Ooooh I hate early Monday morning coverages. I left my home at 6:45 am and arrived in Makati after 3 hrs. When I drive during non-rush hours, it usually takes me only 1.5 hrs or less than that to reach Makati CBD. But not today 🥲

I was so busy chasing people today that I was able to write three stories. It’s supposed to be four but my brain was already about to burst so I didn’t want to be a hero.

I didn’t bother with lunch because I needed to jump to a call right after the conference. My friend, L, and I met in one cafe in Greenbelt after she finished her own coverage in another hotel also in that area. For hours we didn’t talk much because we were finishing multiple stories. We finally got our bearings at around 6:30 pm and headed for dinner with my Manila reporter, Kr, who was out of commission today.

Kr had to leave early so it was only L and I who talked about what are we to do now that we couldn’t transition into another adjacent industry (PR)? Both of us, plus Kr, were hit with the same itch at the same time starting last year. The three of us tested the waters and it seems like Kr is far ahead of us doing something else other than her day job. L just got her side job, just to see if she can do something else besides journalism. In contrast, I never made it to the first stage. My client in HK ghosted me after I submitted my first draft. I didn’t bother going after them—proof that it’s not for me.

“What am I, if I cleave my identity from my profession? Who am I?” I asked L. “I have to find out soon. I have to find where my passion lies outside of this job.”

The key is to find something else to do that I don’t feel like it’s a chore. What is my bliss?

L is also asking the same questions. She said, who is she without the name of her paper that she carries all the time? She asked, would she be able to get the side gig if hypothetically she left her company and would only be identified as “L, former journalist at xxx”? She said she doesn’t know the answers. It must be something she has to think deeply about.

She and I know that in the meantime we are stable but eventually we have to leave this profession. We can’t be doing this until we retire. We’re already considered the seniors in our industry.

Where are we supposed to go?

I’ve been mostly horizontal yesterday as my gastroenteritis is really bad. I subsisted on water and Gatorade. I was able to eat my first solid food meal last night—Jollibee spaghetti and Chickenjoy—but didn’t finish it because I still felt weak and queasy. I gave it to Twin I.

Now she’s sick. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So this is not the excessive gastric acids that I had in December. This is viral stomach flu.

I don’t know where I got it but my only exposure to the outside world last week was when I had my home massage. 🤔

But what my masseuse probably had was just the common cold. I don’t know… It was already too late when I noticed she had the sniffles but I quickly gave her masks to use for our session and for her next session with another customer.

I don’t know. I must get better soon because tomorrow I have an early morning conference in Makati.

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It’s 4 am and this is the first time since yesterday that I feel normal. I had been curled up in pain because of stomach acids again. I suffered from bad diarrhea and vomiting. It seemed like whatever my body wanted to expel really had to violently get out of me.

I only had a glass of Diabetasol for breakfast and started writing my article. I felt quesy right after sending my piece to the editors. Still, I was crazy enough to text the vet that I will be taking the 1 pm slot because Kimchi really needs to be checked.

Just as we were about to leave, I vomited and emptied my insides. Damn it was so painful! But I couldn’t cancel because it’s hard to get another appointment with the vet.

Kimchi had a smelly butt since Typhoon Enteng or earlier and she had been scooting on my carpet (which reminds me I must have it washed when the sun comes out). She frequently licks her butt, more than usual but she doesn’t have diarrhea.

Likely parasite since Kimchi and Sushi go out occasionally and one time I caught them munching on a lizard or some big insect that they caught (the rascals!). The smell of her butt (smells like bagoong) and all the other symptoms point to possible parasite infection so we were prescribed Nexguard combo for both the indoor cats. If Kimchi doesn’t improve, then I have to bring her back for some lab work.

Then the vet saw how in bad shape I was. She told me, it seems like it’s you who needs to go to the doctor…

I mustered all my will power so we can get home.

Once I stepped into my house, I started hurling again and diarrhea exploded. I had been horizontal since then. When my girls arrived, I asked the girls to buy me half dozen Gatarode to hydrate me because oral hydrites taste horrible. But too late, I was already dehydrated and contracted low-grade fever. I was in and out of consciousness; I was in that twilight zone of sleeping and wakefulness because I needed to go to the bathroom. I don’t remember when I fell into deep sleep…

My Manila reporter told me to just rest and not worry about the event she was covering (signing of a deal we had been covering doggedly). “You need to rest now; you’re sick.”

Ah yes… Stress…

This job will kill me with stress.

I am not music snob as I currently have electronica of some sort in my Spotify playlist (see this sample below).

My girls are incredulous when they heard this playlist and asked, Mommy, why are you listening to that?!

I try to be adventurous when it comes to things I love, like music. Just to see what’s out there.

However, I do agree with Rick Beato. Everything is just too easy nowadays. AI-generated music, streams that go down the drain, the disposability of everything that is created nowadays. The Billboard Top 100 these days is anemic. My kids are listening to music that is 10 or 20 years old because they’re better, as they said.

But streaming apps like Spotify and SoundCloud did open opportunities for deserving artists. It opened up my world and playlists even without going to indie music haunts like 70s Bistro. I found gems like Raining in Manila by Lola Amour, which is reminiscent of the Manila Sound of the 1970s and early 1980s.

They have a similar vibe (for me) as IV of Spade, especially with this song Mundo. They sound like children of VST & Co, in a good way. Like old school music that feel familiar but isn’t.

