Enyo's Woeful Tales of Destruction

Well, Typhoon Milenyo's come and gone, and his (her) signs of passing are everywhere. We were a direct hit by the storm. Coz we "felt" the eye of the storm passing us at 11 to 12 noon. At this time, all the wind stopped. Even the rain stopped. You'd be tempted to come out and fix stuff. But the weather bureau was right on the dot this time around with their forecast. At 12 noon, everything went crazy again. At around 2pm, the winds died down, but the floods - there was a virtual river in front of the office.

Here are a few shots at the height of the typhoon:

Three vehicles that were just left there. It was too late to get them out.

Here's the spot where I used to be parked - near the small yellow post in the foreground. My car was bearing the brunt of the onslaught of rushing floodwaters.

Cars parked to higher grounds. Mine's the blue-green Revo facing the steel fence near the front road. It was tough to get a safe spot. The whole parking lot's flooded to mid-knee and it was either to park them on the garden or on the sidewalk. Suffice it to say that the water got into the lobby and some of the offices (including clinic).

A mini-falls coming in from the "wild river" on the road through the steel fence.

Some pics of the aftermath:

The once majestic shady acacia tree now looked like chopped veggies here.

An uprooted tree at the front. See the nice manicured piece of the lawn that was lifted up? The branches were cut AFTER the tree fell coz it was blocking the way.

Typhoon Milenyo

No Swim.
And it'll be that way for a while maybe. It's been days that the sun peeks briefly in the morning, disappears by noon and the darkened sky drenches everything else by the afternoon.

Typhoon Milenyo was spotted at Catanduanes and Sorsogon. They're now at signal #2. Milenyo - hmmm, what an odd name. First time I heard it over the radio, I thought it was Enyo, which made more sense really. Enyo seems to be a more common guy nickname. Maybe my hearing's gone bad? At the Area Quartethlon Evaluation contest I misheard the Test Speaker's name as Maria Linda. Her name is Erlinda. And then at the Division Quartethlon Evaluation, I also misheard the Test Speaker's name as Adette. Well, sorry for that, Aret! Aret? For Margaret? Aretha?

A Pic with Renz

Today: No swim
Yesterday we went to Pampanga for our monthly visit. It was basically a relaxing weekend as I slept off most of Saturday. Here's a picture of Renz and me yesterday in Pampanga. He was in a pretty good mood for picture-taking.

An Actor Came to See Me Yesterday

Well, that's only partially true. Okay, not true at all. Let me qualify that. The guy's name is Luis Gonzales and he was my classmate in college. For you pinoy oldies out there, his namesake "Luis Gonzales" was a popular movie actor back in the 60's and 70's. Also, this classmate didn't come to see me but a client of his. Apparently he's now in Sales and Marketing.

He just remembered that I worked at this company. We met almost 10 years ago at an ASEMEP symposium in a hotel ballroom when I was presenting one of my technical papers. So yesterday, he dropped by at my office. That's him below at the right with the "Romeo Vasquez"(another 70's icon) sunglasses. Did we change much after 10 years?

I've been getting some wisecrackin' remarks on the trophies, plaques and medals decked on my table and wall. Someone said it looked like a dead man's memorabilia in a museum. Yah, I know, it's envy. Maybe I could just put a label the wall saying "Sir Blackdove's Memorabilia". Hey, that doesn't sound so bad. "Ahoy, Sharkey! This be me treasure!"

Framed!

No Swim
I just realize the amount of time I need to spend on our Toastmasters Club's Blog Site. But I'm very sure it'll be worth it once done. I have some pics here and there that will definitely enliven up the site. It's in the works.

I see no point in hiding the Quartethlon medals stashed in a drawer somewhere in the house only to take up more precious space or laid out somewhere only to gather more dust. If I did that, I might just as well put them on my dog's collar. Hey there, Toastmaster Snoopy! It would've given her more pride doing her job as guard dog.

So what I did was to set them up on a horizontal picture frame - not the one that's hung but the one that has a brace at the back for setting on the table. The hung frames are a bad idea coz I realized these medals altogether were heavy! A hung frame that dropped would definitely break the glass.

The frame below wasn't so hard to do. All's needed is some felt paper backing, some paper clips and lots of white glue.

The felt paper was glued on the cardboard backing that came with the frame. The medals and ribbons are GLUED on the felt paper. Yah, GLUED, coz I don't plan on wearing them anytime soon. I just printed out the pics of the front of the medals so I don't forget how they look like. Putting some informative tabs on the events (when and where it happened) was a nice touch. By the way, the horizontal streaks of white haze that appear on the glass are reflections of the fluorescent ceiling lights at the office. Anyway, everyone who saw this frame was impressed.

