3DS - Layton vs Wright

A couple of years back before the 3DS was released, stories were circulating about an upcoming game that would be made particularly for the new console -- Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright. Now, I was quite a fan of the Ace Attorney series, and a bit of a newbie in the Layton world having barely scraped the surface of the first game on the DS, but I enjoy myself a good puzzle.

It was a calling to get a new console and retire the old DS. This was on my wishlist last year that my parents had gotten for me, but it wasn't until 8 months after the localized version of the game was going to be released.

The story itself was a very unique one, which made it seem that the crossover was just as feasible given the nature of their work and gameplay. The incorporation of both aspects of the style that best suited the overall experience (ie. taking the easier travel method by AA, hint coins used for both the PL puzzles and AA cases). It was solid, and I daresay quite brilliant, and Shu Takumi-san has indeed outdone himself. I have no qualms of revisiting Labyrinthia to experience it a second and third time. :)

New iPod Nano 7th Gen

One of the longest standing gadgets I've had that saw the evolution of my phones was my trusty iPod Nano 4th Gen that I've had with me since 2009. It's 8GB memory gave me quite the restriction, and over time it was coming to a point when I had dropped it too many times to count that the cells on the screen were starting to die out. But if it still played my music, there wouldn't really be much to complain about.

But one of the few upgrades I had this year was to put him to rest. Ever since last year, it had been on my wishlist but I never really found the time to nag someone about it. But three months ago, Kai had finally convinced me to get something for myself. A new iPod.

"The least you could do is upgrade the poor thing."

Kai and I were strolling around SM Annex over at the North Edsa branch canvassing for phones, but as the day wore on, it was becoming a tad bit depressing that things were just really out of price ranges for the time being. I was almost going to get a new external hard drive for myself before Kai finally coaxed me to consider getting a new iPod.

We passed by the Power Mac Center and found one! Since I needed some flexible terms along with other things I needed to pay for, I decided to pay in installments instead.

And with double the memory that my previous iPod had, I'm not complaining!

Trello

I don't normally blog about anything work related, but this project management tool we've been using ever since we became PlayLab has been so intriguing and intuitive I decided to make a personal one for myself. Primarily I needed to keep track of several stuff I needed to do - whether it was remember what books I had yet to read, bills I needed to pay or movies I wanted to watch with my girlfriend - so Trello turned out to be a great tool to help me do all that!

I went crazy and made a number of boards for myself and my girlfriend Kai since we're busy little bees with all our little projects (ah writers and their free-flowing imaginations). Up until now I'm still the one who makes more use of it than she does, but it's coming to a point where I'm sure she's starting to see the usefulness that it has.

What it is basically is a board that allows you to create an infinite amount of lanes and cards. Each card you can assign to a particular lane that may refer to that general status of that card. Say for example we want to track a bill payment -- we create a card under a "To Do" lane, then move it to "In Progress" when we're doing that task, then to the "Done" lane when we're through. It's that simple! You can add due dates, checklists and attach files and pictures for your convenience as well, and change the background and add labels to make things easier. If you hate clutter you can always archive finished/unneeded cards and lanes to keep things tidy.

If that piqued your interest, try out Trello today!

Masterchef

Masterchef US Season 5

I don't think I made an attempt to actually make sure I watched all the episodes of a season of Masterchef until this one. Why? I'm not quite sure myself, but I would think Graham's incredible transformation may be one of the factors. Another would probably be the fast-tracked way they started the season compared to previous ones where they showcased the "audition" stages.

Season 5 began with 30 home cooks entering the Masterchef Kitchen. And in the first few minutes of cooking, I immediately handpicked some of this year's contestants that looked promising:

Christian, Elizabeth, Victoria, Jamie, Willie, Daniel and Leslie.

That said, while I had to hand it to Courtney, she just seemed so... Rachel Berry pre-season 4.

In the end, I decided to root for Leslie, even if he came off as a pain in the ass for most of the other contestants.

As the season progressed towards the Top 5, I saw a few of my favorites get sent home, and I think the Top 3 was just such bad luck for Leslie, who clearly had a shot at the Finale if he just got his white stuff right. At least that 7th Pressure Test got him a good record, and snowballed into my wanting Cheesecake more frequently now.

Anyway, by the Finale, I was definitely rooting for Elizabeth until the end. But things just didn't want to cooperate with her. So I'm pretty sure it can be deduced who eventually won this season.

