OVERDUE POST #1: MY COLLECTION

This is the first of two overdue posts. The other one will contain pictures of 2 business establishments that I used to own, more on those later.

For the longest time, I have taken these pictures of my aging collection of toys and posters. It was also for this reason that I got my friend, John who is based in the US, to buy me a digicam when he came home for the holidays some 4 years ago. For the longest time, for some reason, my browser kept crashing when I try to look at them in my computer. Yesterday, I tried copying them all to another hard drive and found out that my pictures weren't ruined. YAY!

This is an assortment of toys that I have kept Most of the Transformers toys were bought when I was a kid. A lot of the newer ones are either store-bought or from Ebay.

My original plan was to make a website to showcase these things, but the plan got put aside until I learned about blogging and now I have a chance to put these up so easily.

So here is my ever-growing and still-growing collection. My apologies for some lousy picture quality. Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Please note that this is not my entire collection. I still have a lot of original DVD's, Laserdiscs, manga, artbooks and action figures, that I have amassed over the years. I will try to post those later, as I haven't photographed them yet.

LUPIN III TOYS

This became one of my favorite anime since the Tagalog dubbing was so hilarious. I was watching this late nights on Txtube. The Tagalog dub pioneered comedic dubbing, which injected a lot of Pinoy humor in the dialog, something not found in the original version. This paved the way for the success of Slam Dunk and Hajime no Ippo on GMA because of the extra comedy. GMA (the TV station, not the president), please bring this back, forget about Richard Gutierrez and your pathetic ripoff of this great show! LUPIN!!! KAM BEK (come back) !!!

COWBOY BEBOP

As recommended by Meowok, this anime was an acquired taste. It suited me just fine! The soundtrack is amazing, BTW, and I have become a Yoko Kanno (the composer) fan ever since. I also bought the original US release of the DVD. I got the chance to be a part of the dubbing cast when this show was dubbed by Telesuccess here in the Philippines. Among the many characters I dubbed (guests), my favorite was Andy the cowboy and the video maniac (the nerd who Spike and Jet bought the Betamax player from, the one who extensively explained to them the difference between Betamax and VHS).


SLAM DUNK

When I first saw this on AXN, I was instantly hooked to this extremely entertaining anime. That was when my fascination started and I just had to buy any SD item I could find. I even went through the trouble of recording every single episode from AXN and converting them to VCD. During that time, digi-subbing and downloading fansubs via bit torrent haven't been so widespread yet.

I also had the honor of being the scriptwriter for the Tagalog version (TSP) and was the voice for many characters in the show such as Kogure and Dr. T. The show still airs on afternoons on GMA and continues to do well in the ratings.

SIDE NOTE: I have to admit that when I first heard that TSP bought SD and that we were going to dub it, I was a little apprehensive. The idea that we were going to dub at least 6 basketball teams with just 8-10 voice talents was not something I welcomed. I loved the show and I wanted it to be done right as much as possible. A co-worker even wished our company wouldn't buy the show because in her words, "mabababoy lang" (it would only be bastardized). However, despite our wishes that this show wouldn't be Tagalized, the fact remained that it was going to happen, and who would be better among the dubbers to write and be in the cast than true blue fans? This was my chance to be more than just a fan of SD, this was my chance to have a bigger part as far as SD is concerned so I still took on the task (and so did she). Besides, I also thought to myself, that if I let the chance pass, and someone else ended up doing a piss-poor job of writing the script, I would have no one to blame but myself for turning the project down, and I would look like a complete fool bashing it in the forums. The simple point is, I had a chance to do what I thought was right for the show and I did it! And as it turns out, I wasn't wrong in making that decision. SD became such a big thing in Philippine anime history and has been re-aired over and over.

TRIGUN

I had an attachment to this series since it was one of the first dubbing projects I became a scriptwriter for. The show is a sci-fi western and the sound effects of the guns is something you will really love. Trigun items were pretty expensive too. I also bought the original US release of the DVD.


POSTERS

I have always loved posters. I don't really know why. Wait, now that I think about it, it's probably because we always had boring abstract paintings hanging in our house, either that or the walls had wallpaper on them. When I had my own room, I felt like putting posters up to make my room a little more "me" (does that mean I've always been searching for my identity?). However, no more room in the walls didn't stop me from collecting. In fact, with the exception of one Voltes V poster, NONE of the posters pictured below are actually on the wall.

SIDE NOTE: I used to collect posters of the actress Phoebe Cates. My room had posters of her, even stuck to the ceiling! I took them all down when when rumors spread that she was dead. It turned out to be a hoax by some dumb college kids who wanted to see how fast a rumor would spread as their thesis. Remember that back then, there were no cellphones with text messaging or even beepers, so rumors don't exactly spread at the wildfire speed that you would expect today with text messages and email. Anyway, I believed it, and I took down the posters. I still keep those posters somewhere in my cabinet, but I think the termites got to them.

ANOTHER SIDE NOTE: (Sorry, I feel the need to explain myself.) When I was a kid, it used to matter to me whether a favorite character or actress was alive or dead, and if they were dead, I would stop collecting them. Phoebe Cates was one of such. When the first quarter of the 5th grade came, my friend Tim, who spent the summer in the US came back and told me there was this super cool movie called "Transformers The Movie" (the animated one, this was 1986). I obviously haven't seen it, but my friend told me that Optimus Prime died. It was for that reason that I never bought the G1 Optimus Prime and only bought the Powermaster Optimus Prime, because years later, he was resurrected in the comic book.

Most of these posters were bought on my last trip to Hongkong at the Causeway Bay Computer Center.

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINKAISER POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GETTER ROBOT POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GAIKING HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GAIKING POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SHIN GETTER PLAYSTATION GAME PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SHIN GETTER ROBO OVA PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): GREAT MAZINGER HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): REAL ROBOT REGIMENT PS2 PROMOTIONAL POSTER. (This is one of my favorites because Daimos is in it)

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINGER Z CROSSOVER MOVIES HOME VIDEO PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V VIDEO COLLECTION MAGNAVISION PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V LASERDISC PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SUPER ROBOT WARS ALPHA FOR GAMEBOY PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): SUPER ROBOT WARS IMPACT FOR PS2 PROMOTIONAL POSTER

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V POSTER. In the original release of the Magnavision English dubbed videos, each volume came with a card and if you get all 20 cards, it forms this poster. This poster of mine is the uncut version. This was redrawn in the Questor office from a picture of the robot Godsigma from the artbook "Super Robots Viewed Broadly".

(PICTURED ABOVE): UNKNOWN SUPER ROBOT WARS POSTER FROM THAILAND

SUPER ROBOTS

Okay, it's no mystery that I have loved super robots (Japanese mecha) ever since I got to watch Voltes V and Daimos and others back in the 70's. Whenever I had a little extra money, I try to buy some. However, my fascination with these things seem to be fading...

(PICTURED ABOVE): MAZINGER & GETTER DOLLS, COMBATTLER & RAIDEEN RUBBER PLASTIC FIGURES

(PICTURED ABOVE): A HUGE MAZINGER Z STUFFED DOLL THAT I FOUND IN THE TYANGGE (No, I don't sleep with it), & 2 MAZINGER Z SD COIN BANKS ON SALE AT COMIC ALLEY.

(PICTURED ABOVE): VOLTES V COIN BANK [MY NEPHEW'S], SRW HARD RUBBER VOLTES V, AND A MACROSS BATTROID.

(PICTURED ABOVE): SECOND HAND SOC MAZINGER & GREAT MAZINGER, & SOC APHRODITE A & MINERVA X. THE APHRODITE A WITHOUT THE STAND IS A POPY FIGURE, I THINK. (I got the second hand SOC's and the Mazinger & Getter dolls for a real cheap price from a guy in Cuba)

(PICTURED ABOVE): HARD RUBBER MAZINGER Z & GREAT MAZINGER, YUJIN MAZINKAISER

(PICTURED ABOVE): ZAMBOT 3 RUBBER FIGURE THAT DISASSEMBLES INTO THE VEHICLES. (Pepsi can is there to give you an idea on how big the toy is).


(PICTURED ABOVE): MY SOC BLACK MAZINGER Z. (This is my first SOC. This was what was left of it after my nephew, who was very young at the time, played with it and got a little carried away. I think he was pretending to be Ankoku Daishogun. LOL)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC HOVER PILDER (second hand from the guy in Cuba) & SOUL OF POPYNICA MAZINGER Z HEAD (from Ebay)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC GAIKING (from Best Toys)

(PICTURED ABOVE): SOC UFO GRENDIZER (I bought it when I was in Hongkong)

TRANSFORMERS

This was my first real hobby that I got to start when I was in the 4th grade and I had just transferred from Trinity College to Brent International Manila. I found about these robots and the show from my American classmates who saw it in the US and eventually when it was shown here on RPN9. Among the roomfull of toys I had with my brother, I had always kept these with me. And I am glad I did, because they eventually became a part of my nephew's childhood as well and one of the reasons why my bond with my nephew is so strong to this day.

