some pictures

Yeah I'm such a geek but there, BORDERS!!! Next shops to go to: Chapters, Barns & Nobles.
My funnest roomies. Yo (Japan), Sean (England), Mark (England).

Magic speak, this is Michael French! Hahaha, yeah he teaches English to Japanese people. Must be pretty lucrative haha

hindsight is 20/20

Summer Happenings

Nothing. I'll be bumming. Except I'll be a very active bum. No summer. No job. Guess its just me, my books, the operation, and the gym.

Sem, Grades

I have no idea if I can make that B in my QPI. I'm rather happy though because no matter what I've reached the grade requirements for a minor in Economics. My realistic grade forecast versus my if by some miracle but still realistic forecast:
Com 160 B----------------- B+
Com 161 A----------------- A
Sa 21 B-------------------- B+
Hi 18 C-------------------- C+
Sci 10 C -------------------B (the super curvalicious)
Eco C---------------------- C+

Life Evaluation + Emo Stuff

This is going to be way too emo and I don't feel like it right now

Romantic Life

What you say? A love life? I'm interested in a lot of people. Interested not in broad strokes definition. I'm just not sure if I can commit...

Though I walk in the shadows of blah blah blah I fear no evil...
Good lord, I was apparently in enemy territory in a party I went to the other day. I don't know what I can do to make it up to you Phoebe but you look like you've moved on. But then what's with your friend's attitude?

If there is anything you want to talk about, let me know. I'll always be here for you. (I mean it.) If you want me totally out of your life, medyo mahirap yan since we're neighbors and all :D But please please tell me what you want from me.

Series Addictions

Must have Grey's Anatomy. Mmmmm.... Great stuff! The script, the filming, the actors! WOOHOO! And watching this series confirms the impossibility of being a doctor/surgeon. I really can't imagine myself in a position to move and poke around internal organs despite the fact that science has always fascinated me. I need to get some DVDs.


Spacing Out

Everytime I finish a show, log-off the net, take my eyes off a book, I feel like I'm back in reality. Seriously, I'm getting very very detached to everything that I have. Oh wells...

2 last days and I want to leave more than ever

Future posts to post...
Summer happenings
Sem, Grades, Life Evaluation
Romantic Life
Emo stuff
Series Addictions
Reality and it's weakening grasps on me

Tuesday
Histo finals, risk free. Not much of a problem

Monday
Ad Reporting

Our group has to do our final report about our advertising campaign for bench. disasters here, there, and everyfuckingwhere.

We are so not ready.

Laslas moment.

Updating

Hell weeks are ending. Finals are coming up.

I'm not sure I can make DL... I just want a B for my QPI...

And at the very least a C for Eco...

Getting by...Just getting by...

Oh well at least I've gotten my summer vacation bum lifestyle down. I've stocked myself with books to read, several series to watch, videos that I will be borrowing from Ponsi to analyze...

I need a job...

See ya.

whee...

DOESN'T ANYONE HAVE THE VIOLIN SOLO MUSIC SHEET OF SUTEKI DA NE? (as if magaling ako mag violin diba?)

Just got addicted to Grey's Anatomy. Finished Season 1 in two days... this is bad.........................

That one episode about carpe diem...

This is insane...

GP Singapore Tournament Report

Making my deck was a rather long process. It involved a lot of resolve and dedication to run black white. After all, I had sworn that I would play black white. The problem however is what kind of deck I would ran. Paolo Go ymed me and suggested that I run Damnations, Bob, Exalted Angels, and Jotun Grunts. Then Bola ymed me and told to sleep and play with a deck that I'm familiar with. So I went with the same banana, I Hate Everybody (Reprise) No decklist kiddies :D

