writing – Marcus Can Blog

Use It or Lose It: When You Leave the Office but the Worksheets Follow You Home

I haven’t really stopped using worksheets even after I stopped working. Honestly, I think my brain still believes I’m on payroll (among the few things I miss being employed). Pivot tables, dashboards, formulas, macros—they still run laps in my head like they’re training for the Olympics. Sometimes I wonder if this is a mild form of PTSD or just the natural consequence of spending too many years color‑coding cells for fun. At this point, the urge to track and organize is basically a reflex.

My job hunt tracker is my first official transition from MS Excel to Google Sheets. Yes, I still have a free MS Office license courtesy of my brother‑in‑law, who bundled it with the laptop they gave me last December (bless him). But I’m preparing for the day that license expires—the day Microsoft taps me on the shoulder and says, “Time’s up, buddy.” So I’m easing myself into the online version in case I decide not to pay for the full license. This tracker is my warm‑up exercise, learning the nuances of Google Sheets which aren’t much.

My workout plan is the next file. This one is a bigger leap because I’ve already started using formulas—thankfully almost identical to Excel—and with the help of MS Copilot, I even built a timed‑reset App Script (Google’s version of a macro). But here’s the thing: even with AI, you still need clear instructions. “Create a script for this output” is basically the equivalent of telling a contractor, “Build me a house,” and then walking away. Maybe in five years AI can read my mind, but for now, I still have to spell things out, challenge the responses, and test the script like a responsible adult.

My fuel tracker is my third work in progress. Now that I’m working part‑time as a delivery guy for both Transportify and Lalamove, I need visuals—fuel costs, efficiency, earnings, the whole shebang. At first, I wanted to jump straight into building a mobile app using Glide. I was ready to go full tech‑bro mode. But after a few days of back‑and‑forth with MS Copilot, I realized I should probably start with a basic worksheet, test it in the wild, and then build the app once I actually understand what metrics matter. Baby steps. Use it or you lose it.

Becoming the Driver I Used to Wonder About

For years, I’ve told people—sometimes casually, sometimes with real curiosity—how fascinated I am by taxi drivers, Grab, Lyft, Uber, and anyone who seems to genuinely enjoy shuttling people around. There’s something about the rhythm of their work, the stories they collect, the lives they intersect with. When I visited Malaysia again, that fascination resurfaced. Grab made everything easier compared to our first trip in 2007, when getting around meant flagging taxis and hoping for the best.

But it was our last Grab driver who left an impression I didn’t fully understand until days after returning to the Philippines. He was chatty, open, and eager to answer our questions. A few minutes before reaching Central Market, he shared that he once ran an IT business. A sibling rivalry ended with his brother taking over the company. He used to travel abroad almost every year—until everything collapsed. Now he was driving again, rebuilding quietly by being on the road serving passengers.

I didn’t know it then, but that conversation was a preview of my own shift.

The Tuesday after my Holy Week vacation in Malaysia, I found myself suddenly jobless. No warning. No preparation. Just a sudden break from the life I thought I was returning to.

The weeks that followed were filled with job applications—more than 15 if I recall it right. Almost half replied with the familiar line: “We will not be moving forward with your application.” Others stayed pending and only one gave a definite yes: Transportify.

“Be careful what you wish for,” they say. But why not? Pride tugged at me, but curiosity nudged harder. Maybe it was time to finally see what kind of driver I would be.

Beyond needing income, I was drawn to something else: driving is a high‑touch job. It’s future‑proof, at least for the next several years. In simple terms, it’s AI‑safe. And in a country still struggling to modernize jeepneys (and educate its drivers) or build enough charging stations to match the rise of EVs, it’s clear that logistics and transport will remain essential work for a long time.

It’s been two weeks since I dipped my feet into this new world. So far, it’s been an adventure—learning the Transportify app, understanding bookings, trusting Waze, and navigating Manila’s unfamiliar roads. It hasn’t been the most profitable start, but that’s not the point. This is what starting fresh looks like. There’s always a learning curve, and I’m giving myself the space to grow, adjust, and get better.

