Because of my curation duties, I have to sacrifice some of my time for posting in my account. I am not complaining, though. I love curation as much as content creation. While some curators can still manage to produce content daily on top of their curation duties, I'm almost full that I can barely afford to take another duty. Once in a while, I clear my blocked schedule for this account. It turned out I have a lot to share. I promised myself I would allocate at least an hour of the day to just write, edit photos, or simply conceptualize what type of content I should share next.
Let me start with this one: the things I should thank Hive for. And by Hive, I mean all of you who continued to trust me and supported me in everything that I contributed to this platform. I will start at the latest up to those I can still remember.
1. Treated the Whole Family During My Parents' 28th Wedding Anniversary
Last Saturday was special because, for the first time, we were able to have fun together as a family. It was my parents' 28th Wedding Anniversary and I was able to treat from my earnings here in Hive. It was an achievement for me! When I was still in manufacturing, every time I hint of traveling together or eating out, my parents would just suggest buying something for the house or buying one sack of rice so that we won't run out of rice for at least 20 days. They knew I live hand-to-mouth with my salary and sometimes I even borrow some money from my workmates especially during emergencies.
I'm always open to my parents and I told them it sucks to be responsible for almost everything in the house. To be clear, my parents were not lazy. I often wondered how they were able to raise us with the salary they had. Being the eldest, I hated the high expectations from me. It's kind of expected that whenever there are problems, I have all the solutions in the world. You know, toxic Filipino culture that even trickles to the extended family. I always complain, but I couldn't get out of the situation. haha
Back to the family escapade, I requested my younger sister to arrange a van for rent so that we can tour in Busay to Balamban area. I've been there many times, but my mother always wanted to visit Buwakan ni Alejandra and Sirao Flower Farm so I promised to take them there. She's an OG plantita so it's understandable why she wanted to go there.
I initially wanted to start at Sirao Pictorial Garden (this is different from Sirao Flower Farm) before Buwakan ni Alejandra, but the driver wanted to start at the farthest and then have stopovers along the way back. I obliged so we started at Buwakan ni Alejandra. I became the photographer of the family aside from being the provider. I didn't complain though because it will be for content.
After they get tired of taking photos with those flowers under the heat of the sun, I decided to bring them to Charlie's Cup. It's a relatively new cafe/restaurant along the way. It's still part of Cebu City, but near the border in Barangay Gaas, Balamban. We had lunch there.
After lunch, we decided to go back to Sirao Pictorial Garden, but along the way, we bought some plants for my mother. Being an OG plantita, my funds almost ran out because of the plants she wanted to buy. When we were near Sirao Pictorial Garden, it rained so we decided not to push through because it would be a waste of the entrance fee if we won't be able to take photos of the garden. We just bought grilled corn and decided to continue to the next destination: Temple of Leah.
When we reached Temple of Leah, the rain stopped. We had a few photo sessions and decided to go home. My mother would have wanted to go back to Sirao Pictorial Garden, but I told her we will just go back in another time. I got tired that I wanted to go home. She was okay with it because she already had a lot of new plants.
It was one fun day that will always be remembered. Thanks to Hive I was able to do that one thing I always dreamed of doing for my family.
2. Bought a New Laptop
For the longest time, I have been using my phone to post, curate, or do the compilations for OCD. I got used to it that I felt I was already efficient in navigating through everything here in Hive. When @acidyo learned about this about two months ago, he said it was such a hassle to compose everything using a phone that he got guilty of giving me more OCD jobs to manage. He even wanted to lend me some HIVE for me to buy a new laptop, but I said it's okay to do everything using my phone.
Earlier this month, I decided to finally buy a new laptop because my old laptop was becoming really slow that even starting it up would take at least a few minutes. I can still do everything using my phone, but sometimes I use a laptop to write my posts.
The reason why I decided to buy a laptop was not because of Hive, but because of my part-time job as a researcher. I had to draft a proposal and using my old laptop won't just make it. I chose HP 15S Rose Gold Laptop with AMD Ryzen 5 4500U with Radeon Graphics 2.38 GHz Processor. The main reason why I chose that was the color. I let @glecerioberto deal with the specs and other details because I can't be bothered with things I won't even care of knowing. I'm not the techy type and I know I will just use the laptop to write something.
When I used it to compile a post for OCD, I was shocked by how different it was from my expectations! It was so much faster than my phone. I'm now using it to do almost anything here in Hive except uploading photos. I can now compile posts with much ease. This is a game-changer in terms of productivity.
Thanks to Hive I was able to buy the things that would help me contribute more to the community.
