Flying the Friendly Skies



In all the fun, enthusiastic energy and komiks wonder that was the recently-concluded 2nd Komikon, there were two standout moments for me in particular. One was meeting my old college professor Cesar Hernando and one of his students, a guy named Jay who told me that when he was in high school, the first indie comic he read and loved was Angel Ace. Later, I met another guy named Mike (who made an impression as he and his pal were dressed as Lego Men) who revealed he was also a fan of Angel. I then learned that he had been looking for copies of Angel Ace since he lost his copies some time ago when his house burned down.
It's been over ten years since Angel lifted off from the ground, and it's still amazing to know that there are people out there who still await her adventures, still scanning the skies for any copies. Who am I to let them down?

Next Komikon, or perhaps sooner, there will be another Angel Ace comic. And perhaps another after that. And another. Along with the next K.I.A.'s and Kunoichi Boy issues to come. Who knows. The sky's the limit. I've got the inspiration back. Let's see what happens next.

KOMIKON 2006

Lots of komiks, creators and readers on this day of days. This year's Kon had more people, more local komiks, more komikeros, more enthusiasm, more sales and fun till the end of the day. I met cool people aplenty- old friends from Alamat, my ol' college professor, guys from UP Fine Arts (my Alma Mater!), young komikeros, old masters of the komiks and even Angel Ace fans whose love for the Flying Princess still burns to this day. For that, just for that, I have gotten my enthusiasm back to keep Angel flying. To keep ninja girls ninja-fighting. To keep doing comics and komiks. Awesome. Next year, next Kon, I'll have stuff ready.

Here are the pics. I'll be uploading bigger versions on my phlog as soon as I can.



I took home a TON of stuff, including Fresh! from Taga-Ilog, Elmer Damaso, Taga-Canal and their crew, Gerry Alanguilan's Elmer #2, the new TROPA! and Rambol comics from Gilbert Monsanto, a new wave of Alamat xerox-comics including Kadiliman, Artifacts, Ultracops and The Last Datu, stuff from Istrong Repablik and Break Out, stuff from Ariel Atienza, Reno Maniquis and Jamie Bautista's debut issue of Tri-Tech... and that's just the stuff I can remember top of mind. I bought a LOT of stuff, so I'll be looking them over in the next week or so. It's like Christmas, just before Halloween.

Unfortunately, I didn't get copies of Trese since they frickin' SOLD OUT just after lunch. Budj, I'll be waiting for my copies.

Thanks to Ariel Atienza and Artists' Den, and everyone who made this year's Kon a glorious reality.

Seeya all next time, in KOMIKON 2007!!!

One with the Crowd

Today is the 3rd Philippine Komiks Convention, or the Komikon as we have all taken to calling it. It's that time of the year when Indie Komiks Kreators have their time in the sun (both literally and figuratively) to show off their wares to an audience that has come specifically for that reason. Comics pros, comics amateurs, wannabees, fans and more types of people converge at the Bahay Alumni in UP Diliman, ready to buy ashcans and first issues and debuts galore, plus the odd latest installment of their favorite struggling indie title.

Unfortunately this year, the Kon caught me with nothing. Well, nothing that I am singularly responsible for. No Last Angel Ace Story yet. No second K.I.A. book, no sign yet of Hiniranga or any other title. Nope. All of these projects are as yet under development and unripe for showing. It's just that work has been pretty hectic recently, leaving me all but exhausted on weekends and unable to pick up pen or pencil to draw nary a single page. Technically though, I have actually been more productive in the past few months than in all my years of Indie Komickery before- not everyday that you take part in a full-color, 10-issue comic series that will reach perhaps thousands of people... unfortunately, I can't talk about it much, nor is it really something for the regular comic book reader in Metro Manila. Oh well.

On the upside, I am not totally off anything Komicky at the Kon; I do have a pinup that shows up in Fresh!, a brand new comic anthology from the crew of Jon Zamar, Taga-Ilog and Elmer Damaso, as well as a bunch of other cool creators. It is, in fact, a reunion of sorts for the Culture Crash crew, and fans will no doubt be overjoyed to see PASIG and Cat's Trail back (at least for a little bit) in the pages of Fresh! The art looks great, I am interested to read it and overall, Fresh! is the best-looking local production so far I've seen all year.

