Alan Rickman

January 14, 2016 will forever mark a sad day. It marks the day when the world lost a great man, a thespian, an actor by the name of Alan Rickman.

Like many fans, I grieved the passing of this incredible man. After all, a lot of the movie titles I watched these past few years were ones I deliberately sought out, all because he was in it, one way or another.

It began with the Harry Potter series. The book series was still well underway when the films began to come out, so it helped shift a lot of my respect and love for the characters more, especially as the last of the books were shipped out. By the time Deathly Hallows was released and I came to the latter part of the book to find out that Snape would die, I dreaded how it would come out on screen. And with each time I died a little inside.

Since then I took interest in seeing his other works, and before I knew it, the list just kept piling up. Of his large film repertoire, here's the list of movies I've seen him in:

1. Die Hard as Hans Gruber (1988)
2. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as the Sheriff of Nottingham (1991)
3. Sense and Sensibility as Colonel Brandon (1995) 
4. Galaxy Quest as Alexander Dane (1999)
5. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as Severus Snape(2001)
6. The Search for John Gissing as John Gissing (2001)
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Severus Snape (2002) 
8. Love Actually as Harry (2003)
9. Something the Lord Made as Dr. Alfred Blalock (HBO TV Movie) (2004)
10. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as Severus Snape (2004)
11. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Marvin (voice) (2005)
12. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Severus Snape (2005)
13. Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as Richis (2006)
14. Nobel Son as Eli Michaelson (2007)
15. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Severus Snape (2007)
16. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Judge Turpin (2007)
17. Bottle Shock as Steven Spurrier (2008)
18. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as Severus Snape (2009)
19. Alice in Wonderland as the Blue Caterpillar (voice) (2010)
20. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 as Severus Snape (2010)
21. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Severus Snape (2011)
22. Gambit as Shabandar (2012)
23. Lee Daniels' The Butler as Ronald Reagan (2013)

Without a doubt, Sir Alan will be missed by many. He touched many hearts young and old, including myself. Not enough words can express how thankful I am that he came into the radar of the film industry, for his talent would not shine any brighter than it did elsewhere. I've read that off-screen he was a very kind man, so I'm quite sure that those who personally knew him will miss him terribly.

RIP Alan Rickman. I raise my wand to the sky for you, in hopes that you find solace in the afterlife. Enjoy your coffee with 3 cubes of sugar and a half cup of milk, as I imagine you'd fancy it.

BIR Experience

I had two major issues during my struggle with BIR.

• My RDO code was 028, which pertained to my residential address as compared to my employer's address.
• My TIN's taxpayer type was listed under E.O. 98. Because I applied for a TIN to acquire a driver's license, I was listed as unemployed. When I began working 3 years after that, I was not able to update it with my company (and since I already had a TIN, we didn't think it needed any updating). 

This is what roughly happened during my FOUR trips to BIR offices just to file my Income Tax Return (ITR) or Form 1700 on time.

Trip 1 to RDO 028, West Avenue

During my trip to RDO 028, I filled out Form 1905 so I could do the following:

• Transfer my RDO from 028 to 047
• Change my taxpayer type

I explained the situation to the counter lady, and she just asked me to fill out the form so they could process it. Among the choices was "Change Tax Type". THIS IS NOT THE SAME.

Filling out a 1905 takes at least 5 working days for it to be processed.

Of course, I didn't learn this until our company HR attempted to submit it along with the other employees to RDO 047 a week after, but came back with the explanation that my TIN wasn't under any employer, so that had me attempting to call someone at RDO 047.

Among their many listed numbers, only 1-2 worked, and the rest was scarcely picked up or were telefaxes and were seldom answered. When someone answered, they told me to call a particular number. But upon mentioning to them that the number was always leading me nowhere, she decided to answer my query. She confirmed that my TIN was successfully transferred to RDO 047.

Trip 2 to RDO 047, Gil Puyat Ave

Now the problem was the taxpayer type. She told me to fill out a Form 1905 and submit it to Counter 4 (Tin Issuance). I filled 3 copies out and went to BIR the following morning (April 14) where I talked with the Officer of the Day (O.D.), who then explained to me that it was a Form 1902 that I needed to fill out.

