6 Jars Money Management System: Overview
I have been tracking my finances ever since I started working, this probably roots down to the fact that I’m an accountant. It is innate within us and we’re probably wired to know where our money goes. I’m not alone in this aspect though, my friends and I, we’re a group of accountants, have different budgeting systems but we all have a system in tracking our money.
At first, I just maintained an excel file which just shows me where my money goes, no foundation or analysis, just a list of things I spent on and how much I have.
I tracked every expense that I made and I figured, it does help me in terms of knowing where my money goes but it doesn’t really help me in terms of budgeting.
Because of that I decided to hop on the 50-30-20 rule, which is a bit broad for me because it’s not as easy to know what you need and what you want. I can’t seem to draw a line so I end up with a messy system.
After days of research, I came across T Harv Eker’s 6 Jars Money Management from his book called “Secrets of a Millionaire Mind” which I’ll be honest, I haven’t read but is in my to-read list.
Basically, using this system, you split your money up into six different accounts, and you have percentages of your money to put into each account.
Source https://www.harveker.com/blog/6-step-money-managing-system/
In the old age, we would’ve used jars, but due to the digital age, bank accounts are more convenient. It’s just a system where every time you receive an income or any money that you would like to manage, you will split it into 6 jars, of course jars being metaphors, 6 bank accounts.
This is only just a guide and overview of what you might include in each jar but of course, it still should be in your judgement what expenses would you include in each jar.
Jar #1 Necessities (55%)
This would include the “needs” , it’s the expenses that are needed for us to survive our daily lives. It would always be the biggest chunk as we need this to continue making more income. This would include rent, bills, electricity, food and anything you deem necessary.
Jar #2 Long-term savings for spending (10%)
This jar is mainly for emergencies, whether be it medical or like what happened in the first few months of pandemic where people are panic-buying, you can get the funds here and if you didn’t use it you can also use it for vacations, big purchases but remember to still keep a portion of it in the case that there would be emergencies.
Jar #3 Play (10%)
My personal favorite, hehe. I just like the concept of having a separate play jar which I can literally spend on anything. There are days where I just want to buy something nonsense and would really be guilty of buying it because again most budget systems don't really clear the line here, so I end not buying because of the fact that I always have to outweigh the benefit.
With the play jar, it’s literally your mind is your limit. If you want to throw away your money go ahead. If you want to buy random stickers and a new toy just because you feel like it, this is where you get that money from.
Jar #4 Education (10%)
This is also an interesting one because it makes you focus on yourself and your growth. This is the jar where you’ll get the money for your books, courses, webinars, mentoring and coaching. This jar really pushes you to get further education and you don’t have to worry about feeling that you’re spending too much on education because you have a separate fund for it.
Jar #5 Financial Freedom (10%)
This is the jar that focuses on getting passive income streams so that as many of us would say “we can retire early”. This can be invested in a lot of things like stock, crypto, bonds and even business ventures. You can also purchase real estate from it just as long as it’s an investment and it would generate income. It doesn’t have to be grand, just start small.
Jar #6 Give (5%)
The universe is built on abundance and once you give to the world it will return to you 10 folds, we must always remember to give back. Whether it be a friend, charity, local church, NGOs and the likes, this is the jar that you can use to give back.
This is just an overview, I might turn this into a 4 part series and in the next I would discuss the benefits of using it. I’m still learning this and I will probably start in the month of July.
Next I would write about the benefits and comparison from other money management systems, then I would show you how I apply it on my own.
If you have any questions, I’d love to go through them with you.
See you around!
Source: https://www.harveker.com/blog/6-step-money-managing-system/
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Lost girl, not ready to be found.
Have you ever experienced knowing what to write but you can’t seem to put it into words? That’s what I’m feeling right now, I have this grand concept in my head but I can’t seem to find the first sentence to start this whole thing.
Anyway, this is my take on @JonicaBradley 's writing prompt for the week with the theme darkness.
It’s been a year since I started feeling lost. I have written about some of my mental health struggles every now and then, so some of you might have a slight idea of what’s going on with my head or if you don't it's okay, I don't understand myself too.
I can say that I’ve been at one of the lowest points in my life and it probably started when my Aunt died last July 2020 due to Covid. Her death was a bit expected as she was on dialysis and we all knew that she would be taken away from us soon. It’s not that grief has made me spiral into this loophole, it’s the sudden slap of responsibilities that I had to take over at a very young age. I was 21 back then, there's a pandemic and I'm the only one in our house that has a job. It's quite overwhelming and I don't recommend it to anyone.
If you know me before all of this, you would know that I am one of the most goal driven people there is, what I say I make it happen. But fate and destiny really have a way of fucking us and humbling us down.
I have been in and out of therapy since August 2020 up until now. I had a recent visit last week, that's why I've been inactive in my social media account and even here. I actually feel bad that I don't read some of your articles.
I went from severe anxiety and depression then went to moderate or manageable back to severe again. Fortunately, no medical intervention was needed as I am really not the person to self-harm, I just want things to stop for me but it won’t ever, right?
I was actually afraid of telling people this because a lot of them look up to me and I want to be the best role model that I could be especially for my sisters but it ends up in a horrible way.
First, I’m setting unattainable expectations for them and for those who look up to me, you know Filipinos, “if she can do it, the world can do it too”. Another thing is, it’s exhausting to be perfect all the fucking time and I am led to believe that there is more to learn in the failures rather than in victories.
I started by telling my friends about my therapy visits and they’re all shocked and don’t know what to do. Me as a person whom most of my friends go to when they needed help, also needs help to pick herself up is what really surprised them. Well I can’t really blame them. The thing about me is I that I can tell you my problems but in a way that will make you believe that I have it all figured out together. So most of my friends won’t really worry about me because as they say "I got it all figured out".
But the thing is… I don’t know what I’m doing. HAHAHAHA. ~~I’m as lost as everybody else~~. Scratch that, I am currently hiding most of the time, I might think I’m lost but if you look at it I’m not really lost, I’m hiding and to be honest I don’t want people to find me.
Darkness is the absence of light and right now, I can say I’m in the darkness, well metaphorically. As much as I want to be the facade that I am and tell you a success story of how I survived my college and that was darkness, I just don’t want to be superficial anymore.
I feel like I’ve been a person that pleases people and not really being who I am. It’s not that I want to be accepted or things like that, it’s more that I really want to make the world a better place and if I inspired one person I feel like I made a difference.
But the sick reality of this is when you inspire one, you crave for more and it ends you up in this hole where all you think is you’re doing your best for other people but in reality, you’re doing it for your self satisfaction now.
I’m fucked up inside, I know but I think we all are. There are things that we cannot really put into light and maybe the real me is lost or hiding but I’m not sure if I want people to find her.
To be honest, she envies people, she hates when things doesn’t go her own way. She’s the most impatient person there is and most of the time she’s full of herself. In short, I don't like her, you probably won't too. She's a list of things that I don't like.
Society led me to believe that I should get rid of her because she is bad, that’s what I was taught in school. But growing up, she is as important as what I show to people. She is needed to balance things in my life. I am a person and I have layers that need to be unraveled and people just can’t pick part of themselves to get rid of and keep the ones they like. It doesn’t work that way.
I might be lost in the dark or maybe I’m really hiding but I don’t wanna be found yet until I find myself first. So let me stay here for a little while, let me figure things out and maybe when time comes people don't need to find me anymore.
I'm tagging @zolabundance2 and @Pichi28 , to try this prompt too if you had the chance.
The rules are simple:
Write about darkness
Write 100% original content
Write at least 600 words
Tag me @JonicaBradley https://read.cash/@JonicaBradley
Have Fun!
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Hard pills to swallow
I have only been in this world for 2 decades and 2 years. Most would say I’m still quite young and still have much to go but if you know me personally, you would also say that I don’t act my age. I think it’s with my environment, the people I deal with, my friends, the way I was raised and many more factors but I can say that I did mature earlier than most people my age.
I’m only 22 but I work a full-time corporate job, support my family, send my sisters to school, slowly trying to build my own empire and along all of it I’m still transitioning from my teenage years to adulthood. It’s been a rollercoaster ride but without all of this I wouldn’t become the person I am today.
I sometimes feel like an outcast with people my age because I think differently from them. Many would call me "tita" because of how I usually handle things. It's both a curse and a blessing to be honest.
After all of those experiences, here are some of the hard pills I had to swallow when I entered adulthood.
Set boundaries for yourself
When you’re going to your first job or meeting new friends, no matter how kind you are, there are really a lot of people that would test the hell out of you. Like for me, I wasn’t raised to be rude and I always choose kindness and compromise but be weary because people do take advantage of you. Setting boundaries by limiting interaction with toxic people, declining a task that wasn't supposed to be passed to you in the first place.
This is harder than most people would think because again kindness goes a long way and the line would always seem so blurry with how much you can still tolerate them and when you need to stop because you are starting to get abused.
Know what you want then communicate it.
When we were a child, we just cried and our parents knew what to do. As a teenager, when we had friends and if we were pissed, we'd just shut ourselves down and let them figure out what’s wrong. We're so used to that kind of pattern but when we enter the adult world, things are totally on the downside.
In the adult world, if something is wrong you say it, no one would really have the time to think about what’s going on in your head because the truth is each individual already has something in their minds.
This is a big transition for me and I’m still having a hard time practicing this because when I am asked what do I want? We’re still at a point that I’ll get a bit shy and would need insisting but hopefully I get passed that phase.
Watching your diet.
Diet is not only the things you eat, it’s the books you read, movies you watch and the people you interact with. As we grow older, we tend to be more selective and more decisive, not all the time, but I feel like we have a sense of identity and value for ourselves. Because of this our friends become smaller, the books we read are within our interest and the likes. As you grow older, you tend to do your own thing instead of following trends.
Work is just work.
I think it’s embedded in our culture to do work diligently which is a thing I’m really proud of but because of this, most of the time we get exploited. Work is just supposed to be work, don’t take it way too seriously and don’t ever attach your self-worth to it.
As much as we all want to do a great job at work and produce quality outputs, it’s still just work. We don’t have to sacrifice our health for it, this is a hard thing to do for me because I always strive to do my best in everything that I do but I just realized that work is just work and nothing more.
I know I have a lot more to learn in the coming years and I am still learning all of these too. But again all of this are easier said than done. We know most of it but we never really quite learn it until we are in a position where we can't do anything but learn it.
See you around!
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This is how love sounds like
I can’t clearly remember when I started this, but I always had different playlists, either in my head or my notes. I usually pull them out when I’m in a certain mood or want to feel a certain way.
**Music is one of my greatest mood maker** and not just to make me jump up and get hyped but even on days where I feel like a good cry would help me.
The thing about my playlist is sometimes I feel like it’s so diverse, it can range from one genre to another, one language to another and many more. I don’t even know why it’s made that way.
For today, I wanted to share with you the playlist that I play when I feel in love or want to feel that I’m in love.
I feel like this is how love sounds.
Note: The exact versions are the one that I am referring to as most of them are stripped or live versions
Jasmine by DPR Live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg9NbDizoPM
This is Korean and my sister is a huge fan. The thing that I love about this is the beat, the rap and the music video. I think this is one of the music videos that heavily inspired the art that I am aiming for. The aesthetic is just so perfect, I think it’s best to listen to it when it’s the morning and you’re out in the sun.
Make it to me by Sam Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULPDq02zavs
This song encapsulates the idea of waiting for the right one. It makes me feel that for those who have been single for a long time are single for a reason, that you are still keeping your head down and making your way to the one who was made for you.
I’d definitely want to sing this to my future husband and will talk about how long I waited for him.
Perfect by Ed Sheeran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycwJl9tWR34
Of course, Ed would not be missed out in this playlist. I actually want this to be my wedding song, it’s just amazing how beautifully written it was. The link that I put was the first draft of the song but Ed and his team decided to make it more acoustic to make it more commercialized and fit with the whole divide. But the first draft would really be the perfect one for me, just imagine walking down an aisle with that version. Ughhhhhhhh.
I was made for loving you by Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFD02LYcw4k
I’m sorry for another Ed but this one is a song that he did with Tori Kelly which I think is underrated. Tori is actually a great singer songwriter too, for me the same level as Ed and Taylor Swift. This song just is beautifully written lyric wise and melody wise.
It would be a great idea to sing this with the love of your life, it’s just so sweet.
Araw-araw by Ben and Ben
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztnVgm4fzi0
Of course, this list wouldn’t be complete without a Ben and Ben song. This one is actually my favorite song from them. I think it would be a nice song in the beach when you’re waiting for the sunrise and you’re leaning on the shoulders of the one you love dearly. My favorite line would be “Mahiwaga, ang nadarama sayo’y malinaw.” I wish more people would be like that, no more games, no more BS, just pure love and assurance. I feel like it’s so good to fall in love like this.
ILYSB by Lany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95HlilRpVFk
I mean we can all agree that the original version is a great one but making a stripped version? Ughh. It's 10,000,000x better. This is the song I’d definitely play when I went out on a night drive with someone. We would pull over for coffee and just talk about life and the things that matter. This song just gives me bubbles inside every time I hear it and I suddenly want to go for a drive.
For him by Troye Sivan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXq1JDKudgM
This is another drive song that’s in my playlist. It’s a bit upbeat, I think I’d love it more if someone makes a stripped version of it too. I mean Troye always wrote poetic lyrics and this is just a good representation of love for me. If this is slowed down a bit and lean towards the delicate side I think it would be more of a love song but nevertheless, it’s a pretty great song!
