Stress

The lawsuit threat was still being dealt with until this morning and I was a bit stressed by it but it’s mostly the fault of the PR for talking too much. But still we need to be careful in these markets that do not have free press because they think reporters can just be pushed around. They don’t know how to deal with independent media.

Ah Kimchi, keeping me from working again this afternoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To add to my stress, my HSBC credit card was hacked and some dude in the US used my card to order from GoPuff—a grocery delivery service in the US—which clearly I do not have any use for. I had HSBC cancel my credit card to be replaced and I filed a dispute, showing proof that I used the same credit card on the same day to physically buy something here in Makati. I hope the bank can prove to the merchant that it was an unauthorized transaction since it was almost PHP 7,000. Whoever that bastard is may he fall on the sidewalk and break his ankle. I just received an email this afternoon that the HSBC held the amount until the dispute is resolved.

To relieve me of stress, I finished this watercolor sketch.

Panglao, Bohol., October 2019. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I began a new one.

Rough sketch. Angono, Rizal. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com
First layer. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

This is just the first layer. I need to do three layers of this because this scene is supposed to be very dark. I cannot do wet-on-wet coloring because this would come out muddy. Mixing colors and doing wet-on-wet painting is a disaster for me. Only professionals can do that.

I need to buy more brushes because it seems like small nylon brushes for fine lining cannot do the work for me. They do not absorb water enough. My other brushes are ok since I don’t do large formats yet.

Maybe I should do this, no?

Image from Pinterest

I’ve been studying several styles of sketching and these days I just do either ink and watercolor or pure watercolor. I should explore this type of sketching.

Photo from Pinterest

I need to practice and practice everyday.

Tomorrow I will bring the girls to UP Town to play at Timezone while I practice urban sketching again. I also want to look at brushes and more watercolor paper (at least 300 gsm) because I am heavy on washes.

I wanted to return to walking in UP but Twin I said their dad does that everyday and I don’t want to encounter him there. So I guess we’ll just do our walkathon or biking at BGC on Sunday and then have breakfast there??? Until we transfer to my hometown, our only choices for such activities would be UP and BGC.

Speaking of going out, next week Kr and I would attending separate press conferences and we’ll just meet in Ayala Center again. Now I’m thinking of having that co-working membership and have a Manila office. At least I won’t be a floating entity here as I am not based in Singapore even if I would be head of the regional bureau. Let’s see how fast these face-to-face events would come back. I don’t know what’s more convenient for us: to have a co-working space membership or we just plop down in coffee shops since we have irregular hours anyway.

Meanwhile, all the political rallies of Leni Robredo had been blockbusters. Each province is trying to outdo one another, even if hurdles were put in place by the local government units allied with Bongbong Marcos, people still find ways to join them. The image here below is from Bacolod City.

Photo from Facebook

That’s why Marcos’ camp has been showering LGU heads with bribe money so that they can help in cheating in May. This kind of people turnout happened in Bulacan, Iloilo and Cavite.

This gives me hope.

None of the Marcos-Duterte rallies had this kind of response. And most of the attendees were given incentives to attend (cash or goods) whereas Robredo’s followers are all volunteers. It has been documented.

The surveys by SWS and Pulse Asia are skewed as they are commissioned by political parties. They have not even shown their methodologies—which is why the UP School of Statistics called out those surveys. They’re mind-conditioning strategies.

Media literacy

My best friend, who is teaching in UP, has been consulting me about some TV guesting in a show where she is an executive producer. The topic was “fake news” and the elections then our conversation drifted to media literacy and society. Then she said my ideas were perfect for the show so she onboarded me as one of the guests just talking about it. It’s funny because I only have a master’s degree on this while she has a PhD. Hahaha! She says I’m on the ground as a media practitioner so I have real-world application.

As a half-assed academic (or former academic), I do have my moments. 😂

I will be on air on the 21st.


Cradling Kimchi while I worked. Photo by Twin I.

I’ve been surrounding myself again with things I love to lift my mood. Recalling the horrendous days when I unearthed a lot of information and relating to my shrink my feelings and the roller coaster ride I experienced the entire month of Feb had undone me this week. Because I had been suppressing them so I can function but out of necessity I had to dig for them again. I just wish it would just end now. I had been squishing my cats today as a stress reliever. I also watered and trimmed my plants, which are blooming again. Woooohooo!

