A night at the stadium

I'm no sports fan but I wanted to know how it feels like to watch a game in the stadium. When Tony Fernandes offered tickets to Allstars for the Queens Park Rangers Asia Tour, I just had to grab the chance.

The match between QPR of Barclays Premier League and the Red Warriors of the Kelantan Red Warriors of Malaysia's national league at Shah Alam Stadium was just like QPR's previous friendly in Kota Kinabalu against Sabah, 5-0.

My teammates and I arrived before halftime and started moving out at the 90th minute, so we caught three of the five goals.

Lucky mascot: Spark parades with AirAsia FA's at half time

 

I thought that the turnout of fans wasn't bad considering the distance from Kelantan. It was also cool to see some in QPR's blue-and-white hoops.

 

What awed me the most is how a wall of sound develops when people react at the same time and the day-bright lighting inside the stadium.

I do hope to watch more football. It wouldn't hurt if the Azkals are playing.

Hit the mark

On a Saturday morning, I rang up my colleague. Something felt wrong. I asked him what time he slept the night before. The answer shocked me. Although I poke fun at him at work to the point of being called mean, he is my best friend in Malaysia and his state of being affects mine in a big way. We are almost each other's personal shrinks. I had to talk to him, but he was being elusive. There was only one thing I could think of.

"Let's play archery."

Up close, I look like I'm doing well. But actually, I was doing it wrong (which I only realized when I was almost out of arrows). Can you guess which target is mine?

If I were to open a mall business in Manila, I'd try an archery range. It's something you'd do with you friends,  like bowling or ice skating. With the number of TV series and movies with archery, it shouldn't be difficult to market.

To The Moon

An unusual PC game. Not quite sure what to make of it.

The Facebook RPGs: Dragon Age Legends vs. D&D Heroes of Neverwinter

I signed up for these turn-based games because of my familiarity with Dragon Age and Neverwinter Nights. I quickly found out that 2D can still be interesting...until it gets repetitive. Both Dragon Age Legends and Dungeons& Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter have social aspects, activity outside of combat, and refresh times for characters. However, I prefer DAL over D&D:HoN for the following reasons:

DAL (left) and D&D: HoN (right)

1. The look. There is a clear difference in the aesthetics. I prefer no-stroke graphics and gradients.

2. Loading times. D&D:HoN takes ages to load.

3. Free is fine. No need to spend to move forward in DAL.

The downside is that there is no difficulty level in DAL and some battles are just too easy. And then, there's the refresh times to deal with. We'll see how the higher levels go. But I'm close to giving up on D&D:HoN.

Tried either of these? Tell me what works for you.

Angry Birds chatting

Because Carmen Sandiego would no longer load on Facebook, I turned to Angry Birds on Google Chrome. It's probably a good thing the levels aren't updating fast enough--I'd be completely hooked on it otherwise.

Tiger against the dragon

Yes to the Dragon Age reference.

Agent Y on the case

Who knew it would take a Facebook game to get me hooked on Carmen Sandiego? It's my first time to go around the world chasing after V.I.L.E. operatives but I'm having fun improving my geography.

Google makes it too easy to crack cases. I could only imagine having to look through books to finish the game in the old days.

It's also cool to hear the first bars of "Lupang Hinirang" every now and then.

Join the party

Lisbeth Hawke and company

From what I've seen in Dragon Age 2 so far, it feels much like playing a console game. I prefer its predecessor, but I'll finish it for the story anyway. The concept art also appears simpler. Ah, nit-picking.

History of Gaming

I'm not into consoles, but games inspire me.

Meet the team

Meet my new fighting squad in Dragon Age: Origins - Awakenings. Not quite as engaging as the original, but I'm curious enough to know the ending to finish this over the holidays (I hope). Not that I'm in a rush. Dragon Age II (trailer below) won't be out until March 8.

Five for the boys

A belated happy 5th birthday to one of my favorite websites, Mashable! And now, for what you've been waiting for: 5 Biggest Movie Trailers of Comic-Con 2010. Plus, The Guild goes Bollywood. Thanks again to the Social Media Guide for the link. Game on!

Home game

There's a new sport my parents are playing around the house. It's called Fly, Fly Away. More accurately, Zap the Mosquito. You use what looks like a small plastic rechargeable tennis racquet with a flower design to electrocute the flying creatures. Mama plays it in the garden; papa wants to practice his backhand with it. The racquet sparks when it comes into contact with something in the air. Most times, I think it's just lint in the air.

Where we are + DA:O-A

Click on the map image to view

A tiny initiative of mine, an attempt at fostering a sense of community among Pinoy Erasmus Mundus students and alumni. I'm asking them to pin their location on Umapper so we can find out where we are. So far only 20+ out of all the 130-something have marked their locations, and some are semi-successful attempts without names and courses. Many of the earlier batches probably don't know that we have a yahoo group and blog, so I hope they find out about all these. May kilala ka bang EM? Spread the word.

