Lucban Roadtrip 2015

It’s about time for a roadtrip. Being out of the country since February made me miss driving. What a better destination than Lucban. The halo-halo alone is just worth the trip. I have been blogging about Lucban roadtrips a few times now, and the road we take is never similar. This time we went on another route. I got the same guys to go with me, we make it happen.

We left Ortigas Avenue at around 6:30AM. This time we are going through Tanay again but not through Ortigas Extension then to Antipolo. We go through Marcos Highway towards Sampaloc, Tanay. But first, we went to a little side trip to Boso-boso Church. We went there last time when we were scouting for a good place for prenup pics. We thought the church was closed because the front gate was closed. But behold, the side gate near the church office is open. I like the little church and how the little community is like a mini town. Reading the historical signage on the church’s front wall will tell you that that little place was really historical. I was not able to take pictures. I left my phone in the car.
 

We had our breakfast in this famous stopover place, Café Katerina. There we saw bikers, cyclists also doing their thing. They have pet dogs there, three retrievers. The si-log there is delicious. What’s unique on their menu is the crispy talong. Must try.

Awesome curves on this highway

I enjoy driving in Marcos Highway. The road is smooth and there are just a few cars, no buses and the occasional bicycles. The view of the Sierra Madre is awesome. On some parts there are river of clouds. Too bad I’m behind the wheel.
 

Regina Rica

Around 5 minutes or less after crossing the main Tanay intersection, we reach Regina Rica. The monastery is closed on Tuesdays. The guard on duty allowed us to come in but we could only spend 15 minutes inside. He told us to just drive around to see the area. Like an ocular inspection. There are also two cars on front of us. Although this group/family is hard-headed. They still got out of their vehicle and climb out the hill where the giant Mary statue is. Nothing we can do about that.

We saw this herd munching on what seems to be not grass but legit landscape

After Regina Rica, we went to Daranak Falls. We head back to the intersection then turn left on Sampaloc Road going towards Tanay town proper. Good thing there were signs so I get to the right turn going to the waterfalls. The last time I went there was a failure. It was holy week and the crowd was very dense. Not good for swimming. This time, it was raining when we arrived. Like there’s one really heavy rain cloud on top of us. The rain stopped in like two minutes. The rain cloud must have passed, or it just lost the water weight. This time  there are a few people. Perfect!

I have forgotten that the falls was indeed, gorgeous. It still is and looks clean this time, too. Seeing it again was awesome. Brings me back to the early 90’s. Those wheel interiors as flotation device.

It was around noon when we left Daranak. The family we saw earlier in Regina Rica has also arrived. We ditched the idea of seeing the windmills in Pililia because we don’t have time. We are hoping to eat lunch at Kamayan sa Palaisdaan. But first we stopped by Bugarin View Deck to take photos. We have photos here when we first do Lucban 4 years ago.
 

We reached Pagsanjan then we went to another road we did not go through before. This is the shortest route to Lucban passing thru the town of Luisiana. I found out that this road is the way when going to Pagsanjan Falls. Maybe next time, we can finally see that waterfalls too. We already saw Daranak and Majayjay going this way.
When we reached Lucban, everything is already a routine. Lunch at Kamayan sa Palaisdaan, go up the mountain in Kamay ni Hesus then hit the Lucban Town proper for the usual halo-halo and to buy stuff at Eker and Ely's.

Trivia: the 355mL used to be called magnum 355 on its release. It is bigger than the usual 8oz bottle

 

Still the same price from 2014

Because we were already full, we did not hit the siopao store. I was hoping that I could be able to eat all the awesome food this place has to offer. We were not also able to try pancit habhab. 

They have these Christmas displays outside the church.

 

Going home, we also did a new route. Before, the easiest route to take is by San Pablo. This time, after passing the towns of Liliw and Nagcarlan, we turn right going to I think Victoria then to Los Baños. From there, we go into SLEX. I was really tired and sleepy during that time. It was tired telling myself to keep awake. I was also praying. When we arrived in Gil Puyat in Makati, I gave up the driver’s task and go to sleep.

Mathematics

Rodrigo Duterte was on the news for his remarks about Math. He failed in math when he was at school and he said he wants to remove Calculus, Trigonometry and Algebra (these are the only kind of math I was good at, because... calculator, duh! ) and replace these with Business Math, or whatever that might be. I like Duterte but with this shallow remark, I am not sure. Just because you are not good at one subject it means everybody is failing at it too. Take gym class for example. Not everybody excels at it but we all get through with it. And math, why math. the country is currently dominated by whatever Aldub is. Don't take away something from the people who can think.

