Why didn't someone think of that before?

First of all, I'd like to brag that this is my 130th published post since I created this account in November Oh-Three. Hurray.



I've always wondered what more can the human race invent that is as simple as scissors but is greatly useful.
This rolling drum can hold 20 gallons of water for the world's poor. Millions of women and girls spend much time everyday fetching and carrying water by balancing containers on their heads. The solution? The Q-drum by some ingenious designers can be smoothly pulled by a child - almost hassle-free.

They should come up with more of those things. You see, sometimes the simplest ideas could solve the most complex problems. Maybe I'll invent a portable coffee maker for people on the go and addicted to caffeine e.g. my friends.

source: New York Times online.

Turtle Post # 2

photo: A worker from Rome's Biopark zoo holds Testudo Kleinmanni hatchlings, an endangered species also known as Egyptian tortoises, in Rome May 22, 2007. The offsprings are the hatchlings of several Egyptian tortoises that were rescued from a smuggler's suitcase in 2005 at Naples airport, southern Italy, by Italy's forestry police and were entrusted to Rome's main zoo. --Reuters. May 22, '07.

I don't really know when I started liking turtles. My theory: Finding Nemo. Remember Squirt?

If there's one animal cause I'd like to fight for, it would be the turtle cause. I'm even dreaming of having a pet turtle I would carry around in my pocket. I feed it crumbs of food from my plate when others aren't looking. Sometimes it crawls out of my pocket and looks for freedom. But when I cry, it returns to me and crawls into my pocket again. At bedtime, I put it back to its aquarium and tuck it in. When the cops start looking for me and reclaims the endangered species-pet I have, I cry and cry and be sad until miraculously it finds its way back to my doorstep. I'll keep it forever, and forever means until he dies or at least till he grows really big that I can no longer keep him. I will love my [imaginary] pet turtle more than I love my dogs Charlie and Tukmol and Puppy and Brownie, and more than my birds Tippin and Pita, and more than my plants in the backyard.

I'll name my pet turtle Turtle, so he'll be unique of all.

Big Bad Wolf Strikes Again

Just came from our 7 am to 3 pm shift in Kontra Daya. I've been watching and recording fraud, violence, and disenfranchisement cases all day. Some say the right to vote is sometimes the only right some Filipinos especially those of marginalized sectors have. But because of countless cases of missing names on lists, unreasonable deactivation of registration, doubled (or even tripled) names, delayed and even canceled opening of voting precincts and victimizing by putting indelible ink on fingers of those who haven't yet voted, they are now robbed of their every right.

I've been praying for a peaceful election, and hoped (and was optimistic) it would be cleaner this time around, especially more people are watching their votes now and are more wary after the Garci scandal last time. The Big Bad Wolf would have to blow harder this time, I thought.

But no! Calls, texts, emails and media reports to our office were endless. I was typing nonstop, writing news briefs in a database. The only bright side was I got to practice some journalistic skills while confined within four walls, but all in all it's sad. As of 10:00 this morning, there were already 113 dead and 176 wounded from election-related violence.

My estimate is that Quezon City, Makati, Bulacan, and Manila are places with most number of reported election violations today our office received and when I was monitoring television this morning. Violence, new and old tactics of vote-buying, disenfranchisement - name it. This country doesn't run out of creativity.

Anyway, here are sites we've been working on for two days now. Posted reports are only a few of what we got all day:
Kontra Daya official site
Our running account of election monitoring

Please visit them. Click and you'd make our work worthwhile. That's all we wish for anyway, to know we're helping somehow.

I have to sleep early tonight. Going back to my shift tomorrow. The Big Bad Wolf doesn't sleep at all these days.

Covering the Rally

When I heard that my summer colleagues and I were required to document a rally yesterday at the COMELEC office in Intramuros, I was shocked. I thought of every possible excuse not to go. Danger, fuss, hassle, political differences. I overreacted. As a journalist-in-training, I know I should be flexible. But at times, circumstances will be entirely unexpected.

I was about to board the MRT, feelings edgy, when Tinggay called. "Dapat matapang ka," she said. I kept that in mind, but the pushing and shoving of the other passengers were making me nervous even more. The media are definitely successful in making people think rallies are mayhem, and it also worked for me. I should have been more critical than that. Darn it. I'm a mass media student!

Kontra Daya, an group of individuals, parties, and NGOs aiming to prevent election fraud, marched to COMELEC building at Plaza Roma, Intramuros to speak out against alleged pre-election abuses and fraud plots.

The feeling, y know, of shooting photos alongside real life journalists. I could see the future ...

Pfft. =P


Flags raised. The grand Manila Cathedral on the background.


Hard core on the cause


The front line


Armed observers


Innocently passing by


Addressing the TV people


Advocacy on paper

Baby Yoda

FREAKING ADORABLE.

Padmé, a Jedi?

Saw this picture somewhere. Such fantasy really, something only Photoshop can do.

Padmé Amidala could NEVER become a Jedi. Period.

The Jedi are destined to be Jedi. The Jedi Council knows who among the babies born in the Inner Rim planets have enough midichlorian count in their bloodstream to have the capacity to undergo intensive training and learn to be attuned to the Force.

Anyway, midichlorians are microscopic lifeforms found within all living things. Master Yoda had the highest midichlorian count among the Jedi before Anakin Skywalker's blood was examined by Jedi knight Qui-Gon Jinn when he met the boy in Tatooine, one of the Outer Rim planets. Qui-Gon was even surprised to have discovered it. How could the Council miss out on the boy? When Anakin was discovered to be a potential Jedi, he was already 9 years old. Too old to be trained. He should've started since birth.

Back to Padmé. It's funny, really. Don't get me wrong. Amidala is as smart as she can be. As Yoda would perhaps put it, "Fit for a queen, she is." And a senator too! But never a Jedi. It's just not right. It betrays my Star Wars logic.

And oh, "Jedi" is both plural and singular. No Ss there.