Posts made in January, 2009
Mahalo Fever
I have heard of Mahalo months ago, and honestly, I check the site once a day to see if I could answer or even share my views to those looking for answers and ways to increase their Mahalo Dollars. I certainly am not very optimistic in earning money from Mahalo, but since the new site and Jason Calacanis needed the boost, bloggers like me just don’t mind lending a hand.
What is Mahalo Answers? Mahalo is a place where you can offer tips, earn money and get paid. One of more ways of earning points in Mahalo is to view more pages in a day. For example, viewing pages in Mahalo also earn you some Mahalo points. To view the Guidelines for the points system in Mahalo, click here. My answers were chosen as best answer several times now. I am proud to see my answers ranking high at Mahalo even though I have not really earned anything from them. I like reading through other people’s inquiries and sometimes, when I feel I am competent and even have the time to research and respond to other people’s inquiry, I do not mind spending some time with my answers. Come and join the fun at Mahalo! To view my answers at Mahalo, click here.
Flash Flood
It was a day I will remember for the rest of my life. I woke up with a wet floor. I went to the kitchen and found my floor was flooded with 2 inch water. I was shocked to discover that the flood water has gone inside the third room of the house. I quickly ran outside to check and found that the rain that started at dawn has not stopped. Since the kitchen was wet, I quickly boiled some eggs for the children since I did not want them to go outside of the room because the kitchen and dining area was wet with rain water. That was at 6am.
Thirty minutes after, I walked out of the house and went three houses down and bought some canned goods from my friend’s sari-sari store. I found the husband of my neighbor cleaning out the canal outside of our houses. He asked me if water has gone inside my house, and I said yes. He told me his wife is coming over to help me. An hour after, Mylene, my neighbor’s wife came in and told me she’s going to help me. Apparently, it has been 4 years since the last flash flood in the area. This small information dismayed me since the likelihood of recurrence is definitely higher. Mylene and her daughter lifted my double bed and elevated it on the single wooden bed in my second room as they fear my bed will get soaked in the flood water. Since my second room has 2 single wooden beds, my console table from Mandaue Foam was raised on top of the bed and important books were moved on top of it.
At 8am, the water has reached my ankles and I called my sister in law in the city to arrange a vehicle for us. She quickly responded that the rains in Cagayan de Oro was also very strong. I called my aunt who lives a few meters away from us and she said the water is building up in her place and she said she is busy clearing up their things from the 1st floor and Basement to bring on the 2nd floor. She asked me if my things were raised already and I said yes. She told me to stand by and wait for the weather to improve.
At 10, the water has climbed to my calf. I started to worry so I texted my husband and told him we were in a flash flood and we are going to move to higher grounds. I did not get any response from him.
At 10:30am, my neighbor Emma and her husband came and told me to move to their house– they have a second floor. I told her to take the my older children first and I want to wait in the house and see what happens. At this point the water inside my house has reached my knees. I quickly packed clothes for myself and the children and took my important documents like passbooks, passports with me. Some of my important documents were bagged up and we lifted them and putted them on the highest part of our heaviest cabinet in the room.
11am. I sighed and decided to leave my house for higher grounds. My PC, printers and other important items in the house were all moved on top of the dining table. My sofa was also raised. This was also the time when my fridge fell and floated on the flood water… Emma, grabbed my Whirlpool fridge and with sheer power, she lifted and dragged it to the corner of the dining area and used my dining table to pin the fridge on the corner.
The sight outside was unbearable. The water has almost reached my waist. I walked through the muddy flood water with Ia on my hip. I couldn’t find my slipper inside my already flooded house and decided to walk through the water barefooted. The men in my street were busy carrying their belongings to higher ground. TVs, washing machines and the like. Some were carrying their children and some were busy taking their cows from the field to safety. I walked to Emma’s house which was only three houses away from mine and I saw their vehicle in flood water.
My children and some of the neighbors children were inside Emma’s house. As children, they did not understand the seriousness of the situation and they were playing around the flood water. I told my children to get off the water and I cringed and almost cried just thinking about the bacteria, and other nasty stuff in the water.
At 2pm, Emma and her husband decided to return to my house for my PC and printer. At this point the water inside my house has almost reached the dining table. The rain has not stopped at this point and I told them not to worry about the other things anymore. The important thing is the fact that the children and I are safe.
Read MoreCrazy Little Finger
One of the challenges of having to work at home is the fact that children are around me all the time. The main room has 1 PC and a laptop, and I sometimes have to use the PC as it is connected to the internet. Sometimes, my son, who is three years old and my youngest daughter who is one, likes to play with the keyboard whenever I am not around to ward them off.
Boy, was I glad to find this from LifeHacker! Crazy Little Finger is a nifty program for Windows XP. It ables you to lock all the keys on the keyboard, except for the ones you need to use to exit the program. I love the fact that whenever certain keys are pressed, the PC will emit animal sounds and the screen will display a goat or a cow. Not only that, you can add your own images and music. Neat huh?
Read MoreSearch for that Elusive Broadband Juice
It rained the entire weekend. The torrential rains made my internet connection impossibly slower than ever. Not only that, I missed an interview for freelance work because of the unavailable connection. Darn. Lost opportunity, that’s what it is.
I am still planning my antenna that hopefully would be long enough to get that elusive Smart Bro-ken juice. I have checked our local telecommunication company here in the boondocks and they said they did not have the infrastructure for DSL. There goes my plan for a Bayantel DSL.
Strangely, the town close to my small barangay is offering Globe Broadband. But all the bad Globe reviews is scaring the shit out of me. I seem to have very limited choice. The only available connection here is Smart and Smart has already turned down my place because they claim they cannot get enough signal… I really hated to hear and accept that because a few feet from my house is another Smart Bro subscriber. The only difference is that their house has a second storey and their tower is so high. They actually offer internet use in their place for 15/hour and I was so darn envious of the speed. It was fast. I have a cousin whose house is 10 minutes away from my house and they said that there simply is no connection every Sunday somehow. Ano yon? Scheduled ang downtime?
Anyway, I am currently planning on building my own tower. I am consulting Smart with this para sigurado. I am also seeking the help of my aunt who has the people who can help me make this tower a reality. I have waited for 6 months for another broadband deal to come in the boondocks. Nada. After 6 long months, I am still on dial up…
Read MoreSimple New Year Celebration
My good friend Emma and family invited my children and myself to the beach to celebrate the New Year. It was fun and the children loved the day spent at the beach. I contributed and bought fresh fish for grilling. The day went and by with me hearing my children’s laughter.
Twas a good day to begin the year…
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