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Is it possible to have a heavy but hopeful heart?

That line has been saved on my desktop note for weeks now. This Ondoy blog is long overdue, so overdue that Pepeng has come and raised hell before I could write it. My hands get cold and clammy the second I try to add another line. So I head over to news sites and Twitter, instead, to get the latest typhoon update.

Like thousands of families, Ondoy wrecked havoc on our house. I was alone when it happened. I was able to move some stuff to the second floor before the water entered our house. With the help of my gracious neighbors, we put the washing machine and ref on makeshift stands and put the TV upstairs. The water rose to above my waist and I spent the night putting valuables on topmost shelves, packing my evacuation bag and peeking downstairs to check the water level. I left our beanbag downstairs so I could use it as salbabida because I’m not a good swimmer. There was a moment of intense panic when I texted my mom and brother, “What if I drown to death?”

I didn’t see my life flash before my eyes but I did see bits and pieces. I know it sounds so dramatic but I thought, shoot, I haven’t done much. I still want to go bungee jumping. I want to travel the world. I want to see my nephews grow up. I want to attend the wedding of the first friend who ties the knot. I want to write a book. I want more.

Anyway, I survived the night. Kuya fetched me in the morning and we went to the oasis called BF. His in-laws’ house was spared from Ondoy; their street wasn’t flooded and they had electricity. On the way, he told me that he and his son Vincent slept on the top bunk of the double bed because they were locked inside the house and they had no second floor. Thank goodness the water only reached their ankles. What if the water rose? Vincent is only three years old; he can’t possibly climb their gate. Meanwhile, my mom was stuck in her office, safe and dry but hungry.

The next few weeks were spent cleaning and rebuilding. The next few nights were plagued with flood nightmares. I’m glad I don’t wake up in the middle of the night with the urge to check the water level downstairs anymore.

Now for the hopeful part. I’m sure you’ve heard of the countless volunteer efforts for the typhoon victims. (See SPOT’s articles about it here and here) It’s simply astounding the things we can do when we put our minds to it.

The great Conrado de Quiros said in his September 30 column: “What government we have is courtesy of the private sector where voluntarism has sprung like wildflowers. That is the bright spot in all this, the light amid the darkness, the blazing sun after the storm. Truly the Filipino rises to his finest self during trying times, the more trying the times, the finer the rising. Or it is in times of disaster that the Filipino ceases to be a disaster, thinking of others first before self… Makes you wonder what on earth you need government for.”

That’s all I will say, erm, quote about the politics in Ondoy, which is a whole other blog entry.

Though work and paranoia over Pepeng got in the way of volunteering, I donated what I could, first to my friends in need. “Friends in need”-what a horrible phrase. I never thought I’d be packing relief goods for people I actually know. I’m sorry, I’m being flooded with horrible memories again. I’ll have to end this blog here.

Please, please, please help the Ondoy and Pepeng victims in any way you can. Pepeng was more vicious than Ondoy; there are a lot more people who need help. Please participate in election discussions and ask candidates what their long-term solutions are to our flooding problem. After all, we can’t depend on the Pinoy bayanihan spirit alone. The government has to do its job too.

P.S. Stop the cycle and read how relief drives can be environmentally-friendly.

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When the girls voted me editor in chief, I wanted to wring their necks. Haha, just joking! Seriously, I was really surprised and honored that they voted for me. I tried to pass off the leadership since I was busy with the Spot.ph launch but I later figured it’s a challenge I would love to conquer. Plus, I was sure that everyone would help out and they did! We all did our share of work and I never had to nag them like I had to nag some college group mates.

Each section group (except Katya for Me, Only Better) had to pull out clothes and call photographers, make-up artists, stylists and, of course, celebrities and models. Thankfully, there were only a few rough patches, which we were able to quickly overcome. Brainstorming was great too because everyone had ideas to share.

Hanging out with Ding, CJ, models Sab and Andrea, Aura, and Mari (photo by Patrick Martires)

Apart from the staff shoot, I was only able to go to the fashion shoot because of work. It was surreal for us to be styling the outfits, guiding our models Sab and Andrea, and picking the photos. We were surrounded with creative minds, which makes any task easier and more fun!

Megan's and Lauren's leftover donuts

As the EIC, all the articles and photos passed through me after our managing editor Sasha took a look. One thing I learned in school about editing is that you should let the writer’s style shine unless your publication has a specific tone to follow. In our case, the girls truly wrote for our audience meaning YOU, our Candy readers That meant I just had to clean up and clarify some things, which they were more than willing to do. Since almost everyone submitted early, we were able to pass everything a few days before our deadline. Yey!

What I had trouble with was picking the photos. There were so many and they all looked good (especially the food shots, yum!). I brushed up on my photo lessons about composition, styling and angles, and I also asked the girls and the Candy staff for their opinions.

Speaking of the Candy staff, it was so nice to have them guide us. I know I made mistakes but they were open and forgiving. I appreciate it, we all appreciate it!

CJ illustrated all of us. I love the gladiator flats :P

We’ll soon give way to the new Candy Council of Cool. *sniff, sniff* We loved every minute as the COC 9! THANK YOU

Posted in Reflections, What's In | 3 Comments »

Look what I unearthed: my original thesis acknowledgment page! I had to compress this because we’re only allowed a limited number of words. I also had a partner so I had to really slash this.

I miss college!

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First of all, thank you to Kat for a great partnership. This is it!

Much gratitude to my mom, Mercy Zarzuela, for the endless patience, guidance, financial support and love. To Kuya Bryan for being a great consultant, survey provider and sibling. To Ate EJ for helping out with the surveys and for those wonderful fat-free meals. Haha! To my adorable nephews Vincent and Joshua, you take away so much of my stress in the span of one Wii game. To Tito Jorge, thank you for being there for us, especially for my mother. To my dad, thanks for supporting us the best way you can.