So I'll be a the Kon later, to buy stuff- Trese and the new releases from the Alamat Crew in particular, and whatever else catches my eye and tweaks my curiosity. I'll be snapping pics and video clips of the event, and hopefully will get to hang out and meet some old and new friends in the Komiks biz.

But most importatntly, I hope to find inspiration and reignite the komik creator in me that has, unfortunately, been lost in the past few months. I want to find the passion that went away. I need to find a new direction and fresh new ideas for new Komiks Kreations.

So, expect stuff and a report from the Kon floor very soon. It should be pretty fun.

NEWSARAMA.COM: Celebrating 120 Years of Komiks in the Philippines

From one of the premier comic book sites online comes this much-appreciated series of articles on Filipino comic book creators, their works and the long tradition of art and komiks history that preceded them. Benjamin Ong interviews the Philippines' grafictionists and visual storytellers to check out Filipino komiks' past, present and future.

Check it all out here. Check back as this series of articles continues- the next installment will be online tomorrow.

Thanks to Benjamin for giving Filipino comics a long-overdue chance to be seen and read.

Magnifico



Today, on a whim, me and a couple of guys from The Salt Mines headed off for lunch at Amici's at Don Bosco. It's this quaint but popular Italian canteen-resto right inside Don Bosco school in Makati. The place at first glance doesn't look too amazing... it kinda reminded me of a more down-to-earth Sbarro's. But one look at the trays of authentic-looking pasta dishes and the lovely, thin pizzas leaving strings of mozzarella as they leave the plate just convinced me that this place was special. It wasn't filled with smiling people for nothing, nor were the many articles and citations framed on the walls or under the glass of the tables for anything but accolades for the wonderful eats.

So we got in line (self-service place) and selected the pasta for the day. I ordered a chunky Montanarra, which was fucilli pasta (the twisty, drill-like pasta) with cheese and white sauce mixed with bell peppers, sausage, pepperoni and olives. It was simply divine, savoury and satisfying... I haven't had Italian food like this before (thanks to my lifetime of Jollibee or McDo spaghetti). We topped it off with a nice sausage pizza, and that was our delicious lunch. Afterwards I had a cup of yummy Gelato as dessert, and it was perfect. I have to love as well the layout of the place- it was a self-service joint, but little things like having ice and big glasses accessible at the side goes a long way to making the dining experience quite enjoyable and comfortable.
Work has been such a storm lately, but thankfully there has been a bit of a pause in the past few days. I look forward to the weekend, but this early it's nice to treat one's self a bit. You can't just run yourself to the core all the time. Little perks go a long way to energize and revitalize your soul. Be it a trip to the spa, a nice swim at the beach or a lovely italian lunch at Amici's. We should do it again sometime. Pronto.

Toe Tagged

My Tagboard's been on the fritz for the past couple of weeks... and so has the boards of other blogs I've checked. Appparently Tag-Board.com is down, and there's no sign of them getting back up. I'll keep the tagboard on for now in the hopes that it will just 'get better'. If a week or two passes without any signs of life, then I'll just take it down and replace it with something else or just scrap any tagging thing altogether.

For now though, if you have anything you want to say, just post a comment under the articles. Don't be shy. But please don't spam, either.

End of Days


The gang's all here.

