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In January of this year, I posted this on Instagram: Tl;dr: When I decided to move here to Mexico several years ago, I came prepared career-wise. I finished a one-year course to teach English as a foreign language before flying here, expecting to transition from writing to full-time teaching (I did my research, and majority of the expats living here in Mexico teach English at a language school or at a university). Sure, it was scary to think about, that I would have to turn my back on something that I have been doing professionally since I was 19, but I decided that I wouldn't mind the career change, if ever; it comes with the territory for someone who had already made up his mind to leave everything behind and immigrate. Many years later, I'm still pleasantly surprised that I stayed as a writer here in Mexico, doing what I've loved doing since leaving university, being fortunate enough to have landed writing jobs that have helped me grow not only professionally, but al...

These days I've been reminiscing about the good old days, and in this case the days where the Internet was already around but people didn't have smartphones yet. Or Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. You get the idea. In the Philippines back then Friendster was king. Quite a few were also into Myspace. But what reigned then were blogs: hosted on LiveJournal, WordPress, Blogdrive, TypePad, or Blogger -- like this one.  Social media in the form of Facebook and Myspace was already around, sure, but it wasn't as pervasive as social media is right now. And like I said, people didn't have smartphones yet, which, basically, is a pocket computer. I ranted on Facebook last year that Internet wasn't the problem -- that back then we already had social media, but we weren't glued to smartphones like we are now. To be able to access your Friendster or Myspace or Multiply account back then, you needed to fire up your desktop or laptop. And because you had to make time to act...