Up all night

Posted on January 27, 2023 by admin

*Building a new work desk. Photo by* *CallMeCreation.com*

I suddenly had a brilliant idea of going to Ikea this afternoon to buy myself a new work desk so I can give my old one to Twin A because hers is tilting dangerously and is falling apart. I would have a bigger problem if it suddenly crashes.

I had been up all night since the new work desk requires me to build it myself. I started at around 7 pm and finished at 1 am.

The dimensions are almost the same as my old desk: 120 x 60 x 70cm. I was initially aiming for the 140 cm long Lagkapten to accommodate my printer but I realized my room in my new house is much smaller even though I made provisions there for a 140 cm desk. If I find myself wanting more surface area, I could always order another Alex drawer. Or I can mount a wall shelf and place the printer there.

I also have better cable management.

My desk now matches the oak finish of my cabinetry in my tiny house. I just need to make the cables tidier by buying that spiral pipe cord protector/organizer so I can place my workstation in a command position facing the door in my new room. There’s nothing more stressful than seeing unruly cables when you enter a room.

I chose not to update my girls’ desks because I will have theirs custom-made together with their loft beds. I will just buy them additional Alex drawers (and more DIY for me) so they will have more storage.

This weekend I will start throwing away old stuff that we have been harboring under the stairs. Then we will start eliminating things that we wouldn’t be bringing to our tiny house.

I’m sleepy. I will collect my thoughts later…zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I’ve been selling my ETF in tranches this week because the outlook is bad in the coming months. While I have already completed the payments for the entire contract with my builder last week, there are extra expenses that I have incurred because of additional posts and making the laundry/utility area downstairs more decent. So I needed to draw down from my stock investments.

This is the reason why I don’t spend on luxury bags, designer clothes, and other unproductive things. Bags are not an investment; an investment is something that will help you increase your earnings—not to boost your ego. Besides, these luxury houses target the insecure middle class customers who want to be perceived as rich. It’s aspirational.

It’s so superficial.

I buy a lot of bags–some expensive, some are just so-so because I often break my bags. I rotate them so as not to tax one particular bag and destroy it before I get my ROI.

I’ve been investing in the stock market since the great market crash of 2008. This enabled me to build my house debt-free. Although it’s small, I have the option to enlarge it later but then I don’t want a big house to clean…At least I can get off the rental market now and build wealth faster. One of the killers of wealth-building is consumer debt and rent. I don’t have both. This recession is a buying opportunity, granted that I don’t lose my job or some other catastrophe happening like illness.

So for those who look down on me for not having designer bags or designer everything–I want to pose this question: Do you already have a retirement fund? Are you fully insured? Do you have emergency funds? No? Then come back to me when you already have one/some.

Public shaming

Posted on December 8, 2022 by admin

I will troll her until kingdom come.

You see, I used to cover her at the Philippine Competition Commission when she was still a commissioner there. She was one of my favorite commissioners to put on a hot seat during press conferences (the other one is Comm Joey Bernabe). I used to love covering both of them and she once told me that I keep them on their toes whenever I attend their presscons. She was really good and made sense. Her specialization at the UP School of Economics was health economics—everything that concerns private healthcare funding, universal healthcare, public health finance, etc.

Then she ran for congress.

She’s now swallowed by the system (or maybe there was a corrupt politician hiding in her all along) and has co-authored the bill that would create the Marcos slush fund a.k.a. the 1MDB 2.0.

What are sovereign wealth funds? These are created by states so that their excess reserves can go somewhere more productive instead of sitting in the national treasury. What states have excess funds in an age of budget deficits? Oil countries. Malaysia, Norway, Kuwait and other Middle Eastern states.

What is a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF)?

A Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) is a state-owned investment fund or entity that is commonly established from:

Balance of payments surpluses
Official foreign currency operations
The proceeds of privatizations
Governmental transfer payments
Fiscal surpluses
And/or receipts resulting from resource exports

And as a public finance and macroeconomy reporter of 8+ years, let me tell you this:

We used to log BOP surpluses but that changes month on month. I used to do magic and produce news articles just from a table of national current accounts (oh the pain of writing BOP stories)…. BUT it’s more frequent that the numbers are in ( ).
We privatize government assets because we are always short on cash.
We didn’t have fiscal surpluses. We never balanced our budget and the smallest budget deficit that finance reporters of my time recorded was PHP 60bn (if I remember it right) and that was before the global financial crisis. Arroyo had to backpedal on the zero-deficit plan because by 2008 our economy went shit.
Receipts from resource exports? We don’t have OIL AND GAS to export, unlike the countries I mentioned above. Our mineral resources aren’t generating enough receipts for us to create an SWF. Indonesia has coal and nickel, while we have the low-grade variety of these minerals.

(Not well versed in govt forex operations and transfer payments as source of funds for SWF so I won’t touch on those).

Tapos obsessed na obsessed tong gobyernong to magtayo ng SWF, kala mo may excess funds tayo. HOYYYYYYYYYY we have always operated on a deficit. Kapal ng mukha netong mga to!

HOY STELLA! Slush fund ng Marcoses ang tinutulak mo. Di kami bobo.

