Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

For the last day, I decided to share some songs from my phone. These were randomly picked, by the way.

The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony 'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, this life Try to make ends meet You're a slave to money then you die I'll take you down the only road I've ever been down You know the one that takes you to the places where all the veins meet yeah,	Whenever I listen to ths song, the only thing that comes to my mind is the last few scenes of Cruel Intentions wherein Reese Witherspoon PWNs Sarah Michelle Gellar and then she goes off to drive Ryan Philippe's car and wears his shades. That was a pretty cool scene. And I like that movie,sfm.
The Beatles (with Billy Preston) - Don't Let Me Down I'm in love for the first time. Don't you know it's gonna last. It's a love that lasts forever, It's a love that has no past.	There are no words to describe how much I love this song. It's a song that makes me want to be Yoko. It sounds better live, too.
Ash - Walking Barefoot Yeah we've been walking barefoot all summer It'll be sad my friend To see it come to an end Why can't we just quit	Tim Wheeler will never be of my favorite vocalists judging by voice quality. He'll always be one my favorite songwriters though.
Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Well I heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do ya? Well it goes like this The fourth, the fifth The minor fall and the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah	Of all the Hallelujah covers in existence, I still like this one best. It's also my favorite Jeff Buckley song, too. *sigh* Talented man, died too early.
The Moldy Peaches - Anyone Else But You Here is the church and here is the steeple We sure are cute for two ugly people I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else But you	I really find this song cute and funny and romantic at the same time.
Moonpools & Caterpillar - Soon one day soon its going to happen to you and when it does it wont be pretty one day soon its going to happen to you and when it does...i wont be there	I wonder is anyone else still remembers Moonpools and Caterpillar. I thought they're going to make it big during the 90's but they just disappeared all of sudden. 0_0 .
Richard Hawley - Baby, You're My Light Next time the feeling is the same, don't have to show it A window of belief is where you own it And as life goes on you know you have to face All you find 'Cos baby, you're my light	Is it strange that I have songs from the Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist movie soundtrack but I have never seen the movie? Cool soundtrack though and I love the book sfm. I must watch the movie one of these days.
The Smashing Pumpkins - Landslide Oh, mirror in the sky, what is love? Can the child within my heart rise above? Can I sail through the changing ocean tides? Can I handle the seasons of my life?	I am typing words here just so there's something written in this column. XD Smashing Pumpkins <3

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

For some reason, I can take this quote off my mind ever since I read Jasper Fforde's The Fourth Bear. It never fails to make me smile.

“A life lived in fear is a life half lived. A life half lived is fear lived in half. A life half feared is fear half lived.”
---Mr.Hoffman, The Fourth Bear

And since I'm so into The Hunger Games right now, here's one of may favorite quotes from that series:

“Yes, frosting. The final defense of the dying.”
---Peeta Mellark, The Hunger Games

(ILU, Peeta!)

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

This kid plays a mean guitar. <3 Yuto Miyazawa with Ozzy. (Why do I have a feeling this kid will end up doing Visual Kei 10 years from now?)

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

I regret that I didn't find out about this site sooner.

XKCD - A Webcomic of Romance, Sarcasm, Math and Language

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

Let's not be stingy tonight.I'm recommending a book as well as sharing its ebook.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before-and survival.

Thoughts on the book - Download Ebook

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

You're supposed to see dolphins in the picture below. Can you see the dolphins?

Ganked from doctor_meowzie because I find this meme really nice.

Sharing is Caring! for one week, recommend/share:

Day one: a song
Day two: a picture
Day three: a book/ebook/fanfic
Day four: a site
Day five: a youtube clip
Day six : a quote
Day seven : whatever tickles your fancy

This song's quite old (I was 14 when I first heard it) but it's still one of my favorite songs of all time. And no, I have never seen the movie.



Ash - A Life Less Ordinary
So take me in your arms again
Lead me in my dreams again
So what is it worth?
I'll sell my soul
What is it worth? Only you know...

Tim Wheeler <3

Tactics Advance Progress Report. Well, as of press time, I have already completed 138 missions in 50 hours and 27 minutes. That gives me 162 missions left to complete. However, I'm thinking of skipping all the minor missions and just go straight to the major ones so that I can finsh the game fast. Anyway, I have created a second save file which I can use if I want to complete all 300 missions and job classes.

