it was one of those ‘bonding’ times again when we went to megamall and, of course, getting tired from all the window shopping (coz it wasn’t payday yet. all we could do is salivate and ogle at the stuff on shops in megamall) we were famished. and it has always been my thing to try out places we’ve never been to before, but A sticks to her ’sweet spaghetti’ places. t’was a good thing then that i convinced her to eat at Eskimo Bob. maybe it was the ice cream that got her attention. hehe…

of course, the tag was from FB. kaso naisip ko, matagal-tagal na din ako hindi gumagawa ng ganito sa blog. time to spread out again!

Thanks to Iska for tagging me. hmmm… sino kaya may gusto gumawa nito? ah basta, bahala na kayo.

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Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 20 people and include me. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s actually a lot harder than you think.

Pick Your Artist:
Eraserheads

01. Are you male or female?
Pare Ko

02. Describe yourself:
Walanghiyang Pare Ko

sige na, sige… nobody’s perfect. ako din, i make spelling errors very often. minsan nga yung THEIR and THEY’RE napag-papalit ko pa ng gamit eh. pero i just couldn’t help it…

was on my way to meet A in Boni so from Katipunan, i take the LRT going to Cubao then take the MRT from there to Boni station. and i usually pass by some tech shops along the way inside Farmer’s cubao. syempre, kaka-silip, kaka-window shopping, nakita ko to. and i knew i had to share it.

everybody has one — a gift that they would never ever think of using. makes you wonder how well one person knows you because he gave you something that is (a)pretty much useless to you or (b)you would never think of buying for yourself because you don’t like it! friends sometimes do that. i once got a sando with some artwork reminiscent of Tribal Gear designs from my grandmother and i just had to flash a wide smile and say, “thank you!” i just couldn’t break her heart by showing a shocked face asking, “kelan ko susuotin ‘to?”

sitting in front of the PC at 4 o’clock in the morning at the office, while the rain keeps pouring down on the metro and northern luzon, it takes great effort to work. specially because you’ve been staying up late for the past 3 days primarily because you are thinking of other people’s welfare. that’s the downside of being involved in studying disasters. kaya kung employee ka at pinapa-uwi kayo kapag umuulan, pasalamat pa kayo at kapag bumabagyo at may lindol, makaka-uwi pa kayo!

undeniably, this ‘tragedy’ has proven how low some people can go just for political ambition and how some risk and even at times give their lives, literally, for others. the latter just gives me enough pride to say loud and proud:

yes. you do what you can. nothing is too big or too small. although you can argue some are doing things for personal gain but most of us do what we are doing because we believe in humanity, in compassion, in our fellow Filipinos.

so, how are my fellow heroes?
–
*yung mga makasarili, may vested interest at may maiitim na budhi, hindi kasali. *belat* lol

image taken from TPC Ondoy thread. nice idea for a shirt noh?

if i were at home in Pampanga last saturday, i would just be fine. i would be ok. being home leaves a feeling of security. i don’t know. it just gives me that. so after sleeping-over at the office because of the rains and floods, and hearing of the terrible traffic on NLEX, i went home to Pampanga on Sunday. i was expecting some water but i thought most of it would have subsided after 12 hours or so. so after breakfast at Kenny Roger’s in katipunan (thank goodness they were open! Jollibee ran out of food since the delivery van couldn’t get through the waters the previous day and McDo was closed), i took the bus home and what did i see setting foot on San Fernando? this:

SURPRISE!!!

i was  riding a padyak driven by a manong holduper. P40 for a length of something i could normally walk on an ordinary day. ok, fine, he saved me from getting wet. wag naman holdap na presyo diba??? hay…

i got home, saw that the backyard was flooded about 10 inches to a foot. but it’s ok. no electricity and water. but it’s ok. i’m home.

pero siyempre, i had to come back to manila for work. but it’s ok pa din. i know they’re safe. we can manage. we’ve been through worse.

headache.

one solution is to take a pill and expect it to work and take the pain away.

another solution, bang your head against the wall, hoping that the rhythmic beat of your head against it would massage the pain away.

option three, have someone punch you in the stomach. by increasing the pain in other areas of your body, this would negate the pain you’re feeling on your head.

as a last resort, perhaps, try cutting-out the source of your headache. too bad i can’t cut my heart out.

it’s been so long since i’ve had a ‘fun’ post. shucks, sign of aging ba ito? only one thing comes to mind: jaded.

i’m not exactly a model Catholic so i guess i can’t be accused of speaking in behalf of the Holy Roman Catholic Church even if  i am one. i say that i’m not a ‘model’ Catholic because i don’t exactly agree with everything that comes from the Vatican. am i, then, a liberal? would it qualify for my excommunication? i don’t know. i may be relying too much on my own knowledge and ‘enlightenment’… maybe i just got too used to thinking about things that way, not reading up on stuff before making decisions. just thinking about it by myself.

what actually triggered this is a friend’s blog about why the Philippine government, taking care of a predominantly Catholic nation, should not force Catholics to observe non-Catholic holidays. this would seem fair as he further explains that if the country (or any country) is predominantly Muslim, all Muslim holy days should be observed as national holidays since most of the population would ‘participate’ — people wouldn’t come to work and it would greatly affect businesses, services and schools. Meanwhile, minor religions in the country could observe their holy days but still work (with additional compensation). so it’s basically a numbers game. but is it just about numbers?

if only i had internet for the 10-day training i had in tacloban, i would have had more things to write. andami na kasi nangyari. araw-araw, andaming impressions naiiwan saken ng siyudad na yon. andaming missed “Kodak” moments din. things that i now wish i could have taken a picture of to show what tacloban city was really like. not just the places we went to but also how it is at night when all is quiet na.

it may be a little futile to gather all the emotions i had when i got there. hindi na siya kasing-intense eh. mas may awe and wonder ka, coupled with fear and excitement pag first time mo umapak sa isang lugar. lalo na kung you don’t speak the local language.

unang lapag palang sa airport, sabi ko, dapat nakunan ko na ng picture yung grounds ng airport. it was flat (natural! airport yun diba?) and you could see a boat on the horizon. it was a beautiful combination of green, blue, white and the black tarmac. the airport itself is no 5-star hotel but that was irrelevant when we landed. what greeted us was this:

and it was absolutely breathtaking — a sign of good things to come during our stay in tacloban city in the next few days.

first thing we had to do, though, was get from the airport to the city proper to register and leave our stuff at our hotel. since taxis were quite expensive… Php 150 pinaka murang singil samen, naglakas-loob na lang kami mag-jeepney. being with a girl companion, sort of nag-alangan ako pero dahil first time din niya bumyahe, ang sabi ko na lang eh, “sige lang! adventure to!” half-lying about my courage to ride the jeepney to i don’t know where exactly. thank goodness nakarating naman kami sa registration and sa mga hotel namen. magkahiwalay pa kami! nevertheless, masaya pa din. and dahil di din namen sure what to sample and where to sample the local cuisine, we had to resort to Plan B — Chicken McDo. lol…