Not too long ago, in the Valley of Sunshine, a crop duster on his daily wheat-farm run veered twenty miles east from his normal flight path. He saw an old brick cottage house half covered in ivy that sat next to a well. Beside the house was a rose garden shaped like a vortex. As he flew past it appeared to be in motion, whirling with the wind. Yellow roses were in the inner circle and pink roses on the outer. The concentric circles had orange, red orange and flaming red roses. From above, they looked like geoglyphs, or crop circles. He was extremely delighted with his find and called it “The eye of the storm”.

Between gritting his teeth, mopping his forehead, and scratching his upper lip, Manalo Tagumpay clung dearly to the last four thousand pesos to his name. He had been at the Hyatt Casino for the last 12 hours, practically his home for the last decade. The dealer, so cool and in control, dealt him a card – an ace of spade to add to his four of diamonds and contemplated on his next move. His name’s literal translation is ‘to win’ and ‘success”, but that did not seem to be his case.