InfoBlitz

Ever got the feeling that you have the ability yet couldn’t help someone, you got the solution but just can’t tell her what it is or you desperately want to help but you lack the necessary skills and talent? Well I felt that today.
I am a Computer Science student but I can’t help a friend who desperately needs me since I still don’t know how to reboot, reformat, assemble and fix a computer. It’s irritating to know that you study that field yet you can’t do anything to help a friend in need. I know it’s embarrassing, I can say that I’m good at defining computer terms and memorizing acronyms and such but when it comes to technical problems I suck. Among the three of us: Me, Macky and Bryan, the teachers refer to me as the leader, maybe because I am the one who can formally talk to them about subject matters but when they ask me to fix or program something, the only thing I say is “Macky can do it” or “Bryan can fix it”, same goes to my friends who needed my help. I became envious of the two, they improved a lot this semester while I stick to “Fluent English” and HTML coding. I’ve been wanting to study troubleshooting but I have been lazy, until today that is. Sis (Kelly) wanted The Sims 2 game installed badly in her laptop, I gave her my Sims 2 Family Pack 2007 CD, sadly it didn’t work, she wanted it badly so I asked Macky for some help, he did say he will let her borrow his own Sims 2 CD, but he also mocked me: “And to whom will you borrow? To him? Haha forget it It’ll never work”, honestly I was pissed, I was annoyed but I can’t do anything about it, I never showed my irritation to someone, besides it fades away quickly but the thing he said, I doubt I can forget that. Then today Kelly’s laptop needs to be reformatted because it slowed down and lags a lot plus we can’t get it to turn off unless we remove the battery, again I can’t do anything about it since I don’t know how to reformat a PC nor laptop plus I don’t have any “tools” to do the job. Another scar upon someone who studies computers, yet a strong urge to improve myself.
I am her friend but why can’t I help her when she has a problem or why can’t I say something to comfort her or make her smile? It feels like I’m doing my mistakes all over again, selfish, arrogant and careless. Or is it that I lack social skills, besides I’ve been alone for a long time now, never cared for the world and never had that many friends until now. Seeing her cry yet there’s nothing you can do or there is something you can do but you just stared at her, frozen in time. I promised myself when I lost my best friend last year that I’ll be a better man and a better friend than I used to be but why am I still the same? Have I even changed just a little or have I been worse? You look at her, she smiles but deep inside you do know it’s fake, you know she’s trying to hide her true emotions. I made wrong decisions, see other people make her laugh rather than me and made no actions to actually help her. I wanted to be her crying shoulder. Maybe I just needed to find myself more and be better next time around.
No more mocking, mo more helpless me, and no more unhappy friend, I need to improve myself…Train myself…Upgrade myself, so that when they needed my help I can confidently say “I can do it”.

• New Zealand was the first to give women the right to vote in 1893.
• The average car produces a pound of pollution every 25 miles.
• When a giraffe’s baby is born, it falls from a height of 6 ft., normally without getting hurt.
• For the movie Surviving Picasso, actor Anthony Hopkins ate the same diet as Pablo Picasso during filming.
• The snail has traditionally been seen as a symbol of laziness. In Judeo-Christian culture, it has often been viewed as a manifestation of the deadly sin of sloth.
• The 2008 film The Dark Knight was the first movie that did not feature Bruce Wayne’s mansion.
• Aside from doing magic and performing stunts, Harry Houdini was also a famous skeptic who set out to expose frauds purporting to be supernatural phenomenon.
• World War Z author Max Brooks is the son of director Mel Brooks and the late actress Anne Bancroft.
• The teaser trailer for 2012 uses the exact same ambient music score from the trailer The Shining.
• Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt bought the rights to Audrey Niffeneger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife before it was released into the public.
• There are around 40 viruses and related threats specifically programmed to infect Mac computers.
• Urn shaped metal boilers called “Samovars” are popular versions of teapots in Russia and other Eastern European countries.
• Most American car horns beep in the key of F.
• Louie Cardero’s Nardong Tae, the comic book with a cult following about a boy who was struck by meteoric poop from outer space, is a spoof of the gangster-turned-folk hero movie Nardong Putik.
• A chicken can travel 9 miles an hour. This is usually a combined effort of jumping, running and flying.
• The maximum achievable score possible in a game of pac-man is 3,333,360 points.
• The state fish of Hawaii is really called the Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, asas stated in the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
• Stephen King provided the voice of Abraham Lincoln in the audiobook version of Sarah Vowel’s Assassination Vacation.
• More than 2,500 cover versions of the Beatles’ “Yesterday” exists, making it the most recorded song in history.
• Sabretooth and Wolverine’s appearance were both in non-X-Men books. Sabretooth’s was in Iron Fist # 14, Wolverine was in The Incredible Hulk # 181.
• The heaviest Tomato ever grown was of 3.51 Kg. by Gordon Graham of Edmond, Oklohama in 1986.
• Hemp makes stronger and longer lasting paper, as opposed of wood.
• Andres Bonifacio delivered the “State of the Katipunan Address”, during the Tejeros Convention on March 22, 1897.
• Da Vinci spent 12 years painting Monalisa’s lips.
• Both Hitler and Napoleon were missing one testicle.
• Although it has eyes, a tarantula’s touch is it’s keenest sense.
• Golf was derived from the acronym “Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden”.

