amber is the color of your energy.

i should be writing a proposal for the magazine article i needed to submit for the writing workshop. instead, i was browsing for a electronic gadgets i could buy for christmas, and wondering if i should get a smartphone, a PDA, or a laptop.

Magnitude 5.4 quake rocks Luzon, Manila
AMITA LEGASPI, GMANews.TV
11/27/2007 | 12:37 PM

(Updated 3 p.m.) MANILA - A magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook central and northern Luzon, including the Philippine capital, shortly after noon Tuesday. There were no immediate reports of injuries and damage.

A report from Associated Press (AP) said buildings across Manila shook for several seconds. Panicked residents also ran out into the streets, including some employees working in the Malacañang presidential palace and establishments in the Makati financial district.

A Palace official also confirmed that Cabinet members who were in a meeting at the Malacañang dining room were transferred to the Palace guest house due to the earthquake.

In Baguio City, hundreds of students inside a five-storey building in the University of Baguio rushed down to the streets for fears that the building might collapse.

In its latest update, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said the quake occurred 12:26 p.m. and measured 5.4 on the Richter scale - higher than the agency's preliminary estimate of 4.2.

in all my three years working in this building, i've never experienced an earthquake while inside robinson's summit; at least, not until today. since 2004, this probably was the 4th strong (magnitude 4 or stronger) earthquake that hit manila, but in all previous instances, i was not inside this building.

i woke up around noon more hearing the window blinds hitting the metal edges of the window rather than feeling the building sway. the latter came as a belated sensation; when i realized it, i instinctively looked at the person sleeping near where i was, and got the confirmation that that other person woke up because of the earthquake, too.

i feel like a full-fledged tenant of robinson's summit now.