Robo Bunny

There are a few constants in life that never cease miffing me, and I’m gonna mention one now. It’s spammers. My blog here used to have moderate exposure, because I was consistently posting back then. Oftentimes I would get comments that responded to my posts. Sure, I have only myself to blame for not writing as actively as I used to, but dang these spammers just won’t stop posting garbage everywhere, and I’m not going to tolerate them anymore.

So I’m going to permanently delete my shoutbox.

Anyway, I’m still in the process of finishing my Ace Attorney blog posts. I’m still trying to be energized about the whole business of blogging again, because as it happens I’ve fallen to the wayside for too long that it’s hard to find the main road again.

By the way, here’s my latest digital art creation:

No One Messes With The Batman! (a chat log)

(in reference to the tweet below)

(3:08:41 PM) nightdreamer: so this is what happened
(3:08:58 PM) nightdreamer: remember that thing i posted about my coworker getting his internet disconnected because he didn’t like batman the animated series?
(3:09:12 PM) peanut_butter: hahah!
(3:09:13 PM) peanut_butter: yes lol karma
(3:09:17 PM) peanut_butter: why
(3:09:22 PM) peanut_butter: did he tell?
(3:09:33 PM) nightdreamer: and i thought it was really funny, so i decided to chat up with my college classmate about that
(3:09:44 PM) nightdreamer: still following so far?
(3:09:52 PM) peanut_butter: yes
(3:09:54 PM) peanut_butter: go on
(3:09:57 PM) nightdreamer: so this is how the conversation went
(3:10:05 PM) nightdreamer: me: I just heard a coworker say “I’m not a fan of Batman Animated Series”. One minute later his internet got disconnected. POETIC JUSTICE!
(3:10:11 PM) nightdreamer: guy: what’s so poetic about it?
(3:10:17 PM) nightdreamer: me: coz my coworker is dissing batman. no one messes with the batman
(3:10:22 PM) nightdreamer: guy replied: that’s in the eye of the beholder
(3:10:27 PM) nightdreamer: *facepalm express*
(3:10:35 PM) peanut_butter: uh right obviously he’s not fond of batman
(3:10:48 PM) nightdreamer: cripes what an unsolicited coffeehouse pseudophilosophical garbage
(3:10:56 PM) peanut_butter: haha
(3:11:02 PM) peanut_butter: nwy
(3:11:03 PM) nightdreamer: the only thing i hate more than unsolicited advice is unsolicited philosophic talk!
(3:11:13 PM) nightdreamer: you know, forcing pseudo-intellectualism in a casual conversation!
(3:11:18 PM) peanut_butter: yeah i know me too!
(3:11:31 PM) peanut_butter: sigh
(3:11:39 PM) nightdreamer: it’s like I want to tell him “dude you’re not impressive! you sound stupid!”
(3:11:50 PM) peanut_butter: haha!
(3:11:55 PM) peanut_butter: why don’t you put that in your status message
(3:12:02 PM) nightdreamer: i’d rather not
(3:12:14 PM) nightdreamer: sheesh remind me never to start a chat again with someone who can’t take a joke. hate that so much.
(3:12:31 PM) peanut_butter: haha
(3:13:00 PM) nightdreamer: but what is hate and is hate in the eye of the beholder?
(3:13:16 PM) peanut_butter: dont start XD

…

Yeesh. I had to clean up my last post a lot after having published it. This is what happens when I haven’t done any serious writing for a long time; my posts get cluttered with awful grammar.

Random Insults

New age music is like spa minus the massage and the happy ending.

So there’s this guy from Yahoo! Answers who said Jonas Brothers is the Led Zeppelin of this generation. My only say on the issue is that to be scared of what’s happening to this generations’ taste in music, you don’t even have to play Jonas Brothers’ songs backwards.

Women get more leeway to be stuck up than us, men, do. If we keep talking about ourselves, we’re called “poor listeners and full of ourselves”; if they keep talking about themselves, they’re called “vain and confident”. What I’m trying to say is, Kobe is full of himself, while Lebron is vain and confident.

(Wearisome of Michael Jackson tributes) …bandwagon-mourners.

(Reacting to the news that a new TMNT reboot movie is on the works and it’ll be another origin tale of the characters involved) Yep, we don’t have enough origin movies. One day when the world has spent all its natural resources, analysts will say, “you know, we could’ve averted our crisis had we made more origin movies.”

