Random Walk

Sugar crash

2009-04-01T23:27:00.000-07:00

Two weeks!

Pat and I are on Atkins. I've been avoiding sugar for two weeks now. Oh, and also rice, bread, potatoes, and other carbs. But really, I don't miss those starches as much as I miss delicious pastries and fruit shakes.

First, the downsides. It's significantly more expensive. I'm eating more meat, but also more greens, and both are expensive compared to rice. It's also seriously depressing to go cold turkey on sweets, since normally I'm sugared up to the gills.

On the plus side, in those two weeks I've lost ten pounds! Maybe more! Ironically, I've also been getting better nutrients, because of all the fish and greens that I've been having. So hey, things are looking good.

In the long run, I think it's unhealthy to keep a strict ketosis diet, so I'll probably return to a broader diet... but I'll still skip out on white rice, white flour, and white sugar.

Minis roundup #3: Heroscape

2009-03-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

Finally, Heroscape.

Heroscape is a game that brings minis into an entirely new dimension... literally. This is a great game, and I'll tell you why. First off, the most striking feature of Heroscape is that instead of a flimsy paper map or homemade cardboard terrain, Heroscape has plastic hex tiles that can stack and interlock to form complete 3D terrain. You can also have walls, rivers, glaciers, trees, roads, bridges, even a castle.

Apart from the scenery, though, is the game any good? Short answer, yes. Heroscape doesn't try for anything too fancy, and scores with its intuitive, straightforward rules that barely need to be taught. Unit stats and abilities are printed on cards. This is so much better than being on the figs (less worry about wear and tear) or in the rulebook (no need to look things up in an expensive, overwhelming codex). Having special cards allows each unit to have unique, explicit special abilities, spicing up the game experience while keeping the core rules simple.

The funny thing about Heroscape is that it's made by Hasbro and is supposed to be a mass market toy, meaning it's found in Toys R' Us, not in Neutral Grounds. Unfortunately, this wasn't really marketed in the Philippines, so most pepople here haven't even heard of it. And since it was released in 2004, this makes it pretty scarce. The Master Set (read: starter) is incredibly good value. The booster packs have roughly the same MSRP cost per fig compared to Clix and Dreamblade, but they're not random. If you just want orcs, go ahead and buy the box with orcs in it.

It's probably a little to early for me to say this for sure -- but I think that Heroscape is the best prepainted minis game around.

Minis roundup #2.5: Warmachine

2009-03-09T23:41:00.000-07:00

This one is a little different. I never got any Warmachine figures. Just a rulebook - a thick, hardbound, illustrated, full-color rulebook. It's definitely awesome, but to be honest, it cost more than I had spent on Heroclix.

Warmachine (as far as I can tell), plays great. The gameplay is pretty similar to Mageknight, but with more stats, more abilities, and more variety - Mageknight designed by serious gamers. Oh, there are some issues about how mechs drain resources too much compared to infantry, but that's something that has a lot of countermeasures.

Warmachine looks good too... but is where I have a problem. Warmachine comes from the grand old tradition of unpainted pewter minis. It comes as little metal bits that you have to assemble using glue, tiny drills and pins. Then you paint the little guy by hand -- primers, body and wash. And hey, that sounds like a fun hobby, but I don't think it's for someone who just wants to play a minis game.

The funny thing is, I casually suggested to a couple of Warmachine players that it would be nice if the game went prepainted, and they started ranting at me like I was a goat-horned heretic. I guess from their point of view, playing with pre-painted minis is like playing with a pre-constructed Magic deck - yeah you can do that, but then what's the point?

I printed out some chits to try the game out, and the truth is I really like it. But having to take up painting and modelling as one more hobby on top of gaming is a really big barrier to entry - a line I'm not willing to cross.

Minis roundup #2: Dreamblade

2009-03-06T04:50:00.000-08:00

I got into Dreamblade almost a year ago, but I don't think I've ever written about it. Which is a shame, because it's flat out amazing.

Dreamblade is a really really good game. It's a mix of Ameritrash and Euro-style elements... and it works. There's combat with a ton of dice rolls, like a minis game, or Descent. The movement is strategic, somewhat like a light abstract (like checkers or chess). The victory point scoring is straight out of a Eurogame. What's impressive is that it all hangs together -- forming a coherent, fun game with the best of everything. The variety of figures is pretty impressive, even with just the base set, and the four factions differentiate themselves well.

Unfortunately for Dreamblade, it was packaged as a collectible game with a horrible theme (nightmare monsters, wtf). They're well designed, well sculpted, and well painted, but at the end of the day who's going to make an effort to collect an army of two-headed gorillas? It would really have helped if it were packaged as a boardgame with all the bits in one box. Yes, I know I say that about everything but in this case it's exceptionally true. Unappealing figures and a high barrier to entry killed this game.
So how do you get into a dead collectible game? In this case, I got a few starters when they were on sale, shopped for some singles on local forums. Last month I finally finished my goal of getting two of each common and one of each uncommon in the base set. Fortunately, the way the numbers work out it's easy to put together straight up preconstructed faction armies (ie. One of each blue and red common VS two of each green common). Treating it as an out-of-print boardgame instead of a dead CMG makes it much more appealing to play.

Overall, I really like it. I should bring it out whenever there's an opportunity for a two player game.

Minis roundup #1: Heroclix

2009-03-04T14:26:00.000-08:00

I still have an unhealthy fixation on plastic manz, so I ended up getting a couple of minis games last month (and also this month). This could be kind of long, so I'll break it down into bite sized parts.

I found some Heroclix: Batman Alpha boosters on sale at Neutral Grounds, just 150php (normally around 450php). It seemed like an ideal way to start a heroclix collection, so I grabbed a booster (or ten). Now, thing about the Batman Alpha set is that it's geared towards starting players. The character selection here is good: It's just a small set, and the characters are all fairly popular. Opening a booster, I do feel fairly happy unless I get mostly duplicates. And hey, it's Batman! Who doesn't like the motherfucking Batman? Admittedly, I wouldn't have done this at full MSRP, but it's fun to open boosters when it's on sale. On the downside, the figs are mostly mediocre - bland sculpts and thick painting. I'm sick of playing on flimsy paper maps. Also, the idea of having clix bases is interesting, but ultimately I think it's better to just have stat cards and statless figures.

