The Massacre and Politics

It's 12:38am and I'm supposed to be working on a business review, but I got the sudden urge to blog and given my current track record on posting, I decided to go for it while I felt the urge. This is mostly on current events, and this is definitely on the "thinking out loud" POV as opposed to a detailed structured analysis (which I'll be doing in a bit anyway for my business review).

The Maguindanao Massacre - did the Ampatuans really do it?

First of all, let me get one thing out of the way: this massacre is utterly deplorable and the assholes who did it deserve to get sliced into little pieces over a period of 24 months till they finally expire. Anyone who comes up to me and tells me the line "they have rights too!" will get a withering stare from me and a scathing question in the form of "so what about the rights of those who were massacred?" Beings like these do not deserve to exist.

Now, the entire world seems to be convinced that the Ampatuans did it. I....have my doubts. In my head they're the biggest suspects, and my reasons for that are:

1. MOTIVE - killing off the Mangudadatus + their supporters would definitely end any kind of political opposition to their continued dynasty in the area.

2. CAPABILITY - of course the Ampatuans have the capability to execute the damned massacre PLUS they have the capability to cover it up locally.

However, a few things bug me:

1. The motive was way too obvious so naturally the first suspects would be the Ampatuans. It's easy to frame them because if you kill off their opponents, naturally the first suspect would be them.

2. I don't think that the Ampatuans are stupid enough to do the following:

   a. Bury the bodies in a mass shallow grave - putting all your eggs in one basket eh?

   b. Use a government issued backhoe...and leave it on the site. Brilliant.

   c. Bury an huge cache of military-grade arms around your mansion (uh huh) or behind the municipal hall of a town where one of your relatives is a mayor. I mean, seriously. The OCEAN is a few kilometers away, and it's so easy for someone to take all these firearms and dump them in the ocean (assuming that they were used in the massacre and needed to be disposed off) OR place them in some quiet unassuming house somewhere OR bury them in a DISTANT place.

3. With Gloria declaring martial law in Maguindanao and charging the Ampatuans with rebellion - why the need for this? If it was really the Ampatuans, then there's no need to charge them with extra matters that won't hasten or increase the punishment. Does Gloria need them to be a mere scapegoat, and since she knows that the murder charges won't hold, she has to hit them with something else?

   a. Of course, there's a counter argument to this - Gloria KNOWS that they did it BUT since she needs them politically, she comes up with a charge that's not as heavy as murder OR something that distracts the public from the murder charges.

My reasons for doubting the guilt as enumerated above are based on the simple premise that the Ampatuans are not, executionally speaking, stupid. I mean, sure, we all know that criminal forensics in this country is pathetically close to zero, but still, the government could get lucky. The crime and the succeeding cover-up was done very sloppily. I mean, I despise the Ampatuans...but are they THAT sloppy?

I don't know. If I were on the jury (assuming we used the jury system), I'd be convinced BUT not completely - the government has not yet convinced me with evidence "beyond reasonable doubt." I need to know more before I can sign their death warrants.

The very nature of this massacre has elevated this incident from a mere criminal case to a political case. Yes, as disgusting as it may be (and I most certainly am disgusted), this is no longer "just" a case of 57 men and women who were killed in cold blood. EVERYTHING has been put on trial here: the government's capability to SOLVE crime, CHARGE the right people, CONVICT them, and JAIL them; the government's political will to go after warlords with private armies; the country's tolerance for the LACK of sustainable action on the government's part to stop violence against journalists; the Executive Branch's power to declare martial law; and freedom in Maguindanao itself.

Adding the fact that the 2010 Presidential elections are fast approaching, and you have something that barely resembles a criminal case anymore. I sincerely pity the men and women of the NBI and the PNP who are working tirelessly to build the case while trying to ignore all the pressure brought about by the politics of the event. It must be tough.

Will this ever get completely resolved? Maybe. I don't have high hopes...but I have my hopes. Will the TRUE guilty parties be punished for this? Maybe so. Will the Ampatuans get punished for this? Definitely. Are the Ampatuans guilty of doing this crime? Most likely...but right now I'm not 100% convinced. 

That's what politics does - it muddles up everything.

Rediscovering PC gaming

I started my foray into gaming with a PC - my folks never believed in buying a console beyond the Atari 2600, so when my dad got a PC for the first time for "schoolwork" I got busy learning how to play games on it. I started on Tetris then moved on to old-school RPG classics such as the D&D "Krynn" series (Champions of Krynn FTW!).

As I started to work, I bought my first PC from Dreamchum Computers (yes, I was an idiot back then for believing in their "value" PCs), then I bought a more powerful rig (Pentium 2.8e with HTT) which lasted me a good 6-7 years. However, when "Gears of War" came out, I joined the bandwagon and bought an Xbox 360, and for the last 2 years I've been playing mostly on my Xbox while my aging PC just sat there, serving its purpose for the occasional RTS game or World of Warcraft.

Lately however, I've just rediscovered my love for PC gaming. And I chalk it up to 3 reasons:

1. A slew of great PC games. Yes, PC gaming is cyclical: it's a long drought of lousy games, followed by a period of great games, and I'm fortunate enough that this period is one filled with great games. In the past MONTH alone, we've seen the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (I played the 1st one on the Xbox 360 and I must say that it's such a sweet feeling to go back to playing FPS games on the PC!), Left 4 Dead 2, and Dragon Age: Origins. In the next quarter or so we'll also be seeing Dawn of War 2: Chaos Rising, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2, Assasin's Creed 2, and Starcraft 2 (sequels much?). Oh man, so many games, so little time.

