August has been a very busy month, work-wise. Early this year I asked for a more challenging work, and now I got what I wanted: a big task with a choking tight deadline. I haven't been my usual self over the past three weeks, again not to mention my awkward sleeping habits getting more awkward, my body clock very twisted, and I've been coding like a workhorse who's running on high gear momentum.

The past three weeks have been really crazy. I was tasked to work on a module which I underestimated to take 7 working days but spawned to twice the estimate. Since August 11, 2008 (man, has it been that long?) I have been working double time to finish that module, even to the point of spending the first of two three-day weekends in the office. It's like college days all over again, with only sleep, eat, code as my three body functions (yes, bath not included). Trying to beat the August 19 start-of-business-day deadline, I worked alone at the office over the weekend. Only the scheduled pesticide fumigation stopped me from working but I was back in the office again on Sunday night right after the PBA Ginebra-Air21 Game 6 finals game. Working on the wee hours of the morning, I got the scare of my life when I thought I was hearing sounds but actually the security phone was ringing, and a security guard has been trying to knock on the office door! I know they were just doing their jobs but man, that was scary!







Needless to say, I didn't beat the August 19 deadline as we came to a consensus to give my module as a patch, but I still had to do come up with an installer for our product. I felt I was working too hard on the past days that's why I decided to reward myself with a little toy. I tried to take a bath in our office toilet (with a dipper, that little hole on the floor, and a little ingenuity/creativity! HAHA!) Virgil and I went out for an hour to Shopwise in Libis to buy this one:




Work didn't stop there as I still pushed myself to work on the agreed patch deadline which we're supposed to give to QA by August 26, or the day after the three day weekend. I had a trip to Puerto Princesa, Palawan with Rocky and our friends and that's why I really pushed hard to beat the deadline. Fortunately I did, although in a buzzer beater Carlo fashion as I was able to finish the patch by August 22, 11:30PM. By the time I went over to Rocky's place, I couldn't catch enough sleep for our early morning flight the next day.

I always believe in work-life balance but in our company, there's no such thing as work is fluctuating with high and low points. Right now we're in the stage where work is at an all time high, lots of demands but there's a few coders to answer to features and bugs. While I have suffered from vacation hang-over and I have obviously left my brain in Palawan for 2 days at work, I made up for it by working again overnight from Friday to Saturday. Here I am now, typing these lines away on a Sunday night which I declared a no-work day (work and PHP coding). Things will be busy again, especially we have our hands full of work this September so I'm savoring and taking this time off to update this blog and announce that I'm still alive. Rocky and I are turning three this third, by the way :). We have no big plans, we could have come up with one but due to our work lately, I guess we're celebrating it simply.

Here's a glimpse of my life over the past three weeks. Some of them are blog materials but I don't know if and when will I ever write about them:

* (12) I celebrated my blog's fourth year of existence in the web. I already wrote a draft about it, but unfortunately I never got to finish it.
* (13) I got a Caguioa All Star 2008 Jersey from the Accel stall in Araneta during Game 4 of the PBA Finals (thanks Eric!)
* (14) Skipped the Ateneo vs. UST game
* (15) Virgil and I watched the heartbreaking loss of Ginebra in Game 5 in Bar One over at Holiday Inn. Bad thing is, I still had to go back to work after.
* (16) Our family celebrated our Mommy Nikki's death anniversary. I drove Rocky home to our extended family in here. Went to Starbucks in SM Taytay (our 60th), before a series of unfortunate events happened to me on the way home.
* (17) Skipped the Ateneo vs. Adamson game to work at home in Sunday afternoon. Watched Ginebra vs. Air 21 Game 6 live with Rocky and 19,000 fans at Upper Box B, almost near the Gen Ad.
* (17) My collection thread in the local toy forums turned one year already (at least in PTK). I would have wanted to write a history of my toy collection but I never had the time to do so.
* (18) Bought that TMNT Leo Toy
* (20) Ginebra vs. Air21 Game 7! Oh my God, how sweet it is!
* (21) Skipped the Ateneo vs. UE game and relied on live updates while coding. Chris Tiu and Ryan Buenafe pwns the entire UE squad. Shopped with Rocky too before going back to work again. Joel broke the bad news to me: I have to report to work at 1030AM the next day for a tele-conference.
* (22) With four hours of sleep, I was able to beat the deadline by submitting version 1.0.1 of my work before heading to Rocky's pad to spend the night and catch our morning flight to Palawan the next day. Too bad, I couldn't sleep on their house.
* (23-25) Spent three days vacationing at Puerto Princesa Palawan. I uploaded the pictures over at my Multiply account, but it's open to contacts only. Yeah, we skipped the Ateneo game but it's just against UP anyway.
* (26-27) Tried to work but I guess I left my brain in Palawan. I bit the Eraserheads fad too and was able to snare my share of tickets although after going through a lot of hassle.
* (28-30) Woke up from the Palawan dream and felt the pressure and sense of urgency for this upcoming September 5 deadline. I decided to take a sleepover again at the office to finish my task for module 1.0.2. It still has a few bugs but it's working.
* (30) Skipped the Ateneo vs. NU (Ateneo clinches number 1 seed!), ERASERHEADS REUNION CONCERT! OMG. ERASERHEADS FOREVER! (Will blog about it if I find time)

