`Tis the season to be... scared sh*tless

• `Tis the season to be... scared sh*tless
• Pork's Birthday Bash at da Shak!
• My Nerd Score

I believe that in one point or another in one's life, we'll experience something unexplainable, something hair-raising, something that one can only attribute to the supernatural. And surprisingly, all that comes out during this time.

I, for one, have a healthy respect to the unseen. We know they're there. And who knows, we might end up like them? And as far as I can remember, the only thing REALLY scary that involved me is watching horror flicks on DVD.

But something did happen last week.

The new GMANews.TV office is now located on the 6th floor of the GMA network building. And unsurprisingly, I still try to stay over. I'm used to sleeping alone at workplaces (it happened in Destiny, it happened in UniGroup, it happened at the frat house, and it happened in Cabrera - I don't think I'm about to change that LOL). Anyway, it was Thursday night. Sir Joe was just finishing up his work, winding down and watching Debate's final episode. I just went back up from the canteen downstairs when Sir Joe decided to leave for home. I was already in the initial motions of DOTA when Sir Joe came back.

The main glass doors that led to this hallway was locked.

That's weird. I just came from passing those doors a while ago! We both went back out and checked the doors. Indeed they were locked (or jammed, but we didn't wanna force it since it was glass and we might end up breaking them). WTF?!? By this time, Sir Joe was already joking about scary stuff while we headed down the fire exit to get some guards to open the doors.

+++ OK it's not enough to scare the crap out of you. But I guess you've never spent the wee hours on a floor all alone.

Besides, when the guard came up to check the doors, one was indeed locked. He said he's the only one in charge of the keys and he didn't lock them. The other door was just "stuck".

Honestly, I think the guy was just high. Or drunk. His eyes were red. And alcohol smell can easily be covered up by someone who's expected NOT to drink during duty, right?

Still, the experience afterwards was scary. The floor was all to yourself. Impossible for someone or something unseen not to share the space with you, right? LOL! Happy halloween, boys and girls ^_^ [top]

Pork's Birthday Bash at da Shak!

I went to da Shak around 5pm earlier. Evidently I was the first one there. It's been weeks (I guess a month already now) since I last saw these guys. I spent weekends at home or with my old LSQC buds. Pork was his usual self despite adding on another year on himself.

Lito arrived shortly later and shared his WFB exploits. It's been months since I last saw this guy, much less played against him. He seems to be doing well with his Tomb Kings. And more so, he seems to be in high spirits with both 40K and WFB. I decided to show my support to the event he's hosting this month by playing this weekend at his Makati office (I hear Obi and Ricky and some other WFB players will play there).

Emp also arrived. I hear he also has his personal exploits the past weeks of gaming inactivity. And like me, he, too, hasn't had his hands on the latest WM shipment. He also mentioned that Fred just got discharged out of the hospital earlier, which is a good thing.

The rest of the boyz dropped in afterwards ~ Obi, Jubay, Beefcake, Garrick ~ while ensuing some serious spaghetti massacre. Good times!

Earlier I got to chat with Koi, Jei and even Trixie. We'll be together very, very soon. Jei'll be bringing the PS2 (less time to paint gaaah!) and I can have people over once we fix up the house.

I also got a nice heads up on my work sked. I'd be on a regular 8am to 5pm, but I can still stay over like what I normally do. Then just file in vacations where I have to be here. I also sneaked in Kage's old sleeping mat, which I'll be using until I save up for an inflatable airbed. I'll also be helping Jaemark store some of his stuff at home.

Jake, Obi and Beefcake also paid me a visit here at the office. Well, at the 711 downstairs though, since I don't think I could've had them come inside. They personally delivered the Superiority rulebook here! That was great of them. Had some small hobby talk, too.

And surprisingly, even if I didn't have enough decent money to get through the weekend, I managed to finish painting my Old Witch of Khador and her Scrapjack ~ which, if I do say so myself, came out pretty good. Maybe I can get pics up soon. I also did some work on my Spriggan: laid down lots of the red on it.

Despite the funky-ass title, this has been a very good start of the week ^_^ Time to pass it forward then. [top]

My Nerd Score

Bloghopped on Yvette's Adventures in TV Land and found one of those tests. I just had to know mine LOL!

And more from Yvette (astig ito LOL!):


[top]

Feel the change

Yeah it's official. The GMA News webteam is now on the 6th floor of the network building. And yeah, it's another wave of changes and adjustments for me.

I tried my first night sleeping here. I dunno if I was all alone on the 6th floor and I couldn't care less. The floors are goddamn cold, and my sleeping mat wasn't moved here along with my other stuff. Maybe I can just sneak in a heavy blanket or something. Using a big cork board to stave off the floor's biting cold was a better alternative than sleeping on chairs, which is just bad for my back.

I got a nifty space beside a wall, and the only one that can basically see my monitor is the guy behind me.

Moving also meant that our access to the servers have to be reset. And lo and behold, any update I had to do yesterday meant that I had to go up to the 12th floor and squat on Jaemark's computer. It was kinda funny how one update turned out because my boss had to channel the corrections through mobile phone while I was on someone else's computer. Hassle sobra but it was worth the bother afterwards.

