So I joined tcg_exchange...



( Cards after the cut! )

I'm suddenly being confronted with the reality that nothing lasts, painful as it may seem. Objects break. Houses can be swept away by an otherwise lackluster storm. People grow old. Everything dies.

These days people are dying left and right. Famous people. Infamous people. Ordinary people. In particular so many of my kin have been fighting cancer; as I write this, another one of them has just gone on to the next life.

I've gone back to thinking again, a dangerous pastime especially for someone like me who acts while deeply absorbed in distressing thoughts. I think of what-might-have-beens, like, "What if I had known sooner about my parents' deteriorating marriage? Would I have done something about it?" Or, "What if I tried to be as financially savvy as my mum and younger sister were at an early age?" Even, "What if I didn't fight back against the school administration?" This one's a favourite: "What if I chose *** instead of Mahal? What if Mahal and I broke up a few years back?" No matter the question, at the end of the day, I always end up with, "Would it have made life right now much better, much more worthwhile?"

I've noticed that most of those what-might-have-beens are actually choices. Unfortunately for me, I'm terrible at decision-making especially when it counts. And so afterwards, after all those what-might-have-beens cross my mind, I'd always come to the same conclusion: there's no way I can make those choices again. I guess, what I really want to change in my life is my inability to make rational, sane decisions. I have all the information, I have mulled over my choices countless times, and yet by some twist of fate or just through my own sheer stupidity, I end up making decisions with consequences which are dire and extremely difficult (however I choose to not consider them impossible) to deal with considering my person and my circumstance at the time.

I'm currently and literally working my way towards a new life wherein I'm more intellectually, financially, legally, emotionally and spiritually stable than my peers without depending heavily on my kin. At least I know my choice is right, but it's quite trying; retail therapy, self-doubt and jealousy-induced wrath are hard to exorcise from a woman. At this point in time I can only hope for the best, because the fruits of my decision won't be easily tangible anytime soon.

No thanks to that stupid storm crawling at a snail's pace (13 kph to 198 kph), even Metro Manila is in a state of calamity. Glad Makati was only knee-deep on average, as I head Caloocan, Paranaque, Marikina, Pateros and at least half of the entire island region of Luzon were pretty much sunken. DDDDDDX I wish I were joking but news reports are such that people are either giving birth on rooftops or falling off them to their deaths. DX

All I'd like to say is, AM radio is our friend! They have real-time updates of the situation and of the status of the blasted typhoon. Am particularly liking ABS-CBN-owned DZMM right now, but choose whatever AM radio floats your boat. Sorry FM peeps, I love you guys, but I like my updates in real time especially in situations like this.




Hotlines to know:

1) National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) Emergency Numbers: 912-5668, 911-1406, 912-2665 and 911-5061.
2) Bagyong Ondoy Hotline for anyone who needs help: 734-2118 and 734-2120.
3) NCRPO Hotline for rubber boats and trucks requests: 838-3203 and 838-3354.
4) MMDA: 136. Coast Guard: 527-6136.
5) Marikina Boat Rescue Number: 646-2436
6) PAG-ASA: 433-8526




The Philippine National Red Cross is spearheading relief efforts. From goods to text brigade donations, anything and everything counts! Read it all here: http://www.redcross.org.ph/Site/PNRC/wtd.aspx.
Hotlines are: 143 and 527-0000. Food and blankets are top priority!
Donate 100 pesos each for Red Cross rescue and relief. Red Cross donation through SMS: text REDAMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)
You may also send full address of stranded friends/family to Senator Dick Gordon, who's with PNRC, at 0917-8897898 and 0938-444BOYS (4442697).
For those abroad, click the Red Cross link about as the International Red Cross is helping us out.


Senator Manny Villar of the Nacionalista Party is not to be outdone. Here is his rescue text hotline for dumptruck requests: 0917-4226800, 0917-2414864 and 0927-6751981.



And the Liberal Party standard-bearers have their own as well.

From Mar Roxas’ camp:
BALAY Mar’s HQ. EXPO CENTER, Cubao QC, facing Farmer’s Market.
Contact Clare Amador at 0928-5205508 or Jana Vicente at 0928-5205499

From Noynoy Aquino's camp:
WhiteSpace, 2314 Chino Roces Ave. Extension, Makati City


Kris Aquino is currently spearheading ABS-CBN Foundation's Telethon. If you can see it on ABS-CBN, ANC, or The Filipino Channel, please commit!



Techie.com.ph has announced that there is the complete Rescue InfoHub Central Google Spreadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/lv?key=tohu9kthNU6anlf21Low08g&toomany=true and the Ondoy Situation Google Map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&vps=1&jsv=177f&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=110868206150348750692.00047479b6400ee29bd89.



