The Exploding Drumstick

 Sandy dog is happy dog!

One morning, I prepared breakfast for my dog, a boiled drumstick. It was almost ready, and I was on a schedule because I needed to go somewhere.

Suddenly, there was a POOF, and the drumstick launched itself at least one foot into the air before it stopped defying gravity, made a splotch, hit everything on the counter, and landed on the floor, along with a mini fountain. What should be a straightforward routine turned into an annoying mess and created multiple chores along the way. I needed to do special washing instead of just wiping because it was a drumstick! It had some oil and some blood!

It was a body part of a dead chicken. Trust me, I checked. Apparently, the jumping could be caused by muscle contraction upon heating or tendon pulling. It was not a common occurrence, but I was ‘lucky’ to encounter it twice. So, this unexpected extra work got the well-deserved cursing. It was mildly infuriating, because it took out a significant amount of unplanned time.

Just like what I did these past few days. I haven’t sent out a newsletter in a while, because I was migrating. The email marketing provider had been cutting the free subscriber capacity because ‘it wants to make their website better by prioritizing AI function.’ I don’t understand why every company thinks it’s a good idea to push AI. They want to keep up, I get it, but I’m sick of them. I don’t want it I don’t need it grmblll @*#^&

Anyway, the website has gone through two cuts, and now the capacity is only 25% of what it had promised when I signed up. The verdict is: upgrade and pay, or I can’t use it for sending newsletters, which is the only thing I need it for.

Nothing is free; what do I expect? I get that. I do have to pay for author platform and domain. Those are the costs that I can’t recover yet, and I’m not sure when I’ll be able to. So, unfortunately, I really can’t afford to upgrade. Fortunately, there are many other free email marketing providers for starters. Their business idea is to allow users to grow before we pay a premium. The company I used offered a decent number. Initially, now it forces me to cull my subscribers (which I already did), pay, or move.

So, after some research, I found a new one that provides 10x the initial number, which means 40x more than my existing unfaithful provider, which is awesome! (Hopefully there is no catch) However, I need to relearn everything, reset everything, and unfortunately, moving a CSV file can only be done through the paid tier.

Unless… I do it manually. Moving my subscribers one by one, and that was what I did for a few days. It was like cleaning an exploding drumstick all over again.

If this newsletter reaches you well, it means I’m happy, and I have successfully moved my provider. By the time I write this, I still have tons of things to do. It’s taking much longer than expected. You might see slightly different formatting, but hopefully, this one is not going to betray me.

Thank you for sticking with me. Have a wonderful day and please take care!

BOOKS!

It's tough being a writer, but the little guy in my head won't shut up. I can't beat Amazon algorithm, and I am not a social butterfly. Writing is personal, private, and intimate. But it scares me that I have to be out there to get my work out if I want to continue doing this. I want to. Your support helps. You can get my books through Amazon and KU. But if that's not a preferable option, feel free to ask me for a copy in exchange for your honest review or download my free books. All are appreciated.

OTHER BOOKS YOU MIGHT ENJOY!

FREE DOWNLOAD

TO AMAZON

   

THANK YOU!

I Was the Chosen One!

 

It was year 1996/1997. There was a very reputable lecturer at my university, and he was known for not taking any shit or nonsense.

He was fair, very serious, and professional, which made him respectable in my eyes. It was difficult for lecturers not to be subjective, since we were in the design field. Since I wasn't a student who was good at schmoozing, I spent most of my time sitting at the back, hardly interacting, and was only seen when it was absolutely required to. I preferred this kind of 'blind' lecturer, who treated everyone equally and was immune to schmoozing attempts because he couldn't care less. He barely had any expressions. Everyone feared him.

In one of his subjects, he asked us to bring something to the class, one person, one object. The description is 'something ordinary in your house.' It could be anything.

The day came, and everyone had something. He then revealed the task and the subject 'Deconstruction.' Our task was to convert/restructure/dismantling the objects we brought and remake them into something else with a different shape and a different function.

The instruction was clear enough. Everyone started to get excited; some were hanging around him, asking more questions, seeking clarification, or perhaps making another attempt to get to know him better. After all, he was one of the most popular lecturers.

I just sat on my desk and stared at the thing I bought, jaw-dropping. The wheel in my brain was turning, but nothing came out. I looked at everyone and their ideas flying around. A classmate who brought a tote bag talked about converting it into a pillowcase. Another with a cardboard would turn it into bookends. Someone with half of a slipper could make it into a beer holder. One holding a soft toy was teary-eyed, but she wouldn't have any problem turning it into a table mat.

Not me. I stared at my object again and finally made a beeline for the lecturer's desk in front.

There were a few classmates up there who felt stuck with their objects as well, but his voice was loud and clear, "No one is allowed to change the object of your choice. You'll have to make it work."

Dang it. I stopped in my tracks and watched those who had asked for objects change walk back to their seats, their shoulders slumped. The lecturer was in the clear now; no one was too close, and it made him look scarier.

"But what am I supposed to do with this?" My voice wasn't loud, but he heard and turned to me. I lifted my hand and showed him what I brought.

What happened next was a historical event, I am not exaggerating and I am proud to say I was the only student who made him laugh that way. His roar echoed across the classroom, he threw his head back, and those deep, baritone HA HA HA HA in the main villain tone drew everyone's attention to us. I stood there, now facing my nightmare of being the center of focus, slightly offended yet amused at the same time, holding this.

