Wednesday, July 27, 2005

[half-blood prince]

Just finished reading the book this morning (started reading last night. had to finish it ASAP para di na ko ma-istorbo sa trabaho).

I want the post to be spoiler-free and all that but the guy who dies in the book is someone you'd expect to die in book six (before the final book) anyway so why bother about that. Pero sige, wala pa ring spoiler (the sentence before this one should be enough).

Ok. book six:

  1. the identity of the Half-blood Prince wasn't really hard to figure out.
  2. Sweet Valley High School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
  3. either I'm getting really good at figuring out mysteries or the book was just a bit ...predictable. methinks it's the latter.
  4. no more harry+teenage angst. yey.
  5. book three is still my favorite.
  6. series is finally going to end. time for harry potter overratedness to end. (how I miss the good ol days of underground fandom)

[arnis results]

Ok, the tournament:

The AFP team came (more than 25 of them... scary) as well as all the invited teams (PUP, UA&P, Warriors Martial Arts - LESKAS and few guys from Diliman). The matches started at about 10am which was a little later than we had expected (we hoped that we could start by 9 but unfortunely the judges were late so...). We finished the pairing by 10 and surpisingly, I was already up for the second match that morning for the -66kg Men's Division (the first was between a guy from and a guy from PUP). The matches consisted of 3 rounds, 2 minutes each.

To avoid having to explain arnis terminology and martial-arts speak and make things sound simpler, I won the match by default because of the 3-disarm disqualification uhh.. rule. To clear things up and not make my victory sound cheap, the 3-disarm disqualification rule happens when a player loses his arnis stick forcibly by his opponent or accidentally (it slips from his grip or whatever) three times during a match. Disarming my opponent wasn't really part of the plan (the plan was: dash forward or lunge-strike one [diagonal strike]-payong [upward block]-dash) back) ...It's just that my opponent's arnis stick just kept flying out of his grip (was just as shocked as he was). It was explained to me later (by coach Mejia methinks) that the reason my opponent kept losing his arnis stick was because my payong (the upward block) kept hitting his hand - therefore weakening it and causing him to lose his grip. And so there's my first win (and so much for not having to explain arnis terminology).

My second match was in the afternoon. I was up against another guy from Warriors (the guy from the first match who was mentioned earlier). I was rather confident I could win against him because of a few things: His play wasn't that good but he won by default against PUP (although it was obvious that the PUP player was better) because the PUP Coach decided to withdraw from the competition because of some Administrative issues. in detail, PUP refused to have their team sign the waivers (those things you have to sign saying you'll abide by the competition's rules and be responsible -not the organizers- for your own misactions ) because well... they just didn't want to. Said they only signed waivers for National competitions (kasi low-caliber tourney lang yung samin). Personally, I think it was their Dean (lols. kasama pa talaga yung dean) who made an issue about the waivers. She was complaining (parang anlaki ng problema niya) about the tourney not starting on time.

Anyway, I stuck to my old game and won my second match 3-0, but not without a few complications (the guy seemed determined to make up for his default win). At the beginning of the match I decided not to wear the handguards (I only had the armguards on) because I thought it would only hinder me (since I knew I was already at say.. half my maximum stamina. two minutes may seem like such a short time but when your wearing armor inside a ring fighting a match, 2 minutes is like an eternity). As a result, my right hand got well... let's just say it got kind of bruised and uhh.. skinned more than I had expected. It would later prove to be my undoing on the third match. Not wearing the handguards was a bad call (I should've listened to Kuya [Xian, my older brother]).

And so... and masaklap na laban. At around this time Louis, Cherrie, and Celsus (and I think si Ate [my older sister] nakarating na rin) already came to see the tournament (langya Louis! ngayon pa kayo dumating kung kelan matatalo na ko). My right hand, already covered with Band-aids and was still shaking a bit uncontrollably. I wore complete armor for that match (handguard+armguard) and proceeded to the arena, it was the fight for bronze and I absolutely could NOT lose even if I was up against an AFP player.

