Gleniz da MenaceDami kong tanong. Recently kasi, ang hilig kong manood ng mga Manila vlogs. Yung mga podcasts na pinapakinggan ko, gusto ko as much as possible Tagalog. Aliw na aliw rin akong manood ng Pinoy movies ngayon (kakatapos ko lang panoorin kagabi yung movie ni Regine Velasquez at Robin Padilla: Kailangan Ko’y Ikaw). Basta para bang uhaw na uhaw ako sa anything Pinoy. Ito ang mga tanong ko:
Dahil mahilig akong mag-journal at meron akong physical planner, naturally, magiging interesado ako pag nakakita ako ng article na ang title ay, ‘Everyone’s going analog’ or ‘The Analog Bag’ (analog bag??). Ngayon ko natutunan na maging extra careful sa mga kini-click kong links kasi once pumindot ako, kukuyugin na ko ng algorithm ng mga content na puros yun na lang. Nakakaumay!
Pag nakakakita ako ng mga videos ng mga farmer’s market haul, natutuwa ako. Parang ang saya nyang activity. Na-experience ko na sya dito pero hindi ako natuwa. Hindi kasi maganda yung farmer’s market dito sa Calgary—to be fair, isa pa lang naman yung napupuntahan ko. Pero ang layo rin kasi dito sa lugar namin. Tapos hindi sya yung farmer’s market na na-iimagine ko. Ang gulo dun sa napuntahan namin. Ang isa ko pang dilemma, once andun na ko, na-o-overwhelm ako sa nakikita ko at hindi ko alam kung anong mga bibilhin ko. But I think nakahanap na ko ng solusyon.
During our weekly heart-to-heart session last week, merong tanong dun sa couples deck na:
What’s your ideal day pag nag-retire ka na?
So inisip ko yung mga gusto kong gawin pag lola na ko, which is:
I’m three months TikTok-free (my longest TikTok detox yet?), and out of curiosity, I asked my cousin what’s happening there and what are the things I should know:
First, she sent me a voice message of her singing and bombarded me with videos of her dancing. Akala ko mga general TikTok dance trends yung sinesend nya. Yun pala dance trends specific to KATSEYE songs. I told her I would finally listen to their music.
I think the holiday season officially started for us when one of Kenneth’s college friends invited us to go on a holiday train ride.
Just like the previous year, I rounded up all my published posts and organized them around the recurring themes of this blog (paid posts are marked with an asterisk) . My utmost gratitude goes to those who find joy and comfort in my writing. I hope it was worth your time. When you love to write, being seen and heard means a lot. But probably the more compelling motive is my internal one. Writing is how I make sense of the world. Thank you for being with me on this voyage of self-expression and discovery.
Writing has so much to give,
Anne Lamott
so much to teach, so many surprises.
The act of writing,
turns out to be its own reward.
I was able to achieve this year’s reading goal (yay). Since 2023, my reading goal has been the same: read 12 books in a year. This number feels right to me—it’s not too many, but still personally challenging enough.
Here are the 12 books I read in 2025 (with quickie reviews), starting with the ones I liked the least:
I rated these books 2 to 2.5 stars
Annoying kid. Mean boy. Bad friend.
December is a sensitive month for me. Kasi simula pagkabata, as mentioned before, ito yung favorite month ko. Festive and vibrant ang paligid, magbi-birthday ako, nung bata ako alam kong magkakaron ako ng pera pamamasko, nung tumanda na nakakatuwa yung mga sale, and just overall looking forward to family holiday events. My brain had a certain expectation pagsapit ng December, built from my childhood and was a constant part of my world. Pero nagbago lahat yun nung nag-move kami sa Canada.
Many years ago, after getting my first iPhone, pinamana ko yung iPod Touch ko kay Illysa (my cousin) because I figured hindi ko naman kailangan both at the same time. But now that she’s no longer using it, I retrieved it for nostalgia purposes (buti na lang hindi nya naiwala or tinapon). Nung binigay ko yun sa kanya back in 2016, ang tanging hiling ko lang ay wag syang magbura ng photos. Thankfully, she didn’t delete them all and I was happy to see some of those old photos again.
Gleniz da Menace