My dad’s 54th birthday!! XD

Well, my dad just turned 54 last Oct 22. ^__^ Since we are all busy at the house, my mom decided since we are all complete every mornings before we all headed to work, to celebrate dad’s birthday instead early in the morning.

We had a very simple celebration, and mom cooked carbonara and she also bought a Chocolate Mousse cake from Red Ribbon.

Carbonara was okay, but not exactly to my liking… Mom’s spaghetti was WAYYYY better than this.

This was definitely what I loved best. This is also my GF’s favorite cake, and its simply delish. XD

Here’s my dad blowing the candle off his cake. Man I rarely see my dad smile like that. He’s like a big kid really (kinda reminds me of me)

As for my dad’s gift. Here it is:

…Just kidding. XD

Neways my dad’s gift just arrived a few hours ago. You see my dad has been asking about a good digital camera and stuff to use for work from me. Little did I know, my mom was taking notes and suddenly she just bought a new camera for my dad!! My mom’s really that sweet. XD

Anyway here’s a simple unboxing of the unit:

The package comes with 2GB SD card, charger, AV cable to hook up to a TV, pouch, as well as installer for image editing software.

And here’s the camera itself:

It does look sleek and shiny and comes equipped with a lithium ion battery so there’s no need for my dad to buy batteries. Overall my dad was happy as a kid. My dad’s a closet geek and he probably doesn’t realize it. XD

Weekend Loot!! XD

Alright, I was supposed to post this before, but I guess I was too preoccupied with a lot of stuff so yeah. Anyway, better late than never.

Last weekend, I actually TONS of loot and stuffs that it felt like it was Christmas already!! XD Remember I said in my previous blog post about me buying my gundam kits in megamall after I opened an account in BPI? Here it is:

There was like a crazy sale of Gundam kits in Toy Kingdom that I HAD to get me the complete set of Gundam 00, which happens to be my favorite in the Gundam series. I got myself the 1/144 First Grade kit, which was really cheap. The prices range from as low as P299 – P450. Not bad at all.

Sadly, I don’t have a complete tool set yet to assemble and paint them all, so I’ll be keeping them for awhile, till I have the tools to finally assemble them. Atleast I have all 4 which is good enough for me.

The following day, I went out to meet a friend of mine whom I promised to treat out at a local pizza joint. She also wanted to meet me so that I can finally have my hands on the long awaited delayed christmas/birthday gift; a copy of Castlevania. XD

And yes, I’m rubbing it in my cheek. I’m such a Castlevania fanboy. XD

But the one thing that caught me off-guard was that she has other gifts to give me as well!! First was this little cutie:

It’s a poring slime from the MMORPG; Ragnarok Online. He serves as a paperweight in the office, and a cute display too. XD But this was by far the best of them all:

At first I thought this was for her, but I was surprised when she suddenly gave me this one. You see, I play DotA (Defense of the Ancients) a lot with my GF and friends, and Traxex the Drow Ranger happens to be my favorite hero. Yeah I know this isn’t Traxex, but she looks JUST LIKE HER, so who cares about the name. I’m calling her Traxex the Drow Ranger and that’s that. XD

She’s simply a sight to behold. Now I don’t usually collect figurines, but since this one’s a gift (and one that I like a lot) its definitely a keeper. A special thanks to my friend; Stacy Garcia for these wonderful goodies!! You’ve definitely made my day man.

And last but not the least, I finally got my netbook it’s much deserved skin protector. Here it is:

Now my netbook is definitely personalized, and looks more badass with its brand new “tattoo”. XD A special thanks as well to my ever-loving GF; Kate Navasero for my netbook’s brand new “tattoo”. XD

Hopefully by Christmas, I get to finally have my own digital camera as well, just like my GF’s, so I can take better pictures for my blog. ^___^

I HAZ NINTENDO DSi XL!! XD

It’s finally here. XD

I never thought this day would arrive, but it’s finally here. Honestly, I didn’t expect on getting myself a brand new Nintendo DSi XL, because I was supposed to use my money to have my PS3’s Bluray drive repaired so I can play Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. However, as soon as I was contemplating where to have my PS3 repaired, I thought to myself, “why have my PS3 repaired when I will only be playing it once every week, when I can have a portable handheld that will keep me busy everyday, specially during my commute when it’s the traffic is so damn heavy?”
I asked a couple of friends of mine about it; whether I’d go have my PS3 repaired or get myself a Nintendo DSi XL to backtrack on games I missed out when I sold my Nintendo DS Lite back then. Majority of my friends seem to agree that the DSi XL is the better choice as opposed to having the PS3 repaired as I’m more on the go than I am at home.
Having said that, I went ahead and called my trusted local gaming shop; Rocksoft Online (www.rocksoftonline.com) and ordered my package there. Since I was a regular customer; they gave me such a sweet deal with my Nintendo DSi XL. They gave me the unit for Php 11,300 (roughly $225) which is packaged with:

