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Life Update: June 2025

Months flew by so fast, as I am once again providing a life update for the 2nd quarter of this year 2025. Upon a closer reflection, these past few months have been more ordinary compared to the 1st quarter of this year for me. In addition, I can easily consider these past few months as a period of gaming for me, in particular, playing the game Genshin Impact every single day as well as also doing my regular non-work tasks such as Journaling, learning Japanese language via Duolingo, reading the Bible, and listening to some podcasts on Spotify. I occasionally post some random thoughts on the social media platforms X and Threads. These kept me occupied for most days aside from my daily work as a Health and Benefits (H&B) analyst.

For the last few weeks of March and early April, me and my family and I went to a certain fancy and famous Taiwanese restaurant and karaoke bar on Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City. It was the birthday of my cousin, and we certainly enjoyed our time there by eating seafood and a wide variety of meals. The karaoke room that we have rented had been quite fancy and large enough to accommodate all of us who attended, which I estimated to be around more or less 50 pax. My cousins mostly used the built-in karaoke in the room and sang songs old and new, as well as some of the adults in the room. After a few days, I was not able to join my family that went to the province of Isabela for the Holy Week vacation, and another next few days, my aunt purchased a brand new SUV from Nissan Motors and my family and I were fortunate enough to be the first ones to see it. As we are the first ones to see the SUV, most of the interior were still sealed, including the seats, and they are just starting to use the car from the show room to the road. The SUV is destined to be a mainstay in the province of Isabela as a mode of transportation to be used by my aunt.

For the first days of May 2025, my family and I went for a quick visit to the province of Lingayen, Pangasinan, via SUV that we borrowed from a relative. We went to the shoreline of a beach but did not necessarily swim since we just enjoyed basking in the early morning sun and seeing the beach with the family. We also took some pictures along the beach. We also took the time to have breakfast in a Bali-inspired restaurant near the beach, and the ambiance is great. After the hearty meal, we went for the stroll around the park near the Capitol of Lingayen province. The park was very spacious, as it can accommodate all sorts of outdoor activities. The walk was relatively enjoyable, especially in the early hours of the morning, and people of all ages flock there if there are events or just a casual stroll on a weekend. As we went there during the Labor Day holiday, there were events initiated by the provincial government for the public to see, and everyone was encouraged to join the festivities. We left the place after taking a stroll in the park and proceeded to the next destination. We went to my cousins' house in Dagupan, Pangasinan, to pay them a visit and ate lunch. We stayed in Dagupan until evening since in the afternoon we even went to a McDonald's branch where a young niece was having her immersion on the work of their crew. At dinner, we ate at an Italian inspired restaurant named Cusinero, and food was genuinely delightful. Finally, we were also able to check in until the next morning to Levo Hotel courtesy of my cousin. The overall trip was a great way to de-stress over the long weekend.

Days have passed on May, and this is the time when I felt the ordinaryness of everyday life and routine seep in. As I already told in my journal, I became busy mostly with work on the weekdays and going somewhere with my family on weekends. Everybody became busy as usual, including myself. I also played Genshin Impact daily and became occupied for the next few weeks until now, the month of June. Summer in the Philippines has lasted until the end of May, and during the first few days of June, the rainy season has been officially declared by our weather beaureau. Now it's June of 2025, and we are experiencing rain almost every single day as I am writing this entry. We also went to Shore Residences very recently to visit my granduncle, who came from Isabela province and will fly and return home to the USA soon. Birthday of my nephew at Ascott Hotel, Makati City soon, and hopefully, we would continue to have fun and glorify the blessings of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

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It's my 13 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳

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Life Update: March 2025

The summer heat is once again just around the corner, and here I am, providing another quarterly life update for the month of March. For the past few months, I invested most of my time doing my work tasks in weekdays and playing the famous game Genshin Impact in the evening as a means to unwind and take part in several quests included in playing this open-world role-playing game. Of course, I still do my other non-work tasks in the afternoon, namely, reading the Bible, studying the Japanese language, and writing on my journal daily, which I have been doing for a long time now, even before the COVID pandemic happened. Sadly, until now, I have been not doing a JLPT exam, and the costs of taking such an exam have risen over the years to give you an update.