The reason why I'm in a hurry to finish Tactics Advance is because I want to start playing Tactics Ogre this week. I tried it for a few minutes a while ago and I became interested with the story right away since it's of the same mold as that of Final Fantasy Tactics and the first two Suikoden games. What's also interesting is that you can actually choose the path you want for your main character--or so I heard. He can be a goody-two-shoes or a not so goody-two-shoes, depending on the burdens,dreams and qualities you assign to him. For my character Alphonse (Apparently, this is the character's official name; I saw it in a walkthrough, here are the things I chose:

Bear which burden? Affection
Walk which path? Wealth
Design which plan? Strife
Swear which oath? Revenge (I was actually torn whether to choose this or Victory. The result of a toss-coin gave me this.)
Share which vision? Terror
Shape which future? Change

Obviously, I'm trying to go the non-goody-two-shoes path. I was actually thinking of Cao Cao while I was choosing the traits and the future of Alphonse (using strife to ensure change will take place. It's kinda like Guo Jia's Darkness Technique). I'm excited to see as to how my character will act as the game progresses, what decisions he will be making that will cause terror and strife. It's actually refreshing to play a game wherein the main character doesn't always walk the path of justice and righteousness.

( Wherein Meme gets even geekier and talks about the game's Turn System )

Shiki 13-15. These are the chapters that I've been waiting to get scanlated ever since I saw the Chinese scans. It's mostly because of the Tohru - Natsuno feeding scene which wasn't as horrifying as it looked especially with the translated dialogue. It's actually a pretty sad scene showing a friendship that is true yet complicated. (By the way,the conversation between Tohru and Natsuno about the concept of human beings becoming an accepted source of food in the society was quite interesting. More or less, Tohru was trying to say, as he compares the killing of human beings to humans killing animals for food, that humans aren't that special that they should be exempted from becoming food for others. Humans are still part of the food chain, after all.)

I was also looking forward to the scenes involving the Kanemasa people. Aside from Sunako and Tatsumi, we barely see the other family members. It's interesting to know how they don't like to be called vampires, which they are but with some major differences. For one, they don't sparkle. Or at least, only one of them does.



I don't think the fact that he looks and sparkles like Chou Koumei is a coincidence.

( More vampire talk )

RoT 292.This chapter shows the aftermath of Zhou Yu's genius -- killing twenty thousand people in the east and dumping heir corpses in the river in order to create chaos in the west:hiting two birds with one stone. Eight Geniuses, each one of you, you never stop to amaze me. But I think, the highlight of this chapter is the appearance of a new character. And I love how he talks and how his men had to verify what he really means. XD

"We put some fucking rocks downstream and that mother-fucker gets all flooded. Once they return to Lujiang, we’ll leave a pile of shit at Haihun."

"Boss, do you mean… station at Haihun?"

"The lot of ‘em gotta shit, right? Oh hell, say station then. Ask our Lord for five thousand more men so they can shit up the place."

"Yessir."

" This dumbass Liu Xun can’t see through my gut at all. Start the fight already – my hands are itching so bad the pus is ’bout to break out!"

" Sir, here comes a representative from Shangliao."

" Shangliao’s leaders have met among themselves, boss. They will not pay rations tribute to Liu Xun."

"Good. Tell’em to flee with their mothers if Liu Xun flares up! Once Liu Xun closes in on Shangliao, my troop will drill him a new asshole."

"Boss… do you mean an ambush from behind?"

Oh, Lu Meng. How I love your crude and dirty way of saying things.

Just read Shiki chapter 13-15. Oh, the Natsuno/Tohru angst. For Tohru's sake, I wish he'd just die, and I mean really die because it's obvious that he is suffering from doing something that he doesn't want to do in the first place. I'd blog more about this once I get back from Roxas. I'll be staying there tomorrow until Monday.

Meanwhile, here's a meme taken from fannish5

List the five scariest characters ever.

