By The Dawn's Early Light

It's been almost 3 months now since I've been getting up before sunrise to head off for work. At first, the unconventional schedule threw me off, but I figured that this is something new that could work for me and that I'd eventually get used to it.

And I have...sort of. Now I've always been the sort of guy who sleeps really late--going to bed at 12 midnight used to be still early for me. But now, I've got no choice; work starts at 6:00am, so I have to be up by 4:30am and leave the house by 5:30am. So I try--the key word here is try--to be in bed by 11:30pm to have at least 5 hours of sleep.

But that's just shy of 6 hours of sleep required, or so says my sister, and how right she is. I notice that I don't feel quite right during the entire day if I just get less than 6 hours of sleep. And for someone who can't drink coffee everyday now, that just sucks. A solution I've tried is to take a 2-hour nap when I get home by 4:00pm, and it seems to work. Of course, weekends are great days for me, because I get to sleep for more than 8 hours.

The one really good thing about leaving for work before 6:00am is that everything seems nice and quiet--it's still somewhat dark, and best of all, there's no traffic. This being the first quarter of the year, I get to see the sun actually rise as I head off (see photo), but that will change as the months pass, when the days become longer during the summertime.

Music | Björk - Human Behaviour

I knew that Björk was the lead singer for The Sugar Cubes, but seeing and hearing her for the first time was another matter entirely. I went all like, "Wow--who is that???!!!" when I saw her Human Behaviour video for the first time, as it sounded different from everything else that came out in 1993--the melody, the style of singing, even the video, which featured a menacing Teddy Bear.


Björk went on to become one of music's unique and quirky artists; her music defies categorization, and her style remains original. While she made other groundbreaking videos, this video, her very first as a solo artist, remains one of my most favorite music videos ever.

Pokemon | Gizmos | Special Edition Pikachu GBA-SP

On March 2005, roughly 2 years ago, Nintendo released a Special Edition Pikachu Game Boy Advance SP, which could only be bought at their various Pokemon Center stores in Japan.

The most kawaii GBA-SP yet

For me, this GBA-SP has become the Holy Grail of all GBA-SPs, because it's practically perfect in every detail, from the smooth yellow finish to the red buttons, to the light red Pikachu imprint on the bottom right corner.

Awesome in every way--red buttons, Pikachu imprint and all

The Japanese box is also just as awesome, and is an excellent example of minimalist design. A big surprise was that Nintendo of America actually released this in the USA as a Toys 'R Us exclusive, which made it available in limited quantities. The USA version, like most USA packaging, also had a much uglier box.

Minimalist Japanese packaging at its best

This version is indeed the ultimate GBA-SP for me. Now if I can only find one...


[Photos are from yuankuei's flickr album]

Caffeine Dreams

I've been a coffee drinker ever since I can remember--I dimly recall starting to drink it during my High School days, not because anyone forced me to; it was just one of those days when my Dad was preparing a cup for his merienda when the aroma hit me, and I liked it. It was something like chocolate, but better (I hate chocolate, btw), and so I tried making a cup. Lo and behold, it tasted good, really, really good, so it became a habit.

I've drunk more cups of coffee than any other beverage, more than soft drinks or even alcohol. When cafes and international franchises like Starbucks sprouted in most of the urban dining places during the late 90's, I was one happy customer. As I got older and was more subject to stress, the first morning cup of coffee was extremely important, followed by smaller cups throughout the day. Strangely enough, I never became hyperactive or jumpy from drinking a lot of coffee, unlike most people.

So it was a crushing blow for me last December when I was diagnosed with Gastroesophageal Reflux, which is a condition that makes the stomach acids rise up the esophagus, causing chest pains or a burning sensation similar to a heart attack. Ever since what happened to my Dad, the fear of getting a heart attack has become so overwhelming for me in the last few years that I actually go into panic mode when I feel chest pains, so it was a relief to find out that it wasn't heart-related.

But that's the good news. The bad news was that I was ordered by my doctor to make some drastic changes in my diet, chief among them was to stop drinking anything with caffeine--coffee and tea. Would I survive? I frequently declared that I would die without drinking at least the first cup of coffee in the morning, as it would make me sluggish throughout the entire day.