As far as the game goes: Heroclix Alpha comes with dumbed down starter rules that are okay, but have a much shallower gameplay. It does offer a more interesting win condition: Kill 5 units, and everyone respawns when killed. Compared to "kill everything", this makes it easier for a player to catch up, and more attractive for multiplayer. The full rules are a mixed bag; the core gameplay is good, but you can see that grime and clutter has been added to it over the years. (this is not really relevant to the material in the Alpha sets, though).

Overall, I'm happy with what I got. Hey it was cheap! I wouldn't really bother to get more though, and I definitely wouldn't even try to get into it competitively. So... is anyone interested in picking up my duplicates?

Castle Builder

2009-02-25T03:06:00.000-08:00

We got some more toys and games a couple of weeks ago. I'll skip posting an inventory for now, but let me tell you about the first thing I opened: Dominion.

Dominion counts as a boardgame, but it's really just 500 cards in a nice box. Unlike a CCG, people don't bring their own decks; instead, everyone plays from one common pool of cards. Building your deck *is* the game. The person who can build a deck with the most victory points in it wins, but to do this first you need Gold (for buying things) and various actions (to speed up your deck in various ways).

Dominion is good stuff! The basic rules are easy to learn and the game is easy to play, but there is a great depth of strategy in evaluating cards and choosing what combination to put in your deck. There's a constant impetuous to make you build just a leetle bit better game after game -- the very same thing which kept me interested in CCGs for years (Although without the corresponding need to burn cash).

Dominion tayo!

Toy Soldiers

2009-01-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

2009: For the past month, I've been jonesing for a miniature wargame. Minis are relatively expensive, but they count as both a toy and a game, so it's like, double good. For all its flaws, I loved Mageknight, and I wanted to find something that would scratch the same itch.

I was well primed, then, when Mage Knight: Destiny's Soldier caught my eye. I'd passed over it before, due to it getting tepid ratings. To be fair, the biggest complaint seemed to be that the poor tutorial made for a steep learning curve - but I already know how to play. So, I gave it a go.

It's pretty good! The action and fatigue system is relatively unique to Mageknight, and is a good change of pace from the usual j-S-RPG. The old complaints about melee have been heard - apparently MK2.0 introduced a couple of univeral melee abilities that give more balance. Time limits and special scenarios keep the game fast and fresh. On the other hand, the graphics are a little old, and there's no multiplayer. The stylus controls are intuitve, but spottily programmed. My biggest problem though, is that these little plastic men are, in the end, just virtual - it doesn't count as a toy.

It's good nostalgia. I'd put hours and hours into Mageknight... if Tesla didn't keep grabbing the DS to play this:

How I met my minis

2009-01-27T21:05:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about Mageknight.

It was 2002. Pat and I decided to get into Mageknight. Back in those days, XP still was more of a hobby shop than a PC cafe. Greenhills had not yet been razed, and there were still hobby stores on the fourth floor for card and plastic freaks. Me, Pat and my brother would go to Arena and stare for hours at the shelves full of little plastic minatures. At first, our priority was just to get a playable army as cheaply as possible, so we happily bought anything that was cheaper than 2 pesos per point. This is pretty much the same as deciding to buy cheap Magic cards with high casting costs. It gave the result you would expect: armies full of bad, overcosted figures. But back then, it didn't matter so much to us, as long as we got to play. Most of the time we would just hang out at UP. Between my Quantum Physics and her Instrumentation classes, we'd go behind the CS library for privacy and pit Troll agains Werewolf, Tree Elemental against Steam Golem.

After a while, we did end up playing competitively. I'd spend a lot of my online time on the old MKRealms forums, buying cheap singles. We bought Dragons and Giants. Played 2000 point armies. Pat actually paid for and managed her own collection, playing in tournaments with more cutthroat armies than I did.

Unfortunately, the problem with Mageknight were obvious even then. Ranged units were priced only slightly higher than melee units, even if in practice, the melee units would get shredded before they ever got close. Turtling was superior strategy; it was not uncommon in tournament games for time to be called without a single attack. Internal playtesting was a joke. It seems that Wizkid's solution to the dominance of long range was to make even longer ranges. Bigger, and bigger, and bigger.

It all came to a head when they released a new base set, named simply Mage Knight, known colloquially as 2.0. We were given a choice: Play a better game, but know that all of your old figures are obsolete, dead plastic. Or, quit, take your figures home, and never buy new product again.

We quit.

Racial Tensions

2009-01-22T18:39:00.000-08:00

[Magic]

I really like Tribal. I like the synergy and combat, much much more than 5-color goodstuff decks (hence my antipathy towards Alara block as a whole). It wouldn't be a stretch to say that one year after, Lorwyn is my favorite Magic block - the organic evaluations in limited, the tribes of constructed, the semi-classical setting.

Over the holidays, I made decks for the eight races of Lorwyn block. The goal was not to make finely tuned winning machines, but to make decks that were fun and balanced to play against each other - good fillers for boardgame night.

Last week, I got to try them out with Cels, Jem and Pat. I'm happy that everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, even if the decks needed more tuning - although part of that is because two headed giant plays pretty differently from 1v1. (As an aside: Pat loves 2HG)

Let's Magic!

The Pit

2009-01-20T22:58:00.000-08:00

It's easy to order things online.

Too easy.

Shit like that is why I don't want to have a credit card, really.

Never gets old

2008-12-31T21:05:00.000-08:00

I love the mountains,
I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges
I love when great whites fly
I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world
And all its craziness
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids
I love the whole world
It's such a brilliant place
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da
Boom-de-ah-da, boom-de-ah-da

2008 - In Review

2008-12-28T10:25:00.000-08:00

What did 2008 bring for me? Well, a lot, I guess. This post turned out to be longer than I thought it would be. To be honest, half this stuff I've already mentioned here over the course of the year. However, like a low-budget sitcom episode where you have flashbacks from previous episodes, I will dare to repeat myself: I feel that putting everything together in one post will put things in perspective.

WoW
December 2007, I started playing WoW with Pat. I continued to play for the first several months of 2008, grinding my shaman Foluzar up to the mid-60s. My interest petered out at that point, and I stopped playing WoW for a while.

Harvest
I was also the OM IT Row Leader for Japan Harvest. In truth, half the time I had no idea what I was doing, and I spent a lot of extra time running around just to make sure things went right on the project. Harvest finished with an excellent cutover though, so in the end I can say that I picked up a lot of good experience from this.

