You Are Viewing my life the comedy

I installed Pro Evolution Soccer ‘08 on my netbook*, and I’m happy to report that — after I installed DirectX9 and ignored Windows’ concerned dialog boxes about my system being insufficient — IT WORKED!!! I was worried because I had read somewhere that trying to play games on netbooks running Win7 will most likely result in massive fail, but HAH, tell that to the little Spaniards running and kicking around on my little netbook screen. :D

I’m likewise happy to report that I’m sort of kind of almost getting the hang of the game controls (which means I don’t fail as spectacularly as I started out, but I still suck) and I can play the game on Beginner. And I am loving the player reactions when they score a goal or miss an attempt. THE SPANISH TEAM DOES THE MANPILE LIKE THEY DO IRL OMG BAHAHAHA.

This should hold me over until I make a decision about StarCraft.

*In case anyone needs to know: My netbook is an Asus 1005P with the standard-issue specs, running Win7 Ultimate. PES ‘08 runs smoothly at low settings.

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A few things about my recent two-day trip with the family (which I mentioned in my last post):

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You guys remember the “dugo-dugo” scam that happened a lot back in the 90s? Well somebody tried to pull that shit on us today.

It turns out somebody called our landline phone around lunch, and one of household helpers, who has only been with us a few weeks, was the one who picked up. IS IT OK IF I CALL THE SUSPECT THE “UNSUB“? It’s short for “unidentified subject”. That’s what they call it in Criminal Minds. :D I’M JUST TRYING TO LIVE OUT MY CRIME-FIGHTER DREAMS HERE, THIS IS AS CLOSE AS I CAN GET BECAUSE I’M NOT QUALIFIED TO BE AN NBI AGENT. LOLOLOL.

Ahem. As I was saying–our unsub, who was female, told our helper to go to my sister’s room to look for money and jewelry because my brother-in-law had been in a car accident–you guys know the usual modus, right? She said not to tell my mom about it, because my mom has a heart ailment (which she does) and shouldn’t be worried. Fortunately for us, my sister doesn’t keep cash in her room and her other valuables were hidden. And, our maid did eventually end up telling my mom about it–because she asked my mom for my brother-in-law’s mobile number, which got my mother a little suspicious.

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Today at Landmark Trinoma, I was on my way to the supermarket entrance when suddenly the guards started shooing me and the other shoppers toward the side of the aisle to make way for a parade: a handful of violinists in evening gowns wailing a painfully off-key rendition of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, followed by a bridal entourage. Apparently someone thought it would be a bright idea to promote their wedding products by having the entourage march through the supermarket lobby–which, like the hardware store, is a part of the mall most often occupied by people who are already married. I wonder how that brainstorming meeting went. They must have run out of coffee.

I almost felt sorry that I didn’t have my camera with me to take a photo of such a ridiculous sight, but that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea. Because then they might think that I appreciated it and would love to see their next line of bridal couture paraded around the next time I buy bacon.

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About an hour ago I got a random text message from a jejemon whose number wasn’t on my list. All of the following text messages are verbatim.

Person:
Hey guyz,
Ny-ty-nyt na po,
Me church pa po
2m0rw,
Slip wel,
Swit dreamz,
Pray 1st,
Ny-ty-nyt ult
Mhuahh,

>,.g.m., ..<

Me [wondering if it's someone I actually know]:
Sorry, but who is this?

Person:
Gn0, sa y0uth bliw ka tlga
Save u numbr ku ha,
2l0p na b si bujay?

Me:
I don’t know you.

Person now identified as Gn0 from “youth” (whatever that is):
Hey b0y .f.y.i.
This is gin0 fr0m church, i d0n’t believe that u d0n’t kn0w me,
Hahaha what a big mistake…
D0n’t blame me cauze’ i kn0w and u kn0w that u kn0w me!
Maybe i sh0uld txt y0ur m0ther tita dheng,
By the way d0n’t w0rry i kn0w the cellph0ne number of y0ur m0ther..
And last, is bujay asleep?

Person now identified as gino from church, after I didn’t reply:
Hey nj,
Do y0u surrender u haven’t yet answer my questi0n? Let me repeat it again is bujay asleep?

That’s the last of it so far because I didn’t want to waste any more phone credits on this doofus, but to be honest this is kind of cracking me up. First of all, I’m curious about the circumstances and am forced to speculate that this is a guy texting another guy who gave him the wrong number on purpose. That would make sense, because I’ve only received a few messages from him and hell, I know that if it were me I probably would’ve given him the wrong number too. Especially if I were a dude. I almost want to feel sorry for this Gino kid, but at the same time he is incredibly annoying.

So far I’ve decided to ignore him and hope he figures it out on his own and leaves me alone.

That said, were I feeling a little more bored or mischievous, I do have a few other options for dealing with this bugger, like telling him to go ahead and text “tita dheng” like he said he could. That’ll be something. For now though, is there no way to block phone numbers?

To be honest, I’ve sort of forgotten how to do this.

I first got into blogging back in 2004. It was just a few of my friends first but soon enough practically everyone in my journ major had a blog, and those little tag-board things that we posted comments and inside jokes in (this was before Facebook). And I made layouts and wrote HTML code that was “best viewed in” 1024×768 on …  Internet Explorer 6.0.

Back then, whenever anything remotely noteworthy happened, my first instinct was to blog about it, and I pretty much never had to think about how to do it. But now it feels sort of weird. I’m going to have to get used to this again.

Anyway, here’s a quick run-down of the things that have happened since I stopped blogging.

Past couple of years
I got a job writing English-language textbook material for Korean students, got involved in a fair amount of office drama, got into cosplaying.

Past year
I got tired of the whole cosplay endeavor as well as my day job. So I quit both.

I also bought an SLR and started learning photography.

Past couple of months
Nearly lost my mom to a heart attack in January. No doubt the scariest and most trying time I’d ever had to go through, because she is the most important person in my life, not to mention my only remaining parent. She survived it, thank God, and although it’s still a constant struggle to keep her health out of danger. As of now I’m happy that she’s strong enough to make weekly trips to SM Bingo and fight valiant battles against the zombies on her lawn.

I also made my way out of the daily office grind and started working freelance. It’s fun–I hang out at the mall a lot, develop crushes on my regular baristas, and never know what day it is.

Past couple of weeks
My mind was thoroughly consumed by a game called NinjaTown, a tower-defense game for the DS, and I held fast to the statement that they took everything I like in life and put it in a game (ninjas, strategy gameplay, caffeine addiction, absurdity). I beat the game–with an A ranking in all 36 stages–within 1 week, and was sincerely saddened when I found out that the sequel title, NinjaTown: Trees of Doom, is an iPhone game with no DS version. I’ve devoted the past few days to spreading the addiction and to force-lending my DS to anyone I can corner.

A Business Ninja from NinjaTown. He likes caffeine as much as I do.

So there.

I can’t tell you what to expect from this blog, because I myself don’t know, but I’ll try my best to keep it entertaining (because I am outwardly individualistic but deep down I am a sucker for approval HAHAHA). And I’m going to try to update often. So I hope to shake these new-blog jitters soon, and I hope you keep me company.

Love and ninja cookies,
Liz