Happy New Year!

2008 had been a meaningful year - been in and out of trials, of love, and hate. And I must say that the experiences had made me a better person, a more responsible one. I have also learned to love myself more this year, to spend more time for "me."

So much to thank for, really. But of all the beautiful things that happened, one thing that stood out the most was Princess, my beautiful, beautiful dog with such perfect attitude to coincide with mine. And Princess isn't just remarkable because of that, she's actually the living proof that The Secret does work.

Years go by; they come, go and never come back. Much like people in our lives. And so much like them, we say goodbye to them but their memories live on in our minds. In just a few hours we must say goodbye to 2008. Let's take a moment to thank God for everything that was, and pray that 2009 be a better, more fruitful year for all of us.

Happy New Year everyone!

Takipsilim No More

So it seems that the worst news ever this month isn't true. ABS-CBN has already released an official statement regarding the Twilight thing. It seems that a miscommunication caused it. But is it really that? Cuz Perez Hilton reported that when the news about Takipsilim broke out, the creators of Twilight immediately acted on it. Could it be the reason for the erratum? Oh well, I guess "people" should really stop copying ideas. Nakakahiya!

Target Shooting

Sometimes, we get really mad that we feel like throwing the nearest thing we can grasp at someone. And thanks to the Iraqi reporter who taught us that if we can't find anything to throw, we can use our shoes to hit someone.

Takipsilim

Been busy. What with all the Christmas preparations, sleepovers and parties. I still keep myself posted, though. I always start and end my day by checking my feed reader. And you know how the extremely good and extremely bad stuff are retained in your memory even after a while? During the days I wasn't actively blogging, I can say that the best news that came my way was the announcement of HP Mini 1000. Real cool netbook. They say it's even better than the mini-note.

Click here for the review.

Well that's for the extremely good. And what's for the extremely bad? Well, I really, really don't know how to react regarding the rumor that Twilight is having a Tagalog version (Takipsilim). LOL! And it's said to star Shaina Magdayao and Rayver Cruz. Good grief! I just hope that the (another) rumor belying it is the one that's true. Nakakahiya!

Gifts

I'm so lazy I only wrapped things to give the kids this morning. To think that my sister bought those first week of December (I think).


Nanay is so lucky Selecta sponsored her giveaways.


My 12-year-old 11-year-old nephew Juan is now a blogger. He called me yesterday to ask how he can have his own blog and I gave him the sites (gmail and blogger). He already have 2 posts as of this writing.

Crocs

This is Doc Erich's pasalubong from Australia slash Christmas giveaway. After my session, he took out a plastic case from his desk drawer with two remaining key chains. He let me choose and I picked the crocodile over another Australian animal I am not familiar with. Crocodile also reminds me of Survivor Philippines LOL. (Is it Naak or Jarakay?)


Nanay's already furious with Selecta. Her two freezers are now really empty (actually they're already unplugged) because Selecta keeps on delaying her orders. First, her agent was supposed to take her order Thursday last week. He arrived Saturday. And that's only after we texted him to remind him of our appointment. So the orders were placed Saturday morning, and needless to say, delivery should be Sunday. It's already Tuesday now. My nanay's already so mad she didn't open her store today LOL!

A Robot Shirt and a New Hair

Angel went shopping Friday and I gave her a thousand to buy me a shirt. For no reason. I just want a new shirt LOL. She went home with this (a louder LOL).

It's a P399 shirt from Penshoppe. And I thought shirt prices ranges from 500 up. I never had a shirt with a robot print even when I was a kid. And idk what made Angel think that I'd like such design. But anyway I wore it to the ortho yesterday. And yea Doc Erich didn't recognize me until he saw Princess. He had never seen me kalbo before. He greeted me with a very polite "Ano po?" when I entered his clinic then threw into a fit when he realized it was me.

This is the before and after pic I took at the barber shop last Friday.

Sa May Bahay...

I was in my mom's store two nights ago when it finally dawned on me it's really Christmas.

I love (looking at) kids. I know they're having so much fun doing this and thinking it's Christmas time (and I believe the season's mainly for them). I just hope I didn't look like them when I caroled as a kid.

