So I just got back from Punta Fuego with my dgroup. We stayed at Mikki’s place, and I discovered a couple of things.

1. Mikki’s house in Fuego is awesome. (Pardon the sideways picture)

2. I fail at making pancakes. The pancakes are created were cosmic horrors with non-Euclidean geometry. H.P. Lovecraft would’ve been proud of them. Since staring at non-Euclidean geometry is said to induce insanity, I did not take any pictures of them.

They tasted good, though, aesthetics aside.

3. The weather in Batangas at this time of the year ranges from scorching heat to raging thunderstorm.

4. Octopi can change color rapidly. We were swimming among corals yesterday morning and I found a little octopus, only about the size of a golf ball, hiding in a hole in a rock. It kept peeking out, but I guess the prospect of four men thrashing in the water around it was a little traumatic and kept it inside. Eventually the little fellow decided it was time to come out, so the mollusk crawled out, and changed color from speckled gray to seaweed green to white-spotted black in less than five seconds as it oozed across the seabed. Really cute and awesome at the same time. No underwater camera, though, so no pictures.

5. Love lives of dgroup members are rather colorful. I can’t say much more, since they might burn me at the stake for telling you.

6. Time spent with good friends flies really fast.

[Multiply pics here, contacts only.]

Earworms: none in particular
Reading:
-A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Pardon the long silence. I had a whole ton of things to do at school, the foremost of which was supervising rehearsals for the first year plays. My classes did much much better than I had predicted (based on their work ethic), and I’m happy with the outcome. I pray they always remember the lessons they learned from this. Although we yelled at each other a lot, I know we all took something home from this.

Thankfully my classes won awards. They should have gotten more awards, in my opinion, but what’s past is past. Last Friday was an exhausting day for me, and I kind of passed out in front of the computer.

Pictures and videos are available on [my Multiply], although it’s for contacts only. The album is still incomplete, but I’m working on it.

New Page
I posted a new page, entitled Good News. Check the sidebar. I talk about my past, and how I came to really believe in Jesus, and how I’ve changed. Please read.

Anyway, that’s it for today. More will be coming this week, hopefully. Work’s been tough.

Roadtrip Music
-Come Cover Me by Nightwish
-Dawn of a New World by Dragonforce
-Sleepwalker by Nightwish

Yesterday, dad took us on a roadtrip to Malacca. Sounds easy enough, right? Not really.
First, one has to consider that this involves driving to another country. That means border crossings and passing through immigration. Given how tough the immigration in Singapore is, there’s no room for error. Furthermore, it’s over 250 kilometers away as the car drives, and all the road signs in Malaysia are in Malay. Quite a challenge, so dad had to prepare detailed notes in advance.

When we got to the Singapore immigration facility, we were greeted by Gurkhas armed with submachineguns and wearing their traditional safari hats. Of course, they also had their awesome kukri knives strapped to their sides. They were a pretty intimidating sight, and with good reason. Since Singapore is in the middle of so many countries, it’s vital to keep the land borders secure.

Unfortunately, taking photos in the facility was forbidden by law, so I’ve got no shots of them.

After exiting the Singapore side, we crossed the [bridge] that spans the straight of Malacca. As soon as we hit land on the other side, we saw how quickly everything changed. Indeed, all the road signs on the Malaysia side were in Malay. It was at this point that dad explained to me how similar the Malay language was to Filipino dialects.

I already knew that Malay shared a lot of words with Tagalog like pintu (door), but I began to realize that Malay actually sounded a lot like Kapampangan. It had a very similar choice of vowels. You have words like “teksi” (Taxi) and “itek” (duck).

Anyway, the drive to Malacca was pretty uneventful. It was a long 250+ km (as far as I can remember), but thankfully the [roads]
were [excellent.] Probably not as good as Singapore’s but definitely much better than the Philippines’s. Dad was driving at 110 kph the whole time (the speed limits in Malaysia were much higher than Singapore’s), and we got to Malacca (locally known as Melaka) in about two and a half hours.

