Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Back to the grind

The trouble with long weekends is that you promise yourself that you'll do a long list of fun things. Invariably, this list will be longer than what you can really accomplish...

Two years ago, I played La Pucelle Tactics. It's an old school, turn based tactical RPG with cute art and a good story. After 65 hours of gametime, I was one dungeon away from the last boss. Then I stopped. Burned out from too much levelling.


La Pucelle has an insanely complex and addictive XP system. Each character has a base level, and ten more attributes that level separately based on your equipment. Skills level only when you use them. Equipment levels too, during a minigame that you play parallel to combat. You can also fuse items and train monsters.


Last weeked, I played it again, and it's really good! Maybe it's because I can only play a few hours each day, so I'm less bothered by repetition. I really love this kind of classic combat system, and the characters are well made and adorable. I'm looking forward to more from Nippon Ichi. I wonder I can still get Disgaea I.


Stormcrow

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Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Slave // Think Twice

So. I'm now a corporate slave. No longer a member of the academic intelligensia, I'm now merely a cog in a multinational machine. Why'd I do it? For the money, OBV. But at the same time, Hewlett-Packard actually seems to be a great place to work. The atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and collegial than what I'd expect from a big corp. No time-in/time-out, and they give you a laptop to boot. Just don't ask me what we do, I can't tell.




The real downside though, is that I'm no longer able to spend a lot of time with Pat and Tesla. It's pretty much an hour in the morning and an hour at night (if I'm lucky). T_T It doesn't help that Pat works at night and I work during day.

***

I spent the weekend watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Let me start off by admitting that the first episode is bad. Incredibly bad. Amazingly bad. Deliberately bad. As bad as a joke that goes on for too long, when it isn't even funny in the first place.

The episodes are presented all out of chronological order too. A little something to keep the viewer off balance, while evoking a sense of medias res. Perhaps this is to obscure the fact that the majority of the episodes are just character building filler.



I actually set this one aside after watching the first two episodes. But you know what? I watched the third episode last saturday... and ended up watching it marathon-style right until the ending. Stayed up four hours past my bedtime too. It hides surprising depths in the shallows... makes you think twice.

Strongly recommended. Watch it in proper show order, with patience and trust.


Stormcrow

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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Review: Transformers Classics

Last December, while doing some christmas shopping, I found a couple of neat looking Transformers. I decided against getting them right then, but still, I was set down the road to start a modern TF collection. Henceforth, a toy review!

This is Optimus Prime, Voyager size, from the 2006 Transformers Classics line. As a trailer truck cab, Optimus has a modern, aerodynamic silhouette. Of note is the addition of a wind vane on the roof, and a repositioning of the smokestacks. An autobot symbol is present on the right door, the kind which changes color when rubbed. While the truck really does looks great, the lack of a trailer is somewhat disappointing, and when placed next to other autobot cars, I wish Optimus was slightly bigger.

As a robot, Optimus has a well sculpted form, with great balance and loads of articulation that allow for dynamic poses. He has two guns: the first is a huge red canon that transforms from his wind vane; the second is a short shotgun that transforms from his smokestacks. The only downside here is some kibble on his forearms, from the doors of the truck. Overall this is a great toy, both for playing with and for display.

Next up is Megatron, also a Classic Voyager. Unfortunately, U.S. law is not kind to Megatron, forbidding any realistic looking gun modes. Instead, he's brightly colored and looks like a nerf gun. With those limitations in mind, Megatron is actually a fairly decent (toy) gun; it's enjoyable to point him around and click the trigger.

In robot mode, Megatron is also well-sculpted, with a good amount of articulation. There are some departures from his TV series look: there's a lot of purple in his color scheme, and he has Energon green wings at his back. His eyes are light piped, meaning that they glow when he's backlit. He has no detachable weapons, relying on his huge arm blaster. Megatron is not as posable as Optimus, due mostly to balance problems that arise from having a lot of body attachments. Overall, despite having issues, I'd say that Megatron is almost as good as Optimus and is certainly a lot flashier.


