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!!

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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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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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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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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!

 

Zachary Quinto and Character Study

I apologize for the lack of activity lately. I've been at work doing work and work causes a stress I find to be a little bit more difficult to control these weeks. Of course, that's mostly because juggling a few number of projects in one go with a small number of QAs in a game development company of around 50 people really will become stressful. But to get back on track, here's a little entry I wanted to pen regarding an actor I've neglected to appreciate until recently, when Kai and I went to see Star Trek Into Darkness together.

Who is this actor?

ZACHARY QUINTO

Yup, he was the talented actor who played Mr. Spock in the 2009 and 2013 Star Trek films by J.J. Abrams. Because of his stellar performance, I found it imperative, like what I usually do with most actors I admire, to dig into their filmography and see where he's been. Most often than not, I always find one or two titles that I've already seen before but just never knew it was him, and called for a second look to confirm.

Such a title was What's Your Number?, a romantic comedy starring Chris Evans that I primarily watched it for. Having recognized Martin Freeman as well there, I never remembered Zach until I watched back. And there he was!

Other titles that caught my interest was that he was in the American Horror Story franchise. While he played a recurring role in season one, he played a main character in season two, Asylum. 

Dr. Oliver Thredson / Bloody Face

Maroon 5's lead singer Adam Levine is a budding actor and makes his debut in this TV series, recounting the horrors of Briarcliff in present day 2012, while most of the story takes place 50 years ago in 1964, where Zach's character appears. Thredson is a psychiatrist who comes into the madhouse to help with therapy of one inmate: a man by the name of Kit Walker, who was accused of the crimes of Thredson's "alter ego", Bloody Face. 

Now why do I talk about this? Kai and I often spend our time throwing scenarios at each other as opposed to the stories we type up in tandem. Whenever I find a character I enjoy watching, I begin a little process of understanding them better; a character study if you will to get into their head and grasp their train of thoughts and actions in order to adjust to scenarios. 

A strange little hobby, but I find that doing it gives me a better sense of embodying a character like most actors do. Sounds like I'm interested in acting if I go through all this, right? People can dream. :P

Canada: Niagara Falls and Downtown

Let this blog entry be a little reminder for myself before my trip ends up half-forgotten at the back of my mind at the end of everything. I believe this will be a great way to chronicle the trip and expound on some of the details I may end up overlooking later on when I type up an abridged version sorta like my US trip.

The pictures will follow, but for now here's what happened so far:

We awoke to breakfast at the hotel, before preparing for the travels of the day. We were picked up by my mom's former officemates Tito Abet and Tita Ena, who brought us to Niagara Falls. Weather forecast said there was 60% chance of rain, and on the long drive over there from Mississauga all the way to Niagara Falls, rain hath no fury. It poured down pretty much how it would back in Manila, which was a pretty unwelcoming gesture from nature considering we were planning to see the Falls.

Upon our arrival, rain was still coming down, but only got stronger, causing us to get limited time outside exposed to the elements, admiring the Falls on Canada's side. This perpetually cancelled our Maid of the Mist voyage, and instead went to see the Flower Clock and have lunch at the Swiss Chalet. This was soon followed by a trip to the Outlet, were my dad and I managed to get shoes for ourselves! I got myself a pair of Raintrek shoes from the Adidas Outlet Store. :)

Afterwards, we headed downtown to see the CN Tower, but with the weather pretty much the same, the fog covered much of the view from afar. Nevertheless, we still managed to head in and have a look around, passing by Rogers Centre before heading off to Union Station, a Grand Central equivalent from New York. From there, we headed off to the Toronto Eaton Centre, a mall of shorts to look around some more shops and off to the Urban Eatery below, a food court of sorts for dinner before heading back to the hotel.

Overall, it was an eventful first full day in Toronto. The weather was cold and the rain most unwelcoming, but here's to hoping the day ahead will yield more interesting sites! :)

EDIT: Outtake shots from our first full day in Canada added!

US Trip Abridged 2.0

So after many, many, many months of procrastinating, here's part 2! This tackles the second half of our US Trip last August, and I wanted to get his done and out of the way considering we have another upcoming trip to Canada in a few days and I didn't want them to clash. Besides, the longer it takes for me to delay this, the more I'll forget to type anything decent to owe the experience any justice at all.