Got this from http://musiklokal.multiply.com/journal/item/219/LUZON_RELIEF_Details:

LUZON RELIEF


Volunteer
People who can help receive, organize and distribute donations
People who can spread the word

Donate
Food (non-perishable goods only)
Clothing
Beds, Pillows, Blankets
Emergency Supplies

Donations can be brought to RENAISSANCE FITNESS CENTER starting MONDAY (Sept.28) / 9am – 7pm


Pray
No matter who or what you believe in, prayers are needed. Too many people are suffering.


Contact Person:
Warren Habaluyas
(0929) 871 3488
luzonrelief@gmail.com


Address:
Renaissance Fitness Center
2nd Floor, Bramante Building,
Renaissance Towers Ortigas,
Meralco Avenue, Pasig City



A priest I know personally, Fr. JBoy Gonzales SJ, has been spearheading relief efforts in the Katipunan area, especially the infamous Proj(Sec?) 9 Street area of Quezon City here: http://twitter.com/jboygonzalessj.

Go to the Cervini Dorm of Ateneo de Manila University along Katipunan Avenue if the floods have abated and you want to help. For those stranded nearby, call the dormitory (loc 5930) and faculty (loc 4036) hotlines if you need help. His cry is “If you can help, go to parish churches, the social action centers are now activated; whatever your religion is, doesn't matter to us.”



For the geeks, I heard that some NWA-ers are opening the Yale house, according to Regina Layug (http://rejjventress.multiply.com).

Plus, friend and former colleague Alex Osias of AEGIS in NWA has posted this checklist of things to stock on as the weather becomes more unpredictable:

Useful list for folks trying to move to higher ground:
(1) Drinking water
(2) Charged phones
(3) Working flashlights
(4) Radio with batteries
(5) Important documents in overnight bag
(6) Energy bars, canned food
(7) Alcogel
(8) Change of clothes
(9) Garbage bag
(10) Small towels
(11) Candles and lighter

Thanks Alex! See original post here: http://amosias.multiply.com/journal/item/210/Storm_Signals_The_Technology_Trap

ADDENDUM: http://amosias.multiply.com/journal/item/211/Aftermath_Ondoy_and_the_rest_of_us


Personal friend weloism/Welo Rivera has compiled an awesome set of lists of places and people to coordinate with if you're living outside the Philippines:
http://weloism.livejournal.com/345030.html
http://weloism.livejournal.com/345304.html
http://weloism.livejournal.com/345480.html

Thanks so much! ♥ Keep doing us proud while y'all are there in OR. d^_~b

[EDIT] Also! Kindly follow: http://oregon4ondoy.blogspot.com if possible too!


GMA Network has released a list of addresses with people that need rescue and relief operations: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173248/list-of-addresses-of-flood-stranded-people-needing-rescue.


Concerned citizens launched Operation Tulong Bayan as they urged supporters and volunteers to set aside political work and focus on organizing relief effort for thousands of families displaced by typhoon Ondoy.

Operation Tulong Bayan visited the Tatalon area in Marikina, among the hardest hit by floods caused by Ondoy, to distribute relief goods to the affected residents there.

They are urging supporters and volunteers to bring their donations to the following Operation Tulong Bayan Centers:
1) Cubao, Quezon City: Balay, Expo Centro Filipino, EDSA corner General McArthur St., Araneta Center. Former Seafood Market, Inside the parking lot fronting farmers market. Hotline : 9137122, 9136254, 9133306. Manilyn 09086579998 Jenn 09393633436
2) Makati City: 2314 Pasong Tamo Ext. (Dasma side) between Cantinetta and Makati Faith Chistian School. Tel 7108804 Rosanna 0917-8305053 Cris 09178435137


Finally, a shout-out to Celline Salapantan, another true Povedan and an awesome girl who I am proud to have known. She opened her home to 18 complete strangers who lost their homes in Marikina (she lives in the higher areas of Katipunan in QC). ALL AWESOME POVEDANS (2 already mentioned here - Celline Salapantan and Welo Rivera) and UP KIDDIES, and EVERYONE who has gone above and beyond the call of duty to help out in the relief cause. ♥

And it's NEVER too late to help!


More updates as I go. Praying for safety, especially my own sister's safe return!

EDIT: Sister safe, was storm-chasing WTF.

Cosplayers with a mind and heart to assist, I've reactivated Reach Out Otaku. Food and blankets top priority right now.

Here is our BPI Savings Account (it's actually my own but I decided I would rather help others than be selfish): 3106-4084-62. It is under MA. JOCELYN C. BORDADOR (that's me).

All linkbacks and sharing are welcome. Thanks so much ^_^


TULUNGAN TAYO! ONLY WE CAN HELP OURSELVES! Magdasal tayo at makisama sa pagbabayanihan! Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

Tags: 2009, assistance, bagyo, buhay, bullshit, katotohanan, ondoy, philippines, pilipinas, tulong, typhoon

I would definitely want to start every single day of this year where I went way over my budget buying and hoarding. (Is there a way you can put the two words together?)

