Reah’s Crib

To get your Philippine passport photo taken is a tricky task. What if, it is not the right photo requirement? Then it would be a waste of money right?

Well, what I did was just trust the staff from the photo studio I went to. It was the studio near Mendiola, Manila or to be exact, in front of Samson Technology nearby Mendiola. If I remember it right, the name of the studio is Dreamscape. I told the staff that I need the photo for passport application, and with royal blue background. I don’t remember the price. It was about a year ago already.

Before I went to the studio, I called the Passport hotline (737-1000) to verify the rules for the photo requirement especially the size of the Philippine passport. And here is what it says in the website:

Three (3) colored photos of the applicant taken against a royal blue background & no shadow. Applicant should be in decent attire with collar & sleeves and in dark-colored shirt. Photo must be studio taken & of good quality, and must have been taken within the last six (6) months. Photo size: 4.5 cm x 3.5 cm. Facial image size: About 3cm-tip of head to chin; with 8-10mm head clearance from top edge. Ears and forehead should be visible. Wearing of accessories, colored contact lenses or eyeglasses, with name/name board are not allowed. DFA has the right to reject photos that do not comply with specifications and international standards.

source: http://www.passport.com.ph/app/requirements/new.php

Although when you go to the DFA to process your passport application and found out that your photo is not the right requirement, there are photo express centers inside. I don’t remember the price.

After 9 long months, I finally got my SSS ID. What the. It is supposed to be released after a month I applied for it right? I waited a month or two, but because of the long period of waiting, I already forgot about my SSS ID application until the postman arrived last Monday, January 12, and gave me the new ID.

I applied for the SSS ID on April 29, 2008. Well, I’m not sure about the date since I already lost my claim stub. But I’m certain it was last week of April. Oh well… at least I got it now and I now have another valid ID.

Last monday, I went trekking together with my friend Dame, her brother Dan, her friend Carlo, and Carlo’s friend Jay. I was reluctant to go for some reasons, but Dame and Carlo were able to convince me to go. Anyway, I had never been inside a tent (we would stay overnight), and I didn’t have any recent pictures to post in Facebook so I decided to go. (Lol… what a reason..)

We took the new trail and according to our guide, the kid Wilson, the new trail is easier than the old trail. Easier eh… I had to control my breath every time the path was narrow, and crawled the ground when the slope was so steep, because “You couldn’t afford to make gulong-gulong. Or else you’re dead.”

We did not continue walking to the summit that afternoon. We just decided to start setting up the camp.

That night I wasn’t able to sleep. The strong wind made me paranoid, that I thought it would blew away the tent I was in. At 10 P.M. Carlo went out to check if it was his fly sheet that was flapping. He figured it was ours (which I knew) and told us (dame was with me inside) to get out so we could fix the tent. Carlo said, Dame and I set up the tent wrongly. (See, I had a reason to get paranoid. LOL, nevertheless, I was still paranoid since I wasn’t able to sleep until 2 PM. Dame woke up and stayed up until I could sleep.)

In the morning, they teased me for being paranoid. They said that such strong wind on the mountains is normal, although it was slightly stronger than those average wind, but not strong enough to make them worry (Trekking is their hobby. So they know.)

At 8.30 AM, Dan, Dame, and Jay went to the summit. Carlo and I decided not to go. It was a foggy morning.

However, when Dame, Dan, and Jay came back from the summit, I was envious of their experience. I felt bad about myself that I was such a coward to go. Well, you couldn’t blame me, if I think I am weak to walk on those narrow trails on top. They wouldn’t be able to grab me when I would be out of balance anyway. But I hope I could go to the summit someday.

Finally, after 37 working days, or 7 weeks, the results are here!

One of my close friends just texted me in the middle of the night to announce the good news, that we passed the Licensure Exam for Teachers! I immediately turned my computer on, and went to Inquirer.net’s article to check the results, and there I found my name in the long list of LET passers. Yehey! Time to celebrate!

Oathtaking Ceremony for takers from N.C.R will be on December 16, at Cuneta Astrodome, 9 A.M. According to PRC’s statement, ”the requirements for the issuance of Certificate of Registration and Professional Identification Card (ID) are the following:

• duly accomplished Oath Form or Panunumpa ng Propesyonal, latest Community Tax Certificate (Cedula);
• 1 piece 1” x 1” picture (colored with white background and complete name tag),
• 2 pieces 2” x 2” picture (colored with white background and complete name tag), metered documentary stamp for the Oath Form; and
• the Initial Registration Fee of P600 and Annual Registration Fee of P450 for 2008-2011.

Successful examinees should personally register and sign in the Roster of Registered Professionals.”

If you want to see the results, click the letter of your Surname.