Round 1 against Trinket Tog
I was later told I played against Singapore's National Champion...'s Twin.
Game 1
I roll a 4 he rolls a 5 and he elects to go first.
him : Turn 1 fetchland, go
me : Turn 1 fetchland, go. EOT he breaks his Delta and I break mine in response. His look was priceless, but when I fetched a Godless he relaxed a bit.
him : Plays Island and Counterbalance, go.
me : [OMGWTF I'm screwed!] Play land. Play Gerrard's Verdict. He tops up a Bob. #$@&! Go.
him : Plays tapped Watery, Bob, go.
me : Play land. Vindicate Counterbalance? He flips over TFK. @#$%! Go.

he then proceeds to resolve Trinket for Sensei's and a Tog. To my credit, a Bob and a Grunt came down but when he decided to attack I misplayed with assigning blockers. As it were I would have lost anyway as I looked at the top cards in library and found no answers to Tog.

Game 2
Early CounterTop lock /gg

0-1

Round 2
I get paired up against this random combo jank deck. It's RUB and seems to require an immense amount of luck to pilot.
To the pilots credit, game 1 saw me tendrilsed twice for the win. Games 2 and 3 had Cranial and Extirpate raping the deck.

1-1


Round 3
I get paired up against Affinity. Oh crap...
Let's just say we both got rather fast starts but slow follow throughs. Imagine getting beaten by Blinkmoth Nexi... Without counters or Plating.

1-2

Round 4
Starting to feel depressed and I was paired up against this prick of a player... basta yun tipong humihirit ng hirit... He was player RG Beast Utility. I know appreciate Stomphowler Indrik, and the power of Contested Cliffs.

Game 1
Lost to beats

Game 2
Spectral Lynx with SoFI? Whatcha gonna do?

Game 3 saw us both at a Standstill as I had several Lynxes and he had lots of beaters plus 3 Contested Cliffs. I couldn't attack for fear of dying the next turn. He couldn't attack coz none of his beats trample. I eventually drew more threats and won. Learning to appreciate Ancient Grudge as well. It's amazing!

2-2

Round 5
I get paired up against Goblins.
Game 1
He keeps a slow hand, I power out early beats with Jitte back-up.

Game 2
Parang Vintage!
him : Mountain, Rite of Flame, Chrome Mox imprinting Matron. Play Warchief. Go
me : Land, go.
him : Piledriver. Piledriver. Swing.
me : @#$%!#%#$%#@%#!$

Game 3
As he jokingly put it, Silver Knight plus Worship does him in. Apparently, he opted not to run the Barbarian Rings for Stomping Grounds Ancient Grudge tech.

3-2

Round 4
Damn DCI Reporter is biased. I get paired up with Chrysler piloting Goblins.
Serg sees us and laughs, "Ano to FNM?"
I say, "Pare, mahal na talaga ng FNM ngayon!"
Chrysler, "Di, nagpunta kami sa Singapore para lang magFNM."

I win.

4-2

Round 5
I get paired up against Flow Rock. Except this version was slower, ran Kokusho and Smallpox.

I win both games though we were at various standstills all throughout the game. Baloths are annoying. Witnesses getting Baloths ...ew...

5-2

Round 6
If I win this, I think I would have made it to day 2. I get paired up to some Chinese prick who lies to me. He played UW Tron with Gifts lock. The horror...

Game 1
I just play the beats. He has Chinese cards. So I had to read most of them and seeing as how my Chinese isn't perfect I had some trouble. When he laid down his Talisman of Progress and I asked him if it produced Blue and Black, he said Talisman of Progress... So all the while I thought it produced Blue and Black, it cost me the game I guess. But then again, if he had countered my Vindicate targetting his Signet then he would have probably countered a Vindicate targetting his Talisman. Screw you though. Lying prick.

