Team Chocobo shenanigans

In the previous post I had to use stock photos of my newly-acquired chocobos because I hadn't yet gotten around to pinning them down for a proper photoshoot.

So today I have a bunch of lovely chocobo pics for you to look at. Chocobo picspam attack!

My nuker Chocobo. "Kweh?" *casts Thundaga* "Kweh!"

My healer Chocobo. "Kweh!" *casts Cure* "Kweh?"

Team Chocobo Mages, ready to rock.

Healer: Kweh? Wanna fight?

Nuker: Kweh! This means war!

PJ: Okay, guys, take three steps away from each other and turn around and cast - on my signal....

And now I've got these two cuties guarding my workstation at the office, which reminds me that I will probably want to take my camera to a shift one of these days in order to get a proper picture and give you an idea of where I work. [I happen to be pretty happy with my desktop wallpaper at the office, too.]

Yay for loot!

It's been a long time since I've done anything that could be considered as absolutely nerdy/geeky/otaku-ish.

So let me tell you, it is with no small amount of pride that I report my Saturday acquisitions.

My partner and I went to a shopping location called Greenhills to meet my family for dinner and drinks yesterday. We got to the area a bit early, though, and decided to kill some time by loitering around a series of boutiques in Shoppesville.

Now, one of the corridors in Shoppesville is devoted to toy and hobby shops. Star Wars memorabilia, die-cast cars, all sorts of collectibles.

As I was about to leave the last shop, I happened to look down at a box full of plushes near a display of table tennis gear.

And what should I find in the box but THESE:

Chocobo Black Mage, from the game Chocobo's Dungeon.

Chocobo White Mage, from the game Chocobo's Dungeon.

Chocobos are the iconic mascots of the Final Fantasy franchise. I had wanted a plush forever. And now, I'd found TWO.

I asked the salespeople for the prices - they quoted me a figure which they claimed was already a discount - I sighed, and smiled, and said, "I'll take them."

I think I'll buy these two adorable birdies some protective armor and then proudly display them at the office!

Super hobby mash-up mode!

In the previous entry, I mentioned I'd gotten my fannish mitts on some dice.

Now I'm writing this post to show off the bag I've made for the dice.

It all started with me racking my brains for a present for a family member. I tried to follow the Easy Sideways Hat pattern from Lion Brand Yarns, but gave up in favor of a retread of the hat in this entry.

But that left me with a medium-sized piece of crochet work that was all dressed up and had nowhere to go - and I definitely wasn't in the mood to simply frog it out (i.e. rip it back down to the component yarn).

So it was a bit of an inspiration when I finally decided to make a go of creating a dice bag - by sewing the cloth together to create a pouch. The results are amateurish, but definitely encouraging.

Here's the bag with its contents out for display.

Because the pattern in the hat called for a "ribbed" crochet effect caused by working single crochet only into the back loops, the completed bag is pretty neat to touch.

The bag is a drawstring type.

I braided together three pieces of yarn and hooked the resulting cord into the top of the bag.

The bag, closed and ready to go.

Not bad for a first attempt! If I can acquire more dice I will probably make a larger version of the bag to carry them around in.

Yeah, I KNOW, there is something surreal to be said for the coming together of crochet and tabletop dice-based RPGs, but you know what? I'm hardly the only one doing this sort of thing....

"At last, my arm is complete again!"

And you know, it says a lot for my general chosen fandoms and interests that I had no idea where the quote that makes up the post title came from until five seconds ago.

No, I'm not about to mince people into pies, move to Fleet Street, or sport a weirdo Bride of Frankenstein hairdo.

I'm just going to report about an accomplishment that makes my fannish heart VERY happy.

Acting on a tip from a friend at my office (thank you so much!), my partner and I ventured to Greenhills yesterday morning after shift in search of dice.

[At the end of this previous entry I had rather loudly lamented the utter difficulty of finding proper RPG dice hearabouts.]

But the tip was good and I soon found myself in possession of this:

Real Chessex-brand dice, guys. This is the basic 7-piece set.

My partner teased me for getting dice in black with red numbers, saying that I'd wound up buying Twilight dice. Hell no. These are MY dice.

