A shot with a shot.: 2020

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Eliminating Diabetes: Rotary Club of Manila

Thank you so much Rotary Club of Manila and your transformational leaders for sharing your precious time and resources at the Claro M. Recto High School, Division of City Schools, Manila last December 4, 2020. I was one of the recipients during this time of pandemic and I am so proud of your efforts. May your tribe increase! #rotaryclubofmanila #rotaryinternational

Lifelong Leadership Congress

Good day friends from everywhere.

I had the opportunity to attend this important event sponsored by the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) this November 2020. Mind you, it is just the first day of the workshop and I felt that I was overwhelmed by information already.

First and foremost, I had no intention to attend this important activity for I thought it was only for the Career Service Executive Eligibles and not for the Career Executive Service Written Examination (CESWE) passers like myself. But the very moment that I received an email from CESB inviting me to go to that event I immediately grabbed that opportunity.

Here I am after answering the Adversity Quotient (AQ) and the GRIT Gauge Assessments (GRIT Gauge) I felt that I was a renewed man. AQ discusses one's ability to respond constructively and GRIT Gauge reliably predicts performance, learning, agility, resilience, tenacity, and well-being.

I did poorly on the first exam but recovered fully-well on the second one. Amazing!

I have been attending various activities of CESB before but this one is giving me great satisfaction.

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

Helping Cats in the Time of Turmoil

🏚️ Storm, Stray, and Sacrifice: A Mother Cat’s Typhoon Rescue

I’ll be honest — I’m not really a cat person. But yesterday? Yesterday changed something in me.

It was November 1, 2020, and Typhoon Rolly was throwing a fit over Binondo, Manila — strong winds howling through narrow alleys, rain pounding rooftops like a thousand drums. I was inside, focused, prepping for a big online Rapid Open Chess Tournament hosted by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines on Tornelo. All calculations, strategy, and focus.

Until life — raw and real — interrupted.

From the hallway outside our condo unit, through the screen door, I saw a mother cat scurrying back and forth, a tiny kitten gripped in her mouth. Panic was written all over her posture — not fear of humans, but that primal urgency of saving her babies from something bigger than all of us: nature in rage.

I didn’t pay her much mind at first. Chess awaited. But then she returned. And returned again. Each time, more frantic. Each time, wetter and more desperate.

That’s when it hit me. This wasn’t just a lost stray.

This was a mother on a mission.

I rushed to the door and opened it. She bolted in, kitten still clamped gently in her jaws. I wiped them dry with an old towel. But then, something unexpected happened.

She paused at the door. Looked back. Waited.

And then — zoom — ran out into the storm.

Two minutes later: she came back with another kitten.

Then another.

And another.

Until four kittens were safely inside.

This heroic feline made three dangerous trips in the middle of a typhoon, soaking wet, braving gusts that would knock a full-grown human off balance — all to save her babies.

And she trusted me — a non-cat person — with their lives. That moved me deeply.

The two older kittens we were feeding outside? Turns out, they were hers too. So I scooped them up and brought them in. A full family, reunited. Safe. Dry. Together.

I don’t know what tomorrow holds for this little clowder of survivors. But what I witnessed wasn’t just instinct.

It was love in motion, courage in action, and motherhood at its most fierce and fragile.

And somehow, in that storm, a piece of my heart got claimed by cats.

Yes — I may not be a cat person…

But maybe, just maybe, they chose me anyway. br /> style="clear: both; text-align: center;">

I am not sure if I will return them outside the building after the storm since they do not have caretakers, but to tell you frankly. I am beginning to love them!