Maybe this is what I’ve been preparing for without realizing it. Maybe this is the beginning of a story I used to only observe from the outside.

Now, I’m living it. (FYI, I just got my professional driver’s license last Monday.)

The Strange Coincidence I Noticed While Watching The Minimalists: Less Is Now

Don’t I look good in my minimalist workspace?

There’s always been a minimalist in me. I like keeping my stuff simple and clutter‑free. But like anyone else, there’s always room for improvement. Case in point: our cabinet is almost full of clothes—especially since I stopped working.

After getting tired of thriller and crime series, I decided to break the pattern (and the algorithm) by checking out some documentaries. One Netflix suggestion led me back to The Minimalists: Less Is Now. I realized I had already started it long ago because it was tagged “Resume Playing.” So I restarted it from the beginning.

Everything soon looked familiar. I remembered scenes up to about halfway through, but this time I paid more attention to what the hosts and the featured minimalists were saying.

Things got more interesting when one of The Minimalists’ cofounder, Ryan Nicodemus, shared his story. He talked about being called into a meeting by his boss, only to find HR there too. Long story short: he was fired on the spot. That hit close to home. Been there.

It made me wonder—did Netflix somehow sense what happened to me a month ago and push this documentary back into my recommendations? Hard to dodge the algorithm nowadays.

And here’s another funny coincidence: I actually resemble Ryan a wee bit—shoulder‑length hair, facial hair, similar build. Isn’t that interesting.

Last night, I started reevaluating my stuff. The plan is to start small—cables, old chargers, broken electronics. Among other things, I even reset my Garmin and my Apple Watch Series 4 to prepare them for disposal. They’ve served their purpose, and hopefully someone else can still find them useful.

It’s a small step, but it feels like the right direction to being minimalist. More in the next days.

My Father‑and‑Son Victory Over Totenreich’s Final Boss in Call of Duty Zombies

The final boss has finally fallen. Three days ago, I began my showdown with Call of Duty’s Dravakar with Marcus leading the charge. The creature was colossal, vicious, and freezing to the core. Its health bar barely moved no matter how many rounds I pumped into it. The Voyak and every upgrade I slapped onto it felt useless. The unstable Xbox connection ever since we switched to PLDT’s WiFi 6 router didn’t help either. On this first fight, I was crushed.

The next afternoon, we tried again. Fingers crossed, we loaded into Zombies mode. I was tense, determined to finish the fight, and hoping Marcus wouldn’t end the session annoyed that his old man played like a noob again. I prepared my GobbleGum kit, including Perkaholic—the one that instantly grants every available perk. No more scrambling for essence, hunting down Perk Machines, or buying each perk while dodging stray undead. With this, I felt unstoppable. All I had to do was focus on clearing each wave and wait for Marcus to call the shots.

“We will now proceed with the boss fight,” he announced several waves later. We were teleported straight into the arena. Dravakar loomed ahead, and next to it was the Iron Sentinel—an equally massive ally—marched forward to engage. My controller vibrated almost nonstop, my palms were sweating, and zombies began pouring in from every direction. A long battle was coming. My plan was simple: follow Marcus’ commands like a clueless private trying to impress his sergeant.

Then the Gjallarfrost appeared. A floating, icy skull drifting around the battlefield like the boss’s personal enforcer. Marcus explained that it takes heavy damage when you toss lethal equipment—grenades, molotovs, semtex—straight into its open mouth. I threw whatever I had, unsure where each of it landed, but at least I followed orders.

The fight felt endless. Dravakar was relentless, hurling massive ice chunks at us, forcing us to hide behind rock pillars while trying to shoot its glowing weak points (which reminded me of those body pain commercials). It summoned icy spikes from the ground, and the chaos just kept building. I was overwhelmed but determined to push through.

Eventually, I found my rhythm. Marcus’ quick instructions started making sense. I focused on staying alive even as my eyes strained from the nonstop action. I kept firing the Voyak, tossing grenades, and triggering Frenzied Guard whenever things got too intense. After several minutes of pure mayhem, the Harbinger’s health finally hit zero. Whew!

