Some Things To Think About

I'm starting to make appointments now. Tomorrow there's a meeting with the debate club. And from June 1-3, there's a debate camp I was invited to join.

Honestly, I wanted to join the Debate Club(or was it society?) this past two years, but had too little time for it, after school during Thursdays and possibly other days. It seems that my English teacher(s?) believe that I'm "quite skilled" in debating. But that's compared to my classmates, my opinion on that is they aren't debating at their best because they aren't interested in debating stuff like Lapu-Lapu and Magellan. Yeah, definitely.

I find that the prospect of being on the debate team, ever so slightly, exciting.

I realize that I probably have only one(or two) people who read this blog, or even know about it. So, it's like a censored net diary, which a blog is partly meant to be. Other things it is meant to be depends on the user.

Anyway, we bought my school supplies a while ago and a new bag, it's still messenger style, red and black. I was looking for Initial D notebooks, but there weren't any, sob. I was hoping that they'd make some, since they made the sucky Filipino dub and all with the "future F1 racer" and "Ms. FMH sexist woman". There was a Tantra one though, Ragnarok ones have been around for at least two years.

I really want to finish the story mode in Wangan, there's only one opponent left. Reina and the blackbird guy with the slick hair.

That makes me think of cars. I want one... Preferably a Mazda RX-8, a black one. Like my main car on Initial D and my only car on Wangan. Although, I heard that rotaries are hard to maintain. Speaking of which, I was reading my mom's car's owner's manual. And, it seems that they have to explain the use of the button by the driver's armrest. Like the open all the door and the window buttons. But they had a do-it-yourself maintenance section. But all of this isn't really very relevant to me, yet.

Heck, I'm not even allowed to go to driving school yet. Next year that shall change!

Mood- Dedicated       Song- Destination Love- Black Power- Initial D Battle Stage

Once Again...

Well, what can I say? I'm back... again.

Have you ever experience that shaky, scared, and guilty feeling when you press a button on your armrest the airplane shakes? :D During our flight back home, I was pressing the channel and volume buttons at random but when I changed the volume the plane whined and shook. I couldn't help freezing up at that. When it went back to normal I just tucked my hands under my jacket and kept it there until we landed. :) Lol.

Ok, I take back what I said about sleeping being the only thing to do in Bacolod. If you've got friends around you can play card games like "Pusoy Dos" and "Take Two", also if you've got the game you could kill all your time with Word Factory and Monopoly. Though if you play against older, smarter, and more experienced players with luck, you could end up doing the punishment "to make things more interesting". But oh well. If it's just a friendly match, the hell with it. If it were a professional match with cash prizes, that's a totally different thing.

http://neopets.com/games/piratecaves.phtml I dare you to beat my level in one go. Just click the "Load User Level" and type my username "obssdgb". :P The water rises at an alarming rate.

We watched Xmen the Last Stand a while ago... oops, again it's yesterday. I really liked it, though the exposure of some characters were pretty much minimal that they shouldn't even be on the poster. An damn, Rogue's actress should be prettier. She hardly showed up in the movie, and she has the coolest powers! Yeah, I noticed that everyone I've asked would want Rogue's power if they could have the choice. Though it is shown that her powers have a downside.

Bumpcars are fun... I feel like I'm spamming out of boredome. <<>

Honestly, even though I usually spend a lot of time annoying my little nephew I really missed him in all his cute shaved-headness. Gosh... I'm so auntish now... Eew...

Mood- Scratchy       Song- Mr. Clay- Bamboo- As the Music Plays

Games and Anime

Well, once again I'm so bored that I post just after I publish one. Yawn... It's almost 2... Oh well, like I care.

So far I've caught 2 episodes, I think, of Fullmetal Alchemist, and what can I say? It's got very nice graphics, excellent voicing(why couldn't Animax given Initial D the same quality of voicing and use Matteo crap voicings), and an intriging plot. The 3 things I look for in anime. But it's alchemy.

