A Great Teacher is Never Forgotten

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Two days ago, my daughter asked….

do you remember Miss Syquia?

Of course I remember her. How could I not forget the sweet and soft-spoken first grade teacher/homeroom adviser of my eldest daughter? Many years ago, I vowed that I’d take an active role in Parent-Teacher activities just so I can monitor the progress of my kids at school. So I asked L how her first grade teacher was.

OMG, How tragic! Miss Syquia died last Monday after giving birth to twin girls.

My heart filled with sadness. Aww how terribly shocking. After giving life , her life is taken away?

I hugged my daughter and felt her grief. I knew her teacher was like a second mother to her.

Apparently, L is still in contact with some of her classmates at Miriam College. An email got circulated to her former students since she had been a teacher for the past 15 years. Many knew her. L went on and on how her First grade teacher was so nice to her. Her succeeding teachers were not as memorable as Miss Syquia. L and I paid a visit yesterday but L refused to take a look at her coffin. L chose to remember her teacher as someone alive and well. I noticed a few of her younger students looking so sad.

I gathered from a brief talk with her husband that her married name was Ma. Theresa Erlinda Syquia Caringal and that her nickname was Ernie for short. And the cause of her death?

Pulmonary embolism

She died a week after her cesarian operation.

Such a sudden death. If that was not tragic enough, a day before Ernie died, her mom passed away. In fact her burial was just 2 days ago.

I couldn’t ask her husband on the cause of “pulmonary embolism” because I know how tiring it must be for him to keep repeating the same story all over again. Just this afternoon at our monthly Compassionate Friends meeting, a friend-doctor shared how life is just so precious. She knew of a mom who just gave birth and turned blue on the way home from the hospital. Cause of death was pulmonary embolism.

Two moms died of pulmonary embolism this week?

I gathered that pregnancy increases the risk of developing blood clots. Wow, I never knew that. I had 3 cesarian births. Though I always thought I’d die with each operation I never thought blood clots could be one of the causes of childbirth complications.

Today, Ernie was cremated. Her sudden death is very devastating to her loved ones. Trying to make sense of or understand sudden losses can be difficult. Survivors are left asking “Why?” “Why did this happen?” Like all deaths, the “why” will never be answered in this lifetime. “In our hearts, we all know that death is a part of life. In fact, death gives meaning to our existence because it reminds all of us that life is precious.” It’s just that coping with the loss is not an easy task.
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L and her First Grade Teacher

Desperate for Power Supply and the Internet

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Along with power interruption, the internet service also got disrupted in the aftermath of typhoon Milenyo (international codename: Xangsane).

When your business is dependent on internet service, a day without it is problematic. Two days without it gets to be “near critical”. Where does one get an internet connection when the whole city has no power?

Go to the nearest Starbucks or coffee shop with generator power and wireless internet

Not just any coffee shop. Earlier in the day, I went to Figaro branch at Salcedo Village to go online. After 3 hours, my battery was dying. Looking around the corners, I was disappointed to see power outlets taped over with a sign “do not plug in here”. Grr, I was willing to pay for the charge. Without electricity, how can I get online? A coffee shop must be generous enough to allow me to charge my macbook and avail internet wi-fi connection. I found a friendly Starbucks Coffee shop at the Walter Mart branch. Apparently, Makati residents also thought of the same idea as I did. The place was crowded. All 4 power outlets were occupied with cellphone and laptop charging. It took me 30 minutes to get a seat near a vacant power outlet. Great! The free Globequest internet wi-fi access (given to me by Globe-Innove last month) came in really handy as I got a fast internet connection.

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My daughter and I took turns working on our sites while my patient husband read a book. It usually takes me 2 to 4 hours to work on my sites but I didn’t plan to stay that long. See, a lot of laptop users were eager to go online too and I didn’t want to hog even one precious power outlet. Look at these people huddled in the corner working feverishly on their laptops.

