postnotes on posting*

*i'd like everyone who reads this to know that i made the layout of my postings for today in my home using adobe photoshop, better than picasso but more complicated, over a cup of milk, until 2:35 am this morning. i made this my career, better than my actual profession. saved it in cd, which i had a problem burning but managed to burn anyway using whatever cd was there in my cabinet. woke up excited today, came to office also excited but was piped down when i had one program proposal to write for a german development institution. finished the proposal by 12:00 noon, the excitement of blogging pushing my mind to work so fast. after lunch, back to the computer which by the way is owned by everyone in my division, only that i had to write that proposal plus the fact that i am more IT literate than the rest of the gang, so i got the privilege of being left alone while they are just beside me talking whatever. so i blogged, feeling no tiredness at all. and i blogged all four today. what a day, so worth it all, so productive.

(and by the way, after i had these all posted, somebody supplied 2 gallons of rocky road and ube ice cream plus hot everlasting bread bought in quality bakeshop. whew!)

sohoton*

*sohoton, in the context of caving, could mean spelunking. the cave got so many passageways such that if no tourguide around, one would be lost in the maze of sohoton.

sohoton cave is located in basey, samar. not sure of its area, but i am sure of this: it is accessible to anyone at anytime except at exactly 12:00 noon. why so? i'd leave it to the guide to tell.

my digital camera run out of batteries by the time we visited sohoton. and joel's cam, too. though joel's mobile is worth more than 30thou in its first release, but mine proved better as an alternative gadget to take pictures. so my mobile served more useful than his in that very unlikely situation. and it is way cheaper than his.

since my mobile cam has no flash and not a single lens reflex, and with no wide angle lens, so the pictures we took inside were limited to cave walls and particular stalagtites, not really showing that this a cave. when one looks at the pictures inside the cave, no one would think that we are inside the cave. but hey, my mobile took pictures, joel's not even a single shot.

and the pictures i posted here? the river going to the cave - wow superb! and the walls of the rock formation just near the cave - wow great! (well, well, well, an inset shows stalagtites/stalagmites plus the mouth of the cave leading to the exit. at least i had pictures showing the cave's interior.)

2 birthdays

nag agma gayud ako paglay-out hini using photoshop

it has been 2 birthdays past, and i feel nothing has really changed when in fact everything has
really changed. from my fingernails to the way my tshirts have been folded, nothing really stays the same. my fingernails grow every second, my tshirts are folded not exactly the same as they have been folded beforehand. just like so my birthdays, just like so the celebration of my 2 birthdays past.

the way my birthdays were celebrated is always something unique and has its specialty. all celebrations are a blessing. each celebration is fun. last year was different on its own when i was surprised by more friends coming over to celebrate with me. i prepared a few food for a few people i thought i would celebrate with. but it turned out to be a riot with more people coming and more food was placed on the table to feast on. i was initially hold on by a friend in downtown who accompanied me lazily to buy lomi and bread, so we went home a little late but just on time for others to come to my house to surprise me when i arrived. tho i thought no one was in the house because it was dark, but right then when i opened the door, one little candle was lit, in a cake at that, a scene that had never happened in my entire life. everybody blasted their vocals to pave the way for a very happy birthday singing. and the rest was games and riot and almost an emotional breakdown on my part.

this year's birthday is in contrast, though both share the same feeling of fun. i started my day waking up my niece and nephews early morning to brace the sunrise in the airport. there we had only words to share - our words and God's word, and only the 4 of us to celebrate. afterwhich we went home and shared a breakfast of mango and bread and milk. that day i was scheduled to meet a very dear friend who happened to come home from a far away land, so i had my foot set for a long ride to her hometown. i spent the whole day talking and listening and sharing whatever was within us, and i mean just the two of us. i went home late. and that was how my birthday went.

