War

This government has declared war on UP.

The previous administration has made all state universities and colleges (SUCs) free for all qualified students (which caused the closure of some private colleges due to low tuition/enrollment). This ballooned the student population of SUCs and yet look at what Marcos did to UP…

Just because the university chose not to invite the Marcos Jr to any graduation and did not confer him an honoris causa, which is traditionally given by the national university to a sitting president.

But why would UP even be forced to do that when it didn’t give Duterte any honorary degree during his six-year term?

Meanwhile, Philippine Star has thrown SHADE at Sara Duterte 🤣

I’m all for it, Philstar! 🙌

It’s so hard to work when it’s a bed weather kind of day. The typhoon passing through Luzon has caused class and work suspensions here (floods!) and going north of Metro Manila. The typhoon will exit Isabela province tomorrow morning. I just wanted to curl up in bed and sleep. But edits have been calling to me…🥴

Mi goreng with pork nilaga for soup on the side. I suddenly wanted something spicy for today. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

One of the primary reasons why we went home to my mom on a weekday (Friday) was I needed to apply for the UP-wide gate pass sticker. Which I only accomplished yesterday because the UP Police Force handling that closed early on Friday. It was so odd that I needed to leave my license by various UP gates whenever I go home. Like I was a stranger or something. Just because my old sticker expired—hello pandemic!

Anyway, I am finally chipping at my long to-do list.

  • UP gate pass ✔
  • Engine oil change and general car check-up today ✔
  • Emission test for LTO car registration ✔
  • Car insurance renewal – pending. (Haha! I would this online later) ✔
  • Late car registration – scheduled tomorrow

After I have renewed my registration, I can breathe more easily.

I went to my car seat upholsterer this afternoon but his shop was closed. I don’t know if he’s still in business. 😥 I hope he is because it’s hard finding an OK vendor that is a bit cheaper than competitors located on the other side of EDSA (Kamuning St). Let me try tomorrow before or after I finish my business with LTO in Cubao.

I have so many things on my list and it’s so hard for a solo parent like me to to finish all those tasks because I carry the weight of the world i.e. there is no other adult whom I can rely on for small or big errands like this. That’s why a lot of things are delayed, like this car registration 😣 And I found that it’s not unique to me. One of my bffs who is finishing her PhD (and is in Europe now to submit her dissertation and tie loose ends) said her car’s registration has been pushed to the back burner given the bigger stuff that she needed to cross out on her list. She’s a solo parent too (her kids are with her mom in our hometown). There are things that we cannot delegate to other humans because they’re responsibilities another person (who is not your partner) finds annoying or cumbersome and he/she won’t do it for you unless you’re dying.

It’s exhausting to be in my shoes.

Kimchi judging me earlier tonight. 🙃 Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Sushi always looking over my shoulder while I work. Judging me. Looking down on my work. 😂 Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I talked to the travel agency yesterday that is supposed to arrange my S.Korea visa application (because I don’t have the time to do it myself). The agent that I talked to hasn’t come back to me yet. I’m running out of time because I’ll be super busy by next month.

If I can’t have anything concrete by next week, then I’ll just spend my holiday in Palawan—if there’s no typhoon.

Food forest

I will soon achieve this.

Well not yet. I mean it takes years before you can establish a small holding like this. My plan is to have something more organized than this. Like veggie beds under the existing fruit trees that my father and my nephew planted. This guy also gave me an idea what to do the the laundry runoff—I will create a “wetland” to process the grey water from the washing machine since I plan to make my ground level a contained utility area and next to it is the outdoor patio for barbecues with an optional hot tub.

This video calmed me down after the shit I went through again today as a result of that idiotor that had been encroaching on other people’s turfs. Because he misunderstood the corporate structure (because stupid company named several layers the same thing), he messed up and made it look like I got it wrong. He published his own version of the story while I stood my ground and stuck with how we explain things. My manager kept on harping about it and until I drew a chart of the corporate structure and sent it to her and had the reporter explain it. So she recognized that I was right, the idiotor did a shortcut and edited it according how he understood it.

It was a painful way to end the day and my brain was so exhausted. All this hee-hawing while I was editing another story that competition was also chasing. I told another editor-friend that I was already tuning out (it was before 6 pm) as I was already so pissed and my brain was already hurting.

Then I played the piano and sang for an hour. God bless my piano that was within my reach.

Fedora for the win! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

For several days now, I had been installing several Linux operating systems on Twin A’s desktop computer because Minecraft doesn’t seem to agree with Ubuntu 20.04 and crashes. This last OS I installed is the latest Fedora version and so far so good, it is running smoothly. The Bluetooth manager is better compared to the crappy one that Lubuntu 22.04 has.

Choosing wallpaper background. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Twin A: Mommy, how did you know how to install operating systems?

