with almost half the country still shell-shocked from the storm this past week, another one is fast approaching with the same threat that it might pass over metro manila. and with repairs and restoration still ongoing, one might wonder if we can withstand another lashing of one of nature's most violent creations.

yet that's a different story. it is often said that when man is pressed against difficult and challenging times, it brings out the best in him. or something like that. it is also said (well, at least what i have heard) is that filipinos are the most resilient people in the world. that we can adapt to any situation we're given. true to the fact that when hard times fall upon us, we can still smile and see the light at the end of the tunnel and even make jokes about how to get there.

that being said, i guess i'm feeling a bit shocked (though i think appalled is the best term to use) at two things i have seen at the aftermath of the storm. i know i'll be getting some heat with what i am about to say, but this is based on what i understand and what i have been through. of course also taking into consideration what the general public might (and i emphasize on the word might) be also seeing and what they're actually going through. again, feel free to share your views; there are no restrictions, and see what you have to say about these two things:

first, the sudden increase in hotel bookings (to the point that these establishments start to turn clients away due to no more available rooms) by people wanting to continue their "normal" way of life. it just saddens me that people are so accustomed to having a life of leisure and comfort that when a power outage of such a magnitude like this past weekend happens, they would readily spend thousands of pesos to go check into a hotel. and for what? just to take showers and sleep? heck, i took a shower with a candle on and slept with just the windows open and i had no problem with it whatsoever! i remember the power crisis back in the early 90s and nothing like this happened. people adjusted their way of life around the daily blackouts that occurred. why can't they do that now? some of my colleagues actually invited me to join them last friday in doing the same so that we can share the expenses. i literally said, "what?!" that idea never crossed my mind. so what if the power is out for a couple of days? deal with it! sacrifice a little! this doesn't include people who have generators in their homes. if it's been there all along, that's fine, use them. but for those who only thought about getting a proper (read: normal) shower and slept without sweating by checking into hotels, i really don't understand the need to do that. i just don't. you may say that i'm damn lucky because we're one of the first ones to have electricity restored, but here's the truth: if we were one of the last ones, i would've just stayed home, waited it out and say that life is like that. these things happen and we should just roll with the punches. plain and simple.

secondly, the billboard fiasco. no, i'm not agreeing with what bayani fernando is saying that billboards should be banned along edsa and that owners of fallen billboards should be charged in court. what the hell is he thinking?!?! i mean, if ALL the billboards fell, maybe i would somehow, in the very least agree with him. but the fact is, there are still billboards left standing and unscathed. heck, i even saw billboards on top of buildings which were taller than most giant billboards, and they were still standing! whether or not strong materials were used, or the billboards that were left standing were constructed in a different way, the thing is, a storm brought them down. on a normal day, if these giant billboards were made from "sub-standard" material, they would've fallen on their own, wouldn't it? it's just nature wrecking havoc on the city. and of course, there will be damage. one good thing i heard is that the family of the person who got killed when a billboard fell into the truck he was driving decided not to press charges against the billboard owner(s). and rightfully so. this reminds me of the stampede on a noontime show that happened early this year and that the families of those who were killed pressed charges against the organizers for "negligence." i wrote an entry saying that it was an accident, so therefore, no charges should be filed. same goes with what happened here. the family members of the truck driver have more rational thinking combined than that of the chairman of the metro manila development authority and the senators who filed a resolution banning the construction of billboards along major thoroughfares. they claim that it's an eyesore, a road hazard?? how can it be one when it's used for marketing purposes? it serves it's purpose by being visible. now, if the number of accidents are rising due to drivers taking time looking at these billboards while driving, shouldn't the driver himself or herself be the one who should be disciplined and not punish marketing people for doing their jobs? i don't get it, i just really don't get it.

thankfully i got those out of my chest. makes me feel a whole lot better. going back to the new storm approaching, i have learned that there's a 50-50 chance of it passing through the capital later this week. let's just hope for the best, yet expect the worst. right now, i'm quite excited with the responses of people reading this and see what they think. there goes my rant for the week. i rarely do this, so please bear with me. =)

"it's sometimes better to be lucky than good."

