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Ghost Sightings

San Vicente, Batangas. We’ve been here since yesterday to spend our Halloween weekend together with wifey’s family. So while the rest lazily settles in front of the TV and watch the movie Robots on DVD, I’m thinking of testing their newly installed internet connection and try to post a blog for the very first time from here.

***

One of my blog rules dictates that I should not write anything that hundreds or even thousands other bloggers (and even professional writers) will for sure write due to its current popularity or just for the sake of doing so.

But there is always an exemption and one of which that cannot be avoided is Halloween. It’s that time of the year when the grinning plastic pumpkins, skeletons, and scary costumes come out. It’s also my cue to panic and think about what gift I should be giving to wifey–Halloween is also when she celebrates her birthday.

It’s a good thing that this year is a lot more different than last year. Back then, wifey and I had to go to Batangas separately because I was still busy at work; we also had no car yet after selling our old Kia Pride; traffic was worse then. I remember arriving by lunchtime after leaving work at around 8 AM with the last two hours spent travelling from Turbina to San Vicente.

This year is a lot better. (Though I miss covering the hundreds of microprocessor chips before a cold shutdown. You’ll know what I mean.)

***

While on our way to Batangas yesterday and while driving at a snail pace in the middle of the South Luzon Expressway (SLEX), I honked at another driver when he tried to get into my lane without signaling his intention to do so. My wife commented, “Aba, that’s the first honk for today!” I was laughing hard after realizing that she’s actually taking notes of it. Then she added, “I’ve actually started measuring your mood by the number of honks you make.” Ti abi.

That short exchange on my driving habit made me smile. I’m now thinking if it would be a good idea to indicate my mood using “honk” score – 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Not bad. Thanks wifey for giving me the idea. Oh by the way, happy 32nd birthday.

***

Not to be outdone by others who have given their own scary ghost stories, video captures and even trick or treat experience, I might as well post my own. This one though isn’t fabricated in any way. This one is real and I captured it on October 31 when I was in the parking lot of SM Dasmarinas just minutes before sunset.

I was having our car seat cover replaced with fake (which others will call faux just to make it sound a not so cheap) leather and decided that it would be a good idea to take pictures of it to show how it will be done and to see the improvement right after. After I got my camera from the trunk and aimed it towards the workers I saw what appears to be a couple of ghostly figures inside the car after the pictures came out of the LCD screen. Scroll down to see the pictures…

Gotcha! These are Ace Hardware employees in their Halloween costumes. Kudos to these guys. Waiting for the leather seat to be installed wasn’t boring at all.

***

Mood: 5/10 Honks!

Big Fan of Breakfast

Just a couple of hours after the sunbeams peaked out of the clouds I declared my day complete already. Why? Because I had a great breakfast courtesy of wifey. It’s been a whole week of patiently waiting for this moment and today she did it.

Wifey is not known to be a morning person and often times I’d give her a couple of minutes to move after I purposely jump out of bed to wake her up. She must have some Garfield blood that makes her cling unto the pillows despite any disturbance and even if the sun rays penetrate the curtains. But it was with the pledge ‘…for better or for worse…’ that I learned to adapt to the personality somehow.

The good thing though about her hibernation during day-offs is that it enables her to store energy to cook. This morning was like watching the Rachel Ray show but with the difference that this one doesn’t have any takes or cuts. This live cooking talent demo by wifey is spontaneous. Once in the kitchen, she can prep up the stove and pans, slice and dice the spices, and eventually come up with a good meal usually just within a 30-minute time frame. Today’s breakfast could make UCC Cafe or Pancake House a run for their money. Two thumbs to you wifey. You really know the way to my heart.

Picture doesn’t do justice but trust me this olives omelet made my day.

A Week of Interviews (Part 1)

It is a fact and a cliché that time flies so fast. And so today I was surprised to see that the last time I did a blog was on August 31 and fifteen days after that, I’m still wondering what I’ve been thru since then. Now I’m in the middle of the much awaited months for us Pinoys–the BER months. And being the 15th which is the payday for most employees, I can just imagine the throng of people in the mall, in the clubs, and those in the beer bars—all likely enjoying at least a couple of Christmassy tunes in the process.

