Moved to a better place.

Hello guys!

I just noticed that a lot of people are still checking out this old blog of mine so I decided to post here to let all of you know that I moved to a better blogsite a few months ago.

Please visit me at: http://katantonio.wordpress.com

Thank you!!! :)

The Effects of the RH Bill, Bigotry Style

I recently came across a poster on Tumblr.com with a tagline that says: “When Reproductive Health Bill becomes a law, it can result in what we call D.E.A.T.H.S.” It then went on and on that legalizing the bill will result to divorce, euthanasia, abortion, two-child policy, homosexuality and same-sex marriage (thus the aforementioned acronym). At the very end it said, “If we care, we should think.”

First of all, I am neither a medical student nor a law student. I am a writer, and admittedly, while I mostly understand the RH Bill, there are parts of it that go over my head. And even though I know that the bill has its flaws and there are parts of it that I do not agree with, I am still in favor of it. Why?

“If we care, we should think?” Clearly someone is not thinking. Divorce and euthanasia were not mentioned in the bill. As for abortion, it is clearly stated in Section 3m that abortion is still a criminal, punishable act. It also says that the RH Bill seeks to prevent abortion in Section 4g #1 in the definition of the term “Reproductive Health Care.” And while it lists two children as the ideal family size in Section 16, it also states that “attaining the ideal family size is neither mandatory nor compulsory. No punitive action shall be imposed on having more than two children.” The bill intends to increase awareness on contraceptives, but it is not enforcing the two-child policy at all. Overpopulation in the country is very real, but still, you can have a dozen of kids and procreate all you want, and the government will not question you.

And while we are on the topic of contraceptives, many anti-RH Bill people say that contraceptives promote more sex, and that more sex equals decreased morality. Contraceptives and casual sex have been around forever. Morality has been compromised time and time again. It doesn’t automatically follow that contraceptives will lead to casual sex and decreased morality. I’ve known about contraceptives since I was in sixth grade, and I don’t engage in casual sex. I also know friends who won’t even kiss a guy because they are saving it on their wedding day. It only goes to show that the existence of contraceptives does not affect someone’s principles.

It baffles me that homosexuality is even included in that poster. Can someone enlighten me on what is wrong with homosexuality? Is it because a passage in the Old Testament says so? Well, the Bible also says that you can’t wear clothes made of mixed fibers (Leviticus 19:19) so you better check the tags before you buy anything at Forever 21. You can’t touch a woman who has her period or else you will be considered unclean (Leviticus 15:19-20) so don’t hug your mommy or your sister or your girlfriend when she has her period. See? We don’t follow those.

I have a lot of gay friends and they are some of the most talented, kindest, most loyal people I know. They are good people. If there is anything we should learn from the Bible, it is not to judge people who are different from us just because they are different from us. Christianity calls us to be Christ-like. Tell me honestly, what do you think Christ would do?

And lastly, it stated in the poster that if a priest refuses to marry a homosexual couple, the couple will have a power to demand the priest to court and file a case. Now, the debate on same-sex marriage is very broad and may constitute an even longer debacle than the RH Bill, but I hope that the maker of the poster would realize that nobody would expect a priest to marry a homosexual couple – let alone penalize him. Homosexual marriage is clearly against the teachings of the Catholic Church, and believe it or not, the state respects religion. Does civil marriage ring a bell?

I used to be a debater and I love rebuttals from people who don’t agree with where I stand on. Believe me, I respect differences in opinions a lot more than ordinary people do but the poster just screamed bigotry. Whoever made that clearly isn’t well-informed of what he is arguing about. Can somebody send him a copy of the bill please?

Read the full text of the controversial RH Bill here.

Disclaimer: This is an article I submitted to my prof last semester regarding the controversial bill. I know several friends who are against the bill and I respect everyone's opinions -- I just saw this document while cleaning up my drive and I decided to share this. :)

Pictures Brought to Life

Something that is more than a photo but is less than a video. This is the concept behind CINEMAGRAPHS, still photos with elements of movement developed by NYC photographers Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. I am not into photography (not even close) but the moment I saw samples of their work, I was blown away! It was so beautifully created and kinda reminded me of the Wizarding World photos (read: Muggles), hehe.

As you can see in the sample photos below, Jamie and Kevin combined both still and moving images in a fantastically unusual way -- taking beautiful photographs and turning them into something that rests comfortably between photography and video.

If you will notice, they retain all of the exquisite composure of still photographs but add a surprising bit of motion that is absolutely mesmerizing.
To be honest, at first it creeped me out -- who would expect that a what-appeared to be a still photo would actually move! But then, once you get used to it -- you will be left in awe and be amazed by this genious work of art.


Photos are presented through highbrow GIFs, a file format that used to annoy us with all those little animated videos (MySpace glitter unicorns anyone??) na paulit-ulit!! Now, we will never look at .GIF the same way again thanks to these amazing photographers! :)




A step-by-step guide for photographers is available online for those who wants to try their hands on cinemagraphy. I would, but I can barely even edit a picture on Photoshop, so wag nalang -- hehe.






