Today I found the most invigorating conversation while riding a jeepney. The driver was open minded and shared to me his thoughts on the current election candidates and he rates them based on how much they have contributed to the community which were not published on the internet, newspaper, radio or TV. He says that the man who works in the shadows gains no treasure other than respect 

Online gaming is now the most popular form of e-gaming. An article back in 2007 wrote that online gamers have reached 217 million in numbers and it has swelled in the past 6 years. There are quite a number of online games today, each one with millions of dedicated followers. World of Warcraft, Dragon Nest, Guild Wars and Maple Story are some of the most popular MMO (Massive Multi-player Online) games today. When you say online gaming, it means players are able to play with other individuals or players without necessarily being physical near each other. Online gaming utilizes the internet as a medium to connect their PCs to a server which will allow them to interact with other PCs owned by other players. Without going into complex technical details on how this happens, it is easy to point out that one of the main factors in online gaming is to have a good internet connection. It is essential to find the best ISP (Internet Service Provider)  in your area to enjoy online gaming. Choosing an ISP provider in the Philippines is a very hard task because not one of them caters to the gamer market.

What  do you need to know to find the best Internet service provider for online gaming? The first thing that you need to understand is that the Philippines has not set its sights on the gaming industry. We do have a few developers but not one of them is at par with foreign companies who make it their business to be successful in this industry. Internet providers in this country do not cater to gaming because they are focused on providing service at affordable prices.Only those with business accounts are able to get the best packages for internet service. For residential accounts, most players will have to settle with the ones they can afford. It means that if a provider tells you that they have the fastest speed around, they have the fastest speed for the purpose of web browsing, video streaming, chatting, upload and downloading files. For gaming, you need to find the most stable internet connection. When choosing an ISP in the Philippines, you will find these companies being recommended to you. Most people would tell you to ask your friends or check it out online but the best way to find the most stable network is to ask internet cafe owners in your area. Why? These small business owners who operate internet cafes are very knowledgeable on which Internet provider offers the most stable network since this is the type of industry their business is centered on. They are the ones who have tested different packages from internet service providers and would definitely know which ones can offer stable connection to the internet.

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After finding out the most stable ISP in your area, check out all their packages and choose which one that you can afford. Don’t choose the one which you will have a hard time paying or bundles that offer things you don’t need. There are packages that offer free international calls or a limited number of premium channels but you don’t actually need them. Yes, there are packages that include the words “for gaming” but do not be fooled as you will still experience connectivity issues. Aside from that, these packages are most of the time more expensive than what you actually need. The recommended internet speed for quality connection in most online games is 1 MBPS which is mostly around Php 1200 to 1500. If you still are not convinced that the speed of your chosen package will not suffice, visit a gaming forum and asked the opinion of other gamers. Just like internet cafe owners, they know a lot on the best internet connection packages based on experience.

Last but not the least, in choosing an ISP in the Philippines you need to check out their customer service. Most gamers in the US are very concerned on how small random disconnections affect their game time and would immediately contact their ISP customer service and demand them to fix it as quickly as possible. Just like the steps above, other gamers and internet cafe owners are the best primary data in asking which internet provider has the best customer service. You should also note on how quickly the issue is resolved as a mark of good customer service. One thing that will ruin your online gaming experience is intermittent internet connection and customer service taking weeks to fix their network.

In choosing an ISP in the Philippines for gaming purposes, it is essential that you talk to the right people. Asking your friends who only use the internet to visit social media sites or download music about which internet provider offers the best price for gaming will not give you the answers you need. You have to ask those in the gaming industry to get the best kind of advice you can get in regards to choosing Internet service providers in the Philippines.

A few years back, the US and its allies stormed Iraq and its then leader Saddam Hussein under the crime or presumption of harboring weapons of mass destruction. It was bloody, devastating, and horrific that it had the world media at the edge of their seats for two thirds of the war. But why two thirds?

