Yup. I've longed for an online game to play that isn't as stressful as CoD:4, and I remember two great games that kept me coming back: Space Cowboy Online, which I played in 2007, now known as Ace Online; and Granado Espada. I'd recently tried Ace Online, but it was practically unplayable on my PC because of lag from our network to their server's. So naturally, I picked GE.

I'm glad to say that GE is just as fun as I remember it to be, if not more. However, due to an unfortunate incident with server merging that caused my name to get changed to Canina_4 (and you know how much I hate special characters and numbers in names), I decided it's cheaper and probably more entertaining to start a new account from scratch. Well, not really from scratch. I transferred whatever I could transfer from the old broken account to the new one. And just this week I bought P300 and P580 cards that gave me a lot of GP items and Adelina's Booty Searches.

So what's changed since last year? Well, for one thing, the economy is a lot different. Some things that were expensive before are cheaper now, and some things we'd grown accustomed to as being cheap are now rare items. It's also difficult to be a low level character because most players are at the mid level (50+) and up. This was also my problem in Granado Espada JP almost two years ago, as there was nobody selling any equipment for low levels.

Still, with a lot of patience and effort, I'm closing in on that mid-level, at which I still have a lot of great equipment from my previous account.

Other changes include some new areas, a lot of new recruitable characters, modified quests, a boatload of new equipment and other items, and so on. But with my limited GP, I decided to get a character I've wanted since I was last active: Feng Ling. Feng Ling was a good choice too. She quickly became my favorite frontline fighter, immediately surpassing my old favorites Idge, Adelina, Lisa Lynway, Karjalainen and Catherine of STR. Why? Cuz Feng Ling is fast and her moves are fun to watch, especially in her specialty stance.

I'm just glad to be back. I've decided to make a savings specifically for GE, so I get to buy the P2,000 GP card every three months. All I need to do is set aside P30 every working day and that's easily achievable. :D

I'd just come home today from Hong Kong. After I got home, I took a nap, cuz I was lacking sleep. Went to sleep after midnight and had to wake up at 4 AM cuz of the flight back to Manila.

It was a great trip of firsts for me. My first time to ride a plane, first time to go to another country, first time to Hong Kong or any part of China, of course, and my first time to be a real tourist, rather than travelling with another purpose, like I'd always done, albeit only in the Philippines.

I made a lot of wonderful memories with my sister (her website). She was such a wonderful host and tour guide. Thanks to her, I have wonderful memories of not only Hong Kong, but my first trip to another country.

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post. I'll make a list of THE TOP 10 THINGS I'LL MISS ABOUT HONG KONG, with #1 being the best.

#10: The MTR
The MTR is very similar to the LRT2 here in Manila, but with significant differences. I'll miss the stations particularly, because the stations are very well organized. There's even glass and a door, to prevent people from accidentally falling or dropping things into the tracks. It also makes the whole thing very classy.

#9: Hong Kong Ocean Park
I enjoyed the HK Ocean Park a lot, but we went at an unfortunate time, where there was probably the most people since it's a holiday (for most of the world), so it was crowded and there were long lines for everything and almost no seats anywhere.

#8: Kowloon Park
Kowloon Park is such a beautiful place. They had interesting birds, ponds and plants, and a lot of places to take pictures, including a castle. Very refreshing, and you can spend an entire afternoon here just walking, jogging, or just sitting around for some fresh air. It's also a short walk away from the Avenue of Stars and the harbor.

#7: Mong Kok
Despite how I hate shopping in such crowded places. As a guy, I do my shopping differently anyway. But I did love the airsoft area. I got to buy a couple of things, including a German WWII hat (M43). :D Also, there was a boatload of stuff you don't see in the Philippines, which makes me wish it were that easy to get those things here...

#6: Walking Around the City
I walk a lot, and I like walking, but the Philippines has made it a barely enjoyable thing due to excessive heat and humidity, and pollution, danger, etc. But Hong Kong was very well suited for walking. People walk all the time around the city, and you can't blame them. It's a very wonderful experience, to be able to walk around a city and not worry about dying of heat stroke...

#5: The Bus and Traffic System
Seeing a wonderful traffic system where it barely ever congests, even at stoplights, where all the drivers and the pedestrians are disciplined: priceless... The busses are predictable and you know where they go, because the bus numbers are actually route numbers. So you can even choose which route you wanna go by. They will never pick up a passenger in the wrong bus stop or in the middle of the road, nor will they let anybody off anywhere but the correct bus stop. And most of the bus stops have bays, so the stopping or slowing busses do not usually disrupt traffic at all... It's so beautiful.

#4: The Octopus Card
The Octopus Card really makes life easier. I put mine in my wallet, and it felt so cool just passing my wallet over the sensors in the bus, MTR, and other places. I'll miss that feeling and the beep.