Singapore
One particular high note in the Harvest was spending a month working in Singapore. At first I was hesitant, because it meant the uncertainty of travelling alone and the sadness of leaving Tesla and Pat behind. It worked out great though, particularly with HP paying for the trip. I didn't get to save any of the pocket money, but I got a lot of books, comics and food out of it.

Obama
One of the things that took up a lot of my mindspace was Obama's election. I read Dreams from my Father a couple of years ago, and felt a connection. I watched Obama as he struggled through the primaries and the general, savored each victory and raged at each loss. Obama made me believe the crazy idea that maybe there are a handful of people out there who are genuinely interested in making this thing work. I despair at the thought of trying to find honest men in the fetid swamp of Philippine politics, but for Hope, I'll give it a shot.

Loss
Speaking of filth, my wallet was stolen this year, at the Luzon bus stop/overpass. Huuuge loss. Ironically, I went home early that day because I was feeling sick; now I actually feel safer commuting late at night.

Boardgames
On the lighter side, 2008 also brought Boardgames. Celsus already had a huge bunch of Settlers of Catan, but finding Gamecrab introduced us to a plethora of board games, most of them good. Puerto Rico was the runaway hit from our first play (although the lack of random/expandable elements stops it from being highly replayable). From Po's shipment, I got a bunch of other games too. Carcassone is pretty, simple, and easy to get into, while having it's own subtle grace. Blue Moon City was enjoyable the first few times I played it, but unfortunately I never got around to playing with my copy yet! San Juan has a superficial resemblance to Puerto Rico, but is a good game in it's own right; unfortunately it's overshaowed at the office by the very similar Race for the Galaxy. I really wanted to buy Descent, but the NG price increase stopped me. In the end, I'm glad Arnold bought it, because it's much more suited to the Ameritrash crowd at work - Descent really has issues with downtime and game length. I'm looking forward to 2009 and the new games that it will bring in.

Essential X-Men
I've always loved the X-Men, and when I saw these books in Singapore, I had to have them (I was flush with my per diem, after all). They're just in black and white, but this is truly the good stuff.

TF Animated
Transformers Animated was released this year, meaning a new show and a new line of toys. The cartoon is pretty decent, although around half the episodes are fluffy filler. The toys had the same clean, stylized look of the show, directly contrasting with the fiddly look from the movie. The style makes it doubly wonderous that they transform so well. I bought a bunch of these, and they're just great. I should take some pics.

Busou Shinki
A cute little toyline that's fun to play around with and display. Well, I guess it's not a time sink, really, but I spend a solid chunk of cash on this, so in the list it goes.

LEGO
One of my bigger hobbies this year, I actually started on Lego because Pat asked me to look into it. Good thing, too: this means Pat pays for half the stuff, which is a rare bonus. A thoroughly enjoyable toy experience, in a year that I got with a lot of toys. Only downside is, the price difference between the US SRP and the local prices are so huge, we ended up ordering a lot online - an activity whose timing disrupts my spending patterns.

Ikariam
This browser based game takes just a few clicks at the start and end of each day, but still it's pretty engaging. Honestly, I can't believe I'm still playing this. It must be that good.

Other Games
The DS is still going strong, although I tend to play 10 minuite games now (like Layton, N+ and Ninjatown), instead of playing RPGs (I am sure I blame WoW for this). As for card games, well, nobody plays the WoW TCG anymore, and while Magic started strong with Morningtide, I stopped being interested after that. Considering that the office is a full proxy environment, that's a bad sign.

WoW: WotLK
Did I already mention WoW? Well, I'm going to mention it again, because when Wrath of the Lich King released this November, everyone scrambled to upgrade... myself included. With a brand new Death Knight on a new server (Dark Iron), I might actually hit cap this time.

Onwards!

King's Castle Siege

2008-11-30T03:49:00.000-08:00

King's Castle Siege is the largest set in Lego's current Castle lineup, with 973 bricks, divided into 7 parts. We got this off Amazon for 100 USD.

The first part is just the minifigs. There are 6 human and 4 skeleton minifigs, and a horse and dragon. Three of the skeletons aren't minifigs in the traditional sense; they're just made of specialized bricks. The humans all have unique faces, and there's more than enough weapons for everone, not even counting the extra weapons found in the actual castle.

The dragon is pretty huge, a lot bigger than it looked on the box. It's built from several large parts, which gives it a decent amount of articulation, with some particularly good range on the head and neck. There's four studs on the back for a minifig to ride, and there is in fact some construction used to attack the wings, but it would be a stretch to call this brick built. The result is a bit duplo-ish, but overall it does look quite good.

The second section is the front gate. There's some playable features here: a drawbridge that you can lift using a lever and chains, and a portcullis that you can drop by pulling out its support. Note also the technic pins and holes at the bottom; this is how each part of the modular design attaches to each other.

The third section is a pair of towers. There's some nice detailing here: small catapults, flags, shields, torches. There's space for minifigs on top of the tower, and also inside the tower, perhaps to shoot out throught the arrow-slits.

The fourth section is a simple wall. There's a large catapult on a rotating platform, and a weapons rack with two swords and a spear, in case those minifigs want extra weapons.

The fifth section is a wall and tower. Another play feature here: part of the wall can be pushed in. You can also see that the top floor has a small jail cell.

The sixth and seventh sections are the rear gate and the king's tower, respectively. The rear gate has a neat double door, but is otherwise unspectacular. The king's tower has a lot of shiny parts, a golden sword, treasure chest, and throne. It even has a sniper's post up on top! It is pretty airy though, being supported by arches instead of walls.

Overall, it's a pretty nice set. It's mostly built with regular bricks, so it's easy to modify if you have extra parts (explaining why some people end up buying multiples of the set). And I'd say it's justified! If you're just going to get just one Castle set, it had better be this one.

Manila Papers

2008-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

We went to Komikon 4 this weekend, at Bahay ng Alumni. Going in, I made it a point to really set aside a budget for this; still, it's a little hard to take a plunge on the very indie ones. I did end up spending a lot of money though, and I guess that makes this a success for me!

One highlight would be Zsa zsa Zaturnnah, with a personalized autograph for just 200 php.

Another good one is Elmer, which is a well written SF story about chickens gaining intelligence en masse.