I've turned all the dice in this photo so their largest numbers (and number of sides each) are facing up. Two of the dice are both ten-sided, one marked with the numbers 1-0 (0 being 10) and one marked with the numbers 10-00 (00 being 100); the latter die is for percentiles, I guess.

Now that I know where to get dice I will probably buy another set before the year is out. I like having lots of dice on hand. Never know when I'm going to need them.

News and notes again

I'm making another one of these, only in a different shade of blue, a different yarn, and a different brim. Not telling you who it's for; it's not a commission either.



Give me another weekend and it shall be done - I hope!

***

Damnit parts of my university burned on Wednesday night! The affected building at UP-Diliman was Palma Hall, a/k/a the building where all the freshmen go. Luckily, no one was hurt. But imagine the property damage! The affected parts were the Chem Pavilion, parts of the Physics Pavilion, and the sections of Palma Hall adjoining those pavilions. *grr!*

***

In a shout-out to a friend - if you have any horror stories about PH electronics retailer CD-R King, kindly point them Every Juan's way HERE.

***

I've spammed my Twitter with this and you might as well know why: Share Moleskine Love! Win a Moleskine SET Twitter contest! And who doesn't LOVE Moleskines? Grab a chance to win them for a friend!

***

Man, Saturday and Sunday just cannot come quickly enough. *grumble*

PJ Goes Pop receives its first blog award!

Thank you so very much to a dear friend and enabler: Jonette at The Hobby Horse, for this Beautiful Blogger Award.



The rules for the award:
1. Thank the person who gave you the award, and link back to them.
2. Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whom you've recently discovered and think are fantastic.
3. Contact those bloggers and let them know that they've won the award.
4. State seven (7) things about yourself.

With item number 1 marked as done and done, I need to pass the award on - and here are my picks. Sorry I haven't quite made the required 15.

Crafty Cat - Clair
Tres Mujeres - The Misadventures of the Desanggria Family - Anne DeSanggria
Lion Brand Notebook - The Lion Brand Yarn Blog - a team of 8: David, Ilana, Jack, Jess, Laura, Lindsey, Patty, and Zontee
Crochet Me - Kim Werker - the founder of the site

Seven things about myself? Hard to think of it when I do tend to indulge in TMI of the fannish and otaku-ish persuasion here. But let's give it a shot.

> I will try to eat absolutely anything once. This is how I learned to stop worrying and love kimchi, love it enough to attempt making it at home once! But this is also how I learned to abhor delicacies like durian and sea urchin.
> My primary favorite when it comes to cosplay is the Edwardian/Victorian form of cross-play. Men's suits. Frock coats. Essentially I want to steal the entire wardrobe used by Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes.
> If I could make it to the Takarazuka Grand Theater, the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, AND the Wao Enterprise offices in Japan, I will die happy. Seriously. Even if I just wound up standing outside on the sidewalk.
> I missed out on a lot of good TV. Not because I didn't have TV, but because I wasn't allowed to stay up and/or watch the programs. The Twilight Zone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The X-Files, Millennium, even sitcoms like Family Ties and The Golden Years. Oh, and stuff like T.O.D.A.S. and Goin' Bananas.
> If I ever get married, I want to do the wedding ceremony in cosplay. Something like Cowboy Bebop although I can never see myself in the iconic Faye Valentine outfit. Jedi robes, maybe? (This is partly because friends of mine who are also members of the 501st got married very recently.)
> My current pipe dream is to open a small business that focuses on bringing good quality yarns and crafting notions into the country. I realize this might place me in direct competition with Tita Lilli at Dreams Yarnshoppe. But I was thinking more along the lines of I could bring in the stuff she can't.
> If I ever take up knitting it will be for the Fourth Doctor's scarf alone. After that, it's back to crochet for me.

One more extra:
> I always feel sad because no one ever recognizes the source of my blog's subtitle.

Blog Updates, 4000+ Visitors, and Yarn Stash, oh my!

Grab-bag entry time! Have a few topics to talk about briefly, so let's run quickly down the list.

1. I finally sent off the package containing the entirety of the WaoHana Project! Had it Fedexed off just this afternoon. Also along for the ride are a couple of small gifts and notes from another fan of the Wao Youka + Hanafusa Mari pair. Gosh, I really hope the gifts arrive safely at their destination. *goes to check tracking number and waits anxiously*

2. I just received word that my Takarazuka Kagekidan package is on its way! I had bought a couple of back-issues of one of the Kagekidan's publications, the magazine Kageki, from a seller in Japan. The seller recently sent me a message saying that the two back-issues are now on their way! I hope the magazines come soon!

