Firefox hits 50 million. Go grab a Firefox!! Congratulations, Mozilla Foundation! I've supported you from day 1 and I'm proud to be part of it.

I've been here in Northern California for over a week now and my initial cash of $250 is gone. I still haven't quite gotten over how expensive things are here. In the Philippines, $20 can get me a pair of jeans, three or four great-looking tops, and a pedicure. Here, $20 can't even get me a pair of jeans on sale, and any tops priced lower than twenty are poorly made or fit badly.

My hairdresser in the Philippines charges Php 350 for a haircut, which is roughly around $6. I went to my aunt's hairdresser last weekend, who charged me a whopping $45 to snip off a few inches of hair! It was a good haircut but still. I was only prepared to spend around $25 for that. Today, my aunt treated me to a pedicure that cost $20. Though I sat on a chair that massaged my back, it's still very expensive compared to my Php 200 pedicure ($3.50) back in Manila.

I don't even bother converting these prices into pesos because that will just make me feel cheated and guilty. But the exhorbitant prices in this country taught me to restrain myself and think every item through before pulling out my wallet.

The questions I usually ask myself every time I am tempted to buy stuff are:
Is it on sale? If it is, is it worth buying? (So far, everything I have bought was on sale.)
Can I buy this at the Philippines?
Will I die if I don't have this item?
Can I afford it?

And I recommend any traveller to ask himself/herself these everytime you go to a mall or bazaar abroad. There's nothing like buying a random item from another country to make you feel like you really traveled.

oldschoolers . Interesting community to reunite with old friends and find out where the people whose sites you loved and worshipped years ago, are now! We remember what things were like in 1996.
We remember pre-56k modems. IRC. ICQ. Web-Based FTP.

I recognize other community members (though not all know me) like nikkiana, flyfirefly, monikamarie, mari5a , letskickit, inthestill, applekore, sofiefatale, happyfeely and others I might have missed out.

I would have to agree with wring that LJ gets scarier by the day.....

From her entry announcing :
"Just to let everyone know, my mother was murdered" (mirror site) to news reports that she planned the murder of her own mom together with her ex-boyfriends? How scary can it get. To think she's only 16 years old!

other news...

Rachelle Waterman had posted to an online journal dating back to February. In the journals, which she titled "My crappy life, the inside look of an insane person." She says she lives in Hell, Alaska, details conflicts with her mother and writes about a desire to commit violent acts against herself and others, KRBD reported.

One of her last entries was posted Nov. 14, hours after troopers say Arrant told her her mother had been killed. In the entry, she writes about her trip to Anchorage and having purchased some new boots, KRBD reported.

What happened to me happened because someone on LJ reported me to the FBI. This is not idle speculation on my part. The Secret Service agent told me as much last night – the reason why they were there was because the FBI received a report about my post. It was not found through Google or through keyword searches. It was found through someone on LJ. This is just … mind-boggling and ridiculously wanky. I have my suspicions about who may have turned me in, but I'm not going to voice them because, well, what's been done is done. That being said, for anyone else out there who wants to get snarky and report others to the FBI, I'm telling you this right now: because of what happened to me, I am now going to have an FBI file following me around for the rest of my life. This may cause future problems for me in several different aspects of my life, and that kind of damage is permanent. So, yes, I am upset by the knowledge that someone on LJ would do that to me, but it teaches a valuable (if sad) lesson: you cannot trust LiveJournal, and you cannot trust fandom.

Her complete account is in this entry and if that's deleted, you can read it here .

Hah, a friend told me that her LJ friend got fired because someone reported a "friends only" entry to her boss. Tsk tsk. This can very well happen to anyone.

( I mean, come on. The last time my name was printed in a newspaper was in an obituary (not mine, obviously ;p). )

So yeah. I'm so going to do this again--get published in a newspaper, I mean. I didn't get paid, but I gotta admit, it was a lot of fun. :)

Shameless plug but who knows? Maybe you'll be interested. Maybe not ...

