Smart Schools Program is otherwise known as Text 2622: A Smart Way to text DepEd. The program’s official site boasts that:

Dubbed DETxt 2622, the service lets public school faculty, staff, students, parents and the general public automatically receive advisories such as announcements on test schedules, press releases, holiday announcements, and cancellation of classes.

We knew, of course, that there was a typhoon in the Visayas and the inclement weather yesterday was its peripheral effect. Still, we did not entertain the possibility that classes would get suspended. At around midnight, Sam’s friend sent a text message from this 2622 service, as follows:

DepED News: No classes tomorrow in all levels in NCR, Cavite, Laguna, Rizal and areas covered by typhoon signal #2 and above. - Usec. Bacani

I checked the online news sites but there was nothing. BUT since I intended to go to bed shortly after that, I figured I might as well double check with the 2622 service instead of waiting for the news sites to update their headlines. I subscribed to the service and got the same message a few minutes later. To make a long story short, I did not thaw anything from the freezer thinking I wouldn’t be cooking the kids’ packed school lunches.

When I woke up, there was a new text massage on my cell phone:

DepEd Alert: Regular classes today in Metro Manila. - Usec. Bacani

The time stamp was 8.30 a.m. There was no mention of Rizal and other surrounding provinces.

Damn it, really, talk about an unreliable service and a total waste of money. By 8.30 a.m., students would have left for school. Of what use was such a late announcement? I got up and couldn’t find the girls. The househelp said they went to school. Then, I remembered.

Sometime early this morning — I don’t know the exact hour and minute since half my consciousness was still deeply enrenched in Dreamland — I heard the TV and my husband saying that, according to the morning programs, classes were not suspended. I sleepily told him to check my cell phone. You know, I thought that he was asking for curiosity’s sake. I was dead tired from fixing Pinoy Cook the whole of yesterday until halfway through the night. I had no idea that he roused the girls from sleep and that they actually made it in time for the arrival of the school bus. The househelp packed leftovers from last night’s dinner for their school lunch.

More checking led to the info that the Text 2622 service is an initiative of Smart and DepEd has nothing to do with it. Naturally, I have unsubscribed from the useless Text 2622 service.

I’m hoping that posting will be back to its normal pace by tomorrow as we wind up fixing some technical problems. I won’t bore you with the details save to say that I believe, now more than ever, that it isn’t a good idea to make decisions — especially major ones — in a fit of anger.

The times when my blogs went offline… well, I think I finally found the problem. We’re doing some fixing — meaning, Yuga and I — and we hope that all issues will be resolved within the next 48 hours or so. To be quite honest, I almost pulled out all my blogs from Ploghost. I was going to do it last night, actually — overnight if I had to. But I was so tired having spent the entire day doing my Christmas shopping. When I got up at around noon today and started to pick up where I left off last night, definitely with a cooler and clearer head, I finally found what appears to be causing all the problems. I felt bad that just a few hours earlier I wanted to bash Yuga hehehe. It really wasn’t his fault.

A few months ago, my food blog was defaced by some assholic hacker. Although I cleaned out the garbage that he left on both accounts, he apparently left something that would make the problem recur over and over. Smart guy, I wish his fingers would swell to ten times their size so he can’t touch a keyboard ever again.

Anyway, I was doing some reading and landed on Marc Macalua’s blog. To be more precise, Marc a.k.a. Mr. SEO sent a trackback to one of my entries and that was how I landed on his blog. The wiseass called me opinionated. I think he’s opinionated for calling me opinionated. Just kidding LOL. Actually, I mentioned Marc’s post because he is displaying something really cute on his pages. When I hovered over his links with my mouse, a screenshot of the site being linked to would pop up. Yeah, like the ones I NOW have on my pages.

So, Marc, a toast to being opinionated. Hadn’t you called me one, I might not have discovered Snap until everyone else has.

I was 99% sure that E. coli was bad. And that it meant bad news. But I couldn’t recall why. I couldn’t associate it with any illness. But it somehow brought Taco Bell to mind. Oh, right, there were people who fell ill after eating in Taco Bell. Three known deaths, so far. The latest news is that green onion is the culprit. And the presence of E. coli in an unopened package means that the green onions were already contaminated before they were delivered to Taco Bell.

