i was walking along paseo de roxas cor. ayala ave when Other Half texted me that trillanes and co. are attempting to stage a coup. (that was his term, “coup”). i did not give it much thought at that time because i thought it was just “another” protest rally and i was already an hour late for my presscon so i just proceeded to my appointment.

then everybody kept texting me that this and that happened and a friend from abs-cbn has been sending me email messages about the drama that was unfolding a few hundred meters away. my boss then texted me to do a related story on it.

armed with my eee pc (naks!) and free wi-fi access inside the venue of the presscon i was attending that time, i read stuff online to keep me updated while i was calling sources. i was toying with the idea of staying in makati and just station myself in ayala tower 1 to do do my stories (kasi free wi-fi access sa tinatambayan ko dun).

but at 1 pm, i told my colleagues that we should get out of makati CBD before we get trapped there since trillanes said he wouldn’t surrender (*ubo ubo*) whereas the PNP looked like it’s set to barge in manila pen. better be safe than sorry. true enough, they have already barricaded ayala ave and other thoroughfares.

we got back to the glorietta parking area (near mercury drug) and my colleague’s driver said there were several civillian-clothed men from the parked hi-ace vans “na may mga armas”. madami daw. he suspected that these were magdalo men since they were not wearing uniforms but he wasn’t sure if they were wearing magdalo armbands.

but we couldn’t be sure. i told my colleagues that if these were indeed magdalo men, they should have aided trillanes and sumugod na sa manila pen. pero pwede rin sila yun at nagaantay ng lang ng critical mass of supporters and waiting na mag-mala edsa 1.

anyway, i called up my boss and told him where i was and related to him what i saw/knew. he just told me to write the story he ordered me to do, section 1 daw. thankfully, we got away from makati before the PNP fired, so on and so forth.

i didn’t know there were still journalists and camera crew left inside the hotel. i think that was idiotic since they would be in the way of a military operation.

pero wala nang tatalo dito: tv reporters were announcing on air the troop movements! in the US that is a no-no and they would imprison you for that. di naman tanga sina trillanes at syempre nagmomonitor din yang mga yan sa tv at radio.

when i was already in ortigas, tapping furiously on my sub-notebook, my boss called me and told me to get out of makati since nagpapalitan na daw ng putok and tear gas and it might escalate into something bigger. told him i was already out and would be sending the stories in a while.

after work, i went to another building and met with my other collegues who were with me earlier and watched tv with them. to our horror, we saw journalists — and we personally knew some of them — being led away by authorities to a bus bound for bicutan. what the —! one of them was the husband of our colleague who was there with us. we were like “what the heck is happening?!”

strange thoughts were running through our heads like martial law and state of emergency ek-ek, forgetting that it was already past 8 pm and we should be home before 12 mn because of the damned curfew. our press IDs wouldn’t save our asses this time, as seen on tv. one colleague said baka lalo pa kaming mahuli nyan.

the “what-ifs” were bouncing back and forth inside the room where we were staying temporarily. sabi ng kasama ko 15 mins of fame namin yun if ever napasama kami kunyari sa mga hinuli. (kasi saling pusa lang kami dun dahil di naman daw kami nation reporters.) hehe. baka ako nagwawala na dun sa loob ng bus and nangaaway na ng mga tao, which will be caught on camera. tapos tatawagan ko presidente namin sabihin ko “tawagan mo si GMA na palabasin na ako!” for more drama. hehe.

nagbibiruan na lang kami ng mga ganun to keep ourselves at ease and mawala ang worries na baka hindi kami makauwi.

later inside the car, our colleague from tv told us that their newsroom was like a war zone — energy levels were hitting the stratosphere, masyado daw hyper na mga tao and editors were snapping at anyone like crazy due to tension. that colleague said kating-kati na raw siyang mag-field early nang magsimula pa ang seige kaso di pwede at walang maaiwan sa homebase since everyone was deployed somewhere and nahuli pa yung iba at nasa bicutan pa. (yan ang drawbacks pag napopromote na at nasa desk, wala ka sa aksyon. hay.)

another day in the life of a practitioner.

as i’ve blogged/said before, i was searching for a way how i can get rid of my 3-kilo laptop and still do my job while going around in circles in metro manila.

i’ve found the answer in asus eee pc! voila!

