I Saw The Signs!

Been a while, actually more than a month, of pressing office work and tight schedules and targets, that kept me from spending (or allotting) time for blogging.

Last 26-Sep-09, that fateful Saturday was my birthday, but many will remember it for the flash floods that Ondoy brought us in a span of just about 6 hours, shocking every Filipino rich and poor, reminding us nature can indeed command absolutely anything, and not even your plush and fully-loaded SUV can withstand its powerful flood current. And so either we're drenched in water clueless or we're found in our rooftops hungry, desperately praying for Ondoy (or the scarier Pepeng) to go away. While we're lucky that my family were spared, I still couldn't believe that that Saturday actually happened. And so in little ways, I tried to reach out and help. More pressure at work and otherwise, but getting by.

Donated to Red Cross via text. Reached out to relatives and friends affected by the typhoon. Our fraternity chapter, celebrating its founding anniversary last Saturday, did so instead by offering volunteer work at Quezon City Hall, even sharing memorable *repacking* moments with Vice Mayor Herbert "Bistek" Bautista. Knowing that everyone wants to take part in donating, volunteering, and rescue work, is a multiplier effect we need that will hopefully help us recover from this calamity faster, and go back to normal.

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Bought this greatest hits 2CD of Incubus dubbed "Monuments and Melodies" and *ripped* them right away for my iPhone3G. CD1 has all their radio hits, including the new single "Black Heart Inertia" while CD2 has most of their unreleased tracks. I think "Megalomaniac" is the best, the band's strongest statement, though they didn't admit the song having any hints of political bashing, what's with "step down" and "you're no f*cking elvis."

The 2CD package comes with this coupon with a code for downloading some more "rare" Incubus goodies, music and videos and all.

Brandon Boyd, Incubus's frontman and lyric-genius, in his too-skinny-rock-star stance, in this sleeve photo (third, middle).

And so, Incubus is my iPod god these days, "pardon me while I burst..."


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Wifey and Kurt with Alexon Green Sabater who celebrated his first birthday at SM Storyland in Fairview last Sunday.

The wifey, with other moms on alert, proved she's all game in dancing the now viral "Nobody" Korean tune.

Marcus and myself, waiting to be served (we're not exactly hungry, are we?)

Wifey and Kurt, amazed by the colorful "party bus," balloons and everything else painted in green.

Marcus got himself color tattooed (temporary) with what he told me as something resembling Naruto's.

We later watched Disney-Pixar's "UP" with both Kurt and Marcus LOL most of the time.


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For Kurt's 12th birthday, he requested that we celebrate at home and for wifey to cook his favorite food, and because he actually expected me to buy him the gift he wanted - the PC game Spore - which I did get (the original of course).

Spore, Will Wright's "multi-genre massively single-player metaverse god game," is actually not just for PC, but can also be installed in a Mac. It's not really a new game, but it somehow offers evolution/biology learning experience.

And so while Kurt and his cousins are figuring out the game, I did install Spore in my MacBook, and played for about an hour.

You start Spore by choosing a planet (mine's named Jupates) and then swimming through a tidepool for food as a cell. You go through five stages of growth, until you reach the space stage.

Spore lets you create and customize many of its game elements, such as creatures, buildings, vehicles, and spaceships.

A few cell adventures, eating meat and fellow cells, advanced me to the next "creature" stage.

Now with feet, though not exactly a pretty creature, this "omnivore" explores his land (actually it's Marcus's) for more food and territory.

And so my kids and I are now Spore-addicted.


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Our kuya, who loves ice cream (and video games) turns 12 today. Happy birthday, we love you!


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The coming "ber" season sure preempts more gadgetry worth looking forward to or getting excited about before the holidays. Announced recently, the Sony Playstation 3 Slim is now made affordable (slashing roughly US$100 from the previous price tag), has a slimmer and compact design, retaining pretty much the same features (Blu-ray, WIFI, HD storage, Web browser built-in and HDMI support) as the model it intends to phase out. It's coming out *officially* this September, not sure though if it will ever be launched here.

Losing the game console battle to sales-busting Nintendo Wii and second-honor Microsoft Xbox 360, this might actually be a good chance for PS3 to catch up to the race.


What used to be shiny and expensive-looking is now matte-like and cheaper in comparison, probably to justify the price cut? I ain't thinking of buying (pre-order actually) just yet, I'd like to see how Nintendo and Microsoft will react to the pricing.

My kids are getting tired of their PS2, actually they've been bugging me to buy a Nintendo Wii (yes, they love Mario and the gang), and if I do consider buying them PS3 Slim, all our PS2 games are practically useless (no backward compatibility sadly).

At least we can watch Blu-ray? As if I have movies in that format. Hmm, I think I'd still like to stick with our PS2.


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