Me: I learned by myself. Trial and error.

A: How did you learn Linux systems?

Me: I learned again by myself. I studied by trial and error.

I wanted to add to her that I am a geek at heart and tinkering with operating systems was a hobby of mine before I had kids. I even wanted to have a Raspberry Pi system (the barebones PC setup) to experiment with. I wanted it to be my multimedia machine back when downloading *stuff* was still a thing (now everything is streamed).

Photo from www.raspberrypi.com

I think I can make a smart home with this Raspberry Pi if I learn how to configure this. Something to occupy me—as if there’s not enough to occupy me these days.

Twin I said she saw my door was open this morning (while the AC is running) as the cats let themselves in while I was sleeping. As I posted here before, Sushi knows how to open my bedroom door if it’s not bolted.

My sister-in-law told me over Viber last night that they adopted a black kitten. She is part of the litter that resides near their apartment and SIL said she fears that mommy cat is pregnant again. I told her when we come home this Friday I will bring my cat carrier so we can bring the mommy cat to the College of VetMed hospital to have her checked. If she’s not pregnant, we can have her spayed the following day.

Black Kitty. I want to name her Kuromi クロミ. Hehehe.

We will be spending 3 days at my mom’s. I hired my nephew to tutor my girls on Fri and Sat for their upcoming simulation high school entrance exam on Sunday. I’m quite useless when it comes to Math because I already forgot how to solve algebra problems, among other things. My nephew, Kuya H, graduated with honors from my high school–the high school that my girls will be trying to get into. At least his memory is fresher than mine. I took the entrance exam in 1991 and of course I couldn’t remember if I had a hard time when I was taking the exam. All I remember was I had no problem with English and my high score there pulled up my Math score 🤣.

OK, another day has ended and OMG I need to cut off all communication tomorrow so I can finally finish my drafts. Like seven of them.

Dude, no. You’re not that important

So there’s this guy I met in Singapore during our conferences. He messaged me this afternoon to say that he is in Manila and when can I meet him?

Dude, it’s so short notice. Who do you think you are?!

I asked him when is he leaving because I live far from the CBD area i.e. Makati and when I go there, I pack my meetings on days I have other things to do there, like on Thursday.

He said he will be leaving on Wednesday. Pfffftttt.

Does he think that I will just go and drive through the monsoon rains and horrible traffic that has gotten worse compared to pre-pandemic era just because he says so? Hey, when you introduced yourself to me, you didn’t even have a business card and you just got mine. I couldn’t even search for you on LinkedIn because your name is very common. Then you just messaged me on WhatsApp and had the gall to ask me for free entry into some of the our conferences that you weren’t able to purchase tickets for. The nerve.

Then you message me now like that?

No.

I don’t even know what kind of company you represent and I don’t think I would get any story from you.

Whoa dude. I only waste diesel and my energy on very important people.

Meanwhile, one of my old sources who has transferred to an investment bank in Washington is back in town and he asked for a coffee date. So yeah well, at least he told me he will be here until Sept so I can time that meeting with other things. Unfortunately, I can’t give him new updates because he’s so focused on mining and I’m not covering that sector often these days because the conferences by the Chamber of Mines have yet to come back. Plus none of my regular contacts have been looking into mining.


Cuddling with Kimchi this morning.

She invited herself in, plopped on my bed and slept. She can be adorable and annoying, like this:

Girl, how do you think I can work with you two occupying my worktable? Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Ah Monday. I was in a good mood and started working early. I still have a backlog of emails though that I need to attack tomorrow. I still have a long piece from Japan that I need to finish editing. It is a lot of work.

I took a break and went to Araneta Center to check if Ticketnet is still selling the cheapest seats for the G(Idle) concert in September for my girls as a little reward for finishing review school (which will end on Sunday). Ah well, they ran out of the Level 4 tickets so it’s a no-go for the girls. I won’t spend PHP 5,300 for each child. I even did not spend that much on my ticket to see GooGoo Dolls in 2017 and I waited for them for 20 years!

I didn’t go home empty-handed though. I wasted diesel so might as well pick up something from Gateway.

Milktea! Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My bestfriend and I are still thinking if we should queue on Sunday (when they start selling) at the SM Mall nearest my hometown for the tickets to the NCT concert. Nope, I’m not watching; it’s for her and the girls. My music preferences have evolved through the years but this evolution does not include Kpop.