Radiohead is “the greatest living band” because they’ve put everyone else to sleep.

One girl I know thinks she’s a beauty queen. That’s almost true, since she’s a beauty equine.

Nothing Yet

I’m having the worst drought of ideas I’ve ever had since I started this blog. Instead of tormenting my readers with another ill-conceived litany about how I wish everything is better, I’m just gonna say that I’ll be back next week.

The Worst-Placed Advertisement I’ve Ever Seen!

(Nope, I’m not gonna do a worded post today).

What I Did When i.ph Was Down

Unlike most people I know, my blog is not hosted by blogspot or wordpress or livejournal; rather, it’s by i.ph, which is a local company that’s merely few meters from where I work. It’s been almost two years since I started posting stuff here, and I have no regrets at all because I’ve been given great service almost consistently. The operative word, of course, is almost, as last week my blog was down because i.ph had to deal with database issues. But it’s great that they dealt with it and got things running again without deleting anything that I’ve stored here. It only goes to show that they really do care about their users.

This is what I did and what happened to me during the 2-3 days downtime of I.ph.

1. Played Street Fighter IV and beat the game with Guile and Ryu, unlocking Sakura in the process.

2. Bought two thick computer books and dislocated my shoulder from carrying them home. Okay the latter is a lie, but they’re still hella heavy.

3. Heard horrible news about someone close to me being diagnosed with leukemia.

4. Wanted to rag on i.ph for putting lolcat image on my blog while it’s down because lolcat jokes were overdone and unfunny, but I decided against it. Besides, they were doing their job anyway, and maybe posting the lolcat image was their good intent of getting us to laugh or something.

5. Read and put down Inkheart again. It’s probably the most unexciting children’s book I’ve ever read.

6. Did not come up with something to write about, which is why I’m responding to a meme that I was not tagged in.

7. Twittered.

8. Played Red Alert 3 intermittently and finished plenty of Allied missions. Looked for pictures of its very own Gemma Atkinson whenever I wasn’t playing. Dang, that girl’s hot.

9. Overslept.

10. Went to Greenhills surveying for the latest geek stuff - toys, videogames, comics, books, and anime - but left without buying any. Still, I’d be very happy if anyone would give me Brothers by Yu Hua.

As you can see, things have been quiet here in this boulevard named “my life”.

How to Spot the "Artsy" Dilettanti in the Philippines

(Copy-pasted from a chat with my friend. Not all items are written by me.)

1. They have uncombed, probably unwashed, hair.

2. They’d wear maroon or lavender or stripey maroon or stripey lavender shirt (or any color gravitating to a brownish hue), and scarfs that make no freakin’ sense to wear in this sweltering tropical country.

3. They’d refuse to listen to any types of music unless it’s rock. If it’s not rock it sucks, but if it’s a rock rendition of any songs from other genres (like Sade’s No Ordinary Love) it’s automatically good.

4. They’d brush up knowledge on super obscure indie artists or movies or books to appear more “well-versed”. But, if you mention ANY indie artists they don’t know of, they’d snark and say “I don’t like them anyway” and then proceed to mention OTHER indie artists until it becomes a game of “who drops the most names”.

5. They’d never dance, unless it’s mock dance. like “ooh look at people dancing to Rihanna’s Umbrella [which I really don’t like, in case you’re wondering], i’m soo gonna dance to it too in a snarky way to prove just how stupid everyone else looks!”

6. They LOOOOOOVE Tim Burton and especially his Jack Skellington!

7. They’d refuse to watch basketball or any sports by saying it’s too physical and therefore barbaric.

8. Ask them about what they like in a certain music, book, and movie, and they’ll say things like “avant-garde”, “its brilliant scope”, “the masterfully meticulous setpieces”, or “the grandness of its visions”. Setpiece, too, seems to be their favorite word.

9. Their favorite style of photography is Lomography.

10. They’d always look smug, and they stare at you not with their eyes, but with their noses.

11. They’d tell you “MULTIPLY, FACEBOOK, FRIENDSTER, TWITTER AND PLURK ARE FOR WUSSES” (even if they secretly have accounts on those places) and say the ultimate social networking site is DEVIANTART!

12. They like making swirly-swooshy digital arts.

13. They only know 2 kinds of moods… sullen and more sullen, as though the world owes them for not understanding them better.

