Wassup World

11 Thursday Aug 2011

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Wow, I almost forgot I still have this blog. LOL. I’ve been enjoying Tumblr way too much since the whole World Cup thing happened and I haven’t been able to get back to fixing my sites and adding photos to my main page.

But anyway, so what’s been going on with me? Well, I still haven’t found any kind of groove except when I’m zonked out so I’m afraid I can’t write coherently as much as I want to. Because of that, well, microblogging here we go.

# I’ve been hanging out in Tumblr and Twitter mostly. I’m so close to abandoning Facebook except that it’s the easiest way to keep in touch with people back home so I guess I’ll just let the account sit there. Also, Google Plus, but I haven’t explored that yet.

# So Japan beat the US WNT. I tried to follow the WPS, specifically MagicJack, but it’s kinda difficult and trying to follow the Seattle Storm takes so much of my time already.

# I really hate summers in Japan. Just two minutes out of the door and I am always already melting.

# Went home to Manila last week on an 11-day vacation. That’s pretty hectic. Loved it though.

# I had the chance to watch Ang Babae sa Septic Tank and I was too fcuking lazy to get up and cartwheel over to the movie house 😐

# Game of Thrones has possibly ruined any other TV shows for me. And the last Harry Potter movie, too. Tsk.

# I’m somehow in the middle of reading A Storm of Swords, the third book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. I’m trying to barrel through it, possibly barrel even strong through A Feast for Crows before I get to the awesomeness that is A Dance with Dragons.

# While I was in Manila, I picked up a copy of The Lost Hero, the 1st book in Rick Riordan’s second series The Heroes of Olympus. It’s a welcome relief from all the seriousness of ASOIAF and I realized I kinda missed reading YA adventure fiction et cetera. Also, it’s mythology with a modern twist so I think it’s awesome.

# It’s Birdy’s 10th year in Seattle woohoo.

The Ultimate Love Song

23 Thursday Jun 2011

Posted by in Muzzak, Playlist

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Rax2PXiWA

Made a wrong turn
Once or twice
Dug my way out
Blood and fire
Bad decisions
That’s alright
Welcome to my silly life
Mistreated, misplaced, missundaztood
Miss “no way it’s all good”
It didn’t slow me down
Mistaken
Always second guessing
Underestimated
Look, I’m still around…
Pretty, pretty please
Don’t you ever, ever feel
Like your less than
Fuckin’ perfect
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You’re fuckin’ perfect to me
You’re so mean
When you talk
About yourself
You are wrong
Change the voices
In your head
Make them like you
Instead
So complicated
Look how big you’ll make it
Filled with so much hatred
Such a tired game

It’s enough
I’ve done all I can think of
Chased down all my demons
see you same
Pretty, pretty please
Don’t you ever, ever feel
Like your less than
Fuckin’ perfect
Pretty, pretty please
If you ever, ever feel
Like your nothing
You’re fuckin’ perfect to me
The world stares while I swallow the fear
The only thing I should be drinking is an ice cold beer
So cool in lying and I tried tried
But we try too hard, it’s a waste of my time
Done looking for the critics, cuz they’re everywhere
They don’t like my genes, they don’t get my hair
Stringe ourselves and we do it all the time
Why do we do that?
Why do I do that?
Why do I do that?
Ooh, pretty pretty pretty,
Pretty pretty please don’t you ever ever feel
Like you’re less then, fuckin’ perfect
Pretty pretty please if you ever ever feel
Like you’re nothing you’re fuckin’ perfect, to me
You’re perfect
You’re perfect
Pretty, pretty please don’t you ever ever feel like you’re less then, fucking perfect
Pretty, pretty please if you ever ever feel like you’re nothing you’re fucking perfect to me

A Song of Fire and Ice

15 Wednesday Jun 2011

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So, I’ve finally finished Confessor (11th book of The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind), right? And I’ve finally found my reading groove again. It’s been too long since I last spent my time reading massive novel series like SoT and I’ve probably just read quite a score of YA novels the past two years. Now, now, YA novels are awesome in their own right and I think they really should be enjoyed as well. But I’ve missed those times during college — oh how long ago those times were — when I’d rather read Stone of Tears instead of revising for my Probability Long Exam. I really loved fantasy novel series back then. I can’t even … ugh.

Anyway, so there’s this new HBO series — well, it was new 9 weeks ago — based off the “A Song of Fire and Ice” novel series by George R. R. Martin that had Sean Bean (Boromir from The Fellowship of the Rings to those who don’t recognize him) at the lead. My friends were all going going gaga over it so I thought, what the heck, might as well join in the fun, too.

