Sleeping beauty

How is it possible that the only thing I did on Sunday was sleep? I only woke up to cook then slept, then woke up at 2 pm to go to church and then slept again. It’s now 1:55 am, was forced to wake up to let Sushi out of the room.

It’s just one cetirizine tablet but I was knocked out cold.

I was too sleepy to cook a decent dinner so dimsum it is. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Sana

Lazy Saturday morning. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have no motivation to get out of bed. I love mornings in my bedroom.

Umm, but it’s laundry day today. My cleaning lady will pick up the laundry and do her thing downstairs. I needed to open the door for her.

Laundry day. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then I realized that we don’t use the couches because it’s full of cat hair. I changed the covers and et voila! It’s already Christmas in this tiny house.

Tacky. Have a tacky Christmas! Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Watching the day die on my pseudo-balcony. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Sana masaya ka na, nakuha mo na ang gusto mo. Gustong-gusto ko na magdusa ka pero, wala eh, pinalad ka. Kahit kulang-kulang ka.

Gusto ko sana ipaghiganti ako ng tadhana, kaso hindi ako pinagpala. Gusto ko sana maramdaman mo kahit kalahati ng sakit na naranasan ko, pero meron talagang mga tao na pinagpapala at kakampi ng langit. Meron namang mga tao na laging kasama ng pighati. Ako yun.


RIP Acer, hello Cool Master

I finally had it checked. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

It has been sending me signals that its life is about to end. Two weeks ago, it wasn’t powering up after sleep or shut down. I opened it up to check if the power supply got fried or the battery is already bloated. Then like its temperamental original owner, it would choose to power up and function normally when it decides to play nice. So this laptop and I were playing some kind of game and it would choose to not cooperate during an important moment.

Because of this, I never turned off this laptop and have Spotify play sleep music in the background.

But after we came back from Manila yesterday, the laptop wouldn’t power up again even though the indicator light is showing signs of life. I brought it to the PC repair shop to check if it still can be resurrected.

Cleaning the guts. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Then it powered up again, like it’s telling the repair guy I am a liar and it’s working fine. I got charged PhP 1,300 for some thing that he replaced that I didn’t really remember. I have a strong feeling I was scammed. When I got home, it wouldn’t work. Brought it back, the guy said the charger is shot. I went to another PC shop to buy a universal charger, but when we tried, it wouldn’t work. The guy said, it’s beyond power supply.

UPDATE: See? The bastard is working smoothly again. What’s his deal?!

That shitty power supply. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I then asked for a quote for a mini PC tower based on the components I chose from another shop. Ryzen 7 5700G, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, Gigabyte mobo (should be Wifi 6), etc…and oh, a mini-ITX casing.

This would be around PHP 36,700, without Win 11 yet. It could be 3k cheaper if I changed Ryzen 7 to Ryzen 5. I don’t play pc games that much so Ryzen 5 will do. I just needed something that is fast enough and can support all the progams I am running all at the same time, all the time. I guess it would be 10k more expensive with the OS installed.

My dilemma is this is almost as expensive as a Lenovo E16, which is already powered by Ryzen 5 7530U and I get to have a third screen of about 16″.

UPDATE: The Cool Master mini ITX case has its own 850w power supply, so that will shave 7k from my total cost. And if I go with Ryzen 5, I have 10k worth of savings, which could go to Win 11!

But it hurts my brain right now that I need to fork a huge amount when I’m still not done with my daughter’s illness.

I could use my underpowered but more portable Lenovo in the meantime…but it irritates me because it’s slower and it doesn’t have an ethernet port so video calls aren’t as snappy because I rely on wifi for connectivity. And that is meant only for working on the go, not as a desktop replacement.

I can’t spend for my wants, not until I am sure we won’t be needing chemotherapy/we are cleared by our oncologist.

Meanwhile, I bought additional RAM sticks for my girls and installed them because sometimes their PCs become laggy (Chrome is such a power hog).

The innards of my daughter’s PC tower. I cleaned it with my new vacuum cleaner before snapping on the new RAM stick. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I ended up cooking dinner late because I upgraded my girls’ RAM and cleaned the inside for better airflow. What’s the quickest to cook? This 👇

The easiest to cook. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Because my dinner needed some kick. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have to think deeply about this PC issue. If only the Acer would stick around for a bit longer, then I wouldn’t feel guilty about spending on my wants because at the back of my mind I need to reserve my money for Twin A’s medical expenses.

Homeward bound

Skyway south bound. Photo by Twin A.

It was a hectic day as I was chasing the schedules of the doctors involved in the MRI. I had to wake up at 4 am to give my patient her anti-TB meds because she can’t have anything, except water, past 5 am. Good thing she didn’t eat because our MRI schedule was moved to 12 noon instead of 1 pm. 🤦🏻‍♀️And with Metro Manila traffic, it’s hard to have last-minute changes like that. Good thing we already checked out before 10 am and when they messaged, we were on our way to PGH.

To make matters complicated, both my girls were attending online classes so moving them was a bit cumbersome. What’s worse is that they kept on fighting with each other.

At war with each other while I was at the front desk to check out. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Waiting for our turn. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Waiting, waiting…photo by CallMeCreation.com

Twin I was at Starbucks in Robinsons Manila attending online class and later on was joined by her dad to do his duty and watch over his daughter. He didn’t volunteer to contribute financially, that’s probably the reason why… 😶 Oh well, as I’ve said before, I have very low expectations and better keep it that way.

Stupid me. I forgot to get the MRI plates so I have to go back 🫠. The reading can be emailed to me but the plates are too high res and can’t be emailed.


I miss sketching. I miss watercoloring. I have no mojo to do these.

Maybe I need to go on a road trip.


The provincianas are back in the big city

Overlooking Salcedo Village, Makati. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I have a dinner date with my besties in the industry. They’re from rival newswires, all editors and one govt official who is an ex-reporter. Since Twin A’s MRI is scheduled at noon tomorrow, might as well stay overnight in the city. I brought Twin I along.

Cheerful. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Can bring back food for snacks tonight and last meal before 5 am tomorrow since Twin A will be on an 8-hr fast. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Last-minute work before I feed my brood. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m happy her appetite is normal. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This girl, on the other hand, loves food. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Waiting for my friends to arrive. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Weird body clock

These days I can only write in the afternoon or at night. 👀 I don’t know why. I started writing I finished an analysis piece tonight in one sitting. It’s devastating in a way because it keeps me from being productive. Maybe this is my body’s way of saying it needs to shut down.

Kimchi and her slave scratching a spot underneath her chin—her weakest spot. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats are like the most spoilt cats I know. I envy them sometimes because they have no cares in the world.

Meanwhile, this short video on Instagram somehow describes me.