In my endless pursuit of finding a non traditional convention. It has come to my attention that aside from commercially driven, cosplay enriched profit oriented event, such as Ozine Fest, Toy Con, or other well known “Anime” conventions spewing on the radar. There is one small, yet interesting (for fujiyoshi that is) convention will take place this April. Unfortunately, it happens that it will be their last as well. Alas such spectacle should never be left unnoticed.

Lights Out, the 6th and final Philippine Yaoi Community convention, will take place this April 24, at the Lepanto Penthouse of the 21st floor of the Lepento building. Slots are limited, and ticket priced at an interesting 300 pesos. The ticket is inclusive of  their well renowned butler cafe, called Cafe Le Mirage.

Other activities (incentives) include film screening, a manga library, a doujin dealers room, and raffle prizes. expect that most of the contents are geared toward BL, yaoi fanbase. (This might be the only convention that i may actually spend money).

However, take note, that admission is limited. In order for you, or your group to enter such a fine unique convention, is to email their moderator. For details, and for the original link to the event, click here to see.

If you’re wondering why i would attend on such an unusual event? It’s because: A)Sick and tired of crowded conventions, flooded with too many cosplay people. B) I appreciate Yaoi/BL/Shota genres, because of its exotic storyline. Something that has more effort than traditional/conventional adult anime genre.

I almost forgot. This is an adult convention, so 18 and above only.

JP Rants, JP Rants, and here is a tank.

The Manifesto of A Liberal Otaku. Some random news, and some random b.s. That’s one thing you shouldn’t miss, and yes, JP Angeles rants about it. That’s OI Episode 10. Listener’s discretion is advised.

(Part 1) [Headlines]

(Part 2) [Parental Guidance]

BGM: Ringo Mogire Beam (Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei)

I’m no web design guru. But I can tell efficient design to somewhat waste full. I’ll say that this opinion may come of personal reference. Yet, I would like to share this point to my dear readers. Certainly, websites usually put some kind of time telling apps, which enables readers to check whether their respective times. Honestly I find that somewhat, unnecessary. Here is why.

We have a system clock

To much of my knowledge. Windows feature their own clock system, located below the right hand side of the screen. Or should i say on the right part of the task bar. This clock is designed to tell the time as well as keep other programs in check for scheduled updates, or impeding expirations. Since most users are either in Windows 7 or in XP. Most modern versions of the OS are connected to a central clock located somewhere. The time displayed on our windows is exactly the most accurate time, based on the most accurate clock available. And to top it all, common script clocks usually use your systems time. I don’t really see that point displaying a large watch on the website.

We don’t need overseas time

People exempted are BPO agents, and media creators. Since most foreign media uses their own local time. It is our responsibility to monitor these such locale in order to catch with our favorite cravings. Unless you are podcasting, displaying foreign time zones are simply a waste of space. Sure it may look “internationally” appealing, but these people have their clock sitting just on the right side of the task bar. Besides there are a lot of time zones, if you really want to know what time it is on X country. Go to google and type “X time” where X is the city you wish to see. There you can clearly see the time, and if all the other time related trivia, like DST, lunar and the 5 day weather forecast.

In the end of the day. It all boils down on how you put your site. So, is time widget important? My answer is NO.

Surely anybody who hears the city of Las Vegas, usually thinks of gambling, and all night party. Surely, the city has been dubbed as the sin city, and what comes in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Unfortunately, the people from Bethesda are not keen in keeping the secrets of such a sinful city. Obsedian Entertainment, known for its Neverwinter Series, has released its first gameplay screenshots of their new venture title (not necessarily new to most of the employees of Obsedian). From critically acclaimed successful comback cult classic, action adventure, open world, 50’s post apocalyptic reference, Fallout 3. Comes a new Spin off (more likely a better 3rd sequel) Fallout title coming this fall 2010, called Fallout: New Vegas.

The people at Joystiq was able to obtain such preview to the upcoming game. Which somewhat, sadly resembles their old game fallout 3. There is nothing bad on using their old engine, but i would expect more from the people from Bethesda, and more so the people from Obsedian; where most of its workforce were former employees of the famous Black Isle studios. Responsible for creating the 2 cult classic fallout games. Nevertheless, we hope to see the ambiance and the feel of a western apocalyptic wasteland which surrounded the first two fallout games. I would expect that Playstation release of this game will be as buggy as its predecessor was. I just hope they prove me wrong.

Lastly, seeing a super mutant on a blonde wig, and heart shape sunglassess…priceless.

