Typhoon Chedeng is on out of the country now. While it was still here it made my two-hr trip turn to 4.5 hrs because of the huge traffic at the North Luzon Expresssway due to flash floods. But I really can't complain. I know others suffered a far worse fate because of Chedeng. Today, on the tube, I learned that the typhoon took 19 lives, and many are still missing.

 


Pics from the Tagaytay Trip are now at the know section.

Oh, and some more semiHome pics there too.

[ Excuse: Office scanner still busted. Had the pics scanned at the cafe. Poor quality. ]

On the tube:

The reporter went around and asked kids which of the Meteor Garden stars they love. One kid answered Jackie Chan.

I almost got to see Matrix Reloaded today. My phone/alarm died so i was just waking up around the time i should be meeting Kit and Mike at the cinemas. My old mobile just turned into a phone/alarm/life-planner.

My body is a huge mass of pain. Walking is a repeated series of "step-ow!-step-ow!" as the muscles on my right leg are sore. I have a headache that won't go away. I don't think the ibuprofen/paracetamol i took is working. ;\

I was still able to head to malolos earlier today, and got there at noontime. In the three hours i was there all i did was sleep and shake my head "No" when they tell me to eat and speak softly when the questions asked cannot be answered by shaking the head. Wish i could head home and sleep.

Which reminds me.. after my 16hr shift i have to stick around for a while and wait for the secretary so i can talk to her about my salary complaint. She was probably too proessured and out of focus when she updated my attendance. My last slip reflected two absences and some OT hours didn't get paid. Ugh.

[12:19 AM]

Tagaytay Trip
Tuesday, 9 :45 pm

Last night tats and i decided we'd go to Tagaytay today. Coz we can. So that's what we did.

Headed to the city terminal and met tats there after a now rare 8hr graveyard shift. The trip lacks all the needed planning and we lack the necessary how-to's of getting there but tats had been on the phone with a friend for the directions, so i went to sleep during the trip like she suggested. When i woke up we found out we're two cities and forty five minutes past our stop already ;p

After several jeep and bus rides we arrived at Olivarez. The driver suggested the People's Park in the Sky* as a must-visit, so that's where we headed first. It's a place waaaay on top of a mountain, overlooking the cities on one side and the the tall lake on the other. Unfortunately, the place is poorly maintained, and there's not much there worth seeing. Not worth all the travel and climb.

Next stop: Picnic Grove. This place is definitely much better, well maintained and there are always some staff going around. They have a lot of roofed tables and the view of the taal lake and volcano is kewler too. They have a very tiny butterfly garden that has some 2 or 3 butterfly species ;p We stayed there and just talked for some hours, and good thing it was cloudy so it was ok to stay there even though it was noontime already. They also have an eco-trail, whatever that is, that we didn't try out coz we were too tired from climbing already and we were hungry and the sun peeks out of the clouds every now and then.

We went back to Olivarez for a late lunch, then headed to our last Tagaytay trip destination: Residence Inn and Mini Zoo at Halfway Drive. Mini as it is, i think it has more animals than the dying manila zoo. It would have been a lot nicer too if it wasn't so smelly. It's at the side of a mountain too, so there are huge concrete stairs one has to take to get to see the lions and potbelly pigs and the eagles. Some hyper tigers, a sleeping crocodile, mating mini horses, a llama, a huge fake gorilla, lazy malay civet cats, a bear, monkeys, monkeys, an ape, huge (bloated..?) fishies, birdies, turtles were checked out before i got to gather enough courage to touch a snake. It was like holding cold rubber, but it was still freaky.

My tired sleepless head and body gave up on the way back to alabang. Was unconscious during most of the trip. Now i'm gonna close this and head to bed coz i've been up for more than 24hrs already. Gonna head to malolos early tomorrow morning and head back later in the evening for a 16 hr shift. Ayee.

