The Milktea Bottle (Teaser)

A teaser for the movie, "The Milktea Bottle". Directed by James Habitan

Created for Vidprod2 under Sir Dodos dela Cruz

De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde

School of Design and Arts

J Pics 3D Pics: Crate, Etc

Used Maya 2008 for 3danim2

Running Out of Books to Read/DVD's to Watch

I feel like a drug addict suffering withdrawal symptoms for the longest time I haven;t have my dose of coke. I also feel like a smoker who tries to quit the habit in vain but can't seem to move on without the cancer stick fix. That's what it feels like 13-going-14 days of absolutely no internet, phone, and cable inside the Habitan household. Since the onslaught of Typhoon Ketsana (Ondoy), our phone line's as dead as silence while the only "clear" channel we get from our TV is TV5. What else could go wrong?

This past few days, I've been trying to cope up with my daily fix of TV and Internet by occasional visits to an internet cafe just beside my subdivision/across the border of Valenzuela and Obando, Bulacan plus staying in school longer to keep my mind occupied.

But if I'm stuck at home, I had to find ways of keeping myself sane like looking for books to read and DVD's to watch on that Blue-Ray player my dad bought a couple of months back, plus listen to some tunes through my cellphone's FM radio. But with things going from bad to worse for every day that we still don't have access to the outside world, so does our resources to feast our hunger for sanity.

I've already done reading a number of books like:
1. Pikachu Shocks Back!
2. Pokemon Adventures (2 Books)
3. Magical Pokemon Journey (3 Books)
4. Pokemon Adventures: Yellow Caballero (2 Books)
5. Ragnarok: Into the Abyss (10 volumes)
6. Posh and Becks
7. Eraserheads: Tikman Ang Langit
8. Pugad Baboy 15 and 16
9. Beerkada Books 1, 8, and 9

As for DVD's, I have watched:
1. Fiddler in the Roof
2. Hey Arnold the Movie
3. Friends Season 1 Top 5 Episodes
4. Friends Season 10
5. Friends Top 5 Baby Episodes
6. Bourne Identity
7. Bourne Supremacy
8. Bournce Ultimatum
9. The Mummy Returns
10. Mamma Mia
11. 13-Going-30
12. Band of Brothers Episodes 1 and 2
13. An Ideal Husband
14. Big Girls Don't Cry
15. Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

Waagh...I think I'm going crazy!!

The CSB Experience 3: Changes For the Nth Time

It's been a while since I made an entry for The CSB Experience so I might as well take the time to do this.

Because of Typhoon ondoy, the school is once again forced to extend another trimester by by adding a few more days well until mid-January and declaring some state holidays into regular school days.

My Webdev2 prof sent me an email containing the dates of those decraled as regular school days so lo and behold:

Due to the suspension of classes (from the afternoon of 26 September to 03 October 2009) brought about by Typhoon Ondoy and its aftermath, the Second Term calendar is revised as follows:

November 27 (Fri) - Regular class day
November 28 (Sat) - Regular class day
December 08 (Tue) - Regular class day
December 16 (Wed) - Regular class day
December 17 (Thur) - Regular class day
December 21 (Tue) - MONDAY SCHED
December 22 (Wed) - MONDAY SCHED
December 23 (Thur) - MONDAY SCHED

The revised term calendar utilized two special holidays (27 and 28 November) and 08 December as regular school days. Furthermore, school days for calendar year 2009 were extended until 23 December 2009

A Lot of U's on U92

“Get high on the rhythm with XFM 92.3!”

This is one of the last few station shouts I heard from a jazz station found on this part of the frequency module, XFM 92.3. After news broke that XFM will undergo a complete reformat, I was a bit shocked and at the same time excited on what will happen once the reformat takes place. Shocked that I won’t be able to listen to my alternative to 106.7 Dream FM (another jazz-oriented station), and excited that the owners will bring in something new, appealing and, hopefully, long-lasting to 92.3. They marked the date of the change on 1st October so I decided to tune in to XFM’s last days up until its last broadcast before dawn.