Or so I thought. Here I am, three months later without any coffee or tea, and still alive. Even surprisingly, I have to get up around 4:30am due to work, which kinda makes taking coffee a must--but I don't.

I tried drinking coffee a month after my medication period ended, and hours later, I had terrible stomach pains. And that was from drinking decaf. It seems my stomach has adjusted without any caffeine intake, by causing me pain whenever I try to drink it. Life sucks.

But all's well--I think. By doing some trial & error, I figured I can still drink coffee, only about a cup every 3 or 4 days, or even once a week. Hey, it's better than nothing, and I can live with that.

TV | Pinoy Big Brother

Among the numerous reality TV shows out there, a guilty pleasure for me is Pinoy Big Brother. I never watch local shows, as they mostly do two things to me: either annoy the hell out of me, or make me vomit. But Pinoy Big Brother...it intrigued me, as it was the first foreign reality TV show franchise to be obtained by a local network here.

Big Brother's concept was simple: lock up 12-16 people in one house, and drive them crazy by making them do stupid things while being aware that someone else was watching and manipulating them. I'd never survive living in the BB house, as there was no TV allowed, not even video games, and I wouldn't last long without cable TV or video games.

When I heard that ABS-CBN acquired the BB license, I rolled my eyes and wondered how the hell were they going to pull it off. But when I heard that they were building an actual house near their studios that cost millions, I started to take them seriously. So I ended up watching the launch episode of Pinoy Big Brother, which was a big mistake, because I had to watch the next episode, and the next, until I actually finished the entire run.

As many others have noticed, ABS-CBN took a lot of creative liberties with the franchise and altered some aspects of it. Which means that they made it trashier than usual, with lots of shitty singing and dancing tasks. One irritating thing about this country--it's too fucking showbiz-oriented, with every little thing requiring some stupid song and dance number.

The first season of Pinoy Big Brother came and went, and so did the Celebrity Edition, and a Teen Edition, all of which I watched whenever I could, including the live feed that aired 24 hours a day on an encrypted cable channel. Watching this live feed was a blast--it was like having some kind of aquarium, where the broadcast was mostly unedited, so if several housemates started fighting, you'd get to see all of it, swear words and all.

Even my Mom became really hooked on it that she'd plan her social events around the schedule of the live primetime shows so she wouldn't miss an episode as much as possible, and even forgot watching her trashy telenovelas (yay!) just so she could watch the live feed. One thing that made watching bearable for me was that all the winners from the 3 editions were the ones I wanted to win, and all were women.

And now, after being on hiatus for several months, Pinoy Big Brother returns for a second season. One thing seems improved--the house is bigger, with better facilities like shower jets, jacuzzi, separate toilets, even a mini-gym. However, the launch episode was just as trashy as any other ABS-CBN show--a two-hour singing and dancing crapfest that had really nothing to do with the show, and after all that shit, only 6 housemates were introduced. 6 more were introduced after one week, and the last 4 were introduced after 2 weeks.

So who do we have this season? A bunch of twentysomethings, with the oldest being 26 and the youngest being 20. There's Ezekiel, who's from Australia and speaks Tagalog like a retard but is actually funny most of the time; Wendy, an pretty actress/singer wannabe who also seems like a whiny, complainy biatch; Saicy, a Samba dancer who seems nice but also kinda dumb, Gee-Ann, a "sosy" girl who carries around some creepy-looking baby doll that resembles a tiyanak; Nel, a guy from Iloilo who claims he's a chickboy but seems to be actually gay; and Mickey, a half-German, hiphop dancer from Switzerland.

The second batch includes Robert, who lived for several years in England and looks like ABS-CBN actor John Prats, which is probably why he was chosen in the first place; Beatriz, a very cute half-Chinese girl from Bicol who looks like she's 14 years old; Kian, who resembles that bald, obnoxious guy from Wazzup Wazzup and is just as noisy, crass, and annoying as hell; Jasmin, who seems to be the female version of Kian, also loud and obnoxious; Bruce, a former basketball player who looks like he's dehydrated or something; and Dionne, a MassCom graduate from Cebu.

