Lovely Girl is My Lizzie

"..More like sexy girl to me."

Intelligent And Very Witty

"I'll be conducting an examination. Drop your pants."

Energetic And a Child at Heart

"Aren't you suppose to be energetic?"

Zesty and Close to My Heart

"Zesty: She just wouldn't stay put."

Leave Me Not For I’ll Leave You Not

"That's a promise!"

image source: sodahead.com, fillin.com,mjv-art.org

Unfortunately, the channel which it was being aired on, which I believe was TV13, did not show the last few episodes of Masked Rider Black, the same with Uchuu Keiji Shaida or more popularly known by the name “Space Sheriff Shaider”. I have been wondering as a kid why such series did not end which was part of the reason I stopped watching local series. But that is another story.

So far, we have watched the following Kamen Rider Series, arranged in chronological order: Den-Oh, Kabuto, Decade, and OOO. We’re currently watching Kamen Rider W. Basically; the story revolves around a young self-proclaimed hard-boiled detective named Shotaro Hidari along with Philip, a mysterious guy who has the power to access the Gaia Library. The Gaia Library is like massive search engine which allows Philip to acquire knowledge regarding everything about the world. Together, they solve various cases which often involve Dopants, the series’ Kaijin or strange beast. Using their Gaia Memories and plugging them into their Double Driver belt, they transform into Kamen Rider W.

On the other hand, the series’ antagonists; the Sonozaki Family plots to revolutionize man’s existence. They sell Gaia Memories to interested individuals. Gaia Memories are like USB Flash Drives that can be inserted within a person. Once a person does so, he or she becomes a Dopant. The Dopant’s form is often the physical or monstrous manifestation of the memory inscribed within the Particular Gaia Memory. Thus, an individual plugging the “Bird” memory becomes a Dopant who appears like a bird monster.

So far, we have watched up until episode 19 and haven’t continued where we left off. We’ve been preoccupied with a couple of things lately both with work and particularly with Magic: The Gathering. So if you’re looking for some fun and monster-ass kicking program that your kid would definitely enjoy, Kamen Riders will always be a good bet. Henshin!

I love the way Lizzie’s eyes brighten up when she’s happy

I love the way Lizzie shouts when she’s surprised

I love the way Lizzie cries when she’s watching some drama

I love the way Lizzie hugs me when I am sound asleep

I love the way Lizzie frowns when she’s mad

I love the way Lizzie laughs when she’s jolly

I love the look on Lizzie’s face when she’s playing Magic: The Gathering

I love how Lizzie studies Japanese like it was Math

I love the way Lizzie clams up when she’s sad

I love the way Lizzie struggles when I am tickling her

I love her determination and diligence when it comes to work

I love the way Lizzie hides snacks that I keep her from eating

I love how her eyes stare at mine, filled with love

I love the way Lizzie giggles after hearing some good news

But what I like the most is how she wouldn’t be the Lizzie I love

Without the things that I love about her

Who you gonna call?

It may sound funny but the truth is, I love The Real Ghostbusters. I never fail to watch their episodes which was aired back then at around seven in the evening at ABS-CBN here in the Philippines. Compared to most western animation right now, I find The Real Ghostbusters a lot better. Maybe because American cartoons nowadays are mainly developed with young children as its target market. This means less violence and less profanity and without those adult scenarios that Japanese animes often have. It was also a surprise to us that the series ran for six seasons or seven. Imagine that. It was pretty long and each season had at least around fifteen episodes or so? Making it a grand total of one hundred thirty four episodes!

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Real Ghostbusters, it was actually an animated television series which aired around the 80’s. It was based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters which we also had downloaded a copy of. It follows the ghost busting adventures of Dr. Peter Venkman, Dr. Egon Spengler, Dr. Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore along with their secretary Janine Melnitz and the friendly ghost Casper Slimer.  Armed with their Proton Packs, they chase rogue ghosts throughout the city of New York and other areas across the globe. So far, we already have watched the episodes in the first season and just recently started with the second. Unfortunately, we have not continued watching it since we are currently glued with some other distractions: Kamen Rider W. And that would be for another day.

Stay Tune For More....

What I realized while watching the series was that though it was primarily for kids, the character’s humor where directed towards adults. In fact, it was at that time that I was able to appreciate and laugh at the humor of the animated series. Especially Peter’s sarcasm. I remember when I was a kid that I just watch it just because the show was good but other than that, I did not take particular notice of the conversations. Probably because they were more than your typical adult conversations but rather, the show also depicts the American culture which you would not normally understand or appreciate if you’re just like an eight year old. And since working in the contact center industry allowed me to understand more of the American culture, I was able to enjoy the cartoons now more than before.

Egon: Notice that vacant stare, that completely mindless look. That could only mean one thing. Winston: She's from California? Egon: No. She's been hypnotized.

