Note to Self

Focus and de-stress

January 20, 2024

Personal

The other day, I was driving to my primary care doctor’s clinic. Navigating traffic and looking for the fastest route, I was on and off the highway and trying to stay clear of roads with construction going on, which there seemed to be plenty of around me at this time.

As if that wasn’t stressful enough (and I wanted to be at the clinic by my appointment time), my phone kept on beeping as notifications kept coming in. A post here, a text message here, and all sorts of app alerts were vying for my attention. Naturally, I didn’t pick up my phone to see what they were, but I felt the anxiety in me building up as I was wondering what these alerts were trying to tell me. So I vowed to do something as soon as I reached the clinic:

I turned on the Driving focus on my iPhone.

Next time I’m behind the steering wheel, my phone will turn all notifications off (except for messages and calls from my immediate family) and let people who are texting me know that I’m unavailable until I’m off the road.

After my clinic visit, the driving experience was much more relaxed, and I was able to focus on the task at hand: getting myself home safely.

Since then, I have also activated the Sleep focus so I’m notification-free at night. Similarly, I’ve set up a Movie focus so that whenever I’m spending time with my family watching on our TV at home (or even in the cinema), I remain focused, undistracted, present in the moment, and stress-free.

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Yahoo, overweight at last!

January 19, 2024

Personal

Today, I got to 179.7 lbs.

This brings my BMI down to 29.9, or overweight. This has been a long time coming. Last year, I was obese for the whole year, except for one day in May when my weight crept down to 179.9 only to go past 180 again. It was years before that when I was last overweight, and maybe med school was the last time my BMI was in the normal range.

I am working extra hard this year to get rid of all these excess pounds. Let this be the year I reach my ideal body weight.

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Country song

January 16, 2024

Personal

Obese and struggling to lose weight, knees and other joints are giving out, found out that the coronary arteries are 50% blocked, ophthalmologist said there could be cancer in the left eye, lost the job: 2024 is shaping up to be a hit country song!

But no matter what it is we’re feeling, whatever we’re facing, however bad it seems to be now–there will be a weekend, an end of the month, a new year.

This will all come to pass.

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Quitters Day

January 13, 2024

Personal

Yesterday, the 2nd Friday of January, was what is lovingly called Quitters Day, owing to the fact that this day is when most people give up on their New Year’s resolutions.

If you—like me—are still at it, though, then kudos! Here’s to changing our lives for the better. It doesn’t matter if you fail for a little while, as long as you persevere and don’t surrender on your goals.

We’re just getting started.

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Digital notebooks

January 9, 2024

Personal

I’ve been thinking about getting a Kindle Scribe. I think it’s partly because I’ve been inundated with online ads from ReMarkable, and partly because I’ve always loved the idea of writing with my hand on a digital notebook.

I had a Palm Pilot early on, where I became such an expert at Graffiti. Then I moved on to a Handspring, a PocketPC, a Wacom Bamboo tablet for my laptop, then a series of iPads and iPhones.

The experience of moving pen on paper has never been fully replicated digitally, but the ease of digital storage has always balanced that limitation out.

I even flipped the process around and bought a Rocketbook so I could actually write on paper and still be able to capture my notes digitally.

But now the reviews for both ReMarkable and Kindle Scribe are promising: maybe the day has come when true digital handwriting notebooks are finally here.

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Goals: Languages

January 8, 2024

Personal
Languages
- ↑↑↑ Spanish, French, Swahili
- ↑↑ Mandarin, Italian, Korean
- ↑ Hindi, Japanese, Wolof
- Chavacano research
I’ll need to revamp this list. This year, I need to improve my Spanish, aim for somewhere between a B2 and C1. Alongside that, I want to bring my French up to a solid B2. Swahili will need to take a backseat, unless I dig deeper into creating a system that makes learning this agglutinating language (and others like it) easier.

I want to ease back into Mandarin; I’ll have to read more on the common radicals of the language. Maybe I can aim to take the HSK3? Italian will have to ride my Romance language train with Spanish and French, and hopefully I get to learn more vocabulary. I’ll continue to mess around with Korean (and see if I can nail down the commonalities between it and Swahili).