I returned to my office and requested for one. Because BIR had downloadable forms available, we decided to grab those and I took a second jab back at BIR.

Trip 3 to RDO 047

When it was finally my turn at Counter 4, I was expressly told that it was an old copy and they wouldn't be accepting those anymore (the downloadable copies were circa 2008 as opposed to the 2014 physical forms handed out).

Now, the 1902 has a particular requirement -- an NSO-certified birth certificate. I went through the trouble of seeing if my mother already had one of mine, which she did but from 14 years ago. But after a call to the NSOHotline, I was assured that those had no expiration date, which lifted my spirits as well as the shave off some of the stress levels I had been feeling with all these issues.

So I was forced to take some 1902 forms back to the office, have it signed and return the next day, April 15 (deadline of filing taxes) one last time.

Trip 4 to RDO 047

While I was informed that I just needed to show my number from my prior visit, I decided to get new queue numbers to be fair to the others in line. When my number was called for Counter 4 once again, the same man who didn't accept my outdated 1902 accommodated me.

What I was grateful for at this point was that he knew my situation as I mentioned it to him yesterday and he personally updated my taxpayer type on another counter's computer after some debate that I still needed to fill out a Form 2305 (which tied me to a company basically). Nothing became of the xeroxed copy of the birth certificate I scavenged for, but with the 1902's stamped, I was prepped for submitting my ITR!

As was a tactic, I arrived at the RDO and requested for queue numbers for Tin Issuance and Collection, so by the time I finished with Counter 4, I waited for about another half hour to an hour for my number to be called before I successfully submitted my ITR.

---------------------------------------

Hopefully this helps anyone who may have gotten themselves in the same situation as me to make sure that you have the right taxpayer type. It's more hassle than it's worth to update, but government offices here seem to be keen on making things difficult for the masses.

Regular Status + APE

Talking about something semi-work related now, I had two things I wanted to talk about for this post.

1. JM's Regularization

JM first took internship with Anino Games back in May 2014. I vividly remember him being the only applicant to date who actually created a Test Plan for one of our games Manila Rush. While I was impressed with the gesture, I similarly questioned who would go through the trouble. A simple thought of 'He must really want this opportunity' crossed my mind, so I reviewed it after I confirmed that he had passed the Skills Test and set him up for Interview.

To me, everything felt awkward - he was older than me though he was taking an internship (a long story about his educational background that need not be said here), and this was the first time I was screening interns since I was already the lead of the department at the time. Nevertheless, I saw that he had potential so I gave him the go signal to work for our company.

After his internship finished, I was impressed with his work and urged him to come apply again when he was done with school. Come August, just at the time of the Playlab merge, he applied and entered the company. It was a hard 6 months from there, but I was glad to see him grow and tease him in-between. While he showed signs of emotional scarring due to the teasing (all in good nature of course), I encouraged him to push onward, and I'm happy he did. Now he's officially been regularized, and I look back and pat myself on the back a little for setting him on the same path as I once took 4 years ago.

2. 2015 Annual Physical Examination

Shifting topics, we always have this annual examination. What company doesn't right? I dread it for the reason that I get pricked with a needle, and I have a history of not taking that too well unless I eat something beforehand. Thankfully this didn't require fasting, and I didn't want to think about it all too much. Luckily, the person who took my blood this year had excellent light hands that left me with no bruise like I've experienced the past 2 years. The only odd thing though was since I had blood taken from me from my right arm, my blood pressure was similarly taken on the same arm. You could imagine my confusion and slight panic, but nothing bad happened anyway, so I guess that was a good sign.

Planning Sessions

In the 6 years we've been together, Kai and I filled our time with plenty of random discussions of the future -- what we'll be doing in the next x years, where we'll eventually live, when we plan to do one thing or another -- amidst all the everyday conversations of the TV shows we follow or the stories that we write. I've always felt that couples talking about the future together is usually a good sign -- that they're ready to take the next big step into their relationship.

