The feeling that lingers...

Dear readers,


I've been absent for a week now, having my leisure time mainly occupied by Dragon Age 2. It wasn't the charmer as the first game was, but, it's an amazing game in its own right. It's always tough having to follow the footsteps of a great predecessor. I have not completed the game yet. Still listening/reading all the dialogs I can have with with my crew of party members. It's always nice to see that plenty of effort have been placed into the building of the characters, and how some of the characters from the first game are loosely linked to the second game.


It's really easy to have attachments to a lot of things, and detaching from some in favor of others. So many things we love to do, so many people you would love to spend your time with, but we all have choices to make. Would you spend 4 hours accompanying your family to shopping than to play the amazing game called Dragon Age 2? I know I chose the former, most of the time. Hence my slow progress of the game. I don't regret it, but sometimes I wish my sister can spend less time in the women's section so I can see what I want to see in the mall, and not just seeing her trying on the multitude of clothes that never seem to end in supply.


I'm currently not in any sort relationship, and I'm not sure whether to be thankful that I can still spend time leisurely on games or to dwell in the felling of wanting someone to hold when all I have in mind, is that special someone? Some attachments are harder to remove than others, so what do you do? You attach yourself to things that keeps your mind flowing with different ideas. Coinciding with the supermoon event, which happens today, I'm going to relate my affection to that special someone to the moon then.

I love the moon, love it in so many ways. Love it when it's a crescent, and especially loving it when it's full. I fell heads over toes for a girl, a high maintenance girl, the same way I pour my affection to the moon. Who doesn't love high maintenance girls? They make you heart pump. Or maybe someplace else, I wouldn't emphasize where. They can fill your mind with a lot of sweet thoughts. Some thoughts that I am too readily believe to be true. I tell myself so many things when in truth, nothing ever hits the right spot, or hit her right spot, in this matter.


I ain't a party boy, fail to have a great body, and is most of the time an average Joe. No tycoon's money, no movie star's look, no genius' smarts, and no model's physique. Oh, the reasons that I keep giving myself when I fail to win her heart over. Then I realize, the moon is only beautiful when it's something that you cannot readily grasp with your bare hands. In reality, the moon is a desert of rock and sand. In reality, I'm already standing on Paradise. And what is more beautiful that the world around us? The same mentality that I would use on her. She's still a friend, someone that I can talk to readily, a little too readily at moments. She has her flaws, and I'm not blind to it, but who doesn't have their flaws? In fact, I much prefer for her to have a life that she chooses, even when I'm not part of it.


She still makes me smile, whenever she puts on hers. At the moment I typed that phrase, I realize that it has been three years, liking the same girl, but not having the right tools in the shed to win her over. I have been giving myself the wrong ideas, having too much of hope and falling too hard when what I thought to be true, is just something my mind came up with. She has been strongly against the fact that there can be nothing more than friends, I just failed at accepting what was not meant to be.


I'm not trying to be a drama king here. I'm typing all these words with a smile on my face, believe it or not. It's just that the feeling still lingers, and I love strengthening it, and typing it out. I may be secretly wanting the wrong ideas to be right in the end, but I know that all of the wrong ideas are reasonably wrong for the right reasons. I know where I stand, and I know the moon is always there to shine, even when she doesn't look upon the same moon as I do.


I know damn well that I'll meet somebody else that can give me the same feelings in the future, hopefully somewhere in the near future. There's always someone out there for you now, ain't there? At least that's something I still believe in.

Have a great night, readers. Enjoy the full moon at its glorious state, especially tonight.

Life, is all about choices

Dear readers,


I won't be talking about games today (Not directly anyway). Why don't we talk about life instead.
Lets relate life to my obsession of RPG games. One of the reasons I fell in love with games is that games are a reflection of your choices. One of the more obvious reflections, and also one with the fastest outcomes, IMHO.


"How so?" you asked.


Well, it's simple actually. Lets have a look at my play-through of Baldur's Gate 2. I was playing as a Kensai / Thief. Took 12 levels of Kensai at first to max out my proficiency at one-handed blades and dual-wielding, then moved on to being a Thief to utilize the perks of being able to make sneak attacks from the shadows. I was a damage dealing machine, dual wielding katanas and killing most Mages of equal levels in one hit. (x5 damage bonus from sneak attacks).


