Archive

To My Highschool Self

Dear Dom, You are in the middle of one of the most complex periods of your life. It will get better so just hang in there. It would feel like that this time will go on forever but it will not. It would seem like your life is already set

A Visit to the Motherland

For the first time since we moved our lives to Sweden, my wife and I went to our home country for a month-long vacation to our families. Neither of us had been away for this long so to see familiar faces and places was something we were looking forward to

To My Elementary School Self

Dear Dom, First of all, I want to let you know that you will eventually gain a few good inches in height. You have to wait for a few more years but try not to worry about it too much because it will happen. Yes, you will consistently get teased

Are We There Yet?

I have a decent physical endurance, or at least that was I thought. When my wife and I were looking for organised runs to sign up for I was quick to dismiss the 5k run. I was thinking maybe that would be too easy for me. I (used to) play

The Appreciation Of Not Having What You Don't Want

A cup of hot water at hand with pieces of crushed ginger bathing in it. It is my second of the day. This is an attempt to soothe a sore throat that I've been nursing for the third day now. The past few days felt like I was

Dived A Year Ago

It has been a year since we left the Philippines and moved to Sweden. I can still remember the excitement and the anticipation that filled my days leading up to the day that we flew to Stockholm. But between the tons of paperworks, expenses, and all the logistical elements of

On Not Being Behind the Wheel

I was on a train ride going home the other day when something that I haven't thought of for some time suddenly flashed in front of my mind – I don't know how to drive a car. A feeling of embarrassment slowly bubbled up inside of me

Things I Plan To Accomplish This Year

While I wasn't able to do everything that I set out to do last year I'm still proud of what I had accomplished. I don't usually talk about my personal goals but to switch it up a bit I will share the things that

I Moved To A Different Country

It goes without saying that moving to a different country is an exciting experience that a lot of people dreams about. Be it to immerse into a different culture or to have a better economic opportunity, it's definitely a significant life decision. After months of anticipation and millions

Why Are We Calling Everything Toxic?

There are people who had a relationship with someone who constantly and systematically manipulated and abused them. Or people who has been around someone, be it a friend or a family member who casts malicious doubts to their every plan. Or someone who grew up in a household that left

If I Could Start Over As A Software Engineer

Starting a career after college can be daunting to a lot of people, certainly that's the case for me. In an ideal world we want to have a mentor. Someone who would show us the ropes right from the start. Someone who would help us make sense of

The Simple Joy of Morning Walks

My 25-year old self would probably laugh at me when I say that one of my main form of exercise nowadays is plain old morning walks. I've always had an impression that only old people does it. Not only because it requires so little effort but also it&

Strong Opinions, Loosely Held

It's important to have strong convictions on few important things. But it's also equally important to have a loose grip on it so that in the presence of updated facts and findings, it would be easier for you to change your mind.

How To Create A Draggable Element Using Javascript

I've been spending these past few weeks trying to learn Javascript. But instead of drowning myself with YouTube tutorials, I decided to create a small project instead. I will build some sort of a todo/kanban board web app. And I want it to have task cards that

Thoughts on Mortality

I find it both fascinating and awfully sobering when I think of the fact that this world has existed way before I was born and will continue to do so well after I die. The thought that I don't even know the name of my great grandmother is

Atomic Habits: Ideas for Sticking to Any Habit this New Year

It's that time of the year again. A lot of people are excited formulating resolutions and habits that they hope to make for the new year. We love doing this because as arbitrary it may seem, the turn of the year signals a reset and gives us hope

Take Your Vacations Seriously

The holidays are right around the corner. If you're like me whose been living away from home, this also means going back and spending some time with the family after a long time. This season can also be hectic to a lot of people. From shopping for gifts

How I Handled My Finances In My 20s

It is easy to defer making the smarter money decisions because of the perceived abundance of time.

Why I (Finally) Bought A Kindle

It has been a little over a month ago when I finally caved-in and bought an e-reader – which was mainly influenced by my girlfriend who for months never failed to convince me and gave reasons on why it's a good buy. These e-readers have been around for some

Learning Vim (Update)

Three months ago [https://www.domaquino.net/learning-vim/], I started my journey of learning how to use Vim. And since then, I slowly and painstakingly integrated it in my day-to-day workflow. Which I have to say, never lacked instances of confusion and frustration that made me reach to my mouse

'Follow Your Passion' Is A Terrible Career Advice

We often hear the advice "Follow your passion" which is usually accompanied by the sentence in the same vein – "Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life". Just follow your passion and you will have a fulfilling career. Who wouldn&

The Beauty in Doing Difficult Things

As the Phoenix Suns lost Game 4 of this year's NBA Finals, head coach Monty Williams delivered one of the game's most unforgettable sound bite – everything you want is on the other side of hard.

We Don't Need Much

Saying no to things that you cannot afford is easy. The greater challenge, though you have the financial means to acquire it – is to have the discipline to consistently resist things that doesn't add value to your life.

Learning Vim

In a time when there's a lot of modern, feature-rich text editors like Visual Studio Code, Sublime, and Atom, why would someone invest time to learn and use Vim [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vim_(text_editor)]? Aside from Vim's notoriously known steep learning curve, my

A Year of Working From Home

It has already been a little more than a year ago when a lot of people have started to participate in the great work-from-home experiment. Just two years ago, I couldn't imagine myself working effectively outside an office environment. I've always felt that I need some

Let Yourself Be Bored

If you're reading this there's a good chance that you'll get bored and stop after a few sentences. It's probably because your judgement deemed that there are other things that's worth your attention. This is what Amanda Markey and George

A Case For List Comprehension As The Best Programming Language Feature

I've always been fascinated by things that exemplifies simplicity and elegance. One way or another, you would notice it if you look carefully – it's not doing too much nor too little. It hit the sweet spot. In programming, conversations wouldn't go too far until

Ways To Make Habits Stick

The key for me was not to make it too difficult that I will feel anxious just by the thought of doing it again. But also not making it too easy that I will feel bored after some time.

How I Started A Blog

It's more important to just get started and put myself out there rather than to overthink every single thing.