The aftermath.

This massive flooding in Manila has never happened before - not at this magnitude. Many of those people living in these areas have never experienced such floods previously despite the heavy rains.

I have seen images of flash floods too in other countries. Does that mean that the Earth is in imminent danger? Then we are in imminent danger! Our Earth is dying, To be more specific, it is being killed, done to death by us. Killed by the pursuit of money. We inherited the Earth, but the earth is dying on us.

I wouldn't be surprise if an ecological apocalypse loom in the future. Or is there still a solution to our problem? Can we possibly know what lies ahead?

I think we owe it to ourselves to find out...

Another storm.

I just want to tell you all that this has been another dreary day. It has been a week stretch of non-stop hard driving rain that had me in awe - and in a state of misery.

You see, typhoon Ondoy is upon us here and the rain today poured down in buckets and the wind howled. Actually, prior to the typhoon's arrival, it has been day after day after day of wet, dark dreary atmosphere and the consistent intensity of the rain made me want to cry. I don't know, but it seems that after a while, the water that fell from the sky seemed to seep inside my brain!

Wooah, you might think that the rain would cleanse the city and perhaps make it clean for a day or two. But no! On the contrary, the rain and flood actually carry all the garbage into full view. And having to look at this pitiful ugly city rendered even uglier by the dreary weather, made me even more down. It also make you feel trapped, as any trip too far away from home could easily turn into a quagmire of traffic and gridlock. In Manila, the rains could literally keep you from getting home for days. And I am pretty worried because Cedric was at school and he hasn't called home yet nor answer my text messages. I couldn't get a call to his cellphone as well. I hope he is at his classmate's house.

Basically like so many other occasions, I also like the rain because it offers a relaxing change of mood. But not today when the images I saw on television is very upsetting - of families trapped in their houses, and had been driven to the roof to escape the waters below. They are in the mercy of Mother Nature.

Please, pray with me that those men women and children affected by the storm will be rescued and they will find shelter and food tonight.

And that perhaps one of those rain clouds bring with them a silver lining...

The real truth?

I’m back.

You’re probably wondering where I’ve been. Well, keep wondering because I’m not gonna tell you.

Okey, okey! I can almost hear Tracey protesting, so here is the reason...

The truth is, I was confined to a hospital bed the past days. I underwent a risky operation to surgically remove my twin sister who’s attached to my hip.

Wait a minute. I haven’t told you that, have I? Damn, I have been blabbering here a lot of things about me and I can't believe I have missed that! You see, I am one half of a Siamese twin. Probably now you know why you kept getting pics of just my upper torso. Yes, that was intentional as I tried to hide my twin sister from public eyes. No, I didn’t mean to keep it a secret. It just hasn’t come up in our conversations. (I mean no one has ever asked me: "Do you have a Siamese twin?")

Anyway, unfortunately, the surgery didn’t work. The doctors will try again in six months. And yes, my twin sister is still here attached to my side. ( OUCH! HEY, THAT HURTS! STOP POKING ON MY RIBS!!)

Lower those brows, please! Of course, I am merely joking. I have been sitting here in front of my pc with nothing to say. But I want you to know that I am okey and have been reading your blogs, except that of Fi because her main page won't open in my pc at the office. I am trying to read them here at home and leave comments on them.

Maybe tomorrow I will be able to think straight, hahaha!

Duh..!

I got nothing much to tell except that I was out the whole day yesterday, and came home real tired and sleepy. I very seldom eat out, much less go to malls because of the crowd. But then when a relative come to the city, me and the boys just can't pass up the chance to spend time with them.

I prefer to stay home and relax. I use to read a lot. Whenever I find myself with some spare time in hand, I will grab a book and find a cozy nook where I can read. I would read the book till it gets dark and continue reading when the lights are on.

But today I find it difficult to concentrate. When I read, I have to go through the words over and over again because a typical reading session for me would go: "It is not really possible to speak of characteristics peculiar to fiction by... hey, is that fried sausage I smell? Wow, I love sausage especially when..." peculiar to fiction by women except in..." too bad, this kitty isn't a male or I would love keeping it..."fiction by women in general terms."

So now, you know why watching a movie on DVD is a better choice, especially since i can just freeze it or replay it, if I miss a scene or a conversation. Then again, it might really just be a law of averages - we are born destined to spend a fixed amount of time doing something, at a certain age.

In fact right now I also noticed that when I converse with people, I tend to say things aloud for them to materialize, otherwise I just have a whole bunch of half-thoughts jostling in my head. A few lyrics here, a movie scene there, faces of people whose names I can not remember. Too much worthless information swimming in my head, like for some strange reason I can remember that Prue, Piper and Phoebe are the three Halliwell sisters, and its a piece of information that surfaces now and then although it has no bearing in my life whatsoever!

