The DJ who's not a DeeJay

These books aren't very useful to browse through now, unless you want to relive the times when they all made sense and could be used and integrated into your social media.

I realized that if I were to reread any of my old books, it would be those that told stories, shared conversations, and shared experiences on these platforms. Those stories would transcend time and perhaps even trigger personal memories and similar experiences. It’s the content that would form lasting memories. I think social media is unique because it’s the tool to create content, and there’s just so much generated content that one cannot simply attempt to read everything. So books that found and compiled interesting chats, embarrassing posts, user opinions on some topic, or banter in the comments section would be interesting reads.I wonder if there's a book on epic Friendster testimonials. Now that would be fascinating.

I grew up living with dogs. Our family pets included anywhere from 3 to 8 dogs at one time.
Growing up, our home was never quite silent; the dogs barking added to the ambiance, whether it was feeding time, seeing other animals outside the gate, or simply excited to see us come home. Our loving and loyal dogs always were part of our family.

When I got married and moved out of my parent’s home, it was hard to leave our dogs, but I still did get to visit them from time to time, and every time I came home, they would excitedly jump around and wag their tails as if I never left.


Beljon was a handsome dog. He usually received compliments from visitors and pet owners who’d see him at the vet. His light shades of plush brown fur looked grand when shed with sunlight. As a guard dog, Beljon excelled, and any intruder, whether animal or human, would be scared of his presence, especially when he stands close to 5 feet tall.

Mom passed away in 2018, and as the pandemic required people to stay home, Beljon’s role as a family member greatly complemented the social life of my dad and aunt, who, along with two other dogs, kept a sense of normality in daily life in the confines of my parents' home.

Two years ago, Beljon started to show signs of aging, and trips to the vet became more frequent. Adding a few medical conditions to his old age, Beljon’s health slowly deteriorated. He struggled but survived thanks to a custom diet, medication, and regular checkups. Even with all that, we had an idea that Beljon was weak when he started losing weight, lost appetite, and struggled to stand up without fumbling. Last August 15, 2026, Beljon laid down near the car and took his last few breaths before going to sleep permanently.
Beljon lived a long and full life, surrounded by love and care from family, including several different people who lived in our house over the span of 12 years. Thank you, Beljon, for giving us joy, security, love, and care as much as we loved and cared for you. We will miss you dearly.

The internet has been a big part of my life, and most of my career involved heavily utilizing it. Now that I'm more focused on personal growth, I've transitioned to other goals. Some of the long-term goals I'm hoping to achieve are contributions to Google Maps and growing my YouTube channel. 

It's taken years to build both of these up, and I'm inconsistent in managing them, but when I do, I'd like to celebrate the simple milestones. Receiving monthly reports on how I did help is a good motivation to continue and ideally surpass the previous month.

So here are my humble milestones for the month.

After decades of this Singapore mall serving the public, Harbourfront Centre officially closed last July 27, 2026. I have very fond memories of this mall dating back to 2016, when I first moved to Singapore with my family. Since we rented a condo just across Vivocity, this area was very accessible by foot.

Official post from @hfc_sg on Instagram

Before you think I’m anti-social, let me explain. The first generation of these websites around the early 2000’s were referred to as social networks. When Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram rose to popularity in the mid to late 2000s, they were called "social media." Since the number of social platforms suddenly multiplied afterwards, the Gen Z population adapted and heavily used the term "socials," referring to the collective social media platforms they were on. And since then, the term “socials” has been the default term.

Personally, I miss the term “social media,” with emphasis on “media.” I was an active user or multimedia, and my job for over a decade was referred to as a social media specialist. The team I was a part of was the media team. So “media” has been a staple title and focus on my career and expertise.

With the current and popular term “socials” nowadays, it’s basically removed the main word, which I held dear to my heart and used with pride and passion. Today, it may be standard casual English to use it, but I will probably use what I’ve been accustomed to all these years, “social media.”

Follow me on social media!

Some health concerns are simpler to manage. The simplest ones are those that manifest pain and can be managed by medicine or treated with surgery. Recovery and healing follow, and then you’re back to normal. Some health concerns take longer to treat and heal, but with proper planning, guidance, and medical experts on board, the road to healing is still attainable.

Dementia, on the other hand, is silent. It doesn’t manifest physically right away, but you’ll see it right there mentally. And what makes it more challenging is that the person diagnosed with it may not even know it.

Managing a loved one with dementia can be very challenging. As a person, we have innate abilities, and as we mature, we acquire skills to survive and learn traits that help us in life such as efficiency, responsibility, and thrift, as well as managing relationships. Since we are wired with all this, this all becomes second nature, and something that doesn’t align with these traits may be considered a setback.

To understand a person with dementia, you have to look beyond these and prioritize patience, understanding, and flexibility in your reasoning. The worst thing that you could do is to argue, debate, and tell them they’re wrong. That only hurts them, and they could distance themselves from you, which makes things more difficult to handle.

Dementia is not just about forgetfulness. One part is understanding what they’ll forget and what they’ll remember. Long-term memory goes a long way. Talking about events, people, and places that happened decades ago are things that trigger a pleasant conversation and also reveal what they fondly remember. Short-term memory isn’t reliable, so it’s best to anchor these moments with care and compassion.