In spite of losing track of my activities, the freshest memory that still lingers in my mind are the things that we did last week. In work terms, work week 37. Last week, my wife and I underwent a couple of separate exciting interviews amid my untimely colds that was made worse by the enduring rainy week. But having prepared for these interviews for so long, not to mention that the stakes are high, we proceeded undeterred.

The first one was in the US embassy in Manila. It was actually my wife’s idea to try our luck in getting a US Visa (tourist). Although, I’ve been thru this before for my week-long Wisconsin training trip, I was a bit pessimistic in acquiring a new one as I’ve seen a couple of times the disappointment it gave my parents upon every denial in their quest to visit my sister abroad. Lately though, according to wifey, a lot of her peers got theirs without much ado. And true indeed, after a couple of anxiety-filled hours inside the embassy, our visa application got approved as well. My wife went out of the hallway skipping like a kid promised with a weekend beach picnic. “I feel like I’ve just won the American Idol audition”, she quipped. Well, that probably puts me in William Hung’s shoes when he got the record deal. (What made it greater was that our Visa expires in 2018 but the news today regarding the end of validity of the green passport by 2010 looks trouble to me.)

One thing that my wife and I are totally in synch with is that both of us agree with rewarding ourselves with every success that we had; more often than not, we love food treats. And this time we dropped by MOA (Mall of Asia) looking for something new. Then we saw Cheesecake Etc. Inc. It is a small (approx. seats 10-15 person) restaurant but with cozy feel to it. Obviously, we ordered a couple of cheesecakes and coffee to match it. What we got were lovely shaped treats plus great plate decoration. Price was also fair. I recommend this place as an alternative to Starbucks.

Walle

After satisfying our sweet tooth, we headed to the cinemas just in time to catch the movie Wall-E. It was time to feed our craving for comic relief.

Like any other Disney movie we’ve seen, this movie didn’t fail us. The scenes in the movie despite being subtle and comical packs a serious message of what our (humans) future awaits if we lose the awareness on our environmental obligations. It also sends a strong warning to everyone who tends to entrust our lives to technology with the belief that it is there to give us convenience. Convenience that if not controlled will eventually produce more bad than good effects in the end. Does garbage problem and obesity sound familiar? If there’s an animated counterpart to Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth movie, this is it. This is a must see movie for both young and old alike. (I love this one so much that I can’t wait to get its DVD.)

(to be contintued…)

Breakfast, Egg, and I

“You have to know what you want when you reach the end of the line…” – Andrew Zimmern, Bizarre Foods host.

I’m one of those who consider breakfast as the most important meal of the day. I can skip lunch, dinner and whatever snack there is, but never breakfast. I become grouchy when I miss it in the morning. This is often why I’m grumpy on my way to the office and becomes grumpier upon reaching our canteen once I discover that the menu at the counter doesn’t stand true to the enticing smell reaching our company’s parking lot.

So what is it with breakfast that makes me crave for it every day? Well, a typical breakfast for me includes coffee and egg. These two may be combined with longganisa (sausage), hotdog, tocino, corned beef, and spam, just to name a few—a few oily ones. Sometimes fish and veggies are accepted for health reasons but if I can avoid it they won’t get near my breakfast selection.

As weird as it may seem, I enjoy watching movies that have scenes of people having breakfast either in their own home or inside a restaurant. And to make it even weirder, other than the great car chase and firefight, one of the scenes I won’t skip in Ronin is the part where one of the assassins cooks egg as the others plan their heist.

You see I have this thing for perfectly cooked sunny side up eggs. I can’t exactly recall how long I’ve been into this obsession but I know that it has been years since I started trying to mimic the well-rounded sunny side up of McDonalds (or Jollibee).

And to prove how serious I am with what others would consider a trivial part of breakfast, I’ve spent time and money, fortunately not a fortune yet, on my quest to perfect my own sunny side up which led me to buy and test ‘tools’ to achieve my ultimate goal.