Nowadays I don't find it the least bit embarrassing telling people that I have a girlfriend. It's a phase I've long since overcome and I'm quite settled with the idea that I want to spent forever with her. There's just this crazily deep understanding we have of each other that I love that might be misinterpreted by other people.

These past 6 years have never been the smoothest course. After all, we were two girls facing the world, and we sometimes get pretty paranoid with how the world might judge us. Whether it be family, friend or officemate, the whole idea of publicizing that we were dating has always been a touchy subject. It's only just recently that I (a bit more than we maybe) have just stop caring about how other people might think and just charge ahead. After all, we have that right just as everyone else does to plan our own future.

That being said, we're taking the first step by doing something we've been wanting to do for sometime now -- taking an out of the country trip together. Of course, this would have some very elaborate plan to pull off, but we're really just checking things off our list.

Earlier this week I chanced upon the Piso Fare from Cebu Pacific and booked our flights in November already, so now what's left is the hotel and any other itinerary we end up doing.

APT 2015

Happy 2015! 

2014 saw an all-time low of blog posts, but mainly because I rarely found the time or patience to do any recent blog entries. Hopefully this time will be better now that I have Trello reminding me of topics to write about~

The Annual Asuncion Texas Hold'em  Poker Tournament is probably the first highlight of my year, so this calls for an semi-immediate blog post to commemorate the occasion. Why? I've joined the family tournament since 2011 (4 years into the tradition), and I've been getting varied results of my placing. The closest I got to tasting sweet victory was back in 2013 when I placed 3rd. 

Tonight though, with fewer participants (there were just 10 of us), I joined the tournament sponsored by my Dad who paid for my (and my sister's) buy-in fee. And with a whole bit of luck, I won it all!

For winning 1st place, I got most of the grand pot, the neat Chip trophy provided by our cousin Troy, and a prize sponsored by last year's champion Matthew (who didn't participate this year due to his 3-time win over the past 7 years)! 

Me with 2014 Tournament winner Matthew

The prize turned out to be a beer tower (or a tower for any beverage actually)! It was fitting really, since my Dad loves beer, so since he sponsored me in the tournament, it goes to him! 

Me posing with the prizes. This was actually the third shot my Dad took of me since my Uncle Chris kept photobombing!

Overall, I think this was definitely a great way to kick off 2015. Last year saw some crazy ups and downs, but I'm keeping positive that things will definitely be bigger and brighter this year!!

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!

Phoenix Wright: Dual Destinies

The Ace Attorney series was always an interesting concept for me. And I had zero plans of taking up law to understand it better. But the thought of playing as a lawyer and doing some investigations to uncover the truth was pretty fantastic.

Now that I'm working in the game development industry, it puts things in a better perspective on how the game comes to be. Since this is mostly text-based, I can already picture the huge web that it has to pass through when a player selects a certain evidence or choice. One big mucho headache.

That being said, I sometimes plague my keen eyes for picking up on things I would usually ignore while playing. Or that's just the grammar Nazi embedded in me when I spot grammatical flaws in the English translations.

The latest game, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies is an eShop exclusive game (at least the localized English version anyway) that continues the story of Phoenix Wright and his return to the courtoom after the events of Apollo Justice. We see a slew of old characters that bring back just the right level of nostalgia, as well as a bunch of new ones to appreciate.

The universe created by Shu Takumi is where Kai and I enjoy writing stories in. And this latest installment could not contribute any better. Of the new bunch of characters, there is one I wanted to flesh out on and study for better development. His name? Prosecutor Simon Blackquill.

He's the Prosecutor for 4 and a half cases in the game, but what's so intriguing about him is his back story. I won't point it out here 'cause it'll spoil the plot, but all I will say is that he's definitely a character that needs a second look at. Plus there's plenty to go on beyond the courtroom.

Christmas

It's a few days past Christmas, and find myself inkling to do a quick post on some of the stuff I got and put them in a better light.

