After the fire in 2006, I guess I was unable to regain my net life. I've lost my drive to maintain my sites and my domain went to resellers. My Xanga stayed on hiatus. My 2 Friendster accounts were left hanging. And I did not post in any of the forums I normally visit like soompi. I was dead to the net world!

I guess it was only until last year that I tried to revive this kind of life. Talk about resuscitation now . My new-found hobby called cosplay that time made me decide to capture my memories in writing and I knew I still had Xanga to rely on. Events in my life were little by little, retold in the form of blogs. My blog page views increased as well. Wow! When I check my footprints section, I see people visiting from a lot of areas accross the world! From about 100s to 2000+ for some! I was like ... whoooaaa??? Not to count this one with 10,000+ views? I'm really overwhelmed.

And then there was Xanga Idol to which I was fairly a part of; and I met a few new friends like fellow babe Mae, gurlie friend Glyniss, little bro Sonlay, baby sis Mayra, etc. There were loads of updates in Xanga too that I practically enjoyed. It dawned on me that, dang! I missed a lot! This ain't how it used to be way back 2003. T'was just a simple blog site and now it has evolved into another social networking site where you can still focus primarily on blogging. I guess all social networking sites have their focal points of similar interests to their users anyway and Xanga is still on blogging, I guess.

However, I wasn't able to catch up fast seeing how the social net life goes. It's very fast-paced. There are loads of new discoveries and other interesting sites that we encounter nowadays. I can't count them all haha but most of my friends are very much into them. Sites like Plurk, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn; among others. I have a few friends who have accounts in most of them. Wow! I dunno how much time they have though! LOL.  So far, I was able to manage my Facebook and Multiply. Both sites have different focuses anyway. I get to play more in Facebook haha. My primary blog remains here at Xanga.

So far, these are the 3 main sites where I connect with people. Having 3 right now is not even that manageable for me, what more if I add the rest? Hahaha! Well, the other sites' purposes may be the same anyway. I'd rather have just one if it serves all the purpose haha. I won't consider having duplicates lah. Say, my Facebook is mainly for real-time status updates or what I am currently doing; moods; feels; etc. Multiply is more of an album collection for me and where my cosplay life resides, basically. And my Xanga remains as my blogsite; my journal; my diary; my online log for every weird thought; my own page. I don't think I have anywhere else haha.

And thanks to Rocky for his new discovery (well, actually just "new" for me coz I just heard and tried it heheh ... he's been using it for long ... I was late in the news haha) ... PING.FM! All my 3 sites are connected there and my micro-blogging feeds are updated in just one site! Ahhh! The convenience! I dunno with you guys but I really appreciate its purpose! LOL. Imagine, if I created accounts for the other social networking sites or even other blogsites like blogger, hi5, etc., I wouldn't trouble myself into logging in all of 'em anymore. But then again, what's the use? Unless I'm a celebrity where people will simply just follow me or check what I'm doing. I'd love to follow Lady Gaga though ... she's amazing! LOL.  Poker face!

How about you? Where else are you found and what do you do with those sites?

Chai

I'm sure we all know that. I just wanted to "stress" that fact.

Yesterday, stress attacks hit me and my cousin, May. She was rushed to the hospital after about a week's time of illness. She's been vomitting like crazy! Fever is non-stop and irregular. She couldn't stand and her limbs were weak. Muscles ache like hell. It may sound like she's just fine and it's a normal feverish situation. The thing is, she's 3 months pregnant.

Pregnant women are prohibited from taking any medications as they may cause abnormalities in the labor or in the child itself. My other elder cousin Elaine took some prescribed drugs during pregnancy. Sad that her child now has some brain defects ... I dunno what the exact condition is though. I'm afraid May's child might have the same effect. She's currently confined now and the baby was on the brink of death had she not confined herself in the hospital. I found out that she's bleeding non-stop too. This almost caused the child's life.

Her husband was sharing with my mom that she's been stressed. She stands as somewhat the breadwinner in her family too. She has a dependent brother who's still in school and an elder brother who also has his own family now. Her mom and dad are both retirees and are expecting support from her. The pregnancy troubled her too much. She's just moved out from her long-term work from another center due to management issues and now, she's in a new company but not yet regularized. The fear of having her current condition affecting her status and tenure there adds up to the stress. And thinking that she's a newbie w/o further benefits, she has low hopes in supporting her family and her own family now with the kid and the hubby. I just hope and pray that the fetus stays put in her womb though she's heavily stressed out ...

To the same extent, I had my shares of yesterday's mayhem. I had a lot of stuff scheduled and items to work on my plate, with additional stuff brought in realtime. I've stayed long enough in the office, not noticing I haven't eaten lunch and the continuous interview pool was there (for a class that we are starting next week for the account I support). I was stressed out and pressed for time, and probably coupled with hunger, plus the fact that I just drank iced tea, made me palpitate. I couldn't even stand and I'm just grateful that my colleagues were there, concerned about me though that couldn't solve my case. I took in 2x therabloc than needed. It made me weak. I had a hard time breathing. My heartbeat was sooo fast and irregular. I was scared. Feels like my insides were twitching. The hard pounding and heavy breathing made me look terribly ill yesterday and that caused me stay 3+ hours resting on my cube. I don't want that happening again ... while I am aware I have that condition since 2006, I've been living a normaly life now at least. I do hope I can surpass this challenge.

I probably need to be extra careful but I just couldn't escape worrying about what is to happen. There are a lot of things troubling my mind right now. Family needs ... pressure ... work stress ... similar to my cousing, I stand as head of the family and having a lot of people depend on you makes the burden heavier. And not only do I support my immediate family members, we have other relatives dependent on my financial support. Our culture is different here ... we couldn't just let them be responsible coz the moment I personally think of that, I think twice seeing that they will suffer if I couldn't provide. I couldn't think straight ... God help me ...

Chai