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Typhoon Milenyo Aftermath:Deaths due to Fallen billboards, trees and electric poles

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Note: View My PHOTO GALLERY of Typhoon Milenyo (international codename [tag]Typhoon Xangsane[/tag])

At 8:30 am EDSA, on the way to pick up my daughters
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(Enlarge) The heavy rains woke me up and my thoughts turned to my daughters holed up in their dorm in Quezon City. Butch and I quickly turned on our TV sets and heard that “[tag]typhoon Milenyo[/tag]” would be the strongest to hit Manila in 11 years. The typhoon was expected to arrive at 12 noon. It was 6:00 AM and the perfect time pick to them up in Quezon City. Feeling worried over their safety, my main concern was to bring them over to our home in Makati City knowing they would be safe with us. On the way to my daughters’ dorm in Katipunan Avenue, the empty trusses along EDSA is a rare sight to behold. I thought, “good thing. it’ll prevent accidents“. On the way home, we passed along C-5. Ah, it’s an amazing treat to see the landscape devoid of the tarpaulins click here.

At 11:00 AM, at our house in Makati City just before Typhoon Milenyo
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(Enlarge) A few leaves are strewn all over the front lawn. We prepared for the inevitable wrath of [tag]Typhoon[/tag] Milenyo and shut all the doors and windows. The electricity had already been cut at 9:00 AM. Shortly after 12:00 noon, I heard metal screeching and crunching somewhere. I thought “uh-oh there goes my roof!” I expected a gush of water to pour down our ceiling. Looking out of the window, a gigantic branch from the tree outside suddenly looms outside our living room window. The branch broke from the tree outside , landed on the fence, broke it and ended up on the lawn.

The fallen tree branch in our front lawn
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(Enlarge ) It was a relief that it wasn’t our roof that got blown away. What could we do now? I knew there were more damage and injuries outside our village. We were grateful to God for the safety of our family, a strongly built home, ample food, fuel and water. The only other inconvenience was water dripping on L’s room. The strong winds blasted all the rain water towards the upper balcony, creating a pool of water which overflowed to L’s ceiling through a crack on the second floor balcony. Removing the flooded waters in the balcony was futile as the strong gust of wind literally blew us away to the wall. We ended up placing cardboards on the balcony floor so we could elevate the flood waters. I haven’t felt these strong winds in years. Although we had no power, we still had a gas range that would enable us to cook for a candle-lit dinner.

The aftermath at around 2:00 PM
The good old reliable radio was our only source of information and link to the outside world. No power. No internet. No TV. We heard that the southwest part of Metro Manila had a direct hit and sustained more damages. Makati City, our place of residence is one of these places. I immediately took photos of the typhoon Milenyo aftermath.

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Live Blogging at the First Philippine Blogcon 2006

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I am an early bird at the First Philippine Blogcon 2006 here at the National Sports Grill, Greenbelt 3 Makati. The reason I am early is because I have to fix my powerpoint for my talk “Content is King”.

5:20 P.M.- The Globe-Innove Group, our gracious sponsors for this event are here busy fixing the place. As you register, they hand out out 100 pesos worth of Globequest internet wifi access. It looks like they are giving out other prizes in their game portion.

6:54 P.M.– Abe and Jayvee are busy fixing their visual presentation. Abe Olandres will talk on “History of Blogging in the Philippines & Professional Blogging” , Jayvee Fernandez on Blogging as New Media vis-a-vis MSM
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And Marc Macalua on “SEO and Blog Make-Over”. I had to end my live blogging when dinner started. Just View the Photo Gallery for the highlights of the event.

At the meet, I met new and old faces like:

Abe Olandres; J Angelo Racoma; Marc Macalua; Kevin Codamon ; Jayvee Fernandez; Rico Mossesgeld; Jennifer Velasco (Globe Innove) ; Mike Abundo ; Bimbo Isidro ; Gail de La Cruz; Marc Villanueva; Gloria Gamat; Annalyn Jusay; Markku Seguerra; Jun Asis; Dominique Cimafranca; Ade Magnaye. Sorry if I missed out on anyone. My memory fails me nowadays. Hehe, blame it on old age.

