profound bliss

Noel Cruz is another Filipino making a name in the US for being a doll artisan, and he makes replicas of Hollywood celebrities. Just like this one: No need to tell you who this is. It's so life-like, no? Do you find it creepy, too? Another one of his Angelina doll sold for 4,000 USD on Ebay. Photo via Noel Cruz

The Cabal Online guild activities happens this Saturday. CM Jay writes: There will be Guild 6 vs. 6 Tournaments, Guild Attendance Contests and special Item Vouchers will be given away to event attendees who will be able to win and participate in the different live activities. In line with this, e-Games will also have activities for Dance Battle Audition, Top Speed, and Granado Espada- as they celebrate their anniversary. HOW to JOIN the e-Games TOURNAMENTS during the EVENT? 1. For Globe Subscribers -Not yet registered to G-cash: Register to G-cash (for P1) to be able to get a “Tournament Coupon” from G-cash promodizers during the event. -Already registered to G-cash: Show the G-cash balance inquiry to the promodizers to get a “Tournament Coupon” -Gamers to show the “Tournament Coupon” to E-games staff at the Tournament registration table to be able to sign up with the game tournament they want to compete in. 2. For non-Globe Subscribers -Buy a Globe SIM at P45 (bundled with a free P20 ...

Grand Chase, Level Up!'s newest online game, is accepting applications for the Closed Beta Testing which is scheduled to start on the second or third week of October. Sign up now to be among the firsts to get a feel of this new game! I have just signed up myself =) I actually find the site very cool.

Just because I have never tried Mac, because it's too expensive for me.... I'm a PC!

This video is sooo funny you will laugh even if you watch it sans audio.

Coming November 13, 2008. I just hope they release it here in the Philippines the same date. The expansion comes in two packages: the standard package: and the collector's edition package: I wonder if the boxes are also frosty when you get them =) Anyway, the features of this expansion: * Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight - World of Warcraft's first Hero class. * Quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way. * Learn the craft of spell augmentation with the new Inscription profession. * Brave the harsh new continent of Northrend, the icy domain of the Lich King. * Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path. * Transform your hero's look with new character-customization options, including new hairstyles and dances. * Explore perilous new dungeons filled with some of the deadliest creatures -- and greatest treasures -- on Azeroth. * ...

Level Up! is bringing Grand Chase to the Philippines, a 2.5D game developed by KOG Studios which was first released in Korea in 2003. Grand Chase is known as Three Young Heroes in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Japan also published the game in 2005 but lasted only 22 months. Thailand's Asiasoft Online also published the game for Southeast Asia release for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Grand Chase was also released early this year in the US. Grand Chase is much like GetAmped. If you like GetAmped, you'll like this one, too. Beta release is dated October 2008. It's likely that they'll launch it in the Level Up! Live event on October 18-19 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.

It had been almost a week, and he's still pleading. The phone rang the minute I arrived home last Saturday from an appointment with Doctor Erich. It was Nicolas, my 18-year-old friend who mostly becomes my alalay (I call him whenever I go shopping or I need someone to pay my taxes and bills). And I knew it the minute he said "Hello Kuya" that he needed something from me. It's the tone of voice we associate with someone troubled and needs help; the kind most of us use in a prelude to asking a favor. I found out I was right when he asked, "Kuya may pera ka?" Instead of answering his question, I asked where he was. He's in his girlfriend's house. A hunch formed in my head, and judging by the tone of his voice, I knew it's not far from happening. But then he told me his girlfriend was sick and he had to take her to the doctor. The question of the whereabouts of his girlfriend's parents was asked. I can't exactly recall now what Nicolas' a...

So it's not just Ran Online that's having an event at the SMX. Cabal Online (another MMORPG from E-Games) will be having this "Guild Activities" thing this coming September 27th, a few days ahead of the Ran Global Tournament on October 4. The said event is in connection with the launch of Globe's newest mobile service, 24Ever. Tagged as "24EVER 2GDER," there will be Guild Attendance Contests, Cabal Trivia, and Cabal Merchandise Selling. Item vouchers will also be given away to those who will win in live activities. And yeah, Audition and Granado Espada will also celebrate their anniversaries on the said event. I don't know but I have a feeling this one's going to be more exciting than the October 4th event.

