m hir na.

I’m baaaaack.  Somewhat.  Over the next few days I will be updating my blog, possibly double- or triple-posting until I’m finally in sync.  Okay, I’ll try my best.  I can’t do a ketchup post, because doing that meant a long article for just a week of non - posting.  I’ve been gone a little over a month and that would probably mean a really, really, really long article (me being me).  No can do.  So, unti - untiin.
   
But first things first: Although I am a certified gadget junkie, I have not quite acquired the “taste” for the shorthand writing that comes with some of the new technology.  Wat I min 2 say is dat I cnt ryt dis way.  I2ng gngwa q d2 sobra2 n.  Okay, so I can.  But I won’t.  I haven’t felt the need for it.  I thumb-type pretty fast, so no problem there.  And I can read the darn things very well, too.  I’m good with languages, and I daresay this is a new language of sorts.  I just won’t do it.  I’m truly, truly not being a snob here.  I just want to keep doing it the regular way.  

A friend of mine says it’s quicker and much easier 2 do it dis way.  Writer Isagani Cruz says text message - writing can actually help gauge how well today’s youth read and write, and can even help sharpen their grammar skills.  I think he’s right.  See, if a person sends a text message, he obviously wants that message to be understood.  Now, if he writes d msg dis way and expects to be understood, then he must know which vowels to drop, how to properly combine letters and the right - sounding numbers (so he must know how to properly pronounce words, too) into words, and how to arrange the words in a manner that will be understood.  Therefore, he must know correct grammar.  The same goes for the one receiving and reading the message.  Then there’s Dot Mobile, a company offering mobile phones to students.  They’ve just recently begun a service that provides student subscribers with text message - style summaries of literary classics (as in “2b or nt 2b”).  This can’t hurt.  If it’ll get people to read the classics and understand them, then I’m all for it.

But I don’t think I’ll do it.  I really love words and I’d much, much rather see them whole.  But that’s just me.  Go ahead and send me those shorthand messages because I can handle them (wag lang yung over. “Q” replacing “ko” is just plain irritating.  So is “Gd pm pooh“.  That’s another story.).  And I’ve been known to drop a vowel here and there din naman.  But that’s as far as I’ll go.

To close: this is my second post after a long hiatus, and there will be more updates.  But I won’t write them in shorthand. Nt netym soon.  <—- Kidding.    

ah.

Okay, so I said that I’d delete the post below if I was un-mad enough.  But now I’m thinking I shouldn’t, because if I start – as will in this post – thanking people without even half - explaining what the gratitude was all about, then all will be as confusing as this sentence.

ANYWAY, I called i.ph from work maybe a day or two after (soonest I could) I had seen my blog so messed up. I spoke to — this is embarassing — Gigi. Gina? She was very helpful, and I’m not just saying this because I can’t remember her name (forgive me, this was like a month ago).  I asked her to check my blog, and after she had seen for herself that something was wrong with it (I had her check it on both Explorer and Opera), she consulted with someone and was back quickly with an explanation: the Calliope system, she said, was being updated and that may have caused stuff on my blog (and some others’) to go awry. Fine, I said.  But my piss - making was due to the thought that I may have to re - do my blog.  She assured me that they were working on everything right quick and that all I had to do was wait some.  Then I would wake up the next day and all would be well.  All right, she didn’t really put it that way.  And it didn’t happen that way either.  `Twas even better.  

I left my phone number with her and made her promise to call or send me a text message as soon as everything was okay.  ”Soon” was later that afternoon.  Gina (Gigi?) updated me with text messages every so often. By the end of the day, my blog was almost back to normal.

The next day, a (oh, crap, here I go again) Joanna? Michelle? Whatever it was, it was a beautiful name, and this time I am just saying this because I can’t remember what it was, but it wasn’t anything odd like Rollenita or Damascula.  ANYWAY, she was from i.ph, too, and she sent me a text message saying my blog was really back to normal now and that I should contact them again if there was anything more I needed (yeah, like she had to tell me, ako pa? ).  So I logged in to my blog to check.  And it was.

Back to normal.  The fonts were the right size (smallest), the pictures were all aligned, the captions were in place.  The bar at the bottom-most bottom-est bottom of the page was (and still is) off, but I can live with that — barely, but I can live with it.  I didn’t have to re - do my blog, and my piss - making had come to an end.

Here now, my thanks: to everyone at i.ph (I find the word “everyone” extremely helpful in short - term memory lapses), maraming salamat po.  What more can I say?  Sorry if I scared you guys, or if I sounded too crazy urgent.  Thank you for doing a great job.  And sorry about the “is it because my account is free?” comment.  I didn’t mean that.  Well, that’s not entirely true.  I did mean it.  I mean I meant to think it.  But you didn’t deserve it.  Thank you for putting up with that, and thank you for everything.  Of all the blog joints in the world, I had to walk into yours.  Right choice, eh?

While you’re at it, a premium account would be nice. Har, har. Worth a shot.