Philippine Pesos Now Available on PayPal

Just want to share this exciting piece of news I just read from Ebay. This is going to benefit the Pinoy sellers on Ebay and online.

PayPal is pleased to announce the launch of Philippine Pesos and 4 additional currencies just in time for the holiday season - making it easier for you to buy and sell locally. No more hassling with foreign exchange rates or currency conversions. It’s now simpler and easier than ever to pay and get paid with PayPal for your local transactions.

Relief Operations Ease Typhoon Ondoy Victims

Out of all the typhoons I've witnessed, Typhoon Ondoy has made the most impact on us.

Being a resident of Marikina City, we're accustomed to floods during the rainy season. As with other residents, we have our own set of protocols when we're expecting flood waters to rise. All our sofas and chairs are placed on top of wooden tables. Everything on the ground is placed on higher shelves. All appliances are unplugged and our main power switch is shutdown. Candles, matches, batteries, and flashlights are all checked and made sure that they are easily reachable when needed. And whatever food, water and goods we can use to eat and drink is saved and placed upstairs in case of emergency. There are lots of other minor details we follow and most of the time, the water just goes up to knee level which in our experience, is not very detrimental. Of course it's saddening and we all know that when the floods subside, there is a whole lot of cleanup that follows. But it's feasible.

What happened with Typhoon Ondoy is one of a kind. Never has the rains poured non-stop and in an extremely alarming amount. Never has the flood water rise so high in a short span of time. And so even with all the precautions and preparations we had, we were totally caught offguard. The floods in our house rose to an all-time high and a 1st for us, at five feet deep. And by this time, eveyrthing started floating. Walking your way through floating obstacles in shoulder-high waters is not an easy task. How much more difficult would it be for our less fortunate victims of the flood who have experienced deeper waters with nowhere to go.

After the storm, people were left hungry, homeless, sick and weak. Thousands of families suffered heavily from the floods.
It's a good thing that many have heard of the devastation and destruction Typhoon Ondoy has left. Victims needed help and there was an enormous population of victims to cater to. As a result, several groups, organizations and volunteers emerged to adhere to the victims.

One of those groups who have offered their unconditional support is the Lopez Group of Companies. Called "Sagip Kapamilya", they called on everyone to donate in cash and in kind. Backed up by ABS-CBN's vast media resources, they were able to conduct a nationwide call for donations and in such a short amount of time, they were able to collect millions which was being constantly used to buy relief goods for victims. Even ABS-CBN personalities and celebrities actively helped first hand in delivering relief goods to the typhoon victims. Thanks to Sagip Kapamilya, you see the nation becoming one. Kudos to their relief efforts.

On behalf of my fellow city citizens, salamat sa Sagip Kapamilya from Marikina. For updates on cash and kind donation totals, check out their Facebook page or their website at http://www.lopezlink.ph.

Photo: ABS-CBN Kapamilya stars among them Zanjoe Marudo and Shaina Magdayao, went to different evacuation centers and flood-ravaged areas to help distribute relief goods and bring comfort to the victims of typhoon Ondoy through ABS-CBN Foundation's Sagip Kapamilya efforts. (courtesy of Lopezlink Flickr account)

My Typhoon Ondoy Experience

Here is my personal account and experience from Typhoon Ondoy.

Unfortunately, we've been hardly hit and affected by the recent Typhoon Ondoy last Sept 26. (Day 1) where flood waters reached to an all-time high of almost 5 feet inside our house. This is the worst and deepest we've ever experienced here in our house in SSS Village, Marikina City.

We're used to floods and most of them only reach the street in front of us or rarely, up to 1 foot inside the house. Nothing can prepare you for a flash flood that rises at an alarming rate. We were caught offguard with the waters as it has never flooded this fast ever. In a span of less than 4 hours, the waters rose from street level to chest deep inside the house. Cars parked along the streets were submerged till the top of their windshields. Car alarms set off one by one including our two cars inside our garage and driveway. Believe me that trying to remove a car battery while submerged in water and being all wet while dealing with something delicate as a wet car battery possibly exposing ourselves to ground and shock while panicking is such a stressful and scary experience.

Typhoon Ondoy's rainfall in a short span of time was measured to be more than what an average month worth of rainfall was. On top of this all, Marikina is also affected by the overflowing and releasing of water from 2 dams which pass through the Marikina River. The river overflowed and so instead of our street waters being channeled towards the river, the waters from the river were spilling outwards to all areas.

