moving my online home

blogging, mulling July 26, 2014 Leave a comment

From now on I will be blogging at rinabee.wordpress.com. Why? Here’s what I wrote in my new blog’s About page:

Someone once told me that I’ve gotten my happy ending, and in the typical fairy tale sense, yes, I guess I have. Married to a wonderful man and blessed with lovely twin daughters, I am now living my happy ending. But as the fairy tales don’t tell you, living a happy ending still need a lot of work. Things can get difficult, challenging, maybe even ugly. It’s not really happy every step of the way, and that’s okay. Because a story that ended at a happy ending is exactly that—it’s ended. And my story is still being told. And every day, I decide to live my happy ending. And all the good happy endings always come with magic and adventures.

gandalf quote

I used to blog, on and off for many years, in howling at the moon, but as I took up blogging again, I realized that maybe it’s time to close that particular chapter in my story. Every post in that blog was like a journey worth taking, but I’m tracing a different journey now, as the story still unfolds.

 

still howling

blogging, this motherhood thing February 11, 2014 Leave a comment

Wow. No blog post for one and a half years. I’ve never been a very prolific blogger, but even for me one and a half years is something. But you know how it goes: you keep meaning to write, then somehow you can’t find time to write, or the mood to write, or get that elusive starting paragraph that’s supposed to set you off. But really, I know these are just excuses. Ultimately the reason is because you don’t sit down and just write.

Also, to be fair, the past couple of years I had also been a bit preoccupied making and raising these two little things:

Image

my twin girls, Dahon and Ulap, when they were 10 months

And so, as I try to get back into blogging, I also know that this blog will no longer be the same. There will now be stuff on diapers and feeding and baby milestones and pediatrician visits, things that were absolutely alien to me before but now constitute pretty much most of my world. However, I still hope to write about the usual things I used to love writing about—random musings, anecdotes of encounters with friends and strangers alike, travel, work, the environment, maybe a bit of current affairs. I haven’t quite figured out how it will work. I’m hoping for balance, I’m hoping for variety, I’m hoping for humor and yes, readers and maybe new blogger friends. But most of all, I’m just hoping to write.

@MMDA account, let’s take it to the next level?

commentary September 28, 2012 Leave a comment
  1. Forensic pathologist Dr. Raquel Fortun tweeted @MMDA about her reaction to a @GMANews story:
  2. Doc4Dead
    @MMDA your earthquake container vans contain lime acdg to @gmanews, so the dead won’t smell. Now who sold you that idea? The apog vendor?
    Raquel Fortun
    Thu, Sep 27 2012 08:30:29
  3. Doc4Dead
    @MMDA whether you have a dozen dead or thousands, no amount of apog will help. The dead will smell. You will just destroy the bodies.
    Raquel Fortun
    Thu, Sep 27 2012 08:34:35
  4. I checked @MMDA’s timeline (it was almost midnight), and sure enough, it was awake and buzzing, busy posting traffic updates and answering motorists’ queries on traffic. I knew there was a very slim chance that the account would engage in an apog discussion, and I wryly made this comment to @Doc4Dead:
  5. wolverinabee
    @Doc4Dead and the hapless night shift @mmda twitter operator looks up from traffic reports and scratches his/her head
    Rina
    Thu, Sep 27 2012 08:41:22
  6. Doc4Dead
    @wolverinabee @MMDA Na-upset ako alam mo naman basta patay. Now I lay me down to sleep pasensiya na but I must tweet!
    Raquel Fortun
    Thu, Sep 27 2012 08:51:35
  7. wolverinabee
    @Doc4Dead yes,source of a lot of your frustrations. goodnight,maybe @mmda will have an answer in the morning, or @gmanews a follow up story!
    Rina
    Thu, Sep 27 2012 08:57:00
  8. So this got me thinking, maybe it’s time for the @MMDA account, which has received its own share of praise and appreciation from netizens for its real-time updates and active social media interaction on traffic and flood situations, to level up its engagement and also discuss other initiatives of the agency? Its specialty right now is providing real-time updates, especially on traffic, which I guess is also the main reason why people follow the account, but how about also fostering the mentality of preparedness/planning among its followers?
    According to RA 7924, the law which created MMDA, the scope of the agency’s services include:  traffic management, solid waste management, flood control and sewerage management, urban renewal, health and sanitation, and public safety. It is on the public safety aspect to which the apog issue is related to, since MMDA is tasked to formulate and implement programs for “preparedness for preventive or rescue operations during times of calamities and disasters such as conflagrations, earthquake, flood and tidal waves.” I’m sure that there is a lot that MMDA can discuss on its initiatives on these services, and lots of room for social media engagement as well. Yes, do let us have the traffic updates, but sometimes, let’s talk about apog too.

It’s More Fun in the Philippines

travel notes January 10, 2012 Comments: 2

It was really fun going through several years’ worth of photos to come up with this set, and the way that social media participation is really driving the hype around this campaign is great. Although of course, using social media has its risks, as the whole it’s-more-fun-in-the-philippines meme has also been used by people to point out the not so fun things about the Philippines. Some are in really bad taste, but some will also make you think.

But even while I was working on the images, I began to sense that my attention was already waning, and I found myself wondering what DOT has in store next after this initial hoopla. I’m hoping that beyond promoting the country’s destinations and how its people can make the tourist’s experience more fun, DOT will also work to make sure that the local communities hosting the tourist destinations fully benefit from tourism (not just the investors who may not even hail from the area). Of course, measures should also be undertaken to ensure that the ecological integrity of the area will not be compromised by the tourism-induced developments. Boracay is a magical island and all that, but it is NOT a best practice on how a tourist destination should be developed in this country.

For now, however, I decided that I’m supporting this, and that I will try to contribute to popularizing the positive things about this country without also being blind to its negative aspects (of which, goodness knows, there are also many). Highlight the positive, while working to fix the negative. And also, have fun 🙂

Previous blog posts featuring sites in this gallery:

Bohol – Bojol!
Batanes – Batanes overload
Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro –The Mountain and I are not One
Siquijor – That rare long weekend trip
Tour of the Fireflies (event)
Turtle Islands, Tawi-Tawi – haven’t blogged about this site yet, but here’s a great article written by one of the journalists that joined us on a visit there: Turtles teach life changing values like patience

As these will show you, yes, it can be more fun in the Philippines!

this year…

mulling January 1, 2012 Comments: 2

I don't usually make new year's resolutions, but this, this I can do 🙂

for behold…

mulling December 24, 2011 Leave a comment

“Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” – Linus van Pelt

this should merit a new post…

mulling May 26, 2011 Comments: 3

interrupting a long blog hiatus to report a definite milestone – my wedding! sharing this happy, happy video we made with friends. we eschewed the traditional video coverage and instead went for a different, funnier concept. enjoy!

We had a beautiful wedding. That’s the sort of thing that people say all the time about weddings but in our case, I like to think it’s true. I loved the casual, fun atmosphere, the wind that blew on my veil as I was walking down the aisle, the smiles captured so beautifully by the camera. But let’s see – favorite things:

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