The series was awesome, despite holding back on some parts of the production because of budgeting shite and stuff like that. The cast is phenomenal and the plot is just so good, even if GRRM seems like a sort of sadistic maniac for killing off his characters just like that. Lena Headey is great as power-hungry Queen Cersei Lannister, Bean brings his understated and yet very good portrayal of honorable Eddard Stark, and oh gosh, Maisie Williams is just perfect as the headstrong Arya Stark. Peter Dinklage is also another one of the draws with his brilliant acting as The Imp Tyrion Lannister.

Anyway, so the TV show is awesome but some of my friends said that there are a lot of things missing from the series still, even if they really made quite a great adaptation of it. And so that’s why I’ve finally found myself picking up this book:

I’m actually enjoying the prose and the voice GRRM uses here. After reading Confessor and finding the narrative (and the endless sick-cyle-carousel type dialogues) somewhat lacking, I’ve latched unto AGoT like Robert Arryn to his mom. (This disturbed me to no ends when I watched this scene and again when I finally came to that in the book). It’s been an awesome, awesome read so far and I’m loving the characters as the story — more like stories — progresses.

Storm Basketball 2011

05 Sunday Jun 2011

Posted by in WNBA

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# Double-double to start the season. Attagirl, Birdy.

# LJ was too quiet in the first half tho.

# Swin and the Refs — it’s been a hate/hate relationship since last season.

# Camille Little almost gave me a heart attack. Good thing that was no ACL tear or something. A sprain is still painful but at least not ACL.

# Katie Smith. Man. She awesome, yes?

# It’s the first game but man, T.Wright, get your shit together, okay?

# WNBA Liveaccess looking all snappy and shit. I love it. Too bad I can’t find the 2010 Archives tho. Aren’t those available anymore? *Sobs*

# Storm over Phoenix — 78 – 71.

30 Days of Literature — Part I

30 Monday May 2011

Posted by in Books, Fiction, Geekdom, Meme

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Permission to do this in two parts! Haha. I’m pretty sure I won’t finish this if I had to go through the questions daily.

* * *

DAY 001: How many books have you read so far this year?
This year? Uhm. Lemme see if I can remember all of them. So far I’ve finished Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, Ash, Huntress, Confessor, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Hours, Game On! (by Jayda Evans). Currently I’m reading Fragile Things, Bird at the Buzzer, Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection, Game of Thrones, and other stuff.

DAY 002: Your favorite book of the last 365 days.
A toss between Mockingjay and Huntress. And probably when I finish the first book — Game of Thrones.

DAY 003: Your favorite book of all time.
Oh Lordy. Uhm. Let’s see. THG Series, LoTR Series, Silmarillion, Huntress, Harry Potter Series, and a host of other books that I’ll just keep to myself.

DAY 004: A book you love that everyone else hates (or at least that no one else seems to like!)
Hmm. Can’t think of anything. Anita Blake? But that’s only because no one else seems to know this series.

DAY 005: A book you hate that everyone else loves/is overhyped.
Hahahaha. Oh I dunno. I used to love the Bob Ong books but after so many releases I kinda got tired of him. Also, anything by Coelho. He’s too optimistic for me.

DAY 006: Do you prefer series or singular novels? Why? What is your favorite series?
Series. The longer the story the better for me. I don’t ever want a story to end. If there could be an epilogue to the epilogue to the epilogue, the better.

DAY 007: A literary cliche you hate.
Love Triangles. Goodness. Or if we actually had to have a love triangle, don’t make it equilateral. Make it an obtuse triangle — one character is actually closer to one, and the other so far but angsting LIKE A BOSS.

DAY 008: A genre you love!
I’ve always loved fantasy. I’ve been addicted to Goodkind’s characters — not so much his prose, now that I’ve started to read George R. R. Martin — and I absolutely adore Lord of the Rings and practically everything that had to do with Middle Earth. Guy Gavriel Kay and the Fionavar Tapestries too.

Aside from that, I also enjoyed reading about Mafia stuff books. Puzo for the mother-frakking win.

And lastly — Y.A. There’s only too much angst you can take from fantasy and mafia books. We all need the right dose of young love and *kilig* sometimes.

Y.A. + Fantasy, tho, is what I really love. No wonder I love Huntress so much.

DAY OO9: Your favorite quote.
“There are so many fragile things, after all. People break so easily, and so do dreams and hearts.” ~ Gaiman

DAY 010: A character you wish had not died.
Rue. And Dobby. And OMG Prim. And Dumbledore. And Hedwig the Owl. And — wait I can’t remember all the characters that died in the Sword of Truth Series.

DAY 011: Two characters you wish had ended up together.
Nicci with someone (SoT); Harry and Luna; Peeta Mellark with someone who deserves him; Kaede and Taisin, et cetera.

