Digital Nocturne

I really wonder why I’m still stuck with my old ATI Radeon 9550 graphics card after reading this review. It is already aged and it still uses AGP. Unbelievable. I totally skipped PCI-e version 1 because I’ve read that new graphics cards are now shipping for PCI-e 2.0 already.

As much as I like to upgrade, I pushed back my computer upgrade this coming Christmas ‘07 instead of last year’s. Then I’ll ask this question again. Do I really need an upgrade? My cheap-o-meter will instantly tell me that I don’t need an upgrade soon because my computer is still good for my work. Most of the times I’m running 3 different web browsers (Mozilla, Opera, IE) and a couple of multimedia applications. Overall, I’m still satisfied with the speed of my computer in image manipulation and compressing or uncompressing zipped files. I could play games in medium settings smoothly. Maybe I’m just excited with all these technologies that I am missing so I’m itching to get my hands on these products. What makes me excited are the following: Intel Core 2 Duo, Nvidia 8800 series, DDR3 Corsair memory modules and liquid cooling system. Man, if I can just buy all these on December, I’ll be so happy. Then, I’ll ask myself again. What will I do after 6 months? Will I buy the newer Intel microprocessors? I’m sure that 8800 series will be cheaper and there might be DDR4 as well. Will I still need to buy now?

I really hate how fast hardware gets outdated. Don’t let me start with cellphones. It’s just ridiculous how fast a cellphone with a price tag of P40,000 drops value after 6 to 9 months. Computer hardwares are more forgiving as they decrease in value slower than a cellphone unit but it’s disturbing if you want to invest on a gadget for a long term.

Nevermind how slow my computer is — the fact that I can still post in my blog using this good-old computer means that I don’t really need an upgrade yet. I play console games so why would I invest in P10,000++ graphics card when I can use that money to buy a PSP or PS3. The only reasonable thing I have in my mind to buy a new CPU this year is to get a fresh hardware to run my work-related stuffs and use my old hardware to run a local Linux file server.

So will I still buy a new computer this coming Christmas? Maybe.

I spent a week in “hermit mode” to focus on my office work and some other things that kept me busy. For instance, the Halloween costume party that we had last Friday — I spent several days pondering what the hell I’m going to wear that day. I’ll discuss the details later on.

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To begin with, I feel cheapskate these days because I want to save up more money to recover from my overspending last quarter. I’m happy that I managed to tune my car’s fuel consumption to the minimum since the recent oil price hike. I haven’t refueled for the last 3 weeks. That’s a record. Either I’m not using the car too often or the last change oil significantly improved the fuel efficiency of my car. Either way, I’m not complaining. It’s good no matter how I look at it.

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Now for the Halloween party last Friday, I cosplayed Akatsuki — more or less Itachi — since I didn’t have any weapon or accessory to carry. I didn’t have the Sharingan. That would be too silly or ricey (baduy)!. Red eyes… sore eyes? Bleh. It was my very first cosplay so I had a mixed feeling about it since I just improvised the costume. I made the cloak out of a black graduation gown (toga) and I put white straw / Japanese paper strips around the cone “rice hat” (actually I used bathroom tissue because I couldn’t find Japanese paper! kukuku!). I had to be creative to patch the symbol of Akatsuki, the red clouds, around my cloak. I used red construction papers and white paint to draw the outline of the clouds. Then I pasted, clipped and stitched the clouds around my cloak. I have 5 red clouds evenly distributed around my cloak and it was not an easy feat because the paper clouds can be ripped easily. If you’re familiar with toga, it does not have a collar so I had to wear black long sleeves to cover my neck. I also had to wear red shirt inside because the underside of my toga is also black. The underside color of Akatsuki’s cloack is red. Just use your imagination.

That’s not the fun part yet. The event took place in Manila Peninsula Hotel. Just imagine what the executives and VIP in the hotel lobby were thinking when I was walking along the hallway. Were all pretending like children there. I was fortunate that other people wore more ridiculous costumes than mine. It’s just a whim of my mind to cosplay Akatsuki. I can’t be bothered spending money for a costume so I just made one — and it happens that Akatsuki’s costume was very easy to create.

Near the end of the event, the organizers nominated best costumes. Since my costume was all improvised, when you inspect it closely, you’ll agree how overrate my costume was. It’s just appealing from a distance but the overall quality sucks big time when you scrutinize it. I’m lucky to be in the top 15 costumes because other people who spent real money on their costumes were not even recognized.

The lesson learned here is simple — it’s the thought that counts! If that makes any sense at all.

I’ve seen how TechCrunch started from a small site by Michael Arrington that blogs about Internet startup. To read about its success is both exhilarating and awe-inspiring. It may not seem obvious but we’ve come to another wave of dotcoms and TechCrunch is geared towards that direction to report the the latest scoops and development. It’s something that I really envy when I look at Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. People can really get rich when they have the concept, network, guts and right timing to create something new.

