ninjapeps

my mom asked me if a certain cd she had could be copied even though it would disintegrate after 12 months. confused as to what she meant, I took a look at the cd. it said that the program expires after 12 months. disintegration and expiration are very different things.

*headdesk*

today, I bought a second hand Sigma 10-20mm. only lens left that I want get now is a 70-200mm but that can wait until I've got a reasonable cash surplus. unlike the UWA, I doubt I can use this just whenever I feel like it.

another consideration: I got this lens for a lot less than my budget so I'm deciding whether to use what's left for a filter (because I really want to try IR) or a game for the Wii.

you know what's embarrassing? three guys over 25 losing against a 12-year-old girl in a board game. and that's already with all three of us working against her. :))

yeah, we suck.

Nicole celebrated her birthday last night at her place. Pia, Toyang and Char were present. it was a fun night. the food was great. many pictures were taken. many silly YouTube videos were watched.

funny thing about last night. one of Nicole's guests was a high school classmate of hers and it turned out I knew her. at first, I thought she just looked like someone I knew but when I heard her name was Athena, it clicked that she was one of Sacha's students back in 2003. small world.

the only downer happened when we were about to leave. when I got into my car, I was wondered why the side mirror was so dark. at second glance, I realized it was because the mirror wasn't there. I went up to Toyang and found her mirrors were stolen, too. the guy who was supposed to be watching the cars got viciously chewed out because of that.

went to Mega Masquerade yesterday. turnout was amazingly low. only one hall was used and yet it was practically deserted. people were most likely either afraid of the typhoon or out in the provinces for All Saints/Souls Day. good chance it was both both. ran into Dang, Marcelle, Mark, Carl and Char there.

shortly before leaving, I met up with an old blockmate and bought his Wii. great deal, too. barely used with four games and a second controller. now I just need to get Twilight Princess, Metroid Prime Trilogy, Smash Bros. and two more controllers and I'm all set.


afterwards, I went to Jayca's place for our Halloween party. others in attendance were Crissa, Jane, Maan, Win and Win's friend whose name escapes me (Jack? John?). we had a 50's theme but I think Maan was the only one with an outfit appropriate for the era.

after the American diner style inspired dinner and a bit of drinking was done, we watched a couple of horror movies. the first one, Paranormal Activity has been getting a lot of buzz and deservedly so, though I think the atmosphere took away from the horror. I've heard that theater screenings had people leaving halfway because they were too scared to finish the movie.

the second movie was Nosferatu. maybe it's because the movie was somewhere around 80 years old but for the most part we found it funny. Count Orlock was seriously creepy, though.

last Friday night was Kel and Jay's Bound and Gagged, the sequel to last year's Laughs and Gasps. with me there were Maan, Clair and JM. this year's show, I think, was bigger and more varied than last year's. other acts in the show were magician Carl Quion, bands Giniling Festival and Grin Project, stand-up comics Richie Fernandez and Mike Unson and ventriloquists Wanlu and Ony Carcamo.

Laughs and Gasps was already a good show but even then this was an improvement. the only snag in the whole program was Grin Project's set lasting a bit longer than it should have, though the audience didn't seem to mind.


to coincide with United Nations Day, the Axis Powers Hetalia fans from all over the world decided to make it Hetalia Day as well, what with AHP being all about the adventures of anthropomorphic personifications of the various countries humorously molesting each other during WW2.

dear lord, these people act like they're being constantly fed weapons grade caffeine. if they were any more hyper, they'd start time traveling.

I'm conflicted over getting a dedicated telephoto lens.

as of now, I have an 18-55mm, a 50mm and a 24-70mm. as soon as I find a decently priced 10-22mm, I'm gonna get it to cover extreme wide angles. also, I want a 70-200mm or 70-300mm lens to cover telephoto ranges. the problem is how often I'd end up using them.

though it's not exactly an all-purpose lens, it's not all that hard to find a use for an ultra wide. it's fun to take casual shots with it because of the way pictures get distorted. a telephoto, however, is next to impossible to use unless your subjects are across the room unless you want to focus on faces. it'll come in handy during cosplay events, though, since it's next to impossible to get a spot close to the stage.

so... get the telephoto or not? or maybe I'll just use the money to buy Ian's Wii so I can finally get to play Twilight Princess and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

I'm starting to think that the universe doesn't want me going to EK. it's like there's some great conspiracy to keep me out of there. this is obviously a plot by the Lizard People.

this Sunday, I shall attempt once more to go to Enchanted Kingdom, partly because of the cosplay event and partly because it's been ten years since I've been there. third time's the charm, right?

this game did for Batman what Ultimate Spider-Man did for Spider-Man: allow players to properly experience what it's like to be the game's title character.

