Pugad Baboy 21

When I went to Glorietta today (technically yesterday, it was just 7 hours ago) to meet with my friends, I came earlier than expected so I wandered a bit inside the National Bookstore. When I passed a counter, I saw a guy buying 2 books: a Polgas Comics 2 and a red book with Dobermaxx on it. I immediately looked around for the comicbook shelf and saw this:

It's the 21st Pugad Baboy! It was just a week ago when I blogged about completing the series and now the latest one is here! Happiness! Wahaha! I just had to buy it.

I haven't actually read it yet, I just opened it right now and scanned it. By looking at the cover, it seems like it's going to have a major story arc, the last one being "Benigno Ramos: Bounty Hunter" on the Sunday Comics, but looking at the table of contents, I don't think there is one. The last major story arc on the main series would be "Aso" way back on Kinse. I hope Pol Medina Jr. would make more of those but really, every new addition to the series is good enough.

Edit: I stand corrected. There is a major story arc! Bodyguard, which features a returning character from a previous story arc.

Finally Finished Final Fantasy VII

Now I can finally say that I have completed the first nine Final Fantasies. We never had a PS2 so I never had the chance to play the others that followed.

I was first introduced to the Final Fantasy series by a High School friend in 2000. He brought a copy of Final Fantasy IX when I invited him to my house. Since then, I've played VIII then VII on the Playstation, then VI on the Gameboy Advance, then III and IV on the Nintendo DS, and finally I&II and V on the GBA. I managed to finish all of them, except for VII; though I did watch my cousin, Joshua, play through the whole game.

Anyway, after 12 years since it was released, I finally finished VII. There are a number of reasons why I didn't finish it the first time:

• My impression of the overall game system (the Materia System) is as bad as VIII's (Junction System).
• Joshua was playing it faster and better than me that I already knew what would happen if I continue my save file.
• I didn't got hooked by the characters and storyline immediately.
  
• It was very, very, very overrated, which made me hate it since I am an FFIX fanboy. Hehe.
  

After finishing it, I realized that it was in fact a really great game. The Materia System is way better than the stupid system in VIII. I liked the storyline. I actually forgot a lot of moments in the game that I was eager to play it to know what happens next. I liked RED XIII's subplot, I finally appreciated Cait Sith because of Reeve, and I absolutely loved Aeris's part in the story (I've always seen her as just the girl who died). But I still think it's overrated. Cloud and Sephiroth are SO NOT the best FF hero/villain/character ever. It's still a great game though, I'd put it third just below VI and IX as my favorite FF.

Dissidia Final Fantasy is coming this August. It is a fighting game consisting of the main protagonists and main antagonists of the first ten Final Fantasies, and a couple of characters further up the series. That's my main reason why I needed to complete the game myself, and the only reason why I'm going to buy a PSP soon. I've always been a Nintendo handheld gamer, until Dissidia was created.

Our Pugad Baboy Comic Book Collection is Officially Complete

Yep. After looking for a copy on a number of bookstores in Metro Manila for the past 2 weeks, I finally found a Pugad Baboy X, the last missing book to complete our collection, when we went to the province last thursday. Where? At the National Bookstore in Walter Mart, Gapan City. Haha!

The Pugad Baboy series of comic books by Pol Medina Jr. are the kind that people borrow every time. Not just the 20 comic books of the main series, but also the 2 Polgas comics, the graphic novel, Pirata; and the Pugad Baboy Sunday Comics. The only PMJr books that we don't have are the 3 Inks and POLitics editorial cartoons. The thing is, those who borrow them tend to lend them to others. That's why there's a good chance that it wouldn't be returned.

We had copies of each comic book PMJr released, but we didn't have all of them completed at a time because there's always at least one gone missing. It all started when our aunt and uncle gave us PB5 and Pugad Baboy 6 as Christmas gifts some time in the late 90's. But unfortunately, we need to re-buy at least six of the comic books that were either lost or were never returned. And for the first time ever, we now have every book in our collection. Yay!

My First Entry Made it on The Morning Rush Daily Top 10

I don't really listen to the radio. I was kinda forced by my sister to listen to the Morning Rush. The only time that I tune in is when I drive my sister to her work, and we're automatically locked in on RX93.1. Usually, we only hear The Top Ten around 9am and 9:30. By 10am, I would already have dropped my sister to work because she times in at this time. I just text her the top 5.

This morning, my dad had to go to POEA and we did drop my sister to work. This time, it was The Top Ten Beach Movie Titles (or something to that effect.) We all laughed in the car when we heard the entry: Mean Girls-type movie titled: "Whatever... beach." And then I thought that I would try to come up with something to send in. And I did.

I keyed in "RX [My entry] from: buen" and sent it to 2299.

Then when we were around Cubao, this happened:

Edit: imeem's pretty much history now so the clip is gone.

Anyway, here's my entry: "Aahon ako't lulunurin kita."

I can't believe it got in! Top 3 pa. Hehe. Not bad for a first entry. My dad said: "Uy! Buen daw. Kapangalan mo." I said: "Ako po yun." I immediately texted my sister about it. I think she was kinda surprised that I texted an entry. Both she and my dad said "Galing a." Well, it was.