Dad was quite appalled to see how many [tollgates] we had to go through before we even got far. He explained that it was most likely because the Malaysian government wanted to give lots of employment opportunities for its citizens.

Most of the trip was along highways surrounded by dense forest or farmland, but the closer we got to Malacca, the more [signs of civilization] we saw. Eventually, we got to [our destination.]

Malacca was a bit difficult to navigate. Although the place itself wasn’t that big, it was quite circuitous and a lot of the roads were one-way streets. Even though the trip was relatively straightforward through the city center, we missed a turn and had to go all the way around. X_x This allowed us to see some sights on the way, though:
[Melaka Megamall]
[Carrefour with Islamic Architecture]
[The Stadhuys, the former residence of the Dutch governor.]
I still have no idea how to pronounce that name. I think it’s “Stat heiss,” but the Great Online does not seem to have any answers.

Eventually we found our way back to Jalan Laksamana, the short street that ran down the city center. Along this street are two of the old churches that were built in the city:
[St. Francis Xavier]
The Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier once stayed in Malacca, and this church was built in his honor.
[Christ Church] is even older and stands beside the Stadhuys.
More on this church later.

Jalan Laksamana (Admiral Road) was named after the position of Laksamana, who is essentially a high-ranking official who manages the fleets that ply their trade in the port. The Laksamana is in charge not only of organization, but law enforcement as well. (I can’t help but see the resemblance of the word to “Lakshmana,” the name of Rama’s brother and sidekick in the Hindu epic Ramayana.)

Our first impression was that Malacca had the look of an old provincial town, similar to those found in the Philippines, except there’s a powerful mix of both Christian and Muslim influence. There’s both ancient churches and mosques in the area. More on this later.

We eventually took the right turn and got to our hotel, [Hotel Puri.] As seen in the image, it has the facade of a small colonial shophouse, although it has an unexpected amount of floorspace [inside.] Now as dad was doing his research he heard some things about Hotel Puri: that it was a “quaint little hotel” that was more about “character” than “amenities.” However, we were pleased to discover that it had amenities enough—wireless broadband (which I didn’t get to use since I left my laptop in Singapore for security reasons), hot water, clean bathrooms—anything you expect from a decent hotel. It definitely wasn’t five-star, but why would you want a five star hotel if you aren’t staying there the whole day anyway?

More on the hotel later. On to the sights.

We first had lunch at a “culture food village,” where I had a small tin of chicken mushroom rice. It was piping hot, but I didn’t enjoy it so much—the “polite” way of eating with chopsticks—chewing the meat off the bones—just doesn’t sit well with me.

We first stopped by the [Maritime History Museum], which has a replica of an old Portuguese ship. Part of the museum is inside the ship itself, while there are other displays in the small adjacent building.
[Model of a British ship]
[My brother with a whole bunch of Malay weapons]

Directly across the street is the Naval History Museum, for which admission is also included in the ticket for admission to the Maritime History Museum. Of course, I found the Naval history museum a lot more interesting. There was an [entire chopper] inside, as well as a whole bunch of naval equipment.
[Radar]
[My very own BFG]
[Autocannon mounted on a patrol boat outside]
[20mm autocannon]
[Depthcharge]

Awesome. Afterward we went back to Megamall to relax and soothe our headaches with Starbucks coffee. Gotta love Starbucks’s consistency. My headache left after that.

We then went to check out the Stadhuys afterward. We parked quite a distance from the area and had to walk to the red building. Pictures are a necessity, of course.
[Museum of Muslim Culture]
[Stadhuys]
[Christ Church and Trishaw]
The public transportation in Malacca is almost entirely run by trishaw. These are very similar to the pedicabs in the Philippines, the only notable difference being their brilliantly-colored faux flower decor and blaring boomboxes. Some of them even have Christmas lights draped on them at night.
[This Fountain] was built in honor of Queen Victoria after she died in 1901.
[With my brothers.]
[Giant iguana belonging to a reptile handler]
[Better pic of the iguana]

