10 Things I Learned About Uber (Metro Manila)

For those who are already aware of what Uber is, you can skip down to the list of things I learned about it.

For those who don't, here's a simple explanation: It's a ride-sharing service that lets you and your friends book a private vehicle to take you anywhere within Metro Manila. I first booked a ride for free, because at the time I signed up for the service, they were giving away P300 credits if you used a friend's promo code (mine is uberdocb2014). Now they're only giving away around P200. That's not so bad, considering your first ride is free.

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Printwiz Press for my business needs

I have been getting my business cards and other printing needs done by Printwiz for a few years now but it's only recently that I realized that I've never blogged about them. Time to rectify this oversight, especially since I always get asked about good offset and digital printers.

Here's my most recent business card:

I am always happy with their output because they give vibrance to my designs exactly as how I envisioned them. (Dr. Sky Senshi illustration by Sao Menguito.)

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My Best Birthday Gifts for 2012

Wow, the last time I posted was in January. But yesterday, which happened to be my birthday, was so inspiring that I really felt like writing about it. As many of you know, I had been so exhausted and stressed over game production work and my doctoral dissertation (41% done at 195 pages) that I felt I had hardly any time left for myself. Well, it's a habit for me to make March 5 my "Me Day", which usually involves going to museum trips to just basically enrich myself. And if there's work left to be done, I usually would just worry about getting scolded on March 6. Haha!

Going on a museum trip was a little bit impossible yesterday, since I am still writing my dissertation. I had planned to go to Bataan's Las Casas Filipinas de Acuzar. I ended up in Alabang Town Center, at Timezone, and re-acquainted myself with my long lost love: Dance Dance Revolution.

In any case, I have received wonderful surprises from the middle of the day onwards so all is well. Let me just enumerate the top three:

#3 Received a "gift" from Facebook

These babies I picked up from the City Hall (where the post office is haha). I thought I was going to have problems with the customs, but it turns out that a lot of people have already claimed them.

Did you know that Facebook is giving away free business cards based on your Timeline? I guess it's their way of  promoting Timeline even further (goodness knows, I have a difficult time using it). In any case, they teamed up with Moo to give us these.

You get to choose which of your cover photos you can use on the cards and it will use your latest profile photo as some sort of an ID picture. They arrived quicker than expected. Only two weeks, whew!

They're lovely! I just wish I had better cover photos, though.


#2 George R. R. Martin's Dream Songs

This one is from my sister, who probably bought it for me so she can read it for herself. Haha! Anyhoo, I love George R. R. Martin. I just wish he'd stop killing off characters that I have gotten attached to. He kind of has that habit in his books.

I am so looking forward to curling up in bed with this. As soon as I find out when I can defend my dissertation. So excited!!


#1 Launching the game Grave Mania

This is the very first Anino original intellectual property game that I have worked on and I am so happy to have done this with team mates who are not only incredibly creative and driven, they're also waaaay quirky. And why is this game really special to me even though I have worked with other Anino projects? Because it's ours, our intellectual property,  not something we did for clients. That gives us the kind of satisfaction no other kind of project (except maybe for pro-bono tie-ups with educational institutions) can bring. So, yeah!!!

Finally, after 8 months of adventurous travails (where we also got called "silly" by real adults), it has arrived!!

And on my birthday, to boot!!

Grave Mania is a casual Time Management game about a husband-and-wife tandem, who had to deal with a zombie epidemic. Since they own a funeral parlor, they solve the problem the "Loca" way: by dressing up zombies -- making sure they are  happy and contented before laying them to rest. We think it's pretty fun. But that's just us. You have to be loca to appreciate it. =P

Check it out at Big Fish Games!!

And yes, I think we are silly in real life, haha! Wouldn't have it any other way.



A quick note to pirates: Have mercy on us developers from third world countries. It's only $6.99. Joke! (No, actually that was half-meant. Hahahahahaha!)