When I picked up my arnis stick, I realized there was something wrong with my grip and that the handguard was keeping me from holding the stick at the right angle. The coach gave the laban! signal and after a few seconds of planning and hesitation we were already at each other with a flurry of strikes and blocks. The clash ended with me blocking a diagonal strike which sent my stick flying to the right. I took off the handguards right away while the referee was signalling for my penalty, I can't afford the handguard messing things up any further. I lost the 1st round (a disarm is -5 points for me). I was desperate during the second round, so I added a few variations to my game (horizontal strikes to the torso to negate my opponent's superior overhead strikes... a reverse payong segida [sidestep] to the left to go for a spada serrada [but was unsuccessful kasi no stamina = no speed]. even tried a few disarming techniques here and there but his hand was hard to catch). My efforts paid off though because I won the second round. The third round was funny because my opponent asked me out loud, "Pagod ka na ba?! ako pagod na ko!" to which I replied, "..Sobra! pagod na rin ako." (add the occasional *huff* *huff* here and there). By the third round both of us were already moving slow, our stances hunched, and breathing heavily. We finished with one last flurry of strikes before the referee called hinto. The results for the last round was 28-30, in favor of AFP. I could have won with three more good strikes. With two good hits, I could have pushed it to sudden death.

After that I left the tournament early with Kuya and Ate (paguwi namin sinermonan ako ni mama tungkol sa pagpapalit ng sport). I was told that Gel (Angel) won silver on her division anfd Ate Juzie winning bronze. All the rest of the medals were hoarded by AFP (ang dami nila e!).

So there.
Oh well, next time na lang ulit.
[EDIT: wow.... ang haba pala nung post]

Monday, July 18, 2005

[upakan 2005]

UPakan 2005, which is the Angkan ng Mandirigma's (team namin) Arnis Tournament Invitational, is already on Sunday. After months of fund raising (postponing, rescheduling), UPakan Arnis Invitational 2005 is finally GO.

I'd expect the whole week to be dedicated to endurance and sparring training. (Actually galing nga lang ako sa training at sobrang sakit ng katawan ko. cryo-freeze nanaman ako ngayong gabi).

It's on July 24, Sunday. Baker Hall UPLB. the matches will start at 9am.

Invited Teams:
University of Asia and the Pacific
Philippine Polytechnic University
Philippine Air Force
UP Diliman
the Nagcarlan Team
and a... a bunch of other teams I forgot what their names are.

SA LAHAT NG PWEDE SA SUNDAY, NOOD KAYO :D
(para makapag-pasikat naman daw ako. hehehe)


Sunday, July 17, 2005

[murphed. again]

Ok, how do I go about this...

While I was fixing a few things with my blog (Louis! this is all your fault! arg... bakit mo pa ko pina-ayos ng template! ..you owe me MORE now! ... joke lang) ...I saved the template while net connection was slow and ..unpredictable. I don't really know what happened but after the connection went back to normal when I previewed my blog... a whole LOT of things weren't showing up. So I logged in and checked my template.. a HUGE part of the source code just... poofed. I tried to recover the lost section of the code but there really was no way. Tried searching for backups of my blog's html code as well but sadly... masyado nang malayo dun sa natapos ko.

So yun... All that work... disappeared just like that... I feel like a part of me just died or something.. fuck. I feel... murphed. Again.

Well, the blog looks cleaner and nicer and more... normal now but still... Ah, what the hell. I'll just make another one. It'll be better, COOLER, and with more sections now (already planning to add a special section for the artworks and comics). The current Blogger template is temporary. I guess.. what just happened must be a sign for me to upgrade my blog and ...build things anew and stuff. For now, settle with this.

...

I just got reminded.. of the many things that have been going downhill lately....

Friday, July 15, 2005

[a feast for crows]

George R. R. Martin's 4th book for A Song of Ice and Fire. Was searching for random things on eMule ...maya-maya bigla ko naalala Ice and Fire so I made a search and poof ... on top of the search list was an e-book of A Feast for Crows. I am happy now.

[EDIT] shit. I was ripped. It wasn't a Feast for Crows. It was a Game of Thrones. yung filename lang yung a Feast for Crows. shit.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

[song of the week]

Winamp was playing songs in random and then it happened upon this song. It was strangely familiar. I know I've heard of this song from The Sundays before I just can't remember where or when. Anyway, it relieved me of all my stress. Posted it here for no particular reason... just felt like it. Googled the lyrics, beautiful lyrics. real poetry. I think from now on I'll post a "theme song for the week" or a "featured song for the week" along with the week's pencilsword comic strip (yeah, I'm planning on posting a comic strip every week). Hmm... finding more uses for this blog..

