dental care

on viber with a friend.

i sent him a pic of my chocs.

he then sent me a pic showing
- a toothbrush
- toothpaste
- mouthwash
and
- dental floss.

♩♪  we go together 🍫 🪥  ♫ ♬

🤣

shades of green

i placed an order with special instructions to separate the

- meat
from
- the rice and veggies.

when my order arrived, all the other stuff shown in the menu photo as being inside the earth bowl were each packed separately as well.  the small amount of pickled singkamas had its own plastic container.  the pickled red onions, too.  the chili garlic mayo...  the hummus...  the peanuts...

my order from a green kitchen was green healthy but not environmentally green...

maximum convenience

someone ousted me as swarm mayor of a soup place in my hometown yesterday.

i was actually happy.
it means
the place is open

plus

there is at least one customer

and that person uses swarm which i love ❤️

i used to score 3,000+ weekly in swarm pre-pandemic.  4,000+ even.

i had 52 streaks, among them:
grocery stores and supermarkets,
banks,
shopping malls,
department stores,
bookstores,
clothing, shoe, furniture, hardware, electronics and arts & crafts stores,
hotels, bars, lounges, bakeries,
pizza and snack places,
fast food, chinese, japanese, ramen restaurants,
juice bars,
noodle houses,
bbq and burger joints,
bubble tea, coffee and donut shops,
gas stations,
parking.

(i know i also had an ice cream shop streak but it does not anymore appear in my profile 🤔)

now i score less than a hundred, most of the time zero.

instead of going out, i just 'check in' at grab and foodpanda.  no traffic.  no parking.  no gas.  no br_ 🍒🤭

preempted

the first beluga youtube video i saw was "Discord Mods Be Like..."  it was posted june 13, 2021.  i stumbled upon it in july.

i was amused so i binge-watched the channel's other vids.

my watch and search histories are off.  i got to watch other beluga videos maybe just one more session after that.

this evening, beluga again appeared on my feed.  it's the "Beluga Face Reveal" video posted september 22.  the cat is out of the bag!

wah!  i didn't even know beluga's identity was supposed to be a secret 🤦‍♀️

breathe

i posted a birthday greeting for a facebook friend.

then i received a text message telling me that the one i greeted passed away months back yet.

the texter moreover told me that four other former officemates are also now gone.

aw 😢

prayers for them all 🙏

i told the texter we should always take care and stay safe and healthy.

her reply:
let's all stay alive.

one and only

i saw this video from GMA News posted september 21, 2021.  it's about a COVID-positive woman who went to the PAGIBIG Fund office in Calamba, Laguna.

the barangay reported her to the Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) whose personnel fetched her from PAGIBIG and took her to an isolation facility.

the woman was requesting that she just be on home isolation but according to POSO Chief Jeff Rodriguez,
"Hindi na po siya puwedeng iuwi dahil siya po ay nabigyan ng pagkakataon na mag-home quarantine pero siya po ay lumabag."
~ She cannot be brought home anymore because she has been given a chance to go on home quarantine but she broke it.


i like to say,
everyone deserves a second chance but not a third.
(yup, i know there's Matthew 18:21-22.)
but sometimes you do get only one chance.
don't blow it.

in a manner of speaking

someone was discarding old pics and sent me photos very similar to ones i have.  same subject, same time but different shots from different cameras.

the unedited soft copies he made from the original hard copies were clear.  the ones i have are pale.  not faded but pale from the time they were first printed years back.

i didn't know then that cold drains batteries so i was taking pics on low batt.

my uncle even drove my brother and me from new york to harvard twice because the first time we went, the pics came out so pale.  this was pre-digital, pre-easy fix time.

we really didn't want to bother my uncle again but he was the one who insisted because he wanted us to be able to show good pics to my dad.

my dad (who was not with us on the trip) gave emphatic instructions that my brother and i should visit harvard and stanford.  he said as long as we go to those places, it's already up to us how we spend the rest of our vacation.

i was telling the photo sender i find it kinda weird on hindsight.  it's like going to the philippines and making sure you visit the University of the Philippines.  why???

uhm...  that was a rhetorical question but he gave me a reply:
You can say with a straight face, “I went to Stanford.”  BWHAHAHAHAH!

