Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain is an interactive drama video game developed by Quantic Dream exclusively for PlayStation 3. The game is written and directed by Quantic Dream's founder and CEO David Cage.^[10] Heavy Rain's story is a dramatic thriller modeled after film noir, featuring four protagonists involved with the mystery of the Origami Killer, a serial killer who uses extended periods of rainfall to drown his victims. Ethan Mars is a father who is trying to save his son from being the next victim, while investigative journalist Madison Paige, FBI profiler Norman Jayden, and private detective Scott Shelby are each trying to track down clues to the Origami Killer's identity.The player interacts with the game by performing actions highlighted on screen related to motions on the controller, and in some cases, performing a series of quick time events during fast-paced action sequences. The player's decisions and actions during the game will affect the narrative; the main characters can be killed, and certain actions may lead to different scenes and endings. 

It took me two days and 5 hours straight each day to finish this game. It gave me a good, feel-high kind of stress playing this, especially since I always have trouble following the directions or performing actions highlighted on the screen. Like I press O instead of X. Oh well..this game is definitely worth skipping the bathroom visits. :-) Once you start playing you just want to get to the end of the story and discover who the serial killer is. The game controls are very interactive which makes the story and actions seem realistic. There's a part in the game where your character has to play nurse to a wounded father, and you have to put antiseptic on the wound really slowly as to not hurt the patient. I had trouble controlling my pace on the analog stick, so i ended up hurting the poor guy in the end. I got stabbed on the leg, hit by a ten-wheeler truck and jumped from a three story building. All because I had no control over my fingers and I was being impatient. This game teaches you patience and exercises your memory. You have to remember details and be very articulate on the  clues you get. You the player will act on four different major characters in the game. Your decisions matter to the ending of the story. How you act or think on each trial or question aimed at you matters to what the story will reveal in the end. There's a part where the father was tested. You the father have to cut your pinky finger to prove your love for your son. Whether you cut your finger or not leads to a different scenario in the game. I couldn't cut my finger, but in the end I drank a poisoned drink that led me to be with my son. All in all i would give the game a perfect 10. I am no gamer but Role playing is one of my favorite kind of video games. This game was definitely worth the many hours lost on sleep and food. Hehe.. right now I have another game in mind where I want to put my cowgirl skills to the test. Red Dead Redemption anyone?

Sarah Addison Allen Books: A Must Read for the Romantic @ Heart

Two gifted sisters draw on their talents to belatedly forge a bond and find their ways in life in Allen's easygoing debut novel. Thirty-four-year-old Claire Waverley manifests her talent in cooking; using edible flowers, Claire creates dishes that affect the eater in curious ways. But not all Waverley women embrace their gifts; some, including Claire's mother, escape the family's eccentric reputation by running away. She abandoned Claire and her sister when they were young. Consequently, Claire has remained close to home, unwilling to open up to new people or experiences. Claire's younger sister, Sydney, however, followed in their mother's footsteps 10 years ago and left for New York, and after a string of abusive, roustabout boyfriends, returns to Bascom, N.C., with her five-year-old daughter, Bay. As Sydney reacquaints herself with old friends and rivals, she discovers her own Waverley magic. Claire, in turn, begins to open up to her sister and in the process learns how to welcome other possibilities. Credit to Amazon for book details

Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother…

Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day. Credit to Amazon for book details.

