By the way, for those who are somehow confused... "ftw" means "for the win". I see a lot of people misusing the abbreviation, and a lot of people getting offended, because they think it's some kind of cuss word (they think it's "wtf" backwards, for some reason, or some other similar term). To prove that "ftw" really means "for the win", there's also the term ftl (for the lose).

Anyway, Samurai Champloo really is awesome. I'm up to episode 22 now (downloading episode 23 right now). So far I've loved every episode. D: I'm still torn between who I like more, Mugen or Jin. Special mention is the Tagger episode (episode 18), because my sister is also learning that.

One more thing. Our internet connection has been slow all day today (same with Mikko and most likely other people at least within the same circuit). I wonder why? No earthquakes reported, unlike before. No storms, and it's not raining or excessively windy. Hmm. I hope it fixes by tomorrow. I can't even play Voyage Century in this condition.

In contrast to yesterday's nasty experience of watching anime, last night I downloaded episodes 1 and 2 of Samurai Champloo. o_o Man, this thing is just plain awesome. But I already expected it to be, learning that it's from the makers of Cowboy Bebop. So I had really high hopes for this anime, and thankfully, it really delivered and more!

The anime has an urban feel to it, even if it's an Edo era samurai story. One of the characters, named Mugen, is obviously using breaking (as in, b-boy) moves. And Jin, the other samurai, is cool in a calmer way. The opening song is some underground style hip hop (with some breaking moves by Mugen and Fuu). Throughout the show they use hip hop beats, and sometimes use scratching to switch between scenes. All this is just bonus (read: fan service) to people like me, and it's very much appreciated.

But all the fan service aside, the action scenes are also awesome. Just like Cowboy Bebop, they like fast, fluid fighting that doesn't use frame cheats or stills with moving backgrounds like 99% of all anime. They don't stop to explain their techniques. They don't stand there, screen goes black, you see a few flashes, and suddenly the fight is over. They just simply pwn. They pwn the lot of them and you see how they do it all the time.

Anyway, right now, even though I've only seen the first 2 episodes, this is already definitely one of my favorite anime of all time.

Well I'm on another anime hunt. This afternoon I downloaded an episode of Elfen Lied. Oh man I should've researched this before watching. The anime had a lot of guro that I wasn't mentally prepared to see, because from fan arts I'd seen, it looked like just another anime where some weird girl gets found by normal people, trying to live normally with them. Throughout the first episode I was waiting for the show to pick up. Like maybe the guro was just at the start, and later it becomes a happy anime (like what happened to Shakugan no Shana). But from the looks of things, this pace will continue throughout the series. In other words, I didn't enjoy watching enough to want to see another episode. It's definitely not for me. D:

Lesson learned: research about anime before watching. o__o;;V

Voyage Century: another MMORPG I'm gonna start playing with Mikko and Daryl. Actually, rather, I'm gonna start testing it. We dunno if it's gonna be fun or not. But from the website description and screenshots, it looks like it'll be fun. It's a huge download though... The client is 1.14 GB (yikes), and when installed I assume it'll be around 2 GB.

In other news, I aggravated my sprained ankle and my rotator cuff (twisted shoulder), while breaking last Monday. I also got a video of myself then, but my styles were a mess lol. D: I guess I need to work on my floorworks particularly, and I need to master my inverts. I need to learn how to do emphasized floorwork without getting tired to quickly (or maybe just build up my endurance).

I can't find episode 20 and onwards of Utawarerumono. The links posted on TokyoTosho.com was broken, and the others that do work are in different languages (like French, Spanish and Italian).

That's right. Apparently there's already a new version of PIU (and I still haven't been able to play PIU:Zero that much yet). I dunno much about the features, but seeing how it's unlikely that I'll even be able to play this soon in this country, I've lost hope. o_o Heck I don't even get to play the Exceed 2 machine that's pretty near here.

Anyway, Urban Hope starts again tomorrow. We'll try to take more video and pictures, and I'll upload them here and on bboy.org.

Axel, my first and my most enthusiastic student of breakin', left the country for New Zealand last Friday. I got to talk to him a little over Y!M earlier, but he seemed a little lonely, as is natural for somebody who'd just migrated. Anyway, I hope he finds a good crew or at least some b-boys to hang around there. He'll come back in about 10 or 11 months, so I'm looking forward to that too.

As for MMORPGs, Scions of Fate, a game I'm looking forward to by NetGame, is starting its closed beta periods. There will be 3 in total, but I don't think they're accepting applications anymore.

Well, upon recommendation, I've been watching some anime, to get ideas on stories (like how to make stories flow effectively, and character development). I'd just finished Shakugan no Shana the other day, and I'm working my way through Utawarerumono (I'm up to episode 10 now, but I'll watch more later).

As for my drawing, I need to work on facial expressions, because I'm too used to drawing similar facial expressions (usually semi-neutral or neutral smiling). Will work more on that later.

