I'm tired of complaining

Things haven't been so great lately. I'm getting stressed from complaining about a lot of things!

✖ Our refund from Victory Liner still hasn't been processed yet and it's been more than two months! They're full of excuses. Genesis was able to refund within two weeks during ECQ, I can't imagine what their problem may be.
✖ Our PMO takes too long to issue receipts. Our May billing statement still shows our April dues as unpaid, and I said I can't pay this until you send me an updated statement clearing our April dues. But heck, it's almost due date and I can't miss it urgh.
✖ Lazada is also taking too long to send my Apple invoice, which means I can't register my warranty urgh.

✖ Estancia still refusing access to non-Pasig residents and I miss Unimart!

I've been nothing but patient and understanding this season but I can't keep on being like this when it's been over two months and there's no sign of improvement everywhere.

On the plus side, my monitor got delivered two days ago.

Remember I was supposed to pick this up from the office but guess what, blog jinked it so I wasn't able to drop by Friday last week haha. Our building suddenly has to be closed off due to a confirmed COVID-19 case. Whew.

I was surprised at how big my monitor was. I couldn't remember the size of my desk anymore. I used to work on two monitors but wow this single equipment has taken over most of my desk space, damn. I really miss my office desk.

I love working on a big setup. My laptop now works as a CPU, it's tucked behind the monitor doing all the processing. I've set it up such that even if the lid is closed, the laptop won't sleep. 

Now, my only complain is that I couldn't get the right color settings for the monitor aaaand I can't use the webcam anymore.

I thought I'd be motivated to actually code but I still feel lazy asf. Must have something to do with the bed beside me urgh. I'm so full of excuses lately ano po. I got a full sized wireless keyboard and a monitor, and now I want to get new glasses, and a proper headset. Jusko when will my setup be enough.

Anyway. I'll just quit giving fucks about things I have no control over, which is everything I've complained about so far. I've nudged people enough to take action, now I'm just gonna let them do their jobs and hopefully they deliver before my patience tank gets depleted (again). 

✓ I mean, Victory Liner is already well aware of our complaints. 
✓ There's no point nagging our PMO, I'll just continue paying our dues diligently.

✓ I'll continue to wait for my invoice from Lazada. After all, I trust Apple enough so I hope I don't get any issues with my new airpods.

✓ I don't care about Estancia anymore. We have Megamall, and it has Healthy Options. 

Will you look at that. I already feel more peaceful. I just had to detach myself from things I thought I deserved, but was okay to let go naman pala. 

[Review] Xiaomi MIIIW Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo

Xiaomi MIIIW Wireless Keybaord and Mouse Combo is a full wireless keyboard that's great for everyday use. It's simple and elegant, works with both PC and Mac, water resistant, and also very affordable. 

Here's a quick review of the . As usual, we'll go with the following order:

✓ Specs and features

✓ Price and availability

✓ What I like

✓ What I didn't like

But before that, here's an unboxing and first impressions video I uploaded on Youtube.

Alright. I chanced upon the Xiaomi Wireless Combo while browsing for wireless keyboards on Shopee and Lazada. I wanted a full and wireless keyboard to improve my work from home setup and I think I scored a good product with Xiaomi.

Specs and features

Mouse:

• 1000dpi optical sensor
• 2.4GHz wireless receiver
• Anti-slip texture
• Plug and use, no additional drivers needed

Keyboard:

• IPX4 waterproof
• Sensitive button for PC/Mac switching
• 4° or 8° keyboard typing angle
• Full sized keyboard layout (104 keys + PC/Mac switch key)

Price and availability

Got this one from Shopee for ₱1,250 (discounts and vouchers included) so if you're interested, here's the link: https://shopee.ph/product/133211801/6533975360

What I like

There's really not much to say about keyboards in general. My requirements are simple: full sized, wireless, and affordable and this product is just about perfect. It's simple and elegant, I like how the edges are tapered round and that there's not a lot of empty space around it. It's not thin but it doesn't look bulky, and it looks really neat and it looks great on my desk.

What I didn't like

The mouse. It's good enough, it clicks and scrolls well but for some it could be hard to click. That said, it could be better. It's also too big for me. Well, I have small hands and I have my own Logitech mini-mouse that I intend to continue using simply because it's smaller.