Nothing by Bruno Major
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucRVDoFkcxc
This is one of the songs I recently discovered. I discovered this by browsing through Youtube for different playlist and I think this is from a playlist that says “teenage love”, I’m not entirely sure. But this was actually a song inspired by the Mario theme song bass line, he was playing and the tune got stuck on his head and decided to write a song with it.
Well, Bruno Major is such an underrated artist and he has amazing songs but this is my favorite from him.
It took me a whole day to write this because I get stuck on each song whenever I listen to it and I hope you’ll like it if you ever decide to listen to it. Hopefully, you’ll have an idea of how love sounds to me.
See you around!
I got my first vaccine shot!
Today, I made another impulsive decision: **I got vaccinated.**
I’ve been planning and wanting to have one since it started rolling out. I’m actually waiting for our company to provide it, but it was said to us that it might take up until December before we have one and they’re encouraging us to utilize the ones that the Local Government Unit (LGU) is rolling out.
My sister was supposed to be the only one who was about to have it but she needed company because apparently, she’s scared of needles. My mom told me to accompany her and I decided to have one for myself too.
There are actually a lot of vaccination sites that allow walk-ins, just like what we did. And if you want one, they are currently rolling out in A4, which provides vaccines to employees. You just need a company ID or any proof of employment. Proof of employment can be a letter for those housekeepers or personal drivers, just proof that you are working if you don't have company ID.
Though, I’m not forcing anyone to get vaccinated, I’m just sharing my experience and sharing what I know to those who want it.
We were told that we were supposed to have Astrazeneca ones but it ran out in our turn and they had to switch to Sinovac, which was also WHO approved. Plus, I trust my sister because she is a chemist and if she’d have something on her body, I think I’ll be fine.
WHY?
Many would ask why I took the vaccine or why I even planned on getting one?
**Work** - as most of you know fieldwork is an integral part of my work and I would need to travel to different places, getting vaccinated can lessen the admin work we have to go through when we travel, like swab test and quarantine. Just present a vaccination pass and poof! You can enter any part of the country and most of the time, quarantine is not required anymore.
**Travel** - related to work or personal ones, it is most likely that travelling all over the world will require vaccinations, it’s a foreseeable event. It's slowly happening but it wouldn't really surprise me if embassies requires vaccinations proof.
**Safety** - As my sister said this had gone through clinical trials so I don’t think it would put anyone else in danger. The main reason of getting it is to protect my loved ones, especially that fieldwork might resume more this year and I don’t want to expose myself, then expose my family to the virus.
SYMPTOMS?
Did I turn into a titan/zombie yet?
*As you can see, I got my vaccine around 3pm and I’m here writing this one out.*
**Injection site pain** - I think this would be the most evident one, even with flu virus vaccine, I experience this. So it’s not much concerning.
**Chest pain** - this is the part where I get a bit concerned but I’m in constant communication with my Doctor and she says that it’s fine. It’s still on a very tolerable level, I don’t even feel the urge of taking medications for it but it’s there.
**Shortness of breath** - this is also a bit concerning but again I was reassured that as long as it’s at a tolerable level, it’s fine. It’s not severe. I was actually singing earlier. That's why I noticed a bit of shortness in my breath because I was supposed to make a cover today. I ended up not uploading because I was breathing a bit weird in that cover.
I was told that each body is unique and we have a unique immune system that’s why different side effects can be noticed. I think that should be put out there, because for me I didn’t have a fever, yet (?) and no headaches which were the usual ones.
Again, I’m not pushing anyone to take a vaccine, it’s your own personal choice. I just wanted to share mine to help those who wants to have them. The best thing to do is be aware of the announcements of your LGUs for possible vaccine roll-outs.
Most importantly, stay safe. If you have questions, I would gladly go through them.
See you around!
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Start by doing things badly
Last Friday, June 4, 2021, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration or most commonly known as PAGASA officially declared the start of the rainy season. This was expected to last from June until November.
Source https://www.rappler.com/nation/weather/pagasa-rainy-season-philippines-2021
Due to the colder breeze every morning it’s getting harder and harder to get out of bed each morning. **It feels like I’m constantly being pulled by my bed.** Most teenagers would refer to this as “*bed weather*”, a spin off with the term “*bad weather*”. Rains are mostly associated with bad weather because most people can't freely go out but for most teenagers, we like this weather as this gives us an opportunity to stay in bed all day, hence the term “*bed weather*”.
As much as I want to stay in bed, get a hot chocolate, watch a film and cuddle with Octy, I can’t because I have a job and a deadline to meet.
**This makes me think about how sometimes I procrastinate, but who doesn’t?**
Procrastination
-the act of delaying or putting off tasks until the last minute, or past their deadline
Source https://www.verywellmind.com/the-psychology-of-procrastination-2795944
An interesting point that is being questioned recently is how procrastination relates to laziness or the lack of self-control or motivation. **Most adults would think that teenagers procrastinate because of only one reason, because they’re lazy** but psychologists are actually raising a counter argument for this.
**They think that most of the time people procrastinate because of perfection and fear.** They want to do something perfectly the first time they do it and with the fear of that, most people can’t start anything.
We can’t really blame ourselves for this, we live in a digital age where everything seems perfect. That awesome artwork that your friend posted? She had tons of drafts and failed art before that. That instagram perfect photo somebody posted? She must've taken 100 pictures for that 1 post. This list can go on but hopefully, you get the point.
The only way to beat procrastination is not through hard work, better time management or pushing yourself more, **it is accepting the fact that we are not perfect**, especially if we did something the first time and to
Start by doing things badly.
If you expect yourself to do things badly at the first try, you are relieving yourself of the unnecessary pressure of being perfect. This can lead to a more enjoyable and exciting experience rather than something you dread not doing.
This is why we say that procrastination is essentially irrational. It doesn’t make sense to do something you know is going to have negative consequences.
-Dr. Fuschia Sirois, professor of psychology at the University of Sheffield
Procrastination is often linked to a negative emotion of a task. Let’s say you’re procrastinating at work, which I’m currently doing, this is because I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything and I’m scared to make mistakes.
Recently, I got on-boarded to take on a UK client and join a UK audit team, which is a huge opportunity but the adjustment from their culture, systems and processes are a bit hard. I feel like they expect something from me and this leads to procrastinating my work.
But if I set myself that all things will have a learning curve and I am still just adjusting. If I tell myself that it’s okay if I do things badly the first time, things might have been different.
In one of my recent article, I talked about how I’m losing focus lately but I think it’s also link with my procrastination which further links to the expectations that I set for myself.
**I am just here to remind everyone, most especially myself, that it’s okay to do things badly the first time.**
See you around!
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Plucking my heartstrings
Ever since I was a child, I was already exposed to music. Having a band within the family, my dad playing ever since he was a teenager and my mom being a singer, a former choir member is the reason for all of this.
Maybe the reason why I have such a diverse playlist because of how much music I was exposed to. My dad would sometimes play Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, Weezer, Coldplay and many more bands. Then my mom would play Cranberries and on Sundays our grandpa would have a radio station he would always listen to.
Early years
I started being attached to music just by dancing, I’m not that great at it but I can learn moves quickly probably because of the innate rhythm that I got. I danced in most of my childhood, sometimes even in our family gatherings and school events.
When I was around 5th grade, I joined the choir in our church and stayed there for almost 4-5 years. This is where I learned the value of harmony. I'm an alto and I usually sing different notes with the original tune. I must say that there is nothing more fulfilling than making 4 voices blend together and come out into this nice masterpiece.
High school
Upon reaching high school, I wanted to learn guitar because I feel like girls who play guitars are so cool. I started with easy songs, mainly the ones with G-D-Em-C chord progression, by this time I’d cry over bar chords so much.
My 4th year of high school came or 10th grade for most of you. My classmates and I decided to build a band. We were choosing the members and we had a dilemma. Most of us know how to play the guitar but no one knows how to play the bass guitar.
My dad is a bassist for most of his bands, so I volunteered to learn the bass in a span of 2 weeks. Learning the bass is not as hard as learning the guitar, probably because I have the basic knowledge for it but the thing is, bass strings are way much thicker than guitar strings.
We would always practice for hours and sometimes it'd make my fingers bleed. After all of the effort and constant studio trips after every class, fortunately we were the champions for that school year.
We sang Breakeven by The Script and Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift but I rearranged it in a more rock-ish feel. We turned up the tempo, heavily relied on the bass and the drums to make constant beat drops and the amazing lead guitar solo for Safe and Sound made it possible for us.
Since we are the champions, we were given a task that will happen for the first time in our school. We were assigned to compose a song for our graduation song which was nerve-wracking. We mostly did the lyrics and asked my dad to help with the instruments and melody and it turned out way much better than we ever expected. Up until now, when we get along, we would play this song or sing it out, this is really a nostalgic moment for us.
College
Most of my college days, I rarely touched my guitar or any other musical instruments because things at school are quite busy but when I do, I’d play for hours. Mainly I cover some songs and learn a new song. Sometimes, I bring my guitar to school and just jam along with my classmates but not much because the hassle of bringing my guitar is too much.
I’ve also been playing as part of the worship band in our church when there is a lack of band members because usually I'm on the documentation team. Sometimes I play the guitar, bass, beatbox or sometimes even lead the worship. Probably because of the lack of manpower, I’ll just be assigned a task that no one can do for the meantime. I’ve been arranging songs too whenever we play. Even with our concerts or usual worship we try to make the song our own.
Present
Recently, I don’t play as much, mainly because of Covid. The thing that makes me pick up my guitar is for a performance most of the time. But I still listen to songs everyday, it feels like I can’t really survive this world without it.
I just sit in my room, turn up music that matches my mood or sometimes go and listen to some indie ones. I miss concerts to be honest, it just feels sad that when I have the ability to buy concert tickets with my own money, there’s no more concerts to watch.
I just realized that music has been a huge part of my life, it provides one of the basic foundations of my identity. I wish I could grab my guitar and sing with a crowd again, but for now I’ll just keep singing to Octy.
See you around!
My systems for June
For better context, I suggest you read the first part before proceeding here. https://read.cash/@deedum/systems-not-goals-4c1f4f87
As my previous article said, I don’t have any goals this month. It feels a bit odd as many of the users here are posting their goals and here I am campaigning to not have one.
Well, it depends on each individual. But honestly, if you look at it, I’m still wanting things. I just have a different mindset or approach to it.
5 months had already passed, 7 months to go and 2021 would be over. Starting the 6th month of the year I would start making systems and adjust it along the way as the circumstances demands.
Here is the list of my systems for this month:
Exercise 3 times a week and drink less coffee
Well, my goal is to be healthier because my job is a stressful one and I’m currently working on mid-shift so I need to intervene and choose a healthier lifestyle.
As I’ve said I’m not setting goals but I’ll focus on systems. I’ll start exercising again because I feel that I gained a bit of weight and my body needs more physical activity. Though I do take walks or cycle from time to time, I feel that I need more. I want my abs back, hehe.
Coffee, such a bittersweet lover. My love for coffee has been causing me acid reflux lately so I really need to cut it in a significant amount. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this but hopefully, I will.
Stick to my budget
As most people struggle with overspending, I struggle with underspending. I save most of the remainder of my salary, after the bills. This is good and people would want this, but I don’t think it’s healthy in the long run.
I feel deprived and sometimes I feel like I’m not enjoying the fruits of what I make. Again, it varies per person and this is just my personal opinion. But I always had a budget and there are savings and for spending and everything that is for spending, I promise to spend by eating out or purchasing something nice for myself.
5 quality posts in noise.cash each day
Most of us are setting minimum payouts as their daily goal in noise.cash but with the new update and the constant update of the platform, I choose to focus on the value that I am giving to the site. I think it’s always been that way but no matter what tips I get, I choose to focus on the input rather than the goal.
I’m really happy with moise.cash to be honest, I met great friends and I sometimes treat it as a portfolio of my pictures/contents or sometimes my brain dumps when I think of something. Maybe this is the time to focus on creating more meaningful content rather than fixating on the tips that we are getting.
18 read.cash articles
Last month, I set an amount to be earned in read.cash and luckily I achieved it! YAYYYYY! But achieving that, I forced myself to write even if I don’t want to and write senseless posts, in my opinion. As much as I’m earning here, I want to give value to people or express what I feel so people will know that I’m feeling this and it’s perfectly valid to feel the same way too.
I haven’t been posting content that can bring value to other people. It's because I’m fixated on publishing lots of articles so the random rewarder will visit me. I want to remind myself that I write for the people and not for the bot. And if I write quality content, all things will follow. Hopefully, this month my articles will be better.
As much as I want to create more systems this month, I don’t want to over-exert myself. I want to start slow and work my way up. Many of this I’m already doing before, I just need to be more conscious about it.
I would love to hear the systems that you will create too and no matter what time of the year or day in a week, you can always discard everything and start from scratch.
I hope to be consistent and let’s see if systems really create results!
See you around. ☀️
Systems, not goals
@JonicaBradley 's weekly prompt is about motivation. Honestly, I don’t know where to begin because to be frank with you, I am not much motivated lately. I just feel like I’ve been drifting everywhere.
Don’t get me wrong, I still function everyday. I report to work and do my tasks, I submit them on time and with quality. But lately, I feel like I’m not satisfied with what I am doing.
My friends keep telling me that maybe I’m just burnt out, as I haven’t really found the time to rest after the busy season, which most of us do by taking a 1 to 2 weeks leave.