Game 2
Yeah we delayed the whole GP. Here's why:
I play Gerrard's Verdict. He plays Thirst for Knowledge in response. He dumps two lands then a Mindslaver and I tell him, you have to discard one more card. Then he goes, in Chinese, something like don't complain, I'm giving you 6 life. I call the judge. What ensues is various story telling. Cursing SJCS (Wish I spoke better Chinese.) Judges crowding around us. Basically our story deviates with when he said I gained 6 life. I said he declared the life gain only so when he discarded Slaver, which the lying bastard did, he just assumed that I got the point of gaining 6 life with the first 2 lands discarded. He had written on his life total to prove it but nope he didn't tell me. His version saw him declaring that I was gaining 6 life. In the end, the Head Judge declared that the spells would follow the stack and he had to discard an extra card and I wouldn't gain any life. While this was being said, that prick went on in Chinese something something ki yi ma? And I'm like, DAMN DUDE NOW YOU'RE @#$!ING ASKING FOR A FAVOR! But the Head Judge's decision stands. Now I'm not one to question the judge but in my humble opinion, the decision shouldn't have had taken that long, read 20 minutes. If he discards 2 cards then it would automatically be for the TFK since the Verdict hasn't even resolved yet. You can't discard for the Verdict while TFK is still resolving. Either way I proceed to win that game.

Game 3 was a draw. I misplayed playing around a WoG and over-committed and then he established control with Spellburst buyback. Can't do shit. Time was called and the last 5 turns saw us staring at each other until he plays TFK then Condescends it then topdecks a Repeal which he used on my Needle. Then he activated it to get Trike back. Then draws it via TFK, then plays Gifts and I give him nothing of note. He got Mindslaver, Plats, TFK, Serum Visions. He plays Trike and shoots me down to one life. He was down to 2. Game ends in a draw.

Or something to that effect. Basta yan yun nangyari. Down to 1 ako down to 2 siya.
Well no politics since all the judges were staring at us.
Turns out he was 59th, and I was 100th.

5-2-1


I ended up placing 82nd.

Damn... Lumaban yun deck. Ako hindi. Shameful... I'm still contemplating about quitting Magic. Pero... I don't know. I hope my ratings will shoot up, after all I did win several games in a row. Sana naman 1850 or something para hindi na ako magConstructed until Nationals.

BLARGH

Singapore Trip Recap 2

Wednesday night introduced me to a guy from England who was backpacking through Asia. Half a year off after college. Coolness. He and I were chuckling about how Lonely Planet screwed us over by telling us YMCA rates were S$25 a night. He left the next night to find a cheaper place near Little India.

Day 2

Tuesday

I got up late. ARGH sayang oras! And headed down for breakfast. My arrangement apparently gives me free breakfast per night that I stay. I thought it would be some cheap set meal but lo and behold, a buffet.

Bottomless Ha Kao, Sio Pao, cereal, ham, noodles, sausages and more! With OJ to wash them down with. There were also pastries, toast, and coffee! Yeah! Let's just say most of my breakfasts were when I was really full :D

So I decided to hop on the MRT to go to Harbor Front then walk to Sentosa Island. But apparently, it is quite a distance so I took the bus to get there and see the sights. I really didn't know where I was going or what I was doing there but the good thing is that the place has maps and most of the activities are lined up. I headed over to the Underwater Park, took some pictures. It was like a high school field trip. It was fun walking on the walkalator seeing those sea critters. After which I headed over to other parts of the island to take pictures. Sadly, since I was alone and my camera isn't built for vanity shots, I didn't get my picture taken with the Merlion... Photoshop... hehe... when I learn it... I ran into my Korean roomies and they said the 4D movie was pretty good. So I headed over to the 4D Cinema... which was a total rip-off. It's for kids, I understood after going through that 15 minutes of crap. I walked around the beach, until I found out my shoes and sand don't get along and then I made my way back to the Harbor Front.

