Monday, March 28, 2005

birthday tree

My birthday is coming up and neal put a list of trees and their meanings. to check out which tree is yours read his post.

Rowan Tree (Sensitivity) -- full of charm, cheerful, gifted without egoism, likes to draw attention, loves life, motion, unrest, and even complications, is both dependent and independent, good taste, artistic, passionate, emotional, good company, does not forgive.

i love my tree. i especially like the "loves life, motion, unrest and even complications" part :) it pretty much sums up the drama in my life.

hehe there's also something nice about that last line. i think it's the fact that it just jumps out at you.

Tuesday, March 22, 2005

announcing

my new fiction blog site! Dragons Don't Land Here ( in Tabulas).

it's not much to look at but it's got several pieces of fiction. :) hopefully i can post more. so far i've done a lot for today. if i'm lucky i might even get to put up a longer story today.

tomorrow i plan to bring my old hard disk to get other stories as well.

Other nice blog sites I found were Flickr and Radio Blog Club. Check them out. :)

I would really appreciate comments on my pieces of fiction. Really need them too so fire away. There's a tagboard as well if you don't like posting comments and reactions mean someone's reading them.

Thanks

Monday, March 21, 2005

i finally took the dice quiz

I am a d20

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

You are the large, round, friendly d20! (You probably didn't know this, but the shape of the twenty-sided die is called an Icosahedron.) You are the friendly, outgoing, outspoken, leader of friends. You are often looked up to, even though you don't normally deserve it. Most other types secretly wish they were you, and you'd give them tips on how, if only you had a clue yourself. Your charisma is often all you need, but you have your occasional moments of brilliance as well--just never when it's actually needed. You are the all-around good guy, a dependable chum, a respectable foe, and an inspiration to those who need one. Who says you can't get by on a smile and good looks alone?

-- note : i do know that the d20 is shaped like an icosahedron. that's what engineering board exams are for: to make sure you can brag to your gamer friends that you are now rolling an icosahedron...

catching up -- again.

hmm... i always have a lot of posts that are way overdue.
i'm also thinking of making another blog where i can put all my stories in.

it's a habit of mine. whenever i get an idea, i have to put it in a new place so i'll start off fresh. i do it with notrebooks. i have lots of notebooks at home. not for school or anything, though i usually have one for work and a separate one for non work related projects, i always have a new notebook if i plan to write something new.

sometimes when i'm in a rut, i buy a notebook and hope blank pages will inspire me.

it just helps me focus.

i rarely buy notebooks that are very pretty. i have barely legible writing and when i get a sudden burst of inspiration for my stories my handwriting gets worse because my mind is too fast and my hands are just too awkward. so pretty notebooks end up staying clean and the ideas stay unwritten.

i'll create a link here when i make it.

i now have in my possession 3 more books written by Diana Wynne Jones.

Howl's Moving Castle
Castle In The Air
Dogsbody

I've already read Howl's Moving Castle as an ebook but since I really liked it, I asked my mom to find me the book. She also got me the sequel, Castle in the Air :)
I found Dogsbody when I went to Megamall. There were just two copies and they didn't even have the book in their database that time so I was lucky to find it. She's a great author and her books are a great addition to my already growing children's section :) (Yes, my books are categorized since I get books from every genre) My sister also bought all the Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket.

Haven't read them though because I'm still reading Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. I love to read but when it's 11:00pm and you just drove for 1.5 hours to get home and you just took care of your dog AND you have to wake up at 5:00 am to go to work, well, you get the idea.

I'm hoping I can finish all these books, watch Tin's Studio Ghibli collection and play Sid Meier's Pirates, Playboy Mansion and Tantra this Holy Week.

hehe my week is full.

I went to Greenhills this weekend with my my gamer friends. I was happy to find all the pc games, pirated stuff and hobby stores have now gone to Shoppesville. We ata at AA's which serves yummy food at a low price then talked some more at the Bag of Beans. I'll post some pics when Neal uploads them.

I like my gamer friends but if I wasn't with Neal i don't think I would have been a gamer.

Tin printed out some postcards for Cuppkeyk. One of them was a drawing of all the Endless which I loved and Tin had the link to the artist, Becca Ming. I loved her Death and of course, the Endless. She's also got a short comic based on the Sandman comics called A King Among Ravens and several other comics.

I still have to post our Gulugod Baboy Experience but I still have a project to finish :)

My birthday is also coming up and I have no idea where to go or how to spend the day with neal. Saturday is going to be spent with Arf and Dawn; Sunday with my parents and neal (i think) in Wasabi (which Tin and Jo suggested).