Yes, I brought this.

How was I supposed to dismantle it and make it into something with a different shape and function in a few days?

My family had a lot of tools lying around in our house. Parents had a small hardware shop. I always had some fascination with this one and used to draw Smurfs carrying it around. This was a common household object for me. It was my favorite. How would I know we were supposed to destroy it?

Anyway, I am proud to say that I was also THE ONLY ONE who was granted the right to change my object. I was the chosen one!

What I want to say is thank you again for being here, as always, reading my ramblings. You are the chosen ones!

I'll take a break from sending newsletters while I look for a new mailer host. The current one has been cutting its capacity twice now, delivering only 1/4 of its promise by the time I joined, and I can't afford to upgrade to premium. Nothing will change on your side; just give me time to sort it out. Please take good care of yourself and your family. Always remember: you matter. I'll see you again soon.

I am still active, talking nonsense on X, hoping to market my books with my inadequate efforts. They are free with KU. Maybe you'll like them, especially the latest one, ATLAS, because it's as bizarre as my chosen object.

My MCs Refuse to Pose Shirtless

 

I’m a pain in the ass about spoilers; I consider almost everything a spoiler. A friend tells me they like a show: spoiler, because I know enough about the kind of things they like. Maybe they can’t stand a sad ending; maybe they root for a specific kind of contestant on a game show. Maybe they say something more obvious, like I hate this guy or when they don’t want to meet my eyes when I comment that I like a villain more than the protagonist.

However, I think I give them more credit than I should. The reality is, I’m friends with many spoiler monsters. They are worse than above. Some examples that I remember: one spoiled the ending of a popular book series a day after it was out by posting on Facebook, thankfully I had stopped reading it, one casually mentioned a winner of a reality show the first morning after it aired, and one told me which characters died from a movie I was considering to see. The good thing is, I don’t often watch and read the same thing with them, and if I do, I become very cautious that I threaten thunder and curses to their firstborn or lalalalala when they talk about a show I want to see.

Long story short, I always took extra steps to avoid spoilers, from avoiding friends and social media before I watch/read something to never reading a book review before reading the book (I also want to form my own unbiased opinion).

Unfortunately, that had changed.

I joined a few reading and review groups. I’m selective, but I’m open to all genres and pick those that sound intriguing, and that was how I accidentally read an AI book. There was no declaration or disclaimer, and even though Amazon asks authors to declare whether they are using AI, it doesn’t show any indication to readers. Platforms like Story Origin and others don’t have any way to identify AI books. I think they should, I think they frigging should.

Look, about the book, I refrained from accusing it of being AI-generated. It could be very poorly edited, but suspiciously, not in terms of grammar or typos, but the content itself. In my review, I pointed out and gave examples of things I found odd, including the quotes, paragraphs, and chapters they came from. I know there are many AI witch hunts, and many of them are inaccurate from what I've learned, so I’d rather let readers decide. This book has repeated chapters, repeated paragraphs, repeated scenes. There are repeating paragraphs in Chapter 23, then in Chapter 27, for example. Some similar paragraphs even appear in the same chapter. The book is about a magical journey, so there is a possibility the author would justify, and some readers would think that as part of the foggy journeys ‘That is why they feel repetitive and they are intended that way’ (well, to be honest, they have to be quite thick not to notice that). When I read other reviews after I finished the book, many pointed out the same things, so I wasn’t crazy.

Personally, it felt very—I don’t know how to put that—it was not angry, it was not rage, but maybe disgusted was the word. I’d put it above stepping on a chewed, extremely sticky, fleshy, bloody lizard courtesy of my cat a long, long time ago (twice). I don’t know why any readers would enjoy soulless AI books. Don’t settle for a few prompts; demand those books drenched by the authors’ sweat, tears, and blood, dammit!

So now, before deciding on a book, I skim the reviews, risking spoilers, and, to be honest, it has saved me a few times from other AI books. (For me to avoid one, I’d look for multiple inputs from reliable reviewers and exercise my own judgement from other things. I’m sorry (not) to say I do avoid all books with AI covers.

Anyway, this long rambling is a disclaimer. For each newsletter, I try to find a swap or participate in a group promotion, hoping to get some exposure or a sale (spoiler: it hardly works, unfortunately). Still, at least I try to do something because I’m really bad at marketing myself. I will try to pick books that I think are interesting, books you might like. I assume you guys are here because you don’t expect me to show you books where the main characters have lost their shirts, because, trust me, there are tons of them; it’s hard to find others. However, I honestly don’t know how to really spot AI books the sure way. Some covers look suspicious, but that might be the most I could do. It’s sad that we have to live in this world now. If you are like me and appreciate human efforts, it feels like we are losing our grip.

Another disclaimer: all my books and their covers are made by me. I have a background in graphic design, but I’m not sure how to make a cover more marketable since my MCs refuse to pose shirtless. They are the products of sleepless nights, hunched back, messy overload brain, and panda eyes. Sometimes I drooled on my laptop or cut my finger while opening a midnight snack, so you can be certain all of them were made with blood, sweat, drool, and tears. Well, I barely cry, but I mentally do that when I look at how hard it is to market them.