There's another reason why I chose the table picture frame. There's no more space to hang frames on the wall!

New Swim Cap

1 x 50m free
I used the new swim trunks today but I didnt' stay too long as my tummy wasn't feeling well.

We picked up Sandra's report card from LaCo yesterday. Here's Sandra looking intently on her grades. After their checkup we went to SM Southmall yesterday coz it had a 3-day sale. We couldn't stay too long though as the 2 HS kids had schoolwork.

Sandra looking intently at her grades on the report card.

The old swim cap has become too dirty that I decided to buy a new one since SM was on sale anyway. I got the new one on the right at 10% off. DH found a way to clean the old one though and it was with petroleum jelly. How ingenious!


TMC Update:
I texted Doc Noy on his new cellphone for his feedback from last Saturday's contest. His last day at the office was last Friday and returned his old phone. Good thing Khris had Doc's new number and gave it to me. Doc Noy gave me some nice feedback on last Saturday's contest.

Okay, Fun's Over

TMC update:
Well at least I enjoyed the ride while it lasted. Today at the Division Level Eliminations, I only managed one medal - 2nd place in the Evaluation Speech event. Jun Lomuntad was the Division Champ and Voltaire was the Runner-Up. Congratulations guys !!!

DH and I were early today at the Casino Filipino. Apparently Harbor Toastmasters made the reservation at the casino and the casino staff just didn't have a clue. Luckily, there was plentiful parking space. At 7:00am, I'd suppose there'll be. Only Jun was the other guy there at the Forum Hall when we arrived. The platform had to be rearranged coz the way it was set orignally was too limiting for forward and backward movements.

"Cool as a Cucumber"
That's how Jun described me when I approached him while he was talking with Norrie (Leonor of Kimberly Clark). I think there's really no such thing as "cool as a cucumber". As I replied to other contestants when I got a similar remark, I told him that I approached this contest just like any other club meeting. And that is how I felt and LOOKED relaxed. But of course I get the cold sweaty palms especially when I'm expected to give my best.

Impromptu Speaking
The table topic was "If you were at a party abroad, who would you be most interested in talking to: a billionaire, a hollywood actress or an Olympic gold medalist." Norrie chose the billionare (Microsoft's Bill Gates). I chose the athlete (Ian Thorpe, Olympic Swimmer), Jun chose the athlete (Lance Armstrong, Tour-de-France Cyclist) and Volts chose the actress (Marlyn Monroe).

Evaluation Speech
Here I thought I really did good. The test speaker was Aret Esconde and the title of her speech was "A 15 peso ride and a Free Movie". Her speech was funny. I even called her Adette coz I heard the name wrong. Yikes! Sorry for that.

Prepared Speech
As DH said, the judges simply had other tastes and I agree. Wild gestures, lots of screaming that's bordering on the insane - that's the order of the day. Theater actors doing Sisa, Crispin and Basilio would have had a field day. Sure, "gestures" was the theme of the contest but come on, no need to be OA about it. Frankly I couldn't imagine World Champions of Public Speaking like Lance Miller, Jim Keys and many other great speakers doing too much theatrics on stage. I can't even imagine the good local speakers and lecturers doing the same. For me, I try to pattern my speech deliveries after the champion speakers coz they always look calm and professional onstage.

Singing Contest
The opening wasn't smooth coz I hit the lapel mic with my hand and lost it. Luckily the intro was long enough and I recovered okay as I still managed to clip the mic on. I don't know why I didn't place here. I thought I did good. I added more to my costumes: wrist bands, bling-bling necklace, a bandana. Bobbie even called my attention to say how she liked it! After all, it was she who suggested to put more on the costume. I had no lull in my song. DH suspects that maybe the judges just knew the other songs better. DH commented how one contestant sang off key and was out of sync with the music.

Here's me receiving the Certificate of Participation as Finalist from Gov. Rema.

Here are the contestants in last Saturday's contest (left-right): Me, Volts, Gov.Rema, Jun and Norrie.

Here's the awarding for the Evaluation Speech Contest (left-right): Bobbie, Khris, Rema, Jun, Me and Lolet. I was holding on my medal coz it was shabbily made. The ribbon didn't loop around the pendant. It even fell off as it was worn on me by Rema.

DH noticed that other than Doc Noy, my club didn't have anybody else as compared to the other clubs which were well represented. DH joked that I was "self-supporting" in that sense. Still, I'm glad she was there and I also got to meet new friends as well like Grace and Mabel from MetroDrug and Aret from DHL.