• I consider most of the 108 outlaws of Outlaws of Liangshan Marsh or All Men are Brothers or Suikoden or however you want to call it to be quite scary. For example, there's the crafty Lady Sun (also known as Sun the Witch) who likes to drug her victims and turn them into dumplings, which she actually sells in her tavern. (Well,at least, she doesn't purposely serves them to the relatives of ehr victms unlike a certain pink-haired 'villainess' I know.) Then, there's Li Kui whose fiery temper has taken hundreds of lives. He has no regard for gender, age , status and character. He kills whenever he feels like it. However, I think the scariest of them all has to be Song Jiang because all of these 107 strong, talented and merciless outlaws bend to his every will and they never question him at all. They do everything he says (Song Jiang could have conquered the whole world if only he had been more greedy and power-hungry enough), even when Song Jiang's sense of morality becomes a little bit twisted at times. ( S P O I L E R S )
  
• Houshin Engi's Dakki is scary because not only is she sly, powerful, and intellectually gifted, she is also merciless and makes hamburgers out of handsome, young men. I think she and Lady Sun would get along well and they could, in fact, trade recipe secrets.
  
• I know this is cheating but majority of the characters in Ravages of Time fit the 'Scariest Character' title; I just can't choose one. They're the type of people who'd form an alliance with you and then sooner or later, you'd find out it's nothing but a part of some scheme to stab you in the back. To make matters worse, almost everyone is a freakin' genius. You don't really want to mess with this bunch.
  
• Luck Stealer's Kurusu Yuusei is also scary because of his ability to steal a person's luck, which can lead to death if he wills it, or if he's being sadistic, he can steal enough luck to make you suffer for a long time but not enough to kill you. (IMHO, it's a fate worse than death)
  
• NEURO. He gives me the creeps. But I love him. XD

For this week, I had a couple of 'OMG! I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THIS' moments, which involved some of my older fandoms.

1.Final Fantasy Tactics:The War of the Lions - I swear I didn't know that this game has been remade as a PSP game, and that Square-Enix has added anime cut scenes.(Plus 2 new characters from other FF games but I don't really care about them) Why didn't Squaresoft think of doing that before? So we non-PSP owners missed the chance to see the scene below in a non-sprite version:

( Will you marry me, Delita? XD )

Thankfully, there are PSP emulators online and I also found a site where I can download the game. I have to remove some unnecessary files from my harddrive though because the game is 99 mb and I don't have much space left. Another thing that stops me from downloading the game is that I'm still playing Tactics Advance and I want to finish it first. Surely, I won't be able to do that when I start playng Tactics.

Speaking of Tactics Advance, I have already cleared sixty-three missions in twenty-five hours and four minutes. And I already got my very first Ninja. Sadly, Tactics Advance's Ninja class doesn't travel as far as its Tactics counterpart. But they're still good for long-range attacks. I have yet to check though if they have the Two-Sword ability as well. But so far my two new favorite job classes are the Sniper class and the Fencer class (which are both Viera jobs). I like the Sniper's Beso Toxico, a long-range attack that not only inflicts damage but also Poison as well. For the Fencer class, I like Swallowtail. It's a short-range attack but can inflict a good amount of damage on the enemy's HP. These two have been making my battles a breeze.

2.Gundam Rx78-2 1:1 scale in Odaiba - I swear I was shocked when I saw this. A decade ago, I could only dream about a seeing a Gundam built in 1:1 scale. Who would've thought for Gundam's 30th Anniversary, they'd have this giant Rx78-2 for display! Just look at the details of that thing. *_* It's missing its shield though but that's not important. What matters is that it exists...or should, I say, existed. It sucks that the model was taken own last month. Couldn't they have just moved it to someplace else?

Meanwhile, seeing that Rx78-2 model reminded me of the one I own. It's a 20th Anniversary edition of Rx78-2 which my Dad got for me. To be honest , my favorite UC Gundam, design-wise, was Rx78-GP01fb but Rx78-2 is still special to me. It is the very first Gundam ,aftr all. I just don't like its weapons system. I rarely used it when I was playing Char's Counterattack.

But I digress.

