Waray - Waraijj

New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:17:00 +0000

a New Year, a new post, hoping to revive my blog which have been offline for quite a time now.

Resolutions are too old, but here are a few I would like to have a shot at.

- save more for our kid, our family.
- less toys,
- kick off photography gig
- buy a house?
- go around and visit EU (Greece, Rome, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, getting long..)
- reinvest on my career and studies

wow, a daunting list. looks like 2 3 years maybe. baby steps!

Happy New Year all!! God Bless!!

GRAND HASBRO TOY FAIR (Nov 21 to 23, 2008 - SM MOA Atrium)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 10:41:00 +0000

GRAND HASBRO TOY FAIR (Nov 21 to 23 - SM MOA Atrium)

Wedding prime

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 05:44:00 +0000

here was a plan for our wedding cake

revoltech prime (an action non-transforming figure optimus prime), let's dress him up.

put on the slacks. hmm he looks like karate prime.

here, optimus prime in barong and slacks, thanks to the efforts of my best man. prime even has kamisa chino inside that's why he looks stocky (aside from the fact that his proportions are hard to dress up.)

and the precious moments bride

last but not the least, the couple together.. :) holding hands.

we ended up not using them for the cake cause they were somewhat not proportionally matched. at the last minute, we decided to use these precious moments pair.

thanks for looking! :)

Our turn - Our Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:36:00 +0000

We had our wedding last December 28, 2007 in Tacloban City - beautiful and memorable.
All the hardwork we put on for a year planning and preparing for the day all paid off. Like any other well planned wedding, it had its share of hits and misses. No matter, we planned to relax and have fun on the day!

My bride was extremely beautiful, I couldn't have imagined how else breathtaking she would look like...

They said I cried, but it's just the special effects on the lenses - lense flare they say. haha.

I was truly happy beyond measure.
Solemn and humble to ask for God's blessings to make our marriage last our lifetime and beyond our children's children (and so on..).

We are truly blessed to have our family and friends support us and gather for this special event. Our utmost heartfelt gratitude to everyone, ...Thank you.

Here' to us living the start of our ..Happily Ever After. ...

From our old love letters, I would append my i love yous to my wife with "with all my heart", and her reply that would leave me swooning and my breath frozen -... and me you "with my only heart."

(the rest of the pictures)

nokia phone for wedding videos anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:03:00 +0000

Check out this nice video shot by a nokia n93 phone. Of course, you still need a master like this guy to pull this one off. Original and great delivery. Great couple too.

http://jasonmagbanua.com/blog/2007/08/28/another-cellphone-video-a-lofi-love-story/

Saving my 100th!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 04:46:00 +0000

I wanted to save my 100th post, waiting for the right topic to talk about. but i guess it's taking too long, might as well post the great news that have been forwarded to me today.
first stop

Saltwater as fuel!! I couldn't forgive myself if i didn't rank this as my first news. this is just great news, and hopefully they can commercialize the engines that can use this. Assuming it doesn't get bought by a big company for safekeeping.
http://www.glumbert.com/media/saltwater

Next stop is... well,

source http://www.superherohype.com/news/topnews.php?id=6301
haven't been to MOA's Imax theater, been holding off for the right movie. And i guess this is it. Maybe it's still next year for the philippines, but we'll be sure to go.

and of course the local dvd release... http://www.cybph.com/archives/328#comments
slated sometime late october or early november... ah well, lots of things to say. but well, i'm sure to get one of this. I'm not a sucker for original dvds, and different covers. but look at the last one, a transforming package for the transformers dvd. genius. you got me right in the spot. darn you. i actually considered if this was better than saltwater as fuel. lol.

Baby portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 19:37:00 +0000

Donna made this really nice montage/collage of some sort of our baby pictures. :) Yes, i know we were that cute. Donna still is. ;D

Team Inkdepot

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:38:00 +0000

Here's our Inkdepot (click on our sponsor) Basketball team of the ongoing tipidpc.com basketball league. 8 teams total, we got eliminitated in the quarterfinals, with a 4-4 record in total.
We started with 2 losses, and slowly worked our way up for a spot in the semifinals. With great potential, scoring prowess, and a mighty lot to improve, we'll try for another run on the next open.