every prior Batman game that I can recall had been a simple side-scrolling beat 'em up. Batman: Arkham Asylum makes use of Batman's fighting skills, detective skills and stalking abilities. though as much fun as it is to beat up a dozen mooks, it's infinitely more satisfying to stealthily pick off one mook at a time and see those left behind get progressively more terrified and paranoid.

speaking of mooks, they're way more fun to fight than the bosses. in fact, the room with two dozen mooks right before the final fight against the Joker was way more exciting than going up against a super-Venomed Joker. I don't think there's a boss in existence that's a bigger wuss than Zsasz, though. seriously, the guy's a joke.

total game time is rather short. started playing it Friday night and finished this morning. still, the game is worth it. I mean, come on. it's written by Paul Dini with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamil reprising their roles as Batman and Joker, respectively. that should be reason enough.

if you like Batman, play this game. just don't get a pirated PC version because anti-piracy methods make it unwinnable.

second typhoon weekend in a row and this one's supposed to be stronger than the last. pretty scary considering last Saturday saw as much rain in 12 hours as a whole month. I hope it doesn't come to that this time.

seems that "a week's worth of rain" was an incorrect measurement. yesterday's rainfall was equal to a whole month's worth. it wasn't that the rain was especially strong. the thing was that it was consistently strong for way longer than anyone could have expected.

our pond tends to overflow in heavy rain. what was new was our backyard/laundry area also flooding. as a result, we had ankle-deep water downstairs. we got lucky. we didn't even lose power.

my cousins had maybe an inch or two in their first floor. that doesn't sound like a big deal except that their first floor is at least four feet above street level.

markpoa was on the road for over 11 hours trying to get home.

randomria said her village flooded for the first time ever.

near SJ's place, a van was carried by flood waters into an excavation site and went completely under, nose first.

my sister's best friend's village had people using jet skis to get around.

several people I know were stranded at work or some other location because there was no way for them to get home.

of course, there are people who immediately blamed the government for all the flooding. how could the government not have foreseen this? rainfall of this magnitude hasn't happened before. I doubt anyone short of Batman had contingencies for flooding this bad.

all plans for the weekend are out the window thanks to this typhoon. it seems to be taking a break right now but Jayca says an equivalent of a week's rain has already fallen.

blech.

borrowed my co-worker's 10-22mm lens over the weekend. I've got to get one for myself.

this article reminded me of Cosplay Fusion. a guard tried to tell JM he couldn't take pictures in the mall without giving a clear reason why. I think he said something about security but I couldn't see how that could be the case since he was taking a picture of Clair with nothing but a nondescript wall behind her. especially stupid since in the floor above, there were dozens of people all armed with cameras merrily snapping away at the cosplayers.

lordy, this was tiring but fun.


got to Mega Mall shortly before the event started and stayed there until about 7pm. met up with Pia, Toyang, Char and Nicole there. I forget which character Char was cosplaying as. Nicole was Hao Asakura from Shaman King.

a great many pictures were taken. got to watch the group cosplay competition for once. five groups were competing but only two were any good. the X-Men group was boring, the Kamen Riders were too chaotic (though they had amazing costumes) and the Shaman King group acted like they didn't even have an actual script. the Soul Calibur group had an excellent performance marred only by Mitsurugi's sword breaking in the middle of a fight sequence. the Valkyrie Profile group made great use of pre-recorded dialogue and "special effects".

maybe it's just because I was paying more attention now than before but it seemed to me like there were more male cross-dressers in the individual competition this time.

didn't get to check out the cosplay museum, mech cafe or any of the workshops, unfortunately.

the only bad thing that happened was losing my flash disperser. oh well. it's cheap and easily replaced though I might skip that and just get an external flash ahead of schedule.

honestly, I really hate it when people say that. whenever someone says "don't judge me," what they really mean is "don't say anything bad about me." "you're a good person" is every bit a judgment as "you're an awful person" but no one ever gets offended at being judged positively. what, people aren't allowed to have negative opinions?

this is especially ridiculous when it comes to contests. seriously, someone posted "don't judge other people's work." isn't the whole point of voting judging which one you think is best?

was supposed to go to EK for my birthday but rain nixed that plan. plan B was to watch a movie and then have dinner.

Jayca, Maan, Crissa and I watched District 9 in the afternoon. excellent movie. obviously the guy who designed the powered armor in the movie was a fan of Half-Life 2.


Win, Henry, Char, Nicole and Toyang joined us afterwards for dinner at Superbowl. as per Pia's request, I had siomai in her honor. :p

it was a fun night despite the unlucky turns that hit almost everyone invited. worst of which was Monica, who dropped her wallet in a taxi.

Math.pow(3, 3);

stupid rain spoiling my plans. ah well. that's why it's always good to have a backup.