So, I checked my Rx-78-2 and I saw that some of its labels are already faded and the others are starting to fade. Seeing the shiny Rx78 in Odaiba made me wish that I took extra care of my own. I just have to remind myself that I'm going for the battle-damaged look. LOL.
The rest of my model kits are in chaos right now, actually. My mom tells me to put everythng in order but I told her I'm trying to show an after war scenario.

The truth is I'm just lazy. XD

So I started playing Final Fantasy Tactics Advance two nights ago, and by the time I got my first mission encounter, I was already addicted. But it's totally expected since I was addicted to the Playstation game too.

The game's main protagonist is Marche, a boy who was sucked into the world of Final Fantasy. From what I've seen of the story so far, it's pretty mediocre especially if you compare it to its PS predecessor. (Personally, I find Final Fantasy Tactics to be the best, story-wise out of all the Final Fantasy games I've played.) Then again, it's too early for me to really say whether the story sucked or not, considering I haven't really advanced much because I've been busy fulfilling the missions from the pubs instead of going where I should be. XD

Tactics Advance remains turn-based but with significant changes. For one, Tactics Advance has 42 regular job classes compared to Tactics 18. Not all job classes from Tactics can be seen in Tactics Advance though. For example, the Samurai job class was removed, which is sad because I like the said class' Draw ability, although I had to spend several gils on swords because they keep breaking theirs. Thankfully, the Ninja job class is still there. I love this class. Not because of 'OMG! NINJAS ARE SO KEWL!' but because they have a really good range and they could travel for several spaces. When I was playing Tactics, almost everyone in my party was a ninja. Then, I just equip them with abilities from other classes.

Apart from the new job classes, there's also the Law. For every battle, there is a corresponding rule (e.g. No using of items for the entire battle) which all characters should follow or else they will be slapped with Yellow Card or worse a Red Card and be sent off to prison. The Law can be a little bit frustrating sometimes. Last night I got into a battle which allows me to use only colored magic (e.g. Black magic) and it just so happened that I only had one operational Black Mage. I had no choice but to re-load the game, buy the cheapest rods for my newly recruited Black Mages (because apparently, unlike in the PS game, all new recruits are not equipped yet with anything.) before proceeding to the city and engaging the enemy.

About the battles, they have been quite easy so far. Maybe it's because I've been fighting simple mission battles or because the clans I've been facing are just minor clans. I have yet to have that hair-pulling experience I had with some battles from Tactics. I noticed there's no more wait time when casting magic spells. In Tactics, you have to wait for several turns before the magic gets cast. It can get really annoying because sometimes you ended up wasting a turn because the enemy is no longer in the area.

Anyway, Tactics Advance is really, really fun. I love it. Now excuse me because my clan, Clan RAWR, needs to fulfill its missions now.

Before anything else, cavechan, just a heads up, another team (blackabyssteam) has picked up Shiki. (Finally, this manga is getting some attention, because we know it's severely lacking that despite how good it is.) So far, the team has scanlated only chapter 12. Still, can't wait for the SC tankoubon scans.:D

Okay so chapter twelve shifts the story back to Toshio again. Poor Toshio. He really looks like shit now. He has dark circles under his eyes and looks like he ha forgotten what a razor is. But it's really understandable why the guy has no time to maintain his physical appearance, considering what he has to deal with. And it seems they have become an unhealthy obsession for him. I saw last month's Chinese raw and while I don't understand any Chinese, the pictures already say it all. It was a very difficult moment for Toshio because it involved someone dear to him and what made it even worse was that Toshio knew he had no choice but to do it. He had to set aside his personal feelings for what could be the first step towards the salvation of everyone living in Sotoba.

