profound bliss

Mt. Maculot is a favorite destination for new mountaineers. The Rockies, being the most popular point of Mt. Maculot attracts newbie climbers because of its friendly trail and friendlier height (706+ MASL). The summit, though, is a little bit higher (830 MASL) and the difficulty depends on which trail you use. As for adventure-seeking newbies, my friend Danilo and I opted for the more difficult traverse by way of the grotto trail. We set off last September 20, a Monday, leaving the house at 1 am for our much anticipated first climb together. This was his first mountain, and my second - the first being Mt. Romelo in Siniloan, Laguna . We arrived at Cuenca a little past 5 am, starving. Good thing there was one open carinderia offering stuff to warm our tummies. So we had a big serving of Lomi for only 35 pesos each. Asking the store-owner for directions to the local church, we reached St. Isidore Parish just when that morning's mass was about to end. Quite admirably, they ...

An old friend of mine deleted her Facebook account and made a new one… and hasn’t added me since. I wouldn’t know she deleted her previous account if I hadn’t noticed I was commenting with myself in one of my wall posts. She deleted her account, hence, her comments on her friends’ posts/pictures were also deleted. Okay, perhaps she has just overlooked me when she was adding friends in her new account, but the incident – of when I wasn’t informed when she deleted her account (OC much?) – made me curious to find out who deletes me on Facebook. Haven’t you ever wondered why at one point you have 980 friends, then all of a sudden it becomes 979? You can’t possibly go through all of your remaining 979 friends to see who’s missing, no? I checked G about applications that tell who deleted me on Facebook, but everything seems to have already been disabled by FB. And since I can’t find any app for that purpose, I’ll just say “WHO CARES IF YOU DELETED ME ON FACEBOOK?” LoL! Okay I lik...

Too excited for tomorrow that after my last dog bite vaccine at RITM this morning, I searched Festival Mall and Star Mall Alabang for a bladder and a headlamp. Bladder because I thought it's more convenient to put inside the rucksack with the hose on my shoulder for easy access, than to carry water bottles on the mesh pockets. Headlamp because it's a night trek. Sadly, I wasn't able to find any of the two, in either malls. When I got back home, Nanay told me to call Ace Hardware and ask for those. Luckily, Ace Hardware in SM Bicutan had an Energizer mini-headlamp. It runs on 2 x CR2032 batteries so I bought a pair, not knowing that there was an included battery in the package. Okay lang, I'll save it for future use, or bring it along for back-up just in case. I don't have a bladder yet. A friend said I should go to Conquer at Robinson's Pioneer. It's so far.

Remember the Anti-Gay Bullying campaign of Google's LGBT employees? If not click here . Now, before PLDT ruined my life last Thursday, I spotted this Bench Holiday ad from their Facebook page .

Without warning, I lost my internet connection last Thursday afternoon, around 2 PM. I thought it was just a minor trouble like what always happens with PLDT MyDSL. But just the same, I called their technical hotline (172) to report the trouble. I was told by the tech support representative that he would forward it to their technical team immediately. Around 4 PM, I still didn't have internet connection. I called the hotline again only to be told that the trouble was traced from a "network trouble" in Pasig and majority of the south area accounts were affected. I asked around the neighborhood but it seemed that I was the only one without internet connection. I know for a fact, though, that in my area, my PLDT MyDSL connection is the only one in the Legacy platform since I subscribed for the service way back 2004 pa. I actually started being on IP-DSLAM then was moved to the Legacy platform when I requested. They eventually created another platform, NGN, where new accounts...

I went to Mercury Drug last Tuesday night to buy Princess's antibiotics (her WBC has gone up from 17.8 to 20 despite taking Vibravet for 2 weeks). I got the prescription at Animal House in SM and I could have easily purchased from Watsons but I chose to walk to the other side of Bicutan for Mercury Drug because I have a Suki Card. The line was so long. I was customer number 42 when I arrived and they were still just serving the 8th. Then a male customer gave up waiting and gave me his number (34) instead. But it was still a long wait that I totally forgot about my Suki Card when it was my turn. And the pharmacist didn't even ask me for it. I only remembered about the card when I was already on the jeepney going home. So the long walk and the long wait went to waste.

Last Saturday, on our way to Pico de Loro, I randomly picked a traveller toothbrush set from a rack in Mini Stop and paid for it. When I opened the case after the climb, I laughed when I saw its color. And then last Sunday, after bringing Princess to the vet for a CBC, I dropped by the Torque kiosk at the connecting bridge of SM Bicutan to buy myself their cheapest phone. There were three available colors: pink, black, and yellow. I immediately asked to look at the black model. Not good. Everything’s so shiny black in contrast with the rubbery black of the keypad. I asked for the yellow model. Not good even. The yellow keypads against the black of the cellphone itself looked dirty. I had no choice but to get the pink model with pink keypads against the white cellphone. Cool.