I’m slow this week. So far I have only published one story and have yet to line up interviews. What’s wrong with me?!
At the co-working space again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I think the only reason why I was able to finish a story and help a colleague with a compilation is because I worked at the co-working space and it was only me there for four hours. The AC was cold, I had a large milk tea to sip and keep me awake, and it was quiet that I was able to transcribe the interview in peace.
Kinda the vibe in our Singapore office minus the free snacks.
At a co-working space. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I really couldn’t work at home because I keep on taking naps. I barely did any work yesterday except for a video meeting. 😬 I don’t know what’s wrong with me; I think I’m in one of those dips again.
And I barely did anything again today because I was so distracted by another emergency from my next door neighbors…
I got lost. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Last Saturday, I drove Twin A and her friends to a classmate’s birthday party held in a farm resort two towns away from us. It was hard to find and Waze was showing us weird or narrow roads that I was afraid my new car would get stuck. On the way back home alone, Waze brought me to another narrow and unknown road, which scared me. It was not the national highway and I was terrified that I may end up again on a rough mountain road, just like what happened to us two years ago on the way home from Hidden Valley Springs.
Thankfully, I got home without any scratch to my car or I didn’t get stuck on some dirt road.
After a few hours, Twin A asked me to pick them up. This time I used Google Map because I thought Waze’s algorithm went nuts that day.
Google Map was worse. Much worse. I ended up getting lost, here on the edge of a rice field. I was already in a bukid along a narrow road that was wide enough for only one car. It was a test of driving skill to make a u-turn/maneuver along a small sitio road.
Waze and Google Map are unreliable in the provinces. 🫠
I mean, we GenXers had the coolest music. I knew the bands that were played in this game but because of brain fog, I couldn’t name them quickly. The one that stumped me though was Cracker because I don’t know/listen to them and the last one, Roxy Music.
But come on, how can you not know Soul Asylum and Stone Temple Pilots? They were played to death on the radio in the 90s!
So ok, I’m gonna pull out my 90s altrock playlist tomorrow and play that shit all day while working.
I felt really bad for Liam Neeson when Natasha Richardson died. He is a decent man who was robbed of a loving wife he adored.
Meanwhile, Pamela Anderson had really bad taste in men: Tommy Lee, Kid Rock… Enough said. Tommy Lee even beat her up. Pamela was a very insecure person and that must have been the reason why she always ended up with assholes.
Both of them took time— a lot of time—to heal, at their own pace. Living quiet lives…
Then…boom! They found each other. One is nearly 60 years old, while the other is 73, I think. Pamela finally found a man who respects her.
I’m not really looking and I’m happy with life right now. I’m loving it, actually. Just thinking about how I stooped so low to serve the men who didn’t respect me at all—Just no, I’m fine with being myself and I am slowly building myself up. I love that I make decisions for myself, I run my life how I wanted it and not being dictated by a dickhead or catering to the whims of an asshat.
Maybe I will be Pamela when I turn 60. I may find a decent man later, who knows. I will demand though that he keeps his own home, I will keep to mine. I don’t think I can live with another man. It’s too exhausting.
The online war between Thailand and Cambodia
I just read an article about a mentally unstable Thai man setting two Malaysian tourists on fire. The comments section was on fire as well, mainly with Cambodians (probably hired trolls) throwing so much dirt on Thais and stirring up controversy between Malaysians and Thais by pretending to be Malaysians doing a smear campaign vs Thailand.
Thais get fired up and throw back some dirt on Cambodians, opening up a Pandora’s box of human trafficking/scam centers and Khmer Rouge’s genocide record.
Reading the comments, I feel like the Cambodians took a leaf out of Duterte’s playbook and now has an army of online trolls spreading propaganda. I wonder what’s their gameplan, even dragging Vietnam into the chaos. 🤔
An interesting Tiktok video said that (save for the current Thailand x Cambodia war) ASEAN members really don’t kill each other, only we diss each other online about food. Generally, we don’t go to war with each other even though we’re so diverse. Some of the comments said we’re all SEAblings, we insult each other, just as siblings or cousins do. But if an outsider disses one of our SEAblings or SEAsia in general, we all gang up on that interloper. And we all “hate” on Singapore because of their haughty attitude.
One commenter said, ASEAN members really can’t go to war with each other because we are all too poor to sustain a war. At most, we will go to war with each other for a few days and after that we go back to domestic infighting because we all hate our corrupt governments.
I should have stayed in a hotel last night instead of driving back to Manila after 12 hrs. 😑
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I spent three hours going around the expo, searching for people to interview.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I thought it’ll be slim pickings today but I’m happy to be mistaken. Paying PHP 400 for entrance was all worth it as I have about 10 interview prospects and they’re good brands. I had one interview conducted there and I can write it tomorrow.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I also bought foodstuff at discounted prices or at buy 1-get 1 promo.
I crossed to Ikea to eat (yeah, sounds weird that one goes to Ikea to eat) and bought some household items that would replace the ones broken by the cats or by my humans. I also bought breakfast muffins and desserts for when they come home from school.
Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And oh, I can’t resist lamps. I have a lighting addiction.
They won’t be little forever… You’ll spend most of your life knowing your children as adults — but for a brief, precious moment, you get to know them as children. That moment is now. Don’t rush it. Hold them a little longer. Say yes to one more bedtime story. This is the blink. And it’s the most sacred season of all. 👣 Tag a parent who needs this reminder. ❤️ Save this for the days it all feels like too much. #Parenting#Fatherhood#ParentingTruths#GentleParenting#SENDParenting#ParentingJourney
Yes, it was exhausting and all but hearing their tiny laughters, seeing all their shennanigans, sleeping with me under each armpit…
They’re little girls once. They were babies once. I miss those little girls. They’re not little anymore but I still have glimpses of the imps that they were every now and then.
I only have a few years left before they become adults and they’re slipping from my fingers so fast. I should embrace those years close to my heart, I shouldn’t work too hard or else I will miss out on the years left with me.
I neeeeddd to sleeeeeep. I had coffeeeee at 10:30 pm.
Because I had this sangria…… Gin and tonic…… Bourbon and corn air something…
I don’t know what the other three drinks were. They were paired with food that you can inhale in one go.
Spicy tuna something
Because we were tipsy, a friend and I needed to have at least a latte before driving home in opposite directions. Our conversation went like this:
We journalists have an inverted pyramid/Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. We fulfilled first our need for self-actualization after J-school/college, at the start of our journalism career. Then the older we get, the more we need to fulfill the most basic needs. We’re already at this stage of survival; we need to make real money to pay for food, water, shelter, sleep, and homeostasis.
That’s why many have left this profession.
We give so much and yet we get so little.
AI is also destroying us.
The subscription model for news is not going to work in the Philippines. Pinoys don’t want to pay for content. You give your hand, they want your arm.
