I spent x number of hours just trying to finish my car registration…Days of going back and forth several LTO offices.
We don’t deserve this bullshit.
I’ll write it down tomorrow. I’m just so damn tired today.
Exhausted
Author Archives: admin
Twins
My cats, aside from wanting to be with me, go to my room during the day to escape my Demolition Twins. Here we have Sushi hiding behind my curtains. She wants to be with me but invisible to the human twins.
Why?
Because this is what they do to the cats.
This afternoon I attempted to finish my car registration at LTO @20th Avenue in Cubao. Ehhhhhhhhh…they started dismantling the office because they’re transferring to a new building. Ergo, I will be delayed by another day. So I went to LTO Ali Mall in Araneta Center and it turns out it’s only for drivers license renewal. 😫
Damn it.
It was already past 5 pm so there’s no point in going to LTO at P. Tuazon Ave or at LTO main along East Ave. I have to go to the main office tomorrow to get this over and done with.
To make my parking fee at the mall worth it, I decided to buy some stuff that I always forget to buy, like a new desktop mirror. This is my third mirror and the first two were broken by my cats. 🐈 Talk about having a Demolition Twins 2.0
Speaking of twins, we are now having twin typhoons—and one is a super typhoon. Look at that clear eye in the middle that is fast approaching southern Japan. The more pronounced the eye is, the stronger the typhoon.
Although these may not make landfall in the Philippines, the two weather disturbances may pull each other and cause a lot of heavy rainfall as they could draw the monsoon rains from southwest towards northeast (the swirls are an indication of that). Diving could be dangerous as the currents would become stronger and more unpredictable.
Heavy rainfall is something that should be taken seriously in the Philippines, as proven by Tropical Storm Ondoy (Typhoon Ketsana) in 2009 that wreaked havoc in Metro Manila. Ketsana wasn’t even a typhoon; it was just a tropical storm based on the wind velocity. However, the amount of rainfall was unprecedented. Ondoy dumped a month’s worth of rainfall in just six hours hours (455 mm of rain within 24 hours = several months’ worth of rainfall). I remember I was about to go to my hometown that day but after reaching the subdivision gate, the floodwaters were already half my car tire. I quickly turned back. Good thing I did because a lot of people were caught off-guard by the sudden rise in floodwaters. It was a Saturday and countless people were stuck in their cars on the road. Katipunan Ave was completely submerged as Marikina River burst its banks. One reporter told me she was driving back home when she got stuck on the road because her home in Manila was like Waterworld. She spent 24 hrs in her car, I think.
So we were stranded in Cainta for days as the water reached neck-deep in our subdivision while in some parts of Cainta the water level was way above our heads. Marikina was underwater.
We tried getting out of Cainta through some back channels that were a bit dry but first we needed to push my car through the floodwaters in the subdivision. I needed to get to work because my boss shouldn’t be manning the desk alone (I was already an assistant business editor then). Because when disaster strikes, we journalists cannot NOT work.
We spent about two (or three?) weeks in my sister’s condo in Mandaluyong before the flood in Cainta subsided.
Several months after Ondoy, I still had emergency provisions in my car trunk like rain boots, food, extra clothes, flash light, emergency lamp, etc. The following year, we transferred to Quezon City and we made sure the place is never flooded. Every time it rained heavily, my anxiety levels go through the roof. This is why I always check NOAA Western Pacific satellite images to predict the weather and plan my activities accordingly. Blame Ondoy.
Productivity whuuut?!
Yes. Forgive me. I’m spending my money on useless things that aren’t really helping with productivity. They just make me enjoy typing and some occasional game playing.
This CPSTECH RF84 mechanical keyboard is much better than Royal Kludge when it comes to modes of connectivity. Its Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless dongle, and wired connections are working well whereas Royal Kludge is only usable on wired mode. It has ghosting and freezing issues when used as a wireless (both dongle and bluetooth) keyboard and it gets into conflict with my Logitech mouse (which is on 2.4G dongle). Plus the lack of arrow keys is a deal-breaker since it’s hard to edit articles. I always needed to use Fn+?, Fn +Win, Fn + Ctrl to be able to use the arrow functions. It slows me down significantly.
However, I’m keeping the Royal Kludge keeb because I like the blue switches. They’re clickety-clackety.
I was swapping the blue switches of the RK61 with the Otemu red switches of the RF84 but I had been bending the copper contact points whenever I installed each switch so I stopped this foolishness.
Then I downloaded Lord of the Rings. Goodbye productivity.
And I also bought Worms Rumble…and I always get demolished in every death match I get to enter because it has been 22 years since I last played this franchise! Of course I needed some time to get myself reacquainted with it. I enjoy strategy games better than RPGs. What’s enjoyable with Worms is that the characters are ridiculously cute and absurd while they annihilate each other with weapons of mass destruction. I often chose worms that speak Japanese and English with Scottish/Gaelic accent—that was 22 years ago7🤣😂. I haven’t tried the other languages this time but I got myself a tattoo and some weird headgear. As a worm. 🤣🤣🤣
I remember my father commenting then about my “weird” games whenever he caught me playing until 2 am…
Meanwhile, I think I need to buy myself a controller because I plan to buy Stray.
The reason why I get killed all the time in Worms is because I get slowed down by the keyboard + mouse combo. I guess my fate would be worse in Stray. I don’t want a cat to be eviscerated on screen just because I’m slow on a keyboard.