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Photo Shoot at New World Hotel in Makati

I didn't want to pre-empt anything regarding an upcoming artistic project but I was fortunate enough to have had the chance to do a photo shoot at the New World Hotel in Makati. Well, the hotel isn't the subject. My models are. But I don't want to post photos of them just yet. I'm already having a hard time reconciling my concept with my technical skills so...

Anyhoo, I thought I'd blog about New World Hotel for now. It was my first time to stay there.

My team and I were given a corner room on the 12th floor, which had an expansive view of the city. It was spacious and had generous amounts of light, which I needed for the shoot.

(I needed to chase the daylight and have, in fact, researched on how long the sun was going to be up.) Here's the view from our room.

That's the pool area where we actually had the most challenging part of the shoot. I had to use 3 cameras in that area. My Lumix ZS3 for test shots, Cris's Nikon D80 dSLR and Rose's Olympus cam for those really difficult shots that had me worrying about my model's welfare.

Beautiful koi garden. I only noticed this when I had finished shooting in the pool area. If I didn't have a job to do -- and weren't chasing after the sunlight -- I would've taken a breather in there.

The bathroom is rather small, but I like how they separated the shower and bath tub. I feel it's more hygienic that way. (Or maybe that's just me.)

One thing I noticed here is the presence of so many mirrors. I already have two windows: one by the doorway, which revealed a different view (the construction of a future Fairmont hotel), and the other facing Greenbelt 3. The mirrors amplified the lighting...yes, even in the bathroom.

This is one of the mirrors. The light streaming from the window bounces off them.

Here's another one. While waiting for my models, I was thinking of various ways of playing with the light. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to use these angles, since we really took too much time in the pool area.

By the time we wrapped that shoot up, the six remaining concepts had me using the only available light: lamps.

I shot this while lounging on one of the pool chairs. Haha! From outside, New World Hotel doesn't look much, but I like how it is on the inside.

As for the service...the staff were very courteous, fast and accommodating. I also like how they have this doorknob thingie where you can indicate what breakfast you want served and what time it should be served. Beats having to call up room service.

That's me, wondering about another angle. Who owns those hands? Secret! Will be revealing that soon enough.

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Department of Foreign Affairs, For the Win!

I had been panicking for a while now as I thought I had run out of time to renew my passport (it turns out that I cannot travel NOW because my passport has to be good for 6 months more). So I went to a travel agency, whose rep has stopped replying to my texts yesterday, and found out that if I wanted to be quick, I had to go to the Department of Foreign Affairs myself.

Two days ago (September 29, 2009), I booked an appointment online: http://www.dfa.gov.ph. I got an email, telling me to wait for my appointment date and that I would be receiving another email for it. I took my PhD Qualifying Exams yesterday and was out the whole day. When I got back later that night, lo and behold! Another email from DFA telling me that my appointment was at 8AM to 9AM...on OCTOBER 1, 2009. I was like...Whuwaaaaaat? I didn't even have time to take a better passport pic (I looked like I could kill someone as opposed to my sis, who looked angelic in hers), have my requirements photocopied etc. etc.

I decided to go to the DFA at around 7AM, so I left at 6AM. I got there at 6:30, shooing away potential fixers while I was having my documents photocopied. So rude, when they say, "Psssst!" to get your attention, especially that dude with a stick, whom I responded to with an impatient wave and a curt "Cheh!" Cris was right, these fixers really are bullies, trying to frighten you with their big bellies, fake IDs and thin sticks.

By 7:20AM, the guy at the renewal counter opened his terminal. Everything went smoothly. I was done by 7:44AM, not noticing the time because I was chatting with this caregiver, who had been working in different countries. The cashiers took some time to open, I think around 7.30AM? That's not even official government time, so I really admired what these guys were doing!

My appointment was at 8AM, but I was out of there before my schedule and got home at 8:30AM, with enough time to finish all my piled up work. Talk about fast service!

Picture taken from World News.