14. Whenever anyone confesses to liking something popular, they’d have just 1 knee-jerk reaction: “You’re into that?! *snickers*”

(I am guilty of at least 1 or 2 items.)

25 Things

I couldn’t write a real post today (been busy), but since this blog needed to show lifesigns, I instead chose to post my 25 things that everyone’s written as notes in Facebook.

1. Few weeks ago I got a brand-spanking-new CPU. After installing all the apps and the drivers, I vow to avoid doing it again as much as I can. The CPU’s so brand-spanking-new I see slap marks all over it, and they give me nightmarish visions of S&M.

2. I’m a certified dork. Before dorkiness became cat’s meow, I was already bumming my ass for hours playing videogames till I could hear roosters crowing or drunks snoring.

Ye be the judge of which of the two comes later.

3. To further reinforce my dorkiness as authentic and primordial – existing since the dawn of civilization even - I watched manga way before everyone else. Oh yes, it’s true. Did you know that Slam Dunk first played in the Philippines at ABC5? Or that in Taiwan , Yaiba’s name is translated as “Nine Dragon Balls” while Dragonball’s is “Seven Dragon Balls”?

I better stop these geek trivia before I bore everyone to death and then to life again (so that’s a boredom so supreme it spurs reincarnation).

4. True story, I have only fallen asleep once in the theater, and that was when I saw “The Awakenings”. No, I’m not being clever, that happened! It’s a great movie, though; I was merely too young to understand it when I first saw it.

5. I sometimes get this fits of being super annoying in an instant messenger program. I ask people to play paper-scissor-rocks with me there despite knowing that we will in no way come up with a hand simultaneously.

6. Family is becoming even more important as I grow older.

7. I’ve never held a Nintendo Wii all my life. That means I’m still a manly videogamer!

8. I really want to buy a new pair of sneakers. The last one I bought was from year 2005. You might want to write that down!

9. I want to change - change the way I write, the way I think, the way I behave, or the way I view at things. I’m changing not because Obama is inspiring it; I’m changing because I don’t often get the best out of my life and I think I’m at least partially responsible for it.

10. I’ve never used a karaoke all my life. Breaking people’s eardrums is not my favorite way of punishing people.

Err, I don’t have a favorite, if you’re curious.

11. I look forward to having a family vacation in Italy a few years from now.

12. Right now you feel like picking your nose. Oh yes, you do. Don’t you dare deny it!

13. I speak Manfutaglish with my siblings. It’s the amalgam of Mandarin, Fukien , English and Tagalog. Nobody can seem to comprehend it.

14. I don’t watch TV at all. I play videogames, I watch movies, I read books, I listen to music, I surf the net, but I just don’t watch TV – except for the occasional NBA games, that is.

15. Speaking of music, everybody knows me as a jazz aficionado. Some of my favorite jazz musicians are Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Billie Holiday, and Sonny Rollins. I also like soul music and some early-day RnB’s, especially songs by Stevie Wonder, Donnie Hathaway, and Gil Scott Heron.

16. I really really really really like quoting videogames.

“How are you gentlemen!”
“The president is kidnapped by ninjas! Are you bad enough dude to rescue the president?”
“Kick, punch, it’s all in the mind!”
“What is a man! A miserable little pile of secrets!”
“Heaven or hell, let’s rock!”
“Can love bloom in the battlefield?”

17. I am right now craving for calamansi juice, buko juice, and dalandan juice.

18. When this year began, I promised to myself that I will improve my drawing skills.

19. I started a chat with someone a while ago. I asked “how are you?” she replied “I’m good” and I said “of course you are. I don’t expect you to be evil. I expect you to be good.”

The king of lame comments is I.

20. I don’t like our new NAIA Terminal 3 (airport) at all. The queue for any booths at NAIA3 was unbearably long and the immigration was unbelievably understaffed. It’s so unbelievably understaffed that for one moment I thought I arrived at the airport of East Timor. I’ve never been to East Timor , but I believe their airport is understaffed too, for whatever reasons.

21. I always geek out by how much mangas there are in Taiwan . I can’t keep up at all. My bank account sympathizes.

22. I deleted my plurk account. Too much noise. I went back to Twitter and I prefer my friends in Facebook anyway. They’re nicer. And lovelier. And smarter. And smells better too. Plus I can be unbelievably chatty there and no one would complain. They’d merely fall sleep. Hey, wake up!

