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.

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?

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.

The local government has suspended classes a day before so we took our sweet time getting out of bed. The wind was a bit violent and snapped the dead coconut tree trunk in the garden. It fell on my pomelo tree, hit and torn off the branch that had three pomelos that I had been trying to ripen naturally. I saved the grown fruits but the small one is… *sigh*

Good thing we didn’t lose power today so I was able to work, while my girls are able to attend online class. Or do their school work asynchronously.

I had been seeing videos and photos of flooded areas in Cavite and Metro Manila since last night. A friend from Cainta, Rizal tried going to his office in BGC but had to turn back because of the severe flooding in the area. He had to abandon his car along Felix Ave and walk back to his house because there was no way he could push through the high waters.

Rizal province is the most devastated province today because of Typhoon Enteng (International Name: Yagi).

Northern provinces have also been submerged, like this one in Bulacan.

Marikina River overflowed…

And as this article from Fortune said:

The biggest lesson from Warren Buffett isn’t his stock picks or market maneuvers—it’s his child-like spirit and focus on doing what he loves. Now, you don’t have to become a competitive Bridge player or drink Coke daily to follow his example. Instead, savor the present and do what truly makes you happy.

As Buffett said in a 2017 CNBC interview, “I think happiness makes an enormous amount of difference…in terms of longevity. I’m happier when I’m eating hot fudge sundaes or drinking Coke.”

My other bff, L, went to my rescue last night by coming over for dinner, with a bottle of Moscato, to talk some sense into me. I was already sinking into an episode because of my demon of a boss. I already wanted to quit even without a job.

L told me I have to face the reality that I can’t just do that. I know that, which makes my situation more excruciating because I’m trapped. To keep my sanity intact, she told me I should:

1. Pay no heed to my boss. It’s hard, yes, but it’s harder to be without a job while being the breadwinner. Don’t take what she is doing to me personally, even though she shows she doesn’t like me, until I found another job.
2. Have my passion somewhere else. Not on my job. Do not place my passion and identity on my work. Let it go. Not until I have another job.
3. Find other sources of happiness, to keep me sane until I find another job. Find pockets of sunshine.

And this is what Warren Buffett is saying. Have small doses of happiness. Do things that make me happy.

So what are those? I may have to take a leave of absence for that. Assess my life. Take a break from work. Find myself.

I was also chatting with a friend who used to be a journo and shifted to corporate. She quit her job even though she didn’t have anthing lined up yet. She just got burned out. It was more than the crappy boss. It’s the overall corporate culture that she couldn’t take anymore. She told me she is full of anxiety because she has no income and it’s quite jarring when for the longest time she has been the breadwinner before she got married and after she got married and had a daughter. She is also in the process of assessing where she wants to go, what else she can do well, whether she still wants a corporate setup or be her own boss…

Maybe I need to go on a sabbatical. Without pay. I think I can afford a month or two of not receiving my salary. I have to figure this out soon.

P.S. Why do I always get screwed over by Koreans? 🤬