Anino Playlab

I haven't really talked about work much, but if you've even been following me on my Instagram, you'd know that quite a few things have changed since the last time back in May. Well, I had to wait until August before I could freely mention it, and then the month just swept under the rug quite quickly.

Anyway, Anino Games was acquired by Pocket Playlab when July hit, and since then, our studio has been able to now focus on making something close to our own games. It was a good time for the company, mostly because it was a lot of new beginnings, and steering in a direction where a lot of change was expected. One of the biggest happy changes I personally felt was the expansion of the QA team, and my reinstatement as a lead QA rather than having to worry about the company's products and analytics as Product Manager.

While up until now this is still being worked on, I'm seeing potential for growth finally coming to fruition. I'm looking forward to the rest of 2014 career-wise! :)

Different Goals

Different Goals

Kuroshitsuji, Volume 18, Chapter 84, Page 18

(click on the image for the full image preview!)

I'm not quite sure how long this has been on hiatus, but I finally decided to finally put the finishing touches on coloring this manga page from Kuroshitsuji. Undertaker has always been one of the more interesting characters, and at this stage of the story, he just became more annoying and cool at the same time.

But I guess overall, the reason I chose this page had mostly to do with the tea.

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Remembering Robin Williams

As I look back after hearing (and confirming) the news of Robin Williams' passing, I came to realize that a lot of my childhood involved watching a comedic genius show off two sides to him. As a parting tribute to a great man, I wanted to list down some of my most memorable movies he's been in.

Patch Adams - Where kids learn that laughter can be one of the best medicine in the world.
I don't recall the first time I watched this, but this was definitely a true story told best by Robin Williams. I loved the message it portrayed - that you need to understand the patient, and that medicines and know-how aren't the only ways to cure them of their illnesses.  

Jack - Where we remember that "life is short", so make the most out of it. That you gotta make something spectacular happen with the life you're given.
There's something endearing about watching this movie - that you see how a boy who ages so quickly is still able to make friends because those friends don't think of him as a monster as other kids do - sort of how prejudice works in society today - the perspective from kids always gives you hope for the future.

Jumanji -  Where"A hunter from the deepest wild, makes you feel just like a child" refers to your Dad.
No actual learnings from what I recall, but this was just a staple movie title that always stuck with me whenever the discussion came to Robin.

Mrs. Doubtfire - Where we learn that parents can have fights and still be able to make up... without really needing to dress up like an old nanny.
This was just the most memorable comedy I've seen with Robin - I just have no words.

Aladdin - Where all the cosmic powers of the universe contained in a teeny tiny space can give you the best friend in the world.
It doesn't need to be said that this was one role (beside Happy Feet) where Robin Williams' star shone brightest - his impeccable performance as Genie from Disney's Aladdin - from his bubbly personality to his constant encouraging to just be yourself - inspired me to be me for the magic to happen.

Dead Poets Society - Where we learn to just "Seize the Day".
I remember first watching this in 6th grade. It gave me a better perspective into poetry and generally living my life; then again, you really do get a better perspective of things if you're looking at them from a different angle, just like standing on top of a desk would provide you.

Hook - Where we realize that we're all kids at heart; we just have to find it in ourselves.
This was one of the reasons why Peter Pan still remains my favorite Disney story - because you can make Peter grow up, but ultimately still find himself. What made it doubly special is when Robin Williams played this role beautifully.

He will sorely be missed, but hats off to a legend.
RIP Robin Williams.

Presence

The second of the relationship points.

PRESENCE

The more exciting part of the relationship is the physical presence of one another. And I'm not even going into the intimate touchy-feely aspect. Going out and spending the day together, and for some sharing the bed and sleeping together, is one of he best feelings in the world because you get to see each other and know more about one another in the process.

Your countless dates will show you your partner's likes and dislikes, and not to mention their stamina with long walks. Your sleepovers will open your eyes to your partner's nightly habits (if any), and it will help you adjust in the long run for when you settle down. You will definitely find more and more reasons to love your partner for the time you spend together, but day after day after day? You'll begin to want some time to yourself.

And that's perfectly okay. Give each other space in between too to do what they want to do. That way you can both come back together with heaps of stories to tell each other. Love the time you spend together, and treasure it!

