Freaks

I can't believe it's been a week since Charlie Kirk died. My heart still aches unexplainably, and I'm still very angry at the violent liberal freaks celebrating his death, twisting his words, misquoting him, and calling him all forms of phobic when they're the ones who are clearly and evidently incapable of arguing for themselves. 

They can't debate him so they called him names. Names an extremist responded to with a gun. That's how dangerous leftist diagnosis is. Instead of discussing why you believe the things you do, with an open mind, with empathy, they label you so wrongly with words that don't even come close to what you believe in. It's lazy. All because their ears start to ring in disagreement. They can't stand being explained to. Can't fathom the possibility of being wrong. Their mentality is built on an echo chamber that crumbles under a test of logic. Weak. Fed only hateful jargon to describe conservatives. They end an argument by walking away and calling you either a bigot, transphobe, homophobe, racist, nazi, or other godawful things just to justify their hate and exit the discussion, or rather an attempt at one. 

I'm disappointed at a lot of my friends. But on the bright side, I found new friends to follow. Even influencers.

Oh Charlie 😔

I couldn't believe my eyes when I read news that Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a speaking event in Utah. It was the first thing I learned when I woke up yesterday and it brought an immense heavy feeling throughout the day.

What disappointed and disgusted me further were the reactions from whacko liberals all over the world, celebrating the death of a man simply for holding an opinion they hate.

Charlie Kirk...
who sought to enlighten the youth from the perversions of the current education system
who encouraged people to reflect on the privilege of being in America and denounce victimhood
who wanted to preserve families, the building blocks of society
who values life no matter where it came from

He always discussed and listened in good faith, all the while championing Christian values. 

He was a knowledgeable and effective debater. And he got hated a lot for it. Heck he got killed for it.

They didn't like that he supported Trump
That he was anti-abortion
That he was pro-gun
That he was anti-illegal immigration
That he was a nationalist
etc.

Basically that he was conservative. Whatever happened to free speech? People are so scared to discuss nowadays. So confidently wrong they cannot handle being refuted, instead resort to violence. This kind of radicalism has eaten the west and is unfortunately propagating here.

He wanted to make America great again, by going back to the one who made it great in the first place, God. Is that so unwholesome that he is met with shrieking whales every time he mentions the Bible?

I guess demons do tremble in God's word.

My heart goes out to those who mourn for his death.

I pray for justice.

Rest in peace, Charlie Kirk.

Happy Friday!

 

Jumping in on this AI scale model trend with our car! It's really cool except for the antenna haha. Here's the prompt: 

Create a 1 / 7 scale intelligent figurine in the picture, in a realistic style, in a real environment. The figurine is plattered on a computer desk. The figurine has a round transparent acrylic base, with no text on the base. The content on the screen is the Zbrush modeling process of this figurine. Next to the computer screen is a BANDAl-style toy packaging box with printing. The packaging features two-dimensional flat illusion.

I took a photo of our car from the internet which is from Grab, hence the GrabRentals logo on the box hehe.

WHAT A BUSY WEEK!

✨ Got our refund!!!

First off, thank God we were able to get our refund checks already! After 2 months of calling and emailing, we were able to get 50% of our downpayment. Full story here: [Ayala Land Inc.] Cancellation of CTS / Refund under Maceda Law / PD 957 - a timeline 

I can finally leave all the facebook groups I joined trying sell this goddamned condo haha.

✨ I need another knee surgery

I consulted with Dr. Braganza about the results of my MRI. He's my second opinion doctor, after getting my first one from Dr. Lantin who requested the MRI. Surprise surprise, they both recommend surgery. There's a cyst in my knee that has grown over my meniscal tear which has been causing my knee to lock and be unstable for the past few months. The plan is to remove the cyst and repair the meniscus so it won't grow again. It's non urgent so I just need to get a good schedule. Our gym coach who's also an ortho referred me to Dr. Braganza, says he's the best in the field, and I was thrilled! I didn't think I'd be at a point where I can choose a doctor, for the most part all I cared about was if they're HMO accredited. But now that I'm older and more fragile I kinda want to get the best treatment... from an accredited doctor haha.

✨ I wanna go shopping

Now that I have some money to spare I just wanna go shopping. But I couldn't find the time? We're visiting the parentals this weekend so I don't know when to squeeze some shopping time. 

✅ My priority would be new glasses. My current one needs to be replaced already because of the scratches, and I've been eyeing some cute wide specs from Sunnies. 

✅ We also need to buy a new blender. Our 9-year old Nutribullet has been slowly wearing off. The rubbers are falling apart, and it's super dirty now. I'm excited to get a new one. Especially now that we're enjoying making strawberry banana protein shakes as post-workout.