I went through my phone (which is full to the brim with dog pictures) to dig out some progress photos of Felt Locky to make my point that I prefer human-made art, if you can call Locky Felt art. I admit I didn’t make this as art, but it’s my way to hold on to everything about him while I can. I use his fur (he needs to be trimmed every two weeks, and he sheds a lot). There are not many progress pictures in between because I didn’t have confidence at all about how it would turn out (I mean, look at the lizard structure!). I also stopped a few months in between.

Thank you for sticking with me for the long rambling. Please know that you matter, and I really appreciate your presence here.

Book news: ATLAS is coming out on 15 June 2026. Maybe it’s your cup of tea. What is it about? Well, it’s weird. I’m very thankful for my beta readers to help make it better.

ATLAS

This is a parallel post from my main newsletter, there are free book downloads there and by signing up.

My Sunshine, My Gollum Story, and My New Book

 

Locky just celebrated his eleventh birthday ten days ago (23 May 2026). On the left is his first picture on the first day he arrived at my house (5 September 2015). He is my sunshine, my best friend, my best therapist, and my everything. Someday, he will break my heart, and it will be irreparable, but for now, let me give him the best life.

I don’t see my neighbor often. I keep everything to myself and just crawl out once in a while to get my deliveries, hissing, “My preciousss.” 

I live in a quiet cluster that consists of ten houses: five on the right, five on the left. The walls are touching, and we all share one small dead-end alley as access connecting us to the neighborhood road. Only three houses were occupied when I moved in, and the other two inhabitants were people like me, who were very reserved. We enjoyed the quietness and solitude. 

Eventually, people started to move in. It’s still considered a peaceful place compared to others, although it can be noisy when there is construction and rowdy kids. I was invited to some housewarmings (I think they felt that they had to, it's a polite and friendly culture here). Nothing here is small-scaled because any event almost always involves the whole family. It was not something I could survive, so I purposely stayed out until the day was over, but I did give them cards and housewarming gifts. 

Eventually, despite all my efforts, they become familiar with my Gollum face because I still need to go around and sweep the leaves in front of my fence. Thankfully, they are quite alright and kind from the way they treat the strays around (I judge people based on that). I can see that they try to respect my privacy and understand that my hideous grin is the best I can do. 

However, I get to chat more often with this woman next door. She is kind and always helps to sweep the ground outside my fence without me asking. She is also someone I ask or someone who would tell me if I haven’t seen a regular stray for a while. So, we do engage in small talk now and then. By this time, I had stayed here for around a decade. 

One day, without being prompted, she declared, “You should look for a spouse.” Spouse. Not a relationship, not a companion, not a date. Spouse. She bypassed everything and said that with all seriousness, adding that she could introduce me to someone. We were just saying hi and exchanging remarks about the falling leaves, and I had moved inside, almost reaching my front door. 

After I picked up my jaw, I told her I have been happily married for over two decades. I guess she mistook my spouse for a family member who visited now and then, and she never questioned my absence once in a while. 

She apologized and thankfully didn’t say anything more besides initial surprise. I guess she can live in peace now that I’m not a solitary cave Gollum. 

In my experience, most people don't take it kindly when they learn about long-distance relationships. They would become judgmental and offer unsolicited advice that is obviously close-minded, centered around ‘it won’t work.’ I have met many people who have the same long-distance relationship, and they received the same judgment. It's weird that people feel they need to inject themselves, and to my amazement, these people are usually not close friends or close relatives who wonder why I avoid them when every time they see me, they want to know my groin activity and possibly goblins that might come out from that. To her credit, my neighbor doesn't do that. That was an isolated incident, and now we are back to small talks about plants and stray dogs, which I appreciate.

I also have great news to share about my upcoming book, Atlas. This is the weirdest one I have so far. It's lighter (but it still has dark scenes and mature themes), and it's in a different style than my other books. I had some reservations at first, but I have gotten great feedback so far. Maybe it's your cup of tea.

I always consult my mom every time I set up my publishing dates. She has this knack of finding good dates, according to her belief. However, because of time zone differences, Amazon always screwed them up (I swear I stayed up until our date aligned, but it was still wrong). So, I'm setting up my pre-order date, it's a foolproof way to get the right one.

ATLAS is out on 15 June 2026

ATLAS PRE-ORDER

Thank you so much for being here. Your support means the world to me.

Anyway, other books!

There are many books here. Every image and link lead to a collection of books. I hope you find something you like.

PEN PALS

 

I spent my childhood in a small town. There were no libraries, only comic book rentals that appeared here and there in the front yard of residential houses. Well, there were basically a few make-shift shelves, with very limited-edition comics (as in, there was only one per title), some series were missing, and the conditions were mostly poor. However, visiting one was a highlight of my day. My brothers and I painstakingly saved our pitiful lunch money so that we had something to read.

We also spent a good chunk of our childhood without TV. I’m not that ancient, I’m a ‘young’ Gen-Xer. I’m not fifty yet. However, we were behind in terms of technology and facilities. On top of staying in a laidback town, we were not well-to-do. Our education and knowledge were limited to what we learned at school and our own practical exploration. If you are around my age or older, we know that childhood experiences are precious. It’s a miracle that my siblings and I didn’t break any bones or get kidnapped.

Anyway, another miracle: I had a pen pal. An international pen pal from Austria, a country that I didn’t even know existed back then. If I remember correctly, it was the effort of my language teacher who encouraged us to write a letter. I believe they were some exchange or something. There was no target, no one to address to yet, just a gesture, some kind of friendship invitation. I don’t think my teacher even believed in it. You see, my dad used to work in the jungle (literally), and whenever we sent him letters, it would reach him 6 months later. Kids grew up fast like puppies; 6 months was a very significant delay for sharing stories but letters were the best we could do when he was away. My dad had a very unique workplace, but that is the story for another day.

