I'm currently in the process of getting lost. My dream used to be to become a teacher. While that's still possible, recent events have led me to rethink it all. The difficulty and even near-impossibility of circumstances have added up to it all. Some may argue it's simply giving up, but there are times when that's exactly what's needed.

So right now, even though teaching brought me joy, in all these months that I haven't done it, I've found joy in other things. And now that a new employment in the gaming industry looms over the horizon, as I now only await information on my schedule and when I start, my dreams have really started to shift.

I'm not really sure where I'm going right now. But one thing's for sure, music is coming back to haunt me. So, I'll try my hand at producing and licensing music, on the side as I maintain my full-time employment. I'll be publishing short samples of work I've been doing over the last few weeks.

Here's my sketch for the day. It's rushed as much as I could do it, but it's a little more detailed than I wanted it to be originally. The hand close-up is for practice again, of course. I gotta color this somehow, to make it easier to understand. D: Also, his hair seems to be getting longer... I dunno if I like it or not.

My male character (still nameless). Tiny image, I know. But I was able to practice drawing a more manly expression on an unusual facial angle, and a hand. I did this kinda rushed (hence, I did it at a small size) cuz I didn't want to sleep too late, but rushed, small drawings are also good practice. I'm too spoiled with the big images that take me like 12 hours to finish a sketch. This whole thing was done in maybe 10 minutes including thinking of what to draw.

He kinda reminds me of Bruce Lee in this image, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. :D

Here's a sketch "page" I actually started last night but finished just now. I'm practicing drawing full-body and bust/torso shots, because I spend too much time doing faces. This is a preliminary design for my standard male character, which I may use for a manga someday. I expect him to go through evolutions and improvements. I haven't really drawn a male character in a while, and this is a good start. As of yet, he has no name, though if you know me IRL, you'll probably notice that he's loosely based on my own looks. I'll have that hairstyle in a couple of months when my hair grows out. Kekeke.

(To view better in Firefox, you can right click and choose "View Image", or even save it to your HD and view it from there. I'm pretty sure IE has a similar option.)

I'm sorry, blog, that I haven't posted in a while. I really should've. A lot happened after I last posted, such as my quitting from my job of 1 year because there was no workload, trying to find a new job, Typhoon Ondoy (a.k.a. Ketsana) ravaging our home and the entire city, taking b-boying seriously, Christmas and New Year passing by, taking b-boying even more seriously, and a lot of self-improvement in terms of my discipline and personality. Not to mention, I lost a lot of weight since July, and I'm now only 25 lbs away from my ideal weight.

Sadly, I actually thought of abandoning you altogether. But I realize that this blog is one way for me to look back at my past. What experiences did I go through? What have I learned from them? What games have I played? Why did I like/not like them? I don't have many readers so I obviously don't do it for them.

Anyway, jumping forward, this blog is back, and I'll strive to be able to update it as regularly as possible.

I'm drawing again now, and I've set for myself a target of making one "page" of drawings everyday. This is to train me in discipline. So that means, even if I don't feel like it, I have to draw. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, for example, days when I'm in a hectic schedule over one of my part-time jobs, other job hunts, etc. But still, I feel it'll be good training.

Here's a recent completed sketch:
I may consider coloring that someday. But for now I gotta keep working on my sketching. I take too long to draw stuff.

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. :)