(PICTURED ABOVE): My pride and joy. My extremely adorable nephew at age 3 (He is 8 years old now)

Most of these were bought from Best Toy store, either as gifts to me from my Tita or parents. The rest I bought myself. I think that is why I helo onto these toys - I bought most of them with my own money, unlike my other toys, which were given to my by relatives. I still keep them all in a big plastic box.

NOTE: None of these TF toys are fake or knockoffs. I know that China-made fakes of most of the G1 combiner robots can be bought in Tyangges. These are all either Hasbro or Takara original toys of the G1 TF line that I bought when I was a kid.

NOTE: the big piece of cardboard behind the robots in the picture that seems to look like sand and a railroad is actually from an original Transformers TRAIN SET that I had when I was a kid. It was the size of a pool table and I used to have all my transformers in fighting form on it like a battlefield. Of course, all Autobots were on one side and all Decepticons were on the other.

(PICTURED ABOVE): COMBINERS (5-6 robots that transform into other things but each team transforms into one big robot. My fascination with this line still stems from my love for Voltes V) - Terrorcons, Seacons, Constructicons, Predacons, Combaticons, Technobots, Aerialbots, Protectobots. (For some reason, I can't find my Stunticons. WAAAH!!!)

(PICTURED ABOVE): FORTRESS MAXIMUS W/ HEADMASTERS (human cyborgs transform into the robots' heads) & POWERMASTERS (human cyborgs transform into the robots' power source)

(PICTURED ABOVE): ASSORTED AUTOBOTS & DECEPTICONS

(PICTURED ABOVE): "BIGGER SIZE" TRANSFORMERS, LIKE THE CITY ROBOTS FORTRESS MAXIMUS, TRYPTICON & METROPLEX, W/ ULTRA MAGNUS, OPTIMUS PRIME (POWERMASTER VERSION), PREDAKING & GALVATRON.

(PICTURED ABOVE): METROPLEX & TRYPTICON IN CITY MODE

(PICTURED ABOVE): METROPLEX & TRYPTICON IN CITY MODE, BIRD'S EYE VIEW

(PICTURED ABOVE): TRANSFORMERS PRETENDERS.

Anyway, that's all for now, more picturess of other items in my collection later.

NAAALALA NYO BA ANG ARBY'S?

Does anyone in here in the Philippines remember ARBY’S?

Being a fastfood junkie all my life, I have eaten in almost every fast food place in Metro Manila. I grew up when my family’s family business was on the rise and eating at these establishments was the family’s idea of bonding, usually on weekends. My dad and uncle and grandfather [their dad], well at least in my much younger years before he retired, would also frequently bring take out home after closing shop.

ARBY’S is a fast food joint specializing in roast beef sandwiches. Tender flat shreds of beef with cheese on a sandwich. Don’t confuse that with Philly cheesesteaks, Philly cheesesteaks also have shreddes beef but the shreds aren’t flat. I don’t know, it just doesn’t feel the same when you bite into it. Anyway, I remember ARBY’S especially when you see them with the huge piece of roastbeef and this slicing machine goes at it. They really make it a point to show you the meat as it is being sliced and put into your sandwich.

ARBY’S used to have franchises in the Philippines. Some 20 years ago I remember they had one in Quezon Ave., my dad would drive me there and we would get take out, after I tag along as he brings home my half-brother and half-sister to his house in Project 6. I know that this is near impossible, but if I could eat in ARBY’S with my dad before I die, I would probably just break down in tears. Lately remembering happy days of my youth have been bringing tears to my eyes.

ARBY’S, for a very short while, also had a branch in Greenhills about 15 years ago. I managed to eat there twice but it didn’t last very long. It was where Hotshots Burgers is now.

One memorable commercial of ARBY’S is the one where Batman [Adam West] takes Robin [Burt Ward] for take-out [or was it drive-thru?], on the Batmobile of course! I can’t remember if I saw this on local TV or an betamax tape of some cartoon that was recorded off American TV…

With all the fast food franchises coming back into the Philippines, I am hoping ARBY’S comes back one day. Hopefully with better luck than Carl’s did.

HERO TV'S G. I. JOE SIGMA 6: SNAKE EYES W/ A VOICE!?