So, besides the friendship exchange program being unlikely, the long delay in letters, we were also horrible at English. We only had very basic lessons, we had never used it, and it had only been around for a few years since it became a subject. Imagine my surprise when I got a reply. I can still picture everything in my head. It was a two-page letter filled to the brims with neat handwriting on beautiful papers. Attached was a photo of a beautiful girl wearing a lacey dress. She told stories about her and her place far, far away that felt further than the moon because I could see the moon! She chose to reply to my letter! I was delighted. We wrote back maybe two or three times before I moved to a different school. Since the school was handling logistics, I couldn’t continue doing so. I didn’t even know where the post office was, and it served only domestic purposes.

I still think about the pen pal, and I still kept her letters and pictures until they were lost when we moved to another state, together with all my childhood pictures. Yep, I don’t have any childhood pictures with me. They were not digitalized yet. We asked an uncle to keep it for us, but I don’t think he cared, and they were gone.

Anyway, I remember all the blabbering above because most times, I still feel grateful that just by pressing some buttons, you at the other end of the world can read my gibberish. I can ask someone about their dogs or cats and get a reply straightaway on Twitter. I can see the lives and journeys of others and chat with everyone around the globe with no delay. It still amazes me. It’s like having many pen pals!

While I love the more personal touch of the old days, and I’m still reluctant to be reachable 24/7, I can’t imagine doing this without everyone who has supported me so far. Things like sharing and communicating with me about writing, helping me with feedback on my books, and just by being here, enduring my ramblings. Thank you. You matter to me.

As I had mentioned before, I’m doing this writing thing alone. I have mental support from my loved ones, but they are not readers, and they are not involved in the process. So, you are all I have, and I’m glad that this one doesn’t need 6 months to reach you.

Have a great day!

 

The Modern Day Problem

 

The other day, I had to travel to settle something. Everything should have been in order, but upon arrival, my data plan didn’t work.

This shouldn’t have been a problem in the past, but today, we rely too much on the phone. Sometimes it’s not because we want to, but because we have to, since the options are getting very limited. I couldn’t order public transport, and the only public transport I could flag down there was a taxi, which had become rarer than fat unicorns (rhinos).

There was no way to communicate with people to let them know I had arrived. Somehow, my balance (I was using prepaid) had mysteriously been sucked into oblivion, and it wasn’t enough to do anything. I couldn’t top it up to buy the internet because I didn’t have the internet to access the top-up function! It had become a modern-day problem that I needed to find a shop, and it had to be done manually because I couldn’t ask Google, because I didn’t have internet!

Thankfully, I finally found a small shop that refused to sell me anything unless I had the exact amount of change. Why? Beat me. I had to dig the bottom of my bag to find it, and I did. Fortunately, the problem ended there. It’s ridiculous, but that is the reality now.

This is a parallel posting from main newsletter. Subscribe to get a free short story and more of my mindless ramblings (I am not good at convincing people).

Thank you for reading. Have a great weekend! 

The Chronicle of Gen-Zness

 

This is a short and sweet one.

There are many complaints out there about the younger generation’s work ethic, especially Gen Z. I had no idea about Gen Z’s age range, and when I googled it, the oldest Gen Z, as per the current year, is 29! Gasp! I thought they were babies, or at the very least, studying age? Not on the brink of their thirties! Geez, I feel ancient. No wonder it’s about their work ethic because some of them are in the workforce now, including one of my nephews. My other niece and nephew are in the university.

Anyway, I had been quite close to them, and to be honest, they are giving me hope. I’m not just an antique shaking my fist to the sky, but I have come to appreciate these two specimens. Yes, they do have their Gen-Zness, but it was minimal. I can actually talk with them in depth about many things, and I’m quite fascinated by the way they are thinking that can be wiser than many adults I know.

There is one thing that impresses me a lot: the lack of interest in social media and broadcasting themselves. My nephew even enjoys nature walks where he just appreciates the surroundings instead of taking selfies/pictures and posting them. They enjoy board games and nerdy games with me. I can’t say the same with their parents, ironically, as they behave more like the stereotypical Gen Z.

P.S. Opinion is live and can change anytime.

This is a parallel post from my main newsletter.

Check out the full newsletter.

 

Green-Eyed Goblin

 

It had been 28 years since I visited my hometown. So, I was very excited to finally have another chance in December 2025 during our annual family reunion/trip.

Unfortunately, I caught a stomach bug, and it ruined my first few days there in terms of culinary. I’m not someone who prioritizes food, I think eating can be a hassle, and I have never prioritized eating over everything else. However, I have missed my hometown’s food, and it is the best, according to many, including non-locals.

For the first two days, I could barely eat anything. It also reduced my enjoyment because of the pain, but I tried to make the best of it.

Maybe I haven’t been back for too long, maybe my expectation was too high, but I didn’t enjoy the trip the way I thought it would. Everything had changed, and not for the better. There were a few places that were stuck in time, but our house was gone. Flattened to the ground. We could only look at the ruins. My siblings’ last visit was a decade ago, and they still saw it, but not me.

