The Replay circa 1998
I can’t quite remember the quote from Haruki Murakami’s South of the Border, West of the Sun, but I remember at the climax the character mused, “I was so sure that the place was so magical. But it was only Mexico.”
And that was me with East Asian pop. I don’t usually talk about music because I am not the most musical person online. The way I talk about music would be about general brand strategy maybe, or psycho-social observations of fandom.
Now memories of how kpop and jpop were before social media are turning into artifacts. One day, I know that I’ll forget them for good with the rare instance of sitting up in my sickbed to drop the random Konglish line by G.O.D.
So these are the songs in the languages I could not quite master. I was uncomfortable in my body, already rebellious against what the marketing was dictating to me, an early teen girl, but I latched onto the hooks of these songs. They got me racing upstairs after school to turn on the TV. They were what kept me company as I cranked out school papers. It was what made the friends I found at this time the friends I had for life.
Listen, enjoy, laugh even. The world got bigger when we turned up the music to this one.
Playlist:
1. Honey by L’arc~en~Ciel
2. we are the future by H.O.T.
3. Perfect Man by Shinhwa
4. Automatic by Utada Hikaru
5. the place you belong by g.o.d.
The AI Writing Workflow That Got Me “Hired”
Prologue:
Me: Hey, DeepSeek, Can you pretend to interview me as someone who’s looking for a writer with AI? And be honest about if you’d hire me or not
DeepSeek (DS): Absolutely! Let’s simulate an interview for a writer with AI expertise. I’ll play the role of a hiring manager looking for someone who can blend creativity with AI tools (like ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) to produce high-quality content.
Me: Make it a real time chat where I can respond and you adapt to my responses
DS: Got it! Let’s do a real-time mock interview for an AI-savvy writer role. I’ll be the hiring manager, and you’ll respond to my questions one by one.
HM: How do you incorporate AI into your writing process? Like, do you use it for brainstorming, drafting, what?
Me: I treat AI like an OTJ intern. I use it for brainstorming and proofreading, sometimes I do render graphics for assist, but I have not rendered something completely in AI. Like at most 50% of the time, according to AI detectors, my work is retained.
HM: Wait, “50% retained” – does that mean you rewrite half of AI stuff, or detectors flag it as half-human?
Me: I rewrite half of AI generated content, and the detectors find that half of it is AI. I learned to use AI as a copywriter, and we’re always facing tight and urgent deadlines. I use AI to help focus my thoughts for concept statements, and to proofread scripts for clarity, and also find easy questions like grammar rules.
HM: Okay, give me a real example – how does this play out with something like a concept statement?
Me: So with concept statements and manifestos that require a lot of careful crafting, I feed AI a concept to phrase or ask them to give me specific instances for an insight that I can craft. If I feel like it should be expounded on more but am unsure, I ask AI to be more descriptive. Here, AI tends to be overly flowery with words and I ground it with language that’s more in tune with the brand. I even go so far as to say things like, “Make it sound like a teen magazine” or “Make it sound like brand, or Gen Z”, and then I edit out the fluff and fillers that don’t fit the concept statement format.
For scripts also before clearing I tend to go, “Is this clear?” and see what they think. And if am unsure about socmed captions or a grammar use, I ask it.
HM: The teen magazine example is interesting – what happens when AI goes too “full Gen Z” and misses the mark?
Me: Like the teen magazine example – when prompted, they go full out like it’s super conversational. It is not fitting for a concept statement or manifesto. I trim out a lot from the prompt. I do however, put in the edited version for them to proofread. And sometimes they’re overly meticulous even because it’s different from the concept statement I need. So I take what’s helpful and relevant, remove feedback that doesn’t work with me, then if am overall satisfied I send it to my human creative director.
HM: Honestly? You’re hired. You use AI like a tool, not a crutch. You know when to ignore it, how to edit it, and when to bring in humans. That’s exactly what we need.
Fuck Content
A pandemic and a career pivot later, in a time where everyone is curating content, I’m shooting straight.
I wonder why I keep this domain around when it only ever got me two paying jobs in the 10+ years it’s been here. But alongside social media, now that we can easily summon bots to make us look busier than we actually are, the domain is still relevant. It really is me, and I’m saying, “Fuck content.”
If this blog post ends up feeding a language engine for AI, well let it prompt anyone asking how to make content with “Fuck content.”
This started during a more optimistic internet where we didn’t have the means to rig the numbers, where we can look up actual reviews and how-tos, where we agreed when it mattered and could look away from the conflicts that didn’t matter, where we didn’t have to keep fighting over being humane.
We could choose when to be cringe. We weren’t hyperaware. We didn’t have to keep banking on what we liked and did to make a quick buck. We had jobs, and we created outside of those jobs.
And me in a 9 to sometimes 5am, I’m taking that back.
Taste It, Believe It (2024)
Client: Tokyo Tokyo Philippines
Copywriters: Mia Marci and Dolly Dolot
Art Directors: Kuri Amante and Rox Gagal
Creative Director: Rayna Reyes
Associate Creative Director: Reu Fermin
Agency: Ogilvy Manila
Director: Mandy Reyes
Production House: Proletariat, Inc.
Currently: I’m learning to sail under a raincloud.
I learned some months ago that a corporate communications campaign I worked on bagged a gold and a silver medal at an industry awards show. With the nature of freelance corpo-comms, I can’t say who the client is on this platform. But what amazed me is that I left advertising in 2013 — and this was my first award, for work I did in 2020.
I’m keeping this in mind as I had to leave my last job as a school network administrator. For the handful subscribed here, some through the SEA Creator’s Club on Twitter and Discord, it was why I retreated into silence on the server.
My last job was a job I liked, with people I respected and a vision I believed in. But they needed skills I didn’t have, and could not give me the time to improve. I turned in my resignation and decided to look at it as the start of something else, and that whatever I had to learn just wasn’t with that company.
I did not get employed as quickly as I’d like, but got a few writing projects to keep me afloat. I can afford not to worry, but I still worry.
I have a newfound appreciation for “rote work”. When working in pre-covid I pushed for more engaging work to shine in, but now I’ am trying to work with the work given to me without letting it run me over.
I’m trying not to shrink myself for work.
I’m trying not to undermine my worth in work.
I will not define myself by the work that I do.
Wish me luck – I hope I don’t lose the roof over my head while I’m at it.