Posts made in August, 2008
Cellphone Talk
The Filipinos is probably one of the most mobile totting people around. The Japanese, Vietnamese, people from Laos (Laoasians?), Chinese are the most carriers of cellphones around. I am not too sure about the US, but I have been to some of Asian countries and I have noticed girls on motorcycles in Vientiane and Hanoi texting while maneuvering their bikes around pot holes.
I went around the mall last night and found a cheap Nokia for around 1,800. Not bad if you only wanted to use the phone and text away. No MMS for that phone but for receiving and sending simple text messages, the phone will get the job done.
After I came home from abroad, I started using Globe, Sun and even Smart Prepaid. Using prepaid was headache and I was confused with the loading credits and the cellphone companies gobbled up my credits daily and I ended up with no credits when I needed to send a message. Darn those daily text credits. No wonder the cellphone companies are bleeding us users every single day. Did you know that the bulk of the earnings of Globe and Smart are not from their postpaid clients, but the prepaid ones? Yes, from the regular people who thinks loading P10-20 pesos everyday is actually cost effective. Think about this, 20 times 5 is 100 times 4 is 400. How many prepaid subscribers does Globe and Smart have? How many MILLIONS?
I can only think of those prepaid subsribers who are losing their loads from those “updates” or “music downloads” that cost P15. These are the schemes of cellphone companies that drains your load everyday. Yes, every single day. One of the major scams are those “voting” schemes. You are asked to vote for anything, anyone… mostly conjuncted with some tv show. Anyway, you are asked to 1) register; 2) vote; and 3) they will send you numerous text messages at your expense because they will deduct your loads, mostly 2 pesos to 5 pesos at a time. I know you are mostly informed or lets say warned about the expense like “all text messages will cost 2 pesos” but would you have any control of the other consecutive messages? Do we receive confirmation messages or inquiries asking if we indeed wanted to receive more messages and clarification messages like, “you will be billed for the next message?”
I think the cellphone companies should have at least some sort of code of ethics. Their profits run high and service does not come to par. The President actually said in her latest SONA (pdf file here)that she would lower the cost of text from P1 to 50 centavos. Has this happened? The cellphone companies should not charge for SMS for Postpaid subscribers. But at any rate, the bulk of the revenues of cellphone companies actually do not come from the Postpaid subscribers but from the Prepaid subscribers who are lured to pay P20-25 daily using their “Unlimited” schemes. (For more discussions on the cellphone companies money making schemes, here, here and here.)
Somehow, cellphones and texting has suddenly seem indispensible…
When has our life become so text-driven?
Read MoreChildren and Immortality
Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. Nobody that matters, that is.
Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), U.S. Poet
I had a very interesting night. My second daughter asked me a striking question. “Will I die also?” Ofcourse the question did not come out just like that. It started with the conversation about rats and how we needed to keep our house clean so rats will not feast on our crumbs in the kitchen and bedroom (as my children has the habit of taking bread, biscuits and whatever snacks inside the room).
Then the other day, we were welcomed by a dead rat in our living room. It was a sorry sight. We shrieked first then I needed to clean it out, so I took the dustpan and swept the dead rat into it and threw the rat in the garbage pile. It was not very difficult to explain the death of the rat since it was obvious that the cat did it because there were puncture wounds on its body. I explained the possible circumstance and the children accepted it. Until—
Anyway, while we were getting ready for bed, she asked me, “Will I be in high school or college when I get old?” So I said, technically that would not be old, but you would have aged more then. Then, she asked, “But will I die when I get old?” I was stunned for awhile and choosing my words carefully I said “You actually do not have to be old to die. Because some people actually die young.” Then she suddenly started crying and saying, “I do not want to die, Mom.” I was shocked, and I hugged her and then she said, “God, please I do not want to die.”
