My dad took me to the small valley in the mountains of La Trinidad (a place called Buyagan) to teach me the basics. The place was perfect for driving because I don’t have a road to practice on, just a whole wide plain and a small dirt road going up a hill to practice how to use the manual stick-shift gears.
I was only 14 years old.
My father believed that it is much more difficult to teach older women how to drive than younger girls, so I was already a student driver. Of course, I felt excited because this means it’s an opportunity for me to grow up and eventually be an adult.
The lessons aren’t hurried, but my father and I made sure that we always have those driving lessons every Saturday. Those weekly lessons helped me master the skill. In no time, I was able to drive the family car out from the little valley to La Trinidad’s central business district which had some little traffic.
As soon as I reached 18 years of age, I immediately applied for a driver’s license. Since I did not enroll in any driving school, I went out to self-study the written aspects of the exam, such as reading road signs and mastering different driving situations. The written exam was very easy and I finished that in no time.
The practical exam followed and I was accompanied by an LTO officer. He got seated in the passenger seat of my car. He then asked me to drive him around, from LTO in Engineer’s hill, down to Session Road then back to LTO through Harrison Road. The officer pointed out a mistake I did: I was supposed to make a full stop on pedestrian lanes. I did what I see on many other drivers: slowly crawling the car on the pedestrian lane so that people would stop crossing the streets.
It was not long before they declared that I passed the exams. It was really a good feeling to be able to get a drivers license in an HONEST way.
I truly thank my father deeply for having the patience to teach me how to drive. It was really a wonderful father-daughter bonding thing during the teenage years which I won’t ever forget for the rest of my life.
Indeed, in celebration of the breast cancer awareness this month, people had been looking for pink terrible towels all over the internet. Even the Pittsburgh Steelers men are in pink! I also found some sites that even sell this stuff!
Typhoon Ondoy Emergency Hotlines and Relief Operations and “where to donate” links are listed at the bottom of this post – if you wish to skip my story.
The flood that hit Metro Manila here in the Philippines deeply saddened me over these past few days. I had seen the pictures and the video footages. Although floods happen regularly in Manila during the rainy season, I had never seen a flash flood that worse where people on rooftops can just be seen on aerial view.
Eastwood
at the UERM hospital in Sta. Mesa – floating cars, trapped driver in one car
My firsthand experience of Manila’s flood
I distinctly remember having that firsthand experience wading into hip-level high waters in Manila almost ten years ago. I lived in Manila for almost a year, just to review for the board exams. I was also into the last semester of pregnancy when that huge flood at Quiapo-Espana happened on just one continuous rainy afternoon. The FX-taxi driver dropped me off several kilometers away from my final destination because his vehicle can’t get into of the waist-level high waters. The flood was too bad that only huge buses can cross the street without being driven off by the water current (small cars are easily tossed off). I had to get down and walk. I was forced to wade the waters. I saw students and workers on the streets who were stranded and could not go home (they were able to get home after midnight).
car sucked up by the flood
I was a young pregnant mom in my final semester of pregnancy then, but I was relieved that strangers helped me cross several streets to get to the place where I stayed. One even volunteered carrying me to the place I stayed.
I am not in Manila anymore. I currently live in Baguio which is approximately 200 kms north from Manila. Although my place was declared as one of those areas of calamity during Typhoon Ondoy, we had only experienced winds and a little rain.
That flood that I had experienced way back is still nothing compared to what is being experienced by people in Manila right now. I was moved by some people microblogging their experiences on Plurk and Twitter – some had phones that can update their Plurk, Twitter and Facebook statuses. They were asking for help: for themselves or for their neighbors who were trapped in the upper floors of their hours for several hours without any food and water.
I am sure the people who were able to share their experiences in a trapped floor via the internet are very few. Most people here in the Philippines are able to communicate via their mobile phones. Not everyone have mobile phones handy to ask for help.
We are already aware that there is another typhoon or two coming into the country which is just hours away.
The 1990 Earthquake Experience
Perhaps I could further relate to the Manila flood victims’ plight because I was also one of those victims in the famous killer 1990 earthquake that shook my city. The ground trembled for less than a minute at a magnitude of 7.5 on the Richter scale – but that was really enough to bring down buildings and mountains (I live on the mountainous region in my country). Roads leading out of the city were impassable because they were cracked, plus there’s the threat of landslides happening along the way.
SkyWorld (a two-story wooden ukay-ukay building is in this place)
We were all forced to sleep on the streets or on wider grounds on tents. We didn’t have enough drinking water. We lived on eating canned goods because we couldn’t cook our food. Goods were transported via helicopters because our city was isolated for more than a month. We all tried to sleep through the day and night in the midst of aftershooks which lasted for several months.
below that hilltop hotel is the city’s public market
Unlike that flash flood in Manila, death came in swiftly and the casualties suddenly numbered in several hundreds. The strong pine scent of our city was replaced with the scent of decaying bodies of dead people, because the funeral parlors don’t have enough Formalin and coffins to contain the increasing casualties. All in all, the earthquake didn’t happen only on that single July 16, 1990 – it lasted for several months which continuously took more and more lives for each aftershock that happen.
hundreds of dead people in just a few seconds of earthquake
Manila’s Ondoy victims seemed to have fewer casualties (most victims could still run to higher ground, floors or rooftops) but I could be wrong. In terms of property, many of us here whose buildings or homes survived the earthquake and aftershocks are still be happy to find their appliances in good working condition. However, those aftershocks are strong and unpredictable and lasted for several months, an unlucky person may not be able to run for his or her life when a structure suddenly crumbles down.