Haven't gone through the rest yet. I'll get back if anything is particularly good.

Kool Aid

2008-11-16T03:51:00.000-08:00

For the past few months, I've been following the American presidential elections. This is going to sound odd, but I got my news mostly from the Penny-Arcade forums. They're surprisingly good at aggregating all sorts of news and analysis.

I'll pass on talking about the politics, but I have to admit that I became addicted to Obama's message of change. Some have called Obama messianic, and it's true! Listening to him talk about making things better, hearing it echo in the Penny-Arcade community, I caught a glimpse of faith and hope.

Is it okay to believe?

Haul

2008-11-06T02:47:00.000-08:00

A huge box of Lego arrived today! I bought it online, then had it shipped through my aunt in California. Alright! Now, let me revel in my indulgence...

King's Castle Seige ($100) - Notice how this box is opened and kinda bent? That's because it wouldn't fit in the balikbayan box, so my aunt had to set loose the contents and fold this box.

Skeleton Castle ($50) - A counterpoint for the King's Castle.

Exo-force Golden Tower ($32) - From their anime-style line, I had to get this one because it has a character named Hitomi that dual wields a pair of golden katana.

Exo-force Assault Tiger and Chameleon Hunter ($15 each) - Who doesn't like mecha? ...Well, a bunch of people apparently, since this line will be gone next year. Actually, I just hope they replace it with a better space/mecha line in the future.

Star Wars X-Wing ($50) - Iconic Vehicle, most of the main characters from the original trilogy... nice set. It's noticably smaller than the other $50 sets, though... you pay dearly for that Star Wars lisence.

Star Wars Imperial Dropship ($10 each) - Basically, this is for building an army of stormtroopers. Let me tell you how overpriced LEGO is in the Philippines: This is sold at a local SRP of 1,500php... and it gets sold out.

Cargo Copter ($20) - From the Creator line, another multi-builder for Pat to play with. It has a motorized winch!

Duplo 15"x15" Baseplate ($15) - Something for Tesla! It's a good focus for her playing with her regular bricks. Also we got two Lego 10"x10" green baseplates for $5 each, but I seem to have misplaced the pic.

Doctor and Patient ($3) - A couple, for populating Pat's Creator house. We're not really interested in the City line, so we just got minifigs.

Brick Separators ($1.6 each) - A pair of newfangled devices for separating those tricky bricks. I'll tell you how that works out.

Mercedes Lackey Books ($24 for the 4) - One of Pat's favorite authors. May contain gay.

Wayne Barlowe Artbooks ($35) - Hellish illustrations from Dante's Inferno, by Wayne Barlowe. For Ruben.

Total damage: Including a balikbayan box cost of $40, some additional US taxes and shipping, and it adds up to 22k php. Whoa, indeed! Note that we would have paid almost twice as much for the Lego, had we bought it locally... No regrets! ^_^

Busou Shinki: Tigris and Vitulus

2008-11-03T04:17:00.000-08:00

I got a pair of Busou Shinki last month! I bought it from a specialty store in Greenhills that does Japanese imports. These two were bundled together since their equipment combine.

First up is Tigris. Her primary armor configuration is basically to have most of her stuff attached to her back as a large jetpack, while she carries a huge sword up front. I suppose the idea is that she charges forward like a powered-up lancer. It looks bad-ass and all, but I'm kinda disappointed in this mode because the backpack design is kinda simple.

In contrast, this second mode has an extreme amount of part-swapping. Tigris swaps her legs for the large jets that formed her backpack, and swaps her arms for the claw and plating parts. It's lighter and uses less parts, but I feel it's more interesting in terms of showing off the design space of the toyline.

Here we have Vitulus, designed to provide long-range cover fire. You can see here that she has a lot of big guns. In her primary mode she's riding a small, well-armed hoverpod. All in all, a relatively interesting mode.

Vitulus can also just ride the large gun separately. It's okay for what it is, but this mode blurs the line from armor to vehicle, to "part of a fortress playset".

As I mentioned, these two are a pair since the armor parts join together. In this case, it forms some sort of hoverbike vehicle. The idea is nice on paper but the parts feel a bit as if they were just mashed together.

A large mecha mode! It's somewhat oddly proportioned, but it's okay -- just okay.

Overall, I like Tigris and Vitulus. There's a lot of different modes, a lot stuff to do. True, some of the modes can be funny looking, but the variety makes up for it. Busou Shinki have a lot of small parts, so you can't absently manhandle them like you would a Transformer; you have to be careful and give attention to your Shinki. On the upside, they look really good on a shelf. I'll be getting more of these.

Armed God Princess

2008-11-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

Busou Shinki is a videogame/toyline from Konami. The gimmick of the line is that when you buy a toy, you get the corresponding character and equipment for the videogame.

The game is a turn-based fighting game with MMO elements such as leveling, equipment, and online play. I guess it's like Pokemon? Depending on how much you get to talk to your Shinki, it might also be part date-sim. There's also a mode called Diorama Studio, where you can pose your characters in various settings. Unfortunately, the game is hardcore Japanese so I doubt I'll be playing it.

The figures are very well articulated, relatively stable, and fun to pose. Unfortunately there's a lot of visible joints, pins and screws; it's forgivable though, as they sort of blend in with the designs of the characters. Each figure also comes with an array of equipment, the desgins of which vary widely across each character.

Donut Break

2008-10-31T04:08:00.000-07:00

Decided to try one of the chocolate flavors from Mister Donut. Ugh. Big mistake. It tasted like chocolate colored bread. Good thing I only got a single; I was a hair's breadth away from buying an 8-pack.

Go-nuts donuts is getting kinda disappointing too. Over the past year, I've seen them fare pretty badly against Krispy Kreme. They went low... way too low. They somehow managed to raise prices, drop quality, and dilute their menu with frivolities. Poor Go-nuts!

Unfortunately, this leaves Krispy Kreme as the last donut shop standing. Unfortunate because they're the most expensive; unfortunate because Go-nuts was a lot cheaper than them, with almost the same quality. That was a year ago though; today I welcome our new overlords.

Beach House - part three

2008-10-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. This is the third and last official mode of the set.

It's a nice, two story american-style house. In terms of overall appearance, it's the least imposing of the three builds, but I find it very charming.

The rear roof opens up to show the interior. You can see that the second floor is pretty small... I can't say that it's minifig scale anymore.

