Stupidity At It's Lowest

18 February 2007:

At around 11am this morning, after going to the bank to withdraw some funds I went to LBC Walter Mart Pasong Tamo which is located near where I live, to have some eBay items I managed to sell mailed out to their respective buyers. It had been agreed upon the night before, that I would have their items sent via LBC instead because: 1) they live at a very considerable distance from where I reside, and 2) my hectic - and unpredictable - work schedule severely limits my ability to make any meet-up transactions.

I consider myself a regular customer at that LBC branch, having used their services for a number of times in the past to ship out my eBay items to out-of-town buyers. I never had any unfavorable experience with their staff. They were friendly and would often start a conversation with me regarding my eBay items, which consist mostly of action figures and mini4wd cars.

Not until this morning.

I had - via eBay auction - successfully sold some G.I. Joe Sigma 6 action figures and, as I have mentioned earlier, was about to have them mailed out to their respective buyers. Entering that LBC branch I noticed that the staff that I have gotten used to taking care of my packages weren't there. Instead, there was a lone woman taking care of the branch and all it's usual business activities.

I asked her for a quote - how much the shipping cost would be - and showed her the items. She asked what items they were. I unrolled the bubble wrap that protected two of the action figures that were also placed inside individual ZipLoc bags. And then she saw the Sigma 6 equipment locker where I kept the figures' accessories so they would not get misplaced. I obliged and she inspected the contents.

And then she saw the guns:

Not real guns - not even replicas - and most definitely, not airsoft BB guns.

And so, with the conviction of an intelligent being, she flatly tells me: "bawal ito" ("these aren't allowed").

Me: "Ano?!" ("What?!")
Dumb Clerk (sternly): "Bawal ang mga ito." ("These are prohibited.")
Me: "Bakit bawal?" ("Why are they prohibited?")
DC (power-tripping tone in her voice): "Bawal ang mga baril." ("Guns are not allowed.")
Me: "Hindi naman totoong baril 'yan, at ang liliit pa! Bakit ipagbabawal 'yan?!" ("Those aren't even real guns, and they are so tiny! Why should they be prohibited?!")
DC: "Basta bawal ang mga baril." ("Because guns are prohibited.")

Wanting to smack this person upside her head, to try shaking an iota of intelligence into her, I realized it would only create some kind of disturbance inside the LBC branch. Instead, I put back the items inside my sling bag and stormed out of the place.

Feeling so pissed off, I went to an internet cafe upstairs and logged into LBC's website. I filed a customer complaint but, up until now (it's already 8pm) I have not even received an email notifying me that they have read my complaint. So what else is new? This is the very same shit I experienced with this cunt-ry's Labor Department.

By the way, just to let you all know how "big" these "guns" where, here is a scale comparison:

They're so tiny they wouldn't have even created a small bump on her head if I had ever thought of throwing these at her! These "guns" are made of rather soft plastic, without even a working mechanism inside. I've seen jeweler's screwdrivers creating more damage than what these could do!

And so, thanks to these stupid lady clerk, I have to travel tomorrow morning to the Megamall in Mandaluyong and then to Gateway in Cubao, just to meet these customers and then travel back to Makati afterwards so I can go to work.

So far, this has got to be the most stupid human being that I have come across.

No wonder this country is in shambles.

What Does It Take?

What does it take to make an employee stay in a company? Attractive incentive packages? Higher-than-average compensation? Bountiful benefits? Cool bosses? Complete facilities and hi-tech equipment?

Most of the time it's a combination - if not all - of those.

But sometimes, it's a very simple thing that it often gets taken for granted: SALARIES BEING RECEIVED ON TIME.

I just cannot see the logic nor the place of being paid late in the overall scheme of things in this universe. One needs to put fuel before any flame starts to burn. One needs to put gasoline in a car before it can run. So why the fuck should a human being be forced to do more work before receiving any of his past dues?