To calm me down, I resorted to sketching this scene at the Singapore Botanical Gardens before I started editing today.

*Started with globs of color. Art and photo by CallMeCreation.com*

This government is driving me nuts.

I bought more frames when I was at the Mall of Asia/Ikea. Just because. If I produce a decent sketch or painting of something, maybe I can frame it and give it as a gift.

And I bought a wok as a gift to my cousin who wanted a paella pan (but I couldn’t find it.

*Wok not too heavy so it’s good for flipping fried rice or stir fry vegetable*s. Photo by CallMeCreation.com

*Of course, Kimchi just had to sit on it. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I evaded the MandaramBong

Posted on October 20, 2022 by admin

*I was too early. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I arrived early at the conference today because 1) I wanted to do ambush interviews so I can go home and avoid Marcos; 2) I didn’t read the program 😂

I really did it. I wore pink accessories in silent protest. The Leni R watch was very obvious.

I had four interviews, four stories, and a follow-up interview. Not bad.

I left the venue right after lunch so I won’t have to suffer Marcos.

Went to Ikea to 1) eat at the cafe and write my stories; 2) buy household stuff that I neglected to buy a long time ago. Their shipping rate of PHP 300 for small items is too much so might as well go there when I have coverage nearby. I almost carted off a kitchen sink and ceiling lamps 🤣. I need to check first with my contractor.

*This! I hate this!* *Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

It took more than an hour to get home. Geez.

Twin I’s results came back: Bilateral ethmoid sinusitis. Congested nasal turbinates.

The pediatrician already gave me Rx for it yesterday, as she anticipated.

What’s curious is that Twin I also has aplastic left frontal sinus, which I hope is just a developmental issue that will correct over time. But then I have to wait for what the doctor will say. The rest of her sinuses are intact, the report said.

Her hematology results are normal except for her RBC count, which is above normal. If I got it right, she couldn’t breathe, hence the low O2 level. Which could be traced to her congested nose.

Her prothrombin time test is normal, so blood clotting is normal. Her nose bleeding could be traced back to her undetected sinusitis that irritates her nose and causes too much mucus production. When it dries up, my girl picks her nose vigorously and there you go—bleeding. 😑 So just like the pediatrician said, her membranes might be thinner than normal.

Tired. Need to pick up Rockwool insulation/soundproofing tomorrow and deliver to the construction site. And write two more stories before I bounce off to my week-long vacation.

I am so done

Posted on October 19, 2022 by admin

Stress level hit the roof before I signed off from work tonight. I received an email from HR regarding the contracts of my reporters and damn, here we go again…

I emailed my managers and asked them, why are we back here? If this keeps on cropping up, I will lose people. I also would be put in a precarious position and if push comes to shove, a competitor will love to have me and this company will just eat my dust.

Thank God for cats. They help me get rid of stress, albeit temporarily. They lower my blood pressure.

*Here is Kimchi judging me again while I do my stretching. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

*And then she proceeds to mock me. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I don’t know how people can last long in this job. I remember an erstwhile bureau chief quit and asked to be demoted because she said she could not keep up. She just had a baby and there was no way she could balance being a mom, wife, and bureau chief. The only two good things about my situation is that I can work from home and I don’t have a partner. The rest are crap—in the sense that I manage the second largest if not the largest of newsroom in APAC just by the number of reporters I have. Moreover, I must be on top of the situation in 11 markets—five of them are very active whereas the others have only one or two markets (Aus and NZ) that they cover. I must monitor 11 laws/rules and regulations, 11 political situations with their own idiosyncrasies and only two markets use English as an official language—the rest are incomprehensible. AND YET I could not travel freely to these markets; I have yet to test the waters and push the envelope.

This day is just…😤

Meanwhile, a little victory due to our pushback against this Bible-thumping liar, history revisionist, and overall bitch apologist of the Marcoses.

And here are the feedback of some sellers. A friend who has a store on Shopee says this is all true. She lost customers. If there would be orders, it would be for an PHP80-item, hardly a thing that would move the needle. All the big spenders are gone. Nothing happened during 10-10 sale. She says she’s stuck with a high inventory and she couldn’t open a TikTok store or an IG store because that requires regular content. She has no room in her life for content since she’s taking care of her baby. She said this is not a matter of life and death for her since she’s just doing this as a “passive” income (her definition) since her active source of income is her online job. This boycott really hurts the sellers who are relying on Shopee for their main source of income.

Another stress-reliever of mine is planning my house.

*Updated floorplan of my tiny house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

I probably have my dimensions wrong again since I’m not working on grid paper. But this is the latest layout that my contractor and I have agreen on. Just this morning, we reduced the width of the girls’ bedroom. I’m not entirely sure if I got the girls’ doorway right because I just based this on my conversation and gesticulation of my contractor i.e. there would be a corner there for their door and for my closet. But I couldn’t understand how my closet would not block their doorway. I must have misunderstood something. Anyway, I would be able to see once the partitions are up next week.

My girls prefer to have this shelving unit in their room instead of a full-blown closet because they want shelves and more shelves for stuff and books, not clothes. I have already bought them drawers for their clothes.

