November Updates

I always seem to find a need to psyche myself up to making blog entries, but whenever I end up staring at the blank space I just buzz out. But November has come, and it's brought along a few topics that are screaming to be talked about, at least in passing.

Tragedy
Disaster struck the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan touched down with all its monstrous power in Tacloban, Leyte last Friday, November 8. Up until now, the news is still booming with updates on the aftermath. Thousands of families have been displaced and a large death toll count hasn't even capped yet, so it's normal feel remorse for them.

In this time of need, we all need to band together to help out in whatever way we can, but more news of groups looting the relief goods intended for the victims is just despicable. I just abhor hearing that these type of people exist and not have the decency to do the right thing and let what's intended for others actually get there. It's great to see the efforts people are taking to do what they can, and the international assistance we've received from other countries is very much appreciated. I tip my hat to everyone pitching in, doing and giving what they can.

Love
My girlfriend and I celebrated our 5th anniversary together as a couple last Saturday, November 9. We didn't plan anything extravagant, but decided to go someplace nostalgic and dine at a restaurant we frequented in college - the newly renovated Teriyaki Boy along Katipunan. The rest of the day, funnily enough, was spent playing Pokemon X / Y.

Success
Lots of activity in the office. Since my last update work-related, there have been some transitions and I find myself climbing up the career ladder a few more rungs. At present I'm carrying two positions, both as a Lead QA Analyst (QA3), as well as an OIC QA Director. The load is definitely larger, but I'm prepared to plow into it and make things work. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that coveted designation as director of the department (scratching off the officer-in-charge) with a bit more people to handle. Fingers crossed.

November sure has been eventful, and we haven't even reached the halfway mark. I've got a few more topics in mind, but that'll have to wait until next time. For now, we work.

Affected by Typhoons

Yesterday was a stressful day. It was a day of panic and boredom at the same time it was almost frustrating. Why, you ask? Let's look at what happened.

My typical Tuesdays would normally begin with me waking up to my 5 AM alarm since I usually hitch a ride with my mom early in the morning to get to my 7:30 AM class. Rains and strong winds were both a factor in effectively waking me up after every attempt at trying to get back to sleep.

The night before I read an email from our Economics professor (the heathen 7:30 class) that due to the storm and the UAAP Finals Game 2 that was originally scheduled yesterday (but was rescheduled to Saturday at 3PM), she wouldn't be checking attendance but would still hold classes unless the admin suspends class. After some contemplation I decided not to go to class. I was lucky enough to decide that as I received a text from TC at around 6AM informing me of the suspension of classes. Happy with that, I sank back to get more sleep.

About an hour or two after, I woke up to the strong winds pounding harshly against my closed windows. Seeing that my fan was still breezing, I noted that the power was still okay and decided to charge some of my electronic gadgets, foreseeing a possible power outage later that day should the storm pursue. I also had the impending dilemma of finishing our group's game script that was due today. It was on Google Docs so I had the mind to download it to Word should anything bad happen. Not long after that the power start to fluctuate and eventually die down altogether, so I was inwardly happy to have done that else I was screwed.

Wanting to save battery I shut my laptop down and decided to work on a draft of the chapters I had yet to write down on pen and paper. Satisfied after writing down two chapters worth of script, I decided to take a break and take a nap since the pounding rain and winds just give me nothing more to do but that. I awoke around 4PM when I realized that the power had revived itself. I managed to watch a few minutes of the Game 1 replay before the power died again. Bored altogether, my sister came into my room wondering what to do before I broke out the question cards from my Harry Potter Scene It? game to pass the time, considering we were both Potterheads.

Soon after, dark came after another nap, and we three sibling had an early dinner with what little outdoor light there still was before we were plunged into pure blackness that the evening brought. Rain continued trickling down and soon my dad, and my mom came home from their work, and we all decided to go out to grab some internet time since power had still to return to our house. What was ironic was that half our street already had power, so it was pretty unlucky for us to still not have ours back. We spent the time from around 7PM until 10PM at Flapjacks, Techno Hub leeching off the free WiFi and giving the parents an opportunity to have some dinner for the lack of any.

During that span of time I took the opportunity to have a chat with Kai who was alone in the house, which was never a good thing since their house had tendencies of flooding during typhoons so of course I was worried for her. On the back of that, I still had to update the script with the draft I had constructed and compose two more chapters before I could put a pin on it and consider it done. I never got to finish it until we got home, where we found to our dismay that there was still no power. We ended up going to bed with the lack of anything more to do.

So on one hand, I should count my blessings that compared to others, Typhoon Pedring handicapped us by chucking away our power most of the day. On the other hand, the power of Pedring that's swept away trees and flooded streets and houses, inconveniencing a lot of people is no laughing matter. Stay safe everyone.

A Day of Randomness

乱数の日。（らんすうのひ）Ransuu no Hi. trans. A Day of Randomness.

So there was supposedly a storm today up in the northern part of the country, and yeah it rained a decent amount but nothing too serious. ^^b Relatives came to visit Gramps and have dinner here in the house too. Sadly one of my cousins got drenched while coming over since he didn't have an umbrella. Ah well.