So, what do you guys think? "High-brow" or cheap trick? :)

Source: http://weburbanist.com/

What A Girl Wants

Well, I have no idea! Girls have several turn-ons on men and they vary depending on someone's personality. But what I do know is what we definitely DON'T WANT, and these are guys who are:

- A KNOW IT ALL. A guy who acts all geeky but failing miserably is the last thing we would want to date. I used to go out with someone who would constantly rebut my ideas just to prove to me that he has brains. Well, guess what honey, it's not cute.

- A LOSER. If you are a guy who still asks for allowance from your mom, does not have a stable job without any clear career path, smokes pot every weekend, sleeps all day and treats drinking as a hobby, then you're probably a loser.

- A SUCK-UP. A guy who's daily schedule is based on his girlfriend, obsessed with being with her ALL the time and puts his life on hold for her. At first it is kilig, but trust me, in the long run we definitely do not want to be with someone who revolves his entire life on us. The line "Ikaw ang buhay ko," seem a little pathetic don't you think?

- A FLAKE. Don't be unreliable. Your flakiness makes all your promises seem non-sense as time goes by. Sooner or later we'll realize that it is a waste of time to be with you because you rarely mean what you say.

- A CHEAP-ASS. There is a difference between a guy that is broke and a guy who is plain cheap. I am definitely not a gold-digger but I'm sure girls will agree with me when I say that we do appreciate men who step-up and pamper us every once in a while. TLC got it right when they sang "No Scrubs" back in '99.

- A TOTAL-JERK. Well, this is pretty self-explanatory. Who would want to be with a person who is bastos or walang modo? I always appreciate men who let women take their seats in MRT or assist an old woman carry their grocery bags in a supermarket. It shows that they have manners.

This list can go on and on.. I know that it's rare to find the perfect guy nowadays but bottom line is, women look for guys who have the same morals as them.

At least I know I do.

Scams, Spam & Other Annoyances on Facebook

With over 600 million users, Facebook is undoubtedly the most viewed website worldwide. Because of this, it's no surprise that it has constantly been under heavy attack on spams and scams. I can't remember how many times I complained about some people who flood my walls and message box convincing me to "Click on this link to (insert an impossible idea here)."

What is a spam? Basically, a spam is the act of flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive that message. To apply in Facebook, a spam is an application that is designed specifically for spreading a message -- using events in the news to grab your attention and spread malicious links. In short, they exist to ANNOY people.

I personally feel that there are two main reasons for the spread of Facebook spams:
1. Users trust almost anything that they see on their news feeds.
2. Facebook's security measures are not tight.

Here are the most common Facebook spams & scams I have encountered so far:

"Click to See Who Viewed Your Profile." - I don't get why some people still get fooled by this. FYI: There are no applications out there that exist solely to alter the settings of Facebook. If you want the capability to know who views your profile, switch back to Friendster.





"Free Facebook Credits!" -Shortened URL's especially those offering freebies are 95% SCAM. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.


"Mafia Wars Freebies" - I used to play this game and I know you can get freebies by asking your friends to send you some. Again, do not fall the bait on freebies using shortened URL's -- unless you want a malware.


"Free iPad!" - Omg, I am super annoyed at this one because I have been bombarded by these links on my wall prompting me to restrict my wall to some people. I know we all love winning gadgets especially as good as an iPad, but come on guys -- the way the "promo" was presented is so informal and so dubious.


"See A Picture of Bin Laden Dead." - This is the latest spam going around and it quickly spread all over Facebooklandia mainly because this is a current event and the curiosity in us wants to see Bin Laden's pic. After it was reported how gruesome it looks, most people (myself included) of course wants to see it too! But don't you think that if there is a real picture out there, it will be posted as an actual pic and not as a malicious link?


While my pal Mark Zuckerberg (wag makelam, lol) is doing the best he could in keeping our favorite social networking site secure, I think it is also our responsibility to our Facebook friends to be extra careful on what we're posting as we are in a one big online community. Here are a few things to keep in mind about these spam/scam attacks:

1. Be aware of the applications that you authorize to post on your wall. Wait, you know where to find that right? :)
2. Do not trust shortened URL's. If the link is really worth checking out, best to ask the person who sent you that link first to verify if it's really a trusted site.
3. Lastly, if it came from a person who don't normally post links on your wall, and the message is sort of generic -- Eh alam na! Okay?

A good rule of thumb when using apps is to investigate the settings. If an app seems to require an inordinate amount of access to your profile and the brand or app maker isn’t well known, then the best practice is simply to avoid using the app.

I hope a good number of my Facebook friends get to read this, because all the examples I posted above are actual wall posts I found on my friends' profiles. I hope I didn't offend anybody, but if I do -- I'm sorry, this blog is intended to educate and not to bash people. :)

Happy Facebooking!