Right after the last song the station played as XFM, it finally made the flip with three familiar voices gracing its airwaves: Jimmy Muna (of Wave 891), KC Montero and Cesca Litton (former VJs for MTV Philippines).

After the “unique Light’n’Up” sound left, the station rechristened itself as “U92: Cool to Be U”. The first program in the new line-up is called the “Morning WuD”(?) or something to that liking and is hosted by the abovementioned: KC, Jimmy and Cesca. They started out on a rough start, probably suffering from first- day jitters.  A bit annoying with their extensive use of sound fx’s, but knowing that one of them used to handle mornings before, they may get better in the long-term.

From the sound and feel of U92 during the first four hours of its life, the station sharply veered away from the smooth jazz sound that it was identified with for many of its years in existence and now leans to a contemporary hit radio format similar to Magic 89.9 and Monster Radio. I couldn’t help but notice the jocks frequent mention of MTV Philippines but considering that the new management are affiliated with the cable channel, that made that and U92 “sister stations”. Early on, they mentioned a lot of people who will be gracing the station in the coming days like Sarah Meier, Sib (of JackTV and MTV fame) and The Brewrats (recently left its “third-first” home, 99.5RT, exactly a week ago) and their band of Brewsters (Ron-not-the-DJ, and company).

Worth noticing as well is the frequent mentions of the letter “U”, besides being the name of the station,  and words pronounced with a certain “U” sound (Like “you”, “boo”, “who is you?”)/words containing the letter “U”.

Following the morning show is another program from 10am until 2pm: “U Know What” hosted by Eri Neeman (another ex-Wave jock). From that point on, the choice of music being played on air have somewhat normalized with him on board.  Eri also introduced some cool new segments on his first day on-air like Lunch Box every Thursday noon, where he invites celebrity guests bringing their own “lunch box”every week while he interviews them over lunch, and  U-Tunes every last hour of the show where listeners could call-in to request three songs to close the program.

After Eri is, much to the surprise of many, Joshua Z…er—Make that Joshua “Yu” (See? What did I tell yah?!) formerly of 99.5RT. He is one of RT’s longest serving deejays, having been around for about ten years, from  the time RT was sold to its current owners (Real Radio Network) to the time RT tried to reinvent, first as “Hit FM” then as “Campus 99.5” (known as Joshua and The Big Z respectively), to the station’s second reincarnation as RT. I guess after a long-time, it’s time for him to move on to new and exciting things. Him boarding on the weekday afternoon slot marks the first time he did such after his stint as The Big Z of Campus 99.5.

His show is called “Count on U” (or is it “Count on Yu”? Well the name kinda pertains to his last name, eh).  As the title would suggest, the program is U92’s daily countdown show but as of now, Joshua said that the countdown segment itself will probably debut sometime next week or hopefully sooner.  Being probably the most veteran of them all, he’ll do just fine especially that it seems like what he used to do back in RT remains intact on his new tenure as a U92 jock. Given the station’s new youth-centric format, I could also hear a bit of stuff similar to what he used to do when RT used to be Campus 99.5.

From Countdown to Yu comes “The DollhoUse” hosted by Sarah Meier and Vicky. Of all the female VJ’s of MTV Philippines, Sarah ranks as my all-time crush because she is after all, gorgeous!  I don’t know much about her partner, Vicky, though but she has a really sweet voice as well. Too bad I didn’t stick around that much during their shift until their final half-hour.

Last show in U92’s line-up for the day is none other than The Brewrats. The moment I heard this morning of news that U92 will be the new home of the popular trio, it kinda made a lot of sense with what’s been going on lately, with many pieces of the puzzle suddenly coming together. The Brewrats aired their last broadcast on their home for 2 years, 99.5 RT (Hit FM and Campus 99.5 included) exactly a week before U92’s launch.

