Rommel's Random Ramblings

Property of Ones:
One more project:
I'm almost done with the video projects I need to do. The two biggies, the wedding video and the children's musical DVD, were finally completed. I turned in the wedding video on Friday. For the MTV-style music video portion, I used Jagged Edge's "Let Get Married" as the background song. Yeah, with lyrics like "We aint gettin no younger so we might as well do it... Let's get married," I don't exactly think it's the most romantic song out there. But hey, they used the song in their wedding, so...

The DVD for the children's musical was released on Sunday. Woo hoo! Christmas in Easter! And of course, I also finished the easter video by Easter Sunday. It was basically a bunch of video clips put together to play while the worship band led the singing.

However, the last project on my list is a slideshow for Lighthouse Christian Fellowship's 1st year anniversary. Wow, it's been almost a year since they officially launched the church plant in Huntington Beach that some of our members in Irvine helped out in. They wanted a narration to go with the pictures, so for this one I'm putting on my radio announcer voice and reading my lines to the camera. I've never done this before so I hope it turns out okay.

One more week:
Well, it's really a little under a week until Jed and I leave for the Philippines right after midnight next Monday. The mission doesn't start until a week after that, but we're gonna hang out at Palawan for a few days to do some, umm.... advance scouting. Yeah.

One more blog:
To keep everyone updated about the mission trip, I've set up another blog, Short-Term Memories. It'll focus on what the team's doing day by day and include prayer requests, photos (hopefully), and other things. I'll still post over here, too, but there might be some overlaps in the material between the two blogs. The other one will probably be configured to accept posts from multiple contributors.

But you DO know me:
I was at Wal-Mart today shopping for blank videotapes and other things to bring to the Philippines. At one point, I was looking through the new DVD releases. Remember Ryan Starr from one of the previous seasons of American Idol? I didn't... until I saw that she has some horror-type movie out on DVD. Anyway, jumping to the main point of the story. Suddenly, this random boy comes up from behind me and grabs my arm with a tight grip.

Random Boy: Excuse me?
Me: *thinking it's one of the little kids from church* Oh, hi Ji... [wait a second, you're not Jiro.]
RB: Hello.
Me: Hi. [He must think I work here or something.]
RB: Can you buy me that movie? *points at some DVD on the kids shelf*
Me: Umm...

I look around for his parents or whoever. Of course, no else is in that aisle but the two of us. How convenient. *sigh*

RB: I've been a good boy.
Me: I, I don't really know you.
RB: I'm Joshua. My name is Joshua. Now you know me.
Me: ...

At this point, he finally lets go of my arm. Yes, all this time he was inhibiting my blood circulation. He then walks off and disappears around the corner.

Random boy: *muttering* But you do know me. I'm Joshua.

And there you have my little Kathy Bates, Misery-type experience. "You WILL buy me this movie, Mr. Man!"

o_O

U.S. Issues Philippines Travel Warning

Please continue praying for the Philippine mission team. A couple of us leave on the 4th. The rest of the FACI team will be flying at various days during that week.

Ok, I'm done. For real, now:

I've really got to stop playing this game. It's got me having dreams of being hit by a girl on her bicycle and flying through the air for thousands of meters. It's like dreaming of a waterfall of oddly shaped blocks or bursting bubbles with a crossbow. Oh well, something to do as I burn at least 30 copies of the children's musical DVD. Multitasking at its finest. ^_^

Current Nanaca Crash High Score:

by Kevin, the Skitguru

What I've figured out so far about Nanaca Crash:
(Mainly from trial and error, but being able to make a little bit of sense out of the instructions helps. There are a lot of kanji I don't know or don't remember from the instructions, but anyway...)

1. You can use an aerial between a height of 3-10 meters. Basically, when the guy is above the trees but not too high that the red arrow pointing up appears.


2. Red aerials are possible when he's falling. Clicking the mouse button gives him an upward boost. You can use this up to three times. Useful if you want to avoid running into a certain person like the "stop" girl with glasses.


3. Blue aerials are possible on the way up. Clicking the mouse button gives you a boost downward. You have to wait until it recharges back to 100% for each use. Useful if you want to hit someone that can boost you further.


4. There are four girls that light up with "special". (A) Girl with glasses, (B) long brown haired girl, (C) short blue haired girl, (D) long blonde haired girl. At certain conditions, some of these light up on the "special" indicator. When you run into them while in their "special" state, click the mouse button within 0.7 seconds to get a super boost.


5. Girl (A)'s special state activates after you run into (B), (C), or (D). It lasts until the next time you bounce on the ground.


6. Girl (B)'s special state activates after you run into her. It lasts until the next time you hit someone else but her.


7. Girls (C) and (D)'s special states activate whenever they are in line next to each other. The individual that is lit up depends on who comes up first.


8. Running into the girl with long blue/black hair doesn't do anything at first. However, I think she cancels out whatever effect normally occurs when you run into someone else after that.


