It’s uplifting to see that my little donations go a long way. I am blessed to have all my needs met and then some, allowing me to be a blessing to others. I am also helping a group that takes care a tribe of indigenous people, the Aetas of Capas, Tarlac, ever since the pandemic started. A friend’s mom is going there this week to help distribute relief goods as the Aeta community got hit badly by the recent floods in Central Luzon.

Every little thing counts. Seeing that you make a difference in someone’s life makes living on this earth worthwhile.

I just finished my two-day test for the role I am applying for. I don’t think I’m stellar but maybe I wasn’t that bad. 😐

I lost my footing when I rewrote a story about a derailed Amtrak on the East Coast. I had to regain my rhythm when editing general news. I haven’t done it in a decade. Because I was under stress, I can’t remember the other stories that I edited. 👀 You see, general news and business news—especially the very niche one I am doing for the last 10 years—are different animals.

Then today was all business news but it was more macroeconomy. Although it’s up my alley, I still struggled because of the style. Every news agency has its own style, from usage of the words war/conflict/invasion to describe Gaza and Ukraine situations, down to how they write currencies and stock symbols. For 10 years, it’s automatic for me to write PHP, EUR, JPY or USD, but other news agencies use PhP or ₱ and $ or ¥ and €. Believe me, if you have to correct yourself every now and then because you got used to a certain style for a decade, it slows your editing process.

Anyway, it’s ok if I don’t get an offer. It would give me so much dilemma if I did get one since I would have to weigh whether I can give up the freedom/better work-life balance or chase higher compensation and rank but I would be under so much stress.

BUT

I was under so much stress yesterday and today because of my manager. 😩

I was just messaging fairygaymother K and told him that I would have been fine with where I am right now, but my manager is destroying all the goodwill I have for my job. “Managers can make or break a person, noh?” I told fairygaymother K. He agreed 101%.

I didn’t see any semblance of the Last Supper here. The man on the table is clearly Bacchus, the Greco-Roman god of wine and fertility. This is Bacchanalia, debauchery of the highest level as the Greeks/Romans revel in food, wine, and sex.

The man on the table does not, in any way, resemble Jesus Christ. The paraphernalia is also consistent with Bacchus: flowers, fruits—all representation of agriculture and fertility.

Now, if indeed they were mocking Christianity, then they can do so—it’s very French of them to do so. Remember Charlie Hebdo? The French don’t care.

Are you offended? Why? Is your faith dependent on imagery and religious symbols? Geee, it’s really the Catholics who are raising hell (and the Evangelicals in the US) because their religion is anchored on ceremonies, symbols, and rules. I should know; I had been a faithful Sunday school-going child who became a lector until first year high school. Then I dropped out because it all didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t find salvation that way.

If mockery of religious symbols (Da Vinci’s Last Supper is not a religious relic nor canon, by the way) affect your faith, then you have so little of it!

I told my friend earlier (we both belong to the same church but different branches) that the Catholics’ faith is anchored on all these dogmas and sacraments (yeah, yeah, the seven sacraments and so many rules on every rite). That’s why they hold all the symbols and imagery so dear.

But you know, following all these do not earn you a ticket to heaven. You are saved by God’s grace alone. It’s your faith and relationship with God is what matters, not following rules and dogmas.

So what if they mocked Da Vinci’s Last Supper (but again it’s not the Last Supper 🤦🏻‍♀️)? Did that weaken your faith? Did it make God less holy? If they indeed mocked it, then it’s between them and God and it has nothing to do with you. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah by just one flick of His finger; let Him deal with those alleged French religious offenders.

Righteous indignation that is so misplaced. Where was their indignation when children got torn into pieces in Gaza? When children were bombed in Syria? Where were they when children were shot point-blank by local police because the madman Duterte had this operation tokhang raging nationwide?

Hypocrisy at its finest.

I was praying that the rain earlier this morning would stop because I am driving the very low Toyota Vios—sedans don’t have a chance in Metro Manila flood.