My egg tools: 1. Egg rings 2. Microwaveable egg cooker 3. Mini Teflon frying pan 4. Teflon frying pan

I started of course with the promising Teflon frying pan. It is flat it is non-stick, but it doesn’t work. I’ve used different stove settings to see if the egg will cook differently, yet to no avail. The shape just doesn’t stay round.

Then I found the microwaveable egg cooker. This product’s box shows four heart-shaped (it’s not round but as long as it’s perfect I will go for it) sunny side ups. Sadly, the item not only failed to meet the promised result, but the egg tasted bland and felt like rubber after coming out of the microwave.

I also tried poaching with the expectation that once I drop the egg into boiling water, it will miraculously attain the coveted shape as I have seen the chefs on TV do it. Instead what I got was an egg lacking crab and corn mixture. I read that some trim the edges to attain the round shape but I consider it cheating.

And there’s the egg rings. I found these in the grocery store and it looked like a foolproof way to finally have breakfast with a McDonalds-like perfection but right after I cracked the egg, all hopes were gone when the egg white leaked like water from the lower sides.

A smaller Teflon frying pan was my latest purchase hoping that its size will make the egg form along the pan’s side. At first it actually did but the top side does not cook well which led me eventually flip the egg and ruin its form in the process.

With the outcome I have mentioned, I will continue my search for the sunny side up and hope that someday I’ll start my day with a lovely egg I could proudly say I personally cooked to complement the brewed coffee and bread or whatever goes well with it. Hopefully, that day will come before we welcome to our home a new family member or else I’ll be forced to serve him either scrambled or boiled eggs just because I can’t cook the perfect sunny side up.

***

Immediately after I finished this blog, I wondered why I haven’t checked the internet if someone is as desperate as me. Well, I guess I may not be alone after all since I discovered this after typing “How to do a perfect sunny
side up.”

Anybody for an egg meet up?

Busy Eater

Just woke up. I’m now catching up on my emails; catching up on forum updates; staring blankly at the Badminton Olympic match on TV. At last I’m at home and I’m staying put, at least for today. For the past few days, I’ve been on the go and I’ve been longing for one good day of rest and I think today is the day.

The lull in activity gave me time to think of what kept me recently occupied. I can’t believe that I’ve been so busy that I miss my afternoon siestas so much. So what was it really? Work? Maybe. My new motorcycle? Maybe, but not quite. Now I remember. Surprisingly (or not), I’ve spent so much time lately on mall-hopping and food. Yes, you read it right…F O O D.

Last Wednesday, on a trip down memory lane with my wife to her alma mater in Taguig (I was surprised that it made me reminisce my own memo- ries of the place) we decided to have lunch at Shakey’s Magallanes while having a break from the school clearance process. The last time we were in Magallanes was more than 10 years ago when our manufacturing plant was still in Makati. The whole place has significantly improved; other restaurants are now available and several other establishments have opened up for business. Shakey’s pizza (and shakes) of course still continue to perk up my palate. One thing I miss though is having the real Tabasco to come with my pizza. Anyway, my wife pointed out that even other restaurants have changed their hot sauce to cheaper brands in the name of cost cutting.

Thursday last week was Saisaki day at the Glorietta Mall. I’m once again with the company of my wife and her colleagues. Despite working with another team (which requires me to file a leave), what makes me comfortable joining hers is the fact the most of these guys are also Japanese food lovers just like I do. Well, Saisaki day just doesn’t mean pure Japanese foods as the option to do a crossover is always picked, thus lechon, turkey, and ginataang kuhol (escargot) never fail to be on the plate–at least on my plate. And normal side trips with them always include San Mig lights beer and a coffee stopover to cap the night. (Note: 1 beer bottle per hour is always followed when I drive).

From Friday to Saturday, I reported to work on a night shift. Normally being on this shift gives me chance and excuses to go on a diet as the cafeteria food especially at night, pardon the word, sucks. Saturday however wasn’t the case this time. My colleagues got totally bored of canteen food that they decided to have rice, lechon manok and liempo for our meal. Desserts were chocolate rolls and a super sweet pastry. If I were to count calories I might need a calculator to do so.