Friday, March 18, 2005

wwwaaaaahhh

i miss my sister.
she's in the States right now and she's suppose to be having fun but she's homesick :(
when we were kids we used to try to kill each other :) but when we grew older, all those petty rivalries, jealousies, they went away. Of course we still have little fights every now and then but nothing serious.
after years of training, she now has the ability to always have the perfect smile when her picture is taken.
i envy that. i hate most of my pictures especially the ones for school (1x1, 2x2 sized pictures)
she's in almost every picture in our family album -- i usually take the shots not be in it and now, in the digital age, her phone has dozens of pictures of her :D
she's also the only one tammy poses with properly. my pictures with tammy always end up ruined because she plays with me but when pauline's with her, tammy poses for the picture as well.
people love her even when she's bitchy. she always tells me she's pretty (and it's true).
she always wants me touch her soft hair, tell her how nice she looks... yes, she's a lot like neal...
(i really love making life hard for me don't i?)
but she will never chose someone else's side even when i'm wrong(unless we're the only ones involved in a fight) and neither will i.
she promised me a trenchcoat(yes, i know in this weather?) and lots of other stuff and i know whatever she picks will be great because she is after all, my fashion guru.
i hope she has fun there. she can't be homesick... she's still got 5 weeks to go.

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

the truth

Isn't it amazing how we seem to accept information, any type of information that goes our way?

I have just recently found out about this site called snopes.com and I got hooked. I spent an entire afternoon looking through the site's collection of facts and rumors.

I already talked about my views on the integrity of the internet once. However, I just realized just how fast we accept the things we read about in the internet and in our emails and it deserved another post.

Just recently, an officemate of mine sent me an email containing pictures of new species of sea creatures found after the tsunami. The creatures were so different from your average fish and I became interested in finding more images that I started searching the internet.

Unfortuantely, all I could find were posts in forums with basically the same pictures and I thought it was strange that the scientific community wasn't writing articles about these creatures.

I should have known better.

Then one of the posts I read mentioned that the creatures were not found after the tsunami, according to snopes, they were photos from an underwater exhibition. There was even news of a mermaid found after the tsunami as well.

That's just one instance. What about all the news about why KFC is no longer called Kentucky Fried Chicken? Who among us didn't think it was because they weren't really using chicken anymore? Well, ok, the KFC chickens here are still small though. Who knew that it was just the word Kentucky and not chicken that made them change their name?

There is no email tracker. So all those messages about children being sick and if you just forward the email then someone rich will give them money is not true. Yes, it is sad because suddenly all the time we thought we "helped" people weren't true.

If you really want to help, yes for free, try clicking on any of these sites:

hunger site
breast cancer site
child health site
literacy site
rainforest site
animal rescue site

just one click everyday.

For all those people who keep sending messages that contain something like "If you do not send this message to everyone, your account will be deleted", it's not true. I kind of suspected this after I saw almost the same message in Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger and even Friendster. I read the proof here. Actually, a few weeks ago Libre, the free MRT newspaper had a weird advertisement at the back. Apparently SUN cellular was being spammed with messages that claimed that the 24/7 call and text feature was at an end unless people started informing other people with the text message. If there is no email tracker then there certartainly isn't a sms tracker.

Yes, even I fell for the Bill Gates email message. Who doesn't fall prey to the promise of money? Then again, we should think. People who know how Bill gates built his empire should realize that he will NEVER give out money. Seriously, that is one shrewd (but mean) businessman. (on a smaller note: Hurray for TUX and LINUX)

My mother used to believe Aspartame was dangerous (though she didn't stop using it because she had been using it for 10 years and in her words: The Damage is already done ) because of an email.

I found out chop suey isn't chinese, The Great Wall of China is not the only thing that can be seen from space and that apples have cyanide *evil grin*.

Ok the cyanide in apples is in the seeds and very harmless amounts but hey, one more way to get poison...

I knew that Fortune cookies is an american invention though. When we went to China around 3 years ago and we ate at Chinese restaurant, we got no fortune cookies, then when we went to the States we ate at 3 chinese restaurants, I got lots of fortune cookies.

I was confused then I found out in Unwrapped, that wonderful show that convinced my sister Mint and Chocolate chips go together, that fortune cookies are american.

I even saw this story about a guy who was tempted by his future mother-in-law as a test to his loyalty to their daughter. I read the same story on FHM Philippines. Yes I read FHM, neal has every issue for three years now. Though the FHM story was better written and the seductress was the future sister-in-law because the mother-in-law part is too unbelievable here.

It's so easy nowadays to spread lies. Just write an email, research the name of the president of the company to back your letter and press send. Sometimes they don't even check the grammar or the spelling.