DAY 012: If you could take any character from one novel and set them into the world of another, what would you choose?
Hahaha. I saw an answer to this meme earlier that made me laugh out loud — PUT BELLA IN PANEM. That would be hilarious. She’d probably just stick to the Cornocupia and get killed the moment the Games started. Or put her in either the Imperial Order Camp or D’Hara circa Wizard’s First Rule. Or maybe throw her into a Mord’Sith Temple. That should probably teach her to become a strong female character.

DAY 013: The most agonizing cliffhanger is…
Katniss … there is no district 12. && Goodkind’s Phantom:
Richard is a captive in the Imperial Order’s main camp, without his sword or his gift; Kahlan is a captive of Jagang with a Rada’han; the Boxes of Orden are in play by Sister Ulicia; there is a problem with Chainfire and with magic; that the Imperial Order is slowly making their way into the central stronghold of the D’Haran forces: the People’s Palace, but also the D’Haran forces appear able to cut off the Imperial Order supply lines just as winter starts.

DAY 014: A book that never fails to make you actually laugh out loud.
Harry Potter. I can’t think of another book right now.

DAY 015: A book that never fails to make you cry.
Mockingjay. Harry Potter. Mocking-frakking-jay.

* * *

Part 2 tomorrow. My eyes already hurt huhu.

 

Live-Blogging Confessor

26 Thursday May 2011

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After years (3++) of reading Terry Goodkind’s 11th book in the Sword of Truth series, I’m finally moving along. Yay, improvement. But anyway, since I waited this long and because I’ve read countless other works (yeah right), I’m not sure I’m enjoying reading this book anymore. Compared to others, Goodkind’s prose seem a bit, I dunno, not that pretty.

But anyway, since I apparently won’t be able to move on with my life if I don’t finish this and also I really really want Kahlan to kick Jagang’s ass or something, I guess I’ll just soldier on through this thing. After that I’ll decide if I’ll still read The Law of Nines and Omen Machine.

I have a lot of thoughts (and apparently, feelings too) when reading this book so I guess I’ll sort of do a live-blog thing while I’m at it. So, yeah, here goes:

# At Chapter ~11 — Why the fuck are all these people trying to push Nicci to Richard anyway? Don’t you guys fucking discount Kahlan!

# At Chapter 4 or 5 — How on earth did Zedd become the First Wizard if he cannot grip whatever Nicci was trying to tell him about the Ordenic Theory?

# Argh, Goodkind why are your explanations so long-winded?

# OMG, I thought I’d never say this because I kinda hated her when she captured Richard and made him stay with her in Altur’Rang but I sorta kinda like Nicci now. And her unwillingness to accept everyone’s urging for her to go get Richard for her own only increases my respect for her.

# O hai there Jennsen Rahl!

# After making me get annoyed at Prelate Ann Aldurren in Chapter 20, Goodkind had to make the Sisters of the Dark kill her?! What the hell!

# Oh God. Nicci’s captured.

# By the way, Book!Richard is way > TV!Richard. Probably the only reason why my sister doesn’t want to watch Legend of the Seeker ever.

# Still trying to decide whether I like Book!Kahlan over TV!Kahlan more. I have to say Bridget Regan is kinda close to that image I had of Kahlan in my mind tho.

# TV!Cara > Book!Cara. No doubt about it.

# I haven’t been so tired of long-winded conversations since Pillars of Creation, maybe even since Blood of the Fold. Discussions about Order, prophecies, and the teachings of the Order make my head hurt.

# Chapter ~25 — This opened my eyes to potential Nicci/Kahlan or maybe even Nicci and Kahlan as BFFs. So much admiration for the woman that Richard, whom you yourself had feelings for, wouldn’t give up on, Nicci.

“You have a beautiful voice, Kahlan Amnell,” Nicci whispered as she stared at Kahlan. “You really do.”

“Thank you, but it doesn’t seem beautiful to me. Sometimes I think I sound like a frog.”

Nicci smiled. “Hardly.”

Also, as much as Richard is the main protagonist in this story, I’m heartened to say that the series wouldn’t be without its strong female characters — Kahlan, Nicci, Cara, Prelate, Confessors, Sisters of the Light, Sisters of the Dark, Mord’Sith, Shota, Adie, Jennsen, Jillian, Rachel, Six, and countless others.

# Mistress Berdine.

Sara Bareilles in Tokyo

21 Saturday May 2011

Posted by in Japan Stuff, Muzzak

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2011.05.17

Man, she was awesome live. That was a really, really great show. I enjoyed it even more than the Maroon 5 concert we went to the night before this one. I mean, she sang Cee Lo Green’s Fuck You song with Gonna Get Over You. How more awesome can you get?

Too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures. The only thing that I brought back as a proof of meeting her is this:

Cool huh?