The photos show the events as it unfolded ( I still have to label them soon). Since I took these photos, I am not in the gallery but thanks to Annalyn, here is a photo with both of us posing. Another photo here, thanks to Mimi and Karl and from Eugene.
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All I can say about the meet is that it was so much fun. Being the oldest among the bloggers made me feel younger and completely at home. I thought I’d feel out-of-place but no…it shows that the internet knows no “age” boundaries. Maybe we can continue this meet on a regular basis? Now what does Globe Innove think about this?


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Other Bloggers who wrote about this event

  • Abe Olandres on “Blogcon aftermath”
  • J. Angelo Racoma on “Back Home from the Philippine BlogCon 2006”
  • Gail Villanueva on “The first Philippine BlogCon”
  • Bimbo Isidro on O6 BlogCon Roundup
  • Annalyn Jusay on Seen and heard in the 1st Philippine BlogCon
  • Chris Lagman on Pinoy Bloggers Face-to-Face
  • Sonnie on BlogCon 2006– Field Report
  • Kiven at Blogcon 2006
  • Penoi on 1st Philippine Blogcon 2006
  • Ka Edong on Philippine Blogcon 2006
  • Juned on 1st Philippine BlogCon and 1 Internet Day
  • Kukote in a Jar on 1st philippine blogcon
  • Mike Abundo on PICS Book Launch and BlogCon
  • Markku Seguerra on After the Blogcon 200
  • Mimi and Karl on Blogcon 2006 (with lots of photos)
  • Janep @ Blogcon (janep.org)
  • Blog Con 2006: Shoulda; Coulda’s (Me and my Delusions of Grandeur)
  • To the Blogcon (Morofilm)
  • What Happened at BlogCon 2006? (Fool for Five)
  • The Flash Drive that Blogging Won (vaes9)
  • Teh BlogCon is the Shizzle! (The Parody)
  • Marc Macalua Philippine Blogcon 2006
  • Jayvee Fernandez on Back from BlogCon 2006
  • Jun Asis on 1st Philippine BlogCon
  • Noel Bautista on the 1st Philippine BlogCon
  • Gloria Gamat on BlogCon 2006 was a blast
  • Christine Ocampo on First BlogCon 2006

    • and Blog-o-rama mention.

    More links at the Blogcon wiki

    Shopping for a new Cable Broadband Internet Provider

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    mydestiny_flyer2.jpgMy family is moving to our new home in the Pasig-Markina sometime next year. It’s an exciting move and something to look forward to. One of the things that I will miss in Makati are the array of Cable Broadband Internet providers and free wi-fi hotspots. I just realized how fortunate Makati residents are when it comes to broadband providers. I have been spoiled by Destiny Cable my primary broadband provider since 1999 which provides us with no speed limit at a reasonable rate of 1688 pesos a month. And this includes TV cable as well. In fact the speed falls to 386 kbps, the support service is sent to the house. Now, I also have Smart Bro which is incredibly slow. If you are spoled with 2MBPs internet speed by Destiny Cable, you will scoff at Smart Bro’s dismal less than 200 kbps speed. It’s supposed to be 386 kbps. Speed and reliability are important to me because I am a netrepreneur and derive income from my e-commerce sites.

    When I started to ask around the area of our future home, disappointment overcame me when I found out that my trusty cable provider did not have any service there. I need 2 cable broadband internet providers for redundancy measures. What choices did that leave me?

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    Building Buzz with Blogs

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    Yesterday , I celebrated One Internet Day which coincided with the Digital Filipino Club’s 7th anniversary through the invitation of Janette Toral . I caught sight of J. Angelo live blogging during the event and Adrian.