Let's start with this one! At the office, we still managed to have ourselves a simpler celebration of the season, and that included the Christmas Exchange Gift which was done through Elfster. So it was a simple matter of making our wishlists.

The one who drew my name (Lee), anonymously told me through the site that he couldn't find it, so I had to point him in the right direction to get the book I wanted. Happy to see that he found the 9th Doctor Who book, and even threw in a Lego figure of Loki. :) Thanks Lee! That was a little Christmas celebration well spent.

Next we have a little room improvement with my parents' gifts for both my birthday and Christmas. This actually started out when my mom and I cleaned out my closets together the day before my birthday. I voiced out that it was time to find another shelf to accommodate the books that I had in my room, and it was high time to replace the bedside table I had been using for the longest time.

So we sought out a nice compact shelf (the one on the left), with a plastic shoe rack shelf (not seen in the photo) and a new table lamp too. What followed sometime later was the garment stand for all my stray jackets and hats. Funnily enough, every time I come into the room, I jump thinking that its someone hiding in the shadows. I got to get used to that.

Finally we come our family Christmas Eve celebrations! Let's start things off from the top right and work our way around clockwise.

• Power Bank from my parents. It's funny how they can think up of the most opportune time to get us one of these! Since we often need to charge our phones while we're out, this will easily come in handy when there isn't an outlet in sight.
• Bench Socks from my Auntie Shiony. Quite the irony how I'm slowly shifting my undergarments in the direction of this brand. It's a definite sign!
• Boxes from my mom. I actually picked these out from Saizen when we were doing some last minute shopping earlier that day to help keep my stuff more organized. 
• Books!
• Warp by Eoin Colfer and Seriously...I'm Kidding by Ellen DeGeneres were from my aunt.
• Festival of Death, Fear of the Dark and Players (books 4-6) of the Doctor Who series from the exchange gift from Uncle Cesar. Adding that to my current collection below, here's where we stand! 

Just 3 more to go before I have all 11 books. Then I can start reading this properly. :)

Snape's Wand

It's been quite some time since I've come across shops selling Harry Potter Wands. The first time I believe was when I was on one of my family trips abroad (San Francisco I believe) when I stumbled across some wands on sale at Barnes and Noble. The flame re-ignited itself when they were encountered again while Kai and I were browsing GreatToysOnline's Annapolis branch, which was selling for around P2000 or thereabouts.

Yesterday, my mom and my sister picked me up after I stayed the night with Kai at the hospital before she was discharged, and we headed straight to TriNoma. While I was taking my time walking around, I decided to drop by the stall for The Perfect White Shirt, and to my surprise, I saw them selling wands! I doubled back after passing by National Book Store and Fully Booked and inquired. They were selling them for P500! I literally looked through all their products since the wands were all different, and searched the net to try and find the reference codes. For the longest time, I've wanted Severus Snape's wand, so you would believe me inner Potterhead squealing when I found a box that had that exact reference number! I bought it without a second thought.

An early Christmas gift to myself, because wands are so cool and I've always dreamed of owning my own. :3

Reading List

So the latter half of my year has been spent getting quite a handful of books and putting them aside to read later on. After Kai supplied me with "The Cuckoo's Calling" by JK Rowling (under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith), I decided to gather together the rest of the books that was left on my reading list. Not surprisingly, it turns out that I've found myself quite a pile, and looking to increase when my birthday and Christmas exchanges are done and over with.

Here's to hoping I can get to some of these in the next coming months!

November 26

Again, for those who may not decipher my handwriting.

11/26/13
5 more days. Today I started looking into a bit of javascript for work- related issues. Coding has been a rusty topic for me lately, if you exclude HTML at least. A little something for Google Docs I guess. This is the problem when you restrict CONDITIONAL FORMATTING!

...

In other news, we meet again Google Forms! It's been ages since I made one. If you end up forgetting some of its finger features (like I did), chances are you'd end giving yourself a facepalm when you finally rediscover it. In my case,  it was the summary of responses. Silly me.

Anyway,  I still haven't been able to find the best grip for my pen writing with my right hand. Hopefully time and practice will make it better.