I’ve linked TechCrunch in a number of my entries I’ve made here in my own blog and I’ve also commented a few articles in there. To know that it makes more than 240K USD a month is just insane. How can a blog create so much money. It appears that Michael Arrington and his crew got a lot of creative juices to boot.

This is just one example of success story which represents how serious business the internet can be.

Source: Yes, some blogs are profitable – very profitable [via Digg]

For the lighter side of my blog, let’s talk about videos. I know that YouTube needs no introduction and I won’t believe that you have not seen a YouTube video yet. Now, if you are a gamer you’ve probably watched videos that gamers have recorded and encoded, splitting to multi-part videos on how they beat an entire game from start to end. Honestly, would you watch a game instead of playing it? If you are too eager to watch game videos then watch from the real source of game video entertainment.

There is only one website I know that exhibits game franchise history with deep details and trivia that game enthusiasts would love to watch — Gametrailers.com. You can even download the videos from the website in different formats such as .mov, .wmv or iPod-ready mp4.

These retrospective easily sets apart Gametrailers.com from any other game websites I know. There are game reviews and even previews in Gametrailers.com but these retrospectives do not only review games — each retrospective takes a good look on the influences of the game during its time and often describes how a game developed from one simple franchise to one of the most prolific one.

To give an example, let me introduce the Final Fantasy retrospective. It is the longest retrospective in Gametrailers.com right now, spanning 13 episodes. It’s not even finished yet so I’m looking forward to how these guys are going to end it. There are a lot of information in each episode. If you have not played any of the games prior to FF VII, then you’ll need to watch these videos to appreciate the older FFs. Be prepared to watch some spoilers but rest assured, spoilers are kept to the minimum. Sometimes even game reviews cannot prevent spilling some spoilers to let the editors explain the game plot easier.

Now, I’m not really a Zelda fan but I appreciate adventure RPGs as well. I’ve played Zelda once in Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) but I didn’t finish it. Watching the retrospective videos not only gives me the overview of the series but it also enrich my understanding of the game history. I wanted to play the series from the beginning but it’s going to be troublesome finding old Nintendo hardwares and classic games like Zelda.

I’m sure you’ll think twice in watching game videos in YouTube again. I encourage you to visit Gametrailers.com and watch more videos!

After seeing the news over and over again, I still can’t believe what happened. There was a big blast in Glorietta at around 1:30 PM this afternoon and I was near the vicinity when that happened. At that time I was searching for a book for my little brother in Greenbelt 1. I wanted to search for the book in Glorietta National Bookstore but I decided to return to office soon. Several minutes after I have arrived in the office, someone blurted out that there was a big explosion in Glorietta 2 as one of our officemate called and reported the commotion happening in Glorietta. We initially speculated that it was a bomb or an LPG tank explosion but it was confirmed later on — it is a bomb.

If you can recall the bombing that happened on February 14, 2005 at Ayala MRT bus station. This tragedy somewhat resembles the incident. A lot of people + busy hour + bombing = many bomb victims. This time however, there is no terrorist group associated with the bombing yet.

On my way to bus station this evening, I was very uneasy because I can’t stop thinking about the possibility of another bombing near the site. Despite tighter security, fear can be seen in the eyes of many passersby. I thank God that I managed to go back home safely. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the office. We planned to dine in Glorietta 3 that noon but luckily chose Greenbelt instead.

Sword in hand, a warrior clutches stone to breast.
In sword etched he his fading memories.
In stone, his tempered skill;
By sword attested, by stone revealed.
Their tale can now be told.

It is already out in US since October 9, and just recently Play-Asia is already shipping this game! I want to play Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions but I don’t own a PSP. I’m in a tight budget recently so purchasing PSP would just put my financial planning in disaster again.

I have already finished this game in PS1 but this PSP port offers new anime-style cinematics, new jobs, multiplayer feature and brand new English translation! The new English translation alone warrants a purchase because when I played this game, I only understood half the story due to inconsistent name spellings and bad grammar. Its half-baked translation didn’t stop me enjoying the game though.

If you are reading this and feels generous on buying me a copy of the game (including PSP) — you can contact me privately regarding this matter.

Oh… just a side note. If you notice the logo of FFT:TWOTL, you’ll find that a Lancer (Dragoon) is jumping high and is dominating the center of the logo. It’s one of my favorite job in the game and certainly helpful in tough boss battles. I easily defeated the final boss by using “jump” ability.

I think I need to repaint my room after reading this article. I can’t really blame why our house is boring. My father is an engineer and he didn’t hire an interior designer when my parents decorated our house. I can’t even say our house was ever decorated. I’m the eldest son and our current house was build when I was only 4 years old. No one assisted my father when we moved in the city.

If I can just rebuild our house now and repaint it, majority of the paint would be shades of blue and green. There would be occasional shades of orange and pale yellow. White is still a safe color but it’s really boring without wallpapers.

Aesthetics can modify the ambiance of the room. Even if you don’t play The Sims, basic color psychology would explain why the color of your room matters.