Author Archive

“On An Empirical Sample of Why Samsung TVs Have Lower Price Points” or “Kaya Naman Pala ang Mura, Lagot Ka Sa Repairs”

 I still feel the fangs of remorse bite whenever I think of how I fell for a 0% offer on a Samsung DLP Projector TV last year. Yeah, I guess I'm still a sucker after all. But, my woes did not end with shelling out a few thousand bucks a month to pay my credit card balance. A week after the 15 month warranty, which Samsung touts as "Prestige," my Projection TV started acting up.

Screen image disappears, the power button is immobilized, and the unit just refuses to work.Let me consult my friendly neighborhood Samsung Service Center, Chronicles Electronics, along Shaw Boulevard. Speed seems to be the mantra at this branch as it takes them a mere two (2) weeks (!!) to diagnose and finally repair the unit, at which time my entire family is ready to oust me as head of the family given their Xbox360, DVD and "House MD" series withdrawal symptoms.

BARATak: Chronicles of Kunat ep.2

Four to Forgo

“Grabe, sobra s’yang insecure..di ko alam kung bakit..” It’s bad enough being socially inept, intellectually bankrupt and possessing a muscle-depleted physique. Let’s try not to get ourselves in any more trouble by being Financially Insecure. Last week, I promised to delve further into the four common causes of this phenomenon.

1) Not controlling or understanding your own expenses

If you are earning a gazillion pesos every month, but spending PhP1.5 gz (that’s short for gazillion, you peasants!), you’re definitely headed for financial breakdown. Have you bothered to investigate where your money is spent? Most people don’t even bother to take a second look at the big ticket items they throw their cash at. At which time you’ll immediately holler, “What?? And give up my luxurious lifestyle? Gago ba ako?” Ah eh, oo..gago ka na nga, insecure pa.

BARATak: Chronicles of Kunat ep.1

BARATak: Chronicles of Kunat ep.1

The sweetest taboo

Funny thing, this subject of money. It still ranks high, in my mind, on the list of “shh..-‘wag-natin pag-usapan-yan” categories; a last bastion of secrecy that probably supplants the most scandalous of tabloid chismis. Your more likely to hear the details of an ex-President’s thespian daughter slobbering over her pathetic failure in keeping men from leaving her bedside, but not about her collective endorsement figures. Or view some college hottie revealing her goods on the latest “(Fill in the blank of school, company or province) Scandal” but I doubt if she’ll share how much her monthly allowance is.