I just leaned out the window to catch this lovely sunset shining down E Street. Note the patterns of light on the walls of the hotel at left: it’s sunlight reflected from nearby building windows.
Photo taken with an Aiptek Mini Pencam 1.3MP SD.
Hurricane Ivan and Memories of Typhoons
The remnants of Hurricane Ivan (now just a tropical depression) are passing through the DC/VA/MD area, spawning tornadoes out in the suburbs and dumping rain on Washington.
News on TV is saying this is the most damaging hurricane to hit the US in five years. I’m trying to compare the destruction in the Southeast with some of the Signal Number Three typhoons we’ve had in the Philippines, and I can’t seem to remember any time that our roof got damaged, let alone blown off — but then, I lived the sheltered upper-class Filipino life. I do remember reading a typhoon safety pamphlet in grade school, advising people out in the probinsya to tie down the roofs of their nipa huts with stakes and rope, and to stock up on batteries for flashlights and transistor radios. Storm surge was rarely a concern, as houses were normally built elevated on stilts to begin with, and if the baha (flooding) got any higher, you just moved all your stuff upstairs till the water went down. (Which was what one of my coworkers in Manila actually did when the Pasig River submerged his entire first floor.) And if the water went still higher, eh bahala na. (Whatever.)
(Bahala na indeed.)
There was one instance of flooding while I lived in Westmont which indicated to me that I was probably in the worst typhoon I’d ever been in. I came down from my apartment that day to find the entire parking lot turned into a lake of muddy water from a canal behind the compound. I waded through the knee-deep deluge to say hi to a neighbor, but later that day it was up to my waist (by my estimates, anyway; the water was opaque brown, and I wasn’t wading anymore), and the flood took all day to subside. I would go down the stairs every hour or so and see the steps descend from the second floor and disappear into the murky depths.
Later that day, the flood receded, and I found that the wall around the swimming pool area had collapsed, allowing the water to flow back into the canal, but taking most of the swimming pool with it, leaving a huge opening in that side of the compound, facing out to the canal and the squatter colony beside it. The ruins of the swimming pool area stayed cordoned off from then on, and it was still like that when I left.
No Upo
From Weez, a comfort recipe: tinolang manok, or chicken-ginger soup. Not having had that for a while, I thought of cooking some up with the chicken in my freezer, but the recipe lacks one ingredient which I’ve always had in my tinola since childhood: upo, or bottle gourd — which is fairly hard to find around DC. I’ve looked in Giant, Whole Foods, Eastern Market, and the Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market, without success. Probably a good thing, too; even a small upo would have difficulty fitting in my tiny refrigerator.
Can anyone suggest a suitable squash or gourd alternative? Note that I don’t like chayote.
(The chicken became a pot of adobo instead.)
A Passing Tremor
Breaking news said there was an early morning earthquake in Manila, so I texted and IM’d family and friends asking if they were okay. Everyone had slept through it, except for Ganns, who told me he had been doing aerobics at 3:10 AM, the time of the tremor, so it was probably his fault.
Tim and Times
I’m not too concerned about RaTHergate and the Bush memos, since I’m more focused on the presidential candidates’ current positions and platforms rather than the indiscretions of their youth, but I still can’t resist linking to this authoritative analysis from Tim at By Farther Steps. The man was in the Air Force, and he knows his memos.
Also check out this page, with samples from a real IBM Selectric typewriter. Update: Pretty comprehensive typesetter’s analysis.
And find out just how deep the conspiracy runs. Hint: it’s not just Karl Rove’s work!
Amazing Kabastusan
I’m supposed to be in bed, but I caught Amazing Race on TV, and they were in the Philippines. The only thing more amazing than the race itself is the amazing kabastusan (Tagalog for “rudeness”) with which some of these contestants treated their Filipino drivers, quite fulfilling the stereotype of the obnoxious ex-colonizer.
To be fair, of course, they were racing for a million dollars, and reality TV producers do cast aggressive people in these roles, so it’s expected that etiquette will fall by the wayside. But still, Christie telling the jeepney driver to just run over pedestrians because they were in the way was quite over the top. That’s the same girl who, later, when her boyfriend Colin is plowing a paddy, is too prissy to get her feet dirty, thus leaving him to plow with an unguided carabao in the mud. Eh, tuloy, last place sila.
Okay, enough of that. Stupid reality shows.
DC Primary 2004
Today was the DC Primary, where registered members of the political parties vote for their representatives to the November General Election, and for various party and local council positions. I had to select a candidate for a Delegate to the House, a candidate for “Shadow” Representative, (both non-voting positions, since DC sadly remains unrepresented), an At-Large Member of the City Council, and for various Democratic party positions populated by coalitions with names like “RUNNING AGAINST BUSH” and “Victory 2004.” (Democratic Howard Dean supporters and mayorally beholden incumbents respectively, according to Washington City Paper’s “Loose Lips”.)
This week has been quite an instructional exercise in local politics, considering I didn’t even know what a primary was as of two days ago. And it is an experience like no other, to emerge fresh from voting at a precinct just two blocks from the Capitol, turn around, and see that big old Dome with the light on under the statue of Freedom.
DC Primary Election results here. Good to see Kwame Brown leading the Democratic race for At-Large Council Member, as he’s one of Smokefree DC’s preferred choices on our voter guide. Not so good that busted crackhead ex-mayor Marion Barry has won the Ward 8 Council Seat, because of people who vote for their “one-of-us” celebrities just like how Filipinos voted for Joseph Estrada in 1998. More from DCist.
Marcos’ Birthday
From Sassy Lawyer, a tidbit I hadn’t been aware of: September 11th was the birthday of Ferdinand Marcos. How apt. Read on for a nice capsule summary of Marcos’ life and tyranny.
Ne’er Re’isited
It only occurred to me last night, as I was reading the original words to Greensleeves, that perhaps the reason old hymns tended to pronounce words such as “ever” and “heaven” as single-syllables with silent v’s was because the archaic form used u’s rather than v’s in the middle of words, and was therefore pronounced as such. That may also explain why Chekov says “nuclear wessels.”
Photos from Last Christmas
It took me nine months to get down to it, but I’ve finally uploaded and captioned the photo albums for my trip to the Philippines last Christmas: Christmas in Manila — photos of me with family and friends through the holidays — and Santa Cruz Y Majayjay — a couple of days in Laguna to check on a business and visit my family’s ancestral house.
Ateneo de Manila alumni may also be interested in these shots (1, 2, 3) I took of the Church of the Gesu, built on the highest hill on campus.