Without streaming, I wouldn’t have discovered local artists like these below.

Before streaming, before Apple Music Store, before Limewire, people were stuck with whatever is being played on mainstream radio—which is very much influenced by the political economy of the medium and music business in general. I remember I wrote a paper in grad school about this. I can’t remember if it was for a broadcasting course but anyway, I was lucky that I have a high school friend who used to work for Alpha Records who I interviewed for this.

So yes, we are making AI music nowadays, devoid of creativity all for a quick buck. We are creating disposable music. However, there are still gems out there that are now given bigger platforms and they will find their audience, unlike before when you’re at the mercy of radio stations. If you don’t get airplay, you’re dead.

Maybe, just maybe, we should all do away with the normal practice of seeking what is on the Billboard Top 100 or even the list of the most streamed songs. Those lists these days are mostly garbage. And don’t get me started on the TikTok viral music. 🙄

There are better music out there.

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It’s a cat sanctuary, alright. Twin A told me she was able to speak with one of our neighbors when we were looking for Oyen when he went missing. She wanted to go look for him in another neighbor’s yard because that’s where my mom’s maid last saw Oyen. Twin A said we heard meows from that part so Oyen could be there. The neighbor said it’s hard to decipher which one could be Oyen since they have a sort of cat sanctuary there.

We never got back Oyen after he disappeared for the second time. He sneaked out of my mom’s garden and jumped into the neighbor’s yard. Hopefully, he got adopted or he is now with that cat sanctuary.

Now my curiosity is getting the better of me. I want to talk to our neighbors to see for myself how this giant catio looks like from the inside.

Meanwhile, the felled coconut tree trunk is still there, lodged between the branches of my pomelo tree.

Have to hire a tree/wood cutter to clear this one.

School got suspended today after two earthquakes shook the socks out of the school administration and the local government unit. Phivolcs said it was tectonic in origin, with the epicenter at Jomalig town in Quezon Province. The reports are inconsistent when it came to magnitude. Some earlier reports say it’s 5.3 then 5.6. The second tremor was around 5 then some reported it’s 4.9.

But when I was still with local media, the first thing we editors consult is the USGS earthquake tracker so that’s what I follow nowadays for instantaneous report. It says 5 and then 5.3 , while Phivolcs recorded them at 5.3 and 4.9. There were smaller quakes of magnitude 2 to 3.2.

I was still asleep when the two quakes happened. I was just awakened by the emergency alert by NDRRMC on my phone. I was just drifting off to sleep again when I felt the second quake.

I was a bit annoyed that they suspended classes just because of this. When I was still in elementary and high school, classes only got suspended at magnitude 6 and above.

But then authorities didn’t know immediately what’s the origin of the quake. Of course the first thing that they will think is it’s volcanic since we are technically at the foot of a sleeping volcano. Plus we’re surrounded by smaller volcanoes.

Ok I forgive them.

Then I realized how nonchalant I am, up to the point of callousness, when it comes to earthquakes. I always take it for granted because it happens frequently. “It’s normal, no need to panic,” is my first thought.

However, I shouldn’t behave like this. As I said above, we live at the foot of a volcano. I lived to see how Pinatubo blew up—and it was mistakenly described once as an inactive volcano. As my mom said, there are no extinct volcanoes in the Philippines—they’re just inactive. Anytime they can blow up as magma shifts.

And 😱 Phivolcs identified our mountain as a “potentially active” volcano and not just plain “inactive.”

I should prepare like the Japanese. You know, they have their earthquake emergency bags.

1. Dune

I know we had a copy of Dune in our old house when I was a kid. It’s one of those paperbacks in our cabinet with glass doors. The Dune novels are just right up my alley but I couldn’t figure why I haven’t picked it up. 🤔 Maybe when I take my long break…

2. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep

This novel’s adaptation is Blade Runner, a cyberpunk movie also right up my alley. As a lifelong fan of Ghost In the Shell anime movie/s and series, this book should have been on top of my reading list. Dystopia and questions about what makes a human, human, is always interesting to me. Is empathy solely a human emotion? <<< something that will always nag at the back of my head.

3. The Giver

I have had The Giver in my basket several times in book stores but somehow I prioritize buying another book over this. I don’t know why. Maybe because I always thought this book will still be available when I get back.

Next time I will finally buy this. The problem is when will I have the time to read this?

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I started refilling my Pilot Namiki fountain pen cartridges and oh boy, the process is so messy. I know there’s an art and science to this but I haven’t figured it out just yet. 😩

I just love writing with fountain pens. Drawing with it is fun. However, watercoloring with it is a hit or miss affair because inked drawings bleed when colored.

I just realized today that the second floor our neighbor constructed was a giant catio or a huge cat house. This morning I saw a couple of cats hanging out by the screen wall. There are also cat trees. I wonder if our neighbor is rescuing cats. 🤔

However, the skeptic in me could not shake the feeling that my neighbor is probably getting stray cats to feed a python, like this zoo in Masbate.

Geez, I hope not.

Twin I pointed out that 1) why would our neighbor spend so much constructing this entire second floor to keep cats just to feed a snake/s? 2) Why would they install ceiling fan for the cats if these cats are just going to be fed to the snake?

She has a point.

It’s just that I have so much distrust on humanity that I always think the worst of people when it comes to animals, especially companion animals.

In the following days I will try to investigate. I will be a Marites.