Headlines and Headlights #6
The other newsmakers, my recent discoveries, and my current obsessions
¿Qué tal? (‘How are you?’ in informal Spanish)1 Welcome to Semi-Online #27, and thanks for subscribing/following despite my infrequent updates. Because, you know, semi-online life + disability. 🤷🏽♀️
If you’re new here, hi, and thanks for reading! I also offer my sincere apologies for hitting you with this Subscribe button. But Substack says I must even if it still doesn’t want to implement non-Stripe payment gateways for its Global South writers:
I haven’t done any content rundowns in a while too, so I’m rusty. If you’re looking for frequent news rundowns and in-depth coverage, analyses, and commentaries, I highly recommend reading This Week in the Philippines, Wala Lang, and Human Rights News Philippines / Rights Report Philippines instead. And everyone listed on Stack Natin too, because most of them post here much more often than I do and are good writers. 😂
Here are the other things that caught my attention from January 2026 onward. Think of this update as an intermission number before Real Life calls again.
Read
I have several drafts for this Substack and The Reading Spree in various stages of completion. But one did meet the Publish button back in January; on the book blog, I discussed the latest installments of The Murderbot Diaries and Trese, along with the last volume of the local sci-fi series Seroks.
Ever since “How a Philippines-based ops tried to bury Jeffrey Epstein’s bad press” was published by The Philippine Star, I’ve really wanted to know who these local workers are. Are they freelancers? PR agency employees? Consultants? Which agency or agencies? Do I know them personally? How’s their conscience doing, and do they sleep well at night?
File this under ‘I wish I wrote it’: “The First AI Crisis Is Psychological” on The Atlantic. Follow it up with two more AI-related articles: Vox’s “People still love Wikipedia. Can it survive AI?”, and “From deepfake porn to deadly advice: AI’s dark year” on e27 from back in January. Man, January seems like an entire lifetime ago.
A Brunei-based friend told me last year that that nation’s history books say it once owned part of the Philippines — or, in slightly less offensive terms, part of the Philippines was part of its territory. My response: “Bullshit.” Well… I was wrong; we were a part of the Sultanate. Then again, I think my friend was also right in saying, “We’ll never know how accurate or distorted historical accounts are.” 🤷🏽♀️
Another Esquire Philippines piece, this time on something that bothers me whenever I see it, whether on public feeds or private posts. Read “Opinion: The Weaponization of the ‘Haha’ React Emoji.”
The survivor and her family won the trial, but they paid a heavy price. Read “The Trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s Rapists United France and Fractured Her Family” on The New Yorker.
I’m a sucker for longreads on strange places (see: Visit Sunny Chernobyl and Other Adventures in the World’s Most Polluted Places). Here’s a good one on Antarctica, a.k.a. “The Most Beautiful Freezer in the World.”
We’ve seen a lot of ICE-related headlines since its personnel began terrorizing US immigrants and citizens, and they become worse the longer their ‘campaign’ goes on. But this one stuck with me: “These young brothers sacrifice normal teenage life to be full-time ICE watchers in Minneapolis — and say they won’t regret it” on CNN US.
Here’s a good read for Philippine writers on the current state of book publishing… if you’re OK with this literary gatekeeper’s slightly condescending tone. I guess they really can’t help themselves.
And here are the details on how MacKenzie Scott shares her wealth with more-than-deserving organizations, via The Wall Street Journal.
A stray PhilStar Life article from 2023 😆 It’s such a shame that people here still need to be taught that dining/being alone isn’t bad. If you ask me, those who look down on us and feel pity, etc. are simply fearful of solitude, and/or hate their own company. Sounds like a THEM problem!
Read + Watch
Pair Interaksyon’s “Manila archdiocese opens spiritual liberation center amid rise in exorcism cases” with this documentary from Al Jazeera’s 101 East:
And after months of people raving about and cashing in on analogcore, and more than a year since I wrote this:
…we’re now seeing some pushback. Esquire Philippines’ “Analogcore: Another Aesthetic You Can’t Afford” goes well with Levi Hildebrand’s proclamation of failure for it:
I’ve mentioned budots here in 2024. Today I’m adding two more references: this The Washington Post feature from August 2025, and this short documentary:
Watch
Disney+: Three Predator movies (Badlands, Prey, and Killer of Killers) and Zootopia 2. Wonder Man is also an excellent series from Marvel Studios, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley turn in amazing performances.
HBO Max: I’m gonna see some 2026 Oscar winners before I cancel my quarterly subscription 😆 One Battle After Another, Sinners, and Weapons are on the queue!
Netflix: Love, Death & Robots season 4, Everyone Knows Every Juan, Sunshine, and Kontrabida Academy. Plus: A new season of Midnight Diner is in the works!
Listen
I haven’t listened to full albums in a long time! But FKA Twigs’ EUSEXUA and EUSEXUA Afterglow are filled with bangers (heh). And Robyn’s Sexistential will be out in a few days (March 27)!
Also check out I Want My MTV Rewind for that (American) nostalgia hit. And NPR has been on a winning streak with its Tiny Desk Concerts. I mean, De La Soul, Jill Scott, Sarah McLachlan, Sixpence None the Richer, David Byrne, Goo Goo Dolls, Tame Impala, and Amerie? Damn 💗
Try
I’ve been looking at potential replacements for Google Workspace. Right now, Lark seems to be a good one. Does anyone here have any experience with it? The downside is that it’s owned by ByteDance. Uhhhh…?
I’ve also been using Ubuntu since 2009. I don’t miss Microsoft Windows, and I’ve never been into the Apple ecosystem at all. There have been occasions though when I had to use Windows apps for unavoidable reasons. VirtualBox was my go-to for that (basically, you install an OS inside your main OS with it), but it gave me technical headaches after every update/upgrade. So this week I finally ditched it for GNOME Boxes, and… WHY DIDN’T I DO THIS EARLIER???
Also, this month I learned about solo role-playing games (RPGs). Blackwell Games has a great selection; I’m looking at For Small Creatures Such as We and Dead Air: A Game About Radio Activity.
Go
Lastly, I thought I could avoid this year’s Manila Pen Show. Like countless people, I’m short on funds, and it’s dangerous for me to wander the show floor and see so many temptations. Plus, my SSCD and social anxiety don’t help at all with noise and crowds.
But I did register for one MPS workshop. It’s after hours, so I’m safe from the show floor and crowds. And despite being in the fountain-pen hobby on and off for 12 years now, it’s never too late to learn the basics, especially since the three nibmeisters in this city are set to raise their prices this year or already have.
Let me know if you’ll be at MPS this weekend — and/or if you have any news and media suggestions for me! 😊
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Because our > 300-year colonizer is doing a great job at refusing modern warmongers. No a la guerra!
Of course, the counterpoint is, the Sultanate of Sulu owned Brunei (and Sabah) and all that, supposedly...