Category Archives: current events

Rain, rain go away

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So it looks like the rains will continue for the rest of the week, if the cloud system hanging over most of Luzon remains like that. Highly probable as the typhoon up north and the one forming in northeast continues to pull up the southwest monsoon.

The leaking stopped in the laundry area as my landlady’s worker cleaned the rain gutters of debris (mostly leaves from the mango tree in front of the apartment). Hard to dry clothes and bed sheets still.

Because I’m too lazy still (Metro Manila is flooded!) to go to the hardware store to buy paint and a gas regulator for my LPG tank, I busied myself this morning with experimenting with my new Linux distro, Fedora.

It’s basically the same as Ubuntu but the command line on terminal is a bit different. Instead of using # apt-get, you use # dnf (formerly # yum). Therefore, I have to master some basic command lines because I find using command lines easier when tweaking and installing drivers and programs on Linux compared to GUIs.

My girls are very comfortable using Linux, whatever distro, as I started them on this OS. That’s good since this means I don’t have to pay for expensive OS and hardware whenever Microsoft or Apple forces people to upgrade and find that their hardware cannot cope with the system requirements. And yes, I’m talking about Microsoft releasing Windows 11 this October and supporting Win 10 only until 2025. I just bought a new laptop, for crying out loud!

I was only forced to use Windows again because my company is unfriendly to non-Windows users. Even Mac people complained. I used to work exclusively on Linux and our IT guys were surprised that I was using it, the only one they encountered using it for whole of Asia Pacific. Because of this, they couldn’t help me with workarounds to specific backend problems. Why would they study troubleshooting Linux-company system problems just for one nerd in the company? So I had to switch to Windows 🙄

Since we’re dealing with biblical calamities all at the same time (pestilence, flood, earthquakes, volcanic eruption) it’s high time that I reorganize our emergency bags again. You’ll never know when you needed to evacuate. One bag for each of us containing basic necessities like flashlights with whistles, clothes, toiletries, biscuits or crackers, medicines, and water bottles. These bags should be ones that you can easily grab and go. Then another bigger container, if you have time to grab, are stuff for longer term evacuation like tent, sleeping bags, portable stove, canned goods, water purifier, and solar lamps. I already have all of these except for the plastic container to hold the tents and sleeping bag. I need to buy more sleeping bags.

I once told J that if he wants to survive Armageddon, he should stick to a Filipino since more or less we are used to Armageddon regularly so we know how to go about it. We’re like cockroaches, we can survive disasters. This is also one of the reasons why I drive manual transmission vehicles; mechanics on roadsides in all provinces know how to deal with manual cars. Automatic transmission cars are good as dead, especially if computer boxes get wet.

I am talking from experience; I was in the middle of Pasig-Cainta when Tropical Storm Ondoy submerged Metro Manila underwater for weeks in 2009. After a month of the disaster, I saw a lot of new AT cars dumped on roadsides of Manggahan Floodway ready for scrap recovery because they were already useless. For MT cars, you just push it through flood while the driver revs the gas pedal on first gear until you get to dry land. That’s what we did to our cars to get out of Pasig-Cainta when that area was like Waterworld. This is also the reason why I don’t want to buy sedans, if I can help it. If it’s already the end of the world, you may at least want your getaway car to be able to cross flooded areas. That’s why I am still not letting go of my old Isuzu Crosswind; I was able to drive through Super Typhoon Haiyan ground zero with that, about 2000 km to and from Samar-Leyte. Plus you can sleep at the back of the car if I just push the passenger seat further up against the back of the driver’s seat.

Ok, I must go out today to buy: 1) butane bottles for the portable stove; gas regulator for my regular LPG stove; one or two emergency lamps; rain boots (I don’t want leptospirosis adding to our worries) and wall shelves. Because I’m bored and I want to add shelves in the cooking area. And hanging plants.

Speaking of boredom, my girls are reading again. Yey.

Their reading positions are bad though. They often catch me in this position as well. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Daughters were craving for junkfood. So I made junkfood. Home-made hamburgers.