Kamen Rider Gaim

The current ongoing Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Gaim, is comprised of multiple riders, which seems to be playing out fairly well for themselves thus far. While I haven't been following the past few series faithfully (though I made sure to watch Fourze in its entirety and followed most of Wizard save for the last episodes), this is one I made sure to keep updated on, and that's not just because of familiar actors (Kubota Yuki, Aoki Tsunemori and Kobayashi Yutaka are Tenimyu actors).

Part of the reason why I decided to see this through (I even watched my backlogged episodes to catch up before I got left in the dust by the series) was primarily just because of the concept. I know this isn't the first time there were multiple riders for the series, but their play on it was interesting, and add to the fact that you have a diverse cast with different personalities and ideals make it even richer.

I look forward to how this story ends!

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Communication

Being in a relationship teaches you a lot of things. Not every relationship starts out the same way, nor does it have a template that guarantees success and longevity. Relationships will never have an expiration date because love is crazy and unpredictable. Each relationship is unique, but at its core some things remain constant. Over the next few posts, I want to talk about some of those constants, and my own take of what it's all about.

COMMUNICATION

Words are powerful. They can make you feel flattered or insulted, and therefore quite often misunderstood. Whether it is exchanged verbally (face-to-face, over-the-phone) or written, the intended tone will have varied ways of being interpreted, almost too often the wrong one. Actual verbal communications have a higher tendency of getting points across as opposed to written communication through text messaging, chat and email, simply because you actually hear the tone of the message.

Never put stock in written exchanges because chances are, you might just find yourself hurt, setting and prematurely lashing out. Every couple would have their own technique of "reading the mood" when it comes to communicating through non-verbal means, just to be sure they avoid jumping to conclusions. Admittedly, my girlfriend and I tend to have loads of misunderstandings whenever we chat over text, Viber or LINE, so you can imagine the squabbles we go through before we patch things back up again. How does it get resolved? Verbal communications.

It's also common knowledge that everyone has their imperfections and sense of brokenness. That truth extends to both parties in any relationship. If your day was shitty, don't ever expect your partner's day to be all sunshine, lollipops and rainbows because chances are, their day may have been just as shitty or even worse off. Be considerate and know your cues. If your partner comes off as being too irritated in spite of your attempts to lighten the mood, don't convert it into a reason to be pissed at them. Allow them to explain themselves first before you pass judgement.

Oftentimes this is exactly what kickstarts an argument; being close-minded to the point that you'll deny any excuse they give, even if that was really the case. It evolves into pointing fingers, ultimately making the other feel guilty that one feels compelled to apologize, even if they weren't at fault.

In summary, communication is one of the vital aspects of any relationship. Never close yourself from your partner if you can, as that would be the best way you can understand and learn more about each other.

Review: X-Men Days of Future Past

I have always been a fan of the X-Men movie franchise, and this was by far the best of the lot. I'm not saying it just because it combines elements of the trilogy that started it all and what was intended to become a prequel of sorts to the whole thing. Rather, it emphasizes on the probable impacts of time travel (one of my favorite storytelling devices), and that the future is never set in stone if you can do anything about it.

As we're still in the phases of opening weekend, I won't want to give too much away, save perhaps this one quip that only people who've watched the film already will understand completely:

X-Men: The Last Stand never happened. This is what it should have been.

Marvel comics, by-and-by, hardly make any chronological sense with mutant superpowers. Bending reality - time and space included - only serves to their purpose that things can go in any direction possible. And I like those twists and turns as a fellow pseudo-established fiction writer myself. You take Logan who's been through each of the films either center stage or cameo and put him in a situation to alter the desolate future ahead, then you know the task won't be a walk in the park. A guy with anger issues despite being their only hope wouldn't be your best candidate after all.

But what the movie does capture is that you somehow see the richness and diversity in the characters themselves, especially now when you have younger versions of Professor Xavier and Magneto who were much more (or less) different than their older, wiser selves. The dynamics was interesting to watch, and the overall outcome, rewarding.

Though the film itself doesn't give a complete closure on everyone, it does give you the closure you felt unresolved by the end of The Last Stand. At the same time, it opens up a world of possibilities moving forward, which I think is something to look forward to.

Ambidexterity Progress

5/22/14

Time for another quick writing exercise! I did say I wanted to be able to become ambidextrous, and I found out earlier today that I have better aim gripping a gun with my right hand. I tried it for kicks with one of the Nerf guns at the office. We drew a target on one of the whiteboards. I rarely hit the bullseye with my left, but after switching to my right, it was a bullseye off the bat! A few shots later I found myself getting into the swing of things. This will be something I can improve on!