Our electricity and phone lines were all cut. My celphone was low on battery charge and the only communication we had was listening to the radio. We tried to move whatever we could to higher ground but there simply wasn't much time to do everything. A lot of our stuff was submerged in water and even huge and big appliances and furniture like our refrigerator, sofa, tables and chairs were all floating. The 1st floor became an obstacle course with an advanced level of difficulty. Imagine trying to carry a TV on top of your head cause waters were chest deep, walking through the flood and avoiding huge moving objects like a huge cabinet floating in an unpredictable direction. Thank God we had a 2nd floor but it was quickly filling up with stuff that we needed to make way to go up and down the stairs in case of any emergency. Even our 3 dogs were panicking cause the places where we let them stay put were beginning to float too. We moved them to a huge floating table and would just hope that they would stay put so the table wouldn't capsize.

It came to a point where we had to just stop rescuing our stuff and just think about our safety. In the last hour of what seemed like an neverending rising of flood, we managed to salvage any food and bring it upstairs. We got a loaf of bread, some canned goods, paper plates and plastic spoons and forks, and some bottles of mineral water. We couldn't open the ref cause it was already floating and all the foods inside were already submerged in muddy flood water too. I was scared that the china cabinet that fell on to the water had broken glass. It's a good thing the water broke the fall and the impact wasn't enough for the plates and glassware to break.

By mid afternoon, the rains stopped and all we could do was look out the window to see the extent of flooding the typhoon has left. Flood was everywhere. We couldn't find a single piece of ground not left submerged outside. Come evening, everything was dark and quiet. With no lights and no people in the streets, our area was rendered as a ghost town. No lights, no sound and just the calmness of the flood waters still evident everywhere. This is the time we were already listening to the radio and found out that a lot of our fellow city residents weren't as lucky as we were. The hardest hit was Provident Village, some, 4 kilometers away from us with the Marikina River in between our village's location. The residents there had to climb their rooftops as the waters totally submerged all ground floors of the houses. We also heard that several villages along the riverbanks have been severely affected. Being a resident of Marikina, I wanted to contact all my friends and relatives to find out if they're ok. But not having any means of contacting them rendered us a desolate island. Concerned friends and relatives were also trying to get hold of us but couldn't. We were just lucky that the rains had stopped and the waters were subsiding little by little.

The next morning (Day 2), the flood waters inside the house were gone. The street still had some flood but only up to the legs. We then saw the aftermath of the typhoon. Everything was drenched and covered with mud. The TV, refrigerator, washer & dryer, cabinets, tables, sofas, clothes several belongings were mostly damaged. Our humungous ref was lying down on the floor as the waters gently laid down the floating ref. Our china cabinet broke in half. Most of the wooden and cardboard cabinets weakened. Utensils and plates were all muddy. The cars' interior were all damp and grounded. Unsaved food was scattered all around the house.

We were hoping that floods wouldn't resurface but we had to start the long process of cleaning for sanitation purposes. We were scared for all kinds of sicknesses. We didn't take any chances with any food that was flooded, even sealed bottles or canned goods, for fear of contamination. We had to bail out any water left inside the house to lower any possible infection from the stagnant waters. And we had to remove all the mud left inside. Not having any electricity yet made it harder to clean up.

It's a good thing my tita and cousins who lived in Marikina Heights weren't severely affected and dropped by to check up on us. They brought us food and drinks, which we really needed. I asked them to charge my celphone so I could keep the lines of communication open. We were cleaning the house the rest of the day and threw anything we couldn't recover anymore. The entire day was tiring and by night time, we were all exhausted with overfatigue from cleaning.

By Monday (day 3), we needed to buy food as our supply was nearly depleted. The aftereffect of the typhoon made it so difficult to buy goods from the grocery or food from the fastfood/restaurants cause most of them within the vicinity have been hit by the floods too and were closed. Those that were open, were filled with people frantically panic buying everything and the shelves were empty in hours.

My college friends Rai and Eya were checking up on me since I was nowhere online as I usually am and suspected that we may need help. They asked for directions and the next day they dropped by with lots of food, toiletries and items that would make our recovery easier to manage.

It's been a week since then and we're still not through cleaning up and recovering. With Typhoon Ondoy and Pepeng both out of the country, it's back to normal for most people. For us, it's still a long way from over and going back to our regular lives. We're getting there though, little by little. But bottomline is that we're all okey.