I've added a dedicated server to my webhosting business because the number of customers have grown during the past two years and well, I ran out of space. We're still using the same premium Mzima bandwidth and reliable datacenter located at One Wilshire, Los Angeles, California. For the domain whores, I've got the ultimate plan for you.... a Domain management / reseller plan . You can put all your domains or even your friends domains together in one plan . Starting at $11.95 a month for an 800 MB diskspace and 20 GB bandwidth . Yup, what more can you ask for? Affordable plans with premium network and services! We'll even give you advice on how to start your own webhosting business. Not many hosting companies offer this. Contact us here.

And for those in a tight budget,our most affordable plan starts at $20 a year for shared webhosting plam (50 MB space and 2 GB bandwidth).

Interested? Compare reseller plans or shared hosting plans


( How I started this webhosting business )

For my SA 157 (Culture) field trip, I decided to grab this rare opportunity to take pictures of characters and sights I might never see in other parts of the city.


Regla is Good
This is a stand right in front of Quiapo church that sells all sorts of medicine made from God knows what. (There are many other stands like this.) The word regla is "period" in Tagalog, and I find it very ironic that they're selling pamparegla--something that will induce abortion--outside a church.


View more pics of Quiapo and Intramuros.

I was reading Annia's entry about how her host might have to disable her account because it is currently being hit with hundreds and hundreds of spam e-mails per SECOND. . And so I checked mine. I had just removed 75 MB of spam mail a few days ago. Before that, the average size was 35 MB.

To my horror.......


It's now 124 MB!


These spammers use every common word to attach to the @ the-protagonist.net as an email address. I wonder when they will get caught. Next to virus writers, they should be in the hit list of the cybercops.

YOU'VE BEEN TAGGED BY THE *Yummy* GOOD LUCK ANGEL!
( You don't want to see it )

I just got another bunch of gmail invites ...If you don't have a google mail (gmail) address, you might be interested to get an invite from me.

Just comment below and post a valid email address ( you can add@REMOVE) and you will get 1 gmail invite . Include first and last name (can be initials) . Valid until supply lasts…haha. But even if I ran out, just post your email address and I’ll give you once I get more invites.



*EDIT- (June 19) I'll be giving out invites since Google usually releases a new round every day now. Email me at lauryn@REMOVEgmail.com if you're interested to get one ; send me an AIM message at protaganistsays or comment here. Make sure you never had a gmail account or if you do, just state whom it is for.

If you've always wanted your own webspace, get it at the Protagonist WebHosting Solutions. This has been my business since 2002. Our plans are ideal for blog hosting, beginners or advanced users. Affordable and reliable hosting services start at

$20 a year for 50 MB diskspace and 1 GB bandwidth
$30 a year for 75 MB diskspace and 2 GB bandwidth
$40 a year for 100 MB diskspace and 3 GB bandwidth
and custom plans higher than 100 MB is also available

Check out the value-packed features in here. Watch out for our managed dedicated server on July 2004 with reseller plans. We're growing and growing. Yeah!

If you're interested, just place your order. If you have questions, just post here.

Current Mood: accomplished

also see avphibes' comic!

( Click here to see! )

If you don't have a google mail (gmail) address, you might be interested to get an invite from me.

The first one to post a reply with a valid email address ( you can add@REMOVE) will get 1 gmail invite . Include first and last name (can be initials) . Star members of the Protagonist community are not qualified. (They should post here.)

Watch out for future invites in this LJ.

Top Commenters on theprotagonist's LiveJournal

1	miaowow	71
2	wild_jams	71
3	refineme	46
4	Anonymous	44
5	pandaxian	40
6	bluepunch	37
7	dolphinia	35
8	jubblegum	35
19	effronterie	31
10	maridu	31

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Report generated 6/14/2004 10:11:58 PM by scrapdog's LJ Comment Stats Wizard 1.1


( The full report )