To Ma’am Chua for her support and very sound advice. We will always be grateful that you were our thesis adviser. Thanks to the journ department, especially to Ma’am Simbulan and Ma’am Khan for their support and insight and to Ma’am Jazmines for all those UAAP moments and for proving that having no sleep doesn’t mean you can’t have a great day, every day.

Ate Raquel, I do not know how journ students can ever survive without you. You are a force to be reckoned with.

To all our interviewees and respondents, thank you for taking the time to help us. To all the coffee shops where we did this thesis (Flapjacks, Coffee Bean, Starbucks and Kourtyard), thank you for your accommodation. We practically made coffee houses our second home.

To all my friends, you are love. Hugs and kisses to my dear Chururus (Agatha, April, Bea, Celia, Dan, Elsie, Jen, Ja, JM, Kam). We will always have Calatagan and may we have many more! Special mention to Els and JM for helping us get interviews.

Much love to Kumiko, Hannah, AM, Lau, Vienna, Pat, Absie, IA and Nicai.

JCers, you all know what we went through this year. Bongga tayo! I love you as much as my thesis and I’ve never regretted that. You guys gave me strength and kapal ng mukha.

To the Candy people, thank you for being great stress relievers. It was from you guys that I got the most amazing soundtracks that kept me alive.

To the La Salle Green Archers, you don’t know me but you guys gave me such joy and pride. You fired me up during lazy spells.

To the one above, I may not express my gratitude and love in traditional ways but know that I have utmost faith in you. We have a special relationship. This thesis would not have been possible without you.

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Photo from here

“Don’t stop believing, hold on to that feeeeling!” That line, which surprisingly came from a song by Journey, has been on my mind for the past two weeks. A good kind of LSS. The song came from the TV show Glee, which just premiered on ETC this week.

It’s like High School Musical but much better and thankfully rid of Vanessa Hudgens (haha, I’m just jealous that she’s still with Zac :P). The show is about a struggling Glee Club (duh) composed of an overachiever, a diva, a jock, a flamboyant guy, a girl with the stutters and a handicapped student. The show is obviously going to revolve around the dynamics of such a diverse group and their rise to the top.

Even though I have fast internet at the office and I could’ve searched for YouTube videos before the TV premiere, I didn’t because I like not knowing where something’s going. I still haven’t searched for it; a friend just told me (SPOILER ALERT!) that the club will have eight members by the last episode. (END OF SPOILER)

I really love the characters; my favorite ones are the two lead stars: the jock and the overachiever. Overachiever is clearly into jock but jock has a girlfriend, a devout Catholic cheerleader. They have really good chemistry and I like the spark when they sing together. So cute!

I got out of the office before nine, the first time in weeks, to catch the show and it was so worth it! I was smiling the entire time. It’s almost a guilty pleasure because of some seriously cheesy lines but that’s part of its charm.

I’ve never been a fan of musicals before but I’ll definitely make Tuesdays my Glee Night, a.k.a. No Overtime Night.

Hold on to that feeeeeeling. Mental note: get that song!

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Disclaimer: Bato-bato sa langit. Ang tamaan, ‘wag magalit.

Like me, a lot of people send 10,000 texts per day. Unlike me, however, a lot of people send 10,000 inane texts a day that make their text recipients secretly want to kill them. Believe me, they do. Here are six tips serial inane texters should follow if they want to live.

1. Don’t abuse your Hs and Ws.
   Example: Khain nah pow tayoh.
   It’s not cute. It’s not endearing. It makes me want to slap you with a dictionary.
2. Don’t state the obvious.
   Example: Umaga na pow. Tanghali na pow. Gabi na-you get my drift.It’s a waste of energy and thumb mobility to read those messages.
3. Don’t use punctuation marks like there’s no tomorrow.
   Example: Good morning poh,,,,,….. It’s a beautiful day!!….
   It’s not when you text like that.
4. Don’t take advantage of the fact that phones can’t filter messages.
   Example: I’m eating pandesal. Yum!
   I don’t need to know that you ate pandesal unless that text has a social commentary on the rising prices of pandesal or a tip on where to go for the best pandesal. I don’t need to know what you ate unless it’s of Le Cirque scandal. I don’t need you to tell me that it’s time to eat unless you’re going to feed me. Texts are not Twitter accounts that I can choose to unfollow, Facebook stats I can hide or email I can label as spam.
5. Don’t text in the middle of the night unless it’s important.
   Example: Wow midnight na, sinong gising? Text text pow!!!!
   Have some decency.
6. Don’t use shortcuts to the point that your message is incomprehensible.
   Example: Blk kn rm, jn n mm. Lgt k, ppngtn n nmn 10ga m.
   Translation: Balik ka na room, d’yan na ma’am. Lagot ka, pipingutin na naman tenga mo.
   I hv no wrds.
7. (It took me 20 years to get that 10ga means tenga. TENga. Get it? Haha!)

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I have a lot more text pet peeves but these six are the top ones. Yeah, I know there are exemptions to these but as a rule, DO NOT DO THESE!

I don’t mean to generalize but a lot of my journalism batchmates have the same pet peeves. For me, it’s because I deal with words everyday and I don’t want to have to decipher texts that have no value for me whatsoever. Recently, I very nicely told a friend to stop texting in the middle of the night. He said sorry and he never did it again. And now I finally get some sleep. Thanks.

So there, nice requests to stop inane texting works but really, nobody should ever have to ask.

I’m mean, ‘no? You’ll have to excuse me, it’s been an EXTREMELY TOXIC week.

Posted in Reflections | 4 Comments »