Afterward, we climbed [St Paul Hill] to get to the ruined church on top. St. Paul Church was built by a Portuguese captain when he arrived in Malacca, and was eventually turned over to Jesuit missionaries. The church eventually became a British storehouse and a lighthouse was built in front of it. The lighthouse was located on the highest point in the city, giving it excellent visibility for the ships going through the area. [Great view, too.]
The church was eventually abandoned and fell into disrepair.
[Climbing up the hill]
[Dad and my brother]
[St Paul Church]
[I have no idea who this is. There's no plaque. Maybe St. Paul?]
[A pic that looks like it came out of the Da Vinci Code with my dad standing in the doorway. I didn't see that guy in yellow there.]
[The Church interior]

Many people were [buried] in the church’s ruins, although many of the [headstones] have been moved and were propped up against the church walls.

Afterward we drove to the mall again to have dinner at [Nando's.] It’s a chicken restaurant that boasts extremely spicy chicken. Since we had small children with us, we opted for something milder. That didn’t stop me from grabbing the flaming hot sauce and garlic hot sauce, however. [The food] wasn’t really as spicy as it claimed to be, but it was pretty good nonetheless. Somehow, the garlic sauce was spicier. D:

There was a [Dairy King] ice cream kiosk at the Megamall that serves an ice cream sundae called [...]. Yes, I know they mean “happy,” but there are a lot of other words for that.

[Emo angel bear].

As we left the mall, we were surprised to hear the chittering of thousands of birds in the trees outside the mall. We had seen the white marks of the bird droppings all over the floor earlier that afternoon, but as we returned to the car we saw just why the ground was so white. Covering our heads and closing our plastic bags tight, we ran underneath the tree close to our car as if snipers were taking potshots at us. Hey, better safe than sorry.

As we drove back to the hotel, we saw that Jalan Laksamana was at night—quite literally—a [red light district.]

Back at the hotel, we arrived barely in time to get into the hotel as a thunderstorm began to pour. Dad had seen that there was a forecast for thunderstorms in Malacca, but thankfully the sky was clear the whole day.

Inside, we were surprised to see that [swallows] had made [their homes] in the corners of the hotel lobby. It seems that they’d been there for ages, and that the birds’ nests were harvested for real bird’s nest soup. Too bad we weren’t able to try it.

After an [Expresso [sic] doughnut], a little reading and a movie, I went to sleep (only to get kicked in the face by my brother).

[Good morning, Malacca.]

I woke up at around five AM, and off in the distance I could hear a clear indication of the powerful Muslim influence in Malacca—the dawn salat being called out by a muezzin at a local mosque. It was the first time I’d ever heard that, and dad even made comments about us seeming like we were in the Middle East. After a shower, breakfast. Oh, breakfast.

The [buffet] downstairs was held in the [open-air garden]. Although it was mostly a continental breakfast, we had mee goreng—an incredibly spicy start to a long day of driving.

[The garden has a cover that can roll over it in case of bad weather.]
[Quaint pond in the hotel]
Dad said that the hotel’s garden might have been an old warehouse, probably used to store coconut oil. Whoever owns the hotel must have done a very good job of restoring it.
The surrounding builds were all very old-school and looked awesome.
[Old colonial building across the street]
[A temple very close to the hotel]
[temple interior]

*pant pant* Alright, that was probably one of my longest blog posts ever. I’m over 1800 words now. I hope you enjoyed that, and if you want a good old city full of charm, go check out Malacca.
[All the pics]
[Hotel Puri Website]
[More pics]

Selamat Jalan,
Your Black Lion

Earworms
-random Nightwish songs

Day 4
[Singapore Day 4]
Yesterday my brother and I took a trip to Bugis Junction to check out the mall. We arrived rather early and looked around for clothes. I don’t really have that many photos inside the mall, but I have to say that this was one of the most interesting malls I’d seen in this country.

Lunch was mutton murtabak (It’s that flat thing on a plate in the album. There’s a close-up pic too.). Murtabak is an Indian dish made of finely minced meat and onions folded into a thin sheet of dough and fried. It’s served with curry sauce for dipping. I love it.

