So, what should I write about in my first Minute Warning post of 2026?
Firstly, yesterday, I worked overtime until 2am. That’s my first overtime of the year. In my current job as an administrative assistant, the first week of the month is usually the busiest. This 2026, I would like to work more efficiently so my family business can grow (most especially, financially). If that means burning the midnight oil to finish crucial tasks, I will gladly do it, and that’s what I accomplished yesterday.
Secondly, this 2026, I need to fix my sleep schedule again. Frankly speaking, recently, I have been waking up later than I want to. Yes, I woke up later today again, and I have a perfect excuse for that: I worked overtime. However, I need to go back to waking up at 8am, whether I have an early workload or not. I also have a perfect excuse to wake up early on Tuesday mornings, which is the livestream of WWE Raw on Netflix Philippines every Tuesday, 9am. The morning Raw viewing is so important that it’s already written in my planner for the next several weeks.
My ten minutes are almost up, but I have to go. See you in the next post.
I can honestly say that 2025 is one of the most memorable years of my life, and one reason is that I replaced a few of my New Year’s resolutions with some things better. One resolution was to delve into a different single music artist per week, and it proved to be difficult, especially since I have a day job and other interests I’d like to pursue after work. So, I replaced that music resolution with listening to a playlist of my favorite songs on Spotify. It turns out that listening to songs I truly love (whether I’m writing, walking, or just chilling) is more enjoyable than absorbing an entire discography in seven days. The latter sounds like a chore rather than entertainment.
With my favorite songs list comes a rekindled appreciation for the industrial rock pioneers, Nine Inch Nails. When I listened to the legendary band’s essential playlist curated by Spotify, I rediscovered the songs I remembered and loved years ago, and then I added them to my list. Since then, according to my Last.fm, my number of listens to the band spiked to 300+ times. That’s an incredible feat, and I believe the statistic will grow in the future because, at this point, I acknowledge (and embrace) both the light and the darkness, and Nine Inch Nails is known for their dark, heavy music.
So, you might ask what my favorite Nine Inch Nails song is as of late. It’s definitely “The Hand That Feeds”, the first single from the fourth studio album With Teeth. Based on my lyrical interpretation, the song is about questioning authority (while questioning oneself in the process), and that politically relevant message is wrapped in a heavy, defiant industrial rock sound that is so hypnotically danceable, and I don’t normally dance to Nine Inch Nails songs. Nowadays, every time I commute, I’d search “That Hand That Feeds” on my list, and then listen to it as I move my feet like I own the street.
The music video of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds”.
I think I have found my top favorite Nine Inch Nails song in “The Hand That Feeds” for its modern-day relevance and its hypnotizing, groovy industrial rock instrumentals. That’s why it’s my Song of the Moment.
Just how deep do you believe? Will you bite the hand that feeds? Will you chew until it bleeds? Can you get up off your knees? Are you brave enough to see? Do you wanna change it?
The chorus of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds”
Anyway, let me dance again to the song in my favorite cafe. It’s a good thing I’m the only customer here at the moment… oh, shit. People are approaching. I’ll just do an internal dance, if I could call it that.
It’s almost a week after New Year’s Day, and my past several days have been memorable. But I don’t want to blog about all of them at once. Why? I just finished my first workout of 2025.
One of my resolutions this year is to keep exercising as much as I want to keep writing in my journal and here on The Diary. Today, I restarted my fitness journey by following Body Project’s30-minute fat-burning beginner workout. And in the first few minutes, Mr. Daniel Bartlett (the coach in the video) reminded me that I could pick my place in the workout. I can pause, catch my breath, and keep marching in place if I can’t do the workout. But because I truly wanted to push myself, I followed how Mr. Bartlett works out exactly… and then my legs shook and I was breathing heavily. (And this is from following a low-impact workout. It has been so long since I had a proper workout other than walking and jogging.) I just had to pause, rest for a while, and gain the energy to exercise again.
And when I finally gained that energy back, I played the video again and Mr. Bartlett said something that hit a nail in my head. This is my 15th Notes to Self.
The Diary of The Deranged Writer 