My family's second half of the vacation had us leaving the busy city of New York City to the very hot place that was the country' capital, Washington D.C.! But that includes a side-trip (at least for me and my folks) to New Jersey while my siblings opted to stay an extra day in New York for their own personal reasons.

My internet was acting up so I'll have to upload the rest of the pictures another day.

14. Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlantic City! This was where the firsts started, though technically not my first casino area since Las Vegas during one of our previous US trips. And before you ask, NO I didn't end up gambling, but I do remember spotting an American Idol game. My parents had some friends in New Jersey, and we stayed with one of them for an evening before they helpfully dropped us off at the train station to take the Amtrak in Pennsylvania to Washington where we'd be reuniting with my siblings. 

15. Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C.

The capital city was hot, but the travel there was worthwhile with the Old Town Trolley service that was the nice, rustic equivalent of bustling New York's HOHO (Hop On-Hop Off) tour buses. One of our first stops off the trolley was visiting the Lincoln Memorial. And boy was it a beaut! Considering we've seen this on many different occasions in the movies is a big fulfillment on its own.

16. US Capitol, Washington D.C.

The drop-off point of the trolley at the US Capitol was on the other side of the entrance of the inside tour, so we found ourselves making the LONG trek around. And in that heat? I was just depressed that I had to empty out my canister due to security protocol of touring the Capitol. The cool part though was that there was an awesome room we were in that could bounce off sound (even whispers) off the floor from one side of the room to another.

Oh, and did I mention that the area we toured was underground? Check out this high ceiling!

17. White House, Washington D.C.

The iconic White House beyond the perimeter was about as close as we could get to the structure, but that didn't really stop us from getting any pictures taken!

18. American Art Museum, Washington D.C.

A gaming exhibit is always a grand adventure, so we were able to head in and have a quick look around. Funnily enough, there were several exhibits that let you play some games. Pacman, Super Mario Brothers, Flower and Monkey Island to name a few.

19. Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.

If you've seen Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Transformers 2, then you'll recognize the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. The museum space itself is pretty big, considering the amount of exhibits you'd find there. I wanted to go on the Flight Simulator but I couldn't coax anyone to go with me, so I settled for taking a little tour around instead. Funnily enough, Dad found this picture of one of the Philippine Airlines plane models.

20. Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.

Another of the featured museums in the Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. This one played up my alley much better since I enjoyed looking at wildlife, getting lost a bit to venture around and learn about some thing or another.

Mother's Day 2013

This weekend, my mother and siblings flew off with the rest of the Monsods for Bali, Indonesia for a short vacation. I chose not to go so I could utilize my vacation leaves fully for our upcoming family vacation to Canada to visit our relatives in Winnipeg. Because of that, Dad and I are home alone during Mother's Day weekend. 

So to commemorate the day, I decided to do a little celebration of my own! Here's a picture of my Mom and I in the Philadelphia train station, waiting for the Amtrak to head to Washington during our August 2012 trip to the US.

And since I was in the area, I also took the liberty of paying a visit to my grandparents at Loyola Memorial Park. While the gesture isn't that spectacular, I'm glad I was able to get some roses for grandma despite the dreary weather conditions of rainfall in the area. :)

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Shirts and Headphones

To further commemorate my new laptop dubbed Jarvis, here's my first "official" picture taken with his trusty internal webcam, sponsored by Acer Crystal Eye. What's so special about this particular picture, you ask? Two things, so technically speaking, the peace sign I'm making has its double meanings.

The first is to chronicle the lilac polo t-shirt I got as a souvenir from my Auntie Lynda, who was visiting from Los Angeles for a few weeks here in Manila. This particular shade of purple reminds me fondly of a shirt that one of my favorite college professors often wore (shout-out to Ma'am Jess!). And considering Kai's favorite color is purple, it helps to have one that's easier on the eyes. I'm starting to see a pattern inthe polo t-shirts I acquire; they're all pastel or dark.  

The second is to chronicle (and put into perspective), one of my more personal but very much worth it purchases to date: an Elephant Masterpiece Headphone from Data Blitz!


Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
Impedance: 60ohms
Sensitivity: 115dB
Max Input Power: 5mW
Technical Specs:
Audio: 40 mm handmade drivers
Don't worry if the technical stuff confuses you. The sound is awesome and is pretty well priced at Php595. Pretty good too since it's collapsible into a nice neat soft case that comes with it. And the cord is durable, so it's sure to last.