Afterward we took a walk around outside. We went to Sim Lim Square, the bargain place for electronics, although I didn’t buy anything. (I didn’t have much money left anyway. X_x)

Our walk took us as far as Little India, of which I have some pics in the album. It was a pretty fun trip all in all, albeit incredibly tiring. The sun was out yesterday and it made walking around very taxing.

When we got home later that afternoon, dad came home with something fun for everyone.

A Wii. Everyone’s enjoying it now. I can see firsthand that Nintendo struck gold with this console.

Earworms:
-Old Age of Wonders by Rhapsody of Fire
-Fury by Machinae Supremacy
Projects:
-The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan (both the novel and the questions I owe Arghs for the exam. Haha.) — 33%
-Nightwatch – 40%
-Polish on The Black and the Purple Chapter II: The Black Network: 0%
-Submission for [Alodia's] contest: 40%

Humanities Week is PSHS’s annual festival that celebrates–you guessed it–the humanities. In a school that conditions the minds of its students to be logical and scientific, one needs creative outlets to keep the kids sane and human. It’s usually a celebration I enjoy–a week of no classes and activities upon activities upon activities.

However, this year’s Humanities Week got blown apart by the bad weather, quite literally. Due to the numerous class suspensions we had last month, everything had to be rescheduled all over the place. Yesterday had the field demo and the games (the finale of which involved chasing a piglet through the muddy soccer field), while today had the alternative classes, the Jovito Salonga Debates, the fashion show, and the first ever Mr. and Ms. Pisay pageant.

As usual, I was coaching a debate team and as usual, I ended up on the affirmative side. (In the Oregon-Oxford format, it’s more difficult to win with the affirmative side since you need to present a strong constructive case; the negative side only needs to defend the status quo. In the event of a tie, the negative team automatically wins.)

My team won the past two years, but unfortunately, we lost this one. Arghs’s team was just too good—Max, who debated under me before, was their team captain and rebuttal speaker. With his calm and matter-of-fact demeanor (none of that demagogue chatter that people think is so impressive), he was able to soundly beat my team captain and his friend, Leki. My second speaker, RC, managed to score her third Best Debater award in a row, making her record in PSHS flawless so far. She had shifted her strategy because she knew her friend and classmate, DR, would be her opponent. Instead of her normal snarky interpellation, she adopted a bedroom voice tone that really threw DR off. It was amusing to watch, really.

The best part of the day, which I was looking forward to, was the fashion show. This year they came up with a very interesting theme: Options for the future PSHS school uniforms. Now I’ll have to admit that redesigning school uniforms is something that crosses my mind more often than I’d expect, and the bland uniforms we use now are not really what I’d consider interesting. The students did come up with some very interesting designs.

Unfortunately, my camera was acting really silly today and may have had contact with the floor without me knowing. Only the video function was working properly. Here are some vids I took:
[1]
The girl’s outfit here (modeled by Athena) was rather interesting in that she was wearing rather loose, short pants instead of a skirt. However, this outfit reminded many people of the outfit that the little toddler daughter of one of our teachers wears.
[2]
[3]
Cat and Dante. Unfortunately I didn’t appreciate the shade of orange used in Cat’s outfit. (I call it Jollibee orange).
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
Denise and Romeo.
[8]
Andie
[9]
The emo pair.
[10]
Paul and Nikki. I liked Paul’s outfit the most among the guys. Nikki’s skirt is cute and would work with orange, though I think the blouse could be better.
[11]
Mika and Adrian. I liked Mika’s uniform the most among the girls, though I think it would’ve been even better combined with Nikki’s skirt. I think.
[12]
Anton and Joanna in their Japanese-inspired outfits.

Anyway, that’s about it for today. I can’t think of a closing and I have my hands full, so um, toodles.

