The cam's not mine but it was fun taking pics with it xD

Ibanez AES10EAM in hard case

Last Fri at noon, I went to Guitar Center with my dad. I don't have a classical guitar with nylon strings so it was my original intention to buy a cheap one. I tried some Luceros.. they sound heavenly wonderful and I was gonna make my choice but my dad called me out.. said he found something on the walls. It was an electric-acoustic, Ibanez AES series. The first thing I noticed was its design: stylish wood-print and beautiful amber gloss finish. Tried it unplugged... and the sound was good enough for practice... not as rich as the others within the price range (when unplugged) but when I hooked it up the amp, whoa... I had to look at the price tag for the second time... you know, to make sure there weren't 4 digits before the decimal point =D  It's got thin neck and a mini jumbo body which makes it really comfortable to hold since I'm a small person ^-^ I sampled a few more but in the end, I chose the AES10EAM... didn't want to wait another holiday for it to go on sale again lol

Ibanez AES10EAM on guitar stand

BodyShape:	AES Mini-Jumbo Body
GtrTop:	Figured Ash Body
Rosette:	Black and White Multi Rosette
Tuners:	Ibanez Chrome Die-Cast Tuners
Pickup:	Fishman® Sonicore® Pickup
Electronics:	Ibanez AEQ-SST Shape Shifter™ Preamp with Onboard Tuner
Outputs:	Balanced ¼” and XLR Outputs
Fretboard:	Rosewood Bridge and Fretboard
Saddle:	Ivorex II ™ Nut and Saddle
BridgePins:	Advantage™ Bridge Pins
Strings:	D'Addario® EXP™ Strings
Finishes:	Amber High Gloss Finish

RURURURURURU~~~~~~~~~~~~
Btw, Ampoocha (my zune's name xD) is working now. 

Ampoocha

I DL'd the torrent for the full show because the clips on Youtube were being pulled down, minutes after someone uploads a clip. One moment you're watching and the next thing you know the vid's not available anymore T_T

The show wasn't too great but it's not bad either. The venue and stage were small... stage effects were limited but everything I underappreciated was overshadowed by Toshi's voice. Compared to the 3-consecutive-night 'reunion concerts' that were held earlier last year, there were very few squawkings and more roughness to his voice. His performance was mostly solid throughout the night and any doubt I had before whether Toshi can still sing at this calibre is now eradicated from my mind.

The set list: source - Listen the World @ Wordpress

• Endless Rain (Live TOHO cinema with Yoshiki on piano and Toshi on Volcals)
• Prologue ~ World Anthem
• Blue Blood ~ Piano Introduction
• Blue Blood
• Rusty Nail
• Orgasm

- Countdown -

• X
• Tears
• I.V. Prelude
• I.V
• Kurenai + Drum Break
• Say Anything S.E
• Longing S.E

...and finally, check out this list they included at the end of the credit roll. Glad they brought up MSG again and added a Los Angeles stop. Now I'm torn which one to attend but I don't want to think about that right now... it's too early and I'm just going to give myself a headache >_< Beijing was pushed at the end of the list.. I think it's because of the Bird's Nest issue about the Chinese government not wanting to give away the first concert to a foreign band o_O.

2009 World Tour: source - blues-ratapoil @ Jrock Revolution

17/01 ASIA WORLD EXPO, Hong Kong
14/02 World Trade Center, Taipei, Taiwan
X/X Dôme in Japan
X/X Dôme in Japan
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Tokyo Dome
21/03 South korea
22/03 South korea
X/X Supachalasai Stadium, Bangkok, Thailand
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Tokyo Dome
X/X Madison Square Garden, New York, USA
X/X Los Angeles, USA
X/X France
X/X Germany
X/X Finland
X/X Pekin / mainland China

First of all, Happy Holidays! Yeah, really late but I got a pretty nasty sinus the past two weeks -_- I'm feelin' a lot better now though...

Anyway, I woke up early today because I was hoping to see a live stream of X-Japan's New Year Countdown gig... which I missed by the way... I guess the alarm clock is broken after all.

