The man on the street

I saw a man on the street today drinking the runoff water from an airconditioner.  His clothes were filthy and he looked like he hadn’t had a real meal in years.  I had a feeling of guilt and helplessness, and a little anger at the insensitiveness of a ruling class that steals money from the people instead of investing it in their well being.

Wanderous

I haven’t been tending to this site much lately, and not because I was lazy (which is the usual reason).  I’ve been devoting more time to a new travel and food blog I’ve started with my girlfriend called wanderous.  It’s about travelling and eating and having terrific experiences without having to break the bank.  It’s about 1 peso fares, dreaming about kathmandu, and riding trains across asia. It’s also about where to find the best French Onion soup, which unfortunately is in Shanghai in a restaurant called “Steak and Hamburg”.

Today’s our semi official launch, so I’d appreciate it if you guys stopped by to take a look.  Thanks!

Oblivious

In the span of 6 or so hours, I have reached the rank of “bloodletter” in the arena, helped a half orc find out the truth about his vampire father, and flushed out a den of thieves taking refuge in an abandoned fort, and made it my own. I love this game.

Oblivion is on the way!

My copy of Oblivion is in the mail! I spotted it in ebay for 300 pesos and instantly got it. For an original game 300 pesos is dirt cheap. I still have very fond memories of playing Morrowind, so finally getting my hands on the follow-up to that games is phenomenal, even more so now that I have a video card that will eat the shit out of it ( or at least display it with respectable settings).

The beauty of both these games is their ability to insert you into a fully realized world, with its own politics, guilds, clans, and whatnot, then it allows you to do whatever you please. I played probably 40 plus hours of morrowind without even touching the main storyline, but had loads of fun just running around the world and exploring places that I’d never been before. I described it before as a single player MMO, where there was no one around to ruin the illusion that you really were in this fantasy world. In the span of time I’d played I’d discovered numerous cities, become the head of the fighter’s guild, had numerous warehouses scattered across the continent, and in short lived a fantasy life that I’d only imagined in books before. It sounds geeky as all hell, but dammit if it wasn’t one of the purest, most spectacularly immersing gaming experiences I’ve ever had.

Here’s hoping Oblivion will capture that magic.

(1)5 minute sketches : Pink Boa

Decided to draw a chick for once.  Dudes are easier to draw, cause you don’t have to waste time prettifying them too much, but I think this one turnd out all right.  Added a dash of color so it’s not boring black and white.

Heroes has sucked me in again

The first few episodes were meh, and episodes 4 and 5 made me quit watching for a while and concentrate on my new favorite series, Avatar.  But episodes 6 and 7 threw a monkey wrench in the works, and set things into motion that have kept me glued to series once again.  I just finished episode 10 and I hate myself for saying it but I can’t wait to finish the second season.

Zunemods.net

If you have a Zune, and you want to know how to make the most out of it (or even just how to turn it off properly), visit zunemods.  That’s all for today, I’m running on empty.

Jumper is barely tolerable

I was one of those people who believed that Hayden Christensen’s awful acting in the newer Star Wars trilogy was due to George Lucas’ awful directing and hammy writing. I was only half right. Christensen proved all his critics right with this movie, and joins fellow actor Keanu Reeves in the “monotones only action heroes” club. He’s awful, just plain awful. He can’t even narrate well. There is no inflection in his voice and so you’re never sure whether he’s mad, sad, horny or angry, and your only clue is the shape his mouth makes. Also, Samuel L. Jackson looks like Sisqo.

I imagine the book must have been much better, but the plot just flits along too conveniently for my taste. Christensen’s apartment is full of pictures. When Sisqo Samuel L attacks him, a fight ensues and he barely escapes with his life. While looking amongst the rubble and licking his wounds, Samuel L find a few photos, chances upon a random one of a girl in a bowling alley and announces “well, who’s THIS?”. Cut to scene of Christensen going back to his hometown to hook up with said girl, whom he had a crush on since he was 5. Am I scaring you yet? Stay away from this movie. The special effects aren’t that great, and certainly not worth the price of entry. Do yourselves a favor and watch Juno or There will be blood. If I had friends with taste that’s what we would’ve watched tonight.

Guiltily Pleased

I’m sure this is something that every OFW or Filipino earning in dollars must have felt at least once.  That strange feeling when you see that the peso is weakening due to turmoil in the government.  On the one hand, you’re pleased because your dollars are worth more but on the other hand you’re saddened by the fact that this is only due to the fact that corruption is once again becoming rampant and obvious, and investors are being driven away, which will be worse for the country in the long run.

