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I'm not sure if anyone's still reading my poor neglected blog. It's been a while. I uploaded this for a forum I frequent, but I figured that I might as well upload this here too. I'm not sure if anyone will be interested, but more orchestral music is always a good thing! Watched Final Fantasy Distant Worlds last week here (in Vancouver) and it was really nice.
From the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds CD:
01. Opening ~ Bombing Mission (FF7)
02. Liberi Fatali (FF8)
03. Aerith's Theme (FF7)
04. Fisherman's Horizon (FF8)
05. Don't Be Afraid (FF8)
06. Memoro de la Stone~ Distant Worlds (FFXI)
07. Medley 2002 (FF1~3)
08. Theme of Love (FF4)
09. Vamo' alla Flamenco (FFIX)
10. Love Grows (FF8)*
11. Opera "Maria and Draco" (FF6)
12 Swing de Chocobo
13. One-Winged Angel (FF7)
Link
Performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Arnie Roth.
- "Love Grows" is also known as the instrumental arrangement of "Eyes on Me". "Don't be Afraid" is the battle theme of FF8.
- My favorite piece in the album is "Memoro de la Stone~ Distant Worlds", even though I've never played FFXI. It was just that good.
- During the Vancouver concert, they played To Zanarkand (FF10) and Terra's Theme (FF6), which didn't make it on to the CD. It's too bad because they were really good songs.
I also included the following selections from the "Play! A Video Game Symphony" by Arni Roth, the principal conductor for the Distant Worlds Series: Super Mario Bros. Medley Metal Gear Solid Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 Chrono Cross and Chrono Trigger Medley LinkPerformed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Arnie Roth. The quality isn't so good because it was an audience recording. This was performed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
Selections from Yasunori Mitsuda's "Colours of Light" CD: 04. Pain (Xenosaga 1) 05. CREID (Xenogears) 06. Stairs of Light (Xenogears) 07. Kokoro (Xenosaga 1) 08. Ring (Soma Bringer) 10. Stars of Tears ~Yasashiku Hoshi wo Furishikiru~ (Xenogears) 11. Spring Lullaby (Xenogears) 12. Small of Two Pieces (Xenogears) 13. Radical Dreamers ~The Jewel That Has Not Been Stolen~ (Chrono Cross) LinkColours of Light is the compilation album of vocal pieces by Yasunori Mitsuda. It was released on August 26, 2009 in Japan by Sleigh Bells. The album is comprised of 14 remastered songs from games and soundtracks that he has composed, and one piece from an album of original songs by game music composers. My favorite song in any video game is that Radical Dreamers one from Chrono Cross. Creid and Small of Two Pieces from Xenogears would be next on the list ^^
Edit: The files are a bit large because I'm very particular about quality
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 I went to the main branch of the VPL (along Georgia) today to do some research on the provincial representatives of BC. It was a really nice building, and awesome inside too. I think there's 7 floors classified for different types books, and even a small section for graphic novels. Posters were advertising a Rock Band tournament during the coming weekend. I think there was Smash Brothers Brawl too and a few other Nintendo games which I don't play.
I like that there's free net access, too. Not enough stations though.
Also, I have a new video of China's Celebration of Light entry up, which contains the last 5 minutes. It's a lot better quality than the one I uploaded a few days ago. That's because we moved rooms due to a broken aircon. The repairman said the system was failing all over the building due to the heat.
This was how Robson looked like afterwards (click):
Notice that there's a flood of happy noisy people walking down Robson, and a really long line of buses all across W. Georgia.
 Which reminds me, there's weeds growing on the apartment balcony (which I have to clean up). There's even a wine bottle. I wonder how it got there. Anyway, after this entry there's probably only going to be one more interesting entry coming up, covering the gay pride parade tomorrow, and the trips to Victoria and Whistler. Really have to study already.
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I left Manila less than a week ago, and I'll be here until late October (or longer) provided nothing goes wrong. It's been pretty shitty so far though. I also took a few pictures.