I wouldn't mind made up magic that is based on something real but isn't very accurate, but from what I could gather, so far, FMA seems very well researched and what was researched seems to match what I've learned of it. But(I repeat) it's alchemy.

Alchemy is an actual thing people try. The Philosopher's Stone and all that stuff was really believed to be true. And it's distinctly Anti-Christian. The Philosopher's Stone is supposedly some material that can change a substance into gold and can be used to make the "Elixir of Life"(like Harry Potter).

Making gold would be pretty cool, but if used too much, gold wouldn't a precious metal anymore if common. But it's the potion that makes it Unchristian. It should be God's choice if you are to live longer or not, it isn't determined by the intake of an elixer.

I don't mean this, or any other post for that matter, as a personal offence to anyone, I'm simply stating my opinions.

Moving on, I want to buy a computer game. Any game that will keep my interest for the lenght of our stay in Bacolod at least. Or if that isn't meant to be, at least a good internet connection so I can play online games. Miniclip! Cheer for the site. XGenStudios! Cheers once more. Elouai! ...

Anyways... I want my Snoopy...

Mood- Curious      Song- Don't Go Baby- Maiko- 4th Stage D Selection 1

Why oh Why oh Why?!?!?!

Nooo... Why must this happen? I feel so sad right now... Not in the way one would usually suspect though...

My grandfather just died this morning, no wait, it's yesterday now. Strange really, when I heard that he died I didn't feel anything. There was no sadness or longing to see him once more. None. Nada. Zilch. The way I think of it, I don't have any real attachment to the guy. He was my grandfather and all, but all my memories of him are all passive. Meaning, he doesn't play any important role in my life. When I go and visit them in the province, he is always just sitting, somewhere, may it be on his armchair watching wrestling(God knows how he got into that), or on the one of the seats in the veranda eating a meal.

But I certainly understand that most of my family doesn't feel the same way. I'm willing to bet that a lot of my relatives were weeping today... yesterday. It's like when my dad died, I felt so bad, but other people who knew him, but didn't know him, just stood there and offered their condolences.

But the reason I am sad is we are returning to Bacolod. Yeah, it's so cheap compared to the grief others are experiencing. There nothing I can do about that.

Bacolod is supposed to be the city of smiles(and sweets). The smiles part is pretty appropriate because everyone there is so friendly, but I've mentioned that before. And a little trivia: Bacolod was once the sugar capital of the Philippines. I don't know why it isn't anymore. Still, even if there are a lot of nice people and good sugary stuff around(did you know that in the hotel we stayed in they gave out complimentary fruits instead of water?) there's still nothing I find fun and interesting to do there.

And mom says don't oversleep till 10. Man, I just want to retort that it can't be considered oversleeping because I slept at 4 am. >p There isn't anything better to do there that sleep!

At least we're bringing mom's laptop now, with wireless internet! Woohoo! I'll be hunting down Wifi spots around the mall, since that's the only cool public place in existance there. Everywhere else is capable of frying an egg.

I want to stay in Makati, where it isn't as hot as Bacolod. Bacolod is supposed to have a cooler environment because there are less factories than here, but it must be at least a few degrees higher there. Hmm... Maybe it's because where by the sea. I can't remember my Science class about this topic. It's either by the sea is cooler or by the sea is hotter. Yami, please answer the question.

By the way, Yami, why do I have to comment on your previous posts? Can't you make a new one instead. And why are you shown as online on YM, but don't reply? Huh, huh?

Mood- Touchy       Song- Walk Away- Kelly Clarkson- Breakaway

Home Sweet Home!

Yehey!!! We arrived back in Manila a while ago, and man did I ever get a headache. Usually, plane trips don't bother me in any other way, except that I have to wake up earlier, but Cebu Pacific rides give me headaches. I felt like someone was pounding on it, repeatatively. I'm going back to Philippine Airlines.