maybe this subnotebook was made for people with jobs like mine…you know, hopping from one place to another within a single day, requiring little hardware power since most of the time all i do outside the house is word processing and sending my output through email. of course i need to be connected to the internet all the time since i have to be updated with the things i have to monitor.

the user interface is really easy for those who are not computer savvy like school children and senior citizens but they would have a hard time reading the 7” screen and typing on teeny weeny keyboard. but that’s the price you pay for portability.

xandros (linux-based OS) uses tabs to separate aspects of my mobile life: internet (which includes IM software pidgin, firefox, wireless and network connections etc.), work (open office suite and file manager, etc), play (music and video manager, games, etc.), settings and favorites (customizable).

it has wi-fi and lan connections but no modem for dial-up. like steve jobs, asus assumes that all the places you will go to are already wi-fi zones. this is a big drawback for people like me who need back-up connections since wi-fi connectivty in metro manila is not free.

i bought an external portable modem but it only works with windows and my nokia pc suite is only meant for windows, making my 3G phone useless. i have to change my OS to windows XP home to be able to use these things. problem is i can’t install windows for some reason last night. frustrating, i say.

there is a port where i can stick a phone line at the left side and my asus eee pc detects a hardware modem somwhere but i read in a forum that the modem card is missing. probably to keep down costs. if only it has a modem card, i wouldn’t have to change my OS. i have to check with asus in megamall if i can have a modem card installed.

yun lang ang frustration ko sa eee pc. mahirap kasi sa coverage lalo na sa trabaho ko na walang ibang pwedeng pagkabitan to access the internet. badtrip to pag nag-sub uli ako sa beat ko dati sa january kasi walang LAN, wi-fi and 3G signal sa beat na yun.

boot up time takes less than 15 secs while shutdown time takes just 3 secs. ambilis! thanks to the no-frills OS and the 512 RAM. the processor is intel celeron (R) and the onboard memory (solid state disk or SSD) is 4G, enough for xandros or win XP home. other reviews of eee pc said that the SSD is soldered on the motherboard to eliminate wires to save on power and space. about 1.5 G is left for your files but i wouldn’t dare utilize this for my files so i have a 2G SD card installed in the slot on the right side of my wee pc. plus i have several flash disks with me that i loaded with my story archives. kasya naman siya sa 1G flash disk (free from pc live at megamall where i bought my eee pc).

battery life is respectable at 3.5 hrs pero di ko pa nate-test i drain ang battery ko. 1 hour na ko dito and i still have 80% of battery life.

this sub-notebook is not meant to replace a full-laptop since it has limited capabilties so yung toshiba ko nasa bahay and yun ang ginagamit ko for the heavy stuff like photo editing, transferring photos etc. maybe i’ll use my 15.2” laptop from time to time outside the house if i know i would need more computing power but after experiencing life without the 3-kilo burden, parang di ko muna gagawin yun.

right now i am typing this blog in seattles best, not connected to the internet kasi globequest ang andito and di ko saulado yung globe username and password ko. ok lang, di naman importante connected ako sa oras na to. i’m just whiling away the time. masyado akong napaaga sa coverage ngayong umaga.

despite the modem/3G problem, i’m happy with my purchase. bigla na nga lang nag-disappear ang 13^th month pay ko na di ko pa natatanggap. sana ma-solve ko lang yung connectivity problem ko. i’ll figure out a way.

on our third day we went to the province to for a plant visit. blah blah blah…work work work. we went to the primary school that the company/our hosts supports to show us their corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. we were surprised that the school really prepared for our arrival. they had the kids line up and the school officials and teachers made these kids wave at us while we were walking towards their library like we’re some celebrity…weird.

well-scrubbed healthy faces

what made the visit special was the kids even prepared a music and dance number for us.

this one is a very pretty girl

that night we went to baiyoke tower, thailand’s tallest building to have dinner in a chinese resto at the 79th(?) floor. our guide also showed us to the rotating viewing deck of the building to see bangkok at night.

bangkok at night

some of my colleagues opted to go to mah boon krong (MBK) and shop ’til it closed instead of joining us at baiyoke. these girls were really dead-set on shopping. as for me, i just want to experience bangkok so i stayed with the group who went to baiyoke. anyway, after dinner we went to suan lum night market for some souvenir shopping.

