𝑹𝒆𝒊

I just realized that Calathea closed out 2025 and started 2026 with exactly 4000 votes.
          
          Happy new year, everyone! Wish 2026 will be kind to all of us.

Rei, I just want to publicly recognize and congratulate you for the tremendous achievement that is Calathea. It’s one of my favorite stories I’ve read and explores so many quirks and challenges of humanity, from big to small, with so much heart, empathy, humor, and wisdom. Needless to say, I’ve fallen in love with your lead couple. And as a plant myself, I also really appreciate all the floral details. ;P In all seriousness, and for what it’s worth, I am forever your fan. Sending lots of love and hoping the new year brings wonderful things for you. ❤️

Just got back from the highlands yesterday, but too tired to do anything. I'll be checking my notifs, try to reply to comments and to read some later.

I'mma go back home from the mountains tomorrow. I'll have more time to read by then. Hopefully. Happy holidays, everyone.

K, but how can some people claim their places are LGBTQIA+-friendly, then welcome people who are blatantly discriminating against the community? So it's true... inclusive places ≠ safe spaces. 
          
          Kasawa kayo, mga pashnea.

I was expecting this month to be busy for me... But what d'ya mean I just blinked, and the first week of December has already passed? 
          
          Still no writing update.

I haven't done much here on Wattpad these past few days coz I was busy fangirling again... That was fun. I have no regrets. 
          (^_^♪)
          And, in my defense, that was part of the research for my next story project because most of my characters are gonna be from that industry. ♪(excuses, excuses, but kinda true.) 
          'nyways, I'mma catch up on my reading and try to reply to comments in a bit. Maybe tomorrow. (dunno where to start though)
          
          Just need some coffee. (I need proper sleep actually.)

November updates:
          
          * Congratulations to everyone who made it to the 3rd round of the Ambys! My short story Rhymes and Petals qualified, yay. <3 Calathea did not, which I half expected since it was re-categorized from mystery to paranormal, though I also wanna believe it was because I did some micro-edits on a few chapters during the judging. Oh well, I'll just have to try again next year with this book to see if maybe I just genuinely suck. 
          
          * While on the topic of awards... Earlier this month, Calathea won first place for the Mystery category in the 2025 Astania Awards: Moonlight Trove.
          Also, my flash fiction 'Polychrome' made it to the longlist of the Shortys.
          
          * On my writing? I don't have any new stories. Nothing that I plan to publish here on Wattpad soon at least. Maybe I'll post a few mini-stories once in a while (no promises), but another full novel from me may have to wait until mid-2026. Pfft. For now, I wanna spend more time with stuff outside Wattpad, but I'll still be active here by reading stories. 
          
          * Is shadowbanning a thing here? I've been curious since four of my stories lost their rankings for a couple of days last week, and some people said it was because the books were under review for possible violations of the ToS. But I'm confused as hell, coz of all my stories Wattpad could have suspected of going against the content guidelines, Love Brewed Chaos, really? Their Parallel Universe? What part of that story even remotely violated the guidelines? Apollo's potty mouth? -_-
          So yeah, just wondering if it was true that stories are being shadowbanned or if Wattpad's ranking system is just being weird these days. My stories got their rankings back after I edited at least one word in those books.

Thanks to everyone who wished for our safety. Aside from a few fallen sheds and trees, we didn’t experience much damage from the typhoon. There was a power outage for 24 hours, but it’s fixed now (at least in our area, some places in our town still don’t have electricity). The internet connection is still unstable, though.
          
          We’re safe. Unfortunately, some regions weren’t as lucky. This isn't new to us, sure, but it's still really frustrating every time.
          
          I have so many things I want to say, but I’ve been overwhelmed these past few days. Mentally tired. Haven’t had proper sleep. Hopefully, I can return to my regular reading here tomorrow.

A super typhoon has entered our country, with its center affecting our region; this will be another sleepless night for us. 
          
          It's been a decade since a storm caused serious damage in our town, but the trauma it left us has been permanent. Most households' roofs were blown away, one month no electricity, but that wasn't even the worst that hit our country that year. Two bigger disasters followed the tragedy in our town. An earthquake after a few days, and then a super typhoon—the deadliest one to have affected our country to date—after a month happened in other places. Hearing the news, it made the people of our town realize that we were still very lucky because our experience was far too tame compared to what the victims of Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) had gone through.
          
          These past weeks, earthquakes and a typhoon have also just devastated other regions. Those places have yet to recover, and now, another super typhoon has come. I can't help but see the same pattern happening, and it's seriously making me anxious. Like history is trying to repeat itself.
          
          The surroundings were gray and calm this early morning, but it's exactly the kind of calm that scares us the most, and we know will surely screw us over if we become too complacent. As of now, the rain has just started, and the wind is slowly arriving. I noticed I just shut down and booted up my charging laptop, like ten times already, every other minute for no reason. I've been restless, need to fiddle with something to stop my fingers from shaking.
          
          Anyways, there's a big chance we're going to experience a blackout once the wind gets stronger. I mean, it always happens to us. Just saying in case I fall off the face of the Internet in the next couple of hours...