It was over. We won.

***

Free from final boss. True story: exactly today I am no longer reporting to a boss. Today marks the end of my employment. More COD games ahead.

Streamline Your Job Transition with Online Clearances

While the clock is ticking toward my official last day at work in a couple of weeks, I’ve started preparing for the transition to a new job. That means reaching out to old friends who might be able to help, checking JobStreet.com (Lina has become a familiar face in my inbox lately), and gathering the documents I’ll need along the way.

One thing I’m grateful for: the days of standing in long, sweaty government-office queues are mostly behind us. Applying for NBI and police clearances can now be done online, and even the payment of fees can be completed through e-wallets and other online banking options. It’s one of those small but meaningful changes that makes a stressful transition feel a little lighter.

For my NBI clearance, I applied through the online portal and was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the process was. A couple of small things helped: logging in through my phone so my details were easy to access when I needed the reference number, and updating my address online even after setting the appointment. When I finally went to the nearest NBI office, the entire visit took less than 10 minutes. Impressed.

Police clearance is also available online now. Just like with the NBI process, I used GCash to complete the payment. There’s a small additional fee for paying online, but honestly, it’s a reasonable trade-off compared to going to the bank, waiting for your number to be called, and spending half the day in line wondering if the teller is more tired than you are.

I also checked on my mandatory contributions—PAG-IBIG and SSS—which are thankfully accessible through their mobile apps. It’s reassuring to see how many of these steps can now be done from home. Transitions are never easy, but having simpler systems in place makes preparing for what’s next feel a bit more manageable.

Little by little, things are falling into place. And somehow, that makes the approaching last day feel less like an ending—and more like a beginning

Been AI-while Crocodile (I’m Back)

Saltwater crocodile lying in shallow mangrove creek water with greenery around — AI-generated image

So what did I miss? After four years of WordPress dormancy, I’m back—and a lot has changed on the social media platforms I used to know. Twitter is now X. There’s TikTok, which until now I haven’t wanted to use—not even look at. Facebook is no longer just for keeping up with friends (you now even have ex-friends who choose to stay just to see you fail). Then there’s AI.

2026 is definitely an AI year, and I don’t even need to define what AI is unless you’ve been living under a rock. I first became aware of AI’s growing presence last year through the news, and then more personally through someone abroad who mentioned that her son had started working with an AI company—with a very significant paycheck. Stress on very significant.

This means businesses are now starting to invest more heavily in AI. Good news if you’re a stockholder or part of the teams developing it. Bad news if you’re just an end user. It reminds me of the anxiety we felt when we first learned about increasing and improving manufacturing automation somewhere around the year 2000.

AI is meant to change our lives, like it or not. It is meant to take over, like it or not. Like the print on my favorite Uniqlo shirt says, “Neither friend nor enemy.” It’s all in how you perceive it. The faster you accept its existence and adapt to its use, the better off you’ll be.

So I choose to adapt. In fact, I’ve been using it much more frequently lately. I choose to befriend AI—even if it’s probably one of the reasons I now find myself with a lot of free time.

Jobless in a few weeks.

Social Media is a Sketch Pad

Witty. Funny. Common words I’ve heard and read so many times from different people who would describe my ideas and how I write. I’m not good at accepting compliments, nor giving one, but it always gives me the needed kick to keep writing whenever I receive such.

Countless times I have encountered writer’s block and I know it will happen again–and make it as an excuse again. Even the most prolific writers dread it. Managing writer’s block is key to overcoming it. Like how you manage your boss–related but it’s another story.

Churning out ideas forming inside our head requires turning individual words into one that makes sense. One that is fluid, harmonized, or at least structured. (While I type at this moment I struggle already so bear with me.)

Sometimes the intent to impress by being verbose is the culprit, a trap leading to a draft that won’t be published ever. So writing something brief but catchy does the trick in keeping that writing brain running. Let loose and type away.

Many people online appreciate news digests. It’s become the trend since information technology overloaded the world wide web of anything under the sun. I don’t have the exact stats but I am quite sure I’m not the only one who would do a quick glance and scroll to the next that interests me. Nobody nowadays likes spending too much time on one article. Agree?