Also, the sound of the keyboard. I sounds click-clacky and like a plastic mechanical keyboard, you know? I mean it's no big deal but I just noticed how it sounds different from the usual keyboards. You may hear the typing sounds on the Youtube video above, towards the end. On second thought, I actually thought it sounds cool hehe.

Overall I really like this product. I may even bring this with me once I go back to the office. 

Oral Health & Hygiene Tips for All the Family

It’s important that your whole family looks after their oral health and hygiene. It’s one of those things that’s very easy to overlook, but that shouldn’t be the case. It’s about more than white teeth and nice-smelling breath. Oral health is serious and establishing good habits in your kids from an early age is really important. Here’s how you can start improving your approach and getting it right today.

Source: Pixabay

Get Into the Habit of Flossing

A big part of staying healthy and looking after yourself properly is getting into good habits. That’s definitely true when it comes to good oral health and hygiene, and it’s even more true when it comes to kids. That’s why you should get your kids into the habit of flossing a couple of times a day. It’ll ensure they keep up the habit for a long time to come.

Use Fluoride

Using fluoride, and the right amount of it, is really important when it comes to maintaining healthy and clean teeth. The easiest and best way to do this is to simply choose the right toothpaste product that’s capable of offering the fluoride your teeth need. It’s something you can talk to your dentist about if you’re not sure about it.

Find a Family Dentist You Can Trust

It’s vital that you have a family dentist in place that the whole family feels like it can trust. Places like Bowral Street Dental Practice offer top services and you should get to know a service before you commit to it. That way, you’ll always feel in safe hands when you head to them for check-ups and other routine procedures. It’s essential you have confidence in the dentist you choose.

Make a Dental Care Calendar

A dental calendar can be useful if you’re a busy family that often misses appointments and forgets to organize check-ups and things like that. We all know how busy and chaotic family life can be at times and having a dental calendar will at least ensure that you have those reminders in front of you of what you need to do and when. It’s harder to forget that way.

Brush Your Teeth Together When Your Kids Are Young

When you have kids that are still very young, it makes sense to brush your teeth together as a family. When you do this, it helps to normalize the process for your kids and they’ll want to imitate you. It’ll also become a game and something that’s fun, and that’s the perfect way to establish good habits that should hopefully last a lifetime. That’s just what you want.

Each of these oral health and hygiene tips is really important and everyone should be looking to get these right if they want their families to have good dental health going forward. Don’t cut corners or ignore the basics because that’ll only lead to more problems later. Put the ideas above into practice as soon as possible.

Life Lately and thoughts on the New Blogger Post Editor

// I woke up today with a message from the parking owner saying they'll be increasing our rate by ₱500 and that we should confirm by the weekend. It sucks. I felt angry at first, of all times really? But then I realized it's not too bad because of the following reasons:

• It's still considerably below what the average parking rate is in this property, in this year.
• Our next lease will start on July pa naman, so it's not really short notice. 
• I doubt we'll get a better deal if we move. First level parking near elevator is a premium spot to me.

So yeah, we renewed and got the PDCs ready. 👍 Also, I can't be angry at our parking landlord because it'll be awkward in our Facebook group if I start looking out for a new spot, and most importantly she's sister-in-law to one of my former managers hahaha. So yeah, behave ako lol. FYI we currently pay ₱5k for parking. If it's any consolation, a friend who lives in the neighboring condo pays ₱10k. Hehe okay.

// My spending habits are kinda normalizing now too lol. I'm draining my allowance getting stuff online. I thought I'd want to buy less this ECQ but no, I have all the time to browse Shopee and Lazada! It's a trap! Plus all my favorite foods can deliver now so who's gonna stop my laziness from spending more? It started with an overpriced sleep mask, then an android streaming box (for my parents), then we decided to do take-out dinners every weekend, i bought a pair of apple airpods, ordered watercolor journals, and just now a set of wireless keyboard and mouse. 

I actually want to get more things, my ECQ wishlist is shaking.

// My latest purchase, the wireless keyboard, is actually an attempt to improve my current WFH setup and make it more conducive to work. Laptops kill my developer mojo. I need a full keyboard. I've coordinated with our office so I could pick-up my monitor, and also get some stuff from my pedestal. I'm set to drop by this Friday. Hopefully no trouble with the checkpoints, and no traffic too.

