Daily on Charles Ancheta

2026-07-09

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 23:51:04 -0600

We are so back 😎

2025-02-06

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 21:21:04 -0700

I got too deep into refactoring and worked past 9 PM 😭

It’s Friday tomorrow anyway, so maybe I could get off early once I’ve done all of the important tasks.

Today is Jherzey and Jesse’s last day in Cancun so I’m going to accompany Jherzey’s dad to the airport to pick them up. Might grab some food after that.

2025-02-05 & what happened for the past 2 weeks

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:08:59 -0700

Well, that was short-lived. My last post was 17 days ago. Maybe the fact that I made an actual blog post made this too high-effort. If it wasn’t for Jherzey reminding me about my website, I probably wouldn’t have started again. Here we go…

The past 2 weeks was consumed by tons of distractions, with no opportunity to get bored. I binge-watched Over Run Over on YouTube, and once that was done, binge-watched Trauma Code on Netflix. Then I started playing Half Sword. I have sunk into a new low when it comes to boredom by actually playing video games. I say every day “tomorrow I’ll get it together”, and I don’t 😭¹.

2025-01-18 & 2025-01-19 (Weekend)

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 02:18:44 -0700

Been sleeping too much on weekends recently. I planned on going out to downtown on Saturday but woke up at 4:30 pm. I just did flashcards, watched some YouTube, and went back to sleep for 12 hours again.

Today I did go out tubing and eat out with the Gen Z gang.

This weekend was mostly just watching the interactions between American and Chinese people on 小红书 (Rednote).

2025-01-17

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 02:20:26 -0700

Drinking black coffee every day was starting to give me mouth sores. I had to use powdered creamer today.

Remember a few days ago when I said I was going to limit Anki time? I failed to stop myself again.

To be fair, probably half of flashcard time today was spent making dim sum flashcards. I actually had to do some research in Cantonese wikipedia because some of the items had weird or missing translations.

2025-01-16

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sat, 18 Jan 2025 02:19:01 -0700

Finally got unblocked at a task at work. Doesn’t mean I’m done though.

I went to Jherzey’s by walking just like the previous days, but didn’t know there was a snows squall. That made the walk pretty interesting. I had to go back home and actually bundle up to cover my face.

After shovelling, I spent 3 hours with Devin to solve a false LSP error on some embedded C toolchain. We failed to actually get rid of it, but it was a character-building experience.

2025-01-15

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 01:28:03 -0700

Been consistently waking up at 9am which is good in a way because I’m being consistent, but bad in a way because it’s so late. My alarm clocks are failing me for some reason.

I had to slowly clear out the 239 cards to review throughout the day, and now I have 244 cards for tomorrow. It’s really going to be a grind this week but I only have 425 new cards out of 1210.

2025-01-14

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:53:31 -0700

Got up at 9am again today. No worries though, since the rest of my day wasn’t wasted.

I finally followed my scheduled tasks, limiting my Anki review to only 1 hour today. That meant fewer new cards today, but at least I didn’t waste any more time with it and lightened up my review load to only 239 cards for tomorrow.

I also got the chance to get some physical activity:

2025-01-13

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 01:24:54 -0700

Productive day at work despite waking up at 9am.

I think I have really overdone the flashcards now.

I don’t even have the vocabulary that actually matters, which are dim sum items.

But I think I’m making good progress on the new cards. I could probably be exposed to the entire deck by the end of the month. I’m just hoping I retain them until March.

2025-01-11 & 12 (Weekend)

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 01:16:52 -0700

Gonna have to combine these two because I forgot what I did already aside from the times I went out 😭.

I slept for half the day for both days and just planned our trip.

Saturday: Unlimited K-BBQ at Ginseng with Jherzey and Ate Mup. I could’ve eaten a lot more but tried to hold back.

Sunday: Jerusalem Shawarma and Krispy Kreme with Yahya and Kyle.

Lots of cramming on flashcards as well, but not as much as today (Monday).

2025-01-10

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:39:54 -0700

I actually got up at 6 and felt a lot more motivated today. The fact that I was probably around only 70% productivity the day before meant that I had to go ham today. I finally got around starting my daily/weekly planner (and actually following it).

Also the fact that I also got approved for my PH vacation gave me a lot more motivation.

Walked to Jherzey’s place while it was raining and super slippery outside. I actually slipped and landed on my butt.

2025-01-09

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:36:26 -0700

This was the day that I got up at 6 but stayed in bed until 9 😭 so much for waking up early.

I ate a small clove of garlic in the morning and it was pretty spicy. Tried eating a bigger one and it gave me a crazy heartburn.

Had a CitySync discussion with Michael before he leaves for Vietnam.

I also tried out Reaper but didn’t get too far. This was mostly why I didn’t get to journal for this day, but I also had to deal with a super annoying bug at work way past work hours.

2025-01-08

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:02:58 -0700

Woke up early today and did cardio. Almost puked but the cold shower afterwards hit different.

Also super locked in at work.

Had K-BBQ at home for dinner with pork belly and organ meats.

I asked Jherzey to help me skin the cat and it definitely scared her. I did more after she left but my right shoulder started hurting. I’m gonna have to take it easy on the shoulder exercises.

2025-01-07

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 23:32:24 -0700

Pretty productive day!

Found a beat for focusing at work so I don’t have to sit in silence anymore.

I also tried out some online shopping haul with Jherzey after work before eating momos.

Just now, I set up Anki with Cantonese flashcards. I picked one without Chinese characters so I actually have to associate sounds to meaning.

I’ve also been consistently waking up at 7 which means that I can finally get to sleep early (which is why I’m actually able to write before midnight now).

2025-01-06

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 00:19:35 -0700

Went straight to University after meeting my friend David to tour the Gen Z gang around the campus.

It was pretty nice to go back to the places I used to study in pre-pandemic and tell them about it.

“That’s the exact spot where I studied for my first Math midterm. My heart was beating fast the whole time. Not sure if it was from nerves or from coffee”

2025-01-05

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:20:13 -0700

Peeled a bunch of garlic cloves today.

Also went skating for a bit with Jherzey. Her skates were too small for her so we didn’t stay too long.

Also planned how much I would need to save up this year. It’s gonna be tough considering I still have one more major trip.

2025-01-04

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 02:14:44 -0700

Slept pretty much until the afternoon and then worked on CitySync stuff.

It’s already Sunday so I basically skipped 2 days of journalling. I definitely need to streamline this process. I could try using Obsidian for easier journalling and then automate the publishing process.

2025-01-03

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 02:02:36 -0700

Hung out with the Gen Z gang today (actually millennials).

Walked around downtown at -20°C which was fun.

Went hotpot and Hanjan which basically broke resolutions 1 & 3 but it’s all good.

2025-01-02

cancheta.dev@gmail.com (Charles Ancheta) — Fri, 03 Jan 2025 01:01:29 -0700

I got my passport today so I am now legally allowed to leave the country 😌

I think I should start scheduling my off-work hours because I’m bad at time management and get distracted easily. It’s already past midnight that I’m writing on the journal.

EDIT:

I forgot to add why I wanted to do this in the first place. I found an old notebook of mine from 5+ years ago that had this entry: