Can’t Get Enough of Dr. Horrible!

It's an internet musical!

I’ve been playing “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog” on my player for days.  I can’t believe how much of an impact it’s made that I have taken the effort to:

• Get my own copy of all three Acts,
• Extract my own songs from the iTunes Downloads,
• Transcribing my own lyrics to all the songs from all three acts, and finally-
• Blogging all about it.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend you check it out.  Joss Whedon, creator of TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Firefly has teamed up with brothers Zack and Jed, together with Jed’s fiancee, Maurissa, to come up with an internet musical which they called “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog”.

Supposedly, the idea for the whole project came about at the peak of the Writer’s Strike earlier this year- the whole fiasco was just dragging on, and everyone just wanted to get back to writing somehow.

Then they enlisted the support of people they’ve all worked with- including actors Neil Patrick Harris, Nathan Fillion, and Felicia Day.  The result: an internet musical masterpiece that broke down their servers, and quickly became the most downloaded TV show (it was classified under ‘TV shows’) on iTunes.

The Cast and Crew of "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog"

They came up with three acts of about 15 minutes apiece- which put together, is about as long as any regular TV episode.  You have to see it for yourself- after all, would you know of any musicals featuring super-villains?

Neil Patrick Harris stars as Dr. Horrible, and you can see that he’s put his theater training into good use here.  Nathan Fillion plays the role of the semi-cheesy and borderline juvenile beefcake Captain Hammer, nemesis of Dr. Horrible.  And of course you have Felicia Day as our ingenue, Penny.

Sing along to your other favorite Dr. Horrible songs by checking out parts 1, 2 and 3 of my Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog Songbook, right here on another blog of mine (which you can really, now sing along to as well…), My Thoughts In Stereo.

Check out Part 1 of the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog Songbook here, featuring the songs

• “My Freeze Ray”,
• “Bad Horse (The Application)”,
• “Penny’s Song”, and
• “What a Man’s Gotta Do”

Check out Part 2 of the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog Songbook here, featuring the songs

• “On The Rise”,
• “Bad Horse (The Phone Call)”,
• “Keep Your Head Up”, and
• “Brand New Day”

Check out Part 3 of the Dr. Horrible Sing-Along Blog Songbook here, featuring the songs

• “So They Say”
• “Everyone’s A Hero”
• “Slipping” and
• “Finale/ Brand New Day (reprise)”

Again: don’t forget to check out the official Dr. Horrible website, and show your support by downloading your own copy from iTunes.

Cheers, everyone!

The Philippines Needs More Consumer Advocates

For those of you who have been reading my blogs, you’ve probably ran across a post or two of me ranting about how corporations have been performing rather poorly- at least as far as customer satisfaction is concerned.

Specifically, I have personally been disappointed at how Globe- a major telecommunications player in the Philippines- has taken so long to get my broadband connection back. And then we also have the blog post on Cebu Pacific, which continues- continues!- to draw many irate and frustrated customers and share their bad experiences with the poorly managed budget airline.

I ask myself: how can companies like these- big, profitable and supposedly reputable companies like Globe and Cebu Pacific- think they can get away with treating their customers- people who fork over their hard-earned money over to patronize their services- like crap?

I believe that for every person that shares his or her story on how they’ve felt cheated, neglected, short-changed or abused by a company, there are probably ten, twenty, maybe even a hundred others who haven’t made themselves heard.

You think you can count on the media to let us know what’s going on? I’ve worked in media for the past fourteen years, and I’ll tell you this: these big corporations virtually have media companies by the neck. Not officially, of course, but think about it: if a TV station, radio station or newspaper does a series of reports on say- a string of bad experiences from people taking a Cebu Pacific flight, even in the interest of informing the public- how do you suppose a story like this would affect their sales figures through advertising?

At a time when media companies aren’t exactly making as much money as they want to? It’s not an issue they’d want to even play around with.

So it’s really up to us, ladies and gentlemen. There are many good companies out there who actually do mean well, and treat consumers fairly, and there are also those that have less-than-ideal business ethics that count on consumers’ indifference and frustration to keep on finagling the helpless.