Anyway, more cheers! My mom bought me a new cellphone! Oh yeah! And the price is sub-30,000! It really is cheaper in Bacolod! So, I've got a new N90, which I've already programmed, when my mom can't make her computer recognize that her digicam is already in it's dock with all wires attached. Haha! And she asks me to help her with it, but I don't even know how to make the computer realize that the camera is waiting for it. Like I have a magic wand. Pfft...

Also, I was ranting about this since I found out about it. The Da Vinci Code movie was rated R18 by the whats-its-name-board that is responsible for rating all the movies around here. Lol. The people in Bacolod are, well, regular. I tried to get in with my aunts, uncle, and mom two days ago, but failed. So yesterday, they put make up on me and made me change into something they thought would make me look 20. I borrowed the ID of my cousin, who is 20 now. I supposedly look like her, but I really don't think so. Anyways, I got in and got disappointed.

I agree with my brother, the book is not that great. It is not something that was on the bestseller list because of the storytelling, which isn't actually too special. The book's fame is on the controversy it created. Heck, Dan Brown wouldn't even be famous if it weren't for The Da Vinci Code.

So, the book isn't something too special(not counting that it could get a lot of people into heated discussions about that factuality of it) and the movie isn't very accurate either. The thing with book movies is the accuracy. If you haven't read the book and find the movie, fine, good for you. But if you have read the book and liked the movie, except for certain changes in the storyline and the characters, well that's fine too but you get ticked off that even if the writer is one of the executive producers there are considerable changes.

My mom said that one of the reasons they(whoever decides what changes and what doesn't) change the storyline is to make it less complicated and to shorten the movie. But how does making Sauniere the grand master, but not Sophie's grandfather, less complicated? But, I don't think I should reveal more, in case people want to find out for themselves. I mean, it only started showing like... 2 days ago?

Owkie...

Nevermind. I bought another copy of a Grand Theft Auto game, but it still wouldn't install on the damn computer. Last time I bought one, it stopped at X% and wouldn't go any further. Some error message came up and the Install Shield thingy xed itself. This time the installation stopped at 14% and a popup message came up saying something about redunduncy. Curses! Although both of these copies were pirated, so maybe I should just buy an original... Yeah, and lose 3-4 arcade visits. Sigh.

Hmm... Two of my aunts and an uncle of mine are arriving tomorrow and are staying here in Makati for 3 days. *cogs start turning* Maybe, somehow, I can get them to buy me a game... *plots*

Mood- Devious           Song- Hallelujah- Bamboo- Light Peace Love

Yawn...

Ok, I really mean this, but not as a personal offence to anyone(especially people I don't even know) but the mall has practically gone unchanged here.

A bit of a recap, my mother brought me to Bacolod City for because her father is sick. So sick that 11 out of 12 children are here. My mom has 11 brothers and sisters, her not included. So titos and titas from the more Northern part of the Philippines and some places in America are here.

There was a typhoon here recently, it's in the news, well, it was when I left my lola's house anyway. Most of them are staying there, aunts and uncles in the house. My mom, an aunt, and I are staying at a hotel. The hotel's pretty new and the staff are annoying. They're practically fauning over the guests that are around. Silvia Manor, the name is, the spelling is unsure.

But oh well. No one over there has an internet connection, much less a fast one. So I've resorted to using an internet cafe.

Anyways. As I was saying, it's as if nothing has changed here in the mall, the exception being a couple of stalls around, but those things change frequently, even in the province. And, to my displeasure, the arcade hasn't changed either. Yeah, it seems like that's my life, but if I started talking about the other aspects of my life no one would ever come around.

So, they do have Ghost Squad and Dance (2x) Revolution (Extreme), but those games aren't too interesting to me. Ghost Squad would be if the guns weren't too heavy. The only other game that is pretty new(but new games here are at least 6 months old in Timezone) is Ninja Assault. And the screen seems to be broken, heck it was broken the last time I was here, which, if I remember right, just a few months ago. And, man my brain's just making me go on about the racing games here.

They do have Daytona and Battle Gear, and that F1 racing game with the moving bucket seats, but apart from that the other games are old(read ancient). And the forementioned games are practically as old. Probably. The only other interesting racing game here is the game where you earn(or lose) money with each crash, and there's a wierd screaming sound when you do.

