Let me share this sad story to you guys, this is all about my unfortunate experience with Paypal.

If you haven't known, Paypal is an e-commerce business which allows electronic payments and money transfers, so this is done over the internet. The account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. This is really popular to those online vendors and among programmers who render services OTA (over the air).

I did sign up for a Paypal account sometime in March, 2010 for my boyfriend's use. I admit there were some user problems that time, I used my father's debit banco de Oro account instead of my own, thinking that it is okay as long as I can add an account to it. My boyfriend then had received a couple of payments from his employer from the US and he had sent it to my Paypal account, and we were thinking there was never a problem with it.
When we were about to withdraw the amount, the account then became limited. When I signed in to my account, I had this message here: 

Or you can read my Paypal Account Limited post.

I then researched on the web on how to resolve it and if others had experienced this problem as well. Not surprising though because I had already visioned that many have this problem as well. Others were able to solve it by merely submitting documents and other papers to paypal. Others call paypal's customer service and there were some who wrote paypal and send it via email. In my case, any of these did not work. I tried sending a document, my driver's license, I sent them an email and explained about everything but there was no improvement. I received this email in return:

"from webform@intl.paypal.com  to me
   
Dear jean Beltran,

Thank you for inquiring as to how to restore access to your account.

PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening
the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account and need
more information to help us provide you with secure service. Until we
can collect this information, your access to sensitive account features
will be limited.

To return your account to regular standing, please complete the
checklist items indicated when you login to your account and click on
the link provided on the "Account Overview" page.

The link will appear as: "Your account access is limited: Click here for
Details."

Once you complete all of the checklist items, our Account Review team
will review your case and send you an email with the outcome of the
review. Cases are reviewed in the order they are received.

We regret any inconvenience, and we would like to restore your access as
soon as possible.

Please do not respond to this email, as responses to this message will
not be answered.

Sincerely,

PayPal Account Review Team"

This email has been sent to me five times, woah...seemed like they're thinking I don't understand what they mean or something. Well, I never called them because that costs a lot of money. I even had opened a new EON account because according to my research, EON works perfectly with paypal. I was happy when I finally received my EON ATM card and added it on my account but still, there was no progress at all.

I let James send another email to paypal because with his case, he was able to resolve his account limitation without sending any document, just a mere email with "todo-todo" explanation and that was a two day process. So he then sent another explanation letter and resent the driver's license. At the end of the day, I received this email:

"from webform@intl.paypal.com to me
   
Dear jean Beltran,

Thanks for your email. We'll do our best to get back to you within 24
hours. It might take a bit longer (depending on the question), but we
try hard not to keep you waiting longer than 72 hours.

In the meantime, check out some of our online resources:

Help Center
- Find answers to common questions.
- Chat with our virtual customer service representative (if applicable).

- See what other people are asking.

To go to the Help Center, just click “Help” at the top of any page.

Security Center
- Find information on buying and selling safely.
- Report a problem with a transaction.
- Report fake emails or websites.

To go to the Security Center, just click “Security Center” at the top of
any page.

We look forward to helping you.

Sincerely,

PayPal"

I had some kind of hope that time,  I thought I could get the amount now after all of those trials.(char) But just before the light of hope came to lighten my hopeless heart, I received another email and this one is heart shattering:

"service@intl.paypal.com
 to me
   
Hello jean Beltran,

For the safety and security of the PayPal network, we often review accounts
for potential risks. After reviewing your account, we have decided to close
it because of security issues.

We are making every effort to minimize any disruption to your business.

If your PayPal account balance is zero, and you have no unresolved buyer
complaints or chargebacks, your account will remain limited.

-----------------------------------
Disbursement options
-----------------------------------

Option 1. If you owe refunds to any of your buyers, you can use the money
in your PayPal account to refund them.

To refund your buyers:
1. Log in to your PayPal account.
2. Click "Contact Us" at the bottom of any page.
3. Click "Contact Customer Service."
4. Under "Choose a Topic," select "Sending/Receiving Money."
5. Under "Choose a Subtopic," select "Refund/Cancel a Payment."
6. Click "Continue" and follow the instructions to refund payments.

Option 2. Money in your PayPal account will be held for 180 days. After 180
days, we'll email you information on how to receive your funds.

We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Thanks,

PayPal"

Woaaah! There it is, after everything, the account has been closed. So that was the ending of my sad story, I would not be able to get the money anymore. I was already thinking on how to spend that amount but Paypal had just taken it away from me.

I really thought that was the end but it wasn't. At the last part, there was a note about what will happen if there is an amount of money on the account.

So I will need to wait for 180 days before they could send the information on how I can get the funds out of it. After 48 years, I will need to wait again for another 48 years to get that amount. Isn't it so sad?

I spent my weekend at the province, since my boyfriend invited me to go there because it was their “barangay’s fiesta” and he was also in a vacation leave. Aside from the Fiesta celebration, they also had another event to celebrate with, it was their lolo's "Tapos", and it’s on this event where in their family and relatives get together to commemorate the first year anniversary of their lost grandfather. This is a native culture for us Filipinos, actually. In Bohol, what I could remember if they talk about "Tapos" is that the family who observes this will prepare food and packed it either in a plastic or something else. The packed meal contains a cup of cooked rice and some viands too. "Bihon" is the most common viand, which I mostly see inside those packed meals. But anyway, in Oslob they don't pack the meal in a plastic and give it to the people in the neighborhood. They just put everything in one table and let everyone get the food from there. This shows an act of hospitalism for me, anyone can get each plate and start picking his own meal.

