Prelude to Planning, The Compass Rant and Being Back on Track

:::Surreal:::

So we're planning for the wedding. God, it's so surreal. Yah think your ready for it but it kinda sinks down slowly to your brain that your are actually planning your own sacri ... er, wedding I mean. I remember someone telling me that a wedding is a female ritual; us men are only there to be the sacrificial lamb in the altar. While I did laugh out loud before, now it isn't as funny as it should have been. Ah well, might as well get my tether and goat bell on, hehehe. Baaaahhhh!

While we haven't decided on the exact date yet, we're planning on November or December next year, one year from now. I already got my list of people for my entourage, and while I have a lot of friends over the years, suffice to say they are the people who made a very big impact in my life. The list will have to be kept secret of course, not until I get the final count and try to contact them personally.

We already decided on the cake though. Imagine the bottom three layers are stacked with cupcakes, then the upper three layers are books ( made of cake of course ) that we really love. We both love a lot literature, and we both have the same sentiments when it comes to books, so we decided that it would be fitting that our cake symbolizes what we are: bibliophiles.

And were pretty sure that the theme would be Modern Filipino, its gonna be barongs and filipinianas abound. Tentative plans for the early stages of the wedding.

Like I said, surreal.

Proposal
Uploaded by hamsterbot

( Uploaded this again, as the bottom link doesn't work for some reason.)


:::Golden Compass Rant:::

*Warning:Spoilers Ahead!*

Ok, so I watched Golden Compass with a high degree expectation since it was produced by the same guys who did LOTR, and I read the book a couple of times before the movie came out.

So ok, for me it sucked. Well, not suck "suck", since the cinematography was cool and the fight scenes great, but the translation from the book to the movie was rubbish. Sure most movies based from books ( read; Harry Potter, Eragon, etc ) didn't translate into the silver screen, but if you're part of the company that made LOTR, you at least expect something of staying true to the material. But nope, you just had to chop it up.

First of all, the books ( The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass ) are a great trilogy. Everything in detail, the backstory explained etc. The movie would have been ok, even exceptional, if they could have extended them to three hours and not two, for more story hooks and backstory.

Ok, differences between the book and the movie. My personal gripe was that they changed the last scene in the movie as the fight between the Tartars vs the Witches and Gypsians. The last scene in book was the fight between Iorek Byrnisson and Iofur Ragnarsson ( which the movie changed into just plain Ragnar ... urk ). The movie they got it on in the middle part. It didn't work at all. I mean you just won the duel, you are now king of the Ice Bears, and you didn't order them into join you at battle to save Lyra?! WTF?

And the witches! If I didn't read the book, I'd wonder why in the world would the witches help Lyra?! Serafina Pekala's story is nicely detailed in the book, and they just gave her a cameo apperance (like Angela and Solembum in Eragon, but that's a different rant).

And then...

"Lyra, I am your mother.", said Mrs. Coulter.

"NOOOOOOOO!" screamed Lyra.

(sub-dubbed, ad libbed and slightly heard in the background...)

"Luke, I am your father." Darth Vader said.

"NOOOOOOOO!" cried Luke in anguished.

Ok, Mrs. Coulter and Lyra didn't actually say it, but it was paraphrased so badly you could hear Vader and Luke in the eaves. And in the book, that scene never happened, as it was the Gypsians who told Lyra who her mother and father is. And they didn't put in the final scene where Lyra is reunited with her father, Lord Asriel! Arrrgh!

Get the book, read the story. I got mine in Booksale for 77 pesos only, hehehe.

:::Back on Track :::

A chance encounter in a coffee shop where my fiancee (still surreal: shifting from girlfriend to fiancee) was reading out a local newspaper and pointed out to me an article and said "Honey, this looks just like what you're looking for." I glanced at the article, read the words "Role Playing Games", "Legend of the 5 Rings" and "Vampire: The Requiem" in one paragraph, and stared at salvation. It's been three years since I gamed regularly, which I collectively known as the Hobby (your ccg's, rpg's, your mmorpg's and tabletop minis), and Ronstadt pointed it out to me in an off hand manner. So I got their local website, got in touch with the people, and now I'm back on track.

Ok, these guys aren't like the usual group I play with in Manila (obviously), and would take some getting used too, but hey if you're a hobby gamer, more or less you get to have the same traits, so almost no problem fitting in. They play Legend of the Five Rings, the CCG that's almost as known as Magic the Gathering ( second oldest CCG out there in fact ) and dabble in Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire: The Requiem.

I'd think I'd have died and gone to heaven.

So now, I am the Game Master for the Legend of the Five Rings Campaign, every Friday at Think Cafe. It's good to be back in the helm. Oh and, one of them plays Warhammer, but he's in the US right now, so that kinda blows. At least I have something to forward too when he comes back for a vacation. The other peeps are very interested in other aspects of gaming though, so I'll gently introduced them to Warmachine, hehehe.

Nevertheless, like I said, it's good to be Game Master again.



From L-R: Loiue, Zandro, Alros and me (half of the gamer group)


State of Mind: "Wait-is-this-really-happening?" Feeling
Song of the Day: The Fight is Over by Urbandub
Book of the Week: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Looking for: A nice photographer