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  • Remembering my dad

    I was sick for most of October, and because I was coughing incessantly, that meant IT WAS PEI PA KOA TIIIIIIME.

    I like to joke that taking Pei Pa Koa when you have a cough or a sore throat is the best advice my dad ever gave me. Okay, I say “joke” but I’m … not really joking. We didn’t have the best relationship. It took me a couple of years after he died to really think about why that was: we were both pretty stubborn, he wasn’t around much and let my mother take care of us, I didn’t like the way he treated my mother and how he favored his siblings, and he probably really didn’t want to or was prepared to be a father and never learned along the way. That’s all fine now. There’s really not much I can do about stuff that happened a long time ago with a parent who died more than a decade ago.

    So no, I don’t have very many warm memories of my father. But I do hang on to the few I have:

    • him bringing me a box of cookies* that ended up becoming my favorite
    • waking me up from a nap to tell me that we have Japanese corn for merienda
    • him joking that he was just holding a piece of chalk when I chided him for smoking
    • his excitement when he passed an important professional exam
    • him thanking me for giving him what turned out to be one of his last meals
    • his anticipation over delivering a speech pushing for automation in his workplace

    None of them seem like a lot, but I imagine I would have seen more of those moments had we both taken the time to get to know each other better and stopped being so triggered by whatever the other one said. I know, the dead don’t care, but I’m still here and from time to time, I still wish things had been different.

    *Dare Ultimate Fudge Chocolate

  • Anybody remember Sideblog.org?

    There used to be a website called Sideblog.org, which allowed you to make extra blog posts on a miniblog that appeared on the sidebar of your site’s front page. All you needed to do was sign up and add a snippet of HTML code wherever you wanted theminiblog to appear. Thinking about it now, it seemed kind of like a precursor of the original Twitter, letting you share posts that didn’t deserve a full-length blog post.

    Looking at Archive.org, it seems that Sideblog.org didn’t last that long (or maybe the site wasn’t crawled enough?), because the available version is from 2006. Feels like an idea that was ahead of its time, but I remember how nice it was to have a little space where I could just post things like “I’m hungry” or “Ugh” and not interrupt the flow of my main blog.

  • Just write, people

    Sometimes, blogging makes one (and by one, I mean me) feel silly and self-conscious, or feel worried that writing about nothing or random things is too indulgent or self-centered, or just generally feel unworthy of having their voice heard because the world’s already loud enough with millions of opinions and do you really need to add to the noise?

    And then tweets like these pop up

    and remind you that, you know what? Just write what you want, you don’t even have to have an audience for it, and we’re all here for such a brief moment in time*, so make as much noise as you want.

    *Somehow, I always circle back around to the topic of mortality. Cannot be helped, what with my age and recent goings-on in people’s lives.

  • Taho my beloved

    I have tons of good memories associated with taho: having it for a snack while walking around the UP Academic Oval, heading out with my mother and carrying insulated tumblers to buy taho from the guy just outside our village, enjoying a cup or two after a fun run, warm glasses of taho on cold mornings in Baguio—I could go on and on about it. Today brought another nice memory: My boyfriend bringing a cup of taho for me while I’m working.

  • Thanks for the life and career lessons, Little Mix

    Sit with me here, I have some good points coming up.

    Looking gorgeous at the premiere for Leigh-Anne’s movieBoxing Day.

    First of all, I just want to say that Little Mix should have been an even bigger deal than they already were. Their vocals were fantastic, and they coming up with banger after banger until the very last minute.

    These days, Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Jade Thirlwall, and Perrie Edwards are all pursuing solo careers. Blessedly, they’re still friends, going on holidays together, showing up for each other’s live performances every now and then, and interacting on each other’s socials. In true parasocial fashion, I believe that their friendship sisterhood is real and it’s a huge relief for me, as an elder millennial who was traumatized by the Spice Girls’ breakup and the succeeding years when none of them seemed to like each other much.

    Jade released her album That’s Showbiz Baby and Perrie released her album Perriejust this month, with Leigh-Anne slated to come out with her album next year. It doesn’t seem to have been an easy path for any of them, though; there’s a lot of expectations for them to put out instant hits that blow up immediately. They each have a loyal following, but none of them have quite achieved solo superstardom yet.

    FoIlowing their career post-hiatus over the past couple of years has left me with a few takeaways related to life and work.

    Lean into who you are. That’s how you figure out what you’re good at and what best reflects your personality and style, helping you come up with bold, fresh work. Jade seems to have a pretty solid idea what kind of music she wants to make and that’s how she goes all out with every song and performance.

    Take all the time you need.You’ll hate yourself if you rush what you’re doing and come up with something half-baked. Some people wanted Perrie to move a little faster with her releases, even speculating that she was happy being a WAG and maybe even tired of making music. Turns out she was just busy redoing her album because she wasn’t happy with how it originally was, and she ended up giving us all a pretty fun, sunny record.

    Walk away if something’s not working out for you. Leigh-Anne recently revealed that she was a wreck at the start of 2025 because her record label didn’t seem to have anything planned for her career. So she ditched them and went independent. It’s been great for her creatively; her sound is more confident, production at her performances is way up, and her looks are stunning.

    I’m not gonna end up becoming a famous pop star because of these bits of wisdom, but I’m pretty sure they can help me get a better handle on what I want to do.

  • Note to self: you can be tiny and larger than life

    So I was stunned to see this tweet:

    I never would have guessed that Toni Braxton was that short, but it’s no surprise; there are lots of famous female celebrities who are short but seem a lot taller and have incredible ✨presence✨. Sabrina Carpenter is famously tiny (5′), and then there’s Jennifer Lopez (5’4″), Shakira (5’1″), Lady Gaga (5’1″), Cardi B (5’3″)—you get the idea. Just goes to show that you can be an unstoppable force and have the world revolve around you no matter your height.

    I used to be tall for my age; I hit my current height when I was 10 and got mistaken for a high schooler a few times and because I hated it, I started wishing I wouldn’t grow tall. I firmly believe to this day that I willed myself into shortness because it seems to have worked; I went from being in the back row during class pictures in sixth grade and then being in the first row come first year high school and never again grew a single inch vertically. I never thought it was an ordeal, despite writing a humorous piece about short people problems from Spot.ph nine years ago. And I always chuckle when I see posts about how short people are so angry because we’re closer to hell and how all the rage is compressed in a smaller package. I have to admit that it gets occasionally intimidating when interacting with tall others, but that’s the social anxiety talking, not my shortness. And it helps to remember that there are so many awesome short people out there (representation matters and all that).