The Red Pyramid: A Book Review

I had just finished reading the 1st book of yet another Chronicles by Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid. In comparison to his first hit on the Percy Jackson stories, The Red Pyramid gives you a more or less similar scenario of normal children being godlings. Although this time, the theme centers on the similarities between Old Egypt and the Modern World. Percy Jackson's story was of him being the son of the Sea God Poseidon and his task on battling the gods who sided with the evil Titan Kronos and Kronos himself. The Red Pyramid on the other hand, focuses on Sadie and Carter Kane, children of two famous magicians whose task was to restore peace between Egypt's House of Life (magicians) and the pharaos who ruled Egypt. A little family background showed that Sadie and Carter grew apart from each other, Carter being the loyal companion to his dad's travels all over Egypt and Sadie, living a normal life with her grandparents in London. The children were lead to believe that the reason for this arrangement was because their dad lost custody over Saddie to their mother's parents. Also they were lead to believe that their dad "killed" their mother when they were still young. Little did they know that they possess great magic that works best when they are together. A flashback in the story showed little Saddie and Carter arguing over a birthday cake and suddenly the cake exploded. The story's progress was fast complete with action scenes of magic and fantasy, that makes Rick Riordan's book entertaining and exciting. Later in the story, Sadie and Carter realized that they are what the magicians in the House of Life called godlings since they serve as mediums to the spirit of the Pharaos(imagine being possess by a spirit). Carter being the great Egyptian ruler Horus and Saddie, Horus wife Isis. This may seem weird and a bit incestuous at first, but the author gave no hint of being it such as the story progresses. Anyway the children began learning their skills in magic and meeting new friend and enemies along the way. They met Bast the goddess whose spirit resided in Saddie's cat Muffin, who later on was discovered to be the loyal servant of the sun God Ra and who acted as the children's protector. They also met a relative, their father's brother, also a magician, and other members of the House of Life who meant on killing the children. The story's energy and excitement begun when their dad accidentaly released 5 spirits into the human world, in an attempt to bring their dead mother back. The spirits comprises of Nepthys, Osiris, Horus, Isis and Set. Set being the most evil and creator of Chaos. From here on, the children were posessed with the spirits of Isis and Horus, while Osiris (the god of the dead) inhabited their dad's body. Set was set free and battled with Osiris (the dad) and sent him into the underworld. Now, at this time, little was known as to the whereabouts of Nepthys(Set's wife). Sadie and Carter, becoming orphans in just one night, was then taken by their uncle Amos and brought to his invisible mansion in New York. From there all hell broke lose. Muffin turned into Bast, a baboon played basketball, and an albino crocodile head-butted with pre-historic longnecks. Here they met Zia(who later in the story was discovered to hold the spirit of Nepthys) and some other gods of the Egyptian period. The children were led to a battle to stop Set from creating Chaos all over the earth. Honestly, you wouldn't notice that this is actually a long book because the action, the mystery and make-believe aspect of the story keeps you lifting pages after pages. It has more dialogues as opposed to more narrations which sometimes, as we all know, makes the story boring. Plus the character depicted in the two children were those of someone who is looking to have some fun but not in a chaotic and disastrous way. This book is definitely not for teenagers alone. It's a family read and good for all ages. I have already completed Rick Riordan's 5 Percy Jackson books. This time I'm not going to let The Red Pyramid pass as another collection to my library. Happy reading everyone!

Spring Sunday in Summer

2:40am on Monday already. I'm still awake and thinking..how will i be able to put more traffic to my blog? I admit i am new to this blogging craze so im practically still learning the ropes. Anyhow, why spring sunday you might wonder since Philippines don't have Spring..we don't have four seasons to be exact. Spring cleaning...an extensive job of cleaning, tidying and removing dirt and dust. Who started that phrase anyway? Spring cleaning? hmm.. well that's exactly what kept me busy the whole day. I am ashamed to say that the house was a mess, dusty to the point of suffocation. It has been 4 weeks since we've cleaned the place and it was literally packing dirt, dog hairs and dust. We started cleaning around 5pm and ended at 1:am the next day or today. Well of course with a 2 hr dinner break in between.  Now my back aches and worst my nose is clogged up with all the dust that it hurts my head to even force them out. But at least now the house is way cleaner and more tidy than it used to be. 
There was a scheduled power outage at 8am (something we were'nt aware of) and it ended until 5pm.  I was on the verge of  drifting into REM sleep with the AC in full blast when it all started. After that came the unbearable heat and humidity. It was summer all over again. I drifted in and out of sleep trying to fan myself for comfort still the heat was just so unbearable, you can feel it blowing on your face. So I went out of the room and tried to sleep on the couch. I was getting the hang of it when it suddenly became so humid. I was praying so hard for rain to come at any moment to cool the air but it didn't. Rain came at around 4pm just enough to say a quick hello before the electricity came back on. Doods had to go out and stay at his parents' place so he can somehow get some sleep. There was no power interruption in their area. I on the other hand, bravely stayed and faced the "agony". Turned out Doods exchanged sleep for a bit of family get-together. I after all did manage to sleep despite the heat.

Korean Dish Day

Saturday finally! Two days of rest before hitting the confines of the office. Friday was uneventful and painstakingly sl-ooo-ww,  I didn't have any work to do yet since I still didn't have access to the tools needed for being a workforce analyst. So I was there most of the time reading about Impact 360 Scheduler in Google. I got soo tired and almost dozed off to sleep. Thank God for caffeinne! Anyway, it's saturday and I can't wait to spend the day with my fiancee and go around town. Most of all I am anticipating our visit to our favorite Korean resto in the city, the Sodam. The owner Kein is very friendly and always makes sure to greet each customer and interact with them. His philosophy " Food is always there for people to eat. What I want is for me to know how to interact with people and make them comfortable with the food and the ambiance of the room. " We actually frequent the place to the point where we get special treatments in terms of free soup, free drinks.. and ehem..the list goes on so I won't mention all you might die of jealosy. He also lets us sample new dishes and asks for our opinion in case he'd add it to the menu. So, you can see how excited I am to go there aggain. It has been 4 weeks since our last visit. Later today, we shall be enjoying sam gyup sal and who knows what he'll offer us this time. Please check out the dish in the Food for the Day tab.

Have a nice weekend everyone!!!

Who's Awesome?

I've been feeling so down and un-cool lately. Is it because of the rainy wheather here? I was browsing through some funny sites just to perk up my mood when I saw this pic. I instantly liked it. So everytime I am feeling down and blue, I look at the pic and i go "Heck yea!" and I would just nod in confirmation. Beats having some other person tell you you're awesome. :-)