(Seated left-right: Grace, Mabel, Aret (test speaker) and DH; Standing left-right: Voltaire, Khris, Lolet and Me)

Overall, I thought I performed very well and was a winner. After all, I was prepared and I did my best in this contest. Somehow the judges just saw it the other way. What an experience! Time to move on!

Today after the contest, DH and I were mulling on what to put in our club's Toastmasters website. She gave some very insightful inputs on the pros and cons of my planned action items. Some of these inputs were implications that I never even thought of.

Sinus Congestion

Sculling:
I saw a frog today at the pool. It was still kicking when I jumped in, but after few minutes, it just died. I didn't realize it'll die that quickly in chorine water. Well, I texted Karen coz I learned the night before that Che and her partner needed a frog to dissect for her Biology class. I got no return text. Just the same, I picked up the dead froggy just in case somebody wanted it. Well, nobody did.

TMC update:
Well, tomorrow's the Division K Level Eliminations for the Toastmasters Quartethlon Contest. I'm feeling a little better now thanx to a "therapy" treatment of Carbocisteine for the sinus congestion caused by allergies. My voice is also improving.

Final Costume

Yesterday:
50 x 3 free
Despite Typhoon Luis' looming, I proceeded to the pool. The sky was dark but the water still felt fine. The downer was the bits of styrofoam in the water. Apparently some shmuck from the weekend's swim felt it dandy to crush a styrofoam cup and scatter the debris in the water. I wasn't personally too worried. It's just that these bits may cause havoc in the pool's filtration and gum up the pumps or whatever.

TMC Update
Here's the final costume I wore at last Saturday's contest. It's a vest with sequins and I wore it over a yellow T-shirt with folded-up sleeves. DH said I looked more like Bruce Springsteen rather than Phil Collins in this getup.


I learned from Doc Noy that Roel's song "Manila" was the one that was disqualified 'coz it wasn't strictly "60's or 70's Rock 'n Roll". Too bad. I thought he put some creativity in that song - with the travelling bag, pull out shirt and some choreo. Doc said he liked my choreo and that my gaps in singing weren't too obvious as I had too much dancing going on. He did comment that I still looked a little stiff. Gosh, I need to practice more. It feels completely different now that I perform solo on stage as compared to when I was with "The Blenders" group. Solo singing means it's entirely up to you to dish out the lyrics and choreography. If you make a mistake, it's ALL you.

Today:
50 x 5 free
Well most of the styro bits were gone. I really didn't plan on going swimming today but the day was just too nice. It was sunny and bright. With the "ber" months now around, the morning air has a slight cold whiff to it. It won't be too long that the pool water acquires this temp too.

TMC Update:
Tomorrow's Doc Noy's Farewell TMC Meeting with us and I'll be a prepared speech evaluator for one of the nurses, Agnes.

What a Speech Contest!

Oh my! Yesterday (Sat), I won the Overall Champion trophy for Area 78 in this year's Toastmasters Quartethlon - Area Eliminations. The quarterthlon is a gruelling speech contest made up of 4 events - and all competitors are entered in those 4 events. The four events, in their sequence this year are: Impromptu Speaking, Evaluation Speech, Singing Contest and Prepared Speech.

And now for the Quartethlon pics (courtesy of Volts):
Here are the contestants in the afternoon session (Area 77 and 78) and the governors:

From left to right: Me, Arnaldo Tayao (Meralco South), Marty (Proctor & Gamble Cabuyao), Pol de Guzman (Diageo), Area78 Governor Bobbie Galang, Roel Macarrubo (Philips Calamba), Division K Governor Rema Manzano, Dang (Exel), Voltaire Victoria (IAME), Area77 Governor Khris Albano, Area75 Governor Lolet Gabay and Area76 Governor Beth Pableo.

Here are the champions in Area 78 and the governors:

From left to right: Area78 Governor Bobbie Galang, Me (Champion), Division K Governor Rema Manzano, Aldo (Backup), and Area77 Governor Khris Albano. The four clubs entered in Area78 are: ON Semiconductor TMC, Meralco South TMC, Proctor & Gamble Cabuyao TMC and Exel TMC.

Some highlights:

Impromptu Speaking (2nd Place):
The topic that was given to our Area was a little cryptic for my taste. It went like this: "The road to the head is through the heart." Whoa. It took me a painfully long time to cook up something to deliver. When I was ready to speak, I thought Gina Mapua was ready to sleep! I used the SMG (Story Message Gain) format and talked about my new found passion in toastmasters. And for that, I won silver or second place to Mang Aldo. I knew that Mang Aldo's impromptu speech was a winner after I heard the thunderous applause from outside the theater.

