zeroing in

it’s early in the morning and i find myself staring blankly into empty space every now and then. where there is supposed to be a desk and a monitor or two, all i see is nothing. i’m just staring idly.. . my mind devoid of any thoughts at all. and then i snap out of this trance only to find myself at it again after a few minutes. staring again at the 2 monitors on my desk like they were huge white eyes lulling me into a dream-like state where i am half-awake.. .

i am caught up like this for several moments. seemingly unable to move a single muscle in my body. the only thing that is moving is the heaving of my chest as it monotonously rises and falls for air. and i am engulfed in silence. but the only thing i hear is the beating of my heart.. .

it was years ago when i first heard this song. quite a sad song. but it was a hit, nonetheless. hearing it again last June 24 (that was a Tuesday) gave me goosebumps all over. .. . and suddenly this song has been stuck in my head for a week now. i used to know the lyrics of this song. while it’s been playing in my head for a week, i find myself trying to sing to the tune, yet not quite doing it.. . like i was groping around in total darkness.

so now, i got a copy of it from my officemate’s stash of mp3s hidden somewhere in his workstation. googled for the lyrics (and i’m sharing it with you). currently looping forever on my Amarok. i’m gonna play this song until i get out of the office today. for those who have not heard this song yet, you should hear it. i don’t know how you can obtain a copy. it should be available somewhere on the Net. or see the video below. Enjoy!

Title: Balisong

Artist: Rivermaya

Album: Between The Stars And Waves

Year: 2003

Your face lights up the sky on the highway.
Someday, you’ll share your world with me someday.
You mesmerize me with diamond eyes;
I try to fool myself to think I’ll be alright.
But I am losing all control -
My mind, my heart, my body and my soul

Never in my life have I been more sure,
So come on up to me and close the door.
Nobody’s made me feel this way before;
You’re everything I wanted and more.

To speak or not to; where to begin.
The great dilemmas I’m finding myself in.
For all I know you only see me as a friend.
I try to tell myself wake up fool; this fairy tale’s got to end.

Never in my life have I been more sure,
So come on up to me and close the door.
Nobody’s made me feel this way before;
You’re everything I wanted (more). (Repeat 2x)

You’re everything I wanted

*****

balisong, by the way, is the filipino term for a butterfly knife. it is commonly manufactured in Batangas (Philippines), and in fact, has made the people from this locality known for making this particular knife.

*****

i don’t really see the relation of the knife to this song. is it because it cuts?

*****

it is funny how some people tend to take games way too serious. too serious to the point that the purpose of playing the game is defeated. and what is this purpose, you ask? if you don’t know why you’re playing that game, then there must be something wrong with you. do yourself a favor and quit playing. LOL!

so i’m not talking about any other game. i am referring to Online Games or those that are played on a computer. particularly these Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games, or MMORPG for short. the latter is one of the computer game genres that have taken over the computer gaming world by storm of late. thousands or even millions of people play it every day. and these games are not just for the little kids under 12 years old. many, if not majority, of the people playing these games are teenagers just barely in high school, young professionals in their 20s, or adults over 40 who even have kids of their own.

so why do they play?

well i think i would be correct to say that the primary purpose of playing this kind of game (MMORPG) is to have FUN. all other reason for playing, under normal circumstances, comes from this one reason.

i have been playing computer games for as long as i have been using a computer. in this length of time, i have been mostly limited to single-player games and/or LAN games. the thought of taking on a MMORPG has caught my interest for quite some time, but i haven’t really found one that suited my taste until this year.

World of Warcraft, WOW as called by many, falls under the MMORPG genre and supposedly has captured the hearts of millions of gamers worldwide. i am one of those millions. this is my only MMORPG. i was never a hardcore gamer, be it at RPGs, shooting-games, or any other modern computer game. CounterStrike makes me nauseous. Ragnarok is too bland. but for the past few months, it is kind of scary how i’ve spent a lot of my free time playing WOW. and why not? i am having fun with it. what scares me most is how one could potentially get so immersed into the game world, that one loses track of time. and when you lose track of time, you lose a few other things as well.. . like responsibilities. yes, i don’t have to explain this, or should i? unpaid bills. dirty laundry in your room. filthy bathroom. i could mention a few more, but i think you get the picture.

but you know what is more disturbing? people who take the game with too much zealotry. they get upset when the game doesn’t go as they had planned it. they even get more upset when other people mess up their game. what they don’t realize is that they are not enjoying the game anymore. it becomes a mad race to perfection. in the end, the game consumes the player.. . in the end you always lose.. .

