The Blue Pensieve

In the fictional world of Harry Potter, there exists a device whose sole purpose is to contain information and allow others to literally see somebody else’s thoughts. It is called the pensieve, and it was first introduced in the fourth book, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Albus Dumbledore, then headmaster of Hogwarts, told Harry that having so much thoughts could be tiresome and it is a relief to siphon them off (or something of the same sense). Dumbledore also said that the pensieve can be used to store some information that can be shared with everyone else.

And yes, this special device is exactly what first entered my mind when I was thinking of the theme for a year-ender entry for this blog. This is because a blog is basically what a pensieve is: it stores the thoughts of the writer at that specific time he is updating, and it allows other to gaze into the writer’s thoughts.

Along with this update, I’ll be posting several other posts to recapitulate the year that was.

The Great Recap

I believe that the best year-ender must concisely sum up everything, whether significant or not, that transpired in the past 12 months. Of course that criterion is a bit too high a standard even for my own means, but I’ll give it a shot anyway.

So, to ensure completeness and conciseness, I’ll just make it on a per-month summary. :P

January
I was on-duty during the past New Year’s Eve, and the first month truly reflects how much of myself I can dedicate to work. I first arrived on ACeS on the 15th, and the greater portion of this month was put entirely to adjusting to the new work environment.

February
The second month at team ACeS saw me slowly adjusting to life in that isolated office. At this time, most of my energies were directed to finding my own niche in the team’s work processes. It was also during this month that I began doing the graveyard shifts, which took me a while to get used to. Also during February were the regularization pay and recognition program for the cadetship. And then there was the Kropeck trip to Baguio for the Panagbenga Festival :p

March
It was during the third month that the Fun Familia outing were held. I spent the day with my mom and my aunt in what used to be the best theme park in the country. Sadly, it was just a shadow of what it used to be. Meanwhile at work, I began doing solo duty on the graveyard shifts.

April
This month marks the rebirth of my blog. I used to blog in the Friendster blogs, but I decided to switch to blogger since Friendster is not accessible in the office.

May
The colorful and merry month of May was one rich month for traditions and realizations. I realized just how much I love the summer season as well as the yearly traditions that make summer, summer. Amidst the hullabaloo over the elections and all the controversies that surround it, there was also the office training for which I’ve got myself a 3year contract bond with my company. And of course it was during the last days of this month that I crammed to finish my entry for the Animax Awards.

June
The whole month was spent in training for the operations of the new equipment that the company purchased. It was also during this month that I started thinking of my health. Hehe. >:3

Oh, yeah, there was also the Toy Convention in Megamall. Seeing the many cosplayers during the event made me determined to join the cosplay for the Level Up Live 2007.

July
The month of July was highlighted by the release of the last book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and the dinner dance event/alumni homecoming at WU-P. These two showcased my purchase power. nuff said :P LOLz.

August
The month of GM Tristan’s group writing contest saw me updating my blog quite often (because I had to update at least once a week) :P It was in this month when many of the old equipment in the ACeS facility went haywire. It was such a hectic month. :3

September
GM Tristan’s group writing contest continued until the most part of September, and the campaign period also began towards the end of this month. This month is special because of the midyear convention of the Philippine Orchid Society (in which I attended). The orchid show was not as good as the previous year, but I managed to buy Sandra, my waling-waling.

October
This month marked my 24th birthday, and as a form of early birthday present I won in GM Tristan’s contest :P (I’m yet to get my poring doll, though). I also bought my new PC a day before my birthday and had the Smart Bro connected for faster internet access.

And then there was the blog awareness day in which I participated. The theme of the one-day, millions of voices activity was environment awareness, and I took it as part of my responsibility as a blog writer to join in such worthwhile causes.

November
The much-awaited Level Up Live 2007 was held during the first few days of this month. This was the event that greatly drained me and left this blog gasping for breath. LOLz. It was also during this month that I tried out the first free-to-play server of pRO, Valkyrie.

December
The final month of 2007 is of course the most special. There was the HeroCon, or H3, wherein the fanfare tambays first had an official EB. A few days after that, I left Valkyrie behind together with Anna and made our new home in Valhalla wherein the Fanfare guild was officially created. And then there was the second EB/carnival day at Global Fun. (The carnival was over-hyped and was not so good, but it was an enjoyable day, nonetheless)

It was also a few days ago when the bonuses were doled out. Too bad I didn’t enjoy my Christmas much since I was at work, but in exchange I was able to buy myself a PSP Slim. :P

All in all, it was such a colorful year, and significantly better than last year. I hope the coming year brings more blessings and become even more fruitful and fun.

Meet Alicia

With the bonuses I received, I bought myself a Felicia blue PSP Slim :P

Guys, meet Alicia:

Naming Convention

SniperAngel commented that I have something regarding lady names. As a matter of fact, I do. :P

Of course, Alicia, my new PSP, was so named because it is Felicia blue. The name of my orchid, Sandra, on the other hand, is taken from the plant’s scientific name, Vanda Sanderiana.

