In the wake of the ChatGPT x tariffs brouhaha (plus taxing penguins and seals), all I can say is, I have little respect for people who use shortcuts and pretend they’re some genius for coming out with all these numbers.

We do use a lot of AI in our company but AI needs a lot of intervention from humans who train it. We reporters and editors, most of the time, have to correct the AI-generated data. AI relies on large datasets and predictive patterns to be able to do its thing but it doesn’t really do the thinking for the humans. It cannot generate the context so I had to scrap 90% of the summaries generated by our AI.

It cannot interpolate and extrapolate correctly if there are missing data—and we have a lot of missing data in the Philippines.

I tried it before.

More than a decade ago, I went straight to what was then the National Statistical Coordination Board when I was sifting through the national accounts data for a macroeconomic analytical piece I was working on. I also went to Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, just to try my luck and see if they have the data I was searching for. I went through ledgers upon ledgers of numbers to piece together a narrative that I needed. This was data analytics pre-AI. I had to give up because if I interpolated or extrapolated, there were weird/wild outliers and they were a lot of them—which made them less of outliers. This then made the whole thing incorrect or inconclusive. To think I already had the guidance of my siblings who know their econometrics (and my sister’s main job before was in econometrics)…

AI wouldn’t know whether the parameters you fed it was right or wrong, just like what White House did with the tariffs. 🤦🏻‍♀️

And as explained by those who redid the calculations, there was no accounting for elasticity (see blog entry the other day).

🤦🏻‍♀️

Anyway, I have yet to schedule my Data analytics course (which includes machine learning etc). I can’t seem to fit them in my calendar. It seems like I’m fully booked until June.

Yesterday was exhausting.

I cleaned my widows, stairs, roof, and rain gutters with my power washer. It took me hours.

I had the wrong settings in the video above but I corrected it so I was able to blast off the black bits on the cat balcony. I was able to reach the girls’ window but not from this angle.

I also repaired the doorknob in my daughters’ room that fell apart. My door knobs are not cheap, you know.

Never rely on a man for things that you can do yourself.

First, if you’re going to bring down the world, do it properly. Like have real numbers to fuck up world trade, not some percentages you have pulled out off someone’s ass. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I already know that Trump’s audience doesn’t know how tariffs work, but his own people don’t even know where tariff comes from. YOU DO NOT JUST DO A SIMPLE ARITHMETIC ON TRADE BALANCES!!!

People who do this can be smelled by smart people. And even if we come from a third world country, you can’t fool us, we can smell your bullshit from afar. So those so-called consultants like McKinsey or Bain or those who pose as independent consultants deliver work like this—uh uh 😠 we can see right through you.

Your day of reckoning will come.

In the meantime, let Trump and America burn. We’re just here along for the ride.

I had to get out of the house and touch grass today. I had been playing games until 2 am and that’s not good from any standpoint.

I brought Twin A with me so she won’t be staring at the screen the whole day.

I forgot. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Summer means flowers and pollens flying around. Five minutes into our walk, mother and daughter were already sniffing and developing runny noses.

We first went to Kurimi to buy milk tea before we took our places in the field. The Kurimi shop was overlooking the university pool that I haven’t visited in over 10 or 20 years. That end there is 12 ft deep and it should be perfect for practice free dives.

We brought our drawing tools so we can enjoy the dying light, fresh air, while practicung our craft.

We packed up our stuff at 6 pm and walked to the nearest Korean grocery store to buy meat, enoki mushrooms and kimchi for barbecue. Hopped to the vegetable stall for fruits and veggies.

When we got home, I took the Lazada packages and tried my new glass teapot for my Chinese fruit tea—a TCM remedy for menstrual cramps and other women-related discomfort.

It lacks the sweetness of the berries and dates. I should add oranges tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I helped Twin I with her home-made lamp that she will be submitting on Thursday. It’s made of wooden hanger, a chopping board, a tin can and ordinary socket, wire, and switch.

Good thing Mommy is handy with power tools. 🙃

I reached my minimum quota today. I’ll worry about next month’s story quota on Wednesday. In the meantime, I’ll unhinge my brain with gaming time.

I should buy a 1TB external HDD because my mini pc is getting full because of games. My PS5 as well.

Aww dang! I had to have my WRC 9 refunded because it wouldn’t run well on my desktop. With the refund, I bought WRC 8 instead, thinking that it wouldn’t be that demanding as WRC 9…Then I figured it’s not my processor or my RAM that’s inadequate. It’s my graphics! Since my mini pc is so small, my graphics card is onboard, hence, it’s low-grade. No wonder my cars are lagging.

Awww, I shouldn’t have downgraded my WRC. 🥲 I should’ve stuck with WRC 9 and tried playing it on my laptop that has a better graphics card.

UPDATE

It finally dawned on me that I should be playing WRC 8 via the AMD Adrenaline software on my desktop.

The AMD graphics card my desktop has was scaled down because my screens were not 4k. 🤦🏻‍♀️I was the one who did it when I was setting this thing up.

Now it’s working well.

I shouldn’t have downgraded my WRC. 🥲

I should really devote time to be creative and not just doomscroll to de-stress. I should also be reading books as I have a huge stack of them here on the shelf in my room. 🙃

I finally was able to wake up and bring Twin A to the weekend community market this morning to have breakfast. They can also pick their lunch and dinner for today instead of guessing what would they want to eat.

They’re asking me when can we go back to Anilao to dive. I said our calendars are full, maybe we would be able to do it in May? This coming week, they’re busy finishing their school projects and the week after that is their 4thQ final exams. In two weeks, we would be having our staycation in a hotel in QC for their birthday so they can see their dad and also have their elementary best friends sleep over. Then they will be going with their dad to his hometown after the 14th until end of April. I would be in Vietnam by third week of April.

So I have to squeeze in an Anilao dive in early May because by the second week of that mont, I’ll be back in Singapore. A few weeks after that, I will be in Kuala Lumpur. 🤦🏻‍♀️  It seems like Anilao would have to be done in early May or late May.

The annoying thing is that their dad always changes schedules. There would be huge changes that would ruin my schedule at the last minute. He doesn’t stick to a committed timetable. I will not adjust according to his whim or lack of preparedness on his part because my plane tickets and hotels are already booked and those are work-related trips.

I remember being so stressed with him regarding this matter. To solve my problema, I just shipped out my kids to my mom’s so that there would be less things to worry about. He’s just  so unreliable. At that time, I could do that because the girls were just in prep or kinder—a few absences from school then would not have been detrimental to their learning.

However, I had to time my trips during their school holidays when they were in grade school. That’s the reason why my overseas trips were limited since I had to work around the school calendar. Once they got a little older, I was able to fly more during school days since they weren’t that sickly anymore, unlike when they were younger. During those early years, one asthma attack would mean hospitalization.

Now that we’re here and my mom and sisters are just spitting distance from us, I’m more confident that they will be fine everytime I’m away since I have trustworthy people watching over my girls. Plus my brother and sis-in-law and their older cousins are just a kilometer away from us so they can also lend a hand if needed.

But again, flying out every few weeks is exhausting. I hate the long wait at airports. Plus work-related travel is stressful.