The office is currently abuzz with preparations for Halloween. On Friday, kids in costumes will be walking around to get free candy. My staff are busy preparing decorations for the Plants vs Zombies theme that our area will be decorated with. This is also usually the time I break out the halloween-related toys that I have stashed in my office.

Unlike last year where I had all my Nendoroids out on display, this year, I’ve decided to just have these few toys out. I also have all my SIC action figures and a couple of figmas out as well as Psycho Gundam Mk. I but that’s pretty much it for this year. It would have been a pain bringing out ALL the toys from their ziploc bags and then putting them back in after Halloween. Continue Reading

I haven’t taken a snapshot of my desk in quite some time. Probably because I haven’t had time to decently fiddle around with my office desk stuff. So I decided to take one snapshot of those that keep me company when I work.

Continue Reading

Was shooting Nendoroids for most of the week so I decided to close the week with a photo of a figurine instead. This is a photo of my 1/8 scale Kyouka Midarezaki. Hopefully, I’m improving on the color front. I had a penchant for using lomo or old photo effects on most of my photos in the past (although I still use them to this day) but now, I’ve started working on improving my post-processing by working on the white balance and contrast of my photos. A lot of my friends who take photography as a liiiiittle bit more than just a hobby, they tend to use Lightroom more often but I’ve always liked using Photoshop. Continue Reading

Coffeebugg got a notice from the post office near our building that a package had arrived. He went off to pick it up earlier this afternoon then dropped it off at my desk.

As figma Drossel looked on, I removed the item inside the package that I had been waiting to acquire for the longest time. Now I know a lot of people got theirs many moons ago. I only managed to set aside cash to get one recently and thankfully there was a trusted eBay seller who was still selling this baby so I willingly parted with a good amount of money to have this shipped over to the Philippines. Continue Reading

Remember yesterday when the Lil’ ‘Uns had an encounter with our resident bloodthirsty bear? Here’s what happened afterwards:

No, Gloomy’s not really dead. So rest assured that you’ll still see him harassing other Nendoroids on my office desk.

Today’s a Friday and yet somehow I feel bah-humbug about it. I’m definitely looking forward to the weekend and I can’t wait to spend some time with my girlfriend. But this past week has been some sort of emotional crawl for me and I don’t know why. It’s like I couldn’t figure out where to start on every work day I had this week. Hopefully, I get my head sorted out this coming weekend because I don’t like being in this sinkhole.

So what are your plans for the weekend?

And so coffeebugg’s Mini Kyoukas are here again for a visit. And this time, they brought along another friend: Puchi Churuya.

First thing they saw was Wadsworth, my DS Lite. One Mini Kyouka wanted to play right away. But it was charging and they couldn’t figure out how to turn it on. Then something else caught their attention…

Uh-oh… And I’m not even worried about the lil’ ‘uns…

So it shall be mine soon~! Much thanks to coffeebugg for the assistance!

Ah yes. I stepped into the Starbucks near my office and the shelves are now stocked with fresh new Christmas merchandise enough to make St. Nick binge on coffee. So of course, I could not resist stepping inside and look around at the stuff that will soon allow Starbucks to rob me of my well-earned money.

Christmas is pretty much my favorite season of the year. It’s when one can easily justify spending money on toys and gadgets and not get frowned upon. I’d just grin and say “it’s Christmas!” and it would easily slide.

And to welcome the official start of the Christmas season (it used to be September but since Halloween’s a big hit now in the Philippines, Christmas takes a backseat till after everyone takes down the skeletons and creepy-crawlies from their houses and offices)…

I bought a new mug~!

My friend, Emrys, immediately said “But you already have so many mugs (you twat). Why buy another one?”

“I don’t have a red one.” And that was it.

Now, Christmas season means them coffee addicts can once again start throwing away their money buying Christmas coffee in Starbucks and collect those stickers that eventually entitle them to planners they don’t really use since whatever plans they make don’t come to fruition MOST OF THE TIME.

I just got the stickers so that I’d have something to give away on Christmas day. (Yeah, right)

But seriously, this year’s design of Starbucks Planners looks like rubbish. I’d rather spend a grand to buy a moleskin annual planner.

So I’ll collect the stickers for the sake of collecting them but Chil can probably have my planner. I’ll just get a moleskin annual planner instead. Looks better, actually. Black matches the rest of my gear.

Any Christmas hols habits/promos you partake in during this time of the year?

Wireless internet isn’t something new to netizens anymore. A lot of people around the world have been walking around with their laptops and using postpaid or prepaid internet services for quite some time now. In recent years, the Philippines’s local mobile service providers have jumped onto the bandwagon as well. First with Smart Bro Wireless, then there was Globe Tattoo and then there’s Sun Cellular Wireless Internet.

Recently, we got a USB wireless internet device from Globe Telecom. This is mainly for Chil’s consumption and not mine since I have DSL where I’m staying at.

After using it for the first time, she noted it disconnects sometimes or the connection can be dragging or slow.

So I did some trawling on the internet, looking up forums that have discussed these three different services.

Smart Bro Wireless

User have said that the perk for Smart Bro Wireless is the fact that Smart really has the widest coverage across the country. Even as far up in the mountains like Benguet, you can get a steady Smart signal and where there’s signal, there’s internet access for the Smart Bro Wireless service.

The main complaint appears to be its frequent disconnection which can be annoying.

Their rate is Php10 per 30 minutes.

Globe Tattoo

A newer service and more modern 3G equipment than Smart, (so they claim) Globe Tattoo provides steady internet access. Not as frequent in disconnections as its competitor.

The major downside which I think pisses a lot of people off is its sluggish connection. Smart has up to 2Mbps wireless internet while speed tests for Globe barely make it to 1Mbps and this can be very frustrating for the user.

Their rate is Php5 per 15 minutes.

Sun Cellular Wireless Internet

The newest player in the scene is Sun Cellular and so far, users who have been on the above services previously are claiming that this is the best service by far. Faster speeds, more stable connection.

Downside is that it’s exclusively in certain areas of Metro Manila. And since my house’s roof acts like some sort of radioactive bomb shelter, Sun’s signal is pretty weak inside the house. Can’t bring it outside of Metro Manila either due to lack of coverage.

What’s interesting is that Sun has been able to maintain their unlimited calls and text service for this long and survive alongside the two main service providers. So only time will tell when Sun will be able to overshadow the biggest players in wireless communications with their services.

And to Globe and Smart, Kyouka-chan has only one message:

My question to you is do you already use any of these wireless internet services? (Note: prepaid service and not postpaid, primarily) What are you using and how is their service?

This incident is the cause for a series of episodes where Gloomy starts harassing my small Nendoroid community.