Anybody Home?

I just thought I had to post =)

Morro

Microsoft is set to release a FREE virus protection software in the second half of 2009. It's their response to the growing need for PC security and they call it "Morro." This new antivirus will gradually replace Windows Live OneCare subscription service, of which retail sale will be stopped by June 30, 2009.

Morro is reported to use "fewer computer resources, making it ideal for low-bandwidth scenarios or less powerful PCs." Hello third-world computing!

Honestly, the first thing that entered my mind upon hearing Morro were the Muslims. The Philippine Moro, though, has a single R so it might not be it. But come to think of it, it's such an appropriate name for an antivirus if they based it upon the Moro of the Philippines. Moros are fighters; fearless ones. And who better fight the Trojan horse! The virus, btw, was derived from The Aenid, an epic poem by Virgil. In the poem, the Trojan horse was used by the Greeks to deceive the Trojans themselves, and that exactly is what the Trojan horse virus do - it appears to do a desirable function but is in fact destroying your computer. So what's the better way to destroy the Trojans? Bring in the Moro, or in MS's case, the "Morro."

And since Trojan is derived from literature, Moro is also part of the Philippine literature. Moro-moro is a play popular during the Spanish colonial period, and is about the battle between the Christians and Muslims of Spain.

Meanwhile, Morro (with two Rs) mean something else in other countries (mostly Spanish speaking ones). It can mean a snout, a hill, and even lack of shame.

Shame.

Photo via the movie Troy

Legend of the Seeker

I'm a fan of LOTR, not to mention of Tolkien himself. I also know about the book series entitled "Sword of Truth" by Terry Goodkind but haven't read it yet. And then now it's on TV as "Legend of the Seeker." Reminds me much of LOTR. I'm now a fan.

Two episodes was shown in the pilot last November 1 - (1) Prophecy and (2) Destiny. It basically tells you about who the seeker is and where he came from and stuff.

Craig Horner plays a charming "Seeker."


Bridget Regan as Kahlan Amnell is a beautiful sight.


And Bruce Spence as the wizard reminds me so much of Gandalf.


Watch it here.

Dota Allstars 6.57

A new DOTA map!

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
Date: 2008-11-11
MD5: 0c88743d59c8023eeacd6bf4f3fb8f21
Filesize: 3.24 Mb
Category: Hero Defense
Tileset: Felwood
Dimensions: 128x128
Playable Area: 118x120
Recommended Players: 10

Choose from 93 unique heroes in an epic battle to defend the Ancients.

Modes: -ap, -ar, -rd, -sd, -cm, -dm, -lm, -xl, -mm, -tr, -vr, -rv, -mr, -du, -sp, -sh, -aa, -ai, -as, -id, -em, -sc, -np, -om, -nt, -nm, -nb, -ns, -nr, -ts, -pm, -oi, -mi

Changelog for v6.57
* Changed how -sd hero selection works. The three heroes are now added as icons to select from your circle of power
* Lots of fixes and improvements to the translation capacity of the map
* Fixed a few Warcraft 1.20e specific bugs for Chinese community
* Some performance improvements (more coming in the near future)
* Your Circle of Power now has 6 inventory slots. The items it has are now abilities instead. You cannot pickup items that you don't own with Circle of Power
* Items drop on top of your Circle of Power if a unit is not there instead of making a big pile in the center