Coming from the graveyard shift, Sunday was a day off that was supposed to be a rather light day for us. Instead, after a 5-hour sleep and a trip to the dentist, wifey and I decided to go to MOA (Mall of Asia) with the intent of either watching a movie or buying my helmet. But once we reached the mall, it seems like my teeth having come from the dentist wanted a test of their biting power. My wife suggested UCC Vienna Café. I eagerly concurred and I promised, “I’d take only coffee and a light food.” But the sight of Risotto in the menu changed all that as I’ve been so intrigued with this food every time I watch it featured in cooking shows on TV. I thought that it’s just lugaw cooked by an Italian chef. After tasting UCC’s chicken, cheese and curry risotto, however, made me a fan of this food. Their Sumiyaki coffee and mango crepe were remarkable as well. Prices in this restaurant are worth it.

Monday was no different. And I blame it on the absence of good movies. After we arrived at ATC, we learned that Wall-E and X-Files are still not showing. We decided instead to eat at North Park where once again I or- dered their lechon rice toppings. This food is good all the time and this is one of the restaurants where food is a bang for the buck. Now if only ei- ther of the two movies is available, then I could have had coffee and donuts only for lunch. In Festival Mall the movie titles haven’t changed as well. Good thing I was able to stand firmly that I’ll have only coffee and muf- fin in Kenny Rogers – although the call to have baby back ribs is almost inescapable.

I have now lost track of the calorie pile up – or scared of knowing the exact score. I’m also thinking how many liters of gas we’ve actually consumed the whole time. It was indeed a busy week where we’ve been spending money, burning gas and piling up calories. And now I’m quite sure that my 3-hour badminton and gym session yesterday wasn’t enough to undo the calorie damage. But there’s still hope. But then again there’s activity in Batangas next Sunday – it’s someone’s birthday. Will there be food? Your guess is as good as mine. I think it’s about time I get my wife a helmet and a pair of riding boots. At least we’ll save on gas.

***

Beating Uncle Joe

What is fast becoming as common as road potholes, skin heads, motorcycles, street children, unemployed person, and grandstanding Philippine politicians? You guessed right, the mind boggling Rubik’s Cube. Little did I know that this 6-colored-swiveling-cube will once again haunt me at this age, and with guilt, became one of my interests while on a week-long wedding anniversary celebration. Ti abi.

I have fond memories of this toy. When we were pesky little kids, our mother used to bring me and my sis to her work as it was just a few kilometers away from where we lived. While in the office I get to bug her boss, well, just like any kid. It’s a good thing that her boss happens to be a relative and somehow bugging him isn’t much of a big deal and besides, he would love to show off how good he is with the then novel Rubik’s Cube. He can do two colors.

My mother later on gave us our own cube and I got hooked to it although I can only do one color at a time. I never got close to two unlike my uncle. I’m so proud of him that I would always brag to my grade school classmates that my tito can do two colors. Those whom I’ve seen complete all six sides were only on TV–Eat Bulaga’s segment if I’m not mistaken.

Years passed and I have fully forgotten my fascination and frustration with this puzzle until the fad returned. At first I just shrugged off the urge to buy thinking that I’m done with that stage already and have surrendered it to be solved especially by the young geeks. It seems though that my attraction to it cannot be denied. More people seem to have mastered it and every time I see one, I secretly envied them. So enough is enough.

I eventually bought myself a new cube and grabbed the opportunity to fill in the gaps during my one week vacation to learn it. I printed tips from colleagues, searched the web for more instructions and like one student trying to make up for bad grades, I spent extra time studying how it really works. Within three days, I got it at last! The next days I can do it without looking at the guide and I was timing how long it takes for me to complete the whole puzzle. I may not be in the league of the speed cubers, but who cares? A 5-minute average is good for me.

Now I’m very thankful that I did not include acquiring this skill among the 100-things-to-do-before-I-die list or I could be counting down just 99 more. Whew. I never really knew that the day will come, when I’d lift my head high and say, ”Tito Joe,who?”