Royal Inn at Magsaysay Avenue (a three or four-floor Jollibee is in its place)
Instead of posting my own list of hotline numbers, I feel it’s best to direct you to people who keep on updating their lists for Typhoon Ondoy Emergency Hotlines and Relief Operations:
DISCLAIMER: I am simply providing links for you to send donations, but I still leave it up to you to check the sources. Some individuals and organizations may be taking advantage using Typhoon Ondoy cause for their personal gain. Be sure to do enough research before sending off your donations. (At least these links are a very good start to choose where to send off your donations).
BUT DON’T LET SCAMMERS BE YOUR REASON NOT TO DONATE!!! You can always donate in cash or in kind (according to the volunteers people need food and water in very good condition, DO NOT donate old clothes anymore as there are enough clothes already for all).
I’ve personally chosen to send my donations via SMS (Red Cross)
For those who live outside the Philippines: you may donate directly to Philippine Red Cross through this link: Philippine National Red Cross Online Donation (select “Typhoon Ondoy” then enter donation in Pesos).
My internet connection went off an hour after midnight. Happens almost everyday.
I have not been writing in ages. First I was busy trying to finish freelance jobs then I just got tired of doing work.. and blogging.
This is not the first time that happened to me. For sure there must be something that I keep on doing wrong. I must come up with things that will keep me efficient each day. This is one of the challenges I have to battle, being a lone worker with my ass stuck up on my poor chair almost all day long.
I had to get away: the quality of my freelance work had began to go down. I am not learning new things anymore. I’ve stopped coming up with new ideas for my blogs. My blogging interest also suffered. I just couldn’t continue writing new posts. I ran out of ideas. I’m so tired. I have to – STOP.
I decided to stop and listen to what others have to say. I’ve still managed to keep in touch with a handful of bloggers who were loyally visiting my blog through other networking sites: Facebook, Twitter and Plurk. I’ve stopped to smell the flowers and appreciate them.
this is not a flower
Here are some mind notes I’ve jotted down (I hope you find them useful):
I have to stop procrastinating, such as moving this blog to WordPress.
I have to constantly find ways of making work-life balance work out for me. My existing schedule routine does not work out for me.
I realized that my blog writing sucks. After several tomorrows I will surely think this post sucks. That’s a good thing: because I’m trying to seek ways to improve myself.
I don’t need to write everyday. However, I must not be absent in blogging for too long. I’m losing backlink relationship on someone else’s blogroll (I know, I’m able to use Google Alerts and The Search Engine to monitor duplicate content as well as who still links me back to my blogs).
Entrecard gives you that traffic boost, but Entrecard isn’t just at all dropping cards up to the maximum limit: it’s finding readers and building a community of loyal readers. Please understand that I won’t be reciprocating drops anymore except when I need new readers for my blogs.
Writing posts on current events using most searched keywords may give you better traffic boost to your blog and huge adsense earnings (thank you Pastilan for sharing me those tips) but I think having a so much of these hurts the friendship I had built through these months of blogging. I think I want another blog for that. I’ll be too selective on which hot keywords are going to be posted on this blog.
Just writing posts on current events using keywords, sponsored posts should be posted sparingly. If I have to do several too often, I would definitely turn that into an engaging post. I don’t want my post to sound hurried.
Social networks are fun. They are a refreshing way of keeping up with old readers as well as finding new interesting readers and ideas but if done too much, they can be a waste of time (yes, I’m guilty of this). Add me up on Twitter or Plurk.
There are just too many ranters in the world. Although I cannot do away writing posts that makes readers cry or angry, I must do this sparingly.
Freelance web designing is still my full time job. I must focus on that so that I can write quality posts for The Lady Programmer.
I may not write everyday or every week as I did before on this blog. Some of you might have noticed that I write posts one after another for the quick easy money. But I think I should not overdo that.
Oh, and I just bought a new point and shoot camera (to replace my cellphone that was robbed from me) from my Adsense income. I want to learn the basics of photography (I know, DSLR is better for it seemed to mask the shortcomings of a noob photographer). Expect me to post pictures of myself, my kid and just about anything, such as that silly picture of my newly manicured feet.
silly picture of my manicured feet
My notes are not final. Situations change over time and I have to be flexible.
Did you have a similar experience? If so, how did you deal with this? If not, what can you suggest?
No doubt, in my curiosity to earn bigger income from my blogs as shared by my friend Pastilan, I tried my hands on hot keyword posts. It’s true, this had attracted massive visitors from Google and this had boosted my Adsense income a few cents on my Adsense to at least more than a dollar each day with a few posts. However, this is at the expense of losing touch to some new readers who want to keep up with me.
It’s a known fact that I write sponsored posts along with my non-sponsored ones. I am aware many bloggers want to read and participate in non-paid posts and they often skip reading sponsored content. I had read dozens of posts about bloggers hating to read blogs with lots of paid content. Tags and meme too, are something that many bloggers skip reading – most tags and memes are in for padding non-paid content in between paid content, aside from the attempt to link backlinks and retaining or boosting PR; and some instructions written on these memes are just outrageous.
Now I’ve started that hot keywords method in blog posts. I don’t have to worry anymore about my PR and Alexa just like I did with doing paid content, as well as dropping ECs to generate traffic. As I had tried writing some few posts, I realized it was a race against time, as I worry a lot that the keyword would not be hot anymore in a few hours. I realized that writing these kinds of articles is even worse than accepting paid post opportunities, as I end up writing poor quality articles just to have these articles with Google.
I had to rethink of what I want for my blogs. Should I stop writing paid posts and hot keyword posts? I plan to be very picky in choosing my topics, instead of writing all those opportunities at every way I can. I love having visitors from Google as it keeps my blogging income afloat, but I still like to have my blogging friends to happily read my posts and make thoughtful comments. Perhaps I would start a new blog or two that allow me to indiscriminately write endless articles which are just made for those droves of visitors from Google.