The Latest... and LAST Mortal Kombat game is here. Mortal Kombat Armageddon is the swan song for the brutal and bloody fighting game... at least, on the current generation of gaming consoles. With MKA, Mortal Kombat guru Ed Boon promises that there will be deaths, there will be changes and a clean slate for the next MK. Well... Ed Boon promises a lot of things.
Mortal Kombat Armageddon certainly looks slick. There's a new opening cinema featuring armies of MK heroes and villains clashing in a savage battle to the death to start off things. The game comes with a massive cast of playables- literally every Mortal Kombat character that has ever appeared is in MKA... from staples like Sub-Zero and Scorpion, to obscure add-ons like Hsu Hsao and Dairou (Who?). Even MK's fearsome boss characters like Shao Khan and Goro are playable right from the start.
Aside from the huge cast, MKA adds in a Kreate-a-Kombatant mode that's easily the most expansive so far in a mainstream fighting game... easily dwarfing the Character Creation mode in Soul Calibur III. With KAK, you can adjust a character's costume, fighting style, special moves and even their ending (text). The options are many and you can surely create a unique fighter to throw into the battle with the regular MK cast or even online.
Also new in MKA is the Kreate-a-Fatality system, a kind of mini-game where you string together little fatality moves in a chain; the more punishment, the bloodier the fatality and the more rewards you get (in the form of Koins you can spend to buy new options in KAK, or unlock extras in the Vault).
Then there's the new Konquest Mode, a beat 'em up adventure where you take the role of a warrior running around the world, beating up cannon fodder and kicking open chests for power-ups and unlockables. It's pretty fun and very similar to MK: Shaolin Monks. Finally, Motor Kombat is a Mario Kart-esque mini driving game with SD Mortal Kombat characters.

All these extras are well and good, and seeing them all on paper makes MKA seem like the total package. Unfortunately, even with all the extras in the world, tons of secrets, a huge cast and the capability to create even more kombatants with the KAK feature, Mortal Kombat Armageddon is shot in the foot by one single thing... the actual fighting system.

It remains a fact that MK's combat is, compared to every other established fighter (from Tekken to DOA to VF to Soul Calibur) is clunky, sluggish and restrictive. It all basically boils down to memorizing specific combinations of buttons and then dialing in these canned combos once you find your opening. There's little room for anything else- you'll just find yourself being pounded by an enemy using the same long combo over and over. Not even the ability to change fighting styles (which is actually reduced in MKA from previous games) or use a weapon improves anything much. The new 'Counter' system (lifted from Dead or Alive) brings to mind the old 'COMBO BREAKER!' moves from the old Killer Instinct games... which hearken back to... the 90s??
All this is exacerbated even more by a general unresponsiveness or lag in the controls. Often you'll press a button just to see your character do nothing but stand there to get flattened or bounced by an enemy combo. Gameplay here is like going through a maze- you can't move as well as you can, restricted as you are by the set paths you are given. If you try, you'll stall and get punished for it. On the bright side, the CPU A.I. has been somewhat tweaked so as not to be obnoxiously frustrating... there is 'balance' now, in a sense. Which is good or we'll probably be seeing lots of MKA discs being thrown out windows.

The clunky fighting takes away a lot from the enjoyment of this game, despite the fun that could be had with the KAK. Which actually makes me realize that in the end, Soul Calibur III and it's Create-a-Character feature is still better than MKA. Perhaps it's knowing that their fighting system sucks is why Midway threw in almost everything AND the kitchen sink into the game, but didn't even bother to include staple fighting modes like Time Attack, Team Battle, Kumite (or an equivalent) along with the regular Story/Arcade mode and VS mode. All the extras in the world can't repair a broken fighting system.

As for the nitty-gritty...

Graphics: Overall, not bad really... the character models are large and detailed. Guys are buff with huge hands and feet and small heads, while women are suitably attractive (if a bit slutty). But this is the same look that MK has had since MK Deadly Alliance, two games ago... and it's pretty dated and old by now. The animation, however, has a stiff feel, particularly with a lot of special moves. The stages and various venues do well to maintain the bleak, scary atmosphere that MK loves.

Sounds: Once again, the MK characters lack any unique voice as many voice samples are used for multiple characters. Unintelligible grunts, cries and yells fill the air. Every male says "UGABAAADDOOO!", while females shriek "YOBADDDOOOBADODEI!" when they do special moves. All of it sounds like chopsocky BS made up by voice actors on the fly... because that's what it is. Music ranges from techno to heavy techno... it's Mortal Kombat.

Gameplay: Well, the extras are nice distractions but would you really buy MKA to play a mini-racing game?

Lasting Appeal: Usually the Story Mode would be a must to play through as you'd want to see the endings of the characters. Unfortunately this is cut down by the fact that each character only has a short text-only ending (with your character doing a kata in the background) that will probably disappoint most gamers expecting a slam bang finale. Plus, most of the endings are cop-outs or just plain crappy. Only the most fanatical will try to unlock all 62 crappy text endings.