I can’t file a leave until August because I’m working on a priority client, so I can’t really afford to rest. But I’m not that overworked, as compared to before, but still… *deep down I know I’m tired.*
I’m also frustrated lately because I haven’t been able to achieve the majority of my goals, the main reason for it is the pandemic. Most of them are postponed and what’s worse is that some of them are totally cancelled. This is the main reason why I can’t bring myself to set a new goal, which we all know leads to motivation.
*I’m afraid that I might not be able to achieve it because everything in this world is uncertain as of the moment.*
Then last night, I came across this concept that **we should stop making goals and start creating systems.**
Systems, not goals. Why?
1. Fixate on things within your control.
*When you create a system, you focus on things that you can control.*
Systems are the things you do to achieve your goal. I’ll give you an example almost all of us can relate to, losing weight.
Most of us set goals like "I want to lose 10 pounds" or "I want to have a 26 inches waist line." We need to set up systems in order to achieve this, whether be it drinking more water, less salty and unhealthy foods and going to the gym or exercising regularly.
If you look at it, **you can control the quality and healthfulness of your food and the frequency of going to the gym,** which are your systems, **but you can’t control the weight or inches you'll lose,** which is your goal.
2. Goals create stress and a feeling of failure.
In relation to the first point, achieving your goals has many variables within it, it creates stress within you. You start thinking, did I do something wrong? Am I not doing it properly but I'm already starving myself? Then you try and compensate for it by more exercise and eating less and less, driving yourself crazy thinking it was because of you.
After all this self-doubt and stress, you will realize, most likely nothing has changed. It will leave you the feeling of being a failure. *You might think that this is your fault as to why you’re not achieving your goals while in reality, other factors just come into play, most of which are out of your control.* Like body proportion, hormones, metabolism or sometimes even disorders.
3. Goals are uncertain and hard to follow.
If you look at it, goals are your finish line, your output. You're basically setting up an ending to everything that you do. But honestly, achieving a goal does not depend solely on how much you want it or how much you fixate on it because if it is, we all might be millionaires by now, even billionaires.
Yes, achieving your goals mainly depends on you but it isn’t the only factor for it. In this pandemic, almost everything is uncertain. In just a snap everything can turn 180 degrees and this leads to you not achieving your goals, which screams **your goals will always be uncertain no matter how much you want it.**
But the systems you do, you can choose. You can change it, discard it, everything you want, **you can control it.**
4. Systems generate results and help you achieve goals.
I am a firm believer of **“small things lead to great heights”**. If you stick to your systems and focus on the input that you are giving, it would surely add up and make you achieve the goals you wanted in the first place. Maybe in a slightly different way but surely, systems or your efforts will eventually pay off.
Your efforts will never betray you. We sometimes just get lost because our goals might seem blurry and out of reach but if you look at the present and what systems are you gonna do, you’ll be surprised at how much you have achieved so far.
I just used losing weight as an example but this is applicable to every goal that we have. I remember when I started working and I wanted to save up. I opened an MP2 account. I didn’t really have a goal back then, I just wanted to save.
I deposited money every time I received my salary, it’s the same amount every cut-off and I never missed. I felt it at first and it just became a habit or as I talked about, a system. Then I am amazed at how much I saved because of it. You can see that systems eventually will lead you up to your goals if you become consistent.
I would love to write more about the systems that I have set for myself for the month of June but it will make this article too long so I’ll just make a second part of why you should stop setting goals and create systems instead.
I hope that we will all have a fruitful month.
See you around!
Thank you @Pantera for the sponsorship 😬 I appreciate it! 😬
I want it back
As more and more days pass by being locked in my room, I have noticed a steady decline on my focus on things. Whether it be work, reading, writing and almost literally everything. I’m starting to easily be distracted mostly by my phone but there are a lot few things aside from that.
When I am currently working on something, I'll just stop and grab my phone and opening one app would lead to the other and an hour later you'll realize, you haven't done what you're supposed to do.
I never had any notifications, I started turning them off when I was in college and never bothered to put it back. I just put on notifications on my messaging apps as it is a requirement for my work and for emergencies, other than that I have them all off. Which is why I’m more bothered because even without notifications, I am constantly checking my phone.
I honestly don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing but it keeps bugging me at how much I am constantly looking at my phone instead of doing and finishing other things.
I am not annoyed at how much time I spend on my phone, I'm just pissed at how little attention span I have right now. I used to study or work and be able to focus for hours before the pandemic but now, literally 20 minutes after, I’m itching to do something else.
Honestly, where is my focus on things?
I am actually amazed when I look back, I’m like… “how am I able to do that study routine?” Honestly, when I look back at my study routine before I kept asking myself at how crazy that was. I tried and make it as healthy as possible but I still think it's extreme.
My lost of focus might be because of the lack of goals, as I’m currently having a hard time setting goals for myself too, so maybe I’m just getting pulled everywhere. Or maybe it’s something else? I honestly don't know.
I know people are constantly evolving and growing but sometimes, I feel like I want my old self back. People should change for the better version of themselves but why do I feel like I’m changing into something worse?
(I just did it again, I stopped and looked at my phone and this is frustrating)
I think I should do a social media detox. As much as I love talking to people and browsing through social media, I think I need a break from it all but again, I don’t know if I can do it.
Don’t get me wrong, social media is not a bad thing but there is such a thing as excessive use of it. Maybe because it’s the pandemic and instead of talking and interacting with real people, I’m stuck here in front of my screen.
I have already tried focus apps too that I used when I was studying for the board exams. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
I honestly don’t know if I’m just being paranoid or I’m overthinking again. Maybe I really am being paranoid but productivity is so hard to measure lately. I feel like I’m not doing enough of my day and I’m just wasting it. I have grand things in my head but I can’t put them into action because most of the time I don’t have time for it, I’m distracted or I’m frozen because I have so much to do.
I just want my old self back, the one who clearly sees things and knows where she is headed. The determined one, the goal driven one and the unstoppable one. The one who used to conquer great heights and the one who isn’t afraid to fail and try again. The one who always say that she will conquer the world and in her time, I felt like she did.
Maybe this is the time when adulting slaps me hard and this is just the process of growing up and realizing that we are finite, limited and most of the time, we fail. This is a hard pill to swallow but the sooner I realize this, I think things would be easier.
I kinda envy people at how they can easily set goals and know what they want because honestly, I don’t know what I want. I feel lost, probably because I’m literally lost.
It’s almost half of the year already and I don’t know where the 5 months went. I survived another busy season, got an opportunity to work in a UK team and client, I achieved my crypto goals last month but I don’t know why I feel this.
Right now, I just honestly want my old self back.
Lead image: Photo by Eric Ward on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@ericjamesward?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/shadow-girl?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Top 5 Book Recommendation
Yesterday, my sister and I had the chance to go out and run some errands. As we are about to go out, I remembered a friend who posted in her story last week that there had been a community library near us. I asked my sister if we could drop by our old books because we were searching for some donors for the children books in our house. All of them are in good condition so it would be a waste to just throw it out and if we visit, we could get some books if we ever spot a book that we like.
I have been reading since high school. It started with Wattpad because everyone else in our class has been reading “Break the Cassanova's Heart Operation”. I joined them too and I’ll admit, I really enjoyed that book.
Then slowly they started buying novels. I never bought my own book, I don’t know why, I just borrowed it from my friends. Slowly, I became more and more addicted to it and always find time to read a book. It stopped a bit when I was reviewing for the board exams but I continued it during this quarantine.
This is supposed to be an article about my favorite book but I really can’t sum it into one book and I have so many favorites, so I’ll just share with you my Top 5 book recommendations.
THE SUBTLE ART OF NOT GIVING A FUCK BY MARK MANSON
I have been reading this since December last year, I think? I am actually a fast reader but with this book it made me stop a million times and realize so much. It’s not that I don’t read it as much but there are explanations there that really made me close the book and ponder about it. It really helped me a lot and changed my perspective on other things. I’m still reading it, I’m not even half-way through and I was reading it before in an e-book but finally, I bought a physical copy of it.
This is a must read and it’s super duper digestible but it would really slap you in your face.
NOVEMBER 9 BY COLLEEN HOOVER
This was one of the fastest books I ever read because I literally can’t stop between the chapters. I remember reading it when I was in college and it was after finals week, when everything else was pretty toned down. I used to read a book during these times.
I love this book because of its plot and how it was arranged. This was one of the books that I never saw the plot coming which is a hard find as most of the stories get more and more cliche.
Though this is a romance book, it’s a great book and I’m excited if it will ever be turned into a movie but I’m hoping and praying that they’ll make a good job out of it.
ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES BY JENNIFER NIVEN
This is not my recommendation as it is not for everyone, this book talks about mental health which you might be familiar with if you saw the movie.
I just like the way it was written, it was so magical for me even though it’s a sad book and it shows how people deal differently with tragedies and trauma. But the main reason I love this book is because of its composition, the way it was written or maybe because in a way I can relate to Violet? I’m not entirely sure.
I’m just gonna say though, the movie sucks. It was nowhere near the book. I know it’s mainly referenced from the book but the feels and vibes to it? Is just not there. Last rant, I always imagined Asa Butterfield would’ve played that role perfectly.
THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER BY STEPHEN CHBOSKY
This is one of the books that inspired me to write everything I feel. This is mainly a book about transitioning from a child to a teenager, The horror, adventure, misery, tragedy and everything that comes along with adolescence.
This book is not for everyone too and I read this twice. Once when I was in high school which didn’t have much impact and the other, during this quarantine which made me tear up and ponder about life. I just wish I had a friend like Charlie, though most of the time I feel like Charlie but me being a wallflower is a joke! HAHAHAHHAHAHAHA.
THE ALCHEMIST BY PAULO COELHO
This is one of the books that I’ve read during the quarantine. This is one of the most eye opening books that I read. It teaches a lot of life lessons and realizations. This made me literally stop reading for a while because it has too much to ponder on and I can’t simply move on from it.
I think the main reason here is that there are things that shouldn’t be simply given to us, that things have more meaning and value if we worked hard for it. I also learned why beginner’s luck is really a thing and why people don’t achieve anything because of it too.
These are some of the books that is really close to my heart. I might say if humans are a mosaic of everyone they meet and everything they read, see, touch and taste, these books will always have a place in the mosaic of my existence.
If you have a chance, you can read them and if you already did, tell me your thoughts!
See you around!
Late night drive
Last Tuesday, my dad celebrated his birthday. We couldn't do much as I am currently working on mid shift schedule, around 4pm onwards. Even if we wanted to do something, I couldn't join the festivities so we decided to postpone it over the weekend.
Yesterday, my sister graduated from Senior High School too! She won an award and we had so much to celebrate so we decided to go on a little adventure and have dinner out. Unfortunately, as much as we want to eat together in a restaurant, I have a sister who is less than 18 years old. It would be heartbreaking to leave her alone in the house or in the car while we're inside a restaurant eating.
Instead, we just decided to have takeaways and have a night picnic in a park near us. In this way, we can bring my little sister and our dogs too! Everybody can come along. Our night picnic was supposed to happen today but we were all craving for burgers yesterday so we made an impulsive decision to move it to Saturday instead of Sunday.
We prepared around 6:00 pm, we dressed up nicely, as it is rare that we get to go out. But not too extravagant, after all we were having a picnic and going to a park. Before we left we made sure to order everything up in food panda and set it as a pick up order, so we wouldn’t have to wait. Plus, ordering in food panda gave us huge discounts!!! Our meal was supposed to be around PHP 800 or roughly $17 but after applying all the vouchers our meal was around PHP 400 pesos only, almost half the price! Thank me later! hehe.
We hit the road, and as usual V and Baste (our dogs) are being a nuisance and circling around everywhere, pretty much more excited than we are. We then proceeded to Wendy’s, our first stop, to get our ultimate favorite, the mouth watering, craving satisfying, BACON MUSHROOM MELT or as we call it, BMM!!! I mean who doesn’t love it? Tell me and I'll argue with you! But, mom had a bit of Salad, hehe.
Near the Wendy’s store was a convenience store, Family Mart. We had to go there because we had everything a la carte, so we could have more freedom in choosing our drinks! Luckily, there’s no one inside the store and we get the chance to take a selfie. This reminded me of Olivia Rodrigo’s good for u MV, we were just so cute here. I also love this convenience store because they have the most amazing pastries and it's so affordable! I swear, I’d vouch for it! They’re cookies are top-tier, it’s big and gooey for a price of almost PHP 40 or $1. I used to get this a lot when I’m on the way home from the office and I’m starving. It’s a great thing to munch on while on the way home and vibing to some UV Express Music.
After that, we went and picked up a full bucket of fries in KFC, this is one of our all time-favorite fries. Period! We get this from time to time when we're craving for fries.
Then, we went on full dash to the park! We were all sticking our heads out the windows, including the dogs, because it has been so hot lately! Just feeling the wind rushing through our faces feels so amazing and refreshing! I think Baste and V enjoyed it a lot too!
When we got there, we just sat down and ate because we’re all pretty much starving by this time. We munched on the burger quickly and the fries were almost immediately gone. It was a struggle because our dogs wanted to run around and we just wanted to eat first.
After eating, we ran around with the dogs, visited some shops and checking if there were desserts because I was honestly craving for sweets. We took a lot of videos and pictures, in the green field there, imagining we were in a music video. HAHAHA
I also shouted how I wanted pizza and ice cream but I couldn’t find any. My sisters mainly complain about school, they call this “shouting exercise”. It was fine to do this because by this time there were only a few people there and almost no one could hear us, so we just shouted and shouted and I came home with a sore throat. LOL.
