After Ondoy
The guards here have a radio, but the gap between my admittedly poor Tagalog skills and that of our tireless AM commentators I understand maybe a word in 5. Enough to get the gist of things, but not enough to satisfy my need to know what is going home in Cainta. I figured I’d try to catch up on my reviews just to have something to do, but I can’t really concentrate on that right now. Figured I’d do something constructive today.
I’ve spent about 36 hours now online, visiting the news sites every half-hour, trying to find out if Ortigas Extension after Manggahan Floodway is clear yet. Check out the video below of the floodgates the afternoon of Saturday the 26th.
In my experience, floods in Cainta and Pasig are funny things. We get small floods all the time, but things are usually back to normal within a couple of hours after it stops raining. Sunday morning, I tried to make it home, thinking that the water along the highway would have receded a bit. I saw several G-Liner buses that ply the Taytay to Quiapo route making their way down Ortigas.
The road was gridlocked. When we hit the Pasig river bridge, the bus driver tried passing through Amang Rodriguez, and down the East Bank Road of Manggahan. The waters coming down from Marikina were less than what you see in the video above and the current had subsided somewhat, but the water was still far up the wall of the man made riverbed, with lots of debris coming through. The flood control team was atop the flood gates trying to pull the biggest pieces from the water. I saw someone’s refrigerator pulled up the metal door of the gates and dumped on a pile of other appliances, bags of garbage and other flotsam.
The East Bank Road was packed as well. At first, the people on the bus were pretty optimistic. They’d been trapped on the vehicle since Saturday as well, and agreed with the driver that the bus could probably make it through what ever we encountered as long as there was a way through the light vehicles. We got as far as the foot of the Manggahan Bridge before everyone saw that this wasn’t a flood that anyone there had had any experience with. Life Homes, the subdivision at the foot of the bridge was under water, hip deep were we were, but easily neck deep as you went further in. Jeeps parked in front of houses on the lower roads were already submerged.
When the driver realized that there was nowhere else for us to go, everyone got down and tried to hoof it home through the waist deep water. After climbing up to the bridge with ropes that had been set up, I was greeted by this scene (top picture pulled from plurk, bottom is one by Joven Cagande):
Word from the bystanders along the bridge was that it got even deeper the farther along Ortigas Extension you went, reaching up to 10 feet at Junction, Cainta. The only thing that could make it out there was the rubber boats that rescuers were using to get people out. The distance from the Floodway to my home in Brookside is easily about 4 kilometers; an hour-long walk for a person who’s in shape. I am not. And this was through at LEAST chest high water in full clothes and with a heavy load. Like most, I wasn’t going to make it through there. At least I could walk back to Ortigas Center.
So now I’m just waiting to hear that the roads are passable again before trying to make it home. Last night I was able to get a message out to my sister that I was all right thanks to our guard here at the office who lent me his phone (my Zombie Phone had finally died after getting wet in my efforts to get home the previous night). She was able to text back that they were all right in the house, but that phone lines were down. She was able to let my friends know that I was all right as well and they called in to the office to let me know that they were, thankfully, ok.
Having been here in the office with power and Internet access the entire weekend, I got to say that for the most part, I saw the best part of the Filipino. You’ll read it when you’re all able to jack in, but with cell service spotty and phone lines down many of us were online using what we could to communicate. There was the KaninLamig’s interactive Google Map that showed rescue teams were people were trapped. Manuel L. Quezon III’s blog which was updated with important contact numbers and info for flood victims and stranded relatives. Despite a few ugly hiccups (like playing the Government Blame Game on GMA News chat or that whole Jaque Bermejos thing) Facebookers, Plurkers, and Tweeters are all out on a mission to help out and it was a trip seeing how the online community emailed, IM’d, plurked, facebooked, twittered and blogged, giving what help they could.
Thanks guys. All of it made sitting here in this office, in this deserted building, worried out of my mind a little easier.