Anyway, my twitter account is twitter.com/nightdreamer.

23. I find going to clubs to be a futile pursuit. There’s nothing that anyone can do there to deepen their relationship with their friends that can’t be done elsewhere, plus the “acquaintances” met there are rarely there to establish long-term relationships anyway.

24. Contrary to popular belief, I’m no Mr. Congeniality. If you think I’m nice, that’s because I think it’s less trouble to be pleasant than it is to be an ass. I hate the stress that comes from being hostile to people, so if I don’t like someone, I just snub them off.

25. I’ve once been driven out of classroom because I’ve fallen asleep while a teacher rants about his house’s malfunctioning air conditioner. I’ve since learned to respect air conditioners more. They have feelings too.

My Return

So I just came back from Taiwan. My head is still spinning because of all the things I went through in the past seven days. The trip overwhelmed, and it didn’t help that its purpose was to get me to where my late grandfather would have his funeral. It was a sad week. Tiring, too.

I have a bunch of stuff I am trying to post about, but it’s getting late, and I need a good night’s sleep. So, for now, I’m gonna show you some pictures of hilariously bad English.

Here’s a sign on top of a urinal:

When I first read it, I thought it was supposed to be a poem, then I saw the Chinese characters and understood that what it was really trying to say was to “stand close to the urinal”. Which raises this question: Are men so stupid as to forget to pee close to the urinal when there are no signs (actually, nagging women) reminding them to do so?

How about this gem of wisdom above a hand-dryer?

The Chinese characters state that this dryer uses infrared, but I don’t know of anyone who actually gives a damn about such a thing.

Lights!

We people are truly bizarre, blowing fortunes on these funny things called fireworks. On a day we deem special, we shoot scattershot lights to the sky, and that’s it, all the money for a few seconds of fancy displays.

But, hey, those displays sure are beautiful. Have you ever watched the fireworks show from below Taipei 101? I have once, on January 1, 2005. They look like this (note: video not mine):

Wouldn’t it be grand if something like that happens today?

Waiting for Midnight

…coz it’s gonna be special.

Just being lazy today, so here’s a music video from one of my favorite rappers, Common:

Resurrection? Sounds like something I should inspire!

Unreal

I’ve been meaning to write about certain things today, but right now I’m very sleepy, and I have to attend a Christmas party few hours later - it’s mandatory for me, so, what can I do?

The Christmas party I’m going to later is by the company where I work in, and everyone has to give gifts, each to a person chosen by drawing lots. We’ve written on a whiteboard our wishlists, and because of what the person I have chosen wants, I went to buy Guns N’ Roses’s much-delayed, 17-years-in-production, and banned-in-China Chinese Democracy. Gee, it must’ve been quite an agony for that person to wait 17 years to get that album. If he’s had it in his wish list for that long, I feel terribly sorry for him.

It’s incredible enough for the album to ever get released, making one of the funniest pop-culture slangs obsolete, so that I can no longer refer to anything postponed indefinitely as “the Chinese Democracy of [something]” (e.g. Duke Nukem Forever is the Chinese Democracy of videogames; Dr Dre’s Detox is the Chinese Democracy for Hiphop albums; getting a good president is the Chinese Democracy of…). Now I hold the CD in my hands while my head is reeling with disbelief; if you tell me two years ago that I’d ever get it, I’d laugh so hard security might send me out of the building. It’s just so unreal.

For the record, I’m not a Guns N’ Roses fan, but I like some of their songs, especially Sweet Child O’ Mine. Perhaps I’ll eventually give their new album a couple of listens, and decide if it has been worth the wait and the multiple changes of band members and the Axl Rose vs. Slash Snakepit drama.

