What a downer. We know Koomi likes to lunge at moving feet, especially those of strangers', which is why it's been hard for us to take him out while we eat. Having him on the floor is a risk for those passing by. And even in the elevator when someone's coming out he would randomly lunge at someone's feet. At first we thought it was cute. We were even joking that he has a type when it comes to slippers. It's usually crocs or something expensive. We laugh it off most of the time. Not realizing it was a growing problem. He's been this way for so long. We couldn't control it, or at least haven't tried seriously looking into correcting it. 

Until today. He lunged at someone's sandals while we're walking out of the elevator. I only saw his mouth graze the woman's footwear. I said sorry then left. Later on, the guards issued us a ticket with a 5000 peso fine. Apparently the woman reported us to PMO because her sandals got bitten through and almost tore the skin under. We were found through the CCTV. We were appalled. I didn't think it was that serious. It happened so fast. We should've checked on her to make sure before exiting the elevator. We got in contact with the neighbor apologized. We found out through a facebook post in the community. We offered to compensate for whatever medication she may need and replace her slippers too. I'm just glad they were nice and understanding. Everything is fine now, all things considered. But I can't shake this certain feeling off. Is it disappointment? That we have to spend 5k for a lesson learned? That we're such irresponsible owners for letting it happen 3 times***? Fear? That it might happen again, at a worse time, here in the condo, get a second violation, eventually get kicked off the property? Maybe both.

*** First major time it happened was at Longhorn. Dinner with the family. We were seated outside cos we had dogs. Koomi was on the floor. A waitress arrived. He lunged at her jelly shoes. The waitress got scared but brushed it off. We apologized. Later on the guard at Shang came to us with an incident report, asking for vaccination records, showing us he reported a dog bite incident because he witnessed it. We thought the waitress didn't care. Looks like somebody else did. We were bummed out but eventually accepted the situation. He's just doing his job. And between customers like us and mall employees, there should be no discrimination if someone got hurt. 

Next major incident was at Taiwan Kitchen. Same thing. We were eating. Koomi's on the floor. Someone from the other table stood up and immediately Koomi was on his feet. Reached the guy's calves. He wasn't let loose but his leash wasn't short enough. We apologized profusely. Guy seemed to brush it off at first, says it's fine, he has dogs too, but later on inquired about Koomi's vaccination records. We also gave him Koomi's Instagram in case he wanted to reach out for anything. It was a casual conversation. We went home feeling normal. We would always scold Koomi when it happens, but always playfully. We never thought it was a big deal.

Until now. 

This is truly a wake up call. To be more responsible. Always check the people he might have hurt. To take accountability and ensure everything's fine. I'd like to think we got off easy, even at this point. And that 5k is a small price to pay for the all the trouble this bad behavior has caused. A behavior we tolerated and normalized and even found cute, at the expense of others. We were lucky none of them got seriously hurt. But what if it gets to that? 

I think I know what I feel now.

Shame. 

// Urgh. My fitbit won't charge and I figured it's probably nearing the the end of its life. Again.

Okay, time jump! It just worked again haha. I remember it dying a year ago so I replaced it with another smart watch then when I got tired of the new one and checked back on my old fitbit, it started working again haha. Looks like I just need to scare it into replacement hehe.

Anyway. Now I could let off buying a new watch. But seriously I've been meaning to find a fitness watch that's small and feminine and charges easily. I only really use the step counter, sleep tracker, HR sensor, and timer. For a while I got my eyes on Garmin Lily 2. It's perfecttt but looking at the charger I know I'd have a problem with that in the future. Problem with smart watches today is they're so biggg. 

Why did they have the discontinue Fitbit Alta? That's the best fitness watch for me. 

// Okay. I really really want to move to a better condo but we can't afford it yet. I'm eyeing  Empress at Capitol Commons once it's turned over because then owners will start leasing them. I'm also looking at Portico by Alveo which is a bit farther but definitely a far cry from a DMCI development.

I don't really have a big issue with our condo yet but our landlord has been very delinquent in paying all the miscellaneous fees that we're always getting disconnection notices and even got disconnected once, while we're on vacation!

// I've realized that condo isn't the way to go long term. It's good for renting cos we can choose the location and as long as we can afford it and we can just keep moving to new developments if our place is starting to go bad. To be honest I can really feel our condo's state deteriorating. 

// Wishful thinking but I hope to move to an Alveo property or the ones at Capitol Commons in the future. That's if we can afford it!

 

// I think I may have a chronic headache. I always seem to have one every single day since last week. I thought it would stop after my period. I tend to have period migraines. But last week was the worst. Three days straight. Switched to Saridon after learning about its fast action properties. But soon realized it's bad for bedtime because it has caffeine. And my migraines just so happen to be worse right before bed. It was torture not being able to sleep through the pain because my medicine has probably ran out its analgesic effect and only the caffeine is left. But to be fair, it really is fast acting, but it's not long lasting.

// I've been having problems focusing at work. I can't seem get my focus on. 