I’ve found myself watching the news and waiting to see if the Peso weakens further before selling my dollars, and while I know I’m simply being practical, a little part of me is disgusted with what I’m doing.

Spore sounds amazing.

Spore and the things you can do in it sound absolutely amazing.  There’s too much for me to tackle in a post, but here’s a scenario: Say you have a creature, then you send out that creature to explore other planets while you maintain control over your home planet.  If at some point you decide to explore other planets, there’s a distinct possibility that you might see a form of your creature that evolved in a radically different direction than you had intended, because other people’s planets would have had a different effect on them.  Or for example, when dealing with an alien species your choices are no longer to simply choose diplomacy or war, you can do things like attack their food supply to make them weak or distract them with gifts and entertainers so much that they’ll forget to upgrade their military capabilities and fall easily to your army!

Read more about Spore here and listen to the guys on GFW radio discuss it in their podcast here.

cheng hangfeng

This guy’s work with logos used as design elements has inspired me to do something similar with Filipino brands.  If I ever get around to it.

Our senators need to learn the art of brevity

It is frustrating to watch the senate hearings sometimes, or at least watch senators grilling Jun Lozada with novella-like questions that could very easily be said in a few words.  I feel almost as frustrated as Lozada looks when trying to comprehend why our senators choose to speak in long winded roundabout ways when simply coming straight to the point is much more efficient.  I’m looking at you, Dick Gordon and Loren Legarda.

Steve Jobs and Jose Ramos Horta: separated at birth?

One is a nobel laureate for fought for the independence of his country and recently survived an assassination attempt, and the other is the leader of a cult the CEO of a consumer electronics company that has a rabid worldwide fanbase. Can you tell who’s who?

1. Glamour shot

2. Smiling while holding up voting ballot/Ipod

3. Pensive mood

4. Looking up and smirking

What do you guys think?

Street Art Manila : NIG CIS

Spotted along the ortigas/C5 overpass.

Hot air balloons!

Back from the 12th Philippine Hot air balloon festival, which was much colder than we thought it would be, and held plenty of photo ops, especially for pets.  You can find the pics here.

Street Art Manila : C5 Nuno

Spotted along C5. That Nuno gets fucking everywhere.

5 minute sketches : skinnyguy

This one took maybe 10 minutes. Getting a lot of inspiration/models from hypebeast.

Jun Lozada’s a funny guy

Jun Lozada, star witness against the First Gentleman Mike Arroyo and former comelec chairman Benjamin Abalos, apparently has a sense of humor. He looked tired, weak, and genuinely exhausted but managed a joke while being grilled by senator Pia Cayetano. When questioned about his talent to “mitigate greed” and his knowledge of the government’s procurement system (with which anyone who knew it well could abuse it for improper gain), he had this to say:

“ah, idadagdag ko lang na talentado ako, hehe.”

In English “I’d just like to add that I’m talented.” Talentado’s also a pun on the Filipino word tarantado which roughly translates to “jerk”,”prick”, or “cockmuncher” in english. The fact that he has such self awareness in acknowledging that his knowledge of the government’s procurement system made him an accomplice in the aforementioned “greed”, makes him a little more genuine in my eyes. At the very least a lot more genuine that say, Chavit Singson, who whistleblew Erap into house arrest.

As an aside, this might be strange but I find Pia Cayetano attractive. She has very good fashion sense.

5 minute sketches : hoodieguy

Well actually, more like 15 minutes, but yeah.

Shaq traded to Suns! Marion headed to Miami.

What the fuck?  I mean seriously, whereas Pau Gasol’s trade to the Lakers was seen as a terrific move (for the Lakers) this blockbuster trade has NBA fans scratching their heads and saying wha-huh?  Check it.  The Suns run and gun play has been their their style for the past few years, especially with Steve Nash and coach Mike D’Antoni on board.  The past three seasons have seen them reach the finals and semifinals of their conference, with each playoff going down the wire and destined to be replayed on classic NBA.  But they never made the finals, and now they’re slowing down their game by trading Marion and Marcus Banks for the aging diesel, reminiscent of Golden State signing up Chris Webber’s bad knees recently.

Sure this gives them a legitimate 5 and Amare can go back to being the 4 that he really is, but adding Shaq to the Suns is like letting the air out of the fastest car in the world or shooting a sprinter in the kneecaps.  Even if Shaq gets healthy, I don’t see that this will be good for the Suns.  But on the bright side, Dwayne Wade won’t want to kill himself after every game anymore.

Love and Hate : Zune 30

That’s right, this special edition of Love and hate is brought to you by the Zune 30, which I’ve been playing with for a few hours, at least enough time to form some opinons on it.

