I am. . . Mid December

I am wearing. . . a white streetball challenge sando and gray basketball short pants.

I am planning. . . to declutter my room and schedule my hobbies. I think I already got too much X_X

I am feeling. . . tired

I am thinking. . . how to organize my room, optimize room space and clean up the clutter

I am thankful. . . being alive. Seriously!

I am listening . . .the Original Soundtrack of The Lord of The Rings Trilogy Movies

I am reading...The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams

I am..... 2nd Week of December

I am wearing. . . a gray sando with blue lettering paired with blue white pants embedded with a fiery design

I am planning. . . to buy a gift for 3 ladies. One to my mother for her birthday tomorrow, one for my cousin for her birthday today, and one to my manita for our company Christmas party

I am feeling. . . sleepy

I am thinking. . . how to play Go, draw Chibi Characters and improve my Starcraft game

I am thankful. . . for a chance encounter with a college crush in a campus even in the university I graduated from

I am listening . . . to the songs of M.Y.M.P's latest album, Now

I am reading...The Problem of Pain by C.S. Lewis

Interesting endeavors that keep me busy for now

1. Learn how to use the Valve Hammer Editor to create Counterstrike 1.6 maps. Until now, I have always been in the dark on how to create custom maps for CS. Turned out that a simple google search would lead me to the standard editor of the GoldSrc engine which Half-life (and in effect Counterstrike) uses. I spent all of my college days using the internet for getting information even on the most obscure data and never did the idea entered my head that it could be used to find a Counterstrike map editor ("_)
   


2. Learn how to create RPG's using RPG Maker VX ( Technical Aspect). I have always wanted to create RPG's ever since I tried playing my first, Breath of Fire 4. Unfortunately, I am not a good writer and even less of a good artist. So I try to learn in the field where I am good at first, coding.
   


3. Learn how to code in ASP.NET. Admittedly,this one is not a hobby. Rather it is a preparation for some project at my job. But I think most programmers would agree with me that learning a new high-level programming is always interesting.
   

A strange dream....

The first recollection I had was a haze gray mist that prevented me from seeing anything in front of me. It surrounded me like air. Everywhere I look it was the same silver mist that I see. There is also a strange feeling that I had, that I have to move forward. It's as if I feel I must go forward with no options whatsoever. So I followed instinct and moved on.

The next scene that I remembered after trying to move forward was utterly different form the mist-like worked that I was aware of a second ago. I found myself in a beach, with some people frolicking in the green blue water. The strange thing about it is that it was like I knew I have always wanted to go here all along, and now I have finally arrived. While I was still wondering about my thoughts, I became aware that I was with my family. I suddenly realized by intuition that we were here to go swimming in the beach.

The uncertainty I had earlier when I was in the mist world was suddenly replaced by the excitement of swimming for I have always loved swimming, especially on the beach.

I was about to go to the shore when someone suddenly appeared at my front and urged me not to go. I am not sure if I remembered correctly how he looked like, only that he feels like an old guide who's job is to warn visitors of the dangers of the beach. But I do remember his stern voice warning us not to swim in the beach because there is a giant whirlpool in the middle of it. At first, I highly doubt it since the beach seemed placid and calm, not to mention people were splashing to and fro in the water. But something held me back. I don't know if it is instinct or the result of having watched too many horror movies that held me back. All I knew was that something sinister was lurking in the water. No sooner had I pondered on my thoughts on the whirlpool when I saw a small swirling current appear in the middle of the water not too far from the shore.