The Kreate-a-Kombatant feature has hours and hours of fun in it, and wannabee game designers will spend lots of time unlocking stuff to use for their dream warrior. These hours will surely outlast the actual time they play with their created fighters though... Konquest will be usable only for earning Koins, and once you unlock the good stuff in the Vault, that's it. Motor Kombat will be good for a race or two, and that's it.

Mortal Kombat Armageddon is supposed to signal an end to this series, and I hope they take the chance to kill off everything wrong with it... the fighting system, the aging graphics engine and the far-too-drawn-out story. It's time to throw out everything and start fresh. MK has a lot of ground to cover to catch up to the rest of the fighting game genre... they had better get going.

Final Fantasy XII Preview Redux

I'm about nine hours into Final Fantasy XII, and so far it's been pretty good. Story-wise, it's kinda slow and I haven't yet been blown away by any developments in the plot. I have met most of the game's cast of playables, including Vaan, the ambitious youth who wants to be a Sky Pirate and fight for the freedom of his occupied land of Dalmasca; Balthier is an actual Sky Pirate whom Vaan meets up with a ways into the first real foray, while Fran is his Viera (a rabbit-eared female) companion/sidekick. Finally, there's Basch, the disgraced Dalmascan officer who apparently assassinated the king of Dalmasca near the beginning of the story. A lengthy dungeon romp and then an even lengthier trek through a desert didn't give any big revelations on the story, but it did give me quite a bit of appreciation for the new gameplay mechanics.

Like an MMORPG, FFXII sees you and all your active characters running around in large environments and engaging in combat with foes that are visible right from the start- no more random encounters that pop up out of nowhere, no transitions into 'battle mode'. Since everything happens in pseudo real-time (going into the menu pauses the action, thankfully), the game introduces Gambits into the game so you don't have to micro-manage every action of your party. Basically you can program your characters to do specific things on various situations, ranging from 'Attack nearest foe' to 'Heal any Ally who goes down to less than half of his Health'. It's a pretty efficient system and makes combat quite seamless, so you can literally just sit back and just point your characters in the direction you need to go and little else except pick up the occasional treasure that enemies drop.
On occasion, super-powerful enemies appear, which can KILL your supposedly mighty party if you're not careful. At these points, when regular magic or attacks can't faze the enemy, you can use Mist Quickenings. Similar to Limit Breaks in previous FFs, these spectacular attacks require a full Magic Point bar and some agility with the buttons on your controller. Knowing which button to press and having a bit of timing will allow a character to rack up lots of hits, inflicting TONS of damage on his target. Multiple characters with multiple MQ's working together can chain together humongous amounts of damage. This is of course limited by the need for full magic bars, but if there's a Save Point nearby (touching which replenishes all your HP and MP instantly), you're pretty much invincible. Kinda cheap, but so are the enemies in this game so it's fine. Heh.

So far I'm enjoying the gameplay aspects of FFXII- levelling up, hunting down monsters for bounties, MMO-style and upgrading your skills and abilities on the new License Board mechanic (like FFX's Sphere Grid, but simpler). The story... well, it hasn't picked up yet, but it surely will... once I actually try to push it forward. More on my adventures in Ivalice as it happens.

Piping-hot New Anime

Thanks to the internet, I've been able to dispense almost entirely with visiting local anime shops, plus I can sample piping-hot new titles even before the wide world decides they're hits or misses. Two new titles have so far crossed my path and gotten me interested.


Nginiig! Anime-style.

Ghost Hunt is a perfect title for the coming Halloween season. A Japanese high school student named Mai, whose hobby is to swap ghost stories with her two gal pals, meets a mysterious young man named Shibuya during one of their spook sessions. Later, Mai encounters him again when she passes by a supposedly cursed old school building. Because of an accident she has a hand in causing, Mai ends up working as Shibuya's assistant. It turns out that Shibuya is the manager of a quite famous psychic research institute, and he's investigating the building for supernatural phenomenon. Mai also finds out that the handsome Shibuya is a bit of an arse... but a smart arse, at least.
Soon though, more supernaturally-inclined specialists turn up- a sexy miko (priestess) and an unusually liberal monk, a 19-year old exorcist from Australia (ever wanted to find out what an Aussie sounds like in Japan?), a spirit channeler and one of Mai's schoolmates who claims to be able to see spirits. All have gathered in the cursed school building, yet none seem to believe in each others' abilities. Is the building really haunted? Who's real and who's fake among the charaters? Well, I'll just have to keep watching this title to find out.