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Tidbit #15: Ambidexterity

Just a quick post on here before I head to bed. Earlier this year, I started a little side-project where I was trying to write with my right hand. I started with the alphabet dozens of times over, then stopped for quite a while. These past few weeks, I decided to rekindle that project and give my right hand the needed exercise to train it to write once more. If there's one thing I would like to be able to do in the coming years, it's to become ambidextrous.

The task may be daunting, but I'd like to say I'm getting some progress done as the days go by. In time, I'd be surprised if I passed a slip of paper to someone with a decent-looking handwriting, only to surprise them when I mention that I wrote it with my non-dominant hand.

So much like my post yesterday, I'll probably be populating my blog with my little journal entries as the year comes to a close, just to see if there actually is potential to get better. As long as it's legible, I want it to reach a point when it feels as natural and fluid as I would write with my dominant hand, without much of a hitch.

Ambidexterity, have at thee!

November 23

A quick entry I wrote on my Moleskine last Saturday afternoon with my right hand. Enjoy!

EDIT: On the off-chance my readers can't read it properly, I've prepared a digital copy below.

11/23/13

Today is the Day of the Doctor. It looks to be another ordinary Saturday. Not that taking Kai to a doctor is anything close to ordinary. After writing that last sentence, I realized how ironic it is that we're seeing a doctor today. Go figure. Here's a happy 50th to Doctor Who today!

Sincerely, Trish's right hand

P.S. ALL CAPS IS SO MUCH EASIER

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November Updates

I always seem to find a need to psyche myself up to making blog entries, but whenever I end up staring at the blank space I just buzz out. But November has come, and it's brought along a few topics that are screaming to be talked about, at least in passing.

Tragedy
Disaster struck the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan touched down with all its monstrous power in Tacloban, Leyte last Friday, November 8. Up until now, the news is still booming with updates on the aftermath. Thousands of families have been displaced and a large death toll count hasn't even capped yet, so it's normal feel remorse for them.

In this time of need, we all need to band together to help out in whatever way we can, but more news of groups looting the relief goods intended for the victims is just despicable. I just abhor hearing that these type of people exist and not have the decency to do the right thing and let what's intended for others actually get there. It's great to see the efforts people are taking to do what they can, and the international assistance we've received from other countries is very much appreciated. I tip my hat to everyone pitching in, doing and giving what they can.

Love
My girlfriend and I celebrated our 5th anniversary together as a couple last Saturday, November 9. We didn't plan anything extravagant, but decided to go someplace nostalgic and dine at a restaurant we frequented in college - the newly renovated Teriyaki Boy along Katipunan. The rest of the day, funnily enough, was spent playing Pokemon X / Y.

Success
Lots of activity in the office. Since my last update work-related, there have been some transitions and I find myself climbing up the career ladder a few more rungs. At present I'm carrying two positions, both as a Lead QA Analyst (QA3), as well as an OIC QA Director. The load is definitely larger, but I'm prepared to plow into it and make things work. Hopefully, I'll be able to get that coveted designation as director of the department (scratching off the officer-in-charge) with a bit more people to handle. Fingers crossed.

November sure has been eventful, and we haven't even reached the halfway mark. I've got a few more topics in mind, but that'll have to wait until next time. For now, we work.

Wishlist

So since my birthday and Christmas are just around the corner, I wanted to make an early wishlist of what I'd like to have. 'Course, budget aside, I'll find some way to get to them. One way or another.

