I forgot yesterday was Towel Day. Bugger. Belated greetings fellow hitchhikers!

We got a fair amount done today in terms of the apartment. Tobie picked me up from work since he had gone back to his parent's place to get more of his things. This time around he divided everything into smaller, individual bags filled with DVDs, RPG source books, comic books and other novels. Oh, and game boards! How could I forget those? So yeah, there's a huge pile of geekery growing along the wall that is in desperate need of organization yet we are still sorely lacking in terms of actual storage space and shelving. We'll fix that problem soon enough.

Today my mini-project was setting up the new TV along with my pre-existing home theater system. It took some time and some dedication from my microfiber cleaning mitt, but eventually I got it working in a decently aesthetic arrangement. For now the surround speakers are stuck in front until we can figure out an efficient way to mount them or secure them behind where a couch should be, but it's not so bad. Tobie had an extra mattress he got to bring over and it now functions as our pseudo couch.

What is it about moving that turns any new apartment into a pseudo Japanese arrangement with almost everything being very, very close to the ground? Seriously?

So now we have the computer set up (sans an internet connection), the TV and the DVD home theater system (with sad surround speakers in front), the small fridge running, the water dispenser now giving nice cool water all the time and the bathroom all nice and tidy. The bedroom has...a bed, and a little CD cabinet re-purposed into a pseudo bureau where I stash watches, personal effects and my one million contact lens cases. Pao also came by today to help us with the installation of our new door knob and we just need to wait for someone more professional to install our dead bolt as well.

Today Tobie's folks come home, so he'll have to spend the day in the South, more or less. That leaves me to settle the arrangements for other utilities, get my clothes organized and out of their bags and boxes and perhaps get some internet time at Fandom. Sadly, I really do miss Facebook and my other social network activities, haha. And coffee. Sigh.

One thing at a time - Sietch Creare (as we're now calling it) will become a fully-functioning geek condo soon enough.

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I would SOOO love to do this in a meeting sometime, haha.

Well folks, we did it. After quite a few trips and creative packing, carrying and guard negotiations, we've pretty much migrated the major stuff to the new place in Cubao. It doesn't mean we're all set up or anything - it just means that the things have been physically relocated to the new unit.

Most of Sunday was spent unpacking the boxes that were dominating the living room area like some strange cityscape. Eventually, areas started to become defined and we ended up with setting up key areas for the comic books, the toys, the DVDs and the various collectible card games. The second bedroom has been tagged as a sort of changing room / walk-in closet for now and the bathroom and main bedrooms are more or less set up.

Tobie's comics are in a sizeable collection of "polyboxes" as we keep calling them, which are pretty much modular plastic drawers that can be stacked and reconfigured in a variety of ways. They currently line the wall and are also a potential area to put some of my better-looking toys on display once I get them cleaned up. The cards are now all secured inside this octagonal coffee table Tobie brought from his place so you can look down and see the cards that you might want to play with.

My books are still going to stay in the boxes until we can figure out some shelving solutions. Plus there's the multitude of DVDs, VCDs and CDs that still need to be moved from Tobie's place, along with a few more furniture pieces like the poker table and some chairs. The place really has a long way to go - heck, it still needs a name. I'm really thinking it would be nice to have the name represent our respective fandoms somehow and my main suggestion placed on the table is to call the place a "sietch" and then have the proper name come from Tobie. We'll see.

Today we stepped out to get a few more essentials like a scrub brush for the toilet and a better mat for just outside the bathroom. I also got one of those steam brush thingies to act as my iron and more little touches here and there. The big thing was getting a water cooler / heater / dispenser and a TV that's compatible with my DVD home theater system, and we snagged a pretty good deal at SM Appliance Center. There's more of a story there in terms of the appliance selection process, but I'll get to that at another time, I guess, hehe.

Tomorrow I'll be mopping the whole place (since we only bought a mop today), assembling the TV table and getting the new TV hooked up with the home theater and perhaps get the last of my utilities scheduled for installation. I really miss internet at home - how else will I check Multiply and play my Facebook games? LOL

But yes, the move is largely finished and the place is pretty much habitable. This is where it all starts.

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You have to admit, cheer rallies can be pretty stupid.

