Exalted: Fair Folk

Another book to salivate over. And struggle to purchase.
This Christmas, Exalted fans can look forward to the latest expansion of the game’s setting, Exalted: The Fair Folk. While the other hardbacks in the line deal with the various types of Exalted, Fair Folk focuses on Creation’s most alien and insidious enemy, the raksha. Warrior princes who assaulted the frontiers of the world en masse during the Great Contagion at the behest of their great prophet Balor, the Fair Folk are dedicated to overthrowing the kingdom of men and gods and returning Creation to the roiling chaos of the Wyld. Or are they?

Need air. Money. Breathe.
Help.

Decided to raise it from the dead
http://tobie.deviantart.com
is back

Stuck at work today
Handling an editing thing again. You know, the kind of work PRODUCERS do. My schedule is from 4:00p.m. to midnight tonight. Tomorrow, around 1:00-3:00p.m. is the Annual Physical Exam. Here's to another thumb up my ass, piss in a cup, crap in plastic container and blood oozed out of my veins. I pray my health is still there and well. Been having some chest pains and a cold that's been around for nearly a fucking year. Last thing I need to know is that I have something terminal.

Which in some ways might serve me right for being such a matyric bastard.
Put up with everyone else's shit and you kill yourself slowly.

I guess its time to move on
At first, I was being open-minded. Opitimistic that you'd realise that I have been very very understanding of your needs. And of the respect you wanted me to give you. But now, I realise neither of you are willing to do the same for me.

It was bad to know you both betrayed my friendship and trust.

And now, to realise neither of you care about the friendship we had.
And still spend each weekend, happily going out and not even attempting to repair thee hurt and pain from having betrayed my trust.

No more.

I guess the fact that it hurt me was never important to either of you.
Especially considering the things that had happened.
And the fact you two still go out together and everything else you do.

Well, don't expect me to even consider you as someone I should care for.
Just returning the way you both treated me.

Good bye.

White Noise
A new thriller which I am looking very forward to.
E.V.P. Who would have thought this would be so real and yet so... unbelievable.
Movie Site

Miracles of miracles
Yup. Its officially saturday morning.
A few hours ago, I accomplished everything in that list.

In a few hours from now?
I run Orpheus at last.
Damn, I miss gaming.

Update:
Due This Week
1) Flier for Special Event
2) Poster for Special Event
3) Streamer for Special Event
4) Print Ad for Special Event
- Finally got higher resolution pics for all but one star. finished the initial design earlier today. Will see revisions needed tomorrow.

5) Commercial concept for Europe promo
5.1) Storyboard - last minute revisions needed

6) Commercial concept for Europe Christmas promo
6.1) Storyboard - done. But then the client shelved the promo. So all the work on this is considered useless. Or stored for future use, depending on how you view it.

7) Commercial concept for Europe promo #2 - on hold.
8) TV Guide finalization of materials - done.
9) Revised material for video commercial of Telecom product #1 - done.
10) Inventory of materials used in commercial for Virtual store -not done. have to collect the rest and check the list.
11) Help in Budget - almost done.

Sigh.
One day more....

Due This Week
1) Flier for Special Event
2) Poster for Special Event
3) Streamer for Special Event
4) Print Ad for Special Event
* Note, for the first four items, I was provided 72dpi images of the stars to appear in the event. I mean really now, do they realise that even if I blow them up just for the poster, the images are going to get all screwy. What more for the streamer!

5) Commercial concept for Europe promo
5.1) Storyboard

6) Commercial concept for Europe Christmas promo
6.1) Storyboard

7) Commercial concept for Europe promo #2
8) TV Guide finalization of materials
9) Revised material for video commercial of Telecom product #1
10) Inventory of materials used in commercial for Virtual store
11) Help in Budget

And the fucking thing that annoys me?
Even if I were supposedly paid 1000 for each numbered item, that is still higher than what I actually am paid.

Groan.

Argh
Some just don't really get it. Of course, I'm feeling more frustrated cause its my usual... yes... TVGuide week.
1.) When I say I don't want to talk about it, I don't. Dropping a sentence or two as a "final hirit" just really shows you don't fucking respect my request.
2.) Don't tell me to end early after only allowing me to start something late.
3.) I don't like you. Get the hint. Or was telling you that face to face not enough.
4.) So what if its your final dramatic opus, its just fucking work to me. And I'm doing my job well anyway. I don't care about making it meet YOUR expectations. I'm hitting the expectations I set which are already above those the client expects.
5.) I am a person. I don't care if you think you know who I am. You don't treat me as a person and that's enough to see that you don't really know what the fuck you are doing.

