First of all, I really hate that Black Eyed Peas song that everyone's been quoting but I seriously can't think of any subject more appropriate for this entry. Anyway, now that I've said that, I've also realized that while typing that first sentence, I didn't have to worry about exceeding the twitter character limit. Haha. So yeah, for the past few months I've been tweeting since I just couldn't come up with the right words for a decent LJ entry. Maybe I was lazy, but I also didn't want to post a lazy entry. But right now, I just didn't feel like tweeting so I thought maybe I should give LJ another try.

So I've been saying that this weekend has been good. I don't know if I'm thinking that after the horrible unlucky miserable previous weekend I had but let's do a list of things that made this weekend "good":

1. Comics - Sure, I only got a few titles for the past 2 weeks and I wasn't able to buy that much from the sale. But this weekend turned me into a fan of that B-list hero book, The Incredible Hercules. I wasn't able to find a good variant on sale, but I was able to get the second volume of Captain Britain and the MI-13. I was also able to read it in one sitting, which I haven't done lately with a comic book meaning it must have been that good. Finally there was the not-so-surprising conclusion of Dark Avengers/X-Men: Utopia but there were 2 great things about that issue: a) awesome fight scene with Dani as a valkyrie again and b) a new and bold direction for Emma Frost.

2. Games - Even though I still need to get my PSP re-hacked, I just spent some time playing Warriors Orochi 2 on PS2. I'm so addicted again right now and I know it's not the right time because Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is getting released this week! I think reading the Samurai Warriors 3 preview images (Oichi with a new weapon!) made me play all the Orochi/Dynasty games again. Haha. Now I have a problem next weekend because I'll be torn between Orochi and MUA2.

3. Ateneo - Win against FEU + cheerdance 1st runner-up. Enough said.

But I guess the most important factor was the fact that I didn't go that trip this weekend. After everything that happened, I just needed a break away from that environment. I know I don't usually go on trips and passing up on that was like missing a rare opportunity but I guess it was just a case of wrong timing. Now I actually feel recharged and I didn't need 2 weeks of mandatory leave.

And to end this weekend, I was able to watch Glee on TV. I've been hearing a lot of things about the show so I decided to give it a try. It wasn't as HSM as I thought it would be, but I actually kind of liked it. I think I'm replacing Heroes with this as one of my weekly shows this season. Oh and BTW, during the commercials I found out that Survivor: Samoa is premiering this Friday! Yay!

So there, the weekend's ending (how redundant) and here comes the new week. OBF!

PS. Last week's surprise was strike 1. After watching Glee I think I got strike 2. Do I still need a third one? Hmm...

Today marks a new chapter. I'm so happy and excited.

It's been a few days since my training last week and I'm still on a high. Haha. Everyone's been saying that I'm weirdly happy recently. I guess all the positive energy from the 2-day session has rubbed off on me. In terms of how it has affected my job, I still don't want to stay here but at least I no longer feel (and look) drained when I go to work. If there's one thing I really learned from the training, it's to keep a positive spirit!

Tomorrow I'll be officially 2 years in my current work. I feel so old and in many ways I really feel like it's time to move on to try other things. It's not that I'm tired of my job or I don't like it anymore. Actually I'm very much ok with what I'm doing, but I just feel like there are other things I can learn and do out there. When I look at the office environment here, I feel like it's very much different from the time I first stepped in. I guess to sum it all up, my general sentiment towards my current state here is, "This isn't what I originally signed up for."

In the TV world we just had all the season finales. So right now TV is dead until September. I guess I can start catching up with the other shows I didn't bother to watch?

I've also finally picked up my comic book pile. So far I've only read Uncanny, X-Factor and New Mutants. Uncanny is fun, and we really get the vibe that the X-Men are celebrities now in San Francisco. X-Factor gives us a not-so-original-but-still-interesting future timeline. I guess Ruby Summers is the magic trick here. The New Mutants relaunch is actually quite successful IMO. I didn't have high expectations at first because I didn't quite like the art and the plot wasn't all that interesting. Then I read it and I thought the characters where portrayed just right and their interactions with each other made it really feel like this IS the class reunion readers have been waiting for since the 90s.

Oh and I'm currently on reality show withdrawal. I'm thinking about marathoning old seasons of AI, Survivor or TAR.