These past few months, I have also become busy with work as well as attending team-related activities in the office. Me and my family celebrated New Year's at our home. The next day, I believe, we went to Antipolo, Rizal to visit a rather famous coffee shop situated in the mountains of the province. Me and my family, as well as some relatives, enjoyed our dining experience in that coffee shop, and in the evening, we also enjoyed some night views there as well. We had dinner at a fast food chain in the evening as well. A few days have passed, and we celebrated the birthday of my youngest sister, as well as a nephew and an aunt in SM Mall of Asia, and it is sort of a reunion for our clan. Although I am no longer enthusiastic when it comes to taking pictures of myself, I took pictures of the food that we ate. It was a nice celebration that was extended to my aunt's house in Manila, and we ate a mini-lechon to celebrate their birthdays.

Consequently, after a few days, we joined the celebration of the Feast of Sto. Niño in our village and we ate delicious food there and joined some fun games, including my grandparents. More days have passed, and we went to Pampanga to attend the gender reveal party of the upcoming baby of my cousin. We went there via a bus commute going to Pampanga from Quezon City, a first among us family. It was a party on a famous fast-food chain, and it was a fun-filled party filled with my cousin and her husband's relatives whom I honestly do not know. Later on, we found out that my cousin's child was a boy. All are gladdened to hear the news.

After a few days, me and my family and I went to Calamba, Laguna, to visit some relatives. It was just an ordinary visit, and we just ate simple dishes such as grilled fish and pancit. Most of the time, my family just shared stories with our relatives, and I just stayed quietly in their house and mostly observed the surroundings. After a few days, we had a simple celebration for the birthday of my father at our house. We ate pizza and pancit to celebrate the occasion, and it was all delicious. The celebration was quick and simple and my father was happy.

Then, in the next few days, I obtained some merchandise from my company due to their recent rebranding efforts, and I also finally got my company ID. However, I was not able to get my old ID, but nonetheless, the merchandise was great and looks amazing. The release of the merchandise coincided with the day that I went to the office. Hence, I was able to get the products immediately. A few days later, we went to Quezon City to celebrate the birthday of a certain Lola, which was close to my grandparents' hearts. A few more weeks later, I went to EDSA Shangri-la in Mandaluyong City to participate in the annual Nihongo Fiesta oraganized by The Japan Foundation (JFM), Manila, and we are one of the walk-in participants to be able to attend the event which lasted for 2 days. This is also where I obtained a new copy of the SUKI Magazine, which is quite hard to find on my case. Then, the following week, I went to SM North EDSA to participate in the Japan Film Festival (JFF) 2025. I watched 5 films in total and collected stamps for every movie that I watched. It was a faraway place from where I lived, but nonetheless, I lined up to be able to watch the movies.

The first few months of 2025 were actually busier than I expected, yet it was altogether an enjoyable experience. Until the next update.

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Life Update: December 2024

As the Christmas season is already at our midst, allow me to share a final life update for this year of 2024. To be honest, there are no significant events that have happened in my life these past three months, as I somehow feel a little envious on the life and achievements of my friends on social media these past few months. I, on the other hand, have little to show on my life except that I was employed in a new company last October 2024. I also observed my usual routines on a daily basis, such as writing a journal, reading the Bible, and studying the Japanese language.

In October 2024, I was once again employed as a employee on a project basis in BGC, a rather throwback on my former employment in the same city but the nature of my work this time is completely different. I work as a Health and Benefits Analyst and this time around I work on insurance policies of our clients daily. It was quite a tough job at first, but eventually I am starting to get the hang of it together with my colleagues. However, though, I can't help but compare my job now to the job that I have back then as a Data Analyst, as the office somehow looks familiar and the colleagues that I see is quite the same as to how I see the colleagues in my previous office as well. At this point in time, I do miss my old employment because of these circumstances, but we must have a courage to move on and pay it forward. We also went to the cemetery to visit out deceased relatives. In addition, towards the end of October, me, my family, and my relatives celebrated the 18th birthday of my cousin at a certain hotel near SM City San Lazaro in Sampaloc, Manila. It was a formal-themed event, and we were actually dressed really nicely to the occasion. We also stayed overnight at the hotel but did not check-in since we slept in one of our relatives' room.

