👋 Hey there! I'm TJ. I write about data products, technology, software, and economics.
I'm a husband and father, living in Singapore, and from the Philippines. I explore data engineering and accounting at Titanium Birch.
I resolved to write around 300 words a day, and apart from the actual writing output, I feel a lot less scatterbrained. Ulysses makes it effortless to set a daily writing goal. I love the pretty little graph the app makes to gamify the experience:
Renewing a US tourist visa in Singapore as a foreigner
Holding a Philippines passport means you will plan most international travel well in advance. This is especially true for trips to the United States. (Photo by Erica Jahn on Unsplash)
I hold a weak passport in a country whose citizens hold the world’s strongest passport.
Whenever I need to get a visa, there are very few resources online for how to actually get it done. I’ve even gone on adventures to Kuala Lumpur for smaller countries that didn’t have consular services in Singapore.
In my case, I was renewing my B-1/B-2 (Tourism/Business) United States Visa that expired in 2022, and was originally issued by the US embassy in Manila. I’m writing it down, hopefully to benefit someone is in a similar situation.
Chinese tradition during weddings suggests gifting a red packet that at least offsets the cost of your seat, and there’s something beautiful about that, when done willingly.
#7: Digital gardening didn't work for me, getting serious about writing, and my new role
Welcome back to what is essentially an annual newsletter 🥲. In this issue, find out why digital gardening didn’t work for me, how I want to own my content, and my new gig combining accounting and data engineering.
Obsidian’s graph view was very fun to look at, but I quickly realised that it wasn’t going to really help with my writing.
I’m settled into my new writing setup (hopefully, at least for the next year). Principles were:
- Use purpose-built apps for writing (Ulysses)
- Publish once on your site, syndicate elsewhere (Micro.Blog + Zapier + Buffer)
- Easy capture (Apple Shortcuts)
Review: dBrand Skin for iPhone and iPad
dbrand Matte Black skin and the Moft snap case
Since we had a baby, we added AppleCare+ to all our Apple devices, as the risk is now much higher that our devices meet an untimely demise.
A side effect of the warranty is that it made me brave enough to go caseless. However, I quickly noticed after a few days that a bare iPhone is too slippery and cold to the touch. I needed something that didn’t add any additional heft while making the texture a lot more comfortable.
That’s where the dbrand skin comes in.