This is something that normally a lot of people wouldn’t care about but I was quite ticked off when I saw it.

HERO TV is a cable channel here in the Philippines that shows anime and cartoons in Tagalog.

HERO TV acquired the rights to G I Joe Sigma 6.

When I caught an episode yesterday, I was surprised to hear Snake Eyes. That’s right, I HEARD Snake Eyes. He didn’t have any lines or dialogue, but you can hear him reacting when he is fighting. While this is such a minor thing, for any G I Joe fan, it is definitely not.

It is common knowledge to the fans who grew up as an 80’s kid. Snake Eyes is only the coolest G I Joe character in the team. And he is a MUTE. His voice box was destroyed when he burned his face in a helicopter accident to save his team mate Scarlett. This is also why he always wears a mask and never speaks at all.

I have no idea when these voice talents at Hero were born, that they didn’t know this common fact! One voice talent told me that at Hero, the people overseeing the dubbing process want EVERY scene where there is any character in it to have some sort of dialogue or reaction. This meant that if they catch any scene where there is a character and they don’t hear anything, they count that as an undubbed portion and would consider the episode undone. HOWEVER, in this case, it is a clear case of not doing your homework! The sad thing is, the dubbing department is not going to correct this mistake… whatever has already been dubbed will no longer be undone, and there is a good chance that the entire series has been dubbed already.

I am sure the big fan clubs of G I Joe in the country are either laughing their butts off or extremely ticked off at the sacrilege. I am sure that once someone notices, this will be all over the forums. And since HERO TV is very onion-skinned when it comes to criticism, it’s definitely going to hit the fan…

I wonder what kind of reaction Snake Eyes’ voice talent is going to get when he goes to anime events and starts bragging on TV or to the fans that he is the voice behind a character that doesn’t speak. LOL knowing HERO TV, they will do some sort of spotlight segment on voice talents and heaven forbid they don’t unknowingly shine a spotlight on this huge mistake.

I'M AN UNCLE... ONCE MORE

I don't know too many details yet so this is going to be brief...

My brother's wife gave birth to a baby girl last night around 10 PM.

The baby is my brother's second child and my niece, the first one being my nephew who is now 8 years old.

Congratulations, Anthony!

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.

Confessions of an Unsatisfied Post Office Patron

Note: this is my blog. I say whatever I want here. That’s what a blog is for! If you don’t like what I say here, get lost. Don’t bother flaming me by posting a comment. I will just reject it. If I want to read stupid opinions from stupid people, I would have started a forum instead of a blog. So if you don’t have the brains to understand my opinion, drop dead and stop wasting our oxygen.

Now, where was I…

I don’t know why this topic was brought up or when I wanted to talk about it, but I was at PEX a few weeks ago and I saw a thread where Pinoys posted horror stories about their horrible experiences with the Philippine Post Office. Since I have been using Philpost heavily for the past 6 years, mailing my packages for my sales in Ebay, until I stopped selling by the end of last year, I have a lot to say about Philpost.

Just like most things in this country, the Philippine Post Office needs a huge upgrade. It is one of the things we clearly have to work on if we are ever going to tap the online trade. How can we maximize profits in e-commerce internationally if the Philippine Post Office’s service is unreliable?

2-3 years ago, the Philippine Post Office raised their rates but the quality of service deteriorated. I used to use EMS [express mail service] but 2-3 years ago, the rates went up and it was no longer affordable. The worst thing was, the speed of delivery became slower. EMS used to take 5-7 days to get to the US, now it takes 2-3 weeks. It just isn’t worth it anymore. This is frustrating since EMS in Hongkong only takes 4 days to deliver a package to the US. Ebay sellers in Hongkong are proud to say they will mail your item with their world class post office.

The only reason to use EMS is for the tracking number, which is only useable online if the destination of the package is in the US. If you send a package elsewhere, EMS’s tracking number can’t be used to trace the package online, since our post office isn’t even computerized yet!

EMS is advertised as a fast door-to-door service, but if your package is heavy, you have to go to EMS’ main office near the airport in Pasay to pick it up. Where’s the “door-to-door” service in that? And you better have your money ready because the customs examiner is there to charge you an arm and a leg in fees!

I once ordered a large quantity of original region 2 DVDs from a seller in Canada. He was very careful in packing the DVDS, so careful that he used a huge box, I had to go to the main office to pick it up and the customs woman charged me P8,000 in taxes! That’s P8,000 for something that isn’t even available here or competing with local products. Who is going to buy original DVDS if this is what the government is going to do to us in return? No wonder most people would rather buy bootlegs in Quiapo!