QA Three 2.0

Back in December 2012, I blogged about "version 1" of the QA Three (found here). Just over a year and a half later, I would be bidding farewell to yet another formed triumvirate that filled the void since the start of 2013.

When Jamie left, Tristan and I didn't stay a duo for long, since Boom had joined (or rather re-joined) our ranks. While the feeling wasn't quite the same, it helped filled the void. But we took another blow when Tristan had left, so that left Boom and I shorthanded again. Towards the middle of the year I made updates to the QA skills test and accommodated Maxine, an intern who stayed with us through the course of May.

The following month, I had made perhaps the best decision of endorsing Jed for initial interview even after failing the skills test. Why did I do that? He impressed me, plain and simple. And to everyone's surprise, he passed! And so another triumvirate was established. We kept it tight throughout the rest of the year. In the final quarter of 2013, I assumed the leadership position after JD transitioned to business development status.

Come 2014, we opened our doors to interested interns and since I was handling the recruitment of them and doing the interviews, we took in two so far - Issa and JM. And they've been doing the best of jobs in helping out our little portable bunch.

As they say though, these things don't last forever. Earlier during the year, Boom had said that he had plans of resigning to look for better opportunities. His last day was yesterday, so that meant our trio would be trimmed down yet again. I've been grateful to him and Jed for the hard work they put in, and I'm going to miss him. But I know that the memories we've shared together will always be with us. So here's a cheers to Boom on his new adventure, and I'm looking forward to seeing how my team develops this time around!

2 Years in Retrospect

May 2, 2012.

This was the pivotal date in which I had begun working for the local game developer Anino Games. I returned after enjoying my internship period a year before (April-June 2011), and I must say that it's been a hell of a ride since then.

I spent the first year and a half of my stint doing the same thing I did back in the days of my internship - test games and test them well. I'm grateful that the hardwork I expended resulted in positive results, which began my long overdue ascent up the career ladder. The climb came at a faster pace approaching the 2nd year mark. I had been promoted thrice to get to the peak of my department, and had gained more responsibility that stretched above and beyond what was expected.

This challenge gave me a sense of thrill to delve into the unknown, but it was a very welcome opportunity to grow and learn. The industry itself has always fascinated me, and I am forever grateful for being able to be part of it and have met such awesome people.

And considering my salary doubled since I first started... I guess I'm doing a hell of a good job to get this recognition. Here's to hopefully more years helping to steer the company in the right direction!

DIY Screwdrivers

(Finally, a decent blog post!)

AHEM.

As far back as I could remember, I've always enjoyed the thought of playing with tools and using them for one thing or another. A lot of the time I enjoyed being the one to use the screwdrivers to change the batteries of toys and radios and stuff, and even looked forward to help my Dad set up his tool board in his little "Batcave" workshop.

Just a few minutes ago, I came home from work (alone) to our maid expressing her concern that my brother's door was somehow locked and couldn't be opened. She pointed out the keys to all the rooms in the house, most of which were attached to nostalgic key tags from the company where my Dad works. Most had markers labeling what key went where, and she mentioned that the one that was supposedly for my brother's room wasn't working. After sifting through the keys, I noted that it must have been ages since they were labeled, and so assumed that rooms belonged to different people.

I took two keys up with me to check on the situation - the one that was labeled as my brother's room, and one that was labeled simply as "Boy's Room". My room was actually my brother's a few years back, so I nonchalantly checked it. Lo and behold, it worked, so that mean the second key was the culprit.

When I went to check on the lock, however, turning it I noticed that it showed no signs of it being locked, but tried the key anyway. It fit like a glove but it still wouldn't budge. Eventually, I saw that it was a bit off its center when I saw the mechanism inside. After a bit of fiddling, I spotted the problem - the knob got unhinged from the latch, hence the seemingly locked door. And so I busted out the screwdriver (I thank my Grampa everyday whenever I use my barrel of screwdrivers) and started shimmying things around. It took a while 'cause pulling back on the latch turned out to be more difficult than I envisioned it to be. But thanks to a little perseverance, I finally got it to open!

These are the times I wished my Sonic Screwdriver worked. But hey, at least the actual counterpart of it did the trick!

Devices and Job Promotions

Last Valentine's Day, my Dad surprised my Mom with a nifty new gadget - a new iPad Mini. He gave her an iPad 2 a couple of years back, and she was hinting at wanting something smaller. That being said, it left the iPad 2 in some neglect, when I nonchalantly quipped what she would do with it.