So then.. I grabbed my Zune instead, only to find it frozen at loading screen... I tried rebooting it but it's stuck and it won't even shut down!  It's just basically sitting there all useless and wasting battery. I tried Yahoo! Answers and found a lot of people are having the same problems on the same day O.o

Really odd... In fact, when I went to zune.net's forum, it seems like thousands if not all 30GB Zunes are frozen and others claim their 20GB Zunes are having the same problem.  I would've called for customer support but users say they're not accepting calls anymore and they transfer the calls to a disconnected number O_o Wow wth Microsoft?! They can't just leave their consumers hanging in thin air. Atleast, they could've released an official statement regarding this matter and let us know they're atleast, figuring out wth's wrong with their hardware.

Anyway, I hope they release a fix soon. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with this hardware along with its software but this has got to be the worst because it's not just me, it's thousands more of people and a lot of them bought theirs not so long ago.

My folks came home from TGM store this afternoon and mom showed me today's edition of Asian Journal. The ad was there but the free article spot was altered and I was THANKFUL. The editors probably developed sore eyes after they read the one Kuya Manny wrote . They fixed the grammar, gave it a fitting third-person pov and cut some of the pictures but I've expected just that, even though I was told it should cover half a page. As it turned out the required size was atually 1/4 of the page .

RURURURURURURURURUUU~~~~~~~~~

Earlier tonight, I had to drive my mom to her workplace for their Christmas party. I made a right turn at the corner and instantly noticed the police beacons, which were rotating like mad disco lights. Several police cars were parked in the middle of the road in what seemed to be a checkpoint. I pulled to a stop and the policeman informed us that they're conducting DUI check then he asked for my DL.

I reached for my jacket's pocket as I was so certain I have it with me but then like a flash of memory in the movies... I remembered switching for a warmer jacket the last minute before I left the house...

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OMFG!, I swore I paled... I was so freaking nervous and I tried not to panic but my heart was beating heavily and faster by the second like doki Doki DOki DOKi DOKI DOKI! DOKI!!!.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knew at some point in my life, something like this is bound to happen... forgetting my DL with a high chance of being caught and what not...
...just didn't expected it to be so freaking soon!

PHEW!! I was so damn lucky.. and I was ready for an earful from my mom but knowing her, it never came. She was just as equally relieved as I am that the cop let us through. Once we got through I was feeling a mixture of disappointment, relief, irritation, joy, anger, embarrassment, guilt.. and the only way I could express all of those emotions at the same time was through letting out a string of colorful words but my mom was sitting beside me so I just kept it all in my head.

Anyway, I can't risk something like this carelessly happen in the future... and I can't possibly expect all cops to be generous either. So let this be a lesson to myself and a reminder for everyone else.. always check for your driving license before driving away with your car!

Kuya Manny and I worked on store advertisements til 1 AM last night. They're for Asian Journal (which really is a Filipino-American newspaper in CA, NV and NY) and were due late in the afternoon. If it weren't for an MGS4 track on the loop and the poor grapes sacrificing themselves to be devoured by me, my face would've fallen flat against the computer desk because I was that sleepy. Even so, I stayed up til 3 am to finish the store website's gallery.

At 10 this morning, he came back as promised so we could work on the other half-page ad and I was still asleep. I swore I set that stupid alarm clock to wake me up at 8 am but it never did ring and I'm a light sleeper too... I think. Maybe it's broken >.>
He brought food from the store so I ate first before I sat to work on the second ad. We finished close to 2:00 pm and I e-mailed the files to Jojo, an Associate Editor for the newspaper.

It's only the second time I made ads that were to be featured on AJ. The first one was last year during the same holiday season. I think the big difference was that yesterday, I was well aware that each half-page ad is worth 800 bucks O___O. Talk about the pressure of creating $800 worth of ad in a few hours .

Anyway, I just hope people would stop and consider the ads when they read December's edition.

The pic below really was supposed to be an article about the Grand Manila with one or two pictures. Kuya Manny wrote the article.. he frantically scribbled away on his notepad while I ate a verrryy red Longanisa (w/ Rice ofcourse) this morning. I wanted to proofread and edit it but we're simply running out of time. So the article spot became a full-blown picture ad which was full of self advertising as well lol >.< We're lucky it got accepted though (editors can be quite fussy over loads of ink), especially since this was a free article spot so he didn't have to pay for anything.