* Improved Shallow Grave cooldown
* Increased the bounty on Power Cogs a little bit
* Decreased Clockwerk's Intelligence gain slightly
* Increased Hookshot manacost from 125 to 150
* Scaled the cooldown on Eclipse from 140 seconds for all levels to 160/150/140 seconds
* Eclipse no longer continues after death, Beam interval is increased from 0.5 to 0.6 seconds
* Improved Windrunner cooldown
* Lowered Admiral Proudmoore's base Intelligence and intelligence gain
* Decreased X Marks The Spot duration
* Added manacost to manual return ability of X Marks The Spot
* Increased Ghost Ship's manacost
* Lowered Omniknight's base movement speed by 5
* Increased Rhasta's base strength
* Improved AOE on Fervor
* Improved Dark Seer's cast animation point
* Increased length of Wall of Replica slightly
* Lowered bonus damage per second on early levels of Geostrike
* Tweaks to Shackleshot angle and area check mechanism
* Slightly improved Shackleshot duration and cd
* Improved Mass Serpent Wards' cooldown
* Reduced Haunt Illusions' damage from 50% to 40%
* Haunt now has a 1 second delay during which they fade in before the images start attacking the targets
* Improved Thunder Clap AOE
* Improve Primal Split's manacost and cooldown scaling per level
* Improved Life Break
* Improved Slardar's Cast Point
* Increased Command Aura's AOE
* Reworked Voodoo Restoration stats
* Minor improvements to Glyph of Fortification
* Courier now costs 200 gold
* Improved Eidolons damage type progression
* Lowered Lycan's Wolves Hitpoints
* Lowered base armor on Lycan and his wolves by 2
* Increased Empowering Haste's AOE
* Improved Aphotic Shield's life from 100/125/150/175 to 110/140/170/200
* Increased Kelen's Dagger cooldown from 15 to 18

* Circle of Power is now selected for each player at the start of the game
* Added disablehelp for X Marks the Spot
* Fixed some issues with the tree layout near the center scourge neutral camp
* Slight adjustment of top scourge tower position
* Your Circle of Power is more visible than your allies'
* Undid the previous minimap change due to concerns from different leagues
* Tweaked the bash values on Roshan
* Moved Glyph of Fortification from an item to an ability on your Circle of Power to prevent some abuses possible by the enemy
* Added Disablehelp for Keeper of the Light's Recall
* Added new hero sounds to -quote (Ogre Magi, Techies, Blademaster, Panda) and it now also tells you which number it played if u randomed with it
* Changed Windrunner's soundset

* Adjusted neutral pullability area for the Scourge ancients a bit
* Fixed camera movement issues when multiple Meepos respawn with Aegis of Immortal
* Fixed scoreboard consumables count
* Fixed static field doing a small amount more than what the tooltip says
* Fixed BKB being droppable after use when it's duration is decreasing
* Fixed the text display in -sc
* Fixed a bug with Phase Boots and Puck's Phase
* Fixed Phase Boots triggering Last Word
* Fixed some issues with the creep pathing on the bottom Sentinel wave
* Fixed a bug in Death Match that allows you to rebuy the same hero again
* Fixed Observer Board not showing up from a reloaded game in -cm
* Fixed hero respawn issues in regular dm (not dmap or dmar)
* Fixed Dust of Appearance tooltip not showing cooldown
* Fixed an old issue with dropping items away from you while under Berserker's Call pull
* Prevented Flying Courier from using dust of appearance
* Fixed an issue with Dawn Tavern being disabled when repicking in normal mode
* Fixed the RD spot not being marked as unexplored for scourge players after the draft phase
* Fixed a rare bug with Psionic Trap count limit not being enforced
* Fixed a test game only bug that caused the tower deaths to not register properly in single player
* Fixed a bug with Aegis of Immortal not setting proper mana on Meepo clones
* Fixed some performance related bugs with Admiral Proudmoore
* Fixed a bug with Power Treads and Essence Aura
* Fixed some minor bugs with the manabase on Primal Split's level 1 and 2 Earth
* Fixed Sange sell cost
* Fixed some minor issues with Phase Boots
* Fixed Kelen's Dagger being undroppable for the same old cooldown values
* Fixed Windrunner not appearing in -sd or -ai
* Fixed a Drop Items bug with courier and Aegis of Immortal
* Fixed a bug in some game modes where Kelen's Dagger had a small chance to not register properly and get disabled on incoming damage
* Fixed some rare bugs with the combination of Dispersion and Starfall
* Fixed some group selection inconsistencies with Primal Split units
* Fixed Windrunner to not cancel your movement command
* Fixed Phase Boots from canceling Curse of the Silent
* Fixed a bug with X Marks The Spot and Primal Split
* Fixed some issues with super creeps (in -sc) getting stuck
* Fixed Shackleshot and Nature's Guise to work on Sprout trees
* Fixed a recent bug with the -courier command
* Fixed Torrent buff icon
* Added -cm to -gameinfo
* Fixed being able to buy from secret shop from the area above Roshan
* Fixed some group selection priority issues with Circle of Power and the shops