November has arrived, and there is nothing much to say except that I am starting to get used to going to the office everyday of a designated week. It was a rather ordinary month mostly, as I do my everyday tasks without any problems or other sort of anomalies. Meanwhile, in the middle of November, me and my family went to Pangasinan to celebrate the 7th birthday of my niece at a certain luxurious hotel in Pangasinan, and the motif is undeniably grand. The theme of this particular party is forest and Disney combined altogether. It was an amazing event as me, my family, and my relatives came altogether not only to celebrate the birthday but also a chance to catch-up after quite some time. After the celebration we definitely enjoyed our stay at the hotel since there is a TV with YouTube and Netflix subscription for us to use and we were able to utilize the amenities of the hotel as well. I was also able to watch "The Boy and The Heron" by Hayao Miyazaki on Netflix. After our stay in the hotel we went in the house of our relatives in Pangasinan to have lunch and then we went to the compound owned by my cousin, a storage compound that is huge. After we had dinner at a certain eatery in Pangasinan we went back to Manila by bus. Then ordinary days have passed after this major event.

Finally, December has arrived. Perhaps I can easily consider this as a busy month since a lot of Christmas party have happened during this period, including my company's Christmas party and my client company's Christmas party, which I was not able to attend. There is also my team's Christmas party, which actually happened in late November and it was also an amazing time spent with them. My company Christmas party was definitely amazing, as I won a lot prizes as well as some giveaways from them. We also had an exchange gift wherein I received a rather peculiar prize, which is a hot compress. There is also a buffet in the party and we definitely had our fill towards the end of the party. We went home in the evening after the party. After a few days, it's the Christmas season, and we went to our home province of Isabela to celebrate Christmas with the relatives, the details of which I have already stated in my daily journal. Anyhow, it was an amazing celebration, and me and my family definitely enjoyed our recent Christmas vacation at our home province of Isabela.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year 2025 to all!

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Life Update: September 2024

I have truly experienced a lot of things for these past three months, from July-September 2024. Within the span of 3 months a lot of events in our lives has transpired in a fast-paced fashion, almost as if there is no time for long reflection until the end. In July 2024, I went to a certain museum in Bonifacio Global City (BGC) named Metropolitan Museum of Manila, and I attended an exhibition there entitled "YAKISHIME: Earth Metamorphosis", organized by The Japan Foundation, Manila (JFM), and there are numerous Japanese earthenware exhibited in the museum during my visit there. After my visit, a typhoon struck the Philippines, causing an inclement weather in our country for several days.

At the end of July 2024, I celebrated my birthday at a famous supermall in our city. I watched the film "Deadpool vs. Wolverine (2024)" which has been very amazing. Days have passed after my birthday, and I attended another event organized by the JFM, and this time, the venue is on AyalaMalls, Manila Bay in Pasay City. There is a film showing of the movie entitled "DitO" (2024) which is Filipino-Japanese boxing film, and it was a great movie. The film focuses on the life and boxing career of a certain Japanese boxer who went to the Philippines to further enhance his skills, despite the fact that he is already a great and well-respected boxer known by a lot of people. I was able to watch the movie for free and I even had the unique opportunity to meet the actors after the movie outside the theater together with a lot of fans as well. The next day, at the same AyalaMalls I attended a press conference of another Japanese film organized by JFM entitled "Kono Basho" (2024) even though I did not actually watched the film itself since I did not have the opportunity to purchase a ticket to watch this film. At any rate, the press conference was very informative and educational as I learned different perspectives on filmmaking and also I was able to take notes on some techniques the filmmakers used in making their films well-received by the audience. After the press conference, I was able to look around inside the AyalaMalls, Manila Bay and I saw that there is an international fencing event ongoing and outside the mall beautiful statues and Philippine boats perhaps made by local Filipino artists were displayed in various public spaces of the mall for the onlookers to see. After such events I decided to go home. Meanwhile, I also attended some online events organized by JFM, and it was an enjoyable experience attending these events.

Days have passed in August 2024 and the season of ordinary time allowed me and my family to experience what more this life has to offer. My mom celebrated her birthday this early August, but we do not really have a formal celebration to celebrate her birthday. We just greeted her on her special day. Every Mondays of August 2024 I was able to successfully purchased cold beverage promos of Starbucks at a discounted price. Also, the 2024 Paris Olympics also took place from end of July 2024 until August 2024, and one of our Philippine athletes, Carlos Yulo, has even won double gold medal 🏅 at Men's Floor Exercise and Men's Vault. Other happenings for the month of August 2024 have already been recorded at my daily journal, and I have been quite busy for this month pursuing my hobbies and job-hunting in a periodical basis.