Hacking pictures has been a part of my life, I know it’s one of my vices but I really enjoy it plus some of my friends knows I have pictures of them in my laptop so no worries, however an accident occurred, I accidentally erased the folder that contains my “Hacked” pictures the bad part is I have already emptied the recycle bin. It got me worried that I hurriedly contacted the very best person that can help me save and retrieve that folder, that person is one of my best buds, Macky. He told me he’ll think of something, I put all my faith in that, it’s like my life is on the line. I’m still not convinced so I texted my friends to ask if I can really retrieve a folder even if you deleted it completely, most of their answers is NO, faith is going down the drain and the next 2 days will be weekends, for short, no classes. I was afraid that maybe if I turned it off the clusters of deleted data will be destroyed.
At last school day! Time to retrieve those data. Unfortunately Macky still have not downloaded any software to help my with my BIG problem, so I went to a friend and instructor Sir Jiun Lacanilao to seek council, he gave me 2 software that “might” help and told me that if the two didn’t work try downloading “GetDataBack”. First try, thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! A familiar beat of heart seems the only sound I hear…..Sadly the first one failed. Second alternative coftware, thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!……Still it failed. Only one more alternative, it seemed and felt like I was running out of time so I rushed to PC Bang our favorite internet café and hangout when we where 1st year college. I quickly downloaded GetDataBack and tried it on my laptop. Thump! thump! Thump! Thump! A surge of adrenaline rush in my every veins as I look at the unfamiliar interface. It was my first try to use a data retrieving software so I didn’t know what to do. A few clicks…It worked, but the lost folder is still not found. I almost lost hope, still there is Macky, and so I waited.
Macky finally got a software to retrieve my lost folder, It’s kind of weird to say but I missed those pictures. The software was complicated from the looks of it finding the lost clusters may took 7 days so I quit. I agreed to myself that I need to take those pictures back however hard they may be. Even though there are pictures in that folder that I can never retrieve anymore, the important thing is I need to be busy getting them back this break.

Apparently the fiesta went well, being a pessimistic person I thought no one in my class would come, but a handful of them made it. It’s still sad though that the people who are dear to me never came, its fair because it was Sunday a time for family and God but it’s also unfair because we only have fiesta in San Lucas once a year, can’t they find even a small time to celebrate fiesta with us after spending time with God and family or doing work then after that they can proceed again with what they’re doing?
Food was flooding though the rain is pouring, we ate a lot despite people staring. Lecheflan, Carbonara, Sushi, Salad, and macapuno, we ate a lot we keep coming back for more. It did end splendidly despite such rain. My relatives got a little sulky at me since I didn’t even try to greet them, I was too busy having time with my friends and classmates. We left our house at about 5pm or so I went to the church, spent a little more time with them then walked back home. Our house is just 2 Km away from the church and even if I have a congenital heart disease I can make it home.
After the guests left it’s time for us to have our own eating spree. Mom went to manage the store though she said she spent a lot for the food and have to take back the losses. My brother and his classmates were doing some accounting project of some kind. I did wish they go home, they’re hogging the PSP and I can’t play Monster Hunter and I think they violated my FHM magazines.

Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, now there is one game that captured my heart and soul, and made me play all day long (even forgot to eat just so I can defeat a wyvern). Now I know most of you who has a PSP at home know this bad ass game, Developed by Capcom and made famous in Japan, this game is one of the best game I have played in Sony Playstation Portable or PSP. The game’s motto: “You are never alone”, true enough this game made top ten in Gamespots PSP game list made possible by the awesome multiplayer mode that lets you and your friends experience the thrill of fighting dragons, wyverns, primates and some crab thingy (Darn Daimyo Hermitaur!). First you start out by creating your hunter which you can customize then you watch a movie that shows your hunter being attacked by a wyvern in the snowy hills after that you wake up at the Pokke village. The main objective of the game is to hunt monsters (duh!) but there’s more to it than hunting, you can create weapons and armors from the materials you salvaged from defeated foes, combine raw items to make better ones, have a cute pig you can dress up, have cats serve you meals that either buff you up before a quest or reduce your health or stamina if they cooked it wrong, and harvest helpful items from the Pokke farm. It got me hooked and a lot of Filipinos play this game I’m sure, even my school has lots of students who play this game. Though sometimes it may be irritating to kill a big bad boss with its minions jumping at you. There’s a wide variety of weapons to choose from:
Sword and Shield – The balance type weapon, it can block and it allows fast hitting, perfect for status ailment effects.
Long sword – This is actually a samurai with speedy attacks and long reach (so long that it irritates me when my comrades accidentally poke me when trying to slay wyverns), it has a “spirit gauge” that allows you to increase damage while activated.
Great sword – Slow yet the best face buster, it delivers a huge damage when you hit a monster when you charged it.
Twin Blade – The best speedy weapon, though it won’t let you guard on incoming attacks it dishes out multiple combos and activates the “Demon dance” that increases speed and damage in exchange for stamina.
Hammer – The weapon that delivers a knockout punch (There’s a chance of getting a Knock out status when you hit a monster) when swung, the best weapon when you want to crush skulls or break shells.
Hunting Horn – Weird type of weapon, but it lets you buff you and your friends, it’s like the hammer only faster, and lets you play notes to buff.
Lance – The ultimate guard weapon, as they say, also it’s both cut (this means you can tear off tails) and impact (break shells and horns) weapon. Long range and it lets you charge straight into an enemy’s face.
Gun Lance – My weapon of choice, a cross between a lance and a gun, kinda reminds me of the gun blade of Squall Lionheart from Final Fantasy VIII, it lets you thrust and shoot shells from a short range, of course I won’t forget about the ” Wyvern Fire” that lets you shoot a charged shot and chunks out a lot of damage.
Light Bow gun – A bow gun that shoots shells, it has faster reloading time than a heavy bow gun and lets you snipe from afar.
Heavy Bow gun – The heavy bow gun has slower reload time but larger damage than the light bow gun, pair it with the right shells and you have a powerful arsenal in your hand.
Bow – The best ranged weapon (I never liked it though) that shoots multiple arrows when charged, pair it with the right coatings and it will score you a wyvern.

There are two types of hunters:
Blade master – Hunters that use Sword & shield, great sword, long sword, twin blade, lance, gun lance, hammer and hunting horn.
Gunner – Hunters that use Light bow gun, heavy bow gun and bows.
Note: There are armors that are exclusively for blade master only or gunners only but some can be worn by both types.
As you progress to the game you will encounter different types of monsters with different shapes and sizes, and the most dangerous among all are the wyverns and elder dragons that shoots fire balls, beams, huge snow balls, lash their spiky tails, charge at you with huge horns, roar, bite, slash ,tear and sometimes call upon lightning and thunder. Here they are:
Tigrex – Remember that wyvern that ambushed you from the hills? That’s a Tigrex, I call him Tiggy hehe. A slack job, pituitary pumping, testosterone twinkling lizard. Strong, agile, and irritatingly fast. It can a shoot snow ball that separates into three right at you, but you can cut of the tail, its weakness is its head so bash away.
Khezu – Sad excuse for a wyvern, I can’t even tell if it’s a wyvern or just a worm with fangs, wings and feet. It lives in caves alone.
Rathalos – The king of the wyverns as it is called, very territorial and one of my favorite wyverns in the game aside from Tiggy and the Akantor, watch out for the fire balls he spits cause it’ll hurt.
Rathian – The queen of the wyverns, I believe she’s stronger than her male counterpart and irritatingly has poison in the tip of its spiky tail and like Rathalos she breathes fire.
Monoblos – Looks like a triceratops only thing is it flies.
Diablos – This big guy got two horns instead of one, both Diablos and Monoblos love one thing and that’s charging at you straight ahead with their horns, stand beside a rocky mountain,evade before the impact and you snap one or both horns.
Lao Shan Lung – The biggest but not exactly the baddest, but it takes you 40 mins. To beat the hell out of him. Or more.

Anyway, that’s it for now. But I can definitely tell this is just the start of my Monster Hunter blogs coz I love the game.

Operation Four:

Situation: Memory

Problem: Memory seems to get a little dull, experiencing a little memory loss in lessons, events and topics.

Observation: Memory loss started when I was sleeping too late. Body clock is set at 11:00 pm.

Solution: To be able to reset my body clock back to 8:00 pm, I have to actually lie in bed at 7:00 pm and fell asleep at 8:00 pm, drinking milk tea an hour before 7:00 pm should help me sleep. Then memory exercises that can help me recall things, Macky should be able to help me somehow. Then study previous topics, studying will also help me solve my second situation.

