Optimism, Options and Optics

I’ve always considered myself an optimistic person. That is, until the last few years. This year? It’s more of a struggle just to cheer up. Trying out meditation and having a sort-of morning routine helps to at least get up and get started on things to do, with acute consciousness of an invisible weight in every step. Is this what it feels like to be in the brink of a revolution? Who knows, and lives to this day? Some days, I just long for a reset.

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Yet there are days few and far between with spurts of inspiration, when ideas pour like heavy rain my hands can barely keep up writing or typing them down. These days seem full of options. These are blessed, sweet days to remember this otherwise weary year by. I try to get as much done on these days, not knowing when the next ‘train’ arrives.

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Never one to bother with optics or appearances, it still feels exhausting sometimes to hear rumors or lies being spread around about me or other people I know. Pandemic or not, it still surprises me how people can have the energy or mental space for nonsense like these. On a bigger scale, the media makes this worse. Some say we live in a post-truth era; it gets harder and harder to get the facts straight with the proliferation of fake news, deepfakes and propaganda-driven traditional media outfits or social media. How does one cope with this crisis without succumbing to the deep dark, if hardening oneself or not caring is not an option? I’m still learning, but I have a few ideas: bury my head in a book, dive into painstaking research, connect with kind people/kindred spirits, or find solace in nature. Oh, and there’s gaming, too, if you can guard against addiction.

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This post is part of #SoCS

Change and Potential

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We are always in a perpetual state of being created and creating ourselves. – Daniel J. Siegel

One-Liner Wednesday by Linda Hill

Armchair Travel Series: A Little Something to Smile About

A special visitor to my blog left this in one of her comments. Bless her! Never fails to make me smile. Sharing it here in the hopes of spreading some good vibes.

One-Liner Wednesday – Pain in the Head

I have a headache, Voldemort must be close.

This is for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday.

FB Alternatives?

I recently checked out the MeWe platform as a potential alternative to Facebook and while navigation takes some getting used to, the lack of Ads is something I thought was worth checking out. A few days in and..it’s not bad. I doubt though if checking for fake news or deep fakes is already built in the system, especially if you’re on the free account. More on this later. I like the focus on communities/groups, although the push notifications being set to ON by default was annoying at first. Best to turn it off as well as the email notification prior to joining any group, if you don’t want it sounding off every time someone in the group posts or sends a message. For now, I’m keeping the app in my social media smorgasbord to see its potential.

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I read about Liker somewhere as another FB alternative but have yet to get the app. Anyway, I still will have to stay on facebook rather than get all my contacts to join MeWe or Liker, which can take a lot of time if ever the alternatives get any grounding and scale up. Would be nice to finally have some healthy, hopefully better competition for facebook.

Wanna check MeWe out? Here’s my link if you want to connect.

Oddball Set and Conversation with Pets

Something different in this week’s Share Your World. Check out the link to join.

Oddball Questions:

Is cereal soup? Why or why not? Definitely not a soup, although there’s no rule to not add it in a soup, is there?

What are some interesting ways to answer everyday questions like “how’s it going” or “what do you do”? Evade any which way by saying something funny or obvious. These days though, I take these questions especially the first one more seriously and ask it back if it looks like the other party wants to be asked.

What was your favorite toy growing up? A barbie house, fashion drawing set, boggles and my brother’s build-your-own robot kits.

They didn’t have any of this size back then. Photo by Somchai Kongkamsri on Pexels.com

If you have a pet, and you could ask it three questions, what would you ask? What’s on your mind, buddy? Anything in particular you want to do/eat? Spill the tea on anyone in this house or neighborhood? OR What do you think of humans?

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Attitude of Gratitude Section (Always Optional)

What’s one simple thing society at large could do to improve our world?

Care enough to act on issues plaguing the community/world.

