The Return

It's been so long since I last updated this blog and took me almost 3 years to open this again and post something in here. I've been so busy for some quiet sometime..changes of priorities I would say. So what really made me to change my mind a little bit and befriended again with this old page of mine? The same question that stocked in my mind when I came to open this page a week ago. Why I'm here again? What I'm doing in here? After all those years, should I really consider that I still own this page or should I keep in my mind that the person who used to post things here was not the same person I am now?

For almost 3 years, I met and left a lot of people. People come and go, and so am I. Had a couple of experiences and memories (both good and bad), that really changed me to who I am now. I have been in different places, have my job and career, and a happy life to live. I would consider that everything seems to be in the right place but not everything has changed. This page has remained as is from the last time I posted here up to this time. I know that there are a lot of people who has been in this page during those times that I've been away. As what I said, people come and go, same thing with the visitors of this page. But no matter what people have read/seen in this page, all those old posts are still here, still available to everyone.

Everything posted here are always part of who I am 3 years ago, and might still be part of who I am right now. There will be always be a part of me in this page that I can't let go just so easily. And so here I am again, telling again some stuff about myself and willing to share something about me. Simply for the reason that my old self have created and posted something in this page might be enough already to justify that I still own this. Who knows? The person who posted here before might be a better version of person he is right now..

Yeah! I'm a Certified Archie-natic..

David Archuleta known to be the runner up of 7th season of American Idol (2008) just came here in the Philippines for the 3rd time to perform in front of his thousands of Filipino fans in one of the spectacular concert held in Araneta Coliseum last July 18. Well, Archie had really captured my interest for a good music, making him to be my favorite pop singer. I started to be a fan of him about 3 years ago when I first heard his amazing voice in American Idol Season 7 as a contestant of the said famous singing contest. Who could ever forget him for singing that phenomenal rendition of "Imagine" (which is a classic song originally sung by Elton John) at the early phase of the competition giving him that standing ovation and acknowledgement from the audience and the judges of that show. From that on, I tried watching the episodes of that show just to see him performing on that stage. Although Archie was proclaimed as a runner-up for that season (being David Cook announced to be the grand winner), it never stopped his fans to support him even after that singing competition. I would say that David Archuleta was indeed one of the successful singers from that phenomenal singing contest along with other contenders of the past seasons who never won the competition like Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry. The undying support of his loyal fans led him to release his first debut album few months after American Idol's finale and his single "Crush" topped the U.S. music charts and became to be one of the most-played song in other countries including the Philippines. As of now, he was able to release three albums already that includes his debut album David Archuleta 2008, Christmas From the Heart 2009 and The Other Side of Down 2010. 

Well, Archie admitted in one of the TV interview that among his thousands of fans around the globe, his Filipino Fans are truly closest to him. The fact that he came here in our country for about 3 times already proves this. He also mentioned in that TV interview that everytime he comes here in our country whether to promote his album or to have a concert, his Filipino fans never disappoints him for their warmest welcome and hospitality. And being one of those avid listeners of his songs, in fact I even attended his first concert (with David Cook) 2 years ago held at SM Mall of Asia concert grounds. That was really a thrilling experience for me, listening his live performance as he sung his songs including "Crush". So what's with his songs that  keeps me to really love listening to them? For me, Archie's songs has this unique style that brings me this light feeling whenever I listen to his songs. It's like his songs has this aura of refreshing your mind and has strongly affectionate  rhythm that suites my sensible taste for music (forgive me but I couldn't put it all in words). Being a fan, I had downloaded all his American Idol video performances (from his audition up to finale performance), his mp3 songs and music videos, read some articles about him and watched his video blogs from his site to keep updated like any other loyal fans out there. Definitely, I was really an avid Archie fan by doing all these stuffs to support him.

Winning a Fight

It's been so long when I last posted here in my blog some funny and hilarious stuffs and so today to keep this blog not that really serious, I want to share this one here. Actually, this was originally from my Tumblr account but I think it would be better if I also share this here in my blogger account.. Here it goes..

Tired of being bullied? Here are some helpful tips how to win a fight with that bully kid during confrontation...

Step 1: Do the first move.

Step 2: Be prepared! He/She may fight back. Be ready how to defend his/her attack.





Step 3: Don't let him/her grab the chance to hurt you.






Step 4: Yeah! Just continue doing that. Your doing a good job!






Step 5:  Have no mercy! Look at his/her face, you are about to win the whole thing.




Step 6: Congratulations! You just won your fight with that bully kid.







And there you have it, I hope these tips helped you a lot. Well, I'm just messing up here, I hope you will not take these things seriously, okay? hahaha..