#3: Central/Hong Kong Station
The place called Central, a.k.a. Hong Kong Station, is one of the most important waypoints. You can get a bus to practically everywhere (I think) from here, and the MTR is also underneath this place. There's also a lot of shops, restaurants, etc., in the area. It's a very familiar-looking place now to me, due to the number of times we got a bus the MTR from there.

#2: The Cantonese Girls
A lot of pretty girls. A city teeming with them. Walking around, in the malls, on the transport systems, in tourist spots, restaurants, etc... Zettai Ryouiki and Meganekko prone, as well. The fashion sense, though clearly trend-based, is interesting yet not overboard, if you ask me. Very nice.

#1: The Weather/Temperature!
Yes, and a very clear NUMBER ONE THING I WILL MISS ABOUT HONG KONG is the weather! It's the spring time at the time of our visit, so it's very fresh, still cold but not bitterly so. And I'm sure it gets hot in the summer. But hot is not that big a problem in a place that isn't friggen humid. I can imagine people are still walking on the streets in the summer, appropriately dressed for the weather. Something completely unthinkable here in the Philippines unless you're already very dark-skinned and therefore protected from the sun (or otherwise protected from the sun). You also don't need air conditioning, unless you need it for heating...


All in all it was such a wonderful trip. I'll definitely try to come back ASAP. :)

Alright, well this is officially my favorite game now. I've even ignored Call of Duty and Left 4 Dead. Cuz it feels like you're following a big political story as you play this game, plus the awesome active combat.

My new character, which should be my best so far, is a concentrated warrior. Kherjit horse archer style actually, including equipment, despite being a Lady of the Nords. Horse archery is just too fun, and jousting when necessary, which is not something the Kherjits really do, but it takes down enemies fast.

My army is largely cavalry now, despite my original plan of making it pure infantry and archers. That's cuz the Nords declared war on the Kherjits, the most powerful pure cavalry army in the game. I can't win against pure cavalry with only archers... So I had to shift my style. I miss Rhodok Skirmishers and Nobles though. I was working for them in my second character.

It's been a while since I've posted here, cuz Plurk has taken up a lot of my timeline recording online. D: But I still wish to continue blogging cuz this is easier to look back on.

Anyway I've been playing an awesome game by a fairly unknown company recently. It's an offline RPG called Mount & Blade. It's so much fun. I was already excited about it from my friends that started playing it days before me. But when I started playing I got even more interested. The battle system is so unique and intense. You control your swing/attack direction, and also your blocking direction if you choose to fight without a shield (like me). The game also has no magic, so everything is about skill and tactics.

You collect heroes and regular soldiers as an army. Then you choose a faction (if you want to) and ride against your enemies. Or you can spend your time trading and warding off bandits that try to attack you, or rescuing people. Whatever.

I've personally chosen to have an army of cavalry and archers. It seems to work out great so far. I've fought against armies that are twice the size of mine and come out victorious with minimal losses. I fought against 90+ with an army of 46, and only lost 3 crossbowmen and had about a dozen wounded. The other army was completely obliterated (70+ casualties and the rest are wounded) AND I captured the noble in command.

It's so much fun. :D I'm actually excited to go home to play again. Unfortunately I have a night class. Just for tonight. So I can't play tonight. But the good news is I can go home early tomorrow. I can catch up on some much needed sleep AND play after/before that. :D

Lastly, it's also easy to mod, it seems. It runs off what the Python programming language. Eventually I'll try to learn how to use it and make some adjustments myself.

Just joined yet another social thing on the internet. Yay. Another thing to spend time on when online. ~_~ But it's actually fun.

Don't have a lot of friends yet but we'll see.

Anyway skip all that Valentine's Day stuff. It's Singles Awareness Day! :D Yay for sitting around at home. And sleeping. Yay.

I got to spend time with my oldschool buddies (from the days of Y!Chat, circa 2001) last night. It was supposed to be a get-together since Joiz is a bit of a traveller and doesn't get to spend time in the Philippines a lot. I really missed hanging out with these guys. :)

We ate at the foodcourt, then ate again at Rai-Rai Ken. lol

I don't normally care about Valentine's Day, but since I've been actually dating since I started working here at Edulynx, it's become a bit of an excitement for me. I don't have a date yet, but I'm trying to interest a girl in particular.

And since I'm trying to save money, I've decided to just give out handmade cards instead of chocolates or flowers, to my friends and the girl(s?) I like. It's more personal, and it gives me a chance to use/practice one of my talents.

Connected to that poetic talent, I've also had a lot of practice this week with freestyle rapping. I'm nowhere near any good to be entertaining to listen to, but I'm getting faster at thinking of coherent words with a rhythm and rhyme haha.

This is a must-watch for both fans and fellow ignorants of the story. (Click)

It's hilarious. :D That's all I need to say. I just had to blog about this cuz it's an epic internet moment. And epic is overused and misused a lot nowadays but this is definitely worthy of the description.