Bad Blogger!

Well it's a good thing I never tried to capitalize on all those crazy dreams about making my living writing because if this blog proves anything, that was certainly a pipe dream.

Sorry about the cliff hanger that lasted upwards of an entire year. I feel like than George R. R. Martin leaving readers hanging for 4 years now! Also I have no idea what I was supposed to write about in the follow-up post so I'm not going to bother reprising the post and instead pretend it never happened.

For those of you who were worried about my predicament in the Philippines during Typhoon Ondoy (landed Sept 25th): I'm fine!

In fact, I was 6000 miles away in Oregon so I cheated a bit. I was on a quick business trip in that neck of the woods. I just got back this week to the Philippines and found little lasting evidence of the flood and typhoon but I'm jumping ahead of myself.

From what I hear, Typhoon Ondoy started as a rainy typhoon (as opposed to a windy one or a rainy-windy one) and the flooding was not more than usual.  Soon it became apparent (in the worst hit regions) that the flood waters were not going to recede as it continued to rain. In the 24 peak hours some places received 455mm of rain. For comparison San Francisco gets 480mm of rain in a year. Regardless of the flood precautions taken by city planners, you can't move half a meter of rain water fast enough to prevent flooding. And, as you can imagine, most of the cities here were not planned; they just happened.

Ondoy made landfall just opposite Luzon (the main island) of Manila and immediately made a bee-line for the city. For those who don't know: Metro Manila is huge. It's about half the area of Greater LA but with twice the population (20 Million) most of which lives in shanty towns. When it hit these areas the impact was harsh. My written explanation can't be sufficient but these pictures can do it justice.

One thing I have to add is that where I live was never in any real danger. I imagine it was similar to the fires in LA hills the past couple summers. If you were to ask a friend in the area about them the conversation would go something along the lines of:

"Yes, the horizon is glowing orange. And yes, it is raining ash"

"Are you going to evacuate?"

"Why? It's on the other side of LA"

Same thing here.

Thats about all I have on the typhoon except to share this little gem of the current typhoon. 

My favorite part of that picture is not the chaotic path the typhoon left behind, but the gall of the forecaster to guess where it will be tomorrow. Imagine the number of incorrect predictions that were made each time with the declaration: "This time we're certain!"

On a side note about shanty towns: Stewart Brand has a good (but fast) TED talk about them that puts them in a completely new light.

Multiple Post update, part the second

Merry Ramadan everyone! (Today is a national holiday here in observance of the last day of Ramadan.)
A few months ago I set Yoshi up with a trip to the Philippines using my frequent flyer miles.
So basically the week after the dive trip, Yoshi landed in Manila and I took a few days off to show him around the islands. Of course most of was a spurned on by a self-centered and pressing need to escape Manila and go relax on a beach somewhere.
The first weekend he was here we flew out to Boracay. During my last trip to Boracay I got nearly drunk with two of my future bosses and set a co-workers leg on fire. Needless to say, the trip with Yoshi was planned to be slightly less career threatening.
Unfortuately, I forgot about the whole "rainy season" thing. In my defense, I've since asked a few locals and have never recieved the same answer twice. There are only 12 months in the year which makes for only 133 distinct sequential month combinations but I don't yet know 134 filipinos well enough to ask a stupid question to satisly my mathematical curiosity. (That's a lie... I go to rediculous extents to prove a mathematical point... for instance, counting all the distinct sequential month combinations)
Back to the story: Yoshi and I flew to Boracay in the midst of a tropical depression. Officailly that doesn't violate my rule concerning travelling during a Typhoon. So the first day on the beach was spent walking the length of the island in a torrential downpour. Now, you probably do not know how much fun that is because you've never been in a torrential downpour. Imagine millions of warm marble-sized water drops stricking you with such force you can't imagine it lasting more than 5 minutes. Then imagine the same thing that continues for more than an hour. This country never ceases to amaze.
The next day was overcast and a bit drizzly. Regardless, we grabbed a boat and went out for a snorkling trip around to Crocadile Island. No jellyfish this time around but we got hit by a rippin' current.
Our last day we rented motorbikes and toured the interior of the island. We visited the bat cave where we were not greeted by Bruce Wayne or a Batmobile (not even the one with the foam tail fins that would fall off on every sharp turn). At the bottom of the cave we were greated by deafening screeches, disgusting auromas and one nice image.
The pool is actually the ocean that works it way up into the cave forming that nice picturesque pool.

After escaping the cave we climbed to the highest point of the island where I took a 360 panoramic. And now Blogger wont let me upload it, I'll try again later.
Shortly thereafter we were winging our way back to Manila for the next big adventure. (I have all my cliff hangers written by Franklin W. Dixon.)

Kind readers

Wow... the dashboard on the right says that I missed posting in July, August, and most of September. I didn't go on hiatus or even die... I just stopped posting for no particular reason. So to my dedicated (and now possibly non-existent) readers, I'm sorry.
I've so much to cover I'll have to make this a multiple post. But that may mean I'll finish it some time around Christmas. Fortunately for me, Christmas has already started. Yes I'm still in the Philippines and am now entering my second year here.
On the anniversary (plus or minus a month) I went out for a few dives at my local dive haunt. Thomas and I did the infamous "The Canyons" dive which was a wicked strong drift dive. Basically the current that runs the length of western-Luzon coast runs pretty shallow right next to Puerta Galero. So we dive it to see the big ocean fish passing through. But we can only dive it when the ebb tide couteracts the prevailing current. At a mere 20% power, my mask was in iminent danger of being ripped off my face each time I grabbed a rock and looked upstream. Needless to say, I rarely repeated that maneauver. We were going at a pretty good clip and by the time the 45 minute dive was over, we were in the deep blue and very alone.
Later we hiked the length of White Beach to visit the famous "Lucas" reastaurant on the last spit of land on Mindoro. That the restaurant on the far right, Thomas in the foreground, Pauline in the center, and White Beach visible on the left.

