Club Manila East

Victor (my boyfriend) and I have been planning to go on an outing for a while, and summer came and almost went by without us being able to visit a beach or water theme park. Lots of things happened along the way, that's why. But then he suggested we go to Club Manila East because there are wave pools. Personally, I've never experienced a wave pool before, so I was sold.

And so we went there like backpackers, got to explore areas less-visited (ehem, by me)--like the Taytay and Antipolo areas. When we arrived, there weren't many people. And I think I know why. Boy, was my bf angry when the ticketing girl told him that CME no longer issues keys for their huts, cabanas and cabins (which are worth P700-P1,500 a day btw). It was a real rage moment, because the reason this HOTEL AND RESORT club no longer provides keys is that when clients lose the key, they [CME] will have to replace the keys. Uhm...yeah? Of course you have to replace the darned keys. That's part of the business! Anyway, isn't this a security lapse? How are clients able to bring those home anyway? They're supposed to be surrendered at the front desk before leaving.

So now, without keys, it's up to God to watch over our things while we swim and frolic. Oh how swell. Oh wait, we have another option--deposit our valuables in the Vault, for which they charge 6% of the total cost of the things you deposit. That's sans depreciation. So if you have an iPhone, you have to declare it at what...40K? And then pay 6% of 40K, so that's...P2,400! Oh and there's a catch, if you get your stuff, you can't put it back. You'll have to pay again.

Ho ho ho, merry greed-bonanza!

We just took the risk of not securing our stuff somewhere with a lock and hopped around in the wave pool while constantly looking over our shoulders in case a shady folk lurked by. It's good that we were still able to have a great time despite their stupid terms. But I dare say, business won't be good for this one, not for long.

Published in The Asahi Shimbun

Looks like all the hard work has paid off. I've been practicing haiku for a couple of months and been reading all the journals I could get my hands on. Then I started making my own haiku, taking into consideration the different elements in nature as they are, the sky, the air, the sun--and then relate these to the human condition.

Some haiku moments can't really be explained, they just sort of light up in your mind, a kind of enlightenment maybe, and they just have to be written down before the moment passes. Like how the seasons flow. How things die. How things live. How things are beautiful as they are.

Several haiku of mine appear at The Asahi Shimbun, a Japanese publication. The haiku section is edited by David McMurray. Have a read if you have team. The pieces are really short, but certainly worthwhile.

The 3rd Birthday

My boyfriend lent me his PSP and PS3 so I could play those games I missed out on in the PSP and PS3 consoles. After Playstation, I haven't really found a game as immersive as Parasite Eve, Xenogears, Breath of Fire 3 - 5 and Final Fantasy 7 to 9.

As someone who enjoys fantasy and sci-fi novels, RPG games were the way for me to feel what it's like to be in their universe. For an hour or two (or more :D ) each day, I got to live as the main character of an amazing story. Final Fantasy, in particular, took my breath away with their superb world building, characterization and fresh plot lines. On the other hand, Parasite Eve took a more scientific approach, pushing the limits of evolutionary possibility. What if our mitochondria rebelled and are actually intelligent creatures just waiting to awaken? Mitochondria, after all, are said to have been independent organelles before it evolved to become a part of the cell structure.

Anywhoo when I played The 3rd Birthday and Final Fantasy XIII, I've noticed the trend these days of game makers putting more effort on breath-taking effects rather than story. They've begun (over)using the usual tropes for mass appeal: Love triangles, sexy girls you can "dress up," outcast characters and most notably, characters with amnesia. I mean come on, it's great that I have to go find out the character's past, but if that's all there is to the story, I think I'll just wiki the synopsis to get things over with. I bet I won't miss much anyway if I don't play the game. Most supporting characters in newer games are also not fleshed out well. In Final Fantasy XIII for instance, you have characters with varying diction and accents, but you don't get much backstory after that. Characters run around shouting Save the World--a world you don't really care to save since you've not been given a chance to know it better/explore.

Leave the arcade games in the arcade. Yeah they're fun, but that's not all there is to it. I hope I get the chance to play a real RPG again, with a real story and a fresh plot.

Not a Lola Anymore

Backache gone and cured. No thanks to those meds the doc gave me. Just made me extremely sleepy. I even slept on my office chair and was told by my officemate I drooled. I doubt that's true but I do believe my mouth was hanging open.

Anyway nuff of that. The good news is after almost 3 weeks the darned pain is gone.