Hits
Experiences
Being in a panel on Instigating Change Within Institutions with Carmel Valencia of L'Oreal and Yani Hortilla of Canva, moderated by Arriane. I've been using Canva on and off since 2017, and SPS has a partnership with Kheil's (a L'Oreal brand) so it felt serendipitous to be in the same panel as these two amazing, inspiring women. Though we only met minutes before the panel, it felt like we'd been friends forever.
Work
Training people on the Marine Debris Tracker app. It's an open-data citizen science tool where we can log litter we pick up in events and cleanups, giving insights on commonly collected litter.
TV shows and Movies
Little Fires Everywhere. The adaptation of the book honors the spirit of the story. Some changes I agree with, some are questionable. Reese Witherspoon is the perfect Elena Richardson, and the acting of the Richardson children and Pearl are spectacular. Cute parin si Joshua Jackson, in a dad bod kind of way.
Binge-watching Scandal. I haven't watched Scandal in years and I'm not a fan of Kerry Washington's forever distressed lewk school of acting. BUT I'm still invested in the characters and the story, so go lang. There are parts of my work that can relate to Olivia Pope, and I consider red wine and popcorn as a meal. At anytime of the day. Like at 3PM, as shown below.
Modern Love on Amazon (that's the TV show in the photo above). I cried a lot in the first episode, continued to enjoy the next two episodes, then it plateaued and went downhill and picked up again towards the end.
The Kingmaker, a documentary about Imelda Marcos. It's an extraordinary peek into Imelda's mind as she is interviewed directly, and her truth is juxtaposed with clips from other resources. As a viewer - and as a Filipino with a deep love affair for my country - I was appalled and fascinated at the same time. Gulong gulo ako pagkatapos ko panoorin.
Books: Born A Crime by Trevor Noah was my favorite read for March. My Q1 reading list and short reviews can be found here.
Reads
"That Discomfort You're Feeling is Grief" has my favorite read
There is something powerful about naming this as grief. It helps us feel what’s inside of us. So many have told me in the past week, “I’m telling my coworkers I’m having a hard time,” or “I cried last night.” When you name it, you feel it and it moves through you. Emotions need motion. It’s important we acknowledge what we go through. One unfortunate byproduct of the self-help movement is we’re the first generation to have feelings about our feelings. We tell ourselves things like,I feel sad, but I shouldn’t feel that; other people have it worse.We can — we should — stop at the first feeling. I feel sad. Let me go for five minutes to feel sad. Your work is to feel your sadness and fear and anger whether or not someone else is feeling something.
[I]t’s a good time to stock up on compassion. Everyone will have different levels of fear and grief and it manifests in different ways.
The Stay Home, Take Care website put together by Girls' Night In (GNI). I've been a GNI subscriber for about two years, and their output has been an inspiration for our comms work in SPS. Every newsletter is made with so much love and intention. You can browse past issues here.
Five spreadsheets prepared by GNI with multiple resources. My favorite is the one with at-home workouts.
Life
My Quaran-teams. My family and friends and the many conversations we've had over Whatsapp and video calls.
All the memes helping us get through life.
Misses
COVID-19. Nothing follows.