    This year’s theme is E-Commerce Build-up for SMEs with topics on:

    1. E-Commerce for National Competitiveness
    2. Data Privacy and E-Commerce
    3. Building Buzz with Blogs
    4. State of E-Payment in the Philippines
    5. New E-Commerce Opportunities
    6. Making E-Commerce Work

    But what caught my attention was Maoi Arroyo’s talk on Buzz Marketing with Blogs. Take a look at this latest Blogosphere report (available only to Digital Filipino members which you should join if you’re into e-commerce), there’s an untapped way of talking to the young and upwardly mobile segment of Manilenyos:

    18% of internet users read blogs
    55% of bloggers are < 20 years old 20% of bloggers are between 20 to 29 years old 71% are male 84% are single 48% are students 97% have their own computers at home

    So that means I belong to the 25% bracket of 30 years old and above bloggers and the 29% female blogger? Hey, that doesn’t mean I have nothing better to do. It just means we , female oldie-bloggers know how to maximize the internet’s capability other than just emailing or chatting.

    Another aspect in building buzz with blogs is to pay attention to “long tail” influentials like Connie’s
    sassylawyer.com. Connie is so popular that her blog was mentioned twice by Maoi. I know that Connie cannot be easily influenced by PR practioners. Watching her on the Cheche Lazaro’s ““Media in Focus”, she mentioned that she will not compromise her blog having ads that are contrary to her food blog’s theme. Corporations now realize that bloggers can create a buzz. Remember the Globe-Innove sponsored meet in Temple Bar? And there is blogcon sponsored by them for September 25. These corporations should be prepared for favorable and non-favorable feedback from bloggers. I even mentioned to Globe-Innove that you can learn a lot from your most difficult customer. Tomorrow, I got invited to an intimate gathering with them. I wonder what they have to say about their products and services this time. I do hope they offer superior services not available from other telecom providers.

    Read related blogs on One Internet Day- Manila celebration:

    The J Spot
    Adrian
    Philippine Internet Review

    BlogCon on September 25

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    Calling all bloggers in Metro Manila. There will be a BlogCon event on Monday, September 25, 2006. Here are the details from Abe and Pinoy Tech Blog

    What: Philippine BlogCon (Meet the Bloggers)
    When: September 25, 2006 7PM to 10PM
    Where: National Sports Grill, Greenbelt 3, Makati
    Who: Bloggers from all over!

    Read more?

    There will free food (snack) and drinks, thanks to Globe Innove through Jayvee’s intervention. Abe added that there will be “No formal program, just meet and greet fellow bloggers. We might do some informal QA though for those interested in some topics like problogging, podcasting, legal, etc.”

    Jayvee mentioned that

    If you are a shy blogger and think you won’t fit in, then that’s absolutely preposterous because all of us are actually very shy too.

    National Sports Grill is covered by the wireless net of Globe so we might be able to do some liveblogging with great pics during the event.

    So what are you waiting for? Register on the wiki if you’re attending the event. Spread the word!

    I will be there too. I will talk on “Content is Still King” along with other topics from Jayvee, Abe and Marc. Also, My daughter might attend if she doesn’t have thesis defense the following day. It’s an opportunity for her to meet other bloggers. I can actually bring my husband along since he has a blog but he stopped writing after 2 entries. I don’t think one is called a blogger if there are only 2 entries in your blog. Hehe . Hopefully he can blog more since he’s a gifted writer. He hasn’t gotten into the groove of blogging yet. When I talked to Connie in the last Globe-Innove sponsored meet, she hoped my husband would blog since a male lawyer-blogger might bring a different perspective to certain issues. (Connie and my husband were schoolmates in Law school.) I said that he did have a blog but died on it after only 2 entries. Maybe, he hasn’t gotten inspired yet. Hmm.

    One Web Day: How the Internet Changed My World

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    OneWebDayIn celebration of [tag]One Web Day[/tag] on September 22, , I am going to list down “about the ways the web has changed your world.” Having been online since 1995, a lot of changes has happened in my life. Janet Toral started with her entry, How the Internet changed my world

    Here is my list:

    1. The [tag]internet[/tag] brought me business opportunties , such as e-commerce and problogging.

    2. With my affordable webhosting packages for the Philippine market, I am able to help small and medium businesses promote their products or services 24/7 . This gives me such a rewarding feeling.

