light & dark

I don’t usually appreciate online social movements because they rarely make a real impact. Most of them are just trends for clout — they burn bright for a week, help no one, then fade into obscurity. But when I came across the Buy Nothing Rebellion , my interest was actually piqued. The idea’s simple: stop spending money for no good reason. You’re broke and have no savings because you spend too much. That’s it. I’ve been practicing this mindset for a few years now, and it all started when I realized something — at some point, we all hit a wall of hedonistic saturation. When that happens, we either keep escalating our lifestyle or decide we’ve had enough. I reached that point after buying every material thing I’d ever wanted. Image by StockSnap from Pixabay Let me show you a Keep Notes I wrote in 2018. I even thought about buying a Miata at the time, but there wasn’t any parking space available at my apartment building. Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t go through with it, even though...

I don't read a lot of Stephen King. Which in turn means I don't watch a lot of adaptations of Stephen King. But I watched the Long Walk recently, and I am reminded of why dissent is necessary, and why any ideology that divides people will only lead to chaos. It's a tale as old as time. The nobles declare they have  divine right  and would hold themselves as superior to the common man. I am better than you, I get the nice things, you work to make sure I get those things. The have's versus the have-nots. Those who have oppress the have-nots. The capitalist expect you to make the products, to work the 14-hour shifts, to care for the sick and elderly, while they take it all in. They ride their expensive cars, only for the minimum wage earner fills their tank. They order their expensive steak, and yell at the minimum wage earner because it wasn't rare enough. Image by biancamentil from Pixabay Late stage capitalism sees this divide grow even more, to the point that dyst...

I’ve started to think that all these things people do to “better themselves” are really just a form of self-directed gaslighting. I remember years ago when I first discovered Brilliant — that app that’s supposed to make learning science fun and interactive. Cool graphics, bite-sized lessons, a slick design — it totally pulled me in. I even tried the free trial because I’ve always wanted to learn more about physics. But honestly, it just started feeling like a job. The constant login streaks, daily reminders, and gamified progress bars sucked the fun out of it.     Image by Ekaterina from Pixabay A few days later, I picked up a copy of A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking for about, ₱800. The first few chapters instantly took me back to what I learned in Physics 101. That book’s mine forever — no subscriptions, no notifications, no gimmicks. Now take my Finnish friends as an example. They downloaded Duolingo to learn Swedish or English, but years later, they still can’t ...

I tried an experiment recently. I started avoiding my phone for a few months now. This simply meant leaving it on some surface somewhere in the house, and I would ignore it for the entire day. What did this accomplish? Nothing much, my day to day isn't completely affected, but I noticed that if I do have my phone, I would do either: doom scroll on Instagram or play Sudoku. The latter isn't anything to write home about, people have been playing crosswords and this includes sudoku for decades. But doom-scrolling is worse. Image by Luisella Planeta LOVE PEACE 💛💙 from Pixabay My Instagram feed is either food recipes, workout videos, half naked women advertising gooners to their OnlyFans or the news. I hardly make the recipes I find, I only do one kind of workout, and I never bought anyone's OF because porn is free. And much like the former statement, the latter is the worse. The internet is making it very difficult to have peace of mind. The War in Gaza and Ukraine, the subs...

Nestlé got a new CEO and for some fucking reason the first thing he does is start firing 16,000 employees. The stock market is in an uproar as Nestlé stock surges 7% with investors optimistic about the aggressive approach the new CEO has with an emphasis on growth. [ link ] Guess who isn't optimistic? The 16,000 people who are about to lose their jobs because some shithead wants number to go up.   Image by Sofia Terzoni from Pixabay   Phillip Navratil said: “We are fostering a culture that embraces a performance mindset, that does not accept losing market share, and where winning is rewarded… The world is changing, and Nestle needs to change faster.” I am baffled by how indifferent these rich fucks are with the common man that when talking about growth, it's never pay our workers more or improve our products to be better and cheaper. It's all about pleasing the venture capitalist, the investors, the stockholders who don't contribute to the market. They don't build ...