This is why I now treat social media as a sketch pad or a writing testing ground. I love the challenge of writing something short but interesting that I was among those who hated the day when Twitter decided to go let go of its 180 characters limit. Twitter was more fun back then.

Then there’s Facebook. Its “What’s on your mind?” is always a come-on to express something in the form of words or images or a combo of both regardless of quality of context. Done properly, however, posts could solicit the desired impact, reactions, or interactions. The challenge lies in knowing who your readers or friends are, how they would respond. So far my recent activities prove that being creative, clean, and having rant-free posts mean more likes, love, and laughter.

I also realized that posting beyond my circle of friends is also a good test of how my ideas and insights would be received. I once shunned commenting on news on Facebook as it exposes me open to the public, specifically to the trolls and grammar Nazis–karma sucks, I know. But I discovered that posting comments or opinions is one way of getting timely feedback about my writing style. So what works based on recent personal experience? Staying relevant to the topic, respecting the opinion of others, and infusing some wit (or sarcasm) do get good reception.

Practice, practice, practice they say. So whether perfection comes–if and when–or not I will try to write, write, write, and write more. It’s not going to be always easy but it would be a shame if I don’t even try to let my ideas see the light of day at least for fun or for a paid job. Which reminds me to check if there are job orders already…

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (All boys day today! Wifey’s day out.)

Should We Take Our Playlist When We Run?

To plug in or not to plug in, that is the question. Everyone would agree that music does affect the way we do things. While we have individual genres, whatever that is in our playlist influences our behavior whether we’re up for a long night of school work, crunch numbers at the office, finish a writing deadline, or when we want to get in the zone during a workout.

I have this wired Phillips earphones for about 10 years already.

Whenever we want extra focus we shut the rest of world out and enter our invisible cocoon, we play our favorite song. Others seal themselves completely, almost air tight, thanks to headphones. Introverts know this better.

Back in my younger days I was a fan of earphones or headsets. Yes, those Walkman days and then MP3 players. I don’t know when I stopped but I believe it was when I realized I need to talk to people. When I became mature–let’s say that’s true.

Safety was also an issue which is why I use less of the earphones especially when I’m mobile. When I started running more and read more about this sport, it seems that the number of cons against running while plugged in outnumbers the pros. There are so much road hazards that runners need to be aware of so being able hear a wayward driver coming from behind, for one, is a big advantage.

My opinion against wearing another set of technology in the form of the earphones remained until the day I sought that extra push to hit the steep Baguio terrain. That cold early morning I took my phone, plugged my very old but trusty wired Phillips earphones and ran. That was my first time running with Arnel Pineda, Big Fat Joe, Depeche Mode, and the rest of my Napster tracks (oopps) playing along. It made the trip on the undulating road to Burnham Park and back less tiring and stressful. Music saved the day.

For days since then I was back to wondering if these bone conduction earphones I’ve heard of months ago are worth buying. But this morning I got my answer from an unlikely source. A Facebook friend not so known for being minimalist posted a YouTube video about using technology instead of it using us. For me, the video’s message was clear and it takes me away once more from the urge to run with earphones plugged. For how long though, I don’t know.

***

As a frustrated writer, I also appreciate having music in the background. In my freelance days, I’ve finished countless articles, met writing deadlines with the help of the right music. ~~And alcohol~~. I have likewise composed better blog post when music sets the mood and motivation.

Few days ago I was contacted for a part-time writing job and so it seems that I would need to once again isolate myself for hours (if) when the job orders start coming in. Maybe that bone conduction earphone I see online is worth having after all.

***

How soon before someone becomes a freelancer? I’d say ten. Last week Marcus got his first feel of his mother’s home-based job when she asked him to encode few numbers from PDF to Excel while she took her break and surprisingly, wifey said he got the numbers right. Maybe, he’ll earn his first dollars soon. Haha.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (900-calorie breakfast after a 5K.)

