Strained Muscles [Sunday, March 28, 2004]
Exercise Counter: Reset [Thursday, March 25, 2004]
The Butterfly Effect [Wednesday, March 24, 2004]
Drakengard [Thursday, March 18, 2004]
We are Internet DSL Connection [Wednesday, March 17, 2004]
Pulsating Headache [Sunday, March 14, 2004]
Incubus In Manila [Saturday, March 13, 2004]
A Certain Shade of Frustration [Thursday, March 11, 2004]
Muscles and joints are aching now as a result of exerting too much force trying to meet those 30 push ups 3 nights ago. The pain was minimal initially, but now it is so much that it feels like someone beat me up, minus the marks though. Any attempt to move my arms so suddenly results in muscular pain.
At the least, it means I actually made them do some work, I just have to make them work more frequently.
Not right now since it hurts.
I hate desktop computers, troubleshooting them, that is. Notebooks are so much easier. Another reason which makes work such a bother sublime.
Hardly any good movies out now, all we have is Scooby Doo 2, Along Came Polly and Highway Men. Definite rentals. Or should I say, bootleg rentals to be more exact. Will have to wait till Wednesday for something worth watching, The Passion of the Christ would be opening on Wednesday.
It's been more than three full months since I got these new toys of mine, and I have yet to write a review about them, not because I'm required too, because I want too. Unfortunately, I have not played much with them aside from the basic features. Might as well find myself a model for trying out my digicam.
Am thinking of revamping the design of the site, as an update is really needed. There is nothing wrong with the current layout, but one year is enough. April 4 looks like a real good date (4/4/4). Let's see if I'll be able to produce.
Hopefully, it would be a much more interesting site than this bland and tasteless excuse for a website.
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Exercise counter which recently reached a high of 120 days has been reset to zero. Don't know what you consider exercise, but for me, 30 push ups is more than enough.
Spent most of the day slacking off, it's a rest day so what did you expect.
Drakengard is real repetitive, especially once a good weapon you have, maxes out and you'd have to upgrade some mediocre excuse of a weapon. Why am I playing it then? Simply the love of dragons keeps me going.
Videos for today were War of the Worlds and Metropolis.
War of the Worlds would be fascinating if I hadn't been accustomed to special effects these days, but I believe once upon a time, it was considered revolutionary. After seeing the movie, I'd have to say the effects were not as bad, Pinoy movies can do worse nowadays.
The ending though was a bit too "Christian". The Martians just dropped dead after getting infected by the earth's bacteria. LOL. I expected a twist at the end, some radical discovery of a weakness that the humans would actually exploit.
No. Not this time. All they came up was bacteria, and just let the Martians drop dead. At the least, they could have purposely exposed the Martians to a certain kind of bacteria.
Probably people back then were satisfied by these kind of endings. People today are definitely harder to please.
Forget I said Christian up there. Holds no significance to the point I'm driving at.
Metropolis is a futuristic anime from the creator of Astro Boy. The art itself is almost different from the style used commonly by manga artists these days, and is one of the main things which set it apart from other animes, it has it's own visual flair.
I want to watch more animes, especially the complete series of Cowboy Bebop. Anyone?
Schindler's List is the only unseen movie among the videos at home, and has been one for quite some time now. Have no idea why am putting it off again and again as I know there would never be a perfect opportunity to see it.
Wonder what's new this week? Regardless, I hope I could catch The Butterfly Effect again.
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Watched three new movies lately, Hidalgo and The Butterfly Effect on the big screen and Go on video.
Hidalgo was too long.
The Butterfly Effect was fascinating.
And Go was enjoyable.
Hidalgo, despite it's length was a nice movie, just like every other movie I watch. The story kind of drags in certain bits, thankfully there are parts which made up for it.
Personally though, this movie packaged Viggo Mortensen in the same manner he was in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The shots, the unshaved look. Oh well, I guess this is just me as it's the first time I've seen him outside the trilogy.
One more thing, whenever he speaks native Indian in the movie, it's more like he is speaking Elvish instead. Amusing.
The Butterfly Effect is another movie that creeps into my top something list, alongside Se7en, Memento, and Fight Club. Another sick film added to the list.
The movie itself has a lot of references to Se7en, like the journal used, the scenes with the poster of Se7en in the background and clips from the movie itself.
The concept of the story is simply fascinating and the decision made at the end was portrayed in a better fashion than The Time Machine. Forget for a minute that it has the dude Ashton Kutcher in it.
Watched Ghostbusters last week, and it had a trailer for Go at the beginning, the brought my curiosity about the film to the next level. When I saw it at the record bar for 85 php, I immediately picked it up together with War of the Worlds (need to get ready for the remake next year) and Metropolis.
Go is another movie which starts the story somewhere in between and has one unconventional structure, one thing common among the movies I like, as the movie is delivered in three personas. Anyway, the curiosity has answered and it was satisfied.
