Tag Archives: gadgets

Need some inspiration

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New keycaps. The keyboard is cuter now. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

To inspire me to type long passages today. LOL. As if.

This arrived late in the afternoon. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

The keys feel much better than the stock keycaps that came with RK61, less clackety but still has this satisfying clicks since they’re blue switches.

However nice my keyboard looks and feels like, I’m still not inspired enough to finish what I need to finish as I’m not done with the things I needed to write and publish today. TOO MUCH ADMIN WORK! Then a reporter got stuck; couldn’t access our system and I had to act as a go-between her and our IT guys in HK and Mumbai. Then an application for our job ad in Bangkok came through so I need to schedule calls…

It’s already 7:03 pm and I’m not yet halfway through with the digest I need to publish soon.

Some cuties to keep me company during this bed weather day…

These fluffies refuse to leave my side. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Entrance exams

My kids and I are preparing the entrance exam requirements today. We’re filling up our applications for Philippine Science High School as it turns out their grades have qualified them to take the entrance exam (above 85%). However, we need to wait a little bit because we still need to submit their 1st or 2nd quarter grades by November before they can take the exam in December. Our target school’s exam will also be in December.

I was also looking at the requirements for Quezon City Science High School and it looks like we need an endorsement from the principal to certify their grades will qualify them to take QSci exam.

The girls are complaining that their classmates in their review school could keep up with the advanced lessons because it seemed like they have already taken up those in regular school (and their school is based in my hometown). In contrast, my girls said most of the lessons/concepts tackled in the review and practice exams were alien to them at first—they only encountered those for the first time in review school. That was why before I left for Singapore, I had to help them answer the sample tests to supplement the lectures given to them by review school.

Just as I suspected, the schools in my hometown are advanced compared to Metro Manila counterparts. This was first observed by my bff C, whose niece first went to an elementary school in our hometown. After her parents split, this niece transferred to St. Paul Pasig to live with her mom. She later complained that the lessons in St. Paul were late–they have already tackled those in her old school in our hometown. So when she passed our high school’s entrance exam, she went back to live with her maternal grandparents to study there. I think she already graduated college from UP.

I don’t know why this is so. Maybe because we are a university town, thus, basic education around the area had to be competitive? Maybe because of the existence of my high school, so other competing high schools had to level up? I will know later when we transfer there. All I know is that the kids there have more school days than their counterparts in Metro Manila as class suspensions in my hometown are not as frequent compared to Metro Manila. We didn’t have to contend with epic floods and horrendous traffic then. Kids here in the city have to wake up at 4:30 am so they can leave for school at 5:30 am and reach their school at 7 am. Imagine that horrible commute everyday. The kids are always tired.

This is the primary reason why I chose to live where I am now so my children will just be within 2 km radius of their school even though it would make my own commute for work horrible. I want them to be less stressed about the commute so they can stay awake in school.

I remember in elementary we only had to wake up at 6 am so we can take public transportation at 6:30 am and be in school at past 7 am. But in high school, our family transferred to a new house within the university campus so our school was just 100 meters away from our house. LOL. Living near our schools made a huge difference in terms of our scholastic performance and participation in extra curricular activities. It was just I had different priorities in high school. Hahahaha! Well in the end it served me well since it was the arts that saved my ass.

Here we go again

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New variants popping up.

My Greek-letter organization brother, who just got back to Chicago where he has been living for two decades or more, contracted Covid. He said he never had Covid or got sick the entire time he was here in the Philippines when he was taking care of his parents for three months. He said people in the US treat the pandemic as something that is already over and he’s pissed that people refused to wear masks. People are dying again because they simply refused to have boosters/vaccination and wear masks. It’s simple.

It’s inconvenient but my goodness I will have all the inconveniences that come with mask-wearing than suffer another bout of Covid. The variant that hit me last year was nasty and it took months before I could fully recover. I’m glad that Asia hasn’t dropped masks yet. Ever since we got hit by SARS, mask-wearing has become second nature to us. It’s courtesy to other people so they may not get sick from whatever virus or bacteria we’re harboring, especially if we’re taking the public transport.

Manic Monday. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I started working at around 8 this morning and I had non-stop calls from 11 am until 4 pm. A lot of talking and graph display had taken place. I haven’t had any chance to write my own stories—all admin work today. Arrrghhh.

And here I am, still sifting through hundred of cards that I got in Singapore and I have to make sense of all of them. It will take me days to sift through and email all these people and seek re-connection.