Earlier tonight, I was going through my receipts that I accumulated from my trip to Singapore since I needed to issue an invoice for the refund of all my expenses there. Even my bottled water from Guardian. LOL. I wondered about my spending habits there; either I’m a cheap girl or food is more affordable there since I only incurred less than PHP 7,000 for subsistence there for 10 days! (well, that does not include lunch for four days when I was at the conferences) That’s pretty cheap. I mean when I eat here in Metro Manila whenever I’m out, every meal would cost somewhere between PHP 400-PHP 500 or SGD 7.4-SGD 12.3. Well, maybe because in SG I can eat at the hawkers or Kopitiam and I would still feel satiated. I would only go over SGD 10 if I buy lunch or dinner at the financial district.

My hotel, however, is a different story. The hotel accommodations in SG have risen so much because conferences are back and the HK conferences and events (like the SuperReturn Asia PE/VC Conference 2022) have transferred to SG. There are a lot of transients as well—these are the people who are uprooting themselves from HK to SG. Since the demand for housing has shot up, those who are in transition had to stay in hotels, contributing to the tightness in room supply in the city.

Anyway, I just realized I’m a cheap person. It only takes a little to make me comfortable and content.

Concert machine

My concert machine. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I moved around furniture in my room, trying to figure out how I can best accommodate my piano that has been stuck in the huge closet with no purpose. I’m not getting my money’s worth if it’s just hidden there. Well, after some huffing and puffing, I reverted to the previous set-up and adjusted my worktable and the Ikea drawer.

A little bit tighter now. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

This set-up works for now; that area was dead space anyway. I tried playing for an hour and I think this will do for now. I mean I will just roll away from my desk to my piano to de-stress.

Prior to this room reconfiguring, I washed the girls’ old running shoes using the mini washing machine. I will give these away when we go home to my mom’s this coming weekend. They turned out clean! Yey! I no longer need to brush shoes manually. I am getting my money’s worth from this tiny machine. I now always have clean rags and foot mats.

Sushi ruining my bag. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My cats are happy that I’m home the entire day. They have this separation anxiety that I find endearing; but I have mixed feelings regarding this when it comes to humans. Good thing my girls outgrew this because it causes me anxiety; there’s always this guilty feeling that I need to come home soon or I always had to bring them with me wherever I go. I couldn’t have my “Me” time.

same thing now with my cats. When my girls tell me that my cats are waiting for me in my room and they don’t leave my room because they miss me, I couldn’t help feel that I needed to come home immediately. Sushi especially has this weird separation anxiety. They told me that while I was away in Singapore, Sushi never left my room and she rarely went down to hang at the living room or elsewhere. She just stayed in my room and slept. I told them not to wash my bedsheets until I arrive so that my cats can still smell me and be comforted.

They always wait outside my bedroom door everyday and wait for me to open it so that they can sleep with me. But of course I don’t want them inside my room when I retire for the night because of their 3 am or 4 am zoomies.

I guess they’re joining me tonight.

I’d rather have cats sleep with me than have somebody who disdains me and was just forced to share my bed because he had nowhere else to go.

Here we go again Part 2

When will zoonosis stop? Perhaps never. It’s nature’s way of flashing the dirty finger at humanity.

Can we just keep them within their borders??? I mean none of their citizens can leave the country now since their passports are held or are no longer renewed (Zero-Covid policy of China). This ought to stop the spread of this new zoonotic disease, methinks.

Time check: It’s 10:45 pm and I’m still working. Replying to emails, uploading stories, picking up stories to edit first thing in the morning…OMG why am I doing regular OT? I am burning myself out.

On the side, I’m having an exchange with a former presidential spokesperson regarding nuclear power on Twitter…

I need a life. HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Have paper bag, have cat. And another cat. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My life now revolves around my children–the twins and the cats.

I should probably take time off…drive to Zambales with gay extraordinaire K and dance on the beach and have drinks by the bonfire. He messaged me today to check up on me. I said I may go to S.Korea in October while he said he has no travel plans yet. I said maybe we should go on a roadtrip. Then he suggested we go to Zambales by the end of this month…Will have to check my calendar as I have to bring the girls to my hometown on the 19th to prepare them for the simulation entrance exam to be conducted by their review school. It is yet to be decided if this would be conducted F2F but I have to prepare just in case.

Now I wonder how I would fit the buffing and polishing of my car into my schedule.

Tonight I made cold soba with zaru soba sauce and flaked roasted chicken. We’re laying off red meat for a while after that high blood-inducing, 10-hr bulalo that tasted heavenly but deadly. I still have the bulalo broth that I can use for pho, which I plan on making this week as well.

Zaru soba. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

My girls like the cold soba and the ready-made sauce that I bought from SM Hypermarket in Marikina. Since it is a hypermarket, it has more imported food items like Japanese sauces and noodles.

I wonder what I would serve for lunch and dinner tomorrow…

Ah the men in my life didn’t know they had it good with me because I can cook. Idiots.

Chaotic

Still so much unpacking to do. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
My cats don’t want to leave me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Will document my life in the last 48 hrs after I catch my breath.