Butterfly Releases: Captivating or Cruelty?

I went home last Sunday for our annual Grand Alumni Homecoming. It was a good opportunity to catch up again with my high scool batchmates, schoolmates and friends. Our annual homecoming activity coincides with the death anniversary of Fr. Al, now a Servant of God.

After the ceremony to give thanks and remember Fr. Al at the Virgin of the Poor Chapel, there was a balloon release as well as butterfly release. It's a sort of symbolic rituals rituals celebrating transitions, letting go and hoping that a wish may come true.

Butterfly releases are quite common during the weddings, funerals, birthdays and other celebrations. I've got issue with that.

At first, I thought it was cool. Seeing those butterflies fly again and land on a flower is captivating. But I also saw butterflies that can hardly fly and literally landed on the ground probably due to stress after being stuffed into envelopes for hours.

I look at it as cruelty against butterflies.

SMART Circle | SMART Rewards

Because I complain too much about the services of SMART (See SMART Blackberry BIS Problem and Goodbye SMART blogposts), I am now a member of this exclusive SMART Circle.

I am now entitled to special perks and priviledges from SMART Rewards! Where there is no SMART signal, I have a strong one. All the missing loads from your prepaid SMART SIM will be credited to my account!

Kidding.

This SMART Circle program is actually by invitation only. I received my SMART Circle Card yesterday maybe because I am considered loyal SMART subscriber and with good credit standing. If you are considered to have community influence and have the power of brand ambassadorship, you may also be invited.

So what does it mean to be a member of this SMART CIRCLE?

Discounts. It's a discount card. Present this card to SMART's partner merchant to avail of discounts and premiums.

Priority. Being member of this SMART Circle, you will enjoy priority handling of identified service requests and waiving of processing fees for some services.

I have just activated my SMART Circle card. Let's see how it goes.

DBP Account Locked | Phising Attempt - Development Bank of the Philippines

I received an email today from an contact-us@dbpnet.org claiming to be from Development Bank of the Philippines. Here's a screen shot.

Phising attempt - Development Bank of the Philippines

It says that due to unexpected shutdown today resulting in loss of data and financial records, I need to reactivate my account online. But because I don't have a DBP Account, I knew right away that it's just a phising attempt.

What is funny is that the email account used (contact-us@dbpnet.org) to send the message was from DBPNet which stands for Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics Research Network (DBPNet).

This scam is similar to China Banking Corporation phising attempt that I received last year.