2. My new rig. Yes, I finally purchased a brand new rig, and it's working just beautifully. For the 1st time I'm playing games on 16xx anti-aliasing with ultra high settings all through out with nary a stutter. I find myself replaying old games just to appreciate the beauty of the game (such as Dawn of War 2 and Assasin's Creed). I'll also be playing the mother-of-all-high-end-rig-game, CRYSIS.

3. Windows 7. Yes, Microsoft's newest OS is working wonders on my new 64-bit rig. Some people (especially Mac diehards) may dismiss Win7 as a mere copycat of Snow Leopard, but I beg to differ. Win7 may have similar features to Snow Leopard, but you get with it out-of-the-box functionality with almost ANY kind of hardware configuration (yes, Apple claims the same with a Mac; however, Snow Leopard works great out-of-the-box with a Mac hardware configuration - achieving the same with Win7 using the literally billions of potential configurations out there with a PC is nothing short of amazing). It works well, and for the first time in my life I had to spend some time learning about how a new Microsoft OS works.

It's a great time to be a PC gamer nowadays, I tell you!

----

On a small sidenote, I am apalled at the unmitigated gall of some people. To do something and to blame alcohol is just pathetic. Being drunk is not an excuse, it's an alibi.

I wish some people would be brave enough to just stand up and say "I made a mistake and I apologize" rather than trying to weasle their way out of it through half-ass explanations and illogical self-contradicting statements and then resort to threats of violence when everything else fails.

Wishful thinking, most of the time. Wishful thinking.

Hello!

It's been 2 months and 1 day since my last update. *ducks to avoid the heavy stuff thrown at him* Yes yes, my blogging activities have dropped to zilch in these past 8 weeks.

It's not as if nothing's been happening. On the contrary, too many things have happened in the past 8 weeks -- events in my life, my family, Gail, and my close friends. Since my last update Gail started teaching at CSB; Anjy dropped by for a quick visit; Jay had a birthday party; Ondoy wrecked havoc on the country in general (brought to home by the fact that it also hit Gail's house, Jia's house, and a couple of other close friends of mine); Gail and I celebrated her 27th birthday by flying to Singapore...er, Hong Kong; typhoon Pepeng wrecked havoc on the northern part of the country, including the area of Marvin's family; we celebrated my mom's birthday; my dad and Gail got their new cars respectively; Gail and I started to regularly run in my village; I ran my 1st official 5km run; I got my new rig!

And those are just the major events in the past 2 months...that doesn't include the smaller things in life. Nor does it include the nitty gritty details of my career.

After a particularly jaw-dropping moment last Saturday night which left me speechless for a good 5 minutes (yes, the people who know me well know that making me speechless is nearly impossible - I do take after my mom, aka The Generator!), I told myself in an offhand manner that "life is good." I then stopped and did a mental double-take and realized the absolute truth of that statement: life IS currently good. Very good, to be precise. I wasn't in a good place this time last year - when the new year came, I was determined to get my life back on track...and it seems like it did. In spades!

Don't get me wrong: it's not perfect. It wasn't as if the past 8 weeks was nothing but nirvana. It had its ups and downs of course...but (given that I'm a proctoid), if you were to graph the highs and lows, majority of the events fall on the high side.

And that made me close my eyes and give a short but heartfelt prayer of thanks to God for everything: to my family, who has been there for me every step of the way and supports me in the right things and cajoles me on the wrong things; to Gail, for being the sweetest, most loving, most caring, and most supportive girlfriend in the world; to Gail's family for making me feel so welcome in their home; to my close friends - from the office, from W&C, and from my barkada - who make life better and certainly more interesting; to my previous and current bosses at work who really are hell-bent on pushing my career; and to God, for being patient enough with me as I learn.

So yes, there have been so many things happening in my life that I don't get to sit down and blog about them anymore. It's not as if I don't appreciate them - I take the time to review, reflect, and relive new moments in my life during my downtime (while I'm driving haha!). I guess I've become a little bit more private about my reflections about certain things in life and I pick and choose about what I blog about, so I hope you'll forgive me if my blogging frequency has dropped. :)

There are quite a few things that have happened that I'd like to talk about more:

1. RUNNING! - yes, initially for health reasons (both for weight loss, toning, and back-muscle building) but more so for the endorphines lately, Gail and I have been regularly running (and by regularly I do mean a good month and a half already!) at either the Fort or in my village. We've both been running 5km...nothing compared to the likes of Gloria, Anama, and Cathy of course, but it's progress. :) I like how I can put my mind on auto-pilot and just focus on the simple act of putting one foot ahead of the other - it's a great way to clear my mind. Hopefully I get to improve my time for 5km (I'm average 42 minutes while Gail's kicking my ass at 37 minutes!) and to run longer distances!

2. MARKETING! - I was invited by an organization to conduct a marketing planning and strategy session for them next year, and I'm humbled and very excited about it. Since I haven't had the opportunity to teach yet, I'm super excited that I finally can put my marketing experience to good use outside of my current job, and I can't wait to get to it!

