First, a very Happy Birthday to the Julia Child of Gaming - Adrian! A very Happy Birthday, "James"! I look forward to the day that we meet again and I get to dismantle your evil domain! Nyahahaha!

I'm feeling pretty beat - this work week has felt somewhat longer than others. I guess one could say that it's been busy and just leave it at that. But perhaps its more about it being rather "heavy" in many aspects and that's what has really taken its toll on me. Then again, that's the working world for you and you just need to keep rolling with the punches as they say. To cap off my weekend, tomorrow morning we'll be hosting this quarter's Best Practices Forum. It's one of the bigger ticket items that's part of my area of responsibility and as much as I know it'll go well, I still get nervous.

I imagine yesterday's post was a bit confusing (and perhaps even unnerving to a limited degree) and I suppose it all is. It's a lot to handle but it's not something I can't deal with, don't worry. It's just fairly big and longer term readers of this blog will know that I've always used my writing as an output. Rather than go nuts with dealing with the gravity of things in my head, I've always found it to be helpful to try and take it out of my head, place it it on a space where I can allow letters and the dictates of language to help better define it and subject it to further thought and consideration. It's like creating a scale model of something for scientific purposes in order to give you something that can be better used for experimentation.

Okay, this is getting nerdier and geekier by the minute. So sue me.

The bottom line is don't worry, I'm okay. Or at least I will be. Besides, I have Archer in my life and as always he is being the amazingly awesome guy that he is and tells me all the right things that I need to hear. I'm serious when I say ALL of them, even the darker ones that hide in the recesses of my mind. That's just the way our life together is, I suppose. That's how things go when you more so completely in sync with another person in so many ways. Ah life.

Now it's time for a quick dinner before work. I cooked the usual buttered mixed veggies and pork chops while Tobie has prepared a rather hearty salad. Yes, yes, I'll be taking photos. =D

---

Now that's truly being smart about the, err, shall we say "Narnia Phenomenon"? =D

First up, a very Happy Birthday to one of my most engaged sales trainers, Mau! Now that I'm at home, I'm free to break your "secret" and greet you a very, very Happy Birthday!!! =D

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 20,486 words. I broke the 20,000 word count yesterday before heading off to bed but haven't made much progress since. Given I slept away today and dinner plans later, I get this feeling I won't be able to write as much as I wanted to today, but I'll keep trying.

The work week is finally over and I'm more than relieved, naturally. It's been pretty busy, stressful here and there, but that's pretty much par for the course. Next week isn't going to get any better, I'm sure, but we'll do what we need to do and keep at it. But I don't want to think about the work week anymore - it's time to enjoy the weekend!

Tobie and I will be meeting up with a friend of mine that I haven't seen in ages - Deo. We met a few years ago because of a mutual friend and have remained in contact since then. Because of a chance IM conversation this week, we ended up making dinner / drinking plans for tonight and we're looking to meet at around 09:00pm. I have no idea what to truly expect from the night, but it may involve lots of food, maybe drinking and dancing at Malate but ultimately lots of good fun and catch-up conversation. Yay for weekends!

I've also been asked by the geeks over at the New Worlds Alliance to sign up as an associate editor for TV news and features, which is a pretty fun task (take note - I didn't say job) that should complement my Geeky Guide blogging in its own way. Tobie and I were discussing possible titles for my web column and we narrowed it down to two main possibilities:

1. The Geeky TV Guide
   
2. The Geeky Guide to TV

So which one do you like better? Vote for your favorite in the comments and we'll see how this goes on!

For now, I'm cutting all this short so I can get some NaNoWriMo writing in before we leave for the night. Catch you geeks later!