And yes, I have two keyboards. I use both, depending on my mood. My new key caps for my Royal Kludge will arrive tomorrow. I’m looking at this GammaKay 65% and Rakk 65% keyboards. Just because.

I think I had been feeling ill the past few days because my body is withdrawing from escitalopram that I had stopped taking on 24 July…about 2 weeks ago. And I feel really bad: I feel like I’m floating and have this nagging dull headache somewhere. It was a bad idea to skip it. I took a half pill today and I don’t know if it was psychosomatic that I felt a bit better. Having less triggers doesn’t mean I’m fully cured; it just means I can manage myself with less synthetic chemicals in my brain.

It has been exactly a year this week when I learned about J and that silly young journo, plunged into darkness, and had alcohol for my companion. I had sunk so low, as low as when I dug myself a hole in December 2020 – January 2021. When I started barfing on my toilet after downing a whole bottle of wine by myself, that’s when I decided I needed professional help to sort me out. That’s when I learned that what I had been experiencing was post-traumatic stress. I wasn’t properly healing and I just kept on putting on a brave front but deep inside I was crumbling. Seeing my therapist was the best thing I did for myself. Putting a name on what I was going through helped me sort out the tangles inside me.

Trauma. That’s what my therapist told me. The word trauma helped me heal; it was a validation that I was not being melodramatic about the whole thing. Whatever devastation I felt was legit. I was dealing with a lot of trauma, for being betrayed despite giving my all. For losing myself into something or someone who gave so little. For the abuse that I received: I let a Dementor/Nazgul suck the life out of me and I received no love in return. I was just a human appliance.

Mental health is very important and taking care of it is as equally important as taking care of the rest of your body. Just like when your body received huge blows, it has to adjust to the trauma and heal before it can fully function again.

I can’t say I’m fully healed—I don’t think you can ever recover from such trauma—but I was already able to get back on the saddle to fight for survival for another day. I have gotten better compared to last year when I couldn’t even write. I was back again in that deep, dark pit, trying to claw my way up. I couldn’t sleep since my mind couldn’t stop thinking about what happened. What’s sad is that Covid was the only respite I had. Because of Covid, I was able to sleep and recover all the lost sleep since the breakup.

I’m much, much better now. I’m now in that place where I can say I’m content with life—at this point. Of course this can change tomorrow. But so far, I don’t feel the need to have a partner because even just the thought of having one exhausts my brain. I am in control of whatever I have in my life right now. No one is leading me by the nose anymore. No one is being unkind to me anymore. I don’t have to bend backwards just to earn crumbs of affection.

No more.

Hit by a bug

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I don’t know what happened to me while my girls and I were in SM Marikina. My head was pounding and then I felt like I was going to have a fever. When we got home at almost 10 pm, I just ate a quick dinner of smoked salmon and rice and I fell on my bed immediately. Still in my “outdoor” clothes. I knew the girls were going in and out of my room while I was sleeping and I remember telling them not to turn on my fan or aircon because I felt cold already. Now it’s 5 am and I am wide awake 👀

A basic phone for my Starhub sim. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I bought this basic phone from SM Marikina yesterday so I can have my Starhub SIM constantly on roaming. You see, I have forfeited the dual sim capabilities of my Oppo Reno 7 Z by having a 400GB micro sd card occupy the slot that could have accommodated a second SIM. My storage is more important than my dual SIM. Because I have 8k photos that aren’t in the cloud.

Why have the Starhub on constant roaming? This way it won’t expire like the last time. If I have this sim always on, I will remember to top up when it is nearing the 180-day expiration. I also have some OTPs sent to this number. I also have this number as an alternative mobile so that my Singapore contacts can use this to reach me.

Same thing when I’m abroad. I need my Smart SIM to be constantly on roaming because of OTPs and sms that I should pay attention to.

This only costs PhP 1,299 and is the basic phone brand of Realme, that Shenzen, China-based phone maker. I could have gone for the cheaper ones but I read their battery lives are short. If I were to waste money on something I could live without, then might as well waste it on something with higher quality.

Another piercing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I granted Twin I’s wish of having another set of ear piercings so she can have multiple earrings in one ear. I just let her be; as long as I have money, I let them express their individuality. They’re good kids anyway. My younger sister had multiple ear piercings when we were in high school so…

I also wasted money again on eyeglasses. I bought a second pair because I no longer want to be in that place of insecurity, with the fear of losing my only pair. My eyesight is that bad that I cannot function without it. I realized that I can no longer wear contact lenses for the entire day. I dunno why.