Cokeandcomics and I

cokeandcomics: i’m reading your post

cokeandcomics: the one about your neighbor

nightdreamer: aah. nightdreamer: my neighbor sucks.
cokeandcomics: he sounds weird
cokeandcomics: and unlikable
nightdreamer: he is weird
nightdreamer: and unlikable
cokeandcomics: what did you ever do to him?
nightdreamer: i’ve never done anything to him.
cokeandcomics: huh
cokeandcomics: he’s a jerk then
nightdreamer: totally.
cokeandcomics: an asshole
cokeandcomics: heheheh!
nightdreamer: his mom is kindhearted though.
cokeandcomics: have u tried asking him what his problem is?
nightdreamer: why would i want to do that?
nightdreamer: it’s his issues, not mine.
cokeandcomics: i see
cokeandcomics: its a shame since you were friends when you were kids
nightdreamer: i find that most of the time when i ask someone what his/her problem is, he/she becomes confrontational.
cokeandcomics: i see
nightdreamer: it’s probably some denial thing.
nightdreamer: oh well. he’s just a dang jerk.
nightdreamer: there’s one girl from the same building where i live in who is really hot though.
nightdreamer: although i live way above her.
nightdreamer: so i haven’t really bothered to talk to her.
cokeandcomics: oh cool!
nightdreamer: coz i don’t know what to say, actually.
cokeandcomics: well its up to you how you’re gonna make the first move
nightdreamer: she lives too near the first floor that even when we’re taking the same elevator there ain’t much time to converse anyway.
cokeandcomics: hmmmm
cokeandcomics: well you can find out first if she has a boyfriend
nightdreamer: how?
cokeandcomics: i find that single ladies are more game to converse with people
nightdreamer: “hi, my name is nighty. do you have a boyfriend?”
cokeandcomics: no no
nightdreamer: haha kidding
cokeandcomics: search the usual… friendster, facebook, multiply
nightdreamer: i don’t know her name.
cokeandcomics: ah…
nightdreamer: maybe it’s just, i find her attractive but at the same time i’m not interested enough.
cokeandcomics: i see
cokeandcomics: its up to you
cokeandcomics: i know the feeling
cokeandcomics: but it should be easier to strike a conversation since you’re in the same building
cokeandcomics: i mean she should have seen you a couple of times already
cokeandcomics: you’re not a total stranger
nightdreamer: yeah. maybe.
nightdreamer: though really, we don’t bump into each other very often.
nightdreamer: although these past two days we did get into the same elevator
nightdreamer: but before that i haven’t seen her in months.
cokeandcomics: there you go!
nightdreamer: i guess i just don’t pay much attention when i’m at my building
cokeandcomics: time the schedule
cokeandcomics: estimate or something
nightdreamer: i’m often grumpy when i’m at the elevator. so many kids misbehavin’. hahaha.
cokeandcomics: well not in the elvator maybe
cokeandcomics: cause there’s other people
cokeandcomics: i dunno….
nightdreamer: well of course. if there wasn’t anyone else i’d be the one misbehavin’

cokeandcomics: hahahaha!

cokeandcomics: if its just you two then thats the best scenario
cokeandcomics: to start talking
nightdreamer: i think you should blog those stuff!
cokeandcomics: no haha c’mon
nightdreamer: cnc the ladykiller!
nightdreamer: the cnc method!
cokeandcomics: there is no cnc method
cokeandcomics: hahhaah
cokeandcomics: its just easy to shell out advice
nightdreamer: i’m sure you’re popular.
cokeandcomics: but when it comes to the real thing, it’s different
nightdreamer: i’m sure you’re being talked about in Embassy
nightdreamer: they are like,
nightdreamer: “omg did you read cokeandcomics’ newest blog updates? they hit me deep like sex!”
nightdreamer: [interesting simile]
cokeandcomics: hahaha
cokeandcomics: its up to you, nighty
nightdreamer: yeah, it is
cokeandcomics: you know the building better than me,

nightdreamer: i’m old enough to decide!
nightdreamer: i have transformers too!
cokeandcomics: hehe!
cokeandcomics: hahaha
cokeandcomics: figure out more or less her schedule and make your move when there’s an opening
nightdreamer: t-that sounds really erotic.