This particular show is so popular among listeners that sometime after its first inception on air, it quickly develops a very loyal cult following called “Brewsters” which proves to be quite the advantage on the Rats’ part.

As the day caps off, U92 is well on a promising start. The rejuvenated radio station has potential and possibly has what it takes to prove to be a challenge to the top CHR stations, Magic and Monster Radio.  Cheers to the new kid on the block: U92 Cool to be U!

Written October 1, 2009

In the Storm’s Midst

As I looked up to the sky that day, I scratched my head and wondered, “Am I going to school today?” but somehow, I had this feeling that I shouldn’t go to school. Although it was a Saturday, I have my 3danim2 class that day which would have been session #2 for the term since the second trimester had just begun barely for 2 weeks.

Kuya went to Malabon to pick up a cousin and her friend since they have this appointment for some “testing” in UP. Ate left earlier with another friend, Ate Nobuko.

My parents left early this morning to fetch my uncle from the airport as well as drop mom off to a friend’s house since they were to attend the wedding of another friend (confusing?). Because of the increasingly severe weather, they just picked my uncle up, dropped him off somewhere to ride a bus to Laguna and went back home.

Later, Dad switched the channel to DZMM Teleradyo on TV to see what’s the latest on the typhoon Ondoy which is about to hit Metro Manila. There are ongoing reports of flashfloods hitting low-lying areas like my hometown of Valenzuela, and landslides occurring over at higher-ground (i.e. Rizal).
Not much news yet online when I checked, Inquirer.Net was a bit slow with their live updates while ABS-CBN News Online was down. I found most reliable some social networking sites like Facebook, Plurk and Twitter. I read status updates of friends complaining of rising floods in their areas, friends stranded in CSB because of flooding over at Taft Avenue rising at an alarming rate (read: a parked car near Estrada Street is seen almost submerged under water).

In our case, the situation is nothing but new. For the past months since the start of the rainy season, we had seen countless floods that had ravaged our place many times over that we felt that this time wouldn’t be different. I guess we were mistaken.

Twitter was going haywire with updates coming from people ranging from things about commuters getting stranded in EDSA to rising floodwaters creeping up to previously non-flood prone areas like Antipolo, Alabang, and certain areas in Quezon City (i.e. Katipunan). There were even some tweets coming from my fellow Valenzuelans about high levels of floods along McArthur Highway especially at the city’s boundary area near Tullahan Bridge. Some were tweeting about ravaging currents coming from the river and floodwaters rising as high as “above-head” levels.

Then news struck when it seems like Kuya and his companion immediately tried getting home but can’t do so because of a traffic gridlock in Balintawak near the North Luzon Expressway. Ate on the other hand got lost somewhere in QC. At home, we learned she and Ate Nobs went to Commonwealth and sought shelter to a family friend’s house in a nearby subdivision.

Mom felt the need to stock up on water just in case something bad will happen. I did my part tweeting ABS-CBN News’s twitter account concerning on updates of when will Meralco cut off electricity here in Camanava.

Most of the stations in the FM band have either gone on playing continuous music or went off air but one did something different. Jam 88.3 went on emergency broadcast that day to help relay information to and from people affected by Typhoon Ondoy. It was from Jam when I learned that the Angat Dam will be releasing water because its water level is reaching a critical point. Although nothing was made clear how much water they’ll be releasing.

Around 8 in the evening, Meralco had finally cut-off electricity in our area, right at a time when the torrential rains had stopped. I used my cellphone’s radio to listen to Jam’s broadcast while I was cleaning the dishes by candlelight. I even took the time of closing the windows, unaware of something much unexpected.

