Today's the birthday of a high school classmate of mine, Matt, and a fellow geek at work, Ping. Happy birthday to both you guys!

Tobie and I just got back from watching 500 Days of Summer. It was a pretty good movie and we definitely enjoyed it. Tobie felt it was an American version of an Amelie-type film. I'm debating that it doesn't count as a chick flick since it's not a love story - it's an art film to some degree. The soundtrack alone is what drew many of us like-minded folks to go see it. The story was enough to keep us in our seats.

Last night I met up with my largely online friend Joboy - mainly because he's actually based out of Singapore. To date, this is pretty much only our second-ever in person meeting and yet the conversation flows so freely it's like few friendships that I have. It's almost ironic that most of our time is spent chatting over IM and yet when we meet we're still never at a loss for topics of conversation when we meet like this. Of course the next possible meeting will probably be practically another half of a year away and in the meantime we'll get by as we always did.

These modern times can be amazing in that respect - just how many true friendships can one cultivate and maintain over vast distances through technology? The concept seems mind-boggling at times, but then again people have done the same thing with traditional mail or even bonded couriers braving travel across the wastelands of the world. Yeah, the constant evolution of communication just gives us new ways to do what we've always done. Such is life, I'd like to think.

500 Days of Summer juggles around the idea that there's predetermination or maybe there isn't. There could be soul mates out there or maybe people who are just meant to be really good friends despite the seas between the two of them. Whatever the parallels one may draw from such a movie, it's all just there - life, in all it's boundless, ridiculously amazing glory. Some people see it's grandeur in overt forms like classical art or major theater productions. Other see it in the small things like a mint left on your pillow or a goofy smile at just the right moment. Life is just surprisingly wonderful in its infinite diversity and it's still a surprise to see what might happen next.

Although on a remotely related tangent, Cubao is still Cubao and the guys in the area aren't often...eye candy worthy. Sigh.

Oh, and Tobie and I spent a ridiculous amount of credit card value on original DVDs on sale. So before the credit card statements roll in and take effect, we can juts focus on enjoying our booty, when we actually find the time to do so, that is.

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This so reminded me of Murakami's psychic prostitutes! Funny!

Today is the birthday of my most fabulous, special, crazy, pretty, kooky, silly, funny, alluring sister, Mina! All will love her and despair rejoice! *enthusiastic cheer* Happy Birthday Mina!

I fell asleep almost immediately upon getting home from work today. Again. I swear, I hate it when my sleeping schedule is misaligned at the start of the week - it seems to take the rest of the week to get things back in line and once I'm fully adjusted, it's already the weekend. Boo that. And a double dumb ass on it too!

Given this morning's power nap being defeated by Tobie's determined efforts to wake me up, we managed to catch the first screening of Gamer over at Ali Mall. We considered it to be an Ali Mall movie given (1) we weren't exactly über-devoted-fan-boy excited about the movie, (2) no one was immediately raving about it and (3) it felt like a lazy day. The movie turned out to be decent with some good moments and interesting interpretations of certain gaming concepts when translated into real life, but it sorta got lost at the end and just stopped eventually. Michael C. Hall was surprisingly buff. Gerard Butler didn't have a gratuitous shirtless scene. Oh, and Milo Ventimiglia had a surprise cameo involving either latex or spandex. Yikes.

While walking around Ali Mall after the movie, naturally giving a running critique of the movie, we chanced upon one of those original DVD sale stands, this time for Viva. We always look but rarely buy anything and this time around we were surprised by locating an original copy of the SciFi Channel's Children of Dune miniseries. Once we saw that, we switched out of casual browsing mode to serious searching and ended up with another gem - an original copy of Imagine Me & You amongst the Buy 1 Take 1 titles. So I got that and a copy of Juno as the free movie. Then Tobie found a copy of Fiddler on the Roof and West Side Story, so we gobbled those up. The there was a 2-disc Director's Cut of Alien with a ton of extra features. So of course we got that one too. Oh, and a copy of Proof if only because Jake Gyllenhaal is yummy.

I really need to get around to adding these to the movie database. I've built up a bit of a queue of new titles in need of encoding. Ah well.

Now I need to force some sleep before work later. Wish me luck!

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I'll never think of the Bee Gees in the same way ever again.

First, Happy Birthday to former schoolmate and fellow musically-inclined geek, Zuri! I guess we get to celebrate your birthday along with Paul tonight!

Today also happens to be Independence Day in the US! Enjoy the fireworks and the barbecues to all the folks across the ocean!

