2022 May
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Accidentally got 2nd booster today. Sinovac (may2021) -> AstraZ (dec2021) -> Pfizer (may2022). #covid19
2022 April
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Today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week. When I was growing up, Holy Week was traditionally a quiet time of prayer and reflection; my grandmother would chastise us if we were noisy, especially from Thursday through Saturday. The period feels a lot less sacrosanct in the modern world, either because I'm an adult now or because people usually just take this time to go on vacations or whatnot, or maybe some combination of both. The World Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now in its 7th week. More and more Russian war atrocities are coming to light. PH/Politics: -
It's April! Still the world turns. Sigh. This entry is coming in a day late because I was busy during the weekend. The World Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now in its 6th week. The Russians have withdrawn from the Kyiv region and more of their atrocities have been revealed in their wake. PH/Politics: There was another Comelec-sponsored presidential debate last night, apparently the last one, but I was unable to watch. Sounds like my preferred candidate did well though. PH/Covid: Cases continue to remain low, but we should keep our guard up. Showbusiness: The big news last week was
2022 March
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March is almost done. The summer heat is undeniably here. I am so very tired. A Quote "A single grain of rice can tip the scale. One man may be the difference between victory and defeat." - from "Mulan" (A reminder I need when I feel bad about the current state of the world and PH politics and feel like there's nothing I can do.) The World Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now in its 5th week. Ukranians are fighting back from Kyiv, and Russia has refocused it's effort around the Donbas region, claiming that was the plan all along. -
A Quote "We all change, when you think about it, we're all different people all our lives and that's okay, we've got to keep moving, so long as you remember all the people you used to be." - the Eleventh Doctor The World Putin's invasion of Ukraine is now in its 4th week. PH: The first comelec-sponsored presidential debates were last night, with one notable absence. I didn't feel the need to watch the debates this year (unlike in 2016 where I posted live commentary). I feel like the choices are much more clear-cut for this election and watching them -
A Quote "This is a hard mindset to get out of, that the world is best if it prioritizes only your priorities. I promise though that the moment you open yourself up to the idea that a diverse world creates an overall better world because it allows each person to find their own passions, and a world of happy people will create a better overall world for you because that positivity will lead to things that will make you happier (and as a nice side effect, other people are happier)." Mark Rosewater, lead designer for Magic the Gathering The World -
Just like that we are three months into the year. Time marches on. A Quote “There has to be a balance, Vin,” he said. “Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be.” He sighed. “But for now,” he said, nodding to the side, “we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.” from The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson The World Putin's invasion of Russia continues, extending past 10 days. Russia is heavily hit by sanctions, which Putin says is tantamount to a declaration of war. PH: As
2022 February
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A Quote "There is no purgatory for war criminals, they go straight to hell ambassador" - Ukranian ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya The World Can you imagine a world still reeling/recovering from a global pandemic where so many people suffered, and thinking to yourself "You know what, that's not enough, the world still needs even more suffering!" That's exactly what Vladimir Putin did when he declared war on and immediately invaded Ukraine in the middle of last week. It's been at least 3 days since the invasion started and Kyiv has yet to fall. Putin is reportedly frustrated at the amount of
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A Quote “Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?” — Danielle LaPorte The World PH Elections: The surveys look bad for the good guys. Covid: NCR now averaging 500 or less new cases per day. We are still in Alert Level 2 though. The spectre of war continues to loom over Ukraine. Links of Interest That broken tech/content culture cycle: Anil Dash on how we got to our current tech dystopia Web3 Is A Mid-Life Crisis from Ryan Broderick / Garbage Day: "In many ways, Kickstarter’s weird crypto project — and the
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A Quote "If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.” - E.B. White The World PH: Campaign season has officially kicked off here, so last week was full of proclamation rallies and such. Covid: Cases have continued to drop, furthering a descent into normalcy. Last few days have been averaging under 5k new cases per day, down from under