3. I've just started playing Dragon Age: Origins! My current character is an elven mage, who will soon be following the path of the Arcane Warrior. I think my final party will be Alistair, Morrigan, and Leliana.

4. More gaming news: Oh god, Civilization V is coming THIS YEAR! Civilfixation ensues - or shall ensue! I should be happy they haven't released the Facebook version of that game yet or I shall surely be lost in chants of "one more turn, one more turn"!

5. I've added a new links list to the right sidebar for "Crafty Things": pattern and yarn resources and the blogs of a few crafting friends mainly. My current prize find is the first link in the list, Antique Pattern Library. A group of people are painstakingly preserving old old OLD books of needlework patterns by scanning them and converting the files into PDFs - and then have been extraordinarily generous by sharing them free of charge. I really want to try looking into their database - and making something out of it, of course!

6. I decided to make something out of the various odds and ends and lengths of yarn I had left from making the WaoHana Project items, and here is what I came up with:

Details and copyrights on this pattern in this entry.

Like the hat? [Photo credits to my partner.]

I like that! A two-day quickie hat project!

7. I'll be starting work on my first real commissioned piece [as opposed to being a gift or a practice item] very soon! And it's a very interesting pattern for a very basic headgear item: a watch cap. I'll be posting about that, definitely!

8. And just to round things off on a lucky and thankful note:

4000+ Visitors - THANK YOU!

Meal in the City: Top 5 Gamer Grub

Got tagged today in a question of great and crucial import by my good friend Joel Tan over yonder at MMOtaku:

Let’s talk about what you, massively multiplayer online games fanatic, like to munch on while playing your favorite titles? Liquids count, too.

So I've decided to make my answer into a bit of a Meal in the City post. Of course, clicking on the actual MitC tag will bring up lots of things that I've eaten at the computer, but let's go and answer the question right.

So, in no particular order:

1. Dinner, usually rice and whatever I felt like buying or making. Sometimes, dinner is as easy as opening a can of tuna or sardines or corned beef. It might be more complicated, like a fried egg, some quickly-made instant noodles, or, for a change, bread instead of rice and any of the aforementioned accompaniments.

Sometimes dinner comes from the neighborhood mom-n-pop kitchen; sometimes we make a massive nice meal at home and spend the rest of the day eating leftovers. Either way, YUM.

2. Cheetos.

I know, I know, junk food BAD. True that I can eat a whole big bag in one sitting, but it's not like I eat this stuff on a daily or even weekly basis. Once in two weeks feels over-indulgent already.

3. Chocolate, the darker the better. I have a particular fondness for Meiji's Black Chocolate and for those Hershey's dark-choc-with-almonds concoctions.

4. Cereals or oatmeal.

While I quite love oatmeal, I also am partial to a bowl of good old Kellogg's Corn Flakes, or, something I could eat for three meals in a day straight, Post's Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds.

5. Lipton Milk Tea.

My favorite drink. End of discussion.

Hmm, it's early on a Sunday morning...time to make breakfast. :D Cheers to Joel and I'm looking forward to reading the answers of all the others he tagged for this meme.

The Ultimate MMORPG! Plus: "There's a zombie on your lawn"

The boyfriend and I have just come from seeing AVATAR.

What. A. Rush. No spoilers here, but let me just say: If real life were an MMORPG, I don't suppose there was any way that it could be anything like the story in the movie said it would be?

Also, the fact that it was stated outright in the film that the humans left Earth with no more green - I had to think it: my mind jumped straight to crossover possibilities between Terminator and Avatar.

***

There's been a bit of a zee-word undertone to my weekend. The boyfriend downloaded Plants vs Zombies and has been busily earning money for upgrades in the in-game item shop. Lord, it all looked so fun - I couldn't help myself; I went to play too.



And now I have the following song on LSS.



Today, while out Christmas shopping, I picked up a book for myself: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by Max Brooks. I can't wait to start reading it over the holidays.

