mail check: get paid for answering online surveys! [UPDATED]

i signed up at Global Test Market around february last year along with other sites offering paid online surveys (like survey savvy, survey head, and acop), and finally, after over a year, i was able to accumulate the minimum points required to request for a cashout amounting to $50. so i cashed out, only to make sure if it really pays before i take on more surveys. and well, it did!

but wait, what? one year and only $50?

well, yes! cos as you can see, it's not a full time job. you can do it when you're free, and bored, and when there's a survey offer! and the cool thing is it actually pays, plus registration is FREE! honestly, it's one of the best paid online survey sites since it offers around 3-6 surveys a month, depending on your profile. hehe.

so on april 30 i requested for a cashout, and on june 11, a surprise came in the mail! yeheyyy!

i wasn't expecting it to arrive that early cos it says to wait 6-8 weeks, and even though it came on the 6th week, i was expecting it by the end of june pa so i was really surprised by this. sakto pang mejo broke ako! haha

thank you Lord!

just wondering: is there danger in posting checks online?

proof of earnings! it may be small, but my point is IT PAYS!!!

so in a year, i was offered 60 surveys, 40 of which i was screened out from * but still got rewarded a few points for it. 

here's how it works:

- sign up at GMI and answer a few profiling surveys (this will determine the kind of surveys they'll offer you)

- sit back, relax, and wait for survey offers on your email :)

- every survey will earn you around 30-80 points when completed

- * when you get screened out from a survey, meaning, after taking preliminary questions they figured you're not part of the target audience needed for that study, you still get 5 points!

- minimum points required for a cashout is 1,000 points. that's $50 payable to you by check (or paypal)

- JOIN by registering on their website or BE MY REFERRAL (just leave me your email address and i'll refer you ASAP). that's 20 points for me if you're kind! 

unsolicited advice:

as with anything, BE HONEST. even if you're just taking a survey for a dime, the people who pay GMI (who in turn pays us), are conducting research valuable to the company they're representing. we're talking studies, and statistics that shape the corporate world. haha

but seriously, when you come across a preliminary question that you think will get you screened out, take a deep breath, move your mouse pointer to the truth, and click, you did the best thing. what's 30 points in exchange of your integrity?! HAHAHAHA yes.

IMPORTANT UPDATE (June 26, 2014)

whew. i just want to let you know that it took so much pride on my part to admit this, but i was too excited when i received the check that i instantly believed it was real,hence this blog post. but when i tried to encash it: THE CHECK BOUNCED. omg, you can laugh at me now. peg na peg ko pa naman ung pag-promote diba.

anyway, according to the bank where i had the check deposited, the account name on the check was already closed. when i emailed checksupport@globaltestmarket.com about it, the one who replied to me was clientcare.chx@chexxinc.com and they said that their ANZ account has unexpectedly closed, and that i should contact global test market directly using this overly non-responsive complaints bin: support-en@globaltestmarket.com

anyway, none of my inquiries have been answered by any Global Test Market staff YET, so i'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for six months (cos i'm kind like that lol). According to our local ANZ, they stopped taking check orders from PACNET fairly recently, so maybe GTM wasn't aware of the closed account when they issued the check.

HOWEVER. i'm leaning more the SCAMMY side of this, seeing that online reviews are 50-50. i'm just glad only my time was wasted and nothing more. haha

BE CAREFUL. HAHAHAHA

and yes, you can still laugh at me. i am. 

ETA 2014-09-25: oops! GTM finally answered my emails and now things are doing quite well with my requests. will write more about it when i finally get my cash! 2 more months? :D

ETA 2015-03-19: FINALLY I GOT MY CASH! 

