Tag Archives: typhoon

Meet My New Friend, “NeuroSpark”

Posted on by

I think everyone already got their AI friend – Meta AI. Mine just messaged me a couple of days ago. I nicknamed it “NeuroSpark,” which means igniting insights. It looks like I finally found the friend who got an answer to all of my questions, even the weirdest ones. 😅 Though Meta also has a disclaimer that responses might be inaccurate. Take a look at some of our convos below.

If you plan on dating an introvert/geek, try asking Meta AI for some tips. NeuroSpark’s answers got me so amused though I must admit they all hit the core. Relate much? lol

I still have to do my research if the concept of soulmate or twin flame connection is also biblical.

Technology For Mankind’s Survival

While you can ask Meta AI all sorts of questions, nonsense or not, some of the information can be helpful to jumpstart your research on a particular topic. Right now, I am utilizing NeuroSpark to come up with consolidated ideas when it comes to disaster preparedness. I felt it was about time we maximized what technology can offer us after the onslaught of TS Kristine and Super Typhoon Leon, which left damages and losses on a massive scale.

My only prayer now is that we will continue to look for ways how we can better prepare ourselves against the worsening effects of climate change. Science and technology might be the only options we have right now to increase humanity’s chances of survival. I also hope people will be receptive to every solution that the government and research institutions propose.

Once again, I will emphasize the need for having an Emergency Go Bag or a Bug Out Bag (BOB) for each member of the household. If it is possible, have a Bug Out Vehicle (BOV) as well and a Bug Out Location (BOL). I have been a member of prepper groups since 2018, and I’ve been learning quite a lot from some of the members who have been kind enough to share their knowledge and expertise when it comes to doomsday prepping and survival.

Other essentials in your BOB – the dog tag can be replaced with any ID.
Flints are a lifesaver if you don’t know how to make fire the traditional way using wood or regular stones.

Defense For The Vulnerable

To all the women and parents reading this article, I’d like to encourage you to start educating yourselves and your children when it comes to survival skills because we are the most vulnerable as far as survival is concerned. Men will always fight and defend on the frontlines to protect vulnerable groups in society. Sadly, this is also the reason why there is a high probability of losing a huge number of them, and when there are only a very few of our men left, the women, the elderly, and the children will be left to fend for themselves.

Thus, self-defense techniques and tools are a necessity. If you have the time and the resources to enroll in a self-defense class, the better. I found the tactical pens a more practical alternative than pepper sprays given that you know how to use these pens. I always carry a tactical pen in the bag that I use every day. You can put it in the bag in such a way where that part of the pen that you use for writing is the first thing that you see when you open the zipper and not the sharp edge.

This tactical pen is made from high-grade metal because it’s a bit heavy, which is necessary in applying force when you strike at something.
I bought this kit a couple of years ago, and some preppers consider this as a toy. But in my honest opinion, it is not. I already tested each item at the farm, and so far they are very reliable tools as long as they are utilized according to their intended use.

What I love about the tactical pen is that you can use it to break a glass in case you’re trapped. I already tried it with an empty glass jar, but if it’s going to be a glass window or any thicker glass, it will require a lot of force. The Walking Dead actors just made it look easy for us when stabbing the head and fracturing the skull with a knife. lol But believe me when I say that in actuality, it is not that easy, especially for women. We just don’t have that much strength compared to men unless we’re athletes.

Theory And Application

If you’re wondering how I was able to say this, I experienced cutting a coconut branch using a bolo when we were at the farm. And no, I wasn’t able to cut it on my first try. If you haven’t summed up all the strength you’ve got, you will fail. lol It’s like you have to summon and muster all the anger you have in this world so you have the force to cut just one branch.

Our farm workers also made it look easy for us. That’s why I suggest raw camping for those who would like to try how it feels like to survive in the wild. We have to replicate the wilderness when applying what we learned because that’s exactly what’s going to happen when chaos takes place. It’s important that we not only have the idea on how it’s done but also get to feel how it’s really done.