Last night Tobie to Metrowalk to buy DVDs. It was my first time to go with him and apparently we are of like minds when it comes to buying movies, which can be a dangerous thing. We went to my normal vendor, who is the same person that my mom buys from. Between the two of us, we get a ridiculous amount of DVDs approaching the levels of being able to sell titles on our own or something. It's that bad.

Oh, and Tom was with us, too. He had pretty much stayed over since the previous night and joined us for our rather hearty dinner.

So anyway, it was actually me, Tobie and Tom at Metrowalk with Tobie and me doing the bulk of the selecting and buying. Needless to say we made the vendor very happy since we got a ridiculous amount of title to the level that even after applying discounts she could still throw in extra titles at whim. After buying all those DVDs, any plans of possibility of eating out even just for dessert pretty much fizzled.

We did swing by the Pleasure Palace, which is the sex shop at Metrowalk, just to show Tom what it was like. Our casual looking around turned into a serious shopping trip to find a gift for a friend. To our surprise, we were approached by the store owner who was pretty generous in offering her "expertise" in helping us select a gift. It was rather awkward at times given she was rather outspoken and as more and more people entered the shop, she ended up attracting more attention. She tasted the flavored lubes in front of us and was encouraging us to try it too and went as far as applying some of the more expensive lubes on Tobie's hand so we could "sample" how great it was. It was certainly weird.

I like the gift we picked out and hopefully he'll enjoy the gift, too. No, the gift is not for Paul, sadly.
From Pleasure Palace, it was off to O Bar for the three of us to meet a friend who was in need over there. It was pretty packed, as Fridays tend to be, and not quite as fun as our more relaxed drinking sessions on Sunday evenings. I still had an okay time and the alcohol was quite relaxing but I doubt that I'll want to brave the weekend Malate crowds again anytime soon.

Today Tobie and I got up pretty late and finally watched the last two episodes of Dollhouse. Wow. That's all I can say for now.

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There's no escape!

I'm on leave tonight. Hooray hurrah!

Despite being on leave last Friday as well, this week has taken a lot out of me. There's just so much going on in the office and it's been an interesting challenge to juggle everything around. I'm pretty happy with how the team has been generally performing, but as always there's been room for improvement here and there. That's work life for you - the fun just never ends.

I'm cooking again - yet another culinary adventure. I'm trying to mix my sister's Rice Pilaf recipe with the addition of some frozen veggies Tobie and I had picked up on one of our trips to the supermarket. We don't have some nice steak or stroganoff to go on the side, so we'll just have to settle for some fried giniling extended with potatoes. Tobie plans on mixing a salad as well which will round out the meal.

I forgot to mention that Tom is here - he crashed after he and Tobie went out. So yeah, we're cooking for three today and it's not just because we're feeling excessively hungry. At the same time, there's pressure to cook instead of ordering out since the little fridge we have is a bit overloaded and it could really use some relief, hehe. I really need to add a larger refrigerator to the planned shopping list - almost forgot.

Tonight we plan on hitting Metrowalk to get some DVD cases and naturally a number (more like a LOT) of DVDs to add to the collection. Exciting! I just hope we make it in time, hehe.

In the middle of composing this entry I ended up needing to devote more time to the actual cooking and once done we ate. It turned out pretty good, albeit rather heavy, haha. Now we're all pretty full and finishing Legally Blonde: the Musical. Hooray for cooking success! Level up!

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Oh poor Death, he was just doing his job. =P

First, very special birthday greetings to my musically gifted cousin, Jessica! I really hope we squeeze in time to see you today, but if not, here's a very heart Happy Birthday!
I've been awake since before my shift last night and believe it or not, I pretty much just got home. This will have to be a short entry for now since I'm about to fall asleep on the keyboard - that's bound to hurt.

Work was okay - my director approached me with an interesting offer. I've been thinking about it for some time and it certainly deserves a lot of thought still. It is very tempting and daunting at the same time.

After work I visited Vella to spend some time with Brian |kitchengod| and to sort through our not-so-modest DVD collection. It was a tricky process and it took a lot of back and forth and generous breaks here and there. Eventually we more or less settled on how the DVDs should be divvied although with the condition that we'd have to organize movie days so we could catch up on the titles we both wanted but had to let one or the other keep.

Now I really should get some sleep - Tobie and I are bound to get into other activities in the evening and I'll need to be a lot more awake than I am now.

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I really must be sleepy - I find this a LOT funnier than it should be =P

First, Happy Birthday to a fellow geek with whom I interact with the most (it seems) on Plurk and Google Talk, mainly because we share the same work hours. Happy Birthday, Marge!