Now it's time to provide an update for September 2024. This month is probably the busiest month that I have experienced for the past three months, as me and my family attended important milestone events, such as a debut of a cousin at a certain hotel in Manila as well as me finally landing a job at Bonifacio Global City (BGC) months after I became jobless and would keep me busy for the next month. Firstly, I was successfully considered at a certain company in BGC after applying to several companies online. Nextly, I attended another virtual meeting by JFM, which allowed us to further enhance our communication skills in Nihongo or Japanese. It was a fun meeting with different people and I was able to mingle with other people who are also interested in Japanese culture as well. Then, as days passed, we had the opportunity to accommodate a distant relative, who went home to the Philippines to visit us in Manila, as well as we had a late night bonding and drinks with this relative as well as eating puto-bumbong in the evening to end the night. After a few days, I attended for the first time in a while an on-site event of JFM, and the topic is "Kobanashi". I am sharing this post by The Japan Foundation, Manila to serve as a core memory as this particular event that I have attended last 14 September 2024 was my first time to encounter and experience what Kobanashi is. In this event, it is my first time to perform live in front of many people as well as I was able to learn everything about what Kobanashi is. Accordingly, Kobanashi are short jokes that performers tell to warm up the audience before launching the main story of Rakugo. They can be as short as two lines. Kobanashi could be considered as the preface act of Rakugo. Rakugo is a form of Japanese verbal comedy, traditionally performed in yose theatres (Amin Sweeney, 1979 "Rakugo: Professional Japanese Storytelling"). It was an enjoyable event overall, and I was able to make new friends from this point. After a few days, me and my family was able to attend the highly anticipated 18th birthday (debut) of my cousin at Winford Resort and Casino in Manila, and we were happy that we have been able to attend this important event of my cousin and even spend the night at the hotel as well. Our attire in this event was strictly formal, and we have been truly well-dressed to celebrate the occasion. It was perhaps all our first time to attend this event, and we have enjoyed our experience there as the party has an event proper and great food. Good times, great messages from the visitors, and also fun games happened at the party as many relatives and close friends of the debutant and her parents as well. There is also a photobooth where the attendees can take pictures of themselves, together with family/friends. There is also a mini-bar there and it was well-received by the people, especially the youth. After the debut has ended, we had the opportunity to stay at the hotel with our relatives, and some of us even visited the rooms of other relatives to bond and unwind for the rest of the evening as well. We eventually slept at the hotel and stayed there until next morning. After our hotel stay we decided to have a late afternoon lunch at King Chef at Quezon Ave. in Quezon City and to celebrate the birthdays of 2 of my aunts. The restaurant serves dimsum dishes and other Chinese delicacies, and since we are many, we occupied at least three tables of the restaurant. After we ate and enjoy the dishes, as well as bond with each other, we had a taste of a Dubai chocolate courtesy of the distant relative that I have mentioned earlier, and it was really delicious. We also sing birthday songs for our birthday celebrants. Afterwards, we went to the house of my cousin for the opening of her gifts on her debut, and it was really fun and exciting. Eventually, we all went home, thereby ending the day of fun-filled memories and bonding with family and relatives.

Finally, as I reflect on the things that have happened in the last three months, I am still thankful to the Lord for the unique opportunity that me and my family were able to experience such events our lives, which are also milestones for other people, especially our relatives and our society as well. As I look forward to the future, I hope that these experiences have enabled me to pursue the things that I want to do in life more as well as deepen my understanding of life itself. I expect that a lot of things will happen to me on the next few weeks, and I hope to live a better future for me, my family, and my friends.

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Life Update: June 2024

It has been a while since I have last provided an entry on this blog. There are significant amount of changes that happened in my life over the course of three months, but nonetheless, I have enjoyed the journey so far. Based on my recent recollection of events, we went to numerous places during the summer vacation in the Philippines, and it is really refreshing to see the rather lively atmosphere that our beloved country has to offer. Don't get me wrong: I would also love to visit the other countries as well, such as the Eastern Asia nations: Japan and South Korea, as well as the North American nations, such as the land of the free, USA 🇺🇸 and Canada 🇨🇦. I also fancy visiting the European Nations, including the recent "Brexit" of the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 and perhaps Italy, Poland, Austria, etc. Let's also not forget the great Australian continent. Traveling is fun, don't you think?