Special Force slash Soldier Front

Up to now, I'm still getting hits about the Soldier Front (locally known as Special Force) error message "cannot run multiple instances of soldier front" and I can't believe I haven't blogged yet about my analysis on the problem (I kind of did, but it's chopped into multiple posts).

Back to the problem: Soldier Front (or Special Force) will only run on monitors with the screen resolution of 1024 x 768 or higher. And higher means both horizontal (at least 1024) and vertical (at least 768). Like in my case, I used to play on a 17-inch widescreen Samsung with a maximum resolution of 1440 x 720 and I couldn't run Soldier Front on it. I believed it wasn't my CPU cuz it's still kinda new. So I searched the net for solutions and did what most of them said - install the latest video card driver. I did that despite the fact that my shop computers could run Soldier Front even on old video card driver. And just like what I expected, the "latest driver" thing didn't work.

Until instinct told me to test the game on an old 17-inch CRT monitor (AOC) which has a resolution of 1024 x 768. So I connected the old CRT to my cpu, adjusted the resolution to 1024 x 768 (since it's still trying to display via the 1440 x 720 resolution that my desktop was set to), and after restarting the PC, lo and behold! Soldier Front worked! Just to make sure, I changed the CRT's resolution to a lower one (800 x 600), and yes I was right, the game wouldn't work on a lower resolution.

Right now, I use a 19-inch widescreen LG with the max resolution of 1440 x 990. It cost me a new monitor to play the game, and somehow it is worth it. I don't just play SF, anyway. Cabal and Crazy Kart also looks great on the new LG.


PS: For Windows XP users, if your computer restarts itself upon entering SF, make sure to install a security update from the Microsoft website (or you can Google the file) called WindowsXP-KB926255-x86-ENU.exe...

Discounts

I went to buy a new cpu to replace one at the shop that has been giving me headaches since last month. Asianic Bicutan has a new supervisor. Jonathan (the previous supervisor) and I are already friends, and for a while I thought of finding some other store to buy my stuff when I learned that he has been assigned to some other branch. But since I really need a new cpu ASAP, I tried talking to the new supervisor this morning over the phone to give me quotations of so and so. When he called back, I noticed that he gave me better discounts compared to Jon. LOL! And based on that alone, I think we'll be friends, too. His name is Cris, btw.

It's a 2.53 Core 2 Duo with 1G DDR2, 80G SATA and 512 ATI Video. The stuff in front of the box are extra memory sticks and an extra IDE hard drive for stock.

While they were assembling the cpu, we went to Jollibee because I brought with me an alalay. I can't go out alone when I have Princess in tow. So I asked a kid neighbor to go with me. He's actually the kid of the Bayantel salesman who was salestalking me into buying a wireless landline. Anyway, I haven't decided yet if I really need a wireless landline. But here's the Bayantel salesman kid with Princess.

Nearing Extinction

The very first online game to hit the country, and the very first online game I fell in love with, is going to have a major server merge this November 15. Ragnarok Online's three servers are going to be merged into one. Back in 2003, they started with just one server (Chaos). As the game became popular, they added a second server (Loki), then a third, and a fourth, and so on. But as competition arose (I think MU Online was their first competitor), players began to explore, and Ragnarok first merged their seven servers into three. They are (1)Chaos and Loki became BALDUR (2)Odin and Fenrir became TYR; and (3) Iris, Sarah and Lydia became FREYA. And since I don't think there are that much players of Ragnarok around, they are merging these three servers into one called NEW CHAOS. They started with one, and they are going back to just one. From Chaos to New Chaos. And oh yeah, they are cutting the cost of subscriptions. I heard a month will go down to 200php (from 350). Not bad. But I think it's the start of a phase-out.