And there are definitely a LOT of days which I wish I could re-do.

Argh. I lost something VERY important. DX I only very dimly remember returning it too... Shit.

I'm a middle child. With that comes very strong feelings of insecurity because there's a strong tendency to forget what/who is at the middle. It's different from being an only child which means being front and center at any time. Try this test: Make a list of 10 items for the grocery. Memorize them. Then ask someone to hold the list and quiz you on what you need to do. Chances are, you'll remember the first or the second, but hardly the ones at the middle unless those are urgently needed.

Of course, that also means middle children try extra hard to get attention, because when you're growing up, attention was usually equal to benefits (better food, better sleeping and bathing time, etc.). Although, I've heard there are a few who've given up all hope of trying, but I haven't met them yet.

We middle children are also predictably the most mentally unstable in a stable family. Conversely, though this is rare, they are the most mentally stable in an unstable family.

If you were here in the Philippines, you'd learn that so many people have died. Not least of which our former President, a beloved woman. Though I will concede she was terrible in policy-making.

In other news, Jacjac, lagi tayong nagkakasalisi. T.T Will do PM na lang yeah?

Reposted from kimivalkyrie. I actually wanted to repost this ever since I found it online once, a looooooooong time ago, but I couldn't find the page anymore. XD

The writer's Matthew Sutherland, a British journalist stationed in the Philippines. This is along the vein of the Hey Joe! book series and column of the same name (on BusinessWorld, as far as I recall). Mr. Sutherland wrote this column, and other articles about his Philippine experiences, both good and bad, in a weekly magazine called the Sunday Inquirer Magazine. But by the time I was featured there two years ago, his column had long since been gone.

If you haven't been here in the Philippines yet, or you were never here long enough, or you HAVE been here and are just wondering what the insanity's about, read under the cut! ;P


( Matthew Sutherland rambles about some Philippine oddities - and trust us when we say this is not all we have to offer! )

Taken from keiohwai.

ONE question.
ONE chance.
ONE honest answer.

That's all you get.

Respond even if you're not tagged

You get to ask me 1 question; write it here.
Any question & I have to promise to answer them truthfully.

No other rule but simply to re-post this and see what people ask you...

{braces herself}


=========================

Meanwhile in other news, it's getting harder to rein in this temper of mine. Shit.

But at least I've been sleeping reasonably early... except today, obviously.

I know this won't be everyone's cup of tea, but a mecha-nut gyaru would get a great deal of mileage out of this...

( Gunmadam in the cut! )

Thanks to the lovely and awesome erisdoll! ♥

Why do I see Allegretta piloting this? XD;;;

Also! I saw Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen with my fellow Transformer cosplayers teeth_for_eyes, juworu, retsu and batangbatugan of DeviantArt, plus warse_no_miko of DeviantArt and ilv (tama ba?). Had Daddy tag along with us. It was much more serious than expected, and hella confusing too with all the robots just being brought on without much introduction, making me wonder if the US military men were shooting friendlies at some point in time. But it was okay all the same, though yes I miss the campiness of the first movie.

Errrgh, should finish writing my fics already... >.<000

Trying not to be vague here, but I might actually be breaking my work contract if I go straightforward, so I'm sorry but if you're interested you need to drop me a line.

1) Working. HARD. As in, back-breakingly crazy ass hard. Like I posted in some social networking sites, many things are happening in this quarter - new projects, new accounts (I helped win TWO!). I need to really, REALLY, REEEAAAALLYYYYYYYYY focus lest I screw up and lose my opportunity to nail some of the important things I've always had on my gameplans. And before you even ask, yes, this means my social life - or what was left of it - will disappear from the face of the earth.

2) Getting fit so I can run at least 5 km on a 40-km marathon sometime in December. Let's see how this pans out especially now that my hormones and my period are screwing things up. X_x

3) Went out of town to visit jactinglim's place with chocolate_daze and mithlin_megil. By public transport (bus, albeit air-conditioned). Spent the night at her place, which is San Pablo City, with her family - meaning her sisters, her brother, her parents and her in-laws. Except for a minor mishap concerning cash (more accurately, the inaccessibility thereof), we all had a grand time. Ceej, no pressure introducing the YRT to your family ha! ;P

4) Attended a high school class reunion this past weekend. The best part of the night was when Frances, who had come home to Manila from SF, opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities, and pointed out that yes, we had all changed in some way ... in a "good kind of different." She was always the cool one that I idolised in our class, and she was always so friendly even to the other girls not in her circle. I never realised I missed her until that night, until after much thought I discovered that I was looking for people who were as open to the univers as her, surrounding myself with many of those people, trying even to be like her for others who were as hopelessly lost and stupidly clueless like me when my path first crossed with hers in the classroom years ago. ... It's very good she doesn't know I'm here on LJ yet as she also likes catching up on us through the internet a lot.