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Shopping Rewards Programs

 I became a woman at 30. At least, that’s what my sister tells me. “Ate, bakit ngayon ka lang nagdadalaga?” she had asked with a wry chuckle. I remember my kikay cousins giving up on convincing me to take care of my skin, to not look so raw, to pay attention to what I wear etc. etc. I was happy and comfortable with looking like a geek and not doing anything to change it. Being shaped like a woman, despite all the coverage, didn’t stop men from forgetting that your face is at the top of your shoulders and not plastered on your chest (however little it is), anyway.


Then suddenly, BAM! My definition of hellish torture had changed. From not being able to break a particularly tricky code (which, fortunately, has never happened) to something else: Hellish torture is when you walk along the hallways of Rockwell, seeing the drool-worthy Melissas on sale, and being on a tight budget. So yeah, thanks to the company of fashionista professors, 2007 was the year that I became a shop-a-holic.

Of course, it’s not like I have moolah 24/7. On days when I don’t feel like taking on a project — which means I’d be somewhat broke — I turn to a shopper’s friend. That is, the frequent shopper’s card. It comes in many names and not all of them are really as value-for-money as they claim to be. So let’s see…

SM Advantage Card (1/10) I had been using one for the last year and apparently, Banco de Oro (BDO) noticed my purchasing power enough to give me a pre-approved BDO credit card that comes with yet another SM Advantage Card (SAC). Actually, I wasn’t a frequent shopper at the time that I raked in points. It was my tuition fee, which the SAC had been used on, that pulled the points up. When I found out that using the new BDO credit card with the new SAC pulls your points up even more, I started using them and transferred all the points my old SAC had to the new one. Now here’s the little thing that irked me. Upon closer inspection, you’ll realize that you only get 1 point rebate for every PhP200 purchase, even less if you’re only shopping in affiliate stores. So it means that if you had spent around PhP50,000 in a day of splurging, you only get a measly PhP250 rebate. It’s probably enough to buy you two umbrellas. Blecch. What cheapskates! And the coupons you get upon membership? Almost all of them are worthless because you may have to travel far to redeem most of them. Some of them would also have the “valid only at selected outlets” label. Gee, I wonder what selected outlets those are. What if they’re valid only in Cagayan de Oro? Dare I go island hopping just to see which stores support them?  

Rustan’s Frequent Shopper’s Plus Card (10/10) Now here is the big shocker: Rustan’s probably has the most valuable card released in the market. At first, when I was told that I’d get a PhP600 rebate for every PhP20,000 accumulated purchases, I wasn’t too impressed. I didn’t mind, though, since Rustan’s doesn’t really sell products that the mass market would go for. To my pleasant surprise, it wasn’t really that difficult to get your 600 rebate. I’ve only owned an FSP card for half a year and I have already amassed over a thousand points. Imagine if my graduate school was able to use a Rustan’s FSP card! I’d be raking it in! Here’s the computation: PhP33.33 = 1 point. That’s a far cry from SM’s PhP200 = 1. And you thought Rustan’s is unbelievably expensive, huh? Now if you can only use the FSP for Beauty Bar, too.  

UPDATE May 30, 2010 (1/10) As of January 2010, they became like SM too (much like how Bench downgraded). I had my card "upgraded" to the FSP2 because I had no choice. I was about PhP4K away from the next round of P600 rebate, but that's all gone pfffffft now. The P600 became just a few pesos but if I didn't "upgrade", my points would be down to...ZERO. If it weren't for the pre-approved Rustan's gold credit card, I wouldn't be getting any additional rebates. If you ask me, it's a downgrade, no matter how many times they tell us it's for the improvement of their services. It's not like the brands they sell in Rustan's are cheap. See...now you know why I never returned. I'm now spending more time at Marionnaud because my mom became a Marionnaud addict.

National Bookstore - Laking National Card (8/10) This is also one of the most sulit cards I’ve ever used. You basically get 10 points for every PhP1,000 accumulated purchases. That’s about 1 point for every hundred pesos, still beating SM’s lousy rewards system by 100%. And I’m saying it’s worth it because everyone needs a bookstore. Even the non-nerds. Now, I know that Power Books and Fully Booked may have the widest range of actual books as opposed to school and office supplies but there are accessible branches and subsidiaries of National Bookstore, like Best Sellers, that actually sell readables. 