We went there in the night, walking along the street that no longer felt familiar, and I made a turn into the alley where our house was. It was unplanned, because we wanted to come during day time, but I couldn’t stop myself. To my surprise, my two brothers went with me (the youngest one didn’t join this trip), while the rest went to another place along the street.

The three of us stood in front of the ruin, and carefully constructed where everything used to be. The green fence, the dining area, our room, the pipe where I used to climb to the second story (I never used stairs), and the beautiful bougainvillea tree that was growing alongside the back door. The place looked very small now that we had grown up, it used to feel like a castle to me.

I thought I would be sad, but I wasn’t. I had my fun there. We had so many fond memories and mishaps. My adventures with my three brothers were unmatched. All Gen X-ers, and we survived the way Gen X-ers did back then. We had several near deaths between us. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to call them that. Four of us had unknowingly lit a match in a small room under the stairs used for fuel storage. The whole area was filled with gallons of them, and the four of us sat in the middle of them, playing train, and lit up the match because it was dark. The wooden match (the traditional, short match) burned my hand before we managed to light the candle, and I dropped it. It landed on the floor and was extinguished right after. Fortunately, we decided it wasn’t that fun and went out to play something else. We had fallen from the stairs (plural), from the fence, almost drowned inside the water tank, and survived fire on the roof caused by stray fireworks. There used to be a big tree in an empty field in front of our house, and we loved to climb that as well, provoking the whole nest of fire ants and whatever bugs, and that was just Tuesday afternoon.

I remembered lounging inside a fruit basket (yes, it was a gigantic basket), rocking it back and forth while enjoying the night stars in the small terrace. Our second story was not inhabited, and we kids had always believed it was haunted. There were stray cats and other small animals sometimes. Once, my big brother and I heard cats’ sounds and found a batch of kittens inside the top of one of the columns (there was a wooden cladding with an opening). Being helpful kids, we thought the kittens were stuck, so we made those cowboys’ knots to the best of our knowledge (no Google!) and tried to get and rescue the kittens. Well, they didn’t need rescue, the kittens were not abandoned, and we didn’t know how to make a cowboy’s knot. I only remembered my brother’s word asking me to run because he saw a pair of green eyes coming. It was on top of the stairs, and I fell down, hitting every step from top to bottom. There was a scary pair green-eyed goblin coming for us, which was a proper escape plan because it got me to the bottom faster! It was the mother cat, and thankfully, she moved the kitten away because of two nosy kids. The fall? I was invincible back then, not even an ouch. So, the second story was another world altogether. We loved the TV series Fun House and tried to make one there (with barely anything, of course), it became more like a haunted parkour arena.

We shared stories, invented games, because we had nothing else but our creativity to amuse ourselves. One thing was for sure: we were never bored. We were poor, but my childhood was awesome.

So, I thought I would be sad, especially because it caught me off guard looking at the ruins, but I wasn’t. Everyone I love is still in my life, and they are my home wherever I am.

I feel sadder about the town's condition. Yes, there are some upgrades and improvements, but most of those came with hefty prices. The place has become commercialized. Most people left the town, seeking better education and jobs (just like us and our parents), and they are coming back regularly to pay their respects to deceased or left-behind relatives, becoming a gold mine for those who stay.

The humble food stalls I could normally find along the street have a different target now. The prices are jacked up, and the tastes are compromised. Many of them still offer authentic taste, but it’s no longer the same to me. We could casually stroll in everywhere and had the best food, and now, everything feels commercialized. We are guests in our own hometown. Visitors, foreigners who are visiting, and those who are charged premium prices for things we are familiar with. We used to know almost everyone along the street. Now, we didn’t even see the owner of the places. Most of them were run by staff who were not locals. Everything was only business, there were no longer simple home-cooked mom-and-pop stalls.

For me, it means something. I haven’t been able to identify myself with a location because I always look different somehow. It wasn’t a problem for me, until it was. A very significant incident that made me aware of how different I was. Even when I was in a place with people who looked like me, I didn’t speak the language well. I thought my hometown would feel more like home in terms of place familiarity, but it’s no longer the case.

So, I thought the magic was lost, until, fortunately, one day, when my younger brother and I had a chance to visit our old school again. We did in the first two days, but we didn’t go in, and we were in a big group there was not much chance to explore around.

This time, we had an unexpected luck that it was a holiday season, but the school was open for competitive sports that were usually conducted in between semesters. We were free to walk in, and had the time for ourselves to even visit the classrooms, because everyone was in the field and those in lower grades were at home. The classrooms stayed pretty much the same, from the chairs to the chalkboard and teacher’s desk, the window, and the staircase landing, when I spilled my whole bag because it was broken, where everything rolled down the steps. I remember the class where my classmate stuck his little finger into a metal chair, and the fire department was called because they needed to cut the chair. The little patch of green in front of it also remained the same, although it looked tiny now compared to the huge park back then (all about perspective and children's size).

So, although the trip was below expectation in terms of food and places, I was happy to get back to the school, recognize some landmarks here and there, and get to meet my family again.

This is a parallel post. Check out my main newsletter and website.

BOOKS

What would you do if an alliance of famous close-encounter extraterrestrials started tracking you down with bad intent? Hit man Gary knows what he would do:  

Dish out a lot of pain.

Small town secrets, savory takeout, and a killer on the loose.

A decrepit ship, a misfit crew, an impossible job, the perfect plan. What can go wrong?

