Beyond the Clouds

I decided to name this post in honor of the brilliant anime of the same title that I have just watched. It is an independent movie by Makoto Shinkai, who also made 'Voice of a distant star'. At last I found an anime that can rival, even exceed Macross Zero in visuals. Crisp, vivid and simply breathtaking. Some people found the story slow and underdeveloped, but for me, the pace and plot are perfect and complement the heart of the movie. I can't stop raving about how good this anime is, so try and get a copy and watch it yourself.


Wow, *nix based os :D




Screenie from Voice of a Distant Star

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Howl's Moving Castle
It is the latest movie release from Studio Ghibli with Hayao Miyazaki as director. The Ghibli magic is still alive and reigning. As good as it is, it falls only second from Beyond the clouds for this week.

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Fist of the North Star
This one is definitely a classic. It could possibly be Dragonball's predecessor. Damn bloody, gory and retro. Watch if you want some action and mutilation.

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Pokemon Heroes
You watch this... nonsense? Yes. I kinda like Misty so deal with it :)). Two guardian pokemons that protect a city. Not a bad PokeMovie.

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Ocean's Eleven
Now I get it. Ocean is the guy and collects 11 people to do gig. It was cool how Ocean can think N-steps ahead of anyone else.

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The Pretender
I really liked this series and used to watch it on chan.9. Jarod was amazing because he can become anything he wants/needs to be.

Partly, I've become like him... adapting to what I need to be. Just this week I've been: a MS Access Programmer, Plumber, Cutting Machine Technician, Laundry Man and what have you. But deep down I still question who I really am and what my true purpose is.

That is it for my extended weekend.

W Week 3

Work is going well, I suppose. Sometimes the hours fly by so quickly, at others painfully slow. Not being able to sleep early at night due to sidelines, I occasionally grab an energy drink to get me through. I'll get my energy rationing figured out soon so that I don't have to count on such stuff.

We're currently developing something but its going a bit too slow, so I tried to set-up another pc to solve the bottleneck. Problem is we're still waiting for the new pc to be authenticated by the people who house server(*sigh*). I wish that by Monday, we'll be able to work at an acceptable pace.

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Travel Blues 2
The FX ride rules! It gets me to Makati in 30-45mins. For P35 its saves me time and effort so its a no-brainer choice. I still travel via MRT-LRT going home though cause am still to locate their FX terminal in Ayala.

Another Death
Another pisay student falls prey to a hold-upper's knife. The only upside is that he went down but the girl was safe. Its an honorable way to go. It would have been better if the hold-uppers were the ones left dead though.

Knock-out
With Pacquiao's match coming up, I was in the mood to re-watch Hajime no Ippo(aka Knock-out). I'd have to say that I really like this series for its spirit and comedy. It portrays the life of athletes and people around them with such heart that it inspires the viewer that anything is possible with hardwork and a bit of confidence.

Clair's Spree
After the ruckus of the Digital Pinay thing, Clair gets featured again in inq7 as blog addict. Congrats :D

Ghibli Wallpaper
It's not that artistic, but I'm uploading it this wallpaper anyway in salute to the magnificent movies that Studio Ghibli has been treating us thru the years. My hat is off to you guys!

W Week 1: Review

I'm a bit happy that work is living up to my expectation, hope I'm living up to theirs. It is a bit dangerous to blog about work so I'll skip that and proceed to some other things.

Travel Blues:
This week I regularly experienced "sardine train". Due to time constraints, I have to be one of the crowd and squeeze in. As long as the train's aircon works well, it is not too bad. But if not, it is a steaming coffin. The travel time is good but the hassle may be too much. Will try the FX route this week.

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Naruto 124:
I liked this episode because of Rock Lee's taijutsu(close-range hand-to-hand combat). Its been a while since I've seen convincing fight scenes that dont involve chakra or long range skills.

Initial D Fourth Stage 11 & 12:
It is a real pain waiting for episodes of Init D to come out, but its always worth the wait. I'm still to like the new start and end songs, because the ones from 1-10 are so cool. The battle between the 86 and the cappuccino ends in ep 12 and the uphill between the levin and FD just started.