Oh dear…this will never end. Next thing I know, I will be buying a huge-ass TV and an absurdly priced gaming chair to play these games in our new flat. Then my nephews would be crowding into my living/kitchen area to play because my internet connection would be the best that I could afford while theirs remains pfffftttttt…😂😂😂
I should really, really stop this keyboard nonsense
Now I need a bigger table or a peg board to accommodate all my keyboards. 🤣
The deed is done
The girls and I went to Ayala Vertis North so our grocery shopping would be a little different. We did this late in the afternoon since the girls had their mock entrance exam the entire morning while I grilled herbed pork steak outside the apartment.
We dropped by KitchenAid to check out Instant Pot so I can see for myself how big it is. It is selling for around PHP 7,000 (the 7-in-1, 6 quart variant). I was tempted to buy this after doing the grocery shopping but I checked the prices first on Lazada.
Lo and behold! It’s 1k cheaper on Lazada and it comes with a free ceramic inner pot for slow cooking.
I pulled the trigger when I got home and paid for the reservation. It is done.
I primarily wanted this for making yogurt. My girls consume a lot of Greek yogurt, or any type of yogurt for that matter, so it turns out it’s more expensive than eating ice cream.
The pressure cooker and slow cooker functions are just bonuses for me since I already own a Crockpot (which is on its last legs). Let’s see how I can make beef pho soup and tonkotsu ramen broth with this. The classic Japanese tonkotsu requires more than 12 hours of slow cooking pig trotters and chicken carcass so that the collagen will be drawn out.
Ever since I read that article from Serious Eats, the slow-cooked tonkotsu broth never went out of my mind. I said to myself, one day I will just devote an entire 24 hours just making ramen broth. That’s a mark of a serious home cook 😂
The thought of making tonkotsu broth in an Instant pot and/or Crockpot made me crave for ramen so Twin A and I had ramen while Twin A had some rice meal set.
Once I learn how to make the right tonkotsu broth (kinda like what Ramen Nagi serves), I don’t think I will tolerate anymore the flavored water excuse of a ramen some shops offer.
In a totally unrelated development/event…
It is what it is
I got a little bit triggered today because of some short video I watched. Then I got to view this video, which is like an affirmation that my life just sucked in the past because I didn’t know any better. I met the wrong people, chasing their approval when I shouldn’t be.
Come to think of it, they’re not that special. They were special for me because I made them special in my eyes and I made myself believe that. Otherwise they’re just like any other guy/s out there.
I want to write about so many things about this subject, especially this last partner I had. But it is what it is. It is exactly a year ago this week or last week when I realized I was a big mess and decided to seek professional help.
What progress I had made! Thanks to my therapist, I sorted myself out. But it was a long and difficult process. 1 year and 8 months ago, I couldn’t imagine how it is to be where I am right now. I wondered if ever I could even reach this stage. I should love myself more for getting past that horrible stage.
Now I just need affirmative words/reminders like the one I posted above from Instagram to remind me that it’s not me—they’re just the wrong people. No matter how much bending backwards I do, it will never make a dent. They just don’t and won’t ever love me.
And if someone is the RIGHT person, he will seek me out. He will find me, even if I will soon hide myself at the foot of the mountain in my hometown, he will find me.
If not, it’s fine. At least I’m going to be happy with the life I am building for myself and the girls.
I had more energy today so I decided to cook brunch. Didn’t attempt go out today because I have no idea if I could.
Will do another antigen test in a few hours.
Tomorrow is the girls’ mock entrance exam. Must sleep now to prepare them tomorrow.
Quiet quitting
When my body says it must rest, I should heed.
But no, I didn’t. I still took an edit and now I’m paying the price. It’s already past 9 pm and I’m still editing a story that needed an overhaul. Stupid me. I exacerbated my headaches.
Why did I take that edit? Because my stupid company doesn’t plan to hire more editors. Because of the Great Resignation, we lost 2 bureau chief/senior editors, 2 junior editor-reporters, and one first editor. They haven’t been replaced. So we remaining editors have been working overtime and if one of us gets sick or goes on holiday, there would be long queue of stories for editing.
No, I shouldn’t be taking on more jobs because the company is being stupid.
“Quiet quitting doesn’t actually involve quitting. Instead, it has been deemed a response to hustle culture and burnout; employees are “quitting” going above and beyond and declining to do tasks they are not being paid for...
...”For employers that are dealing with workers who may be exhibiting signs of quiet quitting, Zitron has one simple message for them: Pay them for extra work…”
npr.org
Enough is enough. I’m sick. I’m tired. I shouldn’t be picking up the slack.
I don’t have a fever but I’m inexplicably tired. I wanted to sleep but couldn’t because I spent almost 12 hours sleeping. I couldn’t drive myself to get an RT PCR because my mental faculties aren’t present and I may just kill myself. Home service costs PHP 4,500—expensive for something that is just to confirm/refute the result of my antigen test this morning.
As per US CDC protocol:
A single, negative antigen test result does not rule out infection. To best detect infection, a negative antigen test should be repeated at least 48 hours apart (known as serial testing).
So I will just test myself again on early Sunday. For tomorrow I will just sleep. I will just order GrabFood for us since Saturday is Ate C’s day off.
This may just be ordinary flu and my body is just signalling to me that I should stop pushing myself too hard at work. My company doesn’t care for me anyway.
Quiet quitting.
Take that to heart.