Category Archives: Metro Manila

Unintentional Greenery

Laid Back Existence in the City

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Social media has become a mainstream source of every sort of high level information. Things have seen to evolve just to integrate social media, a telephone for example. As observed, the fundamental needs of food, water, clothing and shelter in order to live are not enough any longer. Internet is on the list. Filipinos type their complaints of slow internet connection in social media as if it’s a life and death situation. Just the same I believe they would die, though not physically. That’s how dependent humans have become to our virtual society in order to live.

Personally, social media, websites and television have become burden to the soul. The downpour of information along with trivial, useless  and false ones give extra work for my mind to filter out those relevant, original and well-researched data only. On the other hand, I can also limit information overload instead of letting myself be fired upon with television ads, self-praising paragraphs from social media, brain carcinogenic television entertainment,  consumerism driven blogs, shallow topics on vanity driven pursuits, and all sorts of public display of affection, spending, narcissisim, and affliction – again in social media.

How can one control unnecessary information overload? Information technology (IT) has always been my occupation where I design software and process data all the time. Implausible it may sound,  but I don’t spend on gadgets and never felt tiny bit of affection for iStuff. Likewise, I haven’t subscribed for broadband connection at home, neither do I have television connection for 8 years already (not missing this at all). Mobile phone internet is the only connection I have. In fact I’m publishing this essay on WordPress just using my phone (which I always do). I guess, this how I forge my laid back existence in the city.

Gulay Bundles

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Gulay bundles at the talipapa or palengke are tied together nowadays by rubber band. Because of that, I’ve accumulated plenty of elastics from regular gulay buying. Bundles of gulay are often priced in multiples of five starting from five pesos and most belong in this cheapest set. Examples of gulay in five peso bundle are okra, sitaw, alugbati, saluyot, kangkong, malunggay, and pechay.

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Tilapia at Talipapa

Chestnuts

Tamperproofing Electric Meters

Gimba

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Front cover

Putting up with the crowd at last month’s International Book Fair and at the same time feeling a bit despondent that I was at MOA on a weekend (though I didn’t set foot inside the mall), was compensated when I acquired few books from small time publishing houses such as UP Press et al, and some old PCIJ magazines and one old magazine on Mindanao Culture called Gimba (the only edition I found).

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Back cover

Gimba is the musical instrument of Manobo tribe in Mindanao, hence the magazine logo is an illustration of this drum. Subscription rate is 10 pesos per copy, 40 pesos for a year’s subscription as stated in the first page of this third quarter 1985 edition. It has 32 pages only but there is substance in every page. How I wish this kind of reading material is still in circulation today.

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An article about education among the Ata Manobo

Bygone Snapshot: Garbage Livelihood

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This man was scavenging recyclables from the accumulated garbage in the waters of Manila Bay beside the US Embassy fortress.  I took this picture on June 28, 2008 at 4:33 PM

Handwritten Illustration: Election Voting System

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“2016 Election” in the sample ballot in Figure 3. Figure 4 is cute but terrible for it can make someone a president of the Philippines in 2016

 

I came across this photocopied handwritten information with illustrations, promoting an election voting tool that is manual yet fast. Handwritten illustrations, instructions, including handwritten maps have certain kind of appeal to me. I’ve picked this somewhere in the exhibit area on an empty table but only get to read it at home. So, I didn’t get to see this “fast manual” tool at the Science Nation unlike the Smartmatic’s state-of-the-art touch screen voting machine, a super upgraded PCOS system where I got to touch the candidate’s name with picture beside it to cast my trial vote.

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They even made a pitch on the lower left “The excitement and suspense in watching the counting of votes can still be experienced!”

Well, this election voting system on paper says no electricity needed. Voting will be fast for instead of writing, one just needs to punch holes. Reminds me of the beginnings of computing systems where punched cards were used.  Also reminds me of the paper bus tickets in the country.  An entertaining read.