Disclaimer: If you think it applies to you, consider what best to do to rectify things. If you don't think it applies to you, then good, most likely it doesn't. If you think you want to explain your side of the matter, huwag na. I don't care about your side of the matter. I think I tried caring enough already.

Had another nWOD playtest this weekend.
At first, the playtest was a moody one, with three humans going through the strangeness of a world where things aren't perfectly normal. A figure skater loses his partner in a weird obssession-borne stabbing. An artifact restorer has an unwanted encounter with an ex-boyfriend. And a martial artist student sees his mentor's dojo gunned down by the Triad and is forced to deal with a his typically messed-up family.

But when breakfast came along and exhaustion seemed to creep into my brain, I had to apologise to them all and transform the game into another playtest, this time, using the new VAMPIRE: THE REQUIEM rules that I got from them. With the figure skater becoming a Daeva, the artifact gal a Nosferatu and the martial artist a Mekhet, I sicked upon them a crazed vampire each (using the template for the Belial's Brood sample in the book). Fangs bit. Fists punched. Knives shimmered. The Noferatu's Chimestry-Presence-Dementation discipline Nightmare proved to be terribly effective. Vigor and Celerity made nice combacks with new systems that don't quickly break the game. Though the system for Predator's Taint really messed up the game quickly in the start with the fights turning into "frenzy" partners, I liked how they added a "Highlander-ish" feel to things.

All in all, the game hinted at the fluid system (over 24 turns in 2 hours of gaming!) and the more realistic demand for being aware of how you accomplish your actions.

nWOD and Vampire: the Requiem look like they'll be winners!

DEGENESIS
A German RPG that has post-Apocalyptic imagery and.. frankly, I wish they'll release an English version someday.
Check it out here.

An Earthquake!
There was an earthquake a few hours ago.
And I slept through it. But that does finally explain why I felt so unnerved the whole time this early morning while I struggled to get some sleep. I recall feeling like someone was breathing down my neck the whole time... feel anxious and threatened somehow. I recall feeling like I needed to protect someone from something that couldn't be perceived.

I think I drifted off to sleep around 2:45a.m., a few minutes before the earthquake actually struck.

Gladly, no one seems to have been hurt.

The Village
Finally got to see the new film by M. Night Shyamalan.

As before, the common scenarios are given an unconvential twist by the filmmaker as the concept of a small rural Village and its strange relationship with "the things that must not be spoken" is brought to life in the film.

Though at first I felt the film was a bit hard to relate with, with me being unfamiliar with the "Quaker-family" type of setting the movie was based on, the wonderful touches on love, on friendship, on devotion and on innocence were carefully woven into the story to create a strange, partly mythical and partly real feeling that I enjoyed immersing myself into.

Many found the unexpected revelations in the end uncomfortable, perhaps even feeling as if the dialogue sounded too unreal (I found it annoying at first, then comfortable soon enough once I realised the setting was rooting for a late 1800s feel) and the final truth unveiled being too... normal. I liked it though. I liked how it managed to tell a story that does make sense and has a depth unexpected in the suspense thriller genre.

M. Night Shyamalan is definitely a filmmaker I would love to work with some day.

Ratings:
Sixth Sense - 8/10
Unbreakable - 9/10
Signs - 8/10
The Village - 8/10

Happy Birthday, Mom!
My mom celebrated her birthday this 12th of September. As we always did, friends, siblings and other guests were snuck into the house to greet her at the turn of midnight. Being the usual guy awake at the house at the wee hours of a week end evening, I got the people into the kitchen, then headed to my parents' room to tell my dad everyone was in place.

Horrors! My Mom was actually the one still awake! Feigning I plugged the microwave in the wrong outlet, I got my mom riled enough to rush to the kitchen and shriek in surprise as the guests poured out and sang her a Happy Birthday!

Pictures to follow!
For now though, here's my mom:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!
I LOVE YOU!