Promises, promises. "Tomorrow" turns to "in a few days", which then turns into "next week", and then "it's coming - hang on", which in turn becomes "we're not sure yet". Easy for them to say. They probably do not have bills to pay and other people to feed. Or they have set aside this huge trust fund.

Employees being treated like kids, with these promises. It's not their fault when the head honcho makes poor business decisions.

People are leaving and yet Big Boss acts nonchalantly, never addressing the issue to his subordinates.

"Hello. Anybody there?" Dimwit.

I just hope he has enough to cover his face, once the shit finally hits the fan.

And this cunt-ry's Labor Department? Sheesh. Couldn't even send an email to notify you that they have received your complaint. So much for going hi-tech, you brown morons. Fuck this country's government - fuck them all to Hell. Different names, but monkeys all the same. All they're concerned about is their next seat in the coming elections.

Another Thing To Be Pissed About

I'm taking a break from my personal rantings at work (though we have yet to be paid fully) and rant about something of a more national scale.

I just came across a newspaper headline about this country's aviation safety rating being downgraded to below global safety minimums. Even though I have not taken a plane to go somewhere, this news just pissed me off. With Php 3.1 billion projected annual income, it's a wonder how the management has failed to correct safety deficiencies.

But given the fact that they have monkeys for bosses to run the show at the ATO, it's no wonder why things have become FUBAR'd.

What next? I think sacking those responsible is indeed a start, but it's not enough.

Tie 'em to the landing gear and have the plane takeoff, level at 50,000 feet and then land. Do this several dozen times.

The Suspense Is Killing Me

It has been announced again by our employer, that we WILL be paid THIS coming Tuesday. Whew! Finally!! What a relief!!!

NOT!

Because, you see, after all these weeks of the CEO crying wolf, we have grown indifferent of all the broken promises. Irreparable damage has been dealt, especially to the morale of the company's personnel, and some of us have decided to jump ship and look for greener and more stable pastures.

Not only that, some of us have damaged the trust we have tried to maintain with the people we owe money from.

Just take into account my own tribulation these past six weeks: I now owe the cellphone company two months worth of bills and managed to have my line temporarily cut off. I owe overdue rent for the room I'm renting, and also some significant amount of money to a colleague I had taken out a loan from, last October. And I've been practically living in the office premises for this past week.

I have yet to pay for some items at eBay which I had won LAST MONTH, and for this, my Feedback Rating is now in danger of being given several non-paying bidder strikes which will mar the otherwise flawless Rating that I have tried to maintain for the past sixteen months.

So once we get the money, most of it will only go to our payables. Just like an outdoor breeze briefly grazing one's skin.

On the (somewhat) good side, being broke for the past one and a half month taught me a lesson as well. It has taught me to cast off my attachment to the material side of life. It gave me the courage to downsize my growing action figure collection, to only the figures that I really like. It has taught me to let go of the excess, and keep those that are really dear to me.

But then again, I had to sell even some of the ones I like that were really hard to find -- those that had me spending time and money hunting for.

So it's back to square one with the hunt, and I've got a lot of catching up to do.

Distractions, Distractions

As mentioned in my previous post, we have not been paid at work for more than a month now. And this has been both a major inconvenience and a source of distraction, day in and day out.

I've experienced a couple of Holiday Seasons without a job, but this is an entirely different situation. It is more difficult when one is expecting something to come in and it doesn't, than when one isn't expecting anything arriving at all. Unlike some of you who might be reading this, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I do not have a trust fund nor a multi-million dollar inheritance. Nor am I an overpaid executive in some large corporation.

It has become tedious, to try to explain to the people I owe money from, that my paycheck has been moved to yet another week. Day in, and day out. Not everybody can be as understanding and considerate as I am, when somebody owes me some money. Bills and payables have started to pile up.

Looking for another job isn't as easy as it may seem to some of you. Because, in this country (guess where I am?), you need money to earn money. How else am I going to travel around the metro to show up for a job interview, if I don't have any money to take me anywhere in the first place? And if I do ever land on a new job, it's this silly "tradition" in the local employment industry that a new employee has to wait for one month before he can receive his first paycheck.

