November 20, 2006

Hot TOEInty Anime!

This picture probably summarizes the spirit of the event. It's Michael V being smothered by a Shigi-shigi girl.

TOEI Philippines celebrated its 20th Anniversary with a bang. The day was filled with events for everyone like Fan Art Contests, Anime Dubbing and the anticipated Group Cosplay.

There was the group doing 'One Piece', displaying some well choreographed matches. Third place went to 'Saint Seiya', Second place to a Robot mix team and First Place unquestionably went to 'Shigi-shigi Sputnik' who impressed the crowd with their version of 'Shaider'.

'Trance' a vocal group sang 'Mayonaka no Door' which, unfortunately not a lot of people know about. I'm thankful that they performed it, but I guess I'd still prefer if Liu Yi Fei had sung it.

I added 'HOT' as a description because the venue was open-air but painfully hot/humid. A better/bigger venue or at least industrial blowers could have made it a lot more enjoyable.

The rest of the pics are here.

November 19, 2006

'Canon' Fodder

Nope, exactly the opposite. Canon is serious about its commitment to customer service, not leaving you alone once you buy one of their products. Here's a little story with regards to my 350D.

Cameras and lenses are sensitive to prolonged exposure to humidity. I learned this the hard way after around 4 months, I noticed snowflake like crystals growing in the inner elements on my 18-55mm lens. I postponed getting it checked at the Canon service center, anticipating that it might take too long.

I recently bought an EF 50mm 1.8 II lens and needed to submit the warranty form. I took this chance to have the camera and 18-55 checked as well. The head service guy definitely had a frown when I showed him the lens, but they took it in and told me to wait as much as 7 days.

Alas, 24hours later I received a call from Canon telling me that my stuff is ready for pick-up. I went there the next day and w00t, a new/replacement lens. The best thing about it? I didn't have to pay for anything :D

On a side note, the sensor cleaning wasn't perfect. I still see 4 medium dots and a large one. It's a lot better that if I do it myself so that's fine.

November 18, 2006

Batista vs. Superman

Ask any pinoy kid and they'll tell you Superman's got no chance :))
(smallville S06E08)

November 07, 2006

Mayonaka no DOOR by Liu Yi Fei

This is the first end song of PowerPuff Girls Z
I simply love this song, and I'm putting it up since they decided to use a new one.

November 06, 2006

Ham or Egg?

In a recent episode of Grey's Anatomy, a character made an analogy between relationships and food. He said that the level of commitment is either from a pig, which goes all out resulting in ham... or a chicken which safely lays eggs.

I've been laying eggs, and its painful that I realize it now. How do I turn myself into a ham person?

edit: Ham means going into a relationship/endeavor in full-blast. A pig's life ends when it is decided that food will be the outcome. Nothing half-assed.

November 03, 2006

SONOLUMINESCENCE


SONOLUMINESCENCE:
The Music When the Lights Go Out
The PSHS Fair Concert 2006

Other [Pics]

November 02, 2006

GRAW: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

A friend of mine has been raving about this game for quite some time. I first had a go at it when we tested the PCs in his shop:GAMESquad Internet (along Kamuning Ave). GRAW is badass, addicting and extremely hungry. The game play is geared for true strategy and teamwork. Imagine having to properly plan the weapons to bring, team positions, map routes and avoiding heavy armory.
Story: The plot is set in 2013 where a coup in mexico occurs and not only is the mexican president in danger, but so is the US president himself. You (Capt. Mitchell) and your ghost are sent all over the place, given insane objectives and ultimately need to recover a briefcase that can shake the whole world.
Likes: It's both a First Person Shooter(FPS) and a strategy game. There are missions that commanding 3 other ghosts is crucial to the success of the mission, and at others you're just a lone warfighter trying to beat the odds. Fun moments are getting to control flying observation drones, using ZEUS heat seaking rocket launchers, ordering airstrikes(reminds me of starcraft), calling forth Apache choppers, commanding tanks, and just bursting forth as Rambo.

Dislikes: Sometimes the ghosts act like stupid pricks who can't even follow a simple order, but most of the time they're freaking brilliant. To avoid lag and to speed up the game, you have to look down so that the system doesn't have to render a building lightyears away.

Hungry! This game has insane PC minimum requirements:
* Processor: Intel or AMD, 2 GHz
* Memory: 1024 MB RAM
* DirectX: DirectX9.0c
* Graphics Card: 128 MB DX9.0c compatible card (GeForce 6200 or higher, Radeon 9600 or higher)

So even with my system: AMD64 3000+ , 1.5GB RAM and GeForce 6600 128MB... there are still crappy moments.

All in all, it is an amazing game... if you have enough CPU and GPU power to run NASA. I wouldn't mind playing the game in unrendered 3D because the story and the challenges are awesome.

If you want to see how good it is, try this trailer and this.