The thing I really like about this place is that everything's so cheap. I mean the token's only cost 6 pesos. Wow... But, the let down is that they still use tokens... Heavy load. So there isn't any point in buying 160 pesos worth of gaming money, especially beacuse you don't really need it around here. And people are really nice around here, not many snobby, preppy girls in minis around here.

Bah, I still want to go back to the city the heck with karaoke.

Mood- Bored      Song- Ready- Tommy Heavenly

Live-action movie vs Anime, the continuation

Actually, there are still some things I'd like to criticize about the movie. The post was getting quite long, so I thought about just continuing it next time...

Anyway, I want to avenge Bunta this time. They made his character so unlike the real(or original, since Bunta doesn't really exist) Bunta.

1.) When did Bunta literally beat Takumi? He never did in the anime, I know he says something like, "I'll beat you till you wake up", but it's so out of character for him to beat his own son. They seem pretty cold to each other and all, but they really care for each other. You can see that clearly in the Second Stage.

2.) When did Bunta become an alcoholic? He tends to drink a lot, but he doesn't drink to the point that he passes out in their living room(?). And he also visits bars, but only with Yuichi, no girls included.

3.) Bunta eyes. One of the things Bunta’s known for is that he never opens his eyes.

4.) Also last time I checked, Bunta wore shoes while driving. In the movie he puts Takumi in his passenger seat and drives Akina, the only course in the movie.

5.) I don’t think you can provoke Bunta easily. Ryousuke visits him once, which never happens in the anime, and they talk about something. Since I couldn’t get the version with English subtitles, what they were talking about is a mystery to me. Bunta gets mad, throws his knife down, and shouts at Ryousuke.

So there, that pretty much concludes my ranting on the Initial D live-action movie.

Oh, and I forgot to add something in previous post, “Fic bunnies?” Nakazato and God Foot have the same song, Back on the Rocks.

Mood- Bored      Song- Speed Car- D Team- 4th Stage D Selection

Live-action movie vs Anime

I watched the Initial D live-action movie and all I can say is that I was really disappointed in it... Actually, I couldn't find one with English subtitles, or any subtitles at all, so I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying. I understood what I could with their body language and what little I knew of Cantonese.

The cars were cool. When I realized that there weren't any subtitles I decided to just watch the cars and races, because, frankly, you don't really need to hear any words when watching a race. The cars seemed bigger in the anime though. The Skyline in the movie seemed smaller than what I imagined it would be. And the FC seemed shorter as well.

But I'll go back to ranting. One thing that really ticked me off was their portrayal of the team Emperor and Kyouichi particularly. Basically they're my favorite team so the errors got me more wound up than the other misrepresentations. Emperor was so flashy in the movie! All of them have leather jackets and bandanas, heck I don't even remember ever seeing Kyouichi wear a leather jacket once in the anime! And before his(Kyouichi's) race with Ryousuke and Takumi, another error, they brought his Evo in a big, practically neon-lighted _-wheel truck! *blanches at the thought* But what really got me ticked off about it was Kyouichi got into an accident! I could rant paragraphs about that being practically impossible, but won't bother. If you've either watched the Second Stage or read the manga, you'd know that an accident like going through the guardrail and landing upside down on the road lower down the mountain is not something that would happen to Kyouichi anytime soon.

And speaking of mountains, Akina is the only course throughout the entire movie. Wow, it seems that there's only one place to race...

Not only that, Keisuke and Nakazato are combined to make a Nakazato that is very close to Ryousuke, but fortunately is still the leader of the Night Kids and still drives a Skyline. Although I wanted to see an FD, but, oh well. And Iketani and Itsuki are combined to make an Itsuki, who is the leader of the still low-lovel Akina SpeedStars who crashes during a race against Nakazato and is the son of Yuichi of the Esso Gas Station, making a loud spoiled brat. Although the voice would suit Itsuki. And Kenji doesn't appear.