PS: Forgot to mention Gigi’s Barney interpellation in the first debate.
Gigi: Tell me what you think a Tyrannosaurus is.
Opponent: ….HOW IS THIS RELEVANT TO THE DEBATE?
Gigi: I asked you a question, please answer. Then you will find out.
Opponent: I refuse to answer a question I deem is irrelevant.
Gigi: I asked you a question.
Opponent: It’s a dinosaur, a carnivore. How is this relevant?
Gigi: You will find out. What about Barney? Are you aware Barney is a Tyrannosaurus?
Opponent: Barney, I believe, is a man in a costume!
Gigi: Yes or no, please.
Opponent: ….no, I am not aware.

It didn’t really make sense, but it was hilarious. XD

Since Frosty asked for screenies, I’m posting some shots of the Scrin in action.

SPOILERS:

The Scrin are the alien race behind the creation of tiberium and the seeding of the Earth with it. Tiberium is apparently a manifold way of them conquering a planet—it pollutes the planet, kills the inhabitants (or mutates them) and when the population is weakened, can be used as an energy source for an occupying force. They were lured to Earth when Kane detonated a cache of liquid tiberium beneath his main temple in Tiberian Sun. (Apparently, Kane knew of the nature of tiberium, the aliens who made it, and devised some belief system in which tiberium is the future of humanity and will cause the next step in their evolution).

The Scrin, as a faction, are completely unoriginal. I don’t mean that in a bad way. I enjoy how practically every unit is a reference to another unit that exists in some other game or pop culture source. For one thing, almost all their sound effects are remixed from sound effects from the Zerg and Protoss units in Starcraft. I could definitely hear the voices of zerglings, drones, reavers, and all sorts of other units somewhere there.
-The Annihilator tripod, as I’ve mentioned earlier, is very similar to War of the Worlds tripods, down to the roaring and disintegrator beam SFX.
-Buzzers are swarms of little bots that tear stuff up. I’m sure I’ve seen this elsewhere.
-Devourer tanks hover a lot like the Imperium tanks from Dark Reign. I’m sure other, similar-looking hovertanks exist.
-Devastator Assault Ships = air artillery without AA capability = Zerg Guardian
-Planetary Assault Carrier = Protoss Carrier
-Shock Troopers are similar to Protoss Dragoons.
-Mothership. Hi Independence Day. Also see Imperium Sky Fortress from Dark Reign, though those are a bit small. Still, when I was envisioning how the Sky Fortresses looked IRL, I came up with a mental picture that turned out exactly like the Scrin Mothership.
-Rift Generator. Hi Dark Reign.

Essentially, the Scrin play like a Protoss/Zerg hybrid that has stuff that looks like Imperium units. Wait, maybe they’re the Protoss/Zerg hybrid that Zeratul found in the secret mission of Brood War! Gasp.

Anyway, I’ve talked enough. Here are the screenies.

The Scrin own GDI.
Independence Day.
Independence Day again.
Razing some buildings.
Rift

Other screenshots are at my photobucket. It’s password-protected, please contact me via Y!M.

As many of you readers know, PSHS had its JS prom last night at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel. It was hands down the most entertaining prom I’ve ever been to. It sure beat my own prom in high school.

The prom was a masquerade, which is an interesting twist on the typical formal high school prom. Annoyingly enough, most refused to wear their masks. Only a few teachers went around with their masks for more than five minutes. It’s a shame, too, as some of those masks were imported from Venice.

My mask [pic].
Martin and Rachelle as emcees [pic 1] [pic 2]

The tables[pic] were lavishly decorated with huge flower arrangements that had piles of Hershey’s Kisses scattered at their bases. Arghs and I found it more than a little difficult to randomly pick up the little pieces of chocolate. Hey, waste not.

Other teachers who were present:

Ma’am Jo and Ma’am Beth [pic]
Ma’am Beth, Alfer, Wenny, Rachelle, and Martin [pic]
Candy and Fil [pic] (Sorry, Fil and Candy, my flash on the wrong setting, hence the less-than-flattering picture. >_o) Both of you still look great, though.

Many other teachers were present, but unfortunately, I didn’t get that many pictures.