Blog Mileage

Update here, dump there, good posts, bad posts, anything goes. That’s what I’ve been doing regularly lately. There would be days I get stuck correcting or revising archives before I repost and there would be days I just copy and paste the article on its original timeline.

You see I’ve been busy. Running, working out, and writing have been fighting to get their own share of my time. For now I continue to focus on my goal to repost and will just worry about them later, hopefully ahead of grammar Nazis or just before Grammarly starts to force me to get its premium service. I just can’t let years worth of posts stay on my backup Word document which I saved prior to me messing up my site few years back when I wiped out several posts just because I forgot to pay attention to what I was clicking. Lesson learned: back up, back up, back up.

Today I reposted a couple more and I received a prompt from WordPress that I just hit 500 posts. Wow. And to think I’m just about to finish year 2008.

***

There are things that just can’t be part of my conscious effort to embrace minimalism. Writing is one as I now have drafts and doodling all over my phone, laptop, paper notebook, and some hang on in my head. This is one of those few cases wherein clutter is probably good.

Then there’s material stuffs. This week I gave wifey the approval to buy the TV she’s been wanting to have and been saving for. The least I could do on Valentine’s week is to give a nod. There’s now a giant Ultra HD Devant TV in the middle of our small house which made me realize 50-inch is the biggest we can get unless we hang the TV across the kitchen and view it from the living room. So far the Call of Duty and Fallout 4 games of our 9-year old son have been more gory.

***

Claimed our free Starbucks cake. Free always tastes better.

Wifey also got me a pair of new jeans while in SM San Pablo last Monday. This one is for the books as the last time I purchased a pair was almost five years ago. My existing pants are either tattered not by design but due to wear and tear and all of them, FYI, are a couple of inches loose already. I need a new belt next.

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Cold Valentine’s Day weather.)

Time to Learn SEO Again

SEO starts to sound exciting once more. It could have been a year or more since I gave up on SEO because I just find it hard to understand. I once believe that knowing keywords and inserting them strategically in an article is SEO already. It was wrong, completely wrong. Keyword density wasn’t enough.

The problem with SEO is that there are so many people who claim to be experts. Tools and tips that these people recommend are either complicated or doesn’t work–at least for me. Some are just downright confusing that eventually made me stop caring much about driving traffic to my site. As long as I can write and post an article then I am already fine with it. Screw traffic.

But we need traffic and SEO drives blog traffic. Just this week I read The Next Web’s article titled SEO Simplified For Short Attention Spans. It is probably the most interesting article I have read about SEO to date. Maybe I have short attention span or maybe the explanations the article presents do make sense for someone who has given up on SEO. Or maybe it has something to do with my recent return to article writing, thanks to oDesk, which made me get interested about it again.

This week I look forward to spending time in front of our desktop and start all over again. The plan is to start looking into META and ALT tags which are the things I have ignored but could actually impact my site’s visibility. Wish me luck.

***

First accomplishment was changing from ugly permalinks to pretty permalinks. It pose a bit of challenge as the Dashboard is deceiving. It appears that it is a matter of just clicking on the radio button and save changes but it is not. The web.config.xml needs to be updated as well and WordPress.org forum has answers that could confuse further so below are two short steps to cut the chase.

Pretty permalink, ugly permalink, How to make pretty permalink work — How to change from ugly to pretty permalinks.

The original web.config.xml file contains the following below. Use an FTP client to save the file to your desktop.

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules/>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

To make the permalinks work, what needs to be done is just to change the content to:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<rewrite>
<rules>
<rule name=”WordPress Rule” stopProcessing=”true”>
<match url=”.*” />
<conditions>
<add input=”{REQUEST_FILENAME}” matchType=”IsFile” negate=”true” />
<add input=”{REQUEST_FILENAME}” matchType=”IsDirectory” negate=”true” />
</conditions>
<action type=”Rewrite” url=”index.php?page_id={R:0}” />
</rule>
</rules>
</rewrite>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Overwrite original file by uploading it back to your WordPress directory. Bingo, pretty permalinks!

Source: http://codex.wordpress.org/Using_Permalinks

***

Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Pacman-Algieri fight. And we need to be in Batangas for free cable.)