EDIT: Later on, I was so enamored of the light piping that I decided to use it as an avatar.


Stormcrow

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Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Quick Review: Lost Girls

The Good:

It's a "pornographic" work involving Alice, Wendy, Dorothy. It should be apparent by now that Alan Moore is great at deconstructing superheros in general (Watchmen and Top 10) or other people's specific literary characters (LXG). Or, is it reconstructing?


In any case, the writing is good. Great dialogue. Storytelling is also excellent. Good incorporation of the literary references. I also have to applaud Moore for trying to make well written and cerebrally entertaining "pornography".


The Bad:

After reading Moore's other works, and Gaiman's too... and glancing at (and passing over) Vertigo's Fables, I'm getting tired of all these literary characters bumping into each other in "the real world". Look, this is basically fanfiction. Doujinshi. Not as clever as you think, overall.


The Ugly:

The "girls" are not as young as the title might suggest. And, do you know what's worse than old lesbian action? Poorly drawn, old lesbian action.



Is it "pornography"?

Haha.


Stormcrow

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Dinosaurs, webcomics, go!

So I haven't had much to do in the past week. I really need to look for a job... In the meantime though, I'm enjoying my hiatus. Reading webcomics, among other things. Here are a few absurd ones that have caught my fancy:

(as usual, click the pic to get a larger, more readable image)

Dinosaur Comics
http://www.qwantz.com/
Dinosaur comics has copy and paste art; it is made up for by wonderful dialogue and lovable characters. It features a T-Rex rambling about various topics pertaining mostly to language and philosophy. Hilarity ensues.

White Ninja Comics
http://www.whiteninjacomics.com/
On the other hand, White Ninja appears to lack both good art and any redeeming intellectual features. Instead, it is by turns unpredictable, meaningless, slapstick and disgusting. More hilarity ensues.
The Perry Bible Fellowship
http://pbfcomics.com/

This strip makes me want to laugh and weep at the same time. It deftly juxtaposes a sense of childlike innocence with bitter disappointment and the indifference of humanity. Well done.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
http://www.smbc-comics.com/
SMBC is the one comic on this list which is actually funny in the traditional sense. Like in PBF, normalcy and madness blend into a surreal stew.


Stormcrow

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Monday, October 09, 2006

Master

It's been an eventful week. Last wednesday, after many a sleepless night, I finally defended my MS thesis. Yay! Now I can start looking for a job again. ^_^ I'm not sure exactly how one goes about graduating in the middle of the schoolyear but I'd better push paperwork so I don't miss it.

This weekend marked the release of Magic's newest expansion, Time Spiral. I got a FatPack on sunday; that's a pair of (really nice) card boxes w/dividers, a guide-booklet, some land, some boosters, a d20 and a novel. The novel did not disappoint: I expected a rambling, barely coherent story with cardboard characters and a forgettable plot, and I got what I expected.

I was able to meet Ozzy (my constructed friend) to split two booster boxes. As usual, I got all the commons and uncommons. I haven't actually been able to play much limited recently, between my thesis and Raven's work, but Time Spiral looks like a fun set, even if just to collect.


Stormcrow

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In closing, who knew that Quinton Hoover did furry porn? Not I.

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Monday, November 14, 2005

Old Books

What's been up? Moved in with Pat. Stayed at the Manila Pen for a while. Helped her clean out her room. Built some bookshelves. I'm actually fair at carpentry (sawing and varnishing, anyway). I know most of you won't believe that but there it is.

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The Conservatory

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The thing with bookshelves is that you put books on them. I found a few of my old gems hidden in Pat's closet that I felt deserved at least a little mention.


Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand
The classsic tome of objectivism. I first heard of Atlas Shrugged from rec.arts.sf.written.robert-jordan. There was a short fan fiction parodying it, and I was intrigued by the moral dilemma between "take care of the weak" and "don't suffer fools". So I went out and got the book, which made a huge impression on my character, as I was 16 at the time. Amazing read all over. In hindsight, a better order would be to read Anthem and Fountainhead first.



Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams
By the same guy who wrote H2G2, this is just as funny but a lot more literate. For one thing, it asks that you know a bit of Coleridge to appreciate the story. Did I mention it was funny? I'd rank it aboe Hitchhiker's, and way above anything Adams wrote in his bitter phase.



Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco
I decided to pick up some Eco because of something Zafra mentioned. This is a really clever book about mysticism and the lack of it. Throws in a lot of odd factiods about old mystical traditions, wishout getting too dry.

Sometimes Eco can be a really thick read (ie, Kant and the Platypus), but in this book he reallty shines. And anyway, don't you just love semiotics teachers? "Pat is my wife. Pat is a three letter word. My wife is a three letter word."

In case you missed all of that, let's just say it's a very cerebral Dan Brown.



A Depth of Beginning: Notes on Kabbalah, by Colin Low
http://www.digital-brilliance.com/kab/nok/
Speaking of which, Kabbalah is something that fascinated me for years, which is singular since I consider myself to be neither superstitious nor religious. It started with the aforementioned Foucault's Pendulum, and Neon Genisis Evangelion before that (around 1998). Colin Low's Notes on Kabbalah is one of the finest works on Hermetic Kabbalah that I've read, probably helped by the fact that he's a practicing physicist/computer scientist so the presentation is quite logical and scientific, even if the subject matter is quite not so. Also, it's free and published only on the net! What's not to like?


Stormcrow

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Monday, August 01, 2005

A negative experience

Raven and I arrived at two in the afternoon, ready to explore "the new Greenhills". Ten minutes in, and I end up spending 900 (all the money in my wallet) on a Bandai Eva girls gashapon set. Actually, I haven't looked at gashapons in half a year but this was on my old "must buy" list. So I got it. I'm a sucker!

Spent the next hour looking for a working ATM. Raven got Atelier Iris for the PS2, and I bought 102 pieces of 9th Edition basic lands... for drafting, of course. And sat down (in shoppesville) for a 35php hotdog... and a 35 php bottle of C2. What the hell?!

Eventually we meet the rest of the gang for dinner at the new Promenade building. Very reminiscent of Eastwood (insert foreshadowing) but with more airconditioning.

Ruben, Alekos, and I decide on Mexicali. Po vetoes it on the grounds that he hates mexicans. We walk around deciding where NOT to eat. When threatened with Cibo, Po decides to settle for the burritos.

Pat and I order our usual, Cheese Enchilada with Steak Burrito. Okay, this is usually where we take a picture of the food and tell you how good it is. But let me be Frank. IT SUCKED BIG TIME. The food was late. We got chicken instead of cheese. It tasted as if it were boiled and unseasoned. It felt as if it was cooked two hours before and hurriedly nuked in the microwave.

And to cap it off, our parking bill was 130php. On a Saturday. 130 for parking?!?

For me, the entire point of going to greenhills is that it's the bargain bin mall. Kinda like a Quiapo Lite. Where you can get your fill of cds, dvds, sirX and whatnot. But if this trend of upscale development continues, those days are numbered. And really, with all the more accessible alternatives, what's the point of an expensive greenhills?



Stormcrow

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Sunday, April 10, 2005

A pleasant surprise

Stormcrow and I went to Robinson's Galleria last Thursday to shop for a swimsuit for the Splash outing (and succeeding swimming outings). After a while we decided to have lunch. We had originally planned to eat at Cravings for their unlimited salad, but a closer inspection proved it to be not so sulit. It is usually hard to find a good place to eat at in Gale, so we decided to look around for a new food experience.

The set meal (for four people – daw) at Mediterranean looked good, but the price is slightly prohibitive. Burger King looks okay, but I wasn't in the mood for burgers (we just ate at Wham! last week). We were on our way to inspect Popeye's next when we happened to glance at its neighbor's menu. This neighbor happened to be Chef d'Angelo, which specializes in chicken, pasta and pizza. Stormcrow had already expressed an interest in a chicken lunch, and the size of the servings we saw of the nearby customers was enough to interest us.