3. GAMING! - yes, after a good 7 years since my last major upgrade, and a good 7 months of agonizing between a desktop and a laptop, I finally went ahead and built my gaming rig! An Intel i7 920 processor, an Intel Extreme DX58SO motherboard, an nVidia 9800GT 1GB video card, a 500GB HDD, 4GB of RAM, and 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium = gaming awesomeness in a package! (WARNING: GEEK MODE) Imagine running Dawn of War 2, CoD: Modern Warfare 2, Dragon Age: Origins, and The Orange Box on ULTRA HIGH SETTINGS. LEGENDARY!

4. CHRISTMAS! - I'm super excited for Christmas! As in I haven't been this excited in my entire life for the holidays. The entire family's going to be home for the 1st time in quite a while and we're all excited! Gail made me excited for Christmas all the more when she gave me a CD of the Chipmunks Christmas CD - I tell you, that brought back great memories of my childhood when my folks would play the LP of that album during Dec 25!

And with that, I close off this post of mine. Hopefully the next one doesn't take another 2 months! :)

The best goodbye email I've ever read

It makes you think. :)

---

From:

Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 3:11 PM

To:

Cc:

Subject: Don't sweat the small stuff

My friends (except Jim and maybe you too Clarissa – Don’t laugh, I’m serious (haha)),

Initially, I intended to just slip away quietly but I realized that to do so without acknowledging my friends would be disrespectful and downright rude. As such, this letter is therefore being sent out. We would want to encourage proper behaviour, wouldn’t we?

Someone once said “Kindness is the passport and the proven way for two to journey through a lifetime, each other, or a single summer’s day.” Don’t ask me who, because I don’t know. Google it or something. Haha. I thought it was a good line. (Maybe something you can mention in a first date to impress. Sorry, I digress.) Words of wisdom there. Something I believe should be incorporated in the PVP. Heck, maybe it should replace the PVP. You never go wrong with kindness. I have yet to see it fail.

I have a long memory. I remember acts of kindness much longer than I hold grudges. I want to thank all those who have lent a helping hand, made me laugh, bent backwards, took a blow for me, spoke up for me and watched my back. You know who you are and believe me, all those are stored in my memory bank. I shall return the favour someday. If I myself can’t, the universe in all its mysteries, will proxy for me to maintain the cosmic balance.

I’m not big on promises so you won’t hear any of those “let’s keep in touch” pledges. If you and I want to stay in touch, we will do so given the technology and services at our disposal. If we drift away, then such is the nature of fleeting relationships. I thank you still for the good memories and this farewell was then well made. At least we had our single summer’s day. And if we continue to keep in touch, hell yeah, we just need to put up with each other’s irritating traits much longer. Haha. Of course, I jest.

I have an empty bank account, nothing of importance attached to my name. My earthly possessions are limited to a snorkel, a dive mask, trekking boots, a couple of cameras, an ipod filled with my life’s soundtrack, a braun 790 shaver and more Oral B toothbrushes than I have teeth (of course, I need to endorse my brands. You haven’t heard of loyalty?) Everything I own, I can fit in a bag or two. I have no definite plans yet. I have a few things I intend to work on, things I hope will enable me to feed myself without going back to the corporate world. In all probability, I will most likely starve.

But I choose life. And as hobbits meandering in Middle earth are, life is also short.

A black hole by its very nature will never be filled up. I prefer to build my life on strong foundations where reciprocity is paramount. I choose to live not merely to exist. I want to die falling off a cliff, or drown in deadly rapids, or even with a bullet in the head defending democracy. There are other more noble aspirations in life.

So my friends, I salute you and pay tribute to you. I have wonderful memories with you. May you eventually get what you deeply aspire for. Tonight, when I get home, I will open a bottle of wine and will recall you, all the people who have made my life in this company wonderful. I will drink to each and very one of you. Te Salud!! I mean it.

You know where to find me. I’ll be around.

With my deepest affection,

Gabby

P.S. I leave you with an article I’ve written and was published. Some of you have already seen it. I intend to write more of these. Shoot me an email if you want to be in the distribution list.

Hell Week

It's 5:35am on a Monday morning as I begin to write this post. Outside, the light from the impending sunrise is beginning to turn the sky a light blue. In a couple of hours I'm flying off to start my hell week.

Hell week, you say? Yes, hell week. It's what happens when the regional president for my brand comes over for a visit. She's the "super ABM" GM who makes everyone turn over their heads when she comes over for a store check and business review, including our Leadership Team (LT). So for the past 2-3 weeks, the entire team has been working really hard to make sure that every big and little thing is covered. And, of course, since I'm the only person who's working on my brand 100% of the time....meh.

Sigh. I guess it just comes with the territory of running an $8 billion dollar brand globally, the largest brand for P&G in the world, the largest country for my brand's category in the region, one of the top 3 brands of P&G Philippines, and the #1 brand in the Philippines in its category. Yes, I repeat all these things to myself when I'm feeling super stressed out coz of the work. I try to convince myself that all the stress is worth it...."try" being the operative word.

So over the next few days, I'll be talking and having meetings with the regional GM, the new GBU MD, and the new GBU BM. Not to mention the fact that beyond presenting to the entire group that includes the MDO LT, this will be my first time to present to the new MDO GM. Meh. Someone up there really decided to ante up in terms of pressure.

A big note of thanks to my Multi Functional Team...you guys rock. Absolutely rock. There is no way that we as an MDO could've pulled off all this preparatory work with such speed and excellence if it weren't for you guys. We shall all dine and drink properly once this week is over!

