a couple of guys came knocking on our front door yesterday afternoon. i was taking a nap and looked rather disheveled when i opened the door, and hastily put on a jacket before hearing what reason they had for disturbing my siesta (and it had better be good).

they were marketing a product, apparently. i'm inclined to turn salesmen down right at the outset, but they were talking about saving on our electricity bill. i'm always keen to listen to ways to save on bills, so i guess they got my attention. XD

i woke up aru as well and asked him to accompany me and listen to what they had to say.

they started by informing us that most appliances in the philippines were on 220V, but electricity usually spikes up to 240V to 250V during power surges or after a blackout when power suddenly comes back on. this is meralco's fault, they said. they pointed me towards our meralco meter, which had "240V" written on it. they said meralco allows surges like that to happen, so that electricity generated is greater, meaning more money for them.

their product, called starpower, corrects the flow of electricity so that it is maintained at 220V. they demonstrated by making me look at the electricity meter while they turned their machine on. there really was a noticeable slowdown in the revolution of the disc in the meter. they assured me this was because the electricity flow was corrected, regulating electricity generation at the right flow.

their machine looked like a small AVR, and you only had to plug it into one socket and it will work for the whole house. they were offering a lifetime guarantee and product support in case of problems.

the price? it was originally php 13,000 but they're offering 50% off - php 7,500. i'm thinking it's a good deal since they're promising it will reduce our php 5,000 monthly electricity bill to around php 3,000. o__o

but of course, i have my qualms. can't be too careful of scams. i asked if it was legal, they said it was. they said that if they messed with the meter or electricity line directly, that was illegal. but their product was plugged into a socket, and that it wasn't interfering with the provision of service by meralco. and it doesn't heat up or anything.

in principle, benta na sa akin. XD i just want to make sure that it's legal and safe and won't destroy my house or otherwise cause me more trouble than its worth.

i wanted to know if you guys have heard of this offer before? any known issues or what? i got their number, should i call them back and reserve a unit for our house?

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on a lighter note, while those two were speaking with us, aru strangely wouldn't get up from his seat. he told me to be the one to check the meter during the product demonstration and all.

when the salesmen were gone and we went to the kitchen to talk about the product, he pulled out a HUGE pair of scissors from his back pocket.

kimi: O__O
aru: (rubbing his back) it was poking at my butt.
kimi: but why have scissors inside your pocket??
aru: (nonchalantly) so that i have a weapon in case they turn out to be robbers or murderers, you know?
kimi: ...
aru: and one of them was a pervert, i caught him sneak a look down the gap of your jacket. he saw me looking at him and i think he sweated a little.
kimi: ......

this, i think, is primarily the reason why i should probably not live alone. i can be totally oblivious to such hazards. =__=

things are looking up.

belated happy birthday to kuya moxitus!

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laptop = on budget
tito and the gang = subtract increased household bills and groceries to budget
dog bites helper = subtract php 10,000.00 worth of anti-rabies meds to budget

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i found a torrent for Tapestry zomg. DOWNLOAD ET.

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fck firefox 3.

i can't bear the errors i get whenever i access web pages with lots of ads. i can't bear having to restart downloads when i get the stupid errors. i can't bear having to restart downloads because it disabled free download manager and you have to use their download manager. the last straw was when YM links started opening with IE and not firefox.

i'm going back to firefox 2. someone notify me when the above issues are resolved, only then will i upgrade.

when it rains, it FUCKING POURS.

i feel i haven't done a thing for christmas yet. >_<

it's so odd, feeling that i am the one who should be in charge of our family's christmas celebration. last year my parents came home and yeah, we helped with decorating, wrapping presents, but my mom was Supreme Commander™ with the whole preparation deal.

i only remembered we had to decorate yesterday, when our helper was already hauling boxes of decor from the bodega.

i said, "okay, i think we can decorate now," then did some work on the computer, and then i came out and the tree was up. =.=

i feel like such a scrooge, concentrating on work, not having time to shop for gifts, ignoring carolers, ignoring notices from our community that a christmas party is to be held on such and such date. >_<

i'm taking a very loooong leave after all my work is done, i swear. then maybe i can celebrate christmas properly.

last night after watching some supernatural season 3 episodes i went to sleep while aru continued to marathon some more episodes.

i was suddenly awakened by aru's shout of "who's there?"

i became alert when he said that there was someone outside, in our back yard.

around 3am this morning, aru saw someone lurking and trying to peer through our bedroom window, presumably to see if we were asleep. aru first thought that it was my brother wanting to smoke outside but wondered at the odd time he chose to go out. plus my brother smokes in his own room, anyway.

aru and the lurker made eye contact and, as aru put it, "we were both shocked. i yelled and he ran away."

when the man took off, aru took out my dad's old bolo (a weapon which could kill someone not because fatal wounds, but most probably because of tetanus o.O) and checked the kitchen, alerted my brother and our helpers, and checked on our baby girl.

what did i do? i was just sitting there on the bed stricken with shock. =.=

we've been living in this house for 10 years now and this is the first time something like this happened. we've heard reports of other houses being robbed in our subdivision but it's really different if you experience it (or almost experience being robbed) firsthand. it's such a scary feeling, thinking that all this time we were safe, not knowing that maybe one night somebody's watching through the windows.

i feebly suggested to aru that he call subdivision security, and that's about the only helpful thing i did. aru described the man to the guards and they promised to make rounds near our premises. i doubt they'd find anything, though. the guy took off real fast.

would have been better (for me anyway) if it were some ghost out of supernatural, instead of a real person. T_T i don't know how aru was able to handle it. i would have fainted myself if i saw some strange person outside our window at 3am. T__T

we weren't able to sleep much after that incident. i was so scared the man might come back with a gun or something. we double-checked the locks and nearly kicked our stupid dog for not detecting anything. but the dog wasn't really to blame. it was raining last night, and i bet the man chose a rainy night so nobody would hear him moving about much.

it was really a stroke of luck that aru was still awake. aru is an insomniac, but for the past few nights he'd been sleeping quite well. it was only last night that he was again awake during the wee hours, maybe because of the episodes marathon we had.

i foresee more sleepless nights now, not only for him but for me, too.

it is so hot even the ants are thirsty. i left a glass of water on my pc table only to find it mobbed by ants who appear to be drinking from it. while maintaining a neat line on the water edge, of course.

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our modem seems fried, too. a 474kb file downloaded 10 minutes ftw.

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bought 40 pieces of paracetamol. all of them consumed in two weeks. it seems i need to impose drug control protocols in this house now, too.

our house number got changed. ~_~

our subdivision initiated this project some weeks back to organize the house numbers in our area as there was some confusion in some house numbers because of empty lots, etc.

thought we were okay since ina told us when we got our house number that they got it from the homeowners' association.

well, apparently the association was wrong.

our house number is 12 now, not 10.

i like the number and all (1x2 lol) but i can't help but think of the horror of having to go through postal problems as most everyone we gave our address to knows that our house number is 10. the bills are no problem since those were registered before we had a house number so those indicate the block and lot number. but there still are other important institutions that have our address, like banks.

the headache. ~__~