On gaming,
Orpheus continues to Shades of Gray
With Sam and James moving the plot forward, the Orpheus game approaches the next major installment as the crucible discovers that the Spectres, the assault on the company as well as the mysterious Uriah Bishop may all be inter-connected into one major conspiracy that a government agency had spin into being.

Another Matrix-wannabe nWOD playtest
In hopes of getting more used to the new World of Darkness system, the there of us went for another playtest using the Heroic XP levels this time to represent Matrix charcters. This way, we were testing the ultimate limits of human potential in an attempt to get a feel whether the human limits could still achieve near-superhuman accomplishments. End result: a 'pseudo- 2nd Neo incarnation' where Niobe and a female Seraph attempt to get a more clueless Neo away from chasing Agents as they speed down a major freeway. We got car crashes. We got Niobe shooting a gun man from a helicopter descending low enough to shoot. We got Neo firing an SMG in hopes of blasting a helicopter off the air. We got motorcycle hijinks as Niobe steals Neo away from a police station. We got Neo actually hitting Agents with his pistols (whom I gave a Defense 8 regardless of whether the attack was a Brawl, Weaponry or Firearms move) And in the end, we got Seraph spinning the car to toss an Agent away. We got Seraph ramming against cars to escape a school bus teeming with Agents. And we got a failure ending as Neo and Morpheus find themselves the ground zero of a police helicopter that crashes itself upon them.

Man.. the system rocks though!
It really does!

I have no idea what to say
You were my best friend. Distance seemed to grow from the day you got married. Things got stranger still when you seemed to suddenly just disappear. And now, I finally can find the words to say about the news you gave me. You're leaving for the Middle East for work.

I wish you the best of luck.
I love you as a friend, as a brother, and as myself. May things go well for you there.

Last teaser of Siglo: Passion

Currently working on the lettering when I can. With work devouring my time like I do Reese chocolates, there's still so much to do. For example, this Wednesday night, I will most likely be stuck at work in the evening and due to a shoot on Thursday, might not be heading home til Friday morning (assuming I do not have things to accomplish during then.) Then next week, similar schedule between Tuesday and Thursday since editting has to be done then.

Argh.
At least I got my own place.
How many can claim that?

Mondays are not so bad
Still floaty over the free new World of Darkness book I got from my really good friends; Aldwin, James, Sam and Seth. The system is very... reminiscent to d20 in the sense that many of the stats and abilities are interconnected. The new Attributes seem very familiar to the approach DC HEROES had in the past. And the approach to Merits reminds me a lot of the Advantages (DC HEROES) and Feats (D20) both games had. Still, I liked the way Willpower works now and I really enjoy the concept they used for handling Vice and Virtue. The new Morality system seems a bit wonky (since the slide to degeneration seems to be standard for all now rather than more focused on an invidividual's beliefs). Combat works very very interestingly well for a one roll system, but I kinda miss the flexibility and freeformness the old system had. Where, for example, are the multiple action rules??!?!

Playtested it last weeked with Sam and Alvin and me playing " Matrix wanna-bes" storming into a hotel lobby at first facing four policemen then 8 Swat officers. We opted to create out characters as Niobe, Persephone and Seraph using standard character creation + 75 experience points (expert). And just to get a grasp of the game's grittiness, I ignored the mook rules and gave all policemen and Swat officers full healthlevels and skills to use.

We took down the 4 policemen within the first three rounds, blasting them down with guns (well actually, only I did the shooting. Persephone was too busy intimidating the other out of sheer looks while Seraph was realising martial arts moves are not that good against a cop with a shotgun), but when the SWAT came in, we only got to take down two before being forced to run away.

The game seems like an odd mix of half-realism half-dramatic license.
I guess it'll grow on to us soon enough. I used to feel bad about the non-changing difficulty 7 rules Trinity had but you don't see me complaining at all now with Exalted.

Again, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BOOKS!
(now am getting ideas of having an actual wishlist in my blog. Hehehe)

Silent Running: 'Black Triangle' Sightings on the Rise

Thu Sep 2, 4:30 PM ET

By Leonard David
Senior Space Writer
SPACE.com

They have become legendary in UFO circles. Huge, silent-running Flying Triangles have been seen by ground observers creeping through the sky low and slow near cities and quietly cruising over highways.

