bye bye smells like sushi (｡´⌒｀｡)

Hey everyone,

I'm sadden to say I'm going to close my blog. I finished my CMA assignment on Friday and I realized that I really need to dedicate more time to prepare for my exam in May. Also, with my full-time job, I really doubt I'll have much time to blog. I tried to make a post this long weekend and I couldn't even do that because of the amount of work I have piled up.

It seems pointless to keep a blog going when there's hardly any updates so it's with a heavy heart that I'm going to close my blog. Thank you to all my friends, readers, and supporters.

Farewell, friends

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versatile blogger award and guinea pigs

I've been nominated by Ariel for the Versatile Blogger Award, my very first! Sweet! Thank you so much!


Like all awards, there are some rules you have to follow or else they virtually take away your award or something (?).

VBA Rules

If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

•  Thank the person who gave you this award.
•  Include a link to their blog.
•  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
•  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
•  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

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R.I.P. Filly boy

Filly, back in 2010.
My family and I made a difficult decision this Friday (two days ago). We decided that it time to say goodbye to Filly, after 17 years of companionship and unconditional love. In the past 8 months or so, Filly's health had rapidly deteriorated. He lost most of his strength and couldn't go up and down the stairs and had to be carried, he had lost his appetite and was reduced to skin and bones (something that's really serious for a dog that had always been really fat, almost obese). Not only that, but one of each of his front and back paws was positioned at a crooked angle, making it difficult for him to walk around.

But despite all those problems, Filly kept on going. There were periods of time during the past 3 years when we thought his time was up but each time, he proved us wrong. He just kept on going, no matter how much the odds were against him. But this time, we decided that enough was enough, it wasn't fair to keep him with us when he was suffering. Filly deserved to be at peace.

Christmas 2008, when Filly was healthy and fat.
We brought him to the vet this afternoon, and on our way there, I cried the whole way. I tried not to, I believe that dogs can sense someone else's emotions, which is why they're always there to comfort you when you're feeling down and they're really happy, when you are too. I didn't want my negative energy to affect his final moments, but I couldn't help myself. I raised this him from puppyhood until now and as cheesy as it sounds, he's my best friend.

I still remember the day my parents brought him home. I had no idea that he was coming home to us. It was a cold day in January and I had just finished school. I was bundled up from head to toe in winter gear and I spotted our red Previa. I waddled my way to the car and in my mom's lap in the passenger seat, was a dark brown bundle of fur. It was a surprise gift from my parents.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Filly when he was a puppy but I can tell you I fell in love. He was sassy, stubborn and rude, acted as if he owned the whole house right the beginning. But I loved him, and took care of him, I sang him songs while he slept on my leg and I told him stories about my day. He was there when my first boyfriend broke up with me over a decade ago, and he was there when my grandfather passed away 3 years ago, always patient and always comforting.

During Filly's shaggy days.
There's one memory of Filly that I remember really well. I was in 5th grade and my teacher had read horrifyingly scary Halloween stories to us in class. That night, I had nightmares and was afraid to sleep alone. I crept into my parents room and slept on the floor, next to my parent's bed. When I fell asleep, I had another nightmare and when I woke up, there was a large shadow looming over my face. I almost yelled out loud before I realized that Filly was centimeters away from my face, looking at me. I pushed him away and to my surprise (and delight), he lay down next to me for the rest of the night.

He was undoubtedly part of the family and was very much loved. But when he had to share that love and attention with another dog, he was a good sport about it. We brought home Yoshi, our beautiful akita about 3 or 4 years after Filly's arrival. Despite the size difference, they became friends and always looked out for each other, Filly being outspoken and loud, while Yoshi would silently observe and intervene if anything (or one) showed any signs of a threat to Filly.

Christmas 2008, with Yoshi.

Brother's birthday, 2010.

My birthday, 2010.
Shortly after Yoshi's passing in 2010, Filly had to share the spotlight with another dog yet again. Obi was brought home in March, 2011 and had been trying to convince Filly that they were best buddies ever since. Filly, being much older, wasn't interested in playing with a young pup with no manners. Filly, once again, became a mentor to another puppy.

I think Filly taught Obi well.