But the current began to encompass more water space. It became more menacing as it grew lager and larger as in a rising crescendo. In just a few seconds it became a large whirlpool that almost covered all of the beach. I yelled at the people caught in the whirlpool to get out of the beach as soon as possible. But it was too late. The whirlpool had started to spiral downwards towards the abyss at its center. I can only watch in horror as it happened. But something very weird was apparently going on. The people are actually laughing and enjoying it!!! I could not believe it. After a few seconds the whirlpool stopped, imploding into a big splash of blue liquid where it used to be its center. People then started popping out of the water like they just came up from a deep dive. They acted as if nothing dangerous happened. I was simply astounded. the only thing that I could come up as an explanation is that this is some sort of a water amusement park where the whirlpool is simply a machine driven effect for the fun of it. don't ask me how they ensure the safety of the people caught in it though....

Reality Bites

Quote for the Day

"Truth must necessarily be stranger than fiction; for fiction is the creation of the human mind and therefore congenial to it." - G.K. Chesterton

In short, fiction is more acceptable to us because we made it to suit ourselves.

And now for some intermission...

You Are a Dog

You are ready to protect and defend anyone you love. You are incredibly loyal. While you are protective and territorial at times, you are also quite playful and carefree. You are compassionate, and you understand people well. You pick up on emotions. You are eager to help people, and you are a natural best friend. You enjoy being around others.

What Animal Are You?

3 Dads and 1 Mom Review

Okay, I have a confession to make.....

I like some koreanovelas.

Before you jump into any conclusions, I would like to stress the "some" part of the statement above. some of the shows I have watched are too mushy for my taste. Others have too many references to Korean culture that I sometimes get lost in translation. But their a few who just got the right amount of wackiness, fun and romance to make a great story. 3 Dads and 1 mom definitely fit the bill for a good koreanovela in my opinion.

I started watching this koreanovela when I began to have slept late well into midnight during the last 2 weeks. I don't really know what caused it ( I suspect stress but I digress). Anyway, since the show is televised in the late hours of the night, and with almost nothing to do., I decided to watch this show to occupy me. I had no high expectations for this show. In fact, I don't even expected it to be good. I just thought that it would just be a typical koreanovela that is churned out by the major TV networks in the Philippines almost every year. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was good. I became so interested tin it that I didn't notice that 30 minutes had already gone by. By the end of the show, I was already taken in. I wanted to see the next episode as soon as possible.

There are many things I like about this show. One is its humor which I find refreshingly good . Some characters are simply funny to look at as they bumble through the issues of the day. Their jokes are usually sarcastic, offensive or made to be sensational. On the contrary, most of it is down-to-earth where anyone can pick them up.

Another is the chemistry of the characters. Even if the show sports a relatively simple cast in terms of characterization, their interactions and reactions produces in situations and circumstances that make the show interesting. Well if you think about it, 3 friends where one is a policeman, the other is a artist/cartoonist and another is a businessman makes an unlikely trio ( the show doesn't show how they met and became friends but I bet it would make a good story on its own). Throw in a widow who has given birth to her first child and we have a recipe for "interestingness".

Another reason is that the show doesn't become too angsty or mushy gratuitously. Excessive tearjerker moments and prolonged dramatic scenes are traps that koreanovelas often fall into ( that's my opinion by the way ). On the contrary , the show is often wacky with just the right amount of serious and sober moments thrown in. The strong friendship that exists between the characters is also depicted very clearly, only using the circumstances of everyday life to highlight it.

Finally , if I am honest, I would say that the lead female protagonist is...well, cute. Enough said. Did I mention that some girls I know go gaga over the baby? :D

All in all, 3 Dads and 1 Mom for me is a refreshing series that I like amidst all the cynical attitude that permeate TV series today.

Disclaimer: I won't be responsible for any violent reactions that may result from reading spoilers.

Wikipedia Article
DramaWiki article
Official Site ( Korean )

Shelfari - a social networking site for book lovers

A social networking site for bookworms? Who would expect?!

