I had that mindset with me for a while and the whole “gnarly” thing just stuck. My blog, my thoughts. If you don’t like it, take a hike. And with that I pulled through it. A senior project that needed 8 people to finish was left to just me and I did it and I graduated.

If you go back into the old posts, you could see that they were more frequent, and at the same time more personal. The blog became my thought outlet–a place where I would pull out whatever I thought, whatever I saw and projected onto here as a way to be heard–to not feel alone.

And it worked. I met new people through here. I met people through the people I knew through here. Here was where I first realized my desire of becoming a BK Magazine intern and I did. The internship became a job. The job led to more contacts and more jobs. Without this blog and “Gnarly Kitty” I wouldn’t have the job I have today.

When my real life started, real experiences emerged, and I no longer needed this blog to be my companion, to be someone I turn to. I had an outlet where I could write and be heard. And I had someone to turn to. It was no longer just me.

I started blogging less and less. Like someone had said to me, it was because I started having a life. But one thing for sure, Gnarly Kitty in me never left. It started turning up everywhere–Twitter and in real life–and in the end the moniker just took over. Though like I said, without it I wouldn’t have the job I have today. But it also means I wouldn’t have ended up feeling exactly the same as I did when I started blogging. And now blogging doesn’t help get out of this anymore.

This blog was never political or anything of a serious sort. It was just me talking about things that happened in my life. A coup here, an ICT minister there, and a few articles and a book mention in between, so it did get its spotlight but I was never paid to do any of this for anyone. I did it for me. No one is depending on this blog, not even me. And now that I feel like it doesn’t really do much for me anymore, and that it no longer serves its original purpose, I feel like it’s time to leave it at this so I can focus on my real life–the one that really needs my attention.

I’m keeping it online though. There are still links coming in. And since “gnarlykitty” has basically been my only moniker, I can’t just let it disappear into oblivion. The blog just seems like the most logical choice to forgo first.

Personal blogs are dying anyway–especially when you don’t really have a thematic topic. And since my citizen journalism days were long gone, there’s just really no need to keep this one when I can sum everything up in 140 characters or through pictures. And even those I’m already doing less on them.

If it was meant to be, we would be together again. I hope. I still do.

Well now there is one happening right now closer to home and I’m on the investigation team. But with a BlackBerry, the hunt is a little bit more difficult without MobileMe’s Find My iPhone feature.

“K” lost her BlackBerry in a cab about a month ago. Thought she would never get it back, she got herself an iPhone. And then the ghost of her BlackBerry (theif) came back when a BBM message was sent to her friend–from her lost BB.

Then the hunt began as word got out to her twitter friends. You can follow my timeline for the updates on our hunt. What we have right now is the BlackBerry PIN and the profile photo of girl and her boyfriend. So this gives us a bit of a clue about how much she knows about the technology–practically none. The first thing you should not do on the BlackBerry you stole is put your photo on it. Second, talk to former owner’s friend on BBM.

So here’s what we know:

Her PIN: 216d5e21
Her first excuse: “โทษทีนะ ไม่ได้ขโมยมา คุณทำหายเอง” or “sorry it’s not stolen if you lost it.”
Her second excuse: She bought it from Apple Mobile, a phone shop in The Mall Ngamwongwan. Oh no not The Mall. She meant Phuket.
Her “name” on BBM: Beer emoticon “Snow” and then “Ball”.
And of course her photo:

So basically she knows it’s a lost phone, someone’s property. She knows the owner is looking for it. By refusing to give it back is as much of a crime as stealing it.

This is an ongoing story. Feel free to follow on Twitter. I will also be putting updates here.

Well according to an insider, there were actually staff at all times at the aquarium. Some even slept at the office just to make sure the fish and animals were safe and fed.

And they look happy alright. As if nothing ever happened. We human could feel, and smell, otherwise though. Some parts of the aquarium just smell like old rags. Think of an old humid theater. Some parts were unbearable, especially areas where there are open tanks. Guess the fish got a bit too excited and splashed around spilling the water onto their carpeted floors. And no one bothered to clean it before reopening the place.

The starfish petting tank was also gone and was replaced but some kind of stage. Great. Another loud and annoying performance area.

One additional feature added to the aquarium from the last time I went was the “Free Photo Booth”. Yup it’s true it’s free but the photo they give you at the exit is smaller than a postage stamp. Of course if you want a normal size print big enough for you to recognize your face, you would have to pay at least 250 baht. Rip off. We took photos with our own cameras, and iPhones, and they come out looking much better than their green-screen “free” one.