Cyberworld Abstinence

For 2 days, I had been totally disconnected from the cyberworld. My lappy (as I call my laptop) was borrowed by my cousin (for school project purposes) and that's exactly brought me this post depression of letting your laptop borrowed by someone else. I don't know why but I really felt stressed and unease staying here in our house without my laptop. It actually made me feel annoyed and paranoid in some ways because I couldn't do the things I normally do like browsing the net and my accounts on some networking sites, as well as blogging or even  doing some simple stuff with my laptop like watching a movie or listening to downloaded songs. Without my laptop, it's like I was confined into a closed space where I was waiting for the time to pass by, doing nothing and thinking what will I do to get out of that place. I swear, every minute of my stay here in our house without my laptop and without having the chance to browse the net is like living like an outcast...outcast of the cyberworld. I tried to indulge myself by watching TV and listening to some songs on my phone (on its maximum volume with the earphone plugged to my ears), but these things are not that really helping to keep myself relaxed from suffering to this so-called cyberworld abstinence. I don't want to be selfish, but if someone will going to borrow my lappy away here in our house, without a doubt I won't even allow this to happen again. 

Coolest HP 7 Wallpapers

Definitely, HP7 Part 2 fever is on! I think the showing of the eight installment of this phenomenal Harry Potter series is the most talked-about topic around the globe. From forums, fansites, blogs and all other social networking sites, HP7 part 2 is the most common topic for discussions. And so, being an avid fan of this magical series (like anyone else), I wanted to post here in my blog some of the astonishing wallpapers of the main casts of this blockbuster movie.

Credits: These pictures are from http://www.facebook.com/harrypottermovie.. I do not own any of these...

My Extinct High School Pictures

Again narcissism attacked me yesterday and I ended up editing this picture that includes none other than myself. Actually, I was browsing some of high school classmates' accounts in facebook few days ago to look some of their pictures, hoping for the possibility that I was also included when these pictures were taken. I'm sad to say, that when I was in high school about 6 years ago, I didn't even owned any gadgets like digicam or a cellphone with a built-in camera on it, not even a simple camera or a cellphone. So I would say that some of my happiest moments during high school with some of my friends and my high-school-student experience just remained at the back of my mind without anything like a sort of a souvenir/picture that will make me to remember some of these happenings. Unlike to my college and elementary days, with a bunch of pictures taken with my friends and my family, my high school days were sort of forgotten periods of my life.

So after browsing those facebook accounts of my friends, I was able to find their few high school pictures with myself in these pictures. At the very first time, I was shocked when I saw myself in these pictures on how I looked few years ago. I can't even believed how I was so thin that time and still had these childhood features. I even looked like a innocent little boy in these pictures. So what I did was I copied all these pictures and uploaded it to my own account and tagged it to my mom (who was working abroad)so she could also see these "extinct" pictures of me.

What Keeps Me Busy: Studying Adobe After Effects

Being so much fascinated of multimedia arts, from photo editing using different software to creating simple GIF(those animated pictures) using GIF animator software, my curiosity has now reached to learn video editing. As I was browsing youtube the other day, there was this video which really caught my attention. It was actually a video of an avid video editor who was able to edit his own video and added some special effects on it. I was really amazed how he edited the video and came up with some extra-ordinary powers by adding special effects on it. All  the effects were actually detailed as if it appears to be really entertaining to watch. And after seeing this video, I searched for some video editing tutorial sites for me to also learn this amazing graphics design skill. Actually, this was not my first time to have an interest in learning video editing. Few months ago, I already searched the software which was normally used for video editing and I found it to be Adobe After Effects. I was able to download it through the net and installed it here in my laptop but then, as I was starting to explore its features, I got lost on it because I don't really have any idea on how to use it. And that made me somehow not to be interested about using this software anymore, not until I watched that video the other day which brought back the curiosity for learning video editing.

So for me to start learning video editing, I downloaded first a tutorial from torrent about the fundamentals of using Adobe After Effects. Nice thing that the tutorial that I was able to download actually includes video tutorials  that really made learning for this software much easier. So far, I'm still on the level of learning to add some special effects to a image as well as animating those special effects, and I even enjoyed learning these things. By the way, I also want to share my first ever project using this software and here it is. (Basically, the original format of this was in .avi format or should I say in a video format. I just converted it to GIF so that I can post it here in my blog without uploading it in youtube.)

The Literal Hot Kiss

I don't really have much to share here, so at this point I will just post some of the funniest movie scenes I ever watched... These particular scenes are taken from the Korean blockbuster movie "Windstruck"... Well originally, I already posted these scenes in my Tumblr account that's why you will find those blinking messages at the bottom portion of the GIFs (to entitle my ownership for these animated images)...

The story goes like this...

SCENE1: You will gently move your pouty lips closer to her lips while your eyes being closed…

SCENE2: And since you are having a campfire together and she wanted to mess that supposedly romantic moment, she will take a piece of burning wood and put it right towards your lips…of course, you will not really notice it because your eyes are closed, expecting for an in-tensed moment…

SCENE3: As you will gently lay your pouty lips to that burning wood, thinking that you are about to kiss her, you will be surprised of what you will feel and what you will see as you open your eyes…and then you will realize that it’s too late..






SCENE4: And what you will have now?? damn “grilled-pouty lips”… poutier than you have them before…hahaha..LOL..

