Sunday, February 22, 2009

Happy Week

(Late post, I know.. But this is me..)




Wednesday, Feb 11

Kei and I had a GREAT monthly celebration dinner at John and Yoko in Greenbelt 5. Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of our visit. Inee recommended the place some time last year, but we kinda forgot about it.

I was reminded of it during one of our lunches at the office pantry, with Joe-e recommending a particular dish. I suggested the place to Kei and we were excited about having a new restaurant to try.

We arrived at around 8pm, and I got worried when I saw that the place looked packed. I was still a bit apprehensive even after we were told that there were seats for two. We were seated at the corner nearest the kitchen, and it felt cramped. It was a square table, with one wooden chair on one side, and a short bench that was against the wall. I sat beside Kei on the bench. The seat, although cushioned, wasn't that comfortable. It felt like either the bench was too high (without a back-rest! the wall doesn't count!) or the table was too low.

Our drinks came first. We were milkshake fans, and we've been craving for Cafe Breton's chocolate milkshake for some time, so we opted to try the Choco Godzilla. It was more expensive, and it almost got it right, and our choco milkshake craving was solved. We also had one of those colored iced teas, the blue one. Having different varieties of iced tea was interesting (someone mentioned that each of the red, green and blue iced teas were flavored differently: lime, calamansi and dalandan, although I can't remember which was which).

Next up was the Big Star Salad. It was good, though we've had better. =p

On to the main dish!

First, a bit of backtracking. The entire time we were walking from SM Makati to Greenbelt 5, I was trying to recall the dish that Joe-e recommended. But I couldn't. When we were browsing the menu right after we got seated, I laughed a bit, and I pointed to the menu, suddenly remembering what the dish was, the Japaella. Kei asked what was so funny: the name of the dish that kept popping in my head earlier was Japancit.

Anyway. *ehem* The Japaella. I loved it! We were totally missing World Topps' Paella Valenciana, which has been phased out of their menu for several months now. Having the Japaella was one heck of a way to kick that other paella out of my taste buds' memory! It had just enough toppings of shrimp (they could have shelled them completely, though), chicken teriyaki and chorizo, and the rice had just the right level of savoriness. They say it was good for 3 to 4 persons but (hey, I was starving!) you seem to forget how much you've eaten once you see your plate is empty and the serving plate isn't.

We didn't get any dessert when we first ordered, and it was a smart decision! We were stuffed!

We wiled the time by watching the other customers not finish their food, the waiters passing our table-by-the-kitchen, and a couple of the staff preparing sushi.

After scanning through reviews of the place online just a while ago, I regret not having any pictures taken! When we left the place, my lame excuse for it was that it was too dim anyway..

I also didn't regret it too much, since we agreed that we'd definitely come back.




Thursday, Feb 12

We watched Push -- it was good! It had the same feel as Jumper and Wanted. But as Vic said, the plot lacked "the bigger picture". I particularly liked the expert Mover's fighting style. Dakota Fanning isn't as cute as she used to be, though.. =p




Saturday, Feb 14

We spent the day at Kei's house. =) I was supposed to reformat their PC, but my installer CD copies were busted. That sucked. We made mango-banana shakes a while later, and that cheered me up. =)

They had a Valentine's Day event at their church, and Kei was hosting a game segment. It was Family Feud, and we spent the previous weekend making the game board that would be shown by a projector. I took it as an opportunity to learn more about jQuery (yup, the thingie was done in HTML and JavaScript). =D

Earlier in the day, Kei and I exchanged gifts! =D

Goodies were what I got! Goodies!



Goodies!





*glomps*

Sunday, February 08, 2009

I'm Sorry (But Not Really)

Angel's last blog post says:

Browse through Nikki's Reader Shared Items (feel sad that there's only a few of them)

and:

Check Nikki's Reader Shared Items (feel sad that there's nothing new just when I thought I needed them most - to help me procrastinate)

...