Ghost Hunt has nice animation and clean character designs, some funny writing and some cool atmosphere... and pretty cool opening music which kinda reminds me of the old Hardy Boys theme (Darn I'm old...). The different characters are interesting and anime seems to do scary stuff quite well. Looks like I'll be going a-hunting a lot in the weeks ahead.


The latest from GONZO.

Pumpkin Scissors is a very odd name for an anime... and an even odder name for a military unit. But here they both are. Set in a European-like world where an Empire and several rival nations have just come out from a devastating war, this new series from GONZO Animation is all about a special unit of the military, The Pumpkin Scissors, that has been assigned to give relief to victims of the war. Relief in this case means protection from renegade elements of the military that are now operating as bandits throughout the land.

The "Pumpkin Scissors" special platoon is led in the field by the headstrong but fearless Alice Martin, a young lieutenant fresh from the academy. During their first mission, Alice encounters a tall, scarred soldier named Roland. When some bandits with a tank show up, the Pumpkin Scissors team up with the scruffy soldier to save the people of an oppressed village. Roland soon shows that he's not an ordinary soldier- he's an elite Anti-tank Trooper, a fearsome one-man killing machine that deals death with his big-arse gun by the spooky light of his blue night lantern.

The first episode of Pumpkin Scissors had me impressed with some nice character designs and animation, plus some cool, bloody action. I still can't figure out WHY the special corps is named as it is... I guess I'll find out in the next episodes.


Violent mecha action.

Innocent Venus is apparently a 12-episode mini-series, but the quality is obvious even from the first installment. Set in an earth devastated by a series of hurricanes, Innocent Venus sees Japan being the one last superpower after 5 billion people are lost in the deluge. Japan's population becomes segregated into the rich 'Logos' and the poor 'Revenues'. The Logos are kept in power by their army, which is armed with powerful mecha.
One day, a mysterious young girl named Sana is being pursued by the Logos military, accompanied only by two young men- the friendly Jin, and the taciturn Jo- both former members of the Logos' elite special forces, the Phantom corps. Who is Sana, and why is she so important to the rebels and the Logos?
This title promises some hard-hitting action, and the violence gets pretty bloody. The setting is intriguing, and the animation quite excellent. Once again, we'll probably find out about the title's meaning once more episodes show up.

Ask for these anime at your favorite anime shops- these just may be future hits in the making.

A Day of Bad Luck and Good Art



Today is Friday the 13th. To celebrate this particularly infamous day AND a certain female supernatural detective that has been turning heads recently in the local comic book scene, Budjette Tan has put together an online collection of artworks called Exhibit 13. A more varied view of Alexandra Trese and her two sidekicks, The Kambal, you will probably never find. Go there and check out the cool art, including a bigger version of my own rendition of Miss Trese.

Check it all out at Exhibit 13.

Trese is a horror/crime comic created by Budjette Tan and Ka-Jo Baldisimo.

Sweet Victory

The past couple of weeks was a STORM of work... both literally and figuratively.

During the height of the super-typhoon Milenyo, I was in the office working on a pitch. Even after the killer storm had passed leaving Metro Manila temporarily in the Dark Ages, we were still working.

Well, all that work paid off and we WON EVERY FRICKING ACCOUNT WE PITCHED FOR. Four new fricking accounts. WOOHOO!

Of course, with the satisfaction of our jobs well done and the hard work having not been in vain is of course the realization that the real storm is just beginning.

You gotta love advertising.

Oh well. Moving on. Moving on.

Back to Ivalice

I've gotten my hands on a copy of Final Fantasy XII. The latest Final Fantasy is pretty different from past recent installments in the series. Instead of the usual anime-laced sci-fantasy soap operas, we get a more midieval/sci-fi setting charged with political intrigue and machinations aplenty.
In the land of Ivalice, the small kingdom of Dalmasca is in the midst of a war between two great empires. One of the empires, Archadia, advances and takes control of Dalmasca after some drama and the shedding of royal blood. Two years after the Archadian occupation of Dalmasca, various individuals within the kingdom come together in order to free their land and people.

