What's the Most "MacGyver" Thing You Did?

I watched a short video about MacGyver this afternoon. My generation grew up with him finding solutions using things you can find at home. The clip mentioned that whenever MacGyver blew up stuff, the producers would always give an incomplete recipe, so that kids at home won't blow up their kitchens. 

I never tried any of the things MacGyver did on the series, but I definitely "MacGyver" (do DIY) on some things. Growing up, I was always excited when we had projects that involved building things. Back then you have to figure out a lot of stuff. I remember making a display box for a stone collection. In 5th grade, we were tasked to use bamboo to make a diorama bahay kubo. 

We had to build a lot of stuff with stuff you can find at home. You're lucky if there's a stash of craft cardboard you can use at home. I normally had to make do with old folders and shoe boxes. Nowadays, I usually experiment in my garden and sewing projects where it's safer to DIY stuff. Sweetie's most favorite tools are cable ties, haha. For me, it's bamboo and garden tie cables. 

Anyway, you can watch the clip about MacGyver, here.

#BeKind #StaySafe

The 80s: Why I Enjoyed Watching Stranger Things

We decided to watch Stranger Things again from the beginning. We only started watching it in 2021 when we got home. Internet was pretty bad in our old home, so when we watched season 1 and 2 it was like watching on a 2G phone, haha. So, I said, let's watch it from the beginning. 

The characters were just a bit older than me when I was a child. It was a treat to see the era again especially the toys, the food and essentially how they lived without phones, the internet and Google! Back then people went to see other people when they were bored. They were not stuck in front of their TVs/their phones/gaming consoles or computers. 

One of my 80s birthdays

In the 80s, our parents watched us like hawks, but we still went out to see our friends. I remember I'd bike around our village and bike to a friend's house to play. I'm glad I lived through that era minus gory monsters. Well, we had monsters and my childhood was riddled with political upheavals. 

Sweetie in the 80s

Anyway, I enjoyed watching the series from start to end. We got to review the earlier seasons and got to connect the story easier. If you watch it from the beginning, you'll also notice some nuances that you didn't see when you first watched it, like the different crazy 80s hairstyles which reminded us of some movies. The colorful outfits and even the socks they wore reminded me of some that I used to wear, haha. 

Of course, there were some noticeable holes in the story, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless. 

#BeKind #StaySafe

Have You Ever Joined a Rally?

I'm a genXer, so rallies were pretty common back in the day. The first ones I participated in were the yellow confetti throwing on Ayala Avenue in the early 80s. 

I was 10 years old when my Kuya went to EDSA in 1986. We kept a vigil at home and prayed for his safety and Tito Ben's safety (he was in the military back then). I grew up aware of what's happening. Tito Ed also shared what they did during the Light a Fire Movement. He shared their acts were done to spark awareness and vigilance.

I did a lot of volunteer work in high school and college years. Sometimes it was helping pack goods for donations, oftentimes doing training. I did join some rallies in college, but the biggest one I joined was EDSA Dos. I went with my high school friends and we were there when Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was sworn in to become president.

I think the younger generation today didn't need to have this "skill". They were shielded from having to do protests. Labor groups still do it, and as far as I remember the last biggest anti corruption rally was in 2013 (Million People March). 

I think it's important to bring the online protests to the streets. The percentage of people reading trending posts is just really a small percentage of our population. A rally is simply a gathering to make your point heard and historically usually peaceful in our country. Of course, make sure to get proper permits!

*My health won't allow me to join any physical rallies right now, so I'm taking the prayer warrior route for now. I wrote this post because I was wondering why today's generation isn't out on the streets yet. Maybe able bodies GenXers can provide guidance?

#BeKind #StaySafe

My Yummiest Potato Salad to Date

It's been awhile since I made potato salad at home. I "learned" it from Mom. She gave me a list of ingredients and told me to just "mix it up". The list did not include measurements (as usual), so I have been winging it.

Found some potatoes in the fridge. I planned to make afritada, but the other ingredients weren't fresh anymore. Potatoes last longer, so I popped everything in a pot and boiled it. Sweetie helped peel and dice it. I took care of slicing the other veggies. 

I mixed all the ingredients in a bowl, then added the diced potatoes. Added a bit more mayo and put it in the fridge. I forgot to try it before storing it, so I was really surprised how good it was when we had it for dinner. Yum! Yum! Yum! It tasted like Dayrit's/Makati Supermart Coffee Shop's potato salad (I usually get these when I'm lazy to make). Of course, it reminded me of the potato salad we'd usually have during family reunions. 

Here's how I made it:

Recipe here: https://recipesformyson.blogspot.com/2025/06/recipes-for-my-son-moms-potato-salad.html

Let me know if you try making it based on what I have figured out how to make a proper 80s potato salad. :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

Throwback Thursday: Care Bear Stare!

Look what I found while sorting stuff. My Care Bare sticker book! I think I was in 4th grade when this came out. I remember saving my allowance so I could buy stickers! And sometimes (when lucky), I'd be able to convince Mom or Dad to buy some for me at National Bookstore. 

I wasn't able to complete the book. I missed just a few and I guess I just gave up since it would eat up my allowance. I loved the textured stickers the best. I don't think I had any other Care Bear items, so I got myself a stuffed toy a few years ago while traveling. It was an indulgence, but it made my inner child happy (haha). 

I'm actually surprised the sticker book survived. I thought it was washed away already during Typhoon Ondoy. Together with it were my high school newspapers. I placed them inside a plastic folder. The plastic folder did a good job. It bore the wear and tear of time and temperature.