The heck with Jay Chou, Edison Chen and rest of the cast. I have made my verdict. The Anime is better, ten-fold. At least it is accurate!

And I know this isn't really part of the movie, but when I visited the site (http://www.initialdthemovie.com/index_en.html) the game on it has one HUGE error. They say these roads are from Beijing, or Shanghai, or somewhere else in China. But when I examined the map before playing I realized that they were just using the original courses from the anime. If I remember it had Usui, Happogahara(I don't know why they used this one), Akagi, Akina, and Myogi(I think). Asian Box Office, bah!

Mood- Irritated       Song- Non Stop Re-mix [Project.D Version]- Initial D- Fourth Stage D Selection Plus

What do you get when you combine a high-speed dsl connection with a bored teenager?

I'll have to say that I'm still pissed about missing out on my very looked-forward to trip abroad, but not everything's shitty, fortunately. My mother left for the province for reasons similar to the previous post, and left me at home... With her computer.

Usually I can only go online when she brings her laptop home for the weekend. Meaning, I only get three days of Internet per week. And I usually stretch my Internet time till early morning, carefully watching my back to see if my mother caught me. But today, she's not home, and I can use it till I fall asleep. :D

Now, I don't have to keep the lights on, keep the music down, or limit my time. Freedom! What am I using this freedom for anyways?

The usual... Online gaming and torrent downloading. And there's always a new fic around somewhere. Although whether it's a good fic or not is not predetermined. It's always interesting to go on a researching quest, nowadays it usually is a car or something else car-related. Dollmaking and Quizilla... Only for breaking the monotony of the day, honestly, after reading all the fics you can find, getting frustrated with the connection of a game, and waiting for downloads to finish, the Internet can make you feel bored. Well, that's my opinion. It's probably because I'm running out of research quests. Those really take time, and kill them too.

Yawn... I better start thinking of something to research.

Mood- Playful       Song- Generation- Dave Simon- Initial D Battle Stage

Depression and Exhaustion

Life sucks and I'm tired... Maybe going about it one at a time would be better...

All right, today the lazy one (which is me for now) was spurned by her mother. Growl. I'm not her messenger girl. It would be pretty acceptable if the sevice would be short-distance and all. But, walking around Ayala Avenue is not short-distnce. If a person were driving, yeah, sure. I'd love to drive. Walking is a completely different thing. For those who don't know, Ayala Avenue is a very long street with lots of restaurants, banks, and leads to the malls.

High-heels are not a good idea. Yeah, the lazy one doesn't like shopping, so there really isn't much choice. Either two-inch heels or school shoes, unfortunately my school shoes tend to grow (I don't know why, but they seem to) to the point when I take a step I have to check if my shoes are still attached to my feet. So, even if the heels are uncomfortable, at least they stay on willingly.

Then again, because of this unpaid errand, I got to go to the mall again. For me voluntary mall-going only means one thing, Initial D Arcade stage... Or Wangan Midnight if I get frustrated with my opponents from Initial D. Not much progress in Initial D. I still can't finish Akina Downhill against Ryousuke, the distance shrunk to 200+ meters, but I still can't reach the goal in time. The best I can do is run out of time right in front of the goal... :(

I still maintain the opinion that Wangan Midnight is much easier than Initial D.

And as for Depression. I would like to state this again, "Life sucks."

This May, my mother and I were supposed to go to the US for summer vacation but at the last minute, the trip was cancelled! *curses repeadly* I won't bother disclosing the reasons. *curses even more* So instead of America, my mother suggested that we just go to Singapore or some other place. Pfft. Sure Singapore is nice, there's nothing wrong with it, but I don't think many people would choose Singapore over America. Unless they've got something of personal interest there.

A few... uhm years? Anyway, a few years ago, I really wanted to go to Singapore and wasn't able to go. No time and blah. But now time was put aside for it, plans were made, money was spent, and still I can't leave the Philippines.

Mood-Sulky      Song- Reminiscence- Get Backers- Get Backers Original Soundtrack

What's up with chatspeak?