---

I always wanted to do something like this...sorta. =D

A very Happy Birthday to my longtime online friend Ben! Happy, Happy, Happy Birthday Bendix! I should probably make you a photo with me holding a sign or something, LOL

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 18,389 words. I'm way behind my daily goal - I'm supposed to be past the 20,000 word count by now - but I'm going to keep pushing forward and trying to get to that level! You hear me NaNoWriMo? I'm gonna write like a mad man...once my work week officially ends. =P

Work was still pretty hectic, but manageable. I had back-to-back meetings today plus my boss Carlo came back from a three-day leave. Thus that meant a lot of updates, issues to address now that he was back and more of my usual work given the two titles that I hold now. Yeah, it's a busy work life, but I'm still enjoying the sense of challenge and I'm liking how things are flowing for the most part. This doesn't mean that things are entirely without unfortunate incident - but then it's the annoying fires that make life interesting, eh?

I got home from work rather tired, so I spent some time tinkering with Mozilla Labs Jetpack, which is an experimental way to implement simple HTML / CSS apps within Firefox. They're more lightweight than full-fledged extensions and they don't require you to restart Firefox to work after installing - you just need to refresh the page. It's VERY early in the product's development and so far I can't get all of the apps that interested me to work. However there are others which are working like a breeze plus they're really fast and not so heavy in terms of memory load. This is definitely an area I hope Mozilla invests more research time in - it's a quick, effective way of implementing applications without the potential bloat and conflicts we get from extensions.

I'm starting to get back into photography using Tobie's resurrected Pentax Optio M40. Like before, most of my pictures tend to be of food and I'm getting some pretty decent shots. I'm still hoping to get myself a better camera before the end of the year but that'll mean burning the credit card soon enough, hehe. My main goal is to get a mega zoom bridge camera since (1) I want a really powerful optical lens for close-up macro shots, (2) I don't like twiddling around too much with DSLR settings, (3) I believe in digital photo editing, and (4) I want the camera to be able to take decent video. I could go hunting down the same model camera as Shane was before, which was a Sony CyberShot H50. I loved that camera when I got it in LA, but it got stolen around this time last year. There's already an upgraded model called the Sony CyberShot HX1 and I'm still on the fence if I like this new version or if I want to save some money and get the H50.

Decisions, decisions! At least I'm trying to stick to my original plan of getting a new camera before I opt to get a netbook, which I admit is more of a novelty / luxury purchase. So sue me! I will get that Asus EEE 1005HA!

---

I love Pig! More so Duck!

First up, a very Happy Birthday to dear friend of mine who goes all the way back to elementary school! A very Happy Birthday to you, David! Keep up the good fight and good luck in all of your endeavors!

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 16,233 words. I know I keep saying that it's a long way from my goal and the whole thing still needs work, but I have to admit there's still a significant sense of satisfaction one gets from achieving one goal or another, even the small personal ones. In truth, I need over 2,000 words before I can even just catch up to where I need to be in terms of my daily goal, but the true achievement is me finishing the second chapter of the story with a certain level of satisfaction. I know I'm not very good with the whole bulk writing as fast as one can and I still take some time to think about things and edit to some degree, but at least I'm still pushing forward! And it's a total wow for me - over 16,000 words is nothing to sneeze at, and we're not even at the half way point for the month!

Go, go, go NaNoWriMo!!! LOL

I'm trying to think of a slightly new direction for the Geeky Guide. While it's good that I've pretty much figured out my posting schedules and I'm able to continually read or watch things of geeky interest in order to generate content for the site, but beyond the reviews, there's not much else to it. I'm hoping to flesh out the Geeky Guide with feature articles and not just rebroadcasting news or something. I'm not quite sure to start so today I ended up posting a boring yet informative differentiation between Google AdWords, AdSense and Analytics. It's nothing new for people who know about Google or actually use these features / tools, but it's a decent start.

Overall, I'm still trying to think of other forms of content that I can come up with to keep things interesting. Plus the readers are simply out there for the taking and so I need to figure out how best to position the Geeky Guide in order to get a slice of the market just for me. It's a lofty goal, one that I don't necessarily have a time for this month because of NaNoWriMo on-going and eating up most of my creative time and energies. But it doesn't mean I can't think about it and try to conceptualize new article styles.

If any of you dear friends and other such readers have an idea, feel free to suggest possible alternatives!