Great find! It reminded me how simple life was back then. I've been trying to remember those  days before the harsh world infiltrated my being (weh drama!). With so many things going on nowadays, finding childhood things that made me happy gives me joy.

#BeKind #StaySafe

Mickey Mouse Ruler from the 80s and a 20-year old McDonald's Pencil Box

I'm slowly regaining my strength, so decluttering continues. I found a few vintage stuff from one of the boxes I sorted on my Mom's birthday. Never knew I'd see a souvenir from the first time when we went to Disneyland in 1980. 

I was only 4 years old back then, but I remember a few things from that trip. I remember I didn't like walking and I preferred to be in the stroller. That or Kuya would carry me, hahaha. I also always felt cold. The most fun moment for me was when we went through the "It's a Small World" ride. 

Mom bought this super cute ruler. I remember playing with it when I was a child. Never really used it as a ruler. It's just been used for display and eventually was kept in a cabinet. It has some damage now, but it's still cute. I cleaned it up and just put it in my ruler drawer for now since everything's messy in my craft room. I probably need to spend a day organizing it.

Also found two McDonald's pencil cases. I couldn't find the exact date it was released. Probably from the 90s since Hamburglar disappeared from commercials in 2002/2003. I'm also not sure when "Love ko to" was introduced by McDonald's Philippines. The slogan though was used in the 2000s, so the pencil box may have been from 2000-2005 before Hamburglar was phased out. Found a few posts selling the pencil box and Sweetie said he wanted to collate all "vintage" stuff, so I turned it over to him. 

It's interesting to read up on old stuff, so I might do more of this for Throwback Thursdays :)

#BeKind #StaySafe

10 Things that were Non-Existent Back in the 1980s

This post was inspired by the game that was played during Neo's launch of its newest 3D gaming laptop where we were challenged to name as many things that were non-existent during the 80s. I can easily name 30, but would just limit this post to ten things I use a lot now.

Chatting


I remember back in high school me and my imaginative friends dreamt that we would eventually talk/chat easily through a computer. We all had PCs with monochrome monitors and no internet access yet when we had that conversation. It did come true. My best friend lives in Cebu and I only get to talk to my other friends via chat (GTalk, YM, Facebook, Skype and ICQ).

Mobile Phones and Wireless Landlines


I was issued my first mobile phone when I worked for a telco. It was the N100 and was nicknamed "pangkaskas ng yelo" because it was solid and heavy. It could only do voice calls back then. And who would've thought that we could carry around our landline phone? Smart phones nowadays, like my NexusOne, gets you on the internet in a jiffy. Oh back in the early 80s our phone had a rotary dialer. My son couldn't imagine how it worked.

CDs and Dibidi (DVD)


I used to collect cassette tapes and record my favorite songs while listening to the radio (unheard of for Miguel!). We also used to watch movies on Betamax and eventually VHS tapes. Nowadays one's favorite song can be easily acquired by buying the CD and movies through DVD (and BluRay!).

Email and Social Networking Sites


I lost touch with a number of friends to immigrated when I was a kid. I'm quite happy that I've found most of them through social networking sites like Friendster, Facebook, Multiply etc. Back then the only way to stay in touch was by calling them or writing them through snail mail. I even have a stamp collection to prove that I used to write a lot of letters. I now use snail mail only on rare occasions since there's email anyway.

Digital Cameras


I got my very first camera from my sister. She found it on a sidewalk in the US and when no one claimed it, she sent it to me. A good chunk of my allowance went to having film developed. Thank God for digital cameras since taking photos is now limited only to the size of your SD card/memory. Most phones also have cameras so it's easy to capture images anytime, anywhere. (And yes Miguel, back in the 80s we did have colored photos already! Rawr!!!).

Google!


The founders of Google are just 2 years older than me so it definitely didn't exist yet in the 80s although based on some readings I've done search has been around for sometime already, just not for everyone. I was already a college graduate when Google was founded, but it definitely got me through grad school because it made doing research much easier.

LRT and MRT


I don't really know how I would've survived commuting to and from school without the LRT. I used to take the jeepney though whenever I had to study for an exam.

Monstrous USB Storage and The Cloud


My first USB had tiny storage space. Inarbor ko from my Kuya. I dunno how old it is right now, but it's with Miguel and has survived a couple of floods already. There was a time my thesismates had to go to my house to physically share files with me (on a floppy disk!). I can't imagine how we managed to complete our thesis back then. Eventually things got more sophisticated and I just burned huge amounts of data on a CD, then DVD and now I can just easily copy stuff on a USB flash drive.

The iPod


I felt really cool when I was 12 because I had a Walkman. I used to sleep with it (and that probably affected my hearing) and that's how I listened to my cassette tape collection. I skipped owning a DiscMan because I found it too expensive (I was already working then so I couldn't ask my parents to buy me one), but I did gift myself with an iPod Nano (not the first gen iPod) when it came out. I love listening to music (my son too) and my iTunes holds my music collection now.

InkJet Printers 


My Kuya had a dot-matrix printer in the late 1980s. It was quite noisy and I'm proud to say that I acquired the skill to change its ribbon! My son has never experienced printing on a dot-matrix printer and maybe one day I'll unearth the one we had in the early 90s. It's still somewhere at home.


We take these things for granted nowadays, but kids are so lucky they have all of these things at their fingertips. I didn't mention gaming consoles in this post since the only one I had back in the 80s was Game & Watch and a PacMan watch. I was never allowed to play Atari or Super Mario so I still play games like a three year old. Anyway, all of these conveniences are great and helpful, I wonder how things will be 30 years from now.