I am thankful though that at least I can still put words and sentences together, although I know that sometimes I don't make sense, hahaha. But at least I have some sort of skill I can present to the world. Thank God for variety.

If everybody placed the ultimate value on sewing, I'd be doomed!!

Sunday musings...

It's a Sunday again, and as usual the house is empty save for Cedric who chose to stay home. The other boys had gone out early and they won't be back till evening. Oh, I haven't ironed clothes today because I have hired a lady to do it, so I can concentrate on house cleaning as I plan to clean every nook and cranny of the bedroom, kitchen and living room. I was even able to clean out the boys and my own closet... Yay!

I was glad I still have much time left before lunch to fight off mobsters and I was very surprise to see my mafia family growing. I have 166 members at present from a measly 22 when I was starting. Now I won 90% of the fights and I am getting a sinful amount of money from my properties income, hahaha. But I am even happier to catch Sid still online and I am glad he is back to his jolly self. You should read his new post and see how his mind works, although I admit the antibiotics must have something to do with it. You should also read his previous post so you will understand him better and why his state of mind and mood mean a lot to me.

Its been clear to me that Sid live his life entirely as a compassion for others even when his own life was empty save for some dream he has for his future. He could have easily write people off but as he had said in his other post, he walks towards the challenge rather than running away from it. But for those not in the know, Sid is just one of so many who live alone and love being alone.

I don't consider myself a loner, but I am comfortable being left alone once in a while. As I write this, I wonder what the lives of Sid, AA and the rest of those people who live alone are made of, why they sit in an armchair all alone every evening watching television, why they find it so hard to change their ways. For those who are depressed I understand why some, when they go to sleep at night have as their greatest wish not to wake up in the morning.

But is insight and understanding everything? What about entertainment, camaraderie, simple human friendship? Yes, those things too enrich a life. But as a practical rule of thumb I can only learn to apply what’s in front of me in the present moment, as long as I believe that they are real and know where this in front of me may lead to.

And who knows where it may lead? We may just achieve what we all want to achieve, with the rest of the desires lined up for fulfillment later. Despite Sid and AA’s times of disenchantment and loneliness, I know that they still get periodic hope trying to tell themselves that in the future, perhaps they will get more of what they want - the perfect soul mate love of their life, an exotic location to live and sufficient money not to have to forgo simple pleasures all the time.

Yet it’s all a matter of degree and time being the only obstacle, then sweet oblivion! Of course, it’s a bugger to plan. So we will just let it get on with itself and devote our energies solely to the moment.

Have done so for many years, will continue to do so...

Truly magical

This is just amazing. You need to listen to it as I am lost for words to describe it...

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Have a nice weekend to all!

The wannabes.

Do you remember an episode from the Twilight Zone in which the lead character noticed that every time there was an accident, it was the same group of people that would gather and look?

I know exactly how he feels, because each time I have a car trouble, the same herd of men in denim shorts, loose t-shirts, and slippers would surround the vehicle. The amazing thing is that each of them would have an opinion. Everybody seems to know what’s wrong with the car just by looking at it. It would be rare that any two would have the same opinion, but everybody had one anyway.

Today, as I went up to Antipolo to deliver some items to our client, our car broke down. I have a driver, so I was leaning back with my eyes closed when I heard something that sounded like the engine falling off. The clutch cable snapped and there was no way to make the car run. The driver hopped out of the car and proceeded to push.

He pushed the car around the corner while I glanced apprehensively out of the window. I was in a completely unknown neighborhood. Then out of nowhere this heavily tattooed man headed straight to our stalled vehicle. As I watched him approach, I tried to figure out where his center of gravity was in case I’d have to tackle him if he tried to pull something. Of course, the whole notion was ridiculous. Had I actually tried to charge him, the most that would happen is I’d bounce off!

Some other men came out and join him. Fortunately they weren’t there to mug but to help. Or at least, appear like it. They asked a lot of questions which the driver answered in great detail. The big guy clicked his tongue when he heard about the noise and the pushing. He shook his head and grunted at all the right places. Finally, after 10 minutes of this, he admitted that he wasn’t a mechanic and didn’t have much of an idea how to solve things.

It was all I could do to stop myself from placing his hand in the car and slamming the door. Having some mechanic wannabe waste the time my driver could have spent looking for the genuine one did very little to make the whole experience more palatable. And yet it is infuriatingly common.

Have you experienced the same?