It’s a nice place to hang out in though. It’s beautiful, peaceful, well if you pick the time and day parents don’t take their kids to. There’s no time limit so you can just take a seat in front one of their big tanks and just…stare.

Was gonna upload one of these shots to Bangkok Through the iPhone but then I just took so many so here are all of them.

I don’t get why people keep saying it was a stupid ending and they still don’t understand. It was by far the most revealing episode.

OK the island is a WTF in itself. But if you take it as a fantasy and try to make sense of the stories being told, then it makes sense.

If you haven’t seen it, and care to see it, then don’t continue reading…

——-

The Island Story and the Flash Sideways Story are separate. No relation whatsoever. The Flash Backs were just back stories of how these characters intertwined, how they were destined to be on the Island, by Jacob or whatnot. The Flash Sideways is just a purgatory where these people who had experienced the whole ordeal together, with special bonds between each other, come and meet before they are “reborn”, “reincarnated”, or simply “move on”, whatever your belief is. If you hadn’t notice, the church was an all-religion church. There was a cross, a yin-yang, Buddha statues and Hindu god posters.

And they were just reliving the life they never could have. Hurley actually got to use his winning, Ben became a father figure for Alex, Jack fixing someone successfully, and Sawyer being a cop instead of a thief. And like Jacob said, before they came to the island, they were all losers that had nothing else to lose.

And the Island, basically if you were to take the fantasy seriously, was a real deal. They crashed. There was Dharma Initiative. There was some magnetic field. Yes some went off the island, some went back in time, and in the end they were all back together as the candidates were needed. So yes Jacob and some stupid cave and stupid light you had to save for god knows what reason were real, in LOST world. Yes it’s all whatta fuck but I didn’t see anyone complain about some stupid ring a hobbit has to go get, or a hot smoking vampire that lives through high school and never ages and no one notices. Hello? Star Trek? LOST is just my generation’s Star Trek.

But all that happened. Kate, Sawyer, et al got on the plane and left for real. And the show simply just didn’t show us what happened after they took off on the plane. And like what Jack’s dad said, some died before, while some died way after Jack did in the bamboo jungle. Ben, Eloise, Daniel and AnnaLucia weren’t there because they did not want, or were aware that they could, move on yet. Don’t get the Flash Sideway theory? Go watch The Others, starring Nicole Kidman. Similar ideas.

Well this is my theory and it makes sense to me.

Great ending, despite what other people say.

How convenient. No need to act “ab-baew” and beg, though that would have given me a discount instead of having to pay full B500.

The photos are unbelievably crisp and clear, with my license plate clearly visible in HD. Wow. Who would have thought we would have such technologically advanced traffic video equipment, considering the state of our city, where people get shot and bombed on at major intersections without any form of photographic evidence.

Does that mean I can easily run red lights at Silom and Ratchaprasong and not get caught? Cool. I’ll keep that in mind once those streets are open to innocent public again.

So this theme is back. For now. I like the header but not so much the three-column layout but I am too lazy to retweak everything again.

So here it stays.

More real blogging after the blog is fully back up.

Well before all that, there was this.

And now there are holes in Au Bon Pain, MRT/BTS closing down, more people getting injured, one reported dead. You’re all just fucking anarchists, no matter what color you’re proclaiming to be.

I just paid Apple B3,000 yesterday. Why? Because thanks to my I-cannot-wait-for-anything attitude, I decided to coerce an iPhone Developer acquaintance to give me the latest OS 4.0 to play with. What we both didn’t know was that my device would have to be registered as a dev iPhone before I could play.

The result was a bricked iPhone that could not be downgraded (because it has been forbidden by Apple), or activated as I did not have a developer account. So I signed up Saturday morning, paid, only to be told in an email that their operating hours are Mon-Fri 9am-5pm, meaning I wouldn’t get a verification until they’re back at their office.

Saturday was not the day to be iPhone less, considering the political situation. I was stuck with a crappy Nokia with lagging Opera Mobile browser that gives fonts the size of an ant’s footprint. And Sunday morning I had to do my social media work on the go so I really had to get my iPhone back.

So I begged my dev friend again, now to add my phone onto his device list and voila I’ve got iPhone 4.0 Beta. Thanks!