Photo by CallMeCreation.com
This was supposed to be dying a few months ago but it has now bloomed again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My variegated mini roses in bloom again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Photo by CallMeCreation.com

After a day of editing, transcribing interviews, and writing an article, some quiet preoccupation is needed. Like tending to my plants or drawing.

Initial sketch. Panglao island, Bohol. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com

Ok I just had a lengthy discussion with some editors this late at night because a company is threatening to sue us because my boss didn’t edit the story properly. It’s a long story but she really doesn’t edit and fact checks and stuff. My hands have always been tied because I cannot usurp my boss even though she’s effing up.

Sigh. I need to destress. I’ll start coloring this sketch above. Thank God for watercolor sketching.

UPDATE:

Out in the wild part 2

A duck in the middle of Greenbelt, Makati. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Literally with the wildlife. This is so random. I saw this duck in the middle of Greenbelt Park while I was looking for a coffee shop after dropping by the corporate HQ of the presscon host. The duck was not perturbed with the presence of humans around it, like it was signalling to me “Ok, carry on hooman. Nothing to look at here,” while I overtook it.

I logged on the presscon remotely while our Manila reporter was on-site for ambush interviews. I was providing support from CBTL so we can upload/break the story ASAP since other news wires are also there. This is how we work when I know we have to break time-sensitive stories. Later Kr joined me at CBTL so we can discuss and correct each other’s contribution to the story.

Photo by CallMeCreation.com

A little breather after breaking the story.

Then I started to sketch. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

As I learned from the urban sketching tutorials that I viewed/read, the key is to quickly draw on ink some rough figures to capture that precise moment and not mind whether it was accurate or not. Embrace the mistakes. I could not figure out how to draw the head of that bald guy so that is that…

After a few minutes. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I did some rough coloring. The problem with this palette is that it didn’t have a true black so I was stuck with greys. I have to fix this later now that I’m home.

UPDATE:

The best I can do under the circumstance. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Since I was already at Greenbelt 5, I proceeded to the third level to browse at the The Craft Central and bought the girls some materials for their hobbies.

Expensive craft materials. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Acrylic paints and coin purses that Twin A could design/paint and a fluffy ball of yarn for Twin I’s knitting projects. It was expensive but at least it would keep them off the Internet for a couple of hours.

Twin A immediately painted one coin purse. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

As for me, the Sakura Kois at The Craft Central did not satisfy me because it didn’t have the pop-able watercolor pans and I don’t want to carry extra palettes when I do urban sketching. So I went to Fullybooked at Basement 1 to search for either Royal Talens, Daniel Smith, or Winsor & Newton.

Tiny watercolor half-pans. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

So I resorted to buying individual half-pans of the colors that I didn’t have like deep black and white that cost PHP 125-PHP 169 each tiny pan. Unfortunately these are not the artist-grade type. Van Gogh is Royal Talens’ line that is one step higher than student grade (more pigmented than student grade) but not yet artist grade while the Winsor & Newton Cotman line (different from Winsor & Newton, which is super expensive since it’s artist grade—PHP 500+ a pop) is student grade (i.e. chalky, less pigmented). But I think it would suffice since it’s just black and white (for mixing and highlight) plus gold and umber for nature sketches. Those four already cost me over PHP 500. That’s why I have to be careful in buying these stuff because I may just end up not using them all.

Because of my breaking news and search for watercolors, I missed my appointment with my shrink…😣

Tomorrow we need to be early for the girls’ second dose vax and my passport renewal. How can I work in between?

Blunders

As I mentioned yesterday, there were several miscalculations that Putin had in his invasion of Ukraine. He had underestimated the resistance from ordinary citizens of Ukraine and across the world.

Nonetheless, given Russia’s overwhelming forces and Mr Putin’s ruthless nature, expect the invaders to make gains in the coming days. The attacks on Kyiv will grow fiercer. One consequence of that? Growing anger in the West—among ordinary people as well as national leaders. More military gear, including, remarkably, anti-tank rockets and Stinger missiles from Germany, is heading to Ukraine. Sanctions on Russia are becoming more severe. Beyond the exclusion of some Russian banks from the SWIFT system, more serious are the efforts by Europe and America to stop Russia’s central bank accessing much of its $600bn-plus in foreign reserves. Watch on Monday how markets react to that. It’s unlikely to be pretty for Russia, especially the rouble. Some sort of Russian retaliation towards the West should be expected. The price of oil and gas could yet surge.