🤣🤣🤣

net

i was ordering food and noticed that i was only P7 shy of the minimum amount required for free delivery and a 30% discount.  i therefore went over the menu looking for a low-priced item.  ta-daaan!!!  i found a side dish for P39!

with that additional P39, i got entitled to discounts totalling P218.50.

good deal 😊

plain and simple

i was going to order libertea from army+navy but noticed that the photo showed a bottle that's not full.  i've ordered this countless times both in store (pre-pandemic) and online but now i'm not sure whether the actual and photo of the previous bottles were full.

ii'm thinking they were otherwise this current photo would not have surprised me.

i'm sure i have a pic of my previous orders (yup, i take pics of my food).  i'll check tonorrow.

last august 18, we ordered and paid for a 940ml classic milk tea from army+navy through foodpanda but what we received was 470ml.

we reported it to both foodpanda and army+navy.  up to now no action from both to rectify the error.  maybe we should raise to DTI.

anyway, so there i was wondering whether i should proceed ordering when, ta-daaaan!!!  my phone died!

nyahaha...  okay...  i think that's the universe telling me to have water for now.  #LessComplicated 😂

rein it in

there are things you can brush aside.
and there are things you should not ignore.

some things are too grave to overlook.
highly irrational behavior should not go unchecked.

don't be in denial.
prevent a recurrence.
seek professional help.

time limit

i had to furnish photocopies of my IDs for the processing of certain documents.

when it comes to these things, i prefer to use my driver's license.  it has a lot of personal data BUT the ID itself has an expiration date.

definitely there are many other factors at play but in its simplest form, unlike with permanent/lifetime IDs, in this case you are not giving someone a perpetual window for misuse.

in or out

Metro Manila is under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) with Alert Level 4 from September 16 to 30, 2021. Alert Level 4 "refers to areas wherein case counts are high and/or increasing, with total bed utilization rate and intensive care unit utilization rate at high utilization."

prior to that, it was under Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) from August 21 to September 15.

from August 6 to 20, it was under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ)  ->  the strictest quarantine classification.

since march 2020, Metro Manila has been placed under ECQ thrice.

i was kidding a friend he probably does not feel the changes in quarantine classification because he's been going out quite often even under ECQ.

he countered, 'i'm APOR!'
->   Authorized Person Outside Residence

i went, 'i'm APIR!'
->   Authorized Person Inside Residence  ->  no such animal, hehe...  i actually could go out...  i have a quarantine pass for ECQ...  i just choose not to...

#StaySafe, #StayHome

know-it-all

"i don't know"
and
"i'll get back to you"
are acceptable answers.

no one knows everything.
don't pretend you do.
don't make up answers when you don't.

that was just a question
not an exam.

X

i use the free version of apps and a lot of times i get served a lot of ads.  i don't realy watch them (ooops!)...  i just let them play and close the window as soon as i can...

i check the countdown plus look for the button which i have to click to close the ad...  the position varies but yeah, X usually marks the spot...

this morning, i was clicking and clicking on the X but the ad wouldn't close...  then i realized i was clicking on the X in Ragnarok X! 🤦‍♀️🤭🤣

on screen

scrolling through my food pics...  what the...  there's hair!

next dish, too!

and next!

wait, turns out the hair was on my monitor 🤣

on the surface

i relayed something to my mom and she responded by saying maybe that's why she's been dreaming about my dad lately.  (he passed away last year.)

she said in her dream my dad was leaving and told her to prepare snacks for eight.

first things that came to my mind were:
1.  my dad was picking <someone> up?
2.  eight is for the seven of us plus the maid
3.  snacks/food because of an upcoming celebration

years back, i used to log my dreams and do dream analysis.  i know interpretation is not that simple but offhand that's what i came up with.

not sure whether i'll dig deeper later.  sometimes it's ok to just take things at face value.

games fortune plays

for more than three hours i was exchanging messages with someone.

then i decide to eat chocs  ->  chocs with gooey caramel that stick to my teeth and make it hard to talk.

and at that very moment when my mouth was full, that's when he asks to switch to voice!  😲

note to fortune:
you're just supposed to smile not laugh...