What Keeps Me Busy: Customizing On-Screen Icons

For these past few days, I found myself really addicted on customizing both my Tumblr and this Blogspot account. One proof for this is that letter T or that "Tumblr" icon located beside the scroll bar of this page that tends to remain its position on the screen upon scrolling. Well definitely, it is one of the things I added to this page to make this more presentable to my unexpected visitors. Clicking this icon will open a new tab in your browser and will link you to my Tumblr account. And if you happen to visit my Tumblr account, there's also an "Blogspot" icon there that will bring you here upon clicking it.

Creating these so-called widgets are actually the product of my creativity and curiosity. I was looking for the HTML codes of this widgets for so long but then I really had a hard time looking for their codes, not until the other day when I visited a widget site that includes the codes of this particular type of widget. The original widget is a "Twitter Follow" Icon but then, since I don't want to link this page with my Twitter account, so I decided to customize it and make my own on-screen icons out of it. Good thing, I know some HTML codes so what I did is to add additional codes on the original codes I got from that widget site. The onmouse/outmouse effect or the changing of icon's color when the mouse pointer is positioned on these icons, as well as the  appearances of these icons are actually the things I added to the original HTML codes of this widget-type. Although, I don't really had a formal lesson on HTML way back in college, those HTML tutorial sites, image hosting through PhotoBucket and by modifying those HTML codes for the other widgets installed in this page had somehow gave me some ideas in customizing these icons. 

I hope my page visitors will appreciate this "T" icon and will provide them to chance to visit my Tumblr account as well.

"T" On-Screen Icon in this Page

On-Screen Icons in my Tumblr Account

Fushigi Yuugi : The Legend of Four Gods

It's been so long when I was first hooked by the fushigi yuugi series being shown in TV. As far as I remember, I was in Grade 4 when I first saw this anime in a local TV network here in the Philippines where the voices of the characters were dubbed in Filipino language, and where every episode was being aired every Friday nights around 8:30 pm. That time, the series was about the legends of Suzaku and Seiryuu, two of the 4 great beasts who said to protect the four main regions of the ancient China and where being included in mystical book of The Universe of the Four Gods. The series tells  the myth of a maiden coming from the other world who will be chosen to enter the book and who will have the power to summon the mythical beast to save its designated region from its conquerors. But to do this, she has to find the 7 celestial warriors who will protect here in her journey. In the Suzaku/Seiryuu series, two maidens had entered the book at the same time making each one of them to represent the rival empires for Suzaku and Seiryuu. The story is somehow the combination of the adventures of these two ordinary girls who became the priestess of the two rival empires causing there friendship to be broken by the opposing principles and ideology of the wars between the two empires.

Well, although the story includes the complicated events because of the wars, emotional influences of one character to one another and other sorrowful things happened to the characters, I still enjoyed the humorous scenes of each character making some events in the series to be so funny. The series had also showed the awesome special powers of each celestial warrior as they go along with the maiden with her journey and of course, the romantic scenes of the maiden to some of the members of her celestial warriors who felt something special to her, much special to be just her protector.

The Maidens of Suzaku and Seiryuu with their Celestial Warriors

Fushigi Yuugi Opening Theme



Fushigi Yuugi Closing Theme

After many years of being fan of this anime series, last week as I was browsing the net, I visited a "manga-series" site where I found another fushigi yuugi legend and this time it's about the adventures of the maiden of the Genbu (Genbu is also one of the 4 mythical beast included in the book of The Universe of the Four Gods along with Suzaku, Seiryuu and Biakku). And since, the Legend of Genbu was partially included in the Suzaku/Seiryuu series that I watched during my childhood days, I was really curious about its story. Definitely, this was my first try of reading a manga series and I'm not really sure if I can really enjoy reading a story out of those comic-type sketches and dialogues. But as I was reading this,  I just started to continue loving it and also enjoyed it.

So what about the story? Well, the Legend of Genbu compared to the first released legends of Suzaku and Seiryuu had some similarities when it comes to the way how the author associated Love between the maiden to a celestial warrior, and the same with the first released installments of this series, the empire where the god Seiryuu was worshiped, was the bad empire-conqueror in this story (known to be the empire of Kotou, a powerful military empire where its emperor wanted to conquer all the other 3 regions of the ancient China). But then, the characters of the maiden herself and the celestial warriors are totally different in this story. The time-setting also of the story is different because the appearance of the maiden of Genbu in that book occured 200 years before the maidens of Suzaku and Seiryuu entered that book (as what had included in the Suzaku/Seiryuu series) and of course, the maiden of Genbu was said to be the first one to enter the book before the 3 other maidens were chosen. The manga still includes humorous, tragic and a lot of fighting scenes from the characters; but this legend, has a different sets of twists in the story that will really capture the attention of its readers and will keep them thinking after reading every chapter of it. At this point, I'm not yet done reading the series (since the author is not yet finished with the story) and I cant' really wait what will happen next. So far, the Biakku series is not yet released and I hope the author will start working on it as soon as he is finished with the Genbu series.

Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden Series