Hello, Diary. I didn’t feel like updating for a few days; I wanted to live more. And now I’m back, here are a few life updates.
Warning: Icky details ahead. Please be advised.
Brand New Ears
Three weeks ago, while I was cleaning my ears with cotton buds, I pushed the buds too far into my right ear, clogging it with earwax. Fuck. I don’t like it when I don’t hear clearly because when I ask the person I’m conversing with to repeat the message, I end up repeating “What?” like Stone Cold Steve Austin.
(To non-pro wrestling fans, please watch the video below for context.)
But instead of visiting the clinic of Dr. R., my ENT doctor, I ended up self-medicating, using eardrops to soften the excess earwax. The popping sounds the ear medication produces are so satisfying, like popping bubble wraps. I truly hope that they will help me clear my right ear again. I also started cleaning my ears more carefully and not too deeply.
Fast forward to Friday, September 19, 2025, and I still can’t hear properly from my right ear. I said to myself with a frustrated tone, “Fuck this.” So, I went to Dr. R.’s clinic in the afternoon without booking an appointment. It was a good thing there was no line on that day.
I remembered my last ear cleaning as a bit painful due to the hardened earwax on both ears, but I shrugged off the terror, and I finally had my ears cleaned. Thankfully, the process is not painful this time; in fact, it’s more weirdly satisfying. It took ten minutes for Dr. R. to clean the more affected right ear with a small vacuum, and, oh, the device sucked a lot of excess earwax—soft bit by soft bit. As for the left ear, I told her that I can hear from that ear clearly, but my doctor said it still needs cleaning because there’s also excess earwax on it. I really thought I could hear properly with my left ear until she extracted the earwax with one pull from a tweezer. The size of the sole extracted earwax from my left ear is the size of two cockroach eggs. Good grief. (And no, I don’t have photos of it.)
After the most satisfying ear cleaning in years, I was so happy to hear 141 2/3% clearly again. (That’s a Scott Steiner reference.) It felt like I gained a set of brand new ears. And then I joked to Dr. R. that I may also have gained Daredevil’s heightened hearing… and she got the reference! Lovely.
Batman Day (2025)
A Batman Movie Marathon
Speaking of Daredevil, let me talk about a similar superhero and my all-time favorite, Batman. Specifically, let me talk about what I did last September 20, Batman Day!
To celebrate the occasion, I wanted to watch many Batman movies almost the entire day. But because of September 19’s happenings (the ENT visit, plus a sudden food trip to Mexicali, trying a different affogato from Cafe Boudica, and walking around the mall while waiting for the end of rush hour), I decided to keep it simpler and just watch my favorite movie trilogy of all time, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy.
I wouldn’t go into a detailed review of The Dark Knight Trilogy yet, but all I can say for now is that it was fun watching the movies in chronological order (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises) because I haven’t done that in years. It felt so good dwelling once again into Christopher Nolan’s philosophically deep and grounded take on the Batman mythos. And it was also lovely to see many actors in the trilogy who also appeared on my all-time favorite series, the American sci-fi crime thriller Person of Interest (a show created by The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises co-screenwriter and Christopher Nolan’s brother, Jonathan Nolan). For example, John Nolan (uncle of the Nolan brothers who played Person of Interest’s most ruthless villain, Greer) played the role of Wayne Enterprises board member Douglas Fredericks. Excellent.
A Bonus Round
But then I had to pause The Dark Knight Rises for a while because my Younger Brother and my cousin Neri wanted to go out and have a few drinks. Yes, I love The Dark Knight Trilogy, but I love my family more, and Saturday night hangouts with them are rare nowadays because of our day jobs. With that, I had to pause the movie, we went to a nice, chill bar in Makati, and we all had a deep conversation about love and life over minty, creamy alcoholic drinks.
Side note: The bar was so chill the entire time we were there… except for a few minutes when an insanely drunk foreigner challenged another foreigner to a fist fight. Weird place to fight, bro. And, of course, he got ejected by the baristas and security.
After our lovely hangout at the chill bar, we were supposed to walk around, but the rain poured harder. We had to go home before the rain became worse, and right at the moment we arrived home, that’s when I finished watching The Dark Knight Rises (with Coke Zero on the rocks). What a wonderful ending for my trilogy marathon and my simple celebration of Batman Day.
Belated happiest Batman Day to every fan who believes in The Dark Knight himself!
And that’s my life update for now. Now, let me retreat into the darkness and do my Monday night ritual. See you in the next post.
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Updated on September 23, 2025 and September 25, 2025.
The Diary of The Deranged Writer 