I'd like to thank Blue Ritz for the audio clip. Thank God for your podcasts. If you want to download the day's morning rush, you can do so on his blog.

Visita Iglesia 2009, Pampanga

Last Holy Thursday, our family decided to try something new for the Holy week. We tried to have a visita iglesia, where we would visit and pray on a number of churches. Since we were staying on Gapan, Nueva Ecija that week, we decided to visit churches there and on Pampanga.

We passed a number of churches along the way but they were all closed. We took a turn to the national park of Arayat but didn't got out of the car, we just wanted to see what's up there and it turns out to be a public resort. When we were around Mexico, Pampanga, I told my dad that I wanted to go to the church half-buried by lahar that can be seen from the highway going to Bataan. We did. It was called San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor and it was our first stop for the day. After some prayers, we looked around the church, and overheard a woman saying that it was the church where they shoot the teleserye, May Bukas Pa. After taking more pictures, we went to San Fernando, Pampanga.

My dad wants to visit the San Fernando Catherdral so it was our next stop. There were a lot of people and cars around the cathedral's parking area. We made some prayers and took some pictures and tried to figure out where to go next.

We did not know any other churches near the area and if we go further to Bataan, it would be a very long trip so we decided to head back to Gapan. On the way back, we stopped at Razon's on Mexico which was thankfully open. We had some of their sisig, palabok, and of course, their famous halo-halo. It was a very hot day so that stop was very refreshing.

It was a very long trip back even though we were traveling rather fast on a straight highway. And that's pretty much it.

Eraserheads Reunion Concert - Final Set

I've been too lazy updating this blog. That's pretty much the reason why this post came out well after the event. Here's my story that night:

We arrived late. There's a very, very, heavy traffic around SM Mall of Asia when we got there, and we managed to park beside SMX. When I saw that the concert had started, I split up with my sister to find my friends, Maruel and Tibs (with Alex). The cellphone reception was so bad that I wasn't able to contact them. I decided to go back and join my sister, but I can't contact her either.

I ended up watching it alone feeling sadly stupid. The good thing is that I got a very nice spot at the back of the silver area, with a nice view of the stage (but I can't see the Marcus from there), and five projectors. There were a very few people in that area so I was watching with the nice breeze from the Manila bay instead of a crowd.

I'm not going to make a blow-by-blow post about what happened. Here are some points that I just want to share:

1. Marcus's Hello Kitty guitar and reggae rendition of "Huwag mo nang Itanong" were brilliant.
2. I wish that other people knew "Alkohol" and "Insomnia" so that the crowd would have sang along with Raimund.
3. The aucustic set was really, really nice.
4. When Anne Curtis saw herself at the projector, she tried to sing the lyrics ending up with "burger, fries, tapsilog, at SIAPAO" on the song, "Overdrive."
   
5. The fake ending was kinda lame. Everyone knew that it wasn't over until "Ang Huling El Bimbo" was played.
6. Near the end of "Superproxy," a girl next to me said: "Oh my God, he did Francis M's rap." Hindi kaya. Sa original kaya yun.
   
7. I thought "Ako ngayo'y lumilipad at nasa langit na" was a tribute to Kiko, but it was immediately followed by "Gusto mo bang sumama?" making me say aloud, "Ay, hindi."
   
8. Best. Alapaap. Version. EVER.
9. Kaleidoscope World chorus feels very short for a Francis M tribute...
10. but hearing El Bimbo right after made me forget everything. Nostalgia.
11. Sticker Happy piano (looks like it, without most of the stickers) was burned. Sad.
12. Hoping for a miracle that was answered: an encore.
13. Another girl beside me asked her friend what the title of "Ligaya" was. He answered: "Ilang ulit pa ba ang uulitin." Uhhh... Okay.
    
14. Ely skipped a part on "Sembreak."
15. Tim Yap attempted to sing "Toyang." The "BOOOOOOO!!!" he got from everybody was enough humiliation for a lifetime.

Overall, the concert was well worth it. Long live Eheads.

I got my Folie a Deux signed!

On my last post, I said that that if Fall Out Boy would have an autograph signing this time, I'll be there when when the mall opens. I can't believe I had this great a day.

My mom was doing a lot of errands today and I did the driving for her. At about 2pm, we were at the McArthur Highway at Marilao on the way to a bank. Then I heard two DJs on RX 93.1 saying that FOB will have an autograph signing later on 6pm at the SM Mall of Asia. We were supposed to pick up my brother from school and go to SM Manila to buy him new shoes for his JS Prom (the reason why I won't be able to watch the concert in the first place), but I convinced my mom to do it on MoA instead.

I was really desperate to be there (read the previous post why) and I got there from Marilao in 1 hour. Good thing that my Folie is in the car. I bought their Live in Phoenix CD as I already have "Folie" and "Infinity." I was lucky number 89.

Two hours later, FOB was there. They got there on time, posed a bit for some picture-taking, signed some autographs, and got out as fast as they came in. It was a long wait for such a short event but it was all worth it. Patrick and Pete offered to shake their hand so I did. I can't really understand it, but it felt like they were just some other foreigner tourists that you see every time. It didn't really feel that they were famous because I managed to be there standing in front of them, but they ARE famous, and I'm there, and I was just happy.

Ansayasaya.