We are already living in the post-COVID-19 pandemic year of 2024. A lot of things have already transpired. I am, of course, thankful to the Heavenly Father for all the good things that are happening in our life right now, as a family, as a community, and as a society. I am also thankful for the several opportunities that have arisen during my life in these past few months. I recall that during the summer months of March-April 2024, my mother allowed me to join their team-building in the Batangas area and at the same time they have allowed me to be myself and create numerous opportunities for relaxation, such as reading a pocketbook by the beach, or even simply just playing a mobile game. I also saw people playing beach volleyball or even grilling hotdogs, barbeques, meat, vegetables, etc. These are such amazing times, and I could not forget the feeling of amazement, the thrill, and the memory of that particular day. The name of the resort is "Heart of D' Ocean." Meanwhile, after such fun team-building, a few days have passed... we went to the glorious hot spring of Pansol in the province of Laguna. The water is undeniably gentle and warm. We went there early in the morning together with our Lolo and Lolas from the United States, who flew back in their home country, the Philippines to have a vacation and of course decided to enjoy a morning bath at the hot spring resort. After being accompanied by a close friend of my parents, we altogether decided to take a morning dip at the famous hot spring of the south, the Laguna Hot Spring. After enjoying the hot spring, we decided to have a formal bruch (breakfast/lunch) at a certain canteen eatery in Pansol in Laguna courtesy of the close friend of my parents. It was an enjoyable experience, as I was able to meet new people and also I was able to eat "lutong-bahay" food. After eating and sharing stories with each other, we bid our farewell, hoping to see each other again sometime.

Days have passed, and we went to Quezon City to visit a very close relative of ours and, at the same time, reconnect with distant relatives from our province of Isabela. We had a long chat about our recent undertakings and shared some updates about what is going on in our lives. We were also able to reconnect with our former relatives and affiliates of my parents and unknown people. It was all good after reuniting with friends and relatives.

Finally, the season of ordinary time has arrived sometime in June. Ordinary time is the time when my family, my friends, and my relatives experience the normalization of days passing by. It was a period where everything was going back to normal as we observed going to church every Sunday and doing our daily activities in life. I am thankful to the Heavenly Father that he allowed all of us to reach this point in our lives wherein we re-experience life as it happens. It is also a time wherein we cultivate our hobbies and pursue our passions in life. Hopefully, everything is doing well for my family, my friends, relatives, and colleagues around the world. In addition, recently, I am in full support of the #OperationFullCircle ✨️✨️✨️ of a close friend, whom I already considered as a brother, toward his journey as a lecturer in a prestigious college in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. As the post-COVID-19 year of 2024 is already in the works, I pray to God that he may continue to guide our paths towards the betterment of our communities, societies, and the world.

Let us make this world 🌎 a better place to live in and have the courage, strength 💪, and faith to keep going forward in our lives.

"Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it."

- Steve Jobs

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I'm not ignoring my WIPs. they're ripening in my mental cellar

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Learning how to navigate life as it happens.

Growing.

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Life Update: March 2024

It has been a while since I last posted in this blog. Last Christmas 2023 I enjoyed bonding with my family at our humble abode and at the same time we enjoyed doing the things that we like as usual. I am humbled and thankful for the gifts and blessings that we have received so far and I am really grateful to the Lord that he had allowed us to live the life that we wanted so far. Last January 2024, we have celebrated the New Year's Eve at our humble abode and at the same time I am also learning from my family as well. I never even realized that my behavior is somewhat lacking in finesse and also becoming more and more complacent in life as I think about the reality of the situation.

On February 2024, I was considered on a certain gaming company but unfortunately I did not qualify in the position and I only stayed there in about 2 weeks or so. It was quite frustrating to think that I am not able to qualify for the position but it was okay. There are a lot of opportunities waiting for someone like me and I hope that the time will come that I will be able to comprehend the brevity of the situation and see the greater good of my wellbeing and my growth as a person.

Besides some other quirks, there is not much to say for me for now. I am continually living life as a free individual and hopefully I may be able to experience more of this life since the year 2024 has a lot of unexpected things that would make the current situation more bearable as it happens. Cheers to the current year 2024 and I hope to create more memories with my family from our humble abode and beyond.