Yeah, it's been that long since my last blog post. Disabling comments aren't fun either but there are only two loyal readers of this blog. I have to admit it's a bit discouraging to see two comments everytime, and I wish there were more readers. I guess I have to rework on my blog to make it more visible to more readers. For the meantime, posting comments is still disabled. Virgil, don't give me that baduy sign or else I'll hit "Buy Now" buttonS in eBay. I swear. :P

Anyway, here's an announcement that I am still alive. I couldn't update my blog regularly, I hope I can soon when work eases.

Jino: Go Air21!
Jino :P
Carlo: bakit lahat kayong CS kampi sa Air21? o masarap lang talaga ako asarin kasi die-hard ako? :P
Jino: Minsan lang kasi malakas ang Air21 e, kaya ko sila gusto. Rooting for the underdogs
Carlo: haha underdogs naman ginebra ngayon ah! :))
Carlo: wala si jayjay, wala rin si caguioa, strained hamstring si artadi at dislocated ankle si tubid
Carlo: :))
Carlo: (pinaglaban ba daw :)) )

*forwards conversation to Bit and G*

Bit: Huli mo pre.
Bit: :))
Carlo: pare kampihan mo naman ako
Bit: Sorry pero kahit noong hindi pa kita kilala ayoko sa Ginebra.
Carlo: hahaha
Carlo: wala na. FO na pare.
Bit: :))

Gerald: Kung hindi mananabro ang air21 durog yang ginebra mamyaa.
Gerald: :D
Carlo: 3rd CS person ka na today na kampi sa air21
Gerald: :D
Gerald: Sino sino? Eums, Bit, ako?
Carlo: Bit, Jino, you
Carlo: ang sarap i-blog nito
Carlo: pati tong conversations natin
Gerald: Oo pare. Haha
Gerald: Icopy paste mo na
Carlo: mas masarap pag nanalo Ginebra
Carlo: pag nanalo na Ginebra para mas vindicated ako
Gerald: Pag nanalo ba ginebra papainom ka?
Carlo: sige libre 1 hour ng basket
Carlo: deal? :))
Gerald: Tangna 1 hour lang? :))

*forwards conversation about free basketball to Bit*

Bit: Para sa ating lahat?
Carlo: oo
Bit: Ayown!
Bit: Go Ginebra!
Carlo: ayown!
Carlo: friendship back
Bit: Gawin mong dalawang oras.
Bit: Air21 pa rin ako.

*forwards Bit's reaction to G*

Gerald: Puta si Bit bayaran!

YM Status for tonight: Lord, salamat po at champion ang Ginebra. nabawi na yung pago-overtime ko lagi. :D [work]

*forwards blog entry to G* :D

If you guys have been looking for me, try looking at the local newspapers to see any basketball schedules of Ateneo or Ginebra.