The Economist’s
Adam Roberts, Digital Editor

Now its currency tumbled 40% while interest rates climbed 20%. Such rough economic fallout will surely make ordinary Russians grow angry at Putin and bolder in their opposition to this war. Ukraine is now urging Visa and Mastercard to suspend the facilitation of payments in Russia, further hurting its people.

And apparently some people in the US are preparing for a possible nuclear war, giving rise to the Cold War era fear harbored by people on both sides of the Atlantic for decades before the fall of USSR.

On the home front, the price of liquefied petroleum gas—the main fuel for cooking in Filipino homes—is now increasing by at least PHP 7 per kg = PHP 77 more for an 11kg tank. I think it has now gone above PHP 1000 per 11kg tank when a few months ago it was just at PHP 700+. The Department of Energy said its petition to suspend the excise tax on fuels is still pending in Congress, the delegates of which are already busy campaigning. If we don’t halt the excise taxes on the fuels, the cost of goods and services would skyrocket in the next week or two.

The market volatility would send valuations askew again and some deals would have to be delayed given the instability. I had been busy scanning the news for developments and how the markets are behaving since it is now determining the angles for the news I should be aiming for.

Today’s press conference. The most critical info during this session is how much more are we going to pay for our electricity this coming summer and is our supply enough given the constraints that we are facing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

With this so much tension in the world today (including the escalating deaths in HK due to a belated spike in Covid cases), my colleague now asked me is the apocalypse here now?

If such is the case, I’m glad I’m out of my former hellhole so I can concentrate on my remaining time on earth with my daughters. I was chatting with a fellow editor-journo who told me he is escaping from the city and is moving his family to Sta. Rosa, Laguna. His house will be finished this week and they will start moving next week. Good for you, I told him. I will be following you but further down south because I’m tired of the city too. If the world is going to end, at least we will be more comfortable than being stuck in the city and Metro Manila is the worst place to be during an apocalypse. EDSA is already an Armageddon in itself.

But before the world ends, I have a press conference to attend on Thursday in Makati and our Manila reporter and I would be working again in a coffee shop somewhere near the company HQ that will hold the conference. Face to face meetings are coming back and the government is going to bring down the Covid Alert Level to number 1 starting tomorrow. They finally decided to live with Covid as the new normal instead of following China’s/HK’s stance of zero-Covid policy.

Metro Manila and 38 other areas will be under Alert Level 1 from March 1-15
Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/?p=1561207#ixzz7MBdIWszb
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook

Hopefully face to face schooling will follow because the children are really suffering from two years of remote learning. These are the “lost years” for them.

And before the world ends, I still have transcriptions to finish. Hopefully I can publish two stories tomorrow.

And oh, let me go diving first. It’s so freaking hot these days.

Bagalangit Hideaways, Anilao, Mabini, Batangas. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Out in the wild

Back again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I had the faulty Kullen drawer exchanged at Ikea but Kullen became sold out so I had picked the cheaper Lennart drawers and some random stuff for the kids so that the amount would be equal to the cost of the item to be exchanged. So tomorrow night I will building more drawers.

Then our Manila reporter, Kr, and I agreed to meet at Starbucks in BGC to work after her press conference. It was nice to work outside and see daylight while editing although it rained heavily. It was quite cooler today that I felt I should have brought a light sweater with me. Just when I thought that summer is already here, the weather decided that to go in another direction.

Kr and I haven’t seen each other in two years so it was quite a relief to work with a live human being across the table and talk shop face to face. I was so productive this afternoon that I was able to edit three stories in an hour. Then I sketched to while away the time.

Art and photo by CallMe Creation.com

I didn’t realize that my pocket watercolor pan (Classic) didn’t have black. The other pocket watercolor (Artisan) has that. Which is an excuse to buy me that one. Tee hee!

After BGC, I dropped off Kr in Estancia in Capitol Commons because she will meet with a friend for dinner. Then I battled my way into an almost-pre-pandemic traffic jam going to QC. I was a bit exhausted driving, maybe because I didn’t have enough sleep (as usual). I took my meds pretty late last night so it took a while for them to kick in and was able to drift off past 3 am. Got woken up again after 3 hours.

I wonder what kind of devil is waking me up every three hours?!

I told Kr I should try working outside more these days now that I discovered that my mind is more alert and productive when I’m outside. I need adult conversations too! I missed BGC and Makati CBD–my usual haunts on weekdays. I missed picking the brains of execs face-to-face. I should invite one of my sources for lunch in BGC one of these days as I still have a gift cheque for a buffet lunch for two at Shangri-la. We usually talked politics on WhatsApp and some scoops.