FFXII boasts not only a new graphic style but new gameplay as well. Gone are the random encounters of previous FF's; the game now plays similar to an MMORPG, with your characters running around engaging visible enemies in pseudo realtime/turn-base combat. Other new systems govern levelling up, acquiring spells and skills, and using weapons. It's all new and shiny, and goes with the new graphic style and music (which is more FF Tactics than the RPGs) and some decent english voice acting.

I have to say though that the art style and the characters so far strike me as stiff. The story and overall feel though also reminds me uncomfortably of Star Wars Episode One. You have a tiny kingdom oppressed by a greater force, you have a spunky princess and a would-be young hero... you even have a 'Watto' character! To be fair though, the plot will surely get better as I get into the game more.
Unfortunately, my first two hours or so with the game has me running around doing some errands, which while plot-driven, are pretty bland and boring. I eventually put the game down and went with the more instantly-gratifying ninja action of another new game I have, Tenchu Senran for the Xbox360.

Anyway, it's only a matter of time before I get into FFXII deeper soon enough. Perhaps I'm just getting out of the Oblivion mindset and getting myself back into the Final Fantasy groove. Expect a fuller review then.

300



Here's the official trailer for 300, inspired by the graphic novel by Frank Miller. Depicting the battle of Thermopylae between a small force of Spartans versus the massive might of the Persian Empire. The sights within this short trailer are quite fascinating. Lots of immense battle scenes, intricate costumes and scenery, fantastic costumes and glorious carnage in slow motion.
Brings to mind the Battle of Pelennor Fields, from Return of the King... at least there, the good guys numbered at least 6,000... and they had horses and eventual relief in the form of an undead army. At Thermopylae, there were 300 Spartans against more than a hundred thousand enemy troops (granted, historically there were other Greek troops, but hey, this is the movies). Awesome stuff. Check the trailer out and get ready to pick your jaw up from the floor. This film looks like something to look forward to early next year.

Call me Insidio. Or Doctor Wallflower. Or maybe... Mister Whisper. GRAHAHAHA.

According to this, I'm Evil Lite. Which also may be Evil Might. GRAHAHAHA.

You Are 26% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

Lips to Ips

After all the talk about storms and shit, how about something funny and silly and gross to lighten the mood?

A couple of weeks ago, I went over one night to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I open the light and go for my toothbrush, which was placed along with my Mom's sticking inside a cup on top of a raised platform area above the toilet. As I drew up my toothbrush, an IPIS or cockroach skittered out of the cup. I recoiled in horror and imagined that the thing may have been all over our dental care stuff, it's dirty antennae probing all over. I told my Mom about this and just resolved to buy another toothbrush.

A couple of days later, I entered the bathroom again to brush my teeth. I looked up and was about to grab my new toothbrush when- I once again recoiled in HORROR. A fricking Ipis was perched right on my toothbrush, on the bristles where you put toothpaste. The creepy little bugger was sitting pretty no doubt sucking in whatever he could from the brush. The raised position of the platform prevented me from squashing the blasted bug, but I shooed it away and then threw away the brush. This had to stop.

This was weird, of course. We were pretty tidy. The bathroom was a bathroom, but it was generally very clean. But for some reason the recent weeks saw roaches frequenting the area where we put our brushes. Perhaps it was a freak chance that I walked in and saw what I did. But now that I knew that roaches were among stuff we put in our mouths, I couldn't just stand and do nothing.
I bought a new brush with a brush head cover, and resolved to NOT put it in the cup any more. I set it aside farther away from the platform, where roaches seemed to have taken to haunting a lot.

A couple of days later, I came in to brush my teeth. I got my brush... and then ONCE MORE WITH FEELING, RECOILED IN HORROR as I saw a roach perched on the lid of the tube of toothpaste!

WHAT THE HELL?!! It was fascinating in a filthy, horrid way though, so instead of shooing the insect away, the first thing I did was grab my digicam and snap the disgusting sight (too bad I erased it, but darn it was gross) and then show my Mom just what I was talking about.

