Texts of Doom
One of the local security guys at a campsite where I teach asked me about the veracity of a text message he received from a relative just a week ago. It read like this:
President GMA approved the P150 Million budget for the UNIFIED MULTI (666) SSS ID SYSTEM. DZRH reported! Nagstart na…microchip or biochip i-inject in hand or forhead of men which they call Lifetime savings. In US next in Philippines. Dami nagpatatak o nagpa inplant according to TIME MAGAZINE Plz. pas to all CHRISTIAN..
I wanted to laugh but I checked myself, not wanting the security guy to think I belittled the news or his belief (or non-belief) about it. But I had visions of people with lines stamped on their foreheads, walking through barcode scanners to be identified as they enter any establishment or cross any corner of the road.
While it is true that talk of a unified ID system has been ongoing for the past years, the success of an implementation of such a system is highly unlikely in the Philippine setting. The manual system of registration of births and deaths is one of the things that will prevent the successful implementation of a country-wide ID system.
Some people believe that a system is only applicable to the working class, because it is tied up with the SSS and the GSIS. This to me implies that the government is only concerned with documenting workers. This also for me is typical of our government trying to find solutions from the top, when they should be working from the ground level.
Get birth and death registrations computerized and implemented country wide. We need this in place before any effective unified ID system can be implemented.
Goodbye P910i
I got my Sony Ericsson P9109i from my then-coworker Ejay in the last quarter of 2005. He had just bought the phone himself, hardly two months old, but he had found a cellphone that he liked better. Perhaps if Ejay had not wanted to give it up I would not have bought the P910i, but we were at the point of our careers when we needed a phone that was also a PDA, and this was an opportunity for me to buy it for a lot less money than I would have shelled out at a mall.
I lost that same cellphone last Friday, December 11 2009, after four years of constant use. It was stolen from my backpack as I was walking across the Estrella pedestrian overpass. I was an easy mark for the zipper gang, I suppose, regularly walking that route at least 5 days a week.
The phone has seen better days. I had already removed the flip because it was broken, and was using the onscreen keyboard and virtual flip for text entry. There was even a time when the jog dial didn’t work anymore, but I found a shop that could repair it, of all places, in Masbate. I had vowed till death do us part with this phone, and I guess this loss was its death.
But not quite. The thief, whoever he is, is still using the SIM card. The number is 0921 9866 989. I can’t recover it because I no longer have the card backing, having had that number for the past 2 years or so. Feel free to send it any junk text that you can think of. 
Plus One to Uratex
Thanks to my Aunt, the one who lives in Seattle, I was able to replace the mattresses that were soaked and rendered useless by Typhoon Ondoy. The best place to get mattresses was Uratex, at any of their factory outlets in Metro Manila. The closest one to our place is the one in Muntinlupa, on the East Service Road of the South Super Highway.
Their showroom is quite straightforward, all the products are on display with prices clearly shown for each. And the factory prices are discounted compared to mall prices, up to 20% off on most items. Not only do they have foam mattresses, they also have ergonomic pillows, decorative throw pillows and other household decorations and utility items.
The BEST part about buying at the Uratex factory outlet is the free bottle of softdrinks that they provide each customer (and the customers companions) while he/she is sitting at the check out area waiting to pay for what they bought. It’s a nice simple touch, but it made me smile when I realized it was free.
Things we lost during the flood
All the office furniture downstairs. They were made of wood pulp and were really not built to withstand flooding such as what Typhoon Ondoy brought. All the books downstairs. Some legal papers, but replaceable. A couple of electric fans. A few note books, bits and pieces of paper to which we committed scribblings that were for a time not meant to be forgotten, but were. A few other things that we really didn’t mind losing.
A lot of other people in other areas lost a lot more. I am not complaining, just making an inventory.
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