Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 34,587 words. It's the home stretch my friends, and of course I'm getting nervous as heck about whether or not I'm going to make it all the way to the finish line in time. I'm still behind in terms of the estimate daily quota by at least another 3,000 words and given the work week is already starting, I know that I'm going to have some challenges with squeezing in enough writing time before the month (and thus he "competition") ultimately ends.

Gaming day was good, as always. It also helped that Adrian and Nabs were okay to stay a bit longer this time around so even if we started yesterday's session rather late, we still covered a lot of ground and got a fair amount of gaming done. Plus Mahar had come from a wedding and brought along some fortune cookies and buko pie to help make the game day a lot more...flavorful. Or something - I'm sure there's a better word for it, but it fails to come to me right now.

Today has been largely light. Tobie and I woke up in the afternoon and that gave us time to check on online stuff, prepare some more for the upcoming Trinity game that we'll be starting soon with other gaming group and eventually a nice dinner of munggo while watching George Lucas' THX 1138. It was a pretty impressive movie that had me thinking about similar films like A Clockwork Orange and even Equilibrium but with an entirely different level of mind-fucking. And here's me thinking that Lucas was just a good conventional storyteller who sticks to movies with more mass market appeal. It now almost seems like a disappointment that he doesn't make more movies similar to THX.

On a bit of a side note, I got into an interesting IM conversation last night with a friend of mine about developments with his ex. It's odd to think that I can now more directly relate to such conversations since I've actually been through the transition from one relationship to another. I'll not go into details in terms of what was discussed, but in summary it was more of the usual observations of how people behave after a break-up, especially in a social-networking environment. It's perfectly understandable for the most part but at times it certainly doesn't make things any easier to deal with but that's life and all that. Funny - I've gotten so used to giving relationship advice over things I may not have had direct experience with but at the very least now the post break-up routine is something that I have better insight about.

So there.

Work looms on the horizon and I still want to experiment with this Sew No More fabric glue to see if it's any good. Wish me luck!

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I love the guy with a hat - as far as recurring xkcd characters go, he's a genius!

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 33,328 words. I've made some fairly tremendous progress in the course of the night (despite my lack of sleep) and perhaps more largely because of my sheer stubbornness and determination to get more done. I'm on the fifth "chapter" of the book and I need to start thinking about wrapping up the whole thing soon enough.

So yes, my hectic, tiring, stressful Saturday ended with a night of writing. Well that and cooking a nice big pot of Mexican Relish to make me feel better and to help me re-energize. Archer was amazingly supportive and he massaged my aching legs and feet (multiple times, I must guiltily admit) in order to help work out all the kinks I developed in my multiple train rides. But despite all the commuting, a little rain and an emotionally heavy day, I think things worked out well enough...for now. I think I mentioned this in yesterday's entry that it will still need a lot of work (albeit, in a highly cryptic manner) and I'm sticking by that assessment. I say this with no sense of regret or anything of that nature - just acknowledging what will be needed in the times to come.

So yes, a night of writing and Archer massages really helped me along and made me feel better and eventually more recharged. Eventually my body wasn't willing to work with me anymore given more than 28 hours of being awake and so I relented in slept.

I got up this morning to write some more and eventually Tobie and I had a fun leftovers lunch instead of cooking anything new. We got around to finally watching Doctor Who: Waters of Mars and it was quite the heavy piece. I was surprised at what direction they seemed to be taking for the Doctor, but then again things resolved themselves well enough in the end. Thus there remains the matter of his eventual death, which had been decided on ages ago and how the fans will ultimately react to the new Doctor just around the corner.

Today is gaming day - perhaps the final thing that I need to fully get out of the heaviness of yesterday. As always, the gaming group is gathered and we've just gorged ourselves on pizza, fortune cookies and buko pie. Ah yes, the night is young and I still have A jabberwocky to kill - or five. Argh.

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A little something for all my diabetic friends, hehe.

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 26,726 words. I would have made more progress had I not gotten obsessed about recreating the Aeon Trinity character sheets in Google Docs for my other gaming group. We're preparing to start a new game using this system and I'm pretty excited - it's time for some science fiction gaming action! But yes, I will keep working on my story, too.

Work continues to be rather interesting and busy in its own way. I still haven't gotten back to the on-going physical exam proceedings - when I took mine, the optometrist wasn't present. I hate the fact that I still need to go back to finish things, but then it's just one more step then I'll be in the clear. The only thing more than undergoing a annual physical exam at the office is to get a memo a month later if I didn't get it done. Bleh.

Today was another FAIL in terms of trying to wake up Tobie after shift. I got home close to 09:00am and ended up falling asleep beside him while trying to read the Trinity source book. We fully woke up hours later at around 02:00pm, which meant (1) I had pretty much met my quota in terms of sleep for the day, (2) but I was doomed to getting sleepy in the middle of my shift later and (3) we scarcely had enough time to get our original errands done for the day. After some consideration, we opted to push through with things and made our way out for the weekly grocery run.

