Recession Here and There

A close friend of my dad made a phone call a few weeks back, trying to catch up with my dad on the good old days. He migrated to the US shortly after my parents got married. He sent the next thirty years working there until he finally established his own shop in New York City.

He called my dad a couple of times, talking about life in the states, the friends they know, and the global recession. Things are pretty bad there in the US right now, he confessed. A lot of people have lost their jobs and their homes. My dad then said that the living conditions here in the Philippines are much worse, and while Americans have just begun experiencing poverty, Filipinos have been living through it for decades.

Then the phone calls ended abruptly. Just tell him I'm sleeping or I went to the province, my dad instructed us should his friend call. I asked him why he would treat one of his old friends this way. Apparently his friend was asking my dad for money.

He needed the money to pay off some debt -- for his home mortgage and his hardware store. My dad felt that it was absurd to send money to someone in the US; giving five thousand dollars is like donating a quarter million pesos. He should rely on his immediate family for financial assistance, my dad added. Two of his kids have finished college and should be able to help him out.

I felt sorry for my dad's friend. Calling my dad for help must be his last resort to fix his financial problems. His kids should be helping him out, but I'm guessing that they don't have work right now. Part of me felt angry at my dad for abandoning his friend. It seems he was putting more value to money over years of friendship. But my dad had valid points.

DSL Issues and Temptations

My friend and I were comparing the DSL services in our homes. The two of us are currently subscribing in the same DSL company. He seemed happy with the speed and the quality of their internet connection at home. I kept complaining how the connection keeps breaking every twenty to thirty minutes.

I was surprised when I learned that we were paying the same rate (999 pesos a month), yet he was getting 2MBS (while I was receiving less than 1MB). So he then told me his secret.

Apparently he 'bribed' the service crew who installed the DSL wiring on his house. He paid the guy five hundred pesos to 'upgrade' his connection to 2MBS while paying the lowest rate. It's all in the server setting configuration and the DSL company would never find out anyway.

He then suggested that I call one of the service crew to check on my connection and then pay the guy five hundred bucks for the "upgrade". It sounds very tempting because I am rather annoyed at the slow (hanging) connection. This would be my payback to the DSL company for their lousy service.

There's this part of me that makes me feel guilty for stealing something that I didn't pay for. I know a lot of households have illegal connections. It would still be wrong for me to do it.

Right now I'm still deciding what option to take.

Shopping at Divisoria

My weekly journey to downtown Manila is becoming a "pilgrimage to hell". Traffic has become unbearable, specially when you are nearing the Binondo/Juan Luna area. Hoards of private vehicles, trucks and jeeps struggle to squeeze through the narrow streets. Throw in a legion of pedicabs, motorcycles, and pedestrians. You'll be tempted to get out of your car and get into a fight with these people.

Blame it on the upcoming holiday season. People are out shopping for gifts and a chance to earn extra money. Vendors have claimed the sidewalks, creating makeshift stalls to display their cheap wares. Firecrackers, Christmas lights, and decorations have returned.

The local police/baranggay officers have sealed off the streets around 168. No cars, pedicabs, or jeeps are allowed to pass through the infamous mall.

It would be easy for me to avoid the areas that are filled with people. But the shops that sell diapers and milk are located in the heart of Divisoria. I'm thinking of buying several cans of Progress Gold and packs of Huggies diapers to last me until January. That way, I'll be able to avoid the crowd and the chaos until the holiday season ends.

Interesting Piece of Equipment

I've been looking for a decent equipment that could substitute my old Palm Lifedrive. And I found this interesting tablet-pc from ebay: The HP-Compaq TC1100.



I could get another second hand Lifedrive but I wanted to try a new product. I still love the Lifedrive, but I wanted an equipment with a wider/bigger screen size (something that I can use to read pdf documents and cbr files).

The HP TC1100 looks interesting, even though it is considered an old HP model. Manufactured and released back in 2003, the HP TC1100 has a unique design that makes it a hybrid tablet. It has a 10 inch screen, a detachable keyboard, and a 1GHz Pentium M processor.



