The internet has been man’s greatest achievement since the invention of the can opener. It changed the way people communicate and made the world smaller (at least figuratively). People from all walks of life and from opposing ends of the earth were linked and came upon to terms like chatting and social networking. It paved way to MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) that made people stick to swivel chairs for hours. Looking for information, be educational or not, became very easy with the help of the ever handy Google search engine which I often feel, can read my mind with its innovative and advance indexing features. People also found business opportunities through the web and made them earn money while enjoying their comfy offices at home. But for any joy the internet brought upon humankind, I would like to take this opportunity to share a bit of the things that I usually and love to do when I’m online.

1. Reading blogs…

Blogs, as depicted at the back of my WordPress for Dummies 2nd ed. Book, are as much part of life today as the evening news paper was fifty years ago. Weblogs (or simply, blogs) are much of an expression rather than the messianic format of primetime news I usually see on television. It portrays different pictures of an issue which more often than not, I find interesting and gives me another perspective than what I immediately perceive about it. I usually search blog networks such as blogspot.com and wordpress.com for entries that interests me and of worth spending my time. I typically comment as to what I think of the post (or the issue discussed in that post) and then subscribe to the post’s comments mailing list. Sometimes I use bookmarking sites like Technorati, Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon to look for interesting stories as well. At the end of the day and I liked one blog that has appealing contents in it, I subscribe to its RSS via email (feedburner does it very well) or use my favorite feed reader application, FeedDemon (though it sounds bad, it’s angelic features gets me over my daily dose of read).

2. Facebook (err) or its apps I guess…

I never thought a day would come that I will finally learn how to use Facebook. As I am honed to the ins and outs of usability, usefulness and the latter and can make a functional website, still I was really puzzled on how to use this networking site that has taken Philippine shores by storm. Weeks after finally getting over my decision to cancel my Friendster account, I took the path of establishing my own website. But I cannot really deny the fact that building a website is like making a billboard in the middle of the desert. No one would actually visit my site without referring it to them or just being plain lucky I was on top of Google’s listings. So I took the initiative of looking for a popular networking site that would answer my problems. But to my surprise, I couldn’t get on with Facebook’s simple interface. I was pissed that I didn’t grasped anything on it so I decided to pursue my SEO (Search Engine Optimization) to other things. Nonetheless everybody in my class was talking about this Pet Society app included in Facebook so one afternoon while surfing the net, I decided to give it a try. Darn! It was so easy. Maybe I was just impatient and stubborn enough not to see that navigating through Facebook was just a piece of cake. I immediately added friends (my classmates and close friends, I usually don’t add people I’m not acquainted personally) and was thrilled that after filling up information about me, Facebook immediately found people that was in fact, my classmates and colleagues. Then I went on finding this Pet Society app that everyone was talking about. After naming, feeding and playing with my pet, I went on looking for another cool app which I found named as “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” As the name implies, it’s a mind buggling game from Playfish, the maker of Pet Soc, which is like a quiz show complete with emcee and wide array of puzzles that will surely measure “Who Has the Biggest Brain?” As of this moment, I have reached the brain of a “Space Ace” coming from a gorilla for my first try, then an average joe to a full pledge scholar brained geek. Still I haven’t beaten the score of my former Web Design professor who happens to be my friend in Facebook.

3. Ikariam, the browser game…

Back in high school, me and my friends during lunch time would normally go to a computer shop not so far from our school and play what was famous back then, Ragnarők Online. We were so thrilled by that game as everyone else playing it. I was so addicted that my parents scold me whenever they find me in a computer shop. I often sneak out to play and spend my weekly allowance on buying the game card. But as I grew up and went on to college, I managed to stop my craving for computer games and focused on studying. However, there is still a kid left in me that wants to spend an hour or so to a good sit at a couch and crumble over a strategy game. Hence I found Ikariam. Starting on its local version, ikariam.ph I was immediately hooked for it resembles another favorite, Civilization IV. And one thing good about it is I play it on a browser (Mozilla Firefox perhaps) and no need for installing it on the hard drive so as long as a computer has an internet connection, I can play my account whenever, wherever, be it at school (though it’s blocked, I manage to play by using a proxy server) or at home.

4. Plurk and Twitter…

As I went on to present my design comp to the TomasinoWeb.org team, they consulted me if putting a forum would be a great idea. Actually, I don’t have involvement in such but I do know that it is hard to maintain and moderate a forum. So having decided that it’s a bad idea, the team decided to pursue another viable option which in turn, has making noise on the net. Microblogging has changed the way we publish our daily experiences online. Plurk and Twitter are my two most favorite microblogging site. Although I use Plurk most of the time to increase my Karma (a feature that adds more fun), my Twitter is still updated because it is synched with my Plurk account.

5. Last but not the least, this website…

Of course, I cannot forget that I have a website to maintain and update so I regularly visit my Dashboard (this is what WordPress call its main menu) to moderate comments, look at my blogs stats, post new entries or simply add another quote in my collection. I always find time to tweak my theme’s stylesheet or beef up its code by a new thing I found in WordPress’ comprehensive Codex.

Nevertheless, for whichever or whatever reason people go online, there are still many things to discover on the web as its potential is endless. We should make the most out of it and make a change in other people’s life using it.