A Mexican restaurant in the Philippines that serves tacos that don't drip in mayonnaise?! My heart! The cabbage could have been removed and I could use more cilantro but taco al pastor is good. And they use soft cornmeal tacos 💖

Thursday, Monday, Tuesday, and again today: I've pedaled along the same stretch of McArthur Highway connecting San Fernando to Mabalacat six times in the last seven days. Medyo umay na ako sa kalsada. 😭

Late upload: Graffiti spray-painted on a supporting post of the Skyway: an angry human figure with the text "Fuck corrupt, baha pa din"

The man chopping the grilled liempo accidentally caused one piece to fly off and drop to the floor. He asked me if I still wanted it included with the rest and I reluctantly agreed (it was a biggish piece).

I wanted to record my bike ride today from BGC to Quiapo to Banawe to Dau. But my watch stopped recording when I paused in Malolos and the timing was also wonky. So I ended the recording at Apalit and started a new one. I guess next time na lang yung recording ng crazy bike tours ko.

Punyeta yung 100-kilometer bike ride from Dau to Banawe (to have some maintenance work for Phoebe) then to Pembo. I can barely feel my legs. 85 kilometers of that ride was with defective brake pads pa huhuhu. And then I have to do it all over again tomorrow to return to Dau. 💀

Malolos talaga yung stopover point whenever I bike from Dau to Manila (and the back). Yung kakain ako in a cafe tapos makiki-charge na rin ng bike battery for an hour or so. 🪫

Breakfast is the totally overloaded pancit batil patung (they call this "balor gabor") from Ms. J's Panciteria in Bayombong. It has calamares, liver, lechon kawali, poached egg, and I think I gained an extra four inches of waist.

So who's the idiot who biked from Poblacion, Makati to Quiapo to buy crafting materials without considering the possibility that the stores are closed today because, y'know, it's a public holiday? Me. The idiot is me. 🙋🏽‍♂️

The National Museum of American History has an exhibit right now on Filipino American history. The exhibit includes the finely tailored suits that Filipino immigrants bought using money they earned as agricultural laborers in California. Georgetown professor Erwin Tiongson discusses this here:

"Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly" doesn't include doing it through generative AI.

Day 4 of being sick. I was joking with a coworker last night (I work from home) that at least I don't feel like dying anymore. But when I woke up this afternoon, my body was like, "bet."

A friend I haven't seen in a long time appeared in my dream. We're about to have a selfie using my tablet when a phone started ringing. It was my phone ringing in real-life which jolted me awake. The caller dropped the call as soon as I answered it. Couldn't they have waited until after the selfie?

Responsorial psalm, let our response be: I'm too Gen X for this shit.

I don't know why I checked but when I unwrapped the McDonald's burger, I realized it's not the double cheeseburger with lettuce that I ordered. It's a regular cheeseburger with lettuce. I returned it to the counter, explained I ordered a double cheeseburger, and the staff said they'll replace it.

I panicked a little bit when I accidentally spilled some rice grains while I transferred them to these containers. It's mostly because of Filipino guilt—a lot of us were raised to treat rice as extra precious—but also, these are Cordilleran heirloom rice I bought in Baguio. 😭

What's stronger than Catholic guilt? The Filipino guilt when you accidentally spill rice grains. 😖

10/10, no notes.

So, I said yesterday that I'll just buy that Beastie Boys CD because of the special sleeve. But I returned to the popup table of Tokyo Music Club annnnnnd ended up with more CDs. 😭 I saw these yesterday, changed my mind about not buying them, and so here we are. I think I need a CD player now.

The guillotine earrings caught my attention and then I saw she also has tarot-inspired earrings. Unfortunately, the Fool wasn't available, but I got The Wheel of Fortune + The Magician and Justice + Judgement. ⚔️

Dropped by a bazaar in Session Road earlier and saw the table of Tokyo Music Club. It took all the self-control to not buy more CDs (lots of great 90s albums omg) because I don't even own a CD player 😭 I settled for Beastie Boys' "To the 5 Boroughs" because it came in a special edition sleeve.

Currently working with a blanket wrapped around me because it's 15°C in Baguio right now 🥶

Found an old chullo-like cap when I rummaged through my bedroom in my parents' place yesterday. I figured I'd start wearing it to cover my bald head from the cold while I'm in Baguio.

Being GenX/Millennial is such a trip. In our lifetimes, we saw people our age getting wild criminal penalties for pirating music and now have to sit and watch as companies gobble up our work with impunity.

Jen Taub@jentaub.bsky.social · last mo.

Still trying to understand how Napster got shut down, but Anthropic is going public and still hasn’t paid us authors yet after stealing our work.

I was preparing the bag I'll be carrying as I bike to Pembo from Caniogan when a delivery man asked me for directions to Rizal High School. I don't live here but I've visited enough times to give him correct directions. But it's another one of those random people asking me for directions moments.

Seeing TOSH again brought back memories of my first corporate job at the Valero area in Makati CBD. I'm glad that the restaurant is still there.

Finally had Iris' handlebar changed from the previous bullhorn into a swept back riser. I've had this replacement handlebar for a long time but I've now accepted how my back doesn't enjoy leaning down too much when cycling. Next goal: update her group set and get a proper re-painting.

Buti na lang tama yung pagkakasulat ko na ang plural ng "aircraft" ay "aircraft" 😅

SKL. I was planning to do tarot readings in my pop-up booth last Sunday but decided not to because I found out there was another tarot reader and it's a very small pop-up market. I did get to meet the tarot reader and chatted with them.

Finally got around to defrosting the blood sausage I bought in Baguio. I decided to stir-fry the sliced sausage with shimeji mushrooms, green peas, and leeks.