"So how does it relate to choices in life?" you asked again.


Then, I'll compare myself with how one of my friends (Lets call him Ken) plays Baldur's Gate 2. He was playing as a Mage. At that time (When I was playing a Kensai / Thief), my opinion on Mages is that Mages are squishy meat bags that will die in just a few hits. Ken had a totally different outlook on Mages though. Once Mages reach high levels, they are the real deal killing machine, and my Kensai / Thief was just a "damage dealing" machine. Ken's Mage can kill things faster than my Kensai / Thief ever will, even when I relish on the thought of gibbing Mage NPCs with my sneaky character.


It's not that I regretted playing a Kensai / Thief. It's more of the revelation that never occur to me at the point where I was creating my character and playing the game. Mages have a whole lot more tools in their arsenal, when compared to my Kensai / Thief. It was my choice to play a sneaky character, with dual wielding being the "cool" factor, and also my tendency of sinking my feet into the character shoes. I like to think of myself being the assassin that would shroud himself in shadows and dealing the killing blow without the targets knowing what hit them.


Ken however, he reap the rewards in the end where he can have a whole army of his Mage's simulacrum dealing death to every mob that came close to his character. He enjoyed the satisfaction of overwhelming the enemies in every way possible. The choice of picking what character you want to play determines how the game will play out in the end.


This is really similar to life. Any choice you make now will yield results in the future, near or far. One of the reasons of me loving games is that they are like an indirect simulation of life, where your choice dictates on how the game will be played out in the end (I've said this, I know). There is one difference though. You can keep replaying the same game in different manners, making different choices on the same branching point in the game again and again to see different outcomes. But in life, what's done is done, and moving on is always the more sensible choice.


Being mediocre is a choice.
Being awesome is a choice.
Being good is a choice.
Being evil is a choice.


All of these choices, they can only be made by you. How you want your life to be, how you want the game to be played out in the end (again, I know, hehe...), you will need to make the first step in making THAT choice. That choice which you will live and breath through and through. I'm a contented average Joe (John, in this case) that enjoy playing games and typing my thoughts out. It's a choice that I've never really regretted. Mainly because it's a choice I've made.


What choices have you made? I've shared mine, and I hope in time, you'll share yours too.

Love your choices, and have fun while you're at it! ;)

Dungeons are the floors; Dragons are the ceilings

Dear readers,


When I was a kid, things that are surreal fascinates me. I was addicted to Sword and Sorcery when I laid my hands on my first game book, then the addiction went on to Sword and Sorcery themed novels. When computers were introduced into my life, it went on to Dungeons & Dragons themed games, or any form or Role Playing Games (RPGs) that I can find on the PC.

Addiction never felt better.

I was sometimes a warrior, most of the time a rogue, and very rarely, a mage. I enjoyed placing myself in the shoes of a different character. Having able to perform amazing feats (in my mind) to an awesome extent keeps that smile across my cheeks. The turning points of my gaming life starts from the Lone Wolf series, to the Sword and Sorcery themed novels. I cannot remember the title of the books, but I remember a certain story about a God in the form of a little girl, then a guy and his lovely companion that is a queen, and also another story about a bastard his royal family.

Then from the novels, it evolved to PC RPGs. The one with the most impact is Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, and the amazing expansion, Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal. It brought me to the light of Dungeons and Dragons, even if my experience with Pen and Paper RPGs are only limited to Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series. I would love to elaborate a little more on the games that I have played, but I will save them for future blogs, where I will talk about them with more details.

What I am about to elaborate in slightly more detail here is the fact that Dragon Age 2 is officially launching tomorrow night, and I'm exhilarated to have pre-purchased it. RPGs have an evolution of its own, and I'm proud to say that I enjoyed every bit of RPG goodness that came along with it. With the very brief summary of my RPG addiction evolution explained in words, I hope that you enjoy the little trailer of Dragon Age 2 I "borrowed" from YouTube. I'll be waiting for the time to come where I can become a different character with some dragon slaying capabilities (in my head again). Blogging about it should come naturally, but probably only after I enjoyed every ooze of RPG awesomeness that I can get from the game that the amazing people from BioWare has developed.