Lately I've been busy -- with live basketball games that is. With Ginebra making a big run in the PBA playoffs lately (by sweeping their last assignments in the classification phase, the quarterfinals vs. Sta. Lucia, and the semifinals vs. Red Bull), this Ginebra fan tried not to miss any live Ginebra game, whether in Ynares Center in nearby Antipolo or the Araneta Coliseum (the only games I missed watching live were the games held in Cuneta Astrodome). So far I've watched the first three finals games of the Ginebra-Air21 series, with a courtside tickets in Ynares to boot. Unfortunately, Ginebra seems to be in disarray and has lost two straight games. Bah. This will not be a finals analysis blog as I have been reserving my thoughts in the result of the PBA Fiesta Conference finals -- whether Ginebra wins it or Ginebra wins it.

This writer too has been spotted in the Philsports Arena (ULTRA) watching the game between Ateneo and FEU last Saturday. I initially went to the ticket booth to find out that there aren't lower box tickets (at 100 each). I went to a scalper and asked how much he sells his tickets and I got a whopping 500 for two tickets. "Hindi na no." "Sir, 300 nalang." I gave him a "sus" sign with the hand, and approached the ticket booth again. Lucky for us, someone returned his/her lower box tickets and we were able to buy it for the original price. I wanted to rub the ticket on the face of that scalper who makes a career in making false ticket demands. May they rot in hell with the toy hoarders.

Yeah, it's crazy. Ynares Center in Antipolo last Friday, Philsports Arena/ULTRA in Pasig last Saturday, and Araneta Coliseum last Sunday.

And so this coming Wednesday until Sunday, I will be busy again with Ginebra and Air21 trying to resume their finals games. Ginebra better win it this coming Wednesday, or else I will stop watching from hereon: It's impossible to win the series without a healthy Jayjay Helterbrand if they would fall in a 3-1 deficit. I feel Jayjay's hamstring injury may be the turning point of the series. Also, there's Ateneo vs. UST this coming Thursday (something I feel I shouldn't miss) and Ateneo vs. Adamson this coming Sunday (plus a PBA game if Ginebra wins this coming Game 4 Wednesday and Game 5 Friday).

My pocket has been hurting from tickets, but then it's something unavoidable anyway. Do I ever get tired? Yeah, I've been busy too lately with work and extra-curricular stuff. But then I got to be the workhorse that I should be anyway.

I've been in a little emotional roller coaster last week that I tried to look for something to amuse me. Whenever I have such moments, I look for something to aid me -- maybe a little mango shake, a new purchase (whether a toy, jersey or a shoe), a game of basketball, or watch cartoons. It's a good thing that I still had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles videos on my PC. They're quite handy. I tried securing the first season for three freaking months and ol' high school buddy Allan helped me with the other seasons in a matter of days.

Yeah, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leo, Don, Raph, and Mike. They always have a spot in my heart. I need not elaborate since I wrote about them about two years ago. But nope, I'm not watching the 1987 series, rather I'm watching the new Ninja Turtles cartoons that came out in 2003.

For starters, the 1987 series is more for kids. The turtles are pictured as cute smiley turtles, April O'Neal is an irritating newscaster for Channel 6 news, and Shredder (with Krang's aid) mutated his two dumb assistants Bebop and Rocksteady. Although I have 2 DVDs of that series and a complete video collection, I don't feel watching them. It's really for the five year old guys (unless you're a kid named "Jacob" -- that boy genius son of my ex-officemate Ross who can memorize all species of dinosaurs).

The 2003 series has a better taste for the action loving person in me. I mean it has a lighter story which wouldn't require much thinking, it has great action scenes but not too much of it, and it's got comedy too (don't mistake it for a typical Filipino movie though). The Turtles are "meaner" (with no pupils on their eyes!), they act like real ninjas, and the action scenes are way cool! The stories are better too! No kidding! Shredder is an ultrom, triceratons are a race, and the ninja turtles are kicking some shell (as Raph would say "We came, we saw, we kicked some shell"). I'm not kidding, there are episodes that are chopped into parts, and I couldn't stop watching them! It's one thing I've been looking forward whenever I get home for the past days. In fact, last Saturday I watched about 8 episodes straight from bed while trying to rest my tension-headache-ridden head after a basketball game with the CS Stromboys. I was supposed to sleep at 10PM but ended up sleeping a little over midnight.