I was browsing the blog of one of my friends from CDOtaku today and she had this article about having to finish reading a book at least once in her lifetime. Being a book fan myself, I read through the whole article, got some good reviews from books I haven't read....and then found this tiny link at the bottom of the article leading to a list of her books that she has read and are still reading. Curiosity and my love for books naturally led me to follow the link. After that...well let's just say that I signed up as fast as I can! :D

Its pretty user friendly for a site about books. Books can be easily searched and can then be classified to three categories( books that you have already finished reading, books that your are currently reading now and books that you plan to read ). I like how it doesn't need to refresh every time you categorize a book. It makes classifying books a breeze.

To register go to www.shelfari.com

If you have nothing else to do, give my book list a visit at www.shelfari.com/arvinsim. ;)

Quote for the Day

A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it
- G.K. Chesterton

Inkscape Drawings 1

Just want to show you guys what I did in Inkscape....comment away!!( constructive criticism is very welcome)

Enso Launcher

As a programmer, I use the computer everyday. Over the years, I have noticed two things that were very obvious but I have brushed off as trivial or non-relevant. One of this is that as you use your workstation longer, the desktop become slowly cluttered with shortcuts to applications or whatnot. Another is that we tend to follow some sort of a routine somewhere that consists of many steps. For example, to access applications in the workstation, you either open up windows explorer and press a few clicks to get to what you want or simplify things by creating a shortcut of it in the desktop. Unfortunately, if you try to apply the latter solution to your applications, your desktop becomes more cluttered as we add more applications in our computer. Wouldn't it be great if our desktop is clear and we only need to type what we want to launch that application?

A few days ago, I stumbled upon a software that does just exactly that. I got it from the humanized site after someone mentioned that it was a great time saver. Curious as I am, I downloaded the application and installed on the computer.I fired it up.....and got confused. I didn't get it the first time though. So I read the tutorials and finally understood what to do.

Basically its like a windows command line on steroids. Opening a file, going to a folder, launching an application,etc...it can do all this and more. And the best thing about it is that you can define your own custom shortcuts!!! To do this, simply highlight the item you want to make a shortcut of, then activate enso, type "learn as open [app]" where [app] is your preferred name of your shortcut. After doing this, you can simply type "open [app]" to launch the shortcut. It is as simple as that. But think of it. To access a favorite folder, you only have to type it. No more endless clicking and switching of tabs. It is really a time saver.

After getting this program...I have been free from desktop clutter which used to plague my desktop. Now wallpapers look much better than before! Don't believe me? Just look how clean my desktop is ;P



I highly recommend it. I liked it very much. I think you will too......or not :P

Link : http://www.humanized.com

3 kinds of people you will meet.

There are 3 kinds of people whom you meet.

1. Those who are with you.
   
2. Those who are against you.
   
3. Those who don't give a damn

;)

Loneliness

Loneliness can strike you even if you are at the top
It does not give a damn whether you are hot or not :P

Photo editing...or creating incredibly amatuerish drawings

I have always loved pictures. Who doesn't? I mostly love pictures of nature especially the seashore. It always have some kind of relaxing effect on me.

So it is not surprising that I would take the next step, to create pictures of my own. Given my proximity to the world of technology, it is no surprise that I am no stranger to photo editing tools. But although I have always seen them in action, I have always been mystified on how to use them. Perhaps because of the narrow view that programmers could not be artists and vice versa that have deterred me from using them. Or because when I do try to use them, I am discombobulated by their complexity ( all those shortcuts and terms scare me ) and end up with a less than satisfactory experience in photo editing.

But life can be strange sometimes. Now I am thrust to a position in which at least a minimal knowledge of photo editing is required. Finally I have an excuse to dive in the photo editing world. I have been exploring a bit and there are two tools that I finally decided to learn. One is Photoshop, an extremely popular proprietary photo editing package and Inkscape, an open source vector graphics editor. Photoshop needs no explanation why it should be learned. It is the industry standard after all. I like Inkscape because it is flexible due to it vector orientation and it has a great user interface in my opinion.

As usual, starting to learn something outside my normal scope of skills is daunting. But I bet this endeavor would be worth it.