Others must know our stories: which companies are worthy of our trust, and which ones are just out to make a fast buck no matter what. Let us give our business to corporations who we feel deserve our continuing patronage, and keep it away from the unscrupulous.

Help spread the word- link stories to others, share your experiences, encourage others to speak out. Yes, this country needs more consumer advocates. Because these days, word-of-mouth has so much more meaning than a 40-million TV ad campaign.

Cheers, everyone.

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Living Solo: Doing Groceries

We use these nice recyclable shopping bags from Rustan's. Use less plastic, I always say!

One of the chores that appeal to me the most about living solo is hitting the supermarket a couple times a week to get supplies- food, personal care stuff, sundries, etc.

It’s a very empowering activity; you spend the money you make however you wish.  You decide what kind of bread you’d be eating that week, what kind of meat you want in your sandwiches, what brand of soap you’ll be using, or how much junk food you’d like to stash away.

The purpose of doing groceries is really to maximize your earnings.  Sure, you can probably afford to have pizza or Chinese food delivered to your home every few days, but you couldn’t possibly keep up that kind of spending every day of the month- at least not without severely throwing your carefully planned budget out the window.

Heck, even if you could afford it, you know you could spend your cash better than that.  A well-stocked pad, apartment or house also gives you that peace of mind that, yes, you do have everything you might possibly need at home.

You might not realize it, but there’s a system of sorts to buying groceries, or at least when putting together your shopping list.  Here are a few tips to consider when stocking up on supplies for the week.

1.  Get Your Basics First. These are the things you can’t do without- stuff you regularly consume on a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly basis- and it totally depends on your lifestyle and size of household.

In my case, the basics for a regular week of groceries would most likely include:
- A loaf of wheat bread.  For my sandwiches.
- A carton of milk.
- A tray of eggs, 1 dozen.
- A bag of rice, 2 kilos.  If I feel like having rice, at least.
- Fruits in season.
- Garlic, onion and tomatoes.
- Cat food, several cans.  Plus a bag of dry.
- A couple bottles of drinks- which could be soda, juice or iced tea.

2.  Next, put in semi-regulars. You probably won’t be using these up in a week, so you might want to add these items to your list every month, every other month, or even every few months.

- Personal Care Items:  bath soap, shampoo, toothpaste, talcum powder, deodorant, cotton buds, etc.
- Breakfast Items: boxes of cereal, coffee, tea, cream, sugar or sweeteners, jams and spreads, etc.
- Canned Goods:  corned beef, tuna, sardines, spam, mixed fruit, etc.
- Kitchen Needs: cooking oil, spices, condiments, etc.
- Paper products: toilet paper, kitchen towels, facial tissue.
- Sundries: dishwashing liquid, trash bags, microwaveable containers, etc.

3.  After those, you should then consider specific recipes you’ll be cooking or preparing within the week.  It might actually help if you have a food plan of sorts- but as long as you figure out what you need, go right ahead and add whatever ingredients you might need to your list.

-  If I wanted to cook adobo, for example, I will then add to my list: a half-kilo of pork, a half-kilo of chicken legs, soy sauce, cane vinegar, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaf.
-  If I wanted chicken sandwich that week, I’d get me some chicken breasts, mayonnaise, a head of lettuce and some tomatoes.  And some sandwich bags, if I plan to take them to work.
-  If I wanted to prepare some bolognese pasta, I’ll be requiring a half-kilo of ground beef, onions, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, red and green pepper, and a pack of pasta like spaghetti, penne or fettucine.  I might also end up picking up some garlic bread and wine to go with it.

4.  Also, consider specific tasks you plan to do, or events you have happening that week.  Again, figure out what you need, and add it to your list.

