We tried to save him. After an hour of syringe feeding him, I saw he was already hyperventilating and his eyes were dilated. He just waited for me and my neighbors to come back to him before he said goodbye.
He held on long enough so we can be with him before he departed.
He enjoyed being brushed. Mochi/Whitey enjoying the lights
He loved to play with my legs and he always made himself cute, begging for attention. At least for the last few months of his life, he was able to live stress-free and enjoy the simple pleasure of no longer fighting for survival. He learned how to play with broken branches and tin cans. He loved sleeping in this shoe rack that we provided for him outside my door.
This is the message I got today from all the people I got to talk to this week.
Do not settle for a half-assed written story. The story I just edited, I admit, I let through because the reporter would not have any output for the week. But then the content editor put a stop to it, because it was half-baked. Full of fiduciary statements with no substance.
I should stop being nice.
Do not settle for less than a full commitment to a job that was assigned a long time ago. I have given my team enough lead time; they should fulfill their end of the bargain. I push for more benefits and their promotion, then they should step up as well.
Do not settle for fleeting attention. If you want a relationship with me, I want your full attention. I don’t come second or third.
Do not make excuses for people. I will not settle for someone who spews inconsistencies and lies. Do not settle for people with questionable character.
Stop being nice. I deserve more than what I was receiving in the past.
Daughter: Dumb guys go for dumb girls and smart guys go for dumb girls. What do smart girls get?
Dad: Cats, mostly
Ah, truer words were never spoken. Because we’re no longer settling, we get cats. Happiness are derived from cats, not relationships.
Meanwhile, I would have to push back my trip to S.Korea from September (two weeks) to October-Nov (one week) as this is the only break my bestfriend and another good friend would have in the middle of the first semester school year 2022-2023. They have already booked their tickets while I haven’t because of my crazy schedule. I’m not sure if this is a good time for me since I need to go back to Singapore by mid-November and as head of the region for my publication, I cannot NOT be there… Ideally this S.Korea trip should be in September but…oh well. It’s more fun to be with my girlfriends if I cannot read street signs. My best friend and I had died of laughter for 8 days when we were in Japan in 2009 so I would really want to take this trip with her.
I don’t know what crazy stunts I would be doing this time but for sure I will not, I repeat, I will not eat a live octopus.
I would have wanted to drive somewhere today but I couldn’t. I still don’t have a car.
My brain is not functioning today—you know it’s like a deflated balloon right now after the Adrenalin rush of yesterday. Imagine, I did not allow myself to cry yesterday and absorb the fact that I lost 300k because I needed presence of mind. I needed to engage with the scammer/s while I am working with the authorities. Whatever info I extracted from the criminals, I passed on to authorities.
After my Nancy Drew-esque adventure, I disengaged, as advised by the lawyer of the anti-fraud team because my identity will be stolen if I lingered long enough. The case is now with the investigators. I already gave him the ID of the point person from the syndicate that they can engage with so they can do a sting operation.
After I recovered my funds, I slept for 9 hours. All the stresses of the previous day were released today and my brain is barely functioning now.
My friend from the media relations of AEV said she was in awe of my presence of mind and guts. I said, maybe because I am a reporter so I’m used to masking stress and can still function under duress (I received a lot of threats from the scammer’s side when I refused to do what they wanted to me to do).
This is an organized crime syndicate. I did a lot of research and discovered the same modus operandi had been going on since 2019 or probably earlier. I passed on my research to the anti-fraud teams and the NBI; I think they need Interpol for this one. As my friend-colleague told me, they have scam farms (akin to boiler rooms) in Southeast Asia, scamming people from China to Venezeula. I’m not entirely sure if these boiler rooms do the same phising as what was done to me (and at some point my mom, but then my mom has an excuse that she is not internet savvy while I don’t; i blame my lack of sleep).
Image from Mothership.sg
It’s like being on the investigative journalism circuit again, doing covert info gathering. After being fueled by Adrednalin for 24 hours (forgetting to eat and sleep), my body gave up and gave in to exhaustion.
I’ve been pretending to edit a story from Vietnam the whole day today but I haven’t progressed to the fourth paragraph.
The best I could do today was to clean my keyboard, which was full of cat hair.
Cleaning my mechanical keyboard that has brown switches. Photo by CallMeCreation.comCat hair and dust bunnies from my keyboard. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I can’t complain. After the extreme stress I went through yesterday, maybe I deserve this break. Besides, Southeast Asia is dead today because of Eid al-adha.
And oh, I thank God that I also have the foresight to keep majority of my funds in trust accounts that cannot be withdrawn that easily as these require a visit to the bank branch. I also have split my ready-to-use funds into different bank accounts. Aside from *** (where I have like 6 accounts), I have *** and ***. I now have *** and ***, which I’m testing as a financial reporter for future reference. In case of fuck ups like this, I still have funds I could use.