 Bench Loyalty Card via TheFaceShop (5/10) I was supposed to get one when I saw it atop a cash register in TheFaceShop at Glorietta. That was because I already spent so much on bath products, which I’m guessing had already gone above PhP10,000. TheFaceShop had already given me free soaps, towels, a beauty bag and whatnot because of my loyalty. Then the card appeared. Thing is, in order for you to get that card from TheFaceShop, you need to show them that you have PhP10,000 worth of accumulated receipts. What the hey??? (This is what the cashier at TheFaceShop Rockwell told me.) If I had known they were going to do that, then I should’ve compiled my receipts. I think that was a little bit too steep and it turned me off, considering I had already spent that much anyway and I’m not really inclined to spend another 10 grand just for a measly card. I felt like I was being punished, especially when they could’ve just given me the card for a mere PhP150 membership fee (like what other decent stores do). TheFaceShop had lost my loyalty because of that (I’d still be reviewing their lovely soaps, though) and I have since turned to Ilog Maria and Rustan’s Essenses’ organic stores for my bathing needs.  

Bench Loyalty Card (??/10) I’ll probably still get a card…through Bench. That way, it only would only cost PhP150. I read that the points are equivalent to how much you spent. As in literally PhP1 = 1 point. Now for the points translation, I’ve yet to find out. I will have to ask when I do drop by Bench one of these days. The card can also be used for Human, Bench Fix Salon, Kashieca, Charles and Keith, TheFaceShop and other stores under or connected to Ben Chan. Will update rating when I finally get the card.

UPDATE Feb 22, 2009 (5/10) For a while Bench’s point system was pretty good. That was 1 point for every peso. Then one day, the system became similar to SM Advantage. Their system would often go down, too. I still buy from them whenever I’m in the Rockwell area but only if the stuff can’t be bought at the Rustan’s Supermarket (where I use my Rustan’s Citibank).

Your own credit card’s rewards program
I haven’t actually asked yet about mine. I only know that I’m rooting for miles. Still, I’ve been told that you can actually convert credit card points to either pay for your membership or to convert them to gift certificates for Rustan’s or SM. I get freebies from mine, which is Metrobank, like that Belo cryo-something treatment that I haven’t redeemed yet. (Belo also has a reward card that I use on the rare occasions that I go to them.)

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The Spa: Graduation Special

I had planned my itinerary yesterday:
11AM: Banks
12NN: Meeting with Adviser
2PM: Pick my Frequent Shopper’s Card from Rustan’s
Beyond: Spa
I woke up with a bad case of stiff neck, which was actually more like stiff upper back, arms and neck and I was determined to pamper myself after months of deprivation due to INNODEV. While I was on my way to BPI, I saw this Graduation Special poster from The Spa. For P1,800+ you get a full body massage, a facial and a foot spa. Not bad.

I like the obviously Oriental-inspired theme of the place. From the first glance, you can already be assured that you’re going to get the quiet pampering you deserve after months of hectic working. The receptionists and all the employees were very accommodating and helpful. In fact, the receptionists even made some idle chat about my “thesis”, which I had actually brought with me, and gave me free cologne. I was led to a shower room, then later to the steam room. The steam room had this pleasant minty smell and I would’ve stayed a bit longer had I not remembered a particular CSI episode wherein this girl died from over steaming.

While waiting for my massage, I was made to sit on a couch, given some magazines and ginger tea. I love ginger tea, so that was a pleasant surprise. I also love the massage beds. They’re just like the ones you see on TV, with holes to place your face into. I am a massage addict and this is the only place I’ve ever been to that had beds like that. I had always hated having to twist my head uncomfortably around just so I could breathe. The fact that I didn’t have to do that makes me give this place a thumbs up.
I had my facial and my foot spa at the same time. I wasn’t quite so happy with the foot spa, as they used files to scrape off my calluses (thanks to those nasty leather shoes I’m required to wear every time I’m in APC). There was only one other spa that had actually used a proper callus remover but that place closed down in 2004. Still, the objective was to relax and I’d willingly take foot massages any day.

