This is an old post that dates back to May 27th, so the time references are a bit off. Not bothering to rewrite this as I’m going to be spamming entries tonight.

*begin*

Being required to go on seminars is generally a good thing. Of course it largely depends on the program. Some provide ample time for r&r. Others don’t.

This one in particular was of the latter kind, so after a largely difficult and frustratingly boring day of talks and seminars, I got the bright idea of skipping the hotel dinner and walking to Baguio’s 50s Diner with my co-teachers Arghs and Martin.

Martin had introduced us to the place in passing on our first day. He said it was one of the Summer Capital’s great old landmarks, and that visiting it was always a must when in Baguio. At first we didn’t think we would have a chance to go there, but yesterday was such a wallbanger that I felt some exercise (any walking in Baguio is) and comfort food was in order.

The place didn’t look like it aged well, so I have to voice my initial apprehension. I ordered the generic, trusted and true cheeseburger. And I was pleasantly surprised.

The burger was huge, and it wasn’t just an oversize bun. The bread wasn’t dry or scorched–Its crown yielded with a crunch under just the right pressure. Initial visual inspection showed that the plate wasn’t flooded with 46362728 French fries, unlike the common diner burgers we get at popular restaurants of the same style. The fried were wedges and were neither salty nor oily. There weren’t that many, but do you order burgers for the fries? In fact, I think that the less fries they serve, the better. Sometimes the fry flood seems to serve to disguise the burger’s lack of size.

The patty itself was far larger than most patties I’d eaten. It was definitely larger than the Jollibee champ’s 1/3 pounder. It was juicy and definitely made of real meat–no extenders. The cheese was great. Immediately I recognized its taste as similar to the cheese that Pancake House uses for its grilled cheese, which I think is one of the best (if most expensive) grilled cheese sandwiches I’ve had.

And that’s about it. Seriously, what else do you need in a burger apart from the bread, cheese and patty? They did have cucumber, tomato and onion slices on the side, but those aren’t the stars.

Okay, so it’s a good burger. There are a lot of good burgers in Manila. Beat this: it costs 90 pesos.

Bon appetit.

I’m still two days from finishing work for this school year, but I sure am glad it’s that close. Too much drama has been happening at school lately. My opinions on the matter have been aired (I don’t think those people should be graduating, but I do feel sorry for them and regret that this had to happen; honestly the BOT should’ve just stuck to policy instead of trying to be compromising—err, “compassionate.”) and now I just want to get away from all the scandals and get my well-deserved relaxation.

So here’s my summer checklist:

Places to Go:

-Singapore. I’m visiting my father in Singapore this Friday, and although we won’t be there for long, I do miss my family there and also look forward to bonding with that side.
-The Beach. Honestly, I can’t stand an entire summer spent at home. Arghs is planning a trip, but we don’t know where yet.

Books to Buy and Read:

-Inkdeath. The final book in Cornelia Funke’s Ink trilogy is out, and it sure took a while (probably due to translation). Inkheart was dark and heavy, Inkspell even moreso. I don’t know what to expect from Inkdeath, but I want to finish what I started.

-Eberron Campaign Setting. I’m not just about to go into 4E D&D and want to own actual copies of these books. As of last Christmas I heard the ECS is still available in Singapore, so I want to go check it out.

-D&D 3.5 Monster Manual III. See above.

-D&D 3.5 Magic Item Compendium. See above. Some books are just much better references in hard copy.

Anime to Watch

-Gundam 00 Season 2. While I heard it got weird toward the end in the same way that Code Geass R2 became weird, I think it’s still worth watching.

-Koutetsushin Jeeg. I started this a long time ago but failed to finish it.

-Pumpkin Scissors. See above. I ran out of disk space.

Things to Do

-Play D&D. Yes! I am finally going to play D&D during the summer! I’m starting my campaign, which mostly follows the Red Hand of Doom adventure in Mid-April. The campaign journal is already up!

-Take working out seriously again. Although I haven’t been musing weeks of working out, I have missed days of working out and I’ve felt quite a bit weaker. I’m glad I still haven’t gained any weight back, however. Stupid odd schedules.

Of course, things can change and I might always add things to this list. I do think that this is going to be a rather enjoyable summer.

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:
-all of Casting Crowns’ album Lifesong

I just finished Gainax’s newest series, Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. At first I was skeptical. Although I’ve been pleased by Gainax’s past mecha productions—Aim for the Top! Gunbuster, Aim for the Top! 2 Diebuster, and to a lesser extent, Neon Genesis Evangelion, I felt that maybe G-L was just hype. It came after I’d finished a rather serious series (Code Geass), so I didn’t think comedy and camp would be something I’d wanted to see. Nevertheless, I tried it out.