I'm not a PlayStation person anymore. When online games became a fad, I shifted, leaving my consoles untouched. But PSP is different cuz of its mobility, not to mention its music and movies storage capacity. But just when I was thinking of buying a PSP, the news of a new model breaks the gaming world. The silver PSP 3000 will hit the market October 14, 2008 for $199. It has the same specs as the old PSP 2000 except that it has a improved (brighter) LCD with anti-reflection technology, plus it has a built-in microphone. You can play the same games as that of your old PSP but now in a more vibrant screen in a wider range of colors. The black 4GB PSP 3000 will be out November of this year and another black one in the basic core pack ($169) will be available later this year. Cool, eh? Anyway $199 is around Php10,000.

Princess in carrier Due to prolonged inappetite, I brought Princess to the vet last Thursday. I was supposed to just wait for her scheduled deworming visit on the 19th but she practically didn't eat anything the whole Wednesday so there. The vet checked her vital signs (or whatever they call it with animals) and there wasn't anything wrong so instead of going hysterical and have a blood test, she decided to just give Princess some prescription diet first but instructed me to keep her posted in the first two days. Thing was, should Princess not eat the said diet, we had to test her for liver and kidney disease already. I fed her a portion of this canned food (which has a texture and smell of a liver spread) immediately upon arriving home. Lo and behold! she finished two spoonfuls in no more than 20 seconds. I gave her the usual Pedigree pellets next, this time coated with the "liver spread" which costs 110 per can the size of which is similar to that of a small bear br...

Things are heating up in the local scene as the Philippines will play host to the Ran Online Global Tournament 2008, with the finals to be held on October 4, 2008, at the SMX Convention Center. A lot of fun and excitement await gamers as teams from Hong Kong, Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam will fly to the Philippines to challenge our own Pinoy team to a grueling PK fest. The Philippine team is composed of the following from Havoc Server: Vincent Van Amado (Team Leader) Carlo Angelo Magcalas Kevin Medina Martin Joseph Buday Battle Mechanics Each team will have four players, each representing a character class from RAN. Characters will be pre-generated with the following: 50,000 gold 40 pcs HP,MP,SP 50% potions Level 180 180 Skill Points Senior Armor Set (Defense 25, Resistance 0) and with the following statistics (before stat and skill point allocation): Brawler: HP 1602; MP 77; SP 560 Swordsman: HP 1478; MP 76; SP 698 Archer: HP 1314; MP 106; SP 436 Shaman: H...

Cabal Online has become one of the biggest games in the Philippines, with more than 50,000 concurrent users online. With the Nation Wars coming, players are sure to grind more, level more, and basically be online more. After the fall of the Sage Tower, the seven sages were disrupted. Among the fallen seven sages, Capella and Procyon decided to pursue their principles and established two different nations - named after themselves - with their followers in Nevareth. The nations come into conflict with each other because of their opposing principles. And now they choose war as the final resolution. If you want to join in on the chaos that is Nation War, you will need to complete the Tower Of Sage Divide quest at Level 95. This quest can be done by talking to Captain Mark at the Group Camp in Fort Ruina. Once you accomplish this, you will be asked to choose a Nation. Nation Wars are held in the Nation War Server - Tierra Gloriosa. One hundred players from each Nation Strive for dominance b...

Cool picture, this is the back page of Game! magazine's September issue. They're really ready for the event, ads and all. Ragnarok Online World Championships 2008 It's a fightfest as all guilds are scrambling to secure a spot for the Agit Lords. Baldur has Carnage and Sustainer of the Realm both gathering Siege Points while Coalescence is busy piling on Honor Points. †_M@cWorldCl@n_† and MayheM of Freya are also doing the same tactic of earning Siege Points, while Honor Points are being amassed by Frailty. The most controversial server, Tyr, has -Restricted- and Celestial Knights both earning Siege Points with Bitzbox and Cataclysm of Valhalla following suit. Meanwhile, Arméd n Loaded and Renegadesªª are fighting for the position of most Honor Points in the Tyr server, with Justice being the only running competitor for the Valhalla server. Finally, in Valkyrie Haràbas and illuminati™ are both grabbing as much Siege Points as they can, while Kingdom of Justice is busy hoardi...

