This year has probably been the most stressful and traumatic one yet. Second semester registration was an epic failure, and I even cried my size 2 ass that day. My basic circuits class was such a nightmare with an even bigger nightmare of a lab professor. Probably the biggest douchebag I met my entire life (Not mentioning names here I’m done with that.), but of course not everything was doom and gloom. I finally accepted my course, which is probably the most scrumptious piece of cake God gave me, and believe it or not, I am enjoying what I’m doing right now; all that’s left is for me to be a game developer then a marketing-slash-advertising head of SqaureEnix. I learned a lot of things this year and I’m noting all of those inside my head. No more trash talking professors, no more inferiority complex overhaul and above all, no more being neurotic.
I don’t really want to make this entry long since there are still alot of treats on the table. So this is it for 2009, and thank God its over. Happy New Year everyone! Scrub your bodies before the new year comes and clean all of th negative away from you yourselves. Flush all the stress down the drain and look forward to a better year ahead.
Authentic talent is hard to find these days especially when the field slowly turns into a wave then into a faux pas after a couple of years. It’s much like fashion these days they come and go and you could barely discern who is the genius among a plethora of people flocking into either an audition or into a social networking site dedicated to art. I did happen to find one that is worthy of note, better yet, someone who is worth watching. She’s a talented artist based on Hong Kong who draws with a pencil. You heard it everything’d done with a pencil. Just take a look at her portfolio and let the art speak for itself. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me posting her work here.
Bleach – Ichimaru Gin-Grin by ~GenyaXAdrian
Resizing doesn’t really do much justice to her drawings. Please take the time to look into her portfolio. You can access her page through this link here. Its artists like her that inspire me to help others and push them forward.
How did I end up on her page you ask? I’m really that obsessed with Hazama (BlazBlue: Continuum Shift), and everyone on dustloop says Ichimaru Gin from Bleach looks like him. I don’t watch that much anime anymore, truth be told I only watch Full Metal Alchemist:Brotherhood. So I did just that I searched and ended up on her page and I was so awe-stricken I did this entry. Kudos to her and her talent she makes me world much more colorful than films in the 70’s.
Merry Christmas everyone! I’m hoping you’re all feeling the holiday spirit of being broke yet generous. I know I am. While you’re at it I found this understated yet beautiful fan art of Hazama from BlazBlue: Continuum Shift. Who ever did this should really make his signature at least visible ’cause I can’t see nor sense any trace of it.
Is it me or is Tekken 6 really disappointing and I was so over hyped? I have nothing against the series; truth be told I’ve been playing it ever since the PlayStation one era and I don’t really do too bad with it. I loved Tekken 5 both the original and the Dark Resurrection version. I enjoyed watching Tekken matches online, and hell, I was one of them fanboys who made the arcade their free theater. So why am asking this silly question right now?
My brother has been over hyped by the game, and obviously so was I. My eyes shimmered like the stars when I googled for Tekken updates in the past two years, then I came across the Wikipedia page dedicated to it. Nothing can be official unless it is written on Wikipedia, so my heart raced and and I felt convulsions happening inside my body when I read the paragraph saying there will be another sequel for the game plus NEW CHARACTERS! New characters are always the best marketing strategy for fighting games because they bring intrigue and sometimes they even bring with them a whole new world for the game itself. I was so glad. It felt like I won the lottery and I was only supposed to wait for about a year to claim the prize money. So I waited long, and yes it was excruciating. With every information leaked on foreign magazines that were uploaded monthly by communities, my blood pressure rose bit by bit. I was so hyped by it. Then the day finally came and so did the game’s trailer. Trailer in high definition with breathtaking graphics, check. New characters, and customizing features wow, a big fat overweight check. Combo system, fine I’ll check that as well. It had the makings of a fighting game that would blow Street Fighter’s ass to epic proportions. “Another sequel was to be released!” our old friend Wikipedia said. More hype for me and more convulsions inside my body.