The regular airmail of the Philippine Post Office has also slowed down incredibly. They say your package will only take a week to get to the US, but it usually takes 2-3 weeks to a month. A lot of my customers in the US become edgy and irate waiting for their item to arrive. I have no choice but to just apologize, and I can’t give them any comfort by telling them where it is since regular air mail has no tracking information! This is another frustrating thing since airmail is the cheapest mail here yet by comparison to mailing rates of other countries, it is still expensive and the quality of service is worse!

The alternative, registered airmail, is actually worse. For a tracking number, you pay more and it takes longer to arrive since there is accompanying paperwork. The tracking number is also a cumbersome thing, if you want to have the package traced, they have to trace it manually [the Philippine Post Office isn’t computerized, remember?] and you have to PAY them to do it!

In fairness to the Philippine Post Office, the branch where I mail my stuff is at the Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan. It has been modernized. It’s no longer the humid, stuffy, government-type installation, it has been upgraded to look like a modern bank, fully airconditioned, etc. I don’t know how bad things are with the post offices of other municipalities.

However, the fancy facilities will still not change the fact that delivery of your mail via the Philippine Post Office will take forever, and the tracking system is a joke. Your customers will be impatient and worrying if their item will ever arrive. The kicker is that you don’t really have a choice, since private forwarders like DHL and FEDEX are much more expensive.

The most frustrating thing is, this problem will most likely never go away, since our government doesn’t consider this problem a priority. It’s strange when the general attitude nowadays is to encourage more people to be entrepreneurs or to engage in internet business. How can we do this if our basic services aren’t up to par?

I guess my having to stop selling in Ebay a blessing in disguise. At least I don't have to take the heat for their lousy service. I could mail the stuff as fast as the customers pay, but if the post office takes forever, I still get the heat!? That's just plain wrong. But customers will never understand, they just want someone to blame.

My Big Daimos Artbook from Japan

Got this from a seller in Ebay in Japan last year. It could not fit in the scanner so I used the digicam. It's about twice the size of a typical Newsweek magazine. It's in full color and there is even a huge poster.

"BUN ON THE RUN" is Back!!!

It was just too bad that tonight, I was tunnel-visioned at Behrouz Persian Cuisine when I went to Metrowalk to buy diner. As I walked out of Behrouz, I was wondering why the little building across the street where Ice Monster was supposed to be wasn’t there anymore. Upon a closer look, I noticed that it was replaced by BUN ON THE RUN.

HOORAY!!! BUN ON THE RUN IS FINALLY BACK!!!

Bun on the Run is a chain of burger stands that has been around since the 80’s but sometime after the new millennium, this chain disappeared little by little, losing to the growing competition against bigger fast food chains. There used to be a branch in Katipunan across Ateneo; a stand near the movie ticket booth in Glorietta 4, and in Greenbelt.

Bun on the Run is well known for its unique line of Chorizo based burgers, its most famous sandwich is the “Choriburger”, 2 chorizo burger patties with coleslaw and cheese in a bun that is more like a pan de sal in taste but like a hamburger bun in size.

Anyway, Bun on the Run is finally back, with a soft opening ongoing in Metrowalk Pasig. It’s located where Ice Monster used to be, in a small building of its own in the parking lot across the stretch of restaurants in Meralco Ave. since it is still in its soft opening phase, it’s only open 3pm-11pm on weekdays and 3pm-1am on weekends. The full product line still isn’t availavle, but the great news is the Choriburger is available!!!

So spread the word, hopefully this wonderful chain will grow in popularity once more and it will never be gone again.

Voltes V Quiz

Which member of Voltes V are you?

You are Steve Armstrong!You were born to lead, but you're a bit of a hot head when things don't work out the way you expected; and that's because you are secretly a perfectionist. You try your best to be optimistic when situations are bleak. You exude confidence and demand respect from those who are much younger than you. You truly believe that you make the best desicions for the people you work with. You are fearless and always try to push yourself as far as you can go.
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I don't know if I like the results that I got for this Voltes V quiz. Then again, since I know the story front and back, it's hard to take the quiz without thinking that I answered it in a way that I knew which character I would end up with. However, I answered it as honestly as I could and I still got Steve. I really don't know who I wished I got, maybe I was wishing I got someone else since Steve is the generic leader/goody two shoes. Oh well, I guess you can't hide from who you really are...