Recently I was at the bookstore then I saw a bunch of mathematics books. I browse on of them.

 The problem is Algebra and guess which book was it taken from, Primary 2.

How can we compete globally if we are afraid of Mathematics? Crazy man logic.

Paalam Credit Card

Minsan, kailangan lang talaga wakasan ang mga pagsasama kahit gaano pa ito katagal.

Ikaw ang una kong credit card. Nagsimula ang lahat noong bago pa lang ako nagtatrabaho. Panahong maliit pa ang sinasahod ko. Kahit ganoon, tinanggap mo pa rin ang applicatoin ko. Salamat. Hindi pa noon gaano uso ng credit card fraud. Ok lang magmay-ari, kaunting responsibilidad lamang. Mababa lang rin naman ang aking credit limit kaya isa pang OK sa seguridad. Feeling medyo sosyal, may credit card. Kasunod nito, ang pag-apply na rin namin ng linya ng cellphone.  May kasamang libreng cellphone sa plan 350 at ang bill nito ay automatic nang debit sa credit card account kaya maganda dahil isang bill na lang ang babayaran ko buwan-buwan. Ayos! Mga munting pangarap. Katulad lamang ng pagsakay sa eroplano na sa sumunod na buwan naman naisakatuparan. Ok rin dati nang may Mabuhay Miles pang naiipon sa paggamit ng credit card. Wala naman ako napala sa points. Hindi rin naman aabot para kahit sa isang local flight. noong isang taon nang ipapacut ko na rin sana ang card, nasubukan ko naman magredeem ng isang 500 pesos ng Gift Card ng SM. Pwede na.

Naalala ko pa noong unang taong pumipila pa ako sa Banco De Oro upang magbayad ng bill. Mabagal pa naman ang serbisyo ng bangko na iyon pero tiis lang. Welcome to adulthood: Ang pagbabayad ng bills. Maraming salamat talaga sa online banking. Hindi na kailangang pumila ng ganoon.

Kaakibat ng pagmamayari ng credit card ay ang pagbabayad ng annual fee. taun-taon din ay may paraan upang mai-waive ito: pagagastusin ka nila ng tatlong-libo yata sa isang buwan, pero tumaas na yata. Meron ding 50%  iwawaive nila. Annual fee lang talaga ang ayaw bayaran ng mga taong may credit card. Kung hindi ko pina-cut ang credit card, itong buwan dapat nila ako sisingilin. Ayaw ko na  masingil. Bukod diyan, bulok na talaga ang support nila. May oras na lang kung kailan sila may phone support. Kaunti pa ang agent nila. Kung tatawag ka, kailangan maghintay ng matagal. Sinabi ko itong reklamo dati noong una kong binalak na ipaputol, sabi pwede naman daw mas mabilis maasikaso ang tawag kung gagamitin ang feature na "Report Stolen Credit Card". Naisip ko naman na pwede yun kasama sa trabaho ko ang pagaaral ng exploit, pero syempre, may ibang taong mas nangangailangan. Gaya lang ito ng pagpapark sa disabled kung iisipin. Kaya, nope! Kapag email naman, asahan daw an 48 oras bago sila sumagot. Sa kaso ko, email lang ang choice.

Medyo nagmatigas rin sila na huwag muna ipaputol ang ugnayan namin. Kailangan ko muna bayaran ang huli kong bill. Ginawa ko naman. Dahil bulok ang sistema nila online banking na dati'y mayroong secured message na function, email lang. Sabi pa, upang masigurong ako nga ang nagpapacut ng account, tatawagan daw nila ako. Maraming beses sila tumatawag na hindi ko sinasagot. Mahal ang tawag  — nasa ibayong dagat ako. Ayaw ko na rin makipagusap pa, na binanggit ko rin naman sa email. Kung nakita nilang bayad na ang huli kong bill, "please consider it a verification that this is me asking you to terminate my account". Malipas ang ilang araw, marami pang hindi sinagot na tawag sa cellphone, pinutol na rin nila ang account ko. Salamat.

Ngayon, ok naman hindi na nila ako ginugulo. Nagunsubscribe na rin ako sa mga emails nila. sa cellphone mayroon pa ring push messages galing sa kanila. Paalam. Marami rin tayong pinagsamahan. May kasama ring lungkot na bagong yugto na ulit, hindi ko na sya kasama. Dati diretso ako sa shredder pag nagexpire yung card ko, lalo pa pag mga debit card na gamit sa Amerika pero ngayon, hindi ko ito isshred. Good times pa rin.