while it is easy to get upset and it is perfectly normal to be in that state, my advise is to never let it (the game) into you too much. have fun playing the game. bear in mind that it isn’t real. the people behind the avatars or toons may be real, so expect frictions and try to be mindful of your actions if it can be helped. but take it like this - you are just in one roller coaster ride with them; the feeling as the car you’re on makes 360 degree loops is like one mad adrenaline rush and you feel like you are flying; but it is only temporary; at the end of the track, the ride comes to a halt. and you get off it. and it’s over. and life must go on! so enjoy it while it lasts. otherwise, don’t get on that ride if you know it will not make you feel any better.

it was very weird how i could clearly see the face of a classmate in college in this dream that morning. her smile was exactly as i remember it when i was still in school. she could be married now, for all i know. we were never close. no, we were not dating, nor did i have the slightest interest on her romantically. she was attractive of the sorts. definitely not my type though. we hang out with the same group of people and in places around school. that was it. so how could she end up in my dream? not to mention, in a horrible one.

this was around 6AM the other day. i’ve had some bad dreams before. but this one i’m bumping up. this was the most vivid, detailed, and currently at the top of my most horrible nightmares list. while others were in the nature of monsters and devils, this one dream only had mere humans in it. but we all know that humans are, most of the time, the scariest. they can do things nobody would even think of doing.. . be it good or bad. plus you see humans everywhere. monsters and devils tend to hide in dark places or in our imaginations. humans are real.

.. . in the dream, i was with this girl’s family. it started with everyone (and i mean like more than a dozen people) posing for the camera. how i ended up with her family, may it just be in a dream, is a total mystery. but then again, that’s how dreams are.. . she was smiling, but not at me. she was standing there in front of her whole family.

suddenly a guy from nowhere came running towards us. beads of cold-sweat all over his forehead and down the side of his face, he was obviously running from something.. . someone. almost bumping me as he went by. i could see his face. but i couldn’t picture out who it was. he was definitely representing someone i have never met before in that dream. from what i remember, he most probably was late 30s or early 40s in age. short hair. that’s all i could remember of him coz what happened next happend so fast. let’s call him X from hereon.

as X was running fast towards me, my initial reaction was to avoid him from running me over. i avoided hitting X just in time. when i turned around to see what or who was behind him, that’s when i saw these 3 faceless men. with sharp machetes drawn, the three, no doubt, had every intention to kill X. then the dream went blurry for a moment. after the blur i saw X in front of me and everyone else, while the 3 guys had already caught up with him. without hesitation, one guy raised his machete and plunged it directly into X’s chest, right where his heart would be! X screamed in pain. it was more of a scream of death. he looked at his chest where the machete was now lodged. taking hold of the machete handle, he took it out of him before he fell to his knees and to the ground. what happened after was just bloody chaos. some people from the crowd got hold of the 3 guys’ remaining machetes and were hacking the 3 with it. a head went off. so did an arm. no.. .2 arms went flying! blood was everywhere. it was gruesome.

i woke up horrified of the dream that i just had. my pulse rate was up. my heart was beating wildly. it took me a few minutes before i could will myself to calm down. that it was only a nightmare. the sun was already up by that time. the sky was aglow with the familiar white light right before the sun’s yellow beams bore through it.

my phone beeped shortly thereafter. it was the familiar ‘You Have A Text Message‘ beep. i didn’t expect this one though. . . although lately i’ve been getting text messages early in the morning. the timing of this one message was strange. and it was deeply comforting at the same time. a smile replaced the terror-stricken expression i had on my face. it felt wonderful inside. warm and fuzzy. it took some time before i fell back to sleep. but because of that one text message i knew my day was gonna be just fine.. .

what is this new micro-blogging craze going on lately? my friends have been urging me to join the fun. well there’s tweeter and plurk, and both seem to be the popular ones at the moment. once again i haven’t been bloggin much lately. a lot of crazy ideas come to mind, but i lack the time to write them down. so surprise, surprise when i learned about this latest craze.

micro-blogging.. . seems to encourage you to go down deep and write what you are doing at a specific time of the day. or just write what you want to write and keep it short. it also seems to promote more interaction between fellow bloggers. for one site comments .. . a lot .. . are normal, and then it turns out like a conversation between many people. well i don’t really know the mechanics. so go take it for a spin yourself. right now i’m too lazy to try it out even for 10 minutes. i’m gonna have to memorize a new set of usernames and passwords and all that crap!

what are they gonna think of next?