On the otherhand, Muroi is looking mighty fine as always. :D But I can't help but think that he has a certain connection to the Kanamesa people, aside from his chummy relationship with Sunako. Speaking of Sunako, she's looking creepy as usual. I love her though, and her fashion sense. ( Cut for spoilers )

Overall, Chapter 12 was a good chapter. And I think Ikumi-san is pretty cool. :D

Meanwhile, RoT's 290th chapter was finally uploaded this morning! I'm crying out of joy because I waited for this chapter to be uploaded in Baidu for nearly three weeks. 291 even got uploaded first. Anyway, the scanlation for this chapter was also done this afternoon. Shodar really didn't waste anytime and us loyal followers of the series are really grateful for the fast editing. :D And we are grateful for another dose (albeit short) of Organizer a.k. Wise Man Lu! Also, add Sun Ce and Zhou Yu to the mix, and I am a very happy reader. :D

I think Organizer Lu's early appearance has made the Sun Ce/Yu Ji storyline even more interesting than it already is, especially with the internal and external strategies he has set up. I no longer want to speculate as to how the recent events could lead to Sun Ce's demise because things have gone even more complicated and I don't want to stress myself thinking all about it. XD I'll just wait for the next chapters.

Meanwhile, why wasn't Zhongda and Organizer Lu's enounter shown further? They must have talked after Organizer Lu and his men saved Zhongda right?

As for Outlaws of the Marsh, I'm already on the 29th Chapter and I just noticed one thing---WHY ARE ALL THE WIVES IN THIS NOVEL GREEDY, ADULTEROUS, UNGRATEFUL, SCHEMING BITCHES WHO LOVE MAKING THEIR HUSBANDS LIVES MISERABLE? There's one who isn't but she kills people and turns them into dumplings.(But ILU,Lady Sun!) There's also another one who is actually normal and is very loyal to her husband--but she hung herself. 0_0

On a different note, I visited HelloQuizzy again and you know what that means.

( The Official Myers-Briggs Personality Test )

Well, it's not exactly the Fire Phoenix that I'm into to (a.k.a. Ravages of Time) but this deserves posting nonetheless because, hey, it's another Three Kingdoms-based game. Anyway, the video below is actually from some game entitled Heroes-Scions of Phoenix, which if you're going to check the intro kinda rips off Ravages of Time with the whole recurring dream and the phoenix thing.

Anyway, this is an MMORPG (or at least, I think it is) , once again, featuring characters from the Three Kingdoms period. The character designs are pretty, although some costumes and weapons are really outrageous like the fiery Huang Gai with the chainsaw. Rawr! XD I'm glad this game actually gives a spotlight to characters like Guo Ja and Xun Yu which the Dynasty Warrior franchise failed to do. Guo Jia's technique is a bit funny though. Uh...power cough? XD Xun Yu looks pretty cool. And woah--this game has a playable Fa Zheng?! It's strange though that a lot of the popular 3K personalities seem to be absent. Maybe they're characters that need to be unlocked? Who knows. But I have a strong feeling that the very last character shown in the video is Lu Bu. He just gives that 'I am Lu Bu' vibe.

I am so disppointed with this chapter. No, it's not because of the story itself. Actually, this chapter is pretty good as always, but I'm sad because of the severe lack of Yukio (again) and because Rin stopped wearing the hairclip. :( I know he lost it during the fight last chapter but I'm sure Bon has supplies?

Speaking of Bon, I didn't expect him to be such a flirt. I thought that's supposed to be Shima's role. XD Too bad for them, Shiemi is socially-challenged. She doesn't recognize flirtng even if it hits her in the face. XD And Rin's reaction to Bon's awesomeness was priceless! Of course, it inspired him to memorize the Bible verses too but he sorta failed...Oh Rin.

Meanwhile, I love the colored splash page. Katou, Fujiryuu and Asada are some of the artists whose colored pages I always looked forward to seeing. Going back to the AoE colored page, I find Eminem's (To non-AoE readers, no it's not the actual rap artist. It's a nickname Rin gave to one of his classmates) insertion to be quite amusing. He looks so out of place as usual. Also, Bunny boy is missing. Well, Paku is too but she's dropping from the class (or so she says) so it's not like we'll be seeing more of her later. I wonder if Katou-sensei deliberately chose not draw him because he has not been properly introduced in the story yet (But so is Eminem. Why is he there?) or he just completely forgot about him.

