Thursday, September 29, 2005

quizzies [nerd, geek or dork?]

Modern, Cool Nerd
65 % Nerd, 56% Geek, 21% Dork

For The Record:
A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn't use to be cool, but in the 90's that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn't quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and
geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and "geek is chic." The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

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Some shit to make me feel good about myself (honestly, I didn't expect this test to create a good result - I expected it to say something like "you were that geek back in high school that only knew how to talk about Gundams, minovsky particlesm, and beam sabers and shit")

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

[the house]


Damn thing scared the shit out of me. Astig. try niyo :D It's a flash site so have patience with the loading time, and make sure your speakers are at full volume. Oh, and turn the lights off for effect. :D

The HOUSE

Enjoy >:D

Friday, September 09, 2005

comic 002 [motto]

I'm still getting the hang of drawing the characters - still can't draw them consistently - so for now, ganito na lang. Still experimenting on colors and and other styles. Anyway.. everyone, meet Penny, Kali and Fisher :D The motto, by the way, was borrowed from Brian's usual Yahoo! Messenger online status. Naging contagious; ginamit na rin ni Ken, ni Gelo, tapos ngayon naman ako na rin. Maganda kasi e. 'Di ba?

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

[but I don't wanna go to school...]

"Wake Me Up When September Ends"

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends

like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

Sunday, September 04, 2005

[where it all started]

I've just finished reading all six volumes of the Akira manga and well, it's made me love Akira all over again. Like the first time I saw the movie, it has once again left me breathless, slightly euphoric, my spine tingling, and my mind full of scientific and philosophical waves of thought that's almost impossible to contain. I just finished the complete Akira experience and I feel like a geek who's ready to die now.

About the manga: There's not much to say except that this is absolutely THE best manga I have ever read. Dark Horse comics did a great job at translating the script and Katsuhiro Otomo's storytelling and art (damn his inking! it's not human) is just.. WOW. If I had the money and the means I'd buy all six volumes and read it all over again. That aside.. if you're a guy who saw the movie first before you even thought of the manga, the first thing you'll notice is that so much of the original story was left out in the movie. The movie's story is only a condensed version of mostly volumes 1 and 2 of the manga - that's almost four volumes of story lost. In the manga, Tetsuo and the others weren't the only psychics in the story, Kei had a bigger part as a psychic medium and Lady Miyako wasn't just some religious fanatic - in fact, she's one of the most influential characters in the story. And the biggest difference, I think, is that in the manga Akira isn't just bits and pieces of human anatomy, Akira is an actual boy.

Changes like this aren't really surprising since this always happens in manga-to-anime translations, stories in paper have to be condensed to fit the new medium. It's just that you can't help but feel that so much of the original story was taken away. It's almost as if the animated movie didn't do the real story justice (well.. almost, since the Akira movie is still a masterpiece).

Now that I think about it, if there's one anime title I can say that truly influenced my life, it would be Akira (other than say, Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, or Ghost in the Shell). I saw the movie for the first time in our old Betamax player and I remember the images of those huge creepy stuffed toys giving me nightmares when I was a kid - I wasn't old enough to understand the story. When I got older, I saw the movie again in WOWOW and was finally able to understand the story (a bit). It was an Anniversary Special or something like that, I think, and since Akira was produced in 1988, I probably saw the movie in 1998. My older brother also had a few Akira collectible cards - Although it was my older brother who really introduced me into all these things, Akira is still one of the biggest catalysts in my "artistic mutation".

All the art and imagery from the movie, the quality of animation, the creepy music, the powerbikes!, the stomach-churning violence, so much destruction, the drama, philosophy, that unique disturbing effect, everything, had such a great impact on me that it's what made me seriously want to draw - and seriously consider drawing as a future profession. If I remember right, this is where I started to draw lots of highly detailed post-apocalyptic art (people wearing shredded clothes, destroyed buildings, rubble, etc). I think This is also about the same time I started to become an anime fan.

Akira was the start of it all, I guess. It's one of the most influential if not THE most influential anime movies of all time, it inspired me to draw and I'm proud to be part of the generation of artists that have been influenced by Katsuhiro Otomo's work.

Special thanks to Ais for downloading all six volumes of Akira through Flashget and The Saint (whoever it was) who undid the binding, scanned and violated his Akira graphic novels for the good of the people who can't buy the manga and "digital preservation". We shall all remember your sacrifice.

Saturday, September 03, 2005

[tekken 5: dark resurrection]

Got the news from Nikki's blog that there's gonna be a new Tekken 5 expansion coming. It'll be out late this year in arcades and unlike Tekken 5.1, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection features more than just tweaks on character balance but more stages, more items and two new characters! (Lili and Dragunov). click here for more details.

Makes me want to play Tekken again.

It's been a (long~) while since I've last played. When go back to Baguio, I won't be surprised if Marck and the guys will own my ass in the game, sure I can probably pull-off a few classic (or should I say old and overused) muscle-memoried combos here and there and maybe a few Electric Godfists but I can't possibly compare to their experience anymore. I feel kinda sad since I used to be the "king" of Tekken in our small circle of friends back in the days of Tekken3 - when I was the only one who knew what an electric godfist was and how to "counter" and "chicken". I remember it was always me and Noel fighting it out for the top-spot sa barkada and it was always me who had the last laugh (it was a friendly sort of rivalry pero naging personalan din). It's like I've totally abandoned the mantle.

These days when I play against my friends there's just so much that I don't know about anymore it's embarassing. I'm stuck with only knowing how to play two Mishimas (Kazuya and Jin), Asuka and Xiaoyu (whose movelist has already changed so much I don't know what to do with her anymore) while the other guys know how to play almost every character in the list. Marck, who I always used to kind of bully back then, easily kicks my ass with characters like Roger. Garry, who used to be the "underdog" is now waaay~ above me in terms of skill and knowledge of different characters and combos. Noel simply laughs at me now (but then again he's always been like that when we play - even when he's losing). Neal just annoys you with shameless turtling and practical combos with almost no style at all - it's painful to see yourself losing to his play-style. And David.. well, I guess he's the only other kabarkada I know who shares my pain of being left behind.

Why all this fuss for a game? well.. these days, when I play Tekken with the guys it's not about winning or losing anymore. I just play for old time's sake. Of course there's still that goal of winning, a player's competitive spirit, it's just that with me it's a big deal not because I have to prove I'm still number one but because Tekken has always been something we do on the few occasions that we get together. Parang inuman session. Tekken is one of the first "glues" that made us stick with each other, I just want to be able to keep up with them. It's just one of those games that I can never really abandon.

Now I really want to play again.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

[back to utada]

Got the piano-only versions of her 2nd album songs and It just made my day. the entire collection is beautiful. Utada classics like "Wait and See", "Addicted to You" and "Kettobase!" are all translated perfectly into piano, with a few added twists and melodies here and there. All I can say is, Utada Hikaru has to play the piano more. Next to the MTV Unplugged collection, this is now my favorite.

(and I just had to upload this pic of her. the blog needs pictures. puro text ang laman e. what's better than Utada pics? :D)

update [pencilswordfish ver4.0]

Couldn't help it. The last blog layout lacked a certain something (don't know what) that's why I decided to ditch it. This new layout, on the other hand, has more color, more compact and well.. just looks better. I think I'll finally settle with this one. I am yet to work on the banner though. I'm have to relocate the scanner first before I can work on the new banner. In the meantime, ganito na muna.

Now that I'm finished with all this sidetracking (sobrang warm-up na to), I think it's time for me to REALLY go back to my REAL work. I'll be failing a lot of people if I don't pull off this uh.. late sem comeback. Time to get serious.