the long narrow pass, where at it’s mouth stood the 2nd Alliance bunker in Alterac Valley, was devoid of Horde activity. so far so good. crouched and shadowmelded, with some trees for a little cover, i waited a few more seconds just to make sure not a group of Horde scouts were making their way down the pass to Dun Baldar. timing meant life or death here. i didn’t want to encounter Hordes at this point. it would be a waste of my time and effort to leave the Alliance defensive group to reinforce the offensive who were getting ready to assault Frostwolf Keep.

looking up once more from my hiding place down the gully, my gaze swept the entire stretch that ended at the entrance to the Stormpike graveyard to see if there were friendlies on the move. none. i released from shadowmeld, summoning my mount at once. my swift stormsaber quickly ate up the distance to the bunker as it climbed relentlessly up the snow covered ground. a few more strides off my big ebon cat then i would be going into another pass that forked: left and you’d be at another graveyard, or down to the Stonehearth outpost if you decided to go right. from there, my plan was to cross the Field of Strife as quickly as possible, enter Horde territory, and get to my group who were guarding Iceblood graveyard. after that we would be moving forward to join the Alliance advance group who rushed to capture Frostwolf Relief Hut. the final objective was to kill the Orc shaman Drek’Thar inside the Horde keep. this was our one and final push to win this battle.

naturally i took a right turn. left would mean a higher possibility of encountering hordes on their way to Vanndar Stormpike, leader of the Stormpike Expedition. as i made the turn from the long pass and came out at the base of Icewing bunker, i could immediately see up ahead 2 enemy scouts. both stood far from each other. one was just standing idly near the turn to the graveyard. the other was mounted, still a few yards away from me, but within ranged distance. i turned right some more, almost hugging the valley wall, to cover as much distance from the nearest horde scout as quickly as possible before he notices me. too late!

in that brief moment the horde scout directly charged his war mount towards Stonehearth Outpost. he knew i was getting as far away from him as possible. so he didn’t run directly towards me. instead he cut the gap in half by going towards the only logical direction that i would be heading. his anticipation closed the distance between us in mere seconds. i was still at a head start. just when i was about to go around a tall mound of earth to cover my back from the attacker, i became disoriented and unable to move. my vision shrank. then i realized i was sheeped. it was a Mage! great! i hate horde mages more than warlocks or shadow priests.

i could see the incoming spell being cast while i felt so helpless in sheep form. at least his attack will break my disability. the first damaging spell broke me from the sheep spell he cast on me. without hesitation i dashed towards the mage stunning him for 3 seconds. i hamstringed twice just to be sure, then made a whirlwind attack. instant attacks where i can do as much damage in the time that he was disabled. the initial damage he dealt to me was still bigger than my counterattack but at least he was hurt. he blinked away from me just as soon as the stun wore off, leaving me trapped in ice. typical mage. once again i was immobilized. but this time i wouldn’t be so helpless. i immediately changed stance to defensive, shouting a health increase buff right after to soften the next incoming blow from the troll mage. the trap wore off. my intercept cooldown was almost done. i ran towards him while he fired a couple of arcane missiles (or were they ice lances?) at me, then something unexpected happened.. .

a nearby ram charged at the mage knocking him down silly for a few seconds. i was laughing inside. it was a pretty funny sight. this broke his attack on me. now was my chance. already at striking distance, i hastened my attacks and gave him all i got. both my mainhand and offhand blades tore at him like crazy. he was hurting pretty badly, just as i was. the ram took damage from my whirlwind attack so it shifted its attention on me. this was not gonna be easy. i was taking additional damage from the ram. the advantage was clearly on the mage from the beginning. them mages always have a couple of tricks up their sleeves when drawn into a critical situation. i almost gave up hope. as soon as he could, he blinked back to the spot where i was after leaving me with a frost nova. the ram aggroed on the mage again and distracted him a couple of times. ignoring the ram, he spammed some more spells on me while i waited for the nova’s effect to wear off. our hitpoints were going down fast. his slightly higher than mine. this was it! it was gonna be a race on who kills who first. just as soon as i was unrooted, i charged at him for the 2nd time, stunning him a few moments, attacked, whirlwind, hit him with a concussion blow (yeah, i usually save it for last), and sidestepped so that i would be almost behind him, attacked.. . unable to move or attack, the mage was left at my mercy. then came the killing blow. at less than 20% health on the mage , with my rage high, the only thing to do at this point was to Execute the greedy horde. with less than 2000 hitpoints on him, i was lucky that my Execute was a critical hit on the bastard. the poor soul died instantly and I Laughed. an unforeseen Victory!

the ram was still attacking me after the mage had died because of the whirlwind attack i made earlier. i stood defiantly over the corpse of the dead sorcerer not minding the ram that had its hooves on me, a mocking grin pasted on my face. i had no intention on killing the beast and my hitpoints was running real low. after i hamstringed the creature, i ran away until it stopped aggro on me.

sad to say, the Alliance lost the battle. but for me, it was a glorious sunny day in the Valley of Alterac.