Nap time.
And Obi reciprocated Filly's kindness, during the past few months, when Filly had difficulty getting up, Obi would use his nose to push Filly up and push him to help him walk. When Filly was still asleep when someone was eating in the kitchen, Obi would go and bother him, to have Filly chase him to the kitchen, where we'd give some table scraps to Filly (even though Obi never received any himself). It's amazing how humans are the only ones capable of showing kindess and love.

When we arrived at the vet's, we waited about 20 mins in the car before Filly's number was called. Everyone, except my mom, went inside. As my dad handed Filly over to the nurse, my eyes were brimming with tears and I began to hyperventilate but I cradled his head, kissed him and whispered that he's a good dog before leaving the room.

I don't know why they don't let you stay with your dog when they're administrating the shot. I didn't want to leave Filly alone with the nurse and doctor, both who are people he didn't know, especially since I was afraid that his last thoughts were going to be that we abandoned him. I wanted to be with him while they were giving him his shot, to tell him that I was still here and that I'll be with him until the end. But I wasn't allowed to. Instead, I was outside the door, crying hysterically and hyperventilating.

After what felt like years, the nurse came outside and told us that he was at peace. There he was, on a metal table, exactly as I had seen him a thousand times, but he wasn't there anymore. I petted his head and said goodbye for the final time.

I had arrived home about an hour and a half ago, and I still can't believe that Filly's gone. It seems weird to not see him on one of our many rugs, to no longer hear his paws make that clicky sound whenever he walks. I'll never be able to run my hands through his coarse fur again, feed him table scraps or feel the warmth of his body pressed to mine when we're both asleep and dreaming. He'll never greet me at the door again when I come home and he'll never come running when I call his name.

But all good things must come to end. Even though you're gone, I'll never forget you. Thank you for being my companion and my greatest friend, for always sticking by me, for all the memories and for all the laughter. You've always been a good dog and I can only hope that I've filled your life with as happiness as you've filled mine. You're reunited with Yoshi now and I'll see both of you again.

Forever rest in peace, Filly.
I love you, boy boy.

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hiatus announcement

Rosco & Homekoro Hate Studying Too (Old pic but who cares).
I hate to do this but this blog is going to be on hiatus. I have way too much to study for my CMA exam in June (omg, it's in a week and a half!) which means that I won't have any time to blog. I don't know if I'll have time to make a post before I leave for Asia (the day after my CMA exam), especially since I'll probably be running around celebrating the fact that my exam is over (and hopefully feeling that I passed) and picking up last minute items for my trip. I'll try my best to make a few posts during my trip, (especially about all the kawaii I see/buy OMG SO EXCITING!) but I make no promises. If not, enjoy the summer and I'll talk to you all at the end of July!

P.S. Buy lots of kawaii while I'm gone! XD

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feeling blue...

I've been feeling really depressed over the past couple of days although I'm not entirely sure why. But I've been thinking about yesterday and a bit of today, and I think I've narrowed down why I've been so blue lately.

As some of you know, I'm graduating this spring and am in my final semester at school. After graduation, I'm going to apply to become a Certified Management Accountant (CMA). It's an accounting designation and you get to be all fancy and get paid more, and get a higher position (theoretically speaking). But seriously, you analyze the financial data and then suggest and implement strategic decisions for the company, in a nutshell.

Although it's what I want to do and I believe that it'll be beneficial for me to get this designation, the program is very expensive. It's going to cost me $75 + tax to apply to the Order (it's regulated by the Order of Certified Management Accountants of Quebec). If I get in (which I'm positive I will), it's going to cost $500 for the entrance exam (you can only write the exam if you're a member of the Order). Finally, the leadership training program is....$6000. At the end of the training program, you make a huge presentation on your case analysis with your group in front of members of the Order. In total, the CMA designation is going to cost me about $6600, and that's if I pass everything on the first shot.

Waaaah! I'm so sorry piggy T__________T

Normally, this wouldn't be a huge problem but since I paid for half my CMA coaching seminars (about $600), paid for my tuition ($1400) and have paid for my flights, tours and hotels for Asia (few thousand), my bank account is looking a little empty right about now. Not to mention that for our family Cuba trip, I have to pay for that well. And there's also the actual spending in Asia too (I'm going to Tokyo and that is the motherland of kawaii so...yeah).

