The Wheel of Time

It has been a long time since my previous post, so let's pretend that never happened. Here's my new post about my first epic fantasy read:

I started reading The Wheel of Time series back in November 2013. Currently I am reading book 8: The Path of Daggers. The late Robert Jordan masterfully created an immersive world populated by believable characters. One of my favorite scenes so far is in the second book, The Great Hunt, where Mat sounds the Horn of Valere. I will refrain from further elaboration in order to avoid any spoilers. Hopefully I will be able to complete the series within a year.

"The Grave is no bar to my call."
"Let whosoever sounds me think not of glory, but only of salvation."
  —Inscription on the Horn of Valere and Prophecy of the Horn

ONE LAST DAY

ONE LAST DAY

Tomorrow is the last day of 2009, a very transformational year for me. This year I changed my career from sales to SAP consulting, which, no doubt, was the right thing to do. With one more day to go, 2009 is the first year in my life where I was not hospitalized (I have sickle-cell anaemia), and for that I am thankful. It is also the year I faced my worst personal disaster, which is why I was away for a couple months.

Speaking of hiatus, look who's back at last. Welcome back Mr. Jaffe. It is always nice having you back.

One more thing I want to say is that I cannot wait to get my hands on my Japanese copy of Final Fantasy XIII later tonight. Till another post, take care of yourself and happy new year.

POST-A-WEEK: HAPPINESS

POST-A-WEEK: HAPPINESS

"Happiness inside a bottle is what I need today."

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS

Some of this weeks highlights:

• Jenson Button and the Brawn GP became the F1 World Champions.
• I watched and loved Dragon Hunters.
• I bought four PS3 games: Borderlands, Demon's Souls, Africa and Brutal Legend.
• I am seeking a new job, again.

PHILANTHROPY

PHILANTHROPY

Check out Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy movie by the creative minds at Hive Division.

Yesterday, I bought Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, which should keep me busy till the release of what is shaping up into my GOTY to-be: Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crank in Time. I will start and finish the single player campaign during my long weekend this week.

A new age for PSP just started in the context of my gaming habits. I own two PSPs (a 1000 model and a 2000 model). I use the second while my little brother uses the first. With a flood of PSP games headed to PSN, now we can both enjoy the same game at the same time and even play together if the game allows it. This is like owning two copies of a game for the price of one. Owning a PS3 means we don't need to download a game twice since we use the PS3 as hub where we download each game once then simply copy it to our PSPs. The game stays on the PS3's HDD for any future needs. If you don't own a PS3, you could achieve the same using the free Media Manager or Media GO, also free, on your PC.

POST-A-WEEK: OCTOBER

POST-A-WEEK: OCTOBER

There are several games coming out this month that I am interested in buying but I will only buy two:

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time

I actually have been enjoying three games that I bought on the first of this month:

• Ninja Gaiden Σ 2
• Gran Turismo
• SoulCalibur: Broken Destiny

The games that will have to wait, and may get skipped, are:

• Brutal Legend
• Demon's Souls
• Dead Space Extraction
• MotorStorm: Arctic Edge
• Scribblenauts
• Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

I am disappointed at the number of PSP games we got on PSN in PAL territories (the U.S. PS Store received over 100 PSP games in the last store update on Thursday). Regardless, I have been enjoying my PSP quite much lately. Every night I try to put some time into both SoulCalibur (playing Kratos exclusively) and Gran Turismo.

I will admit that I bought Gran Turismo solely to jump-start Gran Turismo 5 when it comes out next year since you can transfer your cars but the game turned out great, especially the physics engine and the sense of speed. There are two things that bugged me about it though. One is that you cannot sell any of your cars. Two is that you don't have access to all car dealers any given moment but rather you can only buy from a select few dealers every virtual game day.

POST-A-WEEK: BRIDA

POST-A-WEEK: BRIDA

Instead of reading The Winner Stands Alone, I started reading Brida last week. Both novels are products of my favorite writer, Paulo Coelho.

Shifting gear to the one sport I care about, Formula 1, where championship leader Jenson Button has increased his lead to 15 points in Singapore Grand Prix. The Button started 11th on the grid and was 5th to finish the race. With three more races to go, Jenson still has the highest chance of winning the title. Could he seal it next race in Japan by winning 5 points more than his team-mate and title-rival Rubens Barrichello?