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My status message: half Morrigan, half Wynne. I miss my mages. The expansion pack Dragon Age: Origins - Awakenings comes out today. Celebrate with The Guild!

Your journey ends...

I need a new RPG.

Viral men

A few days old, but these are all for the boys.

Hawkpanther is pretty believable. But it's selling something else. It won't take long to figure out what it is.

OK Go. Them again, this time trashing a makeshift science museum.

As an alternative to the studio, "live action" Bruce Gorillaz.

I won't link to the Weird Al Yankovic bubble wrap video because, as one commenter put it, "I wish I could un-see that."

If you can type, you can make a movie, says xtranormal. With robot voices, if I may add.

A funny geek's theory of the universe: Moleeds.

Ladies Figure Skating long program + another space

I was ordered to watch the Vancouver Winter Olympics Ladies Figure Skating long program competition Friday morning, so I moved the canvas I was working on to the living room. That's how I discovered a new studio area with good lighting.

As expected, Yuna Kim of South Korea won the gold. Mao Asada of Japan looked disappointed with her silver medial. Joannie Rochette of Canada was a deserving third after performing wonderfully so soon after her mother's death. Mirai Nagasu of USA was a great find with many years of competition ahead of her. But I have to say that although though Yuna's short program James Bond medley costume was classier, Miki Ando's (JP) long program Egyptian costume was my favorite. Images at the Vancouver 2010 site.

You're still here?

I've been a delinquent blogger since the month started. When there's a lot to write for work, I don't feel like blogging. But when I'm painting, I need my word fix, so I'm more consistent. Here's the news: I won't be posting daily for the next two weeks, just re-blogging other people's links.

Of course I don't write all the time (though I'm disciplined enough to look at my word processor, only turning to my browser occasionally for the thesaurus and the dictionary--you can't be a good freelancer without self-control). When darkness falls, this is what I do.


Posted about this before, remember? My team usually has three mages, one warrior. I'm not here for the fighting--the story is all that matters to me.

[via theblast]

Note to non-gamers: the cinematical is not the same as the gameplay. Here's the online casual game version: Dragon Age Journeys. Not quite like the PC game.

Since you're here anyway, please take a look at the archives or tagged posts ("labels" in the sidebar) when you can. There's three-and-a-half years' worth of stories. If you're looking for Europe posts, check out September 2006 to December 2007. Feel free to comment, especially if you've never left a comment before. I know people are reading this, but I don't know who they are. (Thanks, though!)

Another RPG

Since mid-2008, I've been playing Perfect World, but I've been playing less and less as time goes by. Lately I've only been playing when when my mom (yes, that's right) does. Game envy it is. We used to have more than 20 levels separating our characters, but now she's Level 52 and I'm level 57. That's how delinquent I've been. I swear I will stop playing when she catches up. Really, who wants to get beaten by your mother in an online game?

There are a bunch of games my brother installed on our desktop, but I've largely ignored them. There's Call of Duty4: Modern Warfare, Command & Conquer Red Alert 3, Prototype, IL2-Sturmovik 1946, Silent Hunter 4. I've tried the previous incarnations of their franchises, but I didn't get hooked on GTA IV and The Sims 3. I only went through the tutorial of Sid Meier's Civilization 4 and decided it's not for me.


Last week, my brother bought the new award-winning role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins, so I have a new pastime. It helps that he's many levels ahead of me since I just started: we can talk about the story and I can ask for tips. I'm familiar with the older BioWare titles Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights, so it's not hard to get into Dragon Age. Now I have to figure out what dragons have to do with the game!

From TIME's 50 Best Websites of 2009

TIME's 50 Best Websites of 2009 feels a little tired to me. Many of the sites aren't new and nothing seemed particularly groundbreaking (and if they were, you already new about them). But you'll still find a few gems worth bookmarking.

Think of Fora an in-depth TED talk. Videos range from under an hour to nearly two hours as a group of speakers talk about a given topic. Fortunately, the program is divided into chapters and you can see how long each speaker goes on for. You can also find information on the speakers and links to related sites, and download audio and video. The tone is quite serious and the setting very formal. So to balance things out, hop over to OMGPOP and play as you listen. It's nice to be competitive for a change.

But first, think about this The Economist article on computing and climate change.

C'mon, Barbie, let's go party

It's her 50th birthday this year, an event quite interesting from a women's studies perspective. Think about how much of women's conceptions of their bodies are affected by their childhood playthings. But having been a Barbie doll owner at some point makes me feel that I spent some time with her and she was a part of my childhood, so let's give her props for aging gracefully. After all, plastic will outlast us all...

The exhibit is on until today at the SM Megamall Atrium.

The 50th Anniversary Barbie retails for P3,299.75

The bride in Carolina Herrera

Regine Tolentino's designs

"She has a serious thing for pink." Obviously!