Originally, the first step was to pass by the bank to deposit money for our respective accounts but given how all of this was very outside our normal routine, I stupidly forgot to bring my money with us when we left the Sietch. So scratch the bank ran, at least for today. Then it was off to Shopwise to restock our rather sad-looking larder and we ended up getting a significant amount of meat for the day. Normally we get a lot more veggies, but then they didn't look too amazing plus it wasn't discount produce Tuesday. Given the contents of our cart though, it might have been a wee bit better to have gone on discount meat Thursdays, but too late for that now.

At least we got that major errand finally out of the way.

So now we're back to full operating capacity and I'm already in the process of cooking some pork afritada for our pre-shift dinner. See your cabinets and the fridge full of food again is rather comforting and it definitely ranks up there with the feeling of satisfaction after taking a shower in a bathroom you just cleaned yourself.

Yeah, I guess I get a little weird that way.

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All of us geeks in the working world have probably felt this more than once in our careers by now. Meh.

Current NanoWriMo Word Count: 23,338 words! While I'm still under target (and I say this every day), I have to admit that I'm still overwhelmed with how much I've accomplished in just two weeks. It's practically amazing in itself - I never really expected that I would have gotten this far before trying it out and hopefully luck will be with me as I continue to press on to the end of the month and the end of my novel!

Of course I don't mind that I wasn't able to spend more of my Sunday writing given that at the very least we did get to push through with gaming! Despite other commitments on the same day, we opted to push through with Gaming Sunday. Mahar arrived at his usual times with a load of snacks to attack while Adrian and Nabs arrived much later and with Nina in tow! The action yesterday was pretty intense and there were a number of revelations all around. My character, Jack, is currently serving as king of the Seasonal Courts but is now trapped in Wonderland. I was trying to rescue Alice from the Red Monarch with Gil (Jill), Mr. Grin and the Mad Hatter assisting. I had some rather great rolls for the session, for which I am highly thankful for, but the worst is yet to come as I now need to kill around five jabberwockys and I can't figure out how to activate what I believe to be (but am not certain) the Vorpal Blade. Bugger it!

As is the way after the Sunday game, Tobie and I pretty much hibernated the day away although we got a little writing in before that along with an impromptu breakfast of hotdogs, Bicol express tuna and thymed potatoes. It was yummy, nicely filling and just enough to send us to bed rather fulfilled.

Today I made Filipino-style spaghetti, although not necessarily as sweet and definitely with more herbs and spices. In order to complete the desired taste, I did add olives, mushrooms and hotdogs and I'm glad Tobie enjoyed it, hehe. Yay for fun food!

This week is going to be busy for work, I expect. I'm also hoping to make more headway with my writing and to prepare for my new role as associate editor for TV for the New Worlds website. If there are people who want to write about science fiction or fantasy shows, feel free to get in touch with me and we'll see what we can do to include your articles or even links to your blog entries as part of the site!

Now it's time to squeeze in some more writing before I need to get ready for work in earnest.

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OMG, this reminds me so much of how we played computer games together as kids!

Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 21,602 words. Still short of goal, but it was a lot more than I expected to finish before heading out for Saturday night.

Last night was wicked awesome! What started out as simple dinner plans with a good friend turned into a really fun night! Naturally, alcohol was involved.

First, Tobie and I met up with Deo as scheduled at Gateway for dinner and conversation. Initial plans were to find a place where we could both eat and drink at Cubao, but given Deo was famished, we ended up at the Chicken Inasal at SM Cubao. We had a LOT of rice and jokes, banter and ridiculous conversation about school stereotypes, old friends and GLEE! Obviously episode 9, "Wheels," was just THAT good that it really impressed all of us so much. We topped off the dinner portion of the night with Blizzards from Dairy Queen and then it was off to Malate for some proper drinking.

We arrived at Malate REALLY early - like just before 12:00am early, and naturally the place was just starting to get busy. Nico was already there and so we he joined us for initial drinks as the rest of the crew eventually arrived. The night just continued on and Deo and I had fun, um, enjoying the performances of the "chorva" dancers (take note: male AND female dancers!), commenting on passers-by and of course the much needed OMG-I-know-that-guy moments. Of course there was even more drinking, dancing, playing iPhone games in the dark, photos and even dirty ice cream (good job, Fritz!)!

It had been AGES since I last went out drinking on a Saturday night outside of major event weekends and so it was quite a change of pace for me to get back into the Saturday night groove. The VIP area at O bar doesn't get as full as the main area and so I think as long as it remains open, Saturday nights at Malate might become a lot more reliable.

Oh, and just as we were going home, it turned out Jayson was at Malate too! We had a little time to catch up, exchange hugs and well wishes and of course the regrets that we didn't get to party together and the promises to make up for that some time in the future.

In other words, last night was just great! Perhaps we need to go out more...but not necessarily every weekend, haha. I might not be ready for that just yet.

Well, Mahar is here now and we're just chilling until Adrian and Nabs arrive for the weekly game. In the meantime, I'm going to try to get some NaNoWriMo writing done as I upload the photos from last night and perhaps a Geeky Guide entry to boot!

