skysenshi.com

I usually do a year in review every start of the new year, but no one’s going to be interested in that. Especially since quarantine has made my last 2 years swing between sad/tragic (because there’s still a virus that kills people) and boring (because we’re still in a quarantine).

So I figured that maybe I could list my best budols (purchases) for the year. I have been very active in Shopee lately (since May 2021) that I’ve managed to go from zero to Platinum member 4 months after moving places.

Not in any order:

1. My spacious desk with shelves from lazada. What’s not to love?
2. Sugarfree fruity chocolates from Perfect Match, also from Lazada. My mom-in-law’s new favorite, too.
3. Couch with built-in shelves from @3littlepreciouswoodframing. It’s not too obvious that I need more book storage, no?
4. Car barrier from Lazada. To keep disrespectful neighbors’ visitors from parking in our driveway. Haven’t scolded anyone since we got this.
5. Ceramic cat bowls with wood supports from Lazada.
6. Fruit cake from Heavenly Desserts by Chef Jeng. Found them via Food Panda. Soooo fruity!
7. Ciao Churu cat treats via Pet Warehouse. Finally found what could make Mako, our pickiest eater, beg for his vitamins!
8. It’s a combination of three important things: tea blends from Happy Cactus (Lazada), 500mL clear mug with lid (Shopee), and the glass tea steeper (Shopee). My coffee/tea break just got really interesting.

Biggest Purchase

A year and a half after using YNAB, we actually managed to buy something big in cash. And that’s Luna, our Mitsubishi Mirage (thanks to FB Marketplace, we found her in the village). Engine-wise, she isn’t as powerful as Bless, the Toyota Corolla 2000 lovelife we sold back when we lived in a condo without a parking space. But we’ve already driven Luna to Pangasinan and back. Her trunk is pretty spacious, too, we were able to haul lots of stuff that our previous car couldn’t. Loving her so far.

As for the usual year in review…

1. Got vaccinated in August and September, finally.
2. My second book got published earlier this year. The last one was in 2013.
3. Still playing Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia. Doing better at Lufenia+ than I ever did with Chaos and Lufenia eras.
4. Let go of our condo midyear, and went back to renting. It’s a townhouse at the South border of NCR, so there’s a lot of adjustment and leveled-up adulting to do.
5. Went on our first real out of town trip up North, to my in-laws’ ancestral house. It was the first time we were able to bring our car, Luna, whom we bought right after we moved houses, out on a long trip.
6. Got a novelty research/essay about SB19 published. First time I’ve written about something outside of game dev in years.
7. Co-organized LARO Conference 2021, which had more participants than 2019’s.
8. Senshi.Labs’ only game for 2021 was a waste segregation mini-game called Zero Hero.
9. Witnessed our aging basil (which I named Encanta) come to life, birth children (from cuttings), then finally reached a dying state with her kids. It’s been alive for a year and a half now. We’ve had her since our condo days.

See? Nothing too exciting, but just us doing super ordinary things.

What I am really happy about is that, even though I lost family and friends earlier this year, many of the remaining ones were able to get vaccinated and even survived COVID. We’re now looking forward to getting boosters (my dad and mom already did).

I think the only exciting thing to happen to me — well technically it’s already the new year, so this wouldn’t count — is that I’ve had to upgrade PHP and WP, and now trying to get SSL installed. I haven’t done web things since fully shifting careers (more than a decade ago) so this is giving me quite the headache.