- If I was hosting a small DVD marathon/get-together at home, I’d probably get more beverages, a few six-packs of beer, microwaveable popcorn, several bags of potato chips and other snacks, some more table napkins, paper plates, plastic spoons and forks,  and some extra trash bags.
- If I’ll be doing some major cleaning in the bathroom, I’ll probably be needing some rubber gloves, a bottle of mildew and mold remover, toilet bowl cleaning liquid, cleanser, deodorizer, a variety of cleaning implements, and maybe some new bathrugs.

5.  Lastly, after you’ve stocked up on your essentials, you may now get all your other extras- snacks, candies, magazines, etc.

-  If I’m on low-carb mode, I’d go ahead and get more cashew nuts, sugar-free cookies and candies, low-carb yogurt and/or sugar-free ice cream.
-  Otherwise, I’ll go ahead and get myself several bags of Lay’s, Nachos and a jar of cheese sauce, some Yakult, and rosquillo cookies.

Mmm… Kettle Cooked Potato Chips…

So there you have it- a simple guide to picking up groceries at the supermarket.  Get your essentials first, then task-specific goods, and finally your extras.

Cheers, everyone.

Globe’s Internet Services Disappoint

When you’re a company that spends millions of pesos on advertising money, positioning yourself as a warm and caring internet service provider, I say you’d better have a customer service culture that’s truly reflective of what you promote, as well as a team that can back up your claims.

As a paying customer, I fork out a regular monthly amount to get a service I should be getting with no worries and no fuss.

Unfortunately, it seems that even satisfactory customer service is too much to ask for these days. So let me share to you my story on how terribly disappointed I am with Globe, and how my Globelines internet sucks right now.

My Problematic Globe Broadband Connection

Now here’s how this story goes: I fly in from Los Angeles earlier this month and come home to an internet-less apartment. As far as I’m concerned, my payments have been current, but my girlfriend- kickass that she is- had already taken the initiative of calling up Globelines- my current broadband internet service provider- to figure out what’s going down with my connection, and why I supposedly have problems with my Globelines landline and internet.

Looking back, I’ve had problems and connection issues with Globe before, and I’ll admit that Globe had been fairly reliable and prompt in dealing with my phone/internet issues.

Until now.

These past several days, it’s been a stressful cycle of getting assurances from Globe, calling up the 919.8888 customer service hotline, waiting for some miracle to happen, filing yet another complaint at the Globelines payment center, getting yet more false assurances- this crap has been going on long enough.

What do I have to show for it so far? The contact center Globe has employed to run their customer service/tech support hotline (Alorica, I believe, is one of two) have nothing to give but generic, pre-fabricated spiels- I don’t think most of these agents even get the urgency of the situation.

Even their stories don’t match: the customer service reps in the Globelines Center in Greenbelt were already beseiged by a number of irate clients hurling invectives and cursing Globe to high heavens for various reasons. This was what I observed when I came over to file yet another complaint- my third one- last 06 July 2008.

I was curious to know why there was this sudden influx of more-than-dissatisfied customers, so in between tirades, I managed to ask a Customer Service Rep why this was all happening.

There was a shortage in service personnel, was what they said. Ever since the last typhoon that hit, Globe technical and customer services had already been spread thin.

Understandable, I suppose. But I also noticed that the customer service desks also have to call their own Customer Service hotline- 919.8888- to facilitate customer concerns. They were also waiting for several minutes, and given the same song-and-dance- a service I could subject myself to from the comfort of my own home, if I wanted it.

To the CSR’s credit, they got my number and apologized (the contact center’s personnel were on lunch break), and assured me that I would be getting a call from them for an update. Which, again to their credit, I got later that afternoon. Aura of Globelines Greenbelt informed me that I was on their priority list (like it really means anything), and that some crewperson would be checking out my connections- something the call center relayed through them, no doubt.

Completely inefficient, aren’t they? So reflective of Philippine bureaucracy. And you wonder why we can’t have anything done in this country?

Once More Into The Fray

Fast forward to one week later: It’s been 12 days that I’ve gone without internet at home- 12 fracking days! Now how the frack am I supposed to get any work done?