The National Institute for Discovery Science (NIDS), has catalogued the Triangle sightings, sifting through and combining databases to take a hard look at the mystery craft. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, NIDS is a privately funded science institute with a strong research focusing on aerial phenomena.The results of their study have just been released and lead to some unnerving, still puzzling conclusions.

The study points out: The United States is currently experiencing a wave of Flying Triangle sightings that may have intensified in the 1990s, especially towards the latter part of the 1990s. The wave continues. The Flying Triangles are being openly deployed over and near population centers, including in the vicinity of major Interstate Highways.

More on this at Yahoo! News

Okay, now I'm starting to hear the score of SIGNS in my head. Hoooboy...

Could Space Signal Be Alien Contact? - Magazine
LONDON (Reuters) - An unexplained radio signal from deep space could -- just might be -- contact from an alien civilisation, New Scientist magazine reported on Thursday.
The signal, coming from a point between the Pisces and Aries constellations, has been picked up three times by a telescope in Puerto Rico.
New Scientist said the signal could be generated by a previously unknown astronomical phenomenon or even be a by-product from the telescope itself.
But the mystery beam has excited astronomers across the world.
"If they can see it four, five or six times it really begins to get exciting," Jocelyn Bell Burnell of the University of Bath in western England told the magazine.

It was broadcast on the main frequency at which the universe's most common element, hydrogen, absorbs and emits energy, and which astronomers say is the most likely means by which aliens would advertise their presence.

The potentially extraterrestrial signals were picked up through the SETI+home project, which uses programs running as screensavers on millions of personal computers worldwide to sift through the huge amount of data picked up by the telescope.


09/02/04 08:07
© Copyright Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved. The information contained In this news report may not be published, broadcast or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Reuters Ltd.

Spooky and exciting! Here's hoping!

Quickie Fiction: Self Suicide
I'm committing Suicide tonight.

The world with all its imperfections, frustrations and wonderful surprises intended for everyone else can kiss my ass tonight. I'm tired of its repretitions and constant insecurities. I'm tired of struggling to move forward while everyone else swims back. I'm tired of rejection, of bias, of gender and financial status. I'm tired of laws, of habits, of the games we play when we date, and of horrible non-satisfying sex. I'm tired of protection, of remorse, of emotional scar tissue and chatting online. I'm tired of rising gas prices, dancing senators, traffic and pathetic local publications named after fruits to sound witty. I'm tired of cellular phones in movie theaters, movies in buses, buses in narrow roads and narrow roads in people's heads. I'm tired of the dogs in the street, the crap beneath your shoes, the footprints before my door and the lock between my lips. I'm tired of publicity, fabrication, hype and religion. I'm tired of rap and rock, of pop and opera, of jazz and all those stupid jingles that embrace memes to gain ratings. I'm tired of it all.

I'm committing Self Suicide tonight with my eight inch dildo as my bullet and my ninety-proof bottle of vodka as my lover. I'm killing myself before the light of the moon with my breasts as my witnesses. I'm slicing open my clothes while standing in the shower and letting the colors mix with the whites. I'm blowing my brains out with a fucking orgasm you'll never even taste in your life.

-------------------

Friday...
... ah yes. Heard my sister won some Honors today. She's made a full turn-about in school within the last few years. I recall how back then, I hated having to help her study. She had this particular habit you see, of manipulating people without realising it, to do her work for her. For example, the topic would be "Politics and Cellular phones, the new information road" and she'd ask me what to write about. I'd suggest, "Why not write about how the cellular phone was used to help the Edsa 2 thing happen?" She'd then ask how to start it... then ask what to write next... then ask.. you get the idea.

Now though, she makes me proud. She worked OTJ at McCann Erickson and I was impressed with the ideas she had planned to present them for work. She handles the Radio thingie at Assumption and has been making some waves contacting people and getting them to appear in the radio show. She's become a woman who can achieve what she wants.

Congratulations, Tracy.
Let's hope the world is kinder on you that it has been on me.

Teary-eyed at Work
...And no it ain't because of work. I think I just got a gift from really good friends.
Unless I understood their hints wrong. Aww.... damn it, I'm all teary-eyed here at work!

Okay, now I really wish I had more money

The new G5. Yes, the first thing people ask is, "Where's the computer?"
It is all in the monitor man. Whoa.... Hmm... malapit na pasko no?
Uh.. Mom... Dad.... I've been good!