1. Laptop bag (something less bulky than what I have now. The ones from Halo or Targus look appealing. Jarvis (my 12" Acer Windows 8 lappy) could use the space.
2. HDMI to VGA adapter. I can't make presentations using my laptop without one! I really need to find this since I don't want to have to rely on the projector having an HDMI input (since it isn't a staple so much).
3. Lego Marvel Super Heroes 3DS game. I told myself that Pokemon X/Y is one of the last games I'd get for myself for a while since I have other priorities to save up for. This would be a great bonus to have, especially because of Stan Lee.
4. iPod 7th gen. My 4th gen iPod's screen is starting to conk out due to my careless drops, and it's been displaying the wrong cover album art for as long as I can remember. Maybe that's to be expected of an 8gb device and cram 7gb of its storage with music. The poor thing.
5. Computer Table & Chair. I don't utilize my desk in my room so much since the bed is more inviting. And since I'm at home, I do sort of want to relax a little and literally lay low with a down-to-earth coffee-table like table (and maybe copy off of my siblings). A floor chair would be neat too!
6. A Kamen Rider Belt. Either W, OOO, Fourze or Wizard would be awesomesauce. :)
7. iPad Mini. It'd be neat to have a tablet of my own. I can end up saving up for one myself, but this is just to put it up here so I have a running list of what I actually want to have.
8. Deadly Heat. The fifth installment of the Nikki Heat series based off the ABC series Castle. It was released last month, and I'm wondering when it'll be available locally so I can finally get past that cliffhanger from the previous book.
9. Nintendo Points Card. So many digital downloadable games, downloadable content requires money! And an easier way to that is by getting point cards to get them. :)

One can dream right? v(^.^)v

Pokémon Origins

So for anyone who's a fan of the Pokémon franchise, the Pokémon Origins should definitely be on your must-watch list. While it's only a four-part adaptation that follows the game and manga more faithfully, it will plummet you into a wave of nostalgia.

This follows Red's story, and the evolution of his bond with his Pokémon. This includes appearances (and actual speaking lines) by his rival Green, Professor Oak, Mr. Fuji, Brock, Giovanni and Lance among others.

While a lot of the game's aspects are retained as opposed to how the series turned out with Ash as the hero, we only see glimpses of the events we end up having to do throughout the game, like obtaining fishing rods, getting a free bike, battling Team Rocket thugs and gym leaders of the Kanto region and the like.

This post won't be a review so much as an advertisement to find time to watch it, especially since it helps promote one of the new features to come when Pokémon X & Y debut to the 3DS console! Of course, I won't want to spoil anything, so if you're an old soul looking to find some nostalgia with the first batch of Pokémon we came to love, then go ahead and watch it!

Full movie uploaded by YouTube user dbzgamerKingCold

AnimeUltima alternate: Pokemon Origins Online

Blake-ify It!

So today is a new month. One of the reasons why I chose to make a quick blog today was because it was Aiba Hiroki's birthday today! This entry's topic is somewhat hilarious in its own right, but might only make sense to me and my girlfriend.

But anyway, yesterday we passed by Data Blitz to pre-order Pokemon X & Y for the 3DS (since you know, we both have one) after a satisfying dinner at Ha Yuan Spring, a chinese restaurant along the back road of my office.

We went exploring a bit in Glorietta to look for some stuff before calling it quits and just headed off to Timezone to sing some songs. I had the mic for most of the time, and just like the fangirls we are, we usually enjoyed singing songs of Maroon 5 (because Adam Levine). One Maroon 5 song in particular would always have a "version 2" so to speak because of the different manner in singing it. The song? She Will Be Loved. The version? Blakeified!

As the term suggests, it's singing the song a Blake might have sung it. So the lower key, and just to add spice to the whole Shevine chemistry, flip the words around.

Another song she asked me to Blakeify was Vanessa Carlton's A Thousand Miles.

Needless to say, it worked.

I should find some more songs like that.

Personality Types

I really need to start jotting down topics for my blog, else I'll only end up making posts when I'm in the mood or when the gap has widened considerably to feel like I've been inactive to start back up again. For the month's topic (since I doubt I'd be getting any more posts out in the next two days), I wanted to talk about personality types.

Last Monday, the entire office was scheduled to attend this Whole Brain Seminar which touched on finding your personality type. The whole Typology Text if you will. Of course, I'm not here to talk about that since... well, I didn't exactly get to attend it to begin with. The weather was dreary, and while I was already in the office rearing to go, one of our projects needed to do some overtime work and get it done that day, so I stayed with the team to help out.

