#crazy2020

Quarantrivia

If you still don’t know, one of my sister’s geek friends made up a trivia quiz game, we recorded ourselves playing it via Zoom, and then posted it on YouTube. This is Quarantrivia.

I hosted one episode of it which I made into a Game of Thrones edition. If you wanna watch that episode, here’s the link.

In truth, all the episodes that I participated in were memorable enough for me, but, of course, the one I hosted holds a special place in my memories.

I made the questions for that edition. It reminded of the time back when I was in the school paper and I authored questions for the national campus journalism quiz bee dubbed as Pautakang Pampahayagan. The questions for that quiz bee are known for their atrocities and out-of-the-blue nature. It was designed to roast all competing campus journalists until one ultimate journalism wizard rises above.

I did the same thing for our Quarantrivia and, I must say, the resulting episode was rather hilarious—no offense meant to the contestants. Hehehe!

Also, it’s been years since I’ve made a video on that scale, not even at work. I’ve done complicated stuff at work, but none anything like that. None that lasts more than thirty minutes and has about two to three hours worth of footage. None that requires the graphics that I did.

I spent around two whole weekends making that—staying up until two in the morning—and spent hours every night just so I can say to myself that I was progressing.

It was an excellent way to get mind my off of things.

26th Birthday

When I said I wanted my birthday to make it to the top back in 2018, I didn’t mean that I wanted a pandemic to happen just so that all plans for the year would be cancelled.

My 26th birthday was memorable for all the right and wrong reasons.

I’ve already blogged about it… but just to recall.

On Sunday, the day before my actual birthday, I went to church and sang at the choir for the feast day of Sto. Niño. That afternoon, we had food and I had a cake and my sister’s friends came over.

On my birthday, I woke up to the news that Kobe Bryant is dead. I had tons or commute problems. In the office, I bought coffee with my designer friend who wasn’t aware that it was my birthday—which turned out really funny on my part when she realized it was my birthday. I had lunch at The Old Spaghetti House with two of my colleagues.

I went straight home after work—I did so earlier than usual.

Then at home, two of my closest friends were there, Shakey’s was on our dining table, and it was revealed that it was all planned by our friend from New Jersey—who was, at that point, waiting for a video call.

We played Mario Kart and Smash Brothers right after.

These two days are—in the simplest terms—pretty basic. When I previously envisioned a birthday celebration that would be the most memorable moment of my year, it would be a grand celebration or like a surprise party I’d totally wouldn’t expect. Little did I know that it would be as simple as this.

But you know me. I don’t believe that the grandest days make up the best life stories.

There’s nothing wrong with my birthday. I was happy. It was spontaneous. It was memorable.

I’ve fallen in love.

...

Kidding.

This moment is for...

The people who kept me sane

That was a crazy year—I think anyone who cares enough for the world is probably aware of that. There’s no need to elaborate further.

It was difficult—I’m sure not just for me, but for everybody. It was a monumental change in our way of life. I, being someone who has a history of anxiety attacks, am not really in the perfect or ideal mindset for such. I mean, you can imagine… Stress at work, the pandemic paranoia, household problems, other stuff… I’d totally be out of my mind right now had it not been for the people who accompanied me throughout this craziness.

You might be thinking, “This isn’t really a moment.” I know. I’m not dumb, but I think it’s absolutely necessary to put it here. People are not obviously “memories” but the time we spend with them are. In a way, the people whom I’ve been talking to throughout the year are very memorable for me.

I will no longer mention the obvious people who have appeared in the previous memories that I’ve posted. They’re my closest friends, that’s granted.

For the other people… there are my sister’s friends who come to visit us once in a while. They come here to just chat, watch Netflix, and drink coffee.

And more importantly, my friends at work. These are the people whom I had casual conversations with almost everyday. There’s a group where we talk about coffee. There’s one designer who shares his interests for games and anime. There’s one friend who talks about coffee, milk, and Starbucks all the time. There’s another designer whom I talk to for hours about our personal dilemmas about life and work and what we’ve been doing in our spare time that’s not related to work.

And there are many others. I had conversations with some friends from the school paper. I talked with my supervisor from my previous job every once in a while. There are also other people from work whom I had non-work related conversations with—though not as often as the ones I first mentioned.

And… that’s it.

COVID-19 Quarantine

I don’t want this memory here. Not at all.

But I have to include it.

I mean. It’s memorable, of course.

Why wouldn’t being stuck inside your house for months be memorable?

Because of this quarantine…

I know who my real friends are.

We got addicted to Among Us.

We created Quarantrivia.

We had e-numan sessions.

We watched musicals together… virtually.

We watched movies together as well… virtually.

We ate unlimited samgyupsal… at home.

We did a lot of Zoom calls. I even had Zoom yoga with a friend.

I played a lot with my dogs.

I unleashed my inner barista.

I was able to save some money to buy the stuff I wanted.

Although there were no beaches visited or mountains climbed, I did things I never knew I would.

And… yeah, I know this is because we’re in a pandemic—and we still are. Call it toxic positivity if you must, but at least we still get to live and enjoy life despite the circumstances. And we’re blessed enough to be alive and well.

Graphika 20/20

If you’ve been following my blog the entire year, this wouldn’t be a surprise for you.

I blogged about my first time attending Graphika months ago. You may read the longer version of this story here.

Graphika is a creative conference where well-known artists from local and international industries share something about their expertise.

To cut it short, I basically wanted to say that now, I’m capable of attending a conference I wasn’t able to attend to then due to financial constraints.

