2020 Review

Huh, who knew? That we can get through the sh*tty year that is 2020. 🤔 And for last time (and maybe first?), let’s take a look back to what happened with Red David’s life in last year (SPOILER: not so much, like most of us I guess).

January

Puerto Galera, 2nd week

New Year, New Decade! We expected a lot in 2020 coming from 2019. It started out pretty much a normal month. We would have the time to travel out of town,

It is always a good feeling when you can travel on the first month of the year, so that’s what we did. So my girlfriend and I went to Puerto Galera, Mindoro and rented a place to stay for 3 days and 2 nights.

This place has been a must-travel not just for us both but for most of Pinoys. The white sand beach makes this place present on everybody’s bucket list.

Our stay was short but it was worth-while. From walking along the beach, taking “artistic” photos, watch the sunset enjoyed a quite weekday evening, and chilled during the weekend evening when the “bands” and music will fill up the place. We also had henna tattoos, got a massage, and just tried to taste all the food.

Here are some of the photos we took during our short stay:

Taal Volcano Eruption

Ok hold on, this wasn’t a part of our trip but as we are leaving the port to return to Metro Manila, we found out that Taal Volcano erupted (which was located in Batangas) but thankfully the eruption was slow that we weren’t stranded along the way. But this news may be the start of something awful through 2020.

The volcano spewed a lot of volcanic ash that towns and cities, including Metro Manila.

Trip to BGC, last week

This should be the last week of January and the KPop group Winner was doing a tour in Manila. I am not a KPop fan but my sister is that the 3 girls in our family went to SM Mall of Asia to watch them.

The next day, we went to visit Baclaran church to give thanks to the Lord and went straight the infamous Venice Grand Canal Mall in Taguig, a Venice-inspired open-air mall.

After exhausting the whole place, we went down to Bonifacio High Grounds which is not that far from the canal mall. We just walked around the place, took some photos, and tried to visit a museum but unfortunately they were already closed.

February

Valentine’s Day and a New Laptop

Hmmm, nothing much happened this month, just the usual Valentine’s date on the 14th. We just went to this semi-high end restaurant and ordered some pizza, pasta, and wine.

I also got a new laptop, my third Acer laptop - been an Acer user since 2011-ish because of it’s ok specs at a lower price. I blogged about that laptop here: I Got Myself a New Laptop

March

Oh no!

Oh how it started so well until a new unknown deadly virus broke out of Wuhan, China.

It seemed the world has stopped due to lockdowns, and despite the technological advancement we have since the last decade, we still took too long for a cure.

These, I think, are the times we don’t want to talk about anymore.

April - November

I’ll sumamrize these months here, since we all have been in lock down and stayed in our homes. But luckily for us, our occupation allowed us to still make a living and let us stay in.

Within these months, the government has been extending and extending the quarantine every 30 days - they just fear for public panic if they announce a definite lockdown for a year.

I went busy during these time, did some web and app development, went on to stream some games on Facebook Gaming and took some online courses (view my LinkedIn profile here).

With all of these, I upgraded (again) my peripherals for my convenience (sorry Girlfried, 😂). I bought a over-the-head headset and an earbuds, for better Zoom meetings and streaming - the JBL Quantum 200 and the HyperX Cloud earbuds. I also got myself a wireless Logitech gaming mouse, the G304, which I reviewed here and a Tecware mechanical keyboard TKL, which you can read more about here.

I also went on to upgrade my work PC’s SSD for a better brand and higher storage, cheaper though - the XPG 8200. Also bought a JBL Go3 bluetooth speaker, and the Logitech C922 webcam, also for Zoom meetings 🤣. I blogged about the camera here: Finally! Logitech C922

December

Christmas and New Year’s Eve

This might be the hardest Christmas and New Year we’ve all faced and celebrated, but lucky enough, I had the chance to take a break from the rat race and went home to celebrate the holidays with the family together with my father whom was also stuck in his workplace city due to quarantine and lockdown.

The shopping continues, I got myself the Razer Hammerhead Wireless earbuds and a yellow iPhone 11 for Christmas. I did not post a blog about the wireless earbuds since the unit I got was faulty (had it replaced now). And I prefer not to flaunt my new iPhone since there’s nothing special about it, my ultimate goal of buying one is to develop apps for iOS.

How’s Your 2020?

This year had been a mix of emotions but mostly depressing. We still coping to the new normal, keeping safe, and I know we all miss socializing.

This might look like a tech shopping spree for me but I also grew my Facebook page from 261 to 940 this year. Played and streamed some good games - MINECRAFT!

Read a few books, got certificates from online courses, and especially I am still alive and healthy.

How did your 2020 go? Tag me on your story.

📷 credits: Dumpster Fire 2020