Here's how!

oh dear... we go again

so. i'm still in the office. on a friday. when i should be home welcoming my mom who just came back from canada. that and eating chocolates and dog food (pending hyperlink: will post about this real soooon haha). those and also catching up on pending blog entries... like this dog food i'm talking about, the faulty fault in our stars, a saturdate at TGIF, this check i received for taking online surveys (weeee!!), and much much more.

i have really really big working problems. last night before going to sleep, terai and i kinda narrowed down my employment problems. i have a job, thankfully, but i figured i won't be able to hold on to it (happily) for so long. AGAIN?!!

my problem is i tend to procrastinate. a lot. like now. and i work so slow. i'm not even sure if i really work slow or that i'm just putting off on so many things that i can't seem to accomplish any. i don't know. and it hurts. hahaha. it crushes my ego to bits. yaaak. hahaha i'm already so hiyang hiya to our team lead cos this freaking task i'm doing keeps on getting delayed and delayed. i can't seem to deliver anything notable every time we conduct project builds. and it freaking stresses me out. i am the weakest link. goodbye.

what. i feel so bobo! and everyone around me is like so good and super smart and fast. i have no one to share the frustrations with, cos apparently i'm alone in this bout of constantly undermining my skills. haha. huhu.

i should go home. i'm totally wasting the company's energy with my nonsensical rants.

argh.

A Big Dinner @ Ristorante Bigoli

before watching The Fault in Our Stars, terai and i decided to have dinner at Ristorante Bigoli (Trinoma) which is conveniently located beside cinema 7 (where we're gonna watch). the cinema tickets come with free bigoli coupons, so yehey for that! haha

when Ristorante Bigoli opened at SM Fairview, we thought it was just yet another posh and expensive italian restaurant, but when they hung this 120 pesos promo which includes a slice of pizza, chicken, and rice, we were like ooooh really, why not?! so we tried it, loved it, and included it in our list of favorite family restaurants! >:D sadly, the SM Fairview branch didn't last long despite its very affordable price, awesome herb oozing italian chicken, yummy pizza, and free unlimited garlic bread sticks. but that didn't stop us from loving the resto! haha

Ristorante Bigoli is our favorite italian restaurant because it's very affordable, the place is very posh, and they have no service charge! it's a (semi) self-service restaurant, after all. yes it is! you have to order at the counter and get your own food, unless you have to wait in which case you'll be given a number then wait at your seat for your food to be delivered.

anyway, spending range is 250 to 300 per person, and that's already for a really big and fulfilling meal. here's what terai and i ordered. :D

Romano's Solo Plate Stromboli

Php 235

spaghetti bolognese, italian chicken, stromboli, minestrone soup, and refillable drink

the minestrone soup was yummy, like tomato sauce soup hehe but the macaroni is so overly saggy already like it was heated too long

this entire plate reeks so much of herbs! particularly thyme and rosemary and it smells so good! their italian chicken is very notable too! i believe it's one of their major selling points, i haven't tasted anything like it!

Romano's Solo Plate PizzaPhp 235

spaghetti bolognese, italian chicken, formaggi pizza, caesar salad, and refillable drink

our meals come with unlimited drinks too which you can refill at their drinks station!

and because we spent a minimum of 400 for this, we got to get a free pizza and pasta meal courtesy of the coupons on our cinema tickets! yey! >XD

theeere you go! if you like italian food that tastes awesome and is reasonably priced, try out Ristorante Bigoli, you won't regret it!

Ristorante Bigoli has branches at Trinoma, SM North EDSA Annex, and Eastwood

Happy Father's Day @ Mr. Kimbob!

this is the first time we're celebrating father's day without mommy cos she's still in Canada, and i must admit, it's different. a sad kind of different. we all miss mommy :(

anyway, we ate out at Mr. Kimbob, because we all miss eating there, plus it's cheap! we just had to be patient looking for a good seat at the foodcourt cos it's peak lunch and it's father's day, so there hehe

we had the usual bibimbap sizzling plate which only costs 99pesos!

if you're not familiar with bibimbap, it's korean food made up of rice, egg, an assortment of steamed vegetables, kimchi, ground beef (chicken, or pork), and a special hot sauce they call gochujang (the ketchup like sauce drizzled on my plate below). you can buy the sauce at the supermarket, and that's about the hardest to find ingredient in this dish, in case you wanna DIY!

underneath the egg is my cup of rice, and around it are steamed togue, carrots, sayote, etc. i wasn't able to realize some cos i already mixed it haha then kimchi, and ground beef.