So then, we landed on the first day and had to rush to Burnaby from the airport to meet someone. We planned on passing by the condo in Oakridge to leave our things -- that was when the problems started. The door was locked and we couldn't get in our own condo because some idiot changed the entire lock. It was also 34 degrees outside. We were lucky to have the person who picked us up offer to bring us to Burnaby. Ended up spending our first night at a relative's house in the same heat. I slept on a sofa.
Woke up the next morning and planned to take a 30-minute bus ride downtown in order to renew an ID which in the end turned out not to be expired. In the afternoon we decided that we couldn't stay in the house any longer and called a taxi to help us move from around here:
(Click on the thumbnails for bigger versions)
  
...To around here. The hotel is along Robson.
  
(L-R): Downtown from 36th floor of the Empire Landmark, Overexposed night shot w/ long exposure, a view of West Van and Stanley Park
Vancouver might have a convenient public transportation system, but some parts are still really hard to get to unless it's by car. It's been significantly lessened now that we're in downtown though. We'll be staying here until next Tuesday, which is when the apartment would have been cleaned.
  
(L-R): Canada Place, Vancouver Harbor from Stanley Park, TREES and the city from Queen Elizabeth Park, taken with a 6300 phonecam.
The past few days have been alright. Went on a city tour yesterday, and going to the library to get some research done today. I think I'm going on a free ride on a floatplane to Victoria tomorrow; mum's friend gave us tickets because she works at the company. Going to Whistler on Monday to look around. Hopefully the fire damage hasn't been so bad.
Edit: There's also a big fireworks event/competition going on called the Celebration of Light. Last one is tonight, I took a video of the one on the 29th from the hotel balcony. Watch it here.
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Went with some co-workers the other day to a Japanese restaurant which opened beside the Sango branch along Amorsolo St. in Makati. The place was interesting, but the location was pretty bad. It was only their 2nd day of operation when we decided to try the place out. Besides, they had receptionists in full Japanese attire and a small garden type setting inside a mall, which really stood out. It was good they turned off the fountain which was spilling to the street the day before.
Click on the pictures for the larger versions, sorry for bad quality, they were taken with my cellphone camera.
   
(L-R): Chilled okra soup, Sea urchin tempura (front) and Mangetsu or full moon sushi (back), Tempura soba bowl (front) and Shrimp gratin (back)
The meal was very typical of a restaurant that had just opened. Unfitting 80s music was being pumped through the speaker system, the waitress forgot to put soy sauce in the serving container, soy sauce was served with the uni tempura, the chilled okra soup was not chilled, we were given cold water instead of cold tea, and a few other things. Overall, the meal was quite enjoyable because ultimately, the food is most important at a restaurant and their food was quite good, albeit a bit pricey (400+ pesos for tempura soba in Little Tokyo is a lot). I wasn't able to photograph the dish I liked the most, which was the sweet potato puree vanilla ice cream. Their plating was also pretty good.
I work beside Little Tokyo. The only restaurant (Thai) nearby which wasn't fast food closed last week. Right now we're surrounded by about 15 Japanese restaurants, all with their little niches like okonomiyaki, western fusion, super cheap bento, ramen, and so on. I have a feeling this place won't last very long because of their location and high pricing, which is why I decided to write this entry and hope for the best. It's worth trying out because they offer something different.
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I wonder if anyone would actually notice this post.
Sadly there's nothing really new since the last entry months and months ago.
My work sucks a little creativity out everyday.
I feel like I'm dying inside. Something will be done about it soon, though.
I have twitter. I've been tweeting a lot lately. Add me if ever :)
http://twitter.com/shiniyashi
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I really should write a proper entry soon, but this is more of a placeholder of sorts to remind me what games I wanted to get. I have a PS3 as well so things can get a little confusing because I'm following too many titles.
Anyway, announced to be released within the year are:
Assassin's Creed, Rock Band, Little Big Planet, Persona 1, Final Fantasy Dissidia
+ Miku Hatsune Project Diva, Phantasy Star Portable
I'd like to play Flower and Noby Noby Boy on the PS3, but I'd need to use a credit card for that :(
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Until April at the moment, I'll probably add more to this entry as I go along, depending on how bored I get at work.