Pulot Boy’s Improvisation

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Old tennis racket repurposed into pulot boy’s ball snatcher by fusing some netting around the racket’s rim

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Pulot boy (ball boy) in action

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Convenient ball catcher, picker and collector

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More on ball boy in action

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Ball boys are maintaining the shell tennis court by marking lines using chalk and leveling the crushed shells using net mop

Anti-Malnutrition Chips

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At the science exhibit of Department of Science & Technology, I bought this chips to relieve my starvation in the duration of my 4.5 hours visit. This un-junk food was developed for the purpose of improving nutrition in young children. The snack is made from rice and monggo and it tasted even better than most local junk food, not that because I was starving but the taste is somewhat addicting. Similar to how addicting Chippy is.

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It’s rare thing where one can see DOST’s and FNRI logos in a chips pack. The high protein and energy content makes this a nutritious and convenient snack in evacuation centers for instance. Other than that, in preparing a disaster grab bag, why not put some Rimos instead of junk crackers inside. The disaster grab bag is a wise move already, having Rimos inside makes it wiser, I suppose.

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Mango Picker

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Manual fruit picker as seen in Science Nation exhibit by DOST at MOA

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Low tech practicality

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Head of the mango picker consist of blade in triangular shape housed in an acrylic like material to manually sever the fruit from the tree, and a net to catch it

Metro Mornings

Typical scenes everyday in Metro Manila mornings.

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They are most likely ambulant vendors that peddle inside a moving bus

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Car washing and other car services done on the road eating up a lane. Yet another typical scene

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Rain proofing a sidewalk carinderia by setting up tarp

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Mekanikong tsuper

Unnecessary Noise

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During my pre-college years back in Bacolod City, it seems there were more major storms then than in the last 15 years I’ve lived in Metro Manila. Back then blackouts were frequent and when hit by typhoons, blackouts will last for a month or more. A few days or even a week of that hardly affects our day to day life then. That was yesterday; today, a 12 hour blackout seems like a personal catastrophe for most. Man have created this dependency on appliances, gadgets and comforts that when deprived of, the noise from the complaints made the natural disaster look more devastating than it should be.

Yesterday afternoon in the wake of the storm, I surveyed the village where I live by running within its perimeter. There were several tree casualties, blackout like the rest of Metro Manila, but no flooding and no major debris blockage. It was very quiet in the village that I suppose residents must have fled to the malls because of electricity deprivation along with impending social media deprivation due to dying battery life of their gadgets.

Boxing Day Everyday

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At the checkout counter, bagging of groceries can be three ways: In one’s brought bag, in supermarket provided paper bag, or in supermarket provided used carton. It’s been this way ever since plastic bags were banned in Makati City.

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Used cartons for groceries

Tent Shops

Screw Signs

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See the LRT train about to cross the street?

For all sorts of screw needs, it’s highly likely one can find it in Tomas Mapua street. Very visible from the above picture is the Screw City signage, then there’s also Screw Master behind UCPB, and on the right side is the To Suy Screw King.

Elastic Phenomenon

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There’s some kind of a rubber band craze now, among children particularly, and this loom band thing found its way to my home even if I’ve spent zero pesos on it. Somebody gifted my kid…for it’s the “in” thing.
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One can really gauge the hit factor of something through the viral way of it’s being replicated. It doesn’t matter to the masses if it’s the Rainbow Loom or an imitation loom. What matters to most are the acquisition of these colorful tiny rubber bands, and the pleasure of weaving these into jewelry, and accessorizing one self of this DIY stuff… for that’s the “in” thing.

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Street vendors sell the rubber bands at 50 pesos per 50 grams

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Incense

Traffic Jam Microenterprise

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Peddling candies, cigarettes and chicharon/fish crackers in South Super Highway underneath the Skyway

Quite common in Manila to see ambulant vendors, taking advantage of constant stops from traffic jam, or red light waiting time, to peddle all kinds of stuff, from food to rags, in the middle of the road.