Evaluation Speech (1st Place):
This is where contestants evaluate a test speaker and the competition is on the Evaluation Speech to be delivered. I was a test speaker once at the Bureau of Customs contest. I thought I did really good in this event, but I didn't know for sure coz I was the last contestant. The test speaker in this contest was Erlinda and she showed lots of enthusiasm in her speech "To be or not to be - a Toastmater". I loved her speech and told her so. Her introduction, her perceived benefits and her challenges on toastmasters were uplifting.

Singing Contest (1st Place):
What a riot this event was! I felt bad though for Mang Aldo from Meralco South (who eventually became the Second Overall Champion) with his good singing voice. He was almost disqualified coz he wanted to sing "Rock Around the Clock" in acapella. Apparently, there were contest rules this year disallowing acapella. A quick thinker, he salvaged the situation by getting Marty's (P & G Cabuyao TMC president and contestant) guitar and singing "When I'm Sixty-Four", dedicated to Doc Noy at that. There were two disqualifications in this event, but I don't know exactly who. One was undertimed and I thought it was Marty's "Twist and Shout" coz I didn't see the green light. I suspect Mang Aldo was the other one. I think some judges may have not accepted his piece as a Rock 'n Roll song. But it's just my guess. Taking second place in this event was Dang or Minerva from Exel with her piece "Happy Together" by the Turtles?

My singing? Yikes! I missed a few lines. I should've brought my lyrics sheet for a final review. But somehow the choreo and the big gestures helped bigtime. Maybe the fact that it wasn't a predictable Elvis or Beatles number plus its super bouncy beat contributed to the audience impact. I even got the feedback from Mang Aldo and the others, "Dancer ka pala!?!"

Prepared Speech (1st Place):
This was a tough one. I heard that the judges really had a hard time and there was a loooongggg deliberation for a tiebreaker. Mang Aldo's speech "The Arm Wrestling Match" was super! He had a very good modulated voice. I just thought he shouted unnecessarily in some parts. My ears were ringing. I tried modulation too but to emote more on the discourse portions so that the audience would FEEL the story. There was also an injection of Christianity teaching in his speech which some religion-averse toastmasters may not find appealing. My speech turned out to be dramatic but entertaining too and I thought I had more gestures - which was the theme of the contest. In my closing paragraph, I thought I saw Gina Mapua wipe a tear from her eyes. The closing which I added helped deliver the crucial message, thanx to Doc Noy's coaching. This speech has been evaluated quite a number of times and has transformed many times to the current version.

Happenings at Area 77
Voltaire from IAME was the champion for Area 77. What a fantastic costume he used for his song "Proud Mary" by Tom Jones. The guy wore an Afro wig, gloves, leather jacket and boots! Roel Macarrubo from Philips sang "Manila" by Hotdog complete with a bag and a take-off polo. Pol Guzman from Diageo sang "Twist and Shout" by the Beatles with a pretty bouncy dance choreo during the interlude. All that jumping popped out the transmitter of the lapel microphone and I thought he'll stomp on it and break it. But he noticed it and quickly held it - nice recovery.

I noticed that the younger guys used sports figures as a theme in their speeches - Michael Jordan, a basketball team (which I forgot), while the older guys used their own life stories. Hmmmm...

Here's me at home:


Here are the medals:

Front Side:


Back Side:


And the trophy:

I immensely enjoyed this year's Quartethlon albeit a long-winded one. Everything started late. But as I told Doc Noy, my primary motivation to join this year's contest - my first contest actually - was to ENJOY it. I continually imagined how much fun it would be after hearing that the Singing Contest's theme will be Rock 'n Roll. That's what got me excited. And that is how I approached it - for the fun of it. The medals and the trophy were the added bonus and of course are nice. I really admire Gina Mapua, Mang Jimmy, the Governors and the Organizers for their continued support, untiring efforts and dedication to the toastmasters cause.

The Division Eliminations will be on Saturday. Yup, a week later. I'll be meeting Noree from Kimberly for Area 75, Ernesto Lomuntad for Area 76, Voltaire from IAME for Area 77.

Costume

50 x 5 free
Quartethlon Speech Contest Update
I'm still thinking what costume I'll be wearing. Here's what I originally had in mind. See how a few sequins can make a difference:

A New Regular Routine

50 x 5 free
Recently, I've been having a routine that works really great. After hearing the Morning Rush Top Ten first batch at 6:30am, I take Che and Karen to their drop off point near Mercury Drug where they take the tricycle to school. From there I go straight to the pool. I still get to hear the 7:00am spiel of Chico and Delamar. I do a 30 to 40 minute swim and get out at 7:45am to shower. After the shower, I still catch the 8:00am batch of Top Ten on the way to the office! And I realize I've been doing this routine for days (weeks?) now. But it doesn't stop there.