5) Learned how to play Rock Band ... except, of course, as in all other games involving motor skills and hand-eye coordination, I was terribly hopeless at it. Francesca HATED me. Sherry and Neko, who was also a total newbie in the game, had to keep saving me. X_X Denise had had a lot of cackles at my expense though so I guess all was well. XDDDDDDDDDDDD

6) My fortunes anywhere and everywhere have told me to go for it. What IT is, I'm not sure. Maybe I've asked for too many signs to guide me as I go through many situations - but even so, why do these signs all say the exact same thing? Do I just throw everything I've worked hard for away and start from scratch? Or do I plod on and do my best? "Go for it" is even more vague than this whole freakin' post. >.<

Ah well, it's WAY past my bedtime. Early morning phoner in 6 hours! >0</

Here they are:

1) Fall in love with and date a man.
2) Enter a long-distance relationship.
3) Forgive and allow people who have offended me and/or my sense of justice second, and even third and fourth, chances. But I still choose to extend this to a few though.
4) Re-establish ties that I chose to sever.
5) Wear short skirts and barely-there costumes. (I have viridianzephyr to thank for this one hahaha. ;P ♥)
6) Invest in my well-being, by going to the gym, getting massages when extremely necessary (it's cheaper than my chiropractor's consultation fee X_x), exercising and generally paying attention to my health. I can actually fall sleep at 11:00 pm now! \T0T/

Also, Many Happy Returns to jactinglim, who is one of my inspirations for growing up. ♥♥♥

Courtesy of Nippon Ichi Software America.
Thanks to Cory of Voyages Extraordinaire at YahooGroups and Puchimint of sakura_taisen for the news.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/voyages_extraordinaires/message/3720
http://community.livejournal.com/sakura_taisen/134502.html

All I can say is that it's about freakin' time!!! >0</

1) GUESS WHO'S BACK - SETE GIBERNAU, ON THE 500CC-CLASS NO LESS!!! O_o I THINK he's on Honda, can't really tell when I need to keep turning my seat 90 degrees just to watch the race continuously. XD;;; Two thing are for sure though: first, he seems only to be on the race as a wildcard or a temp rider; and second, prepare for racing dramu. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD (Gah Gibernau, I still love you though you never made champ throughout your entire career. ♥)

2) Hiroshi Aoyama won his home race at the 250cc, yeah baby! dXDb \m/ He's a great talent and not bad-looking either, hehehe XD plus he speaks great English! ;D

3) Valentino Rossi's doing his signature "Doctor" moves again. Finally, at 19 laps to go, he seized the lead from Danny Pedrosa. But, if Rossi wins this it will only be his FIRST GP victory of the season. Rossi, you're such an old coot, work hard so you can retire as being the only known eight-time MotoGP champion. XD;

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! \^0^/

Subscribed at http://www.youtube.com/user/MotoGP. d8Db

That is all. ♥

{goes off to catch up on what she missed, namely the first races of the year and the post-race interviews}

A member from one of the Philippine arts-and-culture mailing lists I'm in emailed this:

( Message under the cut )

I'm suspecting it's from the 1950s-era Filipiniana collection, in which case I waaaaaaaaant. T0T

Ah, to be young and broke.

When I met up with interploy and defied all expectations of a relationship defined and nurtured by the internet.

It was wonderful, even if I ended up earning disapproval from my family and worry from some friends. Even if I live everyday with the difficulty of sustaining a loving relationship half a world away.

Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up again this year, fingers crossed.

First, as always, Many Happy Returns to uchihayukiko, who shares this day with me. ^_^

( So I decided to unwind and at the same time celebrate my birthday this past weekend... [Videos included in the list!] )

Meeting Professor Alexis Belonio is such a blessing. He's humble and self-effacing, he willingly shares his inventions for free on the internet (www.bioenergylists.org), he acknowledges God (Supreme Being for those who are more spiritually-inclined) as his Source of ideas, he finds it important to foster the spirits of invention and enterprise on his seven children, he would much rather keep working on and refining his inventions than let the justifiable glow of the RAE get to his head and his heart, and he realizes the need of finding alternate energy sources from existing waste material.

Plus his wife, Salvacion, is awesome and so supportive, and just as brilliant as he is. They make a team which cannot be classified into empty words. It is a shame she keeps getting relegated to the sidelines, but it is a testament to her character that she is very patient, considerate and untiring in her support of her husband.

I suddenly feel so small and insignificant. But on the other hand, I am still proud because I now carry a small part of him in my mind and heart.