✅ As for my non-essentials, I want a pair of machine washable walking shoes from Vivaia and a new cross-over bag to replace my old one. I want exactly the same one I have but Hedgren doesn't carry the same style anymore. 

✨ Super swamped at work

So many things on my plate. I have challenging ones and easy ones, but nothing stressful. Thank God!

Anyway, that's it for this week!

Money diaries: a week in August

Here we go again! I'm broke right now so let's see how much I bury myself in debt this week lol

Monday - 1,453.66

• Dinner at Sariwon - 873.66
• I over-ordered tonight. Bought gimbap when I knew marinated beef samgyup with rice and lots of banchan is enough. I ended up taking home half the beef, rice, and gimbap. I love Sariwon's kimchi!
• Dessert at M.Bakery - 440.00
• Had classic tres leches and hot americano
• Parking - 140.00

Tuesday - 0.00

• Lunch at Tapa Addiction - 0.00
• Jeckie paid for this one, I just had to note it down cos it's a new discovery for us! Yehey for a cheap dining option at Unimart! We normally eat at Poco Deli or Single Origin before doing the grocery. Sometimes we'd eat tusok tusok but most of the time we want a full meal haha. So yeah, value for money this sure beats Via Mare in terms of tapsi.
• Cooked sous vide steak and truffle mashed potatoes for dinner! It's perfect I LOVE SOUS VIDE!!!

Wednesday - 0.00

• Went to the gym then back home. Didn't spend a dime! 
• We're on Class Pass trial making the most of the 28 trial credits (worth 50 pesos lol). And for our 2nd trial gym we went to Activate Hoop Arena. Had trouble parking cos there's only one slot left and we're in between two big SUVs. Didn't enjoy our workout so much because the gym is kinda bad? The equipment are all worn out, rusty, and all over the place. Everything is so disorganized. The lat pull down machine is dangerous. The gym area is very small, it seems like they just put a bunch of exercise machines on the court sides so the athletes may have something to use when they're not playing.
  
  It's very apparent the place was primarily for court players as the gym area seemed very neglected. Later on during our workout, volleyball players joined us in the gym area and at that point it became very crowded. Jeckie felt suffocated so we ended up not finishing our workout.
  
  I have nothing against the team in fact they were pretty respectful about sharing the space. It's just that I feel like Activate shouldn't have allowed open gym access when there are players on court because damn we were more than 10 people in their tiny gym and it's too tight huhu.
  
  Actually Activate should totally stop offering open gym access. There are better bakal gyms out there. So much for catering to professional athletes.
• Anyway. Cooked chicken Caesar salad for dinner. 

Thursday - 200.00

• Poy-Sian pasabuy - 200.00
• I went out around to meet a friend to get my pasabuy from Thailand. Finally got a good supply of Poy-Sian. I keep losing mine in the bed or in the laundry haha. Thanks and happy birthday Meg! I missed you!
• I snacked a lot this afternoon. Had pandesal with homemade tomato garlic spread (thanks mama for the recipe! Mine turned a bit salty lol), added in basil from my plant out in the balcony yey, ate leftover korean beef sukiyaki and egg roll from two weeks ago lol (it's still good), and finished my Lays salt and vinegar chips.
• And for dinner I coked airfried salmon and truffle oatmeal risotto.

Friday - 139.00

• For today's Class Pass trial we went to Gold's Gym at Robinson's Galleria. Thought it would be easier to park there compared to Megamall where we can go to Slimmer's World instead. Well, we were almost wrong haha. The line coming in to the basement parking was super long, but thank God we were able to get a slot quick. :)
• Had a great workout at Gold's! It was big, spacious, clean, and there are tons of equipment. For once Jeckie and I didn't have to share a bench hehe 
• Most of the equipment are looking old but they're all still functional and looks maintained naman.
• Spent 89.00 for Takoyaki which was borderline cancerous because they torched the cheese topping right on the food box which has a plastic lining so there are black burn marks, it even crumpled a bit urgh. They're killing me. Anyway, I loved the takoyaki haha
• Mall parking - 50.00

Saturday - 4,807.50

• Lunch at Swagat - 1,512.50
• Had some good Indian food after a great workout at Makati Shang Health Club! Jeckie has been telling me about Swagat for a long time. Then they moved to Rada and I finally got to try it cos it's more accessible for us in terms of parking hehe.
• Karada massage - 2,295.00
• First time to try it! I always thought they're a chiro clinic but they actually offer dry massage and alignment. First time to have my neck cracked and boy was it an out of this world experience! The relief is incredible. It's too expensive for me though and I still prefer Swedish massage.
• Tip for Karada - 200.00
• Now it's made even more expensive because two people worked on me haha. 
• Iced mocha at Blue Wonder - 155.00
• Dinner at Wu's Kitchen - 585.00
• I got a bit hungry from the massage lol
• Parking - 60.00

