help for the typhoon victims in the Philippines

The Philippines was struck with heavy rains yesterday because of Typhoon Ondoy with International name Ketsana. Because the volume of rainfall that poured down for 6 hours was a month's worth of the usual Philippine rain, the effect was disastrous. Marikina and other neighboring cities was caught unaware when flood water already reached the rooftops of bungalow houses by 1pm. As of this writing, after 31 hours, there are still people on top of their rooftops waiting to be rescued. To all those who wish to donate, please visit the Philippine National Red Cross website.

related articles:

CNN

BBC

friday fill-ins #5

Dont't forget to leave your own friday fillin links at the comments section!

1. One week ago I was craving for dark chocolates.

2. I think I was smarter when I was young.

3. Mama told me not to miss thanking God for all the blessings he's been giving me all these years.

4. We'll always be happy, you and me.

5. Take your time in reading a book, skipping pages might make you miss the good parts.

6. This too will pass!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to playing with my son, tomorrow my plans include doing the laundry and Sunday, I want to go to church!

Join us here.

very confusing PLDT bill

I am so annoyed when I received the statement of account from PLDT (Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company) this month. They even included a flyer stating that they made their new billing platform easier to understand and more detailed. NOT!

The sample in the flyer is sooo different from the phone bill that I received. Yes, it is different from last month's but it is also different from the new billing platform that they showed on the flyer. The sample phone bill on their website was so not the same with the bills that I have been receiving for the past year.

PLDT, I think you are trying to confuse us more because there are a lot of hidden charges that you add on our bills.

I called PLDT hotline 171 this afternoon. The agent who answered doesn't even know how to answer my questions. He asked me to hold the line because he still needs to research it. I waited for around 10 minutes! I had to hang up the phone already because I had to pick up my son already.

Their customer service hotline is open from 8am-6pm, are they not supposed to be open 24/7? I will call again tomorrow. I will make sure to ask for the agent's name.

do you have a bookshelf like mine?

Yes, this is my bookshelf. I know, I need to buy a bigger one. It is so crowded, books are spilling all over the place already. But our condominium unit can't accommodate another furniture. I did bring some books to our other house, but I still have lots of books on this shelf (some I haven't read yet). I do share this bookshelf with my son. His books are on the last two rows of the shelf.

I collect different kinds of books. From classic (what my younger sister calls "boring books") to inspirational, I even have joke books in my collection. When I was in my teens I do collect romance novels, but I do not like reading those now. My favorite authors right now? James Patterson, Michael Crichton, some Oprah's bookclub books.

What about you, do you have an organized bookshelf or a bookshelf like mine? Share your photos here people, let's judge who can beat mine!

how to promote your blog

I do try to visit other blogs everyday but I don't have enough time on my hands to do that. My page rank has suffered a lot!!

What about you, what do you do to promote your blog? What works for you?

friday fill-ins #4

I am supposed to pick up my son already, right now, but I have to fill this up real fast!

And...here we go!

1. My car is in the garage right now.

2. Swim training after Chinese tutorial is coming up next.

3. Lately, things seem gloomy, is it because of the weather?

4. The bathroom is one of my favorite 'hiding' places.

5. What happened to school's paying for competition fees of athletes representing the school?

6. My son winning the drawing contest is not impossible!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to changing my blogs layout, tomorrow my plans include watching my son compete in swimming and Sunday, I want to watch a movie after going to church!

Join us here.

warning: white rice is bad for you!

That is actually a reminder for me.

I have been eating a lot (lots and lots of cups) of white rice lately. For all of you who doesn't know it yet, rice is a staple food for Filipinos. Breakfast, lunch and dinner won't be complete without rice. White rice is a perfect partner to almost all Filipino dishes.

I usually cook brown rice but my son doesn't like it. This week I bought white rice during my weekly grocery shopping. RJ's mama is eating more (and getting fat!) instead of RJ!

Will switch back to eating brown rice next week. Or maybe I should just exercise and get to eat all the bowls of rice that I can eat to my heart's content :)

it's my birthday today

It is now exactly 12 midnight, Philippine time and I just turned 33. Happy Birthday to me!

Aquino for President??

Yes people of the Republic of the Philippines, Senator Noynoy Aquino is running for President in 2010.

Here is the full report from Inquirer.net

twitter update

trying to find my way around twitter.

help me out, please follow me

help mio fight cancer

I was doing my daily rounds of visiting friends in the blogosphere when I landed on Mio's site. I can't help but cry while reading his story. Mio is 5 years old. He was diagnosed with cancer last month. He has acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL), a cancer of the white blood cells.

I do not know them but in my own little way I want to help them by spreading the word to my online friends. So if you by any chance want to also help, there are a lot of ways to do that...just visit MioFightsCancer.com

gloomy weekend

I feel so down yesterday, it was raining the whole day. I'm not really a fan of rainy days. Plans to go out of town did not push through also. Maybe on the 21st of this month we can go out of town, it's holiday once again in the Philippines. Three holidays for this month, vacation grande!

ABS-CBN GAMESTER, please stop sending spam SMS

Last year, my son was a regular viewer of "Wheel of Fortune", the franchise game show hosted by Kris Aquino, on ABS-CBN. For his 7th birthday, he wanted to download a "Wheel of Fortune" mobile game on my cellular phone. I said, "yes you can download, but just one game". That download was worth Php30.

Everyday after that, ABS-CBN Gamester doesn't fail to send an SMS message on my phone which deducts Php5 (Php2.50/text - it's a long SMS so I receive it in 2 batches) to my prepaid load. I tried calling the landline number indicated on the text message but the number is always busy! After a few months, the unsolicited text messages does not include their office number anymore! I sent an "unsubscribe" text already, but still the messages didn't stop coming everyday.

Excuse me ABS-CBN Gamester, I did not subscribe to your everyday SMS. Downloading a game doesn't mean that I want to subscribe to paying Php5 every single day of my life.

Knock knock to National Telecommunications Commission, when will you be able to stop these spammers from sending unsolicited SMS?

friday fill-ins #3

Graphic courtesy of Tonya!

This is my third one, and I am enjoying this meme so much!

1. I feel so very blessed.
2. Visiting new places, with my son, is always fun.
3. Right now, I can hear these things: afternoon headline news.
4. My son just received a math wizard award and I'm glad because he always says that he hates math.
5. The last time I went out with my friends was 3 months ago.
6. Visit my sisters this Labor day weekend.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to playing chess with my son, tomorrow my plans include go to the mall and maybe buy a new dress and Sunday, I want to go to church!

Join us here.

i want wednesday #1

This weeks question is:

What meal do you want at this very instant?

Since it is almost 10 pm in the Philippines and I had dinner already, I just want oatmeal cookies and a cup of hot coffee.