January:
27: Franz Ferdinand / Tonight: Franz Ferdinand
February:
13: Mando Diao / Give me Fire
17: Asobi Seksu / Hush
25: Angela Aki / Today
( Click if you're actually interested. )
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I bought a Lenovo S10 last December in Singapore, based on online reviews and general impressions after a day of shopping. Decided to use it as the laptop I would bring to work, since I don't do much with computers aside from respond to email and leave ym on all day. About two weeks ago, the fan started malfnctioning for no apparent reason. It started sounding as if it was hitting something inside its enclosure.
Checked around websites to find out that it might be a design flaw in the enclosure, which might be a little too narrow to provide for fan vibrations when it starts spinning at a certain temperature. What's annoying is that I had the netbook G-masked, and replacing the fan = having to remove the wrap. Even before the fan broke, it was always been turning itself on and off at regular intervals, even when doing minor things like watching video on youtube. It's also very loud. If not for the other features (and the ability to play some 720p viedos), I would probably have sold it already.
I went to a service center this afternoon, and they told me that I would have to wait 2-3 weeks for a replacement fan. The laptop is still usable, but when the fan starts sounding like a helicopter, all the processes on the laptop become slow as hell and trying to shut the OS down causes a crash.
A few hours ago, my profile on xp got corrupted, erasing my desktop icons and bookmarks. Because of this I had to spend the rest of the night looking for a lightweight linux distro bootable from a usb stick. It's getting really annoying -- should have stuck to buying an EEEpc.
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Went on a family trip to a beach near Laia, Batangas last Sunday. A relative owns some property there. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is the pointy fish below!
(click to enlarge)
Those are baby dried fishes called "espada, or swordfish. They were served in Batangas, and they came from a market near there; tasted much better than the other type of daing (dried fish). Can these dried fishes be bought in Metro Manila? I was wondering if anyone knew. The same goes for freshly roasted barako coffee, which tastes markedly different from the normal arabica coffee because it's made from liberica. It's hard to find fresh roasted coffee.
Also, my mum's become addicted to these pan de sal lately:
Mum likes to pass by one of their shops on the way home from work to check if they have anything freshly baked. They taste great if they're bought freshly baked, especially on the first night - they're moist and soft, almost as if there was custard inside.
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I forgot to take even one picture of myself during the entire trip! That was really stupid.
Below is Rick's head, and more disturbing images.
( Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for your eyes. )
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I was in Ilocos from last Friday to late Sunday with five friends. We had originally planned to go on a road trip to Laoag and push as far north as Pagudpod if possible.
 We only went to visit Marcos in Paoay, and didn't even get to see his corpse because the caretaker was on lunch duty :( What we did do was eat a lot of food. Practically the only tourist attraction we went to was Calle Crisologo in Vigan. I took a lot of pictures, so this entry might resemble a photo essay. Just click on the pictures for a bigger version.
We actually planned on going to the following places but weren't able to:
- The Marcos Mausoleum in Batac (rumored to hold the dictator's real carcass)
- Fort Ilocandia resort/hotel on the outskirts of Laoag (the sand dunes nearby have been used for many war scene for some local and foreign movies)
- The Sinking Belltower in Laoag (measured to be going lower at the rate of one inch per year ever since the ')60s
- The beaches in Pagudpud (perfect for those who want the Boracay ambience without the high costs)
- The lighthouse in Burgos (on a clear night, you ccould see the lights from Taiwan up on it)
- Various Spanish-style churches and shrines (funny thing about the region is that each town has one of them)
( Day by day narration w/ a lot of pictures )
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Thanks very much to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) aristocrats for the rename token. I've used the name since 2001, but it never really meant much to me. Kamijo was always just the leader of a band I liked, and a name I picked because I couldn't think of anything else at the time.