Oh, and I don't know why I decided to start using CAPITAL LETTERS in today's entry, haha. I guess this is part of my post-drinking behavior. =P

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Now THAT's rocking it old school! LOL

Current NaNoWriMo word count: 13,155 words. Still under the daily quota, but a lot better than expected. Tobie's challenging me to reach 20,000 words by the middle of the week and I haven't a clue how I might manage that. Still, this whole NaNoWriMo exercise is definitely invigorating and I'm glad that Tobie convinced me to try it this year.

Yesterday's game was pretty awesome. After not playing for two weeks, it was definitely a welcome return to geekery plus the story continues to get more and more complex. I narrowly escaped death while trying to negotiate the surrender of the Seasonal Courts, made Maleficent fall in love with me, which became a distraction for Captain Hook (who now has the powers of the Tooth Fairy) to go all red hulk on her and ate her. I escaped to Wonderland and made Peter Pan's crocodile fall in love with me in order for the Mad Hatter to prepare some tea. That's the best synopsis I can write, and that's just for my plot thread. That hardly factors in Adrian dealing with his new godhood, Nabs coping with her evil twin and Mahar trying to figure out what to do with his twins, one who is now human and totally forgets his character because he made her forget and the other who looks like Ian Somerhalder, but blond.

Yeah, just another typical gaming day because of Tobie. And don't get me started on Sora and Kairi making an appearance.

I spent the rest of the night managing my recently downloaded files, writing more of my novel for NaNoWriMo, enjoying a late night meal of friend giniling with potatoes, carrots, peas and some egg on the side and eventually sleeping earlier than I'd have liked. Today was getting the laundry done, making chicken tinola for dinner without the ginger (since I ran out), watching two more episodes of Community with Tobie and taking photos all the while. I'm definitely getting back into my photography groove but definitely aching for a much more powerful camera again. Ah well, I'm sure I'm bound to find a good camera sale in time for the holidays or something.

Current gadget wish list: a nice mega zoom bridge camera like the Sony Cybershot H50 or HX1 and a netbook like the Asus EEE 1005HA. Ah credit card, you'll get your chance soon enough...

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It's strips like this one that really remind that (1) I'm such a geek and (2) I love xkcd.

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.

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

Today's the birthday of one of the more recent additions to the team of people that I handle at work, Niña! Happy Birthday to you! Hope you enjoy your day off.

I'm awake past 2 in the afternoon on a Monday, which of course is theoretically a bad thing given I work nights. Then again, it seems to happen fairly often enough given that we spend Sunday gaming most of the day and thus end up sleeping Sunday night, all beat from the day.

Yesterday's game was essentially a "season ender" in TV terms given it was our 13th episode for this particular game and the holidays next week prevent us from gaming for that particular weekend. A lot of storylines were tied up fairly neatly while even more were set up and left as cliffhangers, naturally. There are a lot of unanswered questions that we're all going to have to deal with when we finally get around to gaming again, so in the meantime we're left to strategize and attempt to figure out the best course of action moving forward.

Today has been fairly light and thus it still feels like the last moments of the weekend. Tobie and I woke up fairly late (past 10am) and only got out of bed closer to 11am. Given the time and the grumbling of our stomachs, I decided to whip up a quick brunch with the limited ingredients that we had left in the fridge. This resulted in some mushrooms fried in olive oil, oregano, peppers, garlic and onions, some pork steaks seasoned with butter, garlic, onions, salt, pepper, rosemary, oregano and basil, and some steamed okra and sliced tomatoes on the side. It wasn't anything amazing, but it tasted pretty good. It was my first time to experiment with mushrooms in that manner and I was really happy with the results. It's certainly something worth repeating, perhaps in greater quantities in case we ever entertain guests.

Over lunch and a little afterward we watched Proof, which I had never managed to see over the years. Apart from the geeky eye candy that is Jake Gyllenhaal, the movie had a pretty interesting story and I liked it a lot. Plus I can see why Gwyneth was nominated for Golden Globe for her performance in this film since she was pretty stellar. You spend most of the movie wondering whether or not she was starting to go crazy like her father or was just that brilliant. The movie had me feeling the urge to bring out my Calculus book (TC7) and solve some equations for the heck of it. I know, it sounds pretty lame but I do find solving math equations fun at times. It's a nerd thing.

Oh, and there was a nice Archer moment earlier today. Archer and I was just lazing around on the mattress that acts as Sietch Creare's pseudo couch for now and we were just all quiet. As always, the silence was filled with various thoughts running through my head and of all things I started to think about defrosting the fridge since it was looking a little icy, but also somewhat empty and thus defrosting wasn't unrealistic. Just as I was forming the words that I would say in my head, Archer blurts out that he thought we needed to defrost. Seriously. The whole exchange between my thoughts and his words just had me laughing out loud and tearing up at the same time. No matter how many times things like this happen that seem to be too frequent to be coincidence, I don't think I'll ever get totally used to it. The whole thing just reminds me of one of the many, many reasons that I fell in love with Archer.

Ah life.

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Now THAT is truly tactical gaming! LOL