The facial wasn’t as meticulously done as in Let’s Face It or other facial care centers but I suppose I couldn’t really complain. It’s a spa, not a dermatologist’s clinic, which reminds me that I really do have to visit the derma one of these days.

I don’t know if other people will appreciate it, but I like that I was given tip envelopes. I usually have a hard time looking for my attendants come tipping time as some spas have dark lighting, making it hard for me to recognize them. I also don’t feel pressured to compute which attendant had better service. You drop the tip envelopes in a box and just let them worry about it. Pretty nifty, if you ask me, although I wonder if other people wouldn’t think that it’s too presumptuous of the attendants to hand over their tip envelopes right after a service.

For P1,800+, I guess I was satisfied. I just needed pampering for the day anyway, not an overhaul of the body parts I need to get fixed. For more information about the graduation promo, visit: http://www.thespa.com.ph/news_promotions_20070315001.html

Rating: 8/10

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How Web 2.0 is making things confusing...

In 1997, all my opinions were FTP'd to the very first websites I created, The Otaku Fridge and Turbulence (A SailorUranus site). I covered things beyond topic like homosexuality (since I got a lot of flak for being a fan of the lesbian Sailor Senshi), elitism, web design, community leadership and even my visitors' relationships. These sites were then hosted by GeoCities and because I wanted to have more features and get some perks, I became a GeoCities Community Co-Liaison. Then Yahoo! bought GeoCities, and community leaders like me were given Yahoo! shares...which I can't even access because I'm a dodo who lost her password just when Rocketmail and GeoCities mail were being merged with Yahoo... I just get snail mail, telling me that I'm getting dividends (what good are they if I can't access them??) or that Google just kicked Yahoo's ass again. (No, they didn't say the latter in the mail, but judging from the decline of the stocks, you can pretty well tell.)

Anyhoo, back then, GeoCities only gave about 2MB of space and then it increased to 5MB, then 10MB, then 15MB. A community leader got as much as 25MB.

LiveJournal happened (to me) in 2001 and it became my repository for personal rants and raves. No web skills necessary, just post and click. I still owe a lot to LJ because accounts of the incidents from 2001 up to the present had been able to help me clear my memory in court. It feels good to write about something because your brain can only store so much information. With LJ, you rely on gigabytes of virtual memory to remember for you. Thing is, you don't feel like you have space usage to keep track of. Only that if you don't have a paid account, you use less resources. If you want to use those nice fancy layouts and more avatars, you either pay or let advertisers rape your LJ. Diwa was able to override the default layout by using CSS, which I'm too lazy to do because I do not make money from LJ. Hehe.

I joined Friendster in 2005, after years of staying away from it. There I found high school batchmates ("Ooh, the women are hotter and the men are fatter!"), college friends, old orgmates and even long lost cousins. Thing is, Friendster is TEH UGLY. It has the limitations of Web 1.0 and the developments of a stunted Web 2.0 site. Like it attempted to crossover to Web 2.0 but didn't make the cut. Low res photos, ugly blog layouts, vulgarity everywhere. The only reason I'm keeping my account there is the fact that my past is tied to it. I lose it, I lose all the contacts I thought I'd never find again. On the bright side, whenever I'm teaching interfaces, I always use Friendster as an example for things that webmasters shouldn't do.

Multiply in early 2006 was a great relief. At first I kind of got incensed that it required me to sign up just so I could comment on my sister's photos, but when I saw how powerful it was... Gadzooks! You can upload unlimited hi-res photos directly without having to shrink them with Photoshop. You can rank, rate and rant all you want. You can connect to the most talented people in the universe. The best part of it is that it shows promising results as an educational medium. It also amazes me that it uses AJAX and that it's one of the few engines, apart from Google and Amazon, that did it first. The only thing that keeps me from transferring everything from LJ to Multiply is the fact that its privacy settings are wonky.

