Yearly Archives: 2025

The world around us is getting lonelier and angrier. We blame recession, rising costs, basically the lack of money. This is weird to me because each person's economic status is relative, one may be called rich in a developing country but is considered poor in a developed country. Feeling poor or rich is relative to where we are and what we prioritize. So it is safe to say that money does not make us better, it is a privilege after getting lucky--right place, right time and you are there to grab it. The problem, as I observe, is the growing…

I've set up a tool station for my battery-powered tools. I am happy how it turned out.

So far SPX is down almost 12% while our portfolio is only down 3%. The goal of this portfolio has always been capital preservation and slow income generation. This portfolio has been holding up on this current market turmoil. I have auto-deposits setup on top of large deposits here and there. Buys are on quality stocks during high market volatility.

I just watched video of a mother whining about her maternity leave ending. I get it, it's hard, but to me it sounds selfish. She is not unique, most parents around the world sacrifice for their kids. And here's a white woman crying on video because she felt like she was robbed of her time with her kids. She can obviously choose to stay at home, that is if her lifestyle allows her too. She was crying on video. She literally recorded herself crying. Disturbing. I am taken aback by this practice where we have to put every life event…

For almost 6 years of living here in the US I never cared about eggs. I always bought the cheapest one because they're just eggs anyway, right? Then with the recent surge of egg prices I got curious about why certain eggs here are priced differently. So I went on a rabbit hole of research about this grocery item that I now suddenly care about--Eggs. It boils down to how these chicken are raised, the square footage of how free they can roam. There are 4 types: Caged Cage-free Free-range Pasture-raised The chicken eggs of the first 3 types are…

This class I'm attending is so boring that I started to think of the time when I realized that my work is not my life. Why did they make this an in-person class with 138 slides when this could've been a 30-minute video that we can 2x speed? Seriously, why? Physically I'm listening to Verifying Chemotherapy but mentally I'm imagining how good Popeye's Signature Chicken is right now.

When I was a kid, I've heard a lot of stories about his sacrifices for the family. I was told that at one point he was the breadwinner of the family when my lolo was stricken by a debilitating illness that left him paralyzed. Being the eldest among the 11 siblings he suddenly became their father--responsible not only for making ends meet but also the problem solver and decision maker. I concluded that those stories were true when I saw how well-respected he was by his siblings. Uncle Bebe makes things with his own hands and despite his introvert personality…

There's music that you enjoy, there's also those that you experience. As I'm on my 30s, I'm drawn to these music that gives a whole experience rather than I just enjoy.

This is not body building by any means. This year (again) I made a commitment to stay fit and hopefully my wife will too. My goal is to gain strength for stability and longetivity purposes. I noticed that I severely lack strength that are needed to perform in certain tasks, hence, I am training mostly for joint stability, grip strength and muscle activation. All talk aside, here's my first ever data on strength training recorded on my Garmin:

You are experienced enough that the likelihood of you getting hired is higher than younger (less experienced) and older (more expensive) competitors. You are aware of your market value. You are confident enough to negotiate and get along. You have sufficient cushion to take the hit of not having a paycheck in case your job search takes longer than you expected. You know quite deeply how your industry operates.