I actually give out names to things I hold special. The plants which have names are mostly named after the person who gave it to me, except for Sandra’s case. Alicia and Sandra are so-named using a simple naming convention I devised.

First of all, I only name things that are non-necessities. If I don’t consider the thing I’ve bought as a complete necessity (such as cellphones), I may choose to give it a name.

The rules:

1. The name should be a woman’s name that ends with an “a.” Why a? Why not? :P
2. Names of any girl I’ve known in real life are not to be considered.
3. As much as possible, the name should/could be associated easily with the object, unless it fulfills the special condition in rule 4.
4. If a name that fulfills rules #1 and #2 suddenly pops out into mind when I first held the object, that name will be it.

Neat, huh? :P

Sudden and Random Breaks

Well, there are times when something suddenly disrupts the flow of one's activities. Be it welcome or not, sometimes such breaks are quite good in the long run. Or something like that.

Owkay, I was playing with fellow Fanfare guild members in Valhalla a while ago (something I was looking forward to all week while at work) when the server had to undergo a sudden maintenance. Of course we were frustrated, but I guess I'll just have to take it as a sign that I have to do something about this blog. I know this blog's very much inactive, so...

BLOG RESURRECTION!!

LOLz :p

Mind over Matter

They say the human mind is so powerful, and things are sometimes a matter of mind over matter. I can't say for certain if this is for real, but I guess I've got some share of stories about it. But I'm not telling them. :P

Anyway, the ordinary, common, and mundane notion about mind over matter is that people will get to accomplish things if they put their whole mind in it. I guess my heart's no exception. LOLz.

Subtle Changes

Back when I started this blog, I love to travel just for traveling's sake. It was quite enjoyable for me to just sit inside the moving vehicle and let my throughts soar as the sceneries around pass me by. Lately, however, I no longer seem to find amusement with all the things I use to cherish back then.

I guess the culprit is my constant travel to and from teh ACeS every week. Travel time from home to Subic is more than 4 hours on public transportation, and the journey is fraught with several inconveniences (like constant bus transfers) that I'm starting to get wary everytime I had to get back to teh ACeS.

Yes, I only realized last weekend that I'm no longer the me I used to be a few months back. The changes had been too subtle that I didn't recognize them at once.

This realization made me think over and consider several things that I'm neglecting most of the time. And yeah, so many things have changed but I'm still hoping that these will be for the better.

Comeback

I actually have a lot of topics in line and if I had the time to write them down, there'll be quite a flood of new posts around here. But of course, something came up. Yeah, yeah, you may say I'm palusot ka na naman Jherskie, eh, and I won't take it against you.

Actually, I was thinking of going back to writing provided that I couldn't connect to pRO's Valkyrie server. And yeah, I wasn't able to connect during the earlier parts of the evening so I decided to take a peek in Valhalla (pRO's SECOND, stress on the word second, not last) free to play server. What happened next is really life-changing.

Anna and I decided to party and test the server if it'll be a good server to migrate in, given the loads of technical problems in Valkyrie. An hour later, we were joined by Jet and we partied for almost 3 hours! :p This is quite a comeback, as Jet hasn't logged in-game since 2006, and I haven't partied like crazy since 2003!

I'm not really a party sort of player, but this experience brought joy and relived the delightful memories of the days when pRO was at it's peak. And yeah, I'm now an inch closer to fully deciding to leave everything in Valkyrie and go to Valhalla. And along with that decision, is the choice to actually go on playing this game, which had me in a love-hate relationship for the past 4 years.

H3 and EB

I went to H3, or HeroCon, last Saturday although I must say I didn't enjoy it as much. The only thing that made the trip very much worth it was the EB of fanfare tambays. I guess I'll have to make another blog entry to cover much of the stuff I want to blog about, something just came up here at the office :p

Anyway, here's one of the nice cosplay costumes during the event.


Hopefully, I can find a nice shot of the Chucky cosplayer among my photo stash. He/she/it has done a pretty good job of scaring the wits out of a lot of people during the H3.

Too Many to Mention

Back in my elementary days when filling up slumbooks (er... is that the right term?) was quite the fad, you'd come across the phrase, "too many to mention." It's commonly found in the "Hobbies" field, and no one dares to ask for specifics because we all know that the only part everyone wants to read is the answer to the ever-controversial question, "Who is your crush?"

But no, I have no further desires for reminiscing my elementary days for today. I just want to bring up the aforementioned phrase because it succinctly describes all the happenings this weekend. As there are too many things to blog about, I guess I'll withhold my pen and wait 'til I get some free time in the office to share everything happened in my HeroCon a.k.a. Fanfare EB weekend.

I really need to sleep now 'coz I must go back to the forest in a few hours :p