The weather has been rather weird today. We had some pretty rains last night which were pretty much lessening but would return with a vengeance for brief bouts here and there. Today in total contrast to yesterday is rather sunny and the excess moisture deposited by the rain is now becoming the muggy mush that is tropical humidity. While that seems decent enough - we could use some sun after all - the weather still turns on us for 5-10 minutes here and there by banishing the sun and bringing back the rain as strong as ever. Then it disappears again and the that just gives the whole evaporation process more water to play around with. Like I said, it's rather weird, but at least it's been consistently cool and breezy.

Today I got home to find that Tobie had managed to liberate a microwave from his family home, and thus we now had something more to experiment with in terms of cooking beyond just a rice cooker. This was more familiar territory to me since for most of my young life, I was denied the use of the stove since it was dangerous to "play with fire" so to speak, but in time I was allowed to use the microwave to prepare little meals here and there. My sister and I soon got into a variety of experiments and that knowledge came in handy today.

Given the addition of the microwave and some ingredients Tobie has also brought home, the menu rapidly evolved into a strange yet rather filling mix. First up was scrambled eggs via the microwave and I added salt, Parmesan cheese and a diced tomato into the microwavable. I knew it was going to end up as a sort of egg cake, but I didn't really mind. Then we cooked up a batch of rice and like in recent days we added something to flavor it a bit more - today it was chorizo! And to wrap things up we had some luncheon meat that we just heated up in the microwave, too. The resulting breakfast was a lot larger than projected (we had readied some bread to have on the side, but it was no longer needed) and pretty good. I know, it's nothing we can necessarily serve to guests, but it's definitely a start. I'm now going to run Google searches on microwave cooking recipes, haha.

A last note - I am overwhelmed by the number of DVDs that Tobie has. At the same time, we don't necessarily have that many duplicates when I compare our collections. Good grief. I'm probably going to spend the rest of the weekend trying to get them tagged in my online catalog. That doesn't even factor in needing to buy more efficient DVD storage for all these titles. The things we slightly OCD people get into...

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This was too funny! I wonder what they'll think of collectible card games!

It was an interesting Saturday, to say the least, and we got a decent amount of things done. Sort of. Just don't expect majorly significant achievements that will change the way we work and stuff but more like just us doing stuff and keeping busy sufficiently enough.

When we finally got out of the house in the afternoon, we immediately made our way to Cubao Expo for my boot-fitting. Yeah, the whole Star Trek costume preparations weren't quite done yet and this was the final component to complete the deal. Brian |kitchengod| opted to accompany me, which was pretty cool since it hasn't been too often that he's gone along with such geeky ventures. I took the time to run a Google search for directions to the area and it turned out to be in a pretty familiar place from back in my Cubao-romping days. It took us about an hour to get there (and some extra money for the cab driver - grr) and far less time to get fitted before we were off again.

Our next stop was Metrowalk for a long-overdue DVD run - if my memory serves me right, the last time we had gone had been practically a year ago. For some reason we never went back after I had returned from my Los Angeles trip early last year. We made a beeline for our regular stall and after much searching, scanning and reviewing of titles, we went home with a very big bag and a ridiculous amount of money spent. It's so ridiculous that I'll decline commenting - it's our money and I just REALLY like having a large movie collection. I blame my mother for this kind of thinking, hehe.

It took me most the of the night to alphabetize the new titles, compute how to re-allocate our DVD magazine cases and ultimately re-organize the titles to fit across 7 DVD magazine-style cases. I've also updated our online video list on Google Docs. That's a live link you can visit at any time in case you're curious as to what we have, including titles we download and store on external media.

We pretty much went straight home and started watching some of the movies while I was sorting. We managed to finish Painted Skin, The Secret Lives of Dentists, You I Love and Baby Mama through the course of the evening until early this morning. The only hiccup thus far was our copy of Revolutionary Road not working. Ah well, I guess you can't win them all.

Today we just have to hit the grocery and potentially I just might get my hair cut. Who knows?



Once again, Faraker and Gorval were in the practice hall. This time Gorval appeared to be wearer newer armor than usual and Faraker was no longer as excited about his first lessons in magic. The metal bands around his wrists had already begun to chafe due to their size and weight and acted as a constant reminder of his impending doom. When he didn't respond to Gorval's first few instructions, the old man gave him a more than healthy slap to bring him back to reality.