In the meantime, I think I may need to lie down in order to wake up early enough later to prepare dinner AND get some writing done. Addict much? LOL

---

Damn, dirty evolutionists! ROFL

A very Happy Birthday to fellow NWA geek, Mark! You better have fun - and comics books or something similar should be involved.

Current NaNoWriMo word count is a whopping 11,755 words! I'm still below the daily quota target, but I've definitely made good progress over the weekend, and that makes me feel better. Given that we're gaming today, I know that's going to get in the way of writing as much as I'd like to, but then gaming is a completely different level of geek fulfillment that can't be replaced by other activities.

Speaking of gaming, Mahar, Adrian and Nabs are all here getting settled prior to the resumption of our Changeling Promethean game. It's been two weeks since the last game and naturally everyone's feeling anxious to game again.

Yesterday was busy and not so busy. It was busy because we had a major Fandom Live! meeting with the rest of the geeks to discuss the future direction of our little web show. We're trying to get more organized and to make the entire production somewhat more professional in is creation and hopefully commercial interest (read: sponsorships) will come to follow. I doubt that's going to happen anytime soon, but one can dream.

The evening resulted in Dek hanging out at the Sietch to get some more editing work done. Since she was still around, she ended up joining us for dinner and I'm glad she liked my fried pork chops, garlic mushrooms and buttered vegetables on the side. Naturally Tobie cared for dessert and this manifested as individual cups of vanilla ice cream with Moby, Flat Tops, and Heshey's chocolate syrup. By Tobie's dessert standards, this was a very light dessert. We also watched Zombieland, which turned out to be more entertaining at expected. It was a nice light take on the whole zombie genre that I wouldn't mind seeing again.

The rest of the night was spent unboxing my new Transformers Animated Snarl and Soundwave, mucking about on Facebook and writing more of my NaNoWriMo novel attempt.

There are some potential developments in terms of Sietch Creare itself that will definitely complicate things in the future, but then I'll save that discussion for a future entry when more information becomes available.

Now it's time to game...and hopefully finish my current chapter in-between turns.

---

I was wondering how they were going to end this weird Dilbert angel arc. And there you go.

First, a very Happy Birthday to fellow geek, mistress of New Worlds website and member of the 501st, Rej! When are we getting drunk? Where's the party? LOL

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 9,727 words. I was hoping to have broken the 10,000 word barrier before bed, but then I was more tired than I realized today and fell asleep a lot earlier than expected. The last thing I remember was having McDonald's for breakfast with Tobie while catching Tomb Raider on HBO, then a detour to the bedroom, then nothing. Argh. And now Tobie has surpassed me and the 10,000 word mark to boot! Insidious!

I'm definitely looking forward to the weekend. Tobie and I had been talking about a potential trip to the spa today since we've both been feeling minor aches and pains throughout the week and we could definitely use a good massage. This'll probably mean a trip to Wensha later tonight after Tobie's finished with his work for the day. Then tomorrow our gaming sessions are going to resume, and this marks the beginning the start of our second "season" of sorts since we've already finished some pretty major story arcs across 13 "episodes". Yes, we've been gaming for THAT long now, hehe.

Other than that, I have a LOT of writing to get done this weekend whether in order to queue more entries for the Geeky Guide or to get more writing done for my NaNoWriMo story, The Interrogation. I'm well into the second chapter, which has a completely different tone compared to the first. I chose to write a more action-driven story this time around compared to the first segment if only to make it more interesting and hopefully to drive me to write more. I definitely think it's helping and with luck I'll be done with this chapter before the day's over. Here's to hoping!

I'm hungry.

---

It's funny when one webcomic (for example xckd) inspires another webcomic (case in point, Bunny). Oh, and LEGO!!!

A very Happy Birthday goes out today to a good friend, Karen! Hope you had a stellar birthday despite the interesting timing of your birth and the classic religious holiday, All Saint's Day! =D

I'm waiting for photos to upload as I compose this entry. Hurry up you fiends! I have so many other things to do!