Too Much Hollywood

“Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction…” – Bad Religion

Who can accept that one way or another Hollywood has made an impact in their lives? I for one am raising both hands. Don’t get me wrong, but needless to say I have neither been near Hollywood nor ever have seen in person even one Oscar’s nominee or awardee. I’m not even an actor material (reminds me to check heritage.com). As much as I’d like to, I was never that close.

Just like everyone else I get my daily dose of it out of the boob tube if not from the giant silver screen. And as far as I can recall I’ve been watching a bit of it almost every day even since I was kid. Heck, that may even be the reason I started telling fabricated stories when I was yet in grade school. Just like any kid does. Remarkably better than an embedded chip, Hollywood movies or TV shows really know how to find their place in our mind, stay there for good and eventually affecting our daily lives – whether we like it or not.

Moreover, with the steady influx of technological advancement that is getting affordable or at least accessible to the masses (at a rate that’s quicker than most people can get their salary increases) blurs the line between real and reel life every time. From cable TV, the internet, mobile TV, virtual reality and my favorite high definition audio, one’s senses and imagination get treated better than it was before. Each sensory experience is getting more surreal and usually it feels so satisfying that oftentimes creating a make believe environment just like in the movies is as easy as closing one’s eyes.

Not trying to sound psychotic or one who has taken a good dose of hallucinogens and brandishing the peace sign, I love to entertain myself by superimposing some sort of Hollywood-ish flavor into my reality as often as I please.

Like a couple of weeks ago until today, the weather has been harsh in our part of the globe. Mornings would usually come with bright orange dawn and would continue to become a very sunny, warm and humid noontime. In a matter of minutes though, as if on cue, AND as if a scene coming right out of Tom Cruise’s War of the Worlds, the sky would be overcast and the dreaded lightning flashes streak across the black backdrop. What follows next is a thunder roaring like something out of an Armageddon setting. During these times, I can beat Dash’s speed ten times. Trust me.

To keep reality in check, I always appreciate the presence of shows such as my favorite Mythbusters and when I get the chance or when my remote fingers stray away, I like watching Nat Geo’s What Happens If? and Mad Labs. These are shows which remind me that Hollywood will never be equal to reality (at least for now). It reminds me that cars falling off the cliff won’t normally explode, a piercing bullet in a gas tank doesn’t mean an instant kaboom, sticking a knife on a ship’s sail won’t cushion or slow down your fall and many more fallacies being obviously exposed that every time I get to watch a movie makes me a bad viewer–just waiting for mistakes to happen.

But my love-hate relationship with the weather always fascinates me that I can easily relate either a blue sky day or a cumulus laden heaven from a scene out of the movie world. For example, waking up this afternoon I saw that my wife eagerly waited to show me an animation of the typhoon Fengshen (local name, Frank). Although this typhoon is nowhere near a super storm, the rotating mass at the center which covers a great part of Luzon switched my neurons into role-playing time. I immediately heard a clapper sounding inside my head and saw a camera crane panning from behind me to my left showing just the glowing monitor which became a perfect backlight to emphasize my profile. If I could have lifted the mouse anywhere near my mouth and pretend it’s a transmitter’s mouthpiece, I could have uttered the words, “Andrea Gail…there’s a storm coming your way.”

As much as I find reality annoying and most of the days it is just tempting to surrender myself to our coach, grab one tube of Pringles, a bottle of ice cold beer complemented by a good DVD movie and an ever sympathetic wife just by my side, having a grasp of the concrete life along with its demanding goals remains a test of our true character. A character that plays its part unconditionally even without the luxury that its reel counterpart enjoys but with the assurance that every well-played part in the real world will have its real rewards and hopefully will have its own happy finale. But then again, I’d appreciate it a lot if our lives can readily have an alternate ending. Ti abi.

Wunderground

Credits: Images from Wunderground.com

***

It appears like the cancellation of our Ilocos trip which was supposed to happen next week is a blessing in disguise. From wunderground.com, it shows that typhoon Frank seems to be planning to go along with our road trip. Hahaha. The price we have to pay for celebrating our wedding anniversary every June.