I just want to thank everybody for your concern and help. For those who texted, e-mailed, left messages online and tried to contact me, thank you. I may have not been able to thank everyone personally which is why I am sending this message to you all.

All the material things can be replaced... but we only have one life to live. And I thank God I am alive. Take care everybody.

Why Ironing And Dancing Don't Mix

Like drinking and driving, ironing and dancing don't mix. Check out this video and you'll know why.

All-Expense Paid Travel Photography Expedition

I'm reposting this from one of my subscribed groups cause I think it's a good opportunity and even better is that it's free ! Read on:

Join an All-Expense Paid Travel Photography Expedition to Hacienda San Benito, Lipa Batangas

Take this rare opportunity to join our full-day photo expedition workshop that will be lead and instructed by professional photographer, Mr. Brian Bravo. All expenses including transportation, food, and snacks are all taken care of.

Hacienda San Benito is a 22-hectare development in Lipa, Batangas at the foot of Mt. Malarayat. Take photos of magnificent landscapes, Cascading Ponds, Koi lagoons, Farm animals such as chickens, turkeys, ostriches, goats, sheep, cows and carabaos; a coffee plantation, a grape vineyard, a pineapple plantation; and a garden of flowers and ornamental plants.

Expedition Date: SEPTEMBER 20, 2009, Sunday.

For inquiries, contact

Joseph Roc
Arts Manager | Writer | Creative Industries Advocate

josephrocis@yahoo.com
+63-921-5249261

Are You A Krispy Kreme Fan ?

One of things I love about Krispy Kreme is that it's not just about buying donuts. Krispy Kreme is an experience.

What kind of experience ? There's lots to tell. If you go to one of their donut factories, you get to watch an assembly line of donuts being dispatched at the "finish line" and ready to be served hot and fresh off the grill. When their krispy Kreme logo is lighted up, you get a free donut. Each time they open a new branch, they offer cool promos for the first few guests. They also introduce new and exciting themed donuts coupled with your favorite brands like the Chocolate Kreme Cakes made with Oreo, Hershey's Cookies and Kreme and Chocolate Karnival. They cater to the times like during the UAAP college basketball season where they introduced blue and green sprinkled donuts representing Ateneo and La Salle respectively. The list just goes on and on. Krispy Kreme just seems to come up with something new all the time.

Their latest promo is the Krispy Kreme FaveFan Promo where everyone has a chance to win a year's supply of doughnuts including a trip to Krispy Kreme headquarters ! To celebrate 72 years of service (6 dozen in Krispy Kreme numerology), Krispy Kreme announces a worldwide search for its number one fan.

The Krispy Kreme FaveFan Promo is open to 9 countries, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, United Kingdom and the Philippines (aren't we lucky ?). To join, all you need to do is go to http://www.krispykremefavefan.com , click on the Submit Entry and complete the form. The form also requires you to answer the question "How has Krispy Kreme made your life special?" ( in a maximum of 1,000 characters). Include a photo with your entry and you automatically have a chance to be selected as the Krispy Kreme Fave Fan for the Philippines. Winners from all participating countries will win a year's supply of donuts plus a trip for two to the Home of Krispy Kreme. You'll also get the chance to design your ultimate donut !

Also join the Krispy Kreme FaveFan Promo Facebook page and be amongst the thousands of fans the ever-growing Krispy Kreme community has.

Hurry and submit your entries now cause the deadline for joining ends September 15, 2009, 11:59:59 p.m. Philippine time.

Log on now to http://www.krispykremefavefan.com and tell Krispy Kreme how they made your life special.

Social Traps

There are times when you see someone coming your way and you'd rather not see them, be seen by them, greet them or talk to them at all. In cases like these, you could just avoid the person.

If you see the person in a corridor, you could take the stairs, take a u-turn and go another direction, bow down to hide your face, turn your head the other way as if you had a stiff neck, or if you have the guts and ability, look the person straight in the eye in an emotionless state (dedma).

It's not that easy to avoid someone when you're in an escalator or an elevator. That's why I call these 2: social traps. You'll just have to endure being with the person you're avoiding because you have no complete control over the machine you're taking.

When you're in an escalator, you are bound to see everyone at the opposite side. And if you're already on the escalator, there's no turning back. You could always go back and walk double time. But that would catch more attention. Plus, if you don't have the agility, by the time you've jumped off, chances are, the person you're avoiding just stepped down from the other side. The best way is simply to look away or hold a huge newspaper in front of you.