One of the highlights of the prom was the cotillion, which was far from the typical waltz. They played music from The Phantom of the Opera (it fits the masquerade theme). As soon as the students went in and began their opening tableau[pic] with the deep, sinister organ opening of the Phantom theme, shivers went up and down my spine. It would have been a LOT more effective, though, if everyone had worn their masks. <_< Imagine twenty or so students, the men in white suits and the girls in long, white dresses, dancing in mist[pic]–and everyone wearing the logo of the prom[pic]—That would have been fantastic.

After a while, I got a bit drowsy and needed a caffeine fix, stat—so Arghs and I went to Shangri-La Mall to get something from Starbucks. Now at this point I was more than slightly insane and decided to walk into Starbucks with my mask on. Of course, it’s not every day that a guy in a suit and mask walks up to the counter at Starbucks. One the baristas asked, “So, who are you supposed to be?”

“Phantom,” I replied. Then I told the baristas that we were having our prom at the hotel next door and needed a caffeine fix.

My students probably don’t believe that I’d do such a thing. I’m too reserved. Right. [pic] Arghs got a good laugh out of it, too.

When we returned, it was already time for the selection of the prom king, queen, prince and princess. Apart from one aberration (a guy was elected as one of the candidates for prom queen), and the centuries it took for the judges to decide who the winners were, it went fine. Many of the ladies were very well-dressed, which is probably why it was so difficult for the judges to choose. (See the pics at my Photobucket[link], YM me for the password)

Unfortunately, I don’t really know who the prom prince and princess are, but here’s their pic anyway. The prom queen was Angela “Egg” Ahererra, our charismatic and dynamic student council president, seen in that picture in her Keira Knightly-esque gown. I have no idea who the king is. (Sorry, I’ve only taught the current sophomores and freshmen). Anyway, grats to all the winners.

Afterward, a band went on stage to perform–The Bloomfields[link]. Far from the typical college band that sticks to rock or punk, the Bloomfields play “daddy music”—’60s and ’70s rock-n-roll hits from The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and other legends of that era. Now you’d expect teenagers to get turned off, but these guys have a spectacular sense of showmanship. They know how to stir a crowd, and even got the typical rock-n-roll stage antics[vid1] [vid2] down pat—they were even dressed in Beatles-style outfits. And hey, if you can stir up middle-aged teachers with memories of their teenage years and cause them to dance and come -this- close to moshing, you are a HIT. I’m not even part of the middle-aged crowd, but I definitely enjoyed their awesome performance. We ended up stirring the dance floor up quite a bit.

Arghs, Fil, Martin, Wenny, Rachelle, Alfer and myself after dancing[pic].

Of course, it was an exhausting night, as you can see from my condition here[pic]. Still, a chocolate fondue after the program gave me enough sugar to last long enough to drive Arghs and Fil home, and get home safely myself. The day ended at 2:00 am this morning, but my state of being impressed did not end there.

Just check out our souvenir. It’s ceramic and clearly custom-made for this event. It sure beats the souvenir I got from my own prom (which was a little throw-pillow that had a really cheesy and badly-drawn guy-kneeling-giving-girl-flowers design. Rargh.).

In summary, this prom was entertaining without conforming, formal without being normal, classy without being gaudy. No expense or effort seemed to have been spared. 07-08, I salute you. You made my night well worth the time. Subsequent batches, start taking notes. (If you want to see Sir Arghs and myself dance.)

The Black Lion is here, inside your mind.

Trying to get enough sleep again,

Your Black Lion

Current System Configuration: Tired but fulfilled
Earworms:
-Prepare For War by Dragonforce
-Kaidoku Funou （解読不能）by Jinn (2nd OP of Code Geass)
-Cautionary Warning by John Sykes (OP of Legend of Black Heaven/Kachou Ouji)

Sustenance:
[Breakfast]: pancakes
[Lunch:] Jollibee’s double yum with TLC
[Dinner] fettuccine with meat sauce
[Coffee] Venti single mocha frap, no whip, 2x blended. It’s always 2x blended.
Current Reading List:
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis (Yes, I intend to finish it this time!)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. (I need to make a long test)

First of all I want to apologize for taking a century and a score to update my blog. The past few weeks have been full of activity—the plays, new lessons, and also a lot of time spent playing Neverwinter Nights 2 to keep me sane. That and uploading pictures is tedious. Anyway, let’s get on with today’s update, shall we?

