Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 48,000 words exactly. Just 2,000 words to go with a full day left - whee! I can so do this! I just need to finish today's game, then I can go back to fully devoting my time to writing...that and continually tweaking this netbook. Yes, I'm now working from the notebook, hehe.

I'm actually right smack in the middle of a turn right now, but with midnight drawing close, need to get around to posting today's LJ entry. Yikes. So obviously this is not going to be a long entry nor am I 100% focused on my game turn right now. That's potentially dangerous too, but I need to get this done.

The desktop was behaving increasingly erratically last night and so I gave up and decided to move my activities to the netbook. This also involved the inevitable naming of the netbook and so now this Asus EEE PC 1005HA is now called Blacktron, in honor of my favorite part of the LEGO space line of playsets. I really, really loved the Blacktron LEGO line - they had some pretty awesome figures after all. I wasn't content with dealing with the restrictions of Windows 7 Basic and so I ended up totally geeking out online to figure out how to change the wallpaper and even the logon screen. So after a fair amount of twiddling and researching into different strategies for getting around those restrictions, figuring out what all these partitions on the EEE are for and of course looking for suitable background images.

So now I have custom background images with a massive Transformers battle for my default desktop and a close-up of the Autobot Matrix of Leadership as my logon screen. Even better, the core of the Matrix has somehow aligned with the profile icon box so it looks like whatever avatar I set for my profile (at the moment the same Soundwave icon attached to this LJ entry) is shining with the light of the Matrix. Sweet!

Sadly, Blacktron is in fact operating a lot faster than the desktop right now and I might actually migrate more of my activities to this unit. Hurrah!

Now back to the game!

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Damned if you do and damned if you don't. The evils of new managers at times! LOL

Current NaNoWriMo Word count: 44,784 words. This is it ladies and gentlemen - this weekend is going to be do or die for me in terms of my bid to finish NaNoWriMo this year. If you had asked me to write a 50.000 word novel a year ago, I probably would have said that you're insane and that I could never manage that given how I had been struggling with getting back into writing over the past few years. But here I am, roughly 5,000 words away from that goal and I've never felt this energized towards writing in years. I'm sure the novel in itself probably sucks and it's hardly anywhere near something that I'd think of as being one of my better works, but it's there and it exists and I'm doing to finish this bastard this weekend.

Of course this translates into not going out tonight or even tomorrow and pretty much just dedicating as much time as possible to getting it done, which I'm prepared to do. It also helps that Tobie is also writing a NaNoWriMo novel and thus we're both going to try and cross that 50,000 word mark together. We have barely 2 days left to get it done - we can do this!

Oh, but I have more news than just my NaNoWriMo target.

Today Tobie and I stepped out to pick up a few supplies from SM Cubao, which inevitably means going around the mall to look at stuff. I picked up two more Transformers today - the Animated versions of Jazz and Swoop, to help beef up my Autobot bench. They mark my 13th and 14th Transformers purchases for the year, which pretty much outweighs my total toy purchases within the previous 5 years or more. Of course I now actually earn enough money to buy toys like this as a major factor to this purchasing change, but in general I just seem to be at a better place in terms of my comfort with buying toys again. Plus they were only P300 each, so why not, right?

The major purchase this weekend was one of my tech goals for the year - getting a netbook. After much deliberation over the past few months, I finally went out to buy an Asus EEE PC 1005HA. I got the Windows 7 version with 2GB DDR RAM and the slightly larger 250GB hard drive to boot. I'm pretty excited about getting this fully set up, but of course with the need to accomplish NaNoWriMo, I'm sticking to using the desktop for now. Typing on that small keyboard is going to take a lot of getting used to and I can't afford to deal with a learning curve just yet. Maybe later.

Tobie helped me pick up a decent back for it as well - it's one of those single strap slings that don't really look like laptop bags given the number of pockets and compartments. I'm really happy with this purchase and I can't wait to get it fully configured for my needs.

Now if only I could get my hands on a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 before next Saturday's company Christmas party...

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Scratch Fury! Calvin and Hobbes reference! Squee!

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!

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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

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Damn, dirty evolutionists! ROFL

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.

First off, Happy Birthday to fellow geeky Dante and a friend his geekdom is in very different areas, Emer! Happy Birthday to both of you! Enjoy the sunny cheery weather today!

It's been a weird food week for me. The problems with the Northern vegetable distribution network because of the aftereffects of the recent typhoons has spiked up the prices of many greens in the city and has caused unusual shortages like McDonald's Spaghetti for some reason. It's a major pain and I find myself preparing somewhat meatier dishes this week. In order to adapt to that (to a limited degree), I tried to purchase mainly chicken and fish, although I have some leftover pork in the fridge waiting to be added to an eventual batch of munggo this week. Any day now...

I was looking over my collection of Google Docs today and started to consider organizing all this in a new location. I mean seriously, I have such a diverse set of documents and spreadsheets dedicated to various geeky endeavors. For example, I have poems by e.e. cummings, the lyrics to the theme songs of the different Marvel Superheroes cartoons from the 60's, all the poem-spells recited by the Visionaries (both for the cartoon and the comics) and a short story by Isaac Asimov. I have stories and poems that I've worked on over the years and I have a document dedicated to various text forwards I found humorous or poignant at the time. I have spreadsheets tracking all my finances, a mock directory for delivery numbers the customer service hotlines and I have various surveys / tests I've administered at work for my people.

Like I said, it was a pretty diverse collection.

I'm now considering migrating all of my geekier / independent / non-confidential content to a Google Site or maybe a collection of Google Sites so I can have them in a more public location and one that will lend itself to more attention than hidden in the depths of my Google Docs directory. I'll probably host the various sites using the Geeky Guide domain via Google Apps, which means very long but certainly unique URLs as opposed to using the main Google Sites platform.

I know, I know, this doesn't sound at all important, but it's my blog so allow me to process this "out loud," so to speak.

It's also an opportunity for me to organize all the recipes I've collected in my cooking adventures, some of which still exist as independent emails or on various pieces of paper that my mother has given me during my visits home. It's not organized at all, unless you count my creating a Gmail label "Cooking" as the penultimate form of order, and so perhaps a series of Google Sites will help me organize my recipes and my collection of geeky artifacts from around the web. Oh, and don't get me started on what's still stored in my Google Notebook, hahaha!

So whether the web needs more stuff like this or not, the idea of organizing all this still in the pseudo public eye is growing on me and I just might work on it over the course of the next few weeks. Of course this is apart from my work on the Geeky Guide itself, my daily LJ entries and the various bits of cooking and cleaning I still need to address here at the Sietch.

Ah yes, this is the life.

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Man...he's good. Folks at the office could learn a thing or three from him, hehe.

It's sad how every little change in the weather has us all on edge. Sad, but still unavoidable given the circumstances. A lot of our thoughts inevitably drift towards trying to comprehend the scale of last weekend's disaster while alternating things with the coming storms projected to pass through the country in the coming weeks. The slightest hint of rain, the first signs of darker clouds or just the increased humidity that makes us all think of rain has a lot of people more nervous than normal. This is really the kind of environment that will turn anyone into a believer in the divine. I keep talking about the inevitable shift towards fatalism given these conditions, and that is not a critique. It's just an observation of how human behavior tries to cope with such situations.

People truly amaze me right now. It's one thing to talk about hoping people will do good instead of expecting them to fail in terms of work performance and it's completely another thing to see it taking place all over the city, nay the country even. There's so much volunteering going all over the place and the scenes are enough to warm anyone's heart. Today I found out that the company is trying to figure out ways to extend additional funds to our most affected employees who are still without homes while at the same time releasing up to 50% of our 13th month pay way ahead of schedule to help everyone rebuild. It's wonderful how we're all pulling together in the face of adversity and we're doing so in a pretty strong manner.