The last batch, also known as the unlucky ones--since they were dumped in some ugly "Secret area" within the Big Brother house, includes Bodie, who's the son of actor Tirso Cruz III and is probably wondering why the hell he was bunched with this last group of weirdos; Maricris, who's from Italy and is supposed to be 26 but actually looks like 46; Jeremy, an anime dubber from Japan who looks like an anime version of April Boy Regino; and Mikah, a girl from Baguio with big jugs who cheerfully declared that she was a bisexual within minutes of entering the house, claiming that she already did it with a lesbian and a bisexual guy, thus earning her the nickname of "Miss Pokpok" in some Internet forums.

Among this group of 16 housemates, my current favorite is Beatriz, the cute half Chinese girl from Bicol, as she's very bubbly and perky, and always seems to have a positive outlook. She's also some kind of manic Martha Stewart clone, as she always seems to be organizing stuff in the kitchen a lot. For the guys, Mickey is a frontrunner, as he successfully pulled off a secret task that made him appear to speak only German, when he actually could speak fluent English & Tagalog. He's also the most sensible guy in the entire group, and seems to be more "Pinoy" than anyone else, never mind if he sounds a bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger at times. So maybe it's time for a guy to win this season, but we'll have to wait and see...

Google Earth | MOA Timeswitch

Google Earth is perhaps one of the best desktop applications ever made--even better, it's free, and you get a wealth of really interesting graphical information in exchange. There are limitations to what it can do though; it's not in real time, and the globe data you see isn't really that up-to-date, as explained in their FAQ:

"Google Earth acquires the best imagery available, most of which is approximately one to three years old. We add to our database on a regular basis. We’re not able to provide you with detailed information regarding when a specific area will be updated. Also, we do not offer high resolution data by order as this imagery will be added when it is available from our providers."

Okay, so maybe they can explain what the hell happened to the Manila map data they've been displaying the past year? Particularly the Makati-Pasay areas; a year ago, most of this area was obscured by a heavy cloud cover. Now, a year later, they've managed to update their map data--the cloud cover is gone, and we can now see Makati's Business District area, buildings and all. So everything's okay.

Or so we thought. If you check the screen caps below, something's not quite right--in 2006, the map data Google Earth had was able to capture that humongous Mall of Asia complex in what appears to be the final stages of construction. Today, in 2007, that same area looks barren and deserted--what happened?

Left: The Mall of Asia as shown on Google Earth in 2006.
Right: the same area as it's seen now on Google Earth...the hell?

The most obvious answer is that the map data they're currently displaying went back even further in time, to the time when the Mall of Asia area was still being primed for construction. Tsk tsk tsk, getting sloppy there, Google Earth. Ah well, it's still better than having no map data at all...

Gaming | Pokemon

On December 18, 1997, I saw a CNN news report about a cartoon called Pokemon ("Pocket Monsters") that caused hundreds of seizures in Japanese children. I learned that the anime was based from a popular game of the same name on Nintendo's Game Boy handheld console.

I already had a Game Boy at the time, yet I never heard of this game. The more I found out about this game, the more I wanted to try it, as the entire concept seemed very unique and interesting, especially the part about linking data with other Game Boys.

The next year, on September 1998, Nintendo of America launched Pokemon in the U.S.A. with 2 versions for the Game Boy, Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue. One thing I painfully learned about buying games for the Game Boy here at the time was that it was next to impossible in finding real, original games, as most of the ones being sold here were bogus, pirated versions that don't retain saved data well. Fortunately, my friend Ningning who lived in the USA bought the 2 games and had them shipped to me, which started my entire involvement with Pokemon.

The game's premise is simple enough: your main character lives in a world where a subspecies type of lifeform called Pokemon exist. They can be all sorts of animal types, from mammals to reptiles, from aquatic to avian, to rarely-seen mystical creatures possessing tremendous power.

The most popular Pokemon of them all, Pikachu (jumping), along with the starter Pokemon from all the games.