Though they made Ghostbusters Extreme as a sequel to the original series, I was not able to appreciate it that much. I did not like the animation as compared to the original cartoons and was not impressed with the episodes and the characters. It was a bit depressing that on that particular show, the Ghostbusters were disbanded since there were no more rogue ghosts running around the metropolis. I really prefer the original cast but I might try watching it again sometime in the future but not anytime soon. I was also wondering why they did not bother making a remake of the original series or perhaps produce a new Ghostbusters movie. I mean with the technology that we have right now? That would probably be pretty awesome.

Though going to the beach seems overrated, I think it would still remain one of the first possible, well, logical choice there is for me. There is just one problem though: I do not know how to swim. And this fact would definitely cross out the beach in my list.

Another unusual way to enjoy the summer would be to go out of town, or even out of the country, provided that I got my finances covered already. Perhaps have some Preston dating with my girlfriend Liz? That would be pretty romantic. I have always wanted to go to Europe and have a nice tour around the old castles there. Though I prefer going to Japan first and maybe see some of their share of castles first.

And oh, Grand Prix Manila is just around the corner although it will not be summer anymore by that time. It is still around June anyway, my birth month. There are actually a lot of things in my mind these days but if I start putting them here I might end up not finishing them again just like my supposed year 2011 recount. Again, my sincerest apologies to those who read this but I will be posting my recount shortly after this.

Are you !@#$%^& kidding me?

And it is already 3:43 here and internet is still unavailable. Smart must be having a technical problem since Liz tried to call them earlier to inquire about the situation and she was unable to connect to them. Hey, our internet service just got expired hell like that without us being able to maximize it yesterday past midnight up until earlier this afternoon. Smart would be unreasonable if they won’t be able to at least compensate us for this inconvenience right? On the other hand, this gave me the time and opportunity to finish up what I started before New Year’s Eve. Moving on with my story…

It was almost 9 in the evening when we met with my cousin and his girl. We had our dinner at Tokyo Café We headed back to the Mega Trade Hall area since my cousin wanted to take advantage of the impressive deals that was being offered there for shoes and clothing.

I know. I know. I know. This should have been finished or wrapped up for the past few I don’t know how long it should have been. Oh well. Haha. Pretty preoccupied with a lot of things to be quite honest. Anyway, I remember when the toycon took place and some corrections; it was actually the second time that we met with my cousin and his girl. And it was two days before my birthday last year which would be June 18th. And we had our dinner at the Kebab Factory at that time before going back to the megatrade hall area since my cousin was interested in taking advantage of some good deals available there. Unfortunately, we did not have much luck since it was already closing time. On the brighter side of things my cousin was able to get past through and bought me and my girl an Angry Bird hat, the red one, and something for his girlfriend. We went to Trinoma afterwards and spent the remaining evening at Starbucks talking and joking around. Well, I was the one who was playing around most. You could read the details of the evening here.

L-R: Geym, Kath, Liz, Angry Bird

It was around July when we started watching a variety of Kamen Rider series. We first watched Kamen Rider Den-O which we got from my friend Rei. He recommended that it was a good start. Then it was followed by the OVAS, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Decade and Kamen Rider OOOs. I wouldn’t say I am a fan of the series but I’ve always been interested in the Kamen Rider series. The only one that I was able to watch when I was a kid was Kamen Rider Black which was aired on Channel 13. Unfortunately, they were not able to finish the series on TV so it left me and probably a number of Kamen Rider Black fans hanging. And since we now have access to such series online, I decided to take the opportunity to watch these series to my heart’s content. Great thing that Liz enjoys watching it too!

"Ore sanjou!"

]]> http://www.ravenknives.com/2012/01/the-story-must-go-on/feed/ 0 http://www.ravenknives.com/2012/01/a-recount-of-my-experiences-back-in-year-2011-part-2/ http://www.ravenknives.com/2012/01/a-recount-of-my-experiences-back-in-year-2011-part-2/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 12:18:06 +0000 Raven Knives http://www.ravenknives.com/?p=82 And I am back. Before anything else, I’d like to sincerely apologize if the previous blog post is cut ungracefully. Unfortunately, I was no longer able to continue writing at that time because I got preoccupied with a lot of things (more on those later). Anyway, there is actually no internet connection as of the moment and I thought that this would be a good time to continue where I left off.