Later, me and the rest of my family were upstairs. I was still tuned in to Jam, while my parents try to reach Kuya on his whereabouts (He eventually ended up staying with our relatives in Malabon). Jorge meanwhile was sleeping in his room. Not only was our electricity got cut-off, so was our phone line which went dead as soon as my mom finished talking with my ninang calling all the way from the United States.
It just so happens that my dad wanted to check the situation outside and see how far the flooding went. Since it dark outside, it was kinda hard to tell. We thought the flooding stayed put on the third story of the stairway outside the house, at least in a level a few inches above the knee if you go outside (a few years ago, we had our place renovated to make it at least several meters higher for floodwaters not to reach inside our house).

Much to our surprise, we were horrified to see that floodwaters DID REACH our house! It was all sudden! Minutes ago, I was done washing plates and silverware with much of the ground floor still dry. Fast forward, there’s water filling up the first floor reaching up until slightly above knee-level. The water destroyed everything in its path: books, slippers, newspapers from the living room on until the kitchen. Even our washing machine and our refrigerator weren’t spared by the damage.

We did everything we could to salvage some tuff for the night, including the fridge where we had it placed on a wooden center table, lying at the side. That’s when I realized that this didn’t come from the rain that hit us earlier but was from the dam. We didn’t expect that they’ll be releasing that much water, I’m guessing they let off some 2-3 foot. Naturally, the released water would drain out in the several tributaries leading to Manila Bay but once a river overflows, several areas of land will be submerged.
As mentioned earlier, it’s no longer a surprise for most of us to see our being hit by floods many so often but never did we anticipate the that flooding (partially caused by the dam’s release) would hit in the highest level we’ve experience so far in almost a decade.

Yes, the last time I’ve seen that much water was from nearly ten years ago when at least 2 typhoons (“Edong” and “Ditang”) kinda merged into one big superstorm and unleashed hell to everywhere in sight. Ironically, the dam’s release had existing floodwaters in our area reach almost the same level as the one from 2000.

Although not much news about the dam’s release were reported on Jam, I kinda figured that we’re a bit fortunate for I cannot contain my shock on hearing news of people stuck in their homes stranded in a sea of floodwaters, of people trying to wrestle the darkness of the night on the rooftops, people calling and texting for help via Jam. Two of the DJ’s on-board, Lambert and RockEd Radio’s Gang, were on the air nonstop helping people as much as they could by relaying messages from those living and/or are in affected areas to those with access to the national government, NGO’s and the Philippine Red Cross . Some listeners cited critical areas, particular those along the Rizal-Eastern Metro Manila area (Rizal Province, Pasig, and Marikina). Among notable worst-hit areas are Green Park, Brookside, Vista Verde and Provident Village.

The power of technology proved to be of much help as well. Filipinos with Facebook and Twitter accounts relayed important information like emergency hotline numbers of the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), the Red Cross, and many other organizations and agencies. Lambert and co. also received word about some private citizens with access to speedboats, etc gathering near Greenhills Shopping Plaza to devise a rescue plan in the eastern front. Right before the power was cut-off, I also got news of my school giving shelter to students stranded because of high flooding in the area. I relayed that info to Jam’s textline which was fortunately read out by Lambert (woohoo fellow Benildean).

Even in the later hours, the people of Jam 88.3 were on a roll providing company to those with access to only FM radio. Obviously, it was no easy job but who would even care? At this time of dire need, it’s people like Gang and Lambert who gave people hope to live another day and survive this dark chapter of their lives. Lives are at stake here so there seems no other way but to do what is necessary to give out as much help as possible.

I have heard of different stories of tragic loss, and heroic victory during the wrath of Ondoy. It proves one thing about us, Filipinos: Hopeful, always in high spirits, and never the type to give up. There may be challenges that threaten us along the way, but as a nation unified by the spirit of “bayanihan”, we know that we can make it through.

As the floodwater subsides and things slowly return to normal, let us rebuild our lives learning from the lessons of loss, heroism and unity.

Written September 28, 2009

Good afternoon peeps. Get ready for another round of rain, floods and gust tonight!