yield

someone sent me eleven (!) boxes of my fave see's awesome walnut square bars.  each box has eight 42g squares.  i therefore have (okay, had) eighty-eight 42g chocolate squares! 😊

i love chocolates.
i love see's awesome walnut square bars even more.

i, however, set a limit for myself that i'll eat only two squares per day.
uhm, i haven't been able to adhere to it.
so far i've been having three a day.
i, however, do not feel guilty at all.  i had four on the day the chocs were delivered and everytime i finish three instead of just two, i find myself thinking, "well, at least it's not four."

precedent not good.
reference point not right.
i know yet i persist.
i'm not harming other people.
this is a self-imposed limit.
i am cutting myself some slack.

😊

casper

today, was i surprised to see that my late sister-in-law followed my instagram food account and liked my see's chocolate post!

i asked my niece whether it was her.

she said she doesn't have access to her mom's account.

well, it turns out 'twas my brother.

whew!

repurpose

i sleep with a himalayan salt lamp beside me.  it's not on a table; it's on my bed.  not upright but lying on its side, less than a foot away from my head.

i don't like light and lampshades when i sleep so i don't turn on the lamp.  i've plugged it just once, when it was newly delivered, to check whether it works.  it does.

i've long wanted to remove the cable from the lamp but retained it because i didn't want to remove the lamp feature from what was supposed to be a salt lamp.  so for the longest time, the cable was also there on my bed.

today, i finally decided to pluck it out.  and yay!  the lamp looked so much cleaner and nicer lying beside my pillow 😊

product features are important only insofar as you use them.  i've never used the lamp feature.  i don't intend to.  it's okay to let go.

purpose

talking long drive and radar detector cropped up in the conversation.

i asked how much one is.

whoa!  kinda pricey!

i go, "why not just not overspeed..."

in reply, the guy sent me a picture of his car.

hahaha...  okay...

what's the point of having a fast car if you cannot go fast?

maximum utility

today i received eleven boxes of my fave See's Awesome Walnut Square Bars ❤️❤️❤️

yes, eleven!

each box has eight 42g squares.  that's a total of 88 chocolate squares! 😃

this is not the first time the giver has sent me so many.  (i am overjoyed and extremely thankful 😊)  this time and last, he had emphatic instructions that the chocs are all for me.  the previous times he sent, i shared with others.  (he sends other chocs for sharing.  it's just the walnut bars he specifies as exclusively mine.)

i totally get it.  the most value for those chocs would be if i'm the one who ate them.

you give them to others, they'd probably view it the same way they'd view any other choc.

me, i love those chocs.  to me they're special.  i take great pleasure and satisfaction in and really appreciate every single bite.

taste is subjective.
value is relative.
don't give a diamond to someone who doesn't appreciate jewelry.
don't give a diamond to someone who doesn't know what a diamond is.
you're not maximizing value.
you could even be negating it.

waste not.

no-lose

went to my mom's place to share ice cream with my sister who i thought was working from home.  turns out she went to the office.

so there i was at the dining table with my food tray when my mom walked in.

me:  'you want ice cream?'

mom:  'no, thanks.'

me:  'hehe...  good...  i've finished it already...'

mom:  'why are you offering me ice cream when there's no more?!'

me:  'in case you say no then good.  there was a 50% chance you'd say no.'

and a hundred percent chance of things turning out well  ->  had she said yes i would have ordered.

twice the ice cream is twice the joy 🍧🍨😋😊

value

technician fixing my mom's internet connection:  'to get this speed you have to connect to the 5G not the 2.4...  but then coverage is small...  it won't reach downstairs...'

me:  'what?!  my mom's house is not a mansion.  her lot's only 200+ square meters.  her house doesn't even occupy the whole space.  are you telling me she has to go upstairs every time she wants to use 5G?  that cannot be!'

technician:  'your walls are not thick?'

me:  'they're regular walls...  concrete but not a fortress...'

technician:  'maybe it would work...'

me:  'it should...  what sort of technology is 5G if it won't even serve an area this small?'

the technician went downstairs and checked near my mom's laptop...  5G good...

he went to the farthest end of the living room...  5G good...

he went to the yard...  no more 5G...