I just bought the Angus beef Highlands burger patties and Gardenia burger buns. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Veggies and Kewpie mayonaise. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Comfort food for rainy days.

Monsoon rains

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Roof is leaking again at the laundry area. Sent my landlady videos of the waterfalls happening at that back room. I hate it that whenever the monsoon season sets in, I’m never totally dry. I’m so done with renting old places.

Meanwhile, the government is starting to tighten restrictions again as the Delta variant has locally been transmitted. Fast. Some cases have come from OFWs coming home and no social distancing protocols practiced, especially during wakes.

Why can’t people understand that 1) traveling exposes you to so much pathogens that you should stay away from people for a long time and 2) in the process you are endangering a lot of people around you, multiplied by 8, as is the case with this Delta variant?

Soon we will be overwhelmed again just like in the first half of 2021. When will we ever learn?!

Because it had been raining nonstop for days, my girls are left with nothing to do so Twin I pestered me to teach her how to cook a side dish that she will feature during their Nutrition Week. (They started the school year two months earlier than public schools, which are scheduled to start by September). I thought of the easiest side dish I can think of: buttered mushrooms with garlic and bell peppers.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
She also out rosemary in it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Lunch yesterday. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The world has shrunk for me again with this incessant rains. So I began digging again into the rabbit hole that is Youtube. And found myself watching hours of chiropractic videos.

And I was living vicariously through the patients. I must schedule an appointment with my chiropractor in Makati whom I haven’t seen in almost 10 years.

Right after giving birth to twins, my back ache was 9/10 as it turned out pregnancy worsened the S- curvature of my scoliosis. After the course of my treatment, the back pain was reduced to 1. And the pain on my hands disappeared.

Let me just get through next week and let’s see if I can make that trip to Makati.

When will this end?

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They have already multiplied, as of the latest story I read. Soon we will be overwhelmed again by Delta and God knows how long the lockdowns will be again. Indonesia and Thailand are overrun now by this variant. Our inoculation rate is low and we have run out of vaccines here in Metro Manila.

I’m tired.

Saturday bento. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I only got out of my room to make bento. Then I slept the day away. I think I’m sick or hormones are out of whack again (hello premenstrual syndrome!) and I’m aching all over. I promised the girls we would be riding our bikes in an hour but I’m sooooo 🤒

Kimchi lying on top my laptop. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats are driving me nuts. They meow like they’re dying if they get shut out of my room. Then they do the zoomies around my small room while I try to sleep. They follow me to the bathroom. They sit or lay on my table when I work. Or underneath my table. On my chair. On my chair’s headrest while I work.

I should buy cat leashes so we can take them for walks so that they can expend more energy instead of zooming all over the apartment.

Today marks the 7th month since I died. Or the old me died.

It is hard.

Climbing out of that dark pit of grief, anger, and self-pity is soul-crushing during a pandemic. You are left with your thoughts for days on end. You can’t see you friends or distract yourself by traveling or just going about your normal business such as working at Makati CBD.

Oh they said, “You’re still young, you can find someone else.”

The thing is I don’t think I can trust someone again. I don’t think I can go all through that pain again.

I have children, you see. No one would love and accept them except for me, as proven by this experience. I don’t want them to experience the kind of rejection that I experienced from J. I didn’t tell them that J didn’t like them that’s why he left, among other issues. He left when they were in my hometown with my mom. When they came back, Tito J was already gone. No goodbye whatsoever. He left like a thief in the night, like a typhoon that passed us by.

Those 7 months were hard. As I said here before, those were the hardest months I had since my dad died. I tried my darned best to keep my head above water because I had two human beings depending on me for survival so I had to survive too. I needed to save myself before I could save others.

I’m better now. I’m a bit proud of myself for not making an ass of myself infront of him during my darkest hours. Of not asking him to change his mind and come back. Of groveling at his feet.

But the grief is there, it never goes away. I just have to be a bigger person so that ball of grief won’t hit my inner walls that often.