We tried to find some ice cream but sadly we couldn't find any. So we just ran around more with Baste and V and I woke up with sore legs this morning. I should probably get more exercise. Running with dogs tires me out easily, I need to keep up with them!
After we’re all wasted with running and sad for the lack of ice cream shops near us, we decided to go home and call it a night. It was such a great night, we’re all tired but we were fulfilled because probably my whole family missed going out, especially our little sister.
Before the pandemic, we usually spend a weekend going to a place we haven't been before like a museum or just a park. Sometimes when a new restaurant opens up, we would go for a visit. Ughhh, I miss those times.
I hope to have more adventures in the future and I really wish things would go back to normal.
See you around!
All photos used are taken by me.
She was
She finished early at work today, one of the rare times, eh? She requested a quite handful of documents and was waiting for the documents to come through. She thinks it probably won’t tonight because first, it's Friday. Everyone is just dreading to clock out and finally have that long-deserved rest they are all waiting for over the weekend. Second, Monday is a bank holiday - a day when people can take an extended rest to recharge. Probably right now everyone is just fooling themselves that they are doing something even though they actually aren't.
But she was different, she thought. She was supposed to be one of them to be honest, stare at her screen and wait until 12 midnight before she can finally clock out. She was just scrolling through noise.cash and read.cash mindlessly when an article of @meitanteikudo pops up, it's called Freewrite: Mumblings of the Hurt. She already read that before but when she read it again, she doesn't know why, but it hits differently tonight. That’s when she decided to write, it’s been a while since she wrote freely how she felt inside and checked in how she was feeling lately. https://read.cash/@meitanteikudo/freewrite-mumblings-of-the-hurt-3f9324f2
She was supposed to write an article today, as it was listed on her to-do list. But she let go of the idea because she had been so sleepy and tired lately. She said to herself, “Fine, you can be a lazy bitch today, you have Monday off so you can just do more things by then.” She was okay in not writing and bending her to-do list for the day, this was a bit shocking for her, honestly but here she goes, still writing and hoping that she will make sense.
WAS SHE HAPPY?
Hmmmm… She, too, was having a hard time answering that. She was okay, somewhat indifferent from how she truly felt. She wasn’t sad but she wasn’t happy either, just somewhat a normal feeling. It’s like the color gray, she’s neither black or white, she’s just gray. But gray is a good thing, right? Seeing and feeling the in between? She honestly doesn’t know if she’s making sense, but meh... She's fine, she thinks so. Besides she always thought human emotion was complex and you can never be just one thing.
WAS SHE TIRED?
Last Tuesday, she bought herself some burgers, fries and an extra large coffee because she needed to reward herself for something she probably didn't know the reason for. She just wanted a burger and sometimes, when she wants a burger she just gets one. No questions asked. She was having a hard time eating lately, which is a bit concerning. She sometimes feels she wants to vomit but never really does. She had been having a cup of coffee everyday, which is a huge mistake because her acid reflux is coming back.
WAS SHE OKAY?
She thinks so and really, really hopes so. But again, she comes back to the thought that you can never be enclosed in one feeling. She can say she’s okay but what does okay really mean? People can be okay even if they are sad and people can be not okay even if they are happy. Ughhhh! This confuses her, amongst all other things like why did she grow up the way she was? Why didn’t this happen? Why did this happen? A lot of thoughts are racing her mind and a break from it would be extremely beneficial.
WAS SHE STILL HARD ON HERSELF?
She can say, a bit? Just think of it, you can’t easily detach from old habits. She’s been learning not to, she was trying. I think she even promises not to but she fails most of the time but she still believes that maybe someday she won’t be.
WAS SHE IN LOVE?
Hmmmm… now that’s the juicy one, she didn’t want to tell. She doesn’t really know why but she likes to keep things private, I guess? Or maybe she just wasn’t ready to tell people or maybe there’s nothing to tell at all. Twisted, right? Just like her mind. It stretches and stretches into the wild thought of everything until she tangles on its own and probably she needed someone to help her untangle it. Or maybe time! Yeah, time! They say things make sense with time, right? But mehhhh… nothing ever did make sense to anyone. We're still here arguing if the earth is flat.
WAS SHE INSPIRED?
Tough one, she thinks so or she hopes so, she doesn’t really know but one thing she knows right now is she is hungry. She wanted pizza, burgers and ice cream. She was addicted to burgers lately, especially the crunchy chicken ones! She should stop talking about this as she is on the verge of grabbing her phone and ordering something again. She’d say it’s a reward for herself but if you ask her what for? It’s not a secret but she doesn’t know what for.
For the last time I wanted to ask her what she was feeling...
She doesn't really know…
She just was...
She was.
Lead image: Photo by Kinga Cichewicz on Unsplash
https://unsplash.com/@all_who_wander?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/shadow-of-a-girl?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
I feel exploited
I came across a Tiktok video on Facebook, talking about how healthcare workers have a 36-hour work limit in a certain country, which was not stated in the video. It just basically shows how a person is ranting about how you can’t have a full straight duty beyond 36 hours. I was in shock, it’s wild at how widely accepted it is for a person to work for 36 straight hours, even if they are fully compensated for it.
**After this, it got me thinking about how we deal with these things in my profession and country...**
*First, I'm an auditor and as sad as it is, we don’t have a work limit.* I wish we did! HAHAHAHA. I haven’t heard of it even for other countries too. An auditor usually renders overtime to finish workloads and meet tight regulatory deadlines. I think this would not shock you, but most of the time, overtime rendered is unpaid and if paid, we can’t charge the actual hours we have worked.
It is normal for an auditor to start work as early as 9AM and clock out around 1AM or even longer. A 12 to 16 hour work day is normal for us, it even gets extended when the busy season or tax season comes around. Also work during weekends is not talked about yet everyone else is expected to be at work, silly, right?
As I researched about the labor laws in my country, I have came across the following:
The normal hours of work in a day is 8 hours
There is a rest day of not less than 24 consecutive hours or 1 day for every 6 days of work which should be scheduled by the employer upon consultation with the employees.
*Meal period is not less than 60 minutes or 1 hour time-off for regular meals of employees which is non-compensable. Rest periods or coffee breaks running from 5 to 20 minutes shall be considered compensable working time.*
Source https://bwc.dole.gov.ph/faqs/8-faqs
As mentioned above, **a normal work day constitutes of 8 hours and an additional 1 hour break for meals.** If you compute it on your own, you should render only 9 hours in the office and the rest is for you to actually live your life.
This past busy season, I remember filing a 100 hour work week, **imagine that we only have 168 hours a week and 100 of them are spent working**. Of course, I also have to do my daily function of eating, sleeping etc. This is the sad reality and what’s worse is upon computing the work hours rendered I might not get paid for the whole amount, which is quite customary in my industry and country.
**The thought came up to my mind to propose a work limit for all professionals and workforce in out country.** A sound and clear mind and a healthy body is needed for all the jobs there is but sadly I don't know what to do as well. I can't just write a draft of why this is necessary because I don't even know where to send it.
There is actually an on-going scarcity in professionals lately, probably because people think millennials and gen Zs are being demanding, but ***I think more and more people are realizing that we are being exploited*** and what we do is not easy and that we deserve better pay and treatment for it.
Like me, as an auditor and member of the professionals, I love what I do and I can survive and sacrifice things for what I love but lately I feel like the audit sector is really understaffed not just in our country but globally. I think more and more people are getting tired of having tons of workload but the pay doesn’t compensate for it. And it's’ just not the pay itself but the expectation that your life revolves around your work.
After working 12 hours a day, do you expect people to still have a life? I think not.
Honestly, the work hour arrangement in my country is really not for me, as a morning person I’d really love to work in the wee hours of the morning when my brain is fully rested from what it’s supposed to be like an 8-hr sleep, hoping to get off at work as early as 6PM. But in reality, most people sleep at 2-3 AM, so most of my teammates come around 10-11 AM, and that is their cycle. I do my best to go against the flow because I'm having a hard time functioning at night. I always say this expectations to my teammates but I do feel odd most of the time because our schedule just don’t match up.
Lately, people in my work have been resigning, one by one. It’s sad to see people come and go but that is so common our profession. A lot of people are slowly feeling burnt out from work which wouldn’t surprise me considering you are required to work for 12 hours and get paid for 8 hours.
I sometimes just wish for better treatment in the labor force of my country, not just for our profession but the overall workforce. We have been allowing a lot of people and companies to exploit the labor force, just imagine that the current minimum wage in my country is only PHP537 or roughly $12 yet the inflation rate is at a 2-year all time high. https://nwpc.dole.gov.ph/
To put it simply, the minimum wage is close enough to the current 1-kg price of pork meat, a day of labor is just for a kilo of pork? And to make it way much worse inflation rates are still expected to raise in the coming months.
This is why more and more people choose to migrate or grab opportunities in another country because honestly, what we earn in a day we can earn in an hour in another country. Of course, considering the standard of living there, there would still be a huge difference.
I do hope that our labor force gets more regulated and focused on, especially now we’re in a pandemic more and more people can get exploited due to the scarcity of jobs available.
Even though I wrote all of this, I just feel that I'm really loss for words.
I wrote this in relation to @JonicaBradley 's writing prompt challenge. **I think freedom for me is speaking my mind out about relevant issues and not giving a f*** in what other people are gonna say.** https://read.cash/@JonicaBradley/writing-prompt-1-freedom-372a053d
Tagging @Hanzell would be a nice break from your stories, @zolabundance2 would love to hear your thoughts about this challenge and @mixx would love to hear what freedom means to you.
Challenge rules:
Write about Freedom
Write 100% original content
Write at least 600 words
Tag me @JonicaBradley https://read.cash/@JonicaBradley
Have fun
Lead image: Photo by Alex Kotliarskyi on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@frantic?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/workforce?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
See you around!
Human Library
Let’s admit, not everyone is fond of reading, but what if I tell you that you can talk to a book?
Yes, you heard it right!
As I was browsing on Twitter, I came across a non-profit organization called Human Library. Their head office is based in Copperhagen, Denmark and upon doing a bit of a research, I found what they are all about.
A **Human Library** consists of “books” that are **human**. Each of these books volunteer to take part in the **library** and share their story. Readers can check out books for a 20-minute period, during which time readers and books have a one-on-one conversation.
Source https://libraryguides.nau.edu/humanlibrary#:~:text=A%20Human%20Library%20consists%20of,library%20and%20share%20their%20story.&text=Readers%20can%20check%20out%20books,one%2Don%2Done%20conversation.
As a person, who likes talking, well sometimes a bit too much, I feel like I wanted to participate in this kind of initiative. I wanted to loan myself as a book to a human library and have my own “reading session”. Reading session is the time when you borrow a book - a person for a specified time, it usually ranges from 20 mins to an hour.
As my curiosity was awakened by this thought, I did some research about them to hopefully see the qualifications of being a book and the places where I can loan myself even just for a day.
I came across their official website and everyone can register as a book there. I haven’t tried to because I don’t think I’ll have the time for it but if you want to, go ahead and feel free to tell me your experience. https://humanlibrary.org/about/
I think if you register it will redirect you to a human library close to your address. Currently they are operational in 6 continents and 80 countries, which really amazed me because I really haven’t heard much about it.
**WHAT IS THE HUMAN LIBRARY?**
The Human Library® is a global innovative and hands-on learning platform. We are embedded in high school to higher learning, medical training to civic engagement to better our understanding of diversity in order to help create more inclusive and cohesive communities across cultural, religious, social and ethnic differences.
Source https://humanlibrary.org/about/
*As I read further, I was brought to an article saying that they have already partnered with some schools in the Philippines!*
The first one was with De La Salle University which happened last August 14, 2014. Ten volunteers representing different types of prejudices served as living books and were tagged as: http://librarynewsette.lasalle.ph/2014/08/launch-first-human-library.html
***The Unbearable Lightness of Being Me*** *by* **Maria Vanessa Medina** (lightweight)
***Pride vs. Prejudice: Making the World More LGBT-Friendly*** by **Eric Julian Manalastas** (Gay*)*
***Proud Tibo, Proud Nanay*** by **Ma. Luisa Toribio** (Lesbian)
***The Tattoo Artist*** *by* **Alfred K. Guevara** (Tattooed)
***Heavily Fluffy But Happy*** by **Adolf Rey Duquez** (Obese)
***Mga Karanasan ng Isang Bading*** *by* **Ron de Vera** (Gay)
***Geographies of Gender*** by **Mylene De Guzman** (Lesbian)
***Let Me Be*** *by* **Ruth Mae Nichole Taduran** (Teenage Mom)
***Babaylan*** by **Gabriel “Heart” Diño** (Transgender)
***Lola Monching*** by **Ramon O. Ramos** (Tattoed).
Source http://librarynewsette.lasalle.ph/2014/08/launch-first-human-library.html
This was followed by the University of the Philippines which held its own Human Library experience too last April 22-26, 2019. https://uplb.edu.ph/all-news/univ-library-launches-human-books/
A lot of people gave positive feedback to their “reading session” and I think more and more organizations and schools will adapt this but due to Covid-19, a lot of restrictions have been imposed and maybe have an impact on this.
But a thought kept boggling my mind, If I were given a library card and I'm allowed to borrow a book, who am I gonna choose?
Here are some that crosses my mind:
Philippine President - Rodrigo Duterte - not much to say, just wanted to ask what’s his plan for our country or check if he has one...
Ed Sheeran - I wanna know how he was able to write such amazing songs and what are his struggles along the way. I’m also gonna ask for a picture, signature, song and some spoilers as to what his next album gonna be, is it gonna be minus or subtract?