• iEDGE flashcart (easy to use, hassle-free flashcart)
• 4GB microSD card (SanDisk with free SD card adapter)
• 220V charger (the one included in the unit was 110V since it was a US unit)
• Crystal casing (to prevent scratches on my DSi XL)
• Screen protectors (to prevent scratches on the screens)

The sweet thing was, they even threw in free shipping to my office which was really nice of them. Loved their service.
Anyhow, I got my package at around 12NN, with their delivery personnel waiting for me at the office (I was out at the time he arrived). After giving him my payment for the package, he let me inspection the unit for any issues with it whatsoever. Top notch service Rocksoft guys, kudos to you people!!
Anyway, here’s a simple unboxing of my unit:


The front and back of the box. Pretty nice. They really made an effort to show you that their screens is 93% bigger than the original Nintendo DS lite (the one which I owned before) but we’ll get to those screens later.



Not only was the DSi XL unit itself huge, but even the manuals are now bigger and thicker!! It’s like ridiculously thick!!

Here it is, the charger, the Nintendo DSi XL, and the new XL stylus.

The new stylus is pretty comfortable to hold but can be a hassle to bring. So I just kept it at home, incase my mom wants to use it instead of the regular DSi XL stylus.


The DSi XL itself. I got myself the bronze unit, and it has a slight brownish tone to it, but it’s the closest I can get to it being black (unless of course Ninty decided to release one).
The screens are HUGE. And the surprising thing about it is, the game didn’t look stretched out. In fact the look even more better in the larger screen than they ever were back in DS Lite. I love the screens so much, that I’m willing to play all of the games I finished back then in my DS Lite and finish them all over again. XD
Here’s a sample of how it compares with my sister’s Nintendo DS Phat:

I don’t regret ever purchasing the DSi XL. In fact, its probably the best decisions I’ve made so far, and I’m loving it. Ahhh together atlast… XD

My BPI banking experience.

Yesterday, I was out with my GF, and I decided to finally open my savings account. My first bank of choice was BDO, since I love the fact that they open on weekends and are open longer than most banks. Add the fact almost all of the BDO branches are located within SM malls, it was a no-brainer.

So I lined up with all my requirements, or so I thought, at the BDO branch in SM Bicutan. When I got to the customer service rep, she mentioned that the 1 of the IDs I presented; my college alumni card, wasn’t valid and that I needed a 1x1 ID pic.

I know its my fault for not asking earlier, but I’m simply disappointed coz I remembered this:

BDO – We find ways.

It was from this commercial:

Ironically, for someone who says “they find ways” they never did anything to find a way to help me in opening my savings account.

So I went to Megamall with my GF, to simply buy my Gundam kits, and resigned myself that I prolly will be opening an account next payday when I have all the necessary requirements ready.

As me and my girl were walkin in the mall, we noticed there’s a BPI Express on there entertaining people who wanted to open their savings account.

So I inquired if I can open, but I told them outright that I only have my company ID and my alumni card as IDs. Initially they did mention that the alumni card ID is not a valid ID, however, they asked if I had any accounts with BPi in the past. I told them that yeah, I had a payroll account under BPi when I was working for a call center company. The attendant then asked his manager if they can do something for me, and they immediately entertained my savings account application!!

The sweet thing about opening a savings account in BPI was that they only required an initial P500 deposit to open an ATM account unlike BDO which required a minimum of P2000!! Sweet~

So I went ahead and filled up the form and they used the 2 IDs I had with me (take that BDO!!) and they started processing my application!! Remember I don’t have any 1x1 ID pictures with me earlier when I applied for a savings account in BDO? Well the manager in BPi simply shrugged that problem off by simply taking out his digital camera and taking a picture of me on the spot while I was applying for my savings account. WOW!! Now that’s what I’m talking about finding ways.

And to top it off, they were generous enough to offer me credit card application (which I was planning to do prolly later this year) and they simply used all of the information I supplied earlier with my savings account and a copy of my latest payroll slip. They didn’t ask for a copy of my certificate of employment anymore, as they said, they’ll do the legwork in investigating my employment with my current company. Also they were patient enough to explain to me throughly all of the stuff that I needed to know about my credit card and all the possible charges, etc. It was uber-convenient and I can see that my GF was kinda jealous at the level of service I got from BPI compared to when she opened an account with BDO.

I got my ATM card 5 mins after I applied for it, and its now ready for use. Man that’s gotta be the BEST banking experience I’ve ever had. And as much as it sucks for BDO, but seriously BDO, you ought to change your tagline to “We find ways… to make life harder for you”. I’m definitely a BPI fan now. Great job guys!! I loved how you took my banking experience even farther. Thanks BPI!!

PS: I just found this commercial from BPI. Their tagline with “Let’s make it easy” and I agree. They definitely made everything easy for me yesterday, and I couldn’t be more happier. Here’s the commercial:

And here’s another commercial of BPI: