Category Archives: Daily dose

Thirty-nine

Daily dose,

This is the penultimate year before I hit four decades of being on planet Earth. What a journey it has been. Times have been challenging, especially the last twelve months, but somehow I am stillg it through.

There have been no changes in the writing, podcasting, and building scale models as it’s still a few months away from the target construction date of ‘the cave’. On the other hand, I’ve been meaning to get back to reading books and listening to my podcast subscriptions by August. The time has come to cut back on two notorious time sinks YouTube and Spotify.

Offline, I’ve spent considerable time reconnecting with my high school friends since April as we gear up to get organized for when we host our high school grand alumni homecoming in 2027. Time is ticking away and we are nowhere near our fundraising target.

For the first time in thirty-nine years, I’m seriously thinking of doing a more serious exercise regimen, even doing some weight training to help address my thyroid problems. A recent trip to the hospital reminded me that this needs urgent attention. Just to be clear, I would not be bulking up nor would I start a TikTok account to post half-naked thirst traps or something ridiculous.

Once more, to all those who sent their greetings, a big thank you to each and every one of you!

Farewell Google Podcasts, it’s been fun

Daily dose, , ,

It feels like the time when Google Reader was discontinued in 2013. While other podcast apps may have more features, Google Podcasts had everything I needed – a clean UI, it readily shows the recent episodes from my subscriptions – which for me, is the most important one.

Come June 23, 2024, Google Podcasts will cease to function and on July 29, 2024, users would no longer be able to migrate or export their subscriptions. I have already imported my subscriptions into YouTube Music to see how it fares as a podcast app. Somehow, something feels not right or maybe it’s because I’ve never really used YouTube Music before and had been forced to, because it’s going to replace Google Podcasts.

With Google’s promise that it will ‘increase investment in the podcast experience in YouTube Music’, I’ll give it a try. Although, I’m keeping the door open for other podcast apps out there.

Sarah Fergusson interviews BBM – a masterclass in journalism

Sarah Fergusson of ABC News, Australia interviewed Ferdinand Marcos Jr. It was a masterclass on how to interview a politician – asking the hard questions that, unfortunately, most journalists in the Philippines seem to have forgotten or have chosen to forget

Here’s a portion of the interview:

SARAH FERGUSON: There is one series of questions that comes up in relation to your father’s time which is, which is, of course, the question of corruption which became wholly associated with the Philippines for a long period of time. I think contemporary court judgements acknowledge the atrocities that were committed but also the plunder of the country’s resources.

Why wouldn’t you want all of that money back in the hands of the Filipino people?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Well, with the narrative…[laughs dismissively]

SARAH FERGUSON: May I just ask you why that is funny?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Why that?

SARAH FERGUSON: Why that is funny. I’m asking you a question about the plundering of large sums of money from the Filipino people…

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: No. I’m thinking that that maintains, that idea maintains because I take exception to many many of the assertions that have been made.

And I think we have been, we have since the cases were filed, the government fell. Cases were filed against me, my family, the estate etc and up to now we have, the assertions that were made, we have been shown to be untrue.

SARAH FERGUSON: Quite a lot of money, I think $5 billion was already recovered. I guess the quetion is …

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, again, again…

SARAH FERGUSON: Do you not want to see all the money that was taken returned to the people?

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Again, we have signed, this family has signed a quitclaims, we have signed many quitclaims. Any money that you find is yours and finished and everything was taken from us.

We went, we were taken to Hawaii. Everything. Everything was taken from us with nothing, we have nothing left.

SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I’m sorry?

SARAH FERGUSON: Not the view of the presidential commission. This is my final question on this topic.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: Which presidential commission?

SARAH FERGUSON: In the Philippines? Their view is there is a large amount of money outstanding.

FERDINAND MARCOS JR: I think that having seen the facts, as they have been slowly revealed, further true investigation, not propaganda, but actual true investigation, the court cases and investigations by all kinds of NGOs, different agencies, that has changed and people can see that it was propaganda.

Juan Ponce-Enrile celebrated his 100th birthday today and it has prompted a lot of content about timelines and relevant dates to show or mock how he seems to be immortal. Speaking of dates with real relevance here are some: having been born in 1924, Enrile was 48 years old when he faked an ambush against himself which became the excuse for the dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sr to declare Martial law in 1972. Enrile was 53 years old when Filipino student activist Archimedes Trajano was murdered by state security forces in 1977.

GENKKI Black – Awesome desk mat from Macveth Artisan Deskmat

Daily dose, ,

‘It’s just a huge mouse pad, there’s no reason to spend big on it’ was my thinking back when I switched from a regular-sized mouse pad to the larger desk mat around three years ago. It was a no-frills desk mat that measured 30 cm x 60 cm, plain black, with a neon green stitched border.

Bits of the old desk mat has melted and turned into gunk

With the daily use compounded by excessively sweaty palms, it needed cleaning every three months or so until around the last six months or more before we moved out of the city, I had completely neglected to do so. The result was that the edge closest to me where my arms usually rested had become brittle and even melted onto my desk. No doubt, it needed to be replaced.

This time around, I decided to spend way more and get a durable desk mat. This led me to the Macveth Artisan Deskmat. They had a lot of great reviews, a sign that this was no ordinary desk mat.

While their best-sellers had cool designs inspired by popular Japanese iconography and Greek mythology, I went for a minimalist aesthetic with the GENKKI Black, a stylized swirls of gray clouds on a deep black background that I got for P428 (~ USD 7)

Beautifully-designed, premium deskmat by Macveth Artisan Deskmat

From the packaging, and card inserts with cleaning instructions to the desk mat itself, this was a genuinely premium product. Best of all, it came in my preferred 30 cm x 60 cm size!

The working surface allows my mouse to smoothly glide over it yet there’s still enough friction to keep it under full control, the underside had plenty of grip to keep it firmly in place on my desk. Overall, the construction and materials used show that with the proper care, this desk mat would give me plenty of mileage.

So if you’re on the hunt for a premium desk mat to complete your gaming setup, take a look at Macveth Artisan Deskmat’s online stores on Lazada and Shopee – which also offers keycaps for custom mechanical keyboards, or hit up their website if you’re outside of the Philippines, you’d find one that suits your preferences.