I guess nowadays I'm more critical when reading my mail. I got one about a human eating filipina once, pics and all, not a pretty sight, but I can't find anything to back it up so I can't say it is true.

Look for the truth, find better sources, don't just believe.

Thursday, March 10, 2005

fun fun fun!

im sorry i know i promised essays and pieces of fiction but i haven't been able to write since i was working on my project.
which is finished way ahead of schedule hehehe, but i need to make sure it's perfect first before i celebrate.

anyway, was blog hopping and i saw this from tin's blog : room builder from knock first (the show that redecorates your bedroom for free--- wish we had them here!).

I made two rooms :) because I'm never satisfied with just one.


one possible room. i especially like the bed Posted by Hello

and


another possible room Posted by Hello

and a southpark studio where you can make your own southpark character. Don't panic if you can't read German :) The link is at the right side of the page : South Park Studio Flash.

i made a "normal" version


me as an southpark character Posted by Hello

and a neurotic one:


another cute southpark character Posted by Hello

make your own... have fun!

Tuesday, March 08, 2005

good beginnings

I'm beginning to love mondays...
well, i should be more specific. Mondays when i don't have a ton of stuff to do and i have all the time to read blogs and web pages updated during the weekend.

Time to update mine.

Due to NPA sightings, we didn't go to Rizal and climb Mt Sembrano. Instead, we opted to go to Anilao, Batangas and climb Gulugod Baboy (Pig's Spine). At first we were kind of disappointed because Gulugod Baboy is only 470 m and Mt Sembrano was 700 m high. Now that the climb is finished I'm glad we started out with an "easy" mountain.


Gulugod Baboy Posted by Hello

Cuppkeyk has a blog! I'm jealous because his blog is exactly what I wanted mine to be like: filled with short fiction stories. These days I'm more inclined to do essays. I have one coming up about emails and hoaxes and of course the Gulugod Baboy experience is coming up as well but I only have two pieces of fiction posted.
sigh.
read cuppkeyk's blog though because he is a good writer and his short fictions will keep you coming back.

So far I've managed to meet more than a dozen new people, listen to Neil Gaiman's The Tragical Comedy or the Comical Tragedy of Mr Punch on BBC and get permission to raid jo's room for Murakami books and DVDs.

I'm also around 3 days advanced in my work. *evil laugh*

Now that's a great way to start the week.

ps. (is this allowed? oh well) dawn's blog pointed me to this video which features two of the voice actors for the Simpsons. It's amazing. I never knew one person can have so many different voices.

you should also check out the rest of the anticlown site. They have lots of funny videos, optical illusions and games that are really cool!

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

look at the pretty mountain...

finally...
yup due to my insistent demand and leo's encouragement (hopefully not a mistake), I am going to climb a mountain this weekend.
The mountain in question is called Mt Sembrano.

Mt Sembrano Posted by Hello

It's a mountain found in Rizal-Laguna province. It's suppose to be an easy climb. Hopefully that applies to newbies as well. We are suppose to set up camp at the top so it's going to be fun.

Of course I can't wait to get up there. This is my first climb and I'm always psyched when I'm going to do something new.

So last week I'm chatting with leo and I told him I've always wanted to climb a mountain. Then he tells me they're going up to Mt Sembrano Mar 5-6 and I asked if I could join. The next day, his friends say yes and I ask my parents for permission.

Technically, I'm not asking. Apparently my parents have had almost 25 years of experience with my stubborness. They don't want me to go but they don't want to fight me (their words not mine) so they're letting me go.

Hmm... my dad said he agrees to any sport I get myself into but not mountain climbing. Well, I seem to recall he said the same thing about skin diving... I haven't even told them yet that I want to just go and train to go scuba diving with sharks.

Anyway, in a space of a week and with the help of a lot of friends and money I shouldn't be using for this... I actually got all the stuff I need.

tent, two bags, sleeping bag, armguards, gloves, raincoat, shoes, slippers, jogging pants...

Did I mention I was bringing neal?

Yup... first thing he said was "ano nanaman pumasok sa utak mo?". I think the closest transalation in English, not in the literal sense of course, is "Are you insane?" It ceratinly sounded like that to me.

I haven't trained physically in 3 years. Last time I exerted that much effort, I swam around 20 laps. So I spent the weekend "getting in shape." I jogged and walked in UP.

Neal hasn't done anything except buy equipment.

I think we're in for some heavy breathing and exhaustion all the way up. But I'll probably have more fun than him anyway.

Did I mention I was scared of heights?

Or that I detest the cold?

This is what I call fun.