// Dave's Premium Steaks is doing okay. We just got our biggest order (yet) last week. 15 steaks can you believe it? And it was delivered out of town. We were hesitant to take this one but the client suggested bus cargo so we gave it a try. I could only hope we put in enough ice. He doesn't sound too happy when we followed up if he got the steaks already. Oh well. Next time we'll be sure to pack in more ice.

I recently got myself cheap earbuds from Anker. It's like 700 something pesos only. Been hearing lots of good reviews from the brand. I know they make great powerbanks, but I was surprised to see stellar raves for their audio products as well. 

So here's the Anker Soundcore K20i

It looks very much like the apple airpods. Infinitely cheaper too than the 9k I paid for my airpods2 which broke in 4 years. With this I don't mind getting disappointed every year lol. 

It's pretty decent for its price. Since my airpods broke a few years ago I've relied on the wired apple earpods for private listening. And it's been great. It's literally wired airpods. But I can't help note the differences in audio experience coming from an apple product.

Anker's is noticeably lighter, plasticy and less premium to the touch. They boast about the bass but I had better bass on my apple earpods and I didn't need to change any settings. The earpods are also a bit bigger than Apple's so I can't dismiss the feeling in my ear. On the other hand, I tend to forget I have my airpods on. Bluetooth connectivity is fine, but coming from something that switched seamlessly between apple devices, it's quite an adjustment. 

Anyway I do love that there are better tap controls on this one. I don't know if they made these in the newer airpods but I can now tap to control the volume on this thing.

Overall I would say I still prefer the Apple Airpods but no way I'm spending 7k on something thats breaking in 4 years. Mine's battery just got wonky over time. They won't charge equally, the left one dies faster, and the charging case isn't holding juice anymore.

Oh well. Still pretty pleased with this!

Two shoes I blame for my self-diagnosed plantar fascitiis. 

1. The pair of birks I ruined cleaning. It was looking very grim at five years old and I wanted to restore the footbed to its former unsullied glory. So I sanded it. Reddit says it works. Well it did remove the black oil stains from my foot, but it also made the footbed incredibly hard it became painful to walk with. I don't know what I did wrong. Oh well. I just bought a new pair of birks and I'll be more careful with it.  

2. Next is my allbirds flats. I thought I got a good deal with it, it's a bit cheaper than Vivaia sitting around 5k/pair and it's incredibly soft when I tried walking with it. It's like walking barefoot on a carpeted hotel room. I had to be specific with the illustration because no way I'm walking barefoot on a public carpet. I've been wearing it at least once a week every time I go onsite. Which was okay at first but eventually I realized this old and frail body needs its arch support and this pair doesn't offer any. To remedy, I bought insoles for it but I have yet to put it to the test. We'll see.

So much to do. So little motivation. 

I'm in the middle of doing various little things at once. Harvesting bits of dopamine in each activity, but never focusing on something long enough to complete it.

I'm bouncing between generating music on Suno, looking for vacation rentals on Airbnb, and learning a guitar tab for Dust in the Wind.

I would do anything but work on the hours I'm expected to do so. And I'm not proud.

-- 

I have a discipline problem that I'm trying to address. I've never been able to stick to a diet enough to see results. Never pushed myself hard enough to leave my comfort zone. Never challenged my bad habits. And the result is being overweight for years, getting easily injured, easily tired, perpetually disappointed in my fitness levels, always hating how I look in photos.

I want to change that. And for accountability purposes (blog, don't jinx) I'm writing it down.

I'm committing to at least 30 days of calorie deficit. That's 1500cal per day, give or take. I mean I just started 2 days ago and I'm already over 300cals haha. Actually let's make that 1600? My maintenance calories is 1800+. A 200/day deficit is like cutting on midnight snack. How about let's start by quitting snacking at night?

Urgh, see it's impossible!

I don't find myself blogging as much as I used to. I think vlogging has replaced it, in terms of purpose (documentation) and the time I spend on it. Not that it's the same creative pursuit. Sometimes I find myself wanting to just rant mindlessly on Twitter, then I get too lazy, too conscious to air out my thoughts.

I do miss writing though. It's not the same as vlogging. I think I'm a better writer than a vlogger. Not that I excel at writing, I'm just saying that relative to my vlogging skills I'm a more creative writer than a filmmaker, if you wanna call it that. My vlogs are boring and template. It's literally just my day to day. In snippets arranged chronologically. No color grading, just captions, and AI generated music.

But writing, writing is more fun. I get to recall events and narrate them. Rack my brain for memories, and words to describe such memories. Try to make it interesting. It's very mentally stimulating for me. And it takes me the same amount of time writing a detailed account of the week and editing my Weekly Monotony. The only difference is that editing vlogs has become muscle memory for me, whereas writing poses a fresh challenge every time.

I'm really just waiting for my vlog to render, then I will TRY to sleep. I have trouble sleeping. Maybe because I drink coffee too late in the day. One in the afternoon and one during meetings. 

I had a big wart removed on my foot the other day. It's actually a recurrence. It's been removed last year but I wasn't able to take care of it properly so it grew back and looked much worse. So yeah. Derma had to inject several mls of lidocaine to the skin around the area and it's painful as hell. I hated the procedure so much I vow not to let it happen again.

Alright, happy weekend!