I missed dressing up, putting on make-up and jewelry regularly. Makes me feel empowered. As I told other reporters before, if I get rejected by execs or get thrown out of conferences, at least I’m not ugly and a failure both at the same time (LOL!).

My feet hurt though because I chose to wear a new pair of clip-cloppy shoes with heels today. Note to self: DO NOT break in new shoes when you’re going to walk around BGC or Makati.

Torture shoes from Call It Spring that I bought last Sunday. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Hmmm. Now my goal is to work once a week outside, probably Tues or Wednesday, and meet with sources before Edsa becomes a huge parking lot again. Staying indoors for 2 years really messed me up.

Metaverse/s

I attended a press conference this morning about the metaverse/s hosted by one of the big global banks. Simply put, it’s one of the sectors we should be looking at right now. It has gone beyond gaming and NFTs. It’s beyond immersive experience and simple AR/VR. It has crept into commerce, industrials, and fitness. Soon it will be in healthcare and other mainstream industries.

My notes during the webinar/press conference. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

As a journalist, I always try to investigate on my own the things I am writing about. Just like in financial services, fintech, and e-commerce I’ve tried all the services and technology that are available to me so I could nitpick and see how it ticks and tocks. When I started covering the local stock market 15 years ago, I started investing in stocks so I could fully understand the mentality of an investor and see and write about companies how an investor would look at them. I went to visit power plants and control bases of power grids to see how power is dispatched and attended a looooooot of conferences so I know what I was writing about like an old grid choking or a power plant tripping.

So I have a pending story about a private equity firm that banks on heavily on the metaverse, through content and infrastructure. I haven’t written it yet because I needed to totally understand (even though I have already skimmed the surface) what makes it tick and how blockchain figures into the whole metaverse. With this press conference, I can finally complete that story.

Since the future of hyperscalers like Meta, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and to some extent, Sony, are in this metaverse, I might as well get immersed into their world–into the world where it sprouted: gaming.

I have played games in the past but I wasn’t that so much into it that I got immersed. In elementary I played, like everyone else, Nintendo games like Legend of Zelda and Mario. Then in college I played PC games. My college friend (the friend who just reconnected with me a few days ago) gave me a copy of Pokemon when we were in our final year and I played it until the wee hours because I had too much time on my hands. I had only 11 units enrolled at that time because I was just finishing my thesis and I have already frontloaded some of my courses in the prior years. I had a boyfriend who introduced me to Final Fantasy and Worms. I stuck with Worms because I could play it on a PC at home but Final Fantasy has to be played on a PS, which I didn’t have. Besides, Worms is sooooo cute but it’s a strategy game, which I liked. When I was already working, I had a PSP loaded with games that worsened my carpal tunnel syndrome like God of War and Prince of Persia. I sold it to my brother because I couldn’t get things done.

The problem now is I have access to too many games (hello, Steam!) that I may not be able to get things done again. So I think I should just stick first to reading stuff on Reddit and Discord to understand the inner workings of the metaverse. These bankers who were talking about it this morning seemed like they have inhabited this realm.


I just finished a long article (I think at least 1,000 words) this afternoon and it was like pulling out my teeth. I should get back into the habit of writing three stories a day, like when i was with local media. I used to be a fast writer. I really lost my groove last year due to obvious reasons but I should be able to pick up the pace now that I declare this is the last time I will fall down on my knees because of him. He didn’t even care about me even when we were still together, so why should I let myself be still affected by him until now? He doesn’t even give a flying fuck about me.


B messaged me that she’s in Boracay right now. I told her K will be there next week. She said, “Oh dear, K is always here!” I replied, “He’s immensely enjoying himself there with all his sexcapades that’s why he keeps coming back.” B then said, “Why don’t you join him in Boracay next week?” She said she might visit. I said that I will just be a hindrance to his grand plans when all I want to do is to do is kite boarding. B said, “you don’t want to have sex?!”

“Uh no. I should be healing first.”

“Why don’t you heal and have sex?” B asked.

“Because I’m not like that. It has meaning to me,” I said.

I guess they don’t understand.

Even in my younger years I’ve never been like that. It’s the conservative side of me. It’s the sensitive artist/writer in me. I’ve never been reckless. I only slept with four people in my entire life. Four. And that’s the end of it. That’s why it hurts when my partner screws around.

“No, you guys go. I’m happy where I am right now,” I told B.

I’d rather be celibate like my cats.