Nasty Santi

That typhoon was nasty, eh? Was up all night because of work, and the wind was howling like a hungry wolf. And when I say howling winds, I mean HOWLING (and yes, it was literally howling, I'm not even misusing "literally" here. However, I have to admit that I've never personally heard a hungry wolf howl before.)

The tube connecting our water tank to the pressure tank also got deattached during the typhoon, so I had to put my plumber's cap on and reattach it (by using a straw rope to tie the thing together, ha!)

I also just found out that the banana, jackfruit and other trees in my parents garden in Quezon got uprooted. But I get the feeling from my mom's text message that she's is more concerned about the TV antenna getting uprooted from the roof (there's no cable tv in their hilly provincial area.)

The good thing about this typhoon is it looks like it didn't create as much damage as Typhoon Ondoy (as of the moment, at least.) And it's gone within 24 hours, and right before Halloween and the Monday holiday comes around too. OTOH, a typhoon on Halloween would've made for one befittingly spooky night.

(and since tonight is Halloween, and electricity was out earlier in the morning, I decided to get in bed and re-read The Wake. The artwork on this Sandman volume is all kinds of epic.)

Keep safe and have a happy Halloween!

Us vs Typhoon Pepeng

Typhoon Pepeng/Parma has really devastated Northern Luzon, and has been pouring a huge amount of rain for about a week now.

Barangay Balili, La Trinidad, Benguet

Here are some tweets from @mlq3 via Danny Durante:

Rainfall 8am yesterday to 8am today is 685 mm., more than Ondoy in Manila.

Ave rainfall in baguio october past 30 yrs only 461mm, but within 24 hours has reachd 685mm already.

(and again, it's been raining there for a week already...)

and via @PlanetEarth101:

NDCC said people affected by Pepeng has reached over 1million people with nearly 40,000 inside 162 evacuation centers

The mountainous topography of Northern Luzon means they're very prone to landslides, and at the same time, the heavy rains has already brought floods to the provinces

Typhoon Pepeng may not have affected Manila as badly as the tropical storm Ondoy did, but I hope people still pour in as much help this time as they did last week for Ondoy victims.

Let's donating as much as we can:

http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx

http://www.quezon.ph/2009/09/26/how-to-help/

http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/09/27/09/tropical-storm-ondoy-how-you-can-help

http://www.kapusofoundation.com/donate

Problem Record #66369

I'm not an expert on flood control... but I do hope the government finds a few of them, and ensure that the plans they come up with gets implemented. Also, I hope our infrastructures and disaster management (prevention, response and recovery) is improved in direct response to the Ondoy calamity.

I don't think I'm alone in wanting to read the post-mortem report on what went wrong and what are the next steps so that we can avoid another disaster like this (because storms like Ondoy will come to our islands again and again...) (Asiaaid, pagawa ng PR) (sorry, work-related line...)

I also hope people realize that we can do something about this. Nagging and blaming the government isn't the only option. Let's be more environmentally concerned (taking food out from a fast food store? Tell the server you don't need the plastic. Got trash? DON'T THROW IT ON THE STREETS!) Unfortunately, I still see people in the city throwing candy wrappers, cigarette butts and small papers around... As one of the better blog posts I've read about Ondoy said, in a democracy, we the people are the government, we don't need to wait for them to do something. And it's true. Getting pissed at government officials can only do so much... If we don't actually hold them (and ourselves) accountable for the problems that we are encountering, if we don't monitor their (and our own) actions, and if we don't make solutions for the problems on our level, then how can we expect change to happen for our country?

Lastly, just because it can't be said enough: Seeing the spirit of volunteerism and the amount of care and compassion that people have shown for the typhoon victims, and our general resilience against these kinds of dire situations makes me really proud as a Filipino. While do have our problems, we don't suck people! We're actually pretty great!

That Box Is Now Empty

I just got my new (work) laptop last week. So far, everything is going well, except for the part where I can't send or receive emails on my Outlook. It's really annoying me big time.

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It's been raining pretty much the whole night.