After a few days, our CEO sent us a link, telling us to just take the full test (since apparently they had some exercise of determining their personality but never got around to doing the full thing) and email the results to our HR for profiling. Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link and took it. And what did I get?

ISFJ

Intuitive, Sensing, Feeling, Judging

I scavenged the internet for a profile on this particular personality, and to my surprise, it was quite spot on. Here's a link to one of my favorite descriptions, but feel free to browse the site further to find your own (and take the test there while you're at it): ISFJ Personality

Promotion!

It's been a while since I've talked about work here in my blog, hasn't it? I guess now would be the best time to actually sit down and give you a little update. We had our mid-year evaluations last June-July, and as I was sitting down with JD our QA Director, he handed me a copy of my evaluation. As I was reading through it, he told me (verbatim): "QA2 ka na. (for my foreign readers: You're now a QA2.) Yay pizza! *applause*"

QA2 is a job code, the title of which is equivalent to Senior Quality Assurance Analyst.

In some ways, I had already anticipated it. Coming into the company for my internship, I sorta took it upon myself to step into those shoes early on, especially when Nikka wasn't around who assumed that position. And JD solemnly agreed with me and told me to "just keep doing what you're doing". Gives you the notion that I'm being more than proactive in my job don't you think? Well, with that said, this sort of gives me a little more authority within the department of oh-so-little (currently there are two more QA's under me), with an official title status to back me up.

JD told me to wait for the official memo, so I just carried on doing what I was doing. August came and still nada, so I didn't really feel any different until I got my payslip last August 15. To my surprise, my gross income increased, and our HR, Miss Jane, congratulated me on the promotion as well. This just had me wearing a goofy smile as I stared at it. It took 8 days before our Operations Manager Sir Mac invited me to his office where we had a long discussion about this and that until handing me the memo regarding my promotion. Apparently it was in effect at the start of the month, so that's pretty awesome. :)

I know it'll take a while before we get our company going in the direction we want to go to, but I sure wanna be around to be one of the catalysts who instigate that movement. To do that, I'll make like a Sanada (Tenipuri/Prince of Tennis reference) and play the "vice-captain" of the QA Department and get the train moving.

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Doctor Who Party

Last July 19, Kai and I attended a Doctor Who Party. Why? No particular reason. I guess you could say that it was a way we could appease our curiosity and interest of meeting up with other Whovians. Admittedly, I haven't been as immersed in the series as the rest of those who attended. They are hands down some of the timey-wimey wibbly-wobbly bunch of hardcore Whovians I've chanced upon meeting.

But I guess in some way, it's a self-boost to try and watch more of the series to better understand everything, especially with the onset of the 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi and the exit of Matt Smith.

So let's get back to the party a little bit. To mine and Kai's convenience, the venue was doable, hence our confirmation of attending said party. Where? The Residences at Greenbelt which, ironically, sits just a few minutes walking distance from my office! It was a little "social hall" or function room, which was quaint but spacious enough to shelter at least 50 people for a few hours to have some fun (which we did). So in a way the space was perfect for a get-together.

To prepare for the occasion, I dressed up a bit with a little crossover-inspired wardrobe: grey Chucks to represent the 10th Doctor, a bowtie for the 11th, and a trench coat that reminded people of the 1st Doctor. Paired with my 11th Doctor Sonic Screwdriver, I couldn't possibly get lost at the party! The trench coat was actually recycled from my Sebastian Michaelis cosplay a few years ago, so I'm just happy it still fit me the way it did. 

Of course I wouldn't be the only one in "costume" at the party! We had ourselves a nice round of Elevens present, a stray Tenth, a Queen Victoria, some Rose Tylers and some Donna Nobles. And a Tardis!

And yes, there was a Sherlock present! Meet my friend Vinni (right). He's got a british accent down pat, mostly because he reads lots of Shakespeare out loud it's fun.

Since there was a Tenth and Eleventh doctor present, I bugged them into recreating this scene Vinni showed me on his phone with their Sonic Screwdrivers. Thanks to Dan (left) and Adrian (right) for obliging my request! Not as accurate, but so worth it!