Initially, I was trying sell some of my kawaii so that I could use those funds to pay for some of my travel expenses and it did work for a while since people were buying (I was able to renew my passport and I am about halfway to getting my Chinese Visa), but now it has completely halted. I may need to get rid of my really special ones in hopes that people will buy, which is something that I really hope I won't have to do.

Another reason is because one of my group projects for this semester is really demanding and it's constantly on my mind. I'm with a group of 10 people and it's seriously not productive when there's that many people crammed together in a board room. It gets worse when we've been there for a few hours and we start getting tired. This project is basically a practice run for our actual CMA, we present our case analysis to members of management from various companies including the company the case is based on (they're actually having these problems in real time).

Our meetings usually end up like this, with people not paying attention. I should try this method.

Even looking at kawaii doesn't make me feel better (now THAT's something I never thought could happen!).

Even looking at this didn't make me feel better. Although it's really cute and now I want one, especially the brown one. Arpakassos, stop being so cute!

It doesn't help that I get paid peanuts at my current job, even though I am doing actual accounting work. My friends keep telling me to ask for a raise but we're a charity so I'm surprised I'm getting paid at all. I also feel that what I'm not getting in salary, I am getting in experience, which is what I really need to get into bigger companies. I also don't have a job lined-up for when I graduate but I know that certainly don't want to stay here. My boss' husband has a bookkeeping office and she told me to apply there. Hopefully, I will get hired but most importantly, I'm hoping her husband's office will pay for some of my CMA fees (since a lot of companies do that). But it's a small company so I'm not holding my breath.

There's also no point for me to look for a job right now since I'll be gone for two months during the summer, plus a week off when I'm going to Cuba with my family in August. I can't exactly tell my potential employer that I can only work for 2 months (when school is done in April), take 3 months off and then start in September. So it's hard for me to fix my poor piggy bank.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I was googling pictures of sad puppies for this post and I just made myself feel worst because those pictures are heart wretching! I won't be doing that again. Lesson learnt.

Instead, here's a picture of Obi with the cone of shame. This was taken after he was fixed.

Enough with this long boohoo post. I have kickboxing tonight so maybe a couple of punches and kicks will snap me out of this self-pitying party. Next couple of posts will be SUPER KAWAII because I just got some stuff in the mail last week. Maybe I should try playing with those kawaii items, surely tangible kawaii goods can heal all?

Nurse Kawaii, heal my broken heart (and fix my piggy bank).

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update about rilakkuma online shop

After consulting my sister and Alex about what to do about the Rilakkuma Dragon Plushes, I filed a dispute after I updated my post, despite sending an e-mail that gave them 5 days to respond as a last chance to explain what happened with my order. My sister's logic was that I had already given them a last chance by asking on their facebook page and they responded by deleting and blocking me from their page. She said that they didn't deserve any more chances and Alex agreed. So I opened up a dispute, which was immediately rejected because the transaction had occurred over 45 days ago.

All that to say....no.

But I refuse to give up.

Bring it on, Paypal and Rilakkuma Online Shop!

After a day of obsessively researching on google about how to open a dispute with Paypal after 45 days, I decided to call Paypal's help line as most people have suggested. I called them and explained my situation, telling the operator that I had paid for a pre-order back in August. The items were supposed to have arrived in December and they did because of what they posted on their website. I also explained the whole facebook fiasco.

And guess what? The operator told me that they would open up my dispute! He said that because it was my first time opening a dispute, they'll do it "out of courtesy" but out of pity or whatever, I don't care! Rilakkuma Online Shop is going to see that this type of treatment towards their customers is unacceptable!

Yaaaay!!!!

Basically, the operator explained to me, Rilakkuma Online Shop has 10 days to respond by telling me that they either shipped out the goods or they are going to issue me a refund. If there's not response by the 11th day, Paypal will automatically refund me. And since those plushes are sold out everywhere, they'll be issuing me a refund regardless.

So far, there hasn't been a response from them yet and I honestly don't expect them to, they've been doing such a good job of keeping silent, I think they're just going to continue until the 10 days are up. I should have the result of the outcome by January 15h, 2012.