I'm sorry that I let you down..  =p

But I'm not that sorry since I've cut down on sharing stuff intentionally.  I've, so far, succeeded in staying away from Mike's Shared Stuff (which has also shrunk significantly, recently  =p) during workdays.  I've also unsubscribed from a number of feeds since December.

I'm trying to keep off the flooder/spammer label I've had last year..  =D

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

New Gmail Look

(sneaky blog post from work!)



New buttons! =D

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Cool Astroboy Jacket!

I was on my way to work sometime last week, and I was surprised when this popped in front of me:



Yes, you can really see Astroboy's insides. And it's not a plain print -- it's the kind where you get a different image when you shift your angle of view (paano ko nga ba dapat i-describe, ha? =p)!

(I searched for "astroboy jacket" and I found it here: AstroBoy 3D Hologram Jacket! =D)

PSP Tekken - TV Out using iRShell

I tested the latest iRShell release's new feature: TV Out for the PSP Slim!

Before the iRShell update, I tested using the FuSa plugin. FuSa worked well enough for all the homebrew apps I tried and for some games. The biggest disappointment with FuSa was that it couldn't handle Tekken! Tekken was extremely slow..

The news of AhMan returning to update iRShell came out last week, but I only had the time to test it now. And Tekken works with almost no lag!!! I've yet to see how multiplayer mode fares, though..

One thing FuSa had over iRShell, however, is full-screen display on the TV.

---

I would have like to show how an arcade match performed, but I was home alone and nobody could hold my cellphone for me while I played. My phone had to be held quite close to the TV for the display to show some detail. But the video showing decent framerate is good enough for me (FuSa's framerate really sucked!). =D

Pet Peeves

Vehicles that are "For Registration"

COME ON.  Your car isn't licensed yet -- you CAN'T drive it now.

The only way this should be excused is when it's on its way to actually get registered. But I've spotted "For Registered" *plates* on lots of vehicles stuffed with passengers and baggage -- were they going to camp at the LTO?

~~~

It's been pointed out by a lot:  words keep getting shortened, these days.

Not that I don't abbreviate ever, and I admit that I sometimes find it amusing ("Ped Xing"? Really? Who thought of that?!).

But, sometimes, it just gets in the way of understanding what you read.

You get used to it, too.  I remember, just a couple of weeks ago, reading "how apt" as "how apartment"..

~~~

Aren't you annoyed that Wolverine's claws in cartoons are USELESS in combat?

He's supposed to be this violent, uncontrollable beast, but when he's supposedly on a rampage and he's about to swipe at someone, that guy catches his hands?!

Reminds me of how I felt seeing Leonardo's katanas always missing or getting blocked..


Dreamy

Sifting through the stuff that have accumulated in my pants' back pocket, I found a sheet of paper whose contents I wrote during the last days of 2008, after I woke up feeling extraordinarily refreshed.  Written all over it was:
===================
2008-12-28

I HAD A DREAM

- I was in a light mood.

- I watched events with interest.

- I could act childishly, speak tactlessly without any regret.

- I could run out the door without my stuff being fully-packed, and I would be skipping because I haven't put on my shoes all the way.

- I would skid over gravel and sand with my new shoes and, partially stumbling, I'd get my arms all covered in dust -- even if I'd just washed my hands less than a minute ago.

Oh, man.

How great it felt!

Now, that's one dream I'd like to see fulfilled.

===================

Don't sweat the small stuff
-- but that doesn't mean they should be ignored

Stop overthinking stuf!
-- I haven't seen a worry-wart that's sooo happy, too.

Write stuff down!
-- You know your memory's bad.

There is ALWAYS something to laugh about
-- Find that little bugger!

===================

Don't read Mike's Shared Stuff (and Plurk?) until 6pm (5pm?)

===================

I want:
- PC RAM (+2GB?  or 2x2GB?)
- PSP Memstick (8GB?)

===================

- It's not good to hold it in!

- I regret being so regretful!