Now about the story---( the mystery continues )

Meanwhile, I've made more Suikoden icons because pretty illustrations must be turned into icons. LOL (3x Zhang Qin; 2x Bai Sheng; ix Shi Jin; 1x Zheng Tianshou; 2x Sun the Witch)

001	002	003
004	005	006
007	008	009

I really have no way of determining the number of times each song has been played (or maybe I don't know how) but these are the ten songs I know I listen to alot:

01.予感 - Dir en Grey
02.絵本　ー　そろばん
03.し、み、め、ゆ、き、さ、あ - Kagrra,
04.Ultraviolet - The Stiff Dylans
05.A Life Less Ordinary - Ash
06.The Dead 60's - Riot Radio
07. Don't Let Me Down - The Beatles
08.Xavia - The Submarines
09.ナヅキ　ー　ナイトメア
10.Anyone Else But You - The Moldy Peaches

Meanwhile, I've made a few icons from those beautiful Suikoden illustrations. (1 Chai Jin; 1 Kong Liang; 2 Lin Chong; 1 Wang Yin; 1 Yan Qing;1 Zheng Tianshou)

001	002	003
004	005	006
007

First of all, I'd like to again thank everyone who gave me their condolences. I really appreciate it, guys. I'm feeling much better now, although I still miss Moxie a lot.

Anyway, since I've already stopped crying my eyes out, I was able to continue reading Outlaws of the Marsh. I'm now on chapter 13 (87 chapters more to go!) and the story has now moved from Lu Da to Lin Chong and now to Yang Zhi. I'm starting to miss Lu Da but the characters that followed him are as fascinating too. But the one I'm really starting to like is Lin Chong. He's also another Imperial Arms Instructor who got framed by Marshal Gao Qui because Marshal Gao Qui's son, Young Master Gao, is enamored with Lin Chong's wife. He was betrayed by his friend and twice, the Marshal's men tried to assassinate him. Unlike Lu Da's, Lin Chong's chapters are a lot darker and more tragic. (Well, Lin Chong did stab his friend's heart before taking it, as well , as his liver out. Not satisfied, he also beheaded his friend. Yes, his chapters are definitely not sunshine and rainbows.)

In chapter 13, Lin chong disappears for a moment to give way to Yang Zhi, whom I can't wait to know more about as much as I can't wait to meet the rest of the one hundred and eight Heavenly and Earthly Fiends.

Meanwhile, I'm happy to have found this website--Suikoden.Com--because it has stunning illustrations of the 108 Heavenly and Eartly fiends. Now, I have images to go along with the names whenever I read Outlaws of the Marsh. :D Just for reference, here are the gallery links for the first 36 characters listed on the site. (It's a mix of both the Heavenly and Earthly Fiends)

( Lots of pretty illustrations. Whether you're into Suikoden or not, just click for the pretty art. )

I like the artist's character design for Lin Chong. *_* I'll probably list down the remaining 72 tomorrow.

Edit: Here is the list of gallery links for the remaining Heavenly and Earthly Fiends.

( Yay! More Pretty pictures! )

My cat died just two hours ago. I'm really, really upset at the moment. In fact, I'm crying as I'm typing this. But I really need to vent out; I really need to get this off my chest.

The picture is the last picture I took of Moxie last night. I had to take a photo of her and Froggy (the toy I bought for her) because it was the first time that she was actually nice to Froggy. Usually, she would do nothing but bite Froggy or if she felt sleepy, she would push him to the side. She had never used Froggy as a pillow before.

Moxie was really special to me because she was my very first pet cat. Also, she was a cat that my flatmates and I saved when her owner decided to dispose of her by throwing her in a canal.Moxie helped lessen my homesickness when I was still working in Bacolod. I just fell in love with her , that's why when I went back to Iloilo, I didn't have the heart to leave her. I took her home with me.

I initially named her Angus because that time I was reading the first book (Angus, Thongs and Full-frontal Snogging) from Louise Rennison's Confessions of Georgia Nicolson. But when I returned home, I dropped Angus and thought I'd name her after Will Parry's cat.

Moxie was a very naughty cat (she's very picky when it comes to food!) but she's very affectionate too. I'm really going to miss the times when she would sit on my lap and ask me to scratch the back of her ears. I'm also going to miss the times when we would do our photoshoots. She loved the camera so much. I'm going to miss the sound of bells that could be heard every time she's running inside the house. Lastly, I'm going to miss using the tag animals-a-go-go here in LJ.

