Down the Rabbit Hole

I have always been interested in learning about personal finance and how to make my money work for me. In fact, I have been listening to various podcasts on investing and financial management, such as:  The Money Guy Show We Study Billionaires Value Investing with Legends The interest stems from dinner discussions with my parents since childhood. Daddy would read an article from the Philippine Daily Inquirer or Manila Bulletin and discuss market trends with us as we ate dinner. Also, both Mommy and Daddy brought me, Anna, and Biboy to Divisoria every weekend for shopping and scouting suppliers for the family business. This was where I learned the fundamentals of economics from a business perspective: the law of supply and demand . Since moving to California, we have resumed these business discussions during dinner. Donan has been a passive participant in these discussions because he doesn't understand the concepts of interest rates and investment instruments just yet. However, ...

The Solano County website has been upgraded. Last year, my supervisor assigned me to the content editor team, which focused on migrating the documents from the laboratory's current website to the new one.  I reviewed the content and realised that a bit of reorganisation was needed: The same information was placed in different locations, requiring someone to update multiple pages. It's easy to miss a page, and the website has inconsistent information in some places.  There was a lot of information that needed updating and pages that needed archiving.  Some pages were not loading.  Some pages just contained links to other pages.  As I pored through  all  the content, I also had to rewrite some of it (specifically content on water testing and tick testing services) so that an eighth grader could understand it. Two weeks before the final review by management, I finished loading the most current version of the laboratory's website content a day before I wen...

Polynesian Cultural Centre , I have returned! Echoing General Douglas MacArthur's famous speech in Leyte, I  returned  nine years  after  my last visit to Hawaii. During my first trip, I wished I had more time for exploration, as I only had a brief stop at the Hukilau Marketplace and ate lunch at the barbecue before boarding my tour bus for the next stop.  For this trip (my third time in Hawaii, actually), I went with Mommy, Daddy, and Donan. I got tickets that allowed us to visit on three consecutive business days. No wonder I couldn't explore the Centre in two hours: it takes three days to experience all that the centre has to offer! We only had time for two afternoon trips to Lā'ie, so we had to make the most of these visits. I had to consider that I was with seniors and a preschooler, so our fastest pace at the centre would be a slow walk. Day 1 We had just arrived from the  Dole Pineapple Plantation , which was an hour's drive from Wahiawa. That visit ...

A slight fall of rain didn't stop us from visiting the Dole Pineapple Plantation  in Wahiawa, Oahu. During my first visit, I was part of a tour group visiting the island. This time, I drove with Mommy, Daddy, and Donan. I was determined to ride the train to see the plantation (because I didn't have a chance to do that previously). Donan immediately wanted to try the Pineapple Garden Maze when we saw it. Our two-hour scheduled stop was short. We were supposed to find eight stations inside the maze, but we only saw three because it was huge (it is the largest maze in the world, after all) and we were pressed for time. It would take about an hour to find all the stations (accounting for the fact that we also got lost in the maze). We wouldn't be able to catch the train tour if we attempted to complete the maze. The train tour circled around the Dole Plantation's pineapple farm, where we saw pineapples in varying stages of maturity (to ensure that there's pineapple all ...

I used to go on a Visita Iglesia  on Maundy Thursdays . It's a great tradition that combines travel with a deeper understanding of Jesus Christ's sacrifice and a sense of community, especially when done as a family or with a tour group. When I moved to California, Visita Iglesia  didn't occur on Maundy Thursday; instead, my family would visit parishes in the cities we were vacationing in. Donan had his first Visita Iglesia  experience when we stopped by Mission Santa Ines  with Mommy, Daddy, and Anna. Val was not with us at the time; his visits usually don't coincide with Holy Week. This year, with Val in town, I introduced Donan to another Maundy Thursday tradition: the Holy Triduum. It is the three-day period (non-working holidays in the Philippines but not in the USA) which commemorates Jesus' Last Supper , crucifixion , and resurrection . We went to St. Dominic's Catholic Church in Benicia. Façade of St. Dominic's Catholic Church (that's not our SUV)...

Starbucks branch in Pleasant Hill, CA. When Starbucks was still a new coffee shop in the Philippines, my extended family would go there for drinks and pastries after dinner or for desserts after lunch at Lola Bats' house . I used to stop at one of its branches to eat while taking a break from long drives . I also made sure to stop by a branch somewhere in Loyola Heights to have my venti signature hot chocolate with peppermint syrup to drink during my lecture class at the Ateneo de Manila University . In short, Starbucks was my "third place", or a location other than home (the first place) and office (the second place) where people gather to socialise and/or people-watch. In fact, Starbucks was one of the first places I visited with Sherry Lou, a classmate in the BSc Biology program at UPLB, on my first evening in Sydney ! I was culture-shocked to learn that my third place in the Philippines was just a pitstop for many people in the USA. The classy coffee shops I was a...