The rain is relentless.

It’s been raining all night and all morning.  Good thing our area never gets flooded.  I’ve been watching the news and a lot of places have been submerged past the point of human height (it’s amusing how newcasters describe the flood levels- lampas tuhod, lampas baywang, lampas tao).  This situation is so similar to Ondoy except that there’s no storm yet.  It’s just monsoon rains.  

They’ve started evacuations in different parts of the city.  One caller, stranded in the second floor of her dormitory with 19 other people, described how the water completely filled the first floor, how they had no food, and how they couldn’t even use the bathroom because the water supply to their building stopped.

It’s times like this when a little paranoia is helpful.  It’s important to always be prepared, especially if you live in the Philippines.  Any indication of prolonged stormy weather should prompt you to stock up on food (that needs no cooking), drinking water, batteries and flashlights, first aid kits, medications (prepare a supply for at least a week if you take any for maintenance), and other items to help you survive.  Actually, you should always have these things stored in your home at all times in case of emergency.

It may be a little too late for this, but because it’s raining so hard and I have nothing else to do, I made a list.

1. Food (preferably canned or preserved and can be eaten without cooking, like MREs if you have access to them)
2. Water supply (take into consideration the amount a person needs for a week, and multiply that by the number of people in your household)
3. First aid kit (it should contain the basics such as different types of gauze and bandages both sterile and non-sterile, adhesive and elastic, cotton balls, cotton swabs, disinfectants like alcohol, povidone-iodine and hydrogen peroxide, waterproof tape, ice and hot packs, gloves, BP apparatus, thermometer, bandage scissors, and liquid handsoap)
4. Medications (as mentioned before, if you or a family member is taking anything for maintenance, you need to stock at least a week’s supply of those medications). Typical stock of medications should include:  

   a. For fever – Biogesic, Tylenol, or anything with paracetamol

   b. For pain – Ibruprofen, Mefenamic Acid, Aspirin

   c. Stomach medications – antacids such as Kremil-S, Simeco, Maalox, TUMS, and stronger ones such as ranitidine, omeprazole, esomeprazole for when the antacids don’t work

   d. Fluid replacement medications in case of dehydration or diarrhea (like Hydrite, ORS solution, Pedialyte, or a plain salt and water solution)

   e. Sugar solutions for those with diabetes

   f. Anti-allergies and antihistamines like Allergan, Allerta, cetirizine

   g. Asthma medications and inhalers – very important to have ample stock if a family member has asthma

   h. Decongestants and lozenges

   i. Antibacterial creams and ointments for bites and wounds

5. Candles, a lighter, and matches packed in plastic to prevent moisture and getting wet
6. Flashlights and extra batteries
7. Clean blankets and towels
8. Raincoats and especially boots (NOTE: do not use rain overalls that have boots attached, these have a tendency to fill with water; it can make you heavy and drag you to the bottom if you decide to brave the flood)
9. A radio that’s battery-powered with extra batteries so you can listen for news in case the power is cut
10. Waterproof fabric/material that can be used to cover windows in case they break or for some reason cannot be closed
11. Can opener (it’s happened many times- people stranded on the second floor of their homes couldn’t open the food that they had or rations given to them because they left it in their kitchen which was by then flooded up to the ceiling and no longer accessible. Keep one together with your food supply).
12. A whole lot of rags and mops
13. Extra umbrellas
14. A knife or large scissors is useful for many things, like cutting cloth or fallen branches.  Do not use for killing others.
15. Large roll of paper, paint, or a really thick marker for making “help” signs for helicopters to see when the flood traps you on the roof of your house
16. An inflatable boat if you can afford it

And a few other tips:

Keep a list of emergency numbers (Red Cross, Lifeline, NDCC) beside your phone or any place accessible and make sure all household members know where it is.  Here’s a useful list by the Philippine Red Cross.

Make sure that you fully charge your mobile phone and other communication devices.  They could be the only way you could ask for help if the power and phone lines are cut.

That’s all I can share for now.  I claim facebook, my parents, and The Zombie Survival guide as sources.  Stay safe!

My 5-year career plan has gone down the drain.

…if I had such a career plan to begin with.  Is there no way for a nurse to get an honest job in this country that pays well enough to cover personal and family needs?  Something that can also help provide, or at least, won’t get in the way of having an overall good quality of life?  That doesn’t seem to be too much to ask for.  

So I found my niche in the nursing world, and I want to be a clinical analyst.  The design part, like UI and wireframing got me.  Combine medicine and IT and you get double the amount of ideas and possibilities.  I’m not sure about how much room for growth there will be for an industry just starting out (at least here in the Philippines), but I really want it.  The only problem is that the pay is not going to be enough to support me if I ever decided on living alone or starting a family (which is very unlikely, but still).  Rent alone would eat it all up.  I know salaries shouldn’t matter if you do what you love, but come on.  

My parents are asking if it’s going to take me anywhere.  Well hey, can’t I just stay here?

It sucks that most nurses have to leave and work in other countries in order to support their families.  Why is everyone so focused on leaving anyway?  I know this is old news, but I’m getting sick of it.

I have this…thing. A desire. To be an Omnipresent being. An Aftermathematician. A Minister of Confluenza. So whenever I can, I detach myself from the norms of society since everyone else is already pretty good at doing the opposite. So forgive me if I am distant. Forgive me for I cannot fail my muse. Forgive me for I refuse to compromise. Forgive me for the things I believe in are far bigger than you and the things you say and the things you stand for. Forgive me. And fuck you.”