_________________________
If you’d like to help, the best way to do so would be to donate to the Philippine Red Cross through SMS: text RED[space]AMOUNT to 2899 (Globe) or 4483 (Smart)
Manuel Quezon III has many more other ways to help plus other important information detailed on his blog at http://www.quezon.ph/. If you can’t load the page, use his mirror site: http://mlq3.tumblr.com/post/197426389/how-you-can-help
GMA news has a list of verified relief centers for victims of the Ondoy floods up. Important things needed are clothes and ready-to-eat food: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173288/updated-list-of-verified-relief-centers-for-ondoy-victims
You can also visit there Facebook page where there is a discussion board with helpful stuff like a board on flooded roads: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=9923&post=37696&uid=116724526976#post37696
Radio station, Jam 88.3 helped out a ton of people who only had FM tuners on their cellphones during the worst of it by replacing regular programming with news, updates, and help lines. Today (September 28), they’ll be looking for help for those in need so tune in and donate:
The Philippine Inquirer is also launching a relief drive. Donations in kind, such as instant noodles, canned goods, formula milk, blankets and clothes, are urgently needed. Bring them to the Inquirer office at 1098 Chino Roces Ave. corner Mascardo and Yague Streets, Makati City, or to any of its classified ads branches, or any McDonald’s branch within Metro Manila. For questions and other concerns, please call 8978808 loc. 260 and look for Megi Garcia.
Even Hollywood celebrities are asking their fans to help out. Some concerned parties here have created http://www.philippineaid.com/ so that people in other countries can help out by visiting and donating to the relief efforts via the Chipin widget below.
EDIT (9:40 AM 9/28/2009)
I saw this on GMAnews.TV. Brought home everything in a hard way. I recognize everything in the video. I pass there to and from work everyday.
Only Happy When It Rains…
Originally posted on Posterous.
September 26, 2009
Everyone who has parents must have those times when they’ll tell you something like and you’re like, “You’re so paranoid, Mom. I’ll be fine.” I have these issues with them a lot. They often like to regale me with stories about how this friend was mugged and I should be careful since it could happen to me (unlikely, cause muggers don’t normally target big guys who look like a terrorist who’s had a particularly bad day), or how that person contracted whatever disease or condition is being hyped by the media at that moment. You have no idea how much psuedo science I listened to about Swine Flu. I went to UP Diliman, and every time there was a rally, I got a lecture about the dangers of large crowds of people. When ever it starts getting cloudy, I get notes saying that it’s best I go home before it floods.
Well, Mom. Dad. I’ll give you this one.
Currently, I’m writing this while stuck in the office due to the epic flood that was brought on by our little friend Typhoon “Ondoy”. My Saturday started out fine, just a little rainy. I’ve had rainy days before. No big deal right? Despite my mother’s harping, for the most part, the Philippine sun will usually burn off cloud cover before lunch and everything is hunky dory again. And I’ve always managed to find rides home despite the rain.
Usually I get off the night shift, wait for the mall to open, get in a little shopping done, maybe catch a movie or hangout with friends. So looking at the pouring rain and believing today was a normal Saturday I said, “Fuck it” and agreed to help my friend with some of that requisite retail therapy. She had just gotten a new Macbook, and you know how that pristine white enamel gets people immediately thinking “I just dropped an obscene amount of cash on this thing. I need to protect it with more obscene amounts of cash.” So when she said “let’s go to Greenhills”, I said ok.
A good decision this was NOT.
We probably should have had a clue when we got to the tiangge and saw half the stalls still covered and the aisles deserted of patrons. Some stalls closed early when they realized that there weren’t going to be any customers today. All I thought at this point was this was pretty nice. We had the mall all to ourselves. I got a call from home, saying the water level was going up. I dismiss it. I always get calls from home with portents of doom. Our street and barangay tend to flood any time it starts drizzling, but the water usually tends to disappear in an hour or two. No biggie, fine, whatever.
The severity of the storm didn’t hit me till we started getting sleepy around 12 noon. We made for the Taxi line outside Vmall and nothing. What? There’s always taxis out here. Where is everyone? We go out front, and find the taxi queue there empty as well. There aren’t many FXs in the terminal, but there aren’t all that many people either. I though Gliner, right? Wrong. No buses pass by.
We walk down the front towards Unimart and ooo ooo! taxi right there on the curb! Why are all these people gathered here? Why’s the driver just standing there? Turns out EDSA corner Ortigas is flooded and no one can get by. Whachatalkinbout, Willis? It’s fucking EDSA!
We finally decide to take a jeep to Galleria. Not far, but since one of our group lives right there, at least she can go home. Ok. We learn the jeeps can’t make it across Edsa either. What? They stop right after
When we get to Robinson’s, we’re still thinking “Hey, isn’t this a trip? We’ll have some story to tell on Monday, huh?” Our friend that tagged along leaves to walk home. “Bye! See you Monday!” That spirit of adventure lasts about as long as it takes to change out of our wet clothes and get a coffee at Starbucks. My friend and I sit down with her new laptop and BOOM. We realize the shit’s hit the fan. Our phones, which we haven’t really check since that call in Greenhills have several updates. Apparently the wall in
So we kill time. Around 6, we try the taxi line again. There are FXs going to
Ok so my friend is on her way home. Time to sort me out. If FXs are running, GLiners should be too. You’d think I’d learn by now that this is WRONG. No GLiners. Guards in front of Robinson’s say nope, everyone’s walking. No buses, no FXs, no cabs will go to Cainta.