Then yesterday, I saw that Diwa announced that she wanted to delete her Friendster account because she was using Vox. Curious as to what it was, I went over to her new blog and saw...egad! It looks to be as powerful as Multiply, except it has better templates and layouts. The uploaded pictures are immediately wrapped in pretty borders and had captions in them. Vox confused and excited me, though. Discovering it told me that there are many excellent options out there and that I'd start drowning in geekery if I gave in to my habit of experimenting with everything geek. (The last time I had this urge, it was when I joined WebHostingTalk and experimented with every new hosting company I find promising. Check out my sig there. It says: "Frequent WHT shopper.")

The thing with Web 2.0 is that everything becomes so easy for the user, that I completely understand why many of my students dislike the Web Track (eCommerce, in particular). They could just effortlessly post their experiences, opinions and thoughts on the web, without having to know the technical aspects of what makes a website. Many couldn't see that CSS, server-side includes and Dreamweaver's templates make your life easier, not harder. They didn't have to go through the journey that most of my colleagues had to go through, having to learn hardcoded HTML, PHP/MySQL and hosting requirements without the benefit of formal education (or Dreamweaver, we only had plain old Notepad then). There were no Multimedia Arts courses during my time. Everything was self-study, which makes us appreciate the knowledge we've acquired throughout the years.

Whew. Next week, I'll be experimenting with another engine, but only to make my life a little less complicated when it comes to updating my babies. Ugh! Too many choices, too little time! Wish me luck!


Other options:
Blogger - I use this engine to update my portfolio site skysenshi.com
RODiary - A blogging community for Ragnarok gamers. I moved out of it in 2004 because every time they updated their database, they required users to sign up again. The last time they did, I refused to re-apply. It was a good venue for roleplayers, though.
WordPress - Going to experiment with this in a few days...
Tabulas - My sister uses this, among others...
MySpace - Never used this, but I find it a bit too J. Bad experience with its users. Hehe.

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COMMENTS from the old blog:

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Web Hosts from 1999 to 2005

A Short List of Memorable Hosts
(The good and the bad)
You must be wondering why I’m doing this. Heh. Well, I guess I just wanted to list down hosts that I should be remembering in case I run into them again. (I mean, what if they go under a different name this time?) And I’d also like to recommend some of the good ones.
In truth, I actually had my own small webhosting business before. But then when the volume got bigger, I found myself lacking sleep and having my fiancé (back then) man the LiveChat while I was asleep. He wasn’t exactly Mr. Congeniality. In the end, I had to ask for other hosts to take over my clients. Now I just handle a few web development clients and friends. Life is easier that way, with me developing their websites and just coordinating with their hosts. Each of them has different needs and budget, which is why I always find myself "shopping" for new hosts at Webhostingtalk.Com (WHT) and collecting quotations for my clients and friends to compare. Anyway, on with the mini-reviews.

• AMS Computer Services
  Disc13 (1st?)
  My first experience with paid hosting. I never had any problems with them. I actually resold for them at first. Their support is always fast and their network is always up (and paranoid about security, which is always good). I don’t know how they are now, though, since it was 1999 when I last had contact with them.
  
  
• Aussie Hosts Disc13 (Last)
  And other clients
  I always recommend Aussie Host to anyone who can pay for their services. Gary Meadows, their owner, is easy to talk to and he’s always very helpful. Before Disc13 was hosted there, my sister had her site Chocobuckle.com serviced by Aussie Hosts. Unfortunately, both sites are now dead. ^^;; I met Gary Meadows when we were both being hosted by Tacid Blue. He introduced me to WHT and in turn, it was in WHT where I learned more about his stuff. We had our own hosting business up by then, but it seems Gary’s the one who has the knack for it. AFAIK, this host is an award-winning provider.
  
  Btw, Disc13 was under their American Hosting wing, Enhancedhosts.com.
  
  
• Championhost
  
  Hentai Neko (3rd)
  They should rename their company to Loserhost. Wouldn’t answer my email until I made such a fuss in a public forum. Then when they did set up my account—after 72 hours of waiting, I might add—the control panel was a mess and only gave me 1GB transfer when I signed up for a 30GB account. Can’t say I really stayed with them. Maybe for just 48 hours? And that also includes 72 hours of non-stop spamming from their stupid control panel.
  Stay very very far away from this company if you value your nervous system.
  