On Friday I will pick up in Paranaque the Rockwool insulation/soundproofing for some dry wall partition to deliver to my construction site. That was an extra expense (around 22k) but I want this done well. If I can have granite kitchen countertops, why not have a soundproof partition wall?

This is how my future home looks like viewed from space…

Yup, that entire forest at the back is my view. I will clear some of that in the near future when I’m ready to have my vegetable beds. That red encircled part of the red duplex is mine—at least the second floor part. On the extreme left in the yellow circle is the garage but that would be extended to be a communal garage to accommodate two SUVs and a sedan.

Let’s see on Friday if the house is already taking shape.

27 days without a car

Posted on July 15, 2022 by admin

*Primer. I need more dry days for the finishing and buffing.*

Keeping my fingers crossed, praying for more dry days so the paint job will be finally done. The broken taillight will be replaced and hopefully I can take this home early next week before I leave for Singapore. ❤

There are still a lot to be done with this car: central locks and alarm, new carpeting, new tint, and sound system (but that is already the least of the things I must do). When my house is completed by December, I’ll start hauling my books and arrange it there. I found that when moving houses, the books are the most difficult to pack and unpack. I will be moving small items little by little so by May of next year, only the big ones will be moved. If the headwinds have died down and the economy recovers from this horrible stagflation, then I will sell this and get myself that new Toyota Avanza for minimal headache.

I’m still thinking if it’s still worth it to reupholster my couch or just buy a new sofa bed from Ikea. From a sustainability perspective, I should have my current sofa reupholstered so that there would be less waste. From a cost standpoint, I don’t know if it would be cheaper. Let’s see after I consult with the reupholsterer.

*I think this would be safe from my cats.* *FYRESDAL Daybed with 2 mattresses, black/Ågotnes firm*

*Besides, Twin I also wanted this particular sofa bed and begged me to buy it for our house. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Why would I want a sofa bed? I remember in high school and college, we had a constant stream of friends sleeping over at our house since we had five rooms that can accommodate them. I mean, all of us children had short-term (friends’ homes are far and they want to take naps in between classes and a comfortable place to study) and long-term guests (friends from broken families who needed to get away from the chaos of their homes; friends with no family to stay with during Christmas breaks). My parents made our home open to our friends and I want to keep that tradition. All of our friends had fond memories of spending time in our house. My friends spent their Fridays with me, watching movies in our tiny second floor TV area when we were in high school. In college, our house is where my friends spent and got rid of their hangovers.

I made sure that in the new plan for my tiny house, the kitchen will take the center stage as I will be providing a lot of food for hungry teenagers—and for my sister-in-law and cousin who love my cooking. I’m not an excellent cook but I do some dishes exceptionally well. My friend K and everybody else in my family love my potato salad combined with grilled fish or meat.

*Hotpot with mishua tonight. Photo by CallMeCrea*tion.com

I’m excited about the my prospects for the next 12 months. I’m already drawing in my head the plan for the back garden and the front garden. I already have the laborers in mind and the things that should be done (compost pit, growing beds, flower beds, irrigation system, and movable chicken coop).

And this is the goal:

And no one is allowed to rain on my parade.

A colleague asked me today why can’t I just ignore those catfishers? I said, “because I’m bored.” I also want to release this pent-up fury through passive aggressiveness towards unscrupulous strangers. I want to hit and hit ’em hard.

I know this will backfire on me but I just want to get even with the opposite sex, even though it doesn’t really make sense. It’s not even apples to apples but doing this cools my deep-seated anger. I recognize that this anger is unjustified but can you blame me for harboring it?

My journey to healing is still long and hard.

Back to school shopping

Posted on June 18, 2022 by admin

*Bento brunch. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Made bento brunch today because I wanted to make soybean paste soup with mushrooms and tofu. It goes well with rice balls, salted spinach with sesame oil, and chicken drummets.

Got the text message from the girls’ school that we could claim their school text books so we hopped into the car and off we went. Along with the books came the list of school supplies that we needed to buy.

*Paying for our purchases. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Then we went to the farthest SM we can go to: SM Mall of Asia in Pasay. Why the heck did we go there? Because this will be the last day we will have the car at our disposal because tomorrow I will bring this to the car shop for major body repairs and other mechanical repairs. I will have the radiator replaced with the bigger and thicker one, too.

Anyway, the girls and I bought new school bags and shoes that would go with their new school uniforms. They would be starting classes on the 11th of July and I guess I still don’t have the car by then.

All that shopping called for calories. The nearest restaurant with the shortest queue was Genki Sushi.

*Cheese koroke (croquet) and salmon teriyaki rice bowl*. *Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Wait staff don’t serve the food. The food comes via a miniature Shinkansen. Video by CallMeCreation.com

*Busy tucking in food. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Since we had to maximize the diesel I wasted on this trip, I picked up a drawer, a saucepan (because the old one is already leaking), and some kitchen sink organizers from Ikea.

*Good luck to me building this thing. Photo by CallMeCreation.com*

Ah, retail therapy. I have a love-hate relationship with you.

UPDATE:

It took me two hours to build this tiny drawer 😢

Stories from the sidelines

A journalist has a life other than news

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