The Plays

The English plays were successful for the most part, and we think the improvements we made to the program this year really helped. The students also poured in a lot of effort (at least from what I could tell) and all three of my classes did end up successful at the very least. Arghs decided to end up giving out awards anyway, so we came up with a new set of awards that would hopefully become a tradition: The Freppies. (Short for FREshman Plays.) Of course, the winners will be secret until Monday–I think some people already know who’ll win anyway.

I’d like to officially congratulate Jade, Garnet and Diamond once more for their performances. I know you put your blood and sweat into it, and I’m really happy with how you guys took my criticism, as scathing as it sometimes was. I’m proud of you.

Here are some pictures. Contact me over YM for the password. I want some semblance of control over who gets these pics.

Best quotes in my opinion:

<Scientist> There’s a fire!<Scientist 2> Where?! <Scientist> In my heart~ <3 (Both scientists hug) –from Splat, by I-Topaz.

<Leila> We are the flaw in the flawless system of existence! –from Miss Anthropy, by I-Garnet

<Loki> Whether it’s for good OR evil, they’ll do whatever’s inconvenient for you. Frickin’ annoying, really. –from Miss Anthropy, by I-Garnet

<The Morrigan> Kill her! Kill her! Kill her! –from Double-Edged, by I-Diamond

<The Morrigan> Did you see the look on her face [as you killed her]? Didn’t you find it pleasurable? –from Double-Edged, by I-Diamond

<Guy> Forget about me! <Dying Girl> I…can’t…forget about you. –from Panacea, by I-Ruby

<Vertically-challenged heroine> What has she got that I don’t? <Chorus> HEIGHT! –from Mission of the Coalition, by I-Emerald

<Raphael> So what did she tell the authorities? My plan for world conquest? Or was it about the komodo dragons I keep as pets? Or the aliens that live in my backyard? –from Mind Poison, by I-Jade

<Raphael> So what is [the Bermuda Triangle]? Is it really a quadrilateral? <Michael> It’s a trapezoid, actually. And it DOES have a giant particle cannon in it! That’s why no one ever gets out! –from Mind Poison, by I-Jade

The Crystal Shard

I finished R.A. Salvatore’s book. I couldn’t put it down. The action was great, the characters, although not that unique anymore, were fun.

The Crystal Shard being referred to is Crenshinibon, an artifact of immense evil power created by seven liches in the ages past. Unlike most evil artifacts that draw their power from darkness, Crenshinibon draws its power from sunlight–hence making it exceedingly powerful. Instead of the corrupting and absorbing nature of negative energy, it just blows stuff up with light and fire: aspects of positive energy, as far as I can tell. The crystal is also capable of producing a replica of itself that can expand into a full-scale tower which the wielder can use as a base. This said tower, known as a Cryshal-Tirith, can harness the power of the sun to create a powerful beam of light than can incinerate cities in seconds.

The shard ends up in the possession of Akar Kessel, a bumbling mage who falls under the will of Crenshinibon and becomes twisted into a powerful wizard-warlord who seeks to conquer all of Icewind Dale. The similarity between Kefka Palazzo is quite striking. (Insane magic-user who sits atop a magically-constructed tower, burning down cities with a massive disintegration beam).

Drizzt Do’Urden (I’m sure you’ve read my previous entry about him) and his dwarven friend Bruenor Battlehammer take Wulfgar, a young barbarian, under their wings and help him become a powerful, intelligent warrior with a strong sense of honor and good despite his wild blood. The three help the Ten-Towns of Icewind Dale against the massive threat of Akar Kessel and his hordes.