I didn’t plan or expect this. I was still in Boracay last 2019 when my co-workers were talking about it and I didn’t participate in their discussion. When I got back from vacation, they influenced me into buying tickets for the conference.

And that was it. Next thing I know, I was sitting beside other creative-looking people, scribbling down notes on my good ‘ol planner.

Due to it being the first time, it was undoubtedly memorable for me—even when I’m not really familiar with any of the speakers. I had qualms with some of them while hearing them talk, and there were others who were oddly mesmerizing to listen to.

This Graphika 20/20 and the Art Fair + Big Bad Wolf are the memories I wish I could go back to. They were the last happy moments I had before sh*t totally went down.

I always wished these kinds of moments didn’t stop.

Art Fair + Big Bad Wolf

Two of my favorite things in life combined together in one day—or in just a few hours, actually.

As an engagement activity of our design team, we went to the Art Fair Philippines 2020. It’s an annual art exhibit of modern and contemporary visual art which I believe is always put up at The Link—a parking and retail building at Makati.

This was my second time being there, and it was as memorable as the first. Being immersed in so much art reminded me why I chose my profession in the first place. It reminded me of how I easily could’ve chosen a different career path, but I realized that expressing my creativity is vital for my life.

Throughout my time in the exhibit, I was accompanied by one of my closest friends in the office, and I really loved the discussions we had whenever an artwork caught our attention. We stood in front of the artwork—whether it be a sculpture, painting, or something else—for a few minutes, talking about how it personally resonated to us, what we didn’t like about, or what are its most impressive qualities.

The team ate dinner at Nihon Bashitei right after—as is tradition, I think. And when everyone’s day was about to end, I told them that mine isn’t. I still had to go to the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale (also the second time I’ll be there).

My sister and I agreed to meet there, but she logs out from work at 12 midnight. I didn’t have to wait that long because we finished dinner at 11.

So there I was… drowned in a sea of books, swimming with other bookworms. It was euphoric. I no longer remember how many books I bought, but I think I spent more than two thousand pesos for them.

iPad and Kindle

I bought an iPad Mini 5 and a Kindle Paperwhite (8th Generation) this year. It’s not by impulse. I thought about each of them for days.

Originally, I wanted a new phone to replace the one that I currently have. Wonder why? It’s… slow. Or at least, it became too slow for me. I’ve only been using it for a few months and it’s already lagging. There were times that I literally wanted to throw it out the window.

I wanted an iPhone, but I wasn’t so sure of it because I think iPhones are pricey for a phone, considering that budget phones with better specs exist. But hey, iPhones are still iPhones.

So I just thought, I couldn’t buy a good iPhone right now, but maybe if I wait for a few more months and save up some money, I’ll get a decent iPhone.

And then Among Us came, and my sister saw me playing it, and suggested that I buy an iPad Mini—since she also has one, but it’s an older version. I checked it out online, saw the price, and immediately thought, “Why don’t I just buy this instead of a phone?” I mean… It’s an Apple product. It’s more portable than a normal iPad. I can use it as a semi-replacement for my phone. And, upon checking the things that it can do, it can somehow replace my Macbook as well—which isn’t really mine since it’s a work laptop.

And then a few weeks later, I have an iPad Mini on my hands, playing Among Us with my friends. I’ve uninstalled some of the apps and deleted a few files on my phone, and voila! It’s not as slow as it was before.

The thought of buying a Kindle came before all of this. We already had one, but it’s my sister’s and, due to its age, the top area of the screen is damaged and there are times when it wouldn’t boot up.

And you guys know how much invested I am when it comes to books. I couldn’t buy new ones in this pandemic, and I needed to reach my 30-books-for-the-year goal. I also no longer have physical shelf space. So, turning into ebooks is a very ideal solution for me. Not to mention, the prices for books on Kindle are significantly lower than physical books and it’s a lot easier to find books I wanted to read on Amazon.

Although the purist side of me didn’t really agree with it, a Kindle is somehow a personal necessity. I know I already have an iPad and I can easily use the Kindle App there, but iPad screens aren’t meant to be stared at for long periods of time.

“You deserve it,” this was always the statement uttered by one of my closest colleagues at work whenever I shared to her that I bought something new—especially a gadget that’s quite heavy on the pocket. I’m not exactly sure about deserving it, but to me, buying these things is just the same as when I didn’t eat a proper lunch back in high school so that I can save up some money to buy the books I wanted to read.

Among Us

2017 had Everwing. 2019 had Breath of the Wild. 2020 had Among Us.

Yes. I jumped into the bandwagon. We all did—I mean my friends and I. Who wouldn’t? The game is very enjoyable.

I joined in the trend later than most, probably. People were already posting memes about it before I knew how to play the game. One of my friends had already changed her picture into a crewmate image, and her picture has been like that for weeks before I knew what a crewmate is.

I only got into it when one of my closest friends at work who is a certified gamer shared a video of streamers—specifically, Disguised Toast and his friends—playing the game.

It took a while before I caught up with how the game works. I had to install the game on my phone and experiment with it on my own before I knew how to play it.

And then… eventually, I coaxed my friends to play it with me.

To my surprise, they got the hang of it as well.

It’s not long before we were playing Among Us weekend after weekend, going on for hours.

During that time when we shot the Quarantrivia episode I hosted, we taught my sister’s friends how to play Among Us… and they couldn’t get their heads off the game either.

Also, I got to play the game online on my own as well. I met some few people from around the world.

And… I wish I can play this game again… you know… seriously… like how the streamers play. We just couldn’t get enough players.