Of course, I went through the trouble of finding out where E. coli thrives and what it really means when the E. coli bacteria are present in human food. According to what I’ve read so far, E. coli bacteria are associated with feces. They live in the lower intestines of mammals and are usually harmless unless they enter parts of the body where they shouldn’t be — including the digestive tract which was what happened with the Taco Bell victims.

But how could the E. coli bacteria have gotten into the green onions? Water in the irrigation system perhaps?

In the field of water purification and sewage treatment, E. coli was chosen very early in the development of the technology as an “indicator” of the pollution level of water, meaning the amount of human fecal matter in it, measured using the Coliform Index… [Wikipedia]

Or, perhaps, unsanitary handling during the packaging process?

Whatever the cause, that should make anyone think long and hard about how healthy and nutritious fresh raw vegetables really are. Cooking, or even boiling, kills E. coli bacteria.

If you have an active e-mail loop, you must have received those Britney Spears photos. You know, the “going commando” (thanks for explaining the term, Polo) pics? When I received the first set of photos, my response to the sender was why is it that when a woman finally ditches her no-good husband, the most common reaction is “magwala”. I don’t know the equivalent word in English…. something like “going wild”.

Makes me wonder how repressive marriage can be for some women that separation serves as an equivalent of freedom. Observe an animal that has spent a long time in captivity. Once the cage is opened, it either shies away from stepping out — as though too scared of too unfamiliar grounds, or it runs or flies so wildly that it often slams against walls, posts, trees… I’ve seen it happen with dogs and birds.

In Britney’s case, is her bizarre behavior some sort of emotional release?

Or is it something peculiar among showbiz folk? You want to make a big comeback so you want people to talk about you, land on the front pages… you know, create the proverbial buzz… so you let the paparazzi catch you without underwear. Hilarious. And sad.

One thing I like about being a stay-at-home mom (or a work-at-home mom, if you prefer) is that I don’t have to be bothered by people I don’t want to bother with. Like the ahentes (from house and lot to funeral plot, and everything else in between) who just want a few minutes with you in the office.

They intrude, right? And it’s for that very reason why I abhor telemarketers. Not only do they infringe on my privacy, they waste my time too. I get credit card offers over the phone every single day. And I tell them all I’m not interested and I’d sue them if they called back. They won’t, naturally, but there will always be others.

The worst part is that the intrusion has reached my cell phone.

Let me be more specific.

From +639213794895:

Thank you 4 ur inquiry re CASH LOAN, 1% up to 1.7% interest per mo. Pls. give lndline discuss ko po requirement. 3 to 5 days po proces. BABY

And I replied:

Excuse me? What cash inquiry? Why don’t you give me your landline instead. 2 hours only.

Here’s another from 09103778531:

We offer 30k - 1M CashLoan for emplyd/self-employd@1% up to 1.7% mo. NO COLATERAL nided. Ds s random tx, F ur intrestd pls txt ur name & lndlne f nt dsrgard or save 4 rfrens. Tnx.

My reply:

“cash loan”
“employed”
“collateral”
“needed”
“this”
“is”
“text”
“if”
“you’re”
“interested”
“landline”
“not”
“disregard”
“reference”
“thanks”

I CAN SUE YOU.

Haven’t received any similar messages since. But then the last one was only yesterday.

There is a street in Mandaluyong (Policarpio, I think) which is closed to vehicular traffic at night during the Christmas season. The reason: for the past several years, the residents have been decorating the facades of their houses with Christmas lights that are, well… shall we say, far brighter and far more colorful than average residential Christmas lights. The display has become so popular that this place in Mandaluyong has become a local tourist attraction during the holidays — complete with food hawkers galore.

The Mandaluyong display was the first thing I thought of when I saw a video sent by my friend, Polo. See, the Mandaluyong residents have become kinda competitive and neighbors try to outdo each other with their Christmas lights. I wonder what they would do if the house in the video below was in their neighborhood. Perhaps, “eat your heart out” would be the appropriate message.

Polo’s e-mail came with the following explanation of sorts:

This display was the work of Carson Williams, a Mason, Ohio, electrical engineer who spent about three hours sequencing the 88 Light-O-Rama channels that controlled the 16,000 Christmas lights in the 2004 version of his annual holiday lighting spectacular. His 2005 display included over 25,000 lights that he spent nearly two months and $10,000 to hook up. So that the Williams’ neighbors wouldn’t be disturbed by constant noise, viewers driving by the house were informed by signs to tune in to a signal broadcast over a low-power FM radio station to hear the musical accompaniment.