One month? So where do I get the money to feed me, house me, and get me to work and back home everyday, for an entire month? Isn't this why I was looking for a new job in the first place - for the money?

So I am stuck here in this dead-end job, along with my colleagues who are as broke as I am now.

And so, to fend for my everyday expenses, I have been selling my action figure collections on eBay. Yes, the same ones I have worked hard for and traveled around just to look for. The same ones that had me staying glued to the computer monitor, trying to snipe them at eBay. And I am selling them cheap, just so they could be converted to much-needed cash quickly. Shit. I'm selling my collections at a loss.

One step forward, two steps back.

When will this nightmare ever end?

What?! Almost November Already?!!

...And I promised myself to post in this blog more often, now that the Wallaby/Kiwi training at work has ended.

But now we have some extra "chores" at work -- they call it "testing", I'd like to call it "proofreading".

Which goes to show how the Universe seems to conspire against you, by throwing more activities to keep you preoccupied and prevent you from doing something creative. Bugger it. Why does this seem to always happen to me? Or does this also happen to anybody else?

There now is an accumulation of toys that have yet to be reviewed. My dorm closet has now been filled with toys, and has displaced all my clothes. And because of this I need to buy one of those large Tupperware-type tubs soon, which will be a pain in the arse to transport from the store, back to the dorm. Ah well, at least those tubs will make moving my stuff to a new residence easier when the time finally comes.

Speaking of residences, I miss all those years living inside a subdivision -- everything seemed to feel more secure (well, at least in Ayala Alabang), the air was cleaner (dust used to accumulate in the electric fan's grilles - now I see soot in the grilles), and the neighbors were generally, uhmm, more attractive (hey, I'm now renting space in a boarding house near Washington Street in Makati, which can partly be classified as living in the dumps. Can you really blame me?).

Going back to the toys, I wish I had a decent cellphone with a decent digital camera to take pics with. One that's got a macro function at least. My fucky-sucky Sony Ericsson k610i doesn't have that. Nor does it have a built-in flash. Which explains the poor quality of most of my toy photos in this blog. This also explains why I decided to postpone any further action figure review in this blog. Postponed at least until I get a decent cellphone which has a decent camera - say a Sony Ericsson k750i - I don't really have the need or use for my k610i's 3G connection because using it is rather costly and still useless for me anyway.

Or miraculously get the money to buy myself a Canon S2 IS at the very least.

Ahhhh, money. It's always the factor that prevents me from doing the things I need, like, and want to; and getting the things to have them done. Just like this gallbladder removal -- it has been seven years, and I still haven't had it removed. Surgery costs a fortune nowadays, and being unable to go to work post-op isn't going to be of any help either.

And while we're now in the subject of money, banks here do not seem to give anyone a loan unless he or she has money in the first place. Which means that if you don't have any cash to start with, there ain't any chance that anyone will help you earn more of it. This means that my plans of venturing into the toy retailing business, by partnering with a friend and his toy shop, is just like aiming for the moon. And so does getting this buggered gallbladder removed.

What next? Train of thought just got derailed by the sudden influx of questions here at work. Damn it. Could be Murphy's Law. Or the Universe messing with me again.

A Confusion of Terms

Those who have been faithfully reading my blog posts would have known by now that I am a collector. I have been collecting stuff even before I realized I had this "obsession" as a hobby. It started with Matchboxes, Legos (which I haven't written about yet), comicbooks (a traumatic ending which has also yet to be divulged in this blog), Mini4WD's and once again, action figures.

And though I have always wished I was financially capable to collect each and every item (in the collectors' circle, they call such a person a "completist") in a product series, it isn't really the case. I have to settle with purchasing items which I really, really like, and feel would be my hard-earned money's worth. The good thing to come out of this is that I only have (in my opinion) the best ones in my collection.