First, a very Happy Birthday to one half of the second-most baduy geek couple in the NWA, Oneal. Happy Birthday Oneal! Sorry we couldn't make it to your ice-skating musical extravaganza, obviously was busy moving stuff. Oh wait, it's not that obvious yet. Darn, spoiler alert?

So yeah, I moved out. Had I been in the same state of mind I was at the start of the week, I probably would have been a wreck and all awash with emotions and a lot of second-guessing. But then the week progressed in a way I totally wasn't expecting and despite the ups and downs, I guess it turned out for the best. As I like to say more and more these days, everything happens precisely as it should.

Let's rewind a bit further.

So today I finished the last of my packing over at Vella. It no longer felt like the heart-wrenching activity I thought it would be (or feared it would be?) but it doesn't mean it was easy. It was physically daunting in the sense of the sheer number of things that needed to be packed away in a somewhat organized manner. And of course it was just somewhat emotionally draining to some degree, as are all moves. Change is never perfectly easy whether big or small and this particular migration of sorts is pretty big as things go. Still, I felt this particular move was really important and needed to get done. It's just...one of those things, you know? One of those key events in your life that no matter how difficult, you have to take this particular path. That's life for you.

Jayson was nice enough to come by to keep me company and help out here and there. I really needed someone to talk to and sort of process some of the things I was thinking of, especially within the last 2-3 days. Jase is always a great person to talk to and one you can trust to give you very candid and direct advice when you most need it. And I got my packing done too.

Tobie eventually arrived to help transport the stuff over to Cubao. It took quite a few trips to and from the SUV he had brought, but soon we more or less got everything packed. Then it was off to Cubao to at least unload the stuff with the promise of actually sorting and organizing things left for tomorrow. That wasn't too bad given the assistance of the guards of the building and in time we got the stuff loaded although the place is still a mess. That was no small feat considering we had to unload all my stuff and all the things Tobie had brought along in a second van.

After we opted to rest and have a little something to eat over at Vella. Ryan and John had been generous enough to send me off with some pasta for dinner and that certainly came in handy considering how famished we were after all the moving. A number of geeks were there too since they had come from another geek event earlier in the day and it was nice to just relax and enjoy the company of friends, many of whom can be considered as our "neighbors", relatively speaking.

We still have more stuff to move over tomorrow (like this computer) and I'm certainly looking forward to setting up the new place. It really feels like a good start to things and definitely a great beginning.

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Oh yes, we have operatives EVERYWHERE. NYAHAHAHA!

I just realized I had greeted Freddy a day early. Oh well, I guess I'm not yet fully acclimated to be back on night shift thinking or something. Here's one more Happy Birthday for Freddy just to make sure, haha!

The moving preparations continue to progress well enough. Apart from the physical packing of things to bring and the much calmer discussions with Brian |kitchengod| about how to divide certain shared collections, I've started making the phone calls to get my essential services moved from Vella to the new place in Cubao. It seems safe enough to assume we'll be moving to the new place over the weekend in order to get fully settled i by the end of next week so it's a pretty decent time to start scheduling these things.

I've first called SkyCable to get my cable service moved for a hefty P2,000 fee (the same as new service), but at least I'll be back in a DigiBox area, which means a much clearer picture. I'll also have the option to customize the cable package a lot more with individual add-on channels so I plan on downgrading back to Silver and just adding the channels I liked in their Gold package, which are Discovery and Animal Planet, along with History, which is currently a Platinum offering. I'll have to wait for the new service to be set up at the new location before making changes to the package though, so that'll be after Friday next week, which is when my appointment is set. I have to admit that I've yet to have a problem with dealing with their customer service team - nice one, SkyCable!

I then called Globelines to schedule a disconnection date for the wireless broadband service we have here at Vella. That wasn't a very good experience, to say the least, and my problems are on-going. First, you can't disconnect a service over the phone - you need to submit a written letter to one of their business centers instead. Second, apparently there's an early termination fee that applies since I'm canceling within my lock-in period when the agent who initially signed me up stated there was no lock in. Darn it! To cancellation penalty is a whopping P1,990, which is equal two month's worth of service fees on top of any pending balances I might have for the remainder of my service term with them. I considered the possibility of moving my service, but that involves a service fee of P1,890, which is ridiculous for a wireless service that does not involve cabling or significant installation expertise on the side of a technician. Given how the service isn't at all great for extensive downloading, I'm in no mood to retain it and thus I'm probably better off killing the darn thing entirely. I'll see if I can get them to waive the cancellation fee when I go to the business center over the weekend.