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February has managed to creep up on us yet again, leaving the pleasant January weather only a distant memory. The days are starting to get hotter, and the election season is starting to heat up. A Quote "But I also know we can do our best and still suffer the fate I most want to avoid. Such is life, though. This is the price we have to pay for living: to endure the beauty that comes with the fragility of moments." -- Winnie Lim The World PH: The legislature has signed off on a mandatory SIM card registration bill that
2022 January
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Last weekend of January. The days and nights are starting to get warmer, indicating the nearing end of January and of our pleasant weather conditions. From here on the temperatures will steadily increase until we return to the punishing midyear heat. A Quote “You gotta say your affirmations in your mouth and your heart. You say, ‘I am brave of this meeting!’ , ‘I am loved!’, ‘I smell good!’ And you can say five or three or ten until you know it.” “You gotta walk big. You gotta mean it. Like Dolly on a dinosaur. Because you got it.” “Never -
A Quote “Many people think excitement is happiness. When you are excited you are not peaceful. True happiness is based on peace.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk and peace activist (RIP) The World PH elections: GMA aired a series of Jessica Soho last night where she interviewed the top presidential candidates; the most infamous one declined the invite and claimed the award-winning journalist was "biased". I guess that's what happens when a lot of your history is indefensible, you treat anyone who doesn't worship you as "biased". PH covid: Daily new cases seem to have plateaued at around 30k, -
I love January; January weather is the best in the Philippines. Mornings are comfortably nippy, enough to make you want to stay in bed, and it's rare to get afternoons with the typical punishing heat. The pleasant weather also makes this month the best for taking long walks outdoors on the usually hot city streets, though I haven't been able to do this recently (I tell myself it's due to the pandemic.) Unfortunately, January is halfway over, which means our pleasant weather days are nearing their end. A Quote "The universe never tells us if we did right or wrong. -
This post is coming in late, because it's been a busy day. A Quote "Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." - Howard Thurman Related comic by Zen Pencils. The World Covid (presumably the Omicron variant) continues to tear through the country. Over the past few weeks we have seen record highs for both new cases and positivity rate. We had to go out to a big city hospital this week to get some unrelated tests done, and there was -
I wrote a bunch about 2021 yesterday, and here I am again writing some more! Welcome to season 3 of weeknotes! New Year's Day is a completely arbitrary social construct but there's a certain kind of energy in the atmosphere for the first few days of the year. The kind of energy that makes it easier to wake up early in the morning and go out for a jog or be productive or whatever resolution you may have. Perhaps it's the sense of a shared commitment from the community - a hopeful commitment to new beginnings, to becoming better and
2021 December
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This is the last weekend of the year, which means it marks another complete year of doing these weeknotes! I wrote a short review at the end of last season as well, and the same things still apply. It's nice that the blog has a weekly "heartbeat" post and it also gives future me a good insight as to what I was doing at a particular week in time. I've considered changing the frequency to be every two weeks or monthly to ease the need to be posting all the time, but I feel like that's too much time spent -
Christmas is less than a week away, which means 2021 has less than two weeks left in it. Here's hoping 2022 is better for the world at large. Also, a PSA: not everyone on the internet is lucky enough to be able to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home already (it's not showing in local cinemas here until Jan 8th! And I'd only consider going if the covid situation remains stable). All the reports I've seen would indicate it's a great theatre experience perhaps comparable to Avengers: Endgame, so please try to avoid spoiling it for those of us who are -
A Quote Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. I think a lot of what people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity. -- Aaron Schwartz Another Quote “Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century: Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others; Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected; Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it; Refusing to set aside trivial preferences; Neglecting development and refinement of the mind; Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do.” -- Cicero The World The Omicron variant has been detected and -
Been a bit busy (see below), so no links or commentary on world news today. Full format again next week. Probably. Maybe. My stuff: Due to a conflux of circumstances I had an unproductive week: Tuesday: should have been a chill holiday, but our internet was out for most of the day Wednesday: Ran some errands, then decided on the fly to go get my booster shot on that same day, which took an unexpectedly large chunk of my day. Thursday and Friday: Suffering from booster side effects. High temps for most of Thursday, body feeling heavy through Friday. Slept