I'm reading more books lately. Not that I am reading more, I have several on my night stand that I re-read along with the things I have in my bag and phone. But I mean, I am reading more books. Not just the books I like re-reading, but I feel like I need to expand my horizon again. I have been in a rut in terms of the type of information I absorbed, that I boxed myself in into a strange echo chamber, which I feel makes me ignorant of so many things. I would like to believe I am an expert of some things. At this point, I can give a lecture on Stoic Philosophy, but being knowledgeable in one thing does not make me an expert on all things. This is a fact that most people need to take into consideration when quoting Jordan Peterson or Elon Musk for example. Sure, they can say some very profound things, but a broken clock is right at least twice in a day. My point is, introspection led me to conclude that I need to read more. I have been ranting on about finance recently, especially as ...

I was mulling over how to write about smarter spending, I came to think about “positivity” and how just looking at the bright side makes us blind. So we are talking about this today. “It will all work out”, “Just pray, and it will all be well”, “You can smile through your troubles” These are all well and good. Some people need to be more positive, but you can be too positive. Image by Kari Shea from Pixabay The first iteration of this blog was from my college years, the name of the blog was: “the lighter/darker side”. It was from a song by Christian Bautista whose message was about accepting someone for the good and bad, the lighter side — and the darker side. This came to shape my world view for years to come, I tried to remind myself that it's not all bad, sometimes things are good. But people like to only look at the lighter side, it's a typical Filipino trait. I have come to learn over the years that this is silly. If you have a gunshot wound, would it help to think posit...

I am confident in the claim that people who overspend have a skill issue . Using money properly to buy and save requires some thinking and experience, and therefore is a skill. The trip to the store or just basically browsing online for stuff means you have to engage in several mental activities with the goal of coming out in a state of parity between you and the merchant. You should not spend more than you need, nor should you spend less to save, only for you to still come home with shit. It's like mana in magic the gathering, some people tap out only to be left with nothing in crucial post turn actions; or not use their mana at all for a better situation later only for them to miss it all together. Resource management is a crucial life skill, and money is one of those resources I think people should know using. Now, I was thinking about this yesterday, but I only really formed the thought today. So, how do you get better at spending? Image by Andrew Khoroshavin from Pixabay Im...

Fact is — You can't buy happiness. Some would argue, however: “that's just what poor people say”. Jordan Belfort said in the  Wolf of Wall Street:  I have been a rich man, and I have been a poor man, and at the end of the day I will choose rich every time. But those who argue this forget: Jordan Belfort was an unapologetic hedonist, he defrauded a lot of people, he abused drugs, he collected STD's like they were TCG's, treated women like objects, and is basically a morally bankrupt individual that no one should idolize. So excuse me if I don't take the message of a terrible person into consideration as to how to be happy. I'm not advocating you don't be rich. By all means, financial independence is crucial when existing in a hyper capitalistic world, which is the one we have now. I wouldn't mind being rich. If I won the lottery and the next day have a million euros in my bank account, I would not complain. But the thesis is: You can't buy happiness. ...

For a long time, I only bought ASUS. My first phone was the Zenfone 2, and my computers were all built with ASUS parts. I had this unshakeable belief in the brand because my personal experience was mostly positive, and I placed everything ASUS as the pinnacle of tech. Nobody could convince me otherwise, and any criticism I dismissed as “haters be hating”. Then the ROG phone was introduced. It retailed for 499$ at the time, and I was so excited to buy it, but when I saved enough for it, the ROG phone 2 was released at a significant mark-up. So I skipped it. I would have bought the Zenfone, but the flagship was selling for almost 800$. So I skipped it as well. I settled for a cheap Honor Phone, and I was midly surprised that it wasn't terrible. This phone became my daily driver for the next few months, and I couldn't tell that it was a 400$ midrange phone. I wasn't gaming too much, all I cared about was scrolling social media and playing music. I avoided mobile gaming because...

Last week, I was looking at my Steam wishlist last week, and I was planning on buying the next item there come the next Steam Sale. But now, with the sale on going, I can't help but think about if I should buy the next game on my “to-play” list, but I am still in the middle of one of those games. I realized I still have 100 hours or more before I could install the next one in my backlog and I can't imagine that I would be installing this one soon. This made me think about my Steam Library, and how much have I spent on it. How many of the games I bought and how many of those games I have actually played. Thankfully steamDB has a calculator [ link ] to help me see a birds-eye view of my library. So apparently I have spent around €400 and the whole library is worth almost €700. My average price per hour is also amazing, as I have made the most out of my purchases. I also was able to at least play most of my bought games and that gap is shrinking with each time I close out a game f...