breathing space: 2009

Monday, December 14

red rafts - 3 years after...

i've always believed in balancing work with play and was glad that the mbb ra's arranged for cdo white-water rafting after the psbmb rev-up and convention in bukidnon early this month.

i was even more glad to know that they arranged it with red rafts (www.theredrafts.com) the same company that took me on my first (and only, before this) white-water adventure on the same river 3 years ago!

in 2006, tere and alex, adri and i took a trip to camiguin and cagayan de oro. because alex had to be called to work because of some ship disaster, it was only adri, tere and i who went ahead with white-water rafting. even if i'm quite sure i started the morning with a bit of apprehension, at the end of our 12 km, 14 rapids beginners' course, i was looking for more!
it was quite an experience and i recall seeing the silvery kingfisher after our first rapids, jumping into the river during stretches of still water, having lunch in the middle of the tour, and the adrenalin rush of shooting the rapids! it turned out to be one of my must-try activities recommended to all my travel- and adventure-loving friends.

so this year, even if i was excited about going through the adventure again, i didn't think it would be so different from 3 years ago. haha! to my delight, i was wrong.

we were fetched at our hotel early sunday morning. (well, it wasn't as early as if we were going birding, but after being on a bus for half the day and most of the evening the day before, 7:30am felt like 4:30am). adri and i quickly chatted up one of our guides, glenn (laki), telling him about how much fun we had the last time asking about our past guides.
this time we were going to try the advanced course: 18 km and 22 (yes, twenty-two!) rapids. i was really looking forward to it!

when we got to the jump-off point i was a little disappointed to see so many people and so many rafts (not just red rafts). last time, we had the whole river to our selves, with only the large red rafts group practicing for an upcoming competition. fortunately, the number of people did not take anything away from the excitement of the experience, and doing the rapids in succession gave the next group more (or actually in some cases, less) courage. eventually during the course of the river, we would lose sight of the other rafts anyway.
the rapids were no less fun to run the second time around, in fact it was an even more exciting experience! this time, white-water rafting was more extreme (yes, it can get more extreme!), with set-ups being staged to make the rapids even more exciting. if my first time i didn't fall into the water once, this time, falling into the water was part of the experience! paddling upstream, sliding out of the raft, flipping the raft, standing on the raft while navigating rapids - all part of the fun and adrenalin rush. the first time i fell into the water, i think i must've swallowed more than a liter of river water, and i thought i was never going to surface! after the first fall, the idea of falling didn't seem so scary anymore! so yes, i fell in a couple of times more! (video is worth a thousand words: http://katrinket.multiply.com/video/item/29/riding_the_rapids) wearing a life vest and a helmet never felt more useful! later, when we were talking to one of the guides, richard (who was also there when we tried it in 2006), i commented on how different the approach was this time. to which he answered "oo, kasi dati and emphasis talaga safety". and to which i jokingly replied, " so ano ngayon, endangerment?" actually, i always felt safe the whole time, even with the set-ups. the twists and tricks really added to the adrenalin rush, fun and craziness of the whole experience.

i'm glad all of my raft-mates were game: adri, kino, xy-za, zee, myka, andoi and our guides glenn and tata. it made meeting the rapids head-on and the imminent being thrown in the river seem less crazy.

no silvery kingfisher this time, but two brahminy kites soaring above the river was a sight for everyone to enjoy.

after 4 hours on the river, we were still energized enough to paddle-race with the other raft (joey, biji, karen, me-ann, richter, anna) towards lunch: inihaw na manaok, halabos na hipon, pinakurat, rice, bananas and coke never tasted so good!

cagayan de oro river white water rafting: can't pass this one up! (go for red rafts)
2006: beginners' course: 14 rapids, 12 km, no spills!
2009: advanced course: 22 rapids, 18 km, 3 spills!
i will never forget: the sight of nothing but foaming water in front of my eyes.