My best friend - it’s been almost 5 years since we last met, even though we talked a lot and caught up with each other, I just want to see her and maybe being a book, I’d get the chance to.
A mafia Leader - I don't know why but I just think it would be amazing to know how they do it and what do they really do
An advocate of anything - I think sitting down and listening to someone talk about the things they are passionate about would really be a great experience.
I do hope that one day I’d get the chance to visit a human library or even better be a book and share my story to someone else. I don't know what title would I give myself honestly and what prejudice I have with myself but I really, really want to be a book!
I always dreamt of writing a book but I think I'm not for it because my mind wanders from time to time and I personally think I'm not built for it. But learning that I can be a book by talking... now, that's a more interesting thing for me.
I can’t wait for this day to come, this will definitely be added to my bucket list!
See you around!
Lead Image: Photo by Shravankumar Hiregoudar on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@shravan_h?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/human-library?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Weekend getaway
I think for most of us, Covid-19 has changed a lot of things and that primarily includes how we spend most of our days and it won’t even let it get away, **how to spend the weekend.**
Before all of this Covid shenanigans, I usually go out with my friends or visit relatives that live quite far from us, as my way of recharging. It is very rare that I stay in my house to just binge watch something or just sleep out the whole day. There were days though that I did, but I can count them all in my hand.
Now, with the community quarantine still in place this is how I usually spend my weekend:
SLEEP
For most of the day, I sleep. I don’t know why but when the pandemic started I preferred sleeping a lot. I’ve been taking a lot of afternoon naps so it’s not a shocker if I spend most of my weekend sleeping. Maybe because I’m moving upper in my company so a lot of responsibilities comes with it, and sleep is really one of the things that can make me not think of things and fully rest.
WRITING
I don’t write as much before the pandemic because I just don’t have the time to do so, as I’ve said, I’m mostly out in the sun transferring from one place to another. But during the lockdown, I first started writing in my journal. I usually write about how I feel, what’s happening with me or just random things or ideas that I can think of. I remember doing a brain dump page where I can just literally write everything or anything that comes to my mind.
But when I recently recover my read.cash account, I always motivate myself to write one or two articles every weekend, just to get my creative juices flowing because sometimes I do feel like my work is just so attached to my life. I feel like I want something out of my work life and that doesn’t have numbers to compute or reports to present.
*In writing, I can feel that I am more than just my work and I will not be defined by my work so I really do my best to think of contents to write.*
STYLING
Even before I do this, I just take pieces from my closet and style it around with something so that I can wear a cute outfit for work. I pretty much do the same but this time around I just take photos of it because what a waste for a beautiful outfit, right?
This is maybe one of the reasons I created my own channel to share some of the outfit tips that I learned from watching almost hundreds of hours of Youtube styling videos. https://noise.cash/c/outfit-inspiration-kxlp8gl0
This is also one of the activities that I like to do because it also really helps me squeeze out my creative juices and just really play around everything.
I’m up to something lately, I just need to conceptualize it but I’ve been thinking a lot of things for my content on my channel and hopefully people will join in! But I don’t want it over the place, so I’m still finalizing a thing or two.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I share a lot of photos in my noise.cash account and some of them are taken during the weekend when I get to walk around our neighborhood. https://noise.cash/u/sunshinestella
As I’ve shared in my previous articles, I became more and more fond of just walking around the neighborhood and taking our dogs out for a walk. While walking, we get to see a lot of places, flowers, scenes and people. I like to take photos of those rare moments. I’ve been contemplating buying a camera, a DSLR or a Polaroid because I want to cherish memories as much as I can and keeping pictures is one of the best ways to do it.
I do need to add on my to do list to pick some pictures and have them printed out soon. I’m planning to make a photo wall or a memory wall, with all of the pictures of the nicest moments in my life. Hopefully, I get to do that one soon.
MUSIC
If you’ve been following me on my noise.cash account, you might have seen how music means a lot to me. It affects almost every creative aspect of my life. I use it for a lot of things, most of the time it sets or help sets my mood.
Sometimes I’ll just lay down and listen to some acoustic song to think about my life or sometimes when I feel like a bad b****, I play some Nicki or Cardi B songs. It also helps me think of contents when I can’t think of one. Listening to music is a daily thing that I do, I probably can’t live without it.
I hope I can spend more weekends with my friends and family soon but for now let’s do our best to stay safe.
See you around!
Lead Image: Photo by Bench Accounting on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@benchaccounting?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/home?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
I forgot to post this yesterday, but thanks @meitanteikudo for the sponsorship. It's highly appreciated!
6 months after, now what?
I don’t know if I need this but…
***Warning:*** *This article talks about my mental state, if you’re not up for it or might trigger you in any way, I suggest you skip this for now.*
A few weeks back, I wrote all my sentiments about being quarantined and being an extrovert at the same time. It was a tough time for me that I had spiraled into anxiety and had to undergo several visits to my therapy. https://read.cash/@deedum/an-extrovert-in-quarantine-421992a0
Luckily, there was no medical intervention needed and what I’m feeling is what some people might say *“growing up”* or *“adulting”*.
I had lost all of my coping mechanisms when the community quarantine was implemented and *I tried my best not to spiral into anxiety which made it totally worse than it already is, because I was basically anxious with being anxious and I don’t know why I’m anxious in the first place.*
Upon scrolling through Twitter, I came across this line in October or September, which was the peak of all of this and the quote says,
**In 6 months time, everything will be different.**
*Unfortunately, I didn’t get who wrote, published or posted it, so I can’t give due credits to him or her.*
But everyday when I wake up and I’m just not up for anything, I just say to myself, that **maybe after 6 months it won't be so bad anymore.** I also wrote this a couple of times in my journal and added that **if today isn’t the best day and maybe the next few days or weeks will be the same, I’ll just hold on to the thought that 6 months, things might get different.**
6 months had passed or maybe 7-8 months since I first encountered this line. While reading my journal again today, I made another encounter with this line and it made me look back.
The best thing about being human is the ability to evolve and adapt to changes, that’s why maybe this quote was written and thought of. *It’s nice to think that we are not the same person as we are 6 months ago, that we either better or worsen ourselves, we just have to choose which path we would like.*
During this time I also came across William James, the father of American Psychology. I will not dwell on who he is because I just read his anecdote and don’t have much idea what he has accomplished but in one of his journals he wrote that **he will spend a year in his life believing that he was 100% responsible for everything that occurred in his life, no matter the circumstances.**
This might be toxic to some but if you look in deeper you can see that blaming something or someone won’t really get you anywhere. I think the term **"responsible"** here is merely implying that **we are responsible for our responses.**
A lot of things can happen and the world can throw you everything just to make your world flip upside down, we cannot surely control this but what we can control is how we view things and the response that we can give to it.
I did nothing in particular in this 6 months, I just hold on to this line. And amazingly, I’m still here today, still holding on to this line.
Times have passed, I don’t know if I did get better to be honest, but I can do most things now and my smile is definitely brighter than before. I’m still evolving and growing everyday. Sometimes, just like the market right now (I really need to put it here), we go into dips too and these are the days where I can say that in 6 months, maybe things will be different or maybe the same but *I will remind myself that I have the power to choose how I respond.*
If things aren’t getting better, maybe I just have to take a different approach to it.
Smile for me today, okay?
See you around!
PS: I decided to not include the photos of my journal because it might be sensitive to some and I'm trying my best to give hope to people who are in the same situation as me.
Lead image: Photo by JOHN TOWNER on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@heytowner?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/hope?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Life of an Auditor: Work from Home
I am extremely thankful that since the community quarantine was implemented, we have been working from home. There are times that we had to go on fieldwork or client premises but those are rare and I could just count them with my hands.
A lot has been changed since I started working from home, my routine, work ethic and even my productivity. So for today, I’d like to share the major changes in my life when I transitioned into a work from home set up.
Productivity
***I don’t know about you but I’m really having a hard time knowing how productive you are when you are in a work from home set up.***
Before, when you just go to the office and have a meeting or a status update, it feels productive. But now, even though you have back to back meetings to align everyone else’s vision in a certain work, it feels like you’re not accomplishing anything and your to-do lists keep piling up.
We used to have physical activity before so it kinda gives us a feeling that we are tired and that we have done something for that day, even though we just went to the office and didn’t do as much. Now, we rarely do physical activities, we just take a few steps to our desk, poof! You’re at work and *without the physical strain that we experience before, it makes us feel as if we aren’t accomplishing enough, even though you have no more pending items in your to-do list.*
Coffee
This might surprise you but before, I try my best to avoid coffee. I used to drink hot tea a lot but everything changed when the pandemic hit. ***Procaffeinating*** has been my thing, I swear I can’t do anything without having that sip of coffee.
***Coffee has been my signal in going to work.*** Before you do that act of literally going to work but now I feel like coffee has been my metaphor in going to work, that if I start drinking coffee, I need focus because spiritually I’m at work.
I also tried tons of coffee recipes that I do on my own and tried a lot of restaurants and coffee shops too. I fell in love with coffee during the pandemic and I now understand why people are fond of it.
Routine
**There had been a massive change in my routine ever since the pandemic began.** *The major change would be that I don’t have a routine anymore.* Sounds silly, right?
For most people, they started building routines when they started working from home because it can really support flexible working hours and most of the companies just wanted output delivered on time, regardless of what time you work and how long you do it.
But lately, I’m having a hard time getting a routine for myself because some superiors think that since we’re all working at home, you can be available anytime, which I think, is not a good culture.
~~Sometimes,~~ scratch that! Most times, I am forced to work outside my office hours and do nothing during my original working hours because of this flexible arrangement, so I recently accepted that I would never have a good routine for this pandemic.
**Work-Life balance**
I also noticed how difficult it is to have a work life balance in this set-up, probably because we associate our home and the outside world, with life and the office space, with work. *Without both of this visual cues, it’s hard to change mindset of which is which.*
It is really hard when you’re working and suddenly something comes up at your house or they’re all cooking something and you’re working, **it’s hard to just work when you feel like you’re missing out on something.** We can’t also avoid working even though it’s beyond our working time because of the deliverables and deadlines.
It’s really hard to change mindset on what to think about and what to prioritize when in this set up.
Focus
Is it just me or I’ve been having a hard time focusing on anything? Whether it’s reading a book, accomplishing a task at work or just watching a movie. I’m really having a hard time achieving a high and longer level of focus like I used to do. I don’t know if this is because of the work from home set up but I just can’t seem to focus lately.
Virtual Hugs
The thing that I really miss the most is hugging people and probably saying good morning to everyone in the office. I usually start with our security staffs and talk for a while with them, then I head out and talk to our maintenance staff while I make myself a cup of tea. After that my teammates will start coming in one by one and I’m able to greet them all a good morning and give them a hug just because I want to.
Unlike now, it feels weird when you just suddenly pops out in their chat and say good morning out of nowhere. Sometimes I do this but it just hits differently when I do this in the office.
This work from home set up has been both a blessing and a challenge for most of us and I know soon it will evolve. We’re all still under the early stage of it. It’s actually predicted that most of the companies would adopt this kind of set up as there are tons of benefits from it.
Until then, let’s slowly pave our way through all of these hurdles.
See you around!
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Entitlement: Enemy of Gratefulness
I’m currently reading a book called “The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck” by Mark Manson and I'm currently on a part where he talked about entitlement and how it’s not easily seen by ourselves and that what sparks me to write all about this.
Entitlement (n.)
the belief that one is inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
Source https://www.google.com/search?q=entitlement&rlz=1C1GCEB_enPH883PH883&oq=enti&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j35i39j0i131i433j0i433l2j69i61j69i60.1424j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Entitlement can really be seen everywhere, from being entitled because you achieved something that others haven’t achieved yet or you can do things other can't do, it’s pretty evident everywhere. But basically, you feel entitled because you feel like you have something that others don't have.
I used to think this way, but when I read the book that I am currently reading, I have a broader perspective about it. The book says that,
Entitlement plays out in one of two ways:
I’m awesome and the rest of you all suck, so I deserve special treatment.
I suck and the rest of you are all awesome, so I deserve special treatment.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck by Mark Manson
I'm awesome and the rest of you all suck, so I deserve special treatment.
These are the type of people that I really don't like, one of my pet peeves, as they say. It just really get into my nerves when people are being entitled. This is also the type of entitlement that we usually see in people and this is how I define it too and I think this is mainly self-explanatory because I know we’ve been in this loophole even just once in our lives.
Whether you feel that you have a better educational background, so you should’ve been given more attention or promotion. Whether you feel that what you do is better than anyone else and you have that billion dollar idea, so people should listen to you more, we all know we’ve been there.
There's actually a thin line between believing in yourself and being entitled. Not much of a shocker, but we usually cross that line from time to time. But I do think being aware if you’re doing it is a key point. It’s better to prevent things from happening than to solve it when it actually happened, so awareness really plays a big role here.
And I am always thankful when I am being humbled by God, by the universe or by my friends because it helps bring myself back to the roots. That in order to fully succeed in life, one should be humble enough to know that everyone else is finite and we all have limitations. Also, being humble makes it easier for you to see the things you should be grateful for.
I suck and the rest of you are all awesome, so I deserve special treatment.
This is what really caught my attention because honestly, I’ve never seen it in this perspective before.
Lately, we all know that mental health awareness is really stepping in and I’m really proud that more and more people are being aware that mental health problems are real and not just made up.
But on the flipside, this also had caused some people to use mental health as a way to gain privilege and as sad it is, they feel entitled, even if most do it unconsciously. Don’t get me wrong, there are some that really needs intervention and support but there are also some that’s using it to their advantage to gain certain privileges whether in school, work or everywhere.