Tobie and I were talking about this the other night in terms of how proud we all must feel to see our countrymen doing more than their share in all this, trying to go beyond what is expected. I remember all the footage of Katrina that made everyone seem so downtrodden and beaten after that hurricane. But now amidst the despair and the sadness, there's a lot of reason to hope for the country. Sure, we can't really trust the government for these sorts of things but at least we as a people are rising above this challenge together, and that's more important than any person in a position of power. When a nation can come together like this even just for this period of time, well, it speaks of pretty amazing power just waiting to be unlocked. Hopefully we'll find the right leaders soon enough, the kind that will truly inspire us to greatness and to be much more than we are now.

I don't care if news of the next disaster is probably going to take the limelight and make a lot of people forget about our plight - that's inevitable. This is not about showing the world what we can do but more importantly it's about showing ourselves what we're capable of. That's a much more important message to drive.

Totally unrelated story - I just got a call from Bayantel about my wireless landline phone. Apparently I've already reached a year's subscription and that makes me eligible for a P100 discount everyone month for the next 12 months. Of course the catch is for me to agree to stay on for an additional year or risk a penalty, which is essentially me extending my commitment in exchange for P1200. It's not a bad thing - US telecommunications companies do it all the time. It's just interesting to note how local companies are finally starting to learn from their foreign counterparts and are actually doing something to retain their customers. This definitely has pros and cons - I should know given I've worked in the back end of such environments. Either way, it's interesting and I'd like to see how this develops further as time goes along.

So yeah, I agreed to the deal.

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This is so Big Bang Theory S03E02! Schnapps! LMAO!

First, a very Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite special biology teacher (or she who punishes with Punnett squares) - Happy Birthday Ma'am Amy!

I will be going to work again tonight - although I realize this may be the only night that I shall go to the office this week - and despite the potential lack of time, I'm cooking munggo. Yes, I know, if I really want the beans nice and squishy, I really ought to invest in more time for soaking the beans and eventually boiling them. However (1) I really want some today for some reason, (2) it's already starchy so I don't necessarily need rice and (3) I like to use the fresh veggies as soon as possible, especially kangkong since it wilts so quickly. And so I made use of both burners today - one to boil the beans ASAP to cheat the softening process and the other for sautéing the meat.

The fall TV season in the US is in full swing now with the return of many crowd favorites. Glee started up a few weeks ago and has been turning many people into "Gleeks" - certifiably geeky fans of the musical show. Monday in the US this week marked the return of shows like House and Heroes but more importantly The Big Bang Theory. Oh yes, you can't get that much geekier than that show! This means it's going to be a very busy downloading period for many of us and we'll all have to keep close tabs on our priorities, hehe. Some shows will be mine to download for sure while others I'll task to Tobie instead. Delegation of piracy!

At the same time, I wanted to send out special kudos to Kristin Chenoweth for winning an Emmy this year for the now-defunct Pushing Daisies. Sure, the show may be dead (for now), but Kristin's performance for that season was just awesome and it definitely acts as clear evidence that this "little girl" was built for entertaining folks whether on the stage or on the small screen. Her movies haven't been that bad either, but she definitely needs to find her focus in the years to come.

I spent most of Monday night working on all the photos that I've taken this month. Sure, basic editing is pretty easy with the help of Picasa and Multiply has really mastered the art of photo storage for the masses (outside of Flickr that is). However Facebook remains to be a major pain in this department and you'd think that the world's most popular social network would invest some time in improving this feature. You know what I mean - you can wait hours and hours for all the photos to supposedly upload as the progress bar reaches the end only to be greeted by an error prompt stating that the upload failed in the end. I previously tried consulting Facebook support and they attribute problems with uploading when you have edited the image or something instead of its raw state fresh from the camera. Seriously, how is that supposed to affect the final image and whether or not the site can upload it? Facebook can be pretty weird at times, that's for sure.

Well, the munggo is almost done, I think. Definitely approaching that point when you add in the veggies at the last minute. I forgot to look for chili leaves, but at least I have sitao and kangkong. That should suffice for now.

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I know EXACTLY how he feels!