Hear Me Talk About Money

Since people started using barter or money, spending for things both needed and wanted have continued like clockwork: day in, day out, goods are exchanged for a cost. Of course, with the infamous wealth distribution pyramid, the outflow differs from one social class order to another. Fairly, everyone has their own sets of financial worries—The Ayalas may worry what Cadillac color to get, the average Juan Dela Cruzes worry which one is a good bang for the buck—Vios or City, while the less privilege ones worry when the next jeepney fair price hike will happen. All are financial worries nevertheless.

I’m not transforming my blog into something like Francis Kong’s business article but I’d like to share some of my tips–or more like my note to self–with regards to spending wisely.

Obsolete items have to go. The unstoppable electricity bill made me decide to sell (another of my online selling adventure) our old air conditioner and replace it with a new one that has a timer so it can switch the electric fan at a specified time without me having to perform a half-sleepwalk just to reach and turn the air con off.

Be on the lookout for best 2nd hand (used) deals. My wife showed her haggling talent and got a 5-month old Canon IXUS 70 at 25 percent less than the original price. Not bad.

Drive as if you’re participating in Petron’s Extra Mile challenge. Been doing it lately and I’m seeing an improvement both to my sanity and fuel economy. It’s also one way to discourage your friends from riding with you – who wants to be in a new car without an air conditioning on? Hahaha. Just kidding.

Pay only for good movies, catch the bad ones on HBO. Last week we watched “What Happens in Vegas” and we quite had a good laugh at it. Cinema: P240, watching Aston Kutcher and Cameron Diaz: Priceless.

Read restaurant reviews before dining in. This is what we learned with Fish & Co. where I read in some forums that even those known rich people find it overpriced. Too bad I read about it late enough. Last week was a different story; we had our sweet revenge in Bollywood. I enjoyed our dinner—wifey didn’t—in this Indian cuisine restaurant and that made me dream of going to India to savor more of their foods. I’m wondering if there’s any other way we can commute there other than their trains – I have some “issues” with it. If there is, Bombay, count me in.

Pay and download only the music you like. When I heard about it from my wife, I immediately agree with the idea; rather than buying a full CD (single artist) and feeling shortchanged later on after learning that your favorite artist himself has actually only one favorite song in his own album. Ti abi. But then again, I’d like to emphasize that this is not a reason to patronize pirated music. Buying pirated materials is not spending wisely. It is stealing. Period.

Grab every chance to join a raffle or contest. My wife got her pair of limited edition Havaianas 7 Waves for free after being included in the first 70 entries for their contest. That will keep her from buying another Spartan enemy for now. I’m thinking if I can sell this pair in ebay. Shhh.

There’s a rule to having a successful diet: do not deny yourself of your cravings as doing so will just make you binge in the end. Instead, eat everything (edible) in moderation. Spending is no different. Cutting every expense out at once will have its repercussions. It is better to moderate it at first and depending on the availability of resources–in this case, money–try eliminating the unnecessary ones one at a time. Good luck.

Smash Lab: A Mythbusters’ Copycat

If there’s one cable TV channel I instinctively choose to partner with our couch, it would be The Discovery Channel. Over the years I’ve come to love the programs it has been showing. I can endure its re-runs played the nth time and still get awed and surprised every time I see it. I don’t call it short memory retention, I just consider it both an entertaining and a learning experience.

Discovery has been like a drive-thru movie (which we Filipinos here in Pinas see only in films) that my wife and I love whenever we’re home. It’s like a subliminal message has been planted over our brains that whatever mood we’re in, we just appreciate the fact that we’re in front of the boob tube absorbing whatever show it feeds us. Discovery has made us love the mood swings of the Teutuls of the Orange County Choppers; learned the art of survival with Bear Gryll’s Man vs. Wild; realized why the king crabs are such pricey meals after watching Deadliest Catch; understand how ordinary things take shape in How It’s Made; and of course, how can I forget the Mythbusters.

Considering me as a fan of conspiracy theories, urban legends and of any myths around, the Mythbusters has been like a How-To book to me. It is TV’s version of howstuffworks. You watch it when you want to know if one myth is plausible or busted. I once told my wife that I’d prefer it as my background while at home over FM radio stations. Mythbusters is music to my ears.