Thursday, November 19

guaiabero galore

i had such a horrible work week (not my classes but something else) last week, that i was itching to go somewhere far, far away from the office. by some serendipitous event, lydia called for butterfly watching at subic (which of course is really birdwatching, especially since the dragontail season was at its tail end), and nestor kindly offered adri and me a ride.

because it was "butterfly-watching", we arrived at subic with the sun shining, but i was still surprised by the birdi-ness. whiskered tree-swifts, woodpeckers, a pompadour green pigeon,a chinese goshawk, parrots (lots! colasisi, guaiabero, blue-naped and raquet-tail) dollarbirds, a serpent eagle, cuckoo-shrikes, ashy minivets, coletos, etc., etc. made for easy birding (again, i think that the label "butterfly-watching" contributed to this).

there were several tigbi (a type of fig) trees in fruit, and after a wonderful lunch with tina and wency, lydia, bob and cynthia, and nestor... we discovered one by our favorite after-lunch hangout. the shrill calls of the guaiaberos constantly rang out inspite of it being mid-day. there was even a female tarictic carefully hopping from branch to branch eating its fill of fruit.

i love guaiaberos. to me, they fall under the category "cute" (yes, right up there with the philippine falconet). what's not to love? one, they are chunky, little balls which whiz past like green bullets. two, they're parrots! parrots have such personality! i love watching parrots (big or small) walking along branches, gingerly grabbing the branch with each foot while walking sideways or up. three, they are fascinated with their food. yup, whether munching on flowers or fruit, they can be be so engrossed with eating that they become oblivious to your presence. four, you may hear them, but you won't necessarily spot them. these little green balls literally melt into the foliage... don't take your eyes of them or it may be now-you-see-'em-now-you-don't. just the challenge which can keep you staring at a tree for hours. which leads me to reason #5: they could be kermit the frog singing "it's not easy being green".

(and... while frantically searching for noisy but-hard-to-see guaiaberos, what would fly out of the tree but a small flock of pompadour green pigeons. yes, green, big and also with invisibility powers.)

anyway, the couple of hours i spent staring at these almost-invisible birds were enough to give me my birding fix that would carry me through this work week.

(lala, if you're reading this... this is for you. parrots in subic always remind me of you now. ☺ thanks to adri for letting me use his new toy)

Tuesday, November 17

camaro for dinner

last night, after a day of not feeling well and attending three-fourths of a research symposium, mom texted to ask me if i was having dinner at home. to which i answered "yes". i had forgotten the logistics of getting home past 7pm via jeepney (plus having to drop by a grocery store) and adri and i were figuring out whether it was faster to walk or to take several jeepney rides or to just take a cab.

anyway, when i got home, my mom was waiting for us with a dinner treat: camaro for dinner! camaro - not the car, but mole crickets! adobong camaro... yummy.

camaro is a pampangueño delicacy. in season, the crickets come out of the dry ground when the farmers stamp the fields with their feet. the crickets are caught, wings (and a few legs) pulled out (other parts as well i suppose), then it's straight to the pot to make adobong crickets.

ok, so mole crickets cooked with vinegar and toyo might not be for everyone. it was definitely not for me when i was much younger! my mother had made the mistake of describing the taste of camaro as "it's good! when you bite it a creamy, tasty fluid will come out". not exactly the description you would tell visually-oriented persons. of course i would describe it as: very tasty. like crunchy, tasty adobo. or simply: mmmm... yum.

excuse me while i fish out a cricket leg caught between my teeth...

Saturday, October 31

stuck

i was excited to go home. but now I'm stuck here in taiwan for another 30 hours.

i hate philippine airlines.
!*@&^#^%#^!(

they're the ONLY ones who canceled their flight to manila.

could they possibly be any more inefficient or unhelpful?!?