Ah well, roll with the punches.

Milenyo

Ah yes. One of the most badass storms that hit the Metro. Yeah a lot of people died and more got injured. And a lotta property was trashed. Frankly, to those who whined and still continue to whine, I couldn't care less.

It's true. A lot of the whiners always complain to the government, saying this and that. Again, I don't care.

I have come to a point that I have embraced apathy as a virtue, and have nature decide who's weak and who's strong; and have her thresh out those who aren't cut out to living on this ruthless planet.

I got hit with a lot of bad shit on that last storm, too. But whining won't get me anywhere. Anything broken, have it fixed or fix it yourself. Again, if you have no wil for it, then just be blown away by the storm.

No one can't afford to be naive or to be unprepared. And if circumstances do catch you, deal with it.

If your solution in life is waiting for your goddamn prince charming to come prancing with his pretty horse; or wait for some miracle to drop from the fuckin' sky, then you deserve the misery.

Weekend Gaming Fun

My best weekend to date started off very early in the morning in the office. The boys were running a DOTA session and I happily joined in. To my surprise, they were running on random characters then. I usually play Traxex, a drow ranger with a bow that shoots freezing arrows.

My first game, I had the female elf on the white tiger with a multi-blade glaive. I got some kills in and was pretty much a "bonus stage" player throughout the whole game. I kept dying early in the game because I haven't really played that much DOTA. So I went on with my usual recipe, gatting a small amount of life-gain for my attacks due to an item you can build. I survived and instead of taking on hero-killings, I opted for breaking enemy towers and having our creeps wave on through. Despite that, I ranked #3 on the end results. Not bad for bonus stage hehe.

The second game, I played some strange creature named Darkterror. It was a blue thing with an octopus for a head, or that's the best I can make out of it. This one also sucked at hero-killing. But I kept playing for the heck of it and landed #3 again on the end results. Again, for someone who hasn't been playing DOTA as much as these guys have, #3 isn't bad.

Onto UPCFA for some WARMACHINE action (and yeah, from now on, I'm going to type in WARMACHINE in all caps, because from the article right here, it says "WARMACHINE, a game that rocks so much it has to be written in uppercase!" LOL!) Not much WM players present but it was still a good session.

I playtested my 5-model Trollblood wargroup against Pork and his Ashlynn-led Mercenaries on 500 points worth of Pendulum. The DTMs (Dire Troll Maulers) proved extremely resilient against Pork's offensive, making the trip to come up close and personal even more advantageous for me. Ashlynn was brought down by a Fortune-casted DTM, pounding her with a boosted P+S19 hit. Looks like I'll be assembling and buying DTMs after all LOL!

My second WARMACHINE game was even more memorable. I played Epic Vlad against Fred and a jack-heavy Asphyxious. The scenario was also Pendulum, but when I assassinated his warcaster on the first turn and sent 3 helljacks and 2 bonejacks inert, the game was pretty much mine already. First turn kill, baby. Doesn't get any better than that.

Afterwards, Pork, Jake and Ian even offered to take me to Alvin's place. Saved me some commuting time, too.

Played some Dungeoneer at Alvin's place with Kei and Tiny. Then it was a Forgotten Realms RPG session with Tiny as DM. I dunno. I didn't feel like DMing. I wanted to play instead.

I named my character Marik. He's a Human Male, True Neutral, Cleric with no specific aligned deity. I plan to take on Wizard later on, so down the road, I can be a True Necromancer. I made my background fluff so that he'd be from some undead-infested place in the Realms. Daggerdale suited him pretty well. Then I wanted him to be traumatized, so that he'll take on a personal quest to fight undead. But his beliefs and principles push him to use necromancy to fight the evil caused by necromancy. Tiny was pretty generous to my character, despite the two 18's I rolled (INT and WIS of course). I got a tiny black dragon as familiar, and some weird evil thing that wrapped itself around my body and acted as second skin. Apparently, that was to be my spellbook.

At the end of the session, it turned out that those items were indeed cursed/damned. Bane, the god of murder in the realms did that to us. So of course, we'll be facing off a lot of Bane-aligned enemies down the road. Time to read up and plan out my character then hehe.

And on Sunday, I bought me a brand new 21" flat screen JVC. Got me a new TV na woohoo! TV and an extremely long amount of quality time. Yeah life is good ^_^

+++

From April's Coffee Cups:

1. one book that changed your life?
Sun Tzu's Art of War. Made me paranoid though, but better that than having myself caught with my pants down.

2. one book you have read more than once?
Da Vinci Code. I don't read much but if I should, I should be reading up more on the WM rulebooks.

3. one book you would want on a desert island?
Several volumes of wilderness survival. I'll keep one for reading and use the rest for fire.

4. one book that made you cry?
I'll post it here if that ever occurs LOL!

5. one book that made you laugh?
Pol Medina's Pugad Baboy series. Yeah it has pictures, so what?

6. one book you wish had been written?/one book you wish you had written?
I dunno. I'd read books but I guess I'm not one to aspire writing a literary masterpiece.