i decided to start my entry with that quote simply because i have been riding on luck for the past couple of days. with the strongest typhoon to have a direct hit in metropolitan manila in 11 years still reeling from everyone's minds, my family and i have been fortunate enough (read: lucky) to recover from it faster than most people. i don't know how else to recount what actually went down, so here's a day-by-day recollection of events during the storm and its aftermath:

wednesday night, septmber 27th: coming off a three-day respite from work, i was scheduled to resume my duties on my usual schedule at 2:00 AM (technically thursday). i already had an idea that the typhoon will hit the metropolis on thursday morning, but i had no second thoughts of not reporting to work that night so i reported to work as any other day.

thursday morning, september 28th, 6:30AM: it's my lunch break. ever since arriving at the office, i had updates on the storm on my PC and learned that metro manila will be in the direct path of the storm, with the eye passing by the southern areas (las pinas and paranaque, specifically the bicutan area) at around noontime. i accompanied a colleague outside and surveyed the skies. the clouds were moving fast on an eastward direction. no rain was falling and the wind was blowing like on a normal windy day. my shift ends in a couple of hours and i was anticipating (at that time, since no storm had hit the capital in recent memory) just some gustiness while driving home. i was still relaxed and did not think much about it.

thursday morning, september 28th, 10:30AM: the storm was far stronger than i anticipated. i was finishing writing a blog entry (my previous one) and looked outside from time to time. trees were bending from the fierce winds and rain was falling sideways. my boss called in (she had gone home for the day hours earlier since she had an earlier shift) and reminded us of the safety concerns for the people ending their shift at that time. my concern at that time was that my car was parked a good 100 feet from the side entrance of the building with trees and a construction area around it, and with the strength of the storm, it could be a sitting duck for flying debris. still i just shrugged the danger off and continued to finish my shift.

thursday morning, september 28th, 11:00AM: end of my shift. it never, ever crossed my mind to stay at the office and wait for the storm to pass. i headed down to the lobby as i would in any normal day and stepped out. there was a company shuttle in the driveway waiting for employees who use public transport to be brought safely to the nearest terminal which was about a kilometer and a half away. amidst the rain and winds, i looked for my car in the area where it was parked. it was still there, unscathed. without hesitation, i ran towards it. i remember seeing leaves scatter around the air as the wind blew and several trees already brought down by it. i got to my car, and off i went. i decided to take the service road since the risk of taking the expressway was that i was inclined to go at a faster rate of speed, thus have little time to react if anything flying came right in front of me, compared to going at a much slower pace. now, i don't know why, but for some strange reason, at that time that i was driving, i was actually enjoying it. maybe i was more alert and more aware of the things going on around the car that i spent almost half of the entire time driving, if not more, looking at the surrounding areas. i even counted seven billboards that were already down as i passed by and marveled at how the strength of the storm managed to topple those giant marketing structures. yet there were other billboards that remain standing. better construction perhaps? branches of trees and trees themselves lined up the road, yet it did not cause any traffic jam. my mom actually called me up on my mobile phone asking where i was. she kind of freaked out when i told her that i was driving and asked why i didn't stay at the office. i said that i just wanted to go home, period and was reminded to take extra care. i arrived home safely and to no electricity (which was expected) and that's when the storm had reached its peak and was blowing like crazy. with nothing else to do, i just went straight to bed, thankful for arriving home safe.

thursday night, september 28th: woke up in the midst of darkness as i prepared for another shift. normally, businesses would be closed but for the call center industry, it's business as usual. driving to work was also quite an experience as i saw the damage up close and personal. electric posts toppled, old trees destroyed, garbage littered, and miles and miles of darkness. it was like driving around a ghost town with no people in sight. except for a few who had generators, all i saw was my headlights pointing to the road and the debris. this time, i took the expressway, thinking that there might be more storm debris scattered at the service road. i arrived at the office and learned that two employees from our department weren't as lucky driving home as i was, with the windshields of their vehicles being hit by flying sheets of metal. fortunately, they were not hurt. stories upon stories of how people were affected by the storm filled the floor. there was a "charging station" set up for mobile phones since homes were without power. news of homes enduring blackouts throughout the weekend floated around and some of my colleagues even thought of checking in to a hotel or motel just to sleep comfortably. i thought that it was a crazy idea since it would entail spending a significant amount of money, not to mention the fact that other people already thought of it, thus making the establishments fully booked. though work was still normal, all of us had a story or two to tell on how we weathered the storm.

friday morning, september 29th: i went home after my shift and there was still no electricity. good thing i charged my phone at the office, but signal was still difficult to establish. i learned from my mom that the three-day sale at the mall nearby was still on and that my sister and my cousin went there to pass the time. since it was already my day off, i was looking forward to a dull weekend with no electricity. again, with nothing else to do, i dozed off to sleep.