There was a foodcourt of some sort over there. Economic prices so yeah, I was happy. I decided to try some Indian Cuisine and ordered Mutton Beryani. Basically, its Kalderetang Kambing with curry served over spicy rice with a chaserish side dish. I foolishly neglected to order a drink and my tongue was burning after two spoons. I was panicking since I didn't want to leave my table to get a drink so I tried the side dish. I mean after all, there has to be some balancing factor to that spicy dish! The side dish turned out to be sweet, and spicy. There were onions, peppers, cardamom, and whatnot there. Good thing an Indian guy came over and offered to bring a drink to me. So there was my Indian lunch. I walked over to Harbor Front and Vivo City, two shopping malls within the vicinity and just strolled around. The funny thing about these malls was that they weren't as geometric as the SM malls so getting around was rather fun. Cinema tickets are exhorbitant. Clothes are expensive. Well, I was converting everything so yeah hahaha. Bee Cheng Hiang sort of couldn't fit in my budget so no pasalubong. After that little tour of those two malls, I returned to the food court and had me some Prata, which is an Indian pancake. The pancake tastes pretty good on its own but paired with the curry sauce, mmm... After finishing my snack I took the train to Chinatown.

Letr's put it this way, where Chinatown is, the dirt concentration is as well. The place was rather messy as opposed to the general way Singapore looked. I was hoping to find a calligraphy artist but all I saw were money changers, 168 ish stores, food stalls (durian, ew... the smell) then miracle of miracles! I saw my first set of Tagalog words.

SABIK SA PAG-IBIG. A porno movie... With little recourse and time slipping by, I decided to hop into an internet cafe to finish my homework and find out where I can go. I asked for directions and I was walking towards the wrong direction to head back to YMCA. Since I was running late for a playtest session with Chrysler I ran back to the MRT, took it to YMCA, had dinner and walked my way to the Swiss Hotel. It was only a short walk after getting used to goignt hrough the right places, but it was my first time and it was raining. I had my map in front of me and was walking around the vicinity when I spotted a man emptying out a garbage can. Apparently, there are scavengers in Singapore as well. Anyway, I ran into an Indian woman and I asked for directions and I was pointed to the right place.

Playtest session done, cards lent and borrowed, I return to the YMCA. As I was fixing my stuff, an Indian guy came over. So um... yeah... Sleep time. Morning found me having to suffer through my Indian Lunch...

Friday

Breakfast done and I headed over to Suntec Convention Center for the Last Chance Qualifiers. For those of you who don't speak magic let's just say I donated a lot of money and didn't get shit. I borrowed some more stuff from Chrysler and went home. While I was fixing my deck, in came Yo, a Japanese guy visiting his friends. He was in and out. Then came Matthew and Sean. Sean was slightly drunk so we had to entertain him for a while. We were all joking about the Indian because he was so miserable and apparently didn't like either one of us. Not that we did anything to him but he had left earlier on that day. Apparently either Sean or the Indian guy slept naked last night so... Um yeah there was some disturbing talk about that. Some blackjack and stories later, then I read their fortunes. While I was doing so Yo came back and we had our pictures taken. It was fun. These were the funnest set of roomies I had.

Day 3
Saturday

GP proper.
Tournament Report to follow in a different post.
I finished 5-2-1 and ended up 82nd out of 327 players. I needed to be in the top 64 to get in day 2. ARGH!

I went back home, dejected and urging for some night life. When I got back to my room there was another Japanese and Englishman talking about music. They were a bit settled in but I asked them if they wanted to go out for a drink anyway. They politely declined. DARN. I suddenly felt sleepy and decided to go to bed. Thinking about joining Sunday's tourney.

Day 4
Sunday
Overslept, misinformed. I didn't make it to the tournament so there. I just spent the morning and early afternoon bumming around an Suntec. Having my cards signed and cheering on my fellow countrymen.

