Evan Almighty

I finally got around to watching this movie and I have to say I enjoyed it. It wasn't my first choice of movies to watch considering there's a lot of other movies out there this time of year but surprisingly, I think it was a great movie. I think the storyline was a great jump from the original story whose main character was Bruce to Evan who was a minor character in the first movie.

The story evolves around Evan who was a newscaster that joined politics and won a seat as a congressman. That's where the conflict begins as family starts to take a backseat to work which affected parent-kids relationship. I won't delve in there too much as I dont want to spoil the movie for those who haven't watched it yet. I do have to say that Steve Carrell played his role convincingly.

I think the best part of the whole experience was the positive message it brought to the movie viewers. Act of Random Kindness one at a time. That's what's needed to change the world. And if you think about it, it makes perfect sense. It only takes one step at a time to arrive at a destination, no matter how small the steps may be.

I'm going to do the dance now.

Dinner And A Movie

I have heard about places where you can eat dinner and watch a movie at the same time but I never thought I'd be in one of those places. Personally, I want my dinner with a good company and a nice conversation. I just think it's better that way that's why I practice it at home too. TV is always turned off during meal time no matter how nice the movie/show is. I figured I can either watch first before eating or eat and watch the show later.

Last week was different. I was assigned to our other corporate office for a few days together with 3 other colleagues and on the last day, everyone decided they wanted to go try a place that serves dinner while a movie was going. It was nice. I enjoyed the ambiance of the place plus the movie was really good too. We picked a slow paced movie which helped.

I admit I enjoyed the experience but it's not something I'm going to make into a permanent lifestyle change for me. I still value a good conversation during meals and I'll stick to that. Besides, the art of conversing seems to be lost nowadays. It's time we bring that practice back.

Plus I want to see what I'm eating under a really good light.

Aristurtle

I used to have a pet turtle and yes, I named him Aristurtle. This was a couple of year ago. I actually found him on the road so I decided to pick him up and get him out of harm's way. He used to be tiny too.. about 3 inches in diameter and weighs almost a pound. I feed him a cabbage leaf and a carrot which I think he enjoys since he runs out every week. I placed him in a box which I keep near the sink.

Every now and then, I would place him in the sink and let the tap water run until there's enough water for him to just wade through. I kept him for about 5 months until I decided it was time for him to be really free. During which time, he had grown to be around 6-7 inches and weight about 5 pounds. Yes, he'd grown quite a bit.

There was a pond in the subdivision where I used to live. I used to run around there and see some other wildlife like snakes and sometimes, fish. I thought he'd be perfect over there. So one day, I brought him to the pond and got him out of his box. The moment he saw the pond, he just run towards it. And I mean really run. I always thought turtles crawl. But he was really quick. He just edged towards the water and went in. It was a good 5 feet between us and the water.

Once he got in, he disappeared for quite awhile but surfaced a few meters from land. I think he was looking at me. At least that's what I led myself to believe. In some ways, I miss the guy. He was fun to watch as he munch on his carrots. But I believe he is much happier out there in that pond.

Nothing beats true freedom.

A Penny Saved Is A Penny Earned

A penny saved is not much but overtime it will grow. It will take time but if you just pick them up and save them somewhere like in a water jug or a vase or anything where you can constantly add on to them, one day you can take them to the bank to be changed to a dollar bill.

I'm one of those folks that will pick up pennies lying around and I would store them in a huge water jug I have at home. I would also put in my other loose change in there like quarters, dimes and nickels. Every now and then, I would pop in a dollar bill, a fiver, a ten and sometimes a twenty. It's not going anywhere and I know it'll be there if I need it later on.

I have been doing this for awhile and the last time I had it full and cashed at the bank, I got almost $600 from the change alone. Now I'm back to putting all my loose change again in there. I won't even try to speculate how much I got in there. That would spoil the fun later on.

And I'm still having fun.

Give And Take

I'm not sure if the title of this one is right but I've been wrong on a lot of things before so one more won't really hurt. I sold some stuff on Ebay last week. I started with 15 sets of graphic novels/comic books and I sold 7 of them. Not bad if you ask me. I got paid $89.00 for them. And I can use this money to fund any other transactions I want to do in Ebay.

I've relisted four of those sets that didn't sell since there were significant activity on them. Of the four, two more sets sold for $30.00. My assumption was that the people that have looked at these items didn't have the chance to come back and bid on them. And I guess I was right. Besides, these are actually great quality comic books.

I saw a couple of trade paperbacks I wanted to get for myself. Only problem though is that the seller of these items are pricing them too high. Guess I'll have to wait until similar items get listed for a lesser value. I always go for "lots" sales wherein items are bundled together.

I'm not a comic book collector. Just someone that enjoys good reading. But I do take care of these items rather well as I hope to put them back in the market when I'm done with them. I keep those that I enjoy too much so I can read them again in the future.

As I said before, one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Runescape - Trading At Varrock

Varrock is the central location for trading in the Runescape universe. At least in the free world anyway. I have never been a member so I don't know what's it like in the member worlds but I have done most of my trading in this area. One can also trade anywhere else but nothing beats Varrock for competitive prices in busy worlds since this is the place where everyone congregates.

One has to be wary though when they trade over here. There's going to be a lot of scammers abound. Always make sure that when you click on those trade buttons, you are getting what you want for the items you are trading. Some of these scammers are quick on the click which could end up with you not getting anything for your trade.