that's ok...  the important thing is that the signal is available where my mom normally uses it...  there's not much value in having something someplace where it isn't needed.

not everything is mandatory.  some are just nice to have.

feeling entitled

garbage is collected in our  street six times a week, monday to saturday.  you're supposed to just put your trash outside for collection.

when my dad was still alive, he used to go out to give the garbage collectors a tip every single time.

when he passed away, my mom continued the 'tradition' but halved the tip 🤭.  she tasked the help with handing out the tips.

this morning my mom's help told me she wasn't around one time the garbage collector came so when he saw her next he told her,
"may utang ka pa sa 'kin."
->  you owe me money (i.e., the tip).

wahaha...  you do a favor for too long, the recipient starts to view it as your obligation.

off

this afternoon, my favorite garlic noodles was at 40% off and free delivery.  i was full, however, so i did not order.

9 p.m., i felt like ordering but by then the restaurant offer was down to 25% off.

i normally would postpone purchase to some other day when discount is 50% (which happens weekly).
this time, however, i decided to place an order even at just 25% off.

click...
scroll...
ta-daaannn!!!
noodles not available!

not meant to be 🤭

jealous

friend complaining about his girlfriend getting jealous of this woman who was so much older than him.

i told him i could understand his girl.
it's not always about being insecure.
it could be about instinct.
maybe she sensed something, whatever that is.
("Trust your gut.
It knows what your head hasn't figured out yet.")

some people meet and they have chemistry.  they feel a certain connection.
it has nothing to do with age.
it has nothing to do with looks.
it has nothing to do with superior qualities.
to me therefore,
as far as jealousy is concerned,
everyone is fair game.  🤭🤦‍♀️🤣

mind and matter

i was on the phone with a friend and windows cropped up in the conversation.  i was sure about the windows i have on the side and in front.  i could not confidently recall, however, what kind of windows i have in the rear.  i had something in mind but i wasn't sure if i was remembering it right.  mid-conversation therefore i jumped out of my bed to check the windows in my dining area.  yay, my recollection was correct!

i don't eat in my dining area but i do see those windows everyday.  why did i have doubts as to how it was?  hmmm...

oh, well...  i'll take that anytime over the way my mother-and-daughter neighbors so confidently remember things that never at all happened.

disturbing.

true self

i personally know people who have succumbed to COVID in this pandemic.  my heart goes out to those who are infected and to those who have been exposed to  the virus.  i say a prayer for everyone's good health, safety and protection not just before i sleep, not just when i wake up but every time i come across possible health risks.

i must admit though that i find it hard to sympathize with our supposedly quarantining neighbors.   just like last year, this week and last they again have been brazenly breaking health protocols.  they go out (even waiting for their vehicle within our property!).  they drive to i dunno where.  they walk the dogs.  they walk about.

well, today, the barangay sent watchmen to put them in check.  i am happy and thankful for the barangay's action.  at the same time i am also sad and angry that you have to have guards for these people to comply.

character is who you are when no one is looking.

self-incriminating

barangay personnel was calling in our neighborhood this morning.

i was supposed to respond but then i heard her ask who brought out the mattress on the street.

i then heard the neighbor say he did.

the barangay said he shouldn't have because they are supposed to be on quarantine.  she told the neighbor to call them next time so they will be the one to handle it.  she added someone called the barangay to have the mattress removed.

guess what, the neighbor said he was the one who called!

ok.  let me break that down.
this guy
who was supposed to be on quarantine
brought out a mattress
from their house
to the street
yesterday.

he passed four houses
(ours included)
plus a condominium on one side
to get to the spot

where he left the mattress leaning against an electric post.
this morning, he calls the barangay
because the mattress was not collected with the trash.

🤦‍♀️

reminds me of something his wife did four years ago.

i saw their maid throwing cooking oil in the gutter in front of my brother's house.
i got angry.

the wife writes me an explanation later.
she says she ordered her maid to throw the cooking oil in the gutter because in her understanding, the gutter is, in her own words,
"public owned,"
"public property,"
"public use."

if that weren't bad enough, she said she was looking for the number of the barangay so she could call and confirm whether the gutter is really for "public use."

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

like attracts like.
what a tandem.