Genuinely Sad and Depressed

We’re currently listening to the radio about the news about the rescue operations and what they are doing to bring back the city back to life and it seems that things are not going as smoothly as we might want it to be. For one thing, a lot of people have flocked to the malls so that they could experience the cool breeze of the aircon. And a lot of people got disappointed as many malls are in the effected areas and so they couldn’t bring the aircon up to full blast. Talk about a bummer. Aside from this, there are people crowding the coffee shops in search of sockets for them to charge their mobile phones. I’m fortunate that the office has electricity. Sadly though, I was only able to bring one of the charges of the two phones that I use. Which means that my other phone is officially dead at the moment. I switched the sims on my phones. My sun sim is usually in my clamshell phone. But this time, I put my sun sim in my Motorolla L6 and the Globe prepaid in the clamshell phone.

In fact, I am thinking of keeping it this way, so that I won’t be tempted to keep on texting. I am usually on text unlimited on my Globe prepaid. But on my clamshell phone, I rarely send text messages as I don’t like flipping the phone on and off at each time that I have to send a text message. Another ironic thing is, I have a better signal in my Sun Cellular phone at the moment compared to my Globe Handyphone. Isn’t that ironic as well?

Anyway, it seems like I am going home to a dark alley and I don’t even have a flashlight. This is really depressing. But what’s more depressing is the sight of people at the railway tracks lining up just to get their ration of water.  Sigh. The ironies of living in the Philippines. I keep reminding myself that there are poor people everywhere. Alas, there are more than 50% who are poor here in the Philippines as well.

Another Storm

I just heard from the news on the radio here in the office; and also browsing the internet at www.weather.com; that there is another storm coming our way. Oh boy, to think that barely half the metropolis has electricity at the moment and that I am sure that there are some students of mine who will be rushing in submitting their emails for the Binondo paper. Oh well, such is life. For those who are fortunate enough to read this, I am extending the deadline till Monday, so that it would give the other students enough time to send their email without deductions.

Anyway, there’s still no electricity at the house, and it is alredy 10pm here and I am still here at the office in Makati. Even the village of my boss, Ayala Alabang Village has no electricity till now.  I even wonder if there will be classes in UERM tomorrow morning? As it is really dark in the classrooms of the old building. I will only find out about it tomorrow. And I just can’t afford to have additional make-up classes this week. My week is full already. Thus, I have to make do with whatever I have for the week. Which means that if things do not push through tomorrow, I will have to cancel the speech for Section D, Section E and F, and also for Section A, B and D. Hmm, I think that means that I would have to cancel the speech for ALL the sections that I have in order for me to tackle The Paraphrase. Well, you guys have to wait for my next blog then to find out more about it…….

FABLES

I mentioned last month that I started collecting comics again, not just for recreation but also because they challenge me to become more creative in my writing career. Lately, I have become addicted to an on-going series by DC/Vertigo comics and it’s called FABLES.

FABLES is about the story of the fables, legends and myths that we know of throughout the whole world. Although the start of the story begins with Western fables, the difference is that the characters that we know of from the different fables and stories like Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and much more have lived in New York for the past several years and have been exiled from their homeland because The Adversary started conquering the different fable lands.

I find it interesting because the characters of FABLES start having a more human side, a more realistic side as well. Although there are fantastic stories in them, the beauty behind FABLES is that the writer and the different artists are able to weave a new fable in itself; a modern fable if you might. But another thing about FABLES is that one can only appreciate it if one’s knowledge of different children’s literature is vast. If not, then at least an awareness of most of the popular stories help in the understanding of the stories themselves.

Quite disarming is that fact that there are FABLE characters that are villains in the stories that we know of; but in the realm of the fables themselves; they are kind creatures. On the other hand, there are good guys that turn out to be bad guys. In fact, the one known as The Adversary is one that is well known in children’s literature to be a good guy. But in the story of FABLES, it makes sense that the character is the enemy of all fables.

I wonder how will this all end? Currently, the Adversary has started conquering the Arabian fable world; and soon he will be marching onwards to the African and Asian fables. If things continue, I am sure that they would tackle African and Asian fables first before they move to the climax and end of the story. Which also means that there is a big possibility that FABLES would be an on-going series for the next few years. At least that’s something to look forward to. It’s something to be excited about. Another encouraging thing about it is that a Filipino is one of the graphic artists of the on-going series. Truly, it is another thing to be proud about our country. In a way, we are indeed globally competitive in all aspects of life, even in the realm of ficticious characters and FABLES.

Eye of the Storm

It’s been quite some time since I updated this blog. And surprisingly, I am able to write it because there is no class today at school. Interesting enough, I wonder how many of my students have electricity in their homes as there is none at home right now. Thus, as I write this entry, I am here at the office here in Makati.

I am thankful that things aren’t so bad for us at home with the recent storm that came to Metro Manila. But in fact, I have felt the typhoon inside the airplaine on my way back from Cebu last Wednesday night. There was turbulence and I could feel the air pressure in my ears. They say it is even worse for those who have a running nose. A part of me felt that I should have allowed myself to be left in Cebu for another day, that way I could have enjoyed myself till Friday. But then agian, who would have thought that there would be no classes today? I wouldn’t.

But the phrase “eye of the storm” kept haunting me for some reason. For one thing, how come there is peace and calm in the eye of the storm? While the surrounding circumference of the storm is like a gale worth of a horror movie? I was walking along some of the streets here in Makati this afternoon, and I noticed that there were many trees that bowed down to the might of this recent typhoon, who is named as Milenyo [I don't know the international name of the storm though, sorry].  And all mass transit trains aren’t operational yet. Aside from the trees, the many steel billboards also toppled down and have caused traffic jams throughout the city. And the first thought that came to my mind wasn’t that it’s too bad that these billboards came down; but that because of this event our legislators will finally come up with laws governing the monitoring and the setting up of billboards.

Why does it always take a tragedy for our people to act? Why is it that we only act when there is something wrong? Why is it that we can’t anticipate the future instead? We are more reactive than proactive. And that is why for the msot part, most Filipinos aren’t prepared to brace themselves when a calamity strikes.

As for me? I was inside a mall at Centerpoint during the thickest of yesterday’s storm. I watched the movie, DOA — Dead or Alive. I just wanted to get away from the house as there was on the shadows of the curtains that enveloped me; and such a gloomy atmosphere does not bode well for anyone. It was also a welcome respite since I can’t even remember when I last watched a good movie. DOA? Well, the story is just okay, but the action is very good and even interesting. The woman are absolutely fantastic! I’m not after the story though. I was just after the hard action that they billed the movie to be. I wasn’t disappointed at ll.

As for the eye of the storm? Well, MERALCO said that they will be able to bring electricity back into our neighborhood by tomorrow. I wonder what time that would be? Until then, I will have to learn to get used to the dark ages for another 24 or 48 hours. Ah, words just get in the way at times like these………..