Sunday - 3,833.04

• Lunch at Ono - 600.54
• Got the salmon poke bowl. It was delicious. But I prefer Fit Fuel's salmon bowl because they use smoked salmon instead hehe
• Dessert at Nine Fresh - 336.00
• I've been meaning to try this for so long so I finally took the chance since we're at robmag! Looked at TBG for recos so I got the Awe in One cup which was delicious!!! It's like taho with bilo bilo, grass jelly, other jellies, toppings, and creamer. Not too sweet, not too heavy. It's perfect! 
• Then I realized the one I've been wanting to try is actually Meet Fresh, not Nine Fresh haha. Kaya pala there's nothing like bingsu in their menu hehe.
• Takoyaki from the basement food court - 85.00
• 🙅‍♀️
• Uniqlo shirt - 790.00
• Cinnabon - 500.00
• Army Navy take out - 1,292.50
• Midnight snack at mcdo - 179.00
• Parking - 50.00

Oh well, I thought I'd be spending less this time but look at our grand total: 

₱10,433.20

It's even bigger than the last time. Yikes.

As much as I want that amount to be my normal weekly budget, I can't right now cos I have to settle my credit card debts. But oh well. Looks like I have to watch my spending more! 🫠

Money diaries: a week in July

A lot of how my week went can be seen in how I spend. I'm trying to save money right now because I just spent most of my allowance paying for my credit card dues. I wanna start the next month on a clean slate without any debt. So yeah, watch me struggle lol. 

Monday - 1,548.29

• Dinner at Mary Grace - 1,188.29
• I had bangus silog with rosemary rice, carrot cake, and hot americano. Urielle and I shared cassava chips, which was lovely! It's like very thin kropek with a delicious onion dip. Definitely will try agin.
• Coffee at Starbucks - 190.00
• My usual tall vanilla sweet cream cold brew. Strong, creamy, not too sweet.
• Parking at Three Parkade - 170.00
• I'm getting used to parking here.

Tuesday - 1,263.48

• Lunch at Nono's - 783.48
• I had coddled egg with truffle mash, hot long black, and waffles. I loved it. Their chicken and waffles is also good! Jeckie got the one with southern rub, kinda like cajun. It was delicious! And so today, Nono's got redeemed. We really didn't want to eat here as we were disappointed twice already in the past. It seems like breakfast is their strength, and third time's the charm. Their waffles are more like croffles (waffle shaped croissant) so I can't compare it to my favorite waffles (Pancake House) hehe. They're very good though!
• Dinner from Hia Lek (Grab) - 480.00
• I had a lot of meetings tonight so we decided to order in. As usual I got krapow with rice and egg, lemongrass juice, and mango sticky rice! Love it!

Wednesday - 1,375.36

• Lunch at Poco Deli - 675.36
• I had pulled corned beef and hot americano. I just realized today that I actually love corned beef. From the cheap carne norte ones to the more expensive brands like Delimondo/Palm/Tulip. There's nothing to hate. And the homemade ones, pulled beef or slab, so much better. 👌
• Parking at Unimart - 50.00
• Dinner at FitFuel - 650.00
• Fetched Koomi at daycare. It was evening rush hour so we decided to park at Pioneer Center instead and grab dinner. Boy is it crazy in this side of town. As usual, Pioneer was filled with stupid and undisciplined drivers, blocking yellow boxes, counterflowing, overtaking, and lane grabbing. It look us like 15 minutes just to get inside PC and we were right at the crossing! 

Thursday - 1,072.00

• Day pass at Anytime Fitness - 500.00
• Coach isn't back until mid August so we had to workout ourselves. Tried Anytime Fitness nearby and it was okay. But it's a bit expensive to do it 3x a week. Will try other options. Condo gym can get crowded, and has less equipment too.
• Coffee at Starbucks - 190.00
• The usual!
• Sous vide container - 382.00
• Jeckie bought a second hand sous vide machine from a neighbor and we're very excited to try it! Thus, the container! And ziplocs to follow! 😊

Urgh why can't I have a sub-1k day for once??

Friday - 50.00

• ClassPass trial - 50.00
• This is the only thing I spent on today. ClassPass trial gives you 28 credits for just 50 pesos, good for 14 days. We figured since we don't have PT sessions for now, we'll just get open gym access to wherever our trial credits take us. So far we've booked open gym time at Activate. There aren't a lot of nearby open gym options for the trial credits. But I've seen promising ones like The Health Club at Makati Shang, Rockwell Athletica, and Devarana Fitness at Dusit Thani Hotel. 