Another call goes to the Globelines 919.8888 hotline: navigating through the irritatingly artificial voiceprompts, I finally get through to a customer service rep after 15 minutes of being on hold.

Angel was this CSR’s name. I was given the same song-and-dance on how there was “ongoing network restoration” and crap. What a spiel-monkey.

I was already pissed off by this time, and insisted on speaking with a supervisor. No, it was not OK to wait- but I really have no choice, do I? Seems like you couldn’t do anything done around here if you don’t speak to a supervisor or a manager. Useless, inutile spiel-monkeys, all of them.

I was waiting for said supervisor while blogging this very post- and the idiot Angel didn’t even put me on hold (with the cheesy repetitive crappy music), so I could hear the call center chatter from my end. The bitch totally left me hanging, didn’t she? And you can hear her fellow CSRs’ horseplay- how typical of Philippine contact centers at their lowest.

An hour goes by. Seriously, an hour. Are Globelines supervisors and managers really in the habit of making paying customers wait for an hour? I know I was relatively calm and composed- you can just imagine how many more angry customers there are out there.

Special shout-out to Globelines CSR Angel: Look, I know how underpaid and terribly ‘overworked’ you are. But if you couldn’t do your job right- i.e. putting the phone on hold properly so your managers can clean up the messes you make- then by all means resign, and let somebody else take that monthly salary of yours and put it into better use. You give Philippine customer reps a bad name.

I give the Globelines 919.8888 number another call. This time, Jeff picks up after 5 minutes of waiting. Once again, I give my obligatory subscriber information. I ask him to find out who the supervisor/manager on board is.
He comes back after a few minutes and begins to rattle off some pre-prepared spiel on how busy they all were. I cut him off to tell him that all I want, really, is the name of the supervisor-on-board.

Jeff tells me “Marami sila (There are many)”. I asked him exactly how many supervisors there really are.

Jeff reveals the staggering number: Three.

Three supervisors. So what are their names? Surely he could easily tell me three names.

Jeff then informs me that I couldn’t get the name of all 3 supervisors. And why not, I wonder? What seems to be wrong with that? Jeff adds that the supervisor will identify himself when he takes my call. You could’ve told me that in the first place, Jeff. Tsk tsk.

Fair enough. But before I chew on a supervisor’s head, I just had to ask poor hapless Jeff a few more questions.

I asked him how many agents they have on the floor right now. 40 CSRs, is what he answered. I asked another question: how busy are they all right now? Very busy, was what he answered this time (of course they were!).

While Jeff had been relatively polite and calm, I realized this conversation was going nowhere, so I asked him to patch me through to his supervisor now. Which he did.

After three minutes, someone named Lindsey Dizon identified himself as the supervisor. He was apologetic and sounded rather sincere- he went on to give me a quick review of what had been going on, based on my connection logs and incident reports. He also proceeded to tell me what steps they’d be taking with all this information, etc.

Do I really need a supervisor to get anything done around here?

With some more questioning, he told me that my case was an isolated one, meaning most other connections originating from the same Globe cabinet have reported no trouble- just mine.

He also assures me that he’d be personally updating me with what’s going on until my issues get resolved.

We’ll see about that.

It’s been Day 14 so far. The inconvenience of going to free wi-fi places and hooking up from friend’s places can be tiresome real quickly.

Curse you, Globe. You give me another reason to hate this country, and want to move to another.

The Lesser of Two Evils.

Inept as Globe customer service is, PLDT is so much worse. My girlfriend often complains of intermittent connections, and sometimes, days without any internet signals at all. On top of a customer service system that truly sucks.

So if you’re thinking of switching to PLDT, keep in mind that you might be just digging yourself out of one hellhole into another- vexingly more hellish- hole.

It’s the story of the Philippines, really. Both broadband/DSL providers- Globe and PLDT- suck. They suck, that’s the bottom line. Unfortunately for us paying consumers- all we can do is choose the one that sucks less.