The rough quality of the video led some viewers to believe it was put together in stop-action form using still photographs, but that appearance was an artifact of the high compression used in the clip circulated.

Thanks, Polo. It is such an enjoyable video.

Yesterday, on the way home from the supermarket, the car radio was on and we were listening to updates about typhoon Reming (Durian). The news that it changed direction and would probably spare Metro Manila and Rizal was a relief. But reports saying that the typhoon was going towards the general direction of Quezon and Batangas provinces were disconcerting.

My husband had been to Quezon and Batangas several times after the disaster brought by tyhoon Milenyo. Hence, all those photos in I love photography!. In Quezon especially, people have not even fully recovered from Milenyo (Xangsane). The stories that his clients told made my hackles rise. There were areas in Quezon where the blackout lasted for an entire month. In fact, LPG-powered generators were sold out. Many small and medium-sized businesses opted for the additional expense rather than close shop while waiting for power to be restored.

I don’t know yet how badly hit Batangas and Quezon were. The latest reports on typhoon Reming are mostly about the Bicol area. The reported number of deaths varies. Some day 109, others say it’s 146, and some others say it’s as high as 200. Although Metro Manilans and residents of surrounding areas, including us here in Antipolo, hardly felt the effects of typhoon Reming, one thing is clear — the deaths and damage are of disastrous proportions and the hardest hit was the Bicol region. The number of deaths are expected to rise as more bodies are recovered.

Noel Rosal, mayor of Legazpi city, Albay province’s capital, visited Padang, where he said some victims had their clothes ripped off as they were swept away by the mudslide.

“It’s terrible,” he told The Associated Press by phone after visiting the village Friday. “Based on our interviews with residents and village officials, more than 100 were killed or missing.

“We now call this place a black desert,” he said, referring to the colour of the volcanic debris.

Mayon erupted in July, depositing millions of tons of rocks and volcanic ash on its slopes. Rains from succeeding typhoons that hit the area earlier may have loosened the materials.

Rosal said three of the five communities comprising the village of 1,400 people had been “wiped out” with only the roofs of several houses jutting out of the debris.

He said some boulders were as big as cars. [Canada.com]

I used to wonder why people would want to live at the foot of volcanoes. The constant threat of eruption alone should make one think hard before building a house and establishing a livelihood in such areas. Well, from what I’ve read, it appears that the soil at the foot of volcanoes is often very fertile and conducive for raising a number of crops. Now, they have neither houses nor crops.

It’s terrible but we can’t blame nature when it strikes. We can take precautions but we can’t fight nature.

We’re a Dream satellite TV subscriber. That means cloudy skies equals bad signal. The World Is Not Enough was aired last night on Star Movies but after an hour or so, the rains started to pour, the winds got stronger and the satellite signal was gone. I would have slept an hour or so earlier than usual but, a little after midnight, my 14-year-old daughter Sam asked if I wanted to watch some DVDs with her.

Of course, I said yes. It’s a ritual with Sam and I. When there’s no school the next day (which means she can stay up as late as she wants), we often watch movies together. The highlight, of course, is the midnight snack which she often prepares. We’re not breakfast persons but we’re definitely midnight snacks people, she and I. For instance, a week or so ago, she made the omelet in the photo below. She even toasted the bread that she served with it. I was so impressed that I took time to take a photo.

So, last night was going to be another one of those nights. She asked what movie we would watch. Since she had seen all the DVDs in the house, I chose one which I hadn’t seen yet although we’ve had it for months already — The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift.

We settled down with some sandwiches and watched the movie. Okay, I liked the first The Fast and the Furious. I enjoyed it tremendously. I didn’t like the sequel and, 30 minutes into Tokyo Drift, I decided that I liked the third installment even less than the second. I’d describe it as a bad mixture of pulp and noir, and definitely a Hollywood-ish stereotype that made every foreign race and culture look ridiculous.

But I couldn’t bear to stop the movie. After eating, Sam was half-lying on the couch with her head on my lap and my right arm was holding her in a loose embrace. What mother would end a moment like that? My sisters-in-law often told me in the past that when a child reaches the age of 9 or 10, they become less prone to displays of affection with parents. When I hardly saw that kind of attitude with my own kids, I was really happy. But I still wonder — very often — if the time would come when they would balk at all the lambing gestures. So I take what they give and make the most of every moment and every gesture.