I remember picking it because I was really into Lareine at the time. My favorite song was emeraude ~umi ni miserarete~ from the Billet ～幼き夏の便箋～ (Osanaki Natsu no Binsen) single (released in '99). I've never really stopped listening to Japanese music though. Right now I'm less into visual kei but still very into acts like Chatmonchy, Ikimono gakari, Otsuka Ai, GLAY, Acid Black Cherry, AKFG and a many others.
Hopefully the new owner of the kamijo username will put it to good use. It's nice to see that he's been getting a lot of attention again because of Versailles.
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*Too lazy to write a proper entry because I'm on a netbook with a tiny keyboard, so read the entry as a one-sided conversation. No pictures for now, I'll edit them in sometime later.
I've just spent another New Year's Eve in Tagaytay Highlands (Philippines). I've been forced by the parental unit to come along for the past seven years or so. It's basically watching a variety show for a bit more than an hour before being herded out for fireworks. Right now, I'm waiting for my brother to get back to the condo unit because he went out to meet his girlfriend. I'll be posting this entry when I get back home later; just wanted to write about my trip to Singapore from the 19th to the 23rd of December.
I'm not sure if I've written about this before, but I'm been very active with the Monster Hunter community on the net for about a year now. Monster Hunter is a PSP game, with latest release being Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G. I've been a staff member for the largest fansite (Skies of Croda/Minegarde.com) for months now. It's part of the reason why I haven't been writing much here. The game is a little like Shadow of the Colossus for the PS2 – hunt giant monsters, and try to kill it before it kills you. It was a huge hit in Japan, but exists in the english-speaking world as a game with a small but dedicated fanbase. The last iteration of the game was Japanese-only, but a group of dedicated fans released a patch that translates the game into english. They're called TeamHGG, and two of the members were the friends I visited in Singapore. They help maintain the Skies of Croda website.
( food blog-like narration of each day on the trip )
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* Note: On my food tag on this blog, I've frequently criticized local restaurants or commented about their food/service. This entry is no different.
Yesterday was Saturday, and naturally people go out on Saturdays. In Makati, most restaurants have their "peak hours" on Saturday nights. Because of this, it isn't really a good idea to go to any of the fine dining restaurants in Serendra, Bonifacio High Street or Greenbelt.
Regardless, my mom needed to meet a friend who suggested that they go out for a quick snack. This strangely translated into a four course wine tasting meal for two at Sala, where they both ended up paying upwards of P6 thousand pesos (or US $130+). Now, the point of wine tasting meals is pretty obvious. Restaurants serve them to promote their new wines. So what went wrong?
The waiter assigned to us simply poured the wines -without- announcing what the wine was. They didn't take the time to say what the food was, either.
It went like this: *plops plate on table*. "here's your lamb, ma'am." and then *plops next plate*. "here's your ravioli, sir. oh and we ran out of scallops so we used mushrooms instead."
It further bothered me that the dry, too-tanic Spanish wine did not go well with the now-mushroom-ravioli that had a funky smell. Actually, without the wine the ravioli was actually pretty good. The dish that came after was a lamb medallion thing with an Australian red. I'd like to have known what the wine was, but again the server didn't tell us what it was.
( The rest of the review, and eating out on father's day )
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She's from Alaska. She's taking coastal resource management in Dumaguete, so she has a lot of pet oysters. She's trying to get more oyster meat per shell, and to make eating the poor things more healthy. She runs a lot, and takes it very seriously. She likes to play D&D, Mechwarrior and games like Monkey Island. She's also pretty sadistic during training sessions.
...I have all sorts of characters floating around the internet, but as always, real life manages to surprise.
I've also been going to the gym a lot more lately after I shocked myself one evening at the weighing scale. In the past week, I've been to the gym six straight times. That's pretty good, if only I was actually losing weight instead of gaining muscle. I go to Fitness First, and it's been alright despite all the horror stories floating around the net. The equipment and amenities and top notch, but it might be a different story if I try to cancel my membership. I don't see that happening anytime soon though.
^ Also why I haven't been blogging as much lately; too tired after 2 hours at the gym.