But getting the best of the lot isn't always that easy. Especially when one starts out late and most of the items are no longer in production. Which goes to say that late starters - or should I say, "late bloomers" - like me would have to settle for trade forums and auction sites such as eBay to find the items we're looking for. And by that time, items either start to (1) become pricey, or (2) would only be found cheap halfway around the world. So if it, perchance, happens to be case number 2, it's the shipping and Customs fees that can put a huge dent in one's wallet.

In addition, what makes things harder for me is my lack of a credit card for PayPal verification purposes, so I'm not capable of selling or bidding on auctions overseas and will just have to settle with trading locally. For now, at least.

Joybidders, scammers, shill bidders, and bogus accounts are universal and has become a natural part of the eBay experience. Not necessarily just eBay, but online trade and auction sites in general. I just have to be very careful of who I trade with. And for the ten months I have been trading on the 'Bay, I have managed to have two accounts requested to be shut down because they won the bids for my auctions but never paid up nor communicated with me at all.

And now, my ranting begins.

What gets me irritated is the fact that local merchants do not seem to know the difference between what is "rare", and what is "hard to find". Oftentimes, some capitalizing individuals deliberately hoard an item in the hopes that stocks will run out and they will have a huge share of the market and as a result, end up with a huge amount of money by jacking up the prices to ridiculous and impractical amounts.

Such was recently the case with the Transformers Movie 2008 Camaro Bumblebee which disappeared from the toy stores' shelves all too quickly. And when such an incident happens, one can be assured that the items will start appearing on auction sites such as eBay. But I guess that's how business is here in this country. Unlike some toy store chains in the US where they limit a customer's purchase of a hot item to one or two pieces maximum. I've even heard of an incident during the initial local release of the Transformers Movie Leader Class Optimus Prime and people had waited in line at a popular toy store before opening hours, only to be greeted by a sales clerk as the shutters were finally opened and be told that someone had already bought all fifteen of the items in stock.

Why in the world would somebody bloody need fifteen Optimus Primes in the first place?!! Ahhh... the Filipino "entrepreneurial spirit" of course. He, or she, hoards every single item available on the stockroom and then manipulates the law of supply and demand to his/her favor. By limiting the supply and creating demand, the price for the item will now be at his/her mercy.

And now, the real ranting starts.

So what would be the most probable venue to sell these hoarded items if the hoarder does not a store of his/her own? Why, the 'Bay of course.

One can easily guess the title header of the item in the auction: "*Name of Hoarded Toy* RARE!!!"

You see, I can easily forget about their greed and shrug it off because all of us have been greedy at one point in our lives. What royally pisses me off is their utterly ignorant play of words by deciding which is RARE and which are not. Fuck!!! A limited edition numbered release (e.g., 1000 worldwide) can be called RARE. A manufacturing / packaging error can be called RARE. A mint condition Transformers Movie 2008 Camaro Bumblebee, after 30 or so years when 90 or so percent of them have been broken / discarded / forgotten into obscurity would then have the right to be called RARE. A Treskilling Yellow postage stamp is RARE. Being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis is RARE. But HOARDING EVERY SINGLE ITEM IN THE STOCKROOM THEN SELLING IT OFF ONE BY ONE DOES NOT MAKE AN ITEM BLOODY RARE.

Folks, it's as simple as this:

* RARE - Explained above.
* VERY HARD TO FIND (VHTF) - 1. When all the greedy entrepreneurs have successfully hoarded every single item, and the stores have attempted but failed to replenish stocks. 2. When the item has been out in the market for a couple of years and all production have ceased (discontinued), and there is only a very limited number available visible in the market.
* HARD TO FIND (HTF) - 1. When the very same entrepreneurs have hoarded the item, but never realized that the stores have replenished the stocks somewhat. 2. When the item has recently run out, but production has not been officially discontinued.

Sometimes I wish I could just send all these merchants a message and cuss at them for their stupidity without having my account shut down and be banned from the 'Bay.