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Life Update: December 2023

It has been a while since I last posted an entry in this blog. It is almost the end of the year 2023, and since my last posting a lot of things have already occured, and at the same time despite the fact that I do not currently have a job since February 2023, I still continue to busy myself with several things such as writing a journal, learning Japanese language on 2 mobile applications, reading a bible plan, and watching videos on Youtube to keep me occupied on a daily basis. On weekends, I have the opportunity to spend quality time with my family and we go to familiar places around Metro Manila to relax, unwind, and gain new and meaningful experiences.

My daily journal is rather helpful in detailing the things and experiences that I do daily, even if it is only short. Unlike last May 2023, I no longer watch NBA videos on Youtube and I even unsubscribed in their channel. On the other hand, I re-ignited my passion for foreign travel particularly Japan travel and I have subscribed in a Japan travel channel and surprisingly I was able to watch all of the channel's uploaded videos. There is also an increase in the amount of our family city and provincial travel for the 2nd half of the year, as we have went to several places to visit relatives and attend important occasions.

This year has also seen my application as an Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) initiated yearly by the Embassy of Japan in the Philippines. I was able to see the Embassy once again upon submission of documents and I do hope that I might get shortlisted in the process. If ever that will happen I need to prepare for an interview and teaching demonstration. Best of luck on my end.

For the first time in my life, I was able to attend multiple sessions of the Oshaberi Salon, an almost monthly event held by The Japan Foundation, Manila last October to December 2023 that aims to train the Nihongo (Japanese) speaking skills of all the attendees and form connections with each other by means of communication and activities. I enjoyed all of the meetings that I have attended so far, and I also learn how to socialize and mingle with other like-minded individuals who share the same interest. It was truly amazing events and we even received freebies at the end of every event. I plan to attend all sessions next year as well.

In conclusion, there are a lot of experiences this year that I could no longer mention in this entry, but as I have said before, I maintain a daily journal which summarizes the things that happened in my life for a day, so at least there is a record. Hopefully, we could all close this year with a happy and contented heart despite the challenges and hardships that we face daily. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2024 to all!

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“I feel like I’m waiting for something that isn’t going to happen.”

— Unknown

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Tumblr’s Core Product Strategy

Here at Tumblr, we’ve been working hard on reorganizing how we work in a bid to gain more users. A larger user base means a more sustainable company, and means we get to stick around and do this thing with you all a bit longer. What follows is the strategy we're using to accomplish the goal of user growth. The @labs group has published a bit already, but this is bigger. We’re publishing it publicly for the first time, in an effort to work more transparently with all of you in the Tumblr community. This strategy provides guidance amid limited resources, allowing our teams to focus on specific key areas to ensure Tumblr’s future.

The Diagnosis

In order for Tumblr to grow, we need to fix the core experience that makes Tumblr a useful place for users. The underlying problem is that Tumblr is not easy to use. Historically, we have expected users to curate their feeds and lean into curating their experience. But this expectation introduces friction to the user experience and only serves a small portion of our audience. 

Tumblr’s competitive advantage lies in its unique content and vibrant communities. As the forerunner of internet culture, Tumblr encompasses a wide range of interests, such as entertainment, art, gaming, fandom, fashion, and music. People come to Tumblr to immerse themselves in this culture, making it essential for us to ensure a seamless connection between people and content. 

To guarantee Tumblr’s continued success, we’ve got to prioritize fostering that seamless connection between people and content. This involves attracting and retaining new users and creators, nurturing their growth, and encouraging frequent engagement with the platform.

Our Guiding Principles

To enhance Tumblr’s usability, we must address these core guiding principles.

Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Retain and grow our creator base.

Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Improve the platform’s performance, stability, and quality.

Below is a deep dive into each of these principles.

Principle 1: Expand the ways new users can discover and sign up for Tumblr.

Tumblr has a “top of the funnel” issue in converting non-users into engaged logged-in users. We also have not invested in industry standard SEO practices to ensure a robust top of the funnel. The referral traffic that we do get from external sources is dispersed across different pages with inconsistent user experiences, which results in a missed opportunity to convert these users into regular Tumblr users. For example, users from search engines often land on pages within the blog network and blog view—where there isn’t much of a reason to sign up. 

We need to experiment with logged-out tumblr.com to ensure we are capturing the highest potential conversion rate for visitors into sign-ups and log-ins. We might want to explore showing the potential future user the full breadth of content that Tumblr has to offer on our logged-out pages. We want people to be able to easily understand the potential behind Tumblr without having to navigate multiple tabs and pages to figure it out. Our current logged-out explore page does very little to help users understand “what is Tumblr.” which is a missed opportunity to get people excited about joining the site.