Things are now more complicated with the pregnancy of Bristol Palin (daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, vice president nominee for the republican ticket). A young man named Kevin has this claim that he is the father of Bristol's baby. He says he is from Los Angeles but visited Alaska for the summer (and from there, the pregnancy). Russell Brand (host of VMAs last Sunday) even commented about the said pregnancy in connection with the Jonas Brothers' purity rings; that the incident could have traumatized the father of Bristol's baby that he will be afraid of sex all the rest of his life. "Use a condom, or become republican," the comic host said on national (and worldwide) TV. This is Kevin's video from YouTube (God bless YouTube):

Cabal Online had an extended server maintenance today. The game resumed 4pm-ish. They made something again to minimize (if not totally eradicate) the use of third party bots - that is, the BOT Checker Image Authentication feature. It made me laugh, really, but I admire their efforts to make the game bot-free. Bot-free game = fair game. And I'll only do pa-level when it's totally bot-free. So perhaps a word verification window will pop-up every once in a while... But then again, botters can simply time it so they'd be there in time for the verification. Or if it's done in random time gaps, it'd be better. Well they've fought bots in Ran Online! I'm kinda sure they can do it in Cabal Online, too. They also applied the Chaos Arena System (entry is in Bloody Ice). Schedules are 12am, 4am, 8am, 12pm, 4pm and 8pm daily on channels 3-10 of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter servers and channels 4-9 of Neptune. Another good thing is that players on "old s...

A lot of good movies coming up. I still haven't caught up on the (too many) movies I've missed and then here comes Max Payne already. Mark Wahlberg plays the title role. Been a secret fan of Mark ever since his Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch days. And I became more of a fan when he proved he could act. The first Marky movie I saw was the 1997 controversial film Boogie Nights. Haha. His brother Donnie is on the limelight again. NKOTB is back. I haven't seen the music video but I've been hearing their single (entitled "Single") on Magic and their high-pitched singing makes me cringe. Haha. They sound so young, and having been a fan in the late eighties, I was kinda expecting their comeback to be somewhat "mature." I don't know maybe I've just expected something else. I really wanna see the video of the song. I hope it won't look as awkward as I hear it. And hopefully the "awkward" impression will change. And then Christopher Nolan...

I went hunting for a Ripcurl yesterday. Didn't find any. I went home with this instead: amfefe

I was kinda surprised to see my total post count. Ninety-nine. Haha. I started the blog out of boredom and now I'm so blabbing this is my 100th post. Haha. Anyway, since I (kinda) inherited Joseph's Cabal Online Venus server character named Oscuro (which is an Italian word for "dark" - I'll talk more about it later), I am now "in tune" again to what's happening on Cabal. Wawa naman 'yong own character kong level 51 pa din till now. I just can't seem to find the map quest kasi. Lech! Oscuro is now level 122. It had been 120 for so long when the level cap was still 120. Problem was, when Joseph reached the then level cap of 120, he stopped playing for a while and said he'll play na lang when the level cap was increased. So when E-games finally increased the level cap to 150, parang he didn't have the drive to play anymore. The result: he just stopped na after playing for a while. He let go of Oscuro at level 122. So it's (kinda) min...

PLDT is still f*cked up in my area. Google takes up to 5 minutes to load. Hilarious. I can listen to Magic, though. And Mo wasn't in this morning's Good Times. He's said to be sick. Good Times isn't good times without Mo. Get well.

From YouTube:

I asked Angel to go to SM Bicutan this afternoon to take pics of the PDA2 scholars (hehe) for my other blog but she couldn't. Sayang. It should have been a very good update but heck, Angel was scheduled pala to go to this neighbor's eighteenth birthday party. I hope she takes care of my camera. It's antiquity is notable but it still does its job. Although I find it hard to use on dim places. If only I could spend on some Cannon without the afterward guilt of spending so much on something not (very) essential. But if I could, I'd like a Canon G9. Haha. Ambisyoso. But really this is cool. 12.1 megapixels. Makes me drool.