Character Generator

I got an idea yesterday evening while typing away in the late hours trying to help my mother finish an encoding task that was given to her by her friend for a non-trivial fee. Since I am still an amateur ( or rather a tryout ) writer, I have poor skills in world building and characterization. I have tried various techniques to create interesting characters but almost always end up creating a cardboard type that's too cliche or a Marty Stu type that is too much of a reflection of my own views. Then I got the idea of making a character generator, the type that will just randomly spit out traits, moods, attitudes, etc. It is definitely not a unique or new idea ( There are tons of character generators available in the internet, mostly for tabletop RPG's ). But since I am programmer, maybe it is worth making one to learn the how it is made. It will also mean custom features in the program, that is I can decide what info the program would churn out.

One of the interesting ways which I can use this program is to churn out a few characters randomly and try to make a plot for them. The idea is silly but I bet it will make my creative juices flow. It would train me to make good plots and flesh out characters.

I will be using Python to make the program since WxPython is the easiest GUI library I have used by far. If there is anyone interested in the program, just mail me and I will keep you posted.

Now if only I can make a world generator :)....

National Novel Writing Month

While I was surfing through a Catholic site that I visit often, I came upon a thread which at first look, just to be an announcement of one of those writing contests. It turned out to be an invitation to a web novel writing contest. But here is the catch, you only have 1 month to finish the novel. And here is the bigger catch. It must contain 50 THOUSAND words. As for me, at first I underestimated the huge amount of word count. Until I tried to write page one of a story that I just came up with on the fly. It turned out that it took me roughly 1 hour to write it and it only contains 700+ words. If you do the math, you will find out that it will take 72 pages to fill it up. That's not bad for a writer. But its really a monumental number for me. I mean, I can only managed to write one page stories most of the time.

It got me interested. Since I enjoy challenges that can make me hone my skills, I joined the contest. That means I have roughly 2 months before it starts. Plenty of time to prepare ( or to cheat for that matter ) . I'm interested in how this will turn out.

Content change

This blog ,more or less stagnated, because of the standard that I held to myself that everything I wrote here should be insightful. Another problem is that I can only right something worth reading only if I take the time to set aside time and really think things through ( Most of the time that means using pen and parer ). Since this blog is meant to be an idea pool, its better if I'll just post anything I can think off the moment. Maybe this will turn to be less than I hope for but I think I will just wait and see. Who knows, maybe more content will be published this way.

Simplifying Life

I'll try to do only what is necessary...

• Study the Catholic Faith
  
• Piano
• Story writing...ok ok its not exactly story but more like generating words
• Learn Web Design...( I am unfortunately not gifted in having an artists vision...I am not sure if this can be acquired)
• Write in this blog
  
• Other things...( actually I am just to busy too think of the more miscellaneous stuff )

Updates

1. Hit a snag in my piano playing...must find a pianist to clarify things!!
2. Project Deadlines are getting close T_T
3. My filipino report is about the four loves by C.S. Lewis
4. Want to play woodwind instruments!! (Do you think I am going too far in with this music thingy?? XD)
5. Gotta design web templates
6. Actionscript, CSS, etc
7. Reading Introduction to the Devout Life by St. Francis de Sales, starting a daily devotion.
8. Wanna try my hand at making short stories...
9. New campaign for Wesnoth!!!

Music to practice this month

First I would like to say HAPPY NEW YEAR MINNA-SAN!!! (Translation: HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!)

Got piqued by the first ending song by Nodame Cantabile anime....I really loved it!!
I now got its music sheet and I am trying to play it now. Finally got a music that has black keys!
I suspect that it will be a finger breaking endeavor :D

Music to try out:
Konna ni Chikaku de(Piano Version) - Nodame Cantabile Anime first ending
Melodies of Life - Final Fantasy IX Piano Collections
Eyes on Me - Final Fantasy VIII Piano Collections
Fields of Hope - Rie Tanaka, Gundam Seed