Unlike the first mode, you can't take off the top floor. If you peer in through the roof, you can see some sort of oven and a coffee machine! Nice accessorizing, too bad you can't see it so easily. I like this mode the best despite it's flaws.

Overall, this set is pretty good. No minifigs, but you can easily get those elsewhere. Like the other sets of the Creator line, it's best for those who'd want to build and rebuild their Lego.

Beach House - part two

2008-10-14T05:25:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. As I mentioned previously, there are three ways to build this set. Here's the second way: a high-rise apartment. It's three stories high, but kinda narrow. There's a lot of dead space on the baseplate (and a lot of extra pieces leftover after building as well).

It's in Lego "scale". A minifig can just fit on the balconly, but if I were him I'd feel bad living in such a cramped apartment.
There's some sort of picnic table outside, but it still seems anemic compared to the stuff in the first mode.
In this mode, the back is open. I hear this is standard in most lego play-houses.

It has some decent furniture, (more than the first mode, at least). There's some brick built sofas and chairs, an office set, and a mailbox.

It's interesting just because it's a pretty tall set, but I'd say it's overall less interesting than the first mode. Stay tuned for the last mode.

Beach House - part one

2008-10-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 4996: Beach House from the Creator line. Pat got this a couple of weeks ago, just because she really likes houses. We got it for at Rustan's Shang, for 3000php, although online the MSRP at shop.lego is $30.

Since it's a Creator set, there are three different ways to build this set... this euro-style house is just the first mode.

I put in a minifig just to have a focus, although it's not part of the set. The house seems just a little small for him.

This set is pretty well accessorized, with doors, windows, flowers and all that.

You can remove the entire 2nd floor easily to play with the first floor. Nice stairs and fireplace, but no furniture.

The second floor skylight opens up too, if you want to put your guys there.

Not a lot to see inside though, compared to the detailing on the outside.

The yard has some more nice stuff for minifigs to interact with. Odd that they didn't put one in the set.

All in all it's a very nice set. And it's just the first mode! Stay tuned for the other two.

Carrier has arrived

2008-10-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

My long-awaited shipment of boardgames have arrived! Yay! I really have to thank Po and his cousin for facilitating this.

I got Carcassone, Blue Moon City, and San Juan since these all seem like games that are enjoyable with two players, but can also accomodate more. The shipment also had Puerto Rico and Settlers of Catan for Ed, Puerto Rico, Power Grid, and Blue Moon City for Arnold, and Puerto Rico for Ruben. The guys at work are already getting significant play out of Arnold's Blue Moon City... man, I need to find time to play with these.

Thunder Fury

2008-10-03T08:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a photo review of LEGO set 7702: Thunder Fury, from the Exo-Force line. Got this at the mid-year sale for 600 php.

The set is 197 pieces, fully disassembled. The sword stands out as too large and un-Lego-like, but the others are standard parts.

These connectors form the joints in this set...

They form a ratcheting hinge and swivel that gives really good articulation.

Stick a few together, add more pieces for armor, and you have a nice robot leg capable of good poses.

The body is formed by a mess of bricks and technic pins. Note the light brick in the middle, with a battery, LED, and attached optical cable.

The arm-cannon is brick-built (unlike the sword).

Put it all together and you get Thunder Fury! It's pretty good!

Say hello to my little friend!

The mid-year sale

2008-09-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

Just a week after Pat's birthday, Landes held their mid-year LEGO sale. We went to Libis to look for their warehouse/office, tucked away somewhere in Bagumbayan. Going in, my expectation was that maybe we could get a small discount on the stuff that was available in the malls.

It was... not what we were expecting. The selection was kinda small. They didn't have any Creator or Castle sets available; too bad, since that was what Pat was really looking for. On the other hand, the discounts were huge. The stuff on sale was at around 40% to 60% off.

We got a largish box of plain bricks for Pat and a Duplo set for Tesla. We were almost ready to pay when the salesman talked us into looking at their Exo-force boxes (which apparently they had a surplus on). I'm glad we did! Exo-force is Lego's anime/mecha line, and at first glance it just looks like a random robot toy. I can confirm the Lego heritage though; see the mech in the above pic? It's built from 177 pieces. It has pretty good articulation too, using some interesting Lego joints. I'll be the first to admit it's an impulse buy, but man, color me impressed.

Impressed enough to come back on the second day with more money, and get another box of exo-force! These things are really nice, and 60% off didn't hurt either. I'd like to get back with a more in depth photo review, if I can make an opportunity to take pics.

Beware of geeks bearing gifts

2008-09-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

I got Pat a bunch of LEGO sets for her birthday. Decided to start her off with relatively small stuff. You know how usually you think of LEGO as coming in ginormous boxes that cost a ton? Well okay, actually that's still true. However, I made the amazing discovery that LEGO is actually pretty fairly priced when you look at the medium sets. I was able to get Pat two decently sized boxes, when I thought that I would only be able to afford one.

The first set I bought was 4939: Cool Cars. It has a lot of parts, 206 in all. Since this is Creator, the parts are very generic; you can use all of the parts in entirely different designs, not just the 3 given on the box. The parts are pretty small, there are a lot of 1x1 and 1x2 tiles. There are very few actual bricks; it's mostly planks, with slopes, smoothers, some grilles, hinges and a windshield for effect.

The finished models are all pretty cool, if you don't mind the fact that they're proud to have studs visible all over the body. I really appreciate the instructions for three builds; I wouldn't say the desgins are amazing, but they're still a lot more creative then I would be able to come up with myself. The only drawback is really that it can't fit minifigs; this won't matter if this is your only set, but if you have a lot of minifigs you might feel that the given designs are out of place. All in all, it's a lot of product for just under 1k Php, so it's a pretty good starter for a grown-up.

The other set I got for Pat was 7040: Dwarven Mine Defender. This is from the Castle line, which means minifigs ahoy! Included are two Orc and one Dwarf minifig; they look pretty neat, with printed torsos and textured helmets. Also included is one orcish sword and a bulky orc banner. The minifigs are great fun, but you do pay for them; the siege machine is kinda small and straightforward to build.

There's only 86 parts, and that counts the minifig components. On the other hand, the parts are a lot bigger, so there's more mass per brick (when compared to Creator sets). Some of the parts are also kinda specialized; there's a one-piece catapult and scoop, and the spinning circular siege blades are pretty much always going to be circular blades. Overall, this set is fun, but at the same price as 4939, it's not so great on value. In hindsight, I would have saved up for a bigger Castle set.

