Since the imposition of the Luzon-wide lockdown, authorities in Negros Occidental also followed suit to help the national government flatten the curve.
So, most people got creative during the lockdown, millennial kids and teens were crazy with TikTok, the MTV generation or the so-called GEN-X (which I belong, hahaha, oh no, you have now a clue whats my age) turned to cooking and flaunting it to Instagram, FB, or any socials. Others transformed into being "Plantito and Plantita". My mom is one original "plantita" haha!
AM radio was a big hit during the lockdown, almost everybody else is eager to know the latest regarding the pandemic. Free-to-air TV channels had their program reruns that you almost feel you're being punished for watching those reruns. If you have cable TV or satellite TV, then you are lucky because you have more varied channels to watch to.
Internet connectivity is GOLD during the lockdown. Online businesses sprawled and grew for their delivery services. My sister partnered with an online food delivery platform and yes, she made lemonade out of lemons. Life's sweet for her. I'll tell you more of that on the next post.
I, on the other hand, being the coolest TITO in town, bonded with my millennial nephews and nieces. I joined them in their Tiktok dance craze, mobile games, Youtube videos binging, and of course "Netflix and chill".
We have one smart TV with Netflix pre-installed. It is in my bedroom, so the kids made my room their "tambayan" aside from I have my back-up modem-router in case our main internet connection bugs down. I enjoyed their company, makes me feel young too. But being the coolest TITO doesn't mean I consent to all their doings. Sometimes, I like to be alone. But how can I let them go outside if they are on the middle of their Netflix series… tadaaa… I bought Mi TV Stick powered by Google TV. You guessed it right, I bought it through the RED guys shopping app, I'm sure you know what I mean.
I'm supposed to present here the unboxing since I have all my unboxing videos of the stuff I bought. But I don't have a good camera. So I just put this in a blog rather than in a vlog. Haha!
I have Mi TV Stick, though made by Xiaomi, a Chinese brand, the company chose the branding to "Mi", maybe they want to be neutral in the non-Chinese market. This stick is powered by Google Chromecast, so if you have 1st or 2nd gen Chromecast, there's little to no difference at all with regards to UI (user interface) and the UX (user-experience). It has a small memory of 32GB, the system itself and the pre-installed apps already left 8GB free space. It comes with a power brick/adaptor, Bluetooth remote control (you could almost point it anywhere. Great!), and a non-data micro-USB cable for powering up the stick.
I installed the TV stick in our living room TV. Since we have satellite TV, the TV stick would not fit the extra HDMI port because of the satellite TV's HDMI cable. I made a work-around on that and used an HDMI extender or whatever you call it. Connect the non-data USB cable to the stick and plug it up into a nearby wall outlet.
Jaraannnn… We have an instant smart TV in our living room, upon installation, I updated the system to its latest version, and the pre-installed apps were updated. It has the usual suspects pre-installed apps, Netflix, Youtube, Prime Video, others… What made me extra happy?... iWantTFC app is finally available on Android TV, that's a relief for me since Netflix-binging is so stressful though enjoyable, I need a breather, local Tagalog content.
And that's the way it is, Mi TV Stick Google TV, helped me survived the stressful lockdown.