Tuesday, October 27

on the bus from downtown

i've been cooped up in an air-conditioned hotel room and an air conditioned classroom (and during the weekend, in an air-conditioned bus) for too long!
with no agenda in particular in mind except to get some air and stretch my legs, i asked eds and glenn if they were interested in going downtown after class. i think they were feeling a bit of cabin fever too, so they quickly agreed.

we actually just walked around, mostly did window shopping. most of what's here's in manila also anyway.

we caught bus number 1 back to guang-fu road at 9pm.

it still amazes me that school kids here head home from school so late! eds says that most of them have after school co-curricular (note: CO-curricular) activities like extra classes or tutorials, so they end at around 9pm. 9pm!!! and back to school at 7am the next day. i can't imagine. anyway, the buses are filled with schoolkids at that hour. imagine coming home from school later than your parents who come from work. well, actually now i wonder what time parents come home from work...

Tuesday, October 20

windows

sunrise from the 18th floor... the mountains of hsinchu.

today in class i sat next to the window because that's where the electrical sockets were (and my laptop battery is now good for only about 30 minutes or so). that turned out to be a blessing "in da skies" (literally). outside the window is a ficus tree laden with ripe fruit. constant bird calls kept me distracted (and awake) from the mostly physics- oriented lecture on micro/nano fluid dynamics.

during the lunch break i stepped out of the building to have a better look and got 2 more taiwan lifers:

lifer #3: light-vented (chinese) bulbul
lifer # 4: japanese white-eye

by the way lifers 1 & 2 were:
#1: black drongo - perched on electrical wires last sunday from the taoyuan airport
#2: oriental turtle dove - saw 2 on separate occasions from the bus in the science park.

i caught a glimpse of some mynah (but only saw the white spots on the wings) and a raptor, also while on the shuttle, but they were brief flybys so i couldn't get enough for an ID.

more to learn and see tomorrow...

Monday, October 19

today's dinner

The Buddha jumps a wallBig cabbage. Taro piece. Lotus mushroom.Shark's fin. Mushroom. Red date. Chestnut. Spare rib. Bird egg. Fish skin. Big bone stock for cooking.
60 NTD

(oops. didn't notice the shark's fin when i ordered! sorry!)
yes, that dish and those ingredients. literally.

see?

Sunday, September 27

the flood...

i would've never thought it to happen to us
.
one minute i was playing with the dogs, trying to clean pearl's ears (oh wait, who's pearl? that's another storm altogether). from the terrace i watched the water rise, until we all started getting panicky.

rugs started to be rolled. then it was already to late to bring out the cars to higher ground. we started grabbing everything in sight and carrying it to the second floor.
the last picture i took before utter panic was this:

the water about to breach the windows. (when we inspected the damage later, the water line reached up to about 3 inches above the horizontal grill). we gave up when we began to see snakes (tiny ones) swimming everywhere (yes,even inside the house).

absolutely helpless, we all retreated to the second floor (6 people and 3 dogs and 1 cockatiel). and the water continued to rise and rise and rise.

i tried not to think of my beloved car which had never, ever failed me, being swallowed by the dirty flood water. of my dad's car and my sister's car in the same garage. of the cockatiels, budgies and the lone lovebird who were probably in panic over the rising water. of the books and photos from fiji and concep that i was not able to save. of all the furniture floating around. (yes, it was amazing, everything floated: the dining table, the antique four poster bed, the upholstered sofas, the carved chests, chairs, shelves, kitchen tables, even the chest freezer).

from my bedroom window, i watched people swimming in the street (video later), a brown shrike relentlessly fishing out drowning insects from the water, and my niece's plastic slide and swing set floating in circles in our front yard.

and just before the flood waters could breach our 6 foot fence. it stopped raining. and the flood waters started to recede. in an hour we could survey the damage. it was heartbreaking.

but then the people on the street shouted that there was a dead body in the creek. and i saw that our next door neighbors lived in bungalows. and i heard the devastation all over metro manila on the news.

it will be a MAJOR overhaul, cleaning and tons of things to throw out. but for me and my family, tomorrow the sun will shine, and everything will dry out. i still have a lot to be thankful for.

i read in the papers that yesterday typhoon ondoy dumped 341 milliliters of rain on metro manila in 6 hours. the averag rainfall for metro manila for september is 391.7 millilters. ano ba namang laban natin dun?

Friday, September 25

5th philipine bird festival: balanga here we come!