My New Lappy

My first post using my new laptop! After the whole escapade of my desktop laptop Tony dying, I was already on the hunt for a new one. Owing to the need to help with the capabilities of my return to the coding scene (no, not professionally, just as a hobby surprisingly enough), I began scavenging around for a powerful laptop from a reliable brand.

After browsing several electronic and PC-related shops, and even the Best Buy websites, I finally decided on one. Another factor that came into my decision was geared more on how much I can pay in a span of around one to two years.

If I've learned anything about the value of a good laptop, is looking at the reviews and seeing if it's cheaper abroad. Luckily enough, my dad was due for a San Francisco flight a few weeks back so I took the chance and asked him to get it for me.

And so, lo and behold, my new laptop! My new Acer Aspire M5-481PT-6644 Ultrabook!

Here's the specs:

• Intel Core-i5 processor
• 6GB RAM
• 500GB HDD
• Windows 8 65-bit OS
• Touch screen

Tactical Decisions

Over time, I think the longer games take to get from start to end, the more I get immersed and enticed by the story and gameplay to effectively enjoy it. Needless to say, I still have much to expose myself to, but the experience I take away from coming across such titles and playing them has not been such a waste of gaming time (at least in my opinion).

This post will give you an overview of the titles that I've managed to have the privilege of playing over the years, and maybe when time permits me, I'll come back to this topic every now and again to talk about them more in detail. We'll see.

RPG-Strategy games always give me the best thrill, since it puts your skill and tactical sense (at least in the sense of decision-making) to the test whenever you make a particular action or move to advance. Grinding levels and coming up with effective strategies to win are the kind of stuff I humbly enjoy indulging myself with. It keeps my brain active, so to speak.


1. Pokemon (Nintendo - GB, GBA, DS)


I've been a fan of the series for the longest time, and I always made it a point to take the effort of playing several versions whenever I could just to re-live the experience of at least pretending to be a Pokemon Trainer, catch and train Pokemon and rise through the ranks.

Found on your left is a little collage of the titles I've personally played through. You'll notice I haven't even touched on the 5th generation titles (Black and White), but maybe someday I'll get to that. Someday.

This spread of titles should give you a rough idea how young I started playing games too actually! I remember playing Pokemon Blue on a Pink Gameboy Pocket, Pokemon Yellow on a Yellow Gameboy Advance, Pokemon Sapphire on a Gameboy Advance SP, and Pokemon Diamond, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Pokemon Platinum and Pokemon Soul Silver on a Blue Nintendo DS Lite.


 2. Suikoden II (Sony - PS1)

For the longest time, my family owned a little Playstation 1 console. I think I was in 6th grade or so when we had our parents buy this game for us. I tried it out and found myself hooked.

The story, collecting the Stars of Destiny, it was a fantastic RPG-Strategy that I believe to be the best in its series, even outclassing its successors Suikoden III-V.

Funny tidbit about this game though. The long cutscene with the credits that comes a little after the Hero and Jowy jump off the cliff together made me think the game was done. How silly was I as a kid?

 3. Breath of Fire IV (Sony - PS1)

This was another title that seemed to have been gathering dust in our little pile of games before I pulled it out and set the CD into the console. Not really aware of the previous titles before it, I played it blindly, as I did most every game.

This one, however, I got some help from my cousin Dabz. He and I were both playing it at the same time and he took the liberty of printing out (yes, printing out an entire booklet) the walkthrough. Oh the thickness of that.

But all the same, this gave me the same awesome sense of uber awesomeness that Suikoden II had, and the many possibilities the story held was something I wasn't ever gonna forget anytime soon.

4. Fire Emblem Awakening (Nintendo - 3DS)

My latest fix. To be completely honest, I never followed the Fire Emblem series until now (then again if you consider the previous two games, I seem to be charting my own course of loving sequels to beginnings). So when I tried out the Game Demo on my 3DS I just knew I had to get it once it was released.

Currently I'm well into playing the game, and at this point in time I find it worth every cent of the price I paid for it. The graphics are stunning, the story is epic, the tactical gameplay is a breath of fresh air and the grinding is always so fun!

So that wraps up my post of RPG-Strategy Games brought to you by yours truly. Maybe someday I'll go into more detail about them and give my reviews. :) Who knows?