Elevators offer a different awkward situation, especially if you and the person you're avoiding are the two last people left inside. What's difficult about this situation is that you have very limited options. Due to the elevator's size, there's no way to distance yourself from the other person. There's not much room to look away and you're bound to get closer against your will when you have to press the floor on the elevator panel. In addition, and depending on how many floors both of you are going to, the torture ride must be endured anywhere from 10 seconds (fast elevators going up or down only 1 floor) to 3 minutes (old buildings with super slow elevators and it stops on every floor with no one getting inside).

Just how can you avoid someone in an elevator ? Facing the other way looks stupid. It's like riding a rollercoaster and facing the back. If the elevator had other people, you could manuever your way to hide beside or behind someone. If you're really desperate, you could get off the next floor and wait it out or take the stairs.

A worst case scenario is you're in an elevator with the person you're avoiding and you and the person are the only two people inside. Things keep awkwardly quiet. You start to perspire in anxiety and suddenly, the worst thing you were hoping wouldn't happen, happens. The person makes an initiative to talk to you. Do you want to acknowledge ? Hell no ! You've been avoiding this person. Ignoring the acknowledgement would only make the person think you didn't hear it well. But in an close-to-empty elevator with only the two of you in complete silence (unless there's elevator music but that's a at minimal volume), it's very hard to convince the person you didn't hear them (unless your tone-deaf).

So what do you do ?

You could place earphones on your ears. Whether you're actually listening to music or not isn't important. In this case, it tells the other person you may not have heard them. But that may also just make the situation worse, especially if instead of talking to you, the person taps you to signal they're talking to you.

So what do you do then ?

You could pretend you're on the phone with someone but would have to constantly talk so the person wouldn't have any chance at all to butt-in and have social time with you. In this case, you're not granting the person any chat time by pretending to be talking with someone else. And if you're going up several floors, you'll need to know how to talk constantly without pause.

So what's the best thing to do ?

Don't take these social traps if you have a hunch you'll be caught in an unforeseen and awkward situation. But then again, how do you know when these things happen ? They just do. So just be prepared how to handle them. And if I were you, I'd take the stairs.

But that's just me.

Cameras Have Rumors Too ?

Whenever I get to hang out with my blogger friends whether in an event or just catching up and hanging around, one of the topics that usually makes its way to the conversation is the subject of cameras.

My blogger friends who have DSLRs would share photography tips and techniques , show their new digicam accessories or get excited about upcoming cameras in the market.

Even though I have my own set of cameras (I'm still a Fuji & Olympus fan), I've seen that a lot of my friends own either a Nikon or Canon camera. I can't really relate that much when they talk about their cameras but I enjoy the passion and thrill they exhilarate.

So for my Nikon enthusiasts, photographer, proconsumer fanatic friends, here's a site I discovered earlier: http://nikonrumors.com and for Canon buffs, there's http://www.canonrumors.com

And for the general public who may happen to own other camera brands, there's http://photorumors.com

Learn the latest unofficial news about your favorite camera brands. May you get hyped up by rumors and sneak-peeks at future releases and start saving to buy before they come out.

Note: The camera in the photo isn't mine. I wish it was.

National Geographic To Air Filipino Documentary

One of the channels I enjoy watching is National Geographic. You won't find any of their shows aired anywhere. That's because they take pride in providing new and original shows. It's also a very educational channel and as much as you learn from every show, you don't feel like your confined in a classroom setting. It makes learning entertaining.

Last week, National Geographic International has announced the premiere of "Asia's Titanic," a one hour exclusive about the MV Dona Paz ocean distaster in 1987. MV Dona Paz collided with an oil tanker in the evening few days before Christmas. The accident is considered one of the most tragic in Asia as 4,000 passengers died and only a handful of people lived to tell of this tragedy.

This documentary is also a first for a Filipino filmmaker to direct and produce a documentary that equals the hallmark standards of National Geographic. Director Yam Laranas and his team had to adhere to several guidelines in producing top quality documentaries that National Geographic standards hold.

The project took a total of 3 years in the making. Aside from the filming, the project involved extensive research which included interviewing survivors and rescuers for first-hand accounts, actual transscripts from the Philippine congressional inquiry regarding the tragedy, archival actual footage and photos and the re-enactment of the collision.