I asked my sister is she could comment on their facebook page so that I could get proof that they were deleting comments and she did.

My sister's comment on their FB page.

Not surprisingly, they deleted her comment as well. Wow, just wow. I didn't think businesses do that but I guess not everyone has common sense. They also prevented her from adding further comments onto their facebook page as well.

I also posted a warning on my flickr photostream and I received a lot of support and I received a lot of views, which is good. I got comments from people thanking me for warning them and that they were planning on buying from this shop but no longer. At least people know now and I'm thankful for the support that I've been receiving from my flickr friends and my family for this whole ordeal.

The warning I posted on my flickr.

I also learned that if Paypal couldn't do anything for me, I can call my credit card company, explain to them what happened and they'll do a charge back. This is useful to know for the future. I also forgot to mention that the Paypal operator told me that for pre-orders, I should always open a dispute within the 45 days even if the business is legitimate. He said that this way, if there was ever a problem, I could always get my money back and it would keep the company on its toes. If everything went smoothly, I could always cancel the dispute.

All that there's left to do now is to wait to get my refund back.

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WARNING DO NOT SHOP HERE!

I'm making a post about this, not only because I am extremely pissed, but I believe that NO BODY deserves to be cheated, least of all, by a "reputable" online shop.

Back in August, a flickr friend of mine posted a picture of some Dragon Rilakkuma-themed plushes and I thought that they were pretty cute, despite being Rilakkuma (not a fan), plus I was born in the Year of the Dragon and after some inquiry, I decided to go ahead and order from this site. And, like any good shopper, I asked my friend if they were reliable and she said that they were, based on their facebook page.

This online shop is called Rilakkuma Online Shop and it's based in Hong Kong. Here's it's website, which is in Chinese but Google Chrome translates it pretty well so you can navigate.

They specialize in obviously, Rilakkuma and they boast that they can get you just about any Rilakkuma item that you want for a reasonable price.

I ordered Rilakkuma and Korilakkuma.

I ordered and paid for these plush on August 30, 2011. The following pictures are proof with some text shaded out for privacy purposes.

First e-mail I sent to them, to order the items.

Their reply with how much I owe them

Paypal confirmation that bill was paid.

Paypal invoice details

Everything was paid for and all I had to go was wait for them to get the items in stock, which was around December. I don't remember if I read this on the site or what but I remember that it was supposed to arrive in December. December rolled around and I completely forgot about it because of school and work but when I did, I decided to e-mail my flickr friend to see if she got hers first.

My email to her at the bottom and her response to mine.

When she received them.

Not only did they fail to e-mail me about my plushes, Veronica has problems with them too, she ordered another plush from them and hasn't received it. However, I don't know how long ago that was or if the plush has already be shipped out to other people.

Turns out that Veronica has issues with them as well.

Like any other normal person with a problem with their items, I e-mailed the store.

Automatic confirmation e-mail. Notice how the date is the same.

After waiting a week and still receiving no response, and I know for a fact that they received it, since I received a confirmation e-mail saying that they got it, I decided to try another method. They have a facebook page so I liked their page and commented on a picture of the dragon plushies saying that I preordered and paid these in August and sent them an e-mail about a week ago and I haven't received any response from them. I might've mentioned that a friend of mine received hers 3 weeks ago but I can't remember. I asked them what was the status of my order. Nothing rude or threatening right?

And do you know what they did? THEY DELETED MY COMMENT! To add insult to injury, they disabled me from making any more comments on their facebook page!

Disabled comments on my normal FB page, you can see my last name near the top right.

I decided to see if they had really disabled my comments or they just disabled everyone's comments, even though it was pretty clear that other people were able to post comments on their pictures. I logged onto my other facebook account and sure enough, I was right, they had disabled my comments AND deleted my comment. In my other facebook, I can still post comments on their page.

My other facebook, which as you can see, is able to post comments.

This is really interesting, why would they go through all that trouble to delete my comment and to disable my commenting privilege? If they were concerned about their reputation (they better be after I publish this), then they should've dealt with it in a professional way. This remind you of anyone (Michelle Phan perhaps?). I've shopped a lot online and I've seen many stores that when they see a negative comment, they'll respond to it in a polite manner and try to reach an agreement with their customers. That's how you're supposed to do it after all, it's called professionalism (and damage control but let's not get technical). It's too bad I don't know how to write in Chinese on their wall so that other buyers will know.

