Sony External DVD-RW

Bought this like two months ago. I never thought of buying a dvd-rom for my PC's. Not yet. Since everything naman is still in the old CD format - like my Windows installers and stuff. I don't use the PC to watch DVD movies, anyway, so I don't really need a DVD-ROM. Until I came upon this Sony DVD-RW at the Asianic website. I immediately thought that if I bought an external RW, I won't have to buy one for my home PC and another for the shop. I can easily bring it along and it looks so cool pa. Haha. Looks really deceive me. But I haven't used it yet. LOL. At least I already have one when everything's already on DVD. Does it make sense?

Anyway, Resty texted asking me to pay for Princess. Duhh! He gave it to me one moment, then the next moment he's asking me to pay for it. He said, "Bayaran mo na lang si Princess." Amf! He even gave me his Chinabank account number so I can deposit the money there. Hate it. But I'm already attached to the dog. So I'm paying. Four effing thousand lang naman. But even if it's cheaper, the thing is he's making me pay for something he gave me. Good thing I never accepted other stuff.

Dream

I dreamed of my step-brother who died some seven years ago by committing suicide. We weren't really close. We first saw each other when we were 5 or 6 years old because his mom left him in my father's office and my father had no choice but to bring him to our house. But he just stayed for half a day. I don't exactly remember what happened but perhaps his mom fetched him, or my father brought him back to his mom. I guess it's the latter because it would have been WWIII had his mom went to our house to fetch him. I remember my mother crying in our house while Noris and I played in the front yard of my paternal lola's house (which was next to ours). My memory of our play is confined to me drawing something on the ground (soil) with a stone/wood, and Noris playing with something in front of me, perhaps a toy that my lola gave him.

We then moved to Manila when I was eight, and hadn't heard anything from/about him until 10 years later when my father was already sick. Noris and his family were then already living in Pasig. My father knew, but he didn't tell us. Perhaps he didn't want my mother depressed from his past mistakes. But then my father was, by that time, already losing weight due to something he hadn't told us yet. So one Sunday night, after church, he told my mother about Noris being in Pasig, and they went to visit him.

I was speechless when I learned about it. Such a forgiving soul, my mother is. And my brother had been found! But then things went by fast. My dad was brought to the hospital and continued to get sick (of lung cancer) for like five months before passing away. Noris visited father once while he was sick. The second time he visited was the day we had to escort our father to Manila Memorial. I remember Noris crying hard. Then throwing his handkerchief down my father's grave before they covered him with soil.

Noris visited us several times after the funeral. And I was glad he did. But he was closer to my older brother than me. It was okay. At least he's around. But then things happened. Noris began asking mother for money everytime he visited. The last was for a tuition fee as he was supposedly enrolled in FEU. My older sister made some research. He wasn't in FEU's list.

Noris didn't visit us anymore after that. Years after, the late news about his suicide reached us. We learned that Noris had long been addicted to drugs, starting way before my father even got sick. Perhaps that could account for his suicidal tendencies.

I never dreamed of him before. And it was a long one last night. We were hanging out by the side of a busy road, talking about personal stuff. I even asked him if he remembered how we met when we were kids, and how he never came back. Sobbing, I also told him about my fear that he would leave us again. To that, he answered it will never happen again.

Funny but in my dream, Noris left us (like hid from us) after we met when we were kids. We were also like so close; like he's my long lost bestfriend or something. And before I was awakened, he was telling me about how his pair of shoes was stolen. The new one he was wearing was "Floors and Skates" that he just bought for 500 pesos. I don't even know if the brand exists. I was telling him that I like shoes that can be worn and taken off easily, something with no laces or stuff, that that's the reason why I am fond of wearing slippers.

My mother and niece were already preparing to go visit my father at the Manila Memorial when I woke up. I didn't wanna be left alone at the house so I decided to go to the shop early. Scared. Haha. Sheesh!