Here are other possible essentials to consider when preparing:

Use the NOAH app to assess hazards and risks in your area i.e. flooding, storm surges, landslides, etc.
These oversized sako bags are very handy for emergency packing if you need to transfer stuff to an elevated area. But here’s a tip, do not overload it with very heavy stuff because you won’t be able to lift it. Try to balance the items inside the bag from bulky but light stuff to small but heavy items. This bag only costs 150php each.
I am exploring the option of integrating this to a floating dock to prevent the raft from being punctured by sharp, floating debris.
This is the DIY floating dock that I asked NeuroSpark about earlier.

When God Takes Away, He Replaces

My family and I were not exempted from the destruction brought about by TS Kristine – a damaged fence, broken glass doors, damaged crops, and heaps of stuff soaking wet from floodwaters. It took me a week to finish washing them, and we’re still not yet done cleaning even with the help of our yaya.

But I am grateful that these are the only damages we’ve experienced because they could’ve been worse if it was a super typhoon that hit us. It’s like God has shown us the weak spots in the house that need to be modified to be able to adapt to the extreme weather conditions brought about by climate change.

Although I believe God’s ultimate reminder about possessions and material wealth that can be destroyed by calamities and wars is this:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in or steal.” – Matthew 6:19-21

Our baby bunso offered to give me moral support – by sleeping on my newly washed clothes while I’m folding them. Itupi na rin ba kita, Polly? 😅
Our senior Peekah also offered her moral support by sleeping with me anywhere I sleep because we’re not yet done sorting all the clutter. 😀
And then Netflix-ing to also declutter ze mind. lol I just finished watching the Kingdom trilogy – superb fight scenes though nothing beats Rurouni Kenshin still.

The good thing about cleaning up the house after it’s been flooded is you get to unearth a whole lot of memorabilia just in time for the celebration of All Souls Day. I found these old photos again and combined with our recent family photos, we now have five generations of memories to reminisce back home. Thank God the floodwaters didn’t get to them.

Great Grandparents
Great Grandmother, Grandparents, Uncles, & Aunties (Mother Side)
Grandparents
My parents with my grandma, uncles, and aunties.

The Ginete Family Memory Stash
During my eldest sister’s wedding in 2002.
During my brother’s military wedding in 2015.
A special place for Mom at home.
We miss you, Mommy. ❤

Speaking of modifications, it is about time that every structure has to be retrofitted in a manner that will make it calamity-proof. For the new structures, designing them will be a lot easier keeping in mind the examples of structures that were severely impacted and damaged by a particular calamity. And while some would say that planting more trees and mitigating the risks of climate change by natural means is no longer applicable because it’s already too late, I believe it still matters that we keep on trying.

Thanks be to God for taking good care of these flowering trees we planted last year. They are all taller than me already.
Kapag sobrang pagod ka na, ang hirap na mag-smile lalo na kapag nanginginig na mga kalamnan mo. lol So Platypus pose na lang, ‘di na kaya ang “eyyyyy.” 😀 That’s the Palawan Cherry Blossom behind me, btw.
One-year old Fire Tree. This is already a new branch – I think the main trunk was damaged by strong winds last year.
Newly-planted fruit tree back home by my sister and Dad – Calamansi.

And with the help of technology (like NeuroSpark) and prayers, I have high hopes that future generations will be prepared for what is to come. I’m also back in my “womancave” in the city to recharge, strategize, and plan, but I missed last Sunday’s service. So I thought I’d head over Victory BGC’s YouTube channel to watch previous church services, and Pastor Pat’s real talk is just what I needed. I am very much looking forward to the upcoming preaching about the end times. Do watch out for that, too. Let’s make disaster preparation and survival a combination of spiritual and practical applications. 🙏

We trust in You, Lord.

Typhoon Yolanda Reminder: As A Filipino, I Will Always Be A Christian Bicolana

Posted on by

© Biboi Hilotin (https://www.facebook.com/BiboiHilotin)

In light of the recent calamity that killed thousands of people in the Visayas and Mindanao regions affecting several  neighboring provinces including my hometown in Bicol here in the Philippines and as a Filipino, I would like to ask for your support, in any way that you possibly can, for the victims of the super typhoon Yolanda.