Aftermath of the Tropical Storm

This is one of the rare moments that I tune in to the news channel on TV. For once, I want to be updated with the current event that was the typhoon that passed. That's how much of an impact Typhoon Ketsana is right now. Everywhere I turn, I hear about the typhoon and the affects it brought with it; whether news came from the internet, TV or radio.

What may be more difficult to grasp is the fact that this typhoon has made itself known to not only my girlfriend Kai and her family, but also to a number of my previous teachers from grade school and high school. DDDDD8

The escalating number of cases I hear right and left about the state of things our country, especially of people I know, is such an eye-opener. A tropical storm this intense... to cause a flood so high.... to take so many lives... to displace so many families... to cause so much disarray... is something I didn't think I'd see in my lifetime.

To not experience the flood in the house during the worst is a blessing.

To not be stranded in a place that's not your home during the worst is a blessing.

To basically live through the worst is a blessing.

Be grateful for any casualties that you've avoided through the weekend.

So... truly... my greatest sympathies to the victims. My prayers go out to those who died during the storm... to those who are homeless... and to my friends who are going through hardships because of Ondoy. You are all in my prayers.

Typhoon Ketsana

Bagyong Ondoy is the local name. Typhoon Ketsana is the international name. Take your pick, either way it was a devastating experience for the people of the Philippines yesterday, September 26, 2009.

The only thing I can say about it: Absolutely catastrophic. Never once did I think I would bear witness to such a natural calamity such as floods, let alone be right under it. The heaviest rainfall in history in the span of six hours here in the Philippines. @_______@

Lemme share my own personal experience. So at around 10:20 in the morning, I went out under the storm to head to Katipunan to hand over some documents I printed out for Kai for her Marketing class the night before. The rain was coming down hard, yet I found myself driving smack dab in the midst of it all. Luckily I didn't meet much traffic until just before Katipunan. I was stuck in slow moving traffic for an hour, and already both Kai and my mom had told me to head back home. So I wasn't one to complain.

The rain was, to say the least, unforgiving. Not only were there strong winds, the heavy rain was coming down non-stop. I admit, it was such a challenge braving the little flooded areas heading to UP - where I passed - and went to Fine Arts to pick up my sister. A lot of areas around UP Diliman campus was flooded, so we had to go around to find a less flooded road to travel through.

One of my sister's classmates hitched a ride with us, and she became a key part in our journey to brave the traffic and heavy rains to get to Commonwealth. The car - my dad's -'s aircon was on the fritz one reason or another, and it was getting quite foggy inside the car. As we were driving through UP all of us were literally wiping the accumulated fog from the windshields and windows to at least have some visibility to the side mirrors. Even my sister's friend pitched in, wiping the back.

We found our way out of UP after failed attempts at trying to see if the gate at Ylanan Road was open. Sadly it wasn't. Finally, we got out at Balara and chartered the way all the way to Tandang Sora. In the slow moving traffic of Balara, I received calls from my parents, asking us how things were, and texts from Kai, who was worried about how things were above her own situation stranded in school. D8

It was past 1 in the afternoon when I bothered to check the time as we were in Balara. We even got into a little casualty. Because of the rain and fog, my sister didn't see that the right front tire had hit a small rock (and I say rock because it's quite big), leaving us stuck for a little bit. After a bit of debate of what to do, me and my sister's friend got out of the car and tried to move the stuff and helped the car move back enough to get past the small obstacle.

After constant wiping of the fog and the back defogger making slow progress, we finally reached Commonwealth and to our surprise, saw it as open as the it ever was. The final hurdle, as I called it. We dropped my sister's friend down at one of the pedestrian overpasses and made the last few kilometers into our subdivision.

During our drive and I had already drenched both sleeves of my long shirt with fog, my sister and I talked about how lucky we were that we were together, otherwise we'd have already met an accident if we were alone. That being the case, it was when my sister finally sounded the horn outside our house did we scream out 'FINALLY!!!' to each other, touched down in our garage at quarter to 3 in the afternoon.

The latter events that followed - the blackout for 4 hours at our subdivision - was unimportant. I feel very strongly to all the victims of this Typhoon, especially those in the areas of Marikina, Cainta and Pasig. This was the first that I've bothered to pay attention to the news channels and be updated with this natural disaster, hoping against hope that everybody is fighting to stay alive and surviving amidst this catastrophe.

I'm grateful that my family and I did not see any floods collect here around our house, but I worry still for my friends and relatives who may have been greatly or even partially affected by this disaster.

Kai's family, especially, has been greatly affected by it. And to me that's something to very much worried about. But I'm happy to report that her mother and grandmother, who were left stranded on the rooftop of their house most of the day yesterday, have been attended to by Kai's uncles and will be making trips back to their house in the coming days to see what they can salvage of their belongings. R.I.P. to Kai's lovebirds who died during the Typhoon. )8 You four will be missed.

My thoughts go out to all other victims. To all the students who were stranded in their respective schools, I hope you all have been cared for. Let's all do our part to help restore our country. I send a prayer to all those who did not make it through the night, people and animal alike.

In short, STOP CUTTING DOWN THE TREES!!!!! DDDDDD8