The following story about the book never fails to amaze me:

While researching for novel, Max Brooks interviewed representatives from various police departments, emergency responders, and Homeland Security regarding the best way to defend against a zombie attack. According to Brooks, almost all the people he talked to had put at least some amount of thought into the subject.

That also apparently includes several professors in various fields, one US armed forces veteran, and at least one rabbi and one priest if the actual acknowledgments section in the book is anything to go by. These are, like, real people who would not normally have to fear a zombie pandemic but have nonetheless made plans for it.

All I can say to that is, "Amen!"

Time to make my own plans for the Zombie Apocalypse.

A Girl Can Dream: Holiday Wishlist 2009, Part 5

So, December has come and it's time for presents once again. The "A Girl Can Dream" posts are, well, pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: they're stuff I wish I could buy for myself. The sorts of things that make me sigh and say, "Oh if only I had [insert obscenely large amount of money here]; this is what I'd do with it."

None of these entries have absolutely anything to do with advertising or what-not. It's a wishlist. That's all.

HOLIDAY WISHLIST PART 5: FIGURES GALORE

[OMG YAY last one!]

This was the very first year that I had heard about such things called Figma and Nendoroid. Plastic/resin sculpted figures, well, I knew about those already. And very many Figma, figures, and Nendoroids out on the market are irresistibly cute, as will be seen in this entry.

The problem with finding out about these sorts of things is that, of course, one comes to WANT SOME, to the detriment of budgets and lifestyles and etcetera thereof....

All pictures unless otherwise indicated from the official English website of Good Smile Company. Please don't make the same mistake I did - DON'T get bootlegs, only get the original stuff!

FIGURES

Asahina Mikuru, Suzumiya Haruhi, and Nagato Yuki, Extravaganza Version 1/8 PVC figures, by Max Factory. Original picture from A World Through Lenses.

This three-figure set comes from a popular official art piece of the central characters from "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya", which depicted the SOS-Dan as members of a rock band. Don't they look smashingly good?

FIGMAS

figma Saber: Armor Ver.

Everyone loves the stately majesty and kickass potential of King Arthuria a/k/a Servant Saber from the Fate/Stay Night series of games and anime, and I'm one of her fans. This figma of her looks so toothsome and cute. She looks like she could guard my toy chest and/or books....

Fun and games and the end of November and NaNoWriMo

So, something silly and refreshing and different.

Here is a comparison of two very cool videos. The performers are all doing the exact same piece. There may be Muppets and an otokoyaku singing a classic aria from Georges Bizet's Carmen.

Please watch carefully, there will be a quiz at the end.

1. 姿月あさと - カルメンより - ハバネラ (Shizuki Asato performs the "Habanera" from Carmen)


2. The Swedish Chef, Beaker, and Animal of the Muppet Show perform the "Habanera" from Carmen (Special guest appearance by Statler and Waldorf)


***

Okay, here is the quiz question:

Which performance did you like better?

***

Enjoy the beginning of the holidays! Gosh, I've Christmas gift lists to make and a wedding to go to and coffee jelly to cook.... (All of which, of course, I'll be blogging about - I'll get permission from the soon-to-be-weds....)

Meeting the Kindly Ones in Atlantica Online

Hey! How is everyone? My apologies for the brief hiatus. I did go and take a quick vacation over the holiday weekend - I needed to rest, recharge, and ready myself for the thrill and the stress of writing a novel for the first time.

Today, having fulfilled my daily word quota for NaNoWriMo by lunchtime, I've been leveling my axe main character in Atlantica Online. The previous blog post already mentioned that the game is celebrating its first anniversary since going commercial. All sorts of cool things have been going on since but I really, really like the current 200% EXP bonus imposed on all servers.

[Oh, and as of this morning, Titan server and the Grand Championships are back online. Hopefully they aren't glitching up any more.]

Today I completed all of the main storyline quests surrounding the world tree, Yggdrasil. The monsters hew rather closely to the Norse mythologies. You fight trolls and gnomes and Valkyries, and a few other monsters needed for mercenary recruitment, such as wolves and seals (seals?).

Anyway, if you're following the main game storyline you'll eventually be sent off to battle the three Norns in succession. The WHAT now? Oh, that would be Urd (the Past / the Crone), Verdandi (the Present / the Mother), and Skuld (the Future / the Maiden). In short, the Kindly Ones personified.