I made my way back to YMCA, charged my phone and packed. Then I headed over to the Singapore Arts Museum and the National Museum of Singapore. Fun times. There were realy interesting pieces in both museums. SAM mostly had classical Asian pieces that is Mao Pi. There were mostly Singaporean painting subjects as well. It was a pretty good experience anyway. Now, NMS was something else. Turns out some exhibits don't require a ticket so I got in for free. Yey. I learned a lot about Singapore culture. There were galleries about food, entertainment, fashion. The whole theme of their current exhibit was about Singapore and how it has evolved. The first room I entered talked about all sorts of food. There were glass bottles filled with exotic spices (to Americans and Europeans anyway) as well as various food paraphernalia. Finally, there were short films about trademark Singaporean dishes like the Prata, Nasi Lemak, Tok Tok Mee. It was quite fun. The next room I entered was a colletion of photos and their stories. There were poignant stories about prostitution, tales of women's strength in cross-cultural marriages, as well as vignettes of amahs. Pretty interesting stuff. The exhibits came mostly from a reknowned photo studio at the time. It was quite evident that that studio was THE studio to have your pictures taken. So there were marriages, thrones, etc brought out for the visitors. The next room I entered was the entertainment area. There were three screens showing movies from way back. I learned a lot about the history of Singapore film. There were also several headphones where you could listen to old musical scores. The next room in that gallery had beautiful Chinese Opera costumes. Yep, Jade, Ruby, Turquoise, the whole shebang. And the costumes were awesome! There was also a bit about puppet shows, the exhibit there had Se You Ji. The next room I entered was the Fashion room where I saw the lifestyles of Singaporean women evolve. There were also some tracks and interviews to listen to and some clothes on display. I crossed over to the bridge and walked around and then went down to see another set of photographs. This time, these were present day Singaporeans whose lives were revealed in pictures. While I was walking around that floor, I noticed a bunch of chandeliers swinging overhead and I went back up to get a closer look. Turns out they were 8 blood red chandeliers choreographed to "dance." It was a pretty interesting thing to see. If only they had turned off some of t he museum lights, then people could appreciate that exhibit more.

After that I went home, had dinner and decided to go to Orchard Tower to drown my sorrows. I had thought that the place was the name of some trendy club but after finding it, after some trouble since I had to take the MRT to Orchard and walk about for a while, it was just a normal tower with spaces for rent. Those spaces were the clubs. Oops , I'm sorry, I mean places where you can sit down and drink and not dance or anything. Darn... Wasted trip. I went back to the station and saw how Orchard Road really is quite conducive to shopping. There were malls in all directions and one particular name stood out. BORDERS. Oh yeah, BORDERS! I'm such a geek. So I went in and browsed a bit and bought some interesting books as well as a Borders bag.

And that concluded my Sunday night.

Day 5
Monday
4 am. Yo wakes me up and we get ready to leave for the airport. We parted ways soonafter as his flight was in Terminal 1 and mine was in Terminal 2. It was nice of him to pay for the cab ride hehehe.

A few hours later and I was back in Philippine soil. A few more minutes later I was back in campus for Diyco's class.

Amazing. Race.

All in all, I'd say it was a fun trip. I learned a lot that's for sure. But I'm a bit disheartened by the results of the GP and my dismal performance. And the money that I spent. I'll have to make it back up somehow.

Anyone wanna buy my Drains?

Singapore Trip Recap

Pictures to be uploaded to my Multiply soon. But first, I have to find my Flash Disk, Memory Card Reader and Driver's License.

Anyways...

Day 1

Wednesday
Got up rather early and had breakfast. Thanks Dad! It's like a tradition to have breakfast with him. Then off we went to Clark.

As I was walking around the line I saw Serg, Jiro, and friends! Nice to see familiar faces. Everything went smoothly from then. Serg sat with me on the plane while Ryan, Jiro and his bro playtested at the back row. After a couple of jokes and banter the disembarkment card was passed around and this sparked our lively conversation with the Aussie beside me. He didn't have a pen, I lent him one then we started talking. We exhausted all possible topics: life in Philippines, life in Australia, politics, religion, erm sports is a no-no for me, business, life, philosophy. It was fun and I was able to gain a lot of new insights and some direction, I hope. Either way, let's just say an alternative opened up.

We arrived at the budget terminal. It was raining... HARD. As in typhoon quality. The staff of Tiger Air lent us some umbrellas to traverse the distance from the plane to the terminal and it was ok. Now when I hear the word "budget," I expect low quality, paint peeling etc. (no offense to Team Budget lol) but damn! That is one beautiful terminal!