Pet Fish

2008-09-05T07:36:00.000-07:00

Last month, I started playing a massively multiplayer online game. No, I'm not talking about WoW. I'm talking about Ikariam, which is a free browser game.

I've heard it compared to Utopia, or (offline) Civ or Sim City. I wouldn't really know, since I didn't play any of those. Ikariam is, to wit: a city-building resource management game, with some pretense at having some combat. It's technically real time, but most people wouldn't recognize it as such since it's so slooow in execution.

In any case, Ikariam is pretty fun for what it is. Making your town expand is reasonably fun, and it has a better interface than I expected. The real failing is that military adventures are pretty useless. On one hand, this is a good thing in an introductory mmo-town game, since I was able to learn comfortably, at my own pace. On the other hand, it might as well be a single player game. I guess some people like that though! Overall, it can be a bit boring, but still less boring than work so that's alright.

Just last week, I joined Travian (speed server), which is pretty much like Ikariam. However, I was promised faster gameplay and more combat. Well... it delivers!

The gameplay is fast, particularly on the first day. You have to note that after a month of Ikariam, you're kind of used to playing for 10 minuites, twice a day. In contrast, the first three hours of Travian are continuous. This is (probably) not something you want do at work.

Combat is also relatively prominent. Attacks come in often, and it can be discouraging to see three hours worth of production taken away by a handful of units. On the other hand, there are ways to just turtle in and weather attacks (Cranny rulez!). This is made more interesting by the fact that there are three races to choose from (Romans, Gauls, and Teutons), and each has their own relatively unique tech tree. Of course, at this point I'm not really qualified to comment on combat since I'm just starting to build my own army. Overall, I'm enjoying this.

LEGO - a wide angle view

2008-09-01T23:25:00.000-07:00

Pat had been talking about how much she would enjoy playing with Lego since we got Tesla a Baby Zoo Duplo set. I'm not entirely sure if it's something she would have gone through with on her own, but I took it as a cue to do some research into the scene.

There aren't any local hobby shops that specialize in importing Lego; I'd have to look at the regular mall toy stores, like Rustan's, Hobbes and Landes, or Toys R Us. Sad to say, local SRP seems to convert the official prices at around 1 USD = 100 PHP. But hey, shipping and shopkeeping costs money, and it's still better than importing it myself.

Taking a look at what's available, I noticed that Lego seems to be divided into several different lines. The most classic line would be Creator: it uses very generic parts, has instructions for 3 different builds per set, but it doesn't worry about scale or minifigs. I'd say it's aimed at adult builders who want to make their own creations. Probably best for Pat.

On the other extreme is Bionicle; it's still built from small parts, but it has almost no brick pieces. Instead it uses mostly specialized parts, joints, bars and axles from Technic. Put together, they look like action figures, not like Lego at all. I expect that the target audience here would be young boys interested in posable fighters.

In the middle are a huge number of minifig-scale lines. Castle, Space, City, and also similar licensed lines like Batman and Starwars. These lines are all heavily themed; there are many pieces that are specialized for use in a specific setting. The downside to this is that there's less versatility for customization, and the building experience is a little duller. The upside to all of this is that the finished products look pretty good, with detailed sculpting and prints. These themes are aimed at collectors (like me!) that want to have something that's not too hard to build, while being fun to play with and display. As a bonus, there are minifigs everywhere, and let me tell you: collectors love to army-build minifigs.

Flashback: Gamecrab weekends

2008-08-31T04:12:00.000-07:00

June, 2008:

I saw Gamecrab's site while reading a local gaming forum, and I convinced Pat to check it out one sunday afternoon. It's a boardgame cafe! That means that it's a place where you can come in, sit down, and rent a boardgame for 40 Php/hour. Part of the service is having a GM give you a quick run through of the game rules.

They have a reasonably large number of games: Elegant Eurogames like Carcassone, Blue Moon, and Puerto Rico, Light party games like Taboo and Apples to Apples, and complicated Ameritrash like Betrayal at the House on the Hill, Descent, and WoW. Oh, and Monopoly too, I guess.

A couple of free game days later, I was able to convince a bunch of people from the Mafiagang to play there too. It's pretty fun to try out all the games, though it can get expensive over time. Fun enough to start buying our own boardgames, at least... but that's another story.

Fresh

2008-08-31T04:02:00.001-07:00

So. The Mafiagang mailing list turned a year old last month, and still going strong. I've been ignoring my blog(s) for more than half a year. And really, I have to admit that the two statements are kinda connected. That, and I just finished the hectic P&G project that I've been working on since december. Feels good, really!

I guess I don't like the blog model of information sharing. I'm much more into the forum/mailing list thing. More robust discussion instead of just comments, better topic structure, everything goes into just one place (instead of a separate page for every writer). Yeah, I know what google reader is. It's an admission that blogs are structually unsound.

*ahem*

Anyway, I'm not writing to be negative, or even to recruit for Mafiagang (although new members are always welcome :D). It's because there's a lot of stuff I'd like to record for posterity. Not in the sense that it's something I need to share with others, but because it would be nice to have some stuff that I can look at with a smile, one or two years down the line. Kinda like a journal. Hm, that's probably a better way to look at it.

This is not a good post. I don't have a subject, I'm rambling aimlessly and I don't even have any pictures. But it signifies an intent to start posting again, so there we go.

...is paper thin

2008-03-26T05:32:00.000-07:00

I really like the X-Men.

When I was a kid, around grade 4, my aunt gave me a subscription to The New Mutants. It got me into comics, and my interest intensified when I was able to borrow old issues of the X-Men from a cousin's friend. Of course, the problem with monthly comics is that the quality of the authors vary greatly over time. During the comics bubble of the nineties, I ended up collecting 5 X-titles per month. Eventually I guess I realized that the quality had become poor, and I stopped collecting entirely.

Fast Forward. I spent my weekends in Singapore browsing through the large selection of books at Kinokuniya. I discovered the Essential X-Men, classic issues reprinted phone-book style, thick, cheap, and black and white. Kinda like manga! Essential is a misnomer; each book reprints a solid run of issues, around 25 issues worth. Comprehensive would have been a better fit. Suits me fine, since I don't want to miss out on even the filler issues.