That just leaves setting up an install date with Bayantel for their DSL service. I already have the forms filled out (as emailed to me by their customer service / sales group) and it's just a matter of sending it over with the document requirements and settling the initial payment. I'm hoping I manage things to be as seamless as possible in order to get fully set up as soon as possible, but then again these things are bound to take time, of course.

All this is what I tend to consider to be the easy part. The harder bit will always be the actual packing, the moving and then the dreaded unpacking. Moving is such an exciting and frustrating process since there's always the buzz of new things and the challenge of trying to figure out where to put everything and finding a proper place for everything you decide to bring with you. It'll be an interesting month ahead, but then I'm pretty confident things will go well. Fingers crossed!

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You have to admit, it's a weird process for nature to develop, hehe

First, Happy Birthday greetings for one of my high school classmates, Jon, and for my long-time officemate Chanteuse! Happy Birthday you two!

Last night I hit O Bar with Archer and it was fun as always. The place seemed a lot warmer than usual, although that may have just been a combination of (1) the weather, (2) the alcohol in my system and (3) the amount of people at O Bar last night.The Sunday crowd always seems decently sizable but not to the point of total claustrophobia or suffocation and of course good-natured enough to enjoy the often campy drag shows that take place. Not many of the usual gang was there but at least I got to see our "anak" Nico after far too long. House mixes were good as always and the drag shows were certainly entertaining. It would have been nicer to have other friends there too, but then I have to admit Archer kept me plenty distracted and ridiculously happy / giddy / gushy the whole time.

I went home to Vella today and will pretty much be staying here the whole week. I've started to pack things for the move and thus far have already finished with the books, more or less. I've filled up 3 sizable boxes with some of the more irregularly shaped ones still in need of a home. The sorting went relatively easy except for the Incarnations of Immortality books - both Brian |kitchengod| and want them and for now they remain on the coffee table. I'm not yet sure how we'll resolve the conflict - perhaps a dice roll is needed?

Now, given that we've been together for almost 8 years and have been living together for almost 6 years, the property lines can really blur. What complicates matters even further is the fact that when we started living together I had totally consolidated our funds into a central pool in order to balance the budget. Thus all purchases were practically joint and if you really wanted to argue how the property lines call, you could probably end up with a strict adherence to the titular property lines or more creative alternatives like who really used it or what was the intention in terms of buying it - was there an intended recipient or user at the time. Or you could take the Solomon solution of slitting everything into two by selling everything then dividing the total safe value equally amongst the concerned parties. It sounds so much simpler that way, but it's not really.

Given that I was the one who did the actual breaking up, naturally Brian is trying to move on in his own way and at his own pace. Our methods are very different but they complement where we're from and who we are as individuals. When it comes to the physical property in the apartment, Brian originally stated a blanket statement that he would be keeping everything that he had a personal connection with, which technically speaking is pretty much everything at Vella.

Initially I was willing to pretty much leave everything with him apart from my books, the DVDs / movies he'd agree to let me have, my clothes and the home theater system. With the move to Cubao coming closer and closer, I got around to thinking about this situation more and more. Here I was starting a new life in a new location with a new apartment and then for some reason I'm unable to offer more to the flat apart from the recreational items previously mentioned. Somehow, leaving all the appliances (i.e. TV, fridge, electric oven, coffeemaker, rice cooker, computer) and all the furniture (bed with bed frame, sofa set, dining table set, coffee table, shelves) didn't that smart to me, and not to mention fair. I've been thinking about this concept over the past few weeks and considering this week is alloted for preparing for the move instead of staying with Archer, it was about time I said something about it.