So in about an hour or so I'm heading off to the airport (yes, despite the bloody holiday today). Gail was kind and sweet enough to offer to take me to the airport to catch my flight, despite the distance and the early hour. The girl is sweet and utterly lovable I tell you. She's stood by my side these past few weeks as I struggled to put my business review and presentation together (sidenote: if anyone bitches that "it's just a business review and presentation" I invite you to join the meetings and see for yourself...P&G business reviews are nothing to sneeze at, much less a business review for my category...! Ok rant over) while running the business at the same time with nary a word of complaint. She supports me not just through words but also through actions. She doesn't need to do big acts or run a major PR campaign...she just goes ahead and does it, with minimal fuss, without the need for public acknowledgement. :) My kind of woman, I tell you. I love the fact that the social aspect of her life, which is inevitably tied to her work, is just exactly that...an aspect of her life and not her life per se. :) I'm glad that the people whom I know and trust (let's see, that would be just about the same number of fingers and toes that I have...!) know exactly who she is and what she stands for.

Thanks so much for being there for me honey, and for all the support and love. :) I love you so much.

So 2 days out of the city, then the 2 days after that will be choke full of meetings, presentations, 1:1s, and the likes. I'm tired of work as it is, and I'll be so glad when this week is over.

Ok, it's 5:54am. Time to pack my bags.

UPDATES!!!!! With PICTURES!!!

Almost a month has passed since I last updated my blog...*ducks to avoid the glares thrown his way*...and quite a LOT has happened since my last post. Here we go!

A Close Encounter with Cory

No, not in the ethereal sense. :)

I was on my way to see Gail during the day of Cory's funeral procession from The Manila Cathedral to Sucat, and since I take the SLEX heading to Makati, I grabbed my DSLR in the rare chance that I spot something nice enough to shoot. As I drove up SLEX heading to Makati, the people along SLEX kept getting thicker and thicker...so what the heck, I stopped a grabbed a few shots.

I then got stuck in traffic right be fore the Buendia/SLEX intersection coz Cory's funeral procession was near, so I decided to climb on a truck to get a better vantage...and whaddyaknow, she passed right next to the truck! That moment was awesome...right before she passed by, people were noisy, cheerful...a couple of moments before she passed by, people suddenly hushed up in a moment of silence...and as her truck came closer, everyone spontaneously cheered and chanted her name. Awesome, I tell you.

Ella and Paulo

No, they're not together...di sila talo. :P

Ella and Paulo have moved on to...er, greener pastures. Or "to pursue their passions." :P Ella is now working for a company that is uber top tier, while Paulo is now marketing director for a fashion company. We had official despedidas for them in the office, and since we're cliquish, we decided to extend the despedidas to an overnight in Tagaytay!

Dreams and promotions

For Gail, that is. :) She was just promoted and got all the benefits and perks that come with it...well, almost all the benefits and perks. :) Here's hoping the car swap happens! On top of that, she also got accepted to be a faculty member in DLSU-CSB to teach her passion...WINE! (woot) Congratulations honey, I'm so proud of you! You deserve every little bit of happiness that you're getting coz you worked so hard for it! (cozy)

Coron

Organized by the legendary Jillian Sze, a huge chunk of the MDO and our respective significant others went to Coron in Palawan for 4 days of fun! Tiring fun, but fun nonetheless. :) Swimming, snorkling, shipwrecks, hiking, twin lagoons, a safari...FUN!

Paulo also shot some photos of Gail and myself...beautiful!

Till the next update! Hopefully it won't take too long this time. :)

*image credits: Myself (large photos) and Paulo Tirol (small photos)

Icons and Milestones

[UPDATED] Included 2 photos of Cory Aquino's funeral procession as it drove by 6750. Apologies for the lousy images, I left my DSLR at home and had to make do with a lousy Nokia camera phone.

Aug 1, 2009. A day of contradictions. A day of yin and yang. Insert all the "polar opposite" cliches you want to describe this day - all of them would ring true.

The loss of a national icon - in a day and age where icons are so rare and so needed.

Aug 1 was the day that Cory Aquino, former Philippine President and icon of democracy, passed away due to cardiac arrest. She was 76 years old.

I won't spend time talking about the how's and the why's of Cory's passing, nor will I even attempt to compare and contrast Cory Aquino and her condition with Gloria Arroyo and her condition - Conrado de Quiros did an excellent job of it already.

What I will write about is this country's need - any country's need - for icons.

Every country has an icon - something that represents what the country stands for. The United States has the flag, the White House, the Kennedys, Martin Luther King; the Brits have the Union Jack, Buckingham Palace, the Crown Jewels, and the Royal Family; the Russians have the Romanovs, the Kremlin.

Icons are important because they provide a rallying point for the country. Try defacing an American flag in the US and you'll be lucky if you're not tagged as a terrorist; try denouncing the Crown Jewels in the UK and you'll be lucky if you aren't shot. Icons give the people something concrete to believe in as opposed to just an ideal which is amorphous and exists only in the minds and hearts of the people: to African-Americans in the United States, Martin Luther King was their icon for equality.

Without an icon, a country has nothing. It exists merely as a territory defined by international law filled with people who happen to exist in the same place. A nation without an icon is a nation of zombies.

The Philippines has three icons, in my opinion: the 1st EDSA revolution, the Philippine Flag, and Cory Aquino. And today two icons were merged as the honor guard layed the Philippine Flag - the icon of freedom won through hardship and battle - on the coffin of Cory Aquino - the icon of democracy won through prayer and perseverance.