night bazaar

wasn’t able to buy anything except for a pair of square pants — the kind that you tie up your waist — for 110 baht and nothing else. it’s just that it’s a futile exercise to buy all those decorative souvenirs/items since i won’t have any place to put these. remember, i don’t have a place of my own yet where i can freely decorate it to my liking. kulang na lang sabihin bawal umupo sa mga sofa eh. *bitter*

next day, before we left for manila, we went to the grand palace and went around for an hour. dun ko lang naramdaman that i was truly in thailand. kasi parang pinas din kasi thailand, mas malinis nga lang kasi walang nakakalat na basura sa kalye. when we were going to the province, yung scenery parang yung papuntang bay, laguna and yung mga kasunod nitong towns papuntang sta. cruz. it was so familiar that one moment i thought i was back home again.

the palace grounds

several kings had a penchant for western/european architecture that they tried to incorporate these into the palace complex. the result is a mishmash of cultures.

czech republic? germany? no, it’s thailand!

the mythological giant or yak

under renovation

shining, shimmering something

ooh, gold!

one of ‘em shining buildings

the ramayana epic in mural

if i remember it right these creatures are lord vishnu’s mode of transportation

i can’t post any more pictures and stories. wala naman ako masyadong kwento except for we had one very obnoxious companion from one paper that most of us in the tour wanted to shred/kill/or throw into the river. such an asshole that this person had the gall to insult one editor about his/her weight. so annoying that somebody told this asshole to shut up since this person had been thrashing the philippines at every opportunity he/she gets to talk with the thais, especially our hosts.

a basta ayoko na magkwento baka may makahula na kung sino siya. di siya editor, reporter o columnist… nagfe-feeling lang siya. period.

we were able to light some krathong or banana leaf floats during our dinner in the boat. our guide said when thais light their krathong, they wish for health, prosperity and good luck — or whatever you want to wish for. isa sa mga wish ko when i lighted my own krathong was sana matapos ko na thesis ko.

krathong or banana leaf floats

november is the month of loi krathong and our hosts let us experience a little bit of that. i lighted my banana leaf float, whispered my wishes and went to the side of the boat and had the boatman take it and let it float on the river. my krathong was still lighted when i last saw it and drifted into the night.

next day we went to the office complex of our hosts and we did nothing but work, work, work. we even had to rush our articles to beat the 5 pm deadline (philippine time).

there was one intriguing drink served to us by our hosts; it’s called wikipedia juice. no one knows why it’s called wikipedia juice but all i can say it tastes like sago gulaman. they said it is made from some flower they can’t translate in english.

that evening after work, we went to watch a really good cultural presentation at siam niramit.

“Siam Niramit is a one-of-a-kind cultural theme complex offerring a world-class spectacular performance in a 2000-seat theatre. The 80-minute show features 3 stories of Thailand’s cultural heritage: Journey Back into History, Journey Beyond Imagination: The Three Realms and Journey Through Joyous Festivals, with the magic of state-of-the-art technology and special effects...”

from tourism thailand

but before that we were able to roam around the complex, do some window shopping and i was able to feed the elephants some bananas! elephants not inside cages, mind you, but elephants that are also part of the siam niramit production. i say the overall production and experience is a must-see for tourists. now i wonder why we don’t have this in the philippines.

stuffed toy elephants — expensive at 400 baht!

rama and sita, istatyu?

that’s me, picking up the bananas that these pachyderms scattered

went to thailand to cover *something*. spent 4 days of my life inside the tour bus — well most of the time. nothing really special. di talaga nakagala, puro trabaho. panakaw na konting panood ng cultural shows ek-ek and dinner. tapos.

short of saying not really happy with the itenerary.

whenever i arrive in a new country, i always take note of the infrastructure they have there and compare it with ours…at 4% GDP growth, thailand’s new highways are something. imagine, tayo supposedly 6-7% pero ang EDSA di mo maintindihan kung pang lunar landing ba siya o ano…

dahil napaaga kami pagdating sa hotel, sabi ng agency humahawak sa amin eh may 1 hr kami to spare to visit the shops. syempre yung colleague ko (kasama ko sa dati kong beat) punta eh tyangge.

platinum…akala mo mall sya na mamahalin pero sa totoo lang parang tutuban mall yan. pugad ng mga tyangge, magagandang items and mura pa. destinasyon ng mga byahera sa pinas. ngayon lang namin napagtanto ng kaibigan ko na walang taste yung mga byahera na nagbebenta sa mga tyangge dito. ang daming magaganda dito sa platinum na di namin nakikita sa pinas na binebenta.