My parents said that they're going to buy me another cat, one that looks exactly like Moxie. But no cat from some petshop can replace the cat I saved from a canal. Even if we name our second cat Moxie, it will not be the same. Moxie will be always be Moxie.

My next cat can be Kirjava.

But before that...

Reading Suikoden a.k.a. Shui Hu Zhuan a.k.a. Outlaws of the Marsh a.k.a. The Legend of the Water Margin makes me want to play the games all over again. I miss the fun in recruiting the 108 stars. And I remember I still haven't completed Clive's Quest, despite my numerous attempts to do so.I've always gone beyond the time limit. One of these days, I should go out and buy a new set of jacks for my Playstation.

Going back to the novel, I just have to say I'm already in love with it, even though I have read only three chapters so far. Suikoden is a lighter read compared to Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Also, I find Suikoden more character-driven just as I find Romance more plot-driven.

And speaking of Romance, I love the reference that the three bandits made to the brotherhood of Guan Yu, Liu Bei and Zhang Fei. In a way, Chen Da, Zhu Wu and Yang Chun are like Romance's Famous Three. I do hope these three go back in the story later on. I'd like to read more about them.

And Lu Da! Oh gods, Lu Da made me laugh because of all the chaos he caused in the monastery. I really feel sorry for the monks, and for Squire Zhao too because he had to pay for all the damages. XD So far, Lu Da is the first to be confirmed as one of the 108 (And he's a Heavenly Star, too!), but I'm guessing Shi Jin is too, as well as the three bandits. I hope the stars turn out to be as interesting or as funny as Lu Da. So far, he is my most favorite out of the many characters that have been introduced.

Meanwhile, Shodar has finished scanlating the last two available scans for Ravages of Time. Now , stops the scanlations, because Shodar won't be able to scanlate anything unless someone uploads the raw for 290. Thankfully, Merc translated the script for 290 as well as 291, so in a way, we're still getting new RoT chapters. But yanno, nothing beats seeing the actual images. I wanna see Organizer Lu again! (And I know, I'm not the only one.XD)

Now for the mini-pic spam! It's no secret that I love the Sima Yi/Shan Wu Ling pair and having read volumes 16-17 , I can't help but fall in love with them all over again. :D

is a money-loving, scheming OTP

The first meeting.

(  Sima Yi told me to get the horses )

This scene is quite funny--Wu Ling, pretending to be part of the Sima Clan, telling one of the Sima Clan horse drivers that Sima Yi ordered her to get the horses. And she looks pretty confident too while saying this lie. Of course, it's not like she knows she's already talking to Sima Yi himself...LOL

Wu Ling doubts the horse driver's identity.

( A horse driver without the callus.A cook without the smell.  )

The first time I read this chapter, I thought Zhong Da's identity has already been found out. It's not impossible since Wu Ling is one clever lady. But, Lady Luck is on his side.

Zhong Da selling himself.

( Now he's the real master of the Sima Clan; handling everything; a real star among his peers! )

Zhong Da certainly knows how to make himself look good, doesn't he? But Wu Ling wasn't impressed.

The "Death" of Sima Yi.

( I'm afraid of blood. Can you keep my body in one piece? )

I love Zhong Da's hidden smirk in one of the panels. "But I dare to say, my young master knows how to deal with a feisty woman." Truer words have never been spoken.XD Anyway, Zhong Da gets "resurrected" later on, much to everyone's surprise. (It really pays to have Wolf's neck.)

Zhong Da's proposal of marriage.

( If I live through this, I swear I will make you my wife )

I notice that self-preservation for the sake of accomplishing something later has become a common theme in RoT. Here we have Wu Ling, using her body to save herself and her clan. Later on, we have Lu Bu throwing away his repuation by begging like a dog for the sake of survival because he knows he can do more productive things alive rather than dead. I find this very refreshing because in most comcs I've read, the character would normally choose death than serve or surrender to the enemy. Probably, it's because 'I'd rather die than serve you' looks "cooler" compared to 'Please, I beg you, spare my life."

Zhong Da's proposal of marriage Part II.

( I said I'll marry you and I will! )

Zhong Da stresses his point for the third time.