eating bibimbap the korean way means mixing them all together to create something highly not photogenic like this:

could be unappetizing for some, but definitely not for us! >8D

i always see this dish at korean dramas, usually when leading girls starts stress eating haha, in the series, they usually just get whatever canned stuff they have on the fridge, rice, and gochujang sauce.

see, this is from Kim Sam Soon...

and this is from Full House... 

anywaaay... haha

when i first saw Mr. Kimbob at one SM Foodcourt, i was instantly curious, and when i tried it out, i was hooked! i remember having a bibimbap phase where i just eat bibimbap everyday for dinner, and only stopped when acid reflux started threatening my health. the beef is sweet, and i didn't mind the spiciness at all (note: i hate spicy food). pluuuus, it looked healthy! HAHA what with all that vegetables? come on. who am i kidding? 

anyway, it may look healthy, even the logo says Korean Health Food, but i doubt that small assortment of veggies can counter the oily ground beef and the rice! so no, i don't think it's healthy at all. may be healthier than your regular foodcourt choices but not vegan healthy if you ask me. haha

Mr. Kimbob can be found in most SM Food Courts.

Coco Fresh Tea and Juice: 3 Buddies Milk Tea

There's this new milk tea place that opened just recently at SM Fairview and Terai and I decided to give it a try because... ewan haha, we like to try a lot of foods talaga, and this one caught our interest because it looked successful (as per the posters hehe) so their selections must be great! from the posters inside, we learned that it's a Taiwan based milk tea company which has branched out world wide, celebrating with more than a thousand outlets already! and the one at SM Fairview is their 1,960th branch lang naman haha. wow.

being that it's our first time, it's imperative that we try their bestseller so we ordered a regular 3 Buddies Milk Tea. It has 3 toppings (which ironically sits under the cup, as with everywhere else haha): grass jelly, pudding, and pearl, all swimming in the customary black tea... with milk. hehe

the grass jelly reminded us of the taste of seaweed or nori, the but the kind that is very very mild and not salty at all. it's a good contrast to the pudding which is only mildly sweet and is like a tamed leche flan, and the pearl which is the usual sweet and chewy sago. the 3 Buddies Milk tea is definitely a good mix, and it's only 90 pesos! they also have a 2 Ladies version naman which has pudding and pearl only as toppings, betcha it's as yummy!

it was awesome. bow. it's now my new favorite milk tea place, next to Cobo! actually, i find it unusual that the two stores are just a letter away. are they arch rivals or something? haha

there's not much room to sit around as their seats can accommodate around 10 people only but the place is cool and very summery. hehe

here's the menu on their LED screen, odiba mura lang? if you can afford Gong Cha, kering keri lang to.

that's it for my first visit, will definitely go back to try out more of their selections! if you have walked past this tea shop and haven't gotten around to trying it, i tell you, TRY IT OUT. their 3 Buddies Milk Tea is super haveyyy.

Coco Tea is located at SM Fairview UGF, Annex 1
https://www.facebook.com/CoCoTeaPhilippines
http://www.coco-tea.com/

Yoshinoya! a family favorite

i've been meaning to create a post entirely dedicated to my favorite fast casual restaurant, Yoshinoya, but it always gets hammered into my daily rants. i also almost called it a fast food restaurant, but it's all too clean and not too un-healthy looking to be called such, plus my sister confirmed that it isn't a fast food resto, the way main courses are made to order and all. okay. enough.

i must say, Yoshinoya has been a family favorite since yeaaars back before they decided to put on brighter orange walls, and totally eliminate free red ginger from the condiments area (sucks). i'm happy for the big changes they've been up to, only shows how they're growing bigger and bigger! yeyy! at least i'm assured they won't be gone, like my almost favorite italian restaurant Bigoli.

anyway, things just got better when they opened a branch at Fairview Terraces! that means more yoshi sunday lunches for meee!