Love

• It’s sexier than it looks in pictures on the net, and I’m loving the “doubleshot” and matte finish
• The HUGE screen.  It’s not an Ipod Touch by any means, but coming from the Zen it’s a huge improvement
• Seamless video conversion and syncing
• The packaging, as it’s the sexiest I’ve seen this side of Cupertino
• The podcast library in the zune marketplace is HUGE, and could potentially make it easier for me to download my favorite podcasts
• If you accidentally remove your earphones, it pauses automatically so you don’t miss anything
• Upgradeable firmware, so you’re always up to date with the latest features
• The screen and slideshow software make it a pleasure to show off pictures
• customizable desktop backgrounds
• beautiful and user friendly UI
• Powerful FM radio antenna, on the days I feel like tuning in to terrestrial radio

Hate

• The Zune Premium earphones make me dizzy, my ears weren’t meant for in-ear earphones
•  The foam of the regular earphones rips too easily, I may have to stick to my trusty old senns
• Zune’s file transfer software makes me uncomfortable, since I come from using an iRiver that has direct transfers and a Zen that has a simulated drag and drop style transfer
• I’m starting to get used to it, but the way the Zune turns on and off disturbs me, as I am not used to machines with instant  on and off without an announcement that they are “shutting down” and taking their sweet time doing so

100 dollar loot!

My loot’s arrived!  Since Aissa has a cousin in the states whose husband just so happens to work for DHL, we were able to get my loot in the states today!!!  Hooray for DHL!

These are the days when being a budget geek makes me happy, as all the stuff you see there was bought for a hundred bucks or less!  That’s right, my new Zune 30, Fujifilm Finepix f650 (5x optical zoom and 6MP) both cost 100 dollars each, the zune premium earphones were bought at 11.99, and the Mouse guard graphic novel…well that was 24.95 but it was a gift from Aissa so it doesn’t really fall under budget geek tech.  I can’t wait to play with my shiny new toys!

Street Art Manila : washed out Nuno

Spotted in a parking lot near UA&P. Colors were a bit washed out for some reason, probably because of poor lighting.  4th in a series of 4.

Pau Gasol traded to LA!

Wow.  Just, wow.  Everyone had their eyes on Jason Kidd and where he might go, and then the Lakers pull this one out of nowhere.  The ramifications of this are interesting.  The Grizzlies were supposed to have a banner year this season, with Gasol teaming up with best friend and Spanish teammate Juan Carlos Navarro and a new coach in Marc Iavaroni to help the struggling team back on its feet. No dice.  The Grizzlies are 13-33, last in the Southwest division.  So management had to make a decision.  Stick with Pau for one more year, or trade him while he’s still a hot commodity and build for the future.  They decided to trade.

While this can only be good news for the Lakers, what with Andrew Bynum out for a few more weeks/months, the Grizzlies seem to have gotten the short end of the stick, with Kwame Brown, rookie Javaris Crittenton and two first-round draft picks for Gasol. I think they also got the rights to Pau’s brother Marc, but I don’t know the details of that.  In any case, once Bynum is back, the Lakers will be a force out in the crowded west, and the Grizzlies will have to do a bit of  soul searching again for a few years before they can find a star to ride to the playoffs once more.

Street Art Manila : Danger D

Spotted in a parking lot near UA&P. 3rd in a series of 4.

Street Art Manila : Dronebit

Spotted in a parking lot near UA&P. 2nd in a series of 4.

Housecleaning

Cleaned up my links, some of which have been pointing to dead or abandoned sites for almost a year now.  I actually wouldn’t have noticed if it weren’t for this urgent message from my friend ET:

“ey what’s up with your blogroll? hindi na ako coderscompass. elmerandes.wordpress na po. thanks! adjust mo. siniseryoso ko na blogs ko e”

Well then, from now on when you click on ET’s name in my blogroll, you’ll be going to his new blog, where he discusses stack based thinking VERY seriously.  Miriam has also updated her blog, made with with equal amounts of emo and sunshine.  Lastly, it’s about time I linke dto my girlfriend Aissa’s blog, since it’s a wonder she hasn’t noticed her absence on my blogroll yet.

HTC touch’s new UI codenamed Manila

It’s really nothing special, but for some reason it warmed my 3rd world heart o know that one of HTC’s UIs in development for the HTC Touch is codenamed “Manila”.  They either ran out of cities, have a Filipino developer working for them, or threw darts at a world map.

Street Art Manila : Chi

Spotted in a parking lot near UA&P. 1st in a series of 4.