The Freezer Cat

 

I knew I wouldn’t last long in that office a week after I joined. In half a year, I was out after clearing my probation. It was just my stubbornness to prove I was good enough for the company I didn’t like, but they were kind to me (except for one thieving mentor who stole my work and passed it off as his own). That was my shortest working period in a company. This was the year 2012.

 

As I tendered my resignation in November, I could only leave in December because of the one-month notice. Therefore, the time would fall around Christmas.

 

Besides the working style that was opposite to mine, which was one of the main reasons I quit, I also couldn’t stand the party culture there. They celebrated every birthday and event, which probably doesn’t sound like something terrible, but it was for me. They were distractions, and standing around awkwardly, clapping, and singing off tune were not my cup of tea. There were fewer than 20 people in the company, but I swear it happened at least twice a week. We had to fork out extra money every time for food I didn’t like, and for times I didn’t enjoy. I was so relieved to quit before my birthday month because it was something I dreaded. I’m not exaggerating, it actually gave me social anxiety, and I’d do ridiculous things to avoid it, including wasting my off day to escape my birthday in another office. Attention. Party. Celebration. It sounds ridiculous to be scared, but trust me, there are many like me.

 

Back to the story. Since it was December, of course, the problem was Christmas parties outside office hours. They had many planned along the way (yes, multiple Christmas/New Year celebrations), but there was a particular one that was purposely timed before my leaving date. While I had become an expert at avoiding this kind of social situation, this time I couldn’t escape because of that. It was some sort of dedication to me, well, except for another painful farewell in the office.

 

The barbecue party would be conducted in one of the project managers’ home, a female who stayed in an apartment unit with a small balcony for outdoor barbecue. There would be over ten people, so the place was quite cramped.

 

As usual, if I had to attend a barbecue in this kind of awkward ‘I don’t know or like you well enough’ office setting, I would volunteer and park my ass in front of the grill to make myself busy so that I didn’t need to socialize too much.

 

While it sounds like torture for me, I have a unique memory of this party. So, before the barbecue, we helped prep the food. Taking them out of the freezer, and categorizing them nicely for the flaming execution. There was a small kitchen for that, with a medium-sized fridge that held all the food. Everything went well. The food was okay, and the people were nice, giving me well-wishes. After the barbecue, we sat around chatting.

 

The host, let’s call her Anna (just in case she reads this one day, since the story is quite unique), told us she looked forward to her boyfriend's visit. Anna was in her thirties, so we are not talking about teenagers here. The conversation flew from there, and someone asked her about her cat. Apparently, this person was close enough to Anna that she knew about her cat.

“My cat just died.” That was Anna’s answer, and it happened a few days/a week before. Of course, we were shocked and offered our condolences. I understand the pain of losing a pet. Anna then explained that it was unfortunate that her boyfriend was away because she would like her boyfriend to see the cat one last time, since he also loved the pet a lot, therefore she had put the cat in the freezer.

 

At this moment, my eyes were bulging, but fortunately, I sat in the corner, obscured by a potted palm tree (nice spot). Unfortunately, I didn’t mishear it. Someone asked, “In the freezer in your kitchen?” and Anna confirmed it while continuing to share stories about how his boyfriend loved the cat without missing a beat. The story moved to their relationship, and Anna was a talker that nobody had the time to process the freezer cat information. I just noticed people who were still holding on to their plates had stopped chewing.

 

I have to give credit to my fellow co-workers here, they were nice and politically correct, but it also drove me nuts. No one commented anything, although I saw some weird expressions. Me? I always try to be invisible in this kind of social situation. The party went on.

 

To be honest, it weirded me out. Her fridge was a normal fridge with a common freezer that held the food we ate that night. I don’t know about the potential health risk, but the idea itself sounds nuts to me. So there was a dead cat next to our marinated chicken wings. I probably made an eye contact, and grateful I didn’t take the wrong thing out for barbecue. I also don’t think anyone would prefer to look at their frozen pet in their last moments, but I could be wrong. I have seen two delayed pet funerals (when the pets had to be kept in a freezer first), and in those cases, they looked okay, but they were handled by professionals and kept in freezers dedicated to that purpose. I deal with frozen food a lot, and they don’t look good after staying in a home fridge for a while. Tiny ice particles would cover the surface, along with many other undesirable details.

However, since I didn’t want to ask anyone there what they thought about it because I didn’t want to gossip or invite unwanted conversations, I spent my last few days in the office without pursuing my curiosity. Maybe it was a normal practice that I wasn’t aware of, so I brushed this aside in my memory.

 

Until one day, which was actually quite recent, just a few months ago, I found a similar story in Reddit. I can’t access Reddit where I am, but a YouTube video about it appeared in my algorithm. One of the stories was about a cat in the freezer. The story only involved family members, and it weirded them out. The comments agreed that it sounds nuts. So, after fourteen years, I get the confirmation that the freezer cat is not a normal thing to do! Not to mention the bigger scale of my story, when the food was served to multiple people who had no prior knowledge about it.

 

So, this is my freezer cat story. I’m not sure why I didn’t tell it to people around me back then (which I’ll do now). I guess the party itself was too overwhelming, and after that, I dealt with moving away for my new job. It was forgotten, and now I have been collecting inputs about the story. Do you think it’s normal/weird?

 

I’m sorry I haven’t been posting for a while. There were some personal matters and family reunions to attend. All good.

Wishing you a good one as well. With a blink of an eye, 2025 and the holiday season had come and gone. For me, as long as my loved ones are happy and healthy, I consider it a good year.

