2 Weeks After Glenda. Coping With Power Outage.

AFTERMATH. 2 weeks after typhoon 'Glenda' (international name: Rammasun) hit our town. Photo by Zander Esteban

During the time Glenda was hitting our small town, electricity was cut off as a safety measure. The water in the river was overflowing due to the heavy rain, causing flood all over the area. The wind was the scariest part. As it hits our house, it made a 'hooing' sound. A simple yet scary 'hoo', as if Glenda was trying to talk to us. Making us remember who's boss - mother nature.

After of what probably was the most terrifying moment of my life, we went out and walked through the flood to check our area. What we saw were trees and electricity posts blocking the road. What Glenda left was a heap of garbage, dozens of uprooted trees, whole portion of roofs and ceilings, and families that were left homeless.

The following days were the real struggle, electricity was remained cut off for almost two weeks. It was very hard to get news. There was no way to communicate because there was no electricity. Cellular phones won't work because their either battery dead or there was no reception. For me to know if there was classes that Thursday, I had to travel from Calauan to Calamba just to check if there was classes that day. Unfortunately, there was no classes, so I had to travel back home.

After a few days, reception was back. I get to check when will classes resume, and also, communicate with my classmates through text and Facebook (thank you Globe!)

I still had to render and burn our audio visual presentation for CommTech. Thanks to my group mate (Jerm Narvaez) who invited me to his house to finish our project.

THROUGH THE SCREEN. 2 weeks ago. During the time 'Glenda' was violently hitting our town with lashing winds and heavy rains. Leaves flew all over the place, along with roofs and ceilings. Photo by Zander Esteban

It was very hard to deal with the power outage. Electricity is plays a vital role in communicating. It powers our gadgets, which helps us to communicate. Nowadays,  it is very impossible to communicate without electricity. We would have to switch to 'de-uling' methods, such as writing each other letters. And today, that would be impractical and inconvenient.

If there was one good thing this power outage made me realize, it is that, it is very important to communicate with other people. Communicate with them face-to-face rather than talking to a screen. I never realized how soothing talking with a real, living, breathing person was. I really have grown impatient because of technology.

P.S. Power was just restored 2 hours ago. Thanks MERALCO (even if it took almost two weeks to restore our electricity.)

Tablets to Tablets; Symbols to Symbols

Communication is probably the most important thing in human life. Without communication, we would not learn, know each other, and obviously, understand each other. Even way back before, our ancestors have developed different ways of communicating and interacting with each other. The earliest evidences of communication were carried out using various paintings depicting the life of the different tribes that lived on earth. As early as 3500 B.C. our ancestors started writing using symbols. Sumerians developed cuneiform and Egyptians developed writing with hieroglyphics. These were written on clay tablets. And at 1600 B.C. the Phoenicians developed the alphabet. Years later, in 1835 the Morse code was invented.

And now, after years and years of countless evolution of communication technology are we about to come in on a full circle? After seeing a blog post on micro-blogging website Tumblr, I was very much inspired to elaborate on the said question (though the post was probably a joke, but the point was interesting so I'll take it). After reading about the history of communication technology, I was really convinced, that it MAY BE happening. What if, we have evolved so much that the only way to move further on is to go back? Now, I'm not saying that we should revert back to cuneiform, hieroglyphics et cetera, rather develop some new form of communication technology similar to these concepts.
Or maybe, we already HAVE. During this digital age we are in now, these writing techniques/form of communication was reincarnated in to a more modern way. Emojis. Emojis are the new black when it comes to communicating. First created in 1999 by Shigetaka Kurita, the use of these symbols is spreading like a virus all over the word. It's just you're typical 'smiley face', with about 800++ more symbols to show what you're feeling, what you're doing, or just whatever that comes up your mind. It's really amazing how a simple 'red heart' symbol mean that you're in love. Or a simple 'nails getting manicure' symbol mean you're feeling fabulous . . . or just getting some manicure. It's very much like how a single symbol mean 'fish' in cuneiform.

My point is, if you feel frustrated because of our ever evolving technology, if you just look closer it would surprise you how much of the new stuff are actually derived from the old. Cuneiform to Hieroglyphics to Alphabet to Morse code to Emojis. All are the same. It's just reincarnated in to something more modern, but basically they are still the same. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors wrote on clay tablets, and look at us now. With our iPads and Galaxy Tabs. Thousands of years ago, our ancestors drew on walls to share what they're doing. They would probably be so mad at Mark Zuckerberg for stealing their idea.