To be on the safe side, I also checked their website and looked at the rules, terms and conditions. This is what googled translated for me.

Their terms and conditions for overseas buyers. Original here.

Notice how it says that there are no refunds unless the item is out of stock, well the item is out of stock now. You can check it out here. It wasn't when I preordered it, but they never sent me an e-mail about paying for shipping so technically, I should be entitled to a refund. It's not like I refused to pay for shipping, they never sent me a confirmation e-mail saying that my plushes have arrived.

Proof that both plushes are sold out now. This was taken today, January 4, 2012 @ 7:57 PM.

Here are their preorder rules. Original here.

Ironic how they say that the customer can "rest assured that waiting for notification," which I take it to mean that customers don't have to worry about not receiving a notification. I'm not sure how accurate the Google translate is but from the gist of what I'm reading, they're basically saying that they will contact the buyer once the item arrives and arrangements will be made to deliver the item to the buyer. And none of that happened for me, they didn't e-mail me telling me it had arrived. In fact, they're pretending that I don't exist.

So what we know so far about this Online Rilakkuma store is, they take your money, ignore your concerns, and try to silence you when you ask too many questions. Unfortunately, I didn't take a screenshot of the comment I posted on their FB yesterday since I never would've thought that they would stoop so low as to delete my comment, especially since they seem to be such a legitimate business! But since I know better now, I've been screen capping everything.

To give them one last chance (although they seriously don't deserve it), I wrote them another e-mail earlier today, telling them that I'm shocked and insulted that a business would react this way to such a normal inquiry and if they do not respond within 5 days, that I will open a dispute with paypal.

I doubt paypal will be able to do anything about it since it's been over 45 days since the transaction occurred but you never know.

I'm not expecting to get my $40 back since it's been such a long time since the transaction occurred but this is something I believe that people should know. Unfortunately, I'm not a popular or influential blogger so I doubt much will happen but I would appreciate it if people would spread the word about this place or even comment on their FB about what happened, see how many more comments they delete. More unfortunately-ness, they have a lot of likes on facebook so I doubt my input will make much of a difference, hopefully Paypal will just make them refund me and that's that.

But I doubt it.

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more bad teammates

Warning: You might actually learn some accounting from this post. Names have also been changed to protect the innocent and the guilty.

Sorry to be doing this again, it seems like I've been cursed with bad team members this semester. I know that people don't like reading angry, whinny, bitchy posts but I have to let it all out.

Another project had to be handed in this semester with a team and this particular project is for my Not-For-Profit accounting class (I'm serious, that's the name of the class). Like most teams, we separated the work between members and all is good. My friend and I were responsible for editing and putting the project together and there was a lot of editing work to be done since our teammates didn't really elaborate on what they had written, and they had poor spelling and grammar. Our project was to analyze the financial statements of a charity.

Serious business, analyzing papers with numbers on them.

Two guys in our group were supposed to do an extremely easy analysis of one of the statements called the Statement of Cash Flows. This statement basically tells you where the cash is going and where the cash is coming from. It's honestly the easier financial statement to analyze. Here's a website that explains it very well but you might learn stuff.

But the analysis they did wasn't what I would call an analysis. All they did was take the numbers and put it into word form. For example, cash flows for cash and cash equivalents increased by xxx during the year. There was a decrease in xxx cash outflow in interest receivables during the year, etc etc. I don't know about you guys, but that's not an analysis to me. I didn't want to submit that to the professor so I e-mailed them and asked them to add more stuff. I waited around for a whole day and no response. I eventually got their phone numbers. One guy told me that he was working until midnight so he won't have time to add anything, fine. I called the other guy, let's call him Stumpy because he's short and wide, with a huge ass. I called Stumpy and asked him if he had received my e-mail and long story short, he refused to add anything to his part. He was extremely defensive about his part of the project but it wasn't as if I was really aggressive about it either. I just told him that I felt that he didn't elaborate on the CF analysis and he should explain what the implications mean. But he then cuts me off and says that there's nothing to add because there are no notes (small explanations in FS) or any additional information. This is where anyone who has been studying for accounting for 4 years would be able to do. But apparently, he doesn't know what to write because he's not being held by the hand to cross the street. He also said that he did the exact same thing on his midterm and that there were checkmarks everywhere and she said he did a good job. I could've easily countered his argument by saying that I elaborated on midterm and I got a 93 whereas he got a 78 or something. But I didn't, unfortunately.

