Echo Binary

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.

I actually do not have problems with cats alone but my problem is when they are in heat season or in other words — mating season. We own a queen and her name is Kalya (or Kayla). She’s quite a babe because 3 toms are after her for several days now. Queen is the nomenclature for female cats while tom for male cats. Why would anyone call male cats tom when you can call them with a more royal name such as prince, duke or king after all? I just wonder. Anyway, with 3 toms after my poor queen, our house is set as the battle field for the 3 toms. Sometimes our dogs would participate in our garage and help our very own tom named Cheesecurls to scare the hell out of the trespassing toms. One of our neighbor’s tom is named Twinkle — sounds gay! The other tom is a hooligan street cat we nicknamed “Garfield” for the lack of better alias.

When these toms fight over Kalya, our dogs attack any outsider cats. Cheesecurls has a home advantage. He is one lucky bastard as he does not get any beating from our dogs due to their alliance.

Frankly speaking I do not like the sound they create when they are fighting. I hate the angry high-pitched “growl” they create and their irritating distress signal or whatever you call it . It’s just so fucking irritating! Hell, they even organize triple grudge match on our rooftop which is not nice when you want to sleep peacefully at night. What’s more irritating is they managed to set a battle stage on my car as well! My dogs, anticipating which tom would fall on the ground first happily peeks and cling their front paws on the hood, too — and the result — ugly scratches above the headlamps and fender. I really wanted to cry when I saw the scratches today but I managed to fix the scratches using my Meguiar’s car kikay kit. In my despair to save the paintworks of my car, I bought a car cover this afternoon. I feel less troubled now. However, when I checked my cats this evening… they are all sleeping on top of my newly-bought car cover. FTW!!!

I need to re-evaluate my love for pets. I hate them now. Grrr. Maybe I’ll just pet a bunny.

P.S.

We currently have 8 cats but there’s only one true house cat of them all. She’s toilet-trained but a sleepyhead. She’s so behave and composed we can lock her in the house and she won’t make any fuss about being trapped inside as long long as she can sleep and eat. Her name is Lulu, named after the gothic black mage in Final Fantasy X, as she is almost entirely black except for few white spots on her feet and belly.

Nissan Around View Monitor (AVM) makes parking easy by using set of cameras and sensors mounted at all four sides of the vehicle. These cameras form a synthesized view of the surrounding using a processing technique that offers a bird’s eye view of the vehicle. Nissan’s AVM is unique from other camera-assisted car technologies because it’s the first one to offer comprehensive real-time view of the vehicle from all angles, not just a view in front or rear.

Sounds clever, isn’t it? Now even a newbie driver can park effortlessly in tight parkings. According to the studies of Nissan there are four common blind spots. The first two — left corner and back of the car can be addressed already by the beeping sensors in front and rear end. The last two can be resolved by AVM. The first two scratches I made in my car is on the left fender and on the rear bumper so I can’t disagree with their study.

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd will introduce the AVM in the new Elgrand, scheduled in Japan by the end of this month. The technology will also be featured on Infiniti EX35 in the U.S. market. While I can’t find a schedule for the Philippines yet, I’m sure this technology will eventually find its way in the Philippine market as we have narrow roads, too, similar with Japan and other neighboring Asian countries. It’s only a matter of time before Japanese car manufacturers add similar features in the the Asian market.

You can already find Toyota sedans with front and back sensors. At first, I thought that having front sensors is insane but I learned that their Lexus big brothers even have automatic parking! Mercedes-Benz have this technology that drives the car for you, much like an auto-pilot, but it does not steer the car. It detects the car in front of you and accelerates as needed. Maybe in the future we won’t even have to drive and park, we just command the cars.