The Weekend at Bacolod

::The Bloody Road::

We came, we saw and we gave our best. Basically it means we got ourselves trounced silly. Me and my seven comrades got our first taste of a real national tournament, the L5R Kotei. And we did our best against the Philippines has to offer: the veteran players of Manila and Baguio, the old timers of Cebu and our hosts, team Bacolod. 43 players all in all. While we didn't win any major awards, we did get to snag a couple: Best Cosplay and Top 16 players (Greg came in 13th).

My final ranking was 3 wins and 4 losses. Not to shabby, considering the universe conspired against me to pit my skills versus the Overall Top 3, the top Phoenix guy and and my own worst nightmare: Two Crab Clan players.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the tourney very much, so much especially with the freebies and stuff. More details at my personal gaming blog: The Green Bunker.

::Book Hunter: The Bacolod Expedition::

During the Kotei lunch break I did get to enjoy another past time: browsing through Gaisano Bacolod's Booksale selection:
Rage of the Demon King by Raymond E. Feist: Before George R.R. Martin, there was Feist. Stil one of my favorite fantasy series, and this hardbound beauty comes at only P175. Very Nice.

Boogers Are My Beat by Dave Barry: This Pulitzer Prize winner defines the term "literary fun". One of my fave non-fiction columnists, he turns his attention to the follies in the US Taxing System, the jungle maze of Wal Mart, and things you should give to your wife (a chainsaw).

The One Tree by Stephen Donaldson: Continuing the story of Thomas the Unbeliever. Replacement for the Typhoon Frank disaster.

The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad: If you ever watched the movie Apocalypse Now starring Marlon Brandon, this is the book that is based at. Both are a brutal and honest look at the depths of man, which at every chapter of the book spiralling down with the protagonist. One of books you should read at least once.


::The Angels Say Nay, The Demons Say Yay::

Got to watch Angels and Demons, and as a rule I will, as long as my patience holds out, never compare the book to the movie. So, as long as I'm in that ground, I get to enjoy the movie in question. After watching the movie, I must say I enjoyed it throughly. Yes you will complain that there's no depth like the book and no obscure references, but like I said, I'm leaving my complaints at the door. And talk all you want about the cool/bad ending and the way the movie tried to capture the book, but the highlight of the film for me was the fact they showed the Large Hadron Collider in play. Yes, that's just the geek in me.

The Large Hadron Collider is a real life machine, built in the borders of Switzerland in purpose of finding out the violations of symmetry of matter and anti-matter, additional sources of the quark flavour and difference of dark matter and dark energy. Yes, its all greek to me, but the thing that captured my imagination was that while they were trying to slam particles, they maybe accidentally create a black hole. And while the normal everyday population went around its own business, the science sector held its collective breath as the LHC first went online of September 2008, and test apprently went succesful because there would be a large chunk of earth destoryed if things went awry (think half of Europe).

In any case, I enjoyed the movie, and will again find time to read the book again (as I consider Angels and Demons superior to The Da Vinci Code).

State of Mind: Blearily Happy (I lacked sleep)
Song of the Day: One and Only by Nelly
Book of the Week: Boogers are my Beat by Dave Barry
Want/Need: L5R Celestial Cards