friday afternoon, september 29th, 2:50PM: i was awakened with my mom entering the room and turning the electric fan on. there's electricity!! wow, how lucky can we get!! with relief setting in, i still continued to sleep. i woke up in the early evening, thinking that having electricity was just a dream, when in fact, was real. that changed my outlook for the weekend in a good way.

and to sum up the weekend, i went out to have the car cleaned up at a nearby car wash on saturday morning. luckily for them as well, they also have electricity. but not for the rest of the subdivision. ATMs were down, restaurants outside of the mall who don't have generators were closed, people were lining up in grocery stores, stocking up on food, water and candles, gas stations operating slowly therefore lines of cars were seen. i even saw people lining up behind an ice truck parked in front of a wet market buying ice! i then thought to myself how lucky we really were for having power restored earlier than expected. and i thank the powers that be for such a fate. whether it be divine intervention or the meralco people hard at work, again, it's sometimes better to be lucky than good.

that's enough for now. i'll be posting another entry tomorrow (hopefully) ranting about a couple of things that happened during the storm that just made me say, WTF? not in a funny way, but in a serious, ticked off way. i'll probably get some heat about it, but hey, i just want to air it out. until then, happy start-of-fourth-quarter day! =)

***to start off, this again came from liz' blog and being tagged, i'm happy and obliged to answer. this time, it's for my seven (7) songs. i'm guessing that the tag is asking me to list my favorite songs. i currently have a lot on my mind, but i'll be listing the ones i frequently listen while driving to and from work, so here goes:

1. bad day by daniel powter – this i listen to when, of course, i have a… let's say, a challenging day at work.
2. all she wrote by default – this is fast becoming one of my all-time favorites. the words somehow hit close to home.
3. oh l'amour (matt darey remix) by erasure – it's one of two trance/house tunes that i sometimes just can't get enough of these days.
4. only time by enya – a tune to calm me down when nothing goes right.
5. have you ever needed someone so bad by def leppard – for those times when i need to be comforted by someone… that bad.
6. estranged by guns n' roses – for the times when my practical self consoles my emotional self.
7. how do you talk to an angel by the heights – i never, ever let a week pass by without listening to this song. one of my all-time favorite tunes.

of course, the list is definitely subject to change depending on the mood i have. most times, my mood determines the music i listen to, but there are instances when a certain song or songs that is or are playing on my car stereo suddenly changes what i feel. with that being said, i decide not to tag anyone with this entry at this time.

***metro manila is now under storm signal number three. and i'm still at work!! i could see the rain pouring hard and the winds bending trees outside. a couple more minutes and i'm heading home.

***my new blog is still under construction, for those who are asking. i originally planned to unveil it this coming sunday, october 1, but i may put it off until a couple of days later. thanks for your continued visits and comments here. i really appreciate it.

***october is upon us and so is christmas!! can't wait to feel the holiday atmosphere as this is the only period in the year where my spirits are lifted.

***stay safe and dry, folks. =)

i'm moving… to a new blogsite, that is. big thanks to trina for introducing me to a new place where i can blog. i'm currently finishing the layout for my new home, which by the way is more fully customizable that what i have here. plus, it's closer to home. no third party software like my current tagboard and site counter. when everything is done, that's when i'll be announcing the new url. my biggest task after that will be personally archiving all my previous posts. i'm still not sure if i can transfer them over as well without affecting the date of posting. if you have any ideas or ways of doing that, please let me know. it'll be most appreciated. until then, hope everyone has a good weekend. =)

it's no secret that i used to dream of being a radio disc jockey. my vast array of customized cd compilations is one solid testament that i love listening to and playing music, while another one would be doing dee-jay segments over the phone during one of those fun five-way sessions when i was still an active member of rx's mailing list. just ask cher and janie. and another would be going on the air during saturday nights back when matt montoya was on board just to greet fellow listers and join the station's promos. the dream went way back into my college days even before i joined the mailing list and i was an active listener (and caller) for another radio station owned by network giant gma 7. when their formatting changed and went to a "masses" type radio station, that's when i made the switch. man, i dreamt of having my own three or four-hour board work, deciding what to play, things to say, promos to run, the works!