I said, “Nobody is dying, Ba-ba.” My children has actually experienced death recently as my mom has passed away last November. Though my children had not been in the funeral, they are very much aware of death in the family, as my brother had also passed away years ago. I thought, “Now, how do I explain this to a child?” I mustered enough courage and said, “If we take care of ourselves, and no accidents happened, we will not die.” I also added, “Everybody WILL die. Mommy will die, Daddy will die, one day.” She wailed and I wanted to take my words back, but thought, “What the heck? Let her hear about death from me, rather than from others.” I said, “we certainly cannot control everything in our lives, ba-ba. Sometimes, people die because of illnesses… like Lola, who died because of heart complications, or Uncle, because he smoked alot and it gave him alot of problems and he died because of that.” “Also Daddy’s Dad died of old age, but he has been sickly for a long time…”
She quieted, and she listened intently. I was stroking her face as I explain along, and while my oldest daughter listens quietly. I also stressed the importance of taking care of ourselves by eating the right food, and avoiding circumstances that might lead to death or accidents. Or even taking proper medications so we will not become too ill. She then asks me, “Mom, do not let me die.” I cried then and told her, “Baba, I will try my best.”
Looking back to my exchange with my little one, I thought I was right and I was very open to her about the aspect of death. I am happy she had voiced out her questions to me that meant to me that my daughter trust me enough for her to ask about the subject of death. I had to think back hard if I had the same experience as a child. So far, I cannot remember any instance that I had asked, but my experience was different. I was not exposed to death, when I was young. My brother died a few years ago. My mother died months ago. My husband’s dad and sister died a few years ago also. So the subject of death came early in our family. I think though it is morbid, but death will always be a part of living. It is a part of life and no matter how much we try to avoid death, it will come, and when it will, most of the time, the people who mattered to us will not be ready at all…
Read MoreUplifting the Surroundings
My landlady who happens to be a seamstress came today to collect next month’s rent and to install the curtains I ordered last month. The house we are leasing is void of any window treatments, making the house look bare and has THAT unwelcoming feel.
We have been here for 3 months now and having just moved in, I did not have the resources to purchase a curtain– even a cheap one since last month since the house has alot of windows. At any rate, I alloted and budgeted some cash for the curtains last month and asked the landlady to make me one set of curtains for the entire house.
The entire condo unit in Manila is air conditioned, all rooms were installed with pale wooden blinds from Germany. It costed me an arm AND a leg, but its still nice and has not faded like those cheap ones you can easily buy at those DIY Stores.
It finally came… The color would not have been my favorite choice– pale pink– gaundy for my taste, but my daughters love it. The curtains liven up the entire house. Without alot of wall decorations, the curtains made the house look attractive and my daughter said, “Yey! Now the house look better and our room looked like Sharpay’s!” Okay, so that is definitely a complement… for the house to be compared with High School Musical’s Sharpay Evans, that is simply an improvement to “the house looked dry.”
My landlady, also the seamstress choose the style of the curtain. It was simple enough for rural country living but also good enough to entertain city people (meaning my relatives). I would love draperies or even wooden blinds like the one’s installed in my condo in Manila, but since we live in a humid, seaside village, light and sheer curtain is the best and obvious choice.
Here are a list of websites I checked:
Read MoreMoney, Money, Money
Having no support whatsoever and relying on the lease of my condo in the city for our daily sustenence is a big hurdle. Though living in the rural area has definitely its plus, having or little extra money after all the necessaries are taken care off leaves me nothing more than a few thousands to go to savings. But that I guess is better than nothing.
I really want to change the culture of reward in my family and teach my childrent he value of saving and managing money at an early stage. This is crucial especially when this family has been built in the belief that rewarding of self is spending more money pigging out in restaurants or buying unnecessary things.
Being financially independent is one of my long term goals. I long to have my own business and honing my business acumen and skills has begun years ago, however, the task of change old habits die hard… I just have to stop spending on things NOT needed (amusing take by Suze Ormon on Can I Afford It?) and start to save a little (guess what Robert Kiyosaki’s take on that) more and prepare for some emergencies…
I am already looking for business opportunities here in the area where I live in. Having little capital is indeed a problem, but I guess what is more important is having the guts to start somewhere, recognize and seize opportunities and bite the bullet.
Read MoreCleaning our Homes
No amount of ‘tricks of the trade’ will avoid the need to set some sort of priority when allocating one’s time.John Harvey-Jones (1924 – )
