassed, but lo and behold, Heath Ledger not only accomplished a good job in doing Joker but also (arguably) surpassed Jack’s Joker. I just felt sorry for Heath because he could simply win an Oscar with that performance but now I don’t know. But think about this, wouldn’t it be great if he really wins an Oscar with his performance in this movie? He’ll be the first ever Oscar winner who won it from his grave! Must be a killer party! I mean, give credit to where credit is due, right? Don’t rob the guy what’s rightfully his.

[Speaking of not being comfortable in my seat, my feeling of uneasiness is okay if the movie is giving me that feeling. But if that discomfort is further exacerbated by some punk-ass kids (locals, perhaps) who shout, and laugh OUT LOUD, and “woo-hoo” every time there’s a kissing scene as if the kissing scene is even close to being a “masturbatorial” material (last time I checked it wasn’t a Mandy Moore movie that’s why I can’t quite comprehend why those loudmouth punk-ass kids are thrilled), that’s not okay. Not in a million chances!]

Overall, The Dark Knight is a record-breaking, masterfully created, and stupendous movie that has emphatically taken the world by storm. You don’t often get to watch a sequel that just not only accomplished what its predecessor has achieved but also surpasses it you’ll think the first one was a flop even if it’s definitely not. The Dark Knight is one and on top of those movies of its ilk.

The Dark Knight is a masterpiece.