Last month I was telling my officemates that I can't remember the last movie I saw (in the cinemas), that it was probably either Dark Knight or Indiana Jones. They told me to go and watch a movie soon and that's just what I did -- 6 times. Hahah. Since May 8th, I have watched the ff:

X-Men Origin: Wolverine (2x)
Star Trek (3x)
Angels & Demons (1x)

I also have to take note that each of the 3 movies I watched first during their opening days. I guess I have really missed going to the movies. And I guess it's also a factor that it's perfect timing right now because we have all the anticipated summer blockbusters coming out week after week.

So to quickly review each of the 3, I'd have to say that I liked Star Trek best (every minute of it) and it made me watch Star Trek: TOS (aka the 60s show) on TV. Wolverine was fun but I'm kind of biased towards Marvel films. Angels and Demons was also amusing with all the architecture and mythology but I just felt the story was too simple (I haven't read the book btw). Ok, so the story was also simple for Wolverine but that was expected. Wolverine and Star Trek were supposed to deliver through the action and effects while Angels and Demons was supposed to give a thrilling and engaging storyline.

So anyway Star Trek not only made me watch TOS (see I know a little bit of Trekkie jargon now), it also made me watch Heroes again (ie. an alternate world where Spock is a serial killer) and anticipate the Lost finale more (which is produced by the Star Trek director).

So Heroes went all boring and predictable with Volume 4: Fugitives. It was predictable and boring up until episode 20, which I believe was the returning episode of Bryan Fuller (from Pushing Daisies). Seriously though, going from episode 19 to 20 is like going through a black hole and returning back to the Season 1 magic. It's like the writers suddenly had some ideas again.

And then there's Lost. Consistent since the end of season 3, the penultimate season wraps up with "The Incident" and although people have been complaining that it's such a cliffhanger ending, I thought it was the best way to end this season. It already gave away a lot by revealing "what lies beyond the statue". Sure it doesn't set the tone for the next season unlike the previous season finales, but at this point I have faith in the writers that the final season next year will give us what we want. Maybe not all the answers, because I this point I think I don't even want all the Lost mysteries to be explained, but I guess I'm just excited for a final season of good TV.

Finally there's my favorite reality show Survivor, which had its season 17th (or 18th?) season finale. This show is and has always been an addiction for me. I'm always at the edge of my seat when it's time for the jury vote. I really think this season picked up after the merge and remained entertaining till the end (with all of the Coach philosophies). One of the better seasons and probably up there with All Stars and Cook Islands (Australian Outback is still the best btw).

So now I'm just waiting for The Office season ender. Oh and there's also AI.

It's already May but I still feel like it's January. Time flies here at work and it's scary.

Meanwhile I've been keeping myself happy during weekends (or what's left of it) with my usual dose of games and TV. I've played half of FFXII until I got distracted by Koei's Dynasty/Samurai Warriors, which made me go and watch Jidaigeki dorama.

I've also been religiously watching Lost, which never fails to wow me every week. There's also Survivor: Tocantins, which was boring me until the merge when all the blindsides and multiple secret alliances started happening. The Office has also been consistently entertaining this season and I was really impressed by the whole "Michael Scott Paper Company" arc.

Comicbook-wise, I'm not really into these days, although I'm somewhat intrigued by the Psylocke/Kwannon story going on in Uncanny. Runaways needs a revamp and Dark Reign just isn't interesting enough. I'm somewhat looking forward to the New Mutants relaunch later this month, and I recently read the first TPB of Captain Britain and the MI:13 which was weirdly fun so I'm thinking about adding it to my monthly list.

In terms of Anime, I've managed to catch all FMA: Brotherhood episodes on Animax so far. I'm also liking Sengoku Basara and Higashi no Eden (Eden of the East). I still haven't finished Gundam 00: Season 2 and I really need more Gintama episodes.

Anyway, there we go. Be back in a few months and hopefully by then I won't be stuck in this loop anymore.

I've been busy for the past few weeks/months finishing up on work that never seems to end. But it's not all work because I've also been busy with some videogames. In my previous post I was still obsessing over Dissidia. Well that went on until late January. It gave me this Final Fantasy nostalgia that made me want to play Final Fantasy X & XII. I'm currently playing XII and I just don't understand why people hate it so much. Sure it's not the typical FF in terms of gameplay but I actually like the gambit and hunt system. The characters are ok (except Vaan) and I guess I'll have to complain about Fran's below average stats. There's also the nerfed summon system but I like the animation and bgm for it so I guess they make up for it somehow. Anyway I'm already 60 hours into the game and I'm looking forward to finishing it next month or maybe April. The story's actually decent, very political like most Ivalice games.