  
• Ecommerce Discovery
  Hentai Neko (5th)
  
  My review on my 2nd month: "Isn’t it fortunate that I’m always on the lookout for a new host at webhostingtalk.com even when I don’t need one? I always find the gems there. I wonder why I didn’t listen to those people who were bashing Championhost and Kikko Networks left and right. This time I listened. Been with Ecommerce Discovery for less than a month and so far I have no complaints. The owner is also a very amiable person and easy to contact. He’s practically everywhere!"
  
  …At first.
  
  Thing is, I signed up on one of their promos and I was treated very poorly later on. I’d know the difference because everytime they moved servers, I had to transfer all my files by myself while a friend of mine, who pays their standard rate, has all her files transferred. It wouldn’t have bothered me, but then their support became lousy. I left after a year and a half of service. My first experience with the H-SPHERE control panel was with Ecommercediscovery, but it wasn’t nearly anything like what my next host, Unacom.net, had to offer. I sure hope Ecommercediscovery offered those options because their support really sucked at the time I needed them most. Anyway, it seems they’ve improved now. They even offer bigger bandwidth packages now.
  
  
• ICUServices
  Disc13 (2nd)
  And other clients
  
  
  They are super reliable! The sites are never down (not that I know of). In fact, when I had to close my hosting business, they were happy to host the clients that I had to turn over and I never regreted it. It’s been years and many of friends and clients I referred to them are
  still hosted with them. Some of my clients agree that their support is top-notch. Another gem I found at WHT.
  
  
• Kikko Networks Hentai Neko (4th)
  
  They should be renamed Liar Networks. They said they supported so many things that they actually didn’t. I was so disappointed because there were so many scripts I wanted to install and test drive. Add the fact that Hentai Neko needed .htaccess support because of HN’s massive nature and they miraculously didn’t support that too (when they previously said they did). Very swift pre-sale response. Non-existent after-sales service. Y’know, the usual. It didn’t matter that I paid an arm and a limb for 50GB bandwidth as long as my site was up. And it was. The servers were fast and my site was always up. Until one day, I discovered that my site has been down for 3 days and nobody was answering at the other end. They probably weren’t able to charge my credit card for the 2nd month’s renewal and just shut down my site without so much as a by-your-leave. Well, at least they weren’t able to renew the billing. Whew!
  
  
• Netacore
  Clients hosted here
  Found this at WHT. I can’t really say I’ve been using their support and the only time I’ve had to contact them was when I had to ask my client to give them a new credit card. They also use CPANEL, but my client doesn’t really have many requirements. They’ve had some downtimes, but fortunately these don’t take too long. Actually, I think they’re very lenient, considering they usually have difficulty charging my client’s credit card for some reason. (Dunno what it’s all about though, there are certain cards, even mine, that they couldn’t charge.)
  
  
• Square Network Anime Okashi (2nd Paid)
  Well, the owner is Community Liaison for WHT, so I don’t suppose you could go wrong with this. He actually rescued my cousin, Firesenshi, who then owned Anime Okashi, from the clutches of a supposedly free host *cough*AMZ*cough* that wanted to charge her $700 for bandwidth she didn’t use. I could smell *cough*AMZ*cough* were lying through their teeth and Square Network was quick to tell my cousin the same thing. They had very reliable service, with extremely rare downtimes, and speedy support. It’s also good that they had AWSTATS, which told Firesenshi how much bandwidth she was actually using. She went on free trial, then eventually signed up. Unfortunately, she had to resign from her job and had to let go of her site. In their benevolence, Square Network let her stay for three months more, for free, but Firesenshi thought that she didn’t want to impose on them much further. I suggested she transfer to Unacom since the site’s bandwidth was growing, while her funds were diminishing…until she eventually had to really give up the site.
  