Just like Die Hard is a Christmas movie, Freezer Cat is my holiday tale.

 

I parallel post my newsletter here. In my main one you’ll get free short story or you can get them here The Freezer Cat.

Thank you for being here.

Koala Quill Review

 

I promised myself I would write about Koala Quill once I had tried it long enough to understand how it works. I don’t want to ramble, so I consolidate my thoughts in bullet points to my best recollection. (It still ends up like a ramble!) 

Koala Quill is a website made to motivate authors. The goal is to write every day, to monitor and consolidate progress, to challenge oneself, and to manage the effectiveness of one’s writing session with some incentives.

Interface

KQ is one of the cleanest and most effective websites I have ever encountered. I like the easy interface, and I have read through everything, although I still misremembered things and had to bother Philip a few times.

The mobile version works great as well although most of the time I can’t see all participants in popular guilds (same with desktop version, the expanding arrow doesn’t always work), but this is minor.

It’s not perfect for some other factors I will mention below, but overall, it still works well for me.

 

Free to sign up and ‘gamble’ with house money

This is the best factor to start. With all the scams going around and scammy ‘free trials’ that require bank details and the sacrifice of the firstborn, it’s easy to have trust issues. This (bank detail, not firstborn) would bounce me away before I start. KQ is free to sign up and you can also use a Google account.

Upon starting, user will be prompted to write, and as they write, they'll start earning. I didn’t know what to do, and I just stopped as soon as I could. If I remember correctly, I had 30 cents or something. Then I went into a panic mode again because I had to join a guild! Hold up, I'm not ready to commit, and I only had 30 cents! I was not ready to sell my kidney, and my neighbors were not around.

Fortunately, the cost of the guild would be on the house. If I lost it, it would be house money and my 30 cents. If I won it, I got it. Sounds great, right? The problem was that the available guilds might not be ideal for new users. It might have been ongoing for a while, which was the case for me. It’s not a pro-rated time you need to chase, but you are considered to be starting late with the same goal. I burned the midnight oil trying to catch up, and to my calculation, I had to be alive for 36 hours a day to catch up properly. I emailed Philip about this, and he added time for me, which made it possible for me to finish the guild on time.

 

Free Visionary plan trial as the start

Visionary is the highest tier, where you can earn one dollar a day just by writing. As a struggling indie author who is inept in marketing, this helps me not to bang my head against the wall, at least there is something. In all seriousness (although I was dead serious with my previous statement), it's effective to motivate me to write. More on this later.

Free Visionary Plan lasted for one week, but I was given another week's extension. It wasn’t enough for me to earn the cost for Visionary membership (but it’s possible if you want to get a lower-tiered membership, Scribe), but it added up to something that doesn't look bad without any commitment.

 

Guilds

I have joined many guilds, but soon realized the options were not great. There was one that required users to write only one minute a day, and another that will only start in a year. I thought they were generated by the system, but no, they were created by the users (These two must have been created by some loony toons). A guild is some kind of ‘contest’ with ‘wager’ where you hope that your opponents are too lazy or too busy to fulfil theirs. The rules are clear. The easier the guild is, the more likely you won't earn anything.

As mentioned, I'm almost always part of guilds, and I have been here two and a half months, currently in four simultaneous guilds. I have created multiple guilds as well, but there were a few that passed by with no takers (chickens), mostly because I set a very high goal, like 40 minutes of writing within a short amount of time commitment, but I had a few popular ones as well. Low goal guilds attract a lot of sign-ups, but tbh, they are not attractive because you will likely lock your money for a long time without a payback, as everyone can easily fulfill the requirements.

In my experience, it’s hard to earn anything with guilds. I think I’ve only earned a few dollars with many zeroes or pitiful payouts in cents. Maybe I haven’t found a magic formula yet, and everyone is still very keen, which is a good thing, of course.

Just take note in case you have the same problem as I did. Guild follows my time zone automatically, which I assume follows respective users’ time zone as well. However, it gets confusing for me because by the time my guild ends, it hasn’t ended for others yet (since I live in the future, duh). I learned this the hard way when I celebrated my win over my sole opponent in a guild, which meant I was the winner, and I took a decent amount of winning! But nope, apparently, that sucker at the other end of the world still had plenty of time to finish it, and he did! There goes my dream of getting rich from a guild. Sometimes I fell behind as well because the day ‘changed’ without my knowledge about the actual timing.

I asked Philip about this and received the information that KQ operates in ETC/UTC, and most users use time zones such as America/New York, America/Los Angeles, and America/Chicago. I can change mine in the settings, so at least it’s easier for me to follow with the actual timing when a guild starts/ends. Some mixed-up might appear when you change your time zone, like the wallet breakdown so take note of that, but it shouldn’t affect the overall.

  

Warning Emails

One thing that drove me nuts the first few times was the warning emails. I think it’s a template of something that doesn’t actually reflect the accurate progress in the guild. The first time I got it (or maybe I had missed the previous ones), it said that I would lose my money because I was falling behind. At that time, the guild was already over in my time, so I didn’t know what went wrong. I was sure I had finished it. I went to ask Philip, and he assured me that I was right. I still got the ‘inaccurate emails,’ like a few days ago, it warned me I was starting to fall behind with my guild, while I was actually 250 minutes ahead (around 8 days ahead and am close to the finish line. I have learned to be confident and ignore them, but it would be great if it reflected actual timing and didn’t try to send me into a panic mode.