Obviously I fell in love with the panoramic feature on my camera. You're going to see a lot more of those in the next few posts. The size seems small but on my origianls you can zoom way in and see the people. I want to take these and see how big I can get them printed and framed. Some should be half a wall sized.
The only other decent picture from that trip, I took at 5am on the way back to work on Monday morning.
That's it for now but I promise to get more posted in a bit!

Quick update from France

So, I'm in France... not sure if everyone knew. My cousin got married and it was quite the wedding. I don't have any pictures from that as of yet but I did wander around my second home-away-from-home: Paris. By "wander" I actually mean that I hiked from end to end seeing as much as I could before collapsing from exhaustion.
First Jardin Luxemburg...

then Notre Dame...

then la Partheon...

then la Louvre...

then l'Arc de Triomphe...

then la Tour Effiel...

then back to the hotel. All in all it was a 10 mile walk around the best city in the world.
Fun times!

Packing

I'm often asked how I pack for a 6 months stint in the Philippines. That's an outright lie, no one ever asks me that, but I do have a method to my madness that may be worth sharing.

Step 1. Take 3 tours through the apartment and throw everything you may need in a big pile. (See below)
Step 2. Place above items in two large bags along with your scuba diving gear, passport, and tickets. (See below)
Step 3. (The one I have the most trouble with) Show up on the right day for your flight.

Back!

It's official, I got my 48 hours notice.
No I didn't get fired... I decided to go back to the Philippines and I'm leaving Sunday.
The holding pattern I was stuck in since my last post finally broke (for which I am very grateful).

So now that I've rejoined the "Perpetual Traveler's Club" it's time to reactivate this blog to tell everyone where I am and what I'm doing.

Check back and I'll be in a new time zone.

Change of plans

Who am I kidding? Nothing is actually planned in my life... it's all just strung together haphazardly. For those of you who read the last post, please ignore it. If you haven't read it, then do so, then ignore it.
In fact everything will make sence if you change:
"I get to decide" to "I have no control over"
"'When' will be in a month or so" to "'When' will be as soon as possible"
"'How long' will be a week, two at the most" to "'How long' will be loooong"

Details to follow.

But the last post wasn't a complete failure... that picture is bangin' eh?

Boring Blog

I'm pretty sure this is going to win the prize for the most boring blog while I am not out and about. Do they give a Webby for that?

Just before I left the Philippines I held a goodbye party for my self. (How cheeky, I know right?) But it was yet another company record I went out to set: the first ever successful pool party. A friend shot the best pic I've seen in quite some time.


I've basically told everyone that I have no plans to go back the the Philippines. So here is the truth: I'm going back. Mr (New) Manager came to me and informed me that the upper levels are having a bruhaha over this tool and want results! So off I go again. But this time I get to decide when and how long.
"When" will probably be in a month or so, and "How long" will be a week, two at the most. (If I had a penny for each time I said that I would be ... $0.12 richer.)

Goodbyes

Well it certainly is official: the only thing between me and the 12 hour drudgery of a plane flight is the CEO running down the tarmac yelling at the pilot to stop (as if 747s were made to stop on a dime). The amazing thing is that I wouldn't mind so much if our intrepid CEO did reenact every romantic comedy ever. I believe it is what the self-stylized experts call Stockholm Syndrome, except in my case the assailant is an entire country and the helpless victim is a clueless technician.
As of yet, I've avoided making serious comparisons between the two countries (key word here is "serious") because I may be a little worried about the inevitable conclusion. In order to avoid a dreary but insightful blog post (we can't have that now can we?) I'll delve into the less serious conclusions:

• Rabbits are wonderful pets; I plan to have a dozen upon my return. But if that old fart Fibonacci is to be believed, I'll get stuck between 8 and 13, which is undoubtedly an uncomfortable position to be in.
• Atheism is less accepted here than most French passports at the INS. In some lines of questioning the locals here will run out of possibilities for me after just two: Christian and Buddhist. I know I shouldn't enjoy these conversations but I can read them like a book, a book that says: "But he's too nice to go to to hell!". Maybe it's the masochist in me showing through.
• I thought they were joking about Christmas in December. I thought they were joking about 3 nannies watching a single child. I thought they were joking about whale sharks with more shark than whale in their blood. When they turned out to be right about all three, it's time I gave up my life as a cynic.
• Text messaging is a fantastic way to communicate. It's socially democratic, more efficient than a call, and text chat is slightly easier to decipher than most 128 bit encryptions. The only problem is when you have a company cell which has been in the hands of too many people you don't want to know anything about. Home loans and free car offers are one thing, but when it turns into clueless sisters wishing you a happy birthday 6 months out of season or jilted mistresses left in the rain on Valentines Day it's high time you go shopping for a hacked SIM card.
• SIM card shopping, by the way, is a hackers paradise. I've never seen an iPhone cracked before last month. At which point I saw 4 iPhones cracked simultaneously off one computer while the stall nearby was peddling hacking services on every phone except those on a very short list. When it becomes easier to list the code you haven't broken it's time to give up eliminating piracy and start taxing it! The hack fest as I like to call it, was bigger and better than an engineering job fair circa 1999, booth babes and all.

That was a rather truncated list but it managed to avoid the true meaning of this post long enough for my total word count to exceed its limit.
See you all on the flipside!