I got one of the “Chef’s Samplers”, their version of value meals, I guess. It had a nice large piece of fried chicken with mushroomy gravy, a good serving of spaghetti with tomato sauce, and a slice of pizza (with pork bits, I think) – all for only Php99! Stormcrow of course got a chicken meal – a two-piece buffalo wing affair with rice and Caesar salad for around Php160. Not bad at all, since we weren’t expecting that much from an Italian place (Stormcrow doesn’t like pasta). The only drawback to Chef D'Angelo is that it can only be found at a couple of Robinson's.


Here’s a pic of our plates, partially eaten. ^_^

Raven's meal
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Stormcrow's meal
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Raven

PS: Happy Birthday, Stormcrow!!!

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Sunday, November 28, 2004

Not just your ordinary Chinese dinner



After an unexpected lengthy absence, we're back! The past two weeks had been kind of hectic, what with conferences, work, and acads. (In point of fact, the past two weeks were sem break! ^^) On to the blog!


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Chinese food is one of our favorite kinds of food. If we get a craving for it we usually go to such places like Causeway, which offers a wide variety of choices and has the traditional dimsum cart.

Stormcrow and I went to Greenhills one weekend. We saw this very intriguing Chinese place situated in the newly-opened multilevel covered parking lot. It was aptly named "Hua Lan" and the poster invited us to partake of an eat-all-you-can meal for only Php200. The restaurant had conveniently placed floor-to-ceiling glass windows that allowed us to peak at their buffet table. It looked interesting enough that we set a dinner date to try out the place.

This poster caught our attention 2 weeks ago..



In we went one night, and it must have been during the peak of dinner as we almost couldn't get a table. The place was modest in size, and could probably seat around 25-30 people max. We got a very small table for two, and ordered two glasses of bottomless iced tea (which might be a bad idea, as it will war with the food over stomach space ^^ ).

The buffet table was long, and was divided into sections: appetizer, viands/meal proper, dimsum, soup, and dessert. To my delight Hua Lan had radish cakes in cute triangular slices. (To the uninitiated, radish cakes are basically thicker hash browns made of..well, radish. ^^ You can put a kind of a thick red paste that tastes like hot sauce.) I gleefully put on several slices on my first plate.

The buffet table



The viands were varied. From what I remember, there was a dish of beef in oyster sauce (we liked that a lot), fried chicken parts, pork spareribs, pancit, and other chinese dishes that had, strangely enough, more than a touch of Filipino influence. The dimsum were your usual siomai (in pork and shrimp), siopao, and shrimp dumplings (which I didn't eat, lest I die XD ). There were also two kinds of soup, a hot and sour concoction and a reddish hued soup with pork bits.

Stormcrow with his first dinner plate. ^_^



Since it was eat-all-you-can, it was a no holds barred kind of meal. I helped myself to more of the radish cake and that excellent beef in oyster sauce dish. I think I got around 2 or 2 and a half plates worth of the main course, a couple of servings of the allowable dimsum, and maybe two cups of soup. Stormcrow ate maybe just a bit more than I did. (I think I was very hungry then! XD )

Sometime in the middle of the meal, Stormcrow got some samples of dessert. The choices included buchi, a mango-and-sago cold soup, and coffee jelly. We tried the coffee jelly, and it turned out to be pleasantly nice. It was a bit weird (all new things are a bit weird) but it had its charms. At that point I was getting full and wasn't able to take more than a couple of spoons of it.

The sweet conclusion



All in all, it was a very satisfying meal, even though their viands weren't very chinese. In fact there was a distinct lack of seafood in their buffet menu. The price of the meal isn't that far from any other eat-all-you-can places, and you have the option of a bottomless drink as well. The ambiance is quiet and the place is airconditioned. Is it worth going back? You bet!


Raven

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