Its 10pm, Sunday, and we are going back to our vicious cycle of weekdays; Followed by the most hated day of the week, Monday. Before we suffer for another 5 days. Let’s recaps the stories that had happened in the past week. I have to say, last week was very chaotic, and perhaps changing, yet the over result was satisfying. Anyway, Here are the top stories that happened in the past week.

The Day the Playstation (Phat) stood still

Many old Playstation 3 owners are bewildered on that fateful day, as the beloved consoles ceases to function because of a programming error in its internal clock. Its mis interpretation of 2010 as a leap year confuses the internal clock, with the system clock which also monitor the time using the internet; rendendering the old models unplayable and with a risk of loosing the players trophies.  Sony, surprised by the sudden chain of event. Squanders up and about on solving the issue. Luckily for them. The problem fixed itself, after the PS3s self imposed leap year had ended; making the old models usable as it was intended to. As far as i know, Sony hasn’t release a patch for this issue. Since this is a one time event. We just have to question. How important the internet is to our consoles, and how games, whether offline and offline, are heavily dependent on our internet connection?

Infinite Lawsuit

Another big story this week is the internal political play currently happening at Infinity Ward. Key figures of the uber hit franchise Call of Duty Modern Warfare, was relieved of its position and was speculated been “thrown” out by a groups of muscular old guys, that you see mostly on night clubs. Activision (the game published of Infinity Ward) releases a statement with regards of the replacement of the founders of the said studio, as it was contested of being insubordinate towards the head unit. It is unclear what kind of ” insubordination” was being pointed at, but with the head honchos gone. Activision has started producing plethora of Call of duty titles for the up and coming years.

Head founders filed a lawsuit, stating the lavish abuse of the franchise; also their sudden contract termination, and the their peruse of the royalties that their hit franchise acquired during its release span. It is in our best hopes, that Activision will be able to compensate with losing key figures on such a successful game of all time. However, with Activision habit of “Milking its IPs” it shows that the future is not as bright, nor hot as El-ninio is now.

Final Fantasy XIII

The most beloved hyped RPG of all time, FFXIII, is bound for its upcoming international release this March 9 (10 for Philippines). With its obvious linear story line, it will be interesting how the international market will respond on this game. Sadly enough, the Japanese market booed the product for what it has become. With Square Westernizing what, it was regarded as the foundations of JRPG, will this sudden shift of simplicity appeal to the western market? let’s just wait and see.

As for me, having a linear story line, and a cinematic bukake of HD action pack cutscenes. This is definitely the game for me. I’ll be buying this after i finished God of War 3, and take a look at Resonance of Fate. As much as i like XIII; the premisse of other good RPGs are whole and about for the PS3. I’ll give Resonance of Fate a try.

Baka to Test to Shoukanju 9

Going away from games to anime. Baka to test to shoukanjuu, simply makes my day bright. With random, comedic punchlines, to over rated, overly dramatic situations. It is simply an anime despite, its super cliche backbone. The presentation makes up all its potential faults.

On this episode, Akihisa receives a visit from his overly develop inscestly driven sister; to decide whether it was a good idea to leave our main hero by himself. With her sister in the picture, it is a sure comedic hell with its intended 13 episode run. It will be a short fun indeed, but with its over all success. The possibility of a sequel is definitely in the works. How long? that is the question.

Summer Wars

Tokyo anime award winner for best animation of 2009. Summer wars indeed deserves the award it received (moe than K-On deserves). With Mad-House as it key production studio. It has delivered a riveting online action glory, with a light hearted tone of bravery, and family union-ship.  The stories premise, is saving the world of Oz. which is a universal security system (think of open ID) that controls almost all the world economic, and military credentials. With the unified system being attacked by a self-learning hacking AI. It is the job of a teenage math prodigy, with the help of a well honored family, to save the world from a potential social collapse.

I don’t see this as a Miyazaki contender, or any renowned minds of the Japanese animation of elites. This film stand for itself. I don’t have the deep mind of analyzing these kinds of films, but as far as i can see. This one is simple, and easy to digest. This give this movie as a “download now”.

Surf TV ad

If you are listening to my tech rant podcast (episode 23). We talk about smart surf TV. Its Smart’s idea of delivering broadband to the computer deprived masses. Just by plugging it on your TV, your TV becomes a living breathing computing device as it enables the users to chat,surf, email all in your TV.