Players from top left clockwise.
Francis "Carl" Nicart- dashing debonnaire, 3 pt specialist, defensive wall & almost horizontally challenged;
Jake Quinday - the incessant leader, scorer, playmaker and intensity specialist;
OJ Ontiveros - the driving bull, shot blocking, defensive mammoth;
Obet Quinday - the prolific scorer (highest average) , go-to guy, and "almost" close equal to Kuya Quinday;
Aldric Licayan - the shooter, open j and 3 pt specialist, and fastbreak finisher mr pogi;
Me - the texter/schedule reminder, payment collector;
Gani Loyola - the sparkplug, playmaker and defensive specialist, and highflying rebounder;
Willison Yu - the anchor, shot blocker, power poster, 3 pointer, and only no sub no fatigue monster in the team.

We'll see you next conference, you better watch out, ...cause Santa's coming to town.

monologues 1

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:46:00 +0000

nothing's better than a monologue that touches the soul, holds the heart, and makes that lone teardrop fall..
from the top of my head, and of course google, here are a few of my favorites..

"Because I can't. I had an experience I can't prove, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real. I was part of something wonderful, something that changed me forever; a vision of the Universe that tells us undeniably how tiny, and insignificant, and how rare and precious we all are. A vision that tells us we belong to something that is greater than ourselves. That we are not, that none of us are alone. I wish I could share that. I wish that everyone, if even for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and the hope, but... that continues to be my wish."
- Ellie Arroway(Jodie Foster from the movie Contact)

"The GUNFIRE AROUND us makes it hard to hear. But the human voice is different from other sounds. It can be heard over noises that bury everything else. Even when it's not shouting. Even if it's just a whisper. Even the lowest whisper can be heard - over armies.. when it's telling the truth."
- Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron from the movie The Interpreter)

"You have come to fight as free men, and free men you are. What will you do with that freedom? Will you fight? Aye, fight and you may die, run and you'll live. At least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom!"
- William Wallace (Mel Gibson from the movie Braveheart)

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
- Timo Cruz (Rick Gonzales from the movie Coach Carter)

"Dear Fellas. I can't believe how fast things move on the outside. I saw an automobile once when I was a kid, but now they're everywhere. The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry. The parole board got me into this halfway house called the Brewer, and a job bagging groceries at the Food-Way. It's hard work. I try to keep up, but my hands hurt most of the time. I don't think the store manager likes me very much. Sometimes after work I go to the park and feed the birds. I keep thinking Jake might just show up and say hello. But he never does. I hope wherever he is, he's doing okay and making new friends. I have trouble sleeping at night. I have -- bad dreams, like I'm falling. I wake up scared. Sometimes it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun and rob the Food-Way, so they'd send me home. I could shoot the manager while I was at it, sort of like a bonus. I guess I'm too old for that sort of nonsense anymore. I don't like it here. I'm tired of being afraid all the time. I've decided not to stay. I doubt they'll kick up any fuss. Not for an old crook like me."
- Brooks Hatlen (James Whitmore from the movie Shawshank redemption)

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'the world is a fine place and worth fighting for,' I agree with the second part."
- Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman from the movie Se7en)

"Crude? No sir. Our founding parents were pompous, middle aged, white farmers, but they were also great men. Because they knew one thing that all great men should know--that they didn't know everything. They knew they were going to make mistakes, but they made sure to leave a way to correct them. They didn't think of themselves as leaders; they wanted a government of citizens, not royalty. A government of listeners not lecturers. A government that could change, not stand still. The President isn't an elected King, no matter how many bombs he can drop because the crude Constitution doesn't trust him. He's a servant of the people. He's a bum, okay Mr. Pitcannon? He's just a bum. And the only bliss that he's searching for is freedom and justice."
- Simon (Joe Pesci from the movie With Honors)

Samurai Champloo

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 03:57:00 +0000

This anime series surely grabbed me by the balls, the samurai fight were out of this world, a new style - captivating and awesome. The creator Shinichiro Watanabe who also created Cowboy Bebop mixes japan history with contemporary art even rap music. The characters are great and different. They aren't your ordinary lovable anime characters, they have their own distinct idiosyncracies that will surely raise your brow and at the same time solicit a grin. The soundtrack is also awesome, rap beat and ancient japanese melody cooked into a groovy and hip hop genre, it's really catchy.