( Ms.Shan, you... )

What I find really amusing about this pairing is how they take each other's lines. Earlier, it's always Wu Ling who's always declaring how near the Sima Clan is to her lips. As seen in the scans below, it's now Zhong Da's turn to say that the Shan Clan is near his lips. Also, Zhong Da telling Wu Ling 'Like hell' when she told him that the Sima Clan was also in the same position as the Shan Clan's, was reminiscent of the time when Zhong Da declared that he's going to make Wu Ling his.

Get a room, you two...

( A match made in heaven: the dog and his bitch.  )

On a different, not Zhong Da/Wu Ling related note, the scene below made me tear up. When I first read this chapter, I only had the raws and I was switching between the picture and Merc'c translation whch I had saved in my notepad. It's only now that I'm reading through the scanlations that I was able to focus on the picture and the text at the same time.

( The Death of a Loyalist )

Ugh. It's so depressing.

1.I love Havaianas. It's the only brand of flip-flops that I wear.

2. I got exempted from my Final Exam and even got a score of 1.0 (the highest grade you can get) in my report card even though I was only one absence away from getting dropped from the class.

3.I have a notebook wherein I list down my daily expenses. I always allocate a specific amount of my salary for my basic necessities as well as for other miscellaneous stuff like books or trips to the cinema. And I really, really stick to my budget--or majority of the time anyway. Like if my budget for books for the month is only Php 500.00 then I don't go beyond that, even if I have the extra money to spend.

On a different note, my friend and I went to see District 9 earlier and I love it! To be honest, I haven't heard about District 9 until Eoin Colfer mentioned how good it is in his Twitter. When I learned that it was a sci-fi movie, I immediately asked my friend to watch it with me. I love how District 9 uses the style commonly used in documentaries. It's like you're watching a real documentary about aliens in South Africa. I also liked the movie's open ending. Hopefully, the film won't have any sequel. It's fine as it is.

Meanwhile, I just downloaded Rot 287. And...

( No, it's not about Boyan. )

Someone tell me that Xun Yu's worried expression is because like him another advisor had to withdraw from the frontline (thus becoming a problem for the army), and not because he found out that Guo Jia had gotten the plague from Zhang An. Xun Yu can be such a tsundere sometimes. XD

I love Suikoden. Suikoden II is one of my most favorite RPGs of all time (it's because of Hai Yo's cooking contest XD) and I enjoyed Suikoden I enough to play it again and again (Tir McDohl is love.). And if only I had the appropriate console, I would have purchased every Suikoden game that Konami has made. I love Suikoden so much that I even tried to find the novel from which the games are loosely based from. Sadly, I can only find the novel in Chinese. I can't find any English translations online nor can I find a translated version in any of the local bookstores. Pity. I also can't find an English version for Houshin Engi.

But I digress.

When I first heard about Akaboshi~Ibun Suikoden, I became interested right away because, yanno, it's Suikoden. It's about rebellion. Collecting the 108 Stars. Overthrowing the tyrannical government. It's based on Chinese literature. It should be fun. Right?

( More whining under the cut )

Meanwhile, I've already downloaded RoT's 35th volume. I love the Sun Ce cover. What the heck--I love anything Sun Ce. :D Now for a few petty comments:

Am I the only one who feels a bit cheated that the Zhang He Versus Zhao Yun/Zhang Liao fight wasn't shown? Maybe even just one round of it? Based from Zhang He's description, it sounds epic and full of GAR.

I've already mentioned this to the1daylight before, but I'm saying it again. The scene below really makes me sad.
( A picture paints a thousand words )

Meanwhile I find the page below very funny in all its irony, especially Cao Cao's line because it's true. (He just doesn't know it yet. LOL)
( Oh , Ah-man if only you know )

SO MUCH SUN CE VS GAN NING AWESOMESS!

You know, I kinda pity the Taiping guys, considering how Sun Ce is using them. It sucks to be them. (Then again, as if Yu Ji won't plot against Sun Ce sooner or later. -_-)

On a fully unrelated note, I saw the raw for Tegamibachi 31. And look,an OTP moment!

( Lag, I'm sorry. You got Oniichan back but I'm still crying. )