The past few days have been uneventful. While I am mostly back on the groove—2-ish hours on my phone, daily exercise and wim hof. I’m still a bit lacking on the bullet journal part.

[6 AM]: My brother drove me 20-30 kilometers from the hotel to the race venue that morning. The road where the starting line was located was blocked from traffic to give way for all the race equipment and staff. The race itself was mostly uneventful—after all, it was just a 16k run.

Except in the middle of the run, I got a random call. The caller wasn’t asking for anything, it was just a random call.

That race marked the beginning of… stuff.

Today we packed some stuff that we will donate to those affected by the recent eruption. Most of the stuff I donated are race singlets. I really liked the design of the singlet I used back in 2017.

Holding it in my hand, I asked myself,

“Does this shirt spark joy?”

It didn’t.

The wink wink suggestions that I will be going onshore for 1 month is getting louder. Problem is, I’m not sure if I really want to go there.

Got news from college friends that one of the members of our gang is getting married next month.

As the shitty photo implies, yes, I have recovered my oddball camera.

The title of this post is actually completely unrelated to the camera, and more of a reminder to myself to listen more closely to that faint nudge:

– that my personal path does not follow the common trail in photography

– that I don’t belong to that group. I have to pave my own path.

I know it’s already the 8th of January, but according to my body clock, the 7th is only about to end the moment I fall asleep.

Good news, someone picked up and surrendered my 360 camera! I lost it sometime last month during the year end party. I’ve already accepted that it was lost, never to be found but there it is!

No deep epiphanies to day, and it’s okay.

My screen time for today is still under 2 hours. Three days without reddit and youtube really frees your mind by a surprising lot. I still tend to bring my kindle without actually reading it, but the amount of podcast I am able to listen to has greatly increased.

Today’s photo is still a far cry from my 2017 365 Project, but that is to be expected for a no-zero-days post.

Any movement is better than ZERO movement.

“Thankful” is not one of the words you could use to describe me. I’m obviously trying to be positive here. Looking back at 2019, I did have some nice stuff to be thankful for:

• First time to go out of the country—and did it solo. Not a lot of people would dare go out of the country alone, especially on their first time! But I did!
• I climbed Mount Pulag at the beginning of the year alongside one of the—if not the—best landscape photographers in the country. While I didn’t get to closely mingle with him, (thanks, social anxiety!) it was still nice to be in the same company with some of the best photographers in the PH. (in fact one of the photographers in our group won the Photoworld Manila photographer of the year award for 2019)
• Improved the few remaining friendships that I have. While I didn’t gain new friends, I’ve learned to trust—and hopefully gained their trust of—current acquaintances.