“Life is a box of chocolates. You don’t get any.”

“If we absolutely have to shoot ourselves in the head let’s try not to hit everyone else, please.

Alan Navarra (a few quotes from his book Dumot, which I enjoyed enough to re-read)

You see them everywhere nowadays, K-9 units, mostly of the breed Belgian Malinois, in malls, hotels, airports, and even hospitals.  We know them as the dogs trained for protection and bomb/drug detection, hired to ensure our safety should the human guards become negligent and fail to stop a bomb or a gun from entering a public place (and by the way they are being negligent, seeing how many people have been gunned down in malls recently).  I’m sure the dogs will do a better job.

 What most people don’t know, however, is that while off-duty, some of these dogs participate in a sport called Mondioring.

Mondioring is a sport that tests the dogs’ capabilities and discipline.   Watch one of the local competitions and you’ll see how dedicated both the dogs and their handlers are.  This year, the Philippines was the first country in Asia to enter the Mondioring World Cup in Switzerland.  Results?  Well, one of the Philippine’s four K-9 units, Baddy, won tenth place and was included in the top ten canine participants in their category II competition.  Hooray for us!  

Unfortunately, the dancing dog that you see in this video, Booger, was injured and couldn’t compete.  Another was disqualified, reason undisclosed.  That put a big dent in the Philippines’ point score (217 points, the lowest out of 12 countries).  Still, not bad for our country’s first Mondioring world cup, with one dog in the top ten.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

Here’s a photo that I took while riding a tricycle home from work.  Like most of our public transportation, this trike was decorated with stickers.  My favorite is the ubiquitous “barya lang po sa umaga” sticker.  

Looking at this little windshield, I couldn’t help but think how appropriate it was that the driver placed the sticker of Jesus in the center, above all the ads and political campaign ones.

The Philippine Eagle is one of the largest flying birds in the world.  It is also rare and endangered.  I hope it doesn’t go extinct.  There are less than 500 of these eagles known to be alive.  Here is one on display at the National Museum.  It’s huge!  I’ve never seen a live one up close, and the stuffed specimen surprised me.  I’d estimate it to probably be half my size.

I like the way the taxidermist put the screaming monkey beneath the eagle’s claws.  Morbid humor.  You don’t call our national bird a monkey-eating eagle for nothing.

I love trains.

I asked for a train that travels outside of the city, and here it is.  This is the old PNR Bicol Express train cleaned up and revived.  It looks good.  The train had its first successful run from Tutuban to Naga in May of this year.  See that- the PNR logo is so old school.  I can’t wait for it to become fully operational and start running multiple trips daily.  When they fix the railroads so that they’re safe from derailments even when there’s heavy rain, I’ll ride it back and forth to my dad’s hometown, Lucena.  

I’m making plans to go to Naga because I’ve never been there.  When I go I want to take the train.  Beaches and Bicol.  If I only had weekends free and didn’t work in shifts…  I can dream, can’t I?

Cagbalete Island

A picture of Cagbalete’s shoreline taken from a nearby rock island called Bonsai (named for its small cluster of mangroves that look like bonsais).  In the mornings the tide gets so low that you could be walking for a kilometer or so and you’d only be shin or even ankle deep in water. This particular view looks like Moses has just parted the sea.

Mornings are the best time to walk around and see various sea creatures up close.  The island is teeming with life, and there are crabs, different species of starfish, sea cucumbers, barnacles, and a whole bunch of strange seaweed around.

The Salagubang, bow!

This, my friends, is a June beetle, otherwise known as a salagubang.  Present during the rainy seasons of May and June.  Maybe some of you have played with one of these before, with a piece of string tied to one of its legs so that it could buzz above your head like a living, miniature balloon. 

My earliest memory of these insects was with my grandfather, who had a habit of catching one every time it rained.  He would tell me to hold my hand open for a gift (which I always expected to be something like candy or chocolate, but no!) and he’d drop the beetle right there on my palm.  That usually led to me freezing on the spot and yelling for him to take it away before I gave in to panic.  I’m not a big fan of bugs.  I’d rather they leave me alone.  I’d do the same for them if they did.

Okay, why am I talking about the salagubang?  Wala lang.  I recently watched a TV special about it by Jessica Soho.  In some parts of the Philippines, they are considered a delicacy, cooked in different ways and served in some restaurants and eateries.  Adobong salagubang, crispy fried salagubang, sinampalukang salagubang, oh yeah, you name it. 

I’ve never tried it, but I hope it tastes better than fried crickets (I’ve eaten crickets at Cabalen on a stupid whim, and they are umm.. too juicy and just too insect-y for my taste).  I’ve sworn myself off insects forever, not because of the taste but because of the way they cook the bugs.  First they take their wings and the legs off, then they fry them while they’re still alive.  They showed those poor, poor bugs, breathing, wriggling in pain on a pan.  I don’t think I could eat anything that had to suffer like that.

By the way, this is a salaginto (green june beetle), its shinier and arguably cuter little bug brother.

midnightscratches:

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Tuwing June 24, sine-celebrate ng San Juan City ang WATTAH WATTAH FIESTA (BASAAN) bilang selebrasyon sa Patron Saint ng Lungsod na si St. John the Baptist.

PAALALA: Bawal ang PIKON bukas sa San Juan. Basaan po. Bawal ang KJ.

Sana wag umulan. 🙂

😀

Previous basaan days.  Water everywhere.  I am so loving this video right now

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)