Actions & Next Steps

Improving Tumblr’s search engine optimization (SEO) practices to be in line with industry standards.

Experiment with logged out tumblr.com to achieve the highest conversion rate for sign-ups and log-ins, explore ways for visitors to “get” Tumblr and entice them to sign up.

Principle 2: Provide high-quality content with every app launch.

We need to ensure the highest quality user experience by presenting fresh and relevant content tailored to the user’s diverse interests during each session. If the user has a bad content experience, the fault lies with the product.

The default position should always be that the user does not know how to navigate the application. Additionally, we need to ensure that when people search for content related to their interests, it is easily accessible without any confusing limitations or unexpected roadblocks in their journey.

Being a 15-year-old brand is tough because the brand carries the baggage of a person’s preconceived impressions of Tumblr. On average, a user only sees 25 posts per session, so the first 25 posts have to convey the value of Tumblr: it is a vibrant community with lots of untapped potential. We never want to leave the user believing that Tumblr is a place that is stale and not relevant. 

Actions & Next Steps

Deliver great content each time the app is opened.

Make it easier for users to understand where the vibrant communities on Tumblr are. 

Improve our algorithmic ranking capabilities across all feeds. 

Principle 3: Facilitate easier user participation in conversations.

Part of Tumblr’s charm lies in its capacity to showcase the evolution of conversations and the clever remarks found within reblog chains and replies. Engaging in these discussions should be enjoyable and effortless.

Unfortunately, the current way that conversations work on Tumblr across replies and reblogs is confusing for new users. The limitations around engaging with individual reblogs, replies only applying to the original post, and the inability to easily follow threaded conversations make it difficult for users to join the conversation.

Actions & Next Steps

Address the confusion within replies and reblogs.

Improve the conversational posting features around replies and reblogs. 

Allow engagements on individual replies and reblogs.

Make it easier for users to follow the various conversation paths within a reblog thread. 

Remove clutter in the conversation by collapsing reblog threads. 

Explore the feasibility of removing duplicate reblogs within a user’s Following feed. 

Principle 4: Retain and grow our creator base.

Creators are essential to the Tumblr community. However, we haven’t always had a consistent and coordinated effort around retaining, nurturing, and growing our creator base.  

Being a new creator on Tumblr can be intimidating, with a high likelihood of leaving or disappointment upon sharing creations without receiving engagement or feedback. We need to ensure that we have the expected creator tools and foster the rewarding feedback loops that keep creators around and enable them to thrive.

The lack of feedback stems from the outdated decision to only show content from followed blogs on the main dashboard feed (“Following”), perpetuating a cycle where popular blogs continue to gain more visibility at the expense of helping new creators. To address this, we need to prioritize supporting and nurturing the growth of new creators on the platform.

It is also imperative that creators, like everyone on Tumblr, feel safe and in control of their experience. Whether it be an ask from the community or engagement on a post, being successful on Tumblr should never feel like a punishing experience.

Actions & Next Steps

Get creators’ new content in front of people who are interested in it. 

Improve the feedback loop for creators, incentivizing them to continue posting.

Build mechanisms to protect creators from being spammed by notifications when they go viral.

Expand ways to co-create content, such as by adding the capability to embed Tumblr links in posts.

Principle 5: Create patterns that encourage users to keep returning to Tumblr.

Push notifications and emails are essential tools to increase user engagement, improve user retention, and facilitate content discovery. Our strategy of reaching out to you, the user, should be well-coordinated across product, commercial, and marketing teams.

Our messaging strategy needs to be personalized and adapt to a user’s shifting interests. Our messages should keep users in the know on the latest activity in their community, as well as keeping Tumblr top of mind as the place to go for witty takes and remixes of the latest shows and real-life events.  

Most importantly, our messages should be thoughtful and should never come across as spammy.  

Actions & Next Steps

Conduct an audit of our messaging strategy.

Address the issue of notifications getting too noisy; throttle, collapse or mute notifications where necessary.  

Identify opportunities for personalization within our email messages. 

Test what the right daily push notification limit is. 

Send emails when a user has push notifications switched off.

Principle 6: Performance, stability and quality.

