In the heat of summer, you can't go wrong when going to beach. Well there's a beach with sparingly trees, a not-so-white sand shore and even missing in foreigners wearing those dressed for the bare skin. The excitement comes however on not what you can see but what you can ride on. That's surfing for you dudes.

Yes, this is our first time doing a kowabanga! like Michaelangelo used to yell during our kiddy years while watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Baler is located at Aurora just north east of Manila and one of the prominent beaches which slaps you with a non ending waves with its horizon just besides the Philippine sea. We hooked up at the Bayler Inn that situated at Sabang beach. Its your typical resort house just around the beaches but with a summer this hot, I'm glad that they serve cold drinks free on the house.
The surfing is absolutely the climax of our 5 hour travel towards Baler. We tried two sessions for a know nothing person like me. Each session costed us 350php for an hour with a trainer leading us. A bit expensive? Then there's a surf board only rental for 200php. The tip actually is to balance yourself, don't rush onto standing the surfboard when the wave comes but erect yourself up slowly and surely. The timing is a different story though, my friend Miguel tried to paddle by himself instead of having the trainer push us prior to the oncoming wave. The wave always goes by him to which he failed to ride on the current. One of my constant concern was the safety as I was essentially dead on water for not knowing how to swim. Thankfully, the beach shore was level enough that going through around 100 meters only put me at chest level deep and its already more than enough to have a thrill for surfing back towards the seashore.

Baler is a must for those that seek adventure. I truly look forward to return the place and hopefully I can surf with the board towards greater lengths. Finally, the trip was made possible thanks to our friend Yna who acted as our guide during our entire stay there.
..dayworth

Against every gamers opinion of ORC, I think this title has been too harshly judged. I'm talking about the latest installment of Resident Evil series, the Operation Raccoon City. I won't say my point differs from the view of game critics such as gamespot and in fact I already see most of them coming as I was conscious of the shortcomings to expect upon first booting the game. So speaking of shortcomings, Ill enumerate the major disappoint save the meticulous details for hardcore fans.


Firstly, the story is a nil as zero. The game that's supposedly takes place between RE2 and RE3 but it delivers no coherence to the events so to speak because basically, I (ahem restrain from spoilers) see nothing happening except for the Delta team getting orders and hearing lots of aye aye sir! But I think it would not deter gamers just happening to blast zombie hoards and looking for firestorms. Secondly, the AI does indeed sucks. It's not that bad though, I mean as long as the AI team mates don't get in my way I might as well go into tunnel vision mode and finish the missions rambo style. Lastly, the missions are way to short. I finished the campaign on my first try in 8 hours, period.


Then again, if the game does indeed spells a total catastrophe. Then I wouldn't have bothered finishing the game and escape my way out right? Firstly, the game might be inspired to the recent left 4 dead game that made a huge outbreak to zombie genre games. So shooting dumb zombies as part of squad does get me through the camaraderie aura plus Orc do offer plentiful of zombies to bomb through. The multiplayer does function well for me as I just tested it last night. Of coarse the multiplayer does not offer any unique game style (team battles, catch the flag, etc) but it does function with superficial lags and its also a good chance put to the character ability on the test. Then for the glitches that critics made detriment the game way below zero, I did not seem to encounter one at least for my first play through. One bug supposedly has it that it takes a seemingly arbitrary number of bullet to destroy the lickers monsters to which I find otherwise.
My verdict to orc is a good-for-rent game. It's definitely not a total let down for Resident Evil fans, but given a few improvements specially like putting more beef and meat onto the story presentation and ditto characters designs to. It could have been a worthwhile game in itself.


