I'll give it another shot
2025-01-01
I utterly failed the 100 days to offload challenge last year. I have probably attempted it every year since I've heard of it. However, last year was probably my best attempt at it. I wrote 63 posts which is better than I have ever done before. It definitely got me blogging more, which I think is the point of the challenge. But I keep falling short of that coveted 100 posts milestone.
Like everything, things started to waver around July. Every time I hit the mid-year mark, everything kinda just starts falling apart. I missed three months of blogging from June to August. That's like a quarter of the year, so not an insignificant amount of time. I've talked about it before, but I think the main thing is that structure starts to fall away during the summer months. I don't quite know how to counter that.
The productivity gurus would probably say that my systems failed me. "You should be able to still be productive during your worst days," they'd say. Additionally, it's easy enough to say, "just build up the habit!" But for the first six months, it was a pretty consistent habit. One small thing can make me fall off the wagon a few times, and then the habit is obliterated. I think what I need to focus on, is getting back on the horse as fast as possible. Which is also easier said than done.
In the end, productivity management is just energy and emotional management. I definitely find that I'm more productive in the morning, which is why I like waking up hours before work starts, so I can do personal things before work. I use my brain too much at work, and because of that, doing things that require concentrated effort in the evening can be a bit of disaster unless I'm feeling super disciplined that day, which is more of an emotional thing, I think.
We'll see if all of this introspection will lead to results. I'm optimistic that it will. Let's try it again this year.
Week #25 & #26 - Dec 18 to Dec 31
2024-12-31
The last week note of 2024! I haven't started writing any 2024 summary posts yet because the last month of the year has been so busy.
๐ End of the semester
- โ๏ธ I had two finals. For the first one, I actually needed to hire an exam proctor service. I had to go to a small college and had to go in a tiny classroom to write the exam. I haven't sat in a classroom in like five years and it suddenly hit me that, "oh shit, I really am doing a degree right now." My second final was just an online exam and a lot less rigorous, thankfully. I really hate essay exams, they are so stressful.
๐Christmas
- ๐ I tried writing this post on the 24th and utterly failed because I was very drunk on Christmas Eve. We went to my aunt from my mom's side. Her in laws were there and they really like to party. It was a lot of fun. Played some party games and did group karaoke. We even sang some K-pop! My cousin is even more into K-pop than I am and he could sing some of Korean while the rest of us just sang the English bits.
- ๐ Actual Christmas day was a bit more low key. We went to mass in the morning and just kinda chilled. In the evening we had a small get together with my aunt on my dad's side and two of her kids. It was nice bonding.
- ๐ Listened to a tooooon of Christmas music. It was a very Mariah Carey and Frank Sinatra Christmas. My dad got Bluetooth speakers for Christmas and he's been playing a lot of Filipino Pasko songs too. It's very cute to hear my mom or dad say, "We used to dance to this when we were kids."
๐ป Server stuff
- ๐ I moved all my websites to a new server. Mainly because it was cheaper. Despite the lower price tag, I think it's about the same in terms of the hardware, and even with more disk space!
๐ Turning 30
- ๐ง I turned 30 yesterday. I totally do not feel 30. I've never really felt any of my ages, really. The only time is in comparison to others. I think what freaks me out the most is going to a restaurant or cafe and the servers or baristas looking younger and younger. For a decade I always thought of them as peers and now we're slowly becoming not peers.
- ๐ฅฉ For my brithday, we went out for all you can eat Korean BBQ. I loooove KBBQ. It's a lot of fun grilling at the table and the sauces are so good! We definitely over ate though haha.
- ๐ Helped my brother bake my cake. It was a vanilla yema (Filipino egg custard) cake and so good. We had to eat the cake at home though, because we ran out of time at the KBBQ place.
- ๐ฅ My brother drove my aunt on my dad's side and her kids home while the rest of us went in our separate cars. They were taking a while and in my head, I was like "they're totally buying alcohol." When they finally arrived, they brought bottles of soju. That's my favourite drink, hah. We drank all of them and talked about our lives. A lot of chismis, hah.
๐ต Music
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๐ฟ I finally downloaded (most of) my library from Spotify. My coworker kicked me off of her Spotify family plan. I was on it for 5 years. We used to be close-ish but drifted apart and I hardly ever see her in the office because she comes in the morning and then dips. I've been using fooyin on desktop and Symfonium on Android to play music. I've definitely noticed that my music listening habits have changed. Because my playlists weren't ported over (yet) I've just listening to the artists I know and love, instead of seeking out specific tracks.
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๐ Week #25 top artists: Frank Ocean, L'Arc~en~Ciel, IDLES, ใใฎใๅธๅฝ, NewJeans, Mitski, My Chemical Romance, and Cancer Bats. I randomly decided to listening to Frank Ocean's Channel Orange album a few times through. And went through my favourite Cancer Bats songs too.
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๐ Week #26 top artists: NewJeans, My Chemical Romance, Frank Sinatra, TWICE, Alexisonfire, XG, and Luna Li. I listened to TWICE's new mini and... All I gotta say is I like it like it. Kai, XG, MCR, and NewJeans were some of those musicians that I just listened to because it's easier to find them in my library, hah. And Frank Sinatra is there because of Christmas!
Things astrologers have said about my 2025
2024-12-28
Every year I like to get my solar return chart read (basically, predicting what my next birthday year is like). And I also watch a ton of 2025 rising sign YouTube videos. These are things astrologers/astrology enthusiasts have said about Sagittarius risings and/or to me specifically for 2025. Let's see what comes true.
