typhoon frank

typhoon frank was the worst typhoon to ever hit iloilo city.

we had no electricity and potable water for two days. all we had for food were eggs, sardines, fish and rice. my family and i were lucky our town/district was not severely flooded. flood water level was only ankle-high INSIDE the whole house hehehe

we can only sit and grimly listed to the radio as it broadcasts news about the escalating number of deaths due to the flood in jaro, pavia, mandurriao, etc.

it all happened so fast according to the victims. in a matter of 5-10 mins, flood water rapidly rose to roof levels. they can only save themselves. cars, furniture, appliances, food, books, important papers were all destroyed by the flood. the flood was a great "equalizer". rich or poor, young or old, nobody was spared.

four days after "frank", streets are still muddy/dusty. electricity is about 75% OK, potable water is still limited because the main water pipe leading to the treatment center was broken during the typhoon and would take about 6 months to be repaired/replaced.

anyhoo, iloilo is slowly recovering. i bet majority of jaro residents (and residents of other affected areas) will have brand new refs, TVs, PCs, cars, etc. in the coming days hehehe

we're seriously contemplating buying a rubber raft/tug boat/banca + sturdy ropes in case a similar flood happens again.

to jun and kodi who made "pangamusta" (how are you?), thank you. everything's ok now =)

thursday i don't care 'bout you and friday i'm...

SICK!

yeaba, it's flu season again ladies and gentlemen. time to drink lots of vitamin Cs and boost your immune system.

working in a hospital makes me (and my co-workers) susceptible to all kinds of sickness. we have patients with tuberculosis, pneumonia, cancer, meningitis, etc.
oh joy.

i haven't succumbed to pneumonia (or worse, tubercolosis), yet. *knock on wood* but stress, combined with bad weather and all those bacteria and viruses floating around the work environment makes it easier for anyone to catch THE FLU.

being sick has its perks though. i get to sleep more, there's the always present royal tru-orange and crackers remedy, and did i mention more sleeping?

in other news, i think our dog is pregnant. we have four dogs: 1 dalmatian, 1 white askal, 1 white spitz-unknown breed, 1 black labrador/unknown breed. the latter is the youngest and the only stud.

we were hoping the dalmatian and the black labrador/unknown breed would hit off so that trixie (the dalmatian) could get pregnant coz she's kinda old already. we were imagining the pups. the upper half would be dalmatian and the lower half would be black labrador.

"daw tawu nga may eye patch kg naka black pants kg black and white polka dot long-sleeves kung magtindog e. pirate puppies?," remarked my 8-year old niece francine.

unfortunately, there's no chemistry between the two.

so i guess i'ts going to be black pants and plain white long-sleeves for the future pups teehee

one of those days

warning: rant post ahead.

my feet hurt! 4th floor is so toxic today.

you know what's worse than a toxic patient? toxic folks/bantays! ugh! just because they're in a private room they think they're in a hotel where the nurses MUST cater to their EVERY need. gaaaaaah!!



reality check! your patient is not the only patient in my care! i have 25 other patients who need their medicines, OTF (blended food via NGT), and other gazillion procedures. the residents and consultants are also busy ALL OVER the hospital. they won't come running whenever YOU want them.

i'm only human. i also need to EAT and rest my feet. so what if you know dr. so and so or one of the supervisors? you think that would earn you extra points?? N-O! duh! i treat ALL my patients with THE SAME care and attention.

visiting/ranting/complaining to us in the nurse's station doesn't make our work easier or solves your complaint any faster. in fact, it only delays our work and decreases our smile by one notch. one notch for your every visit/complaint. by the end of the day, i can't even look at you without scowling.

i'll just pray for you and your patient.

*sigh* and it's only monday today. friday is so near yet so far huhuhu

/end rant.

chocolate

i was nicknamed choco during my college days at UP because 1) i have chocolate skin (read: tanned), and 2) i love chocolates.

to celebrate my nickname, i decided to compile my list of favorite chocolates.

1) choco mucho

inexpensive and delicious! comes in three variants: chocolate, milk and peanut butter. i have to say the peanut butter choco mucho is sooo much better compared to the other two.

2) maltesers

malt and chocolate...mmmmmm....yum yum

3) cadbury hazelnut

CADBURY! enough said.

4) snickers

sickeningly sweet.

5) nestle aero chocolate drink

bubbly chocolatey drink

6) milo

milo drink, milo in oatmeal, milo sandwich, muddy milo (3 tbsp milo + 1 tsp water). don't you just love milo? put it in any food and it will taste like...MILO! lol

7) wendy's frosty

tastes like sustagen hehehe i ♥ it

it's a wonderful feeling

last thursday after lunch, i went to a store to buy choco mucho (my current favorite chocolate candy). while waiting for my change, a little girl tugged my pants. when i looked down, i didn't recognize her.

then i heard her mother exclaim "baw, kilala ya gd c tita nurse nya ba". i didn't recognize the kid but i instantly recognized the mom. i remembered her as the harassed, frantic, problematic mother who didn't know what to do with her situation. there were medicines to be bought and she had little money. she can't even leave her little girl because she didn't have anybody to help her in the ER (her husband was also looking for help/money in their baranggay).

so being a softie, i offered to look after the little girl so that she could buy the medicines. i had to be "creative" because we weren't supposed to be doing the bantayanay of the patient due to the bulk of work we had. the poor little girl didn't even have her underpants on! the "bantay" of another patient on the adjacent bed also took pity and gave the little girl her apo's old shorts while muttering "ay inday, daw ako nahuya para sa aton nga mga babae nga gabukaka na!"

back to the present...

mother: la mo sya nakilala noh?
me: wala! kay naglain na chura nya.
mother: huo, pero kilala ya gd ka ya kay ikaw nagbantay sa iya sg wala ko.

smiling, i bought another candy to give to the little girl. it felt good to be remembered for the, at that time, little and simple help i gave.

viruses

don't you just hate computer viruses? they make your pc slower, they revise your right-click menu option ah basta they're just a big pain in the a$$.

so anyway, there's this imgkulot virus that's been infectiong almost all of the inet cafes in the city. put in your flash drive in these computers and you'll be infected.

there's another variant of this virus called explore(philippines) or open (your eyes). real cute huh? you'll know your flash drive is infected when you right-click the drive and these options appear (in the case of imgkulot, the name imgkulot appears instead of your drive letter/name).

i've tried kaspersky and bitdefender but these viruses keep coming back. so i turned to good ol' google for answers and came upon this.

it's so simple, it's perfect!

another way of disabling the "autoplay" feature in winxp sp2 is by doing these:

1. Type in start>run: gpedit.msc
2. Then open: User Configuration >> Administrative Templates >> System
3. Locate "Turnoff autoplay", Enable - All drives

that's my good deed for the day ;p

toodles!

hep hep hooray!

mark's back! turned out his power supply was the culprit. instead of just buying a new power supply, i opted to buy a new computer casing w/ power supply instead...new look kumbaga to celebrate his resurrection jejeje

so yeah, i won't be using my netopia membership card for now ;p

it's good to be back.