They're plenty tough if you're battling them at the minimum level of roughly 96 or so - unless, of course, you're smart and deploy some tactics against them. Have a title that gives you attack and defense boosts in effect; you'll have just enough time to finish all three within the standard 60-minute time limit for a title. Use good scrolls to kill their minions more quickly; in my case, I used Meteor Strike and Judgement scrolls.

All three have rather massive AoE spells so be ready for them. Have proper armor and weapons.

Spellcaster Urd is the first of the three that you need to fight.

Archer Verdandi comes next.

And spear-user Skuld rounds out the trio.

Having finished out the Yggdrasil main storyline, I think I'll wait a few levels before returning to tackle the Lady Knight recruitment quests. I've already got an LK anyway. Great investment, the LK - it's really easy to see why so many builds include her.

Next up, the trials and travails of the Constantinople Battlefield. *sigh* Guess I'll park my girl in Istanbul and see about the storyline quests. (And yes, I'll save doing the Janissary recruitment quest for when I'm over the Level 100 hump.)

Stopping traffic Changshan style

...That's just how I roll, haha.

I got REALLY lucky last Friday (the day before the dreaded patching >.< bleah). Someone in my nation was looking to trade hir Changshan outfit for a Jiangshi one.

I happened to have one and I was looking to trade too.

So off I toddled to that player's location (se was in hir guild town) and hit the trade button, and below are the results.


Who says redheads CAN'T wear red? *evilgrin*


One hot axer coming right up....

Okay, next problem is earning the money for the matching hat. But then again, I'm guessing people will be preferring to hold on to their spare costumes and headgear for now, what with the new features added to the game and all, including the Clothes Book.

Postscript to GE.Nobody and the Cinemanila Machinima Festival

Previous/related posts:
Pop Chart: Wonder Girls and Nobody, Robots and Granado Espada
Pop Chart: Granado Espada Does the Wonder Girls!
"GE.Nobody" Hits Cinemanila Machinima?!


Quick pic of the guest of honor at the screenings of the short films and music videos entered in the first Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival: yep, none other than critically acclaimed Philippine film director Tikoy Aguiluz.

In a brief speech, he said that next year they'd really go ahead and promote machinima as an integral new part of the Cinemanila Film Festival. Hopefully this means the beginning of machinima as a viable genre and art form in the local culture scene.

So I've just come back from the awards night of the first Cinemanila Machinima Film Festival, held at the Fully Booked at Bonifacio High Street.

And after all the build-up, promotion, and what-not directed towards Darrick Regondola and his machinima mash-up of the Wonder Girls, "Nobody", and Granado Espada, it is my duty to report that he did not win any awards.

The night's honors went to "Shelf Life - Chapter One", "Shrink Wrapped", "Worship the Will", and "Wish For You". Incidentally, the two latter entries (both music videos) were made by Filipinos, and the directors were on hand to receive their awards.

Now, you might remember that there was supposed to be a sponsor award. On September 30, IP e-Games announced that it was going to sponsor a special award at this machinima film fest, with the stipulation that the machinima to be so honored had to be made from among the game titles that they were locally distributing. No such award was given out at the ceremony, however.

Here's apparently what happened: e-Games dropped the sponsorship like a hot potato. The folks at the film festival claimed that after receiving word that e-Games was going to do the sponsor thing, they went ahead with the paperwork for the award: Cinemanila put together a memorandum of agreement, put the e-Games logo on the website (it's still there as of the writing of this article), etc. etc. But the MOA was not returned, and there were apparently no further communications from e-Games.

Basically, as of 12 October (when the voting period for the entries began), the award had been withdrawn. No announcements were made regarding the withdrawal.

So much for that sponsorship and for that award.

Anyway, yay for Filipino makers and directors of machinima - may more people come to know of this exciting new art form locally, and may there be many more Pinoy machinima films to come.

"GE.Nobody" Hits Cinemanila Machinima?!

I'm reposting the video to the blog for a good cause. You see, Darrick Regondola, the guy behind the Granado Espada version of the Wonder Girls' "Nobody", put the clip up for competition at no less prestigious an event as the Cinemanila International Film Festival.



You've enjoyed the video, you've marveled at the way he makes static MMORPG female characters dance - now vote for him to win!