Now to be honest, G-L didn’t appeal to me immediately. Due to the first episode being mostly set underground, the coloring was initially quite flat and somber, a drastic change from the bright and flashy style commonly seen in anime nowadays. Of course, later on, G-L does look a lot brighter in scenes where there’s actual sunlight—so at least their art direction was aimed towards atmosphere and simply not bling.

Furthermore, I lost interest in Gurren-Lagann after the fourth episode due to the fiasco that came about after the guest art direction. A lot of people complained about the art being flat, static and uninspired in Episode 4, and this ticked me off. Thankfully, I heard that the problems were immediately fixed in the next episode. Still, business kept me from progressing. I laid off the series until last week.

Then the awesome started.

Just like its major theme, evolution–which it interprets as surpassing oneself–the series surpasses itself repeatedly. The action escalates from an extended trek through the desert to an epic climactic battle with the Beastman forces at the capital city, and then the first half ends. There’s a lot of camp, hot blood, and fanservice in the first part of the series.

Then the second half comes and turns everything on its head. The characters question their motives and even their accomplishments, and have to come to grips with how  to deal with their new lives. Just when everything seems to normalize (a bit too much, in fact)–a new enemy shows up, and the spiral of the series’ evolution goes from a Sim City nightmare to an epic space opera of ownage. Simon’s Ganmen goes from the bathtub-sized Lagann to the meter-sized Gurren-Lagann to the warship Dai-Gurren…to…

Spoilers henceforth.

…the city-sized Arc Gurren (and Arc Gurren-Lagann, which can punch holes through space)…to the Moon-sized Chouginga Gurren-Lagann…to the truly, utterly, totally, absolutely GINORMOUS Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. To put it simply.

Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann. Was standing. On. A. Galaxy. And big enough to actually tower over it. Of course, the enemies at this point were also truly enormous.  Simon’s final mecha was piloted by a good portion of the main cast (won’t say whom), and it was tough enough to survive having a BIG BANG THROWN AT IT.

Of course, it wasn’t just the overwhelming cheese of the mech’s power that drew me. Hey, Ideon did that, but it still doesn’t draw me in the same way. What drew me was the attitude of the series. Sure, it wasn’t a particularly reverent attitude. (Their catchphrase, instead of “I will punish you in the name of the Moon,” was quite literally, “WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!”) But there was a certain spirit in the anime that really got to me. I can’t really explain it at this point, but it’s something like this.

Gunbuster and Diebuster gave me the feeling of pleasant contentment after the hotblooded action gave way to a happy and warm ending. Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann made me feel I could take on the world. The ending was truly inspiring in my opinion, and although some people didn’t like the ending, they have to agree that they surely loved the series. The characters were lovable, each awesome in his or her own way, and even the villains are redeemed in the end—yes, even the final villain.

I really was pleasantly surprised with this series, and I highly recommend it.

Baguio

Anyway, I’m going to Baguio again. I went there last year to administer the PSHS screening test, and it was somewhat a traumatic experience. But that was official business anyway. This time, we’re traveling there to unwind. I’ll talk more about it when I get back.

Earworms
-When Angels Cry by After Omega

So, last day in Singapore and last day of the year 2007.
[The last dawn.]
This is the last time I’ll be seeing this view, as my dad is moving out of [his place] soon.

We were supposed to go for a ride in the [DHL balloon today], but due to the wind getting nasty, it was not to be. [At least they're honest about it.]

It’s a shame, as I really wanted to get a good aerial shot of the so-called [Batman building]. I’ll have to settle for a ground shot, then.

We had to go to Bugis junction instead, where I had [Laksa] for lunch. It’s wonderfully spicy to the point of being sinus-clearing. Awesome.

For dessert, we got ice cream mocchi from Beard Papa Sweets. [This one] is strawberry flavored with dark chocolate ice cream filling.

We’re going to wait for the New Year’s at the house of a friend of my dad. Any further pictures shall be posted here as well.

Now, for an obligatory year-ender:

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’ve never done before?
-Played pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons.
-Joined an art contest on DeviantArt.
-Taught Asian literature.
-Took a road trip to Pagudpud.
-Went to Baguio alone as a chief examiner for the PSHS entrance test.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
Didn’t make any, and I doubt I’ll make any.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nyet.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Nope.

5. What countries did you visit?
Singapore and Malaysia.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?
Focus and motivation. And probably a new love.

