Love is in the Air

here's to another happy couple - Lennard and Raki. Friends from work, and my kakulitan in what have yous. It's that time of the year folks ;)
Best wishes and Congratulations.
















Here's a pix of the bride doing her thengg. The walk of her life. careful sa steps, raks. :)

(here are the rest of the highlights)

Jay and Lalai's wedding

We went to Butuan last week to attend Jay's wedding. See the other pix here. Saw a lot of old and new faces.

Even went on a relative-hunt, yes, seeking out relatives I have never seen or must have seen when I was a kid.

It's good to be in the peace and tranquil of the province, celebrating love, eating a lot of food. :D


Wish we had more times like these.

Dodge this Prime

A toy review of some sort.

Try this one for size. The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Optimus Prime. My first Hasbro-made Alternator Transformer. Makes the Cybertron Prime next to it look puny. But he's like a little brother in my mind. Don't worry lil bro, Big Prime is here. But I even have a BIGGER Prime that I can't wait to open for my birthday. Donna got it for me! :D

Some trivia: this toy is made of mostly plastic and some metal parts. What can i say, i like it. A little complex to transform at first, given the instructions were of little help. I even thought it was broken. lol. Found the trick a little while later. It's really fun to roll around with its rubber tires and makeshift swivel for tire-turning. It's stance is awesome, it made Sideways' (the black robot at the back) stance lackluster. I mean i thought he had a mean stance before I got Alternator Prime.

My birthday is around the corner, and hoping to have a nice day. Got a whole bunch of toy$ as a present to myself, one that caused me two days of anxiety poop fest, and a fever. I'm thinking it could have been something I ate. Will post pictures later. :D

note to myself: add more blog entries that are un toy-centric. There's a world out there.

It's Not In The Game: an NBA Live 07 rant

Taking a break, just finished some significant work. OT for the entire week, without basketball, how's that sound. I had to skip this week's schedule because of work :(

To add to that, the latest NBA Live 07 game really sucks, the controls are messed up, i'm having a hard time adjusting to it. EA sports added some neat new tricks, but sad to say, didn't polish it quite enough. The QA team will probably get fired, or maybe they wouldn't even care that the entire nba live community at www.nbaliveforums.com is ranting about their latest game and screaming for their money back.

To give a them a little credit, you now can switch Freestyle Superstar modes on the fly depending on the skills of your player. They've separated the dunk, layup, and shoot button. You can execute touch passes (one player passes the ball, the receiving player barely touches the ball and touch passes it again to a cutting or open teammate) but can get quite confusing as they randomly execute when you're in the game. They have a few signature jumpshots and a little more freethrow animations (including jason kidd's freethrow kiss, shaq's forehead wipe, hamilton's side dribbles, sorry no arenas around-the-waist gimmick).

Ok, too much plusses, now the negatives, what i really hate the most is that they've mislabeled the Direct Switch shortcuts on your Dunk and Layup players. Pressing either one passes to the other player. They've remapped the Pivot(last year) now Dunk button to the Center Position. The Last Man Back button doesn't work! And you can't switch players during inbound. Some more... I can't remember. Right now, I'm just trying to adjust, trying to be happy w/ the game. Hoping they release a patch for everybody's sake. Oh, do you know that because credible game review sources like gamespot giving them a 6.5 score and 1up giving them a 5.0, their stock prices dipped 3% (see article).


Back to work...

oh be wannabee carpenter

shelf design specs
Originally uploaded by waraijj.
the carpenter w/ the rusty saw
Originally uploaded by waraijj.

Originally uploaded by waraijj.

ok, i wanted a shelf for my toys. and when i checked the mall, ack, they were quite expensive. I think i need to hire a carpenter, and buy some wood. No carpenter available, I'll just have to do this on my own. Paper, pen, dimensions, varnish, nails. Borrowed my neighbor's saw. It took me an hour to saw off one board because it was already dull and rusted. I thought it would take me months to finish. Donna convinced me to buy a saw. In less than 30 mins, I was finished. Oh so that's how easy it is w/ a sharp saw. hehe.

In paper I had a different plan, when I was hammering already. It seems you need more than just aesthetic taste to design a shelf. It was shaky at first, I had to reinforce it w/ more wood and more foundation in the base. Donna did the varnish, she was dizzy from the vapor afterwards. :) Sorry uyab. Everyone helped sand the boards, my thanks to aia, chenette, aldric, and donna. My gratitude for indulging.

Price: 1 1/2" plywood board (500php); 250 grams of 1" nails (15php); 1 saw (300php); 1 2"x1" wood (75php); 3 bottles of varnish ( 75php); 4 #120 sandpaper (80php)

The satisfaction of having made your own shelf; savings from not buying the mall versions; 2 blisters on my hands; a new home for our toys/hobbies - PRICELESS.. :)

Transformers

Some time a month ago, when we came by toy kingdom in sm mall of asia, i saw some familiar robot toys in Megatron and Thundercracker. When I opened them, I was amazed, it was like opening a dimension from when I was a kid wanting to have all those Transformers toys. I almost immediately got hooked.

I can remember from way back that I've always wanted the Dinobots especially Grimlock. Kids are really fascinated with dinosaurs and robots. When I saw this combo, all I was asking from my parents was this for whatever occassion there was. Too bad, these things never saw the light of day in the province, probably only the urban places got them. Today, I like vehicles turning into robots more than animals into robots. Well, that's only me.