"Asia's Titanic" will premiere on the National Geographic Channel (Sky Cable Channel 41) on August 25, 2009 at 9:00pm. with replays on the following dates and times:

August 25, 8:00pm (Tuesday)

August 26, 4:00am (Wednesday)

August 26, 9:00am (Wednesday)

August 26, 1:00pm (Wednesday)

August 26, 9:00pm (Wednesday)

August 30, 9:00pm (Sunday)

August 31, 1:00am (Monday)

August 31, 5:00am (Monday)

September 5, 6:00pm (Saturday)

September 28, 8:00pm (Monday)

September 29, 1:00pm (Tuesday)

Don't miss this Filipino documentary of a Filipino tragedy, only on National Geographic.

LTO Advertising Expired Website ?

The Land Transportation Office or more popularly known as LTO has their official website located at http://www.lto.gov.ph.

Two months ago when I renewed my license, I was handed a flyer promoting their newest online service. Their catch phrase was "Why fall in line when you can go online. Transact Now @ LTO Online". The ad said to log on to http://go.lto.net.ph

So I decided to check it out and got this message:

The name lto.net.ph has expired

I found out that the domain expired last July 19, 2009. Does that mean that the online service has been discontinued ? Could it be that the website is still fully working and just an oversight to renew the domain ?

So as for the online part, it's offline. But much worse is that the domain has expired making it up for grabs.

Let's hope that a promoted online service stays online.

Of Planes and Airports

Ever since I was a kid, airplanes and airports fascinate me. I don't like riding planes. I just like watching them fly and soar in the air. I also don't like checking in airports to fly. I just like the botiques and gift shops inside. I like the restaurants and quick food stalls. I like looking at their departure and arrival monitors to know which plane is coming and going where and when. I like watching the planes take off and land. I like listening to the voice over announcing which gate is ready for boarding or which plane has just landed. I like looking at different people from various walks of life: different citizenships, different races, different ages, different backgrounds.

It's not the same as a ship and a pier, or a bus and a bus terminal. Planes and Airports are huge.

Sometimes I think that if I'm stressed out, I could relieve my stress in an airport and just spend some time relaxing over a cup of coffee in the airport cafe.

And thanks to my fianceé, I've been able to visit more airports and ride on more planes. It still scares the hell out of me to ride a plane cause I easily get dizzy. And I can finish an entire container of tic-tacs (extra strength) even before the plane takes off. Yet, conquering my fear has compensated me with new places visited and new friends made.

Till the next flight or the next chance I get to set foot at an airport, happy travelling !

Picking A Lock

My mom accidentally lost her keys. One of the keys in her keychain included 2 keys to her cabinet. Her cabinet had all her clothes there. Fortunately, there was a fresh batch of newly washed clothes that haven't been kept yet so she had time to look for her keys. But after 2 days, my mom still couldn't find them and then asked my dad and me to help her look for them.

We did look for it everywhere possible in their room but we just couldn't find it. We were hoping that it wasn't accidentally thrown in the garbage.

While we were all losing hope, I decided to try some other keys in hopes that one of them may open her cabinet even if it's not the actual key. I tried around 20 keys and none of them even budged.

With all options exhausted, I suddenly thought of the unthinkable... to pick the lock.

I've never picked a lock and I've only seen it done in movies and on TV. So I took a regular paperclip and deformed it to make it long enough to insert inside the keyhole. Then I took my precision screwdrive set and got the smallest screwdriver to help me maneuver around the lock.

After a couple of tries, I decided that I was thinking the impossible and it would never work. I then took a last look at one of the keys that looked similar to the lost keys and tried to manuever the keyhole again with the paperclip and screwdriver.

And after 20 minutes of trial and error, I shocked myself when I was able to open the cabinet ! I was ecstatic and astounded at the same time. And my next reaction was: "Hey ! I got a new skill !" There was still the other half of the cabinet locked and so to test my newly acquired skill and to prove to myself that it wasn't just luck, I tried picking the other lock.

Since I had some practice from the first lock, I was able to open this lock in 10 minutes. "So it's not luck !" I exclaimed. I was beginning to think if I could do this for other locks too, but didn't bother to try out any other lock cause I already spent around a half an hour trying to open the cabinet.

Funny thing about this all is that not more than 20 minutes after I was able to successfully pick and open two locked cabinet doors, my mom finally found her set of keys. I could've just waited a few more minutes and I wouldn't have to try opening the cabinet... but I didn't mind cause I acquired a new skill: "lock-picking".