Last night was simply awesome, and I'm glad I didn't give in to the temptation to stay home last night! Tobie and I along with Dek joined the rest of the group at O Bar to celebrate Halloween. We didn't have the most amazingly accurate "Bollywood" costumes given the amount of time left to us, but we did manage decently enough. There were only two wigs left at the department store but somehow we justified that pirate braids made one almost look like "The Guru" and a mohawk definitely counted for Sandjaya, so that was Indian enough for the night, LOL. We also had some interesting metallic masks to which we added sequin-ish gems to the forehead like the traditional bindi. Naturally the presence of props amongst so many queers became an instant hit as everyone wanted to take turns trying on the wigs and posing in various ways.

Next year, we are definitely working harder on actual costumes, haha!

Despite it being a major holiday weekend, which normally translates to way too many people at Malate and not enough room in the bars, we were pretty comfortable in the recently-launched VIP area of O Bar, located at the second floor where the Top and Bottom shop used to be. Thus despite the hordes of queers lining the streets trying to get some alcohol and probably some action for the night, we were sitting in relative comfort in the nicely air conditioned VIP area. Kudos to O Bar for making such an area and effectively managing the people such that there weren't too many gatecrashers sneaking into the area.

From there it was just lots of drinking, good music that wasn't too loud for actual conversations to happen and various costumes, drag queens and other antics. It was such a stellar night! I'm really, really, really glad that I went out. The Halloween photos compose the bulk of the photos that I'm trying to upload right now, if only Facebook and Multiply would stop behaving like total idiots.

Today after getting some much-needed sleep, Tobie and I hit up Gateway to watch Astro Boy and The Hurt Locker. Astro Boy was as disappointed as expected (haha!) but I guess it wasn't a total loss. The humor was pretty good but the whole thing didn't really feel like an actual Astro Boy movie. The Hurt Locker was a lot better and very, very intense / stressful. Still, it definitely made up for our first movie and it certainly drove the message home how harsh the situation in Iraq can be.

Oh, and I also managed to fully unbox and transform all my new Transformers! Let's welcome to the family the Transformers Universe Beachcomber and Brawn along with the Transformers Animated Blurr, Shockwave and Ultra Magnus! Yes, those photos are in queue after the Halloween photos, hehe.

---

Remind me never to go trick-or-treating in the Sinfest neighborhood, LOL

So many birthdays on Halloween! Happy Birthday to fellow NWA geeks Carl and Hec, to one of the smartest young men I've ever encountered online, Haochi and to a work friend from LA, Jeff! Happy Birthday to all of you and a very Happy Halloween to the rest of the world!

We lost power at my mom's house sometime in the morning - I don't exactly know when since I pretty much collapsed after being awake for more than 30 hours of being awake. I was a tad sweaty but not too sweaty given at least it was relatively cool in the room where I bunked for the night. Oddly enough, I slept on a couch beside a wall full of airsoft guns. Seriously.

The rest of the day was light. Instead of leaving the house to cool off at the mall, which was probably what most people opted to do given the power outages, we ended up staying home playing board games. Yes, we're one of THOSE kinds of families. We started out with a parents vs kids round of Scrabble, which my siblings and I totally lost despite our best efforts. Then we tried this other game that's like modified Tic-Tac-Toe, but on different levels entirely. Then we ended up playing Word Factory / Boggle for the rest of the afternoon amidst four Shakey's pizzas. Family fun!

My lesson for today is that I'm really not that great at spatial reasoning. When it comes to positioning wooden pegs strategically or just trying to create words out of jumbled letters, I'm just not as quick or as good as I'd like to be. My head still hurts a bit after spending all those hours trying to come up with words. Oh well.

Now I'm trying to figure out if some of my original plans for the evening are pushing through, like meeting up with high school friends for drinks. Tobie and I are also stressing over what to wear tonight given we're attending Halloween event/s tonight as well. How does one deal with a Bollywood theme? LOL

Plus I still haven't unboxed my Transformers! Crazy!

---

Happy Geeky Halloween, Everyone!!!