The media and internet had clearly announced that Iraq was believed to have weapons of mass destruction. This mania that some countries had bonded together to uproot the US and its allies started after the Sept. 11 suicide attack on various establishments in the US which prompted them to bombard Pakistan. According to wikipedia, Vladimir Putin began telling George W. Bush, current president of the US, that Iraq planned to attack them. They sent an inspector there through the support of the UN. Saddam permitted the inspector to check his bases and facilities and he announced that Iraq was not hiding any weapons of massive destruction. What does the US and its allies do next? They started a siege towards Baghdad and hanged its leader. But two thirds into the war, why was there a distinct lack of “weapons of mass destruction” on the battle field?

I am not here to persecute the US and its allies for such a judgement but I am putting this as reference to the current situation with North Korea. 

George W. Bush, the only president who had a shoe thrown at him from an Iraqi, called Iraq, Iran and North Korea as “Axis of evil”. This being referenced from the “Axis Powers” of World War 2, meant that he had blatantly accused three nations of being world’s top three countries everyone should hate. 

Let us move to how similar and different the conflict between North Korea and US is with the war in Iraq.. 

1. Both countries are accused of holding weapons of mass destruction which can level a city in minutes. However,only North Korea was found to have the ability create nukes, although not right now. Nobody really said that there was any destructive weapon there, only that Iraq’s cooperation was “proactive” but not “immediate”. 

2. Both countries were previously at war with their neighbors. Iraq hated Iran just like how North Korea vows to turn the South in to a “sea of flames”

3. Iraq had an experienced leader called Saddam Hussein. He led his people in various wars and conflicts that you can say he is probably a war hero in children’s books. Kim Jung Un is a neophyte in the art of war. 

4. Even with knowledge that North Korea is capable of missile attacks, US and its allies refuse to disable or remove this advantage from them. This makes small countries in the Pacific uneasy as they do not have means to protect themselves. While North Korea is proven to have capabilities to create nukes, no one was able to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This raises the question, why did the US attack them when they did not have any of those weapons?

Here is the summary of the difference between the two conflicts. Iraq had an awful leader and his country was accused of having weapons of mass destruction. US and it’s allies attack Iraq nevertheless. North Korea has an awful leader and is proven to be capable of creating nukes (but not immediate) but no one has attacked it to prevent them from doing so. 

What does a politician have to become a politician?

This statement has been argued and debated on for several years that many eyes have been punctured and fists colliding with the debaters face that it has come to a conclusion that a politician is someone who is able to influence others to do what they want because they have the power to do so. Looks, charisma, swagger, achievement, political background, family connections or all of the above grants them this type of power.

This power is what I call Political Bargaining Power. This is the power that grants a politician endless authority to demand something without repaying it. How does this happen? Now, when a person earns an achievement, Doctor’s Degree, graduating with colors, winning the local beauty contest or even saving a cat, it grants you a status +1. For every deed that you show to the public, you are given a +1 which when summed up, is the amount of bargaining power you have. This means that the more you are noticed, the more bargaining power you get. With this bargaining power, you can convince someone to do what you want or to bend to your demand as long as you cash in a few of these +1. Take for example an auction for a house down the street. A man wants to auction his house because he is moving to a new neighborhood. A lot of people are offering to buy his house so he decides to auction it to the highest bidder. Here comes a regular salary man who wants to buy the house for his family. Since he doesn’t have enough money to buy out bid other players, he decides to approach the man personally. Upon visiting his house, the salary man reminds the man about the time he lent him money to pay for his child’s hospitalization. He doesn’t do this on a tone of a man demanding payment but more of a casual and friendly tone. Then the salary man asks the owner to sell the lot to him instead by saying he needs it to start a family. The man, influenced by the +1 decides to sell the lot to him because of two things: he is indebted to the salary man and two he sees how the man approached him not through money but through words. 

What can I advise you to gain Political Bargaining Power?

Go to school. Get a degree. Help anyone that you can help. Flash a friendly smile once in a while but don’t look like a clown. Stop being an introvert.