August 30, 2007

Ka-ching

I managed to scrounge a red bicycle frame and handlebars from my cousin over the weekend.

I was passing by their house the other day, and I saw
the lad busily tinkering away at his bike. He managed to scrounge a much lighter bike frame from somewhere, and he's transplating the wheels, brakes, plate, and other components to this new one from his old bike. And since he had no use for the old frame, I asked him if I could have it, along with the old chrome handlebars I saw rusting in the corner. A few hours of haggling later, I managed to haul home the bike frame, the handlebars, and a set of pedals to boot. So right now I'm closer to getting a new bike of my own, with only a fraction of the market price.

I can be such a cheap bastard sometimes.

August 15, 2007

Close

It was already past 10 in the evening when I looked at the clock. Time flies fast when you've got a Playstation 2 joystick on your hands. I pulled at the aluminum door of the rental store, and the cold wind came rushing at my face. I was only wearing a t-shirt, so I shivered a little. I started to rub my arms warm, put my cap on, and started the long walk home.

Last week the woman I love told me she was leaving, where it is she wouldn't tell me. But all I know is that I may never see her again.

I wanted to go straight to her house and beg for her to stay. Or at least see her face one last time. But instead I am standing outside a Playstation rental store on a rainy Monday night, trying to think of other things that are less important. At least the unimportant things don't hurt when you wake up in the morning.

She wants me to move on; to keep my heart whole and wait for the right girl for me to come. I wanted to tell her that I don't know where to start moving on. Because I never went anywhere with her in the first place.

In the end, what probably hurts is not that she's gone and no longer a part of my life, but rather the fact that it's the best thing that's ever happened to me in years.

And that I still love her. Probably for the rest of whatever's left of my life.

I still wanted to keep playing for another hour, but the store was already closing for the night. So quite reluctantly, I had to go home. And as I walked out into the darkness of the alleyway, I wonder if there are other things in this life that have closed.

It’s just hard to let go of something very precious especially when you have accepted that something as part of your being. But letting go is essential. Separation is needed. Just like a seed... it needs to separate from the fruit to grow, become a tree, and produce more.... If the seed stays with the fruit forever, they will both perish...

...life cannot adjust to us; we adjust to fit in it.- Romalyn Casia

August 3, 2007

Rallying cry for my Work Ethic

If what I feel right now can be summed up in one word, it would be this:


I've been playing a lot of Urban Dead recently. It somewhat has certain parallels with my job (For example: it involves losing brain cells), but nevertheless it is quite engaging and entertaining. That is, if you find clicking text boxes entertaining, of course.

Since it's a casual web browser-based multiplayer online game, Urban Dead does not win any awards in terms of graphics. Here's a screenshot of the game:



But if you can sacrifice the visuals for expansive gameplay, well this game is worth checking out. The game basically dwells on a zombie outbreak in a London-ish suburbia, wherein you can play as a living, breathing human who is stuck in the city or as an undead, rotting zombie preying on the living. It's not really gross though; probably the most graphic description in this game is wherein you stick a syringe up the neck of a zombie. The survivors mostly spend most of their days scrounging for supplies, setting up radios, generators and barricades, and shooting the living (or dying?) daylights out of zombies with a double-barreled shotgun. The zombies, or zeds as they call it, roam the deserted streets searching for "harmanz", "harmanbargahz", and of course, "braiiiiiinzzzzzzz"....

The game can be frustrating at first, as you need to be of a significant level to be able to fully enjoy the game. It can also be boring sometimes, especially when the zombie hordes just passed the suburb you're holed up in. But nevertheless, it's quite a nice diversion on a boring afternoon.