Seven months. Back then I didn’t even know how I would survive the month. My only goal then was to survive the day. Take it one day at a time. I couldn’t picture myself in seven months but here I am, frayed but still intact. Still finding my way out, trying to find myself. Still figuring out what’s the best way forward.

But maybe this is the way forward. I don’t know. I mean, I have a general idea of what I want but the details are not clear. I had been with my current company for seven years, the longest I had been with any employer. I am feeling the seven-year itch but I’m not sure if this is the best time to jump given the difficult economic circumstances. But my doors are open and I’m already looking around. If the right opportunity and timing is right, it will land on my lap. As God has always done.

Killing us one by one

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During Aquino’s term, I’ve never heard of anybody being sacked for doing the right thing. Even if one is being critical of government. I also wrote some analysis pieces and spot reports that had been critical of Aquino’s administration but I’ve never felt I was in danger.

This Duterte administration is so insecure, so afraid of a dead man that social media trolls are working doubly hard these days. Mainstream media like GMA is killing its own.

Lame duck president who didn’t betray his country

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PNoy is a contraction of President Noynoy (Benigno Aquino III) which made life easier for us editors when writing headlines.

I did not vote for him. I didn’t like that he was out of touch with the masses. I was leaning towards Gilbert Teodoro (who is now showing his true ugly color)…

BUT

Maybe he was made to be insensitive (they say he is on the spectrum) so he can have the ability to tune out the criticisms without literally killing the critics. Maybe his being obstinate was good so he would not be as super butt-hurt as this demon in Malacañang now and just go about his business.

I told my colleagues before that he would earn my respect if he is able to pass the Sin Tax Law (decades-old battle vs big tobacco money) despite being a very heavy smoker himself. Because he knew the country needed it.

I’ve written about CODE NGO, pork barrel and that thingamajig which was the same as PDAF (was that DAP?) which traveled all the way to the Supreme Court, criticisms regarding the slow progress of PPPs, and other things to counterbalance the rabid yellow supporters. I muted some of them in my timeline.

His biggest sin in my book is the Corona trial because this became a precedent. Does quo warranto sound familiar to you?

BUT

He had sound economic policies that resulted in: low inflation, 6%-7% GDP growth, low interest rates, etc. I saw T-bills drop to near-zero levels when I occasionally covered Treasury auctions. He did what he needed to do. Our PPP scheme is way better than other systems I see now that I cover infra sector of other markets in SEAsia. We were the darling of investors. From junk status to investment grade. The international community respected him. He did not have the workaholic nature of GMA (who rises early to start working) but he was not corrupt. He prioritized his friends (hello Pagcor!) but his cabinet was sane.

He fought against China and was vindicated in the end. David vs Goliath.

He was “Noynoying” in office but this current president is a lot worse.

He is a lame duck president but he made things work somehow. I did not fear for my life that much when I was doing my job as a journalist. Unlike now.

Goodnight, Mr. President.

Today, in a series of screencaps

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Let’s start by saying, yes, we still don’t have Internet and Globe doesn’t have any plans of fixing it.

After inundating their Facebook bot with my complaints several times a day.

So of course, there’s no phone call or whatever feedback after four hours. I’m not actress Liza Soberano, who would just complain about her Internet connection on Twitter, the telcos would come to the rescue within the day.

Yesterday the Secretary of Foreign Affairs tweeted a series of profanity-laden outbursts vs China. Which is highly suspect because this is the same guy who let Filipino fishers drown when they were sabotaged by Chinese intruders in our own seas, saying stupid things to appease the Chinese overlords. Thank God for the Vietnamese fishermen who rescued the Pinoy fishermen.

This really goes to show there is an orchestrated scripted anti-China rhetoric to appease the military that is ready to stage a coup d’etat against Duterte. I want Duterte out but I don’t want us to be the next Myanmar.

Wheeeee! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I decided to ride the bike tomorrow and skip it today since my brain was already fried by 5 pm. So to help me sleep well tonight, I took out one bottle of vodka for a nightcap. But here I am still alive and blogging.

And yes, alcohol ban is lifted in my city. Hurrah!