SoCS – Some Rings To/On It

I haven’t worn my ring in awhile, or any jewelry for that matter. Hubby and I are not all that into jewelry or accessories, save for his small collection of watches. Makes me think we should have gone for something else, like a watch for him or a pair of earrings or necklace for me. Because I’m not used to it, I try not to remove it (which is against my instinct) when I wash my hands in public restrooms so as not to lose it. One time though, while on a business trip in Macau, I removed my rings once to wash my hands in a hurry and forgot about them, both my wedding ring and another accessory, for about 2 hours. I was dining with friends in the same hotel when I noticed my ringless fingers. My friends and I hurriedly went to the concierge, with little hope of getting it back. In my head I was already thinking of whether to order the same ring and not tell hubby about the first one getting lost, or just to come clean about losing it. Luckily, after about 15-20 minutes of waiting while the staff checked with the rest of her team for any missing rings found in washrooms, someone found and reported them missing to security. The staff and my friends thought I was very lucky someone even returned it, and that they found it right away and just in time before I had to catch my flight out of Macau.

On the subject of rings, I remember my wacky engagement a few years back. My then fiancé and I were on our third trip and was getting ready for our next stop. I was fixing our bags when a velvety box fell out of his backpack. We both stared at it in surprise, him because it was not how he planned to show it and me supressing a laugh. A few minutes later, we couldn’t keep it in and just started laughing in short bursts for a good 30 minutes or so. I told him to not feel pressured and to still go with his plan whenever he wished and I’d just pretend the box incident didn’t happen. He finally did ask me to marry him the next morning at a deserted beach, or at least we were alone for a few hours enjoying the waters before the tourists came in hordes. It was a good way to start a day, a good day to get engaged 😊.

Where he popped the question.

The rings. The one with the ruby accent in the center is the engagement ring which he designed, knowing that I’m not really into diamonds. The other one stacked on top is the infinity wedding ring which matches his platinum band.

This post is part of SoCS.

It’s The Calm After a Storm

The world’s strongest typhoon in 2020 spared Manila, Philippines but landed 6x in various regions of the country, leaving massive destruction in its trail.

This post is part of #SixWordSaturday.

SoCS – Up In The Air

Up until last year for at least five years or so, I’d get myself a planner each year and once or twice, I managed to snag the Belle de Jour power planner before they’d sell out in bookstores. It’s a unique planner with more than the spaces for daily/weekly/monthly schedule slots, a calendar and a few pages for notes/reminders. It had a health/period tracker, motivational/inspirational quotes, goal tracker, challenges, a membership card and discount coupons/vouchers for use in partner establishments like gyms, cafe, spa, etc. It was very useful especially for serious planners like me back then 😉. In 2019, I got more zen and put less pressure on myself, took it easy on the To DO lists and re-evaluated my life goals. This soul-searching started in 2018, the year I got married and considered starting a family. I realized how I’ve changed and wanted different things for myself and soon-to-be family, and started on a different path in terms of career and where I want to start a family.

Photo credit: Rappler

And so I was on this path when 2020 hit and needless to say, most of my and my partner’s personal plans were hit, either delayed/postponed and/or drastically changed. Our move to NZ was halted when I couldn’t go back to start a new job there due to travel restrictions. A baby will have to wait, largely due to the pandemic. After the few weeks/months of adjusting to the crazy times, we started an I.T. business, a natural progression i guess since my partner and I are both in the industry albeit in different fields. Not quite part of the plan but something that felt right. If anything, this year has given us more than enough time in our hands to reflect more about our lives and be more intentional with our time.

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This post is part of #SoCS: Jour

Trying..and Failing

I’m trying my best not to binge on news, particularly on the U.S. elections, and succeeded at least for a few hours getting distracted by DW Documentaries on Youtube. Then reached the bottom of that rabbit hole and checked in on some live coverage. Hoping against hope for a better outcome soon, for everyone’s health and sanity!

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Meanwhile, in my country of origin (PH), a super typhoon reaching the strength of Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda and the world’s most powerful tropical cyclone yet in 2020 hit the country over the weekend and left massive destruction in its trail. About a million people had to be evacuated a day before the super typhoon hit and 96,000 families from the most hard-hit region (Bicol) or more than 345,000 people more on the morning the typhoon was expected to arrive. As if that was not enough, another typhoon entered PAR on the same weekend. For details on how to help, check out this link.

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But all’s not bad as in my country of choice (NZ), the new government led again by Jacinda Ardern and granted a single-party majority by overwhelming support of the electorate, just announced the composition of its incredibly diverse new cabinet, with nearly half being women and almost a quarter are people of colour. It was a record win for the Labour party and a show of overwhelming confidence and trust from the people and I hope the government sets a great example of unity in diversity in our current sick and broken world.

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