Seems that once companies like Globe and PLDT have our money, and sucked us into their flawed systems, it’s all that really matters to them. Customer service? Fuck that. Technical support? Screw you. We have your money- we’ll work on your problems when we feel like it.

Exactly the kind of culture that not only makes the rich richer, but also the kind that drives this country down.

Now that’s truly, truly sad.

10 Observations About Los Angeles

That's me with Tish, Alex and Erika- just hangin' out after I flew back from LA.

I flew in from Los Angeles just last week, and I gotta say- there’s really no place like home, no matter how crappy home is.

Needless to say, my friends took me out so we could swap stories- they would update me on what’s been going on in the Philippines, and I could tell them about my observations on life in LA. For the most part, they’re very curious on how things are in Los Angeles and the United States. In fact, they’re quite open with the idea of checking it out themselves and come over for a visit some time soon as well.

So we hooked up the weekend after my arrival at one of our favorite spots- Banapple in Katipunan- for stories over coffee and cake.

This is what I had to share about Los Angeles:

1. Despite being such a large city, Los Angeles is so much cleaner than the Philippines- better city-wide sanitation programs, much more trees in and around the city, and everyone doing their part in keeping the environement clean.

This photo of the Americana at Brand was taken at around 7pm.

2. At the time I was in LA, the sun sets at around 8pm. Now, ain’t that something?

3. Los Angeles weather is generally agreeable with Pinoys- it’s generally cooler, but the temperature can get warm as much as it does here in the Philippines. Though my sister says that it can get even warmer. Warm enough to start brushfires up in the mountains and the other dryer spots. Yikes!

4. Los Angeles is all freeway. You gotta drive from place to place for the most part- which means having a car (and subsequently, driving it around) is definitely a necessity.

5. Traffic violations are stiff: swerving from a car pool lane for example can get you fined US$500, and another US$500 swerving back in. Just before I left, a new law was being enforced: all mobile phones must be hands-free when you’re driving in LA.

6. Speaking of traffic: a traffic jam in LA is like 2pm or 3pm traffic down in EDSA- cars slowing down to 10 or 15mph, so you’re still moving considerably, but definitely nothing compared to standstill jams we have in the Philippines during rush hour.

7. Services as generally expensive: cabs, salons, spas, repairs, plumbing, carpentry, etc. Some of the few things I actually miss from the Philippines- cheap laundry services, cabs whenever I want to take em, a massage every couple weeks, and a haircut every few.

8. Lots of great food places- in fact, Los Angeles is the kind of place that makes you want to start a food blog. You get massive food servings for your money. And there’s a great mix of familiar restaurant chains and local food spots.

The Veal Parmigiana at Fratelli's in Montrose

You also got a good variety of groceries, supermarkets, local farmers’ markets and specialty stores that carry just about any ingredient you need to cook that recipe you may have seen on The Food Network or Top Chef.

Inside the Whole Foods in Pasadena, as seen in Top Chef Season 4

You won’t miss Filipino food since there are also a lot of Pinoy and Asian stores in the general vicinity of Los Angeles- which means you have access at least to the ingredients you’d need for Filipino home cooking. A lot of neighborhoods are even a lot more Pinoy-friendly, with a variety of Asian restaurants and stores- including Philippine fast food outlets

9. Also a real big deal: ever-rising gas prices. A lot of people have also opted to commute more, ride bikes more, and even work from home more.

10. Los Angeles has great opportunities for making cash. Forget about the recession- it’s still economically better than the Philippines by a wide margin. With good enough timing, you can find just about any job you want, or land a series of part-time gigs, or even go completely entrepreneurial if you feel like you can meet the needs of a specific niche.

Renzie in LA: At the Silver Saddle Ranch, June 2008

Bottom Line: Los Angeles California is a great place for Filipinos visiting the United States for the first time. They will find the weather generally to their liking, and the proximity to other Pinoys- particularly family and friends already in the US very appealing.

Also, with the opportunity to make a lot more cash whether through employment, part-time work or business, anyone with the right skill sets and a passion to make money will find it very fulfilling.

Cheers, everyone!

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