What is your diastolic reading for today?

Had a big scare early this morning. I could almost feel my blood rushing through the top of my head. I was sure that if measured, my diastolic reading had reached new heights! Perhaps higher than the record set by EJ Obiena in his pole vaulting career. Ganun kalala. 

Here’s what happened.

I usually pay my bills on weekends when I also balance my accounts. When I saw that my home internet account issued a new bill I decided to pay it at once using my GCASH account. While GCASH immediately issued a receipt after I processed the payment, I didn’t receive a confirmation text message on my phone. I waited for a few seconds. Nada. A few minutes passed and still no text message. I thought that was weird and stared at my phone blankly and then it hit me. I had NO SIGNAL bars. AT ALL. 

I panicked. 

I am pretty sure you’ve read horror stories about bank accounts being hacked by first hijacking the phone numbers tied to the online accounts. Remember that post of one family last December who lost money when they lost access to their Globe numbers? The hackers were able to steal money from their victims by gaining control of the postpaid numbers. The owners only realized their accounts were emptied when they found out that they didn’t have network signals.

I quickly signed in to one of my online accounts where my emergency funds are and heaved a sigh of relief. My login credentials were accepted and no funny transactions. But what if the would be hackers were trying to change the number registered to my bank account by contacting the bank and presenting fraudulent documents pretending they were me? Baka ma-Marcos ako!

My bank has a branch inside a mall and it is open on Saturdays. I just woke up 30 minutes before all this happened and I have yet to brush my teeth or comb my hair. To say that I look like the giant sand gobbler or Argus Filch in the morning is an understatement. Nevermind, I said to myself. I have to go the bank and deal with this.

While grabbing my keys I thought of checking my phone again. Still no signal. I thought of other reasons why this would happen and several TS steps came to my mind. First, I removed the SIM and put it back in. No luck. My heart was still racing. I checked my emails and there was no mail from the bank. Good sign. I decided to remove the SIM again and put it in the SIM slot in the SD card tray, inhaled and closed my eyes for two seconds. I slowly looked at the upper right side of my phone screen and there it is! SIGNAL. FOUR BARS. 

I let out a deep sigh. 

Wordle

For the past week or so I have been hooked on Wordle. I am pretty sure that you have heard about it. Simple game, really. You just have to guess the five-letter word of the day, and you have six attempts. 

So far, I have been able to guess the word on my 4th try. It was the 226th word that I had my best performance. I got it right at my second attempt and I was so pumped that I started singing a song by THE SMITHS:

🎶… And if a double-decker bus

Crashes into us

To die by your side

Is such a heavenly way to die…🎶

If you know the title of this song then you’ll know what the 226 word of the day is. That song was the first thing that came to my mind when I guessed the word right. 

What I love about the game is that it is not complex, and doesn’t take too much of my time. I play it first thing in the morning, around 4-ish in the morning and it helps set the tone for the day. Also, as JDLCB puts it: “ The beauty of Wordle is that it is a soothing, if temporary, salve against the inequities of the world. You know that even Elon Musk has to wait 24 hours to play again, you can’t whip out your credit card to buy clues, and there is literally just one word every day (for the entire human race lolz).”

The Two Hundred

So here we are then. Ten years after my last post, I am struggling to put my thoughts in words. Phew, is blogging still relevant in today's world? As they all say, if it is not on Tiktok then it did not happen. BUT, I would rather die suffering from watching BBM spew lies and disinformation than do Tiktok. You and everyone else do not give a fuck. I know. 

Why am I here then?

I have nothing better to do really. Weekends are like deadzone in this pandemic. When one lives and works at home in a tiny townhouse whatelse is there to do? Back to netflix surfing where you spend hours searching for something good to watch? What about books then? I TRIED. Really. I have shelves of old books I want to revisit and a couple of new titles to read but nowadays I find it a bit difficult to focus on reading after more than two hours. It hurts my eyes and the back. Reminds me to visit my eye doctor soon. Ano nga tawag doon in English? Optometrist or Opthalmologist? I am now only reading one book every two months. I am currently enjoying Sweet Bean Paste by Durian Sukegawa.

But I digress. 

I guess I just miss this. I miss expressing myself through this blog and not caring about what people think. I am now also weaning myself away from Facebook. That place is a hellhole. Here I can post anything and  have the luxury of not seeing irrelevant and inane feeds from people whom I have been friends with OR NOT at one point in time. I just wish I could “unfriend” them all at once. Wait, no. I want to remain FB friends with about two hundred people who I really want to be in contact with, for professional and/or personal reasons. 

OR should I just ask those two hundred people their numbers and just get out of Facebook while I am still sane enough to do so. The question is, if you were one of those two hundred people would you give me your number then? If I were in your two-hundred list would I give you mine? Probably not. 

return of the comeback

Atin ang Korte Suprema. Hindi kay Corona, hindi kay Gloria!

Image courtesy of Politically Intoxicated