Well, since then we've taken to putting all our toothbrushes and toothpaste in personal containers (fashioned by my Dad from empty dish detergent containers) with lids to keep roaches out. My Mom has also killed a couple of roaches in the area, but we knew it was useless to kill 'em. There will always be roaches there, but at least now we've made sure we won't be french-kissing the buggers everytime we brush.

So... are your toothbrushes in a good, clean place?

The Longest Weekend

Since my last post, a lot of time had passed. I went home and came to a dark house. I had to contend with going to bed soon after taking a bath (water is one luxury we still had despite it all) Friday night. Saturday morning gave no respite, and despite all my instincts screaming for me to run off to some mall and just kill time there, I stayed at home. I stayed and slept several hours... several sweaty hours... until I realized that if I slept all day, I'd be awake all night. So I got up and walked around, read some magazines and comics from the rapidly-rising pile of unread issues. Literally, I was feeling every second tick by, and I could see the sun slowly waning and night unfurling its curtain. Thankfully, a battery-operated radio was available, so as the evening finally came in full I listened to TV Patrol Sabado and news of Milenyo's legacy and the odd murder.

Early evening found me walking outside, shirtless in the dark and sweating (darn, I felt like Rambo), staring up at the unlit lamp posts one moment, and to the lit residences of Quezon City in the distance. One thing though, that I appreciate from the time in the dark, was that I finally saw my first fireflies.

After a hurried dinner of McDonald's, I went back to bed (after a second bath) but couldn't sleep. I looked at my options for entertainment; my PSP, unused for the past week, was down to 10 percent power, so was not usable. DAMN! KEEP IT CHARGED...KEEP IT CHARGED... My Archos 700 was fully charged, but unfortunately had NOTHING in the hard drive that was watchable... KEEP IT FULL, KEEP IT FULL... And so, it fell to my sidekick Pocket PC to kill my boredom. There was still about 50 percent power left, and for a while I was choosing between conserving that power in case the next few days still saw me without a chance to recharge... or using what power I had to watch the latest episodes of Avatar. I chose to live, dammit. But luckily, in the middle of the first episode, my watch was disturbed by a familiar, yet long-missed artificial glow. LIGHT was back. I let out a yell and was jumping up and down. Alive. We're alive again.

Unfortunately, the phone lines are still dead, as is my broadband connection. So I'll be posting from the Salt Mines from now. Still, having electricity for light, PC use, DVDs and gaming is good enough for now. I can live without cable and broadband internet... for a while.

Man, I'm a fricking addict. What can you do.

Juiced

The last couple of days has proven that we only truly realize how valuable something is when we lose it. Electricity, for instance. Countless millions of Filipinos are lacking in this one basic thing right now, and it's enough to drive you nuts. Malls are crowded to overflowing by masses seeking to escape their dark, hot and electricity-lacking homes. Staying and working in the office powered by generators is much preferable than just sitting around slavering in the shadows without anything to do. Electricity powers or supports our senses to enjoy things- from being able to read a book or magazine to powering our television sets, computers and appliances. It's at the center of all the things we do, so it's not surprising that now that it's gone, we're all scurrying like ants left without a scent trail to follow.

I am loathe to leave the office right now to go back to home to the prehistoric cave The Sanctum has become. But what the heck... home is home, and at least you can rest and recollect your thoughts. Perhaps this is better. Perhaps I can learn to meditate on my actions and see where I could have done better, done more. In the end, maybe this was all for the best and I will be a better person for seeing that I am an electricity addict (as are we all), and should work on looking inward instead of outward at the brightness given by electric power.

...

Ah, screw that. I want to frickin' play Xbox360 and surf. PLEASE let there be frickin' electricity back when I go home. PUH-LEEEEEZEE...