The 27" television is finally fixed. Not totally fixed yet, but it will do for now. Heck, I don't care if it ever gets fixed completely at all. The audio is still busted, but the video is perfect. I have missed this set so much. Videogames and videos finally get the respect they need now.
The PC on the other hand is reasonable at the moment. The Windows XP SP2 beta 2082 I installed would not load past the desktop, so I decided to diss it for SP1, I'll rather wait for the full version to come out rather than try it now and reinstall everything all over in the future.
There is a lot of space on this new drive, and partitioning it into three gives the illusion of more space. A hundred gigabytes should be enough for now. It should be right?
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Played Drakengard as much as I could. Sadly, the game itself is not as interesting as expected it to be. I have never played Panzer Dragoon, so it would be senseless comparing it to that.
Drakengard (Drag-on Dragoon is Japan) is an action RPG which feels more like Dynasty Warriors than Vagrant Story. It's a beat-em-up game where all you had to do is mash those buttons until your fingers get numb and hoping to chain the most attacks.
I might as well say that this is Dynasty Warriors, but from Square Enix and not Konami. You pick up weapons along the way, and using them in battle upgrades their damage and capabilities. The character itself levels up based on the number of kills and experience points gaining from chaining attacks.
Unlike Dynasty Warriors, you cannot ride horses but you have a pretty little dragon that spews fire to ride on. This is were the game gets a little bit more interesting and fun.
The game is played in chapters which is further divided into verses. Each verse could either be a story sequence or a mission. Missions are further divided into aerial and on-foot.
For aerial, you've got this trusty dragon to use which evolves through the game, who spews fires and can target multiple enemies. There also is a special dragon magic attack for your disposal.
For land missions, you have a variety of weapons, swords, long swords, axes, hammers, spears and the like, which you use in one way, just keep on swinging it. The more you use a weapon the better it becomes. Also, each weapon has its own special magic attack. Amusing point happens when the weapon levels up, it gives a short story on the history of the weapon. With a few button presses, you can actually choose what weapon to use, since each one has its own characteristic and works best with a specific group. In some battles, you can actually mount on the dragon and spew fire on the helpless humans.
Once you finish a mission, it becomes available for repeat playback, which gives access to new weapons and the chance to upgrade weapons and gain levels outside of the main storyline.
The main character, Caim, made a pact with a dragon, and from that point on could not speak. They should not have done that on purpose, as the main character was talking at the beginning. RPGs have this notion of having mute main characters, an attempt for the player to be the main character, but for some games, like this one, it does not work.
Dynasty Warriors it may seem, but it has a tad more variety, and just the name Square Enix, keeps me playing and enjoying the game. It's a spell.
And as you'd expect from Square Enix, the CG cutscenes are simply beautiful.
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We are Internet DSL Connection
Urbandub gig at Bahay ng Alumni in UP last night. The gig started early I guess, as Urbandub started playing around 10:30 in the evening. There were not as much people this time around, considering it is a school week, even finals week for most, plus the gig was not really publicized that much, it was an indie production anyway.
Anyway, I was off work early that day, and had a lot of time to spare. Caught Carmen and 50 First Dates in the theaters, but unfortunately did not have enough time to eat dinner. If you know me quite well, you'd know that it is not an issue, as I'd choose entertainment over food anytime. I had enough time though to check out PS2 games, and was mighty surprised at the sight of a copy of Drakengard, an action RPG from Square Enix.
Watched Carmen first, at Robinson's Metro East. There were only a few people in the theater when I entered, or so it seemed, as the number doubled when it finished. Seemed that there were a lot of couples enjoying the lover's seat in this mall's cinema.
The movie Carmen was packaged here as a sex film, with a tagline "Seductress of men", which was right. The sex in this film was appropriate, minimal even when compared to Pinoy sex films, it was just a classic tale of seduction, obsession and deception.
50 First Dates, on the other hand, is your usual comedy flick with a known formula that actually works. One would think that this would be some lame attempt to recapture the magic of The Wedding Singer. Though the said movie is still better, this movie is still good enough. Short-term memory loss never seemed so fun and interesting since Memento. Oh, and you have to meet 10-second Joe.
After the movies, the gig was next. With luck by my side, I was able to reach Bahay ng Alumni alone and with no taxi. Thankfully, safe. QC really gives me the creeps, not of the paranormal kind, but the real ones.
The gig had already started, messaged my buddies, and they were still on their way. Decided to go inside and enjoy. Don't remember which band was playing then, but Urbandub came right after. Settled myself to a lousy can of beer (SMB Pale Pilsen) and watched the band.
There was this girl with a camera beside me, avidly taking pictures of the band. I remembered then, that I brought my camera along and decided to be a photographer for the night. Fine! Another guy with a camera then.
