Introducing: GAME GIRL!


The fun begins when you turn her ON.

She's cute. She's sexy. She's a hundred girls in one. She's Alpha, the heroine of GAME GIRL, a new manga comic I'll be working on with Jason Banico of Dynatica. A cross between the 80's character Automan and the Go Nagai heroine Cutey Honey, Alpha (the name stands for Android Lifeform with Programmable Hyper Adaptability) is a sentient computer program in human form who can transform into and use the powers of any female videogame archetype. She'll be going on fun, action-packed and comedic gaming-themed adventures in order to stop evil programs from conquering the world (Of course!). I can see this character to be a ton of fun in seeing through, so I hope this thing works out. Whatever happens, Alpha's coming.

GameGirl© is copyright 2002, Dynatica Comics. All Rights Reserved

Paranoia

I just came home from a nice after-work dinner/despedida for my friends Dean and Nikki Alfar, who are bound for the US. The day was long and I was just looking forward to winding things down when I saw something that irked me. A ROACH. Yep. A cockroach. A damn ipis, right there on the edge of the shoe cabinets outside my room. And he was facing the direction of MY door. Of course, I had to kill it. I could not sleep soundly knowing that a live ipis could be there, silently slipping into my room, then crawling into bed with me... It had to DIE. I grabbed my slipper. Wait. No. Can't use my slipper. If I hit it too hard, I would get ipis guts all over the bottom. Then I couldn't walk in my room with the slipper. I'll spread ipis guts all over my floor. What if I walk barefoot on the floor and get ipis guts on my soles? What if while I'm sleeping my pillow falls off the bed onto the floor with the ipis guts? That's the pillow I hug and press my face into when I sleep. It'd be like I hugged and pressed my face into an IPIS!!! It had to DIE.
I grabbed my shoe. I kept my work shoes outside the room anyway, so it didn't matter if I got smashed insect insides all over the sole. I walk everywhere outside and step on much grosser things, I imagine. It would be okay. The shoe was also heavy, so a direct hit would be a sure kill.
Had to hit at a right angle; the ridges of the shoe shelf could act as a depression which may affect the force of my blow. Had to adjust. Had to crouch. Wait. Can't hit it too hard... folks are sleeping. I thought of closing the door to my parents' bedroom, but that would risk the ipis slipping away. No. I had to chance it. Do or die. I've done this many times before.
I went for it. A controlled blow, sharp and fast. A sure kill if it had hit.
But I missed.
The ipis was knocked from the shelf to the floor, but fell on its right side. It skittered behind the shelf to safety.
I WILL KILL HIM!!! (Me imitating Sting's Fayde in David Lynch's Dune). But it was all for naught. It was gone. Escaped. I had to sleep now in fear.
Actually, even if I had killed the bugger, it would probably make no difference. I worked on an insect spray brand in my former agency, so I learned that for every roach you see, there are probably dozens more unseen. It would have made no difference. But I would feel a lot safer if I had gotten the damn creeper. Gah.
It won't come back. It's probably miles away from me by now.
Miles away.
Right? RIGHT??!?

I am a blonde cheerleader with a love for pointed objects.

No, I am not losing my mind again; last night, I played Buffy the Vampire Slayer on the Xbox, and I have to say it's a pretty fair game. I usually want my fighting games as straight-on one-on-one affairs like Dead or Alive, Tekken or Virtua Fighter, but I decided to try this adventure-action game anyway. I am a fan after all of the TV series, so what the hey. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised.
Buffy the Xbox game puts you, the player, in the tight jeans and skimpy tops of Buffy Summers; the current Slayer and defender against undead menaces. The story of the game is supposedly culled from an unaired or unrealized TV episode or arc, so the dialogue and writing of the game's script is pretty true to the spirit of the game. As you first start off the game, the familiar Buffy opening theme song plays with footage of the in-game heroine kicking undead butt.
As you go through the various locales in Sunnydayle, including familiar places such as Sunnydale High School and The Bronze nightclub, you battle vampires and other shadowy baddies to accomplish goals, solve simple 'go-fer' quests and collect items on your way to the chapter's boss or major fight.
Of course, the major cast members appear in the game, looking reasonably close to their reel-life counterparts. Most of the actual actors do the voiceovers for their characters, with the exception of Sarah Michelle Gellar herself (though the voice double does a pretty good job).
The control is pretty tight, and it's a cinch to move around and do stuff. The puzzles are simple,and the meat of the game, the fighting, is pretty good and fluid. As for the graphics, the game looks great, and the on-screen Buffy is a strikingly good representation of the comely heroine. Which is great, since you'll be staring at her for hours and hours as you play the game.
My only gripe is that the game's story only reaches to a certain point in the series; baddies include Spike and Drusilla, Angelus, The Master and some original monsters. I would have wanted to trade punches with the yummy evil goddess Glory (Season Five's Big Bad) if I had the choice. Well, maybe in Buffy 2? Anyway, if you have an Xbox and are a Buffy fan, this is a pretty good buy; otherwise, watching re-runs on Star TV will have the same effect.
Eh? Wait a minute... I don't HAVE Star TV on my cable anymore!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!

Fishy happenings on the way to work...

I was riding an FX taxi on the way to the office today. I was seated at the front, squeezed in with another passenger and the driver. This is what I learned... the seating space is really not adequate for three people. While we were both seated, apparently my sitting posture cut off circulation to my left leg, so that after several minutes I began to lose feeling in that limb.
This has happened before, though a lot worse. It was traffic then, and so I couldn't move at all for at least a half hour. I tried everything; pinching, trying to move my toes (which I could not feel anyway), moving the leg up and down... everything. When I finally got off at Cubao, I almost fell over in the street (which had cars moving at top speed). The leg was DEAD. Like a peg leg, or as if it was coated in cement. I dragged and shuffled my way like a zombie to the concrete divider and stayed there for a minute, looking quite odd as I began kicking my leg against the curb to return the feeling.
Ah. The pain of pins and needles. The feeling returned.
Luckily this time around, I didn't have to wait too long, so I didn't have difficulty in walking after getting down. As I walked the rest of the way to the MRT station, I espied a kiosk selling some cool looking green drink ( I assume it was some pandan/sago/gulaman concoction). It looked refreshing because there was moisture all over the container. I was almost tempted to buy a glass when I recognized the shape of the container... they were selling the drink from an old aquarium tank. Gah.
Had my usual squid balls and gulaman at my regular stand at the MRT station. It was a bit of a wait because the guards are checking bags thoroughly due to the bomb threats. Well, some things change, some things remain the same. I'm just glad I'm here to keep writing blogs.

In the Bag

The Sanctum has a new fixture. A Bean Bag. Well, actually, more of a Bean Throne. Unlike the usual plain round foam-filled cushion, the one I was able to purchase at the Mega Sale (the whole time braving terrorist bomb blasts, mind you) comes with extra apertures which expand into arm and headrests... it's probably the closest thing to a Lazyboy easy chair I'll ever have (since one of those bastards costs upwards of 30K), and I'm loving it.
So I'm there, enjoying the pleasure of sinking into the thing and feeling it wrap around my form like a clammy giant glove. I have to admit I've done quite a few Jean-Luc Picard impressions ever since I got the thing, and it's wonderful. Great for playing games and watching DVD movies on. Except that prolonged use might be bad for the back... Hmmm. Never saw Captain Picard complain about backaches.
"Make it so, Number One. GAHH! My FRICKING Back...!"