We already are in danger of losing the icon of the 1st EDSA revolution through the corruption of it's idea and the banality of it being repeated. We are also in danger of losing Cory Aquino as an icon of democracy - icons live on after they die - should we let the people forget about who she was and what she did.

Should we lose these 2 icons, then our last icon, the Philippine flag, is in serious danger of becoming just another piece of cloth.

Aug 1 was the day that our icon of democracy died - but what she stood for and fought for will continue to live on as long as we let it. The day we forget who Cory is will be the day that democracy dies in this country.

2 months together!

On a more personal note, Gail and I celebrated our 2nd month together last Aug 1 as well. It may seem too much of a cliche to celebrate monthsaries, but Gail and I like to take this day as a celebration of us being together. Yes, our being "traditional" in this sense has evoked a lot of BWAAAAARK responses via PLOOOOORK, but I've always believed that it's nice to take a step back every now and then and celebrate the simple act of being together.

Gail and I also had a nice talk as the day ended and again I am humbled and awed by the amount of trust that she has placed in me. I always feel that I have been entrusted with something so precious that there I times I feel as if I don't deserve it. :) But at the end of the day (literally given we had the nice chat at the...er, end of the day!), I have a loving and true girlfriend whom I love completely and she also wants exactly what I want in life - both now and in the future.

And on top of that, she knows how to spell words correctly. :P Ok, I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

(woot)(cozy)

Review: Harry Potter 6 The Movie aka Dumbledore is a Damn Shame

Warning: the following blog post contains massive spoilers for people who a) haven't read the entire HP series, or b) haven't watched the movie. Consider yourself warned.

To give you folks some perspective on my opinions, I think that the entire HP series is pretty lame from a die-hard hard-code sci-fi/fantasy geek. When compared to the Wheel of Time, Dragonlance, even The Lord of the Rings - the HP series absolutely pales in comparison Yes, let's get that out of the way, lest some people start to bash me for picking on "the greatest story ever told." I read the 1st book and about the half of book 2 before I gave up on it entirely - it's a tween-focused series. THEN to give it another shot, I watched the 1st 3 movies. Then I gave up again.

Anyway, I watched the 6th installment with Gail over the weekend and found myself to be pleasantly surprised at certain parts of the movie...only to be completely blown away by the pathetic ending. Absolutely pathetic. Allow me to expound on these 2 seemingly contradicting observations.

Pleasantly surprised since the movie (and the last 2 books as I understand it from reviews) were darker, more "mature," more visceral. Gone (well, almost gone) are the goofy looks on the faces of the 3 protagonists (save maybe for Ron) - instead, you see real human emotion (mostly negative in fact!) brought about by situations that the audience can relate to (for example, the "love triangle" between Hermione, Ron, and that ditzy girl). My favorite though was the actor who played Draco. Absolutely brilliant acting - he was able to convey the impression of the tortured soul who wanted to save himself without so much words (since he barely said anything!) but through his acts and facial expressions.

Absolutely massively disappointed with [MAJOR SPOILER ALERT] the way Dumbledore was killed or, to be more precise, the way Dumbledore staged his entire death. Absolutely pathetic. As I said, I'm looking at this from a die-hard sci-fi/fantasy reader. Let's take a step back and see how things happened in the movie (which app

arently was pretty faithful to the book).

Dumbledore casting a massive Firestorm spell in the dungeons prior to getting killed in Hogwarts

Dumbledore shows off the reason for being acknowledged as "the most powerful wizard living" by casting a massive Firestorm spell to nuke those ~300 undead whatevers that are attacking the island he's on (and incidentally to save Harry as well!). Kudos to the filmmaker for the excellent cinematography in that scene - it really conveyed the impression that Dumbledore was the shiznit. He really showed them who was boss.

Now, we jump to the scene right before his death. He's surrounded by a) 3 deathstrikers, b) Draco Malfoy, a student, and c) Snape, the double agent. Let's see, that's 5 vs the ~300 undead he nuked a while back. Sure, he was hurt by the potion he drank (but he already had ingested the potion when he casted that Firestorm spell, so...) and casting the travel spell was probably draining as well. And of course these 5 enemies were by far more powerful than those 300 undead...so let's take that into account as well.

How does Dumbledore die? ONE SHOT. One bloody shot from Snape that pushes him off the edge to his death. Sure, it COULD happen. Yes, he had to die so Snape would be trusted. But seriously. The most powerful wizard living. Disarmed by a STUDENT. Killed by one shot. Wtf. Allow me to compare him to:

Raistlin Majere of the Dragonlance Chronicles. He challenged

the Dark Queen of Krynn herself (goddess of evil) by a) entering her domain, the Abyss, b) literally fighting ALL of her minions, including dark clerics, demons, evil dragons, and the undead, and c) fighting her at the end of it all. AND HE WON! But when he realized through his brother that if he continued with this, the entire world would die (and he would have nothing to rule over), he went back in time and allowed himself to be killed by the Dark Queen - after laying waste to her entire domain.

Lews Therin Telamon of the Wheel of Time. He challenged the Dark One himself PLUS 13 of his greatest generals (aka the Forsaken) and won, BUT he had to sacrifice his sanity to do so.

Gandalf the Grey in his battle vs the BALROG. He sacrificed himself to kill the Balrog but in the end, he DID kill the damn thing.

