Happy Father's Day!
That greeting goes for my Father -- Ely Ragandan, and of course, to all the fathers I know including my uncles, my cousins, my nephews, my friends, my current anf former officemates, and all the menfolk I have known who are now doting fathers to their respective sons and daughters, and yes, even grandchildren.
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Just had to put that out up front lest I don't get a chance to do it over the weekend as I'm not yet sure whether I'll have time to go online and blog.
Sadly, prior unshakeable commitments make it impossible for us to celebrate Father's Day on Sunday with my folks. And even though Monday has been declared a holiday, Elvie has work so that really ended plans for the family to go to Laguna this weekend. We'll just have to do the celebration another day then.
In any case, experience dictates that Father's Day isn't only confined to just one day -- every second, minute, hour, or day you spend with your children is already Father's Day. It's all in the mind, and in the heart :)
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And since it'll be a forthcoming three-day weekend, I hopefully can find the time to finally finish off the Hercules' Labors episode in Zeus: Master of Olympus and move on to the next episode.
While the game is an open sandbox (meaning there's really no definitive end to it), by completing the remaining two episodes (each episode consisting of about 4-5 chapters), it'll be akin to finishing the game (and then move on to the next level of difficulty). Plus, there are scores of downloadable episodes made by fans over at Zeus Heaven.
After this, I just need to locate my Poseidon expansion CD and it'll be off to Atlantean episodes thereafter :)
After this, I just need to locate my Poseidon expansion CD and it'll be off to Atlantean episodes thereafter :)
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When I was younger and had less responsibilities, roles, and commitments, there were lots of time to play video-games. And back then, I didn't even own my own computer.
My friend and former office-mate, Noel (Happy Father's Day, pre!), and I installed various games on our respective PCs. Since we were in marketing, we were provided with the top-of-line PCs, Noel's PC a bit more powerful than mine mainly because he doing graphic design stuff. Where did we get time to play? Well, off-hours, of course, meaning before work, during lunch-time, and after work. And yes, we even sneaked in a few minutes or so during work hours just to stave off the boredom.
I remember waking up quite early and leaving Laguna for the office before the sun was up just so I could have about 2 hours playtime. Offices opened at 9am so I was usually in the office by 7am and after a quick breakfast, went on to play. Lunch was also a quick affair -- at times done while playing. And then, staying on for another hour or so -- not for overtime work -- but to play. There was a period I was so addicted to a game that I left home at 5am just so I'll be in the office before 6am to play.
What sort of games are we talking about?
Well, some of those games I continue to play today like Zeus, Nox, and Dungeon Keeper 2. We also played the likes of Starcraft and Warcraft, plus Diablo. Noel tended more to play with action-packed games like MechWarrior, Diablo, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Half-Life while I leaned more towards simulations including Sim City, The Sims (1), and ThemePark World. I also played Odium for a while and almost finished Septerra Core but games I actually managed to finish during that time included Freedom Fighters, Max Payne 1, and Medal of Honor and its expansion packs. I also wasted a lot of hours on Grand Theft Auto III and on Asterix and Obelix. Noel and I, and sometimes with other colleagues in the department battled it out with the IT guys over Counter-Strike. It was CS that gained the notice of management. Apparently, since a lot of people played CS over the office network, the bandwidth was severely hogged by those playing that this caused the disruption of certain services including internet and email services. That ended networked games and we were back to playing solo.
Those were the days :)
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Unfortunately, Fully Booked Greenbelt didn't have copies of Philippine Speculative 6 on hand when I went there yesterday noon. They did have copies of the earlier volumes except for Volume 4 so I'll make sure to secure copies of those one of these days.
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To help me in my book prowls, I've started keeping small bits of papers in my wallet that lists down books I hope to add into my collection. This'll be helpful when I find myself deliberately or unexpectedly in bookstores and book bins with moolah to spare. At least I won't have to wrack my brains trying to remember whether I already have a book in a particular series.
Anthologies and stand-alone novels are no problem.
The problematic ones are those that are part of a series and many sci-fi and fantasy books belong to such. That won't be a problem with books by Brian Jacques which do not require you having prior knowledge from earlier books. However, if a epic story is split into a trilogy or a quad or pentad, that becomes a problem. I still have in my collection volumes 2 and 3 of the The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant which I bought on sale but have yet to secure volume 1.
My wallet now has lists for the following:
• missing books from the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques (I've actually amassed over half already of all volumes, just missing the more recent ones)
• missing books from the Left Behind series
• Isaac Asimov's Foundation and Robot series
• list of books under the Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica Series by James Owen
• George RR Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice series (seems that book 1 -- A Game of Thrones -- is usually out of stock in recent days)
• books from Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld (which like Jacques' can be read out of order but I've downloaded a reading guide some weeks ago that would help a newbie like me)
The latest list to join my bits of paper in the wallet is a list of core steampunk books that'll help one appreciate the genre.
When I get to buy a book from one of the lists, then I simply cross it out. So, these bits of paper will be staying for a while in my wallet as I'm not buying books as much as I used to.
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Happy weekend, folks!