So here I am soaked to the bone, no where to go. A cabbie says that there are still jeeps going to Cainta over Eastwood way. The Cubao/Ever Ortigas route! Right! I get there. No fucking jeeps. Walk to Eastwood in the rain. Payphone? Cybermall, po. Payphone? Dun sa may CR, po. “All circuits are busy”. shit. “This subscriber can not be reached”. FUCK! Globe down. Hear Smart is too. Still hasn’t stoped raining. Another stranded dude tells me flood in Junction Cainta is fucking neck high. Shit. Can’t call home. Shit. Tells me he’s camping out at the office. Good idea. Cab? Ortigas po,
So back at the fucking office. Guard lets me in (which I hope to God he doesn’t get flack for). I log in to the Net and “Oh, shit”. I start reading the news. Night shift kind of warps your reality, and I tend to stop reading news at times. Now it all hits me. ‘Ondoy’ Intensifies into Tropical Storm. Record Rainfall. Floodwaters Submerge Metro Manila areas. Mayor of Cainta stranded on truck roof. Rescuers in
I still can’t reach anyone. None of the lines are working. Even if zombie phone hadn’t gotten wet and died on me, the networks are both down. Can’t contact either my friend, who went home, or my sister or parents in Cainta. They don’t know that I’m here at the office. My paranoid parents are probably worried out of their minds. I AM WORRIED OUT OF MY MIND.
Christ, let them be ok.
Snarler Cycle with
Beachhead & Rollbar
When I started this whole toy thing, I sold ALL of the GI Joe vehicles and figures I had brought with me to the Philippines. This included but was not limited to the Cobra Condor, the GI Joe Battle Bunker, and the Retaliator. I had a long internal discussion with myself: nostalgia vs. articulation. Articulation won out and the vintage stuff was sold to fund purchases in lines like Marvel Legends which were more fun to play with.
Then the 25th Anniversary Joes came out and everyone was saying how great the articulation was and that they fit in the old vehicles. Early shots showed up and they were in the same old cards with the same great gobs of accessories, each one unique and with a joint count that rivaled that of Toy Biz figure at the height of that company’s reign as action figure champion.
Insert massive facepalm here.
Now that the 25th Anniversary line has moved nicely into the new Rise of Cobra (ROC) movie line, Hasbro’s giving collectors yet another chance to get a centerpiece for their own personal armies. However, there are 2 things stopping me from plunking down a few grand on one of these babies.
That’s why the Snarler Cycle is such a nice little compromise. It’s one of these new “Alpha Class Vehicles” which isn’t too expensive and pretty small so it doesn’t take up a whole lot of space. Plus it comes with 2 figures instead of 1 like the rest of its wave. What a steal!
Locally, these were released last month at a price of about p1,000.00. Since regular ROC figures cost p450.00, that means you’re getting a vehicle for just p100.00! Of course, this is a small vehicle and the figures don’t have a ton of gear, but leave me to my delusions. If you’re looking at either the Sky Sweeper Jet or the Mantis Attach Sub, you’ll get a more substantial vehicle, but you’ll be missing out on the bad ass Beach Head figure, which is the real reason I got this.
Like I said, this version of Wayne Sneeden (*snicker*), is pretty damn nice. Since I missed the first round of figures from the 25th line, I don’t know if this is just a re-issue or not, but if you don’t have it, best you get it. He comes with some choice gear; his trademark sub-machine gun, that cool backpack with the attached crossbow, a pistol that fits into his thigh holster, and a vest that’s different from the Hall of Heroes Beachhead.
For the price, it’s pretty understandable Hasbro didn’t pile on the accessories here. He doesn’t even come with the requisite stand that all the other 25th/ROC figures I’ve seen have. The includes are more along the lines of the 25th Anniversary 2-packs, just what the soldiers would carry I guess.
Rollbar was just really icing on the cake. Though he’s certain to be a repaint, his inclusion in this set means he just adds value to it. He’s got about the same amount of gear as balaclava boy: helmet, backpack, rifle, and a pistol. It’s all nice looking and appropriate so I’ve got no complaints. If I were to venture a guess, I’d say he looks like an Airborne repaint. I know the rifle is the same as the one I saw in that figures bubble.