Of course I didn't expect much. After all, I never hinted at wanting one, though it has been on my wishlist to get myself my own device. But one Sunday morning when I was feeling ill they asked if I wanted to have it. Despite my illness I nodded a yes. Of course, that meant having to transfer out my Mom's amassed photo gallery before I could reformat it but I'm grateful to have a little tablet to play with.

Nowadays I'm finding it to be a nifty companion to help me play games FOR RESEARCH. I never thought I'd see the day really. Our focus on games gears towards mobile devices, particularly iOS and Android devices. Since my iPod Touch got snatched, I never had a personal device to take home and destroy play the build with when it came to the iOS platform. So this was ultimately a pleasant surprise. That and playing other games to find trends and monetization models that work - yes that's part of my job description now too.

Just last month, I (officially) took on a new role as Quality and Community Manager, which included much of the responsibilities I mentioned in this post two months back. Sometime soon I'll be getting more work and possibly a new title too, meaning better compensation! Just as long as I don't royally screw things up, I'm good.

Duolingo

As usual, my lack of activity on this blog is a testament to how lazy I've been logging on here to write up something small to make the past few days something to look back on. It's been nearly a month since my last post, and I don't want to continue the year having to check back on this every month cause that destroys the purpose of having a blog to begin with, wouldn't you agree?

So I actually had two topics of discussion, but I can save the other one for another time. I don't want my blog to be all about work anyway. That's what LinkedIn is for after all.

Today I wanted to talk about my latest venture - learning a new language! This had been something I discovered a while back, but never really took into consideration until fairly recently. Duolingo is an application or website where you can learn a new language, gamified! At present, it offers courses in Spanish, French, Italian, German and Portuguese. This basically puts my self-study of Japanese on hold, but it its always neat learning a new language!

I decided to start learning French, and while I'm still starting out with the basics, it's fun and simple to learn! So if you're interested in learning languages the fun way, try it out! Get it on Google Play, or play it online!

Humility

Before the gist of everything is gone forever, I wanted to chronicle one of the better sermons I've heard during mass. Yesterday, I went to our subdivision's 8:30am mass that promptly started at around 10 minutes to 9am. The Mass celebrant, surprisingly, was the Parish Priest, Fr. Mhadz Lucero. I personally enjoy his homilies because he always has a fun story and an interesting twist to his sermons.

Unfortunately, the story didn't sit too well with me as much as the sermon that followed. And I really wanted to share it here because well, it applies.So the basic idea was this: "Love your enemies, and pray for your persecutor." It's a funny thing especially in our Philippine society because it's a little inconceivable. The reason it's so difficult to offer love towards your enemies is because of our individual pride. This, he said, was the root of five other sins that our heart sowed. This is what prevents us from loving; from becoming humble.

H - Hatred 
E - Envy
A - Anger
R - Resentment
T - Timidity

Everyone is prone to these sins. Sometimes we express anger and hatred towards others; towards friends, superiors, bosses and what not. We grow envious of others' circumstances. We often keep tabs on other people's allegations towards us that it damages our relationships. And we are just scared of admitting or taking the extra step for fear of failure.

Father Mhadz gave an interesting metaphor to how people should be more humble. He used rice crops would you believe! There are two types of rice crops: those that stood tall and those that were bent over. As you could imagine, those that stood tall represented the proud people, and the ones bent over represented those who were humble. In this analogy, he likened the proud rice crops to be "empty" per se, while those bent over were those that "bore fruit" as it were.

Love is humility, and humility is love. We all need a little more love in the world. And it really is difficult to forgive. But when we become humble, we learn to forgive and forget.

Caught up with Work

The past few weeks have been hectic, or maybe even then it would be a crude understatement. As of late, I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and come up with a decent blog entry. So now that a weekend has come, I thought I'd take some time to come up with something, at least to get things back in order.

So much of the reason why things have been hectic lately has much to do with work. It's only been two months into the new year, and I find myself swamped with quite a number of responsibilities. Nothing new, but a bit of a comforting feeling to know that they find me a valuable asset to the company.