Thankfully, the sky cooperated. I was able to reach the venue in time and was able to have a call with my team before the presscon. 😮‍💨

My high school friend, C, messaged me that she would be dropping by my house. Just because. She brought her kids, we ordered Thai food via Grab, and they spent 5 hrs here. Her kids were with my girls in their room playing Minecraft, while C and I talked the entire time.

She said she wanted to come here because she felt like having milk tea. She knows I have a huge stash of tea of various flavors and forms. It’s another way of saying that she wants to get away from their house and wants to talk. That’s the thing with my high school friends: they’re so at home here, even way back in high school, that they don’t have to have reasons to come here. It can be as trivial as wanting to have my milk tea. They knew that they were welcome in my parents’ home anytime when we were in high school. It’s still the same with my own home now.

I’m also their home. When they want some comfort, I open my kitchen and feed them. If they want to cry, my bedroom is always open so they can curl up on my bed. It doesn’t matter if my house is tiny; I have plenty of room for friends and family.

Mi casa, su casa.

As fairygaymother K said, I have so much love to give that people who need that naturally gravitate to me. They come running to my home to be comforted.

Mi casa, su casa. My house is your house.

The sun is finally out. Wet laundry should dry out soon and I will wash the diving buoy again so salt deposits would not eat into the zippers again. I drove Twin A to school for her volleyball training and went to the mom-and-pop stores to buy ingredients for the sukiyaki I will cook for lunch/dinner.

Since I was already at the Korean grocery store (which has since expanded), I picked up freshly made gimbap and Maxim hazelnut coffee for breakfast.

I’m on editing duty today so I should do everything to motivate me to work.

My editing test for the job I was applying for will be next week and I decided to chop it into 90 min bits. However, I have several coverages in Makati, Pasay, and Ortigas next week so scheduling is bit of a pain.

I have to get cracking on those edits now. 💪

Since I can’t freeze opened tofu again, I decided to make braised tofu with gochujang because I don’t have gochugaru (it went bad because ai wasn’t using it). I can store this in the fridge for a day or two. However, the sukiyaki for lunch won’t make it for dinner (my girls liked it so they ate a lot), I guess  the braised tofu will be for dinner, together with leftover pork adobo I cooked last night.

This day has been cozy, so far.

There’s a special place in hell for those uncouth Neanderthals who shoot Philippine Eagles for sport.

Fly free, Mangayon! I weep for you.

I just posted here the places that my girls are most familiar with that had been ravaged by the horrendous southwest monsoon (habagat) rains. I think the flooding is worse now compared to Ondoy in 2009 because Bulacan and Rizal are more devastated compared to the disaster 15 years ago. Ah well, Ondoy has more rainfall volume compared to the habagat now that is enhanced by Typhoon Carina (international name: Gaemi). 455 mm in 2009  vs 217 mm yesterday.

I’m just so relieved that I’m not in Metro Manila anymore. Some friends told me that they were already running out of food supplies because they couldn’t go out. It has been raining non-stop in the Metro the whole weekend, so I was told.

I would have volunteered at the community pantry in Maginhawa or donated there because so many people had lost their homes, pets, and everything else. Again, the out- of-whack weather we’ve been having devastates the most vulnerable in our society. Climate change hits the poor the hardest. Farmers lose their crops yearly to extreme weather conditions and to the local logistical nightmare, which claims as much as 60% of all the food crops being transported from farms to market.

And yet Filipinos can still smile through it all.

I hadn’t been productive the past two days and it bugs me. However, it seems like I was powerless to stop myself from procrastinating and I don’t know why. Maybe I am ready to quit, I don’t know…

Something is wrong with me. I find that it’s a struggle to finish tasks that I’ve been putting off, like as simple as throwing away the condiments  that came free with our Grab orders that were just on the dining table. I always told myself, I will do it after I wash the dishes or some other chore.

But I never got around to doing that.