So, last night, I figured I could stand another hour or so of the dreadful movie. We watched for another 30 minutes or so. Sam was even explaining the plot to me because I really wasn’t paying attention.

Then, nature took its course. The midnight snack was undergoing digestion. I felt something stirring and my body tensed. I’m sure Sam felt it too because the next second she was sitting upright. She looked at me accusingly and said, “Mommy, you’re gonna fart.” In another five seconds, she was gone.

End of bonding moment.

If your kid is hooked on games like Ragnarok, its predecessor Counterstrike, and all those bang-bang video and computer games, you might want to make this new study a part of the entertainment equation at home.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Teens who play violent video games show increased activity in areas of the brain linked to emotional arousal and decreased responses in regions that govern self-control, a study released on Tuesday found.

The study used functional magnetic resonance imaging to record tiny metabolic changes in brain activity in 44 adolescents who were asked to perform a series of tasks after playing either a violent or nonviolent video game for 30 minutes.

The children, with no history of behavior problems, ranged in age from 13 to 17. Half played a T-rated first-person shooter game called “Medal of Honor: Frontline,” involving military combat, while the other group played a nonviolent game called “Need for Speed: Underground.”

Those who played the violent video game showed more activation in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional arousal, and less activation in the prefrontal portions of the brain associated with control, focus and concentration than the teens who played the nonviolent game.

Note that the study was limited to short-term effects. Still, I feel vindicated LOL. I’m one of those who consider violent video and computer games as an insult to human intelligence. My main objection is they they don’t teach the player to think but merely to react. And I’m not just talking about kids but even adults. It isn’t based on anything scientific but it just seems so obvious if you scrutinize how those games are played.

I have a lot of friends and relatives whose kids spend hours on their play stations and those kinds of games. Asked why they bought Play Stations in the first place, the most common answer among parents was because it was “uso” (the fad). The next most common answer was because their kids’ friends (especially classmates) have Play Stations and their kids felt deprived. Of course, the answers never included things like “because it develops a skill” or “because it is a wholesome leisure activity” or “because they can learn a lot from the games.” LOL

Typhoon Reming is expected to hit Metro Manila and surrounding areas tomorrow and classes in all levels have been suspended. My kids greeted the news with glee. Their computers and YMs were turned on within a minute of finding out that they can stay up late tonight. And Friday having been declared a holiday a few days ago, we have a long weekend ahead of us.

The question is what kind of a weekend is it going to be? Will we have electricity? Will we have water? Will the telephone line and DSL die on us? Memories of typhoon Milenyo are still too fresh — waterless days, the added expense of staying in a hotel after the disaster in Antipolo.

One cheering thought is that I have three new paperbacks from the last trip to the bookstore. Apart from that, I dread the next few days. I told the househelp to replenish the stored water and to check supplies — mosquito coils, candles, matches. I checked the kitchen cabinets and I have to go out in a while — no canned goods. Well, of course, that’s to be expected since we hardly buy canned goods, just the occasional can of corn kernels and stewed tomatoes. We won’t survive on that if power goes out for days again like the last time. It’s a good thing though that the freezer is almost empty. No need to worry about spoiled meat and fish.

I think I’ll finally buy a new Scrabble set. Long overdue. The old set has too many missing tiles. Yeah, what better time to get a new Scrabble set. It should be useful if power goes out again.

Are you prepared for typhoon Reming?

Update @ 7.34 p.m.

While I was writing the above entry, I asked my kids to draw up their own lists of supplies they will need in case power goes out in the wake of typhoon Reming. So, they drew up their lists.

Sam’s list :

Milo cereals
NEW cellphone
1000 load
ball pensss (yes, with so many s’s for emphasis)
madami pang tali sa buhok na sobrang KULAY
ICE CREAM
CANDIES

Alex’s list :

Milk
Koko crunch
Yakisoba
pancit canton
nissin thingy
Sony Ericsson ko!!! (you have to read this to know what she means)
cake
tuna
bread
corned beef
DVD - thunderbirds
chichirya plsss…
comics
colored pencils na maganda
a new mechanical pencil

Those are emergency supplies?