Besides FF, I also discovered the Sengoku games (ie. where you play as Japanese historical figures, from samurais to ninjas and the like). I don't know why I never heard of these before, but I'm looking forward to playing Samurai Warriors this weekend. It makes use of the hack-and-slash system, which means you get to massacre armies. hahah.

Anyway, back to work. 3 more days before the weekend...

This week I worked from 7 to 11 (except today), so I only had 4 hours of sleep whenever I got home. I've been sleepy since Thursday and although I think I need to go to work tomorrow (I sill have lots of unfinished stuff), I think I'm going to skip it and just sleep the weekend away. Haha. Anyway next week will probably be the same so I guess it's time to recharge.

I finally found my copy of Advent Children and I'll rewatch it tomorrow (too sleepy tonight). Yay. Playing Dissidia has made me want to go through all the Final Fantasy games again. I actually want to go and play FFIX or VIII again, but I don't think I'll have the time. Meanwhile I've been researching about the other FFs I haven't played yet, and I think I want to play XII.

This morning I was feeling so frustrated because one of my memory sticks got corrupted and now all of my Gundam Battle Chornicle/Universe game saves are lost forever. That's almost 100 hours of gameplay gone. However, I immediately forgot about that when I decided to move on and play this other game I wasn't planning on playing until after GBU -- Dissidia. Basically it's a fighting game featuring all the Final Fantasy lead characters and villains from I to XII. IKR?!?!!!

So it's in Japanese but whatever, I'll just play it again when the English version comes out next year. So far, I'm finding Onion Knight (FFIII) and Zidane (FFIX) the easiest characters to use. Tina/Terra (FFVI) is fun to use because she has the standard spells (ie. Aero & Blizzaga), although I think that she should have fire-based attacks if we stick to FFVI canon. Cecil is also fun with the Dark Knight/Paladin shifts although it takes time to get used to his style because his lancer/dragoon-based attacks have to be properly aimed. I somehow wish there are more characters, but maybe that's for a sequel or maybe for the main consoles.

In other news, the horrible Young X-Men comic book is finally canceled. Yay. Maybe now we can get a title with the original New Mutants (with Magik) alongside Hellion, Surge and Prodigy.

I've also had the chance to watch more Gintama episodes (continuing on the Kyuubei arc) and I have to say that this show really does a good job with making fun battles and that really sets it apart from the typical shounen anime. They make the craziest battles, and this arc they had the toilet paper fight. :D

In TV news I got episodes of GG and B&S and hopefully I'll be able to catch up in time for January. Speaking of January, I can't wait for LOST! Hahaha.

I've been surfing the TV channels today and Channel V has been marathoning this reality show "Vanity Lair" over and over again. Speaking of reality shows, I miss TAR and Survivor. Oh well, I guess I'll just settle for Fear Factor on ABSCBN. Hahaha.

Back to FF, I just found out that one of 3 the FFXIII games will be a PSP-exclusive and will have the ATB-style RPG game feature. This is too good to be true. Haha. Now I'm just waiting for an FFVI remake (if it's on the DS, then I'll immediately buy one). :)

It feels more and more like Christmas these days with the cool weather. I seriously cannot remember when was the last time we had a cold Christmas here. There's also lots of gift-giving, and I'm actually surprised that people seem to be more giving this year. Haha. I guess the only thing missing now is the presence of at least one Christmas decor in our office. I mean, I'm there 16 hours a day and there's no hint of Christmas (well, physically) because we have no Christmas decor at all. It's sad really, and I just make up for it by listening to Christmas songs while working. Hahhaa.

In other news I attended a Gboys xmas party/reunion last Saturday. It was the first organized party (with catering, teacher invites, a party theme and exchange gifts) in 6 years. Wow. I feel so old now. Anyway, it was more fun that I thought it would be. There were around 30 of us present (out of 40 I think) and we were all in our (oversized) high school uniform/clothes. Hahah. I don't know if it was because of the clothes, but it seemed like we were still in high school, since we all still act like how we used to back in 4th year.

Oh, and I also got my fortune read and let's just say that I'll try my best to follow my destiny. Hahahah.