.. .i won’t lie to you. i’m basically a Noob in the World of Warcraft. but this noob has learned a thing or two in the past few months since he started playing.

basically i’m just gonna list the addons that i’ve found useful while playing WoW. (not in order of importance)

1.) Bagnon. - without this your bags are just sOooo everywhere on the screen.  bagnon organizes your bags into one big one.  no more guessing which bag you put in your make-up kit.  LOL!

2.) Cartographer - definitely improves the default map a lot.

3.) X-Perl - prettifies your UI. the original WOW UI seems to be lacking much. your HP and/or mana bars in the original is not very informative. it makes you want to guess how much you have left, unless if you hover over the bars, w/c you don’t wanna do while in combat.

4.) Quest Helper - very nice while you’re levelling up or just questing/dailies.. . or you’re gonna spend so much time looking for it (the quest location and all)!

5.) Omen - important for raiding. tells you and all who have it installed, how much threat a raid member has on the mobs/BOSS.

6.) Mobinfo2 - this one is so obvious. it tells you important stuff about a mob. to put it more accurately, it remembers information about mobs you’ve encountered. it isn’t very helpful if you haven’t engaged that particular mob type yet. useful when trying to remember how much HP this mob has or what drops to expect.

7.) RatingsBuster - although not so complete, the information it gives is helpful enough. this one let’s you know how much you gain/lose from this item over the ones you currently have equipped. this is nice when you’re having a hard time trying to decide what to get and what to keep, or throw away, while you’re still pretty much in the days where your gear change quite often.

and before i forget

8.) Outfitter - most WOW players will probably be changing gear depending on the situation. well this addon is the answer. for a warrior like me, i can easily switch from tanking gear to PVP gear at the click of a button.

well i hope i’ve helped the other WOW noobs out there. enjoy.

Remember to take everything in moderation, including World of Warcraft.

wow, it’s been a long time. .. it feels like i haven’t blogged in ages. it seems to be such a long time since i last blogged that i don’t even know what to put in the title anymore (hence the 3 dots). hahaha

well i’ve been busy lately. busy playing, that is. well that’s aside from my day job, of course. all work and no play makes jack a dull boy after all. forgive me for my poor excuse.

it’s over. for about 2 months now, i’ve officially left DotA/Warcraft III and the Neverwinter Nights series (1&2) for something else. they have been the top games that i’ve played the most hours on my computer for the past 3 years. it’s been fun trying to beat 5 bots at the same time on the latest DotA AI maps. it was even better playing it with friends. while i was planning on getting that expansion to Neverwinter Nights 2 last year, something happened.. . and maybe it was the start of this all.

by some coincidence i met my former college teacher (currently avid WOW player and guild master of Bisdak, my home guild) on my way to Cebu City. i was waiting in the departure area for my plane to arrive. it was a cloudy day. a boring day. with my PSP in hand and pounding furiously on those buttons, we talked about all things and nothing in particular. World of Warcraft was mentioned a couple of times, although it was not really the gist of our conversation. but it was a start. the causality. the very reason that caused that tiny spark of interest to fuel up into a blazing rage - Zinghyi.

thus recently i’ve gotten hooked up to this uber-cool fantasy game on the internet - World of Warcraft. it’s just great! i’ve always wanted to try this game out for a very long time. now i’m neck deep into it. while it is not the greatest of online games in terms of graphics, i would say it would be one of the best online game in all other aspects. i am not saying that the graphics is that bad. but you don’t need a very expensive video card to play it. having a very good video card has its rewards too. because for sure you would be in awe with the World that Blizzard created.

i will not even begin to try to describe this World here. it wouldn’t be enough. but don’t take my word for it. you must experience it to believe it. there is a 10-day trial offer for this game. if it is to your liking, then let me be the first to welcome you to the World of Warcraft.

Here’s a nice commercial of Toyota in the World of Warcraft.

Dwarf Warrior: i’ve gone ahead and equipped my epic axe.. .

Night Elf Hunter: ummm .. . switching to explosive arrows.

Human Warlock: yeah i’m gonna equip myself with a little uhhh .. . four wheels of fury!

Dwarf/Hunter: ohhh!

Dwarf: no way. there’s no trucks in World of Warcraft!

‘Lock: let’s do this!

Dwarf/Hunter: ohhh! ahhh.. .

‘Lock: did you see me lay down the law? I am the law givah!!!