New Haircut

Mother and I brought Princess to the vet yesterday morning. We were in SM 20 minutes before the opening time. When the doors finally opened, Animal House was still closed LOL. But anyway I was glad we were there that early cuz the minute I got to Animal House, two more dogs (to be groomed) immediately lined up after me.

I told the groomer I want Princess' to look like this (I actually printed this out and gave him the copy for reference):


But he trimmed a larger area of the head than he was supposed to, and he left the body coat longer than was in the pic. I'll never let him touch Princess's coat again. And since the haircut was wrong, here's Princess now:


She still looks okay, though. It just didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.

And so we turned her in at 10 am and the groomer said we could fetch her at 1 pm. He was still doing finishing touches when we arrived. And mom and I shopped while waiting for 1 pm. She bought a pair of shoes and we went to the supermarket after that. I hate supermarkets, especially the wet area. But anyway it was fun. It was like 3 years since I last went to the supermarket with mom. I guess I should go with her more often. Just for the fun of it.

My New Cars

Been playing a little more than the usual lately. And been buying karts, too. LOL! Crazy Kart and Princess take my stress away.

And speaking of karts, I regret buying the Ming Ming (the cat kart) cuz it bounces LOL! And I'm not so much of a pro not to hit on anything. I like the Spy Kart but I guess I'll repaint it black someday. It's my fastest kart but I find controlling the yellow Beetle better.

Anyway I raced with someone this afternoon who drifts all the time. Drifts and bounces. Drifts even on a straight. So he drives diagonal to the road. LOL. But he's so fast he beat me by like 10 seconds. I tried drifting on a straight to no success. I kept falling on the edges of Valley Fort.

Halloween

I really wonder if the entertainment industry is getting short on better cover girls.


Is there any part of her we haven't seen before?


oh lo! photoshop works (not!)

Uhh... I forgot it's November.

The Phone Goes to Charity

My cellphone was stolen. It was a cheap Nokia, but I love it nonetheless. And it isn't really the value of what's taken, but the fact that someone stole something from me.

What's worrying me is Joseph's account in Cabal Online. Details are all in that phone. Good thing I was able to recall the password. So right now I'm on vigil. I can't log his character out for fear that the cellphone thief might try to hack it. I've texted Joseph several times already but I guess he was already asleep or using a different sim card.

It was about 10:30pm when I noticed that my phone's missing. I told Angel about it and she was like "Since when?!" 'cause according to her, I still texted her using my globe when she was still in school. And to top it all, I even gave her a "miss call" (something I never do). She had already deleted the text messages but the call register was still in her phone - it was between 5-6pm. Last time I used my globe phone was when I transferred funds from my G-Cash to my load.com account. I checked my load.com transaction history and it says 1:25 pm.

I don't recall using/seeing the phone after that transaction. And the effing thief even texted my contacts! Angel said she found it weird when she received the messages from my globe 'cause according to her, the messages were "so not me."

To whomever has my phone now: God bless you!

I don't want any more phones. I still have my smart so I'll just stick to it. If it also gets stolen, I'll just use the land line or the internet messengers. No more phones! I'm thinking of just buying a new digicam. Something cheap that I can carry around anywhere, that I won't have to cry when it gets stolen.

Really, I prefer losing my gadgets to defects rather than to thieves.

Dota Allstars 6.56 Ai+ v1.52

The map isn't by IceFrog but by BuffMePlz. It's actually a modification of the map AI+ v1.52 of RGB.

Download it here.

Known bugs with AI:
-AI don’t properly react to -nb, -nm and -nt modes
-Some exploits that should have been fixed are still in the game…just don’t use them. If you really want to cheat against AI, just use -test

Some commands have yet to be implemented properly:
-ah
-afk
-kickafk
-rd (the new one in 6.53, -rd is in the game but done the same way pre-6.53)
-cm

Additionally, there are two Fun Taverns in the lower right corner. Currently includes nine legacy heroes: Old Invoker (6.12b), Old Lifestealer (6.48b), Old Silencer (6.12b), Gambler (6.06), Old Morphling (5.84b), Old Stealth Assassin (5.84b), Void Demon (3.0d), Rider (5.72), and God of Wind (6.01).