I won’t be able to spend dedicated time on Hindi, Japanese and Wolof this year.

Chavacano takes (yet) another special spot as I set up a Philippine anthropology channel.

More to come!
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Affiliate marketing, an update

January 6, 2024

Business

Zenni.com, through their affiliate marketing program manager, Impact, just sent me a denial on my request to join their program.

This is the reason they gave for the denial: “Quality issue with website”.

Oh well, this is a new blog so I guess I’ll just keep on writing quality posts.

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Goals

January 5, 2024

Business, Personal
_{(Originally published on January 2, 2020)}

So, start of the year. Not resolutions, but here’s a list of things I’ll be working on improving this year. Not inclusive of everything and not in any order. Just capturing here lest I forget:

Health
- achieve normal BMI
- six-pack abs
Finance
- financial peace
- financial independence
Faith
- Exodus 90
- Church fathers
- more Bible studies
Work
- strategic planning
- better organization
- home office
Business
- e-commerce
- social media
- pay off loan
Relationships
- nurture the good
- nix the toxic
Languages
- ↑↑↑ Spanish, French, Swahili
- ↑↑ Mandarin, Italian, Korean
- ↑ Hindi, Japanese, Wolof
- Chavacano research
Music
- piano and guitar
- learn another instrument
Minimalism
- Kondo
- philosophy
I plan on touching on each of the items on this list in detail in the coming weeks.
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Affiliate marketing

January 4, 2024

Business, Personal
Two days ago, I posted about my goal of launching a product (term used loosely) each month, and about my hope of profitability.

I thought I would be easy on myself this first month so I started with this blog. (I realize as I say this that this in itself isn’t easy; I had started several blogs in the past only to stop after a couple of weeks. Some people don’t even get to writing their first post.)

I wasn’t really looking at making money on this blog, but I have heard of affiliate marketing for a while now, and I thought: what if I can monetize some of my content here? There’s really only a few ways where one can profit from blogging:
1. Advertising – think Google AdSense and banner ads on my site and you get the idea
2. Selling a product – either a physical one (merch!) or a digital one (like an online course)
3. Sponsored posts – you get paid to write about a particular topic or product
4. Affiliate marketing – this is when a blogger mentions certain products or services then links out to them. If a reader clicks on these and makes a purchase, then the blogger gets a commission.
I’ve been giving number 4 a lot of thought. My recent post about Zenni prompted me to check if they have an affiliate program, and they do! I just applied to their program and my application is still being reviewed. We’ll see how it goes.

I figured, I already recommend a lot of services and products (that I personally use) for free, so why not earn a bit while I do it?
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David and Goliath

January 3, 2024

Business

What does it take to face and take down a behemoth? How does one break a monopoly, disrupt an industry, hit the status quo in between its eyes with a slingshot of vision and innovation?

Brick-and-mortar stores, taxis, and hotels were all upended by the likes of Amazon, Uber, and Airbnb. Digital platforms have superseded select analog processes. What’s next?

Luxottica has for the longest time been the market leader in eyewear—owning designer brands (Oakley, Ray-Ban), licensing its frames to many more (Versace, Coach, Armani, Chanel, Prada, among others), and even having their own stores (LensCrafters, Sunglasses Hut). The eyewear industry is worth about 150 billion dollars. Anyone who’s had to buy glasses from these stores or even other optical shops knows that eyeglasses and sunglasses are expensive! Yet, if you trace them back through the supply chain, you’ll find out that glasses can be manufactured for as low as $5. If you’ve ever visited Southeast Asia, you’ll know what I mean.

Disruptors like Warby Parker and Zenni have made a (very small) dent in this industry. They did this by bypassing middlemen and retailers, but also because they’ve done away with brand licensing and all the marketing dollars that come with that. I’ve been a big fan of Zenni for a couple of years and always recommend them to friends and whoever cares to listen.

I’ve thought about establishing a similar service in the Philippines, but I just checked and Zenni delivers there and to most other countries too. Good on them!

Now how can we replicate their success in other domains? Is there anywhere else that small people like us can beat giants?

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