I stated my case in terms of the things that we have and asked that I keep the computer when I moved and for now Brian is not very happy. He's rather upset with this "sudden" change in thinking on my part and why I'm suddenly trying to be fair only now when he feels that me taking anything isn't fair at all, given the condition in the previous paragraph. I don't want to start playing bigger cards like somehow invoking the law or something so I'm going to let Brian think about what I've said for now while I go about packing the things that are 100% definitely mine and not easily contested. I never expected this to be an easy transition, but what can you do when the person you're negotiating with refuses to see reason and only wants to remain in the realms of emotion-fueled decision-making. I'm not even trying to claim the Elba electric oven (which I'm still paying for in installments on my card along with his mobile phone) or any other more practical / essential appliance that I'll probably need at the new house. Instead I'm just trying to take a single luxury / entertainment item that I feel sort of attached to and have more of a claim to given it was initially paid for with my credit card.

Do I absolutely need the computer? Probably not. But then given everything else I'm leaving behind, everything else that I'll need to purchase again in order to restart my life along with the Cubao move, isn't this just a small thing to ask for? Maybe I should opt for some sort of a cash settlement instead, but how does one put a price tag on almost 6 years of shared property? How does one pose a logical argument to someone who doesn't want to see things that way and only sees the fact that (1) I was the one to most recently cause him pain (regardless of the pain I've experienced over the years) and thus (2) being the guilty party makes me somehow forfeit an equal claim on the things in the apartment.

I'll work through this somehow, I know I will. I just need to remain as calm and as logical as possible while discussing things. It's the only way to even being to approach remaining fair in this situation and not losing my temper and thus ultimately making rash decisions or statements.

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That's it! The Archer Defense System must be a tiger thing!

First off, dear birthday greetings to a very talented LJ friend. Happy Birthday Ice |the_cloverleaf|!!! Here's to wishing you all the happiness and may you continue to explore your talents and be recognized for the artist that you truly are.

I'm getting really buzzed about the move. While I know some things will still take time, I can't help but start thinking about how things are going to go and the general sense of excitement is hard to contain. It probably didn't help me remain calm that Apple was more than generous by giving us a complete set of plates, bowls and some cute little cups to help us start out. It looks like our initial motif is going to be blue, hahaha.

So let's determine what we have to start with.

In terms of appliances, we already have a decent TV, my home theater system, Archer's desktop and laptop, a few electric fans and his old fridge. We're probably going to eventually need a bigger fridge and a microwave. On the luxury front, I'll eventually like to get a coffeemaker, perhaps another Ultimate Chopper of my own. Oh, and of course we'll need to get set up with a gas range and ultimately the ability to actually cook decent food. Hello credit card!

For furniture it looks like we at least have a dining / poker table, perhaps a mattress and then I'm not sure what else beyond that. I guess it depends on what else Archer will be able to bring along. This means we're definitely going to need book shelves, something to display the toys on, chairs, a couch and of course we'll need a proper bed frame. Oh the lists go on and on, but we're happy about the challenge we're now facing in terms of turning the condo into a proper geeky home.

At least it's not a total reboot in terms of living arrangements, not like before. I'll be starting with a lot more than what I once did back in 2003 plus Archer is definitely a big help. Plus I know we also have the support of many good friends. I doubt everyone is going to be handing over complete sets plates and dishes, but every little bit counts. This includes everyone ranging from those offering vehicular support to those who just promise to visit and wish us well. It's nice to have geeky friends.

Tonight Archer and I are going to watch Angels and Demons, since he wants to see it and I'm a tad curious myself. The weekend is starting out well enough and I'm pretty excited about the fun yet to come. Before it was just a regular movie date but now we can probably justify it a bit more since we both won the recent New Worlds Star Trek caption contest! Man, we're really batting a lot luckier ever since we found each other. I guess this is just the sort of stuff that happens when you're truly happy.

Oh, and I've decided that I really need to learn how to cook soon. Any recommendations?

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Okay, no comment. Tee hee.

Scorponok is missing. =(

I gathered up all my Transformers today after not really paying attention to them for the longest time (bad, I know) and when I got them all together, it appears Scorponok was missing. Yes, the original G1 Scorponok that doubled as a city base. I'm not sure how something that big can just disappear and I suspect the movers who originally carted all of our stuff over to Vella may be the culprits. I felt they were a tad too shifty in some ways but then they're the only guys we had and it was a pretty frenetic day. I can totally imagine them putting him aside since he was in his own plastic bag. I also can't find my Armada Optimus Prime and Megatron (who was a lot better looking that the G2 Megatron), but then that doesn't bother me as much as the loss of Scorponok. Hopefully he'll come out when I really start packing my things for the move to Cubao but for now I'm starting to feel rather bad about it. He wasn't my favorite or anything - I just feel strongly about all of my bases. Well, the same goes for all my G1 Transformers. Okay, maybe all my Transformers, period. Sigh.