...and in comes Dumbledore, the most powerful living wizard, killed with one shot. I'm sorry, but whatever gains the movie/book made with being made more dark was utterly ruined by the absolute pathetic way they killed him off. Make him fight, for crying out loud. Give him some dignity in his death, even if he planned it. Raistlin, Lews Therin, and Gandalf all willingly threw away their lives (as did Dumbledore) for the greater good - but they did it without putting their fellow wizards to shame.

Dumbledore is a pussy.

Rant over. :)

image credits: http://home.earthlink.net/~estwilde/arctic.html and http://hpfvc.co.cc/site/2008/07/new-hbp-photos/

The Month of June

It's only 21 days into the month of June and things have been...momentous. :) Quite a few things have happened, so allow me to tell you all about it.

June 1 - The end of the diabolical plan/The start of something big
On the 30th day of the diabolical plan, Gail and I got together officially...and it seems that the world celebrated with us. :) People were asking what would be different between pre-June 1 and post-June 1, and truthfully, the only difference would be that we could now be public about how we feel for each other.

30 days, 30 envelopes...and the scrapbook that binds it all together. :)

We're still learning about each other, and no, we're both not perfect people. But we've both accepted the fact that we're both imperfect...yet both our strengths and weaknesses seem to compliment each other. We remain to be two separate individuals, each with our own identity. But as things go, we're both on the same page as to what we want with our lives, with each other, and with our future. So just like before, we're taking this one day at a time...but this time, together as an official couple. :) And yes, I'm crazyhappy...finally, I understand what Kristel means.

A shoutout of thanks to everyone who's been super supportive of both Gail and myself, both as individuals and as a couple. :)

June 2 - Level up to 30
I officially turned 30 years old last June 2, and it was....well, fun! :) I didn't really know what to feel about the fact that I was turning 30...and as I usually do, I overanalyzed it to death. But as the big 3-0 date approached, I realized that there's no reason to be sad or depressed or anything. In fact, there are a lot of reasons to be happy - I have a loving supportive family, I have Gail whom I love and loves me as well, I have a few but great friends, I'm (relatively) healthy (spine nonwithstanding!), have a good career, I'm financially capable, and I have the entire future ahead of me. :) There's absolutely no reason to be sad or depressed at all.

We had a very simple celebration that day - I was on leave from the office, and Gail was thoughtful enough to go on leave that day too. I had brunch with my mom, then I spent the day with Gail, then we had dinner with my mom and dad at Cafe Caruso. :) A simple perfect day.

I also got a few kickass gifts! :) My dad got me started on something I wanted to save up for, my mom got me my DSLR battery grip, and Gail got me the Belkin n52te gaming accessory (yes, my geekiness just burst forth when I saw it - I'm going to post a separate review shortly!).

June 13 - Goodbye Nokia (sorta), hello HTC
Though I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to get the upcoming N97...I hesitated. Based on reviews, it seems to be living up to its hype, and I was able to handle it for myself, so it seems to be a very good phone...but it's a Nokia. :) It's still SymbianOS. As much as I think that it's the best mobile OS...I was scared that I'd get bored with it (as I found myself getting bored with Nokia phones in the past 2-3 years). Ever since the N95 came out, I found myself getting terribly bored with the succeeding Nokia phones (even with the E90 that I have - yes it's a very good work phone...but it's hardly the most exciting phone in the world). So I looked around, read some reviews, and decided on getting a phone from HTC.

Yes, HTC, which runs on Windows Mobile. I'm surprisingly enjoying it -- and yes, I'm eating my words about how WinMo is lousy. :) WinMo 6.1 seems to be a far cry from WinMo 5.0, and the improvements are very significant. I found myself feeling excited to explore my phone, try out it's new features, learn about the new OS...when I realized that I hadn't felt this was about a new phone since the P990i. Sure, I was excited about the N95, but when I thought about it, I was excited about the 5mp camera and the GPS specifically...everything else was the standard Nokia phone.

I'm going to post a detailed review about it soon enough, so hang in there.

June 21 - Father's Day
It may sound a bit mundane, as we're celebrating Father's Day the same way we do every year: my mom treating my dad and myself for dinner - save for one thing: my mom invited Gail to join us without any prompting or anything. :)

I'm very very happy that my mom and dad seem to have accepted Gail easily into the family - one of the lessons I've learned is that whomever I would be with has to be someone who's willing to go forth and get to know my family and hopefully get close to them - even if I'm not around. :) Gail was thoughtful enough to get my dad a Father's Day present (and my mom and Mother's Day present back in Mother's Day as well), and mom, out-of-the-blue, just told me that she wanted Gail to join us for dinner tonight. It's very important for me that my nuclear family and Gail get to know each other and be comfy around each other, and things seem to be moving in the right direction. :)

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Yes, June's been a busy month, and there are quite a few things to be thankful for. :) Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta get ready - I'm picking up Gail in about an hour or so for the dinner tonight. See you! :)

"Yet"...

...is no longer the operative term indeed. :)



*bouncing off the walls and ceiling* :D

Restlessness...

...is exactly what I'm feeling right now. Why? Beats the crap out of me. For some insane reason I wanna chuck my (brand spankin' new) laptop out the window and just walk out of the office.

Must be the fact that it's a Friday. I think I just need to disconnect from work for a while and just...I don't know, walk around the mall and vege a bit.

Given my state of restlessness, I think I shall blog about a multitude of things.

