Last Thursday I couldn’t help myself, I still bought a new rose bush and a sunflower.
I have yet to transfer it to a terracotta pot. Photo by CallMeCreation.comMy white rose blooming again. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
With careful tending, my white rose bush is blooming again while my mini pink rose and yellow rose are forming buds again. Roses require a lot of attention like regular fertilizing, deadheading, and trimming.
Sunflower past its prime. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Meanwhile, this sunflower seems to be always thirsty. This big flower is past its prime but it has a number of buds at its back. Needs careful tending as well.
Today we went to Tiendesitas to buy Twin I a new bathing suit from Decathlon since the new one I bought a couple of months ago no longer fit her. They will be going to the beach with their dad during the Christmas holidays so I need to buy them new clothes. It’s hard to rely on home measurements or eyeballing shoe sizes and clothes.
Trying the archery set at Decathlon Pasig. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I went overboard though. Not only did I buy them new running shoes (because Twin’s growing feet could no longer fit in her months-old shoes), I bought them sports bras, running jerseys (to use when we go biking), duffel bags, and sleeping bags for our camping trip in January.
Then we ate ramen at Tenya, the first time we ate out since the pandemic began last year in March. Photo by CallMeCreation.comI want to buy some Japanese lanterns. Photo by CallMeCreation.comTo make this little corner alive. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
We dropped by at Mr. DIY for some home improvement stuff and miscellaneous items that the girls bought as gifts to their best friend who is celebrating her birthday tomorrow. The girls will be picked up tomorrow by the their friend’s parent while I will be driving to my hometown because we have a livestream at 8 pm.
And I bought fake flowers because I couldn’t have real ones inside the house. Because cats.
We bought a laser pointer to play with the cats. They need more exercise. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
And I finally finished the last panel of my granny curtains for my room. I’m running out of projects to do.
My room is getting cozier. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My high school friends said I should bring my new piano tomorrow so we could jam. I missed being in a band–mostly the jamming sessions with friends. The part where we were on the road for gigs…not so much. That part was exhausting and we had day jobs then.
Hmm I have to bring my camera to take a video, for posterity’s sake. Jamming session after 20 years.
I did nothing today but reach out to prospective candidates for hiring. Been trying to poach reporters from other news wires (tough) and other international media entities. Trying to hire locals with English skills in Indonesia and Thailand is so hard. Since I am the one training and editing the junior reporters who have come and gone from our bureau, I know what I’m looking for: Grit and willingness to learn and be down in the trenches.
It doesn’t matter if this person doesn’t have financial journalism background but as long as this person has the above-mentioned qualities, I am willing to take him/her under my wing and teach that person everything I know.
So far… I haven’t seen that, even in our recent hires. 🤦🏻♀️ It’s hard especially in this current tight labor market.
Some friends who had a dinner party somewhere in the metro yesterday had been talking about the difficulty of hiring new reporters. The Gen Z kids no longer want to be permanently employed; they prefer to be freelancers and not be tied in one place. These are the kids who grew up with the gig economy, with all those influencers working with their laptops by the pool side or by the beach. These are the kids who do not embrace the corporate culture and prefer the hipster lifestyle.
With this in mind, and the struggles I’m having with the hiring, I need to compose carefully the things I must say in the career orientation that my high school will be holding next month. I must be encouraging and not preachy, but I have to tell the students the truth that journalism is not glamorous. It’s 90% grit and intellect and the rest is the writing. The pay and hours are horrible. Before I became what I am now, I ate dirt and barely had vacations. I was eating and breathing news. I was like a walking deadline—every moment is a deadline—especially when I was in online news, which operates 24/7.
That said, I shouldn’t compromise on the quality of hires because in the end, it is me who is going to suffer if I have another lazy/slacker dude who would just slap information without being careful about it. I had experienced several take-down threats because our last hire had cut so many corners in pursuing stories. And this person was much older than me 🤦🏻♀️ I had a lot of headaches. Lord knows he tried my patience.
That’s the reason why once I take over, I need to keep an eye on each journo under my watch and visit them regularly in their home turf. To keep them on their toes.
But before that, I need to hire two three more people before the year ends.
To power me up today, I had this for brunch:
Scrambled eggs and spicy fish cakes on rice and a bowl of fern salad (with cheese, tomatoes, and onions) and home-made salad dressing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
The girls and I did a little top-up shopping tonight at Save More. Bringing them with me to do errands to help me carry shopping bags keeps the cobwebs away and their minds healthy.
And we had grilled chicken in barbeque marinade for dinner.
Lying on my couch, staring at my festive windows. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m so tired. Last night before midnight I edited two stories because we’re trying to get ahead of official announcements, but the announcements didn’t happen. 🤷🏻♀️ Then I had to reach out to reporters in Singapore, Thailand, and search in Indonesia so that my pool of potential hires would be wider. Answering emails at midnight…
Then I had to deal with my stolen identity issues, filing my report/complaint with the Department of Justice’s Cybercrime unit. Then file evidence with my telco provider so they can track down the location of the scammer. Globe corporate comms people told me it’s hard to track down the scammer because it’s probably a prepaid SIM and that the number is under Smart.
So I talked to Smart and their people told me it can be done and good I have filed with DOJ because the order to investigate and open up the call logs and tracking down the criminal would be coming from them. It’s good I also have the call logs of the victim to the scammer.
But it will take some time.
It was draining. Mentally and emotionally. When writing my report to DOJ, I had to keep myself in check because I have to be clear and concise with my report so I had to hide the anger bubbling inside.
