Ordeal at Globelines Megamall

napika na ako sa mabagal na download stream ng zpdee. my friend who has a 1.2mb dsl connection with pldt downloaded a torrent in 20 mins, his d/l rate reached 120kb/s. i tried downloading the same thing at around the same time and i only got as high as 15kb/s. naka-1mb cable internet ako and all their excuses as to why the download stream is still slow even after the other isps have already recovered from the taiwan earthquake just wont cut it anymore.

so i went to globlines' website to check out their new dsl rates since for what i am paying zpdee, i can get twice the speed with globe dsl PLUS A FREE LANDLINE. a lot of questions like, is it available in my area, does the rate go up after the lock up period, were NOT in their website. i looked for a customer hotline but they do not entertain inquiries so my only choice was to inquire at the nearest globelines outlet, in cyberzone in megamall.

after my dialysis session, i went directly there. there was a lot of people waiting in line. i asked the guard if i had to take a number to talk to someone, since, after all, i was only making an inquiry. he said i still had to take a number. so i took a number and noticed that there were 12 ppl yet to be served before my number came up. so i stepped out and went to an outlet of cdrking nearby to buy something.

when i came back, i was surprised to see that only 2 out of the 12 ppl were finished. that was 15 minutes ago! so i sat there waiting for my turn. before i knew it, an hour had passed and only 4 ppl had been accommodated. eh papano naman, sa pila sa customer care, the applicants are all busy filling out their applications on the spot and while they are taking their sweet time to do that, time is a-wasting and the sales rep wont call the next one. this is a huge time waster. if they only entertained inquiries over the phone, ppl like me wouldnt be wasting their time.

after an hour and 15 minutes, my turn finally came up. the sales rep managed to answer all my questions and handed me the application form, which i was to fill out IF I WAS INTERESTED. so the only thing left was to wait for the grid to pop up on his computer to see if the dsl service was available in my area.

wouldnt you know it, my subdivision is not in their area of coverage. white plains and greenmeadows were available, but NOT corinthian gardens. this trip to globelines was a total waste of time. if they memorized the areas where their service was available, we wouldnt have had to wait until they accessed their computer. napakasimple naman nung tanong e. if they knew their area, sana alam nila yun.

so i was hungry and pissed off. i left building b of megamall, got in my car, and told the driver to take me to building a. when we got in the middle of the 2 buildings, the road was blocked and we were not allowed to take a left to go straight to building a. they wanted us to take the long way round, go to edsa, then go way past megamall and turn right at ADB, then pass by podium into julia vargas BEFORE we get to building a. what a friggin' waste of gas! the place where i want to go is RIGHT in front of me, but they want me to go all the way around. it's no wonder why a lot of ppl would rather just stay home!

NEW FAST FOOD JOINT: UNCLE JOHN'S

I saw this cat on my driveway this morning and I decided to play with my Nokia 6630's camera. Sadly, the pictures it takes is nothing compared to a real digicam. Anyway, I seem to be seeing more cats on my driveway everyday, I don't know what's drawing them in though...

This is a new fast food joint in Robinsons Galleria. It only opened last week and is beside Kenny Rogers on the 3rd floor. There seems to be a lot of these "Shakey's / Chef d'Angelo clones" opening lately... restaurants offering a wide variety of American/Italian food like pasta, fried chicken, pizza, burgers, and this one even has Chinese style rice toppings, which I found to be a weird mix in the menu. Anyway, the price is pretty competitive, the food is okay, but nothing spectacular. If you are looking for an alternative like Chef d'Angelo's and Burgoo are full, give this one a try, but the food isn't THAT good that you'll make this your first choice above the others. I DID like the fact that they serve PEPSI products, something I rarely see served in other restaurants. The pizza is also a good choice since it tastes like Shakey's back in its glory days, before it got too commercialized and every ingredient is now prepacked. The burgers are also tasty although if you want a good burger, Burger King is upstairs.

I took pictures of the menu, sorry for the lousy quality of the cellphone digicam. If you click on the menus, it will link to a bigger version of the picture and you can see the prices.

ORIGINAL VCD HAUL: BRUCE LEE DOCUMENTARIES GALORE

I bought these 3 original VCDS from Astrovision, each for P100-150. ever since I started going for hemodialysis regularly at the hospital, I have always been looking for ways to kill the 4 hours I spend sitting on the recliner there while the machine cleans my blood. Since they have VCD players that patients can use, and since we can bring our own stuff to watch, these VCDS on sale at Astrovision has always been inviting. Before this, I never even paid attention to original VCDS…

Astrovision had a martial arts section and it was full of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and of course the man who started it all… Bruce Lee!










Even when I was a kid, when my uncle bought us our first betamax machine, I have always been watching stuff. We were always renting tapes at what back then was the newly opened Virra Mall. Back then, betamax was the prevailing format and there were no pirated DVDS, VCDS, or even laserdisc. Betamax rentals were all over the place and most of the stuff that could be rented were either some Hollywood movies, movies made for American TV, cartoons, and what became one of my all time favorites, English dubbed Kung Fu movies.

I grew up watching these old movies starring martial arts actors like Wang Yu, Meng Fei [Elizabeth Oropesa’s ex-hubby], Sonny Chiba, Jacky Chan, and Bruce Lee. I was watching Jacky Chan’s old kung fu movies all the time when reruns were shown in IBC13, usually it was his first 2 hit movies, “Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow” and “Drunken Master”. Bruce Lee’s movies weren’t always shown on TV because some of
them had partial nudity and his then recent death made his movies big hits and as a result, networks couldn’t just buy them because they were probably expensive.

Anyway, I don’t know really why I like watching stuff ABOUT Bruce Lee, probably more than watching the movies themselves. I guess it’s a joy to see how he mastered his own brand of martial arts and how he used various other martial arts, sports, and even philosophy to create it. Seeing his perfect physique at work is also very entertaining. Bruce Lee is also one thing that I can watch with my uncle and have an actual conversation about it with him since he also grew up watching it. Even my nephew knows him since almost every fighting videogame has a
character based on Bruce Lee like Tekken’s Marshall Law and Street Fighter’s Fei Long.

Above: Tekken's Marshall Law

Above: Street Fighter's Fei Long

Even Brandon Lee, Bruce’s son, is someone whose movies entertain me, it’s just a shame that he died after The Crow was made. Brandon did not use JKD in his movies, but his own style of fighting was also entertaining to watch.

Watching Bruce Lee is one of those experiences that I always enjoy reliving, for some reason it takes me to a time and place that I would like to visit every now and then.