The need to impulse buy something techy.
Yes, I'm quite proud of myself coz I haven't bought a tech item...actually, ANYTHING...on impulse since last year. I do believe my last impulse purchase was my DSLR, which make it a YEAR since I bought anything on impulse.

Don't get me wrong. This is a good thing. Good because it allows me to save up on money as opposed to buying something that's nice-to-have but ultimately could've waited.

It's a bad thing because a) it shows that I'm getting old (dammit) by being mature over my expenses, and b) since I haven't done this is a long time, I might end up making a BIG impulse purchase to make up for the lost time.

I actually have a hypothesis as to why I'm feeling this way. Which leads to...

I need a new mobile phone, and the N97 is taking forever to arrive.
I have 2 phones (the left and the right...eh heh), one for my work life and one for my personal life. My work phone is about 1.3 years old (and looks like it's 13 years old due to heavy usage) and is working perfectly (you gotta love Nokia Communicators). My personal phone is 2.5 years old (or so) and looks like it's 25 - my beloved N95. The reason why I still haven't bought something to replace it is because it took Nokia bloody 2.5 years to come up with something new and exciting enough to actually WANT it to be replaced. And it's taking the N97 forever to show up (it's coming in July according to my good old friends in Nokia regional and global). Sure, I was toying with the idea of getting an Xperia X1, but the WinMo 6.1 was a turnoff (so that throws the HTC line out the window) and Samsung Omnia HD was coming out at the same time as the N97, so...

Bottomline: July better hurry up.

My new office laptop rocks.
The good old office was considerate enough to provide me with a newer lighter more powerful laptop to replace the one I had which was HEAVY. Given my scoliosis, they immediately purchased a new one.

It helps that one has LT backing behind requests such as these mwehehe.

They gave me an HP EliteBook 2530p and it's a nice upgrade to my previous laptop, the Compaq 6150c. Running on Centrino 2, sporting more memory, a DVD-RW, and (I kid you not) an integrated light bulb to use when it's too dark to see your keyboard, it's light enough at 3.75lbs to avoid backbreaking instances yet powerful enough to run WOW at decent speeds and graphic levels.

Good thing the office gave me a pretty damn good laptop, or I would've been tempted to buy a personal laptop...

Running running running
Good for my health (keeps up the trend on my weight loss), good for my wallet (running is cheaper than going out!), good for my back (it strengthens my back muscles, especially the ones along the spine), and good for the environment (running's better than gas guzzling around the city!). Must keep it up!

Honesty

One of the decisions I made when I decided to live again was to be as honest as possible - to others and to myself especially. My principle in life is "honesty, in the long run, will always be better."

Honesty is difficult...hence the phrase "as possible." Not that it's a blanket excuse that I utter every time I find myself in a situation where I chose to not become honest. But admittedly, honestly is difficult. You're sometimes torn between being honest for the sake of your principles OR potentially lying because a) it would be easier for you, or b) you feel it's what the person needs.

Let me try to tackle those 2 things one by one:
1. It would be easier for you.
Let's face it - 90% of the times that we're not honest is because it would be so much easier for us. Heck, I'm guilty of this. I must admit, sometimes it would be so much easier for me to tell my folks a white lie or two when I'm going out, just to save myself the trouble of getting a mini-sermon. Or it would make my life easier at work if I told a little white lie. It's quick, it's easy, it saves you time and effort, it saves your reputation, etc.

But just because it's quick and easy for you doesn't mean it's wrong.

Ok, hell no am I going to be preachy and tell everyone to stop saying white lies...for one thing, I'm guilty of this myself, and there is no way in hell that I have sufficient moral authority to do so. I can't even get myself to stop this, what more others?

But getting used to being dishonest because it would be easier for you is a slippery slope. Kinda like drugs. You start with something weak and easy ("don't panic, it's organic!") and then you start moving on to the bigger heavier things.

Getting used to being dishonest because it makes things easier for you is a dangerous path to walk. It'll eventually lead to bigger things. Pretty soon, you'll cross a line which you never thought you would all in the name of "convenience."

I'm trying to lessen this. "Trying" being the operative word. It helps that I have a much better and closer relationship to my family and close friends now - I can be much more open about what I think and feel and, contrary to my earlier feelings, I never get judged for it. True, sometimes it gets me in hot water, but hey, at the end of the day, the feeling of being honest truly compensates for any trouble I might have gotten into.

2. You feel it's what the other person needs.


Ah, here's a more difficult moral decision. Do you lie because you think the truth will hurt the person, whether emotionally (simply by knowing the truth) or physically (because the act of telling the truth will potentially cause damage or pain or injury to the person) or intellectually (because the truth will set into motion a series of events which will lead the person to doubting him/herself)? This is indeed a tough call to make. There are a myriad of factors to consider, and no two situations are the same. So making the blanket statement "you should always tell the truth, no matter the potential consequences" isn't really applicable right?

In my personal opinion, I disagree.

My principle stays the same: honesty, in the long run, will always be better. No matter how much one justifies it, no matter how much one thinks about it, in the end, there is no reason that will justify a lie. Even if you think or feel that it's what the person needs.

For one thing, who are we to judge what is better for the other person? True, there may be exceptions in certain cases (e.g. a parent deciding for a child who's not yet emancipated), but by and large, who are we to position ourselves as someone who decides what's good or bad for someone?

Remember, that person whom you're thinking of telling a lie to does not have the full and complete picture. Hence he/she may make ill-informed decisions that affect the rest of his/her life. Were we not taught in school that decisions are best made when all available information is brought out into the open?