Oh, and i won't forget this lady who pronounced Twin Popsies as Twin Popsize while we were at the park in the sky, like i won't forget the saleslady who asked me and my college classmate how much "paper twinee" (paper twine) we needed. ;p



*took some pics, which i'm afraid were overexposed coz i forgot to correct the film setting on my camera. still, gonna have them developed and added to the growing pile of pics that i'm gonna scan when the office scanner gets fixed. I was gonna add some links to the places we visited too, but i'm... tooo... sleepyy.. already. zzzzzz.

My right eye is still a bit reddish from my stupidity accident last night. I was collecting samples from the cell of a plating bath when the container got hooked to the conveyor belt and got dragged (with me still holding on to it). Instead of pulling the cable that's connected to the emergency stop, i panicked and yanked the container, and doing so made its contents fly out and hit my face. *bows*

Oh, and i have the pics already. But the office scanner is busted. Will put some of them up soonish.

Thursday, May 15, 2003


So websense is back. it means it's gonna take a while before i get to check this and that out. The wonderful mind behind the mirror project has great pictures at her sites, and i'm gonna miss seeing them. Oh, and blogger is blocked too, so this thing is updated using notepad.

Another thing i've been enjoying for weeks is dooce's blog updates. The way she writes makes other blogs, including this place, more dull than the dullest bog in the world, and makes me wish jessica zafra has her own twisted blog.


Yesterday, when i got back from my restday, a lovely surprise was waiting for me at my office table. Kit printed stationeries with the butterfly print i gave her, and she made several sets for herself, and sent me some of them. :) They're lovely and nice. Kit made enough sheets, so i won't be torn between using them and keeping them for myself ;] Thanks, Kit :)



11:01 PM

I headed home earlier than usual this morning, around an hour after my regular shift. I endorsed the line to the other area's engineer, submitted some documents at the control center, and sent my boss a message that I'm on my way home (which i found later she wasn't able to receive coz she changed her number already. woops.). Too sleepy and too tired and my room needs to be cleaned and my laundry needs to be washed.

When tats and I got to the semiHome i got some rocky road ice cream, grabbed my camera and stayed at our smallish porch. Tats followed me there, holding a ripe mango and a chair. It was a nice morning. It drizzled a bit during the night, so the air was pleasantly cool. That smallish porch is facing east too, the bay area, and it was still nice even though the sun was high already.

The rest of the day was spent sleeping. The only room cleaning I was able to do was get my trash out. As for my dirty clothes, they ended up being packed and brought to the cleaners. Tomorrow, instead of going straight to malolos, I'll be going back to the apartment to get my stuff and the pics i brought to the developer. Can't wait to see the pics taken with the cheap polarizer. ;p

Still reading: An Empire of Women by Karen Shepard

It's taking me more than a week, and I'm still a lot of pages away from the end of the story. Good in a way coz it's a joy to read. This is the first time I've encountered the style, alternating between third person and one of the main character's (Celine's) point of view. The book takes its time, each chapter about the events of one day, with lots of little interesting details given. I just wish I have longer time sitting with the book so that I'd enjoy it more.

I'm now at the part where a lot has been revealed but not too much that i can't start over again. I just feel that there were little things my sleepy head wasn't able to give enough attention to, and that those little things are necessary for me to be able to appreciate the story more. Or maybe it's the political/historical details in the story that my mind refuses to take in that I feel I missed, and unfortunately those parts are significant too.

Hmmm.

There's a huge possibility my Ina will never get to see this, but i still want to put this up :) Happy Mother's Day. ♥ (And yes, she was aiming the water hose at me, and almost got me too. ;p)

By the way, hi-way, some pics are up at the visuals section.

Looks like portland ftp is good and running again. Finally.

Was in a crappy mood when i headed home after work. The poor jeepney driver got a share of steam when he started his vehicle while i was getting off. I'm not naturally masungit. But i become one when i'm too tired, or when my life is placed in a bit of danger.