I could have gotten cheaper frames but those mean ugly shapes or they’re very thin and wouldn’t support my lenses that are already heavy and thick even if they’re the “ultra thin” variety. I checked out Lenskart in SG if they had decent frames at the price I’m willing to pay, but of course they don’t. And they bought Owndays a month ago or so. For the price of frames and lenses that Owndays offer, they’re pretty expensive compared to the branded ones on sale (30-40%) from EO here in Manila. It also includes the lenses.

Vera Wang. I initially was going for Zac Posen but this matched my face better

I got a Vera Wang pair. Very Vera Wang if you ask me 😂. I could wear it with her USD 10,000 gowns. I could have gone Cath Kidston but my girls said the floral prints on Cath Kidston bags don’t translate well on eyeglasses. They were right. The Ann Taylor ones on sale aren’t different from my current one, so what’s the point?

Grocery shopping at SM Hypermarket, SM Marikina. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

And I went overboard with my grocery shopping last night. Was almost 2x over budget. 😑 Oh well, as long as my echoserang froglets are well fed, then it’s money well spent.

While waiting for our turn at the counter.

I’m sleepy again.

Well, well, well

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I saw that the young journo that J was chasing last year has resigned from her network. It’s either she will be getting married to her bf or she is marrying J. Whatever. She would be of little use to him now. Heh.

I stopped talking to her last year when I learned about that thing between them. She knows that I know and she shouldn’t be surprised that I had dropped her. People in our industry who knew don’t think well of her after this. It’s not my fault; I had just kept quiet because that’s the dignified thing to do.

Anyway, I already muted her in social media since then but I probably forgot to turn her off on FB so that’s why I was able to read her announcement. It seems like she’s quitting the industry. I no longer get triggered by her but she still annoys me.

Meanwhile, I’m getting back into my regular rhythm so I have more time to procrastinate today. I pulled out all the keycaps and cleaned the keyboard. I’m waiting for the new keycaps I bought from Shopee. Having a white keyboard triggers OCD tendencies.

Royal Kludge 60 keys with blue switches. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
But this color scheme is not any better than my current white one. LOL! It will still get dirty easily. Photo from Shopee.
Next target is this one.

Because I want my work desk to be pretty. I should love my work space because I spend most of my waking hours here.

Oh wait, I need to cook. I’m cooking Hainanese Chicken Rice. I have cooked bak kut teh yesterday using the spices I bought from SG. Today is chicken rice day!

Floating

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We had our weekly call yesterday and I was trying to recall my leads that I got from the conferences last week…and OMG I really couldn’t say something coherent. My notes and my thoughts were all scattered because there were so many! I mean everyday I was talking non-stop from morning until evening and throughout all that, I couldn’t take down notes lest I scare or offend the person I was talking to. I had trained myself to be a walking encyclopedia but I guess age is catching up on me.

Singapore River at daytime viewed from Raffles Place. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
A small portion of the financial district. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I just edited today and did some small admin stuff but the brain cells to write all the stories I needed to push out this week have died last week. I still don’t have the capacity to think lucidly because I am attending to a million things: poaching people, trying to interview candidates, emailing people I met last week, connecting my reporters to sources.

I borrowed Twin A’s lunch bag so I can buy and bring my lunch to the office. Ph
It has insulation inside

If I were going to a regular office, this would have been a lovely lunch bag for myself. I was tempted to buy my own but I knew if would just be a waste because I wouldn’t be using it.

Tada! Lunch. Soy chicken noodles. Photo by CallMeCreation.com
Couldn’t help myself. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I played truant later in the afternoon. At 3 pm I went to Raffles City to check out some bag styles on 50% off at Desigual there. Well, I didn’t like the ones that were left there so I went to Challenger to check out some things. And I saw some mechanical keyboards that are cheaper than Razer. I called up Twin A if she wants to replace the Royal Kludge that she bought because it has connectivity issues that I couldn’t resolve. Apparently it is a known bug according to Reddit; the 2.4G dongle doesn’t work well since it gets in conflict with other wireless devices. Anyway, Twin A said she’s happier with a membrane keyboard as she finds it easier to use when she’s playing Minecraft. Which is weird.

Of course, I cannot buy one twin without the other having the same. So I asked Twin I if she wants one as well because her cheap keyboard that she bought from Shopee is already falling apart. She says pass because she doesn’t have money. I said no, this is a gift from me because her keyboard and mouse are already not working properly. Yey, she exclaimed. She said she is happy with any keyboard that looks cute.