The new characters are not strictly as what they were when I was a kid, they now refer to the old versions as Generation 1 (G1). They've sort of evolved (thru a series of franchise ups and downs) but there are still some flavors of the original series preserved. There's been quite a lot of versions as i've wiki-dly discovered.

There's even an upcoming movie by Michael Bay where they've deformed most if not all of the Transformers characters to my dismay. They should have just revamped the previous generations and not come up with another new line of models. Arg! I hope this one's good. Check out this site local fan site.

Back to these toys, some things just outright connect to us. Like an untapped enchantment or fascination. A wide-eyed kid in the haze of monumental trivial what-have-yous. Magnetized. Locked.

Well, over the days, I've discovered there are overwhelming and very expensive toys available here in the Philippines if you just sieve through the internet long enough. Like probably a couple of days. There's a great site for collectors for all kinds of different toys at greattoys and even a forum for discussions. An optimus prime could cost up to 12k php including the trailer, this is like a 12" tall toy. whew. I'm way far from being that kind of collector.

I'll try to restrain myself from draining myself bankrupt with this new found hobby/fascination. Here's my collection for now.

More than meets my fascination, more than meets the eye...

Lost

Nice characters. nice stories. compelling plot. It's like a grand Twilight Zone. I hope it becomes better come season 3. Especially like the episode on Sawyer, where the hunter becomes the hunted.

Vacationing in tacloban this week. Feels great to be home.
Celebrated my youngest sister's 18th birthday. Time flies.


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Dio island in the background
baluarte beach resort
Tacloban city

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

ahh... okay, let's try this out.

the roll-o-nut experience

last night, by happenstance, I came across HBO and saw Bill Murray cast in Caddyshack,
and being the Bill Murray fan that I am, laid back and started watching. This movie is so funny,
especially the swimming pool scene, where a kid throws a Babe Ruth bar into the pool, the floating
chocolate bar is discovered by the bathers (w/ Jaws theme in the background) and everyone starts scurrying
out of the water. Later, as Bill Murray is cleaning and resanitizing the pool, he finds the suspect
bar, yells to everyone I FOUND IT, then starts smelling it, and takes a bite. The pool owner faints as I fall
off my bed laughing! I think I saw this movie when I was a kid, because I remember having fun w/ the
local roll-o-nut chocolate bar. hehe. I love bill murray. he co-wrote the movie. Try to catch the movie in HBO. You'll have a nice one!

Subic Sunset

My Office

 

Esplanade

 

Oblivion!!

Yes, this is a screenshot of the actual gameplay of the game.
And yes, I also said "incredible!"
Knights, swords, quests, goblins, orcs, wizards, the works.
A really BIG world (approx 16 square miles excluding dungeons and caves) for exploring and adventures. Multi-branching and open-ended story line depending on how you interact with the Non Playable Characters (NPCs).

I hope this game still works on my pc (cross fingers. see min requirements for the pc here). I bet this will be the game of the year. Now i can't plug to buy this game sa suking tindahan (sa mga gilid-gilid hehe). Pero if you are into fantasy and lore, you should try this game.


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picture from Gamespot
The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

"Life Saver"

The infamous Luke Skywalker's (originally Anakin's) light saber.
and darth saber's light vader. :)

With limited time to spare on our 3rd day, we decided to insert a trip to the Science Center in our itenerary. Good thing our nice friend Benjie was kind enough to accompany us there. The Science Center displayed hundreds of nice modules on almost every scientific concept known to mankind, and portrayed it in kid-friendly ways even adults would surely be swayed and awed. It was also, coincidentally hosting a Star Wars exhibit, which was the real reason we wanted to go there, to probably see master yoda's green ears or princess lea's circular braids. Anyways, we enjoyed the self-guided tour throughout their Science Center maze, posing to take a picture everywhere we can. We had to literally run through the center hoping to see everything in such a small time because we still had our next itinerary in 2 hours time.

more pix soon.

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Singapore Science Center
Star Wars Exhibit

Boat Quay

makati rcbc tower and ilog pasig.
yes, we can do this.





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Boat Quay,
Singapore 

know what I want...

I heard from a priest over one sunday mass talk about wanting the bigger pie but settling for less. Perspectives are funny. It provides a different view of things from different angles. What one man would kill for what another would throw away. "Greed makes a rich man poor and contentment makes a poor man rich."

I guess I can settle anywhere. Now, spill away these wanton ambitions,
and cast my rod into the sea... 

Tan tan tanan....

Ice melting into smoke. The flame of the candle bows as the warmth breathes into the aisle. Everyone turns to see the glow that makes the candles timid. The shimmer of the day. The standstill of the moment. Here comes the bride.

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wedding of Patrick & Kathy; Sanctuario de San Antonio, Fort Bonifacio, Jan 10, 2006

Someday...

I attended a wedding this week and had fun taking shots. This little girl was playful enough to dream her day on the aisle. 

Windows

 

You were saying?

Bookie -> is an organisation or a person that takes bets and may pay winnings depending upon results and, depending on the nature of the bet, the odds.

Bukey -> para sa kasal.


(now, that's a good chuckle)

now aint that a nice view...