..dayworth

Yutaka Izakaya, a bemusing restaurant name for me because I do recall hearing the Izakaya somewhere before but we went to visit establishment all the same. I've been to Japan for quite sometime ago and nothing defines more of authentic place than having the "organic" feel that makes the place feels natural with wooden cabinets to wooden chopstic to wooden rice bowls, I mean the rice bowls are made to feel like wooden :)
The location first is situated at along Aurora Boulevard just a few corners behind Aranneta Avenue in Manila. There's a sense of foreboding to the environment as the streets is relatively void of lamps against the nearby savemore and SM store just before the Aranneta Ave but that what formulates the ambience before you enter inside as the place is well lit not with fancy neon lights but a simple fluorescent lamp.
Now this might all be a razzle-dazzle if the food doesn't deliver to what the taste budgs have been living up to. For starters, I must emphasize a handicap atleast against Izakaya because we don't eat raw food to which I think sashimi might be their best seller. So instead we ordered sample of everything such as Maki, Udon, Tempura, Tofu and Teriyaki. Japanese restaurant always leaves an impression of having all the fanciful and pretty ornaments along with the food serving, which would leave serve as cool trinkets to food explorers around the globe. The maki roll is one such because the presentation itself merits as a wallpaper picture. We had a california and tonkatsu roll, the both of which has crunchy texture in it to which made it enigmatic enough because I can't find the ingredient that is doing so. The latter is the recommended one though as california maki with its sour after tastes never fares better for me. Then tempura and vegetable fry is your archetypal cuisine, they're not bad with the shrimp that's fresh and breading doesn't drown the taste. The tofu is good in its teppanyaki (or steel plate) dish. The udon was place in a pot to which I've been looking forward to its content before being served to us, but how it disappointed we were the dish taste too sweet.
What made our stay blitheful is the simple fact that the price is well placed for everyone. Its affordable and affable to mere budget people like me as the dishes ranges from 150~ to 250~ per dish. we cashed out a total of around 2700 pesos for 8 bellies in our entourage. Oh need mention that they we had a genuine Japanese rice that served in delicious sticky texture (which gets my stomach stuff quite fast) and hot barley tea. Sadly I did get to take a picture, maybe next time.

..dayworth

They should put a job description for every MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) that patrols (or stalks ahem ahem) the dark corners of Manila everyday. I would then wonder if that include rebuking caustic punishment and penalties once a motorist has made a traffic violation. I dare say this because I went through the experience not once but twice and even between 2 weeks in succession. The first being caught at Pedro Gil as I was driving through a corner that states a no left turn symbol to which the symbol itself is placed in an arguable position because it was completely blocked off from the stranded jeeps at the opposite end of the road. The second one just happened yesterday on Edsa because I forgot to turn on my head lights. You can shoot me on that one as I did left the headlight off but shoot also the officer for harassing various heavy penalties for leaving the headlights off, it even accused me of reckless driving (how ridiculous is that?) I really have to admire them of their stupendous skills at placing and hiding themselves at strategic road corners to catch violators.
For those that are curious, I "penalized" with 100 for the first violation and 300 for the latter to which, I found from <a href='http://www.mmda.gov.ph/penalties.html'> penalties</a> from MMDA website that a [NO / DEFECTIVE HEADLIGHTS] penalty only incurs 150 pesos. I was at a stupor for the rest of my drive home so in the end I just played Marvel vs Capcom 3 the rest of the night as a way like passing alcohol drink. I wish there's a MMDA character at Marvel vs Capcom  so that I can beat it up to a pulp. Been saving these couple of weeks for unnecessary expenses just to cover for those undeserved penalties.

..dayworth

La Noire is the new GTA. Atleast I'm already expecting it since the game much already ride its promotion through presenting it coming from the same makers as Rockstar studio. I've got good time rocking my brain and twitching my eyes looking for clues because this is the first game I played feature detective work as its genre.


As a trivia allow me start with the title. LA Noire always got me pronounced as la Noire, like a mexican word la Bamba. Turns out Noir is a word for black and more importantly an artwork direction towards prominent films made on 1960's. Gamewise, it excels in graphics, voice quality which more than equates to a sound cinematic experience. The story as much realistic as it gets, with homicides being rampant which makes for a rueful aura. So I wouldn't be recommending this to anyone but I'm not putting it negatively. If it gets your taste then this game will definitely hit the spot as no other games comes close to deliver a 1940's era game plot. Environment are surreal with cabinets and antiques so intricately arranged in every cabin and doors that I wouldn't be doing it justice by not stooping around even if I'm on the middle of a mission.

The game has mix of brawling, shooting, stealth operations and of coarse puzzle solving. None of it though make a unique impression on me but that's not to say none of it works. The puzzle solving is the heart of it all, and it gets interesting (or boring) with details spanning to every POI or person of interest to every clue. The challenge is to connect the dots to.. to the interviewing of suspects. Interviewing suspects is one of the game mechanics I've never seen before. Sure enough, I can throw in lots of game with live and vivid dialogue interaction with characters but La Noire has you put the test as the challenge comes with reading the facial expression of the person talking. You'll know they're lying with eyes glinting and avoiding like being drunk and the next is to step up with them by proving that they're indeed lying from the clues found earlier.
The story is by far the pivot point. The story has a noir effect to it that sometimes I feel like just going for hack and slash games just to destress from a days work. The action of the protagonist sometimes lack the motive I usually get from other game plots.
Overall, I enjoyed finishing the game. It really adds a new perspective onto the repertoire of games I finished.