On my way home i had a bit of an idea on a piece of work. There's this urge to draw or paint or do anything these last few days, but i haven't been giving it much attention coz there was no idea, just the urge, and by experience i know that won't amount into anything. So now there's the concept, and the urge is still there. There is a huge emotion involved in it too, and it was so huge and deep that i find it hard to breathe normally while cooking up the idea in my head. If things go smoothly i'll start working on it soon. Soon.

16hr shift.. i can't remember the last time i stayed this long at work.

Today, fracture guy's wife sent some papers and medical certificates at the clinic. When she got back she handed me a white slip that says fracture guy is officially on leave til the end of the month. Haaaay.

Some days websense blocks blogger so i can't update mindswap. Other days, blogger gets through websense, but portland is down so updating is useless. These past few days, it's either one or the other. Crazy sites.

Was too sleepy when i got home from work, was only able to read a few pages off the book i'm reading. I'll probably read those pages again. It's the type of book with a lot of little details that is unsuitable for someone who's sleepy and who gets distracted immediately, and i'm both these days. 'Fell asleep as soon as i closed my eyes, and got woken up 6 hours later by the heat. One of the disadvantages of being on graveyard shift during summer: Too hot to sleep in the afternoons. If i wasn't so tired i probably won't get that much sleep.

The heat probably got Tats too, coz she went out and got us some halo-halo. ;)

I'm now back at work, and since portland is still down i don't know when this entry will be posted. La la la..

My boss acutally clapped her hands in relief when she saw me arrive at work before ten pm last night. She said i was seldom late (or she's just unaware that i sometimes arrive late for work), and she thought she'd be doing a 16hr shift.

I'm at my laziest whenever i'm getting ready to leave malolos. It's just so easy to do every little thing slowly in getting ready to leave for work. It takes me around two hours to travel from my parents' house to work, and around two hours before i have to swipe in, i'm still walking lazily around the house, opening and closing drawers, looking around for stuff that i might need, giving my dad the chance to enumerate the things i might forget. "..celfone mo... susi mo... charger mo... atm card mo... i.d. mo..." Sometimes i'd go along and recite them with him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . An Empire of Women - Karen Shepard
_ hearing . Without Me - Claire Marlo
_ feeling . lazy

It's sunday. Gonna start graveyard shift tomorrow and still no word from pixelcatalyst when the eb is gonna be. Too bad. They (pix & nizzy, junel & marie, and diwa) were supposed to meet last weekend but they moved it, and i thought it was gonna be held last night, but it looks like they had a change of plans again, and i might not be able to join them if they meet anytime soon.

Been getting almost seven hours of sleep since friday night, but i still feel super sleepy. The kind with a little headache that won't go away.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . An Empire of Women - Karen Shepard
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . headache-y

You know it's a bad day when 2 hours after the start of the shift you get into a shouting argument with a hard headed hot-tempred techinician who thinks the only thing that a process engineer knows how to do is sit in front of the pc the whole day. And you know it has gone worse when you get so mad that you can't stop yourself from crying when you get back to the office.

And if you think it can't get any worse, a few hours after the incident, when you've calmed down and stopped sniffing and your eyes aren't red and puffy anymore you find a one inch long reddish line between your eyes where you've pressed a while ago while trying to stop your eyes from shedding more tears.

I feel like a baby.

I'm sleepy. This work sked is throwing off my system. Today I found out that the fracture guy will be on leave for another month. Another month. A whole month of 12hr shifts. Just saying it makes me tired already.

Had fun watching Johnny make a charming fool of himself last night. The role fits him perfectly. ;p It seems Kit didn't have much fun as i did, though.. she's so kind she can't bring herself to laugh at his misfortunes ;) Mike wished we watched XMen 2 instead. Heh. Had a great night :)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
_ reading . Philip Hall Likes Me, I Reckon Maybe - yep, back to the kiddies!
_ hearing . nothing
_ feeling . not so ok.