cokeandcomics: hahahaha
cokeandcomics: whoops
cokeandcomics: i didnt mean it that way
nightdreamer: i’ll ask her, ‘hey you wanna play mortal kombat vs dc universe? i have it at home!’
cokeandcomics: really????
nightdreamer: i don’t have yet actually.
nightdreamer: i’m just makin stuff up
nightdreamer: but i’m sure she’ll find it cool to play mk vs dc
cokeandcomics: yes!
nightdreamer: and then i’ll tell her she’s like wonder woman
nightdreamer: full of wonder.
nightdreamer: [blech!]
cokeandcomics: thats actually not a bad idea
cokeandcomics: i could use that actually hehe
cokeandcomics: nah sorry
cokeandcomics: actually maybe not
nightdreamer: and she kisses like sonya blade: it brings fire!
cokeandcomics: ho ho!
cokeandcomics: the cornier the better
nightdreamer: hahaha
cokeandcomics: i think girls go for corny lines
nightdreamer: nah, i doubt that.
cokeandcomics: depends
nightdreamer: but i’ll be sure to tell her than when she looks away i feel frozen like a man iced by sub zero!
nightdreamer: she makes me feel like superman
cokeandcomics: stop it
nightdreamer: omg i am killing myself with my own corniness.
cokeandcomics: stop talking
cokeandcomics: hahahahah
nightdreamer: i hope i make her feel like catwoman; i hope i make her go MEOW.

nightdreamer: i’ll harpoon her and say “GET OVER HERE!”

cokeandcomics: the sonya one’s actually good
cokeandcomics: “wow your kiss brings fire”
nightdreamer: well too bad there aint no heart ripping kano fatality in mk vs dc coz i could’ve used that, “when you’re mad my heart feels like that!”
cokeandcomics: hahaha
nightdreamer: “you’re like raiden - you course electricty through my spine!”
nightdreamer: ok, enough.
nightdreamer: hahaha
cokeandcomics: i cant believe you just came up with those just now
nightdreamer: hahaha i can’t believe it either *facepalms*

Quick Update

I’ve been told by someone - by this voice inside my head that nags at me for everything - that my blog is the most cluttered one he’s ever read. Sadly, I can’t disagree with him, and I’m not reveling for that. Elsewhere, readers can expect what he/she would be reading, but here, there are posts about videogames, movies, and comics, about my obnoxious personal life (which I tend to be secretive about anyway), about books, about basketball, about my comatose dating life, about my pointless instant-message conversations, about music, etc. A lot of times I post entries that have so little connection to the previous one that gulfs exist between them. I’m not even trying to come across as a well-rounded individual, because I’m not (Have you ever tried conversing with me in real life? You haven’t, right? So there you have it, the reason you’re still alive and vigorous). I’m just so disorganized.

While I’ve entertained the idea of creating blogs that are more focused on one particular subject - like make a blog for videogames, another for movies, and another for books - it’s just not feasible for me. I don’t have the time and energy to keep those consistently up-to-date, since my interest in any hobby arbitrarily grows and dwindles.

So, nightdreamer.i.ph is staying woefully random. At least that’s a spirit true to the name, noh?

Nightdreamer is Asleep

…virtually.

I don’t have anything productive to say right now. I’ve been slammed with work. The only reason I’m posting now is to savor the moment of typing on this super-soft keyboard, which makes me feel like gliding.

Come back next week, I suppose.

What I Want

I know there is a month more to go before 2008 will end, but I can safely proclaim this year as one of the better years of my life. I gained many new friends, had one of the best vacations ever, read great books, and witnessed history. Thought here are still a few things that, looking back, I would prefer to have done differently, overall this year has been a pleasurable glide for me. I’m happier than I was the previous year, at least.

When it comes to material possessions, I’m also mostly satisfied. I’m not likely ever going to have the biggest collection of geek gears (and maybe stuff of higher purposes, like, I dunno, letter-openers and stamps? Does anyone still collect those anymore?), but I’m happy with what I have. Still, there are some things I would love to get in the next few months or so. And since Christmas is nearby, well… you probably know where this is going. Hello, wishlist!

1. Persona 4

Okay, I promise this is the only part where I’ll be longwinded.