So, where was I last year? Yeah, I intend to finish my recount of last year and add a bit to it. Moving forward, sometime around June I was able to pick up an unusual pet (for some), a toad. It was when I was on buying some filtered water at a water station near our house. I noticed a couple of children making a fuss over something underneath a sidecar’s wheel. I looked into it further and noticed a toad, almost at the verge of being run over by the parked sidecar (For those of you who are not familiar with the term, a sidecar/pedicab is basically a pedal tricycle. Don’t know if I described it right. ) Being the eccentric person that I am when it comes to the choice of pets, felt pity over the poor thing. Good thing some guy picked it up and carried it by the straw rope which was tied to one of the toad’s legs. He scolded the children to stop toying with it. He eventually tied the other end of the straw rope to one of the railings nearby. After picking up the refilled water container, I went ahead and looked at it again. The man noticed me taking interest and asked me if I wanted to take it instead. I nodded my head and the man untied the straw rope and handed over it to me. I happily took it and brought it home. As usual, it caused a commotion at home (Well, only with my late mom) since I brought another (yet again) unusual pet.

Me and my dad placed the toad inside a cage for the time being. FYI: That cage was originally the cage for the hamster pets that we had a year ago. However, I decided to eventually set the toad loose since I was unable to feed the toad properly anyway. The thing was, I set the toad loose at our dirty kitchen. I was confident that it would be able to feed itself there. And I was right.

"Ribbit!"

At the same time, it was also around June that we were forced to confine my mom to the hospital. She was diagnosed with cancer and only has a couple of months to live. Unfortunately, the illness was at its later stages and can no longer be cured. We were distraught. But then again, was there any other direction to go but forward? I had to admit that I was not close to my mom or anything but I thought that dying in such a manner was too much. She got out of the hospital around July where she spent her remaining days with us at home. If there was also one painful thought in my mind during those days, it was the pain of the person who was aware of her fate but was still praying to God for hope. That feeling sucked. And the thought made me cry at times. And I hate it. As much as possible, I didn’t want to express such emotions. But well, that is how the world works right?

I couldn’t remember when exactly this event took place but me and my girl’s first meeting with my cousin, Geym’s girlfriend was fantastic. It was a Sunday and me and Liz went to megamall at around seven in the evening. Before meeting up with them, we went up to the convention that was taking place at the mega trade hall area. Good thing Liz has her camera with her and she was able to take a lot of pictures of cosplayers who were wandering around the vicinity. But of all those cosplayers, I could not help notice a girl wearing a pink wig and dressed up like a typical Japanese idol. I asked Liz to take pictures of her since I found her really cute and pretty. I suggested that it would be great if Liz could also blog about the event, particularly the girl who we later realized was cosplaying the Japanese vocaloid, Luka Megurine. Liz also asked for the girl’s name and her email address so she could get in touch with her after she finishes her blog about her. There was also a trio of “domo” girls who we took a picture of. You can check out www.wordyliz.com as well for Liz’s article about the event – Toycon 2011, Angry Bird and a Double Date.

Marty as Luka Megurine

So, where was I? Ah, there. Well, moving forward. It was also during those times that I have been considering playing Cawblade in Magic: The Gathering. At that time, Cawblade was the dominant deck in Standard. The thing was I don’t usually play the best deck. Another was that I did not have a play set of Jace, the Mindsculptor and the thing was, JTMS was essential in the Caw. The (not-so) funny thing was that when I decided to play Cawblade because I was able to obtain a play set of JTMS, the blue planeswalker got the axe along with his artificer buddy, Stoneforge Mystic. In case you are interested about that story, you can check it here. And come to think of it, it was actually my birthday when good ol’ Jace got banned. Some birthday gift I got. Haha. It is okay in a sense that I can’t do anything about it right? The lesson learned after those incidents were to play the cards that you invest on.

Image source: houseofsixten.com

After Jace got the axe, I got discouraged playing the Caw and switched to Splinter Twin. And it was a great experience! I and my girlfriend were able to play well despite using our decks the first time on a tourney at the CQ Academies held in Padis Point, Sky Garden at SM North Edsa. Liz actually made it top four with her RDW while I on the other hand was just a couple of match ups away from getting in the top eight. It was nice regardless. Especially that it was just our first time to play there.

Around April when I was still employed in another contact center, I met up some nice people. One of them was a tattoo artist named Monx. He invited me to get a tattoo myself. I told Liz about it and the next thing we know is that each of us has our own tattoos! Mine was the planeswalker symbol on my nape while Liz’s on the other hand was a combination of Magic: The Gathering past expansions located just behind her shoulders. It was not really painful and Monx was really surprised that the wound healed faster than usual. Unfortunately for Liz, it took the whole one week timeframe that Monx advised her. Frankly, I am interested in getting another one but that would be sometime away.

Unfortunately, we were not able to fly to Singapore around the first week of June to participate in the Magic: The Gathering Grand Prix tourney that was being held there. This was due to the fact that I was still a trainee during those times in the contact center that I applied for. I admit I regret not taking the trip and risking my employment. Not to mention the fact that I eventually got dropped sometime September from the program. Lesson learned: Attend such events and take the risk. Forget about your employment status. It will not make you happy all the time. Such events are rare these days. Do something exciting, something that you don’t normally do in your everyday life.