So there, I got one white and one pink and a pink Logitech Pebble mouse to match. Twin A already has her own new Logitech Pebble that she bought with her own money. Logitech lasts forever so better to pay premium for keyboards and mouse. My own Logitech slim keyboard and mouse combo (grey) are already a couple of years old. If I’m not mistaken, these are already 7 years old.

And I would be getting the Royal Kludge mechanical keyboard and try to solve the connectivity issues. I think I would buy new key caps because white will not remain white with my sweaty hands and obnoxious cats who love sitting/lying on my keyboards.

On my way back to the hotel. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I went back to the office at 5:30 pm and continued to work while having my dinner at my desk. I got out of the office (the last person and I had to turn out the lights AGAIN) at around 8:45.

It was already too late to swim so I just stayed a bit at the pool area of the hotel.

Looks inviting. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

Here’s the thing: I always book hotels with pools but I couldn’t find time do laps because I’m too busy. I just assure myself that I’m getting plenty of exercise with all the walking I do around here.

At the pool area for some fresh air (I took off the mask when no one was there. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

I started packing at 11 pm-ish. I finished past midnight. And I barely made it to the 30kg weight limit.

I’m hungry. Need to sleep this off.

And the economic crisis is sinking us deeper and deeper

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This should make dollar-earners like me happy. But no, this makes all goods more expensive because we are a net oil-importing country. Among other things that we also import are rice, durable goods, and just about everything. We even import onions and garlic from Taiwan.

WTF.

Jeepney drivers are already sleeping inside their jeeps because they could no longer afford to go home because they no longer earn anything as gas prices continue to climb.

The group of journos I am with right now are starting a movement to create news content in bite sizes for Tiktok to combat disinformation on such platforms. A friend just did a Tiktok of the horrible commuting life in Metro Manila. I took it upon myself to create a Tiktok about the impossibility of PHP20/kg rice that was the campaign promise of Marcos Jr. Another friend will be releasing tomorrow a Tiktok of the forex situation now.

Because Marcos trolls are very active on social media now, trying to paint the false picture that things are hunky dory and that they claim only detractors are saying we have a crisis. That’s what they did to that friend’s Tiktok video about the horrors of commuting in Manila; they mass-reported it as “dangerous” so her video was taken down even without the benefit of being properly reviewed by Tiktok.

A crisis of food accessibility, economic, and information. We are in deep shit.

And I and my colleagues have an important role to play.

How many times do I have to experience being fished by a fake profile on Instagram? Since I don’t look like I’m in my 40s, they think I am single and ready to mingle. When they message (even if my profile is set to private, they can still message me) I always tell them, I’m 42 and a single mother, so go away. On IG, it’s usually those claiming to be Chinese/Taiwanese or Korean living out of their home countries. On Twitter, it’s usually American servicemen and I ignore them because their kind always think Filipino women can easily be bought with dollars and promises of being flown out of the Philippines.

Oh sorry, I’m not one of those. I don’t blame those who belong to the lower economic strata for targeting AFAMs (A Foreigner Assigned in Manila) so they can get out of poverty/Philippines. However, these foreigners shouldn’t generalize that all Filipino women are into that kind of thing. It’s insulting.

Men are dirty. I’ve truly lost trust in them.

I sound so bitter. But can you blame me?

While attending an ADB financial forum in my house clothes and a four-legged officemate.

I was so busy today that I only had 30 minutes to eat lunch and have a bathroom break. I had to write a story, edit, do admin work, and attend conferences/webinars. On top of that I had calls in between and trying to have my internet connection fixed. I finally succumbed and contacted the corp comm team of my ISP and asked them to expedite my internet repairs. After a few hours, my connection was fixed 🙄. I really don’t want to use my connections for such things but Internet is very critical to my job.

Oh, and those white earbuds that I’m wearing in that photo are my new Oppo earbuds that I was able to buy on sale. I didn’t realize how freeing such thing could be. I was talking somebody on my phone, that was just on my phone stand on my desk, while I was walking around in my room. Good for driving as well. I don’t know why I resisted buying this for so long. Ah, because I’m an audiophile and I always thought their bass is pale at best compared to the sound of my over-the-ear Audiotechnica bluetooth headphones. Well, the earbuds are just ok for exercising and for phonecalls but for listening to music, nothing beats the over-the-ear ones and of course, speakers with a subwoofer.

Today is much better. I finally reconciled that yeah, a double-digit raise is not so bad even if I didn’t get the pay level I wanted. As for my people, I will just have to ask for concessions for transportation allowances for them given the high cost of transportation and generally everything else.

Let’s see.