Quill Mate

Okay, I have a strong opinion about this one, but I'm open-minded enough to admit that I could be wrong.

Whenever my brain is on fire, I write very quickly. I also have this insane competitive trait that I want to perform well. After looking at it (and reading about it), I decided to try one day. I clicked Join on someone looking for a quill mate. She had a ‘good’ star, so we started to write. I wrote a lot, and it ended up with me writing 20% more than her. I was happy with it.

The second time I tried was when I swore it off forever. This person had an okay star but not great, and asked for 20 minutes quill-mating. Again, I wrote quickly and realized it took a very long time, and the progress was not great. I could be reading it wrong, but I think I wrote 17 minutes while the other person wrote 2 minutes. I tried to slow it down to see if that was the case, but it still didn’t end (because he didn’t seem to be writing!). I finally wrote the last minute and we concluded it.

 

Quill mate warning

Of course, at this moment, I was pissed enough, I got some ‘report’ that I wrote 160% more than my mate for that session. This was okay, lesson learned. However, when I checked on his profile, his reputation had risen significantly, bright and shiny with the same score as mine, which should be impossible, that he was a generous quill mate, while it was not the case at all. Tbh, this annoys me a lot, which means it was not his actual performance and that stat would fool his next quill mate. Again, I could be wrong in interpreting it, but I’m very sure he barely did anything during those 20 minutes. So, no more quill mates for . I do better on my own. I wish there were an easier way to see how this works.

 

Koala Maze

As mentioned, when I am in the zone, I write quickly. Sometimes I had the pop-up with a green bar, which means there is more resting time as a reward, but when it happened, I would freeze and have a stage fright. However, more often than not, a koala maze would appear. I have to navigate the koala to pass the test that I’m not a bot. The thing was, I didn’t know what the koala liked! Strawberry? Car? Log? Joking. It’s easy enough, although it’s a true story that I got it wrong a few times because I was confused.

 

Payout

This might be everyone’s question. I am a very skeptical person, and I have trust issues with everything. I have read that KQ is legit, but it was only one or two articles, and to my knowledge, this is quite a new site. After my free trial ended, I thought I wanted to just stick with the Apprentice plan. However, I soon missed my daily motivation and the ability to join multiple guilds. I don’t have much hope of earning anything from guilds, but they are good motivations to write. I am not in a good financial place, but I want to invest in a good site and a good habit. The yearly plan was scary for me so I signed up for the monthly Visionary first, which cost $22. I want to verify and confirm that this is a legitimate site.

After a month had passed, I decided to upgrade to a yearly membership. Before that, here came the ultimate test: I’d try to cash out some amount of money through PayPal to see how easy or tedious it would be before I pulled the plug (or installed the plug?). It went well, so I went ahead with the yearly plan. Along the way, I also added to my balance so that I could join guilds for my 100k challenge motivation, and everything worked smoothly. Up to now, I can attest that this is a legitimate website and a good one to keep me motivated, which brings me to the next point.

 

Motivation

Writer's block be damned. There were times when I stopped writing altogether or just wrote a pitiful amount of words and called it a day. Personally, KQ raised my competitive self from the ground. I plan my schedule around it and would write much more before my busy days, so I wouldn’t fall behind the guild targets. I wrote during exercise, during walking like those phone zombies that I almost hit my forehead on an electrical pole. I avoided that, but then I hit the bottom of the escalator (true story) to fulfil my streaks. The 100k word challenge occurs during my busiest month, so I’m trying to write as much as possible before the holiday. It’s hard at times, but it really helps to get my butt out there.

Just like other users, I also realize that I’m too easily distracted. The amount of time I am in front of the screen and actually typing is horrible. Now that I have a time indication and a way to monitor it, it helps me to focus as well.

I would dig up something, a long-neglected WIP, a barely interesting competition (because I don't have good story ideas), and I actually started a new book because of this. I have been consistent, and according to the Koala on the top left, I have written 107k words since I joined in September (I have 71 streaks, so most likely that is the number of days I have joined), which is quite crazy because I remember dying a lot during multiple NaNoWriMo and only won once.

 

Other small stuffs

• It’s not easy to copy and paste a section of the draft (especially the middle part of the draft) using a mobile phone, as it would get chaotic in the same way as trying to move an image in Microsoft Word.
• Users have to be online to use KQ. Tthis is obvious, but a factor to consider because I love to write offline or if users visit a place with bad/no internet connection. There is an option to activate holiday mode.
• There is no actual community except for a limited chat function during a quillmate section which I never used. I don’t mind at all. Personally, it’s tiresome and it’s hard for me to keep up. Not everything has to have a community.
• When copying and pasting a draft from Koala to other software, sometimes the paragraphs are lumped together. Even publishing in KQ itself messes up the paragraph spacing. (Update, this still shows up as a big lump despite my effort in editing and fixing the spacing multiple times. I think it’s major enough because it affects readability).

So, here is my long-winded ramble.

Koala in shining armor

Oh, there is one best point, Philip will appear like a knight in shining armor to help with any issue. I have asked some stupid questions, but he helped me all the same. I always advocate this kind of service because it’s irreplaceable. I think it’s great and one of my biggest reasons to be here.

Overall: I really recommend Koala Quill.

You can use this referral link: https://koalaquill.com?rr=1877