Eto na naman tayo!!! Birdfest na!!! Pasyal na sa Balanga sa October 9 & 10!

Ibong Dayo, Kaibigan Tayo
5th Philippine Bird Festival
Balanga, Bataan

Bird watchers, conservationists and nature enthusiasts from here and abroad are expected to flock to the Bataan Provincial Capitol grounds in Balanga City on October 9 and 10 for the 5th annual Philippine Bird Festival, the country’s largest celebration of avifaunal diversity and bird lore awareness.

The Philippine Bird Festival will mark the arrival from the Asian mainland and Japan of wintering shorebirds with the official dedication of the Balanga Nature and Wetland Park, the first protected wetland park in the whole Manila Bay area.

Themed Ibong Dayo, Kaibigan Tayo! (The Migrant Birds: Our Friends), this year’s bird festival aims to drum public support for the conservation and awareness of the Balanga wetlands, where more than 15,000 individual birds were on record during the Asian Waterbird Census in January.

The wetlands of Puerto Rivas in Balanga City attract one of the largest concentration of migrant shorebirds and waterfowl anywhere in the Philippines, according to the Wild Bird Club of the Philippines (WBCP), the country’s leading bird watching society and organizer of the Philippine Bird Festival.

"The Balanga wetlands consistently land in the country’s top 5 wetlands with the most number of wintering water birds, which included Candaba Marsh in Pampanga and Olango Island in Cebu," said WBCP president Michael Lu, who participated in the annual survey. These three sites are on the Asian flyway, but the Balanga wetlands located across the Bay from Metro Manila continues to be a surprise. "We hope to bring attention to the need to conserve the entire coastline and waters of Manila Bay," he said.

The Balanga wetlands are being promoted as a bird watching destination by the Adventure Philippines campaign of the Department of Tourism and the Recreational Outdoor Exchange, according to Lu.

Bird Festival Committee chair Alice Villa-Real said the annual event hopes to raise the bar of awareness about the bird life of the islands, promote public interest in conservation and encourage the creation of more public green spaces.

Villa-Real said there are more than 600 species of birds in the Philippines, no fewer than 200 are found only in the archipelago. She also said places like the mudflats and remaining mangroves of the Manila Bay coastline provide a temporary home for migrant birds like the rare Chinese Egret, Grey Heron (talabong), Whiskered Terns (kanaway), sandpipers and plovers (tarinting).

This year’s Bird Festival will open with the dedication ceremony at the Balanga Nature and Wetland Park in Tortugas, followed by street dancing by local troupes along the route to the new Plaza Mayor de Balanga. The exhibit of bird photos, lectures and film screenings at the People’s Center in the capitol grounds will be open to the public free of charge. Organizers said an activity center featuring bird-themed games, arts and crafts, and face painting will be on tap for the young and the young at heart. The Provincial Government is simultaneously staging a trade fair on the Capitol grounds that will feature the best products from 12 towns in Bataan.

The Philippine Bird Festival was launched by local bird watching hobbyists in 2005 and has since brought the message of birdlife awareness and conservation to Cebu City and Puerto Princesa in Palawan, two of the country’s important bird areas.

Similar events take place throughout the world each year, attracting large numbers of bird watchers, scientists and nature enthusiasts. In Asia, some of the well-known events are the annual Taipei International Birdwatching Fair in Taiwan and Malaysia’s Raptor Watch Week.

This year’s Philippine Bird Festival is sponsored by the City of Balanga and the Province of Bataan, Department of Tourism, Team Energy Foundation, Genesis Transport, Primer Group, Recreational Outdoor Exchange (ROX), & Columbia Sportswear Company.

Taiwan’s Wild Bird Society of Taipei, Kaoshiung Wild Bird Society and Chinese Wild Bird Federation, the Bird Conservation Society of Thailand, Hong Kong Birdwatching Society, the Nature Society of Singapore, Wild Bird Society of Hualien and the Malaysia Nature Society have announced their participation in this year’s festival.