9. One of the guys changes your angle (either up or down) while the other guy slows you down.


10. Oh, and this might be obvious to some, but it took me a few tries before I realized this. You don't have to have the mouse pointer at any paarticular area of the screen whenever you click the button. Just make sure it's within the confines of the flash game.

I think that's pretty much all I know. I'd like to know if anyone has figured out the C.F.F. stuff (whatever that means). What triggers it, and what determines what type you get? I've gotten one which is basically a second chance whenever you stop completely and another one that gives you a boost whenever you hit the ground. I think it has something to do with Block girl, but it doesn't occur often enough for me to find the pattern.

Yup, this definitely has more depth than that Santa slingshot game or that penguin game. ZuBaaaaaaan!

Yet another way to procrastinate:


Nanaca Crash!! - The best. Flash game. Ever.

Hold down the mouse button to select the angle and then release to select the power. As your character bounces along and flies through the sky, click the mouse button to give him an upward or downward boost. Running into other characters gives different effects. Try to get a special combo.

Well, that's my high score (so far.) I've seen some scores in the tens of thousands. I have a long way to go. How far can you get to? (No photoshopped screenshots, please. *cough*cough*Mando*cough* heheh.)

[Edit: Yes, I update my screenshot.]

I changed the layout. Well actually, I just changed the color scheme to make it more consistent with my MySpace page.

Random Character Sketch:


I had a rare burst of creativity today and drew a quick sketch. I think I'm going to continue working on my comic about a bunch of junior high kids who play dodgeball. I kinda set it aside about 3 or 4 years ago when I had writer's block. But even though I've had all these new plot points in mind for a while now, I've been too lazy/busy/overwhelmed to draw them out. I should probably scan what I've done and put them online a la MegaTokyo. However, I would have to redraw the first few pages since I lost them. Hmmm... if I do that, I'd probably have to redraw them all since my drawings progressively improved/became more consistent as I got into it. (The first few sketches were actually a bunch of stick figures anyway.)

Well, time to work on:
1. Wedding video for dotDV
2. Christmas musical DVD
3. Video(?) for Easter service
4. LCF's 1st year anniversary slideshow

All due before I leave the country. Hee hee. I hope the creative juices keep flowing. ^_^

Ice Hotel:
While looking through Worldisround, I saw some pictures of a place in Sweden called the Ice Hotel. It's a full sized hotel made completely out of snow and ice. They have to rebuild it every winter because the whole place melts once spring comes. The place sort of reminds me of Superman's Fortress of Solitude or that Iceland place in the James Bond movie, Die Another Day. I wonder what their rates are. They might have some really good discount packages during the summer.

Encore:


2005 Philippine Medical Mission Promo
Today at church, we showed what was essentially a remixed version of last year's medical mission video with rearranged pictures and different background music.

And now, a picture from the video outtake archives:

To spare you guys, I put up a blurred, black and white version instead. Click the picture to display it in all of its full-color glory. Yes, that's my roach-bitten ankle from last year's mission trip. Isn't it pretty? "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" Yeah, that's an example of how not to quote Scripture.

Maps:
I have this fascination with maps. I like looking at them. We have this map of the Philippines taken from a 1986 issue of National Geographic. It's framed and hanging on a wall near the kitchen and dining room. Many times, I have found myself just staring at it for more than just a few seconds. One of the books I bought when I was in the Philippines last year was a mini street atlas of Manila. I didn't really get much practical use out of it since I only had about two days left in my stay. Still, I'd look at it from time to time and try to make sense of the places I'd visited.

I remember in the months leading up to my family's move to America, I would look at a map of Southern California. I knew we would be staying in Tustin at first. I imagined my friends and cousins living in cities like Hawthorne or Chula Vista. I'd imagine hanging out at each other's houses after school. I didn't really have an accurate perception of scale and distances back then. I thought those places were just down the street from each other.

It's not restricted to just places I've been to or even actual locations for that matter. One of my favorite parts in fantasy books like Lord of the Rings or Dragonlance are the maps they usually have in the back.

Anyway, I'm starting to realize that I enjoy looking at maps. I'm not quite sure why. Some people like to read dictionaries for fun. I'd say that an atlas would be my reference book of choice. One thing that's becoming more and more real to me is that for the most part, a map isn't just made up of blobs of color with dots and names of places. Those dots represent real locations where real people live. People who may not have heard of the Gospel and what Jesus has done for them.

I wonder if they'll have maps in Heaven. Hmm... Heaven's probably not even mappable nor would there even be a need for maps. Ahh... maybe I'll write about my fascination with planes or flying in general next.

Bowling:
Last night, I was in Tustin Lanes for the bowling night between FACI and Lighthouse church. I didn't play. I just hung out, eating some pizza and stuff. A couple of the youth and I were messing around with my camera. After about five pictures, we heard this announcement over the PA system, "No flash photography please." Oops. So we had to take a whole lot more pictures with the flash turned off. Without the flash, the shutter speed had to be slower in order to let in more light, but this made the camera more sensitive to shaking. So a lot of the pictures were blurry, but there were some cool ghost-like effects on some of them.

Family Bowling Night Pictures