Sometimes, we feel like we can never truly solve our problems and it makes us helpless and sometimes we just want the world to stop for us. But again, there is also a thin line between seeking help or using it to gain something. This is really hard to be aware of especially as this is a new concept, I don’t know about you but it is for me.
Sometimes, I’m really pissed at how people would not be gentle or adjust for me when I had anxiety before, maybe it’s part of my anxiety or maybe I’m going overboard on what’s happening to me. As you can see, this is really hard to distinguish and the first step in knowing if you are going overboard or being entitled is to know that there is a possibility that you are.
I just wanted to write this and hopefully make people be aware that this feeling can exist and through that when we get rid of entitlement, which I think would be impossible to do, but the best we could do is lessen it.
I just think the moment that we become entitled, it will be difficult for us to see things that we should be grateful for.
This is one of those things that really makes me think and I’m sorry if I do write pretty randomly from time to time.
See you around! 🌤
A Day Out: SM Mall of Asia
I last saw my friends, I think 3 months ago. We caught up with what’s happening in everyone’s life and talked over lunch, dinner and coffee. I usually hang out with my college friends and when we meet up, we complain mainly about work since all of us are auditors, just scattered in different audit firms. Coffee and food are really our bonding time, we just talk and laugh about everything we can think of.
It’s really funny how we would grab lunch and before we leave the establishment we are already thinking of where we would eat next. We’ve been this way since college, eating is one of the things that really brought us closer to each other.
In case you didn’t know, it was the busy season or tax season last April, it’s the time of the year where corporations are required to file their tax returns and pay the corresponding taxes. Before a company files the tax return, it is ideal to have it audited, to avoid penalties and surcharges. *So most of us are really busy during January to April, sometimes it extends to May.*
Fortunately, our city finally toned down the quarantine restrictions by just a slight notch. Dining inside restaurants were allowed and some establishments were allowed to open and accept customers.
So for this Sunday morning, when I was just about to get out of bed, my friend texted me asking me if I wanted to go out, which as you all know, I’m very “kaladkarin”, so *in a heartbeat I said* ***yes****.* We talked about where to go and what time, so we decided to go to SM Mall of Asia since it’s the most accessible for all of us.
**I left around 11 AM, which was a bad idea** because it was so hot and the sun was almost at its peak. I told myself that I should’ve left earlier to avoid the heat. I just brought some water and umbrella to beat the heat. I also wore sneakers today and let’s be honest, we rarely get to wear sneakers lately so this kinda excites me.
It’s amazing how I can finally get out of our village, since I just mainly walk around it, so being out on the highway is a bit nostalgic for me.
According to what we talked about we would grab lunch today and lunch is 12:00, right? I arrived around 11:45 AM, just in time for lunch but when I ask where they are, they’re still on the way here, which was not unusual because most of the time, they’re late.
As I was waiting, I strolled around and went to MUJI store to just scan through items that I might need. *But let’s be real here, the prices there are so high and honestly, you can buy the same brandless items in Shoppee by just a fraction of the original price.* So I just scanned and kept a list in my notepad for the items that I liked so that if I will buy something from Shoppee again, I'll just add those items.
Also, **I took an OOTD shot because I really love my outfit!** I got my shirt from my dad, he wanted to throw it out but I found it cute and I know that I can style it so, tadaaaaa, here it goes.
After that, they’re still on the way, so I went to my wonderland! **FULLYBOOKED!** This is one of my favorite bookstores because you can find almost every book you can think of, in this place. The ambience is also nice here and before the pandemic, they usually allow people to read books here, which is pretty nice.
After that, I met with my friends and finally grabbed lunch. **We went to Popeyes because I really wanted to try it.** I wanted to have the salted egg but it was already phased out so I just went on with the Spicy Chicken Sandwich which was so good! A must try, I can say.
After eating, we roamed around. My friend wanted to check out a camera because he wanted to buy one so we entered a few stores. After that, the highlight of the day, **we grabbed coffee.** We really wanted to try this UCC Coffee for a while now. Unfortunately, they didn’t have frappuccinos and iced teas available when we went there, so I just settled with Iced Mocha which is pretty good and the place is also very cozy and it’s a nice place to stay since most of the coffee shops in MOA are usually crowded.
We didn’t know how long we'd been there. When we got out, it’s almost sunset and we passed through this MOA Eye, sadly it’s not yet operating due to covid. *I remember riding this when I was in college and we’d go here every Christmas party.*
It was an amazing day, I’m happy that I got the chance to check in with my friends and learned that they’re doing well. We waited in the terminal for a ride home, my legs were aching because of all the walking that we had done that day. But it was worth it, because we rarely go out these days.
Hopefully next time I get to visit a museum in Luneta because I really miss going there too.
This was a tiring but a definitely worth it day!
See you around!
Things I learned the hard way: Trading Crypto
I’ve only been here for more than a month, I honestly don’t remember exactly what the date was because it was such an impulsive decision, so bear with me.
It might say in my profile that I’ve been here for almost 10 months now, but that was when I joined before but didn’t really appreciate writing as much. I don’t really want to force myself to write something that doesn’t inspire me, so I stopped and just recently found my way back again.
I’ve been earning some BCH here in read.cash and in noise.cash too. *I am also slowly testing the waters in trading.* I’ve been scalping and trying to sell high, buy low to increase my BCH, **hoping to get 1 BCH soon!**
*For many attempts, I wish I could be like everyone else and say it was a success and I made some profit but let’s be real here.* **Whenever I sell high, it goes higher and I can’t buy it back!!!** ***Help me, I'm stuck!*** Though, don’t call me stupid, I’m literally laughing at myself right now, remembering the dumb things I did and I honestly don’t know what will happen in the next few months or even the next few trades.
But I’m here to share you the dumb things I did so you can learn from it when you start your trading journey too!
*Obviously, I’m not an expert, if I was I wouldn’t be stuck in this position right now but I keep track of my trades and I try to analyze where I went wrong, where I should improve and many other things.*
**These are literally lessons I learned the hard way and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more to come.**
Know your risk appetite.
To just sum it up, there are *3 major types of investor: conservative, moderate and aggressive*. Your classification is based on how much risk you are willing to take and of course your profit or rewards will vary depending on the risk you will take.
As they all say, **the higher the risk, the higher the reward** and vice versa. The more risk you are willing to take, the more that there is a possibility of huge earnings and as well as, huge losses.
Before trading it’s best to know your risk appetite, because for me I’m a conservative to moderate investor, I usually freak out when my investments plummet down. Knowing this, I won’t take as much risk in my investments, hence I should not expect major returns. Because honestly most of us would have a conservative profile but expect huge returns, it doesn’t work that way, the risk you are willing to take is the return you will get. *Knowing this will also stop me from being greedy with my trades.*
Now, I’m not saying be an aggressive investor, but I think it’s important to know this for you to adjust your strategy and don’t get FOMO with other traders.
Track your trades
As you all know, I'm an auditor and an accountant too, so **SPREADSHEET IS LIFE!** I track all of my income, expenses and investment even before I started doing crypto. So tracking my crypto trades and earnings is not really new to me.
For me, I have a google spreadsheet of what I earn in noise.cash and read.cash. I’m still on my way in making a strategy in my trades and I’m really stumbling because I really can’t handle much exposure in my portfolio. That’s why I always track my trades and learn from them, whether they're a gain or a loss, just record them. Later on, you can use it to reflect on your trades!
Don’t let emotions affect your trades.
This is one of those “easier said than done” quotes. I told myself this a thousand times already but it’s a hard thing to learn. When trading, I like myself to really be logical and just trust my technical analysis but sometimes I get so nervous and I rattle down and that causes me to make more mistakes. I’m really, really learning to do this but I think for me not to let emotions affect my trade, I should really put an effort in learning more about charting and the psychological aspect of investing. After all, trading is a lifelong learning as it evolves day by day.
It’s also a must to be objective and **don’t get too greedy with your trades.** We all should set reasonable expectations and don’t expect $10 to turn into $1,000 in just one trade, it’s nearly impossible.
While being greedy is a thing, another one is we should learn to acknowledge when we make mistakes and divert our plan as needed. When you know you made a bad trade don’t just pray and wait for something to happen, act and mitigate losses. This is why the stop loss was invented, sometimes we need to assess objectively if a trade is really worth fighting for.
Just like recently, I bought a bunch of SHIB because I was FOMO-ed. I literally bought it out of emotions without putting research into it and when I did my research I realized how much of s***coin it is. I immediately sold it even though I am at a loss and I thank myself for it because it’s recently plummeting down.
Maybe I wrote this as a reflection paper to just really absorb what dumb things I did recently and hopefully I learned a thing or two from it. I know I’ll still make mistakes but the only thing that surpasses them is just to learn from them.
I wrote this when all of my trades failed, hehe. Hopefully, next time, I’ll write all about how my strategy worked and how much I learned from it.
I hope you got something from this!
See you around!
Lead image: Photo by Jason Briscoe on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@jsnbrsc?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/trading?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
Nail Collection #1
I know you might think that this is pretty random but I just really wanted to share some of my nails to all of you.
I think I only started collecting or buying nails when I graduated from college. I remember the fist time I used one was when I did my oath-taking for my CPA License.
I always put it by myself, with the help of the Open University of Youtube. HAHAHAHA. At first, when I did it, it immediately fall off, like it won't stay even just for a day so I had to put back again. But now, I've learned some tricks to make it last longer, an average fake acrylic nails stays for like 2 weeks except if I get bored with it and want to change again. I always reuse them for 2-3 times, depending on how I remove it, how long used it and if I lose some randomly.
I don't know why and where I got my fondness of nails because in my family, I'm the only one who really loves when my nails are done. My mom would always get mad if I buy another set and she would say I keep buying but I don't use it. I'm like, "Mom, I'm sorry, we're kinda in a pandemic, I can't go out and flex my nails!"
But still I purchase some from time to time, it's not that expensive and I always have a limit for myself when I get some. I usually buy on Shopee and wait for the sales so I can steal some great deals!
I started buying plain ones, then go went matte ones which some I still have and lately, I've been addicted to nails with designs! I know I'll still buy when I have the chance to do so and I'm pretty excited for it!
I know it might sound superficial and materialistic that I am obsessing over nails but I don't know why but I feel like the world is better when my nails are cute. I also feel good when I have a fake nails on and for like PHP35 or $0.70 I get to feel that? It's worth the price for me!
So let me share to you some of my current favorites and I really can't wait to go out and try them on!
Matte Dark Green Ballerina Nails
It might seem blue in the photo but it's actually dark green, probably due to the lighting when I took the photo. I really love this shape because it makes my chubby fingers longer and I really think that the color is unique, I might get a green apple-colored one next because I think the color is unique as well. I probably will use this for regular days because it's not that much special.
Retro Vibe Nails
I don't know the name for this, hehe, so bear with me. I love this nail and there are two sets of blue in this collection, which I really love. To let you in a secret, blue is my favorite color so it's not a surprise that I love this. It's also squared shape, a shape that I really love as well, plus it's short compared to the first one so I'd go with this. It's the same, I'd also wear this for a regular day when I feel pretty or I have a meeting with a client.
The Mystery Yellow Nails
If I remember correctly, I have already posted this in my noise.cash account so a few of you might know the story behind this yellow nails.
I bought it because I love the color so bad and I was actually finding a mustard yellow one but I couldn't find any or it might be pricey. When I saw this, I remember the sun and I really love the sun. I thought that this would really sum up my personality that if I was a nail, I wanna be this. (I don't know why I think so deeply for a nail.)
So I decided to wear this nail if ever someone will ask me out on a date and I really like him, he has to compliment it, if not, he's not the right one for me. It might seem shallow and maybe my mind will change someday but for now I'll stick with it. I'll only wear this on a date with the guy that I really like.
Flower Power Nails
This is a cute nail that I bought last year because I thought in 2021 all will be back to normal and I can go out in time for summer. I think this is really a good set of nails for a summer vacation, right?
But it's a prank, we're still at home, I still can't use it. Maybe when I meet with my friends, once the quarantine restrictions cool down, I will use it. But for now, it will be hidden in it's box and will only be allowed to get out when I can get out too!
I know this is a bit random and might be weird for some of you but mehhhh, I really love these nails and I don't know if I'll still share some of my collections or future collections with you.
I'll stop blabbering around. I'll do my nails now.
See you around.
D o g u e
If you have come by in my previous articles, you might have noticed that I have a fondness for photography. I’ve been taking lots of photos ever since high school, most are selfies and goofy ones. Then, I started to make it more artistic when I reached college.
*I think this fondness for photography stems out from when I created my Instagram account and I started liking the idea of pictures. The moment when you can freeze a memory with just a click and it stays like that forever is probably one of the things that I love the most.*
Ever since, I’ve been using only my phone for photography. I had an iPhone 5s, which stayed for me for almost 4 years and now, my iPhone XS. I always invested in apple phones because for me, it allows me both to have a phone and a decent camera.
I started with making content out of myself, forcing my sister to take on a specific angle, telling her not to move and I will be the one adjusting to her. Then as you all know, or probably not, I also love travelling! I also started taking photos of scenic places and I do love proportions.