And it is beta alright.

OK I’m not complaining. The new launch animation is suave. The multitasking is still confusing but welcome. Wallpaper is..well not new if you have a jailbroken iPhone. The dock now looks like Mac OSX dock. Mail inboxes are unified, although when you used to be able to “delete”, it’s not “archive” and you’d have to go to All Mail to delete them.

The biggest thing for me has to be the folders. Hold onto the app icons until they wiggle, then drag one on top of the other, and the phone will guess what you’d like to call the folder. Great concept, as of late my phone has recently acquired its 9th page, and it was a pain to try to find something. My nine pages are now two.

Folders function has two big flaws. The first is that you cannot add more than 12 apps in one folder. And since I have about 20 photography-related apps (I know what you’re thinking), I have to split them into three folders: Photography, Photo-editing and Video. And the bigger flaw is that, right now you cannot sync applications as iTunes still doesn’t know whatta fuck folders are. Result? Folders gone, back to nine-page iPhone at every application sync. And I just spent twenty minutes rearranging folders and apps.

My developer’s account is still not approved. Once it is, I might as well just dwell into the world of iPhone development and learn Objective C if I have the time, the determination and the patience to do so, that is. I heard there’s a class somewhere. Mahidol?

So there, the price you pay to be an iPhone slave. At least I can show off. And that’s the most important thing.

Troops retreating, police outnumbered. Soldiers firing fake bullets and tear gas, while the reds attack with real guns, grenades and molotovs?

Isn’t this already justified for a REAL retaliation?

I’m all for them protesting for their voice, their right. But stirring up shit just because things don’t happen like your leaders have brainwashed you to believe and expect, this is just plain stupid.

I didn’t care whether Abhisit stayed in power or not but now I want a government that can react and deal with shit like this professionally. This is ridiculous.

OK someone is on air now. Guess I’m live blogging this shit. Oh hello September 2006. I’ve missed you.

———-

9:00pm: Whatever the government says, the redshit is gonna say they’re lying, inciting violence among their people. Of course they already trust you. Thanks for lying to them now they’re all believing violence is the answer. Thanks.

OK this soldier dude on TV is really threatening the reds. If they don’t stop attacking the soldiers, they’re gonna attack back.

9:07pm: OK fine.. Live ammunition from the army but in the air only. Whatever. Well either way, nothing is working is it? Either man up or just give up, okay Thai government?

9:15pm: From @journotopia: “Eyewitness reports of other injuries. Soldier dead or near dead. Man with brain blown out.”

Oh and for tweets live from the scene, follow these brave tweeters: @journotopia @newley

9:17pm: Two reds dead, being carried out from hospital by protesters, confirmed on NBT.

9:22pm: NBT is saying soldiers are retreating.

9:25pm: And of course Channel 3, 5, and 7 are showing soap operas. Amazing Thailand. @phuphu said it best: ประเทศนี้มีฟรีทีวีไว้เพื่อดูละคร โฆษณา มิวสิควีดีโอ เกมส์โชว์ตลก และรายงานสดแพนด้ากับหม่าม้าของมัน

9:32pm: Wait, they’re bringing the bodies of the two dead reds and show them off on stage? OK. No comment.

9:40pm: Government, please just end this by ending yourself. I don’t care who wins. The country is not going to be any better either way.

9:44pm: TV dude is back. Same predictable things.

9:47pm: Times like this make me realize blogging is slowly losing its relevance. Twitter is definitely star.

That writing time has come to an end. For the better I must add but I’m going to miss going “shopping” for photoshoot things, getting press freebies, free trips to places I wouldn’t have had a chance to go, and eating pretty dishes at places I can’t afford.

Today is my third day on the job on the other side of the media business. I like it. Especially the perks that come with. No more starving in Krung Thonburi, now I have endless supplies of Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Fritos, peanut butter M&Ms and Skittles. I have done my best to retrain. I only had one of those said items each.

I’m still gonna have my CNNGo (if I can still function after my new 7am-4pm working hours), but it’s just not the same. Sure the freelance rate for them is much better than any of full-time writing gigs I had, but there’s just that bit of proud moment when you can touch your writing, have the piece in your hands, and see people picking it up and flipping through the pages looking at your photos.

Online is where it all is now. I should know. And now I should even know better.

For my last self promotion as a shameless lifestyle writer, make sure you pick up the latest copy, and my last issue, of DO, out April 4.