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It's a Japanese movie, and here's the synopsis:
28 years old freelencer writer Sakura Asuka (Yuki Uchida) wakes up tied in a white room. The white room is a protected room located in an isolated ward of a psychiatric hospital. Sakura first became unconscious because of heavy alcohol use and a druge overdose. She’s confined in the single room because of her high risk of committing suicide.
Sakura tried to talk to the nurses and doctors but they didn’t listen to her. Under the circumstances another patient Miki (Yu Aoi), who suffers from an eating disorder, leads her to understand the unknown world. But, Sakura is looking for the way to get back to the real world as soon as possible.
Here's the link. Yes, you'll need to sign-up but you'll find that it's a very good site for Asian movie torrents and it's absolutely free.
About the movie: At first I thought it was another rendition of Coelho's "Veronica Decides to Die", which it generally is. I liked it because the characters were totally believable (though a little too attractive), and the setting was uniquely modern Japanese. This is conveyed through the different quirky stereotypes-gone-overboard represented by the other patients, and the slowly unfolding life of the near middle-aged lead character. Like Veronica, this movie is a powerful argument for life by simply changing perceptions and learning to accept.
Of course, it's not a magic bullet to stave of depression. I read Veronica, and promptly found myself taking depression medication a year after. I also really wish I could write a longer review, but lately I've been having to take a few shots of gin in order to write/blog or finish movies with any consistency. The flipside is that I'm only taking medication every other day now. That's a good thing! One day, I'll write about it. Don't ask me about it here of RL, because bad things will happen if you do.
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I was bored, and I think too many people around me don't pay enough attention to the news.
Philippine Facts:
- There is a shortage of rice in the Philippines
- The Philippines will import about 2.6 million tones of rice in 2008
- Importing will cost the country a net loss of about $1.3 billion, or 1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
- The Philippines has nearly doubled its rice output in 1998, but it has not been enough to account for population growth
- The Philippines outpaces Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter, by 3.6 million tones to 2.6 million tones per hectare.
- Over the past 20 years, the Philippines has lost half of its irrigated land to urban development (such as golf courses).
What the government is doing:
- Spending money (see above) on importing rice and selling it at local prices
- Cracking down on rice hoarders on grounds of “economic sabotage”, a crime which carries a life sentence
- It has secured deals with other countries to ensure rice imports
- Soldiers are being deployed to guard rice deliveries to poor communities
- The DoA is trying to implement “Bagsakan” centers where farmers can sell their goods directly to consumers, thus eliminating the middle men
- Improving rice yields in the long term through better irrigation, research and the elimination of anti-competitive elements in the rice market
( Global Facts, My sources, and links for further reading )
My Analysis: If rice prices continue to rise at 70% per year given current trends, then yes it can be considered a crisis. There will be a lot of people in the country that will literally starve to death if they are not granted government assistance. We have to think about where the government will get the money, as it has already operated on a budget deficit over the past few years. About 20-30% of the national budget goes to corruption expenses, so officials will have to learn to either take a smaller cut from deals or risk angry rioters burning down their gilded mansions.
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1. There's the Spratlys issue.
I know GMA sold the Philippines out, but China agreed to funding the whole sordid ordeal. Just read the link above for more, it's all over the place anyway.
2. There's Tibet, which is quickly becoming reminiscent of the events in Myanmar recently.
At least 80 people dead, and 20 thousand Chinese soldiers dispatched to restore Chinese imperialist rule. Tibetans are said to have attacked Han Chinese and basically anyone that isn't Tibetan.
3. And then there's Darfur.
So please, for goodness' sake, boycott the upcoming Olympics. Don't buy merchandise. Promote the issues instead. China has a litany of issues you can choose from, ranging from human rights to the economy and the environment.
Someone let me know why we have to be concerned with DJ Montano and co.?
By the way, that Brian Gorrell guy apparently wasn't paid, and has re-opened his blog after closing it for a while. Tim Yap reacted with a vapid article that can be summarized in one sentence: "What he says is not true." Tim Yap is like a bad joke. I hope he realizes that he should just go away because nobody except socialites and their hanger-ons wants to listen to him.
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