When I get to the office, I take my "morning fix" - a bowl of half rice, scrambled (sometimes fried) egg, a big glob of catsup and a glass of black coffee. Funny, how I riled a former boss for taking half rice and one egg, EVERYDAY, coz I was thinking he was just too cheap. I put coffee in glass coz it stays warm longer that way than in a cup. And I take it just black - no sugar, no cream, no milk, nothing else. It's not exactly the healthiest meal, but it works for me.

There's one thing that keeps me wondering though when I pick up the scrambled eggs at the company cafeteria. There's ALWAYS a queue of folks waiting for the eggs being fried or scrambled. They don't get the ones already on the saucers on the table, even if these were just cooked only 2 minutes ago! I mean, what's up with that? Do you absolutely need eggs (enough to queue for them) that are only newly cooked?

TMC update:
I was at Diageo in Laguna Technopark with Doc Noy last night to be evaluated for my Advanced Speech #2 of The Entertaining Speaker manual (Resources for Entertainment). I've cut so much of the original speech to ensure I don't go over the time limit. It's tough. It worried me when their amber(yellow) lit up coz it appeared to be red. It was actually orange.

I found out that they had visitors (outsiders) who frequent their club. Interesting. I also evaluated Fritz on his 3rd speech. I had an interesting conversation with Doc Noy too since he rode in my car - his motivation at toastmasters, what jumpstarted him for his nursing career and his future plans in the US. I feel so tired today, but I still need to revise the ending of my speech as well as work on the jacket for the Rock 'n Roll Singing contest.

Choreo Practice

Yesterday: 50 x 5 free
Tried today turning from a prone position (treading) to a supine position and then back to prone position in one (almost!) continuous motion. I thought it was cool.
TMC (Toastmasters Club)
No meeting again tomorrow. (groan) Doc Noy called me late in the afternoon to say there will be no meeting tomorrow. I heard that the mentored engineers didn't show much interest to join the club. Ah well.

Today: 50 x 4 free.
Had to cut short my workout today to deposit some checks.
TMC update
I practiced early morning today at 4am the brief choreo for my song at toastmasters. Why 4am? Well, kids were all over the living room last night that it was tough to practice without getting distracted. The choreo takes a little walking to connect with the audience. As such, this will entail a little more floor space and so I moved the tables. Practice went okay. My legs tire out easily nowadays compared to when I was much younger.

Now that we no longer have the comparatively heavy wooden table, it's much easier now to create space. Last month, we bought another plastic table for study purposes. The kids are getting bigger and all need som table workspace. The center table as shown below is still good enough for Renz but for the rest it's getting small.


So last month, we bought another of these plastic with metal legs tables from Ace. It's quite sturdy and can be used outdoors although we only use it inside. So now we have 2 of these tables, we brought the old wooden center table to Pampanga for safekeeping. The two tables put together ALMOST takes the same footprint as the old center table.


The great thing about these plastic tables is they are light and easy to slide to wherever. With seats everywhere, the kids could simply position the tables where they want them.

Has it been that long?

My last entry was August 11? Gosh, has it been THAT long? I guess for some time there, I just lost interest in updating the blog. Not that there wasn't anything to post. There were lots actually, but I was just too lazy/ unmotivated to post. Fact is, I've got so much in my mind lately - mostly on career change of sorts, that really distracts me from my usual routine.

I attended and evaluated (of course) at the Charter Installation of the Kimberly Clark Toastmasters Club last August 18. This was held at the Poquito Mas Resto at Westgate. The place is nice. The club took the function room upstairs for the proceedings.

That's Doc Noy giving his speech. I evaluated TM Hanika Dimaano for her speech "Ma Flamme" (French for "My Passion"). Midway, my evaluation turned humorous when I said "When I went through your body. No, not YOUR body..." The "body" I really referred to is the Body of the speech as opposed to the Opening and the Conclusion. Whew, I didn't realize THAT one would cause so much laughter. The laughter took so much of my evaluation time and as usual, I went overtime. It was also so nice of KCPI to give some freebies to us guests. I enjoyed the charter installation, my first actually, and the food was grreaattt!

See all my Toastmasters Speeches online here!

Swim update:
As fate would have it (doncha love these cliches?), I renewed my annual swimming membership for a whopping Php3000! Yup, that's DOUBLE the old rate, for cryin' out loud. But it's still a good deal for me since I'm in the pool almost every day. I've done a couple of swims per week recently. I found a 1-peso coin today to add to the Blackdove's Treasure Trove.