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
…none come to mind. Heh.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Wrote and organized a Dungeons & Dragons campaign with my students in a school with monstrous schedules, and actually DMing.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Failing to begin grad studies.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Bad colds and an annoying itch.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Dungeons & Dragons books, and probably C&C 3.
And a whole bunch of Starbucks frappuccinos.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Given how bleakly I saw 2007, I really don’t remember anyone in particular.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
You’re reading his blog right now.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Food (mostly Starbucks), the gym and broadband internet.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
The trip to Pagudpud and the Christmas trip to Singapore.

16. What song/s will always remind you of 2007?
Hmm. Fire in the Night by After Omega, Nightquest by Nightwish.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
Happier or sadder? – Sadder. Where do I begin?
Richer or poorer? – Poorer. Prices go up yet salaries do not.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Reading, drawing, prayer.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Angsting.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it with family, playing on the Wii.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007?
…Don’t ask.

22. How many one-night stands?
None and never.

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion, though does it count if I torrented it?

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
I tend not to hate people as long as they don’t participate in acts of oppression.

25. What was the best book you read?
-The Bible, goes without saying.
-To Kill A Mockingbird

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Within Temptation, After Omega, and Nightwish

27. What did you want and got?
Hmm. A new phone, new clothes, a trip abroad.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?
SPARTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I don’t even remember. I think I angsted.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
A knight is nothing without a lady.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007?
Same old. Grungy, camo, earth colors. Slightly more flattering clothes when I was thin. Alas, that has changed.

32. What kept you sane?
The hand of God alone.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
No one in particular.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?
Can I say everything, given than I’m personally suffering from it?

35. Who did you miss?
Can’t say I miss anyone, because I haven’t met her yet.

36. Who was the best new person you met?
Well, meeting Alodia Gosiengfiao in person counts, I guess.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007.
Being a hero does not mean being a patsy.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
So far away we wait for the day
For the light source so wasted and gone
We feel the pain of a lifetime lost in a thousand days
Through the fire and the flames we carry on

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:
-still stuck with Nightwish

Day 5

Dad took us for a spin around Vivo City, which is right across the strait from Sentosa. I was finally able to get R.A. Salvatore’s Streams of Silver and The Halfling’s Gem, the remaining books in the Icewind Dale trilogy. Of course, this left me with $10 for the rest of my trip. Thankfully I don’t intend to buy anything else. (GMA, I still need to throttle you for not giving me that 10k cash gift when you promised.)

Day 6

After going to church, dad took us all to Central Mall by the riverside. We had lunch at [Pasta de Waraku], a fusion restaurant. They had Japanese-style Italian dishes, which were both an interesting and delicious concept.

Stuff we ordered:

-eggplant and ziti au gratin
-My brother ordered spaghetti with salmon and spinach in wafu (Japanese style) sauce
-I ordered fettuccine with mozarella and tomatoes in bonito sauce.
-Chicken Teriyaki pizza was by far the most interesting dish that we had. As you can see it has nori strips on top, and also has green onions. Totally delicious.

Pasta de Waraku also has an awesome view of the Singapore River and Clarke Quay. Here’s another pic of the view.

Afterward we had dessert at Azabu Sabo ice cream, which is right by the riverside. I didn’t want to try their more uh, interesting ice cream flavors (Sea salt and caramel was one intriguing flavor), so I went with tiramisu.

Dad wanted to bring us to the DHL Balloon for a ride, but unfortunately the balloon was grounded due to inclement weather. Tita Nikki informed me that this was apparently a common occurrence, especially since the weather was rather unpredictable this time of the year. Instead we ended up going to Bugis Junction again to look for some clothes for the kids. After a rather embarrassing time at Samuel & Kevin (their largest size-jacket wouldn’t fit me. I need to lose a LOT of weight when I get back, so I’m definitely not canceling that gym membership just yet), we went around a bit more. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any jackets that fit me. X_x We headed home after that.

Interesting thing at the Bugis Junction: a shop full of those Japanese sticker booths. Cute <3.

Unfortunately, the rear fender of dad’s car snagged on a parking block and literally got ripped partly off. One of the rear parking sensors was taken out too. Argh.

Singapore’s traffic system still amazes me. They’re able to pack so much road into such a small country and yet not suffer from severe traffic often. (One could cross the city very quickly without too much trouble.) It’s easy to reach speeds of 80 kph on the expressways that cut across the island, while in Manila, even reaching 60 kph is a rarity. On the way home, we ran into a powerful rainstorm (which is probably the reason why the DHL balloon was grounded).
[Rainstorm 1]
[Rainstorm 2]

That’s it for today. Coming up soon: Our Malacca trip. Oh yeah. 30,000 hits! Thanks, readers. And lurkers. And spammers too, I guess.

Toodles.