And because of these factors, whatever routine is comfortable and convenient for loved ones with dementia shouldn’t be changed. It’s hard for them to adapt to any new habits or cater to change. Working around their existing routine can help ease any minor changes.

One other thing to expect is that it doesn’t get better. For most primary forms of dementia, current medical treatments cannot reverse or cure the underlying brain cell damage.  With this in mind, it’s best to plan ahead for loved ones. Know how dementia progresses and adapt to their needs, and be more understanding of their condition.

I’m not an expert, but from the experiences I’ve had caring for my loved one, I know that learning never stops. For anyone navigating this path: be patient with them, but please remember to be patient and flexible with yourself as well.

I wish you all the patience and understanding you’ll need to care for them.

Artificial intelligence is a breakthrough technology. I had a subject in college on artificial intelligence. It wasn't as sophisticated as it is now. But it was fascinating that the systems we were taught to build basically learns from mistakes based on rules we define. It was more rules driven than data driven, most likely because feeding massive terabytes of data to AI wasn't feasible then due to device and tech limitations. 

Fast forward to today. People don't need to create their own AI systems. They can easily subscribe to an AI service and immediately start using it without worrying about feeding it global data. What the AI needs, though, is personal data, and that's what we happen to be inputting whenever we use AI, be it in the form of personal thoughts, preferences, likes, and dislikes. We expect AI to give us personalized outputs, which it efficiently does. What we may fail to realize is that this is that the data is a two-way highway. We send data, and we receive data. We store data sent by AI, and guess what? AI also stores our data. 

So what we're doing when we're sending AI input, is that we're feeding it with our data. And AI systems thrive on data crunching and retrieval. So it's a double edged sword. AI can help us. But we are indirectly helping AI by feeding our data to them.  

In a way, it's also like malware. Someone creates a nice and useful app but embeds malicious code so it can also benefit from the people who use it. I can't generalize and say that all AI systems are like this, but that's where ethics of AI plays a role and the Pope's latest manifesto citing Articitial Intelligence brings a humanitarian aspect to it.  I've read a bit and encourage everyone to see the Pope's stance and viewpoint on this.

For now, be careful with the data you feed AI.

Music, toy photography, and blogging have been my creative outputs throughout the years. Lately, I've been in a stump and slump and can't focus on any of these. I do think I need to jumpstart any of these or all to sharpen my mind and challenge my brain to stay creative and mentally sound. 

Instagram has been the output of some bits of creativity in the past few months, but social media is not enough. Been more of a lurker but also looking for discussions and topics to spark interests and opinion. 

I’m not quite there yet, but I hope that clearing my desk will also encourage me to clear my mind or at least turn my thoughts into something worth sharing. Here's to the spark, or in Transformers G1 terms, the matrix.

Wifey and I were just planning to drive a few cities away to buy some delicious cake in Laguna. We didn't have any plans to go anywhere else. But by some stroke of spontaneity, we chanced upon a gas station stopover that happened to have some factory outlets. There were Adidas and Crocs.

As we checked the outlets out, I remember that I was never keen on having branded or multiple shoes even when I was a kid. The only brand I remember I liked was Reebok, because it was cool at the time I was a teen and my parents gave me a pair then.  For me, I prioritize comfort and looks, regardless of the brand or label. 

I've had friends and relatives who I knew were serious shoe collectors. They knew the ins and outs of shoes, knew the history of each pair, and some were even lining up to get a pair as soon as it was launched.  

The two current pairs of shoes I rotate are actually over 6 years old; one is from Taiwan, and the other was bought in Singapore but probably made in Indonesia. So I was more interested in looking at non-shoe products when we visited these shoe outlets. After visiting Crocs and Adidas, we were ready to leave when we noticed there was one more small shoe store a bit farther down the strip. And so while we were there, we decided to take a look.

Went around the aisles of shoes and I suddenly gained interest in a black and hot pink shoe I saw. It reminded me of WWE wrestler Bret "The Hitman" Hart, with his signature wrestling gear being black and pink.  It looked cool, and I never had this color combination for a shoe. When I picked it up, it was light and looked sturdy.  I decided to try it out, but it was a bit small for my feet. So I asked for the next bigger size.  Luckily, they had it in stock. Tried it out and walked a bit. It felt soft and comfy. So comfy that since I've been wearing the same shoes for 6 years, I forgot how a comfortable shoe could feel.  

Looked good, felt good. Now for the brand. The name Puma as a brand never appealed to me. I really don't have any reason why. It just never sparked any joy, I guess.  And I never had a Puma pair of shoes. If I would rank shoe brands, Puma would probably be at the bottom of my list.  

So I did the illogical. I bought the pair of shoes.

Why?

For me, it's comfort over style. Design over brand.  And affordability over luxury.  I may not have any personal connection with the brand, but I am happy with the new pair of shoes I have.  I hope this will last as long as or even longer than my old pair of shoes. Please keep my feet safe and comfortable, Puma. I placed my bet on you; don't let me down.

Now we walk.