Met up with friends after and had a couple of beers somewhere in Marikina where we saw this.
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Head was aching a while ago, but it minimized after I took some Biogesic for it. This was caused by me drinking beer and the resulting head ache simply means I did not drink enough. Or so I assume.
Have some pictures to share which you can check out by clicking on here. Sending it by email or uploading to Shutterfly would be quite a chore, hence I settled for this.
Call it laziness, but I want to rest now. The bed is calling me.
After eating at Dencio's with the team at work, I thought of watching a movie. Unfortunately, there were no good screening times at that moment, and I pushed my movie viewing till tomorrow. Have Hidalgo and Love Actually on the list of must-sees this week.
Dropped by the record bar in Eastwood Citywalk 2, with hopes of finding copies of Thrice, The Mars Volta, or some other band. None of them were available in this particular store, but I saw copies of Maroon 5 and a jewel case version of Incubus' A Crow Left of the Murder. Thought of purchasing the Maroon 5 cd, but I was not in the mood for some reason I do not know of.
The initial release of Incubus' A Crow Left Of The Murder is in a cardboard layout with plastic disc holders stuck on the cardboard. I hate these kinds of album packaging as the material they use to stick the plastic to the card board comes off so easily, which is by simply opening the layout a couple of times. Sure, it came with a free VCD but I love the jewel case better. It certainly looks better in the rack, as well.
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At the spur of the moment yesterday, I decided to just go and meet up friends and try my chances in scoring some tickets for the Incubus concert.
Living in this country, you'd soon get used to gigs starting way past the allotted time, so we burned up most of our time. Unfortunately, the gig started on time and we barely got there in time. In short, we were a tad too late. We were just about to enjoy the concert, when all of a sudden, it was over.
Shucks. The concert was great and all, with the sound quality very crisp, just shows how good these guys are when they play live, unlike some local bands who sound gargled live. Anyway, we don't go home from concerts before midnight, so this was pretty unusual for us.
One more thing, it was quite a sight show, sadly I didn't have my glasses with me.
My, what else have I to say. With barely an hours worth of sleep, am pretty much living on the last bits of energy saved up during the past week.
Speaking of sleep, it's a wonder I was still able to wake up early this morning. Sure, it may be a little late than usual, but I still made it to work on time, early even.
I need sleep.
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A Certain Shade of Frustration
First post for the month of March and it's already the 11th. Talk about changes, I normally create a new month's entry by the first or second day into the month, but this is extreme.
Work is slowly starting to creep under my skin, consuming the life out of me bit by bit. After missing out on a possible promotion by a nanometer, who would not get depressed. The only reason am staying is the fact that it would look better on my CV if I logged in one full year of experience, as compared to a few months. Another is of course the pay, it's so comfortable earning your own money and spending it in any way you wish.
Videogames have once again offered some escape from the real world, I have logged in more videogaming hours in the past weeks than I have for last month. Finally finished FF X-2 and moved on to Legacy of Kain: Defiance, a game I just finished this morning. Am moving on to Splinter Cell now, it's some sort of preparation for Splinter Cell: Pandora's Tomorrow which should be release this year.
Legacy of Kain: Defiance is one frustrating game. The camera angles are all over the place. Bugs are present too.
There are instances that you jump into a certain area and will just get stuck. You can see that your character is moving, and can be moved, but he is stuck in that position. Only resolution is to save and restart. Thankfully, this game allows you to save anywhere, though it warps you back to certain save points, which is not that big of a deal anyway.
Another is the controller, it would seem to just stop. When this happens, action on screen continues, but your character does not move at all. No pause either. Resolution is to quickly unplug the controller from the port and plug it back in. This is more frustrating if you are in a boss fight where every bit of health is vital.
The only thing that kept me going, and mind you it was an extremely painful experience, was the story itself. As a combined sequel to Blood Omen and Soul Reaver, the story has been well developed throughout the series, and this one offers some sort of ending and resolution to all the puzzling bits in the past games.
Am sure glad am finished with the game.
Let's go back to money and spending it in any way one bloody wishes too. I wish I spent some on Incubus tickets. I had second thoughts about it, thinking of whom I could watch it with. As it turns out, I did not ask friends well enough if they were or not going to the concert. And so, some are watching the event. I now have this sudden urge to watch the event, and this certain feeling of regret not buying any tickets.
Regret. Yeah, but it's accompanied by this feeling of frustration. Events like this are so rare as compared to Hailey's Comet, which comes every 76 years. I mean, it only happens once every millennia, and I don't have tickets to the show. What's more frustrating is the fact that am a person who thrives on being alone and likes it. I could have bought tickets months back, filed for SILs at work, and would be happy. After all is set, then I should have asked around for people whom I could watch the concert with. If there are, then good, if there are none, then fine.
Ah fuck. Am just gonna make up for it someday, prolly when am in a different country perhaps.
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