Local conservation organizations Philippine Eagle Foundation of Davao, the Katala Foundation of Palawan, World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines, Isla Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, the Polillo Island Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, Pederasyon sa Nagkahiusang mga Mag-uuma nga Nanalipud ug Napasig-uli sa Kinaiyahan Inc. of Dumaguete, Birdwatch Palawan, Philippine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, and Cebu Biodiversity Conservation Foundation, the Municipality of Candaba in Pampanga, the City of Bislig in Surigao del Sur and Bataan Artists Society also made known their support for the Balanga event.

Friday, September 4

noisy bird at my window

when the weather is gloomy and the morning rainy, the long-tailed shrike from the parking lot keeps warm at our office aircon vent. everytime it does this it makes quite a racket. this morning it was right outside my cubicle. it took a curious look at me (looking back at it):

and decided i wasn't worth his attention, turned around and went on preening and making chirpy-gurgly sounds.

i love these ateneo shrikes. i should go around the campus one morning and take photos of them. i've seen them on top of st. ignatius' head and on his sword in front of the m.o., on mama mary's head in the marian prayer garden and perched on all sorts of signs, bars, and even the football goals. project!

Thursday, August 27

avian archipelago

watching this makes me wonder why i'm indoors sitting on a chair in an air-conditioned office.

*sigh*

avian archipelago

produced by the philippine convention and visitors corporation (pcvc) of the department of tourism (dot)

premiered at the 2009 british birdwatching fair

Monday, August 10

neighborhood woodpeckers

These two philippine woodpeckers have been regular visitors to the ylang ylang tree in front of our house the past few days.

The Philippine Pygmy Woodpecker is an endemic.

Before joining the bird club, I never knew there were woodpeckers of any kind in the Philippines, much less in our very urban neighborhood!

Now, the sharp trills of these tiny woodpeckers signal their presence, and I find them amusing to watch climbing up (or down) and around tree trunks, sometimes even hopping backwards!

I think these two have a nest nearby (maybe the big acacia across the street) because yesterday, they kept flying back and forth to the ylang ylang from that direction.

Just one of the many non-maya birds in the neighborhood. Watch out for them in your backyard!

Wednesday, July 29

a prayer

a prayer for a woman and a country

Tuesday, July 14

more on frogs...

last friday evening, after the opening of the wbcp/pbp exhibit at the national museum annex, we were on our way home when we ran into mike, chary and alice peering at something in the gutter at the museum parking lot. it turned out that they were looking at a little frog-gy! it had rained hard the entire afternoon, and (despite being in the middle of manila) a frog chorus was in full blast. it sounded like there were frogs all around us! this frog was croaking its heart out, hard to believe that such a loud sound could come from such a small creature! while we were standing beside the gutter, talking about frogs-in-the-city, the frog chorus would suddenly stop and start again, with all the frogs turning silent in unison, as if controlled by a switch. (only my birder friends would actually stop, take notice and analyze this!) chary even mentioned how she would use animal communication as an example in her classes!

later, lala (herp and bird girl extraordinaire!) came out of the museum, took a peek at our subject and readily identified it as the slender-digit chorus frog (Kaloula picta). lala is now my official frog-identifier! :)
when i was looking at my pictures later that night, i noticed something strange about one of its front feet. it had an extra digit! i've read that frog deformities (though this was not so scary) could be caused by either parasites or pollution. hmmmm. project?!?

actually, initially, it reminded me of our molecular develpmental bio experiments in cps's class.

don't think i've turned frog-gy because this is my second amphibian post in 2 weeks!

Thursday, July 9

Sabine, my little monster dog

I chose Sabine from her litter because she paid the most attention to me. She was my second lab, I knew not to take the rowdiest puppy, nor the smallest one. I took her home in February 2000.

She grew up to be a beautiful dog, and so much more the sport-y dog than Emily. She loved playing ball, and chased birds and cats with gusto. She swam in Caliraya, she swam in Anilao. She sat when I asked her to, lay down when I had to cut her nails. When she slept in my room, she woke me up if she had to go in the middle of the night. She was a good dog.