And finally-finally, the day came when I could see how the game goes. Match videos from all over the world were uploaded into YouTube and I feasted on each one of them. It was pretty meh, kthnxbye to me. I might have been over hyped by it, or I was so overwhelmed by it having every feature in the fighting game market. It was like eating a piece of steak that was made up of every cut and portion of meat. It had so much in it I could no longer discern the taste nor texture it had. I haven’t played the game yet, but these disappointing match videos are delaying my purchase even more. No offense to the players, they’re borderline godly amazing. I felt like Bryan Fury blasted my heart into smithereens with his whatever. I know Tekken is one of the most epic wins of the fighting game industry. It being the best 3d fighting game ever, will be the sole reason for my purchase. I felt like I claimed my prize money that was 70% taxed and all that was left for my disposal was 100 gran compared to the promised 1 million. To cut this entry short, I will be buying the game for sheer geekdom, in layman’s terms, I’ll buy it for the sake of novelty and hopefully it doesn’t disappoint me that much anymore.
James Morrison’s new video, and song for that matter, completely broke my heart. He made me feel guilty because I was turning my back on him this past few months. Could you really blame an amazing artist for swaying his fans’ hearts in just a single note? Listen to this and tell me what you think.
He’s really going off the track of his first album, though I find it hard to understand and swallow, it might just be for the better. Look at Whitney! By the way you can only get this song through the Deluxe version of “Songs for You, Truths for Me”, which is already out, so pack up those green bills or start burning off your plastic if you want to get it for yourself. iTunes gift cards please!
My arm hurts. Probably because I used it to anchor myself on my ride home. It might not have been ready for the abrupt torture I gave it in the whole 10 minutes I spent hanging unto the vehicle…
The time was 5.45pm. I had the chance to talk to my friend-slash-mentor after class. It was surprising to see him there, in fact it was actually surprising to still be able to talk to him. Being the smartest guy who ever walked the halls the department building and one of the smartest guys to ever walk the streets of the university it was, to me, surprising to see that he still has time for himself and for us. In fact he’s making a platform game that uses look-a-like sprites of us as characters as a tribute to our circle of friends.
So I scurried down the lobby and unto the grand ramp; hurried down and unto the university streets. The scene was surreal, the street lights glowing in vibrant yellow, the grass along the sides of streets dancing like natives welcoming foreign men it was a scene worthy to be painted. The wind blew and the Christmas smell started wafting at the tip of my nose. I walked swiftly as I was hoping to get a decent ride home and I did 5 minutes later. I came by my second stop and saw people flocking over the sides of the streets. It wasn’t a good site to see and it sent shivers down my spine. I knew I wasn’t going to get home if I wanted a seat. I knew I had to rely on brute force if I wanted to get home immediately. I also knew that I had to be resourceful and at the very least patient if ever I hope to come home before dinner. I sprinted towards the side of the streets and joined the flock of people waiting for jeepneys to stop by and give them a lift home. I waited for a couple of minutes and made the most out of the intimations the drivers gave, but all to no avail. It was never easy to get a ride at this time of day. Nothing is organized here in the Philippines. The more we try to organize things the more complicated and exhaustive things become. It was worse for the transportation industry. If you don’t have a car, it’s going to be a do or die situation.
I had to take things into my own hands. I waited for one of the jeepneys to stop, then I ran towards it. I had to anchor myself by the vehicle’s entrance. I had my hands grip the bars at the vehicle entrance firmly and I placed my Van’s classic slip-on’s by the entrance platform. My head popped out of the vehicle’s roof much like a rabbit’s way of popping his head out of a magician’s hat. I situated my eyes on the view that ran as I hung myself by the entrance. Lights flickering, cars honking on each other due to traffic jams, people anxiously waiting to get their ride home; it was life in front of me, life in the dusty dirty beautiful city. I had the facial of my life to be honest. Mircrobeads of dust, and black mist caressed my face in a ten minute treatment. It wasn’t pretty and it was not even close to being relaxing, considering the amount of stress it brought to my right arm. But it was well worth it, new experience, gush of adrenaline and the view of the city in its most lively state was breathtaking. It was the most gorgeous interpretation of an oxymoron; ugly-dirty beautiful, perfect looking metropolitan scene. People rushing, horns making noise and a new facial, oh yes! This is rush hour!
I can’t believe how popular culture has evolved from hippies to bad boys to futuristic men and women in barely there cat suits. Miuchia Prada did say that wearing less is not always the best thing and is a fashion blunder, but who cares when you’re Lady Gaga.
Watch Lady Gaga’s new music video “Bad Romance” and see Alexander McQueen in action. Pieces from Plato’s Atlantis in this video are stunning.
