I think the colorless version is much better, I don’t know why. 🤔 Maybe because everything has bled? The paper

The paper quality is not good for watercoloring since it absorbs too much water.

Anyway, this is just for practicing so it doesn’t have to be exhibit-level.

Meanwhile, my surgeon said what I have is lipoma and not osteoma. If this is osteoma, then he will not touch it because it’s bone, unless I want to go through the complicated process of chiseling my bone to flatten it (sounds horrible).

Good thing is it’s just lipoma = fat. My surgeon will just do an open incision over the lipoma and simply remove the fat. The other method is to do the incision along my hairline and lift the skin off the muscles and suck out the fat cells—or something like that. I didn’t hear the rest of the explanation because I was already cringing at the thought of going through that complicated process. I’m less vain now that I’m almost 45 years old and little scar on my forehead will not lessen my value as a person so I’m opting for the direct incision. I don’t want to complicate things.

This is the same thing when I opted for my gall bladder removal. My then surgeon asked if I want laparoscopy so that won’t have a huge scar on my upper abdomen. I said nope, cut me up, Doc, because complicated methods would just cause more trouble. Well, good choice because when the surgeon opened me up, the gall stones were already blocking my bile duct so he would end up directly cutting me up open anyway. I saved my insurance company money and saved me a ton of problems post-operation.

So yes, I will just go for the direct incision over my lipoma. It will just involve local anesthesia and will be done as outpatient. However, it would have to be done at the OR because it will be bloody, he said.

He warned me though that there will be a scar. I said it’s fine. I have lived with my chicken pox scar on my forehead for 40 years (I scratched a chicken pox lump because it was itchy when I was 4 years old) and it didn’t give me self-esteem issues. Then he checked that chicken pox scar and he said, ah, we can smoothen that out with fillers!

There you go. 😁

I would have to go back to him in two weeks. Right now we’re draining my ear of the fluid that got stuck after my diving trip. Covid (or rather the colds that came with it) caused inflamation or closed off the canal that would have helped drain the fluid. So he just gave me medicine to loosen thick mucus for two weeks before we begin prepping for my lipoma surgery.

I’m already Covid-. Yey! I was too eager to go out of the house. I drove to the next town yesterday to claim my Oppo watch. Since the one I bought from Lazada was a lemon, Oppo replaced it without so much of a fuss.

But before we left, I had to rush one editing job. While we were at this shopping center, I had to pick up another editing job via my mobile phone.

And I bit the bullet and edited the story on my mobile phone.

It was f*cking hard! The screen and onscreen keypads were too small but I made it work. I used to write stories on my Blackberry on the fly. But it was easier then because I had a full Qwerty keypads.

I was editing the story while waiting for our dinner.

We waited until the thunderstorm  passed because I knew the traffic would be epic. Maybe traffic would have eased after an hour.

Woooh, boy. How wrong I was.

What should have been just a 25-min drive one way turned into a 2-hr special bonanza.

Le sigh.

Now waiting at the ENT/head/neck/facial and reconstructive surgeon’s office to finally have this lump on my forehead checked and eventually removed. A lot of people are bothered by it but I was not. I only now thought of having it removed because, what if it’s not benign as the previous doctors who have checked this said?

The wait is long and I don’t want to drain my phone’s battery quickly so I just practiced perspective sketching.

I also need to practice drawing hands. I hate drawing hands; they’re hard! Apparently, it’s not only me who’s having problem with hands. I read that the way to detect AI art is to check whether the hands were right/don’t look weird. AI doesn’t know how to do hands. 🤔

So now I’m practicing drawing my own hands, drawing hands. 😜

I want to visit an art gallery or museum. Should I go to Manila on Tues? It’s a holiday on Wednesday so let’s see where the wind will take me.

I’m not supposed to expose myself to my kids but their screams and their constant calling out to me forced me to come face to face with them (with mask, of course).