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:
-Nightquest by Nightwish
-Wishmaster by Nightwish
-Come Cover Me by Nightwish

Got to meet up with some of my students at Raffles city the other day for some shopping and a little talk about the Hell’s Heart D&D adventure we were going to be playing while we were here in Singapore. Ended up getting a whole bunch of stuff:
Although D&D books are available in the Philippines, the selection is usually limited to the newest books (or older, obscure 3.0 books). I was happy to discover that there was a specialty store (Comics Mart) at Raffles City mall that had a lot of D&D books on stock. I got the following:

-Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords
-The Grand History of the Realms

I’m glad to have finally gotten a hardcopy of the Bo9S. It looks fantastic in the pulp. The Grand History is a very interesting read, detailing everything from the beginning years of Faerun to its most recent apocalyptic events. These two books cut my

I also grabbed a copy of the anime The Big O at a booksale at Suntec Convention center, as well as a copy of Spirited Away
that was unfortunately in Japanese with Chinese subtitles. Oh well.

Day 3

I met up again with my students yesterday. They were supposed to pick me up at Tiong Bahru station at 10:30 am, but due to limited prepaid accounts, they could not reply to my text messages or answer my calls. After an hour and a meal at MOS burger, I was finally met the guy who was supposed to pick me up. We eventually got around to beginning our Eberron campaign, Hell’s Heart, after lunch.

DR’s crusader tore apart the villains without any problems–until the party went up against centipede swarms (which are immune to weapon damage). Thankfully their psion and duskblade were able to pick up the slack and turn their offensive spells against the swarms. The swarms are still alive, but right now they’re still steadily eating away at the entire party’s HP.

The campaign is taking longer than I expected, so we’ll probably be continuing this during the fair.

A lot more happened today, but I’ll continue this in a separate post.

Earworms
-Moral no Soushiki by Angela Aki
-miscellaneous bgms for The Black and the Purple
Projects
-The Black and the Purple Chapter ???: Fallen Art Thou, Eveningstar!
-Checking stuff.

My mom told me a little story about our senior pastor.

During the chaos of Antonio Trillanes IV’s (henceforth known as Hero-Lad) would-be revolution and pseudoheroics last Thursday, my mom begged off from an important meeting in our church (which is part of her work) to rush home and be with us. The problem is, she completely forgot to inform Pastor Peter.
He gave my mom a call a few hours after Hero-Lad surrendered. According to my mom, Pastor Peter said, in his calmest voice, that he was disappointed and that she had embarrassed him. The way he said it was so polite and gentle that it bothered her conscience the whole weekend. She then made up her mind to apologize to him as soon as she’d meet him again.

Fast forward to last Tuesday. My mom did meet with Pastor Peter and offered her most sincere apologies. She asked if she could make up for it in any way. Pastor Peter, bewildered, asked her what for? My mom reminded him of her mess-up. He simply answered: “I’ve forgotten about that already. Ruth, when I look at you, I only see your hard work and the dedication you’ve put into your role in this church. I’ve forgotten all about it. Don’t worry.”

I couldn’t help but let my eyes water a little when hearing of this story. Looking at myself, I’m probably one of the least forgiving people I know. I’m hard on others, and even harder on myself. This feeling was even compounded by an incident yesterday at the Trinoma taxi stand.

I was waiting in line (there really wasn’t much of one), and since I was carrying a whole bunch of heavy stuff and felt sick, I wanted to get home right away. A couple of ladies came by, and since there was no real line, they promptly began to pull over the next taxi that was arriving. As the taxi stopped, I told them in a loud voice (they were more than 20 feet from me) that I was there first. They seemed to understand, said “Oh, alright, no problem.” and let me take their cab. (There was another one pulling up behind them anyway.)

I really felt like a jackass afterwards. Many of us profess to be Christians, but we forget the core tenets. We forget that Christ came into the world not to condemn it, but to save it (John 3:17), and that we are to love our neighbors–and our enemies. It’s something I’ve been struggling to apply in my life, but it’s really been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever tried. After all, we humans are naturally selfish.

Anyway, school’s finally out. The Christmas break has begun. I’ve still got a whole bunch of stuff to do before my trip to Singapore, and thankfully my trip doesn’t mean I have to set aside updating my blog. Now I just have to get my camera repaired.
Dad’s planning an overnight trip to Malacca, which involves staying in this [really cool hotel]. What’s even better is that we’re going to have a food trip there! (I seriously doubt I’m going to lose any weight in Singapore)

More updates within the weekend and over the course of next week. Hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more about my upcoming one-shot Singapore D&D campaign, as well as some updates to The Black and the Purple.