/Tomatoes and Herbs →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

Got a big container of mixed herbs from Costco, so i tried to cook everything with herbs. :) The first picture is chicken with mushrooms(canned), cherry tomatoes and herbs! The second one is salmon with fresh mushrooms, tomatoes, and herbs! But i dropped an egg to make it like my mom's "sarciado".

Sarciado: meat or seafood in tomato sauce

/Lost in Translation →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

Real Life:
Got a new project though i'm not yet finished with the one i'm working on. Currently just encoding some string constants. These are actual messages that will appear on the display panel of the product we are working on. I can’t help it but smile when I found words like “caliblation”, “liner” comparison, “saveing”, “now caliblating…", "calender" in the actual specs I need to follow. Am I gonna tell them and hurt their feelings in the end or just let them produce another product that will give smiles(sometimes hearty laugh) to people around the globe.

I decided to tell them...

Its really hard to communicate with a Japanese through english. Duduguin ka talaga, quoting her in her blog entry "Turning Japanese". I saw an english lesson where they are trying to learn “l” and “r. Rain and Lane sounds the same! Fast rein and falling rein... They study english from gradeschool until university but they really don’t have the means to practice it with someone who really knows the language. Some even told me their english teachers can’t even speak it. So just be patient when talking with them. Or better yet learn Japanese.

->->->


Game Life:
Its halloween inside FFX (Oct23-Nov1 Japan Time). They placed NPC’s in costume in towns. They will greet you “Trick or Treat” when you try to talk to them. The secret is to give them sweets to get some cool stuffs or just be turned into a monster. BOOOH! The result is totally random and does not depend on the sweets you give them. You can give them pies, cookies or fruits. I just give them oranges, apples and grapes because they are cheaper when you get them from NPC’s in SanD’oria. Some greedy players sold pies and cookies 10x the normal price during the first few hours of the event. I can’t blame them. There is a real economy inside VanaD’iel so prices soar when the demand goes up :) I did it myself. I’m now fruit vendor buying fruits from SanD’oria and bringing it to Bastok selling it for 2x its worth. I got tired of running after the monsters giving them treats and getting nothing. So I told myself why not make money out of this rather than waste money?



I got a few stuffs out of this event: Pumpkin Head II, Trick staff, Horror Head II and a couples of Jack-o-Lanterns. What I really want is the Treat staff because it can give you free warps! I guess I need to do another round of trick or treating later…

List of all the possible stuffs
1.Trick Staff -> 2.HQ Treat Staff
3.Trick Staff II -> 4.HQ Treat Staff II
5. Pumpkin Head -> 6.HQ Horror Head
7. Pumpkin Head II -> 8. HQ Horror Head II
9. Jack-o-Lanterns

Most people are saying you have to equip the non-HQ items to get the HQ items. (to get the treat staff just equip the trick staff). All items except 9. are EX and RARE.

->->->



Guild Wars - World Preview Event on Oct 29-31! Not trying to be unfaithful to FFXI or anything... I joined the preview event last May (during E3) and quite enjoyed it. Hope some of you can try it out. We　can do some of the cooperative missions together! Its for free so no worries.

If your PC meets the required specs then download the client and join us this weekend!
•Windows XP/2000/ME/98
•800 MHz Pentium III or equivalent
•256 MB RAM
•ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or 4 MX with 32MB of video memory
•500 MB hard drive space
•Internet connection
•DirectX 8.0

Clickables:

Download Client here

Event Details here

Guild Wars Official Site here

/Tengoku →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

tengoku
Originally uploaded by aidsaaronn.

Tengoku = heaven...

A few weeks ago i was talking to my younger brother. His wife is due to deliver their first baby this month. "Make her have it on the 16th so he will grow up just like me." I joked. But my birthday passed without any news about the baby.

Until this morning 2AM i got a message from my sister "We are in Bulacan. The baby died." I didn't call home because i didn't know what to say. I can't possibly say its gonna be OK... because I am not OK.

I called them lunch. They told me something happened during labor that left the baby in a critical condition. He managed to live for 2 days and left Sunday noon. I told my mother we were visited by an angel. He will be much happier where he is now.

I guess i wont be seeing him grow up. I'll just see him in Heaven. Hope he can recognise me.

Darren, regards to everyone in Heaven :)

/Care for a drink? →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

Which Pepsi-Cola or Coca-Cola soda are you most like?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sorry been visiting her blog lately...

/What art you? →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

Your artistic style is:

/Bonez Tour 2005 →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

avril1
Originally uploaded by aids_cruz.

I always find Avril Lavigne cool. She did a concert this year but missed it. So promised myself not to miss the concert next year. Just reserved my tickets! I'm going to see her on March 6!

/Kyoukai →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

kyoukai
Originally uploaded by aids_cruz.

Kyoukai is the japanese word for church...

If we only knew this word then our first trip to Church won't be a riot.

It was our first Sunday here. October 3 1999. Mass starts at 10 so we took off around 9:20. We asked our senpai (senior)for directions. They wont go with us that early because they have bikes and can reach the church in a breeze. "You'll find the church at the end of the river/stream" was the only direction we got. Okay we were kinda confused because rivers/streams usually end where the sea starts, plus I cant remember any sea near our place.

Good thing its already Autumn, a nice weather to take a walk. After 60 minutes (yeah we are late for church) of walking we saw a part of the stream under construction. They are filtering the river through gates like a mini dam. So we thought this must be the place. We looked around but we can't see anything that resembles a church. Hopeless we approched this family to ask where the church is. It was too late before we realized we dont know how to say church in japanese. So we said "Doko (where)..." and started gesturing things. I can remember making a cross with my arms, moving my hands (palms down) up and down like what people do when they are praising or worshipping. I can only imagine what's on this japanese head.... "These guys are crazy!". A friend even blurted "Doko e ikimasu ka?" (Where are you going?), a sentence he was trying to memorize as a pick-up line.

"They are definitely crazy!" you can see clearly on his face. We tried more of our gesturing after a hearty laugh. He kinda gets it when we said words like "sing" "cross". He said he saw a church 20mins back where we came from. After lots of Arigatou(Thank You) and Gomen Nasai(Sorry)we marched back. We found the church. There's a construction in front of it that's why we missed it. It's not like the typical church/chapel we have in the Philippines. It was more like a room. The mass was over and people were coming out. We spotted the senpai who gave us the direction... He was just smiling...Not a clue of the agony that awaits him...

->->->

I'm really busy... but managed to blog this one :) Probably take ages before i blog the next one. I havent even played FFXI for 10 days!

Have a great week everyone!

/Gonen →→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

gonen
Originally uploaded by aids_cruz.

Gonen is japanese for five years...

Oct.2 1999 Saturday, i came here armed with all the clothes i owned, 2 business suits and bagful of hope. I was young, innocent and restless...now just innocent. It was a turning point, the biggest ever, in my life. It means i have to celebrate my birthday, Christmas and New Year away from my family. Already spent 5 birthdays, 4 Christmases (if you can call going to the office spending Christmas then the number is correct) and 4 New Years here! The number will turn 6-5-5 this year. Those are the dates i wished i'm home with my family. Other than those holidays(yeah i consider my borthday a holiday :)) i'm ok. I spent 5 years away home when i was in college so not a new thing.

And so the adventures started. My first plane ride, my first train ride (still no MRT when i left), my first sushi, my first karaoke, my first *toot*....the list goes on and on. So i'll talk about those adventures we had, simply to warn you about what to expect when you come here. (or just to share how stupid things can go when you are here)