    3. Because of reason no. 1, my online business brings flexible working hours. In fact I don’t need a physical office since a virtual office will do. I can bring my work through my macbook in any part of the world as long as there is internet connection.

    4. Initiated a grief support group , The Compassionate Friends Philippines to help bereaved families cope with the death of their child or sibling. When grief support was unavailable in the Philippines in the yar 2000, I found grief resources which provided me with great comfort.

    gtalk.jpg5. Instant messaging keeps me in touch with loved ones. Even if my kids are in their dorm, I can still chat with them through Google Talk or Yahoo Instant messenger. I can also give advice in homework or relationship problem. “MOOOOOOOOOMMMMM” is the most frequent word in my chat box, followed by “You there, mom?” Sometimes, I also “poke” my husband when I see him online, checking if he’s stressed or not from work or just exchanging love notes.

    6. Paying bills online via BPI Express Online is very convenient. It beats going to the bank and filling up a deposit slip then falling in line which can reach up to one hour if the bank is full of depositors. When the kids need money, I just transfer funds online. No waiting time.

    7. I can still see and chat with my siblings in the states using the webcam or skype. Of course, email and instant messaging forms part of our daily chitchat. My siblings often get jealous when I show myself on the cam eating ube ice cream or some other Filipino food not available in their grocery. My bad!

    8. Through the magical powers of google, the internet reconnected me with old friends who I haven’t seen in years. Hi Betty. Hi Bing.

    9. It paved the way for new hobbies: amateur photography and web development . These hobbies kept my sanity intact during my grief journey.

    10. Lastly, a memorial site for my son, angel-luijoe.net was one way to unleash my grief into something creative. Through this memorial site, it brought some comfort to other griveing parents with similar situation as mine. The only help a parent can find when they are grieving the loss of a child, is in the company of another who fully understands that loss.

    What about you? How has the internet changed your world? How do you intend to celebrate One Web Day?

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    Slander in Blog Comments

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    After reading ShoeMoney.com Involved In A Landmark Blog Case – Slander In Comments, I got reminded of the subpoena sent to my sister in San Francisco to provide information on my daughter’s comment poster (Take note: it was not even her post but that of a co-blogger. It’s the comment that was questioned). This incident happened more than a year ago. Obviously, the Philippines is not within the California jurisdiction. They ended up harassing my poor sister who had to hire a lawyer, And you know legal fees in the US are not cheap. My sister didn’t want to be involved in the case because first , she doesn’t own the blog. Second, they will require her to appear Los Angeles for hearings. It is such a waste of time

    As a backgrounder, the subpoena pertained to a comment placed by an anonymous and random visitor in one of my daughter’s blog site. Since the blog has long been “neglected”, the comment just showed up for google to pick up. (it pays to moderate your comments). The comment poster accused a certain person of financing the alleged pedophile activity of an old guy. Ugh. Can you imagine the slanderous nature of that comment? The comment poster also wrote the same comments in other blogs. Basically, the subpoena asked for information on the comment poster, his/her name and the location of the computer. Haha. Crazy. If they were smart enough, they should have hired IT consultants before sending out the subpoena. Their lawyers should be more intelligent than that. Why harass my sister who is ignorant of blogs?

    The lawyer’s sleazy tactic of obtaining my sister’s contact address is also questionable. They pretended to be FEDEX people who called my other sister . They said that my daughter had a package that needed to be picked up. When they learned of the suspicious nature of the calls, they refused to entertain further calls until one day the lawyer went to her house and personally served the summons. How awful to be bothered by lawyers! Not to mention the fact that my sister is innocent. It just so happened my daughter lived with her for two months.

    It would have been a landmark case if their lawyers can file a case in the Philippines just to require my daughter to provide the measly information on that comments poster. Even if they filed a case, it is hard to prove it too. I know there are previous cases such as Court Rules in Favor of Anonymous Blogger. This site Blog Law & Blogging for Lawyers: Evan Brown on Defamation says that “We’ve yet to see any cases where a blogger is found liable for comments poster.”

    So bloggers, keep those comments moderated and open only to registered comment posters.