affogato – The Diary of The Deranged Writer

20-Minute Warning III

Start time: 6:18pm.

I’ve gotten used to observing the Monday ritual for months, and not even rain can stop me. (Unless flooding stops me from stepping an inch away from my home.) And tonight, as usual, I didn’t skip the ritual—affogato, Novamachina, and all.

Before that, though, I needed to buy acne toner for my face. A few years back, during one of my mentally roughest periods, I also had the worst breakout. I was proud of being pimple-free before that, and the breakout didn’t help my mental health at all. But because I was also a stubborn piece of work, I continued my skincare routine, hoping that it would work over time. It took some convincing from my Younger Brother and feeling awful while looking in our 20-year-old mirror for me to finally ask the dermatologist for help, and she gave me the best arsenal against those pesky pimples that I still use to this day. Nowadays, when my face is attacked by the occasional zit, I just sparingly use the benzoyl peroxide lotion, while I regularly use the rest—acne toner included. Thank goodness for my dermatologist; she is heaven-sent.

Moving on, I’m back at Oversight with my favorite affogato in the whole world, and I’ve been contemplating one of my plans for December. As of now, a part of that plan is truly feasible, but the rest seems like a long shot. Unfortunately, sometimes things don’t go according to plan… but like I said, I’m a stubborn piece of work, so I will work around the feasible part of the plan. Sometimes, we just have to play with the cards we’re dealt.

I only have one minute left, and frankly, I’d like to work on a few drafts, so this is it for now. See you in the next post.

End time: 6:37pm.

Header image: Raka Miftah.

10-Minute Warning CCV

Written at 3:16pm today. Oh, hell yeah!

I had a different post theme for today, but I will just write another Minute Warning post because I was incredibly loaded with work earlier.

Aside from Always Watching (my series of Person of Interest episode reviews), I have been working on another passion project: my affogato diary. So far, I’ve tried at least five different affogatos from different cafes, and I’m thinking of adding another to my list this afternoon. But there’s a dilemma: I want to try the cafe’s affogato today before they sadly close for good tomorrow, and as I type this, it’s raining cats and dogs. I hope the rain becomes lighter later.

I’ve been watching a different show, too: The Boys. I have a lot of thoughts about what I’ve seen so far. At the moment, I will share three. Firstly, in my opinion, the second season was better than the first. Also, whenever Homelander (the invincible yet cruel head of the superhero group The Seven) shows his true colors, it’s amazingly frightening. And the heart of the black ops team, The Boys, the caring Marvin T. Milk (aka Mother’s Milk), may be my favorite character by far. Nice name, sir.

My ten-minute warning is almost up, and the rain has stopped as well. Excellent. I will prepare to go out now.

See you in the next post, and have a nice week ahead!

Header image: Hac Hai of Pexels. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2026.

30-Minute Warning XLIV

I’ve been recovering from the emotionally heaviest week of 2026 by far, so I’ll refrain from pressuring myself to publish a lengthy post tonight. What I can do tonight is share today’s happenings in under 30 minutes.

Like I said, I had an emotionally heavy week, but last night, it ended with a warm, honest conversation and a gigantic mason jar filled with large ice cubes and a refreshing Coke Zero. That made me sleep heavenly (even if I drank something cold and caffeinated), and I feel refreshed when I woke up today.

As for work, today’s stress was tolerable. I wrote proposals like a machine, I politely responded to troubleshooting reports, and I dispatched technicians for the aforementioned troubleshooting. After that, and running an errand, the workday ended early, so I went to Oversight early to observe my Monday ritual.

Speaking of Monday rituals, last week was so awful that even two visits to Oversight didn’t do the trick. Sometimes, habits that protect and ground me don’t work at all if the darkness is overwhelming. But I’m glad my family and a friend helped me through that period, and now I’m back to my safe space feeling lighter.

And now, another light from last week. Last Friday, April 24, my favorite band in the whole world, Foo Fighters, released their twelfth studio album, Your Favorite Toy. If I could write a lengthy album review, I would. But tonight, I’d like to relax more with my favorite affogato. Yet, here’s my short review: I’m elated that the Foo Fighters are back to being loud with the residue of post-Wasting Light albums’ experimental styles. I will make an in-depth album review when I feel 141 2/3% better.

But honestly, if I were to reach Steiner Math levels of wellness again soon, the album review would not be the first long post I would work on. I will talk more about the album’s antepenultimate track, “Child Actor”. Honestly, I didn’t expect the song to be a reminder of many recently depressing things at once, and since I listened to it during an already-dark week, it reduced me to tears. It became the soundtrack of last weekend for me, and I still can’t get enough of hearing it on loop (even as I type this).

Won’t you
Turn the cameras off
Turn the cameras off
Turn the cameras off
Turn the cameras off
Turn the cameras off
Turn the cameras off
Foo Fighters’ “Child Actor”

And my 30 minutes are up. Thank you for reading. See you in the next post, and have a nice week!

Header image: Raul Ling of Pexels. Edited in Adobe Photoshop 2025.