at ang orig na wacoal bra ay 270 baht lang!!!

since 1 hour lang ang shopping, sobrang badtrip mga kasama ko. it will take you 1 hour to investigate/shop in 1 floor. 6 floors kaya yun…

of course, di ko palalampasin ang tuktuk. i insisted na yan ang sakyan namin pauwi sa hotel.

mabilis magpatakbo si manong

kaya kami pinagmamadali na makabalik sa hotel kasi magdidinner daw kami sa ilog. may river cruise plus cultural presentation chuva pa.

the boat where we had our dinner

the on-board musician

the graceful dancer

the view of the grand palace complex from the river

just came back from thailand last night. hay. work again today. stories to follow.

in my colleague’s hand is the future of mobile phones(?)

somehow, my colleague was able to buy AND USE an iPhone using a local network. as far as i know, the iPhone is still locked-in with AT&T and is not yet available outside the US except europe. my colleague paid P24,000 for this thing that does not have 3G connectivity. texting on a touchscreen proved to be difficult, my colleague said.

but still, no one can deny that iphone is still lust-worthy.

had dinner with scribbledbabbling (happy bday dearie!), her better half, and potatochips last night at promenade greenhills. towards the end of the dinner, we got to talk about the conversation our parents had (scribbledbabbling’s dad and my mom) in the car when they went home (or back to manila) to our hometown in batangas for the undas.

*cue Maalaala Mo Kaya*

my mother and my uncle were reminiscing the days when they were gusgusing bata, who only had a few clothes on their backs and they seldom had water for bathing and washing clothes. people in their town looked down on them because they were dirty and poor.

“malayo ang narating na natin. dati kung mapandirihan nila tayo…” my mom said.

then somehow my mom’s and uncle’s conversation veered towards my father and their family. my father’s story is something akin to televnovelas — kahit nga ngayon di na nila masusulat na ganon klaseng storya kasi it’s so cliche. pero totoo yun nangyari sa pamilya ng tatay ko. it’s hard to believe but it’s true!

so now scribbledbabbling, you know why my father was like that.

anyway, the soap opera started with my paternal grandmother, who was the only daughter among the children of this don in our town with his first wife. this don (my great-grandfather) was landed (had a spanish ancestor who put up fences on lands in our town umabot hanggang bundok and claimed these properties for his own). they were rich. it was said they were the first family to own an automobile in our town when the rest of the population went around their business barefoot. my grandmother was educated, which was uncommon for a girl in those feudal days.

by some twist of fate, she fell in love with a poor farmer (my grandfather), who turned out to be born out of wedlock (double whammy). they ran away to san pablo, laguna where my grandfather worked as a majordomo for some landed family. it was said that family was a friend of president quezon and there was one time the president came there to visit while my grandfather was there.

of course, my grandmother could not bear to be away from her family even though they have become an outcast — and talagang itinakwil na sila ng don (can’t call him great grand-dad, sorry) — so they decided to go back home. ang masakit pa nito my grandmother tried to live with her siblings with her family in tow. she wanted to be accepted again by the family, which was next to impossible.

because maybe living conditions were intolerable for my grandfather, my grandparents lived apart the rest of their lives: he in his little hovel in his farm on the other side of the town while she lived in the house surrounded by her siblings’ houses/properties. they only visit each other everyday.

because my grandmother was desperate to be accepted again by her matapobre family, she made it a point that her children would not fight with their rich cousins. there were many instances na kahit may kasalanan yung mga pinsan nila, mga tatay ko pa rin ang pinaparusahan. para bang ang laging tama yung mga pinsan nila at sila ang laging magpakumbaba.

anyway, there was one instance na nilatigo daw ng don ang lolo and tiya ko (who were together at that time). imagine, nangyayari pala sa totoong buhay yun! hanggang sa bago mamatay tatay ko, sambit-sambit pa rin nya yung incident na yun.

there was another time that nung isang tiyo tumakbong pagka-mayor ata and namigay ng campaign shirts bearing the family name (well, my grandma’s family name for that matter). nabigyan tatay ko, so sinuot niya one day. nakita siya ng isang pinsan suot yung shirt — ba naman, pinahuhubad sa tatay ko dahil WALA DAW KARAPATAN ang tatay ko isuot yun or he doesn’t have the right to bear the name. ganun.

