Now the search for my blog covers all Star Trek genres. Cool.

I am sitting at home, nursing a phantom migraine so that I could cop out from work and do some writing and last minute shopping.

I truly am dreading going to the mall.

SM Fairview is crowded enough on regular days, I wonder how it will look three days before Christmas. In truth, in only shopping for three people: Lianne (my cuz), my mom, and my dad.

Dad gets a sport shirt, mom gets sneakers (might change my mind though), and Lianne gets Sugarfree's newest CD.

I haven't really heard of Sugarfree, since I hardly listen to the radio while Lianne's is practically stuck on NU 107. To be honest, I don't really have much taste for the Filipino rock. Except for maybe Yano,which I have come to appreciate in my more mature age.

...

My dad is on the phone from with someone from Leyte.

When I saw the landslide on CNN I didn't really make much out of it. Landslides have become quite a common occurence in the forest areas. Too little trees, and with the weather down there it's easy for the ground to just give.

Anyway, my dad was asking his friend how he was doing and if he knew someone who died.

His friend said that the whole barangay had been wiped out and that the death toll had already risen to 200. I think even the mayor and his wife died.

The drama was the headlining picture this morning, with Foreign Secretary Blas Ople's burial cropping underneath in two medium sized shots.

One of the places that were hit was Maaisin, and I remember from work that they have a watershed there. One of the more successful watersheds, I might add.

I keep remembering the arguments that they kept having in the watershed workshop last june, whether a complete watershed should be devoid of forestland or should they have a couple of trees in some "strategic areas".

There are more technical terms but I really am not interested in learning them. I'm concerned for the environment, but it really isn't my interest. It's not...a passion.

Anyway, I kept wondering if the Maasin Watershed had something to do with the landslide. I can't remember if it's a watershed with trees on the perimeter, or if it was near any ofthe areas that were hit at all.

The arguments on that particular topic were contradicting. I suppose in the end it all comes down to luck and opinion: some watersheds work with little forest cover, some with a little bit more forestland to keep the ground from breaking up.

...

I guess i'm disappointed in myself for not being more affected. So there was a landslide, 200 people died...big deal. It wasn't anyone I knew...but it was someone that somebody else knew. It could have easily been my dad's friend.

I'm not saying that I should be in hysterics on each and every disaster and calamity that's going to happen, but that I should at least express some concern over this. And yet here I am, still hung up on my very short shopping list.

It's crazy.

A lot of kids today are the same thing. If 9/11 hadn't happened to the dead-bolted US, and it wasn't packaged and sold in such a clever way, I don't think the people of my generation would have cried such long tears for strangers.

We have become numb to the tragedies of today, and maybe tomorrow.

I remember sitting in my desk when they were about to bomb Iraq. A part of me was scared that Iraq would send one of it's non-existent nuclear warheads to Clarke or Subic and i'd melt from the shockwave while sitting on my desk.

And I hated my desk that time. I was in the reception eare and everyone kept looking down at me since I was the girl who answered phones!

Of course, that didn't happen. But I still had nightmares for it about two or three days about bombs dropping over my head.

That was, I think, one of the biggest things to ever have affected me. It was all subtle, but with the way I held myself and watched the news...There was an underlying tension present in everyone at that time. Everyone was going about their lives, but once in a while, they'd stop and wonder "Am I going to die? Are the bombs going to hit?"

It may seem a bit too much, but the possibility certainly exists, and we all felt that possibility.

...

Oh well, world peace for this christmas then.