Anyway Noris is just a month older than me. Haha. I really love my father. And he's a junior! So much for being the other woman's child? Naaah. It's okay. I'm kinda glad they didn't make me a junior.

Nokia 5300. I Want!

I need a new phone. Damn! And I'm thinking of using my credit card to get one. But the other side of me says "Noooooo!" I already used it last Oct. 26 to pay half of the LG TFT (because I can't play Special Force on my old Samsung 17")

I wanted the AOC but upon arriving home, I noticed that it doesn't have a DVI port. Eh, since DVI is the future of videos, I don't see why I should buy a NEW monitor without DVI. Besides, my Samsung has DVI. So I sent my niece to SM Bicutan with the AOC to replace it with any other brand with the same specs, plus a DVI port. Notice the erasures on the receipt.

Anyway here's my new joy:

Anyway, Nokia 5300 isn't that expensive. And I don't think it has super fantastic features. But I find it so cool-looking. Chic. Looks like a toy. A little bulky, something I prefer over the super thin ones. Lee has one. It's really, really cool (looking). Camera's only 1.3 megapixels so okay na rin. Eh my digicam naman is 8 megapixels but I still resize the images to 25% whenever I upload it so 1.3 megapixels I think is just okay. Saka I won't be taking pictures naman with it. I just want a 5300. I wanna have one next week. By hook or by crook haha.

Law of attraction, please work. LOL!

Edit (11.05.08): My effing globe phone was stolen today. I still have my smart. But I don't wanna buy any more phones.

When the Game Sucks

Been playing Special Force, Crazy Kart and Gunz Online as of late. "Little games" IMHO. Something I can easily log out when the need arises, and where I don't have to continually grind because the levels don't matter much. On the second thought it does matter, too, but not as much as with the games where skills depend on levels.

Crazy Kart is so fun, reminiscent of my PlayStation addiction. Crash Bandicoot, yeah baby!

And like most PC gamers, I started out with Counter Strike. CS is still loved by millions up until now but variety has sprouted and gamers now have choices. But still, I must admit that I play Special Force and Gunz Online because I love Counter Strike. They are CS with more spice. Like eating mangga with bagoong, but it's still the mangga you like and not really the bagoong.

Special Force is locally published by MyGame. It's actually called Soldier Front in other countries (that's why you get "cannot run multiple instances of soldier front" error messages). And the game sucks most of the time because of the glitches and bugs. It totally messed up today after their maintenance. Computer restarts while patching or during gameplay. Mine restarted 15 times before I called it quits for the day. It's not my PC. I know mine's still on the high end. I even bought a new 19-inch widescreen LCD just because it wouldn't run on my 17-inch widescreen Samsung. That's why I know it's their new patch, and their forums are actually smoking with threads about restarting computers LOL.

So what do you do if the local publisher of the game you wanna play sucks? Download another country's publisher's client! LOL! I'm currently downloading the North American client (ijji.com).

And yeah same goes with Gunz. I stopped playing on the international server because of heavy lag. I also play the North American client through ijji.com.

Hayssss a gamer will always be a gamer, indeed! But hey, I don't play as heavily as before. I now just play whenever I'm free.

Book Lover

Princess likes gathering (my) things from the floor to put them on her "bed." She usually nibbles on them. But this time she finds a better use for my current read. Her head perhaps cradles better on the book than on her Tigger pillow, which she rarely uses.

No More Bird

And the other bird died... yesterday. I wish I were more OC.

Retrograde

My male African love bird (the green and red bird in the above pic) died yesterday. It had been with us for two years and four months. Also yesterday, one of my monitors got bluish, and one of my disks got damaged.

And I thought I had escaped the wrath of the Mercury Retrograde when nothing bad happened until October 15th. Mercury retrograde is also the reason why I brought Princess to the vet on the 16th instead of the scheduled 9th.

Bad things really happen when they happen. With or without whatever planet's retrograde.

To the Vet! To the Vet!