Lady Gaga’s new album “The Fame Monster” comes out this coming 23rd of November 2009.
Since last semester I thought the worst registration experience ever was my first, and here I am ranting about the recent one. It wasn’t my fault that’s for sure, and up to now I am indignant of what had transpired. I ran out of classes to enroll in because I had to endure two days of queuing in what seemed to be like the tail of an Ouroboros, a dragon eating his own tail symbolizing eternal suffering. It was the tail of the Ouroboros alright, as it felt like it was never going to end and everyone inside the building was agonizing over the possibility of not being able to get any classes. Misfortune does have a way of finding its way and it found me again and I wasn’t able to get my classes without going on an emotional breakdown first.
My number was 339 and they were processing 20 people at a time. I could not have suffered that much right, and I am simply overreacting. Wrong! It took them more or less and hour and a half to process those papers and their lunch break runs from 11.30am-1.30pm, a mere two hours for some, an eternity for us all who had to line up and wait for two days. By the way I wasn’t the last person on the line, there where hundreds (the number reached 800+ before the new one was used) more and a new batch of numbers to accommodate more people. Why didn’t they do something faster than manually checking each student’s profile for grades? That I cannot answer because I don’t know what the answer is.
What caused this you may ask. The deadline for the submission of grades was given without any exact time it was simply October 30 but the administration checked for grades at noon despite knowing that most professors in the college cram like their students (including me of course). This was the case for most of the people who lined up for clearance, and when I say most I mean more than 75%. What could you expect from a government-funded school? Despite it being the dubbed best school in the local scene, the people who run it sure aren’t near the best office people in the local scene.
Lining up in what was supposed to be the shortest enrollment of my life ever felt like hell. I was expected to be done in two days, one day for enlistment another to have mom file for a manager’s check. It turned out to be two days of torture and stress as I continued to worry about the availability of my subjects. I was suffering because other people’s incompetency which agitated me to the point of crying. Lesson learned expect the worstest when in a government-funded institution cause you’ll never know when people would screw up big time.
As with any hand-held console, Nintendo releases a revamped DSi with a bigger batch of screens, a longer stylus, and some pre-installed DSiWare, a very small improvement of its predecessor. Nintendo Japan will release it’s new big baby this coming November in natural white, wine red, and dark brown for about $220 a piece. This has got me scratching my head. Honestly ,who would want a fat hand-held console? The reason why we buy hand-helds is because we want handy, pocketable devices to keep boredom away. The console will be known as DSi LL in Japan and DSi XL in Europe. Not much information has been leaked, but expect them to spew out in the following weeks.
I bet there are a lot of third world gamers like me who find it hard to find gaming accessories that are only available to prosperous and profitable markets that exist in prosperous and profitable countries. Sadly we are far from being either one of those two adjectives and even farther from being both. The local gaming market is dominated mostly by TimeZone, that international family fun arcade store. Dehydrated of the love for games, the market here is nearly dead with only a select few being able to afford consoles and games. The gaming market here in the Philippines is indubitably bleak, but then again, there will always be an oasis no matter how wide the desert is.
I’ve tried to find fighting sticks since I discovered Guilty Gear. Finding them has always been a hassle and always ended in failure. Thank God this year, I am very much blessed to have found the Holy Grail of fighting sticks the Hori Real Arcade Pro 3 better known as HRAP3.
Locating the stick wasn’t so hard, but locating it in an accessible store was so much of a pain. I did end up in a thread that consisted of local gamers looking for the same arcade stick. A lot of people have been giving positive reviews for Mr. Dynamic Telecom also known as i-Tech so I called them up and checked for the availability of the HRAP3 and yes, God has blessed me this year; they had one. The day after I saw people flocking in buying consoles and games; no wonder they were so popular with the local gaming scene. Friendly people, reliable service, can it get any better than this? I picked it up by their store, and it was in a box that was bigger than my PS3 that I had to carry the whole day and it made my arm hurt the day after. All is well, and I’m having a hard time adjusting especially on the dashing issue, but this should all be worth it the moment I become accustomed to the flicking and gyrating of the stick.
Mr.Dynamic slash i-Tech has branches all over the metro. Check their site here (click me!). For your gaming needs, accessories, games, even prepaid network cards, check out Mr.Dynamic! I give them an all appendages up and a 5 out of 5.