UPDATE: I was able to recover my funds, intact. God is good to me even if I’m being stupid. Kudos to the excellent anti-fraud teams of UBP and EWB who acted swiftly. It’s a harrowing experience.
Today my EastWest Bank accounts were phished and funds and were transferred to a Union Bank account. Around PHP 300,000 or more than USD 5000.
Using my connections at Union Bank, I have reported the bank transactions and the UBP account used to funnel funds so they can freeze it. The syndicate doing this is also using my credentials to hack into my UBP account as I received SMS and emails from legit UBP number and email address about this attempt.
I think the syndicate is a crypto gang, and this is similar to just like what they did to BDO account holders at the beginning of this year. They used a UBP account as a conduit to funnel funds into crypto accounts because this bank has connections to crypto or they’re dipping their hands into crypto so it’s easier to move money from a legit bank to a crypto account and international transfers are easier. UBP has very loose eKYC, like GCash.
I don’t think I can get back the money but I’m trying to trap the syndicate. I am in constant communication now with UBP people and my next stop is NBI. I just have to make sure they have frozen the account before I go to NBI so that the scammer/s cannot withdraw the money.
Someone is still watching over me since my BDO account wasn’t touched as it was under maintenance last night until this morning. ❤️
My HSBC credit card was hacked earlier this year and some purchases in the US were made. These were reversed as I was able to prove that the physical card is with me the same time the transactions in the US were made. I think they gained access into my account when I subscribed to Windows CCleaner app or Malware Bytes. Same thing happened to my Citi credit card; there were attempts to use my card which were unauthorized but with Citi, they were the ones who immediately invalidated the transactions and shut down my credit card number.
It’s hard to do anything online these days. The problem is, everything is going online.
Yesterday was a bit shocking that even my former boss messaged me to ask, “What’s happening with the world?!”
Looks like a case of mental health illness issue rearing its ugly head. Again. News from Japan say that the assassin is an unemployed former military (Japan’s equivalent of navy) and he killed Shinzo Abe on the basis that he believed Abe is involved with an organization (which news reports say religious) that this assassin hates.
He told investigators that his mother had become bankrupt after spending her money to support a religious group, according to Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shimbun, which cited police sources. He said his family fell apart because of his mother’s obsession with the group, and he targeted Abe “out of resentment,” Mainichi reported.
Mental health issues are taboo topics in Japan, a country that values conformity so much. Psychiatric therapy is almost unheard of there. That’s why you have a lot of hikikomori there and suicide rates are some of the highest in the world.
It’s just sad.
I brought the girls today to their friend’s house so I owned the rest of the day. And of course I spent it sleeping and cuddling with the cats. Slept probably for three hours.
Kimchi is so cute!
My cats, my children, my relatively comfortable and quiet life make my heart full. I am complete.
I am complete.
As I wrote in my Instagram post today, I fear nothing these days.
Revelation of John 4:5 “From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God”
One of those seven is Michael the Archangel, the guardian of Israel, who is also my guardian angel.
Together with God’s promise in Psalm 91 and this archangel, I am forever protected. ❤️ I have no fear. 🔥
I am loved and protected. I fear no evil. Many times my ass has been saved from sure disaster.
I used to fear expressing my spiritual beliefs because J scorns it. He doesn’t believe in God, I think. Now, I don’t care anymore. I’m very free to do, express, and believe in whatever I want.
My faith was just tested now but the archangel is looking after me.
This story from The New York Times struck a chord somewhere, not because I have a similar story, but because the pain indirectly expressed here is universal. Pain just comes in different degrees and forms.
“What is true? The note I wrote on a slip of paper and put in the drawer of my bedside table after we broke it off that final time: ‘Long after you are gone, my stones will hold your warmth.'”
Awww, journalists are really masochists. Why is she doing this to herself?
Nope, don’t try to answer. I already answered my own question.
Some literal positive news today
And I really love how people are responding to this. 😂
St Peter Memorial 😂
These past few weeks were very challenging for Philippine media, with the revocation of Rappler’s registration statement at the SEC, the red tagging of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and Bulatlat.com (where my first investigative piece about juvenile justice was published). This Marcos administration 2.0 is hell-bent on shutting free media down.
Anything that publishes the truth is being persecuted by this government.
My fellow journalists are now having drinks in Cubao X and as much as I want to join them, I can’t because 1) I don’t have a car; 2) I feel like staying in bed more; and 3) my doctor hasn’t given me the clearance to have alcohol. The last time I was with them, I had to exercise great self-control because beer was free-flowing and Johnnie Walker was table-hopping.
I just sent them a bottle of wine via Grab as a goodwill gesture and in solidarity. We all had tough weeks. Will probably join them next time.