We (Resty and I) brought Princess to Animal House this morning. Original plan was to have her hair done but three toy dogs arrived ahead of us and they only had one groomer. If I would have Princess groomed, pick up time would be 6pm. And no I can't waste too much time hanging around SM Bicutan till 6pm (we were there 10.30am) and neither do I want to go to work and go back to the mall to pick her up. So we just had her shot with the 5-in-1 (distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, parainfluenza and parvovirus) vaccine which will make her stinky for five days (no bath).

Anyway, Doc Djoanna Quinto wasn't in yet when we arrived so we left Princess in one of the cages so we could roam around the mall while waiting. I had no plans of shopping but ended up getting a copy of Game! and could've bought a copy of Twilight but it's not in stock.


Back to the vet, Princess was (as always) all hysterical upon seeing me after a short absence, it was a while before the vet was able to do her stuff. And since I have a problem with the tip of Princess' tail (no hair), she was prescribed Coat Shine, a self-descriptive vitamins and it "might" bring back the hairs at the tip of her tail. Coat Shine is like clear oil and smells like cebo de macho. The smell ticks her off but as obedient as she is, she has no choice but to swallow the liquid.


She also has new shampoo (with tea tree oil) and conditioner which can be used as a leave-on.


Upon writing this, news reached me about the shih tzu two blocks away who looks exactly like Princess - and who has a nagging old housewife as a human - is already so thin and patches of coat has fallen off. Then mother told me that another black and white shih tzu owned by my friend's brother has been stud by an askal. Amf!

David Blaine?

(What the F! OMG!)

This is hilarious. And Vanessa, I now know why you fell.

Bag!

If somebody gives me a Gucci, I'll accept it even if it's leather. I'll just make up for acquiring a leather by bringing the bag everytime I shop so I can tell the salesladies not to put my purchases in plastic bags anymore. And by the looks of it, Gucci bags last for so long that the amount of plastic bags I'll end up saving will make up for the number of animals killed for the Gucci bag.

Spotted: Captain America!

Weren't you disappointed when you failed to see Captain America in The Incredible Hulk as was earlier announced? Well I was. But not anymore. He really is in it! On the DVD version, that is. The said cameo appearance was cut in the movie version.

Here are some pics. Look closely.



That's it! He got frozen, so even if his story was set in the World War II, he can still appear in The Avengers!

Popcorn, Anyone?

Cool, no? Or is it scary? Good thing I prefer reading emails than talking on the phone. Or has anyone tried to pop corn using four monitors, too?

Diablo III

Diablo was one of the first games I played before the MMORPGs hit the country and before PLDT had internet. My friend Jay and I would even use our telephone lines and modems just so we could party, resulting into havoc when my mom and sis found out that they weren't able to receive their calls cuz I was using the telephone for playing.

Now I am willing to rekindle my Diablo days with this new Diablo version they're preparing to release (no exact date yet).

Diablo 3 Game Features:
Explore fully realized realms of Sanctuary – the living, breathing gothic fantasy world of Diablo III – rendered in gorgeous 3D.

Battle the unholy forces of the Burning Hells with all-new character classes such as the otherworldly Witch Doctor, or with re-imagined warriors from Diablo’s past, like the powerful Barbarian.

Rain Hell on your enemies and use the interactive environment as a weapon: lay cunning traps, turn destructible objects against your foes, and use environmental obstacles to your advantage - all powered by the Havok physics system.

Experience the intensity of multiplayer Diablo III over an all-new, wickedly enhanced Battle.net platform with numerous enhancements to make connecting with your friends easier, and cooperative gameplay more fun.

*The old Necromancer will be unavailable on Diablo III but they added the Wizard class.

There's an Internet in Heaven.

You don't just do something without a goal. You eat because you want to satisfy your hunger, you drink because you wanna get rid of the thirst; you take a bath because you want to be clean; you go to school because (your parents want you to) you want to be a successful professional someday, or in the case of some, just so their high school diplomas will get them through as factory workers.