// I want to plant basil so I can make homemade pesto spread. But where to get gardening soil, and seeds too?

// You know how I've been making weekly vlogs on my channel, I'm thinking of changing my mobile video editor. I'm currently using InShot Pro, and it's great. It's super easy to learn, has a lot of options, but at the end of the day I'm looking for more features that would improve the way I edit. It's great for montages, but I'm trying to make more reviews and tutorial videos now and I need more than the traditional features. Considering I'm using a Pro version, I wonder why I don't even have PIP and video collage options. 

Any recos for a mobile video editor? :D

// This new Blogger post editor is pretty neat! Although I have a few concerns, mostly regarding their choice of icons for the toolbar. 

Update: I figured that part of the toolbar is hidden because I was using a laptop with a smaller screen size. After switching to a monitor, I'm seeing all options in one row now.

Text align options should not be hidden in a sub-menu, it's one of my most commonly used option, so it breeaks my user experience having to click more just to get there. If there's a keyboard shortcut for those, much better!

A lot of menu icons are confusing. Paragraph Format, Jump Break, and Toggle Caption buttons all look like Text Align options.

Font Type button looks unfamiliar.

Table button looks like Border options.

I find the toolbar icons in this new post editor less intuitive than the previous one. Considering it's a Google product they should at least consider following a standard right? Take Google Docs editor for reference, I mean. They were able to stretch the editor to a full width, they should've maximized the space on the toolbars. 

Anyway. I do like that it's neater, wider, and the preview option allows you toggle between device types so you can see how the post looks on mobile devices too. 

Hope they improve this editor!

:)

Sup ding-dongs

Here's to another week wasted doing nothing productive at work. There's this one task I've been putting away for about a month now that I've finally gotten the motivation to start. As in officially start. I've been yapping about the plans I have for this task in our weekly meeting, but truth be told, I haven't really gotten around developing anything.

Let's get technical.

I just really need to migrate some data from PeopleSoft to our timekeeping database to align the department names and team names. I've got the data in an excel file, and I've done some concat magic to generate update statements for each row, but that's about it. I'm scared to touch it. Because I knew once I rolled it on the database, I have to inevitably start working on the back-end, and then the front-end. Right now I'm just too lazy for that. It's not a simple update, it's a freaking DB structure change.

I remember back in college when we're told decent databases should have structured tables with information accessible using IDs. Especially those with one-to-many relationship. Our current system has none of that elegance. Our tables are a mishmash of data and it pains me every time I have to LIKE query. Pun intended hehe.

But anyway. Okay, I rolled in the data and now the fun begins. I've fixed some pages, updated queries, created tables, and I'm nearing front-end of this tunnel. Pun-tastic. Now I have to work on the UI. Which is exciting, because I get to learn and apply something new to our forms: multi-select autocomplete text fields! 

In another news, I just ordered airpods from Lazada. I saved some 500 I guess, and another 500 when ShopBack validates my purchase. So it's not so bad? Can't believe I just shelled out 9k for a pair of earphones but heck, been wanting to reward myself for uhm, following ECQ?! Damn.

Oh well. Let's keep hanging on.

[Review] TEMPUR Sleep Mask

I've been curious about this product ever since Sharon Cuneta casually recommended it in one of her vlogs HAHA. I never really thought much about sleep masks even though I use one every night. It's a simple item that's cheap and easy to replace, and it does its job; cover my eyes and help me sleep. I didn't think there were more advanced versions of it. Like I'm okay working on a monobloc chair but I wouldn't ignore an ergonomic swivel chair with back support and a memory foam headrest. Anyway, let's get it rolling.

Uhm but before thaaaat, here's a short and sweet review on Youtube. It's a sub 3min video that starts with a short voiceover intro (script taken from the box) and a quick look and commentary at the product. There's not much to show and tell anyway hehe. Please watch, and maybe subscribe! ❤

The basics

• Priced at ₱1,620 (regular price ₱1,800)
• Purchased online from Tempur Philippines (https://bit.ly/TempurPh_FB1)
• Arrived in 7 days. Considering ECQ - that's fast. But after knowing that their warehouse is just a block away from where I live? Urgh. Super slow. But it's all good. I complained. They listened, in a robotically reassuring way, and expedited the matter. Then I apologized, took down my frustrated comment in Facebook, and simmered down. Oh I love complaining up with solutions to my problems.