My most favorite part in the series is not Leo's leadership (bah, why do top dog leaders like Cyclops have to be portrayed as some serious emo guys who have no space for fun), rather it's Michaelangelo's antics. Funny turtle! His sense of humor is one thing that makes me laugh out loud on my chair. I always find it funny (although it's slapstick-ish) whenever Leonardo and Raphael give him a little slap in the head for Mikey's "hirits." It's something that the lighthearted will probably appreciate. Mikey always gets into Raph's nerves, at one point Mikey bragged about being the "Intergalactic Nexus Champion" ("Big Brawl" series in season 2) and Raph was about to slap Mikey in the head. Leonardo stopped Raph from doing so but Leo did it himself. haha. I kinda suck at describing the events but maybe if you guys will watch it, you'd probably appreciate it.

Anyway, I don't know if it's a sign. Lately I've been tinkering with my three "modern" Leonardo toys (including a "Fast Forward" Leo which Rocky bought home for me after her trip in the US in the summer of 2007), displaying and posing them on my computer table. I have this urge to buy another one or two Leonardos, but I've been resisting the urge to do so, as it may spawn another collection and it will definitely wreck my budget and eat my savings. Yeah, in fact I gathered all pictures of Leonardo toys (35 vintage toys of them so far; I haven't done the Leo figs from 2003 onwards). But I've been in a hunt for this elusive Leonardo below. I tried looking at eBay already but haven't had luck in finding a bargain price.




I don't know if I'm regretting that I didn't buy any Leo movie-based figures from the movie in 2007. At that time I was still concentrating my funds to Cyclops figures that I didn't have space for any other collection. In fact, I haven't watched the movie yet! I missed two good movies (TMNT and Rocky Balboa) simply because I wanted to watch it with Rocky (the girlfriend, not the boxer). I want to own a region-1 DVD of it, since it has more features and worth the money than the region 3 in here (besides, region 3 discs aren't playable in my PC anymore).




Anyway, let's not get into those toys yet please. :P I better work on my PHP coding again... G, help me get seasons 5 & 6! :D

I think it's every toy collector's dream to have his collection showcased, in one way or another. Seeing the Captain America collection of PTK's "mightyshield" (or Francis) displayed in the 6th ToyCon and the Transformers event last year was my inspiration to say to myself that maybe someday, I'm going to share my Cyclops collection to the public. As a completist collector myself appreciating a completist Captain America collection, it took me a lot of time viewing Captain America in various shapes and sizes.

That opportunity finally came when PTK's founder and administrator "unleashed" (or Dan) invited me to display my Cyclops action figures collection for the Super Hero Fest last July 19-20, 2008 in Robinsons Galleria. Prior to the invitation, I already told Dan that should he need display volunteers, he can count me in as long as the place is accessible. Although it was given in a short notice, I didn't hesitate in accepting the invitation. Besides, for all that PTK has given to the Filipino toy collecting community, it's nice to give something back in return.

Accepting the invite meant facing logistics challenges too. Packing the figures in my two containers (an office box and a plastic ware) was one challenge wherein I had to write an inventory of my figures (yes, I lost count. They're over a hundred plus), pack them efficiently without wasting any space and at the same time avoiding damage to the figures due to overcrowding. I even thought of bringing my Cyclops statues also but that would be too much of stuff to carry with me. I had to bring the two containers on two separate occasions while commuting to work and stored them on a nearby location to Robinsons Galleria. Finally on the day itself of setting up wherein I had a few hours sleep and the ingress is 7:30AM (although I begged for 10:00 but actually came at 10:45AM), I carried two boxes and a big bag to the mall!

