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friday malas… |
the driver was drivin like its a freakin sunday picnic so i got late for work. my flight got cancelled due the typhoon and had to be moved. and the company got friggin ****** again! (i wonder where’s that 7 day shit they promised us?) not a good friday. good thing the beer and the cholesterol was there to save the day! 
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purple on your purhead!!! |
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The Go Clandestinity (page 1) |
The Ortigas sun was slowly creeping up the concrete-hidden horizon. A number of young professionals are already walking at haste to their corporate cells. Private cars and cabs are gradually filling the Julia Vargas stretch. Norman Go frowned as three call center agents walked passed him as he eats his daily dose of Hong Kong style noodles in a stand just beside St. Francis Square. The call center heads were whining over the night’s tiring work, the constant arrogance of western people on the other side of their headsets and how they wish they would just all die. Norman took his last chopsticks full of noodles and spoke silently, “You call that a rough night? try to wearing my Pitoy Moreno shoes…”
Norman Go is an agent too. But of a different kind. He is something else. His family, friends and co-workers think they know him. The Norman Go they know is a slow-neuron-firing chink that works for an outsourcing company in the heart of Ortigas Center, the Iwebmasters, Inc. They see him as a jolly but smirkeleetipy person that likes to wear Rallion Alonzo type long sleeves, with a pair of graded glasses, killer smile and sexy bald head. His teammates in the company’s Sordid One account spiritually make fun of him over his slow-registering processor. “If you people only know…” he usually say to himself as he fights the urge to embed a few caps on them with his Walther P99 Compact DAO pistol. He is something else. He is ES-Agent 5. The best of the Macau-Manila Yellow Ops or M2-Yops.
After thanking Chung, the noodles stand manager and Norman’s Pasig area mole, he stared at the pyramid shaped top of the Tycoon Center building that housed his “clean-living” office. He started to walk towards it, constantly shaking his head, trying to shake off the “jet-lag”. The previous night was a long one. He’ve just flown in from an island more than 600 kilometers southeast of Manila, from the island of Bohol. He was sent there to infiltrate a known underground familia that has been smuggling ak-47s and yummy hopias from Macau through the island of Cebu. Things went bad and he had to exterminate the whole familia. There were only two of them anyways so he thought what the hell. But he knows there’s more than meets the eye, the hopia tasted so yummy he’s sure there’s crack in it. He knows. He’s been watching Dave Chappelle’s show and he’s a huge fan of Tyrone Biggums. He needed to get deeper, he decided.
But first he needs to live his false life for the day, as the Wok-with-Yan guy of Iweb. After swiping his ID card on Manong’s block box, he went straight to his station. One by one, his teammates arrived. Benjie with the dreads, Dell with the longhair, John with the hot head and Jp with the Jum-Ong look. The last one to get in was their Navajo indian-looking team leader, Jeo, whom he despises the most. He greeted Norman, “hey man, top of the morning to ya.” with a broad smile. He smiled back and gave him a kiss, err wait, i meant he said “yea, good morning to you too, oh ruler of the human world oh team leader.” while actually saying to himself… “infidels… i oughta judo-chop you people in those dirty brown necks of yours.” He opened his secure yahoo messenger covert version and type his Level 5 codes.
“ES-Angent 5, last night went exceptionally well, we understood you needed to put down the whole familia. Report to the Goldbaldhead at 1300 hours for debriefing.”
“Damn it.” thought Norman. He had a bunch of movie clips to cut and thumbs to optimize for the day. And Jeo have already been complaining about his consecutive halfdays lately. But he knows he needed to report. Its a matter of national security. This is his responsibility. His responsibility to every poor Filipino and filthy rich Chinese-filipino in the country.
“Jeo, i’ll be going home early at noon. I need to take Gladys to her monthly pregnancy check-up. You know our baby’s due in a few months.” Norman said, trying hard not to appear obvious.
Jeo was puzzled “you just went there two days ago, and you said its monthly?”
The agent fought with the thought of putting his teamleader into an armbar and making him scream like a bitch. He smiled, “Yea, its monthly, that’s why we’re going again today. I need to go, Jeo, I need to go.”
to be continued…
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of storms and man |
have i fallen asleep while walking? or was it just the signal #2 typhoon kabayan that clouded my vision and made me slip? idunno. all im certain of is that i was really tired. we all were. we’ve been trekking on the storm for 10 hours already by that time (it would take us another 4 hours to reach the already sleeping town of barlig). i remember the first time i went there four years ago, it only took us under 5 hours to trek down. but it was very different then. nobody in the team was injured and there was no typhoon. it was summer and everything was sunny and smiling. i brushed my previous amuyao thoughts off and tried to concentrate on the now-now time. we need to get our arses down, i kept telling myself, and i will not leave anyone behind.