Situation: Dad

Problem:  Dad keeps reprimanding me about playing games, watching anime and studying.

Observation: I believe this started when he saw me playing Dota in my laptop, he got mad at me saying I should sleep early and study hard. He’s been mad at me since then. I have two theories that may explain why he’s mad:

• Theory 1: This must be because he’s too pressured at the situation right now because my sister is at the hospital confined (and we do know that dads favorite is my sister) plus he’s been absent since she’s in the hospital, meaning if I can recall what my mom said to me “You and your father are much alike” then that means he’s pissed at staying in the house doing nothing but housework.
• Theory 2: He doesn’t want what I’m doing. As a student whose form of study is by cramming, it is really rare for a parent to see that his son is even studying because I only study when it’s nearly time for a quiz or a test, however my memory is pretty good which means that I can absorb almost everything the teacher just taught, after the day I slouch near my laptop and play to rest that’s why he doesn’t see me study instead he sees me playing.

Solution: To be able to solve this I may have to change my behavior pattern to let dad think I’m studying, If he will see me studying and working my thesis for five days that may lessen his attention on me. But that would be lying to him and myself plus I get uncomfortable studying at home. One other option is that I tell my father the method of how I study, then he’ll know why he don’t usually see me studying at home, however he’s my dad which means he’s my parent and he will come up with a way to counter what I say then reprimand me again.

Situation: Money

Problem: Lack of money for financial purposes. Too much spending.

Observation: For the past few days I have been spending a large sum of money due to food, treating others, and going to places. I need money for me to buy books from National Bookstore and for my financial needs for STI’s 26^th Anniversary in Enchanted Kingdom.

Solution: If I am to lessen buying too much food and treating others temporarily then I may save a lot of money, plus if I eat just before going to school then that saves me from spending money for lunch but that also means I need to stay at home till 12:00 pm. Then if I can I have to steer clear temporality from going out too much that means I need to somehow lessen the time of going out with sis and Moit.

Situation: Thesis

Problem: The time of making our thesis is terrible, plus the documentation is such a nuisance.

Observation: Doing thesis happen on times when I have plans to do something important, and all we do is listen and learn the code, no challenge at all. Dean keeps changing the format and other terms.

Solution: There’s actually no solution I have to go with the flow, since I’m not the leader I can’t do much but work.

Schedule Plan:

For Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

6:30 am – 8:00 am……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Jogging

8:00 am – 9:00 am………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Eat breakfast

9:00 – 11:00 am………………………………………………………………………………………….Watch T.V. or clean house

11:00 am-12:00 pm……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Eat lunch

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm…………………………………………………………………………………….. Prepare and go to school

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm………………………………………………………………………………………………………………MWF Class

5:00 pm – 5: 30 pm………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..Go Home

5:30 pm – 6:00 pm……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Eat Dinner

6:00 – 6:30 pm………………………………………………………………………………………………………Watch T.V. or study

6:30 pm – 7:00 pm…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….Go to sleep

For Tuesday

Quite the same except I have to cancel watching T.V. in the morning because class starts at 9:30 am to 6:00 pm, I will have to spend my Php 25.00 for lunch.

For Thursday

This is the only day I can stay at school up to 6:00 pm since I know sir dean won’t let us use the lab just yet the 5:00 – 8:00 pm scheduled for computer lab is a free and vacant time.

For Saturday

The day for thesis which happens normally in the afternoon about 2:00 pm or so.

For Sunday

Rest day from all activities, except from watching T.V., playing games and going to church.

You’ll never know the true meaning of friendship until you haven’t met someone who will show it to you. Each and every one of us have a friend or group of friends, may they be good or bad or even weird like me, as long as there is someone out there who’s always with you and you call friend, tropa, friendship, kaberks, pare, mare,  homie love, jompie how la, etc.

I have this book entitled: “Dating: Clues for the clueless” it’s actually about courting and dating girls, but still this book gave me the best definition of a true friend or how to distinguish a true friend.

From “Dating: Clues for the clueless”

“A good friend is someone you can depend on.

A good friend always has a shoulder ready when its needed to cry on.

A good friend is ready with a listening ear when there’s a  sharing to be done.

A good friend can be counted on just about anything.

No inconvenience is too great and no problem is too small to a good friend.

A good friend isn’t afraid to put himself in a position to be taken advantage of.

A good friend can (but never should) be taken for granted.

You can always assume that a good friend is always there for you.

A good friend is someone who can be confided to.