See you soon!

Building awesomeness brick by brick.

Dear readers,


How many of you remember LEGO^tm?
Building everything that is from your imagination, block by block.

I have fond memories of those little blocks. It's one of the toys that I remembered me playing as a kid. Being lucky enough to actually own toys, I enjoyed playing LEGO^tm very much, even if my fondness for them has declined over time, the notion of being able to create items from scratch to reflect whatever I had in my head when I was young is still a burning passion deep within.

Being one of the individuals who has laid my feet on this world that is brimming with possibilities;

Being one of the individuals who would spend a good amount of effort and time to materialize what is vaguely imprinted in my brain;

Being one of the individuals who enjoys the idea that you're literally playing using your imagination;

I love anything that provides me the means to form, to adapt, to build, and most importantly:

To play!

LEGO^tm was just one of them. The evolution of digital entertainment makes possibilities a lot more imaginary, if you get what I mean. In better words, imagination is now made possible with access to a common resource, the two digits that would be the basis to the digital world. '1's and '0's are now the basic building blocks for digital awesomeness.

In more layman's terms, computers are now an affordable commodity that can be own by average joe's like me, and with the computer, I can have more means to build my imagination. More means to have good fun.

Now, I enjoy games as much as I enjoy playing LEGO^tm when I was a kid. Then, I bumped into something that is a little bit of the best of both worlds:

MINECRAFT

Minecraft is a sandbox game, where you can practically destroy and create blocks from all around a world of blocks. Each block having its own properties, and having bound to those rules, you can create your own world the way you want it to be. I have played it for 3 weeks now, and will probably post some of my adventures on the blog. maybe even start a whole new adventure when my buddies finally decided to join me as well. The people from Minecraft development are kind enough to create a server program and distribute it, so, when I have more players, blogging about it will be a whole lot more fun!

Expect to see more of my Minecraft mis-adventures on this blog, that is when I can get them to play, and please visit the wiki page of Minecraft to understand what the world of Minecraft has to offer, or visit their main page to get a whole load of old school fun!

P.S. You can search YouTube for Minecraft videos. Some are hilarious! Some are informative.

Hello world! (Again.....)

It's on a typical morning that I decided to restart this blog. I used to have posts that I placed on a certain dumbrellaman.blogspot.com, but now, I would like to make use of a more proper name. Someone that uses umbrellas as weapons of mass destruction. The fine gentleman from The Avengers, Mr. John Steed.


You can call me John,  Mr. Steed, or even the umbrella man, even if my name in the real world do not exactly resemble John Steed in any way, and I don't really carry an umbrella with me all the time.


Some will ask, why John Steed?
My answer is that he's the only guy who I know is using umbrellas to a ridiculous extent. And I like things that are to a ridiculous extent.


Then, others will ask, why an umbrella?
No reason too fancy behind the fact that umbrellas relate closely to our lives. When raindrops start falling on your head, umbrellas come to mind, and rather than using a thinking cap for anything that uses that soft mass inside my skull, I prefer to use a thinking umbrella. An umbrella that thinks for itself, how cool is that?


Why man?
I'm sure the reason behind this is pretty darn obvious. I have a male reproductive organ, and I look like how the males of my species look like. I even behave like one.


What's to be expected from this blog?
Me, me, me, and me, and myself, and I. :D


Ok, what I will post here will normally revolve around my life, and things under the umbrella (Which happens to be my thick skull). Games, girls (maybe), and my 2 cents on some philosophical rants. It's nothing too fancy, but it's what I enjoy anyway. Writing, I mean. Comments are always welcomed, but I will remove any that I feel is inappropriate. This is my starter for the blog, and I hope that someday, I may have tonnes of followers, and people might even make a movie out of me. LOL!


Ok, that was a little over the clouds, but who's to blame for a man that dreams too big for his own good?


Welcome, and have a great time reading!