This anime is tops in my list, and haven't been toppled yet with the likes of naruto, bleach, don't get me wrong - also like these anime, they're also good. Champloo is just for me, one notch higher. This series is only a 24 episode series which tells the story of 3 totally unrelated characters brought about my fate, to search for Foo's (the girl) father. The two other companion are Jin and Mugen - the 2 best samurai in the land, smug and outlandish, one is an introvert and principled, the other the opposite and rash. Together their travel sends them off hungry and into inexorable confrontations with different sorts of villains or wanna-be-villains.

Don't miss this one. This is an automatic classic.

Hope they extend this to another season and develop their story further. Here are some figures that I would love to have. Saw 2 in megamall, but they are now gone, I only would like them as a set.

also a statue series that would just be an add-on for me after the 3 figures above.

mirrored this in my toy blog

Zoe's 1st birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 16:11:00 +0000

Last July 21, Zoe celebrated her first birthday. hmm, she's the second child of donna's officemate Ice, who also happens to be my friend Jay's high school schoolmate from butuan. small world. Here are the princesses' crowns. ahhh.. aren't they lovely? :D

The celebrant checking out the goods with super happy mommy Ice.

Now she's all warmed up and is blabbering instructions to her guest, "this way..., this way...
to my cake, i'll let you dip your finger into it... hurry"

And another of Donna's officemate's kids. The little girl is little Sherryl (actually that's the mommy's name - the one holding the kid, maybe she's shy in front of the camera, nah.. hehe), or Izzy (i think!) short for Ysabel? sorry gotta get my facts straight before posting. Just am quite excited to post these nice smiling pictures of babies. :)

by the way these babies have super long names.. like 5-6 words of them, they'll be sure to go through a lot of hard work in their kindergarten years trying to spell out their full names. "Mommy, i want to be Ana, yes, just Ana."

Donna at 28

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 15:47:00 +0000

i figured i'd give donna flowers, ones that won't wilt (well it could break). but with tlc, won't wilt. :) here's her cake with cute little candles.

Here's donna getting help to blow her candles from our jianna and ika. :)

and it's also the first time I got to try my 50mm f/1.8 lens !! :D
here are some shots.

Andy Mckee

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 04:08:00 +0000

You have to watch this man eat his guitar. A truly gifted and talented musician. Just when you thought all the styles have been defined. One for the ages.

and a cover of Toto's Africa. jaw-dropping.

wooaahh.....

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 11:47:00 +0000

Jack's back. The sparrow has landed. (____ insert other corny intros here)

one of my highly anticipated movies this year, the other is, well of course..

wedding website

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 05:33:00 +0000

We're still creating our wedding website. I need to sticky this (to the right). We have still so much to do. I know, i know, we haven't done much yet after 2 1/2 months of planning. Hope to cover more in the next few.. "months" I'd say, probably Donna will say "weeks". Hehe.

new born Ika and Ate Jianna

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 05:17:00 +0000

Gani and Ging's new born treasure Jennika Love Loyola getting her daily dose of sunshine. She still sleeps a lot. And the least cry-baby of babies I've known. :) Her second name Love, was because she was born almost at Valentine's day.

Ate Jianna Grace is also pretty excited with her younger sister, and is also adjusting to the divided attention nowadays, nevertheless, a gem as always.

