Monday, November 30, 2009

League of Legends

For all you hardcore gamers out there, DOTA (Defense of the Ancients) has been the staple custom map that has prolonged the life of the old Warcraft 3 game created by Blizzard. 2 sides, 3 lanes, a whole slew of heroes to choose from, intertwine it with RPG elements, and obviously IceFrog has definitely made a winner.

There are a number of DOTA-esque clones around. But this post is about one of the popular ones out there.

The game is called League of Legends created from scratch by a company called Riot Games. Riot Games claims to have some of the veteran members that created DOTA for Warcraft 3. I suppose the remaining members of the original team are still with Icefrog now that they are essentially working for Blizzard.

It is very similar to DOTA in design. But Riot Games has extended it further with a whole new set of "champions", items, and persistent RPG element which are Summoners. Summoners are essentially the players themselves, who summon champions when they go into a match.  The Summoners level with each match that they play, allowing you to level your Summoner skills. These skills add a new dimension into the skirmish matches.

Below are some of the video trailers that Riot Games posted on League of Legends.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Looking at the Past as Reminders...

I have an acquaintance in my Yahoo Messenger that for days has a status message about not looking at the past because it destroy's one's future. Something tells me that that status is there more to convince himself of this rather than to teach other people a lesson.

I, on the other hand, severely beg to differ about not looking at the past. Looking at the past doesn't have to be wielded as something destructive to one's self. rather, it can be harnessed as a reminder on how to compose one's self in the future.

So just an exercise for today, let's look to my past few years in order to prove my point.

Reminders Based on One's Own Past Actions

There are moments in anybody's life that we all remember and do the following knee-jerk reactions:

1. Remember the memory and vividly picture the event.
2. Cringely close your eyes. (Facepalm is optional)
3. Utter softly to yourself, "Stupid".

I challenge anyone who doesn't have a whole slew of of these experience in their lives. With each cringing reminder, one personally vows to never be that stupid again. And these tiny vows for every cringing experience ultimately guides one's future actions.

Whether it's saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to girl back in highschool, or making a mistake at work by mixing your personal life with your professional life, these moments, if wielded properly, guide you on how you compose yourself in the future.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Final Fantasy XIII

I've lost track of Final Fantasy since the Playstation 1 days. But the series seems to keep going and the presentation keeps getting better and better as they lengthen the epic story further. Below is a video I found that showed the trailer for Final Fantasy XIII for the Playstation 3 at the TGS 2009. The gameplay shots are exactly the same quality as the cinematics, and it seems like the game flows between the two very seamlessly.



The game looks so beautiful from just the trailer. I actually might consider buying a Playstation 3 just to play this game. LOL!


END OF LINE...

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Dead by Sunrise

Last year, I blogged about a song performed as an acoustic version by a side project band that Chester Bennington of Linkin Park was involved in (http://sundowndos.blogspot.com/2008/07/let-down.html). There were no other signs of this band on the net, apart from a few live videos taken from one of their rare live performances.

A year later, the band Dead by Sunrise finally comes out with a full length album. I was so glad to find out about this and immediately searched the net to see if the song "Let Down" was part of the album. Lo and behold, it's one of their carrier singles. I like the acoustic version of the song. But I love the album version even more. I've been listening to this song over and over for days, and even rekindled my guitar playing because of the song's relative easy in playing.

Below is the audio of the song along with the song's prose again. The music video was uploaded by the band on their official channel. But the idiots at Warner Music Group, yanked all signs of it all over the net. I don't see why the band who actually wrote and plays the song can't post the music video for themselves. Too bad. The music video was done really well.



Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Bad Day: The Tweets I Didn't Put on Twitter

meeting... cleared someone's name... some people unsatisfied... more cases to come...

boss asks me to go on home and come back later tonight for client conference call... as if i can afford to go home...

mouse wheel broke... can't scroll properly... productivity hampered...

reporting analyst asks me if billable data is okay... it was innaccurate... had to make a decision to go with lesser revenue... finance in a hurry...

marketing complaint regarding lack of staff... have to find someone to bring in for her myself...

player reports a invi-hacker... asked for SS... no SS because the hacker is invisible... can't help him...

IT guy explains troubleshooting process with VOIP solution provider... had to listen intently...

korean asks for help... no data?... yes, no data... no data?... yes, no data... gave him proper positioning to make the sale...

Monday, November 2, 2009

Nothing Box

I saw this video posted by a friend on Facebook a few weeks ago and it literally cracked me up. It kinda explained a lot of things about myself that I actually knew all along but didn't realize it. This video snippet is part of a whole video seminar that this guy Mark Gungor sells on his website. http://shopping.laughyourway.com/



Nothing Box! Cracks me up every time. It's so true. I go into my Nothing Box every weekend. Especially this particular isolation-fest weekend. LOL!

From what little I've viewed, it seems very good for couples. I'm completely single. But I can appreciate what's being taught, weaved in with all of Mark Gungor's over the top humor.

END OF LINE...

Broken

Amy Lee of a band called Evanesence has mesmerized me ever since the band's first album. It's rare to come across a female vocalist that weaves her angelic voice amongst heavy guitar riffs. To be honest, I was kinda irked when I found out that the band's positioning to become famous was that they were a Christian rock band. Don't get me wrong. I believe in God and adhere to Catholicism to a certain extent. I just find it a little more a marketing ploy than anything else. I soon shrugged that off when I watched their live concert DVD. Especially the cool cover they did of a Korn song.

The song I've been crunching on is actually a song by another band called Seether. The band re-released one of their songs featuring Amy Lee as the second vocalist. I like the re-released version better. Amy Lee's voice blended well into the song and added a much needed female component to the song's lyrical content. And of course, the lyrical content fits my current state of mind the past weekend (LOL!). Below is the video of the song along with its prose.



Turtle Shell Thoughts

I've been turtle shelling into my own world this past weekend. Although, this weekend has been relatively pleasant being in the solitary confines of my appartment. I just need to put some of my more negative thoughts down. Yes, I'm essentially just talking to myself once again.


Continued Betrayals

Over two years ago, I was betrayed by someone I absolutely trust. And although, I may have broken that trust on my end a few times, it was always very minor and I always tried to make up for it. You would think that after going through a major betrayal ordeal, and licking your wounds, you would be able to discern who are true people that you can really trust.

Apparently, my naivete continues even in the realm of strong friendship. Even though this friend does have reasons for doing what he did, he fell to cowardice and breaking the very integrity that bonded us together in the first place. He forgot that the I personally uphold the "favor card" concept to my closest of friends. When you pull this card on me, I will go to great lengths to help you on whatever problem you have. However, there are conditions to this concept. These are the following:

1. The help that you need shouldn't break my core sense of values. What is wrong to do will still be wrong even in your time of need. I might be willing to bend my values a little. But I will never make a huge deviation from it.

2. Favor cards are excersized by giving me a "choice". Allow me to make the decision myself to help you. Do not assume I will just come to your rescue one day, while keeping me in the dark the entire time.

I always felt that the two conditions were not too much to ask with a really good friend. But apparently, it is too much to ask. Apologies in this case, seem like lies and ultimately insulting.

This situation along with other similar issues this past month, has left me not knowing who I can really trust. The only remaining people I do trust are my family and friends that I have known for eons. Anybody else are now just mere acquaintances to me. Or at least that's just my knee-jerk reaction everytime I'm faced with a situation with people.