I'm planning to get myself a second hand unit (HP has stopped manufacturing this model years ago). The market price of the HP TC1100 is around 12k to 15k (pesos) and I saw a unit being sold in Greenhills a few days ago.

This could be my Christmas gift to myself.

Weekend with Santi

It was a sunny Friday morning and Metro Manila was under storm signal number 2. Pag-Asa made the announcement so the public would have enough time to prepare for the coming typhoon. I couldn't blame the government agency for being paranoid, with the two previous storms wrecking havoc across the country.

All the emergency preparations paid off with the arrival of the typhoon. Jen and I woke up around 230 am Saturday morning to the howling wind and drizzle of rain. An hour later, the electricity was out. Fortunately we fed Aaron enough to last until morning, so we didn't have to make another bottle of milk in the dark.

The rains stopped around 5 or 6 in the morning, but the electricity was unavailable until twelve noon. I had to cancel some of my appointments because people were reluctant to leave their homes. Good thing we paid our respects to the dead a few days before the typhoon arrived.

After taking our lunch, I decided to leave the house and go downtown to do some errands and buy supplies -- mostly diapers and milk in Divisoria. I was expecting the worst -- like flooded areas and fallen billboards. But the roads were clear and safe. Apparently everyone learned a thing or two after Ondoy.

The shops in Divisoria were open but there weren't a lot of buyers. I bought the things I needed and quickly left Manila. I returned home around 3pm and spend the rest of the day with the family. By then the typhoon had officially left the country.

Selling Some Other Old Stuff

I'm still in the process of de-cluttering my room. This time I've begun cleaning out the old books on my shelves.

I've decided to sell some of my language books, since I do have a ton of these "Teach yourself" modules. I just had to decide which reference books I need, just in case I want to re-learn the language in the future. Thanks to the internet, I don't have to rely much on these books anymore.

Here are some of the books I'm selling off. I just posted them at ebay dot ph, so anyone who is interested can just click the link below each picture.


Teach Yourself Chinese


Teach Yourself Japanese


Living Languages: Basic Japanese


Midnight's Children


Master of Go


Seven Japanese Tales

Switching Banks

Our company finally made the decision to switch our payroll to another bank. They even invited some bankers from BPI to give a talk about the services and benefits of their bank.

They gave us five or six sheets of application forms to fill out. I was on my third form when I realized that half of the forms were actually credit card applications and applications to other financial services that the bank was offering.

I think it was a good idea to have employees sit down and talk with people from their payroll banks. It shows that the bank is actually concerned about its clients (even though they are employees) and want to help them achieve their financial goals.

The bankers were able to highlight several unique services that BPI can offer in their financial products. Some of the products that caught my attention were:

1. The BPI Maxi-Saver Savings - Where you are able to get higher interest rates (like the rates in a typical time deposit account) with your savings account. The rate depends on the amount in your saving account (the more money, the higher the rate). You must have a minimum of 50k to earn the base interest of 1.375%. If you don't make any withdrawals within a month, BPI adds a 1% bonus interest.

This product is somewhat similar to BDO's Optimum Savings Account, but the customer gets to withdraw money a maximum of three times a month.

2. Savings with Insurance - I've heard about this BPI product before and I consider it a good service for those who would want to save money and have some kind of insurance package tied up to their savings. The BPI Save-Up is an automatic savings account that automatically insures the client, based on his or her saving amounts. The client gets basic life, accidental death, and accidental dismemberment coverage.

3. Auto and Housing Loans - The bankers mentioned something important about loans which I never considered before. They advise customers who want to apply for a housing/auto loan to first talk to their banks before consulting the car/real estate dealer. They said that banks can offer lower rates and even customize loans based on the client's needs. This is important because car/real estate dealers do not offer these leeways or lower rates. They would only offer the standardized package for their clients.

4. Company/Bank Tie Up - The bankers kept emphasizing the fact that the bank is there to help the company and their employees. Thanks to the payroll account and the special arrangements made by BPI and our company, we get to have additional benefits and special rates whenever they deal with the bank. I guess these means we have an easier time to apply for credit cards and loans.