The Dream Match. It was a fantasy match, often simulated by many gamers (myself included) in Fight Night Round 3, a video game which features De La Hoya himself on the front cover [ps3/xbox360]. It was also a far fetched idea that was quickly laughed at and considered as old man's random musing when Larry Merchant first suggested the duel, sometime last year. But when the two camps settled to seal the deal, there was no trace of doubt left that The Dream Match was well on its way to reality and talks of The Mismatch rose even louder.

The Mismatch. By boxing standards, De La Hoya's height dwarfs Pacquiao, despite hunching over that has become part of his fighting stance. His reach stretched 6 inches longer and possessed a physique that was much broader than his opponent (btw, his asymmetrical abs bothers me hehe). Added to these physical disadvantages, Pacquiao has never fought in a welterweight division before, which reminded everyone that De La Hoya's clearly the more experienced fighter. With his ever impressive record of 10 world titles in 6 different weight classes, the Golden Boy was easily favored to win by many boxing experts, rivals and fans alike... yes, even Filipino ones.

The Bout Night: Golden Boy vs Pacman. A slightly surprising irony came to play last Saturday night, when Pacquiao entered the ring, weighing more than De La Hoya did. At 148 lbs, he said he felt quite comfortable. De La Hoya stepped in at 143 lbs, which I believe, the lightest he's been since he last fought on welterweight class in 2001.

As soon as the opening bell signaled the start of the first round, both fighters quickly launched into measuring each other's distance. Pacquiao was more agile and his speed was notably present throughout the fight. His stance was that of a technical boxer's... with great footwork and often seen evading, moving from side to side and bobbing his head to further decrease De La Hoya's predictability of his movements. 

(AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

The lack of jabs and open defense from De La Hoya was enough to keep the Pacman at bay and by the end of 7th round, Pacquiao has landed the most hard hits on De La Hoya's career in a single round. With De La Hoya throwing very few punches, his corner threatened to stop the fight. In 8th round, he could only try to defend himself, particularly his badly swollen left eye. He refused to leave the ropes all the while Pacquiao launched flurries of overwhelming combinations.

With the final adrenaline flow, De La Hoya surged forward and delivered a combination to Pacquiao's body. Unfortunately, it did very little and he found himself once again leaning against the ropes for support and in defensive position. Any Pacquiao fan would tell you, that's the time Manny likes to finish off his opponents with overwhelming speed combinations and if De La Hoya was any other fighter, Pacquiao would have made him kiss the canvas right then and there. But no, he was The Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya whom Manny idolized throughout his carreer.

Seeing Pacquiao launching combos at the helpless De La Hoya and suddenly moving away as if giving him a breather and a chance for the Golden Boy to recollect himself, I've come to think that Pacquiao was somewhat hesitant to finish him off. Perhaps, it was the respect as a boxer that prevented him to do anything more aggresive, or maybe, it was simply sticking to Roach's plan for a 9th rd KO. The last 10 seconds has been quite a show but we all know that won't be enough time to pull the big man down.

(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Long Live Our National Fist!
Congratulations Manny Pacquiao!

(AP Photo/Eric Jamison)

Before anything else, I've seen the much hyped movie, Twilight... and I must say... I wasn't impressed. It was as though I was watching a live action movie based on a poorly written high-school-themed... fanfiction . It's too predictable and full of cliche'd moments. For a 'romantic' film, there wasn't enough romantic development.. meaning, they fell in love faster than a rabid Twilight fangirl can rave about how godly the movie was. Also it felt like, the 'forbidden love' between a vamp and a normal person wasn't stressed enough.
There was a fresh, new-age idea present in the story, but I found sparkling vampires to be quite humorous. It's like Mr. Clean minus the bald head o__O

Anyway, back to what I really intend to post... these photos were taken at the Open Space, sometime before Thanksgiving.

Dusk

Sunset Over Bridge

The Tree Mirror

...and a rather ambitious and heavily edited shot with me in it lol

The Calm Lands