A good friend will keep all your secrets, except the ones that could hurt you.

A good friend has no interest in gossiping to others about the things you share.

A good friend will not use your words against you under any circumstances.

When you open up to a good friend you can be confident that no one else will hear what you say.

A good friend is someone who can speak the truth in love.

A good friend will listen to everything you say, but will not automatically agree with you.

A good friend cares enough about you and is confident enough in your friendship to give you his honest opinion.

A good friend will tell you when you’re out of the line, point out when you’re being selfish, and confront you when being hurtful.

A good friend will do all of these in a loving and compassionate way as prescribed by apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:15.

A good friend is not easily discouraged in the friendship.

A good friend actually believes that “Friends are friends forever”.

A good friend’s loyalty is unwavering.

A good friend recognizes and accepts your flaws and weaknesses.

A good friend may be hurt by you, but will come to you with that hurt.

A good friend will accept your heartfelt apology without holding a grudge.

A good friend will not let your friendship to be jeopardized by trivial (or even not-so-trivial) matters.

A good friend is someone who has taken time to get to know you.

A good friend is someone who calls you every time the Breakfast Club is on TV because he knows it’s your favourite movie.

A good friend is someone who will embarrass you (in a good way) by making a big deal of your birthday, even if you tried to pretend that you don’t want him to.

A good friend is someone who makes you a tape of your favourite songs just because she felt like doing it.

A good friend is someone who listens for the Giant’s scores every night, even though he hates sports, because he knows you’re a big fan.

A good friend is someone who’s interested in things for no other reason than the fact that you’re interested in them.

A good friend celebrates you and the things you love.”

These messages inspired me and taught me the true meaning of friendship. Despite the fact that I have very few friends, I know I can count on them. It’s always an honour to be standing  beside them, knowing that they too are honoured to have you. Trust, the very foundation of every relationship, without it every relation shatters. It takes months or even years to get to know someone. But after you get to know everything about that person and see that he/she is a true friend then an unbreakable seal of friendship begins to grow between the two of you. You become inseparable, you know every strengths and weaknesses of each other and keep each other’s secrets. Nigh inseparable we are, my buddies Macky and Bryan are always together at school, we tend to look for each other if someone doesn’t feel right, we laugh at each other’s jokes, argue in a good way, and make sure to help each other in times of need.

I have observed that some friends will praise you if your bond is strong but stab you at the back if you had a big argument, they tend to tell nasty things about you, leak out your secrets and use your weaknesses against you. This is very common today. And I can say that this is a nasty friendship if things like these happen. I also have witnessed friendship shattered because both of them like the same guy, a very trivial thing to waste something eternal. Friendship, it’s not just a tag, it’s also a promise. A promise that will give you benefits and happiness that lasts forever, but will make you regret all your life if you throw it away.

InSTInct is the name of our school paper, and I’m proud to say that I am one of the contributors, well to be exact I am a news editor of this prestigious journal, and obviously my job is to edit, rephrase, change or even reject some of the articles that falls under the category of “News” inside our campus, I also write some articles that our EIC or Editor-in-chief assigned me. Actually I never thought I would be one of the lucky bastards that will write articles and stories in our humble InSTInct, my previous job as a feature writer when I was 1^st year high school was a disaster, I lost all the poems and stories that the students contributed for the school paper, thus eliminating me from my job. Now I leaned from that mistake and as of now I do my job just fine and submit my articles on time.

As a writer I have to get of course the latest scoop on what’s happening or write about the activities that happen inside and out of the school campus. It might sound easy but once you’re sitting comfortably in a comfy chair and is about to write your article, the burden starts. Usually it takes me 10 minutes to think of a good title. Then 20 minutes or so to figure out how to start the darn story, because the beginning will tell the readers if what they’re reading is worth continuing till the end or move to the next article because your story sucks. Every bit of info counts, like my motto “Information is as precious as diamonds” they have to know the truth from beginning till end even if the ending is a very bad one. But sometimes writing an article requires a bit of humour even if the article is as grim as their math subject where x is equal to y.

We actually held a meeting this June 21 about some of the problems we’re facing such as finding a new layout artist because the previous one can’t enroll yet also our EIC is at her last year so we need a new EIC and we need new, and fresh writers because most of us are 3^rd years already. The outcome is good Angel and I recommended Jay Ramirez since he’s good at Photoshop and has more free time than Macky (Yes, we considered you too Macky except that you got lots of work already) and ate MJ (our EIC) put me in charge of creating a new feature column where articles are tend to be pop quizzes and trivia’s for those who are too eager to know trivial things and enjoy answering those Sudoku and crossword puzzles, hoo-hah!