2 birthdays i have been blessed. that 2 birthdays were never the same. but God was there, God's word was shared, and we prayed. who could have a better birthday than my 2 birthdays past?

faces of sunrise

as captured by my relatively new samsung sgh-x820 (announcement!)

five different faces of sunrise, but sunrise nontheless. each offers a different feeling of awe, of wondering how in the world the sun ever shines so brand new every morning. for the past 2 months, i have been into waiting for the summer sunrise in my surroundings. i saw one in the airport while taking a walk, saw more in magsaysay boulevard while jogging for a cause.

yup, it is still a beautiful world. i am not fazed by the clicking of time and clicking faster to 8 o'clock in the morning when my official time begins. never mind if i am late for work, the sunrise offers better benefits than my work does. to tell the truth, there is really never the same sunrise, so i capture each opportunity of seeing it rising more beautifully each day. my work? it never really shines, and it is always the same.

jollibee revealed

jollibee in tacloban

i got a rare encounter with jollibee one time when i was invited by a friend to photograph the party for his son. i was so amused looking at the lifeless costume, tried it myself, and felt how hot it must have been to be inside this funloving creature from the world of bees.

the encounter gave me a snapshot of a jollibee who was not jolly, to become a jollibee who was really a jolly bee, regardless of how frowning the one inside it must have been. now, this is a revelation. i caught jollibee unguarded, but by the time he was into a character, i lost track of what i saw a minute ago when he was really, well, not jolly. how fun to see him alive and kicking and dancing, minus singing. jollibee doesnt speak. his behindl wagged, and wagged cutifully. he jumped, clapped, and oh always smiling.

i was laughing, and laughing more than the kids were. hahahahaha

san juanico bridge

since i am now back in tacloban, i am now changing my profile picture to something that represents where i am now. san juanico does. this is the landmark of my birthplace, and this is considered to be a product of the fusion of two worlds apart. a labor of love.

constructed in 1970's, the bridge brought beauty and convenience to the sleeping islands of leyte and samar. as seen in the picture, the curving from the viewer's point of view resembles the letter "s" for samar, and thereon goes the letter "L" part for leyte. the bridge is about 2 kms, the longest so far in the philippines. it offers a picturesque view of the islets around and whirpools too. one can jog from leyte to samar in just a minute, and inhale the freshest sea breeze ever. this is just a 10-minute jeepney ride from the commercial capital of the region, tacloban city. one day, i shall build my abode in a place like this, or perhaps in this very place.

seascape

now i will post one more time. i am thinking of putting all 4 pictures together. i realized just now that the new feature of this blog doesnt allow editing of pictures just like in picasso. but this is better still since i don't need to open another window just to post some pictures. maybe i should start mastering adobe photoshop to produce one great layed out picture. by now, let us be content of having 4 pictures posted in limited positions.

just like the sea, layouting for this blog should be like exploring what is at the bottom of it. sometimes you try to create ripples and wonder how its serenity be affected. like this series of pictures.

tried and dipped

(let me see if the layout at this time will suit the layout i have in mind.)

since this is a trial entry, i will have this kind of pictures posted. i called the pix tried and dipped. it is supposed to be in the center, just right after the first line. the second pix below should be after this line, left side.
now this text should be beside this pix. since this pix is for the boys only, that's why i make this as my sample pix for this trial. boys are astig. they dont complain if they find themselves at the wrong side. the girls should come later. the title for the girls will be "to be tried and tested".

now finally, this will be the last line. after i click the period for this sentence, i will click the publish button and see if i am successful in my layout using this new google-way posting feature.

postnote: yup, i have clicked the publish button after the period above. this is just a footnote to discover that captioning the pix is one problem. i'd like to caption with this: cbms bois at macarthur pool, one starry midnight. however i seem not to know how to bring it at the bottom part of the pix that would like it is a caption, and not another paragraph. more to learn.

waterfalls

(i have tried and i have succeeded. posting pictures, that is. hey hey at least i tried! i wil try to find ways to edit the layout next time. it took me sooooo long to have this blog finally blogged again. i have never been busy in all my life, except that the internet connection could almost be all the time a bore. onli in da pilipins.)

it seems that the only thing that keeps me busy these days is to be at any waterfall at any given time. it could be summer as in the latest waterfall escapade in basey, samar, or it could be sometime in june or november, rain or shine. the fun that one derives from exploring the falls lingers upto the next falls visit. and the fun goes on. i have never thought my surroundings could be this beautiful and relaxing.


the sound of smiles of the company i joined with during 2 of these waterfall escapades was too loud to overpower the sound of water cascading from the top. maybe the waterfalls themselves joined us in celebrating the sun and water, the rain and falls. and no, this experience is not false, as one companion had joked, this is true. try dipping, try swimming. and good heavens, how relaxing.