Pinoy Baiting

An image that is meant to represent "Pinoy Baiting" - image was generated with the assistance of Dall-E3.  Over several years, we have seen the popularity of so-called Pinoy-baiting videos. It may start innocently enough, in which certain social media influences would just happen to feature something Philippines-related in their videos and they would be surprised by the sudden surge in the number of views in their video. They would go back to their standard content type and would see that it would not perform as well as that one video so the…

Grocery store-bought Maki

A tray of Maki bought from the supermarket. Flickr/Jep I was at a local grocery store earlier today to buy some kibbles for my cats and I noticed that they were selling these near the fresh produce section. It doesn't have any raw fish or anything easily perishable like that and consists mostly of cucumber, seaweed, rice, mango, and kani. They looked nice so I thought I'd buy a tray. Big mistake, the rice was obviously not sushi rice and was a tad bit undercooked. I definitely did not enjoy them. At least they looked pretty.

Duolingo quietly got rid of community discussions on individual exercises

A green owl holding a knife while gesturing to be quiet by holding a finger to his mouth. Image generated with the assistance of Dall-E3.   In a Reddit announcement  posted about 3 months ago, Duolingo announced that they are dropping the community discussions on individual exercises. I admit that this was only brought to my attention recently and not while using the app but in a totally random algorithmically recommended video by Evan Edinger  I stumbled upon while I was browsing through YouTube. I have been an obsessive Duolingo learner for about 4 …

Undas, Todos Los Santos, Tigkalalag, All Souls Day, Day of the Dead - a deeply rooted Filipino tradition

An infrared photograph of a memorial park in the Philippines. Flickr/Jep It's that time of the year again when Filipinos all over the country return to their hometowns to visit and pay respect to their departed family and friends. It is a day of remembrance, a day for visiting grave sites, laying down flowers, offering prayers, and lighting candles. In my childhood, my aunts and uncles on my father's side, being of Chinese ancestry, would also have the tradition of offering food and lighting incense on family altars at home.  This time of the ye…

Full moon photo - October 28, 2023

Photo of last month's full moon (Oct 28, 2023). Taken with a Panasonic Lumix GF2 body fitted with a Vario 45-200mm lens. Other information: f/16 1/200 sec 200mm ISO 100 In-camera 4x digital zoom/cropping.

The Coke Ultimate Limited Edition

The Coke Ultimate Limited Edition - a collaboration with League of Legends This tastes like normal Coke Zero with a subtle watermelon aftertaste. Seen this at 7-Eleven for quite a while now but I've never really thought that a new flavor justified the more expensive price tag even if it's just a few pesos. Curiosity got the best of me and I finally decided to try it. Interesting flavor, curiosity satisfied, but will not buy it again. 😅