Head right on over to THIS LINK to vote. You'll be asked to register, then you can vote for "GE.Nobody" to win. You have until October 16 to vote in!

Please help him win!!!

In Atlantica Online, Dungeon Crawls You!

Wikipedia weighs in on the dungeon crawl:

A general style of adventure or scenario in fantasy-type RPGs, where heroes navigate a labyrinthine environment, battling various monsters and looting any treasure. Ther term is also used to refer to a specific title where the only thing to do is essentially go through a dungeon repeatedly in order to collect specific items or loot drops, with at least one boss battle involved.

The style has been carried over into the MMORPG business, and many titles involve this type of adventuring, usually in the form of a quest line. Some titles may refer to dungeon crawls as "raids".

In Atlantica Online, there are a few types of dungeon to crawl through. "General" dungeons are the ones you need to go through to complete storyline-related quests, usually because an NPC requires that the boss be killed and/or drop a specific item in order to complete the objectives.

"Shadow" dungeons are specialized versions of the general ones. They feature mainly in mercenary recruitment quests. Shadow monsters are tougher/stronger versions of their general counterparts, and usually join battles i.e. main+mercs vs. three teams of enemy mobs.

"Upgrade" dungeons allow a player to receive specific all-around boosts as quest rewards, such as rings that boost all stats, allow a player to access new skills, etc.

"Guild" and "Nation" dungeons are, as you might guess from the title, for very large assemblies of players, with substantial boosts in rewards such as EXP and exclusive item drops.

"Miscellaneous" dungeons are those areas where other things happen: fishing, waiting on Free League matches, special events, etc.

One very popular category of dungeons, though, is the "Individual" dungeon, which becomes available to players from level 90 and onward. So-called because it can be run SOLO if you have very good equipment and a lot of scrolls, players prefer to do these crawls in the standard party of three formations.

Individual dungeons normally feature a map shaped like a ring: there's a starting point, there are two paths leading away from the starting point, and the paths converge in the area where the dungeon boss spawns. The party must clear ALL the mobs in order to get the final rewards.

I'd been chickening out on the concept of doing an individual dungeon because I thought I had crap gear - but after recently trying one out for the first time, I think I'm hooked, haha! Together with a friend and her guild officer, I did the raid for the level 90 individual dungeon, the Forbidden Abyss.


Meet the boss of the Forbidden Abyss, the Dead Sea King. Yeah, he's massive. My team is the one nearest foreground.

With two of us taking one side and the third running the other, we cleared the mobs, then took out the boss, leaving us with 27 minutes to spare out of the one hour time limit. Yes, we got the final rewards.

There's a lot of money and good items coming out of individual dungeons so it's no surprise that they're awfully popular. I've got to do another one of those real soon.

One Year in Atlantica Online

On October 7, 2008, I decided to take the plunge into the world of Atlantica Online, the instance-reliant, turn-based strategic/tactical MMORPG from nDOORS. The game turned out to be my eyes-wide-open, no-road-map, jump-in-at-the-deep-end introduction to the entire genre of turn-based tactics games, and continues to be a wild ride and a lot of fun for me.

A few months back, the game implemented a special "birthday" mechanic. The in-game system marks the real-time date of birth of a character created on any of the servers, then gives away a special Birthday Gift Box every time that birthday is reached.

I began life in Atlantica Online with a swordswoman named Takako. She was my very first main. She was the unlucky character who suffered all the faults of the above-mentioned I-have-no-idea-what-I'm-doing approach: cracked-out build, lack of money, misuse of stamina and inability to follow quest lines, etc. etc.

Having moved on to a female axe main, Takako helps out with storing other items and - more importantly - generating money for the axe main.

From PJ Goes Pop!

Meet Takako. Top row, first image: Takako in action stance at the character select screen; the redhead character behind her is my current main. Top row, second image: the in-game message board that says "Happy Birthday, Takako!" Bottom image: Takako meets the Birthday Acong - sort of a mascot for Atlantica Online, which in this version gives away birthday gifts to characters.

The birthday gift box, when opened, gives out a random cake item, which when consumed can have any number of good effects. The birthday gift also includes enough EXP for each character in the formation to advance another level.

The next character looking forward to the birthday gifts is my axe main, created in January-ish of this year. I hope I can get her to benefit from the EXP bonus by the time that comes around.

