Crimson Crux

While writing some posts for a Dungeons and Dragons Online site a few weeks back, I chanced upon a highly entertaining webcomics by the name of DDO1Liners. Highly entertaining, that is, if you:

• Are a fantasy geek,
• Have played D&D or any similar RPG systems,
• Have played the DDO MMORPG or any similar online games, or
• Have a sibling whose endless ‘dice rolls’ and ‘dungeon delvings’ with his/her friends at your house have somehow ingrained the terminology and lingo into your otherwise innocent brain.

Needless to say, those items can overlap! Anyway, I found myself going through every strip in their archives, which I don’t usually do with other webcomics. (more…)

For a few months after I bought my iPod Nano, I couldn’t find the right skins for it. As late as December 14 of last year, there weren’t skins and cases for the second generation of iPod Nanos, at least in the Philippines. (Because of their slight physical differences with the first generation, the new Nanos don’t fit that well with old cases.)

Chances are I didn’t do enough searching, but I did burn my sneakers’ soles scouring SM North Edsa, SM Megamall (and a tech fair held within), and Powerplant Mall. So I was mightily pleased when I dropped by the Apple Computer Center at SM North Edsa last week and, lo and behold — they finally had iPod Nano 2nd gen silicone skins.

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No, my feet were firmly planted on Manila for the past days or so. Instead, it was my dad who took the trip for me (as if!); the official reason for his trip was a fact-finding mission for the government.

He just arrived a few hours ago, and I managed to pick up some interesting tidbits of info.

• Do not rely on your credit cards. Make sure you don’t run out of hard cash, preferably in the local currency, with U.S. dollars as back-up. My dad learned this the hard way when a couple of his cards (all of which are internationally accepted, e.g. Diners Club) were inexplicably rejected one after the other in their London hotel. Inexplicably, because these cards had more than ample credit space left (to illustrate, he was able to use them later in the stopover at Kuala Lumpur). It was fortunate that he had spare UK pounds left. I’ve advised him to contact the credit card companies to find out the reason behind the boo-boos.

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I think my year is off to a bad start, with regard to clearing my backlog for everything — books, web projects, lit works, even cleaning the house (the glory of being an only child with no mom). Two salient queues I have right now consist of 1) my blog posts, and 2) my magazines.

First, I have at least 35 outstanding blog drafts, 19 of which are for this blog alone! The stillborn remnants of would-be posts are scattered among my desktop Stickies, text files, cellphone notes, and my “mol-eh-skin-ah“. Oh, and don’t remind me about my 60+ remaining problogging assignments for the month.

Second, I’ve got five magazines left to devour — three Dragon issues, a single Dungeon, and a single Communications of the ACM. These mags are supposed to be a break from all the carpal tunnel syndrome-inducing blogging, but more and more reading them has become a task. (Especially with the ACM mag — computer science stuff!)

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I’ll be out the whole day (and possibly tomorrow, Christmas day), so I’ll take this opportunity to greet the blogosphere and the few chaps who find the time to drop by this blog — have a Merry Christmas! For the believers, don’t forget the true essence of this day, that is, the birth of Jesus Christ.

As for the nonbelievers, well, let’s proceed to the slightly materialistic subject of this post — my personal Xmas (and New Year’s) wishlist. Without further ado:

• MacBook Pro
• Red iPod Nano
• Successful launch of 3 more sites of mine

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A week after overhauling the design of this blog, I’m raising the curtains on my latest web project — Aircraft Models Crux, the place where I document my newfound addiction passion for miniature model aircraft.

As a child, I’ve always been intrigued by how airplanes work, how their sleek bodies slice through the winds, how they soar above the grudgery of the human mess below. Yep, the kid who’s afraid of heights is actually amazed by these cloud-conquerors.

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For months I’ve been savoring the thought of penning down new poems and fiction for my literary blog on a moleskine. Yesterday, the package I ordered from Moleskine Philippines finally arrived, much to my delight.

For the uninitiated:

Moleskine is the legendary notebook, used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries, from Van Gogh to Picasso, from Ernest Hemingway to Bruce Chatwin.

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As if I’m not already swamped by my existing blogs and sites (see Corsarify, the web page not the laptop), I’ve joined a new groupblog — K33G, where geeks discuss anything from the arts and philosophy to science and math. Well, at least that’s the plan!

This sums it up better:

geek perspectives inverted. ranting, raving, and rambling on a plethora of geeky topics.

I’ll admit that I still don’t know some of the people in K33G, but having Mia, Ia, and Garro there assures me that I am in good company. Anyway, do drop by K33G @ keeg.likhain.net if you have the time!

“K33G” sounds cool, doesn’t it? It better be…I suggested it to the group, hehe. Not bragging, just happy. Um.

Finally, I’ve gotten my first iPod. Well, it’s not an iPod Video, just a silver nano, which is good enough for me (right now I don’t have any need for the vids). I refrained from buying an iPod for the longest time as I still had a Shiro MP3 Player to serve my music-on-the-go needs. But when the poor thang conked out (poor quality?), I resolved to jump into the iPod bandwagon.

Funny thing is, now that I’ve bought one, I want to replace it for a better gadget!

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This is one of those posts where you just want to talk about other people and their gadgets. Congrats to my dear friend and colleague Ia Lucero for finally getting herself a brand-new laptop, which she has christened Risk. Believe it or not, Ia bought her new toy while Typhoon Milenyo (Xangsane) was brutalizing the metropolis! Talk about risk, indeed.

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