This reason, for me, is very difficult because most of the times the decision to not be honest (in these kinds of situations) is made with (hopefully) the very best of intentions. I do not judge these people to be evil. After all, who would want to see someone hurt, whether physically or emotionally? No one, save for the most evil of people, wants to see other people hurt. Especially if it's a family member or a loved one. Hence sometimes they decide to be dishonest to "spare the other person the pain."

But doesn't that justification fall under reason number 1? That the reason why you're not saying the truth is because YOU don't want to feel bad about causing pain or trouble to the other person? That it makes it easier for you since you don't have to put yourself through the pain and guilt of seeing the other person be affected by this?

Not an easy thing huh? Trust me, I'm getting a headache myself going through this moral quandary.

But at the end of the day, this moral quandary can be avoided with one simple act: tell the truth. The complete and utter truth. True, you may end up hurting the other person - but at least the person knows the truth. The person will eventually face up to it anyway - which means the pain will always be there. I think one reason why people decide to do this is because they sometimes underestimate the mettle of the people they decide to tell the lie to. In my opinion, and in my own personal experience, people are a lot tougher than they appear to be. Trust them enough that they can handle the truth and the consequences of learning about it.

Of course, there is a right place and right time to tell the truth (you don't tell someone something life changing while he/she's in the middle of a huge meeting of course!), but at the end of the day, the painful truth will always be better than a lie told in the name of "not getting the other person hurt."

Ok, enough introspection for one day. This is what I get for waking up at ungodly hour on a Saturday. *yawn*




*image credit: www.lolcats.com

The Prequel to the Prequel...which is actually a sequel

Ok, confusing title, I know.

I had some questions about the latest Star Trek movie...
...how did the Narada, a mining ship, manage to beat off 47 Klingon warbirds and 7 Starfleet vessels...?
...if a supernova destroyed Romulus, why didn't anyone get enough warning time to evacuate, like, I don't know, a couple of hundred million years advanced warning...?
...why didn't the Vulcans have any orbital defenses...?
...where were the 6 billion Vulcans...?

Apparently JJ Abrams released "Countdown" a comic that tells the story of everyone the start of the movie. The story actually begins 8 years after the events in the movie Star Trek: Nemesis and does a fine job of answering some of the questions above.


Next up is an analysis on the military aspects of the movie - which, as cool as it looked like, was actually...er, pathetic.

Yes, my geekiness is in full swing!

*image credit: startrek11.blogspot.com

Movie Review: Star Trek

Yes, my geekiness will really come out in this post. Consider yourself forewarned.

Let's get one thing straight: I loved the movie. I really admire JJ Abrams for being able to turn a cult classic into something that appeals to both the mainstream crowd (some who have never even seen a Star Trek movie!) and the geeks (such as myself). Action packed yet has just enough emotional scenes (both sad and funny) to make the characters all the more real. Which is important, because what made Star Trek so famous was not really the technology - it's really about the characters and how they used the technology in the story.


But, as I'm a geek, there are quite a few inconsistencies with generally accepted Star Trek canon - though in no way do these inconsistencies rob the story of it's greatness.

1. The U.S.S. Enterprise was built in spacedock, not on Earth - starships in the time of Jim Kirk, especially starships in the Constellation class (of which the original Enterprise is from), are not capable of surviving atmospheric flight - one reason being their weight. Also, it was generally considered to be much safer to have it built in orbit because of the extremely hazardous nature of dilithium crystals (which powers the warp core, which is the reason why starships can travel faster than light) which would potentially cause havoc on the planet. Even in the Enterprise D (commanded by Jean-Luc Picard some hundred years in the future from Kirk) could not survive atmospheric flight, though the saucer section could survive long enough to make planetfall - though it could never fly again under its own power.

2. Starfleet never had "rapid-fire" torpedoes - space combat in the movie was a chaotic thing, filled with phasers firing constantly and torpedoes being launched in rapid-fire. Starfleet never had rapid-fire torpedoes, and the original Enterprise only had 1 torpedo launcher (forward launcher). The Enterprise D has 4 photon torpedo launchers - 2 fore, 2 aft.

3. Each ship during Kirk's time had their own logo - Starfleet only adopted the use of Enterprise's logo AFTER Kirk made the ship famous, unlike in the movie, when Starfleet was using the Enterprise logo as the official logo.

4. The original Enterprise only had room for 2-3 shuttles at the most - yet in the movie, we saw about 6-8 shuttles docking in the shuttle bay.

5. The original Enterprise did not have "touchpads" for controls, just keys and buttons - Uhura preferred keys and buttons because you knew that when you clicked something, it actually was done, as opposed to touchpads where you didn't know it was being done.

6. Engineering was not that big - the engineering room was portrayed as a...well, HUGE room filled with large tanks and the likes. It was only in Enterprise D that engineering had a 2-level room, the original Enterprise just had a smaller room to begin with.

7. Each starship only carries one warp core - not multiple ones as in the movie. The dumping of a warp core was a last ditch safety measure in case the warp core was going to go critical - and there's only one (as multiple warp cores don't necessarily mean faster travel).

But beyond those inconsistencies (hell, Gloria didn't know anything about them yet she enjoyed the movie!), the movie was absolutely great. :) Kudos to JJ Abrams for a job well done. Now, I wonder what's going to happen with the sequel...