The stability and performance of our mobile apps have declined. There is a large backlog of production issues, with more bugs created than resolved over the last 300 days. If this continues, roughly one new unresolved production issue will be created every two days. Apps and backend systems that work well and don't crash are the foundation of a great Tumblr experience. Improving performance, stability, and quality will help us achieve sustainable operations for Tumblr.

Improve performance and stability: deliver crash-free, responsive, and fast-loading apps on Android, iOS, and web.

Improve quality: deliver the highest quality Tumblr experience to our users. 

Move faster: provide APIs and services to unblock core product initiatives and launch new features coming out of Labs.

Conclusion

Our mission has always been to empower the world’s creators. We are wholly committed to ensuring Tumblr evolves in a way that supports our current users while improving areas that attract new creators, artists, and users. You deserve a digital home that works for you. You deserve the best tools and features to connect with your communities on a platform that prioritizes the easy discoverability of high-quality content. This is an invigorating time for Tumblr, and we couldn’t be more excited about our current strategy.

[nicomig0731]

Life Update: May 2023

It's been a while since I wrote down something on the blog. There are no important stories to tell, but there are worthwhile memories. Since my last entry, there have been few adjustments in my life that perhaps I would like to share, but for the purposes of this entry I would say that they are already in a separate journal that I maintain on a daily basis, so there is no need to mention them here. What I do like to mention is that my own desire to go abroad slowly wanes through time and I recently prefer local interests over foreign ones specifically on shows aired in our local TV nationwide. I do not usually go out of the house even though there are fewer restrictions to go outside compared to the previous years when the COVID-19 pandemic is still prevalent, although there are still restrictions in place because the variants of such virus still exists. I am pretty much an introverted in-house type of guy. As I mentioned earlier, I also maintain a journal on a daily basis, and that is where I jot down my random thoughts and other significant things that have happened in my day. Writing is also essential in the proper exercise of my brain.

Recently, I have been spending most of my time watching random videos of Japanese culture in Youtube. Most likely, I will click on videos that tours on Japanese places and use their sleek, efficient, and sophisticated trains in general. I also watch an anime of Japan that is popular around the world. I do these things to widen my comprehension and understanding of the Japanese culture and have a deeper appreciation of their beliefs, culture, and society. Just last month I also watch highlight videos of the plays of the teams in National Basketball Association (NBA) and I do this merely to entertain myself and have a deeper appreciation of the sport. All of these I do to occupy myself with things that I deem essential in my understanding of the world or perhaps the culture of both Japan and United States of America. I am glad that I was able to appreciate these things on a daily basis. Otherwise, I tend to sleep on long afternoons and take a rest in the meantime.

What makes for a strong resolve in the pursuit of happiness is consistency and hard work. These traits would enable any person to achieve happiness and perhaps their desires in life. In reference to these traits I continue to live my life normally as it happens, not because there is always something exciting that is happening in my life but rather because it is the right way to live. I tend to live a loner life, but I also have few friends to say at least. I have few activities in general, and I do not move as much as I used to. That is pretty much the life for me on a daily basis, and nothing much to say for me at least. To be honest, it is quite difficult to generate ideas with the kind of lifestyle that I have, but somehow I can manage to maintain a blog and a journal on a daily basis, and that for me is something that I consider to be an achievement. I do have some further plans on myself, and I am investing in my future so that I could also live a happy life.

In conclusion, I am pretty much contented with my life right now. There are no complications in this life except perhaps my daily struggle in life, but somehow I can manage on my own. I can also create new moments as long as I have the confidence to push forward towards my goals in life. The challenges that I am facing on a daily basis does not end in work, but rather I still face them in the walls of my own home together with my family. Altogether, I am living my life on a normal basis and I am pretty much thankful with what I have as of the moment. There are things that I would like to try for myself, but everything takes time and I am aware that I cannot do it all at once. I just want to experience the beauty of life and perhaps meet new people to bond with. To end, I just go with the flow and live my life as it happens.

"You just do what you can and you have as much fun as possible."

- Frank Ocean

[nicomig0731]

https://iglovequotes.net/

[nicomig0731]

Tumblr Top 5: Hottest Horror Movie Characters

Enter the sick and twisted minds of @wearewatcher's Shane Madej and Ryan Bergara as they countdown their top five hottest, steamiest, most sopping wet horror movie characters, with a little help from unofficial official Tumblr mascot, Coppy.

[nicomig0731]

“Stay close to anything that makes you glad you are alive.”

— Hafiz