"Stop wallowing in self-pity like some peasant and act like a man! Dawn's visions clearly place you at a key event in the timeline and that tells me you're not going to die anytime soon. My job is still to prepare you for that moment and now we have the added bonus of those metal bracers getting in the way. I've never been one to back down for a challenge or give up on a student so I'm not starting now." Gorval was gravely serious as he spoke to him, his coal black eyes boring straight into his head. It seemed one of the easiest ways to identify members of the Order was their ability to stare down anything.

"Remember what we discussed last time," he stated as he summoned another set of Guardsmen poleaxes for their use and handed one to Faraker. "Focus on the weapon and feel the energies of the Nexus through it."

Faraker relaxed his breathing and tried to focus on the weapon one more, the faint pain from the bands distracting him to a limited degree. He quickly found the tingling sensation Gorval had described before and now it seemed all the more disappointing in comparison to the burning fire he had drawn upon last time. A quick search revealed a dark place within him where the fire used to be and just approaching it with his mind caused the bands to glow and burn. He quickly retreated before they could do any permanent damage.

The two spent most of the day practicing his control of the magic and it came to skills came to him easier than most - but neither spoke of the probable reasons for his speedy development. While there was still a bit of a rush to be tapping into such energies, it was a mere trickle compared to the greater stores of magic he had felt when he had triggered his latent gifts. There was no singing in his ears and no rush of exhilaration - just a transfer of energy through the shaft of the weapon and through his body, depending on the spell they were casting. From time to time he'd instinctively reach into himself and would be quickly spurned by the magic of the bands.

And yet throughout the session, he found himself trying different approaches to try and get past the dark place within him. The magic was powerful indeed, but more importantly it just felt...right. How could something that felt so right and so natural be wrong? There had to be some mistake, and he'd somehow figure things out sooner or later. He continually puzzled over this concept in his head as he went through Gorval's lessons.

By the end of today's extensive session, he was thoroughly exhausted and yet also dying for answers to his questions. "Gorval, what's so wrong about innate magic? I understand the risks but there has to be more to it..."

The older warrior studied his young apprentice carefully as he considered his response. "The Gossamer Order has been around longer than any of us can remember," he answered, "and their wisdom transcends the infinite planes themselves. We've learned to trust the word of the High Council since they've experience more than any of us, and I've been around a few centuries mind you. Innate magic has always been a sensitive issue, but the sheer power accessible through this particular link is just too much for any mortal to wield. It can mean little things like cheap parlor tricks or very, very big things like unraveling all of creation, or perhaps even destroying the Tower itself. The power is just too great."

"Does that make me somehow fated for evil?" he challenged.

"No, of course not. Magic is neither good nor bad - it simply is. Only the will of the user can taint it with evil. But we found you in time and we've ensured that you'll not stray into the darkness."

Faraker considered these words as he dismissed the weapon in his hand, sending it to the pocket dimension where all the Order's weapons were stored as Gorval had shown him today. This triggered one last question in his mind.

"But what if you hadn't found me - what then? Are there other innate magic users out there beyond the control of the Order?"

The old man stopped in actions for a moment and mumbled something that Faraker couldn't catch. He snapped his fingers and the practice hall filled with all the other members practicing in another time refraction. It took Faraker some time to adjust to the sudden appearance of so many people but by the time he sought out Gorval where he had last seen him, the old man was gone.

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Yeah, it was a cheap trick of an ending, but funny nonetheless.

It's Saturday. Finally?

The weekend is always a better time since it means I don't have to worry about work later in the evening and I'll have more time to just relax. It means I have time to watch more movies, read more books and now it also means more time to write, an activity I seem to have returned to in recent days. It's quite a relief to be able to craft words into something new again, and not just some blog entry or analysis of the latest Google press release. I've been grasping for this creative feeling for some time now (think years) and now I seem to be basking in it and it's wonderful. It may not seem like much and the story snippets that take up most of my entries these days are probably not the greatest creative works I've ever come up with, but I'm still happy. And proud.

So humor me. Again.

In case you haven't noticed, most of the more recent story pieces are interconnected and probably don't make much sense. I'll take the time to put then in order when I have more meat around it but at the moment I seem to be doing okay by writing the tale in a highly non-linear fashion. It'll all make sense in the end - you have to understand that this is actually all coming from a single novel concept that I last worked on in high school, hence the raw nature of things. Still, it's a pretty healthy creative exercise and it just makes me feel really good now that I'm tapping into the part of my brain where the writer in me has been hiding all these years.

Not much of an agenda for today. I just need to get fitted for my boots that'll ultimately complete my Star Trek uniform for the movie premiere in May. Beyond that, I have no major plans, but a trip to Metrowalk seems very tempting to me - I really feel like doing a DVD run in order to add even more titles to our collection. Simple pleasures.