Elementary teachers’ results

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  

N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  Y  Z  

Secondary teachers’ results

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M 

 N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  Y  Z  

I just had verified my Philippine PayPal account today. Yipee!

I’m a member since June last year, but it was only today it got verified since I didn’t really have a debit/credit card. None until I got my EON debit card from UnionBank.

I applied for an EON Card last October 7 in UnionBank’s branch located in Diliman Commercial Center. The branch is just under Convergys Commonwealth. I just signed up the application form and submitted photocopies of my Passport, and Postal ID. I also had to show them my ID’s to verify if they were real. Gee…

Then, I got my card after almost a month, last November 6. When I got the EON card, I paid the Php 350.00 annual fee, but did not push through on depositing fund to the card since it would take two days before the card would get activated. I think others immediately deposit money after they get their card, but I opted not to.

While waiting for my card to get activated, I decided to enroll it for an EON cyber account, but I still couldn’t log-in since my card is not yet activated. I was just excited you know.

But just right after I checked my EON card at the ATM yesterday, I was able to log-in as well to my EON cyber account when I got home. So today, I decided to deposit Php800 to my EON card, so I could verify my PayPal account. I just followed the steps in PayPal and get the PayPal code from my EON cyber account transaction records. PayPal deducted $1.95 USD (or Php96.79 and Php1.00) from my EON account. Then in just a few minutes my PayPal got verified. Yehey.

I just wonder now though how I can add funds. I still have to figure that out. =(

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UPDATE: I had just clicked the link to make my PayPal account a Premier account, I thought i have to pay for the upgrade so I just continued clicking, without noticing I didn’t have to pay, but just activate the Premier account. So, since I realized it is already a Premier PayPal account instead of the Personal one, I decided to close the account and create a new one. I don’t want to be charge when people send money to me unless, there are really people sending money to me through their credit card. The only thing here, is I wasted $2, I should have waited for it to be refunded before I closed the account. Oh well….

It’s a month now since my friends and I have taken the Licensure Exam for Teachers. Did we make it? I really hope so, even if we just had reviewed for a limited time. 

__________

Update: After 7 long weeks, the results are here! We passed the test. =)

To see the results, click the letter of your Surname.

Elementary teachers’ results

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Secondary teachers’ results

A B C D E F G H I J K L M

N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

Today, I was reviewing the laws related to Philippines Education, decided to browse online, what other resources could I read, and just happened to land on PRC’s official website. Being an internet savvy, I decided to explore the site and surprised to see there the room assignments for September 28 Licensure Exam for Teachers. Since my application was for Secondary Education specializing in English, I clicked the linked for English and Literature, and on the pdf file that loaded, I found out that I will be taking the exam in UE-Recto.

Oh my, this is it. I have been worried these past few days what my room assignment would be, since I didn’t receive any letter, yet, and was so happy I found it online. Now, I just have to be prepared for that day.

“Bakit sa Thailand shi-noot at hindi sa Pilipinas?” was also my question when I first learned that Survivor Philippines was held in Thailand and not in the Philippines. I was glad though that I saw one of Paolo Bediones’ interviews; I think it was in Startalk where he answered this question. He said that according to the franchise contract, the host country must film their episodes outside the country, in this case, GMA-7 chose Thailand as the shooting location of Survivor Philippines.

I watched the first episode last night, and it was cool. However, I am disappointed that the tribes are divided to girls and boys, and GMA did not mix them. It will be obvious who will win this game, unless not all of the games will be physical. But either it will be a physical or mental game for an episode, it is still unfair to girls if they are competing against boys. I hope though that at one part, they will mix it as sort of punishment or something.

But thinking of the logic, GMA might have thought of Filipino values, “hiya” and “respeto sa kababaihan”. I am not sure, but those are the best reasons I can think of why GMA did that. If the tribes are mixed girls and boys, and they will be in their camp, some sort of relationships may evolved, or boys might take advantage seeing girls almost wearing nothing all the time. (But hey, there are cameramen there!)

Tonight is the pilot episode for Philippine’s version of Survivor, a popular reality TV show. It will be aired after Ako si Kim Sam Soon.

I would almost missed it, if not for my brother who was watching 24-Oras, wherein one of the news was the teaser for the first episode. It was also my first time to have heard the voices of the lucky participants, and their accents were noticeable,as they shouted ‘Survivor ako!’

The mix is really interesting as well. One is a labandera, another is an executive, one is a web designer, then one a company driver, etc. You can see here the full list of 18 castaways and their careers prior to joining Survivor Philippines. I hope I can follow each episode.

Hosted by Paolo Bediones, Survivor Philippines was filmed in Thailand from July 21 to August 29, 2008.