may pinsan naman tatay ko nanligaw sa classmate nila. binasted si pinsan dahil crush nya pala tatay ko. nagalit si pinsan sa tatay ko at sinuntok. di makalaban tatay ko kasi bawal lumaban/makipag-away sa pinsan nilang mayayaman. pag-uwi ng tatay ko, siya pa ang pinarusahan ng lola ko just because ang mga pinsan nila ang tama. ang mga _____ ang laging tama.

that’s why my father was so bitter all his life. he grew up na inaapi and kinukutya ng mga mas “nakakataas” sa kanya. kaya may deep-seated anger siya sa mga mayayaman. galit din siya sa mga kamag-anak ng nanay niya. kaya we never really got to know that side of the family. well anyway, i’m not that interested.

gusto ko magalit sa lola ko. i mean, bakit nya pa kasi pinagsiksikan sarili niya sa panilya nya eh itinakwil na nga siya. in a way pinagpalit niya ang sarili niyang pamilya just to win the good graces of her parents and siblings. at the expense of her children’s and husband’s emotional stability and happiness.

what do i care? kasi we also bore the brunt of my father’s bitterness and anger. and he always felt he was inferior. when i analyze all the things that happened and the causes and effects of things in our lives, dun ko pa rin nate-trace eh…sa ginawa ng lola ko.

kaso ano magagawa ko? mapapagalitan ko ba lola ko? for a time i hated my lola for that. pero wala naman magagawa ang hate. it’s all in the past. pero i don’t want to have anything to do with them in the future. wala lang. hindi sila kasama kahit sa periphery ng horizon ko.

nakikipag-friendster yung _____ clan sa akin. tagal na nakabinbin sa friends for approval ko yung invitation na yun. di ko naman sila kilala and wala akong intention makipagkilala sa kanila.

hah. nahawa ako ng bitterness. it’s bad, i know. pero mas maganda nang wala akong naririnig na mga kwento sa kanila.

i hope i could attend the ebay.ph presson tomorrow. i have another coverage that is almost in conflict with the ebay briefing. sayang! i have tons of questions pa naman to ask them as an ebayer and as a biz scribe. atsaka i want to ask the nagging question: WHEN WILL YOU GUYS MAKE IT EASIER FOR US TO RECEIVE PAYPAL PAYMENTS HERE IN THE PHILIPPINES?! (paypal is an ebay company)

pocha andami-dami ko nang bank accounts para lang lumawak ang paraan para makareceive ako ng payments sa customers ko.

was saved from writing the story today since it turns out we were already three or four from the same organization. since i’m from a different section who’s not primarily assigned to cover the whole circus from day 1, i told my colleague i would step back and i’ll just be there as back-up and i’ll just be vying for another angle/story. anyway, i stayed on and listened to the presentation:

Ayala experts contradict PNP findings in Glorietta 2 blast

they did not directly say it but that’s the meat of the whole presscon. they do not answer the questions directly but in their roundabout way, yes, they’re contradicting whatever PNP said the past few days. and yes, somehow they said they’re urging the authorities not to discount possibilities, including the bombing angle.

of course, they said it in a not-so-direct-way-but-still-not-subtle manner.

there had been people from the media industry and business sector who gave their few cents’ worth on what ALI has been doing: it’s bad crisis management. someone said that the company should just refrain from saying anything, especially coming out with statements like these, before the official report is released.

another said the company would not benefit from being perceived as being “too defensive”.

can’t remember who told me this but i guess it was an older colleague who covered the cebu pacific cagayan de oro crash: lance gokongwei earned the respect of others because he went there and got down on his knees and got dirty and labored to get his company through the ordeal and accepted the fate that befell the company. and to think he was just the newly installed CEO at that time.

i don’t remember if cebu pacific was this defensive as ALI because i was still in school then and i wasn’t paying much attention to that event at that time. i don’t know what my colleague was driving at. maybe 1) the fact that the zobels are not that coming down from their high perch to touch us mortal citizens; or 2) cebu pacific was better at crisis management.

i’m not saying that ALI was remiss in their response to the victims. i’m just put off by this constant word war. problema ang dami ding nagsasalita, from UP to the mamang magtataho sa tabi na feeling gil grissom.

ok enough. i’ve said too much.