Upon thinking. This is the most stupidest idea, that i have heard. Yes, it makes Internet available. But PC wise, you can get a bear bone PC for under 10K, which has more computing power than an Intel Atom processor (assuming thats the processor), and a low 480p resolution, limited color screen. However, this idea is not bad for a media center PC. Lacking a LCD TV, watching youtube or any other form of internet video on your TV, is much more relaxing that sitting in front of a computer.

That’s it for this discussion. tune in on xagenda for more issues, and stories. As i stated, JP will run 70% of the site.

Summer can be terrible...

Whoa, what a hot day. Enjoying with mah friend Al and doing some stuff, like updating the tumblr theme for The TC Blog (I’m proud that of tumblr…clap, clap, clap.) Anyways…

We have finished watching Summer Wars, and it made me awesomely exhilirated. Yet, I have learned another lesson. Never, I mean NEVER expose your account on the interwebz. (Yes, I am exaggerating. your argument is invalid.)

Here is the synopsis from Wikipedia:

The story centers on high school student Kenji Koiso (Ry?nosuke Kamiki), a child prodigy in mathematics who spends his time immersed in OZ, a massive computer-simulated virtual reality world. Kenji is a genius with numbers but ill-adept socially. He secretly has a crush on his attractive upperclassman Natsuki Shinohara (Nanami Sakuraba) but does not have the courage to tell her. At the beginning of summer vacation, he is asked by Natsuki to help in celebrating her great-grandmother’s 90th birthday. Although Kenji does not know the details of the plan, he agrees and goes with Natsuki to her grandmother’s estate in Ueda, Nagano Prefecture. Much to Kenji’s surprise, he is introduced at the Shinohara family house as Natsuki’s fiancé.

As Kenji tries to act the part, meets Natsuki’s dozens of relatives, and deals with the advances of computer expert Wabisuke Jinnouchi (Ayumu Sait?), Natsuki’s uncle and “first love”, he receives a mysterious e-mail with a mathematics code. He cracks the code and returns it to the sender but finds himself at the center of a developing news story the following day. Overnight, OZ has been hacked and turned into a digital deadzone, and he is the prime suspect. Using Kenji’s account and avatar, the real “hacker”, which is actually the advanced artificial intelligence system Love Machine, has stripped the virtual world empty and wreaks havoc in the real world. With car navigation systems disabled and computers malfunctioning, Japan grinds to a halt. Love Machine also gains control of a satellite and threatens to send it crashing into a nuclear power plant somewhere on Earth. In order to fight back, Kenji enlists the help of Wabisuke, Natsuki’s family, and his best friend using an army of avatars. With the fate of the world at stake, a great online summer war takes place.

Aside from the recent El Niño phenomena causing water and electrical shortage (which also affects my utility bills for the month), it gives us sore eyes, measles and heatstrokes. What a world indeed.

I'm very sure that there are people who are excited for summer, such as these people.

Ah, PS3. the one Al used to play with, especially the demo version of God of War, where he releases his temper… on the other hand, I don’t like the excessive violence. I know that most of you want to play your consoles (and PCs in my case, no pun intended) since the heat is on, and as Leonidas says, “WE DINE IN HELL!”. Look, is this temperature a sneak peek of the hell I used to believe? In my belief, hell is the place with ‘tides of fire and sulfur’. How about yours?Oh well, that’s for me this week. As far as you know, starting from this post, every week, I will serve you some side dish of TECH. Yes, Tech Updates on XA, Powered by a 15-year old named JP Angeles. // Now, if you have any problems, just send me a letter to jp@12circlesmanila.tk. Ja mata!

For a minute. I decided to pause my activities on my blogs and such other internet related tidbits I usually do. Mainly due to heavy physical and emotional burden that i acquired for the past years. I also receive a sudden emotional stress this weekend, which negates my first post about being great and all. I’ll be honest, it because of JP decision on something we had agreed on, and was suddenly thrown away in an instant. I can’t really say much more about that. Let’s just say, it’s not related to any of the business I do in my websites.

Anyway, JP will fill up the site for updates and all when I’m busy replenishing my stats. He will also do some of the technical necessities that I really don’t want to do right now. In short JP will run 80% of xagenda for the mean time. I’ll resume the podcast recording next weekend. So, don’t expect any releases for now.

I’m kind of behind with AC5. I’ll be releasing that somewhere during the week. Sorry enza for delaying it.

So, let JP roll the ball for the site. I’ll post once in a while. but JP will now run most of the show.