Needs a good grooming, but she now has bangs. Emo. Good enough for a top knot. I just don't have the rubber bands yet.

A good song - This is Me by Demi Lovato from the soundtrack of the Disney Channel Original Movie, Camp Rock. I included an mp3 from imeem but it's a Demi Lovato piano solo from the movie. This is Me Demi Lovato/Joe Jonas VERSE: Am F C G I've always been the kind of girl that hid my face Am F C G So afraid to tell the world what I've got to say Am F C G But i have this dream right inside of me Am F I'm gonna let it show C It's time G F to let you know G to let you know CHORUS: F C This is real, this is me G Am F I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be now C G Gonna let the light shine on me F C Now I've found, who i am Am G There's no way to hold it in Dm F ...

The Dragon Ball live action movie trailer will be out October 17 together with 20th Century Fox's video game adaptation Max Payne. But Nerdorama has some screenshots of the movie trailer which are now on the dragon ball website . I'm sure kids and adults (especially those who followed it on tv when they were still kids) are watching out for this movie with great anticipation. Reminds me of my other ortho - 44 y/o, has a complete collection of the anime on vcd's. I don't know if it's pirated because I never saw the cases or the actual vcd. It was just playing on his monitor on one of my visits and we kinda chit-chatted about it. But I guess all of us, in one way or the other, became a fan of the anime. Someone I know don't even watch it but likes collecting its posters. I myself isn't a die-hard fan but I do like the show. So evident is the fact that I can't keep myself from posting some promotional photos =) Justin Chatwin as Goku cool shot... and his c...

I'm really watching the repeat (if there's any). There's a fruitcake in everybody... Photo: Mo Twister

Been currently re-learning guitar. I have three guitars which haven't been out of their cases for so long already. I'm kinda tired of my old pieces, though. And hearing Boyceavenue play Umbrella, I searched for the best guitar chords I could find. So far, this is the best one: Am C You had my heart, and we'll never be world apart G F Maybe in magazines, but you'll still be my star Am C Baby cause in the Dark, You can see shiny Cars G And that's when you need me there F With you I'll always share F Because CHORUS F When the sun shines C We’ll shine together G Told you I'll be here forever Am That I'll always be your friend F Took an oath Imma stick it out 'till the end ...

Globe is bringing iphone 3g to the country. I wonder when it will be out. Been reading a lot about it lately. But it's so expensive I'm not sure if it's worth the price (and the wait). I want first the people (from here) to have it and be able to comment about it before I decide to buy one. But just the same, I can't wait to get my hands on one. Engadget has the most intensive review of the iphone 3g. Here's a part of their "other new and noteworthy features" list. You can check their full review by clicking here . * As mentioned, Google Maps now shows a pinging blue locator that can track your movement. As of right now there's no way to convert this to KML or anything usable for geocaching. * The camera will also now ask you permission to use GPS to geotag photos with your current location. Once you grant that permission, it will add the necessary standard EXIF data to your photos. Trés useful, but you can't refer back to those geotags to br...

I maintain three blogs. All in blogger. Good thing I didn't put them all in a single account. One of my blogs, the one who gets the most traffic, has been hacked. Hate it. Really hate it.

WoW (World of Warcraft), the best-selling MMORPG of all time has over 8 million players worldwide. And though it had been reported that the number of Chinese online gamers ballooned from just around 22.3 million less than a year ago, to 147 million today, to most Chinese, gold farming in WoW is a full-time job. They make like $150 to $250 a month for working 8 to 12 hours a day. There's a huge demand for WoW gold, and players all over are willing to buy online gold for real cash. It's hard to level up without gold, you can't even get good weapons without enough gold. Most players would rather spend to get more gold quickly than spend time to farm for it themselves. As it is known, gold farming is the most boring part of the game. Long ago, when the battle of online games in the Philippines was just between Ragnarok and MU Online, I had this teenager neighbor who's barely out of high school, working as a "farmer" in Manila. He worked in a three-story building o...