Saturday - 1,824.38

• Yoh Yogurt drink - 155.00
• As post-workout. Yoh Yogurt used to be where Koomi is at SM Light. It's tastes good, but not as good as Koomi. We feel like those that replaced Koomi took over their inventory so they have the same Australian style yogurt which has a great tanginess to it. Joee in Unimart Capitol Commons is a good example. Tastes almost like Koomi but they offer less variety. Koomi used to be in their place too.
• Dinner at Maisen -1,029.38
• Had katsu set and potato salad. Yum! 
• Dessert at M Bakery - 465.00
• First time to try tres leches and OMG it's so good!!! It's not too sweet and it pairs so well with strawberries. The sponge cake was sitting in milk which I found interesting but grabe the milk is so good. I love it. 
• Coffee at Highlands - 125.00
• I can't help it! We bought something from Landmark and I knew there's Highlands Coffee just across so yeah, got a medium iced mocha.
• Parking - 50.00

Sunday - 674.00

• Merienda at BRTO - 340.00
• I had birria burrito and house blend iced tea. So good! Went to Promenade at Greenhills to have my dyson submarine serviced. The mop attachment is having issues with leaking and sucking water in. I hope they fix it, better if they replace it. 
• Red mango - 95.00
• First time to try Red Mango. Finally! It's sweet and creamy and almost like White Hat but it's too sweet for me hehe.
• Parking - 50.00
• Badminton - 114.50
• Spider-Man Homecoming - 74.50
• We couldn't find it streaming anywhere so we had to rent a copy at Apple TV.

Hurray for a sub 1k day haha.

So how did I do last week?

Grand total - 7,807.51 

I'm averaging 1.1k per day which is uhm, not ideal lol. That's gotta change, but also, I just need to clear my current debt so that I can afford a 1k/day spending. Maybe that should be my limit. I think the major culprit it heading out, as it opens a lot of temptation to spend money on food. 

Big day today

Big day for me at work! Had to talk about a lot of things during our Q2 meeting earlier. I presented a PBI dashboard, an automation demo, and provided RPA updates. It's the longest I had to to talk during a meeting. Can't say it didn't stress me out. I had to prepare weeks for this. Admittedly though I only worked on the POC for the demo last week, and I only started focusing on the dashboard in June (that task was given to me April). My heart rate was peaking at 119bpm waiting for my turn. I thought it was anxiety, but I think I'm just excited. It's not like I'd be happy if it gets postponed. I really want to finish it already. And I'm really happy that it's over now. I always get anxious when presenting and talking, but I'm not one to back off of it because I know it's an essential skill to learn and I had to get used to it.

Anyway, whew! Thank you Lord for helping me today!

Life lately + a wishlist

It's been raining non-stop for the past two weeks. While I'm happy that we're safe and dry it's already a disaster outside and I can't wait for the sun to shine. I miss my family, my plant is dying for some sunshine, and so do our laundry.

Anyway, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed at work lately. I have a demo presentation coming up next week that I have not prepared for, plus I need to work on my mid-year performance evaluation. Power BI has been eating me a lot. I've been learning so much and as much as I want to focus on it completely, I have a ton of automation tasks lined up that I also want to complete.

I'm very grateful that my manager is very understanding and reasonable so I don't really feel very very stressed haha.

In between getting tired at work I've been lurking at Shopee a lot so here goes a new wishlist...

1. Dyson Airstrait

The technology is really interesting. Blower and straightener in one. No hot plates. And best of all, it works on wet hair. Somehow my excitement has turned a nice-to-have into a need that's worth 28k hahaha. I've always wanted to dry my hair immediately after showering, but lack of time and my general laziness has brought me into just letting it air dry naturally. But then my wet and heavy hair feels icky and hot so I always end up tying my damp hair the whole day. It never dries properly, and I want to change that.

No actually I don't, I just want to justify buying the aistrait and that's a use case I can get back on haha. Makes me look nicer. 😊

2. Mini desk fan for the bathroom

One of the reasons I hate fixing myself after showering is that it gets really humid in the bathroom. And it's the only place I can blowdry my hair and apply makeup and skincare. If I can get a fan in there that would help.

3. A vacation

I need to rest. I miss Tagaytay. I miss trees and nature and fresh air. Hopefully in the coming months! 💖

4. New specs

My lens has scratches already and I can never get it clean enough even though I'm using glass cleaner. I also want something bigger that would comfortably cover my whole eyes. I'm looking at Sunnies Specs but I haven't fully decided on it. When I get enough funds!

That's it I guess.

Stay safe and dry!