His paint scheme indicates that he’s the Hoke Colburn and Beachhead’s the Daisy Werthan (what? I can’t put a Driving Miss Daisy reference in my reviews?) in this relationship, but even away from the bike, Rollbar looks pretty good on his own. If you stood him up next to Scarlett, he could probably pass for the Sky Patrol version of Airborne (another figure I used to have *sob*). I think I’ll try and see what he looks like with the Cobra Paratrooper gear, just for kicks.
The bike itself is a bit of a disappointment really. Remember I said it was basically p100.00? Well it looks like it. But then that’s not really true either since I’ve got a few 1/18th scale Maisto bikes with diecast parts which I got on sale for p100.00 each and look pretty nice with one of these Joes on the saddle. This one just looks cheap. The plastic has a minimal amount of paint applications and looks awfully translucent. There aren’t a lot of sculpted details to it either and design wise, I think I’d prefer to get a RAM more than this. It just looks more like it belongs in a world where GI Joe would exist. The Snarler looks more like a weak attempt to mimic real world bikes.
Accesory wise, you don’t get much. The two guns are detachable, but really, who wants to display this with out the guns? The big one has another of the spring-loaded BFGs that every Joe comes with now. At least it looks more appropriate when there’s a vehicle to mount it on. I think there was a sticker sheet in the box, but I didn’t bother applying it anymore since I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep it.
So in the end, the reason to get this set is value. You get one great figure, one good figure, and one glorified stand for a pretty fair price. Considering the latest vehicle wave (the one including the Target exclusive SNAKE Armor with Viper) to arrive here was priced at p1,300.00 and include only 1 figure, and some glorified accessories, this set and the other two in its batch are pretty good bang for your piso.
The PROBLEM is that you can not find it anywhere. I was lucky enough to score mine on the day Toy Kingdom Podium was shelving them, and I know some guys were lucky enough to get them on the first day of the recent Cybertron Philippines and Toys R’ Us Hall of Heroes event in Robinsons Manila, but they’re almost as hard to find now as a Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes. Good luck people.
Super Robot Transformable Tomas (knockoff)
I’ve been wanting to pick this up for ages now, but Divisoria is just so far out of my way that I’ve been putting it off. Thankfully, there’s a store in a local mall that frequents that area, bringing goodies like this to all us good little boys and girls in the Ortigas area. Sure there’s a premium I’ve got to pay for the convenience of not having to deal with the 2 hour trip, the sweaty little firetrap corridors of 168 or Divimall, and the insane grid lock traffic of the ride back, but I think it’s a fair deal, don’t you?
You might have a little trouble spotting this gem since it’s packaged as 3 seperate train toys, a red, a blue, and a green one. Now, since I am not a 5 year old, I have limited knowledge of the “Thomas the Tank Engine” series created by Rev. W.V Awdry. According to a quick net search, he is a “fictional anthropomorphic steam locomotive”.
Thank god for wikipedia.
Further study reveals that the red engine is named James, the green is called Henry, and the blue one is either Thomas himself, or someone named Edward. It’s all very weird and a little like some kind of drug-addled nightmare. I mean they’re trains… with faces. It’s like something out of Dr. Who.
The 3 locomotives break apart, each re-forming into either the torso, or two limbs. “Form feet and legs!” It’s not a very involved transformation, but I’m sure kids will love it. There are instructions on the back of the card, but you don’t really need it to figure this all out. It’s basically just pull apart, fold out, and put back together, making Trainbot a partsformer in the truest sense.
All together, Trainbot is about as tall as the old Hasbro combiners back in the 80’s, or about as big as a Leader Class figure in today’s vernacular. That makes him a pretty good deal for what I paid for him (p250.00), but keep in mind that he is a knockoff. I don’t know who originally manufactured this toy, but the ones you’ll find here are definitely a sub-standard copies. Not only are there no decals or paint applications, the plastic is of the worse kind, brittle and prone to bending.
Mine’s head is also tooled improperly. Once it’s popped out, your stuck. The part won’t go back down into the body of the train again. I don’t know if it’s the same with all of them, but I would be surprised.
You’ll also want to watch out when you attach his “jetpack”. It’s attached to his back via a small post on the pack, but the hole on his back isn’t drilled or formed on a solid part. It’s simply a thin tab of plastic with a hole that tends to bend when you try to push this into it. If you’re not careful, you’ll be looking for another set and making this one into “Battle Damaged Super Robot Transformable Tomas”.
