confessions of a teenage net freak

what’s up with these confessions of a so and so titles??? we’ve seen it used as a title of a movie and we’ve read it in of countless titles of books. well, i guess i’ll just have to ride with the tide. so please, bear with the title.

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the internet. first year high, had practically no idea of the 3ws back then. a friend gave me a brief description of it using the chalkboard as her visual aid. drawing icons (note: i didn’t know these terms back then and was virtually inexperienced of the world wide web) while lecturing me of how to browse through pages and especially electronic mail. but still, things weren’t clear to me. so i tried renting for an hour at a cafe near our place. there, people were very busy attending their yahoos and eudoramail accounts and most were too absorbed with the then “it” games: starcraft and quake.

with the accompany of my BIG bro (when i mean BIG, i mean, really, really BIG. to give you an insight, my stomach’s thinner than his thigh. to be more vivid, his waistline measures up to 50). anyway, he said that he knew how to open a webbie. the only address i knew was the unquestionable mtvasia (i was only 13, okay?). after my 1 hour was up, i was relieved to have visited a website.

next day, went to mtv again, still leafing through its pages. until i realized that it wasn’t the only homepage i could explore. what got me the idea was when BIG bro was flipping through some porn sites while constantly being on the lookout for people who might know what he was doin’. well, i soon got hold of eudora and made an email addy for myself. after filling most of the necessary infos, the only thing lacking was the ever mind-boggling password. “what the heck is the f***king password?”. spent most of the time figuring it out. there was even a time when i almost asked a stranger what it was. thank God someone told me and explained to me clearly about it. i didn’t know that i had to make my own secret word. coz stupid little me thought that there was only one password for all the users of a particular mail host out there.

mirc, cyber chatting. tried it too. only now, i have a mild trauma (is there such? hehe) of talking to people i don’t know. first chatmate was not… hmm… wholesome (that’s the word). so i quit while i was still at the beginning.

2nd year high school, didn’t have much use of the net. i did my projects the conventional way, i didn’t have anyone in mind to email to. this continued until the senior year. besides, it’s expensive.

1st year college, while on the verge of utmost depression, i only had the computer laboratory and the library as my source of comfort. of course, while i’m blabberin’ about the net, i’ll focus on the former. internet schedule was one hour per week (just great!). but the good thing was the proctor wasn’t that “strict” and was more of a pushover. that was the time when my addiction was at its tip. for every chance i could get, and as long as there’re vacant seats, i’d sit and surf. saturdays were extra special. though i had classes (engineering drawing and nstp for 11 hours in all). i’d just request for a classmate to write my name on the attendance sheet. so on saturdays, i’d be surfing from 8am to 7pm. sometimes, i didn’t want to go home and eat or go to the restroom when necessary coz i was afraid that someone might take my place. what’d i do between those times of having unlimited (well, almost) access? i’d faithfully email and reply to anyone who’d sent me something. i travelled through the pages of my new yahoo account and saw some very useful features ( i.e. photos, briefcase, geocities and groups) and soon personalized them.

i also did an extensive research of my former school in davao coz i wanted to catch up on what happened to my batchmates. i chanced upon a personal webbie of one of my schoolmates there. got a little intrigued and jealous of how she made it. along came HTML (short for hotmail, i thought at first). didn’t have any background of it whatsoever. never, did i learn it in high school, coz in 4th year, our brillant teacher made us go back to basic word, and excel.

so i tried every resource i had in school… “DING!!! haven’t i mentioned the library somehwhere???” and so, off my quest for HyperText Markup Language (still don’t know it literally). though i don’t really understand much and i haven’t memorized the tags and their functions, i didn’t need to bother finding out (coz eventually, i will), all i needed was the basics. i also wanted to try educating myself about java applications, etcetera; but my brain would have likely exploded. i stopped there.

after having some knowledge of how to design a page, i decided to make a personal webbie. but soon i grew tired. and i didn’t have the will anymore. i resulted to the next best thing: blogging. but i don’t want to go into details about this, it would take the fun of posting an entry for my blog’s birthday away.

after blogging, we all know what happened next: friendster. don’t have to explain still coz we all have stories to tell in friendster. then, i came back to chatting again, now at ym. miss amia taught me about it. and now it’s another one of my regular visits.

well, i guess that about summarizes my misadventures on the net. i’m still experimenting and finding out more from it. and i know i need not be afraid if i accidentally stumble upon a site that wouldn’t interest me, there’s always the reliable Back Button to patch things up.

in truth, i’m trying to cut down on this addiction, but it seems hard. we all know that: “it’ll only take 10 minutes” can last for an hour or two. i’m a net-freak, i don’t know who can certify it. but spending a minimum of 1 hour a day, paying 15 bucks to the cashier for my daily dose might prove it’s enough. but don’t worry, i’m not ashamed to be called one.

posted Monday, 13 September 2004

CNBGirl made this comment,
lahat ata tayo adik sa net. 1 whole day of not surfing the net makes me have experience withdrawal symptoms… =P

comment added :: 13th September 2004, 10:25 GMT+08
Nix made this comment,
hey ed, how did you make that logo of yours? looks cool.. hey.. asa ka gkan ana? finally, mka update na jud ko. =)

comment added :: 13th September 2004, 16:37 GMT+08
amia made this comment,
hahaha. special mention pako. wait till u get ur own pc, ma matagal k nang magnenet.

comment added :: 13th September 2004, 21:20 GMT+08
nicole made this comment,
hey i’m an addict to i am online practically everyday at work and when i go home i log in the internet again
take care ed!
nicole

comment added :: 14th September 2004, 04:20 GMT+08

Nix made this comment,
hmmm. ed, yo ujust gave me a brilliant idea! thanks!

comment added :: 14th September 2004, 13:27 GMT+08
A visitor made this comment,
naks, ur internet story. saya. hehehe.
kakalat ang ganitong entry. hehehe. 😉

ingat!

sedricke

comment added :: 15th September 2004, 00:08 GMT+08

A visitor made this comment,
a net story well told. just have some net check – make sure the net does not/will not own you. hehe.
Paul

comment added :: 16th September 2004, 01:32 GMT+08

Shawty made this comment,
what if walang internet hehehehe

comment added :: 16th September 2004, 09:40 GMT+08
Nix made this comment,
dang! if walang internet.. i will simply die. you know, maybe the net doesnt own ed, but it surely owns me.

comment added :: 17th September 2004, 12:50 GMT+08


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soloflightEd.com is a travel blog by Edcel Suyo. He enjoys performing headstands and crazy stunts during his trips in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Now based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and working to earn a living, he takes time to enjoy the city and travel during weekends.
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