- My department move that work told me was going to happen in January, will actually happen in March (told during a Mercury retrograde, 10H eclipse in March)
- I will almost definitely meet someone and get into a relationship (Jupiter in 7H WSH and placidus, SR moon conjunct SR descendant, progressed Venus conjunct Juno, 7H profection year)
- I will probably meet them at work (ruler of 7H WSH in 2H, Capricorn)
- I will be the one who starts the relationship (ruler of 7H placidus in 1H and combust my sun)
- My parents may be highly critical of them (Jupiter in Gemini squaring Saturn)
- They might be older than I am (ruler of 7H in Capricorn, ruler sextile Saturn)
- They might (one person even said, should) be the opposite of me (7H opposing the 1H)
- They might be a very serious person but chatty (Gemini 7H but ruler is in Capricorn)
- It might be a more of a transactional relationship (7H ruler is Mercury, Capricorn Mercury)
- They might be foreign (7H ruler going retrograde in 9H)
- Might not see them realistically (Neptune in 5H)
- Might be moving too fast (Uranus in 7H)
- Might be American (Uranus in 7H)
- Someone very different to what I'm usually attracted to (Uranus in 7H)
- High propensity for getting pregnant (eclipses in 5H, Saturn and Uranus in 5H)
- I'll be thinking what brings me joy, trying new hobbies (Venus retrograde)
- My spark will be reignited, some sort of new passion (Venus retrograde)
- Might be getting into fights with my siblings (Pluto in 3H)
- Receiving a grant, inheritance, sponsorship (Jupiter in 8H)
- Health or accident or appearance changes (lord of the year going retrograde in 12/1H)
- Stress and anxiety with school (Mars retrograde in 9H opposite Pluto)
- May be moving due to political situation, or family talking about moving (Saturn moving out of 4H)
- Realizing things about my home situation, exit strategy (or lack of it) becoming clear (Neptune moving out of 4H)
- Long haul travel not recommended (Mars retrograde in 9H opposite Pluto)
- Stuff somehow just working out for the best (mutual reception between Mercury and Jupiter despite both being in detriment, no final depositer it's just the two of them)
An argument you can't win
2024-12-20
It's funny when life imitates art. I'm reading Anna Karenina right now and in one scene, two brothers are arguing over giving access to education to everyone, including peasants. One of them lays out the facts. The other considers the facts and more or less thinks, "yeah, but I just don't care." I feel like I see this argument play out over and over again, but not everyone is as willing to admit that they don't care or have a personal vested interest in what is "right" or "true." So how can you argue with those people, then? Is it even worth arguing with them?
Can you force people to care about something? If appealing to logic doesn't work, does one have to appeal to emotion? Authority? What do you have to do?
On a sillier topic, I had an argument with my mom about something. She wanted me to do something for the sake of looking better in front of other people. But I don't care about that. Literally nothing she could say would make me change my mind. It was an example of clashing values. I just found it funny how it kinda mirrored the same conversation in Anna Karenina between Levin and his brother.
Anyway, I'm not a philosopher, and I'm bad at rhetoric, but it's something I think about sometimes. No answers, only questions.
Week #24 - Dec 11 to Dec 17
2024-12-18
I had my first final exam of the semester yesterday, which explains this late week note. It was an essay exam and I had to hire a proctor in order to write it. I didn't even know that was a thing! But apparently it is so. I went to a small local college and took my exam in an empty classroom. There was the proctor there who supervised my exam. I haven't been in a classroom since my first degree so all of a sudden, it felt real that I am back to school. I don't think I did very well, I've never done well with timed essays. It's just so much pressure! Oh well. It is done now.
Anywho.
The last week was a bit quiet. Over the weekend, I spent most of it studying for finals. We did hold a party for my aunt and one of my cousins (he is not her son, just another cousin I have). My brother cooked karioka. It was deliciouuus. Karioka is like a ball of deep fried glutinous rice. It's more denser than mochi, and its outer texture is like fried bread. My brother made salted caramel to drizzle over it and it was the perfect touch! It was a fun time but a party on a Sunday is never a good idea. I was suffering from Monday blues the day after.
In media news, I'm still reading Anna Karenina. I've switched to reading this full time because I want to finish it by the end of the year. It's 900+ paged book and I'm on page 300 so I might have a fighting chance, hah.
I am caught up on the manga, Ao no Hana, Utsuwa no Mori. It's honestly so good. The last chapter was a bit, hmm for my tastes. The story is coming to an end but I feel like the ending that's coming up is being wrapped up too neatly, especially after a lot of tension. Maybe the last few chapters will turn out differently.
Someone recommended I listen to AKRIILA. I took a listen to one of their latest albums and it's actually really good! She's Chilean and according to Rate Your Music, she makes alt-pop. I'm terrible with genres but I'd definitely say it's electronic club-type music. A lot of autotune so if that's not your thing, I'd stay away.
This week, my top artists were: Mitski, AKRIILA, NewJeans, The Strokes, G-DRAGON, Julie Christmas, Green Day, and Sufjan Stevens. Julie Christmas came onto my radar after @HailsandAles mentioned her. I really enjoy her, she kinda reminds me of Queen Adreena or Daisy Chainsaw. Kind of sludgy metal. Worth a listen!