This week another seemingly promising show debuts–Smash Lab. Despite coming from a graveyard shift together with the cool rainy weather outside, I was able to resist the call of our comfy bed. I glued myself in front of the TV to welcome the show Smash Lab. I was full of anticipation.

But like any myths in Mythbusters, I was soon like Adam calling it busted just as the myth is told. I was nowhere in the middle of Smash Lab premier when I saw myself in the mirror yawning not because of the lack of sleep but because of sudden realization that the show is a total bore. Other similarly predictable boring series began playing in my head.

So that’s how I got lost in Smash Lab. It now belongs to my list of most hated shows like Lost and Sex and the City. This one is a total waste of production money and talent. The premier episode is about stopping cars using aerated concrete added to existing barriers and lane dividers in which all of the experiments end in a pathetic and pretentious shout of success. The show falls short of convincing Mythbusters fans (like me) to pack up and let Adam, Jamie, Grant, Kari and Tory be a thing of the past. As for first impressions, which could last, this show is BUSTED.

***

Why also avoid these shows:

Lost. Lost people who get to wear new set of clothes every episode? No thanks.
Prison Break. Want a clue what this show is all about? Duh!
Numbers. I hate this show just as I hate math. I would even kneel wherever I am if one day I would read in the papers that an FBI/NBI investigator plotting complex mathematical calculations to pin point a criminal. Until that time comes, this show for me is Zero.
Sex and the City – It’s nothing but promiscuity. But frankly, I get turned on just at the sight of Sarah Jessica Parker.

House For Sale?

No I’m not selling our house, yet. Lately though, I’ve been scanning and mentally tagging—with or without approval from my wife—some items that I might sell online. Signs of the times? Maybe, maybe not. But don’t be alarmed as we’re not at that level of need, at least for now; I’m just following one of my golden rules that says “Practice makes perfect.” In this case, selling.

In the past I’ve sold items that I know got wifey’s disapproval, not to mention irritation. A few years back I sold my mountain bike for only PhP 2500, which I initially got for around PhP 17000, just after three years of having it. What followed next was my 1-year old Playstation 2 for only PhP 5000 over the original price of around Php 15000. The last one was our old car. I sold it for only PhP 50000 (in my defense, the Kia’s resale value is really low) just almost after 4 years with us. We got it for PhP 128000.

Frankly speaking, I felt a bit sad having to let go of those items. But then, selling and getting a payment every time for each transaction gave me some sense of accomplishment; of course, not until I later get to tell my wife about each sale. Every time I tell her “The buyers were so happy, I had a good deal”, her raised eyebrow tells me she couldn’t agree more—that’s agreeing with the buyers being happy but disagreeing with me having a good deal. I wonder when she’d get a court hold order for me to stop selling.

In my quest to perfect the trade, I started asking some friends around while embarrassingly telling the stories of my recent non-profitable activities-–their shaking heads and looks of disbelief and regret (for not buying it instead) confirm my wife’s opinion. I likewise checked the web for some tips and eventually re-activated my ebay account (like a cocked gun ready to be used). Luckily, I also reached the site www.claimspages.com that has an item depreciation guide which could help me about estimating an item’s selling price. The list made me realize that not all items have 10% depreciation over a 10 year period. I must have been busy pestering my seat mate during our 4th year high school accounting class. Ti abi.

My eagerness to start selling some petty items started again when we bought a multi-function printer. This item immediately made our existing scanner obsolete. Just the perfect reason—an item for disposal which is still too good for freecycle. And so just a couple of days after I posted the item in ebay, I got a deal with someone. He bid for half the price which is not bad for electronic gadgets. A few emails and SMS later, I received the payment (thru GCash) and I shipped the scanner in return. It was an exciting experience, my first ebay sale and my first time to receive payment thru GCash. Now, I’m really selling. Happy buyer + Happy seller = Happy wife.

How long will it take me to take our room TV out of its mounting? Now I wonder.