Before I get carried away...

• Made with Authentic Tempur material, which uses some kind of Certified Space Technology (according to the box). Whatever that means. I'm guessing some kind of memory foam used by astronauts. Hm, no wonder the skyrocketing price huh?
• Washable with reservations, which are: handwash only using mild detergent, do not bleach, do not tumble dry, do no iron.
• Textile is made of 75% cotton, 25% Polyester
• Filling is made of 100% Polyurethane. Perfect.
• Sized at 41x9x2.5cm. Couldn't care less.
  
  

What I loved

• Super soft and comfortable
• Blocks out light completely. Granted you wear it properly like align the ridge perfectly on your nose to seal it
• Washable, but like I mentioned, with reservations
• Adjustable with its garterized velco straps
• Light, compact, perfect for travel. I mean, that's default for all sleep masks. 
• Doesn't come off easily in my sleep. Works for side sleepers. Granted, you wear it tight.
• It looks hot to wear but surpisingly, it's not. I was able to sleep with these comfortable even with the AC off.

I really enjoy wearing this because I can open my eyes fully unrestricted and just bask in the darkness it brings. It's kinda therapeutic. Even if I'm not feeling sleepy I could just lie down, wear this, and enjoy phosphenes and fractals dance in my mind. Like I'm being taken to space. Oh dip, is this what space tech materials do? Haha.

What I didn't like

• Right off the box, the product tags. They're long and they're a lot. I ended up cutting them. Will this void my warranty? Do I even have one? Lol didn't check.
• It sometimes comes off in your sleep. But I only realize it when I'm awake, so at least doesn't come off while I'm wide awake, shifting and turning trying to get the right position
  
  

Apart from those, I have nothing else.

This is how it looks like when worn. It's big and bulky and I kinda look stupid in it. But who cares, I'm wearing space tech, baby! Plus, it has helped me sleep better.

Yeah that's about it, hope you find this review helpful!

Quarantine Wishlist Part 1

It's still okay to dream right?

Tempur sleep mask

As of writing I already got it and now I've been using it for around 2 nights already. It's phenomenal. I mean, it's the best sleep mask I've ever tried. Obviously. It's the only sleep mask I thought twice, thrice, about getting mainly because it's too pricey for a damn sleep mask! It's at ₱1,620. 

Will post a separate entry to review this item. But so far, so good!

Xiaomi Mi Box S

If I had known about this technology two years ago we wouldn't have bothered with a smart TV that only has Netflix and Youtube installed. I ordered one for my parents and it arrived yesterday. They set it up quite easily and I'm glad they're enjoying it!

Sofa repair

The broken part of our living room sofa is still being supported by a bunch of books right now. Thankfully, it's not showing any signs of giving up completely so I hope it lasts until we can find someone to fix it. Can't wait to get it repaired and reupholstered.

A comfortable PC setup

I'm just working on the laptop right now but seeing that I'm getting more development work this ECQ, I want to go the office to pick up my monitor and also get my glasses and USB fan from my pedestal. 

Lots of money

Don't we all? I wish I had enough savings and more so I can support our parents now that they have zero cash flow, and also reach out to my friends in need.

Mi True Wireless Earphones 2

Because Apple airpods are too expensive and I've been wishing to get wireless earphones because, uhm, wireless. 

iPad mini and Apple pencil

Ah! I've been dreaming about these two gadgets but I'm not convinced I truly need it, specially in these times. Of course nobody really needs it but I'm thinking if I can truly utilize it. I stopped using my Samsung Tab w/ SPen after about 2 years of playing with it, then I sold it. And it has the same features I'm looking for with the iPad mini. I'm just really curious about Procreate. Throw in a paperlike screen protector and a folio case with apple pencil slot and I'm ogling over here. Hay.

Instant Pot

What a delight would this be in the kitchen. It's a multicooker that can do a load of dishes. It's a pressure cooker, rice cooker, steamer, blah blah blah. I wanted to get this during ECQ but I thought I'd wait for the air fryer lid to come out so that I'd get more bang for the buck? I've always wanted an air fryer!