minsan fest

Today was the day I'd go to Minsan Fest in Quezon City!

But since the concert would be in the afternoon, I did some programming for my websites and I FINALLY migrated the mood calendar modal to the standalone journal sample component. It's been annoying me for almost a year that I worked on journal pages while just duplicating the code I had for the modal. It was super tough to migrate some code that was only in the mood calendar into the component, but I'm glad I actually did it. I'm also glad that I'm clever enough to make the transition seamless by making the journal-entry component itself easily work as a child component.

I also ported over the weather and mood status information blocks to the standalone component. I'm just glad I don't have to deal with separate codebases for the journal entry anymore. I was able to clean up some code, too. After that, I just caught up with my mood calendar entries for the week, which seemed a lot despite it only being for 2 days.

I then went and prepared to leave for the event. It was a long trip to QC but the weird thing was that I was dropped off at the wrong place. I was dropped in a random village far from QC Memorial Circle. It was so weird! The pin was correct, too, so some asshole got the location pin wrong and led me astray. It was kind of scary, too, since random people were looking at me and I didn't want my iPhone 16 Pro Max snatched from me. I was able to find an ATM nearby, thankfully, because I didn't have any money and I figured that Gcash wouldn't work well there. I thankfully managed to book a ride to the correct landmark and got there safely.

After arriving, I mostly just waited in line to get my wristband-thing for the event and took pictures of Zild as he was singing. I didn't know him much so I went to some nearby food stalls to buy some food since I haven't had breakfast yet. What's also weird is that my signal is absolutely shot, even though it worked just fine earlier when I was in line. I couldn't upload my IG Story at all, and I even access a website. Somehow, Naomi was able to call me and I was able to tell her where I was standing and she eventually met me while I was drinking iced tea. She was with her uncle/cousin who was around the same age as her which confused me at first, but after he eventually cleared things up, I understood how it worked.

I tagged along with them throughout the rest of the event. We mainly watched some singers while standing and we walked around in-between breaks. I treated them to iced tea, which was funny because it got up to 210 Pesos for 3 70-Peso iced teas. I was just shocked at how overpriced some of these items were. I also asked Naomi how she was getting along with my old Xiaomi phone and I was surprised to see that she was using the 3-button navigation style on Android when I had been using gesture-based before. I also taught her how to use a fingerprint to unlock the device, which was how I used to open the phone before. After a while, we sat down and listened to a few artists, mainly Sud and a few others. Naomi and I also talked about what her plans for college were and other things.

By nighttime, I asked Naomi if we could visit the other stalls on the left side of QC Memorial Circle. I was surprised to see that it opened up to a whole row of food vendors. I wanted to get some food and Naomi was checking out the first stall we saw. She wanted to buy something from there but her uncle/cousin told her that they didn't have enough money to buy food with, and I just felt like I had to treat them both since they were out of funds already. I just got chicken katsu for us 3 and it was okay, the rice was a bit cold so I couldn't finish it. I ate with them for a bit before wandering around for a bit more to buy other food and withdraw some cash.

I walked alone for a bit until I got to a row of sari-sari stores and it seemed odd to me because they didn't seem like they were set up today. The people and sellers here seemed to have children here. So I guess that they live here? In Quezon City Memorial Circle?? It was so strange because I've passed around this roundabout many times and I never even figured that people could even live here. It was just so strange. But thankfully, a lady here was able to cash out some Gcash money I had and I got 1,200 Pesos or so, which I figured I would need in case of other stuff.

I then walked back to Naomi and her uncle/cousin and I passed by a stall on the way. I ordered some Buldak that I haven't had in a long time and some blue lemonade to go along with it. It was way spicier than I remember. I know that I have some mood calendar entries here where I would eat Buldak for days, but I never figured it would be this hot. I downed the blue lemonade easily and went back with Naomi to have her tumbler refilled and so I could buy more blue lemonade. As we were walking back, Naomi tells me that she had some questions for me, but she couldn't remember what most of it was since it was on her stolen phone. The only question she could remember was this game development-related question and why I haven't developed any games. I just told her that not everyone skilled in programming can do game development and it's neither a talent nor skill of mine. I was able to finish some of the Buldak noodles and I told her to try and ask me more questions. I made a joke how I'm like on Hot Ones (the show where contestants eat spicy food and answer tough questions), but she couldn't remember so I just ended up downing the entire remainder of my blue lemonade and asking Naomi to refill my cup with water. We went back to have her tumbler refilled (again) and I was able to finish and toss out the Buldak noodles.

After that, we went back to the concert to watch the remaining songs of Reese Lansangan's performance. I asked them what time or after which artist they would then go home. I just decided to going home at the same time as them. After Reese Lansangan, Itchyworms played next and I took a lot of videos and photos of them. I also sang along to the songs I knew, mainly "Ang Gusto Ko Lamang Sa Buhay" and "Beer." I also noticed that my phone's battery was getting low, which was super strange because I don't remember actively using it that much, save for a few instances. It made me worry about my phone's battery health considering that this is the latest top-of-the-line device and I'm the first owner. It made me wonder if my battery was shot, but I mostly blamed it on charging up to 85% in the afternoon before leaving. Naomi then tells me that they would leave after Ebe Dancel's set and I stayed with them and enjoyed Ebe Dancel's set as he performed some hits. I actually didn't know the guy, but he sang some classic OPM songs that I knew.

After Ebe Dancel ended his performance and as Naomi and her uncle/cousin were waiting for Mayonnaise next, I excused myself to buy some water. Apparently, they were staying and that they'd listen to Mayonnaise next, which had me worry because my phone's battery was now 20%. I was actually really worried now because I didn't want to take public transportation home and have my phone snatched there, or take several hours just to get home. I tried to find a charging station and I asked a food vendor if there was a charging station nearby, and she said that there were none. I went to the rows of sari-sari stores next and they were mostly closed, including the store that had Gcash, too. I just decided that I should go home immediately and that I should take a Grab if worse comes to worst. Thankfully, I was able to book a Joyride home and the driver was able to see me. I hopped on and it was a long trip home, but it took only 30-40 minutes or so.

I got home and I was finally glad to charge my phone. I was extremely tired but I was able to finish uploading all of my IG Stories and I caught up with some people. I even found out that John attended the event, but we didn't see each other. I talked to Naomi later in the evening and, despite the battery issue I had, it was honestly pretty good.