This would probably have been a wonderfully groundbreaking novel back when it first came out (1988), but alas, it doesn’t offer anything new now. Nevertheless, it’s still a very entertaining novel–and even moreso if you’re into Dungeons & Dragons’s Forgotten Realms setting. A great read for any fantasy lover.

Read Or Die

I went on a field trip with the Inkwell kids today, and I had to drive them all the way to the Intercon. (Ugh, I’ll never drive an SUV again.) Our destination was the Read or Die Convention (which is a literary convention that has absolutely nothing to do with the anime/manga of the same title, by the way). Unfortunately, the traffic jam along EDSA ate up most of our time and we didn’t get to do much there apart from ogling at some books.

We did, however, witness an awesome memory technique demonstration by Memorology, a company that has developed memory-enhancement techniques. Of course, all of my students were interested–until I told them that I’d make all the test questions essays if they did. Haha. Hahahaha. AHAHAHAHAHA.

It’s really too bad I didn’t bring any money, though. I did receive a little Pinoy Trivia book by Bong Barrameda for participating in the demo.

My only other souvenir:

Yes, you heard me. Let the spell of ink make your life more interesting.

Reading but still dying,

Your Black Lion

Current System Configuration: Definitely relaxed
Earworms:
-Anthem of the World by Stratovarius. [Power Metal] This song has a wonderful melody, but the lyrics are slightly more nihilistic than my usual fare. A 9:32 minute song. The vocals aren’t as good as Dragonforce’s, but the melody is certainly impressive.

Sustenance:
[Breakfast] Cereal
[Lunch] Chicken Tonkatsu
[Dinner] –
[Coffee] Starbucks usual I’m glad the whole stressful period is over. I was able to finish my grades before they were due, despite my being on the verge of fainting from fatigue last Wednesday. I followed my mom’s advice and didn’t bring home any work, so I was able to get a good night’s rest. I then spent the rest of Thursday finishing the grades with minimal stress or pain. I was able to go home and repair my Ky Kiske costume. I am currently stress-free, praise God.This year’s fair was definitely a lot more amusing than last year’s. My costume won a prize at the costume contest—a feat for a 3-year old piece that cost me less than 500 pesos to make. I’m probably going to wear something else next year, though.

Garamond’s Can Knockdown

Garamond (our collective name for the sections Garnet and Diamond, most of whom are good friends) managed to make the mundane Can Knockdown booth a little more interesting than usual. Each can was labeled as a “subject,” with varying point values assigned to them. Major subjects had larger values, while minor subjects naturally had smaller values. ”Flunking” more “subjects” gives you a higher score, but there’s a catch. There are some cans that are labeled as “IRs” (Incident reports to those who aren’t familiar with the jargon), with varying values depending on the gravity of the offense. Knocking those cans down deducted points from your score. Their tagline? “Failing is inevitable, why not go all the way?”  [1] [2] [3] 

More Garamond pics:

Camcam in her pseudo-Hogwarts uniform.
Fifi, An-chan, Rah-chan and Kei-chan
Isa, Estelle and Kristina
Joe being tormented by a jailer
Alvin in jail
Garnet cramming during the fair

J-Ders and GaoGaiGar

Because of the oppressive heat outside, I decided to return to the hovel that I call my cubicle and spent time rewatching GaoGaiGar FINAL. A couple of students (James and Isa V) dropped by and got engrossed in what I was engrossed in, so we watched practically all of GGGF (we had to skip a couple of episodes due to the disc being damaged). They were greatly amused by J-Der and King J-Der (as James and Isa are from section Jade, they refer to themselves as Jaders). I guess Jade has a new mascot now.

Other J-Der pics:

The J-Ders [1] [2] 
Luigi upside-down on the velcro wall

Today my brother and I went to the fair in the hopes of savagely crushing everyone else in SoulCalibur III, but unfortunately the booth was full. We played a couple of rounds of Magic, with me winning both times. (I’ll add an entry on that later)

Freakily,

Your Black Lion