there were only four of us, ryan, ria, mike and me. the other apexterra heads backed out a day before the climb. ryan’s right knee, which was injured from his last climb, acted up when we started our descent. hours later both of his knees gave up on him. that and the strong typhoon, freezing cold rain and strong winds, slowed our descent to a españa-quiapo jam. hypothermia poked every now and then. i did pray on our way down, a lot. i know all four of us did. i kept on begging for the rain to stop, i wasnt sure anymore how long my body can take the extreme cold. my marmot thermal was no use anymore. everything was soaking wet. there was no cellphone signal. shit.
i was so exhausted already. but i know i wouldnt give up. i couldnt. i was their only guide on that climb. and if i falter, i will fail all of us four. mike, ria and i divided and carried ryan’s stuff to ease his descent even just a little. he kept on pushing himself down, both legs constantly rejecting his brain’s orders. i knew the feeling. ive been there. in my very first mountain climb, which was in mt. banahaw with my sacrilege mountaineer friends, my knees also gave up on me. so i know how hard it was for him. good thing he had tons of willpower in him.
we reach barlig at around 12 midnight, it was already a ghost town. the storm have not ceased yet. we searched for a place to stay and found halfway inn. we were forced to stay there for the next couple of days because landslides have blocked the way that connects mountain province and ifugao. we were all so thankful for surviving that weekend. and more lessons have been learned from that climb.
i gotta thank everyone who helped and showed concerns. daren, angel, ish (ria’s cuz) and our friends here in manila. manong nataniel and his wife for trying and picking us up at barlig and driving our asses safely through the landslides. manang edel for letting us stay in her place. the NGO and autobus office at banaue. natalia of mfpi for calling and checking if we were already okay. my boss of course for not firing me hehehe. si god? the whole climb i was thanking him. and i know it will never be enough. sounds like an speech from the vma’s? hehehe.
ayun. i gotta say i was humbled more by the experience. by mt. amuyao. by the typhoon. by nature. by everything.
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top 11 pix of the weekend |
#11: Banaue Rice Terraces
ria and ryan posed for some rice terraces shots. this spot is actually where the rice terraces image we see in 1000 peso bills was taken.
#10: Hibing Hibi, Repapips!
we cooked up some cheap noodles, hibi style, for lunch while waiting for the 630pm bus departure.
#9: The Thinking Man
i took this one while having breakfast in one of banaue’s restaurants, i think it was called greenview resto/inn or something.
#8: Mother Mary Save Our Souls
this huge mama mary statue stands on mt. polis, which travelers pass by on route to bontoc, sagada or on our case, barlig.
#7: Where Are You Mr. Sunny Sun?
we were forced by landslides to stay at barlig for 2 more days/nights, lazy days and worried nights, baka wala na ako maabutang work pag uwi ko!
#6: Ryan of the Pines
i took this one on our way up, the trail and much of the whole mountain was covered with clouds…
#5: Pitcher Plants
i was surprised to see pitcher plants in mt. amuyao. the first time i went there i didnt see any. this is the third mountain i climbed that has pitcher plants, the first two being mt. kinabalu and mt. apo.
#04: What’s Cookin, Dawg?
we camped beside the relay station on the summit of mt. amuyao. was cooking breakfast here, the typhoon is still in full force by this time. thats the stationman’s doggy right there.
#3: Limatik ka sa Paa ko!
so there, another one got me, and on the same leg. those covert-one type leeches really know how to use anesthesia.
#2: Man, I Think We’re Lost…
a shot of one of mt. amuyao’s many picturesque trails.
#1: An Eye Through The Storm
hours before we reached the summit, we were already above them clouds, there was a few minutes that the rain took a breather and gave us this surreal scene, clouds above and below.
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in the sweet sunshower… |
Dark as roses, fine as sand
Feel your healing and your sting again
I hear you laughing and my soul is saved
On forgotten graves you cry
Crawl like ivy up my spine
Through my nerves and into my eyes
Cuts like anguish
Or recollections of better days gone by
But it’s all right
When you’re caught in pain
And you feel the rain come down
It’s all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
It’s all right
Though your garden’s grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower
Eyes like oceans so far away
A feather trail to a better way
Worried mornings turn into days
Then into worried nights
But it’s all right
When you’re all in pain
And you feel the rain come down
Oh it’s all right
When you find your way
Then you see it disappear
Oh it’s all right
Though your garden’s grey
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
Oh in the sweet sunshower
In the sweet sunshower
I know all your graces
Someday will flower
In the sweet sunshower
And it’s all right
All you’ll be you are today
Are today
It’s all right
All you’ll be you are today
Are today………
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