2022 January
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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 -
Previously The Rotten Bananas Saga. The Demand Letter Late November, I got an email that went something like this: Dear [My Mother's Name], Our client, Globe Telecom, Inc., has referred to us for immediate legal action the matter of your unjustified refusal to pay the amount of 2,399.00 as of November 16, 2021 consisting of unpaid balance for the account number [AccountNumber]. Our client’s records show that since the month of January 9, 2018 and until now, despite repeated demands from our clients, you have failed to pay the total amount of 2,399.00. Your continued refusal to pay our client
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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
2021 November
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A Quote "Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself." —Richard Bach, Illusions The World Just this weekend, South African authorities have discovered a new covid19 "variant of concern" which the WHO has named the Omicron variant. It has more mutations and initial studies suggest it may be a lot more transmissible than the dreaded Delta, so a lot of countries immediately went into high alert, mostly in the form of travel bans. Travel bans are unlikely to be able to keep Omicron out (though they may help in delaying it); in fact it may already -
A Quote "We've always defined ourselves by the ability to overcome the impossible. And we count these moments. These moments when we dare to aim higher, to break barriers, to reach for the stars, to make the unknown known. We count these moments as our proudest achievements. But we lost all that. Or perhaps we've just forgotten that we are still pioneers. And we've barely begun. And that our greatest accomplishments cannot be behind us, because our destiny lies above us." - Cooper, Interstellar The World Metro Manila still at alert level 2; it looks the daily new cases are -
A Quote "I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can -
When the son of the dictator announced he was running for the highest office in the country, I decided to add this book to this year's reading list. The reason was to be better informed about what life was like during the early years of Marcos' martial law regime and in the years leading up to it. The Marcos reign was a dark chapter in our nation's history and reading about it and knowing more about it can help us fight back against the forces that want to revise that history to make themselves look better, all for the sake -
It's November, which means we are that much closer to a second Christmas under the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic. The world: Locally, new Covid cases seem to have plateaued at 2000+, but we'll see what next week brings. The IATF has dropped Metro Manila to the less restrictive alert level 2 as of last Friday, so we'll see whether that causes another spike or we continue on our way to a hopefully merry Christmas (such as it is). Links of interest: Haley Nahman writes about when she was an influencer. A peek into the world of influencers and the
2021 October
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It's the last day of October. And Halloween, I guess. If that means something to you. The world: Local politics still depresses me. Let's not talk about it today. On the upside, local Covid numbers are getting better, hopefully a trend that continues through Christmas. We're actually starting to inch closer and closer to the recommended 5% positivity rate! Though we'll see how the lowering of alert levels affects the numbers in the coming week. Big news in the tech world this week is how Facebook has rebranded as "Meta", which is personally a bit "meh" for me. I mean, -
It's been about a month since a full-blown weeknotes. Let's catch up on things! The world: PH's 2022 presidential race is in high gear; the deadline for filing of candidacy has passed, but there's still the substitution deadline on Nov 15, so there's still maneuverings going on, with the scions of darkness meeting up for negotiations in Cebu yesterday. Meanwhile, the main opposition candidate is preaching kindness, even as the liberals and the left are kind of squabbling over details and who is supporting who and who is worthy of support and whatnot. The good guys need to get their -
As of tonight, all of the household's Covid patients have been cleared and sent home from the hospital. I wish I could say that was the end of the ordeal, but not everyone came back at full strength and there may still be a significant recovery period to go. What this means for me personally is that my caretaking days are not yet done. I thought I would have the energy for a full-blown weeknotes today, but with everything I've had to handle, it might take me a few more days to get back into my familiar old routines and
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I have a bit more time and energy this week, though I am still unfortunately stuck at the hospital, taking care of loved ones. The good news is that I myself am no longer a patient, I recovered and was "discharged" a while back. Both of the loved ones still here in the hospital are past the worst of it apparently, but we still need to wait for them to recover before we can go home. The doctors are unable to give us a timeline. As you can imagine, the hospital stay has wreaked havoc on my routines, though now
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Vice-President Leni Robredo finally announcing her candidacy for the presidency yesterday injected an interesting bit of energy into the online opposition. A lot of people expressed support, even many of my friends who usually stayed silent during the regular political exercises. In theory, I remain neutral, as I like to give each candidate a fair shake during the campaign period and make my final decisions as election day nears (or on the day itself even!) But this year's slate is especially bleah and bereft of actual, exciting choices that it's easy to see where I will be leaning. It's easy
2021 September
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There is an evolving COVID situation at home, so things are a bit busy today, this entry may be shorter than usual. The world: 2022 presidential race is heating up; Manila Mayor Isko Moreno announced his candidacy this past week (with failed senatorial candidate Dr. Willie Ong as his running mate), though some people suspect he is a spoiler candidate meant to split opposition votes. He's never really been opposition though? KBL has expectedly endorsed BongBong Marcos as their presidential candidate. Links of interest: "I quit": Cory Doctorow on peak indifference, big tobacco, disinformation and death Python as a build
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Just another week. A quote: "Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." – Epictetus The world: As of the 16th, we are now piloting this "alert level system with granular lockdowns" in Metro Manila. The alert level system is basically changing the ECQ/MECQ/GCQ nomenclature to numbered alert levels (a sensible move, which took them more than a year to figure out). Granular lockdowns have been implemented by LGUs even before (like QC's "special areas of concern"), though I guess these are now standardized maybe? In any case, some implementation details: the lockdowns will not be