Briathrail // Albert 2MNG

On Travel, Programming, Books, and Food

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Let’s talk about what’s what this month

Albert 2MNG

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I’m starting a new blog post template to fill the gaps, every end of month as a compilation. I don’t know how much or what to post nowadays (maybe boredom, I suppose), so I will just post interesting stuff on my end. Maybe I’d add some technical work-related programmer post template soon.

NOTE: This is a “compilation” post about some of my non-personal topical posts on social media sites forn this month, and I get to expand on them properly – one can only do so much “expanding” using a mobile phone. I include links, the original text I put in, then below it, additional things from me.

I have both Facebook and X/Twitter, I also sometimes do YouTube comments, but that’s pretty much it for my activity on socials.

October 1-4 2025

When it came to Gong Cha, I loved them a lot, as they were among the first tea drink companies to offer me a more nuanced drink taste. Zagu, my original bubble tea drink vendor of choice, has gone downhill for years due to an inexplicably rapid expansion, inconsistent taste and quality among its newer branches.

When Gong Cha started popping up in Makati in 2015 or so, I loved them on the spot. Initially I went for oolong teas with less boba and 20% sugar, but I settled for two favorites – a sweet wintermelon tea, and the complex taste of earl grey tea. That preference carried on to Singapore, where when I saw a Gong Cha branch store, I always went in and got myself an earl grey, of the less sweet option.

However, they had more intense competition in Singapore. Not suprising, as people here have high standards when it comes to leisure drinks like bubble teas. “KOI Thé” is a very good one, their milk teas are silky smooth and has a distinct tea taste not lost with the milk. Their own local “LiHO” bubble tea brand is also an excellent option. Recently, “CHAGEE” has become the boutique milk tea of choice with a trendy presentation and a nice bag design that copycats instantly cribbed off. Notably, they offer more attractive drinks than Gong Cha.

Not suprising they bailed. More and more competitors have started popping up with more attractive options, and Gong Cha’s offerings ain’t cutting it anymore. Sad, but that’s the reality of intense business competition.

It’s an open secret in the AI industry right now – the toolmakers powering AI are the biggest winners. NVIDIA, for example. They are currently making the big bucks right now, providing the hardware powering so many data centers, and their order backlogs are probably longer than BTS concert ticket lines. Same with ePLDT and their parent company PLDT in the Philippines. They have lots and lots of Vitro data centers, and they are pivoting hard to being willing providers for AI startups, AI companies and AI apps. This new “AI solutions stack” is something they could only provide (well, also by hooking up with other companies) with the existing AI-friendly infrastructure they cultivated over the years.

With their new “Pilipinas AI” initiative, companies and entities could “tap into AI’s full potential without the burden of building or managing their own infrastructure”, per their press release. That’s a big convenience. But also, it’s potentially a rich well of revenue. 

Real feelings right here.

One of my tricks when I want my laptop to power through what it’s doing and fool the OS into thinking I’m still active is to have a YouTube lo-fi music video play in the forefront and keep that shit playing. But that day, I kind of forgot – I got home late at 7pm and turned on my laptop to run through a torrent that I was eager to watch (old Masterchef Australia episodes with the original 3-dude judge lineup), and I wanted a nice chill bath that night. But I forgot to run the lo-fi video, and after a bath (IMO, showers should be less than 10 minutes, anything longer is a bath) I came back to my room to find that Windows forced an update. Fuck that.

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