Well, I’m back… after being busy, that is. This is JP, and well, I crammed for a bit and blogged here on XA (my new nick for the blog). Anyways, I see my buddy here has some sorta new creation: A tumblelog. That’s what they call for Tumblr Blogs.

By the way, I went to Taytay to but a belt for my auntie’s sewing machine (since the old one cracked). Yet, I visited SM City Taytay and I observed some paintings that was displayed in the bridge way and the Events Center… it’s still the Rizal Arts Festival. Noticed some paintings from Alvin Achinges (I think he’s the biggest contributor of the exhibit). I also take notice of these Robot Rickshaws… and still can’t believe it.

As I observed the streets on the way to the supply shop, I noticed that Globe now has it’s P10 Tingi load cards. I wonder why they converted it to load cards… is it by popular demand or they did it for fun?

Image is unrelated

Love Radio 90.7 Manila, the FM station that is responsible for Chris, Nicole and Papa Jack, now has a website (http://loveradio.com.ph). You can listen to Kuku’s randomness too. =)

So, that’s all for now. The video? Noo, I just want to put that since I appreciate his tips on the 5-Minute Wake Up and Go thingy (search it on Google).

I have to break the ice. Its official that there won’t will be a tech rant release this week. I was sure that a while back that his ass won’t show up. But with  the twists of fate, he said that we can have the show tomorrow morning (Sunday). So, to sum it up. There will be a tech rant this week. Sorry for the confusion.

If you notice. I had started adding tumblr in my small army of blogs. I think that instead of setting up another wordpress, which requires a great deal of maintenance; since, I just want to have a simple platform for writing personal stuff. I decided that tumblr would be a good choice. Given that tumblr accepts personal domain; there isn’t any reason why i shouldn’t use this service. It is simple, intuitive, and down to the point. I may not have complete control over the site. But for people who simply want to write something, then this one fits the bill. I also setup a xagenda tumblr site, which is similar to this site. Those are for people in tumblr to see my work; sort of a advertising campaign. I also setup another tumblr site called, Inside Agenda (its on the right hand side, with a chili logo.) That is for personal opinions, and this is where RED hot issues will or may surface.

Unlike any other group or individual. I’m not in a habit of concealing names, or making issues appear like a tabloid ala “the WHO?!” style. So issues may spark, comments may flood, or fists may swung. But in the end of the day, you just needs the courage to say it. So, if you want to know what i think, just head on over to inside.xagenda.net and drop me comment or two. I like conversations, as long as they are sensible and down right intelligent.

Lastly. In celebration of my 2nd year blogging. It would be nice if i can change the theme of this lone site of mine. Despite of how efficient script wise this site is. It would be best to go for a change. So, by midnight next week, i’ll do some theme changes on the site. JP gave me a good theme, so i’ll use that in the upcoming change.

And that’s it for updates. Thank you for visiting my site. Kindly submit a tech question and i’ll personally answer them on tech rant and on my mailbag, which stopped because it ran out of questions.

With its release date looms. Final Fantasy XIII has been one of the anticipated games of 2010; coming along the the plethora of AAA titles like, God of War, Heavy Rain, Splinter Cell Convictions and more.  Released earlier in Japan as an exclusive PS3 only title. The western nations have heard horror stories of its massively revamped style of transparent linearity, that many hardcore fans, whom shaped their entire video game persona shows their disappointment.

After the release date in japan. The magic of Final Fantasy, which shows the rapid sensation of its fandom, by selling millions of copies during its first week sales, dwindles to a surplus of return copies of the game. As stated in the first paragraph; many points toward is simplistic and overly to the top linearity. Gamers stated that the world opens up after 15 hours of gameplay, which is something unforgiving to most. Since a lot of games can be finished over the a lotted span.

Anyway reasons aside. I also find that this game deserve the flack for what it has become. For someone who grew up with FFVIII, and had played all the offline FF from then on onwards. It certainly feels like it has become less of a what it has used to be. But as technology progresses, more and more changes are being done to make the game more appealing. One of the biggest changes i wish they never changed the turn base elements of the game. This is not only evident in FF but this has escalated on to other games. (Or maybe I’m playing mostly SquareEnix games). On a positive note, random battles has become a norm of the past. Enemies are now shown physically. It’s your decision to either fight them or avoid them. The choice is yours.

In the end of the day. I can’t seem to find that FFXIII is an overall bad game. It may not be the same experience, as our childhood games were. It is certainly a decent game worth playing. Is being a Cinematic overly linear story a bad game? I don’t think so. If that was the case, Heavy Rain would be a bad game if it was the case.