3. Bought Long Fins for Freediving
I think I haven't shared it here, but I'm now into freediving. I still love scuba diving, which I will probably pursue advanced certification in the coming months, but there's this attraction towards exploring a certain depth in one breath. I'm not after having the depth as if it's some kind of bragging rights. I'm just after exploring the corals and hanging out with the turtles more. Snorkeling is fun, but it's just different when you get up close with those sea creatures.
Since our divemaster said that freediving is now more of a lifestyle, I decided to buy the fiberglass long fins instead of having the plastic ones. It's way much more expensive, but as per the advice of our divemaster, it would be more practical to buy the fiberglass instead of buying the plastic and then transition later on.
I'm still learning how to properly equalize because I really have difficulty even before with scuba diving. It takes a while for me to properly learn the technique. My maximum depth is still at 10 meters during our intro to freediving, but in our last session, I only reached 7 meters because of my difficulty to equalize.
As for the long fins, I already used them once and I'm still adjusting so there are no awesome underwater photos with the fins yet. I have some videos when we hang out with the turtles in Moalboal, but for some reason, I couldn't download them from Google Photos. Once they're downloaded, I will probably share them in a separate post.
Thanks to Hive I am now able to invest in skills that I really wanted to learn. I only dreamed of acquiring those skills before and now they're within my grasp.
4. Slowly Building My Emergency Fund
This is one of my biggest dreams. I have insurance, but to have an emergency fund is another level. I know it wouldn't be possible if I stayed in manufacturing because it was always hand-to-mouth every payday. There's this sense of stability in a day job, but I think it's a trap. Stability is a trap.
I am now slowly becoming more conscious of my spending. I have @glecerioberto to thank for convincing me to download a money tracking app. It made me more aware of my financial status and to live within my means.
Just to be clear, I'm still far from being rich. Hopefully, Hive will help me reach that financial situation that I aspire, but if not, I'm still happy with what I have now. The key is to be contented with what I have at the moment. It doesn't mean I'll stop dreaming and just stay things as is, but it made me more grateful for what I have at this time. I realized that what I have now are those I dreamed and prayed for before. And for that, I'll always be thankful to Hive.
For those who are might be wondering why I kept on withdrawing my earnings, I'm building my emergency fund. I don't have to explain what I'm doing with my HIVE, but it feels right to just share these things.
With HBD stabilization to hopefully work after the next HF, I might consider adding HBD as another emergency fund. I already tried doing the HBD savings feature of Hive, but it didn't work because HBD shoots up to almost $2 even with an HBD stabilizer. I ended up withdrawing those saved HBDs to take advantage of the HBD pump.
I already imagined how cool it would be to have all aspects of life incorporated in Hive.
5. Finding My Ikigai?
Last Sunday, we met with my classmates from college and we talked about ikigai. Now I wondered: What if Hive is my ikigai? How cool would that be?
For those who are new to the term, Ikigai is a Japanese concept of finding purpose in life.
"Ikigai is what gets you up every morning and keeps you going."
It might not be that Hive in itself is my ikigai, but the values that Hive stands for. I can really imagine myself doing the things I'm doing now until I grow old. It makes me happy. I mean the idea of earning something by just sharing your truths is the biggest magnet for me. The idea of voluntary contribution is also another magnet that attracted me to Hive and contribute what I can contribute to this platform.
I believe that finding your purpose is a process and a life-long journey so Hive might not be the end, but the means to achieve that ikigai.
6. Building My Network
The idea of connecting to people from different parts of the world and different walks of life is just astounding for me considering that we are in the middle of the pandemic. Aside from connecting to a lot of people in the world, I am now surrounded by awesome content creators here in Cebu alone. It's such a blessing to be with people who share the same values as you do. I won't mention you all because you probably know who you are.
I dreamed of having a network of people from different backgrounds, but everyone can rely on each other. I think I'm a little bit closer to that dream. As I told them, we have witches, mermaids, pole dancers, traders, financial advisors, ghosts, and some other freaks, but we all helped each other grow in knowledge about crypto. Of course, Hive is the focal point of it all and we all agreed on one thing: Quality content is king.
I shared some of the activities we are planning in my last post, but some of them are pushed to a later date because of the pandemic. We will definitely gather all our forces and make Hive known here in Cebu once the restrictions are eased.
Kim Ybañez
Welcome to Kim's small corner in Hive. He is a chemical engineer by profession, but a blogger by passion. He is a wanderlust and an adventure seeker. Join his quests as he visits secluded destinations, climbs mountains, tries new and exotic dishes, and explores his country (The Philippines). He's also a trying hard photographer so stay tuned as he shares his photos and his thought process while creating them.
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