At present, I'm juggling quite a bit on my plate, having to take on multiple roles, sometimes all at once that I'm not sure if I'll burn myself out. I still do QA for a small project or two, have director tasks, internally produce/manage an ongoing project (go play it! just search Manila Rush on the Play Store and App Store)  and manage a beta community forum to boot (hence me reviving a bit of forum moderation experience I racked up back in 2004-2008). It'll be a miracle to find time to squeeze all the things I need to do for each role in 8 hours a day for a week. Not to mention all the other things I have to attend to aside from all that.

When I started out in the company, I always wonders what people in the managerial level do. Now that I'm so immersed in it, I sometimes wished it was a bit easier. To balance everything out, I just tell myself: "Hey, you're the youngest director around here. They wouldn't give you these tasks if they didn't think you could handle it. Your performance has been great, so keep at it! Yudan sezu ni ikou (Let's go and not get careless)!" A mouthful and not exactly verbatim every single time, but it helps keep me motivated. :)

These succeeding weeks will be a challenge, but a welcome one (I think). It'll be an uphill battle, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will be for the better.

Planning Session

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended my first management planning with the top guns of the company (letting it settle in quite nicely that I'm very much in the director role) as we collaboratively discussed what the best plan of actions would be moving forward for 2014.

Not that I'm allowed to divulge anything from that session, so I'll just talk about the vague details of that trip. Our destination was in Rosario, Batangas, the location of a farm owned by the family of our CEO. It was a massive space and was a 3-hour drive from Makati. Upon our arrival, the place was gorgeous. The air was clean, there were dogs, chickens and some deer or two, and not to mention a big spacious living area where we held our round-table discussions.

All in all as we identified the issues, attempted to find their root causes and come up with solutions, we did indeed have some fun here and there. Sadly though, we weren't able to play Star Trek Catan since we were behind schedule. Maybe next time.

In any case, having been part of that made me appreciate that the group was firm in the goals we wanted to reach, and everyone was imparting suggestions to help each and every department grow, which I think is a great takeaway from all this.

Looking forward to the year ahead for our company.

January TV Series

Some returning titles this month after a long hiatus!

BBC's Sherlock season 3

The first two episodes of Sherlock aired last January 1 and 5, and it's been nothing short of spectacular! I love the twists, the drama and the wit it's managed to bring this time around. I can't wait for episode 3 this coming Sunday! And did I mention Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman are just so pairable?

To commemorate, I decided to continue a drabble I made for Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman before, which I posted on my Ao3 account. [Implications]

ABC's Castle season 6 continuation.

Castle came back from hiatus last Monday with the 11th episode of their sixth season, and boy did it come back with a punch! It's pretty amazing how 6 seasons in, this series is still going strong, and I can never get tired of taking time out to watch it because crime dramas are always so cool. But if you put in the factor of the casting, it just makes it much better.

I've got a couple of ideas in the works drawing inspiration from episode 11, and I hope to get more as the succeeding episodes air.

The 2014 Project

Everyone's got their goals for the year. Whether it be to save more money, lose (or gain) some weight, read more books, watch more movies/series or write more stories, everyone has their own little goals to set for themselves, and by the end of the year, they consider whether or not they've accomplished heaps or fell short of disappointing themselves for not pushing themselves harder.

As for me? Well, goals are good to have, but I want to look at things as a whole, so I'll just wrap it up neatly and consider it all part of one big project for the year. Not so much physical (but that's not to say everything will just be up in the air!), but I hope you get what I'm saying.

The end product of this project can be summarized like so: CARPE DIEM.

That's what I want for myself, and everything can just fall into place as all these little goals. Mine are jotted down below:

