Saturday, August 02, 2003

... in which the fool has nothing to do at home

Finished reading the Wind of Justice novel in under a day. I wish I didn't do that last Thursday. Now I have nothing else to do again at home. I guess I was spoiled by the Dune books -- those things took a good three days to finish...

At least I managed to finish the write-ups people were asking me to do last Tuesday. That yearbook cost me a good amount of money! If I had delayed on passing the requirements for it, I think my wallet wouldn't have been able to handle the stress... The cheapest photo package for the yearbook was 500php -- half of my allowance and I had to pay it immediately or suffer 50php daily fines. Which reminds me, I'd have to pay Lassie again come next week, and I'd have to buy one of those level-up card things to be able to play Ragnarok. Guess I won't be having a lot of money again next week...

I've been having too many free days in the school year. Normally, my instincts tell me when I receive too many vacations, the teachers have something sadistic planned for their students... I wonder what kind of nasty surprise I'd be having on Tuesday...

So far, I've wasted around an hour's worth of online time checking out new things on the net... That's an hour's loss of levelling up in Ragnarok Online. I'd have to work extra hard later to catch up... Hopefully I'd still have enough time later. In fact, I think I'm going to stop writing right now and start playing!

Tuesday, July 29, 2003

... in which the fool is in lost in a pile of words

Thanks to Raymond, I now have the third scroll of the L5R books. Its only on loan until I finish reading it, and judging from the text size, I think I'd be enjoying this book for quite some time, compared to the previous two...

Unfortunately, I already know who the new Emperor of Rokugan will be... Thanks to their official site. I wasn't expecting the results of this year's official tournament, but the players have spoken, and Alderac follows the wishes of the players.

Still, with the announcement of the new Emperor, the following days of Rokugan should prove... interesting. In the meantime, I have the third scroll to keep me busy. And hopefully, inspired to make a short story based on the L5R world.

On other news, I was also surprised to see White Wolf's announcement last Sunday -- by June 2004, they would end their World of Darkness line, and stop printing of all titles in that line. That means that there would no longer be any Vampire, Werewolf, Mage, or even Demon books after next year, so I'd have to find my own copies of those books over Kazaa one of these days... Or at least find someone who'd be kind enough to burn me a copy. The core books of each would do... Additionally, I'd have to order their final trilogy "Time of Judgment" early, before I forget and run out of my own copies too. I'm still thinking of getting the hardcover supplement for Vampire, or Mage. Maybe I'd settle for obtaining copies instead... Busy, busy year for books...

I'm still waiting for my brother to hand over the Demon trilogies. I'm very interested in what abilities the Demons have -- if they're on par with Vampires, Kuei-Jin, or if they're simply embodied spirits, just like in Hunter or Wraith. Additionally, I'd like to compare them to the In Nomine Demons, just to see how White Wolf would handle them.

Finished the third novel of the Dune Trilogy over the weekend. The climax was lukewarm, at best. Nowhere near as exciting as House Atreides' was, but much better than House Harkonnen's... It still felt like a let-down though, and I probably just finished the book because I felt like I had to. I'm still looking forward to the new Dune prequel trilogies, at least just to find some other Noble Houses of the Landsraad...

I've been trying to look for Landsraad Houses over the 'net. However, all the results that I obtain are the same houses that have been described in the books and the game. I'm tempted to browse through an RPG supplement published by Last Unicorn Games that tackles this topic, however, I don't know where to find one, and it looks like the information contained therein is dated.

I just remembered this morning that Elbert's Neverwhere is still with me, and I haven't even bothered to start with it... I should begin soon, before I even forget that its with me. With all the other books that I'm looking forward to this coming year, I'm having trouble scheduling when to read that book -- I have to return Neverwhere to Elbert before he graduates. I wouldn't want to have to commute all the way to Malabon just to return a book... Hmm, perhaps after the semestral break, I could read the book and return it by the start of the second semester.

In the meantime, I'd have to attend to a few write-ups that were given to me at the last minute. I'm a bit grateful for receiving them today -- that's around 3 hours off from playing Ragnarok Online, and 3 hours more that I could play it for the rest of the week without having to buy another prepaid card. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'd have enough money to pay for the pictorials for the yearbook. I guess I'd have to look for a way to pay it -- tomorrow's the deadline after all, and I wouldn't want to pay a daliy fine of 50php just so I could pass late.

Now if only I could think of an appropriate write-up for Terence, Yuso, and Jamie, I'd have nothing else to worry about (except for my own -- I'd have to make my own write-up)...