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Did you know that Ping Lacson blogs? It's kind of interesting. I wonder if it's actually him who writes on it or just a really smart intern. He posted the transcript of his privilege speech on his blog and I just found it hilarious that the / and // are still there to denote the short and long pauses.

You'd think the intern would remember to remove them before clicking "PUBLISH POST"

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I'm hungry. And there's no ready-to-eat food in my ref or anywhere in my kitchen for that matter. Damn it. I said in my previous post that I brought home one box of Royce' Dark Chocolate. Well, the problem is it was just one box and that box is now empty.

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Funny thing. Last Friday marked my 3rd year working for my company. It's also the only company I've ever worked for after I graduated from college. I didn't think I'd be so loyal, but I apparently am. Funny thing about loyalty, is there's usually an underlying reason that motivates it. Money, comfort, contentment, safety and security. Actual happiness. Or actual laziness that prevents you from searching for a better replacement. Funny, that.


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Now playing: Radiohead - Street Spirit
via FoxyTunes

After The Jump

As Paolo Nutini sang it: Where'd the days go when all we did was play? And the stress that we were under wasn't stress at all, just a run and a jump into a harmless fall.

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Big typhoon last weekend, and while I love the rainy season, I kinda felt sorry after reading my teammate Mich's accounts of what happened in her hometown.

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I'll be going on a trip around Southeast Asia with some friends next week. Everything has been planned out well for several months now, but damn, mofo Cebu Pacific strikes again. I guess it really is true what they say about Cebu Pacific giving no value for your little money. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with them some more in the future because I've also booked another flight with them to HK with my F/OM/FTM*. They better not fuck that up.

*friends/officemates/former teammates
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Why is a convenient excuse so hard to come by when you most need it? I guess now I really have to do something. Then again, the excitement of jumping off of cliffs or planes or skyscraper rooftops is in the falling. It's the landing that ends the thrill and begins the thirst for the next jump.



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Now playing: radiohead - jigsaw falling into place
via FoxyTunes

Where we go back to Wilanow, and a little bit of that Manila heat

We came back to Wilanow Palace earlier today. We went right after lunch time, while the sun was well up, so my pictures came out better :)

We went around the palace's park this time around. It's a great place to walk around in (in that it fits the general fast rule on what a nice place to walk around should be.) I'll share some pics later on.

In my previous post, I was talking about how cold it is here... Well, it turns out Polish weather is a bit fickle too. After a couple of days of sub-15 degrees C temperature, I took a quick look at the thermometer on my apartment window this afternoon and the temperature actually read somewhere north of the 30s! (It was directly under sunlight, so that may have contributed to the fact.) Anyway, I didn't even need to wear a jacket today! I missed that feeling.

That's when I realized: screw snow and winter. I'd rather have hot days than have the skin on my knuckles crack and bleed from the extreme cold (and that's not a hypothetical statement, the skin on my hands really are cracking and bleeding)

Of course, these little wounds (that will probably turn into scars) still aren't stopping me from having a good time here.

Status report: 2 weeks in Poland, still having a good time. :D

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Now playing: Janis Joplin - Summertime
via FoxyTunes

I can't wait for the fourth one.

Traffic was insufferable last Wednesday. I left the office a few minutes before 11am, I got home a few minutes after 3pm. It took more than an hour to travel from Ayala corner Paseo de Roxas to Buendia corner Pasong Tamo. That's probably less than 5 kilometers right there. Waist-high flood covered most parts of Buendia from Pasong Tamo to the Pasay/Makati boundary. I was on the very first row of the bus and it was sort of surreal watching the bus go through the murky waters like it was a boat.

Right now, it's 7am. I'm almost ready to leave my desk, and the thick gray clouds outside are threatening to unload on the city again. The third typhoon to hit the country in two weeks is reportedly getting stronger.

I hate working past midnight and having to go home at 9 in the morning. But don't quote me on that.


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Now playing: Death Cab for Cutie - The Sound of Settling
via FoxyTunes