I got an Xbox360 in the late November of 2007, and then Persona 3 for PlayStation 2 (P3 hereafter) one month after. When I first played P3, I was both angry and glad at myself: angry, because I wished I could’ve played it sooner (it was released more or less half a year ago), and glad, because had I played it sooner I probably would’ve altogether skipped buying the X360. Prior to P3, it had been some time since I enjoyed any JRPG’s. I couldn’t bring myself to finish the purposeless and meandering albeit enchanting Dragon Quest VIII (which I still haven’t given up on, since I intend to go back to it someday), or the loading-time-riddled Suikoden V (also on pending). I couldn’t even bring myself to get past the first hour of Final Fantasy XII without falling asleep. Perhaps my overall disillusionment with the genre was why I did not clamor for P3 like Twilight fans did to Breaking Dawn upon its first day of release. Thankfully, after playing P3 (and it took me a while to finish that game, since it lasted 80-something hours) I can say that at the hands of the right developers – i.e. those that are not concerned with bloating a story-dominant genre with hordes of CG cutscenes, although P3 was abound with those – JRPGs can still get me engrossed. At its core a generic save-the-world RPG, P3 distinguishes itself by making what the player does on his daily life as a student integral to the game. This means I have to study hard, and in the process engage in activities that’ll make me more popular, charming and courageous. I can even be friends with the characters of the game, and maybe date some of them along the way. I was sold by those concepts! Being someone who has graduated from school for 3 years, I often look back at the zaniness of high school life with great fondness. P3 made me relive all that, which is why I instantly became a fan of the game. Until now I still haven’t used my X360 in as much time I had spent playing P3.

I also found the designs and the art styles very appealing. I liked those so much that I resolved to track down as many Shin Megami Tensei games as I could, even if I knew that most of them dealt with different and more controversial subject matters (which make them more appealing, in my opinion). So far, I got Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. the Soulless Devil Army (remind me never to spell all that again), and Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2. As for Persona 4, it promises more of P3, with a different setting and with some tweaks. That means I’ll probably like it too.

Watching the trailer always gets me excited.

December 9, 2008? I can’t wait!

2. 120 GB iPod

Because my 30 GB one has no more free space. I don’t need the fancy touch screens or the slick smallness; I just want the storage capacity. And no thanks, I don’t need Nelly Furtado in it.

3. Some books

On top of my head, I want Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, The Leopard by Giuseppe Lampedusa, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson, The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing, and Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. But I’m not limiting myself to books of a particular period or of a particular genre, and I’m open to suggestions. Not Twilight, though.

4. Some comic books

Because reading full-length novels can be tiring. My list of comic books that I want isn’t as expansive as that of books: I merely want Astro City by Kurt Buseik, and DMZ by Brian Wood.

Ok, that was embarrassing

So bent was I to publish that post that I didn’t bother to check the grammar of its title, which was originally “A Book that Move Mountains”.

Note to self: next time, don’t treat the title as afterthoughts!

Unfinished business

I’m currently in the process of dealing with certain things that I won’t bother to talk about here. Let’s just say that this blog may have to endure a few more weeks of inactivity.

Larftop

sonicboom: i have a question regarding taiwan nightdreamer: shoot.
sonicboom: are laptops there inexpensive?
nightdreamer: oh yes.
sonicboom: so i’ve heard
nightdreamer: pretty much 30% off from Phil’s price.
sonicboom: because I want to buy one this december
sonicboom: but i’m thinking where, dubai or taiwan or us
nightdreamer: yeah, tough choice
nightdreamer: the disadvantage for taiwan’s is,
nightdreamer: sometimes
nightdreamer: the laptops they sell are installed with Chinese windows
sonicboom: how about the keyboard? Are there chinese characters?
nightdreamer: so you may not understand it
sonicboom: @_@
nightdreamer: well, the chinese characters are there, but it’s all right since the English characters are also there

nightdreamer: but with windows that’s another story.
nightdreamer: it’s ok if you’re using mac, because you can switch languages anytime.

nightdreamer: but if it’s windows, you have to do a lot of adjusting

sonicboom: but I don’t want the Chinese characters crammed at the keyboard

nightdreamer: eh, i don’t even look at keyboards anymore when i type
nightdreamer: OH DEAR I’M BRAGGING! )
sonicboom: what a bragger!
nightdreamer: =))
sonicboom: i’m talking aesthetics man
nightdreamer: eh, then just obscure the Chinese chars with a black paint! ^_^
sonicboom: hahaha
sonicboom: scrape it off!
nightdreamer: or if it’s a white keyboard, use liquid correction pen!
sonicboom: actually it’s the same when I buy in the middle east
sonicboom: there may be hieroglyphics
nightdreamer: and if you press certain combinations, something might detonate! nightdreamer: nah, kidding.
sonicboom: haha
sonicboom: yeah, type U+S
sonicboom: then boom!
nightdreamer: HAHAHAHAHA
nightdreamer: ohmigod ohmigod ohmigod! =)) WINNER!