Please visit this link for a list of legitimate organizations/relief centers where you could send in your donations: http://www.wheninmanila.com/verified-legit-ways-to-help-super-typhoon-haiyan-yolanda-victims-how-to-donate-or-volunteer-with-legitimate-organizations/.

Or if you cannot, please join us in praying for our fellow countrymen. We, the Filipinos, will be extremely grateful for any help and support that you could offer.

To my dear fellow Filipinos, though we may have severely suffered, rest in the fact that we are never alone in this. We will rise and rise we will with the help of our fellow brothers and sisters from all around this world. Despite the adversities that have brought us down to our knees, our kindred spirits will remain to be strong and steadfast. Our cries for plea, our tears for our losses, our battered and tired bodies – it is our strong spirits that will never falter.

I pray that through these all, may the Lord God Almighty continue to shower us with His love, protection, guidance and provisions.

Continue to hope, continue to pray, continue to strive in finding the good in what was left – again, we are never alone.

May God bless us all!

———————————————————————————————————————————————-

Wherever God would take me, whatever God would give me, I will bring with me two identities: first, I am a Christian and second, I am a Bicolana.

The majestic Mt. Mayon and I.

The majestic Mt. Mayon and I.

I can never be more proud of anything I have and whoever I have become other than those two I have mentioned.

Why a Christian? I am nothing and nobody without my God, first and foremost. My identity is in Him. I need not say more as it is what it already is.

Why a Bicolana then? Ahh, this is most likely where I’ll be explaining more.

I grew up in the province. I spent more than half of my life there. As of writing, that is. There’s no other place that I could ever call ‘home’ except Bulan. Yes, that is my hometown, specifically located in the south of Luzon island, Sorsogon City, Philippines.

Bulan, Sorsogon

Bulan, Sorsogon

It has a distance of 667 kilometres (414 mi) from Manila, 63 kilometres (39 mi) from the province’s capital Sorsogon City, 20 kilometres (12 mi) from the town of Irosin and 30 kilometres (19 mi) from the town of Matnog. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulan,_Sorsogon)

Sorsogon City is a coastal area, surrounded by beaches of all sand color. From white, to pink, to black –  you name it, we have it. Rich of natural resources, fishing and farming have been the sources of livelihood of almost all the Bulanons (that’s how we generally call ourselves).

Fishing

Fishing

If there is one value that being a Bicolana has taught me, it would be this – knowing your roots. In other words, learn to look back from your humble beginnings. Bulan is the one thing that has taught me how it is to be humble and to be grateful. Humility bespeaks when the heart is in awe of the mediocre. I know you are going to agree with me right there.

I came from a family of farmers. My parents, my grandparents and the parents before them all came from humble beginnings. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them. Gratitude is what I could offer to my ancestors, for the sacrifices and hard work that they have invested in providing the best for their families.

I came from a generation wherein I don’t have to go to the fields and do the farming myself and go home with sweaty clothes covered in mud just to pay for all of my expenses and supply my needs. An experience I never had to go through and yet something that I would want to go through.

CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles along with my grandparents.

CIRCA 1980s: My mom, aunts, uncles along with my grandparents.

They say that for someone to appreciate the value of something less than its market value and more of its sentimental value, you have to work for it and have it like how it is usually done and achieved. You have to sweat it out, so to speak.

I was listening to the podcast of Pastor Christian Flores regarding Victory’s new series entitled “It’s Not About The Money” two Sundays ago and he mentioned about the story of a farmer and how this farmer has invested his earnings in acquiring an even bigger barn where he could store more which actually resulted to his own destruction.

That made me thought about our farm, our farmers and what do we really get from it. For starters, our farm house did not change though how many years and decades have passed, we are earning just enough, we are still living frugal lives though we have acquired some possessions through time – still, I think it is not about the money. Money, for us, is something that has to do with survival but never to accumulate great wealth and live grandiose, rich lives.