Noooooo! Wait for us!

That wraps up the first part of my year 2011 recount.

Actually, I have been having a bit of difficulty collecting my thoughts on how I should start writing an update for my blog. Yeah, I know it’s been a while but unlike my girlfriend who is an active blogger, I tend to write by the mood. However, I don’t plan to end the year without writing something on my blog. Good thing was that I already had an idea of what things to put on the blog. I was inspired by the articles that I read in Starcitygames.com about people recounting the past year so I thought that would be a nice update. I even had notes saved on my mobile phone.

Perhaps the best way for me to start my story is of course, to share something that was memorable to me at the start of year 2011. Just forgive me if there are no particular dates indicated for each scenario. I just could not remember when they exactly took place. So, I’ll be sharing those memorable events by each quarter. Okay with that?

Damn it’s pretty noisy outside. Hmm, just 15 minutes left? I wonder if I could finish this post in that timeframe. Anyway, the year 2011 started just fine. I remember working for this certain contact center in Makati for almost two years. In those two years, I learned a lot and was determined to work for promotion. Unfortunately, the path (Or should I say climb) up the corporate ladder was not as simple as it appears to be. Especially that I am in the Philippines. Long story short, I was not able to make it and decided to move elsewhere. On the brighter side of that story, I was able to experience how to manage a team. I even learned how to audit some calls and grade them as how quality assurance agents would. Overall, the experience was fine enough but at that time, I thought that it was time to move on.

And 4 minutes to go. I paused writing this blogpost for a while to greet the people a happy new year.

Happy New Year!

I ended up being top two at that time with my deck while Liz on the other hand was not able to make it. I was very happy at that time since it was my first time winning that much, especially that it was also the first time I used that deck in a tournament. Well, not really the first time since I have been using a proxy deck for to practice with my girl in the last couple of weeks. Though its components were fairly different to the one I used last Wednesday. I ended the evening at 2-1, losing to the mirror match.

The first two matches were with a Werewolf deck and a mono-black control. Unfortunately, I was unable to keep up the good record with the following tourneys that we participated at. That same week, we joined the FNM Held at Titans in Eastwood last friday. There, I lost miserably against UW humans, a Grixis Control, a Mono-Blue Illusions and something else which I already have forgotten. On the other hand, my girl got a better standing. She ended the evening 2-2, was it? Trust me; I was not happy about it due to the fact that I played lousily. Had a lot of misplays and I was too lazy to think of my moves. Imagine this, opponent played a phantasmal image and copied an insectile aberration. At that time, I had a Kessig Wolf Run in play but I did nothing. I completely forgot the fact that I could target the image and kill it with the land! Another one was allowing an online Olivia to even dent my Solemn before I bothered killing it at a later turn with a Galvanic Blast. Furthemore, my opponent just simply took control of my Solemn and got the draw instead of me. And when I was battling it out with the UW humans deck, I did not even bother mulliganning for a better hand. I learned that a Primeval Titan, A Rampant Growth and four lands would not cut it against such a deck. Imagine these misplays. It was all my fault and I deserve the loss. What’s worse was that it bugged me the whole evening and did not let me sleep at all!

On the brighter side, it made the fire in me burn stronger and learned from the experience. That coming Sunday, I battled against an UR aggro, the same Werewolves I fought Wednesday of the same week, a UW humans, a Solar Flare and a Mono-black Infect. I won against the UR player but that was it. The rest were all loses except with the UW humans who by the way, was piloted by my very own girlfriend, who also had a bad record at that time. Though there are a couple of memorable matches that I want to highlight starting with the Solar Flare match up. The match up was memorable because I know I could have won the next round of our game. I had an inkmoth online, and a hand with an Autumn’s Veil, an Acidic Slime and a Sword of Feast and Famine. Since I knew that my opponent was holding a Mana Leak, I played an Acidic Slime first which as expected got countered. The next turn, I played the Sword with three untapped lands. He let it go and when I equipped it, he responded with Victim of the Night. Luckily, I had Autumn’s Veil at that time and responded in turn. The Sword got equipped and the Inkmoth went to the red zone, untapping all my lands. Unfortunately for me my opponent played Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite which shut off my nexuses. For the next few turns I was not lucky enough to get answers and lost after a few hits from the legendary praetor.

As of right now, I am just spending the last few days tweaking and tuning my deck. I am considering of replacing Sphere of the Suns with a set of Viridian Emissary. The metagame where I play was just full of aggro decks and if I am unable to do something about the early swarm then I’ll likely scoop up my cards. I’ll probably be playing again this coming weekend given that I do not have much appointments or commitments. For the meantime, I am busy with writing articles and reading up articles in Starcitygames.com. I am looking forward to the next tourney!