Trading in Varrock always happen around the vicintiy of the bank near the fountain. Most players would come here to get rid of their excess inventory or to get new inventory. Anything you need will probably be here but to trade really well, you will have to look for a really busy world. That's where the competitive prices are. You can trade almost anything. If you get lucky, sometimes you can get a good item from the store just below the fountain.

For archery items, one will have to check the archery store beside the regular store. Most archers come here to trade rather than around the bank's vicinity. For mage items, try looking at the small room on the right side of the bank. That where most mages go to trade - either buying or selling. Knight's armor and other items will be all over the place around the bank. For miscellaneous items, just do a quick survey around the bank. Chances are there will be people wanting to buy feathers, food, ores, and other things as well as selling them.

Again, be aware of scammers.

Captain America Is Dead

Here's a character that has a lot of history in him. He had fought the Germans, had himself frozen in ice, became a different character and so forth. But he always comes back to become Captain America. In the Marvel comic world, he is Steve Rogers and was a product of the super soldier serum.

Sometime ago, Marvel decided to shake things up in their universe where heroes ended up fighting other heroes due to the government wanting them to reveal their identities. Iron Man supported the government and led this group while Captain America opposed it and became the opposing group's leader.

At the climax of the story, Captain America surrendered to prevent further bloodshed and was to be taken to the courthouse for judgement. But he never got there. He was assasinated. And they had him buried in Arlington Cemetery.

The Marvel Universe lost a great character. But knowing the comic world, his story will not end here.

Hopefully not.

Buti Pa Siya...

This is an old one I found in my archives. Thought I'd share it here. Much apologies to my English only readers.

Buti Pa Siya...

Buti pa ang kalendaryo, may date..

Buti pa ang Hershey's, may kisses..

Buti pa ang Probability, may chance..

.. Yung ibang tao, wala.

Buti pa ang exams, sinasagot..

Buti pa ang film, nadedevelop..

Buti pa ang hininga, hinahabol..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang assignment, naiuuwi..

Buti pa ang baso, nadadampian ng labi..

Buti pa ang unan, katabi at kayakap sa gabi..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang telepono, hini-"hello"..

Buti pa ang typewriter, natatype-an..

Buti pa ang salamin, minamasdan..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang panyo, iniiyakan..

Buti pa ang sugat, iniingatan at inaalagaan..

Buti pa ang awit at tugtog, magkasama..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang tindera, nagpapatawad..

Buti pa ang kamalian, pinapansin..

Buti pa and problema, iniisip..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang kotse, mahal..

Buti pa ang pera, importante..

Buti pa ang luho, malapit sa puso..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang bra, sinusuportahan ka..

Buti pa ang panty, sa iyo nakadampi..

Buti pa ang tampoon, feeling safe ka..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang dough, minamasa..

Buti pa ang mah-jong, sinasalat..

Buti pa ang damo, nadidiligan..

.. Yung ibang tao, hindi.

Buti pa ang susi, naipapapasok..

Buti pa ang bola, nilalaro..

Buti pa ang itlog, binabatil..

.. Yung sa akin, hindi.

Buti pa ang sobre, dinidilaan..

Buti pa ang doorbell, napipindot..

Buti pa ang keyboard, napipinger..

.. Yung sa akin, hindi.

Kanina ka pa nagbabasa..

Mabuti pa magtrabaho ka na..

At baka masisante ka pa.

(Ako pa sisihin mo.)

Murphy's Law

One of Murphy's Law states the following "If you are feeling good, don't worry as you'll get over it". And I have to agree with that. I talked about feeling good in my last blog and just a day afterwards, I was brought back to earth. Just like that.

I have been working on a project that has been trying my patience for awhile now and there's no one else in the company I can turn for assistance. They guy that used to work on this particular project had been terminated a couple of months back and he had marked this project complete even though it is not.

Now the endusers are asking for the finished product and we don't have anything to show for it. There's not even a code I can use to decipher or reverse engineer. All the knowledge has been lost. So I have to start from scratch on this one.

Since the project has been marked closed, I have ended up working on this as a special interest project with hours being charged to maintenance. I don't like it any better than the next guy but I have to have some time bucket I can log my time to. Otherwise, there'll be a lot of other questions raised.

Talked about cloud nine and the seven gates of hell.

I Feel Good

I wanted to say that today. Actually, I wanted to sing the song that James Brown had made popular. That's because I had my mid-year evaluation review with my manager yesterday and it was great. But then again, I have always been blessed with great reviews all my life when it comes to my job. Except for that time I had this crazy boss when I worked in Singapore.

A boss is someone who wants to come out as the head honcho and take credit for everything. A manger is someone who will direct traffic and make their constituents take the credit at the end of the day. Big difference there. Although I do call my managers boss anyway. Except for the guy in Singapore. I call him James Wang.

What made this review different from the previous years was that my manager actually wrote something in there that caught my eye just because it wasn't placed on the top portion or in the middle portion. It was hidden from clear sight but you won't miss it before you sign off. And it was about appreciation that came not only from the boss but from some of the other folks in my team as well as the user community.

I came out of the review on cloud nine. At least I feel that my contributions are finally being recognized. I don't really go much for awards though a voucher for a dinner in one of those nice places would be great. A simple pat on the back always hit the spot for me.

That's why I feel good.