1. Save more. Granted, I'm in a position where I love my job and get paid for doing it, which doesn't happen to most people. But if I splurge too haphazardly I won't be able to set aside anything for myself. So to remedy that situation, I decided to come up with a little saving scheme for myself (which eventually blossomed into adapting the 52-Week Money Challenge) on top of the 50-30-20 rule of thumb that I plan to invoke this 2014. 
• Last year, I made it a habit to always deposit a set amount when every payday comes along. But I always end up needing to withdraw a small portion of what I deposit shortly afterwards, and that's something I hope not to make a repeat with this time around. 
• As for personal goals, I want to have a goal to focus on with all these saving up. What do I want for myself anyway?
• A space to live in with Kai (one that gives an easier access to work prominently). A studio or a 1-bedroom will suffice. (We joke how Kai is eager to Feng shui it once we do find a nice spot.) It's a nice statement to mean that we're not joking around and are actually taking all this seriously. We wanna be together, and that includes living under one roof eventually. So be nice 2014!
• An iPhone 5 (I've caught the iPhone bug. But I've decided I want to get my own instead of relying on our carrier services.)
2. Plan, plan, plan. Not that I'm against spontaneity, but as far as keeping to budgets are concerned, I want to be able to properly assign an amount to spend on and nothing more (but less is better!). That's why it's always great to invest in knowing when things happen,so you can allot an amount of your spending budget when necessary. Say an upcoming movie watching day, so time it accordingly. 
3. Commence Active Blogging. Much of the reason I made a blog was because I needed an outlet to chronicle the little things in my everyday life. Every day has a story, so I would definitely have something to blog about, especially if something incredibly interesting (or irritating) has just occurred. 
• The great thing about technology nowadays is that I can write something on paper and just snap a picture of it and post it on my blog to serve as my blog entry. And because I frequently carry my trusty Moleskine with me, I have no excuse but a lack of time to write it.
4. Lose weight. Admittedly, I'm a little overweight, according to my BMI. I'm heavier than I should be for my height, so I want to try and get into the ideal body type without sacrificing too much. We (Kai and I) always keep telling ourselves to go out and do some jogging or go to the gym, but we never actually did that once last year, so now is definitely the time to do just that. Her rubber shoes are still rather pristine here in my shoe cabinet as if to emphasize the point. 
5. Read and read some more. Since I asked for quite a few books last year, now is the best time to crack some open and get to reading. The number of my "to-read" list has increased, and will increase by 1 since I'm (still) patiently waiting for a hard bound copy of Deadly Heat to arrive at our book stores. That might be the catalyst that sparks my reading bug to return, but we'll see.
6. Learn something new. Kai said she'd teach me to play the guitar, so we're eyeing to get a nice little one to replace the one she lost in the flood back in 2009, and as a way of teaching me the bloody instrument I never bothered to learn (unlike my siblings who are quite good at it).
7. Get inspired to write. I do this sporadically throughout the years until now, and most of my inspiration comes from talking through scenarios with Kai. My little fanfictions will always be here when I find inspiration, so I just want to get more of that forever. But a bigger project is always more interesting. That's not to say we're not already brewing one at present, but that's for us to know and you to find out, yeah? ;)

So much luck to me this 2014! And when February arrives, more luck should come in as it'll be the Year of the Horse! :D

Sanada Genichirou

Sanada Genichirou

Shin Tenipuri, Volume 11, Chapter 108, Page 5

(click on the image for the full image preview!)

The funny thing about manga coloring is once you start on one thing, you want to go on and do another one or two before you put yourself on hiatus and find some inspiring page that makes you want to color it and start the cycle again. 

As I did mention at least once a month, I'm going over my personal quota hours after posting that entry with this second work to kick off the season. As it stand, I've already started scouting the manga for other scenes to color in, and this one was one of those pages that came up. 

This of course is Sanada Genichirou, vice-captain of Rikkai Dai Fuzoku. He was portrayed in the first season of Tenimyu by "Mr. Tenimyu" himself, Kanesaki Kentarou, which quickly became one solid reason as to why I chose this particular page. 

While I'm happily content finding inspiration in this one manga, I'll see if I can find any interesting pages to color in other mangas that I'm currently still reading. Hopefully the list will branch out as the year carries on.

Atobe Keigo

Atobe Keigo

Shin Tenipuri, Volume 2, Chapter 11, Pages 74-75

(click on the image for the full image preview!)

So I decided to start the year rekindling an old, nearly forgotten hobby. After all, I barely got anything done for the entire span of 2013, so I told myself to do something at least once a month to keep myself busy. Besides, doing these keep my dexterity, patience and aesthetic sense on its toes, and not to mention it works well as a stress reliever.

And because it's officially 2014, welcome the Year of the Horse (wait for Chinese New Year at the end of the month! That means it's my year! Here's to fountains worth of good fortune and prosperity. 

Why did I decide to color this particular spread from the early chapters of the Shin Tenipuri manga? A few reasons:

1. Kubota Yuki. Did you know he's part of the cast in the current season of Kamen Rider? And for those who aren't aware, he was the second actor who portrayed Atobe Keigo in the latter half of the first season of the musical. The best one among the bunch, I'd say.
2. Refer to #1.

That was pretty much my excuse really. xD I actually colored this with him in mind (hence the eye color being brown instead of gray). You can consider this a bit of a dedication to him.

Night!