I might be speaking out of righteousness here but if you will personally ask me, that is how I think it should be. I do not wish to dwell on this matter then and will just leave all the explaining to our Pastors as they lead us on with the series – a reason for you to stay tuned for our upcoming podcasts or better yet visit a nearby Victory church: http://victory.org.ph/. (Sorry for the shameless plugging, but I felt you would understand it better if the explaining would come from our church leaders).

victoryqc.org

victoryqc.org

This is the season of harvesting and when I went home during the holidays last November 1 and 2, I chanced upon the last harvest in our farm. I have skin asthma and as much as I should be staying away from hay, I know it would not stop me from going along with my Dad. I suffered the consequences later on – cough got worse and itchy rashes came out that last for usually a week leaving black spots on your skin that last for about how many months.

Anyway, the last time I have been with my Dad during harvesting was when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I could still remember how our parents would ask us (not really me as I was way too young, but my sisters and brother) to help in drying the “palay” we have harvested so they would be sold to the millers for a good price before they sell it to the market.

And yes, how could I forget all the scurrying here and there, to and fro when dark clouds come and heavy rains start to pour. It only means sweeping the grains, piling and covering them up as FAST as you can to prevent them from getting wet, thus lowering the chances of getting a low price as “palay” buyers measure the moisture content of the rice grains. The drier the grain is, the higher its market value.

Harvesting and threshing of palay.

Harvesting and threshing of palay.

My Dad is not a farmer per se. He is a civil engineer who juggled two occupations at the same time – that of a farmer and a superintendent at the National Irrigation Administration in the Bicol region (officially at San Ramon, OIC in Masbate and Sorsogon City). He is now 74 years old, retired from his engineering career and yet a continuing farmer. I have always admired my Dad, how at his age, still manages to do what he would always do at the farm despite his arthritis, gout attacks, hypertension, cataract and other illnesses of the aged. Although we don’t dry the harvested rice grains anymore to lessen the stress level of all the scurrying and hurrying, tending the farm is still a busy work to do.

I went to the farm with my Dad not to harvest the grains myself and have them threshed out but witness how it is usually done. I have to get into the particulars as to how to do this and that. Well, I might consider farming as my job someday. Yes, “Tin” the farm girl. *wink* I think I heard my Kuya’s sarcastic chuckle back there again. Haha Yeah, right. And yes, I wanted to observe how our farmers do it – our trusted and loyal workers. I admired them more than I have admired an office employee (no offense to office workers). But hard labor is no easy job. Exposed in the heat of the sun, bending over for hours either planting rice seedlings or harvesting them, soaked in mud or inhaling the itchy hay dust when threshing are, for me, among the most challenging tasks.

I closely looked at all of them. I saw Tio Digoy and Tio Kadog – they are the oldest among all of them. They have been working for my Dad since I was a kid. Now, their sons are working for us as well. I have learned to love them for all that they have put up for me and my family. I am praying that someday, through us, their sons, daughters and grandchildren will have a better future because of their parents and grandparents’ hard work. Though that means we might lose workers in our farms, it would also be equivalent to giving everyone the chance to have better lives than what they have now.

I am praying too that someday, there will no longer be a need for manual labor and everything will be run by machines, operated in a clean office from planting to harvesting rice. And that goes as well for harvesting coconuts and converting them into copra. The team of Tio Digoy also does them for us. Skilled, they really are. My family and I will always be grateful to them. We will always be grateful to Him for any blessing that He has bestowed as well as for His guidance and protection not just to me and my family but to our workers and their families as well.

Coconuts being made into copra.

Coconuts being made into copra.

So if you think this is what I do in Bicol:

http://us.123rf.com

http://us.123rf.com

Think again, because this is what I usually do:

"Tin, The Farm Girl"

“Tin, The Farm Girl”

Well, aside from washing the dishes, cleaning the house, feeding the pets, etc. and having a little vacation time. We have no helpers/”yayas” back home and here in Manila, by the way.

Now, that is who I really am. Look back, give back  and be grateful.