What I noticed with James Family's event was that there were no outsiders during the celebration. All of them were merely relatives, some were from far places, and I also came to meet his aunt from Manila and his uncle from abroad who's a seaman.

I had taken some pictures during the preparation of the event; unfortunately I was not able to take photos during the actual event. 

He is a family friend and a neighbor, I was surprised by how he cooked, and he was using a coconut branch here so to reach the pan without getting so much heat. He was cooking the ingredient for “Dinuguan” or Vampire’s Stew.

 

In the above photo, they are cooking “Ginamay,” the dish is really tasty. The dominating ingredients are pork and tomatoes. The boy in the photo is Badi, James’ first-degree cousin and the guy who is half naked is James’ mom’s first-degree cousin as well.

I am becoming hungry now by looking this.

This is James’ tita’s husband; he was surprised when I took him a picture so he is smiling here. He is cooking “chicharon” here, this is a simple dish but mind you, this is very tasty. The pork meat is just placed on the pan and he will wait for the meat to become reddish. This is also a way for them to get pork oil. This really has lot cholesterol in it. Hehehe so be careful when you eat this, make sure you have medicines with you.

They would place the cooked ones in a bucket with holes so to rinse the oil.

Some of the viands were already cooked when I woke up so I missed the cooking session, but here are some of them.

And my all time “paborito”…

We also had “videoke” sessions after eating lunch up to “sawa.” James’ family enjoyed the whole day and made sure everyone had sung to the top of their lungs before the day ended.

We went back to the city seven in the morning the next day. I regret that I was not able to take photos of the remodeled park at the back of their church. But no worries, I will make sure to take photos the next time I will visit the place, soon. 

On my last post entitled: Wish I may, Wish I might, I had wished that I may be able to use the pen tool and create digital photos, so I started working and researching about it.

Super happy today because I had created my first line art through Adobe Photoshop CS4.  This is the result of my research and hardwork, tadaaa!

This is not a finish product though but I am proud that I was able to create one. I used two tools here, pen and brush tools. I am thankful with this site that I bumped into while doing the research, it was a site of Melissa Clifton and she had posts starting with the basic up until the finish product. What I did here is actually on the second stage of the tutorial, after this, I should be able to create a halftone image. However, since I am too excited to show you my creation, I did not wait til I get the final product. I thought it will be better if you guys can also see the progress of my work. So starting with the line art first since this is the basics. I never thought that this is too easy until I read Melissa's tutorial, minus the experiment part. Well, there are instances that you don't have to follow the steps given in the tutorial, we need to really experiment on our own.

So, there you go, I will soon be posting here my creations and the improvements to be in the future. Hope you can also give me tips on how to improve my work, if you could.

Thanks!!

Our team mate just came home from Boracay and he had brought us a couple of stuffs. I was never been to Bora actually, I am longing to get there but there was never been a chance yet, hopefully I can get there in the future. Our teammate, Voltaire Songcuya, or he prefers to be called Volts, has a resto bar in Bora, I mean his family has and he stayed there for a long time, he originally is from Iloilo but they have their business in Bora so he stayed there. He migrated to Cebu for some reasons, and those reasons I actually don't know but it is a good thing that he is here because we were able to taste the delicacies of Boracay and their own restobar.

First and foremost, I got this artistic keychain. 

It is made of coconut shells and that it was shaped like in a slipper. It has a flower in the middle and has a print in the bottom which is "Boracay Phil." I placed it on my ID strap to make it as an accessory. :) Thanks volts.

Second, he brought this two delicacies from Bora which are really mouth watering. The delicacy was named Baye-baye, it is a white soft circular thing. It is really sweet and that I believe it was made of grated young coconut and some milk on it. I tried to search on what it is made of and found this, it's ingredients are pinipig, coconut water, sugar and grated butong (young coconut). That was really cheap. I mean the ingredients can be found when you look around, hey I can cook one like this but I am not sure if I can get the exact taste. lol But sure thing, this is really tasty. If you're looking for pasalubongs, make sure to buy this, cheap and tasty. Wew...

The other one is called Bandi, this is made of peanuts which are made into brittle and has been caramelized and sugar coated, the main reason why it has dark brown color. I don't know the prize for this but I believe this one is not that expensive also since this is only made of peanuts and sugar. I got a pack here with me today and I will make sure to eat them all when I get home from the office. haha.

The free food did not end up with those two delicacies because when lunch came up, Volts then gave us their own restobar's delicacy which is the native chicken adobo. Who would resist the taste of a native chicken anyway? So the food just disappear after a few minutes, it was like magic, well it was not magic after all, it was just our hungry stomaches. hehe Unfortunately, I was not able to get a picture of the adobo because it disappeared before I could take one, guess it would be gross if I will be posting here something which was already consumed by the mouth, lol.

Anyway, a billion thanks to you Volts for the free food and the keychain, it was a great day except for the bad news about the team but we will still be seeing each other in the floor, but thanks again and sa uulitin!!!