I arrived barely an hour after Robinsons Galleria has opened, and all the other invited collectors were almost finished setting-up their Batman-related collections. Except for Jojo's Green Lantern collection and my Cyclops collection (which was lost in a DC themed collection), everything else were centered on Batman due to the movie "The Dark Knight." A horizontal, two-shelf cabinet was given to me, which turned out just right for my collection. Another challenge laid ahead: how to arrange the collection such that everyone stands out. I wanted everyone to get known, especially my customized Cyclops figures by Don (of Rateeg Creations) and Virgil. I had to group them logically too, with the PVCs and random Cyclops figures on the lower shelf at the right side, the "modern" Cyclops figures at the lower shelf left side, and all Toybiz Cyclops figures and playsets of the 90s on the upper shelf. I had to unload the toys pack by pack and piece by piece at the same time keep a watchful eye for my box as some opportunists may steal some of my hard-earned figures. Also, I've been used to arranging the figures from back to front with my shelves, but on that time I had to do it from front to back. I even had to stop, go to the front and check if I've tilted the head enough or is the posing good enough.




The last challenge was to make each action figure stand-up. The last thing I didn't want is to re-arrange them after they've fallen like dominoes. Good thing Virgil lent me his scissors and double-sided tape wherein I cut strips of tape and stuck the on the foot of those figures that are hard to pose. I'd say that's the most tedious challenge since it took me two hours (from 11AM to 1PM) to fix all of my collection in that shelf, with a little back strain to boot! I should have done that prior to packing my figures so that I could have saved some time.




It was a bit funny though how people from outside observed the way I arranged my figures. I felt like being a fish in an aquarium and kids and adults would stare and point at some specific toys in my collection. Others too started a random conversation about Cyclops and how the 90s Toybiz Cyclops figures reminded them of the good ol' days of Jim Lee and the X-Men cartoons. It's a bit uncomfortable too how observant people can be (maybe the way I acted when I viewed Francis' collection before), even if I haven't finished arranging them yet. Kinda makes me conscious too. Haha.




Nothing beats the feeling of having finally finished arranging all of them and look at the action figures from outside and say to yourself, "Yeah, that's my comprehensive Cyclops collection!" It was fulfilling to see kids and adults staring and scrutinizing every figure in the display -- who knows, I might have inspired collectors out there to have theirs displayed soon. I even had a chance to meet a few people from the forums too. Finally, the keys were given to me and I locked the cabinet made out of hard transparent plastic. It's a good thing that no one has attempted to crack the cabinets. Those who have experienced showcasing their figures to the public can attest to the safety of the toys. I was also given a "nameplate" to indicate my "ownership" of the collection, but the organizers misspelled my name (yeah, I always had problems with that). Another mental note: prepare a good nameplate next time. I brought back the boxes back to the storage area and headed to Rocky's place to get a little rest, before Rocky and I headed to Robinsons Galleria again at nighttime to double-check on the figures.




I was back the next day to watch over my collection and meet a few visitors in Bit, Gots, and Virgil. Mic and Anj dropped by in the morning too. The collection stayed for the public's view, wherein the main event for the super hero fest happened: lots of games for the kids , cosplays, contests, and other promos. We packed-up at 8:30PM, just after Rocky and I have finished watching "The Dark Knight." Suddenly, all the hardships that I went through in bringing those toys and displaying them -- it's done. Another challenge to arrange them back to the boxes. Big thanks to Rocky for helping me bring back my collection back to the storage area until I've brought them home last Tuesday.




No, there weren't any freebies given except a PTK commemorative mug out of Dan's pocket and a certificate by the organizers (Hobbyworx and Toys 'R Us) with my misspelled name. It was a pure volunteer effort, but I didn't mind all the challenges that I had to face. It was worth the experience of having scored a milestone for my collection.




Displaying my collection in public gave me a little pride in the hobby that I'm in. Other people won't probably understand it though, given the cost and the effort I've put in the collection. It's not everyday too that you'd see a collection dedicated to a lesser popular character in Cyclops. I still lack about 10-15 PVC figures in my collection too, plus a few statues. Hopefully I'll get them and hopefully more Cyclops figures are on the way.

This one's for Virgil and Enad, Rocky, the customizers (Don, Bino, and Virgil) and all those who have helped my collection in one way or another. Thanks too to unleashed, jmmodeler, and the other people at HobbyWorx for the opportunity to have my collection displayed. It was a pleasure to be part of the Super Hero Fest event.