but that's just it. "used to" being the operative word. or phrase. whatever. i'm beginning to realize that maybe it was just a phase i was going through. yet looking back, it was something that i know i really, really, and i mean really want to do. it was the next dream job on my list after fulfilling my first dream job by working for mcdonald's while i was in my final year in college. yet looking back closer, that desire went far earlier in my college days. not that i didn't do something about it, i actually had a few opportunities to break into the business. when that gma 7 station started the "campus aircheck" program for student dee-jays, i immediately filled out a bio-data and waited for the audition period. but when it coincided with my preliminary exams, i had to forego my auditions to give way to my studies. there goes break one. the next one came a couple of years later when i was already an rx listener (that gma 7 station already changed their format so subsequent auditions would be in their new format). yet their "radio one" program was again catered to student dee-jays. but i already earned my degree and was in-between jobs (resigned at mcdonald's to pursue a more degree-related career). so, break two scrapped.

the third try came about on a slightly different aspect. at that time, there was this new company called trapik.com which caters to "reporters" going on-air in various radio stations on plotted times of the day telling listeners of the traffic situations in various parts of the metropolis. their tag-line at that time was "take the first step in becoming a radio disc jockey and be a reporter for trapik.com," or something to that effect. i thought to myself that maybe i should take this route first and applied. i passed the interview and was part of a workshop for about a week on the basic stuff like pronunciation, voice projection and tones, and some other stuff on how to "say" things on the air. at the end of the workshop, we all had our final recordings which will be used to select the ones who will be taken in. unfortunately, i didn't make the cut. so there goes number break number three. the fourth installment of my pursuit of my on-air dream happened a couple of years ago, while i was starting out with the call center industry. there was an open audition for a new batch of rx "jocks" (they're not called dee-jays anymore, at least from their point of view), so i hooked up with a friend who is also a mailing list member and the vice president of the station to set me up for an audition, which he gladly obliged. i went in, nervous as hell, and did a recorded interview which included me reading a few lines from a news article and a marketing promotion. i felt that with me increasing the times i had to speak english due to the nature of my work, that i would at least barely pass. but sad to say, i never heard from them afterward, even regarding the result of my interview/audition. no, i'm not mad at them for not contacting me, i just realized the hard way that i didn't meet their expectations.

that was the last attempt in pursuing my dream. i then concentrated on my work as a csr and the rest is history. i continued to be a listener of rx, yet as i moved up in my career, i had taken on new challenges and the dream of becoming a radio dee-jay slowly faded away. the dream became just a mere wish now due to the setbacks that i had in trying to be where i wanted to be, coupled with the thought that "being-a-dee-jay-may-not-be-for-me," like others who have tried and failed to reach for that elusive career…

..until now. rx has announced the second season for "radio idol," which basically is a search for the next rx jock(s). as you may have seen on the tag-board, -a- has informed me that it has no age restrictions unlike its initial run. i never really had time to ponder on joining because of the work i have right now. plus the fact that, if not for -a-'s advice regarding the "no age restrictions" clause, it wouldn't stir enough interest for me to even think about the thought of re-kindling that dream. which brings me to the present day. honestly, i'm still 50/50 on whether to try out again or not. if ever, this would be my fourth attempt (fifth, counting the aborted plan of auditioning on the very first attempt), and i gotta tell you, being turned down three times has a way of telling me if something ain't for me. don't get me wrong, i'm not the one who easily gives up. fact is, in my current career, i have been turned down twice in being promoted to the next level and got lucky on the third try. but that's a different story. this past friday, i made a small step in re-kindling that dream by contacting that VP/friend of mine and asked when is the last day of auditions and also asked him if the no age restriction clause is true. from what i remember, he said that the final day of auditions would be sometime either this week or next week. as far as the age restriction goes, he said that he'll get back to me with that.

yet it all goes back to the same question: should i go for it again? or retire the dream completely? some of my past friends who were lucky enough to become dee-jays told me before that to successfully become one, i should have connections on the inside. yet despite having that, i never resorted to asking friends for favors, especially in a scenario such as this. i'd rather go through the whole process, get in or fail on my own accord rather than using friendship or connections to buy my way in. but whether or not i try to audition, my love for listening to and playing music stays the same. but, as i have caught myself doing so many times already, during the times i'm playing my cd or mp3 collection, i would interject in-between songs, talk about the next song, or how the weather is, or what's coming up during the hour.

i may have the voice and talent for the job, but i guess it takes way more than that to reach something that may be only wishful thinking for me–or something that may not be for me at all.