Then I finally sold my piano, not for the price I wanted. I just had to get rid of it. I delivered it this afternoon to the buyer’s house to make sure I’m not scammed. Finally, this guy looked excited with his purchase.
To cheer myself up, I bought a sunflower plant. And another rose bush. And PHP 1000 worth of vegetables and overpriced avocado. Spicy fish cakes, hopang, and Korean ice cream.
Kimchi killing my tissue roll. Photo by CallMeCreation.com Kimchi: What now?! Photo by CallMeCreation.com Poor tissue roll. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Not only was I scammed–almost scammed of thousands of pesos–the scammer stole my identity and posed as me to scam other people. Not one, but there are two of them who messaged me or a relation, saying they were duped and lost money.
I was up until 4 am trying to clear my name and was woken up at 7 because of messages from people and my posts that said my IDs are stolen and that an imposter is scamming people of their money. I have emailed banks, called up my telco, filed complaints to GCash, the app of choice of the scammer, and numerous things I need to do so the crook can’t open up accts under my name, hack into my accts, or attempt to switch sims to get my OTPs.
Such as nightmare.
I need to file a case with the NBI. But I need to sleep first.
Today I emailed my APAC boss to ask for promotion and raises for two of my team mates. It’s long overdue and this has been neglected by my direct boss for quite a while.
I cannot work well if the team I have is overworked, underpaid, and unappreciated. I need to fight for them and be given their due. Just as I asked for equipment for one of my juniors and went to HK to fetch it. A good team leader always makes sure that her team is looked after by giving them the right support, training, and resources.
I have to keep fighting for their welfare. I cannot lose another team member. So even before I assume my new role, I have to make sure everybody else is well compensated. I have yet to have my papers worked on by my superiors for my promotion. Everything is still fluid.
I have a tough road ahead of me.
In the meantime, I will continue with my soup and bread diet for dinner and nuts for snack.
I will try the intermittent fasting in January for a clean slate.
I love mornings like this. Appreciate the little cozy things.
Sunlight being filtered by my new curtain. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My high school friends and I were throwing ideas on FB Messenger about the next topics to tackle in our live stream for January. I suggested that we take up basics of investing because a lot of people even in their 40s have no idea how to go about it. I said why not we talk about what are the investment instruments that you should have when your investment horizon is 6 months, 1 year, 3-5 years, or 10years ++? I told them I remember interviewing the president of COL Financial about 13-14 years ago about this and he gave me excellent tips that I use up to this day.
I did a similar interview with then-PSE president Hans Sicat about the basics of stock market investing for my TV network. We did an #askPSE live tweet segment then to popularize stock market investing and to widen the local retail investing base.
I really should upgrade my digital camera now. *sigh* I should get what some Youtubers use for clear videos. And a good video editing software. These videos are just raw videos for posting on my TV network’s online news website and wasn’t meant for broadcast since these videos are accompanied by texts. I just collated them in my channel, which is just a dumping ground of my interviews that had nowhere to go.
Like this one:
I think this interview was done during Ayala Corp’s annual general meeting in April 2012.
I should fix my Youtube channel because I have a lot of interviews that could be used as reference or they could be standalone news stories.
On the other side of the coin, I was almost scammed this morning but good thing I was alert.
So you see I have posted the ad (on several FB groups/marketplace/platforms) that I am selling my Roland E-09 arranger keyboard and I had been receiving inquiries about it. Most were low-ballers but there was one potential buyer who was keen. Then long story short, we came to the advance payment part of the conversation.
Then he sent me a G-Cash payment alert
However, I realized that it wasn’t a notice for payment; it was a notice that he asked for payment as a remittance fee. It was fishy because the remittance fee was exorbitant.
I searched on Google and found that KKB (kanya-kanyang bayad) a.k.a. Dutch Treat is a function in G-Cash, like Venmo in the US, where you can split the bill and you can receive a payment from your friend for his share of the bill. The scammer made it look like it was a notice from Moneygram and at first glance it was convincing. But Moneygram transfers don’t look like this.
When I told the “buyer” this was a scam, he blocked me and left the FB messenger chat. I posted on Twitter and FB about this modus operandi and I asked my friends to report the scammer. I had one TV reporter friend from my old network to message the scammer that the network received a complaint about him and he would be reported to NBI.
I would check his many FB accounts if they’re still up. The fucker.
I was so incensed that I finished a floor-length curtain panel for my room to let off steam. By hand.
My granny curtains. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
I’m trying to have more prints in the house because white is boring. Next time I will try graphic prints and see how it would look and if I like them. So far I’m in this cottagecore phase again, just like when I was in high school. My bedspread then were florals and I crocheted doilies, my study table was decorated with figurines of rabbits and similar designs that would go with the cottagecore aesthetic. Then when I started working, I gravitated towards Asian designs, the zen mode–the minimalism phase. I went for Budji Layug x Francisco Mañosa designs with a sprinkling of Japanese aesthetic. This is my rebellion against the horror vacui that Filipinos are known for and which my ex-in-laws were going for. I simply rejected this pack rat mentality and this design aesthetic that was an assault to the senses.
Speaking of designs, I already contacted my future contractor and he will meet my mom on Thursday or Friday and I will do a video call with them so I can explain what I wanted. It would have been great if we could have met on a weekend so I can drive down there but he’s also a busy guy as I see him posting his multiple projects. He and I used to chat a lot in high school over the ham radio. Fun times.