There is this thing called the *rule of third in photography,* where you place your subjects in the third of the grid, you can search it out because I will not dwell on it for this article. But as I was saying, I love proportions and this may seem weird but sometimes I can see proportions when I see a place or as I term it *“a good shot”.*
I don’t know how this happened, I never studied photography professionally, only a few videos from the Open University of Youtube! HAHAHAHA. When I am watching tutorials for photography, I am sometimes amazed at myself because *I’m doing what they are doing but I just don’t know the term for it.*
Unfortunately, most of us are still stuck in our houses with limited area to just play around, so I can’t take much of the pictures I used to take. I am really not used to a closed space to think of photos, I usually go to a place I have never been to before then take photos from there. Because of that I started learning to take photos of other things aside from cool places and myself.
**I learned to take pictures of products, sunsets, flowers, plants and my recent favorite, dogs!**
Today, I dedicate this article to our dogs, Victoria and Sebastian. I just played around with them and my camera, still my phone, and just took photos. I really had fun during most of these pictures and I believe they did too because all they ever did was to run around.
Dogs, but make it editorial:
**D O G U E**
(PS. In case you haven’t noticed, this is a dupe of VOGUE Magazine.)
**VICTORIA (V)**
This is a dog given to me by my best friend, who is already in the States and which I haven’t seen for years, so she means a lot. This is the clingiest dog ever and she really likes to lick everywhere, as well as scratch when it’s time for her dog walk time.
Just like in this photo, she is bubbly and always has lots of energy and she loves to go out and play with people. Weirdly, I can see myself in her, that’s probably why we vibe the most.
**NEIGHBOR'S DOG**
When we take a walk out, we usually pass by her/him. He/she is our neighbor’s dog and I honestly don’t know his/her name. He/she is usually out in this window giving us puppy eyes and wanting to go out. Poor doggo.
Sometimes when we pass by her/him, V usually runs faster or around the area. I don’t know why, maybe she likes to make him/her see that it’s fun to be out and that V can go out but he/she is stuck inside. I’m probably losing my mind, here I am making issues with dogs.
**SEBASTIAN (BASTE)**
I just love this shot, it’s taken with such perfect timing and right lighting. He was actually scratching his head and I was just adjusting my light when I took this shot. Such an unusual moment but produced such an amazing shot.
Baste is usually the one that doesn’t care and just lays around, most times when he is tired, he’ll just lie down on the road no matter where.
I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed taking this shot! *It’s hard to change subjects especially when you’re not used to it.* Hopefully, I will find more inspiration from the things I see around me and that I could share it with you.
I’m actually really contemplating on buying a camera, just a beginner one to practice and enhance my photography skills but a lot of things hinder me.
First, the cost, it might cost a lot even if I get the beginner one. The usage, can I really use it despite this pandemic? And will I really push through with it because I don’t want to buy a camera and get bored with it afterwards.
**I honestly still don’t know, maybe if something sparks inside of me, I will get it. But for now, I will just enjoy the photos that I take on my phone.**
See you around! ⛅️
Life of an Auditor: Fieldwork (pandemic)
For additional context, kindly read the first part: Life of an Auditor: Fieldwork (pre-pandemic https://read.cash/@deedum/life-of-an-auditor-fieldwork-pre-pandemic-3bcac15e
*Since the community quarantine was imposed, our company has been working from home.* A work from home arrangement is currently in place and it says that we would work from home until further announced otherwise and that we would only go to the office or the client’s premises in very rare circumstances.
**In the first few months, I think the majority of us would agree, it was a huge relief.**
Imagine waking up, getting a cup of coffee, sitting on your desk and *voila!!!* You’re at work! well, technically, unlike before that I have to travel a minimum of 1-2 hours just to get to my work and that mainly depends on the traffic along the way.
As a person working in Makati, **I can’t even start to talk about the traffic in Makati**. *I think that you would take 2 hours just to travel from Makati to Makati, that’s how extreme it was.* I'm not even exaggerating here. So for many of us, work from home arrangement was a huge blessing.
But as time went by, I started missing fieldwork and I already wrote all about it in my article, “An Extrovert In Quarantine”. I started dreading being locked up, so when I heard that an engagement team needed extra members for a fieldwork… https://read.cash/@deedum/an-extrovert-in-quarantine-421992a0
***I’m pretty sure you know what I would say next, HAHAHAHA!***
*I immediately volunteered as a tribute!*
I know the risks involved since we will be exposed to a lot of people, but our transportation was always arranged ahead of time so that we would always have a private car when we travel. Our hotels will also be pre-booked and *we even went ahead and got swab tested just to make sure that we are all safe.*
And I’m pretty much thankful that I said yes to some but I turned down a lot too, because I know some of you might agree with me that it’s really tiring to go out lately and I’m honestly concerned for the welfare of my family.
It’s one thing to get Covid-19, but it’s more dreadful to know that you brought the virus in your home and a family member got infected.
With all of the additional safety precautions that I needed to bring, alcohol, the face mask, face shield, the paranoia and immediately taking a bath immediately after going home. **You can hear me say something that I never said in my life before, I get tired of going out.**
But during this pandemic I got some of the most interesting fieldworks I have ever been on and I would really love to share some with you!
**Manila City**
Not much happened in this fieldwork, we just counted grocery items again, it's just the same for my previous ones. We stayed there for a week but I think **the most interesting part was when we get to count frozen foods! We went inside this huge freezer which was around -10 degrees celsius!**
We were required to wear thermal jackets and thermal boots, we weren’t even allowed to bring pens because the ink might freeze up and we couldn’t write, so we had to use pencils. We also need to go out from time to time to warm up ourselves because it was really freezing inside.
(I can't find a royalty free picture but I do hope I painted out a picture for you)
**Bataan City**
I honestly think this is the most interesting fieldwork I have ever been on and one of the most tiring ones.
This fieldwork was an inventory count for a petroleum refinery, they just basically transformed crude oil into usable oils for our vehicles. This count was conducted on the 31st of December, when all of the people were busy cooking and preparing for new year’s eve, we were busy climbing up stairs to climb up oil tanks. Our duty there was to measure the types of oil stored in oil tanks and if you haven’t seen one, I got a picture from google because we’re not allowed to bring phones inside because it has radiation and might cause a fire.
This is tiring because we have to manually climb up the stairs to the top and I had 8 oil tanks assigned with me. We also walked from one oil tank to the other so my legs were really trembling after this count.
Don’t worry though, we got home around 5pm, in time for the new year but I can’t jump properly when the clock strikes 12 because it was a really tiring day.
**Bulacan**
This time, we visited a factory that produces paper or carton boxes for packaging. Again, there are no pictures because it wasn’t allowed in the plant for both privacy and radiation issues. It was amazing though, how paper was made.
They were being produced by tons which was like mind-blowing. We also visited several plants in one day so this was a tiring day too. We need to do it in one trip to lessen the exposure so it was really put up in one trip.
**Bonifacio Global City**
I think some of you might watch K-dramas, and do you know the famous part where they always have company elections?
For this fieldwork, I have to be a COMELEC (Commision on Elections) for a company election. This was so nerve-wrecking and it proves that what happens in K-dramas also happens in real life. HAHAHAHAHA. The eerie environment, the whispers and mumbles who to vote for, the suit and tie, the Louis Vuitton bag with matching shades and so much more.
The election was conducted with formalities and legalities, which is of course required, but I didn’t really think that it was as extreme in the movies. I actually didn’t know that this was a part of our job too! But I do know that auditors are hired for pageants too to help in the computation of the scores, so it’s not really surprising that we get to do this.
I can say that even though we only get to travel by land and I should be in London right now, but I can’t, because the world is still under pandemic. I really am thankful for the fieldworks I have been to because most of them are really unique and fun adventures!
I didn’t regret saying yes to them and I do hope the world starts to get better so I can finally hop on a plane and go for a vacation!
I hope you had a fun time with me, see you around!
Lead image: Photo by yousef alfuhigi on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@yousefalfuhigi?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/travel?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
An Afternoon Walk
***One thing that I have learned during this pandemic is how to fall in love.***
**FALL IN LOVE?** Big words, right? Literally. HAHAHAHAAHA. As much as I want to say that I have learned falling in love with another person, I already know that and wouldn't need a pandemic to realize it.
I would also want to say to myself, but I'm still on process with this one and would take a while before I can fully say this.
***To be honest I have fallen in love with nature, especially in taking walks and just appreciating things.*** I just love being able to walk around, breath fresh air, watch the clouds pass by and just play with the doggos and cats we meet along the way.
I rarely do all of those things before the pandemic, instead of walking I'll just take a ride because who would want to get all sweaty and tired? In rare cases I'll walk but with my earphones on, just ignoring the world and doing it as fast as I can so I can get home as soon as possible.
*Lately, I've been taking a lot of walks*, just around our village because we really can't go far. Sometimes alone when I want to think and I’m pretty stressed up. Most times, I'm usually with my siblings and our 2 dogs.
I know a lot of us still can't go out so I thought of bringing you all with me and let you be a part of one of our afternoon walks. I promise, I tried my best to fully document it!
Let's walk!
1. Don't pick me up!
My grandma is a big enthusiast of plants and believe me when I say ***she can grow anything.*** Sometimes I even wonder if she eats a fruit, like mango, and throws it in the soil, I think it will grow as a tree.
If she had this so-called "Green Thumb", you might not be surprised by how many plants are there in our house and even on our streets. The moment you step out of our house, you'll see flowers and plants everywhere, most of them are medicinal ones.
For our first stop, this is one of the flowers that can be seen when you just take a few steps from our house. I really love the color of this, it's really vibrant but I prefer the white version of this. Plus, I don't know the name of the plant, so if you know please let me know! My best guess right now is daisies. HAHAHHAHHAAH
2. End of the street
We usually go at the end of our street and let our dogs run free. This is because most of the time there are no people there, so it's safer because we have less interactions with people. The best part, we can do pretty much everything. We run along with the dogs and most of the time, we turn them into models and practice our photography skills.
I have compiled a series of their pictures and would love to share them in another article, I'm just really addicted to taking photos of them because they are so cute and fluffy.
3. We scream for ice cream!
After the time spent at the end of our street, we usually head home but if we're giddy enough, we will even roam the dogs around our subdivision.
Midway in reaching the end of our village, we would always stop by a local ice cream shop which is cheap but too good for it's price! For today, I had a coffee mocha flavor which was so good and let's all admit it, nothing can go wrong with coffee! We would eat this out while walking further and usually we finish it before reaching the end of our village.
4. The Shade
This is one of the oldest trees in our village, I don't know exactly how old it is but looking at its size, we can say for a long time now. This is so amazing because for most part of the year, usually it doesn't have leaves but when spring and summer comes, it turns into this huge majestic thing. Along with the perfect sunset background, it's just so surreal.
Pictures like this makes me realize that God is really an artist and if he put thought in making this tree what more in making us!
5. Selfie Time
Of course, I had to do it, just let me have it. I have to switch into my front camera and take a picture of myself. Not much to say about this, I just looked at the clouds and thought they looked like cotton candies and would really love to bite them, just like pretty much anyone else. **I really think biting should be the 6th love language!**
I also thought that if I lay down in the clouds, will I fall through? Will I be able to jump up and down on it? I would really love it if I can play among the clouds. Hehe.
6. Tired hoomans and doggos
By this time, we were pretty much rushing home because we wouldn't want to be caught in curfew but our dogs kept pausing probably because they were tired of running around so much!
In one of our stops, the sky was like this and this is a minute phenomenon if you don't get to catch it, you'll lose your chance. You literally have to wait another day for you to see this.
It's not everyday that the sky bleeds this color so I consider this a magical walk.
We got home safe, just in time for curfew. Phew! We didn't forget to sanitize ourselves and eat dinner after a long walk.
I hope I will get more time to take you more on my travels, but right now our village is the most that I can tell you about. I'm hoping that next time, I'm on a plane ride off to somewhere and I'll surely bring you along with me!
I hope to have more adventures with you!
See you around!
Operation: Brain Cells for Zell
Lately, in my past few articles, you might have noticed how much I complain about how badly I want to go out.
***Finally, I was able to go out today!!!!***
It’s very rare that I am able to go out, because the community quarantine restrictions are still pretty tight here in our city.
In the very few times I step out, of course I always grab the opportunity to dress up! But I only put a little effort on my outfit since we were already rushing, as we wanted to be home before the curfew. ***One thing I did was to make sure that I got the summer vibes.*** Honestly, this whole outfit was thrifted for around PHP 100 or $2 only, which I think is a great deal!
**So, the reason why I went out is...**
**For a** top secret mission **I did with my two little sisters.**
My sister, @Hanzell, started her review this weekend and *you have no idea how much she complains about how much she has no brain cells left for studying.*
As a fellow professional who has gone through the horror of board exam review, I know how much stress eating really helps during review. So, me and my little sisters decided to provide **"brain cells"**, in the form of food, to hopefully help her and encourage her for her review, *because let’s be real, food is one of the greatest motivations there is.*
For the past few days, we have been discussing what to get her for her emergency brain cells. My sisters already pre-made the box. Me and my sister went out today the groceries to buy what's in the list and we arranged all of it quickly when she was taking her bath.
*To give you an idea of what braincells we got for her, here are the items:*
Coffee (5,000 brain cells)
Like me and many of us, ***she is always procaffeinating***, which is the gen Z term for not being able to start anything without a cup of coffee. This is her favorite brand of coffee, as she also loves milk, and this is super milky. Me and my mom is not really fond of it so we decided to get her tons of it even though we have regular coffee in our kitchen.
Honestly, I think, coffee alone could motivate her, but we bought other stuffs too to make sure she has sufficient brain cells.