I blog because I wanna share to the world whatever little knowledge I have. One of my friends write just to have an outlet for her rants about life. Some blog just to be known in the blogosphere.

But Roy blogs hoping his wife can read it in heaven.

The Boy Abunda Billboard

OMG! This is effing funny... and creepy! It didn't make me want to buy the perfume. It actually made me laugh so hard. I'm actually ashamed for Boy Abunda. Pity, really. Whoever thought of the concept probably has a grudge on him.

I wonder if his BFF Kris Aquino also laughed at it.

Photo via katikat

Future Supermodel

This is what happens when you reach for your dreams at a very young age =) LOL

Harry and Paul Sucks

I really hate it when they degrade my race. Next time I have to deal with a caucasian, I'll treat him like a pig.

Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne 1.22 Patch: No More CD

My PC got a virus from Angel's flash disk (which she used in their school's lab) that I had to format the drive and start clean. It's always cool to have a clean drive but it definitely is not cool to loose files. Good thing I have my most important files stored in a cd, but still I lost my bookmarks in Firefox and some pictures I recently took that I haven't burned yet.

I now use Avira antivirus (goodbye Nod32). Avira is free (Nod32 only offers trial periods), and Avira detects more viruses than Nod32. Plus, the umbrella icon is cool =)

One of the first things I installed was Warcraft. And even if I own an original CD from Blizzard, I always use a crack file. Inserting CD's in the drive everytime I want to play is irritating. So a no-CD crack is the way to go. Avira, though, reads my crack files as virus so I went searching in the net for another crack. I found some on GamerBurnWorld but Avira still read them as viruses.

Until I came across this blog that says the latest update (1.22a) makes the game "no-cd." I immediately connected to Battlenet and lo and behold! Warcraft now runs without the CD. They should actually have done that long ago. CDs are not immortal. They get damaged. Does it mean you have to buy a new orig cd again if your cd got damaged? But still, it's good that they have thought of that even this late.

Battlenet is the easiest way to patch your game but for those who want to download and install the patch manually, click this.

Warcraft III v1.22 Patch Notes

FEATURES

- There is now a replay auto-save feature in the options menu. Replays are automatically saved to the "replay" folder.
- The game is now automatically saved in the event of a potential disconnect. These saved games are placed in the "save" folder.
- Player color selection can now be limited by the number of players in the game using an option in the "Advanced Options" screen during game
creation.
- Added an option to always show unit and building health bars.
- You can now enable and disable the display of minimap signals from players and other observers using chat commands:
/showminimapsignals and /hideminimapsignals.
- Added a new in-game cheat "maxfps" to limit the maximum frame rate to the given number. Example: "maxfps 30" will set the maximum frame rate to 30 FPS.

BALANCE CHANGES

HUMAN
- Scout Tower repair rate changed from 12 to 20.
- Knight damage increased: Attack cooldown changed from 1.50 to 1.40 and base damage increased from 25 to 28 (Average damage is 34).

UNDEAD
- Increased Ziggurat base armor from 1 to 5.
- Reduced the build time of the Necropolis from 120 to 100.

NIGHT ELF
- Reduce the Orb of venom poison duration from 10 seconds to 8 seconds.
- Increase the experience gain from Dryads from Level 2 (40xp) to Level 3 (60 xp).

FIXES

- The cooldown on unlimited usable items (example: the staff of preservation) now persists after the item is dropped or traded.
- A cooldown exploit with potions has been fixed.
- When you unburrow a Crypt Fiend, its auto-cast will no longer be toggled off.
- An exploit bug in which items could lose their cooldowns when transferred between heroes has been fixed.
- Fixed DotA-specific sound effects on Intel Macs.
- Fixed sound falloff on Intel Macs. Distant sounds should now still be
audible.

MAPS

- New maps from contest winners:
- (2)MeltingValley
- (2)RoadToStratholme
- (4)CentaurGrove
- (4)TidewaterGlades
I forgot the blog url where I read it from. But then it made me realize the importance of blogging, and the importance of spreading what you know.