To access the fun taverns, type -fun within the first 15 seconds of the game.

Revelation

I just saw Myx's feature on Arnel Pineda with the Journey. I didn't realize he's really that good until now. And I mean he's really, really good. Galing ng vocals. To think that he used to collect bottles, newspapers and stuff for a living when he was young. Now I really wonder if you should suffer (really suffer) first before you become super successful. And if you became successful without suffering first, would you suffer later in life? If that's the case, I'd prefer to be just average. LOL!

For years, Arnel Pineda used to perform with his band in Hong Kong. And he sang the original "Running Away" which was revived by Erik Santos, the dyosa. Tapos he did a song with South Border - "Looking Glass." I really wonder why I didn't know him LOL! Perhaps it's the genre. And he's 41 years old. Perhaps he reached his peak in the local scene when I was still on nursery rhymes...? Haha kidding.

Revelation, the very first Journey album with Arnel Pineda on vocals, is still out in the market. Go buy one. Even just to support Arnel. I'll buy one when I go to the mall. I just don't know if I'd play it.

Anyway I found his 1999 self-titled solo album cover:

He looks like Phillip Lazaro...

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.

A Filipino Doll Artist

Noel Cruz is another Filipino making a name in the US for being a doll artisan, and he makes replicas of Hollywood celebrities. Just like this one:

No need to tell you who this is. It's so life-like, no? Do you find it creepy, too?

Another one of his Angelina doll sold for 4,000 USD on Ebay.

Photo via Noel Cruz

OMG Cabal/Globe Event

The Cabal Online guild activities happens this Saturday.

CM Jay writes:

There will be Guild 6 vs. 6 Tournaments, Guild Attendance Contests and special Item Vouchers will be given away to event attendees who will be able to win and participate in the different live activities.

In line with this, e-Games will also have activities for Dance Battle Audition, Top Speed, and Granado Espada- as they celebrate their anniversary.

HOW to JOIN the e-Games TOURNAMENTS during the EVENT?
1. For Globe Subscribers
-Not yet registered to G-cash: Register to G-cash (for P1) to be able to get a “Tournament Coupon” from G-cash promodizers during the event.
-Already registered to G-cash: Show the G-cash balance inquiry to the promodizers to get a “Tournament Coupon”
-Gamers to show the “Tournament Coupon” to E-games staff at the Tournament registration table to be able to sign up with the game tournament they want to compete in.

2. For non-Globe Subscribers
-Buy a Globe SIM at P45 (bundled with a free P20 e-pin) from the GLOBE Booth
-Register to G-cash to be able to get a “Tournament Coupon” from G-cash promodizers
-Gamers to show the “Tournament Coupon” to E-games staff at the registration table to be able to sign up with the game tournament they want to compete in.

Grand Chase's CBT Coming Soon

Grand Chase, Level Up!'s newest online game, is accepting applications for the Closed Beta Testing which is scheduled to start on the second or third week of October. Sign up now to be among the firsts to get a feel of this new game! I have just signed up myself =) I actually find the site very cool.

I'm a PC

Just because I have never tried Mac, because it's too expensive for me.... I'm a PC!

Damn Funny

This video is sooo funny you will laugh even if you watch it sans audio.

WoW: Wrath of the Lich King

Coming November 13, 2008. I just hope they release it here in the Philippines the same date. The expansion comes in two packages:

the standard package:


and the collector's edition package:


I wonder if the boxes are also frosty when you get them =)

Anyway, the features of this expansion:

* Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight - World of Warcraft's first Hero class.
* Quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way.
* Learn the craft of spell augmentation with the new Inscription profession.
* Brave the harsh new continent of Northrend, the icy domain of the Lich King.
* Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path.
* Transform your hero's look with new character-customization options, including new hairstyles and dances.
* Explore perilous new dungeons filled with some of the deadliest creatures -- and greatest treasures -- on Azeroth.
* And much, much more...

The last line sounds so promising... much, much more... more...