as for my favorites, this is how it always goes for me:

 chicken teriyaki bowl, miso soup, 2 servings of red ginger, and green tea

my favorite. the chicken teriyaki is very flavorful and the contrasting steamed vegetables go along with it so well. the rice is sticky and yummy, it may look a lot for a bowl but it's more than enough to fill. you couldn't go wrong with this! all for 200 pesos, or 190 cos you can actually just ask for red ginger from the service crew, and that's a tip from the cashier herself. hehe <3

i've never really tried any other major course, aside from my sister's usual gyudon bowl and the occasional katsudon (which are booooth yummy) kasi i'm loyal to my combo. hahaha

anyway, here's a gyudon bowl:

it literally translates to beef bowl and has soy sauce marinated beef strips on top of steaming rice! it's worth php 119 and is the favorite of my sister, my dad, and my boyfriend. haha

i love their bowls. i thought we could apply this at home, you know, eating on bowls haha. i find it easier to wash bowls cos it's easier to hold haha wala lang.

if you haven't tried eating here, i urge you to try it! the food is great, the prices are affordable, and the ambience is bright and cool. although the bright orange walls don't give off much of the japanese resto feel (most japanese restos are full of blacks kasi), the food will! plus the service crews are dressed in kimono uniforms so there's more 'feel' points to it haha.

so far, Yoshinoya has the following branches at metro manila: SM North Edsa, Ayala Fairview Terraces, SM Megamall, Robinsons Galeria, Glorietta, SM Mall of Asia, and SM Manila.... aaand i'm proud to say i've eaten in 6 (out of 7) of them! talk about loyal! haha >XD

teaching at kids church: whatever it takes!

it's my official first day as a teacher! yeheyyy! after 3 sundays of observing, my co-newbie, terai, and i got to host this morning's service and what can i say, it was soooo fun! the night before i was really nervous like sana hindi matuloy haha, it was my first time to host in an audience full of kids and i didn't know what to expect haha. but then, keri lang! enjoy rin pala! i mean, the kids can be extremely magulo and makulit but i enjoyed it. they were all responsive. hahaha. it was exhausting but it was really fun.

i decided i'd serve at the primary level, that's 7-10 years old, because, uhm, i really don't know. haha. you know, i almost wanted to quit, not because i didn't like the job but because i get these regular bouts of laziness every time my phone chimes at 7:30am. i always think, man i haven't had enough sleeeeeep! but in spite of those, terai and i still get up, and rush to church, almost unwillingly. then the teachers converge, we pray, and i get excited again, realizing that these horrible lazy bouts are but attacks of the devil to a keep a teacher from teaching children about Jesus. naks. haha

every time i enter the kids church and get into prayer with the co-teachers, i feel like my faith is being reinforced. there's a sense of responsibility settling in. sabi nga ni kuya jaylord, there was a study which states that a person's acceptance rate of Jesus Christ is at peak (80-85%) when they're in the ages 4-14. this made me realize how critical it is to send the children to kids church or sunday school in their formative years, so that they get to know about Jesus at an early age. these kids are our future after all and we'll never know how they'll grow up to be! >XD


anyway... i asked my mom if she chose to be a Christian and wasn't just brought up as one (like i am), and she said yes, she chose to be one. i asked her what her choices were then, and she said it wasn't a choice between religions, but a choice between being a Christian or a non-Christian. and between the two, she chose the former because it has led her to a good life, a good set of beliefs, it brings out the best in her, and she's content with her faith. and while it's true that other faiths may produce the same good willed, and blessed person that she could be, she dare not explore on the possibility because she's happy where she is.

after being posed with the same question months back, i thought, yeah maybe i never really had a choice, i was just blessed to be brought up like this. but realizing what my mom had said, i believe i don't need to compare all religions to gauge which one's telling the most bearable truth. and, i did have a choice too. i could be a non-christian for all i care and still live happily ever after. but then, i can't imagine myself without God. so i made this choice.

as to ascertaining the rightness of the choices we made, the extent to which we believe that what we believe in is true, i have no concrete ground. but i guess as long as i live without regrets, i wouldn't have to worry about the choice i made. i'll leave it all to faith.