Visita Iglesia 2010, Bulacan

Seven churches, 14 Stations of the Cross, two stations per church. That's how it's done, unlike our attempt last year. The churches we visited were just around our area in Bulacan. Three in Marilao, two in Meycauayan, and one each in Bocaue and Sta. Maria. Here they are:

San Isidro - San Roque Parish Church

Malhacan, Meycauayan

St. Francis of Assisi Parish Church

Poblacion, Meyacuayan

St. Michael the Archangel Parish Church

Poblacion I, Marilao

St. Martin of Tours Parish Church

Antipona, Bocaue

La Immaculada Concepcion Church

Poblacion, Sta. Maria

National Shrine of Divine Mercy

Sta. Rosa I, Marilao

Our Lady of Fatima Parish Church

Heritage Homes, Marilao

The whole trip took us around three hours. As a souvenir, I bought myself a rosary ring from the Divine Mercy Church. I got five of them so far: one from our high school retreat in Caleruega, Batangas; one from the Our Lady of Manaoag Church in Pangasinan; one from Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage in Antipolo; and a gift from a Ninong that he got somewhere in France.

I suddenly got interested in GoogleEarth and mapped out our journey. I used our own parish church, Sto. Nino, as the starting and end point on the map below. Here's the whole trip:

The Alchemyst

The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, first book.

After finishing the Harry Potter and Percy Jackson series, I realized that I am hooked into fantasy novels. I saw this book at a local bookstore, read the synopsis at the back cover, and thought that I just might like reading the series. I did some research in the net and found out that is a recommended good read after Harry and Percy. So I bought it.

It is a good read, though not as great as I expected it to be, but if you're also into fantasy novels, I highly recommend it.

Synopsis:

It's about fifteen year old twins Sophie and Josh, whose world turned upside down when they got caught up in a magical fight between a mysterious man called John Dee and Josh's bosses who turned out to be none other than Nicholas and Perenelle Flamel. In the middle of the fight is the Book of Abraham, the secret behind the Flamels' immortality. It holds a lot of secrets, including one that can give rise to a better world of the "Elders" that only include humans as slaves or food, and one that prophesies the twins: one has the power to create it, the other, to prevent it.

John Dee managed to steal the book and kidnap Perenelle, but Josh tore off the last two pages to prevent Dee's plans to change the world. Now, Nicholas must find a way to awaken and train the twin's powers to stop Dee at all costs. But with the book gone, so is his immortality. He only has a month to do it.

This book actually has a trailer

Review:

This is very different to the books that I use to read. The book was told in everybody's point of view, including the antagonists. Every scene shifts to another character to see in their point of view. Sometimes the story goes on as it shifts from somebody's point of view to another, other times the time will be reset to see what the other characters are doing while the previous chapter was happening. This made the book very long in a sense that we see a lot of things that are happening at the same moment, but at the same time, very short: the whole book happened in a course of two days.

There are a lot of great battles in the action packed book. We see fights between immortals using their auras to blast each other up, we see an amazing event happen at the Golden Gate Bridge, we have a horror movie scene wherein a town was attacked by zombies, and we have a battle of half-crows and half-cats against pterodactyls and half-boars as the god-like "Elders" take on each other. A lot of that good old fantasy novel action.

The thing is, as the book ends, you'll know that it's only the beginning. So only read it if you are prepared to read the whole series of six books, the fourth book only to be released on May 25, so it will be a long wait.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth

It's Miles Edgeworth's time to shine. Yes, the brilliant prosecutor gets the lead role, though he does not, well, prosecute. The courtroom drama brought by the first games are now moved in the sidelines as we focus on the crime scenes.

Gameplay:

At the crime scenes, you gather Evidence, and you get some ideas. You can use these ideas to formulate new ones by using the new function "Logic." There's also a new gadget called the "Little Thief" that can recreate the crime from silhouettes based on the data that you already have.

Although we are on the crime scenes, we still have the courtroom gameplay that we learned to love in the first games. We have the Testimonies and Arguments by the witnesses and your rivals, and your Rebuttals. Of course, there's still a lot of the finger-pointing "Objection!"s and "Take That!"s.

Graphics and Music:

More detailed sprites than the first games, along with the new small field sprites. The only music that really wowed me were the remix of Gumshoe's theme, the new "Objection!" theme, of course, which is a remix of Edgeworth's theme, and the one used here:

This is pretty much the general idea of the game

Characters:

In every crime scene, Edgeworth gets some assistance investigating from one of the following: the ever loyal Gumshoe, the whip cracking Franziska, and a new character named Kay. We also have cameos of both major and minor characters from Phoenix's adventures. We also have a new rival, the international investigator, Agent Shi-Long Lang, (and his sidekick Shih-na) who has hatred towards prosecutors, and who I think is one of the coolest characters in the series along with Godot.

Story:

There are five turnabouts. Four of which happens in three consecutive days, the other one is a flashback. Though the cases seem unrelated, all five are connected to the great thief "Yatagarasu" and the smuggling ring that he/she/it tries to stop.

There are a number of twists but if you have played the series before, you'd figure them out early on, or at least, you won't be as surprised as you'd be if you haven't; save for the true identity of the Yatagarasu, which I think is as brilliant as the mystery of Elise Deauxnim.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

I saw the movie last February and it convinced me and my sister to read Rick Riordan's books. The only other novels that I enjoyed reading was the Harry Potter series. I thought that Percy Jackson should be another series of fantasy novels that should be fun to read.