I had gone ahead since my Pinoy buddies had to get their stuff as a group. I found a bunch of brochures at the side about Singapore. They were FREE! Free maps, events guides, district maps! I'm liking this country already!

As we stepped out of the terminal, we decided to part ways since we were staying in different places anyway. So I took the shuttle to Terminal 1, then rode the MRT to erm, forgot the place then took that to City Hall then took that to Dhoby Gaut where I got down. As I stepped out of the station I was shouting YATA! in my head! (think Hiro from Heroes.) I made my way to YMCA, checked in and went into my room.

When I got to the hostel room, there was a Korean there, sleeping. Oops, woke him up. He turned out to be pretty cool anyway so he didn't mind. I started to settle in and found the charger for my dead celphone and.. #@$&! These are different sockets. And different voltages. I was told to purchase a transformer at a nearby mall, Plaza Singapura. It was raining hard so I stopped by the YMCa internet cafe to do my histo paper. DAMN s$1 per 10 minutes. What a freakin rip-off! s$1=P32 so there... Then a Chinese man came into the cafe and we talked for a while. turns out he was in need of a charger as well and was hungry too. We decided to wait the rain out in the internet cafe. It didn't stop so we had to have our dinner in the Y Cafe. Yeah prices on foodstuffs were double their outside value but we had no choice. The food's great though. Excellent service quality in YMCA. Anyway turns out that Chinese guy is a traditional doctor from Zhi Jiang. I still know where that is, thanks to Di Li. LOL. It was rather funny when we conversed as I was noticably trying to practice my chinese and he wanted to practice his english with me. Good times. Things are pretty good I guess, I mean at least I wasn't having my dinner alone. Whne we finished dinner he decided to go to bed, I was desperate to chrage my phone so as to be able to contact Franz and co. I opted to walk out of the building in the pouring rain. After five seconds I realized I needed an umbrella. Good thing there was a nearby 7-11 (note for some reason 7-11s don't really stay open 24 hours.) and bought an umbrella... GR WASTING MONEY! So I went over to Plaza Singapura looking for a hardware store. I found one then found the transformers then my jaw dropped. Each one was worth upwards to s$235, I can't afford that, I mean I have other expenses so I kinda panicked. I didn't know what happened but the idea of buying a celphone charger would be better. So I did, for s$25. Yeah small price to pay for communication lines. Then I looked around the mall and lo and behold I chanced upon a Comic Alley-like establishment. When I entered, it was Anime heaven ad I immediately asked for the Samurai X manga. I bought 7 volumes, I only need a few to complete hte hwole Enishi story arc now :D YEY! I have 19 onwards to 28. Then I decided, on a whim, to buy a Death Note. Teh uber pimp!!! Hahaha not that I'll ever write on it or anything. Needless to sayI was grinning from ear to ear as I made my way back to my room. And that was how I spent my Wednesday.

NOTE: I opened the Death Note and I thought it was cool to see the names of the characters written there until I kept turning and read a few spoilers... DARN... Yeah It was in Chinese so I understood most of it...

Singapore Trip Day 5

All right, here I am at the airport bound back home.

Rather dismal results because of misplays and lots of stupidity and frustrations in the GP. I finished 5-2-1... One needed at the very least 6-2 to get into the top 64. That 1 at the end was the last match, which was a draw...Which I could've won had I not over-commited... I hate playing around WoG. Damn bluffers...

More to come soon. I'm just killing time.

I think I'll take a break from Magic for a while. I've spent more money in the last 5 days than I usually spend in a year... So yeah... I'll be starving for a while.

So depressing... Oh wells, will update soon to include pictures and more travel itineraries and insights.

I have 20 minutes until boarding, then I fly home... Just in time for Diyco's class. Amazing Race style.

Blargh...

Singapore Trip Day 3

All right, I didn't do much today. Just went to Suntec Convention Center for the Last Chance Qualifiers which I screwed up terribly...

Will update my experiences when I get home... Mahal ng internet usage...

Hope I make day 2... Kailangan mabawi ang mga ginastos ko!!!

GO ME!!!