  
• Secured-Net.Net
  Hentai Neko (2nd)
  I got them because they were pretty cheap. Only $2.95 for the Starter account. The service was also cheap. My site was always down. I didn’t mind, though, because I was only paying $2.95 for it, and the support staff were very responsive. When Smartweb LLC bought this company the servers suddenly became top-notch with features that I’ve always relished! I never experienced any downtimes and Hentai Neko got stronger. The new support staff were lousy and obnoxious but at least my site was up. I left them after 8 months because I saw that my bandwidth transfer added up to 30GB per month. I couldn’t afford their services anymore…
  
  
• Sexy-Hosting.Com
  Hentai Neko (7th)
  Hentai Neko Net (2nd)
  Otaku Fridge (1st Paid)
  Coolay (1st Paid)
  Skysenshi (1st Paid) Thundersenshi (1st Paid)
  
  After tearfully (LOL!) leaving Unacom, I thought I’d never find a host that would match it. Well, Sexy-Hosting uses CPANEL, which I hate, but they offered a lot that more than made up for the choice in control panel.
  
  I found this host via WHT also, and I got one of their promo accounts. At first, I panicked because everything wasn’t going well for me when I started (hotlinking not working, add-on domains not working, email box being spammed, DNS problems etc…I really blamed CPANEL for all those things). I mean, I paid for a whole year of stay.
  
  It was a good thing that their support responds fast. Even though I seemed to be bombarding them with questions on a daily basis, they never failed to deliver — even when I specified on one ticket that my question was just a minor little detail and was of medium priority.
  
  Well, now that I’m settled, I don’t really have any questions. Let’s just see how my year turns out. I have 5 domains hosted here, and the 6th is my sister’s. You can basically understand why it’s hard to get settled, considering each site has different needs/requirements.
  
  
• Tacid Blue
  Hentai Neko (1st)
  
  My first adult host for $60/year. Stayed there for two months before I learned that the reason why I’m getting poor service is because the owner is a 13-year-old kid whose lies finally caught up with him. I think he’s a good kid, though a little misguided. I just hope he learned from his mistakes. I could actually enumerate all the hosts he’s resold for (starting with Hostyard), but that’s not my problem. At least I got my $60 back.
  
  
• Tera-Byte.Com
  Anime Okashi (1st)
  Otakuboard (1st) And other clients
  
  I found Tera-Byte through WHT, too, and had been one of the hosts I recommend my clients. Which is why, when my cousin Firesenshi put up her own anime site, I suggested she try their services first. Tera-Byte is also one reliable host. I don’t think they’ve ever been down, because if they did, I wasn’t there to see it. The support response is also fast. The only thing I don’t quite feel is the control panel, Ensim, which is probably one of the unfriendliest CP to ever have been invented. I also didn’t trust their bandwidth monitoring system back then. I just don’t know if that improved now. Other than that, I don’t really see any problems, unless you have a site as active as Hentai Neko. The only thing that had Firesenshi veering away from it was the fact that she got lured in (kinda my fault) by a free host *cough*AMZ*cough*.
  
  As for Otakuboard, well, the reason why I had to move away from Tera-Byte was because at that time, ikonboard was hogging up a lot of resources. I’ve switched to Invisionpower boards and hosting since. I think it was only reasonable.
  
  
• Unacom.Net
  Hentai Neko (6th)
  
  Hentai Neko Net (1st)
  Anime Okashi (3rd Paid)
  If there’s one host I’d give a perfect 100% rating to, this is it. They were newbies at WHT but I gave them a chance despite the lack of reviews on the boards. Didn’t regret every single day that I was with them. Sure they had downtimes, which sometimes caused me panic, but that happened like once or twice a year. I never had to use their support because everything can be found in their control panel (H-SPHERE). If you want to upgrade, cancel your account, add extra stuff, you can do everything in there. I stayed with them for nearly two years.
  Unfortunately some good things never last. They were great till the very end, but problems came into my personal life and my lifestyle drastically changed. I needed a host that allowed multiple domains and while Unacom could offer that, it had to come at a cost I couldn’t afford to pay. Still, Unacom is pretty inexpensive, considering the kind of services they offer.
  

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