Finally, I sprained my ankle last Saturday, and I hurt my shoulder, both from b-boying. I think my shoulder hurts more on the aftermath than my sprain (I barely feel my sprain now unless I move my ankle around). But it'll be fine in a few days, hopefully.

Listening to: Misato Aki - Kimi ga Sora Datta

Man this is one L.S.S. song if I've ever heard one. Not only that, the whole song is very sad. I think it was one of the major things that made Mai-HiME so memorable to me. So I will continue to sniffle and listen to this song in a loop.

Anywayz, last Monday, the first day of the year, I finally got down inverts. I'm still polishing it (I lack a little control), but the fear of falling is absolutely gone, because at the same time, I learned to do front handsprings. :D

Also, I have new students in breaking (two girls). I'll supposedly get two more this Saturday (two boys). I should work out a systematic way to teach, so that they learn faster.

Re-learning Japanese too. My vocabulary is getting a bit better, and I'm still struggling not to adopt the improper speech used commonly in anime.

Finally, I'm working on the character designs for my webcomic (finally). I'll post when done.

Listening to: James Brown - Get on the Good Foot
One of my favorite James Brown songs. Bye James Brown!

I forgot to make a post on Christmas day, so I'll try to catch up here.

First off, God has been so good to me and my family this year, and I came to realize it especially in the last few weeks of the year. I mentioned stuff in my birthday post similar to this. This year, we truly had a Merry Christmas.

I got a bike for Christmas, among other cool things. So we go out riding every 2 days (it should be everyday). Also, we're starting a new project: we're going to do individual webcomics featured on a joint website. I already have a story, and I'm working on my drawing style. Needs to be consistent and comfortable enough for me to draw quickly.

Finally the New Year rolled in. Good bye 2006; you've been a good year. The Lord blessed us greatly this year. He gave us a wonderful house to live in, He kept our family together even through hardships, He kept us all healthy and He kept us in mind, and we could feel it. There's so much to be thankful of this year that it's not even an option to write them all down. However, the 5 heaviest things that come to mind shall now be listed here:

Top 5 Things I'm Grateful For In 2006
1. My Family. I love my family so much. God has even renewed my relationships with all my family members. And I'm appreciating them more every day. I love that we're together and happy, and even if trials and hardships are everywhere, the Lord keeps us together as a force and we forge right through with His strength.

2. My New Friends. I made a lot of new friends this year, and I've even come to appreciate my old friends more. Some of my best friends that I made this year include my students Axel and Macro, and the b-boys Junar and Nicolo, and Jose, Lester and Kuya Mark. Special mention is my good old best friend, Michael Roman. I love all of you. :D

3. My Newly Discovered Talents and Passions, and Newly Appreciated Old Talents. I lol at this, but it's definitely worth mentioning, because my talents are from God. One of my new talents is breaking, and the Lord has infused in me a passion for it. He even allowed me to use it to glorify His name. He even gave me a loving family of Urban Lifestyle people in Urban Hope. Old talents that I'm getting a new appreciation for is my drawing and writing. As I mentioned, we're going to start a webcomic this year. I'll keep you posted on it.

4. Peace and Happiness. Yes, actually I genuinely feel peace and happiness, and I know I couldn't do this myself. Only God could provide that sense. I have peace because I know God's got my back. I have happiness because I know that God is good. It's hard to explain in detail, but my worries dim and seem like nothing when I think of God. This is extremely evident in these last few weeks of 2006.

5. A New Year. It may seem cliche to be thankful for the new year, but it's honest to be thankful for it. I know 2006 has been a year full of blessings, and opportunities to learn and serve. And I know that in God's goodness, he can provide me with all that, and hopefully even much, much more in the next year. So I'm looking forward to each day, to see what God does.

What is my New Year's Resolution? I've rarely ever been able to keep these things, but I'll state it anyway. I honestly want to say something selfish like I'll work out more or whatever, but I think I'll make a resolution that matters. I'll try my best to seek the Lord, no matter how I feel. Yes, because LOVE is more than a feeling. It's a commitment. Love is not limited to feelings. I don't have to feel love from God to know God loves me, and I don't have to feel like loving God to love him. I must do what he wants me to do even if I don't feel like it. That is love.

Oh yeah, and if you're wondering what BOGA means (the post title), it's sort of a noise-maker in the Philippines. It's a big pipe (usually made of PVC), in which people put lighter fluid to vaporize at the bottom, and light with a spark from a flint. This causes an explosion like a cannon, which is why a lot of them are decorated to look like cannons, guns or bazookas. However, this dangerous toy was recently made illegal by the government, seeing how many people were getting injured from it, even weeks before the New Year's celebration. Actually, their injuries usually come from misuse by the handler, as some of them actually peep down the tube while there are vapors inside. Some guy had his eyebrows and eye lashes burned clean off his face, but he's lucky that's all that happened. Some people are permanently blinded, and some have really bad injuries from it, all because of carelessness.

Inspite of all that, I wish you all a Happy New Year! :D Let's enjoy this year like we did the last!