I'm happy to have spent one year in Atlantica Online, and I hope to continue playing for a long time yet. (And I'm very interested in the upcoming Power Saw mercenary, called the Punisher, so I'm definitely sticking around long enough to at least TRY to get him!)

Maybe Baby Back to Normal

[So long as the storms dissipate properly and don't come back with their rains and winds, anyway.]

[So let's put on a clonetrooper to help guard this post. Picture was taken at Cosplay Mania 2009.]

NEWS UPDATES
October, apparently, is con season here in the Philippines. Hope you've all got your weekends planned out. Events this month include:

COLLECTICON 2009
October 10-11
Robinsons Midtown Mall Atrium
Ermita, Manila

ANICON 2009
October 11 CONFIRMED: Postponed to a later date; please wait for further announcements.
SM Megamall Megatrade Hall 3
Ortigas, Mandaluyong City

THE FIRST PHILIPPINE CARTOONS, COMICS, AND ANIMATION FESTIVAL
October 15-18
SM Megamall Atrium, Art Galleries, PowerBooks
Ortigas, Mandaluyong City

FIFTH ANNUAL KOMIKON
October 18
SM Megamall Megatrade Hall
Ortigas, Mandaluyong City

MEGA MASQUERADE (Cosplay.ph)
October 31
SM Megamall Megatrade Hall 2
Ortigas, Mandaluyong City

I will update this as more events come on board.

Atlantica Online: New Patch Rocks Out

The picture is a screengrab from an Atlantica Online mini-site that discusses the details of the new patch, Van Gogh's Gallery. In the photo: the first mercenary capable of using the Instrument weapon class, Paganini the Minstrel. Details below.

I guess I should be glad I'd finished lunch before checking out the details for the latest patch to the MMORPG Atlantica Online, "Van Gogh's Gallery" - I might've done multiple spit takes at my PC otherwise.

In keeping with its long-standing tradition of references to the history and culture of the real world, the latest content update will now allow players to explore the world of that master painter, Vincent Van Gogh.

The developers really took the idea of Van Gogh to heart with this patch: the background of the mini-site is recognizably one of that artist's most famous works, The Starry Night.

Lots of new features come with this patch, and the important ones include the raising of the level cap (from 120 to 130), a new set of armor and weapons for the level 130 set (Dragon God Equipment), new dungeons, and more.

Funny how they gave Paganini a bit of a sex change, eh? The real Paganini, the celebrated Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer Niccolò, is remembered for being one of the most accomplished violin virtuosi, as well as for his technically challenging and imaginative compositions.

The AO version is a sexy young woman with a penchant for leather and a long blonde ponytail, and is the NPC who starts you off on the quest to recruit the Minstrel. It rather puts me in mind of a funny picture: the developers playing a lot of Guitar Hero / Rock Band while conceptualizing the new merc.

A few caveats:
- The patching better be an uneventful and easily-done deal. I don't want to be staying up at all hours of the night and babysitting the home PC just to make sure it all loads properly. Patching DONE. Silly me, I forgot that I'd been preloading the patch while playing all day yesterday, so I only had to complete the actual patching process. Hit a few glitches on the way, but there were helpful threads in the forums, so that got sorted out nicely.
- No more bugs in the code that cause the game to crash, PLEASE. We've had periodic problems with that since the August Hwarang patch; things were really bad in the first few weeks since lots of people were reporting game crashes. Turns out it was something in the code that caused memory leaks. I hope there are none of those this time. UPDATE: Jury's still out on this one. We'll see in a day or two.

For more details, see the patch notes: HERE.

I can't wait to go and see what's new in Atlantica!

Pop Chart: Granado Espada Does the Wonder Girls!

After much buildup and massive amounts of work, it's done and online!



Presenting: GE.Nobody, Darrick/Mr. NG's machinima version of the popular Wonder Girls ditty - as performed by the five stock character classes of the MMORPG Granado Espada!

If you ever wanted to know what the original Korean lyrics meant, then you can find out right here. The director threw in subtitles for the entire song. And watch out for the gorgeous costuming and fantastic dance effects!

Enjoy the song and marvel at the hard work and dedication of its creator.

(Yes, that's me in the credits. I was among the cheerleaders for this project. :) )