..dayworth

Not every art needs to be pursued in order to appreciate. Here at Las Casas we had the pleasure of bringing relaxation and bring breath taking views with a beating sweat (at least not that much). Situated at Bataan city proper, one needs no imagination at all to take back time itself towards at the one of the greatest periods in Manila. Las Casas is a place as majestical as Intramuros while offering antique like visiting a museum. The plaza is like an art itself in progress, both literally and figuratively. Literally as there was a big sculpture being craft in the middle to which we found from the sculptor that it's been under construction for more than 1 year. Figuratively, well art matures as the value appreciate through the passage of time, I'm sure no arguments on that one. Though the middle of the day was hot, we still took some brisk photo-walks as it would take more than a scorching sky to stop us from taking nice pictures. Oh we also had a good lunch and a halo halo too at a nearby home "Karinderya" which highly recommend against the expensive eatery inside Las Casas.
By late afternoon, we headed toward Mount Samat to which it might have been a final defense line during the tragedy relating to Bataan death march. We're the allies of both Filipino and American soldiers yielded to Japan invasion during WWII. The highlight is in the gigantic structure built in the form of cross that was erected at the very top summit. Initially, I was expecting only a huge cross stuck at the top but in turn out there was an elevator inside that takes you up like 5 to 6 stories towards the horizontal attachment of the cross. The view is breathtaking as you will take all the air in through the windows. I do need to emphasize a the gale his you like driving on a car at 100 kph in highway as you drop down your windshield.
All these trip are feasible just by renting a van or better yet take a drive yourself. The beauty of bataan are only just NLEX and SCTEX away. No need of mountain climb nor off road trekking so I do recommend this place as day trip for nice cozy relaxation time :)

..dayworth

And so we watched Family Outing, a play not be misinterpreted as a Shrek movie with the musical ensemble and bird chirps with vivid sopranos. Its rather a satirical but also at the same time a vivacious tableau of a Christian family pivoting between phases in marriage. I am always at crossroads of being an atheist and a follower but I deem myself more as being an open minded person between the two. As such, the play touched my "believer" spectrum more so with the strong performance of theatre actors I have not heard such.The play is directed by Mark Aranal with the half of the cast being St Stephen-ians.
The best things are free as they say, only Time itself ain't free. Sure enough the play has a free ticket for all but I am also quite enlightened for the most duration save the serious sermons and preaching at post play programme.

Midnight at Moa is were the fun starts as we celebrated while bearing an audience to the fireworks pyromusical, a festive event held beginning every Saturday during the valentines season. The fireworks are outlaid with fantastic splashes on night sky while one of the unique ones are the flare-like sparkles that foliates slowly towards the borders of horizon. Truly unruly yet stunning at the time. Finally, I get to chance to hop on the MOA eye which is a Ferris wheel at bay side. It's nothing much noteworthy but then again, experiencing it is always better than that of reading what can be expressed through pens and keyboards.It was really a great day.. err night and a time spent that couldn't had be any better.
..dayworth

Eight wonders of the world is not an understatement, not even for those which got dethroned and replaced with new trendy or archaic places. Eight wonders of

 that flashes to Filipino students when we are taught on geography classes. And so we went onto a trip towards Banawe, well atleast we passed through and made a breakfast there.
Last weekend was our trip for Sagada at the top and heavenly mountain province. It was my second sojourn at the exciting location, and excitement here defines as a series of nature trek and lots of talking of your hand with the ground. And that's what I like about the entirety of our adventure as there are not the dull moments of doing nothing because being an adventurer is more fun that being a tourist. I'm sure there's at least a distinguish description between the two.