My reaction to the CF analysis.

So I sucked it up and just redid his whole part. Stumpy was also whining about to do an oral tomorrow for our project because we get 3 bonus points. I honestly wasn't going to do it because I wouldn't have time to prepare for the oral since I was redoing his part. I called another team mate, let's call her Judy. Told her about what happened and how Stumpy wanted to do the oral, she said that she and Joe didn't care if the oral was done or not, and the oral is a go if he is wiling to do me and my friend Mary's parts (since we both have too much to do, and we honestly don't need those 3 bonus points, we're rocking the class). Called Stumpy and he made a whole bitch fest about how he didn't want to do anyone else's part. In the end, he agreed but told me to make it clear to Judy that she was doing the powerpoints. In short, she went ballistic.

I stayed up until 1:30 AM to work on their part and to put the finishing touches on the paper. I went straight to bed and when I woke up this morning, sent the final copy to everyone and asked Judy to print it out.

Throughout the course of the day, a pile of shit hit the fan. I got e-mails from Stumpy left and right, asking about why everything is wrong etc etc. I'll just copy and paste the e-mails.

Click on the pictures to read it, I'm sorry but the width is really long.

My response. I admit I was a little aggressive but he was complaining so much about everything and not doing anything, I couldn't sit idly by and be nice anymore.

This is where the shit really hit the fan.

I can't believe he said that. Not only is this rude but an unacceptable way to talk a team member.

I agree stoner guy.

So many ways for me to counter his arguments. Where to start? There's no need to repeat the mission statement part, already included in the my response to him. Not only that, he didn't give me his sources, just told me that it was on the foundation website so I spent a bit of time looking for it. He just told me that it was on the website but the website is huge, I had to look around for all the stuff that he said in the paper and find the right page. Not only that, he referenced a picture (he wrote attached to the appendix) that he found on the site. Of course, it'd be too courteous and use too much of his common sense to give me a link to that picture. Searched around the site, thankfully, I found it and put in the appendices.

It's a stupid explanation? If he had such a problem about the economic crisis for the decrease in cash and cash equivalents, why didn't he mention anything when I sent the project (minus his part) to the team last night? Why is he bitching about it now?

As for the governance part, I admit that I didn't ask him to do it. The point I was trying to make was that he was responsible for that part so if he had an issue with it, why didn't he fix it? It's his own part so he should fix it and stop complaining about it being all wrong.

Finally, about that "adding shit" to the project. I add that type of "shit" to all my exams and papers for all my classes, and I always get a high mark. So I guess teachers look for "shit" like that in a project. I wanted to tell him that that's what I did for my midterms and it seems that the professor likes the "shit" that I add to the papers and that's the difference between my A+ and his B+. But that would be adding fuel to the fire so I decided to be grown up about it (since one of us had to). Oh, and another thing, if we would spend more time editing our own parts? Well, I'm sorry, but we were busy editing your piece of shit that you call an analysis, since it evidently needed more time to fix up and ours. And believe me, Stumpy, your part was an editor's nightmare. The sentences did not make any sense, there were too many ideas in one sentence and no elaboration. Most of their paragraphs were two or three sentences. That's not a paragraph.

Oh about him being more accommodating, he's the only who wants to the oral so I believe that everyone else is accommodating him. And he wants more cooperation? There has been cooperation amongst the group except him. I didn't see him volunteering his services to do anything more for the project, I didn't see him asking anyone on feedback about his part or even asking how the project was coming along.

But instead of writing all that, I wrote this.

My final response to Stumpy.

Of course, the rest of the team knows about this since the e-mails were sent to everyone and 3 out of 4 side with me. I have no idea what the other guy thinks but it doesn't really matter.

Yeah, fuck you Stumpy.

If you've read all this, congratulations! I wouldn't have read this myself. For that I reward you with this!

Makes me laugh so hard everytime.

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