7. one book you wish had never been written?
This one got me, too. I don't actively seek out to read books anymore. I stuff up my head with lots other stuff (not only from online reading but also with some books at hand as well).

8. one book you are currently reading?
I'm already flipping through WM PRIME, ESCALATION, APOTHEOSIS, HORDES and lotsa other D&D books now.

9. one book you have been meaning to read?
Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master Guide 3.5. Cover to cover. Then the PHB 3.5 and the Monster Manuals.

Well, I'm no bookworm in the right sense of the word. Although I do read, albeit selectively. So since I was tagge by reading her entry, you're tagged, too. Copy/paste said questions and answer them on your blog.

Mauvais rêve

"He was a thin man, father," the boy said, "I don't know but I didn't like him. He's a bad man, father."

The boy went on describing the intruder. A thin man. A gaunt man. Looked like he played in the sand. Soft spoken. Tired eyes. Box cutter in his pocket.

It was one of those feelings when you know the person's gonna do something bad. And he did.

It was stupid though. Should've done something about it. Instead of being fearstruck.

Trollbloods at the Fortress +

Got some WM/H (Warmachine/Hordes) gaming in yesterday and tried out my Hordes wargroup. I had Hoarluk but proxied the four Maulers with warjacks (Look, I got a Dire Troll Mauler Destroyer, a Dire Troll Mauler Devastator, a Dire Troll Mauler Juggernaut and a Dire Troll Mauler Kodiak LOL!).

"Hey, Arv, I got fewer models than your Khador."

Arvin's Khador is infamous for high ARM, severely high damage output and funky movement (such is a feat for Khador). I had to bring down key elements in his wargroup, namely the Juggernaut and his warcaster, the Butcher.

In our game, he rushed in a Devastator in the midst of the Trollbloods wargroup. It was prompty thrown towards the nearby Khadoran Juggernaut by a Dire Troll Mauler with its big meaty fists. The Juggernaut was easily disassembled by another Mauler as it was knocked down by the thrown Devastator.

Another tactic that messed up Arvin's plans was when I casted Vexation on the closest Devastator. I knew Arv was going for the kill, dropping Butcher's Blood Frenzy feat then engaging Hoarluk in base contact with the Dev and opening up with 3d6 POW 18 worth of pain on my warlock. Of course I didn't let that happen. With Vexation on the Dev, I made it activate first. It can still engage my warlock and drop its ROD, but not with Butcher's feat on it hehe.

Victory for Hoarluk of 500 points on Killing Fields scenario.

"OMG, lookit all those guns!"

Emp's Cygnar was geared precisely to put a beat down on a slow-moving, low number model count wargroup like mine. Lots of Long Gunners. 6 inches of Snipe. Double-tapping with +2 for aiming. Gun Mages with pushback capability. I knew I was in a fix for this but I took on the challenge. Yeah, I was basically screwed LOL!

I took to one side of the table, which was a mistake. I should have spread out my forces more. I thought I could make a considerable advance, using the Maulers as a living and moving shield for Hoarluk.

In the end, all Maulers were shot down, and Hoarluk all by himself couldn't prevent Caine from taking Control Points on the scenario.

Loss for Hoarluk of 500 points on Pendulum scenario.

+++

Games were fun, although it might be my last as sked's gonna change again. I guess I can play on workdays after 5pm. Ah well.

+++ Friday and Saturday

Went home around 4pm to dress up for Dillian's party. Rina was supposed to pick me up near GMA since Congo Grill was near the area from there. It was terribly great. I suddenlt felt envious of Rina's BF. Touch hints. Flipping crazy, man. If she's like that, it makes me wonder why all those idiots quit. Stupid. Blissful ignorance anyone?

Christmas Wishlist

BER months officially underway, and Christmas not too far away. I'm now accepting Christmas presents as early as September so don't be shy and send, send, send!

[ ] Greylords Ternion (price range: P750-P800, type: miniatures in blister, location: Fortress, Greenhills)

[ ] Spindle of blank Imation CDs (price range: P700, type: blank CDs for burning files and stuff, location: Any CDR-King branch or outlet)

[ ] Kommander Karchev (price range: P2000, type: miniature in box, location: not yet for sale in Fortress, maybe online)

[ ] Slipknot CD (not bootleg) (price range: P500, type: music/audio CD, location: Any of the good music bars)

[ ] Asia Agcaoili's Sex Guru DVD (price range: P500, type: semi-educational DVD, location: Any of the good music bars)

[ ] Chestnut Ink (price range: P250, type: ink for painting miniatures, location: Neutral Grounds)

More to come (most probably I'm gonna buy these for myself anyway ^_^)

Welcome To Our Neighborhood

I got ripped off of P60. I was in Baclaran last night and stumbled on a whole street filled with bootleg DVDs. Since my TV's still broken and unreplaced, I couldn't watch any of those I might've bought then. I saw the Slipknot Welcome To Our Neighborhood DVD cover and immediately got it. The dude even wanted to fast-hand P5 of change. Un-frickin-believable! And bloody worse, when I got to the office to view it, it turned out to be an Avril Lavigne concert. OMFGWTF!

+++

Painting some Knights Exemplar