Q. You've been writing since  1996. What are your observations of the present Pinoy blogging scene? What changes have you observed?

A. Aside from the fact that there are more bloggers now (especially since evil Friendster added a blog feature), the most noticable change is also my biggest complaint: so many blogs use text lingo in their entries.  Come on.  How hard can it be to spell the word "you" and include vowels in your words? I don't really read other peoples' blogs aside from my friends in Livejournal, but you can't help but run into one of the bad ones every now and then.  And it annoys me that written language itself is being destroyed by text lingo.
 
Q. You have blogged for so long. What do you love about this online activity?

A. It allows me to express little bursts of anger, irritation, or happiness, as well as check up on the lives of my friends.  I'm not too comfortable with strangers reading about my personal life anymore. It makes me feel like my life is a soap opera and I hate being objectified that way.

Oh, another thing I like about blogging is that it's very useful when you need to promote stuff.  I'm currently the Entrepreneur Editor of an independent news publication called KATIPUNAN (you can view our website at http://katipunan.com.ph) and I use my blog to promote it and solicit donations from my readers. Nobody has really donated though, but it at least makes the name familiar to other people.
 
Q. Do you agree that blogging is hard work? What does it take for someone to blog for as long as what you have done for example? What do you think are the qualities of a good blogger?

A. That depends. If writing is something that comes naturally to you, it isn't hard. Blogging today is more informal than anything and you don't really have to put too much thought into writing.  I do appreciate reading blogs whose writers take time to write quality entries and express their opinions in creative ways.  Paolo Manalo's blog is an example of that.

Q. Care to share your online/blogging habits, including blogs you visit?

A. All of my blogging and blog-reading is done through my private Livejournal account.  I try to update my public blog as often as I can, but I keep it impersonal.  As I mentioned earlier, I don't like the idea of strangers reading about my personal life.  The blogs, or rather Livejournals, that I visit are those of people I personally know from school. 

Q. What advice can you give to newbie bloggers.Do you think they need to be tech-savvy and such?

A. Nobody really needs to be tech-savvy to have a blog these days. You can just get the free ones at Livejournal or even Friendster; just sign up for an account, and there's a little box where you can type what you want to say.  Really, the only thing you have to do is type your entry, and it annoys me to no end that people can't even take the effort to write something coherent.  So people, learn to spell words properly.  Save the vowels!
 
Q. You've recently transferred your domain. Please tell us why and what CMS are you using? Any other blogs you maintain?

A. I transferred blogs because my older one used to contain a lot of personal stuff about me that I'm really ashamed of right now.  I don't want to be associated with that anymore.  My new blog, Laurganism, is kind of like a fresh start.  It's still me, but definitely a more impersonal, emotionally distant me.  I use WordPress.
 
Q. What do you think is the future of blogging and how it will evolve years from now ?

A. If nobody learns to spell entire words, it will be the death of the written word.
 
Q. Your thoughts on how blogging has developed your character, enriched your personality and established your identity. Do you think that people associate with you now as Lauren, the blogger?

A. I really hope not.  I was just a lonely, precocious high school kid who didn't really have anyone to talk to.  I jumped at the first guy who "fell in love with me" through my blog, and made a whole public romance of it on the Internet.  I thought I loved him at first but in the end, I realized I was just using him for his money.  It's terrible and something I'm really not proud of. That's mostly the reason why I transferred blogs.

Honestly, I don't believe that my being the first blogger is a real achievement, because being the first to do something doesn't really count.  Anyone could've been the first blogger; it was just due to luck that it happened to be me. I'd rather be famous for my ability as a writer (should I ever become that good).  Hopefully, my next newspaper interview will be about my award-winning novel.  Haha!

For comments & inquiries, pls. email annalyn.jusay(at)gmail(dot)com