During the Ateneo Dog Walks, my companions would call her monster dog, because she would stand her ground against the bigger pit bulls and even a giant doberman. Sungit was how they would describe her.

Still, she always had an air of dignity about her. She would lie on her stomach, head up, front feet crossed in front of her, a ball by her side.

Her kidney problems started when she was 7 years old. It was after the heaviest downpour we had experienced in Tierra Pura, the only time that the flood waters reached the inside of the house. It seemed a miracle that she recovered, and she was back to chasing balls. She was back to normal, always greeting anyone with a ball, toy, or (in the lack of those) stone, ready to play fetch.

On Tuesday, after a very bad month of struggling with the recurrence of her renal problem, the only recurrence after 3 years, she finally closed her eyes to rest, and as I stroked her fur, breathed her last.

We buried her in the backyard, with one of her tennis balls. I will miss my little monster dog. I hope she now has endless fields to run around in and all the balls and birds and cats she wants to chase.

Sabine
1999 - 2009

Saturday, July 4

of frogs (and more) on a rainy night

i don't like coming home late on rainy nights because there's usually this waiting for me when i open the gate:

it's no secret that i don't like frogs hopping about. especially tree frogs that stick on anything they land on! eeeek. it's no help that they can jump a meter. it wouldn't bother me so much if they always jumped away from me, but strangely they seem to have no preference, a jump is a jump. sometimes they land far, far away, once one landed on my leg as i was getting out of my car.

anyway, in spite of that, i still actually like having them in the garden. it always seems like a good sign, ecology-wise, to have frogs around (i just wish they didn't jump around so much). so it really bothered me when my mom cleared the creeping vegetation around our small pond because she thought there were too many frogs around, and that frogs meant that snakes would soon come and eat them (guess which sibling told her that). to her dismay (and my amusement), the frogs are still as numerous as ever. anyway, that's another story.

so anyway last night, this guy was waiting for adri and me when we got to my house. what the hey, might as well take its picture. it's not one of those cute green chirping frogs from the pond, makes me wonder how many kinds of frogs we do have around.

rainy nights used to mean a cacophony of different frog sounds at night, now it's not quite the croaking chorus. well, at least there's still some of them around. i'm still on my pro-frog campaign (yes, me sticking up for the frogs) with my mom.

anyway, while we were clicking away at this unusually un-reactive amphibian, i noticed drama on the garage walls: this very confident lizard trying to size up a very big butterfly.

the butte was all ragged and weak (but i wonder why it was flying about at almost midnight?), but managed to escape from the ambitious lizard. it landed on top of the car where it died a more dignified death.

so much creepy-crawly drama in the garage on a rainy night!

Thursday, July 2

lalala...

"it might look like i'm doing nothing, but at the cellular level i'm really quite busy..."

lalala... wishing i were somewhere else.

Wednesday, April 8

sidewalk vanity

si vir lang ang tumatawag sa akin ng twinks... (vir ikaw ba gumawa nito?)

i had to take a picture of this, my favorite sidewalk graffiti, before the mmda tore down this last stretch of wall for the road widening. since i first saw it it always reminded me of: 1. vir; and 2. myself (of course, hehe). too bad i only had my cell phone with me, hopefully i'll be able to get a picture of it with my real cameras.

people always ask me about my name, but i really don't know why my parents (or was it my siblings? probably my parents) decided to call me what they do. it really isn't that far from my first name, but it's not a usual name-name (of course now people have all sorts of names, but that's another thing). i have to repeat it several times before people get it. that's why my starbucks (or any over-the-counter) name is tricia/trisha/trishia.

(the bird in a suit is pretty interesting too, isn't it?)

Monday, April 6

pink dreams

after sooooo many years (too, too long), the 16 oz. strawberry milkshake at macdonald's is back! hooray!