Samurai 7:
Due to this series being licensed at some point, it became hard to get episodes to complete it. I happened to browse the list in boxtorrents and found that some guy uploaded the whole series from a mix of fansub groups. I finished watching it last saturday and my only complaint is the pacing from the middle of the series to the climax. It was a bit dragging in that range then things started to happen too fast that it seemed too squeezed just to fit it in the 25th and 26th eps. Otherwise, its a magnificent series, worthy remake of the classic original.

W Day 0: Cleared

Today was the newbie orientation at company "I" where I arrived uncharacteristically late. This was due to MM: Monday and Makati. I was shocked at how congested and slow things are with respect to those two things.

I arrived at the MRT station in North Avenue to something that looked like a mass of people in rock concert. It took 20 min. to get from the streets to the ticket booth/train, but the travel time from north to ayala is thankfully fast and consistent.

Anyways, the orientation was ok so after a while I was able to leave. I grabbed a quick bite at "MS" and proceeded to one of the most feared pre-recruitement requirement: the medical. It wasn't half bad, it was nearing their lunch break so everyone was in a hurry. Blood, chest x-ray, ears, eyes, throat, *%^&$, #$%. Then samples of *&^ and @#^&. Not bad. Passed by CD-R king to buy blank DVDs then off home.

Home to Ayala: 1.5 to 2 hrs
Ayala to Home: 45 mins ... Huh?

Above is a route map of my options in getting to ayala.

• Orange: tried and tested route. Jeep to Muñoz, Bus to North Ave MRT. MRT to Ayala. Pro: 1 train ride. Cons: 2 traffic routes.
• Red: Freshly tried on my way home. Jeep to Blumentritt, LRT to Edsa/Taft, MRT to Ayala. Pro: Incredibly fast. Cons: human traffic(lines, train capacity)
• Blue: Untried. Jeep to Dapitan, FX to Ayala. Pros: Hassle free, reduced transfers. Cons: costly, untested.

Optimizing travel time/hassle/cost will be a good goal for the next few months.

K

I happened to watch Rated K (a show on channel 2) and I couldn't help but be distracted by the background music. They took them from 2 games that I have played already: Chrono Cross and Ragnarok Online. What were they up to by using game BGMs when their topics had nothing to do with games? We may never know...

Life ain't fair unless it's a fair or an affair

That doesn't make sense, right?

I didn't have something, so I yearned for it. It arrives in droves so I panic. So I'm sort of wishing I didn't have it. What is it? Work

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I went to the UP Fair last Thursday because my friends wanted to go. This was despite the news of a fight there a few days before, but lets face it, crowds and fights normally go together :)).

Funny thing is that upon entering the enclosure in the sunken garden, first thing on the right is a tent for frenzy (a brand of condom). It was complete with the frenzy commercial projected at the back and a guy at the front putting frenzy logo temporary tatoo on willing people. As I love freebies, I submitted myself to their survey. It was full of both stupid and/or personal questions that I answered while trying not to burst out laughing. As the freebie was random via draw lots, I got a neon green bandana, stickers, a carboard fan and 3 condoms. Anyways, I found out via their website that they also make the TRUST brand. Their saying goes "get into it" (eh? into what?).

Enough of that. There were great bands, amazing henna tatoo artists and lotsa food. Here's a pic of sugarfree from that night

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Affair? What's that gotta do with me? Nothing! :D

I am the Half-Blood Prince!!!

Not. Roy told me that Harry Potter Book 6 will be released on July 16, 2005. But I've known this because I've been keeping up with reliable and voracious sites like Leaky Cauldron , Mugglenet and JK Rowling's Official. Some other facts are:

• the Scholastic release will be 672 pages, which is thankfully shorter than OOTP
  
• three chapter titles have been revealed: Chapter Two: Spinners End, Chapter Six: Draco's Detour, Chapter Fourteen: Felix Felicis
• a list of most facts are jotted down here
  
• (movie 4) no kissing scene for harry/cho and hermione/krum (booo!)
  

I do hope National Bookstore entertains my request for book reservation once again (coz fans such as myself will be storming them at wee hours in the morning on that day).

Another One Bites the Dust

LokiTorrent, another popular bittorrent site, has been taken down. MPAA and other organizations are really putting their foot down.