When I'm Thinking About You - The Sundays

Over the rooftops a plane in the sky
Beat of a bass drum cars passing me by
Under a bridge dark then back into light
A river of raincoats and a forest of faces
Still for a moment then red into green
Slow shuffling shoes whisper sight unseen
Row upon row of houses return an empty stare
Let the daydream for a little while longer

Ah.. yeah...
Hope I’ll never wake
When I’m thinking about you
(yeah) hope I’ll never wake
'Cos now I’m thinking about you

Two-minute hailstorm then melts into rain
(oh) sing me a rainbow it’s sunny again
Swallows overhead while the traffic snarls below
Could I (could I) keep dreaming for a little while longer

Hope I’ll never wake
When I’m thinking about you
So that you know - I never want to wake
'Cos now I’m thinking about you

When you’re searching your soul
When you’re searching for pleasure
How often, pain is all you find
But when you’re coasting along and nobody’s trying too hard
You can turn around and like where you are

(yeah and) I hope I never wake
When I’m thinking about you
And I close my eyes (dear)
Now I’ll never never wake
Why should I stop thinking about you

[my stand on the issue]

I don't want PGMA to resign not because I'm on her side or because I like what she's been doing to this country, I've never given her a single vote. I don't want her to resign because I think the alternative changes nothing. The alternative is only a short-term solution. It may even make things worse. The alternative is a Pandora's Box. The alternative means Susan Roces, or Loren Legarda or Noli fucking de Castro. Do these idiots have moral ascendacy over Arroyo?.

If we can't see a solution better than ousting a president by EDSA-Revolutionizing their asses everytime there's discontent then we're all just idiots who solve things by mobbing.

Monday, July 11, 2005

[you just got murphed] ver.2.0

Why this post is version 2.o will be explained later although you probably know why already.

Anyway, for those who don't know, Murphy's Law (or at least one of his laws) goes like this: "if anything can go wrong, it will."

This last weekend was possibly THE worst weekend I have ever experienced (possibly, of course). Simply put, almost everything I had planned for the weekend got murphed. Actually I don't really feel like writing anymore about this (expecially since I'm already writing this entry for the second time) but since I'm already doing so, what the hell.

To start things off, here are THE THINGS THAT WENT WRONG:
(in chronological order)

  1. Friday night: Finding out too late taht the deadline for submission of entries for the Neil Gaiman in Manila Art Competition was July 6. Was inspired to make an unusually worked-really-hard-on-this-one piece but after being informed of the deadline, inspiration suddenly died. Missed my chance. Sayang.
  2. Saturday: DOTA Tournament cancelled. Only four teams attended [team H5 (us), Area51 (the hosts), the Bombsite team, and some other team I can't remember who].., the rest chickened out. More than 7 teams said they'd join. Went to a cancelled tourney instead of going to the Gaiman book-signing (and getting a chance of actually getting numbered stubs.)
  3. Sunday: NOT GETTING ANYTHING SIGNED by Gaiman at Fuly-Booked Greenhills Promenade. Actually, NONE of us got our books signed. Felt really bad for Nicole and the others, they came all the way from Baguio, and were already in Manila since Saturday. I know he must've been really tired after signing books til past midnight Saturday night, I mean wel can understand that but... well it just .. sucks that I didn't get my Dreamhunters (hardbound... huhu) signed.
  4. the (pirated) Batman Begins and SinCity DVDs I got from Greenhills (through the new "shady dealings" system they now have with selling DVDs there at Greenhills) were pieces of crap I never should've bought against my better judgement. Lesson learned: DO NOT BUY PIRATED DVDs. from Greenhills. ever. Magdownload ka na lang ng DVD rip.
  5. I am now as poor as a pinoy rat. At lahat ng may utang sa akin ngayon malamang hindi magbabayad (that means you Louis).
  6. And finally, ang nagpakumpleto sa aking araw:


Para akong ginood-time ng the powers that be.
Pero ok lang, kahit maraming badtrip na nangyari at least may THINGS THAT DIDN'T GET MURPHED:
  1. Nothing went wrong with my live broadcasts. ...yun lang.
  2. So the DOTA tourney was cancelled, but we all played anyway. Fun-game lang. And even though we got owned it was still a good game. Now we have bragging rights for not being chickenshits.
  3. Got to see Kubi, Nicole, Zye, and Gil. I thought I wouldn't be able to see them since Saturday signing sila. Matagal ko rin sila hindi nakita.
  4. We watched Fantastic 4 instead and it wasn't bad. In fact it was actually better than I had expected (although Batman Begins is a whole LOT better).
  5. At siyempre, nakasalubong namin nina Brian at Berna si BAMBOO! And took some pictures :D Sulit na rin kahit papano yung pagpunta sa Greenhills. It's a fair exchange. eto pic (medyo mukha lang ako tanga sa pic):

left to right: Bamboo, Brian, Me at Greenhills Promenade.

Tuesday, July 05, 2005

[presidente]

Somebody please kill Noli de Castro before he becomes president.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

[back to normal]

... life, that is.
(nikki, pagaya ng style. just this once)

The speed of how life's pace changes amazes me.