Fast forward again. In just a few weeks, I've gotten volumes 2-6. I'd get the rest too, but of course (state of comic book stores as they are) finding the more recent volumes is difficult, and finding the first nearly impossible.

As for the content, it's good stuff! I mean, really, when you track down your childhood favorites, you're supposed to realize that they sucked and you just didn't know (like, say the old Transformers cartoons). But instead, reading this makes me realize how much I loved comics.

Essential X-Men starts off by reprinting the introduction of the "new" team of Wolverine, Cyclops, Storm, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. And then you move on to Vol.2 with the Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past, two of the most definitive X-Men stories evar! No, seriously, it's good stuff.

Unfortunately, the curse of mainstream comics eventually takes its toll on the X-Men. Spin-offs and cross-overs plague the books by volume 5, and you can see Chris Claremont's amazing run begin to spiral down into madness.

In the end, it reminds me of why I hate comics too. Marvel needs to have famous characters to trademark and exploit, and good storytelling seems to take a backseat to simply churning out issues. Guys. Sometimes less is more.

3030 words

2008-03-11T07:03:00.000-07:00

Hangin' out with the Merlion on the eve of the Chinese New Year.

McSpicy, my staple food in Singapore.

At work with the Order Management business users, Hikita-san and Konishi-san

Singapore: First Impressions

2008-02-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

Singapore seems like a nice place. Richer, more opulent. They have a bunch of trees everywhere. It helps make the place look good.

It's more expensive too, though. Zinger meal at KFC is 6.2 sd. (30 php/sd). +50 cents to have iced tea instead of softdrinks. It's a little different: no fries, instead you just have a small coleslaw and a small mashed potato. The zinger and coleslaw taste the same, but the mashed potato is more.. buttery. Maybe it's because they dump gravy on top of it before they serve it.

KFC serves lipton tea with a lemon wedge; it's a lot sweeter than I remember it to be. You'd be surprised; they don't seem to serve rice at KFC. Their 3pc chicken meal is also served with coleslaw and mashed potatoes. Which is weird, because you'd think that Singapore is asian enough to be a rice eating place, right? But actually it seems that it's a bit harder to get rice, and a lot easier to get noodles and dimsum.

Now I guess that is asian.

I see a lot of vending machines! More than in the philippines, anyway. Maybe it's because I work at the technopark at Alexandra road. I'm having a lot of fun dumping coins into the machine that serves cold tea (in cans). There's a great variety of tea drinks here, and I'm not just talking about apple vs lemon. I've had wintermelon tea, ginger-chrysanthemum tea, and white grape tea with aloe bits (I think it's natta, actually). 0.80c per can from the machine at our pantry, or 1.70 at the 7-11 or at a foodcourt.

It's actually a bit odd to think of cents as having value. The convenience of the peso is that you almost never care about fractional units. Half a singapore dollar can still get you some small snack. All these coins can add up. Three small one dollar coins is already equivalent to a hundred pesos. Things can get expensive if you don't learn to keep that in mind.

***

I am arriving at work a lot earlier than I did in the Philippines! I am also sleeping a little later. Uh.. Dammit.

***

Maybe everyone in singapore can speak english. The accent can be impenetrable sometimes, though. Everything is still vaguely chinese. Well, maybe that's not exactly true. Although most people are chinese, there's also a good number of indians, and malay-muslims walking around.

***

I get to walk a lot here... probably because there are actual bus stops and taxi bays. street signs are obeyed here too! If the pedestrian sign is green, the cars will slow down for you! Amazing. Speaking of cars, they drive on the left side around here. It can be confusing on the sidewalk too. I tend to want be on the right, so I do a double take every time I get to a pair of escalators that seem reversed.

***

Note: I am busy with work, so blog entiries will be delayed (more than usual).

Scalped Robots

2008-01-24T01:26:00.000-08:00

Yay, I got new toys yesterday!

I didn't buy any TFTM movies last year, primarily because it was ridiculously hard to find Bumbleebee or Barricade at a reasonable price. Neither did I want to buy random unknowns just because they were available. I ended up skipping the movie line for a while.

I could launch into a long rant about how Hasbro should have just made MORE of the famous characters to start with. Perhaps Hasbro has a perverse incentive to screw over the casual guy who just wants a Bumblebee. Perhaps they're simply that bad at estimating relative demand. Ultimately, though, it's the collector who is responsible for shooting himself in the foot when he decides to buy at an irrational price; he is saying, yes, this thing is really worth twice the SRP.

Fortunately, supply was able to catch up with demand, and I was able to find the toys at close to "retail" price.. and from someone who would be willing to bring the toys to Megamall, too. So, yay me! Now I have something neat to remember the movie by.

Not in the cards

2008-01-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to play in the Morningtide prerelease, but apparently NG had already ran out of tickets when I passed by the day before. I didn't know that such a thing could happen, and even if I did I wouldn't have expected it this set (which seemed to be relatively low-key).

Afterwards I found that the prerelease pool was all Morningtide, no Lorwyn. I'm guessing NG's supply of Lorwyn is still tight, so they scaled back the prerelease. Unfortunate, since I would have been interested in 6 Morningtide boosters... well, I'll have to make do with a booster box and a fat pack.

On the other hand, it was a pretty restful weekend. I watched Sweeny Todd (it was ok) and spent time with friends and family. I slept a lot too, which is very important. Hm, maybe I should just bug Pat to play a Lorwyn (pauper) league.

Bleach Fighting Game

2008-01-17T23:54:00.000-08:00

...for the DS!

Since I started WoW, I haven't been so interested in playing RPGs on the DS. So I decided to see what games I could get in other genres. Bleach: Blade of Fate is a fighting game, similar to Street Fighter or perhaps Samurai Showdown. I had been complaining about a lack of fighting games on the DS, and I'm particularly happy because Bleach is good enough to fill that gap.

Bleach has some pretty deep gameplay: you have the expected combos, juggles, special attacks, and an energy bar for super attacks. You also have another energy bar that you can use to either "flash step" or power up an attack. And then you have powerup cards that can be used to give various buffs and so on. Not to mention a 4-player mode and a multitude of playable characters.

Apart from the fighting itself, Bleach has a good spread of fluff and gimmicks. The story mode is broken up into several missions that tell the story of the Soul Society arc. There's also a shop mode for unlocking things like more powerful cards or bonus graphics.