Faraker awoke with a pretty strong ringing in his ears and discomfort around his wrists. Everything was still a bit of a blur but he could tell that he had been propped up into a sitting position somehow. Once he managed to get his eyes open, he found two large metallic bands around his wrists and they were glowing slightly. He tried to speak but it hurt too much to even try. In fact, his entire body either felt sore or in significant pain as he regained full consciousness. He also felt somehow...numb, as if all his sense were duller than normal. The world seemed somehow muted or less real, apart from the pain of course.

"My apologies, but the bands were a necessary precaution at this point."

Seated across from him was Dawn, again flashing her usual smile that seemed to be growing increasingly sarcastic, if that was even possible. It just felt hollow, like something she did when she wanted to give a sense of comfort while masking her true feelings. This day just seemed to be getting worse by the minute.

"I assume you're still unable to speak," she began, "and thus this is the perfect opportunity to educate you a little more about what just happened this morning." She made a slight gesture and the room faded away until it was just the two of them in a pale blue room. "There are two general forms of magic in the Multiverse - the controlled and structured magic that can be learned or channeled through talismans and artifacts and the wilder, natural kind that pops up randomly across the infinite planes. The Gossamer Order is built around a central power source - The Nexus of All Realities - and all members are gifted to access to its powers and are trained to harness it as needed."

The room shifted and turned into the starry blackness of space and there were two distinct shapes moving through the gloom. "Universes are interesting things - they are defined to be everything and yet there's more than one of them. In fact we don't even know how many there are. Their individual existence is so unique and absolute that when two universes come into contact with one another, they cancel one another out and revert into raw energy - something turning into the original cosmic elements that they were formed out of." Behind dawn the two shapes collided and there was a violent flash of light as the overlapping edges began to blur and explode into light.

"The universes continue to exist but anything caught in the overlap simply cease to be - it's as if they were never there to begin with. Entire histories shift within the blink of an eye and no one will remember what had come before. It's just a consequence of how things work. In time, the two cosmic planes may continue to drift and shift and the overlap may disappear and thus everything will be restored. It's a lot more complicated than that, but I'll leave things at that for now."

Once more the scene changed and the colliding cosmic bodies were replaced by constantly shifting image of the Tower. "The Nexus was created by the One, the first of the Order and he who gave us our charge. He pulled all the planes together at this one point and bound them with the Tower. The Tower harnesses the raw energies of this constant overlap and we in turn bend these forces to our will. The nature of the Nexus also allows us to travel through the ether to any of the connected planes and thus we have access to all of the Multiverse from this one location. All this was done so we could fulfill our mission, our sacred duty to maintain the balance."

All this time, Faraker could feel his strength beginning to return. His throat didn't seem to burn as much as he breathed and so he ventured a question. "This morning..,?" he faintly croaked, his vocal chords still not fully up to the task of regular speech.

"This morning Gorval was trying to teach you to attune yourself to the energies of the Nexus, but instead he inadvertently helped you discover other talents we had not detected. Unlike members of the Order and most living beings across the Multiverse, you do not need runes, incantations and ancient relics to tap into magical energies latent in all creation. Somehow you are one of the very few who are naturally attuned to the Multiverse and you are readily able to to draw upon its powers. It's a very powerful gift and thus also a dangerous one. This is why we've bound you - in order to prevent another incident like this morning."

"Why?" Faraker asked.

For a fraction of a second, Dawn's smile cracked ever so slightly and the young man caught a glimpse of the sadness behind her grin. She quickly recovered and responded rather somberly, "I'm sorry Faraker, but the Order does not look highly on beings like yourself. One of the charges of the Order has always been to seek out innate magic users and contain them, ensure they do not gain full control of their abilities. There have been horrible...incidents, in the past, cases involving natural magic. It wasn't their fault, they didn't know any better but their lack of control led to many deaths. The worst incidents resulted in entire planes being lost as they drew too heavily on their powers and disrupted the very balance of their universe. We still don't know how to instruct such individuals in the use of their powers and have instead developed ways of keeping the rest of the Multiverse safe."

She took his hands in hers, her fingers barely touching the cold metal bracelets he had been forced to wear. "These will stay on until the Council decides your fate. That could take centuries of careful deliberation or perhaps even a matter of hours. I'm so sorry, Faraker. I did not see this in your fate. I should have been more cautious in bringing you here."

"I fear, I may have just sentenced you to die simply for being who you are."

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You have to admit it's pretty fun when your mind wanders into strange new worlds.