Twin I said she fell from Twin A’s bunkbed ladder. I just don’t know how she ended up destroying the drywall in their room but there you go. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I just messaged my contractor that another repair in this house is needed. This time, it’s the fault of the residents. 🥲

This is only our first year here but my kids already managed to destroy my house. 😭

“I don’t necessarily think it’s bad if a place wants to reinvent itself or to do something different,” says Bykowicz, now the business and enterprise editor for the Baltimore Banner. “But it is uncomfortable to see a place go through such upheaval without a clear end in sight.”

NPR.org

Thus is the precarious life of journalists. We don’t have much choice these days. Even the profitable ones are laying off people.

I had a call today with fellow bureau chiefs and we were told that salary increases and bonuses are–in my most diplomatic way of putting it–rather dismal. Even if you performed well last year, the company is giving something much smaller compared to years prior since the high interest rate environment is squeezing its pockets dry. As I said here before, the parent company is very highly leveraged and given the high interest rates right now, I wouldn’t be surprised if its debt servicing has doubled. Our former APAC boss said that the owner is even being investigated by regulators because of his debts. I wonder if he really was a finance guy in the first place.

We are in a constant state of flux and it’s quite hard to find ways how to place ourselves.

Meanwhile, my sis-in-law sent me gifts that would help me in my isolation. Among then us this Kuromi figure.

To keep me from going insane inside my room. ❤️

I have throught about finishing sketches and starting some paintings in my watercolor books but it requires brain power and at the moment, my brain cells are already spent on editing and writing a stories.

What’s dangerous now in my confinement is that I have shopping apps on my phone. Because I don’t have anything else to do, I bought some fountain pen inks and a syringe for refilling the cartridges. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I exercised great restraint because I’m so tempted to buy the transparent Pilot Kakuno fountain pen. 🔥 And a Kindle. 😵‍💫 I have a tablet for my ebooks. Why would I need a Kindle?

I really need to get out soon.

I cannot get out of my room for another five days or until I test negative. Fuck.

Storm is brewing outside, making this day more dreary.

My furbaby accompanying me in my isolation. She always begs to be let in my room, oftentimes with her fluffy toy or her feather-on-stick toy.

It’s supposed to be my last day of isolation but my neighbors want me to test myself to see if I still have Covid since I’m a danger unto my mom and my daughter. The problem is the rapid test may turn out positive again even if I haven’t been taking Bioflu for two days. I was mainly taking it for my runny nose and headaches but I’ve managed without it the last 48 hrs.

Dang, I took it again a few mins ago. My nose started to get runny again. Why is that?! If my test tomorrow turns positive again, so many errands will still be left hanging. Plus we would remain dependent on our neighbors for our meals. While I do appreciate my sisters extending that kind of help, I sorely miss my own cooking. I want to go out and buy veggies. I want to make sinigang.

Oh well…

I just sent my mini pc to the service center via courier with the help of Twin I. I’m trying my best not to get impatient with my current setup because I have less screen real estate and I’m working with a slower processor (Core i3) vs my mini pc’s latest Ryzen 5 (equivalent to Core i5). I am now seeing the error of my ways, choosing a slower processor because I thought the laptop is just for writing/editing on the fly so I won’t really need a powerul machine for that.

Wrong!

There is always the possibility that my main machine will throw a tantrum so my laptop will become the main machine…

I only have to isolate until tomorrow. I did work somewhat today but I have to give in to my need to sleep before my call with my team because I was still whoozy yesterday. Covid headaches are terrible.

Unfortunately, my mini pc died right after my MS Teams call. I did everything but it still wouldn’t turn on. After so much hoops and hurdles, I finally was able to get the contact details of Machenike service center and was able to talk to the person who should receive my unit that is still very much under warranty.

I will have Twin I send this via JRS Express tomorrow. I still can’t go out but I need to send this to the service center immediately.

Why is it that I am having issues with lemons these days?!

I’m paranoid that I wasn’t able to back up anything from its SSD because it just died while I was using it. Ghad don’t let it be the motherboard!