Bing Bong

So we watched the Inside Out animated feature film. It is about emotions. The characters are Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness.  Based on posters alone; because I have not seen any trailers, Sadness is the main heroine. This movie is unique because based on the premise alone of having human emotions as characters, this will be a man vs himself conflict which is a good take on animated movies.  I am not a big fan of animated films but I have seen a lot. This is from Disney and I think this is the first time there is no super villain in the characters.

Then came Bing Bong, the little girl’s imaginary friend.  The wikia describes him as a Pink cotton candy nougat-filled elephant-cat hybrid, porkpie hat, purple bow tie with pink polka dots, pink striped legs, brown jacket, matching fingerless gloves.  An article describes his appearance as vaudeville. Well, yeah. To me, he even looks suspicious at first.  I can’t help it. I need to look for the eventual antagonist in this story. But then, spoiler alert: Bing Bong becomes the biggest hero ever. He sacrified himself and then he gets forgotten. As what him fading when they were inside the memory dump signifies. I was not hoping what that looks like is what it was. When the movie was over, I was like asking my sister and my wife what he hell will happen to Bing Bong. I can't accept it

That was really sad, but it does happen. It’s just I can’t get over that. He’s good and all and he get forgotten. The story ends and he was not even remembered for the heroic deed. They just moved on. I don’t know. People hate it when Jon Snow or right now, Steven Yeun’s character in The Walking Dead gets killed (or do they?) but for me, Bing Bong’s death or whatever you call it is worse. It is so unfair. I can't let it go.

 source

Typhoon Lando, October 2015

So a typhoon arrived the same weekend as our quickie vacation. What to do??  

Just as most of OFWs, my schedule is packed. For a quickie 3 day vacation, all I do is just run errands. I arrived Friday, 4:50AM. I am going to renew my driver’s license that day. This will be the first time commuting again in a very long time. I have no idea how much is the minimum fare. It was a good idea of going to the main office instead of the satellites because from what I heard from other people there, LTO offices at the malls are closed. I was also able to get the license card that day. For the medical certificate from one of the "accredited" clinics within the area, I spent 200 pesos then 417.63 for the card.

After that, I went to Camp Aguinaldo to attend to my finances. Before getting there, I saw a banana cue stand when I alighted at EDSA from the Marikina Bus Line (Yeah! some kinda throwback). It cost 12 pesos. Remembering all the way back in the early 90’s, it would only cost 2.50.

My next stop is Ali-Mall to fix my phone payment setup. The queue was long so I checked the nearby bookstore. I was looking for books which we own, to check how much they cost locally. I want to compare if the books we bought from the book fairs are cheap. I saw the Flipped book but the price tag was not readable. When I was done with the cellphone bill thing, I went to the basement to the money changer. The exchange rate was 32.88. By this time, it was about 4PM and I need to eat. I planned to eat at the Greenwich Pizza on the 2nd floor food court but then I saw the lumpia stand. The lady attending the store was not there so I ended eating siomai, from the food stand next to it. 

Seeing Cubao now, makes me feel old. There are a lot of new things to see: there’s Buddy’s now next to Wendy’s; the old parking lots around the Coliseum and in front of the Shoemart are being transformed into something else; the McDonalds is now renovated. I would have seen more if I walked on the Cubao Expo side. It started raining (Yeah, Lando is here) but I still managed to hit the used bookstore and the big National Bookstore but I was not able to make a purchase. I read a good book about traveling to Europe. If only I was able to take down notes.

I bought the Obsessions pack of Dunkin Donuts which cost 250 pesos then went to my in laws to get the car. I will pick up my wife at the airport tomorrow, Saturday. That night, we received news that our high school peer’s 2-month old daughter died. She was just 2 days shy of her 3 month anniversary. I would have went to the wake that night but I have to be up early. The guys are planning to go there by 2AM. It will be too late for me.

Saturday came. I did not take a shower that day. I play with the dogs first when I wake up because of course, priorities. Then it was 5AM already, I needed to go. I have to be at the airport by 6. My sister was with me and I dropped her along C5, Kalayaan. She told me I was a reckless driver but I am not. She also told my mother. I got lost on my way to Terminal 1, and when I got there, I badly needed to pee.

I slept the whole morning then in the afternoon, I had a dentist appointment at 1PM. At around 4, I went to our condominium to have a look. We found out that the battery of our water meter has to be replaced. After that, we went to the nearby grocery to shop for everything we need to bring back to Singapore. At 7PM, we have an appointment for facial. I was going to go to the wake that evening but typhoon Lando is lurking outside. I don’t want to drive alone in that weather. I will just go the next day.