Ging and Gani now have Grace and Love, what will be their third child's second name be?

pba new season

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 05:02:00 +0000

Thanks to Gani and Sherwin for the tickets and the good seats, we we're able to enjoy our first PBA game at the Cuneta Astrodome.

lights, camera...

James Yap with his signature jumpers.

Everybody just running.

The King - import player of the Purefoods team on uncontested breakaway dunk, slams one hard.

Screwed by Jollibee

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 04:50:00 +0000

Life is like a jollibee burger, you never know what you're gonna get.

Unfortunately for Donna, this was a takeout, so this was going to be a hard legal battle of he-says she-says and your-word-against-mine monologues. When Donna went back to jollibee to complain, the crew and the manager was apologetic, and was offering a new burger! Couldn't stomach that.

A day later after sending a complaint to jollibee management, a representative called up denying the screw couldn't have come from them because it was a takeout order. Anything could have happened to the burger when it left its doorsteps. Well, they're the business magnate and we're the ants. They know how it works. They probably even have hundreds of complaints each day. They handled us like pros, all in a day's work.

So here's this entry, for you - jollibee. We kept the receipt. A lost cause, maybe, but this little speck of a post, will be here forever - or until google blogger closes down.

she said yes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:26:00 +0000

.. and I couldn't be much happier! :D

Love is in the Air

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 14:32:00 +0000

here's to another happy couple - Lennard and Raki. Friends from work, and my kakulitan in what have yous. It's that time of the year folks ;)
Best wishes and Congratulations.

Here's a pix of the bride doing her thengg. The walk of her life. careful sa steps, raks. :)

(here are the rest of the highlights)

Jay and Lalai's wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 07:57:00 +0000

We went to Butuan last week to attend Jay's wedding. See the other pix here. Saw a lot of old and new faces.

Even went on a relative-hunt, yes, seeking out relatives I have never seen or must have seen when I was a kid.

It's good to be in the peace and tranquil of the province, celebrating love, eating a lot of food. :D

Wish we had more times like these.

Dodge this Prime

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 13:11:00 +0000

A toy review of some sort.

Try this one for size. The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Optimus Prime. My first Hasbro-made Alternator Transformer. Makes the Cybertron Prime next to it look puny. But he's like a little brother in my mind. Don't worry lil bro, Big Prime is here. But I even have a BIGGER Prime that I can't wait to open for my birthday. Donna got it for me! :D

Some trivia: this toy is made of mostly plastic and some metal parts. What can i say, i like it. A little complex to transform at first, given the instructions were of little help. I even thought it was broken. lol. Found the trick a little while later. It's really fun to roll around with its rubber tires and makeshift swivel for tire-turning. It's stance is awesome, it made Sideways' (the black robot at the back) stance lackluster. I mean i thought he had a mean stance before I got Alternator Prime.

My birthday is around the corner, and hoping to have a nice day. Got a whole bunch of toy$ as a present to myself, one that caused me two days of anxiety poop fest, and a fever. I'm thinking it could have been something I ate. Will post pictures later. :D

note to myself: add more blog entries that are un toy-centric. There's a world out there.

It's Not In The Game: an NBA Live 07 rant

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 14:27:00 +0000

Taking a break, just finished some significant work. OT for the entire week, without basketball, how's that sound. I had to skip this week's schedule because of work :(

To add to that, the latest NBA Live 07 game really sucks, the controls are messed up, i'm having a hard time adjusting to it. EA sports added some neat new tricks, but sad to say, didn't polish it quite enough. The QA team will probably get fired, or maybe they wouldn't even care that the entire nba live community at www.nbaliveforums.com is ranting about their latest game and screaming for their money back.

To give a them a little credit, you now can switch Freestyle Superstar modes on the fly depending on the skills of your player. They've separated the dunk, layup, and shoot button. You can execute touch passes (one player passes the ball, the receiving player barely touches the ball and touch passes it again to a cutting or open teammate) but can get quite confusing as they randomly execute when you're in the game. They have a few signature jumpshots and a little more freethrow animations (including jason kidd's freethrow kiss, shaq's forehead wipe, hamilton's side dribbles, sorry no arenas around-the-waist gimmick).