All these creatures can be captured by a device called a Pokeball, and can be further trained to battle other Pokemon. Your main objective is to travel from town to town, capturing and training Pokemon and challenging 8 Gym Leaders to earn Gym Badges, which makes you eligible to enter the Pokemon League and battle its powerful Trainers: The Elite Four, and finally, the region's Champion.

Battling in Pokemon appears to be the rock-paper-scissors type of battle; each Pokemon is categorized by type (Fire, Water, Electric, Psychic, etc), and certain types are weak towards other types (Water wins over Fire, Electric wins over Water, etc). Some Pokemon have dual types, with some extremely powerful Pokemon requiring careful planning and strategy during combat.

Once the game ends, a secondary objective becomes known: to catch every single Pokemon active in that region--this is where the concept of the game becomes truly unique, which has since been copied by many other games. Your main character has a device called a Pokedex, which can store data on every known Pokemon. As you capture each new Pokemon, the Pokedex records their data, right down to each one's unique ability and statistics.

Successfully completing the entire Pokedex isn't an easy task, because you can't actually catch every single Pokemon in one game--some can only be found in one version, while others can only be found in the other version. If you wanted Pokemon you don't have, you have to trade with someone else who has another copy of the game.

To this end Nintendo encouraged trading by utilizing one of the Game Boy's unheralded features, which was the ability to transfer data through a Link Cable. By using the cable, 2 Game Boys can be connected together and transfer data from one game to the other, provided each one has a copy of the game.

Of course, Nintendo made sure that getting every single Pokemon in your Pokedex would be a difficult process--so difficult, that the rarest Pokemon aren't found anywhere in the game at all. Instead, these rare Pokemon could only be uploaded to your game through Nintendo Special Events that are occasionally held in Japan, the USA and some other countries.

These events are like some kind of expo or promo tours where Nintendo would showcase their latest products, with giveaways and game demos. So if you can't afford to travel and attend these events, you're basically screwed...

...unless you're resourceful. Thanks to friends who were in the USA at the right time, I was able to convince them to attend Nintendo events there, and that's how I was able to get Celebi and Mew, two of the rarest Pokemon at the time.

Pokemon grew into a multimillion franchise that included the anime, manga, trading cards, merchandising and other forms of media. The craze peaked worldwide in 1999 and has since subsided, but it still remains one of Nintendo's most successful franchises, second only to Mario.

Thankfully, my only involvement with Pokemon are with the games--I never really got into all that other stuff like Trading Cards, which I thought was kinda lame. I've played every single Pokemon game released in the USA, making sure that I only got the original versions, including the newest pair of games that was released just this April 22, 2007.

Btw, my favorite Pokemon? It's Pikachu, the very first Pokemon that I saw on that CNN newsclip in 1997.

Marching Along...

It seems like I've just been sitting here when the month of March suddenly arrived. It's like February just whizzed by--here we are, right in the third month of the year, and I still have a Christmas hangover.

What happened to that nice period of chilly weather? Gone, like it never even happened. We're now in the early stages of summer, and it's about to get worse, much worse where humidity is concerned. In this country, it's not the heat that's the problem, it's the humidity, which is the kind that makes one lethargic and lapse into a comatose state (oh wait, that's probably just me).

I already know people making plans for their summer vacation, which is hilarious to me, because it's actually summer here all year round. It's even funnier when you realize that the phrase "summer vacation" only applies to students, which makes adults who use it seem rather stupid, because what they really mean by "summer vacation" is "taking time off from work to do nothing and get more stressed out when I return to work."

In other countries, they refer to a vacation as a "holiday", which always sounds much better, never mind if the actual holiday really sucked. So even if you've had the worst vacation ever, just saying to others that you went "on holiday" sounds really nice.

Speaking of which, I just had the longest vacation--whoops, I meant that I went "on holiday" for 6 months last year, after quitting a job that I grew tired of after 10 years. Those 6 months spent on holiday were one of the best times I ever had, and that's the truth. So I really don't need another one so soon.

Maybe in June, when the rains come...