Milk (500 brain cells)
Milk is her favorite drink and we haven’t tried this flavor yet so I only bought one pack of it, but we have already tried the strawberry and green apple flavors of it and my sisters liked it. It's only PHP 50 or $1 per pack, which is totally a steal for me, considering it has 6 100ml bottles per pack and the best part... it has straws!
She always has milk supply in our kitchen, I just think it would be cute to have a little milk with its matching straw, kinda feel like it has a japanese or korean vibe to it while reviewing, along with some lo-fi songs, right?
Cream-O (5,000 brain cells)
***Oh, the holy Cream-O!*** Her love for this extends way back from high school. When we would go to groceries she would always choose this as her school snack over and over again. Sometimes I think if she would ever get bored with it, but up until now, she still buys this in the grocery. This is one of the things in our list that is non-negotiable, we should have this or nothing at all.
Choco Crunchies (1,500 brain cells )
We were supposed to get Choco Mallows, the one with mallows on top, but I think this was more worth it for its price. We thought that this is a great snack when she feels sleepy and needs something to munch on. This has also been one of the snack that we always eat growing up, so we're pretty sure she'd like it!
Lala (3,000 brain cells)
First of all, we were surprised to find this in the candy section, we didn't know that they have bite or cute size pieces of it. For all we know, this brand has already been phased out. *This was one of our childhood favorites.* We used to buy some of this when we were on the way home during elementary. But pretty much same with the choco crunchies, this is great snack to keep your droopy eyes from falling.
To put it all together, we put it in a box, which my sisters made and a funny thing is that she saw it when they were making it, but probably think it was for their school work.
We also wrote notes to the sides of the box, I wrote "Dream High! Don't do drugs" which I think is funny! HAHAHAHAHA. I also made a calligraphy that says “To our Future Chemist” which could’ve been better but we’re running out of time and we just had to pack it in a short time she took a bath.
My little sister spoiled the surprise a little early but still, ***Operation: Brain Cells for Zell was a success!*** We had gathered 15,000 brain cells for her which would hopefully help her during review.
We have lots of more operations to do in the future and hopefully most of them would be a success!
I hope you had fun joining us in our operation!
To more future operations, see you around!
Life of an Auditor: Fieldwork (pre-pandemic)
An auditor, especially someone belonging in the Big Four Audit Firms (EY, KPMG, PWC and Deloitte), would have clients all over a certain country, which in my case the Philippines, or even globally. Although we have other branches in other parts of the country, traveling to a client or a warehouse is an indispensible part of my job as an auditor. We usually visit clients for the following reasons, but certainly not limited to:
Interview about the company
Inspection of voluminous documents
Plant visits
Physical Inventory Counts
As you can see fieldworks are basically a huge part of what I do, *I usually hop in from one place to another*. Most of the time, I just stay in the house over the weekend and leave again to another city, when Monday comes.
The best part is… **ALL OF OUR EXPENSES ARE REIMBURSABLE**. Yes, you heard it, right! We travel almost everywhere, sometimes even through planes, and all of our transportation is free. We are also given some allowances for food and other expenses.
*It sounds so amazing, right?* Especially for a traveler and extrovert like me, but be weary, nothing comes without a price. I think the hardest part of fieldwork is that sometimes, it’s just so spontaneous, like I mean, **SO SPONTANEOUS!** There are days where on the way home from a fieldwork, around 10 pm, someone would call that I have a flight tomorrow at 5 am or a field in a far city and I have to leave around 4 am to get to the client on time.
This caused me to be always prepared. I always had this *“fieldwork bag”* where everything I need is already there and I am just always ready to leave in a moment’s notice.
It’s quite funny because, if I remember correctly, I had only been in our main office for just a week and not in consecutive days. I would just visit the office to sign something or to reimburse my expenses and never come back for a long time again. I never stepped in the office since the pandemic began. I was actually in a fieldwork in Laguna when the community quarantine was announced.
Fieldwork is one of the main reasons why I stay in my job and honestly speaking I was supposed to fly in the UK for a secondment opportunity for 3 months starting next week, but it got cancelled because of the pandemic. I’m a bit salty about it so instead let me just reminisce on some of the best fieldworks I have been to, to try and wash away my salt.
1. Subic Bay Metropolitan Area (SBMA)
All of us are required to take a minimum of 2-week training before we are deployed in our company and this fieldwork… Immediately after stepping out of the training room, I was informed that my client was located in SBMA and we have to conduct the audit there. I stayed there for almost a month and a half, just barely going home every weekend. This was a major shocker for me because it’s the first time I’ve been away from my family for so long and I haven’t met anyone that I will be going with so it was so nerve-wrecking.
The client was a manufacturing company which produces door knobs and I was so amazed because we got to see how the door knobs were made. We got to tour the whole plant but on most days, we were stuck in a conference room.The client also provided us with good food and even treated us once to some lunch which costs around P3,000 per meal.
I also remember always visiting the puregold store before I go home which was tax-free because it’s located in an export zone and prices are in USD. Chocolates were way cheaper there so my siblings would always be excited with the chocolates I bring home.
2. Roxas City
This was one of my most exciting yet tiring fieldwork. I live in Manila so I had to fly to Roxas City. I was with my team members but we didn’t check in at the same time so we had different seats. It was my first time riding a plane and I was doing it alone, good thing I picked a window seat.
We had this count scheduled on January 1st to January 6th, so I had to be away during the holidays which wasn’t a new thing for most of us. We had to count a grocery store there, the whole selling area and warehouses too!
The thing about inventory counts is not stocks or inventories are not allowed to move during a count. So if you have to receive or to deliver stocks, we need to move the count on a time when there is no movement or stop the movement for a while.
This client is a grocery store so when it’s open, there will surely be movement. We had to wait when the store was closed before we could count so we were counting grocery items from 8pm - 5am, for almost a week because the grocery store there is quite huge.
The best thing about this fieldwork is that we were supposed to go home on a Sunday but our flight got cancelled and we were rebooked on Monday. Our first instinct was to tour around Roxas City, we were asking locals what’s the best place to go to, but one suggested we go to Iloilo which was only around 2 hours away.
We searched for tourists spots in Iloilo and we stumbled upon a day trip in Islas de Gigantes, which includes 6 islands and a full seafood lunch for only P1,000 or around $20 only. Sick, right? This was one of the most spontaneous trips I’ve ever been but also one which I’m really grateful we partake in.
3. Bonifacio Global City (BGC)
This is one of my city life fieldwork which was one of the “why did I do that?” moments. So to give you a background we usually perform a bank confirmation as one of our procedures in audit. A bank needs to confirm how much money a company deposits in their bank, of course with the permission of the client.
We do this procedure by sending letters to the bank, pre-covid times, and using a messenger or even a courier before takes a lot of time so sometimes we would go directly to all the banks of the clients located in one place.
And ta-daaaa, I was assigned to deliver bank confirmation letters in all of the banks located in BGC. This made me realize how little BGC is because I literally walked around it and another realization is that Waze is better than Google Maps in this kind of situation.
This was really, really tiring. I was allowed to take a Grab from one place to another but upon booking I realized that it’s only a few minutes walk and the fare is not worth it. And as we all know, I get to explore even more and maybe visit a few stores here and there before going to the other bank, so I just decided to walk and roam around.
Now, will I repeat this experience? Probably not, if my time walking around was spent on doing additional audit procedures, I could’ve done more. HAHAHAHA, but this was an experience that every auditor should experience.
These are some of my interesting and favorite fieldworks when the world wasn’t shut down yet and we can freely go out. It was nostalgic trying to remember it and fetching pictures of it, maybe this gives you more understanding on why I made an article of my struggles of being locked in the four corners of my house.
I made some fieldworks during the pandemic too and I will write them in part 2 of this mini article series, a pandemic version. I thought that fieldworks during the pandemic would disappoint but I had some cool and recent experiences too that I think would be lovely to share with you!
I hope you had a fun time joining me in my past travels!
See you around! 🌤
If you want to know what an auditor do, you can visit here:
Life of an Auditor: Doctors of Corporate World https://read.cash/@deedum/life-of-an-auditor-doctors-of-the-corporate-world-2849797b
I called in sick today...
*I woke up this morning and my head hurts so bad.*
I’m fine and certainly not sick, it’s just that I slept pretty late last night. I slept around 1 AM which was pretty unusual for me because by 10 PM, I usually have an appointment in my dreamland with my crush!
Honestly, I slept late because of… ***the Shopee 5.5 sale*** and I know I’m not alone! 😜
Shopee is like the Philippine version of Amazon, as Amazon is not quite popular and easily accessible here in my country. Every month they put on a sale at around 12 MN and people would stay up late for it because of the huge discounts and free shipping vouchers.
Let me just defend myself, I don’t usually splurge that much and most of the things I buy online or in Shopee are needs. If they are wants, I'd make sure I thought it through and I had an excess of money for it. *Okay, I'm a little defensive there!* HAHAHA.
To let you in a bit more, the things that I bought last are the following:
**The subtle art of not giving a fuck and Everything is fucked by Mark Mason** - I’ve been really wanting to buy these two books. It’s already been months since I wanted to get it and I started reading the first book in e-book but I really wanted a physical copy of the book. I also feel like this is a reward for myself for surviving another busy season at work.
**Gas Stove** - we noticed that our gas stove is not functioning well anymore, just like me. HAHAHAHA. And lately, we also noticed that we have been buying gas tanks more frequently, so we decided that it would be a good mother’s day gift for our mom. *Hopefully, it gets delivered before Mother’s day!*
**18 Shopee parcels for our little sister** - my little sister is turning 18 next month and since we’re pretty much still locked in our houses and can’t really celebrate the trraditonal way, we wanted to spice things up and make a quarantine version of a debut. It’s just a simple one, she just needs to open 1 gift a day up until her birthday. I’m probably gonna write a whole article about this and I’m pretty excited for it! I think she would really love it.
*(I’d also love to know what you checked on Shopee or Lazada today or if you’re one of the mighty ones who didn’t check out anything?* ***Congrats!***)
So after checking it all out, I immediately went to sleep. I woke up at 6 AM, the usual time I would usually get up, but today my head feels like it’s gonna crack. My work starts at 8:30 so I decided to sleep more.
I woke up at 8:45, a bit late but we are working on a flexible time in our work from home arrangement, so it's fine and I still can go to work. But a sudden thought struck me,
"What if I call in sick today?"
I decided to do so and call my manager and colleagues, I don’t have much to do anyway today so it wouldn’t have an impact or extra load to my other colleagues.
I didn't do much today and I just came here because I wanted to rant about,
**WHY DOES IT FEEL LIKE A MORTAL SIN IF YOU CALL IN SICK?**
First of all, the company gives this “benefit” to us, the same with vacation leave but why does employers usually don’t allow you to take it?
*In this hustle society and the culture of overworking in my country, I feel like you should be in a life and death situation before you can file a sick leave.* And filing a vacation leave would take months of notice before you can use it, then at the end of the day when our sick and vacation leaves expire, we’re the one to blame because we didn’t use it?
**No, honestly, you didn’t let us use it.**
I don’t even want to begin at how few our leaves are, the mandatory vacation leave in the Philippines are as listed as below:
**Vacation**: Thirteen (13) vacation leave, with additional 1 day every year starting on the 3rd year of service and convertible to cash at the end of each year. Maximum vacation leave is 18 days.
**Sick Leave**: Twelve (12) days for the first two years of service and additional 1 day every year starting on the 3rd year. Maximum total sick leave is 15 days. All unused leave are convertible to cash at the end of the year.
Reference https://www.onsemi.com/site/pdf/Benefits-Summary-Philippines.pdf
If you compare this to other countries, Brazil has 30 days of annual leave, the United Kingdom and New Zealand have 28 and Italy has 26, this excludes their sick leave and annual public holiday. ***We only have 15 days*** and those 15 days are not usually given as freely as it should be.
Reference https://shieldgeo.com/a-guide-to-annual-leave-and-sick-leave-around-the-world/
Another frustrating news is the **recent announcement of the president of removing the dates November 2, December 24 and 31 as non-working holidays**. I just can't! This frustrates me even more because these are all holidays we usually spend with our family. I know it’s needed for the boost of the economy but if they did a decent job with this pandemic we wouldn’t have to be here, but that is for another rant.
Reference https://www.bworldonline.com/no-work-no-pay-on-nov-2-dec-24-and-31/
I wish we can live in a society where we can take sick leaves because we’re pretty much burnt out at work or we’re having a hard time getting out of bed. And when you do take one, I wish it wouldn’t make us feel guilty and we can really rest and do the things we wanted for the day because honestly some employers still call you even though you already had permission to take a leave.
I’m having a hard time setting this boundary for myself because of how demanding my job can be, but I read it on a Facebook post where they ask a 100 year old man what advice would he give and one of them was **“Use your vacation and sick leaves”.**
*I am slowly learning to practice in using vacation and sick leaves even if I'm just gonna be at my room reading a book, watching a series or even doing absolutely nothing.* This is needed in order for us to not resent our jobs and not to dread to go to work everyday. **I do hope employers realize that their employees or work force are assets too!**
I know I rambled a lot, I’m just really frustrated at how employees are being exploited and the concept of corporate slaves should not be a joke anymore, as people would make it as a joke and honestly I don't even know why they do this!
This culture will never end if the government itself won’t change up the regulations but mehhhh… **we can’t expect much from our government.** I don’t know if this can change anything, I just wanted to rant about this and tell you why I called in sick today.
See you around! 🌤
Lead image: Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash https://unsplash.com/@jonathanborba?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText https://unsplash.com/s/photos/headache-in-bed?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText
@deedum