Ok, too much plusses, now the negatives, what i really hate the most is that they've mislabeled the Direct Switch shortcuts on your Dunk and Layup players. Pressing either one passes to the other player. They've remapped the Pivot(last year) now Dunk button to the Center Position. The Last Man Back button doesn't work! And you can't switch players during inbound. Some more... I can't remember. Right now, I'm just trying to adjust, trying to be happy w/ the game. Hoping they release a patch for everybody's sake. Oh, do you know that because credible game review sources like gamespot giving them a 6.5 score and 1up giving them a 5.0, their stock prices dipped 3% (see article).

Back to work...

oh be wannabee carpenter

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 08:08:00 +0000

shelf design specs
Originally uploaded by waraijj.
the carpenter w/ the rusty saw
Originally uploaded by waraijj.

Originally uploaded by waraijj.

ok, i wanted a shelf for my toys. and when i checked the mall, ack, they were quite expensive. I think i need to hire a carpenter, and buy some wood. No carpenter available, I'll just have to do this on my own. Paper, pen, dimensions, varnish, nails. Borrowed my neighbor's saw. It took me an hour to saw off one board because it was already dull and rusted. I thought it would take me months to finish. Donna convinced me to buy a saw. In less than 30 mins, I was finished. Oh so that's how easy it is w/ a sharp saw. hehe.

In paper I had a different plan, when I was hammering already. It seems you need more than just aesthetic taste to design a shelf. It was shaky at first, I had to reinforce it w/ more wood and more foundation in the base. Donna did the varnish, she was dizzy from the vapor afterwards. :) Sorry uyab. Everyone helped sand the boards, my thanks to aia, chenette, aldric, and donna. My gratitude for indulging.

Price: 1 1/2" plywood board (500php); 250 grams of 1" nails (15php); 1 saw (300php); 1 2"x1" wood (75php); 3 bottles of varnish ( 75php); 4 #120 sandpaper (80php)

The satisfaction of having made your own shelf; savings from not buying the mall versions; 2 blisters on my hands; a new home for our toys/hobbies - PRICELESS.. :)

Transformers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 23:03:00 +0000

Some time a month ago, when we came by toy kingdom in sm mall of asia, i saw some familiar robot toys in Megatron and Thundercracker. When I opened them, I was amazed, it was like opening a dimension from when I was a kid wanting to have all those Transformers toys. I almost immediately got hooked.

I can remember from way back that I've always wanted the Dinobots especially Grimlock. Kids are really fascinated with dinosaurs and robots. When I saw this combo, all I was asking from my parents was this for whatever occassion there was. Too bad, these things never saw the light of day in the province, probably only the urban places got them. Today, I like vehicles turning into robots more than animals into robots. Well, that's only me.

The new characters are not strictly as what they were when I was a kid, they now refer to the old versions as Generation 1 (G1). They've sort of evolved (thru a series of franchise ups and downs) but there are still some flavors of the original series preserved. There's been quite a lot of versions as i've wiki-dly discovered.

There's even an upcoming movie by Michael Bay where they've deformed most if not all of the Transformers characters to my dismay. They should have just revamped the previous generations and not come up with another new line of models. Arg! I hope this one's good. Check out this site local fan site.

Back to these toys, some things just outright connect to us. Like an untapped enchantment or fascination. A wide-eyed kid in the haze of monumental trivial what-have-yous. Magnetized. Locked.

Well, over the days, I've discovered there are overwhelming and very expensive toys available here in the Philippines if you just sieve through the internet long enough. Like probably a couple of days. There's a great site for collectors for all kinds of different toys at greattoys and even a forum for discussions. An optimus prime could cost up to 12k php including the trailer, this is like a 12" tall toy. whew. I'm way far from being that kind of collector.

I'll try to restrain myself from draining myself bankrupt with this new found hobby/fascination. Here's my collection for now.

More than meets my fascination, more than meets the eye...