I’ve just experienced my saddest birthday so far and I’m expecting more to come.

I wasn’t really expecting much but I was at least expecting to eat dinner together with my whole family. But no, we weren’t even complete on the dinner table. Very, very few people remembered to greet me… my nephew didn’t even greet me. I wasn’t expecting everyone to remember it but at least those who are really very close to me. Pampalubag loob pa cause my cellphone battery gave up on me, pero it was nigthtime already so wala naman na sigurong nag-text sa kin. Siguro my cellphone had pity on me and thought of dying on me na lang kesa naman umasa ko sa wala. But I didn’t cry… siguro I’m getting used to this na. Of course thanks to my online friends who didn’t forget me on my special day!

On a lighter side, I went to Greenhills yesterday to buy a new cellphone battery. It’s been so long since I last went out all by myself. And riding a taxi cab made me feel a little nervous… brought back memories of the car accident my friends and I experienced in 2004. Anyway, I also bought black CD sleeves… 700 pieces! LOL! My sis wants to replace the sleeves of our DVDs beacause it’s all white and it’s getting dirty already. I also bought more blank CDs. I already bought 50 blank CDs from CD-R King in Trinoma but I don’t like it much because there’s a Mickey Mouse print on the CDs. So I bought a plainer one and it’s color pink!

By the way, my photographer friend told me he has some expired slide films at home. I’m begging it to sell it to me so I don’t have to go to Quiapo anymore and compete with the other lomographers out there. Hehe! Hope he agrees!

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Got my new toy on the mail yesterday afternoon and I’m so excited to use it! Just have to go to Hidalgo to look for some expired slide films. So, here’s my new toy…

It’s my new toy camera Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. Special thanks to Aaron Roselo for a quick and smooth transaction. My next planned purchase: Holga, baby! Happy birthday to me and lomography… here I come! (frame by nancy comelab)

By the way, new freebie list is already up on my scrap blog Pixel Dust.

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I’ve got a new hobby!!! Well not really a new hobby… how shall I call it… new form of an old hobby maybe? Whatever… it’s lomography! I happened upon this forum about lomography while I was browsing for DSLR packages here in the Philippines and explored the forum which kept me busy for days. Haha! It’s just an alternative since I can’t buy my DSLR yet… I already have the fund but I just can’t buy it yet. So, I found an alternative that’ll keep me busy and still enhance my photography skills (kung meron man). Lomo cameras and definitely cheaper than DSLRs, or any digital cameras for that matter, but it’s definitely old fashioned… still uses film, even the old 120 films. But it looks real fun. It actually won’t be cheaper cause you’d be spending on film and processing and scanning pero at least not one time big time yung paglabas ng money. Hehe.

I already ordered my first toy camera and will be getting it in the next couple of days. It’s my cheap birthday gift for myself. It’s a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim and it’s not even a lomo camera but the sample shots I’ve seen are really nice. I might get another camera before Apri, in preparation for summer! Can’t wait!

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Over the weekend, I read in Mark Verzo’s blog that he did the same mistake as I did. He used the bank code supplied by BPI’s customer rep instead of the one being posted around the net. So I called BPI again to clear things up. I asked them ano ba talaga? Are you really affiliated with PayPal or not and what is your real bank code? I’ve read somewhere that the official list of bank codes being posted around is indeed the official list of PayPal. But how come BPI is giving out a different one? So, once again the rep that I was talking to put me on hold to verify. It turns out that BPI doesn’t have a bank code and the one that they’re giving out is what they call route code, the being used for remittances and she said that maybe the one listed in PayPal’s official list is the one supplied by PayPal for BPI and she’s not even sure about this. I asked her first if she’s familiar with PayPal and she said yes, Later on in our conversation she asked me if PayPal is a credit card and when I said no she asked me again if it’s a debit card naman? Haaayyy… So she made a report again and asked to call after 5 business days. I even told her that I demand they pay me back if I get penalized for providing the wrong info then she asked me kung sino daw gusto kong magbayad, kung yung bank or yung customer rep na kausap ko. Haha!

Anyway, I checked my BPI account again today and my money’s there already. Yey! And like Mark, there was a P150 deduction which I don’t know what it is for. If I was penalized then the deduction should be P250, like what was stated by PayPal. Now I’m more confused… maybe the bank code supplied by BPI is correct. Ewan ko ba… anyway, it’ll be awhile before I make my next withdrawal.

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My nephew and I went to the other village to eat barbecue. I always just buy then eat at home. This time we stayed there to eat. Para bang tambay sa kanto. Haha! It was fun but we were too late already. I was craving for barbecue na isaw ng baboy and he wanted naman isaw ng manok but when we got there all that’s left were two sticks of isaw ng baboy. There were lots of pork barbecue pa and tenga and dugo or what they call betamax. We oate pork barbecue and tenga. Yummy! And I’m not worried about this one being dirty because it’s not a very public place unlike sa ibang street foods that’s literally being sold on streets na mausok and daanan ng tao. This is in a village inside our village. And they don’t allow you to dip your barbecue stick on the vinegar bottle. They’ll ask you to get some vinegar and put it in your paper plate. Then we also ordered sago. Yum-o talaga! Haha! I missed this!

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Happy birthday Marc! It’s my dear nephew’s 16th birthday today! Ang bilis ng panahon, I still remember nun maliit pa siya, madalas akong mapikon sa kanya. Haha!

Happy birthday Marc! Love you!

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This is good news isn’t it? I don’t have to worry anymore that my new UnionBank EON card is not yet activated and I don’t have to go through all the trouble of going back to the bank to make a P200 deposit just to activate it. I was overjoyed when I found out that I can now withdraw funds from my PayPal account to my bank account which is BPI or Bank of the Philippine Islands and I’m sure lots of Pinoys are also glad for this new feature of PayPal. and the process seems to be very easy… all you need is your bank code, your account number, the amount you’re going to withdraw and you’re done!

Last Thursday I decided to go for it since I don’t want my money in my PayPal anymore because I couldn’t stop spending it on digital scrapbooking kits. So I called BPI to verify if the bank code that I got from the internet is correct. The lady I was talking to gave me a different one and when I told her that the one posted on the internet is different, she put me on hold and verified it and insisted that the one she gave me is the one they’re using. I wanted to make sure about this one because if not then I have to pay P250 for inputing the wrong info in my withdrawal. After finishing the withdrawal, I checked my PayPal account and my money is not there anymore and it said that my transaction is in the process and that it usually takes 5-7 business days for the transaction to be complete, depending on the bank.

Today, I came across another blog with the list of bank codes here in the Philippines and I even read the comments area to see if someone mentioned BPI. No one did but somebody mentioned that she called BPI to inquire about this and the girl she talked to doesn’t have any idea what she’s talking about. So I checked my PayPal account again to see the status of my transaction. When I saw that it’s already complete, I logged on my BPI account to see if the money is already there but it wasn’t. I called BPI just now and said that I just wanted to check when the money will appear on my account and the girl I was talking to has no idea what I’m talking about. She said that they were not informed about PayPal (she doesn’t even have an idea what PayPal is) and that you can now withdraw funds from PayPal to BPI. She actually told me that BPI had no affiliations whatsoever with PayPal. So I told her that if they were not informed about it then how come the girl I talked to the other day knew about the bank code and even verified if it is the one that PayPal is referring to. Then she asked me if it is some kind of remittance and mentioned the OFWs sending money to their relatives here in the Philippines as an example. She even made me explain about PayPal and their new feature so she could mention it on her report. Then she asked me to call back again Friday next week and gave me a reference number to follow up the status of her report. Haaaaaay naaacccooooooo…

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