I understand that it's perfectly all right to use in texting or SMS, and pretty excusable in IM. But I've seen people use it in forums, and frankly, it seemed like giberish to me. From what I can gather, they use it so they can type messages quickly or something like that. So why would they use it in forums is beyond me.

When a person posts their entries in a forum, the person is usually sitting down/reclining (whatever) in front of a computer, idly typing up their reply to someone. They're not in too much of a hurry. So why bother using chatspeak?

I know I have a bias against it, because I'm illeterate in that language, but I've got nothing against the people writing it. Heck, a lot of people I know like using chatspeak. Although I don't understand what they say, sometimes, depending on the person.

All I wish is that at least on forums, people would be considerate enough not to use a language everyone can understand.

Haha, it's short this time...

Mood: Bored       Song: Jumping Up the Nations- Toby Ash- Initial D Battle Stage

Fic bunnies?

So after watching one of the later episodes of Initial D Fourth Stage (like when Takumi's battling God Hand) I thought of a strange comparison, well maybe not so strange. Ryousuke mentions that God Hand's one-hand-steer is like a more complete version of Shingo's Gumtape Death Match style. Cogs started turning when I heard that. I imagined a 40-year-old Shingo and a 40-year-old Nakazato (I know most people call him Takeshi, but I like Nakazato better) if they continued racing till their middle ages, they might be the future God Hand and God Foot.

God Hand- Joshima Toshia. A man who drives with only one hand on the wheel and the other one the shifter. He leaves them like that, but still can drive like hell. He drives an S2000, the Honda AP1.

God Foot- Hoshino Kouzou. He has "god-like" acceleration techniques. As a testement to that, he can drift his car, his GT-R. You supposedly can't drift it because of the system it has, when it's activated of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial_D_characters_and_teams#Purple_Shadow

Man, these two guys much be rich to have those cars...

They aren't as good as the Project D guys, with all their luck and all. But really... The two of them, if they continued racing for 20 more years, they're bound to get better and better. And that's not all. Look at them. God Hand and God Foot. Then look at Shingo and Nakazato. They really look like older versions of the two Night Kids. But honestly, God Hand is more of a cross between Shingo and Ryousuke, at 40+ years old.

Nakazato and God Foot probably have the same amount of hair too. Lol... Imagine Nakazato gaining quite a few pounds or kilograms... Also, Ryousuke (it seems like he gets all the references, huh?) mentions in the Second Stage, during the battle between Nakazato and Seiji, that Nakazato has good acceleration techniques, but falls to pressure easily. Hmm... God Foot shouts a lot when he races, or at least when he goes off to drive fast on the touge. It supposedly is like a "cooling system" for him. Ok... Not only that, he seems to like Keisuke. I don't think in a yaoi way though. People can pair Nakazato and Keisuke as much as they want. It just doesn't look right if you pair Keisuke and God Foot, Nakazato... He's fine... Nakazato, save your money so maybe one day you can buy another "R".

Maybe, one day, Shingo will remove the tape from his hand and still drive like he has it around his hand. Practice... I suppose consists of pretending to have tape on your hand... God Hand supposedly has bad habits that come out when his opponent is tough... He doesn't bump into them or brake in front of them though. He likes to patiently watch his opponent from behind first and attack later... No spoilers on that part. Ok, so maybe Shingo is like him only through the possible one-hand steer thing. Mostly, it's like looking at Ryousuke in the future. Heck, God Hand is a doctor for crying out loud! Although he does look like an older Shingo, slightly, with glasses.

Either way, I think the Night Kids are like the future Purple Shadow. But still, even though I've been thinking about this for weeks now, no possible plot is revealing itself to me. And other than that, even though God Hand and God Foot are probably one of the best drivers in the series, there are no fics about them... Ah, I hope someone makes a good one. Mine are still Mary Sue-dominated fics, so I don't bother putting them on the net.

Mood: Thoughful        Song- Back on the Rocks- Mega NRG Man- Initial D D Selection 1