This entry will not be as well organized as it could be - I had only found out Scorponok was missing a few hours ago.

Last night Tobie and I dashed off for a pre-birthday dinner for Apple at their place. On the menu was a bunch of food ordered from Kitaro, purple highlights for Apple and some very hyperactive children. Dinner was awesome and dessert was nearly deadly, considering we had raspberry ice cream, chocolate covered potato chips (seriously!), and this really yummy coffee that had chocolate and raspberry too...I think it was raspberry. I forget now - there was just too much sugar at the time. We also had some champagne (since I declined beer) and things somehow ended up playing Guitar Hero World Tour and American Idol (the game). Fun night with friends yet again.

I paid for this by waking up really late and needing to render a later shift. At least it was a generally good work day with a lot of fun with the wiki I've built for the program. The client seems pretty happy about things and has also started directly contributing to the site, so we're pretty much good to go. It looks like I'll need to wean the agents off the local resources and have them shift to just using this shared wiki as their primary dashboard moving forward. Again, thank you Google Sites.

Ironically as I compose this entry, access to Google services seems to be...gone. Argh!

The moving plans are really coming to head and I think we've worked out the last kinks in the lease agreement and stuff. With that, we'll be making initial payments over the course of the weekend leading up to the actual move towards the end of the month. If all goes well, we'll be able to fully move into the place no later than the start of June, which of course is a very good thing. Archer and I are very excited about things and while I know this all seems way too fast, it seems to be precisely what needs to be done for us right now. I kid you not, as my father used to say a lot.

And that's all for now. Happy is as happy does.

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It takes a certain intelligence to take time travel seriously...or you just think too highly of yourself.

House Hunting Update: Based on the latest word from Pao, it seems there's a very distinct chance that the renovations for the Cubao apartment will be completed by the end of the week. Provided that's true and things look A-OK when Tobie and I conduct an ocular of the unit over the weekend, there's a very real possibility that we can start moving stuff over there and seriously getting the ball rolling in this fairly significant change in both our lives.

I have to admit how surprised I am in terms of how quickly things have come together in terms of the plan for this particular move. The place was pretty much a godsend - an amazing coincidence of timing in terms of our need and the departure of a tenant from Regalia Park Tower. While I never expected to be living in Cubao anytime soon, it just goes to show that you'll find what you need in the last place you plan to look. Beyond that, Tobie's done a lot of legwork in terms of opening a checking account, getting his cedula ready and getting help with the initial seed money. I've mapped out the budget, started to determine which utilities can be brought along with me and which ones will need to be replaced and things seems to be generally going well in that regard. We even have a few boxes ready so I can start packing away my stuff in preparation for my complete departure from Vella.

Many might argue that all this may seem a bit too sudden considering past events, but really things just seem to be moving at the right pace. It's not like we've been rushing things, mind you - they just keep falling into place without much effort. While many of you know my skepticism when it comes to notions like Fate and predetermination, but then things have been constantly happening to remind me that it can be all too real. The last time I needed to move, there was a serious effort to get out of Pasay given the theft. That involved pulling strings, calling in favors left and right and significant financial restructuring. This time around we didn't even look for a place that aggressively - the opportunity just came our way. The rest of it still took some work, but not the same kind of draining, frenetic activity like the last time. Totally worlds apart when I compare things and I can only wonder what kinda of a plan the cosmos has for us. Whatever it is, I can't immediately discern the long term strategy, but I can certainly feel the pulling and tugging from day to day that ensures we remain on the path that is somehow expected of us.

Okay, enough of that semi-mystical talk.

Needless to say, I'm both excited and slightly down because of the move. Change can be a good thing and it means opening doors to new possibilities and adventures. Then again, this move also represents breaking patterns and habits, needing to settle in again and this time around it also means leaving a lot of my past behind. While the memories will always be mine, one can't help but feel even the slightest pangs of loss in terms of the various things and physical manifestations of those memories and ideas.

But we all have to move on in our own way, I suppose.

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Yes, even geeks cry. =P