When I said heavenly, I meant more on the clouds and cold mist and that's because January, February is the chillestmonths of the year. The mist made it seem like its raining specially in early morning. Adding the fact that lots of Caucasians roam in the area, the place would have made you feel like in states. Landmark places is much the same as the last time I went there. The Sumaguing cave was a tough challenge mainly because it was raining hard and so we were all while spelunking inside. It is noteworth to say that all the caves in Sagada are interwoven as one can opt to spelunk from one cave and come out from another. Sadly, the weather condition was not late and time is against our side as we started already late afternoon.
The second day was were our trip found its niche. The descent towards the Bomod-ok falls is morning's worth of trip but its one of the most meaningful and enlightening one. You get to see how being next to rice plantations feels like. Its something you can astound on, not on the art and nature beauty but more on yourself. Rice is a hard earned plantation and learning that here tells you not to waste any grain of it. The highlight would be the falls itself towards the end of downward trail. We took lots of pictures and but it was difficult to hang our camera out in the open with the curtain of drizzle carried from the fall itself making everything wet.


Finally, we got the chance to learn on pottery making. One would expect it to be like a DIY hobby but it turns out it required feats and patience to create one, not to mention being expensive too. In a nutshell, raw sources are acquired from various capitals are the country. Then comes the aging process where the clay are formed from mixing the materials. Then the favourite part comes with rounding the lump of clay towards the rotating platform where the form is mold using hands and sponge. Finally, comes the surprising part where the baking process called brisking is rather an almost a day worth of hot-oven-ing and expensive. It consumes lots of gas and the processing of controlling the heat requires precise control. The final pots are authentic and looks exotic to the eye.

There's always much to learn even though this is not my first time being in Sagada. I would welcome trip back there antyime. Also, I'd like to extend my gratitude to the tour group that we joined in as well as friends that we met along. The tour group was the Parana tours which can be found at your usual facebook corner and the price is definitely not outlaid towards tourist standards.

Dragon Age II reminded me much of the previous pc game that I've played, Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. Well of coarse it does since they we're developed from the same company after all, Bioware. Dragon Age II delivers deep storyline since it's already has a ton of prequels and story materials from previous instalments. But still its a good pick up and play game for me. On perplexing notion that I have as I player the latter part of the game is that the plot revolves not much on dragons as the title of the game suggests. Bioware has a habit of creating games that does not have the universe revolving around the main character. They usually gives lots of side quests to character/ally accompaniment travels to the main story mission arc and all of them seem to blend seamlessly like an interwoven tapestry. Fact is, the protagonist of the game (which is a create your own character) Hawke is a mercenary for hire. Well for me, I just had to get every grab-able mission so as long that it can get me money. So be it a story advancing mission, I just finish them.

Time to beat for the game is around 30 or more so hours but like a good game, time flies and a finished it before I know it. Graphics are subpar but not that bad to say the least. The environment sticks much on the dungeons and trailways that could otherwise get monotonic and adding a scarce background music other than fighting helps a little but the voice dialogues are a top notch that I seldom hit skip button while getting in the conversations. One thing that this game beats is the old school drama where the create-your-own protagonist as the mute and good listener guy. Hawke, be it a male or female has its own set of voice overs to which I find it amusing by having him/her jest on various responses that would had otherwise bore a scene dialogue.

Overall, it was good game of rent for me. The characters are likable but the main story may be archetypal for a medieval aged plots.

..dayworth

==Coco Beach==

Puerto Galera still has the sparks on it that makes the trip all way back from Manila to Batangas worth the while (and gas). We headed for CocoBeach as part of our team building effort but more importantly, relaxation from the hush hush urban life.
The place is cozy as what more could you ask for being in an island without a trace of rusty steel and ash cements lamenting your senses at every corner in the city streets. The resort is a nature taken to the next plateau almost like standing at an developed land yet at still being "organic". Chairs and beds are built from woods and other lights stand and households are kept to a minimum.
Activities are abundant enough as there are the usual snorkelling adventure to which I'd avail the boat riding service wherein I was riding to the side beams of the boat, faced down through the snorkels and traverse through the beach chorals. First time doing so, and there were lots of sea urchins which meant riding the boats are much safer and easier to marvel at the ocean beauty.
Other fun stuff include sports, spa to water getaways such banana boat ride and wake-boarding. Sadly, I did not get the time to try the wake-boarding as my friend got tough time attempting to stand up on water and that tempted me the more onto trying my luck. Still, I got to ride go-carts and unexpectedly, a hammer vehicle (woohoo) which would have made me look like a SWAT member save a rifle that could have been hanged around my neck. Oh, the go-carts would have been cool if only it weren't raining hard while we're driving it, the water just shoots at me with a big wave without a windshield. But photography wise, its cool to be taken with a picture like makin a car drift in the rain.







..dayworth