Monday, March 23

expired

naalala ko na mangilan ngilang taon na din nung ako'y huling pumunta ng greenbelt kasama ni suzanne ng biyernes ng gabi. mahirap mag-park, ang daming taong naka bihis pang-gimik, masikip, maingay at mainit. nakita ko pa nga noon si jen (madulid pa sya noon).
so sinabi ko sa sarili ko na sinumpa ko ang friday nights at greenbelt at hinding hindi na ako pupunta doon ng biyernes ng gabi. masyadong magulo at nilampasan ko na ang mga maingay na lugar (i.e. matanda na ako).
so nung biyernes, kinain ko din ang sinabi ko. tinawagan ako ni adri at niyaya nya akong maki-dinner kasama ng 1 british birder (na kasama sa fam tour ng dot) na sinamahan nya sa makiling. kasama si alex t (at maya maya ay nalaman kong pupunta na din si tere at nicky). sa chili's daw. aha! na excite ako kasi: 1. patapos na ang klase at may isang tambak ako na papeles at exam na inipon para i-check at syempre ayaw kong i-check pa; 2. ang chili's greenbelt ay isa sa nabibilang sa aking mga "good places" mula college (memories of chips and tequila with edna, amor and patricia). so, kahit biyernes at gabi, sya, pupunta pa din ako.
aba, madami na palang nag-iba sa friday-night greenbelt mula ng isinumpa ko ito. bukod sa major facelift (greenbelt 5ang latest, kung saan ang columbia-plugging lang), ay wala na pala ang chili's sa dati nyang lugar sa tabi ng kalye! nasa greenbelt 5 na pala, sa loob na nga ng mall, sa second floor pa (napansin ko din na ang max brenner ay wala na din sa kanyang orig na lugar). buti nalang ti-next ako ni alex bago ako na trap sa mga one way na kalye. walang traffic papuntang makati mula sa qc, at ang dali kong nakaparada (of course sa greenbelt 2 pa rin ako pumarada... creature of habit). imagine, parang 100+ ang parking spaces na available! madami pa ding tao pero wala sa dami ng naaalala ko. ang greenbelt 5 ay isang maliwanag na mall, at wala ang aking in-expect na kaguluhan sa mga restaurant sa greenbelt 2. bihis pa din ang mga tao, pero di na ako feeling outsider na taga qc na hindi naka pang clubbing or naka office attire.
so anyway, ang daming tao sa chili's so sa masas nalang kami pumunta. (oo nga naman, bakit sa chili's pakainin ang dayuhan, eh di sa pinoy food nalang). masarap, mahabang kwentuhan, tawanan at laitan (ng ibang tao). matapos ang dinner ay itinuloy namin ni adri at nicky ang kwentuhan at inuman sa ibang kainan (na mas mura ang beer). ika nga ni adri, lifer ko ang san mig premium. masarap, matamis, weird lang na green ang bote.

anyway, ano ang point ng tag-lish rant na ito. (bukod sa ayaw ko pa din mag-check).
ang mga sumpa pala ay nag-e-expire din, dahil eventually, di na applicable yung conditions ng sumpa. i suppose.

(pero hindi ibig sabihin nito na lalakabay ako sa makati tuwing biyernes. malayo pa din.)

Friday, March 13

geek-y humor

This made me laugh today. And so did this:

I've always known doing molecular biology work actually has a lot of hidden lessons that can be applied to "real life".

For more, go to http://www.promega.com/pnotes/techtoons/TechToonsBooklet.pdf. You'll also get a few lab tips to go with the laughs.

Friday, February 6

margaritas!

frozen margaritas at midnight and mol bio class at 730am. not the brightest of ideas.

Saturday, January 17

the wise owl is a physicist...

the first and only time i saw the philippine scops owl was in angat, 2 years ago, at 230am in the beam of nicky's headlamp.

who would've thought that after countless "heard only's", it would turn up in the corridors of school? the students/faculty must get a kick out of their new classmate/student. i certainly would. in fact this owl is soooo friendly, it merely opens it's eyes to see the students passing through the corridors (with some even waving at it!). i hope it stays safe and warm during it's stay.

owls in school, peregrines in office buildings... what next?

(thanks to propgerry for the tip!)

Thursday, January 1

happy new year!

from my family to yours:

A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May God bless us all in 2009 with peace, joy & prosperity!