Overall, I wouldn’t really know who to recommend this to. If I had a kid young enough to be a fan of Thomas the Train, I’d be hesitant to give this to him. Pieces tend to break off (a few of his wheels broke off yesterday, and there’s that tab I mentioned) and with all the news about lead in toys from China, it’s an iffy proposition. Anyone old enough to play with it probably wouldn’t enjoy a Thomas the Train toy. I guess it’s just the oddball in me that likes it, and what Leader Class figure can you get for p250?
I hate James Oliver Rigney, Jr.
I really, really hate him. It wasn’t always like this. Back in 1990, when I was in junior high in Guam, I fell in love with the guy. That’s right. L-O-V-E, love. I was a nerd who spent a lot of time exchanging crappy old 50’s pulp paperbacks I picked up at yard sales for like 5 cents for nice shiny new fantasy novels in the local library’s trade-in section. You young ‘uns don’t know how much eBay went and fucked things up for you.
Anyway, I was there in the library and I come across this huge (I could barely wrap my pudgy twinkie coated hands around the thing) novel with that unforgettable cover art by Darrell K. Sweet. It wrapped around the whole book, some 670 pages, and when you opened it up, there was another unbelievable painting. It was beautiful. Now I know what they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, but I’m not kidding, as soon as I saw this I was hooked. I immediately pulled “The Eye of the World” from the shelf and placed some silly Choose Your Own Adventure novelette in its place.
And lo and behold, right on the other side of the shelf was “The Great Hunt”. I brought the books home and started reading. What a world this guy had created, full of all the same things we had (economics, politics, differing social mores), but with all sorts of other stuff too (magic, monsters, adventure). It was populated by all sorts of people with all sorts of languages and customs. The characters felt more like people than the ones in Tolkien’s works, which had always felt to me like reading homework. These I couldn’t put it down.
I found “The Dragon Reborn” about a month later thinking it would be the last book, considering that the whole thing was about “The Dragon” being reborn. I was so excited to see how it would end. No such luck. After the third book came another. And another. One trilogy became two. Then three. Finally, 11 books and 18 years later, Wheel of Time fans still don’t know what happened at the end of the Third Age.
It got to the point where I was writing my own fan fiction on a role play site just to get by. Sadly, I must admit that my stories are no where near as engrossing as Jordan’s, and appreciation of them were limited to members of the old Wheel of Time Roleplay site. It was a poor substitute for the real thing. So we waited and waited and waited.
Then, on September 16, 2007, at the age of 58, James Oliver Rigney, Jr., better known to his fans as Robert Jordan, author of The Wheel of Time, died from cardiac amyloidosis.
I was devastated. I had waited for this man to finish a story I had loved for more than half my life and he up and croaked. I had feared this would happen since the rumors first started about his poor health. The time between chapters was getting longer and longer, and as each book came to an end, I kept thinking, “We’re not even at the Last Battle yet! How on Earth is he going to wrap this up in time?” Then, instead of finishing work on the last chapter, it was announced that he’d be working on 2 prequels to the series. I was incensed. I know this is callous beyond belief, but I wanted my ending. I wanted to see what Mr. Jordan intended for these characters when he started 2 decades ago.
Thankfully, Mr. Jordan didn’t leave without thinking of his fans. He had prepared enough notes for someone to take over. In 2008, the new author was Brian Sanderson. If you’ll go to his website at www.brandonsanderson.com, you’ll find his readthroughs of the entire series as prep to his work on the final book. It looked like he was set to do a great job continuing Mr. Jordan’s vision.
Having just read his first chapter on www.tor.com I’m skeptical that his prose will have the same impact as the first books. From what they’ve given us, his sentence structure is much more flowery than Jordan’s. I remember that Jordan’s was much more simple and easier to read. It really throws me off. I’m reserving judgment until the first part of A Memory of Light, The Gathering Storm hits shelves on November 3rd 2009.
Here’s hoping the 20 year lead up is worth it. We’ve got 3 more years of wait ahead.
If you're looking for biased, one-sided views of toys and other assorted geekery, then you're in the right place. If you want objective, you'll need a blog written by someone who isn't an obsessive geek.
These are my views on various toys, movies, places, and things, along with assorted pictures and the the occasional link to stuff I find sufficiently geeky.
Enjoy your stay and leave a comment.
Slangards
I may give you a half-way serious answer.