Sunday. My mother’s birthday. I actually woke up around 5AM, kissed my mother then wish her a happy birthday. I was about to go with them to the local market to food shop but she told me to go back to sleep. We will go to the grocery later that morning for the next round of food shopping. That was a bad idea because it just made the expenditures double. Haha!

Though there’s Lando and the wind is strong, the rain is not that bad. Metro Manila and our area in Rizal is not that badly hit. It is actually a good experience going into errands because there’s not much cars outside; the queue at Puregold is not that long; there are less people outside. In the afternoon we also managed to go to Anna’s baby shower. It is a barkada thing but Chast tag me along. After that, I was also able to buy our dog’s supplies. After that quick stop at Handyman, it is time to get the ladies in Cainta then off to our home in Antipolo for my mother’s birthday celebration. I think they had a good time. I miss my mother’s cooking. It’s just unfortunate that I just had my braces adjusted the day before. I cannot eat very well.

Later that night, we went to drop my stuff in Cainta then off to the wake. I enjoy seeing the guys but man, it is like the third time we are meeting on the same funeral home in Marikina. We stayed there until midnight then we had coffee at McDonald’s. The Starbucks at Sta. Lucia was already closed when we stopped by.

The birthday weekend errands/vacation schedule was packed. It was worth the 3 days. We were lucky that even though parts of Luzon is being battered by the Lando, Metro Manila is spared. Driving around was a breeze. Commuting again was fun like it brought back memories. I was able to spend time with family and see my friends. I did all my errands. If you would ask me if I think we can go out with this kind of weather, fuck you. The weather was alright. It ain't bed weather. It was not even cold. I was outside most of the time.

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Dahil namiss ko 'to (soundtrip pag umuulan)
 
Ciudad - Make It Slow

Wrist Tendonitis: This shit is real

I know what carpal tunnel syndrome is. You get it from too much interaction with a computer, from too much use of the keyboard and/or the mouse. It is a condition related to ergonomics. Since high school, I make it a point not to stress my hands too much when using a computer and lucky me, I am no gamer which means I don't face the computer that much.

image source
 

This past month, I notice this pain on my right wrist. I know it is a result of too much time holding a smartphone, ergonomics. It also gets rectified because when I watch the television or read a book, I use my right hand sometimes to support my head, like the "reclining Buddha".  This last weekend I cannot take the pain anymore so I put a bandage on it. People asked me what is wrong with my wrist, and explaining it sucks. For real? When we went for a drink last Saturday they suppose it is because of too much wanking. I told them I am a southpaw so very unlikely. The joke persists throughout the night.

I tried to massage the thing and it just swelled up bad. What did help was ice on the sore area. The next evening, I put a hot compress on it. The bandage thing does not really work. I just need to keep that hand idle. Compressing hurts and that thing gave me rashes.

So yeah, I need to be careful on how I lay around the house doing nothing. I might get injured again.

Attack on Titan: A Serious Case of "Read the Book, Saw a Different Movie"

We recently saw the movie Attack on Titan II. We saw the first installment, and then watched the anime series because the movie was just a cliffhanger. Like a hot girl teasing or so we have thought. We wanted to know what the hell is going on. After we finished the anime, Chast even continued reading the original manga, Shingeki no Kyojin. It turns out that the movie is really way of from the story in the anime. “Loosely based” if you will. Before deciding if we will see the second movie or not, I read reviews online and they were all bad. We still see it anyway. This is one of the movies you will see just to know why it is bad, like one of those Michael Bay films.

To begin, the names of the characters are similar with the manga and anime but the characters are entirely different except from the character Eren who turns into a Titan is also the same guy. Then everything else is "loosely based". Mikasa is supposed to be bad-ass and not Eren’s girlfrirend; Eren’s drive to kill the titans was not really there; Armin’s true strength for the supposed trio was not conveyed. Everything is just different.

I don’t get it. First of all, the people who would see a film based on something else, a book or manga would of course fans of the original. They might as well throw more fidelity on what fans are expecting; the Harry Potter series tried their best to please fans; the two Samurai X movies were OK too. This might be the first time I get frustrated with a movie adaptation, but then again, I am not a big fan of movie adaptations. There’s a bunch of YA book-to-motion picture adaptions (Hello, John Green) which I am not keen on watching. Oh, and not to mention all those comic book by DC and Marvel which was all the Buzz last San Diego Comic-Con. What may be different is that with a bunch of those comics and YA stuff, I don’t know what to expect if a time come that I have to watch the movie adaptation. This titan movie was different because I have expectations, which was wrong, obviously. I really have to keep in mind: The movie is a movie, a book is a book.