Looking New in 2022

Another late blog post. 😓 Well, I may have an explanation you might not accept but hear me out.

So my last post was on December 4th, and I really tried to do a weekly, heck, even daily short posts. But the days do really come fast when the holidays are coming and vacation leave plans make you do work in crunch time.

Finale 2021

Luckily, we survived another year of the grueling pandemic and the local government did lower the Alert Level to a much more free movements in public - children can now go out with adults in malls. The holidays compared to last 2020 felt better.

The 24th and 25th

I decided to celebrate Christmas Eve with my fiancée’s family with a fantastic dinner.

Going back about people being free last year, I also spent with her family on Christmas day. After hearing the Holy Mass, we were supposed to go picnic at Luneta Park but hoooly moly, the place was packed with people!

We arrived actually to a long line of newcomers until a sudden rain poured down that those without umbrellas, (inside and outside the park) came together where there’s shelter.

That’s when they decided to go to SM Mall of Asia instead.

And just like going to the park, there were also traffic jams traveling to the mall.

Despite expecting a lot of people, the mall was huge enough to contain them, except for restaurants at that time that most are full.

After some time having to get dinner, we decided to go to the mall park to check and might try some rides. And that’s where we found that it’s also packed and they won’t let us enter anymore. Sadge, we went home and ended the day.

Before the Year Ended

I went home 3 days early for New Years Eve with my old friend Dave. He invited me to join him for the long drive home.

Sadly, my fiancée can’t join me at ours because they would also be going back home.

I always try to go home days early to spend time with friends making the last few days actually spent time with the family.

Sadly again, we failed to meet up. And just like before, there’ll be a next time. Right?

On the 30th, the family went to Tondaligan Beach early in the morning as it would get really hot even at 9 in the morning.

New Year Eve

I don’t remember if I helped out in food preparations 😂.

The New Year’s Eve always start early by drinking liquor, listening to loud music, karaoke, etc.

There were lots of fireworks compared to last year and people looked a lot more hopeful for the coming year.

Year 2021 Part 2

A lot got sick after the holidays and mostly believed that it was flu season. But it was also reported that the then latest COVID variant, omicron, causes slight mild symptoms similarly to a flu. But then a few days went on and the COVID-19 numbers started to rise up.

Back to the Jungle

I actually returned to work on the second week of the first month. I took an antigen test and it came negative.

I worked on Monday, the day after the test feeling really well, but then came Tuesday afternoon. My energy just went kaput.

Downhill. Just. Like. That.

I Got the Bad V

Bad vibes, I really think it’s the bad virus.

That day, I just ate a hefty lunch normally, drank coffee and went on to start the day (I wake up after noon). After a few hours, Inbecame suddenly weak and drowsy. I also felt being cold even in a jacket. I started checking my temperature and it started rising up.

I quickly prepared my things to go home, to my fiancé’s. Her room was isolated and kept me locked in most of the time. I took some meds to lower my temperature but it didn’t work. It continues to rise up by the hour that I just left my undies on me to release the heat. It really is that high!

The fever came with a massive headache and body pains that moving was a struggle. I kept taking meds every 4/5 hours to lower my temps and relief head and body aches. The first two nights were the height of all the symptoms. Lucky enough for those days, I didn’t have cough or colds that might release some infectious fluids.

My appetite never changed drastically during the 3-4 days of being sick. I ate well and drank a lot of water, continued taking meds for mild head and body aches, vitamins for my immune system, and basic exercises whenever I can.

I am deeply grateful for her family that I am still alive right now. And I spent the rest of January in isolation playing Hollow Knight - which is an awesome game - and read a few books and watched online courses.

Hollow Knight

This game is a metroidvania platformer which I actually played way before but gave up due to not having a proper gamepad controller - since the keyboard controls sucked for me.

The game started okay but when I finally met the bosses and how crazy the map navigation was, I was hooked. The game simply is not linear and you do have to explore the world for power ups and abilities that allows you to reach locations and do things you previously can’t on the way.

For more than two weeks of isolation, I actually 100-percented the game all that time in isolation, up until now I can’t still quite believe I passed White Castle.

I ended the game’s main ending with 106% completion. But wait, there were still two endings: the True Ending - killing the actual Boss Radiance, and Godhome Ending - a final fight with all bosses and an upgraded Radiance.

Atomic Habits

During isolation, I bought books online to read when Hollow Knight was hard enough that I take a few breaks. I rest my mind by reading James Clear’s Atomic Habits and also help me understand and change my habitual ways.

Outliers

Right in time going back to work, my next reading list was Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, I am half-way the book as of this writing.

No Codes

The first 2 months of 2022 was quite slow for me to return coding. I haven’t coded a lot due to holiday hangover and I don’t want to do it sponteaneously to reduce trial and error, as I really wanted a smooth-sailing code when I begin.

Going Back to Work

Getting back to work means grinding the tasks left during my sick days, especially the problems we’re having with the website’s database. All in all, I came back normally with no more symptoms and ready to take on the rest of the year.

I also continued to play Hollow Knight and get the full 112% completion on rest days.

Final Words

Prior to this post, I updated this website with a new Hugo theme. The theme Stack by Jimmy is smaller and basic compared to the previous one, CodeIT. I had to edit some parts like better open graph handling, custom layouts, fonts, page views, etc. I also had to do cleaning due to different framework style like PhotoSwipe images, different link render, frontmatter, and url slugs - which took most of the time.

That ends this update for me, stay safe and wear a mask.

Featured image Hollow Knight style by Prashant Mohta