Overall: It's no Tekken, and the DS limits the graphics, but this is still a very respectable game. Highly recommended!

Also playing: Mario Party, Honeycomb Beat, Ultimate Mortal Kombat

Happy Winterveil

2008-01-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

I've been busy with work this last month, but fortunately, HP has a traditional shutdown over the holidays so I was able to take almost two weeks off. Pat took a break too, and we decided to spend most of it playing WoW.

We ran all over Kalimdor, from the forests of Ashenvale to the salt flats of the Thousand Needles. We ran through terrifying dungeons, with help from Manchester. We even visited the eastern continent, to the green hills of Stranglethorn Vale (where we were killed - repeatedly - by despicable Alliance players).

Man, that was a good week.

Foluzaar, level 38 Shaman

GestaPo

2007-12-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

Pat got this little jokebook which consisted of amusingly illustrated examples of common english language mistakes. For some reason, I was a lot more annoyed than amused. In an ideal world, such a list should be presented as an exam, not as humor. Perhaps I simply have the heart of an editor.

Oddly, a similar topic came up in a forum that I frequent. Here are some other things to think about; see if you know when to use each.

Ensure vs Insure vs Assure

Compare with vs Compare to

Damages vs Damage

That vs Which vs Who

Comic from Sinfest

Now Loading...

2007-12-02T19:40:00.000-08:00

I would have wanted to write something detailing how much I am enjoying WoW.

Unfortunately, I have already spent all of my free time playing WoW.

Exploran

2007-11-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was good for gaming. I spent most of Saturday finishing up Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on the DS. It's a lot simpler than I recall Ocarina of Time being, but it's still amazingly fun to explore each new town and dungeon, to get each new tool and figure out what you can do with them. Zelda is a game filled to the brim with "Wow!" and "Ah-ha!" moments, and I really have to love it for that.

Note to self: I should set up an emulator for N64 and play some OOT.

****

On Sunday, I went ahead and bought World of Warcraft. Pat and I had previously played trial accounts; WoW is superior to any other MMO that we've tried, and we decided it would be worth paying the full price.

I got the WoW Battle Chest, which had an installer for the base game, another for the Burning Crusade expansion, and neat glossy illustrated guides for each. Plus smaller B&W manuals for each. Bought it at Data Blitz; it was significantly pricier than the MSRP would have led me to expect. But for some reason there aren't many stores that sell original software! Huh.

Mmm, time for some GRINDAN.

Serious Magics!

2007-11-15T01:56:00.000-08:00

Lorwyn released last month, and I've been playing a lot of Tournament Sealed (which is to say, every other weekend). I've been getting solid results so far: 3-1 in the prerelease, 4-3 in a GPT and 5-2 in a PTQ. However, sealed deck (where you play with fresh, unopened packs) is expensive if you weren't actively looking to buy packs to start with.

Of course, I was trying to gather packs; I also put together a Casual Limited set, meaning four of each common and two of each uncommon, shuffled up and repacked into 40 boosters. Now that I'm done collecting, I might just go play Constructed instead.

I mentioned a while ago that I was playing FF: Chocobo Tales. Now, the nice thing about playing a Final Fantasy game is that they can reuse the good, nostalgic music from their previous games... and Chocobo Tales reuses old music shamelessly. This is a positive thing overall; this is good music.

The net effect being that as I finished the game, I had the nagging urge to play some the good parts for myself. On the piano! A bit of digging around revealed some sheet music here. Initially was leaning towards the boss music, but I eventually settled on the slower 600AD song from Chrono Trigger, with much better results.

Kurikinton Fox, The Decisive Battle (FF6)

Chocobo Tales

2007-10-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I even mentioned that I already got a DS a few months ago. Poor blog, I have been ignoring you cruelly. I'm very very happy with what I got, a snappy portable that I can fit into my pocket, that I can play all sorts of games on. The DS has a wide enough selection of games that I can pick the ones that tickle most my fancy.

Yes, in case you didn't get it, I'm telling you to buy one. Go! Buy one! Yes! I'll wait here!

*Ahem* In any case, one of the games that I've been playing recently is Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales. It's pretty good! It's like your usual FF, except the "battles" are either in the form of minigames or a collectible card game. At first, I wasn't impressed by the idea of a minigame RPG the first time I heard of it. Then I played it and I was impressed. Graphics are quite good too.

The minigames can be a bit frustrating here and there, mostly because I have generally poor hand-eye coordination (too many books and not enough vidyagames when I was a kid, heh). If a particularly difficult minigame was in the way of the story, I'd have to bang my head against the wall until I could solve it and allow the RPG to continue. It's a bit stunning to realize that the average ten-year old is probably better than me at this kind of thing. Despite the difficulty issue though, this game is (surprisingly) a must play.

Return of the Mexican

2007-10-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

Pat and I ate at Trinoma last week... at Mexicali!

And it was pretty good, yo! Not perfect, but I'm quite happy with what we got. Jalapeno and cheese quesadilla, cheese enchilada, and steak burrito.

The burrito was the best value for money, although it was mostly stuffed with rice. The Quesadilla was actually kinda too expensive, but it was simply great.

I should remember to ask Pat to take pictures, now that she has a camera in her new phone.

Would eat at again! :p

Recently I've been eating a lot at Komoro Soba when I'm at work. I guess I haven't mentioned that one of the best things about working at HP is that it's right next to Megamall and I always have choices for lunch... well, it just so happens that the correct choice is often Komoro Soba.

I realized that after a while, I was enjoying their Kaki Age a lot more than the Katsudon. While I must assume that you know what Katsudon is, I should probably explain Kaki Age (as they serve it at megamall). Briefly put, it's tempura, except instead of seafood you put in a bunch of chopped veggies... resulting in a deepfried veggie pancake. Yum! I can actually be quite happy with two side orders of Kaki Age and a bowl of rice... a meal that should garner Alekos' approval.

Hm, between Enchiladas and Kakiage, I think I might be able to go vegetarian! :P Hm, do I smell a challenge?

Enter, Stage Left

2007-10-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

A new blog, and a new beginning.

Just to recap, I'm leaving my old blog. Pat will do her thing over at her multiply site, but personally I'm not into the social networking thing so I'll be starting fresh on this site.

Also please try to remember that it's just gaeb.blogspot.com, and not gaebril.blogspot.com.

Let's go!