It was.

Synopsis:

Percy is what you call a demigod: child of a god and a mortal. His father is the sea god himself, Poseidon, so some of his powers are rubbed off on Percy. It's about his adventures with his friends: fellow demigods, a satyr, a cyclops for a half-brother, and a mortal.

Each of the books (except for Titan's Curse which happened on winter) starts every summer at Camp Half-Blood, the summer camp for demigods, then they go to a quest given by the Oracle of Delphi itself. Along their quest, they encounter Greek mythology monsters, and the gods themselves. All these as the titan Kronos plans and executes his revenge for the gods; and Percy is the one destined to decide if the era of the gods continues or if the titans regain all that was once theirs.

Top:

Annabeth Chase (Daughter of Athena), Percy Jackson (Son of Poseidon), Grover Underwood (Satyr)

Bottom:

Noco di Angelo (Son of *Spoiler*), Tyson (Cyclops), Rachel Elizabeth Dare (Mortal)

Review:

It's written in first person, on Percy's point of view. Each of Percy's adventures are all based on individual prophecies so we get the idea of what would happen as the story goes.

His adventures include trips and battles on epic locations such as the Underworld and the Labyrinth; and smartly placed locations of Ancient Greek places on American soil. From Mount Tamalpais (Mt. Othrys), to Mount St. Helen's (Mt. Etna), to the Bermuda Triangle (The Sea of Monsters), to the Empire State building (Mount Olympus).

It's like the present-day America clashing with Greek mythology.

It has a lot action between demigods, monsters, gods and titans themselves. We have demigods using swords, bow and arrows, spears, and shields; with the main characters having a special unique weapon that has magical properties. They can also use powers and abilities that they inherit from their god parent. We get a glimpse of both the gods' and the titans' powers and their classic and famous weapons like Zeus's lightning bolt, and Kronos's scythe.

Overall: Classic battles of epic proportions. The books may look intense, but they were still very easy to read, in a sense that the words were phrased in a very simple way. If you have the time, you can finish each book in a day or two. Every plot of each of the five books finish in a way that keeps the readers satisfied. It's a really great series.

So great that it had a sequel series.

Naglevel-up na ko!

I won a pizza! Hey, I rarely win anything so this Thick Family Ultimate Hawaiian Overload from Greenwich and The Morning Rush is very much appreciated:

Today was the first time that I was tuned in to The Morning Rush from start to end. I was to take my brother to school and pick-up my parents at the airport from Bohol so I was in the car the whole morning, locked in on RX93.1.

Today's top ten was the signs that you won't be a good parent. I sent in an entry while parked at the airport. I was hoping, but not expecting, for my entry to be picked. I only had one other entry that was picked before so imagine the excitement I had when I heard my entry land on the top of the hour. The pizza that I won was just the icing on the cake.

Here's my pizza-winning entry: "...if you love playing with your pets but you leave the feeding, the bathing, the cleaning up, all the unpleasant stuff, to somebody else."

When my parents arrived, I asked them if they want some free pizza and that I won one, so we went to Ortigas. It's a good thing that my sister pointed out where RX's office a couple of times we passed Emerald Avenue before. I got there, got my gift certificate, and we went home. This really made my day.

Antipolo Trip

We have been planning for a car blessing for our Nissan Navara for a long while and my Dad decided to have it blessed one Sunday after hearing mass with the whole family. What he did not tell us until the night before was that we'll be hearing that mass in Antipolo. That's what I like about my Dad.

I was too young to remember the last time I've been there and I was wondering why in the world my Dad decided to go there. It turns out that the Antipolo Cathedral is the shrine of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage. It's like the perfect place to have a car blessing.

I must say that I was impressed with the Church. Not just by the cathedral, but the community itself. There were people were guiding vehicles to a parking space near the cathedral, some were greeting and welcoming people as they enter the church, there was one organized line to the shrine behind the church after the mass, and they have brothers ready to bless vehicles of the travelers. It's easily the most organized church I've ever been.

After Navara's binyag, we ate lunch at Padi's Point Antipolo. Just like any other establishments there, it has a really, really great view of the Metro Manila. The food was okay and it really looked good so we took a picture. Haha!

After that, a quick trip to TriNoMa, then we went home. It's always the unplanned trips to unfamiliar places that are the most enjoyable and exciting trips you'll ever be in.

Pugad Baboy Sunday Comics 2

It's always the best part of the day when I go to a bookstore and find out a new Pugad Baboy was released. This time, it's the second Sunday Comics.

Just like the first one, every page of this book has a short, colored, and enlarged comic strip with the antics of the Pugad Baboy residents. Each comic strip goes on its own and are not categorized under a title, unlike those on the normal Pugad Baboy comics.

This one doesn't have a story arc unlike the first one, but it does feature what seem to be two of Pol Medina Jr.'s projects outside Pugad Baboy, titled "Bukayo" and "Torque Chops."

Lastly, being quite a big book with colored pages, you shouldn't be surprised that its price is higher than the regular comic books. I got my copy for P400 in the National Bookstore near DLSU.