Stormswept

I spent the whole day in the office, working and keeping my eyes firmly set on my job. It helped to kill the hours which I had to spend here in the Salt Mines instead of at home. On the bright side, I guess it was better to be in the office and actually be productive. It was also better to be in a place with electricity and a working internet connection, instead of being cooped up in the cold but dark confines of The Sanctum. Nothing's more impotent than a fully-wired electronic entertainment pad without current.
Anyway, it was surreal to just stare out into the storm-swept metropolis, seeing the wind eventually die down to a whisper. However, signs of Milenyo's fury could be seen everywhere. Downed trees and plants were everywhere, and the sight of pedestrians just walking haphazardly this way or that on the streets of Ayala Avenue just showed you that not all was right in the world. We watched the news in the Main Conference Room and through all the various sights of storm-stricken provinces and news of people being displaced and victimized by the weather, there were two things that surfaced to be quite significant over it all. One, that large advertising billboards are pretty much now recognized as public safety menaces during storms seeing as over a dozen of these large commercial signs fell over (and at least one caused the death of a person). The other thing is the annoying and pretty embarrassing way that in each of these billboard-crash sites, there are always these hooligans who swarm over like vultures to grab the scrap metal to sell for a quick buck.

Dinner was a bit of a trick, since the nearby restaurants were almost all crowded with hungry people. Eventually we were able to find a place in Jollibee and satisfy our cravings. The whole atmosphere of the place had this weird, 'calamity-stricken' feel... there were huge gaps of out-of-stock items in the menu, and periodically you'd see attendants drag out these huge bags of take-out or delivery orders (without a doubt bound for some office or call center full of starving people).

It's still blacked out in most residential places- I'll probably try to stay and wait it out until things get more stable. It would be so cool if, when dawn strikes tomorrow, it will find a Metro Manila seemingly unscathed and good as new. Of course, that won't happen.

But life goes on anyway.

Life's a Pitch

The typhoon Milenyo is set to arrive in Metro Manila today, packing winds of up to 130 miles an hour. Since yesterday, it has been announced that all classes in all levels would be cancelled. Flights have been grounded. Work suspended in many offices and workplaces. But darn, I'm here in the office for some reason. Well, the reason was that we have a pitch- which is basically us competing with other agencies for a new account... and we can't just lay down because of some, oh, storm.

So I headed off and got a cab (MRTs tend to suck or totally jam in storms), which thankfully wasn't too hard. As we went on the usual route to Makati, you could see the signs of the Storm's coming. Uprooted trees, downed signs and stripped billboards, and the odd tumbling umbrella (in place of tumbleweeds). Once we got to Makati, the wind seemed even stronger. There were still surprisingly a lot of people clustered in the entrances of buildings, huddled to keep from the rain and the wind.
I got to the taxi drop-off and as I opened the taxi's door, it was immediately flung open by the wind. I jumped off without even bothering to open my useless umbrella. Once inside the building, I saw more signs of the storm's fury- like the statue in the middle of the building's courtyard, tumbled to the ground by the wind. Yikes. Depending on what happens from now on, it'll either be very easy or very hard to get home. Well, what can you do but do work while you're here.

Oh, and the pitch date was postponed. Gah.

Going LIVE

I've had my Xbox360 for several months now, but it was only recently, in fact, only over the weekend, that I was able to experience the most the console has to offer- namely, going online on Xbox Live. For the uninitiated, Xbox Live is Microsoft's exclusive online component for their entertainment consoles (both the original Xbox and Xbox360). All you need is a broadband internet connection, some know-how and bam! You're online.
Xbox Live has quite a few treats- you can go to the Xbox Live Marketplace to download demos of upcoming games, videos and trailers, and even chat or converse with other gamers (whether they're in the country or halfway across the world). Of course, you can also go and compete with other human players in various Xbox Live-enabled games.

While a lot of stuff like demos and videos are free, you WILL need to spend real money to get credits (or Microsoft Points) to get some stuff, like expansions for games (new maps, areas, characters, etc), and to play online with other players. Luckily, despite the fact that the Philippines isn't officially a supported region, Filipinos CAN actually go online on Xbox Live and enjoy their consoles to the fullest. Thanks to Pinoy Xbox, I am now one of these gamers.

It's quite amazing; I have so far downloaded several demos and videos, and even gotten to play some rounds of Dead or Alive 4 against some players in Japan (got my butt kicked though). It's fun and I do see myself using the service from now on, whether I spend to keep subscribed to the Gold Membership or not. Once you go on Live, you can't go back. The future or gaming right there. Awesome stuff.