Dear all, allow me to inform you that I finished playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 today. I made it a point to finish it today since I'll be going to HK tomorrow, and this is also the reason why I haven't been blogging as much. (Also, I've been lazy pfft.) Achievement, because I very rarely ever finish video games, let alone something from the Final Fantasy franchise. This also a big deal because I was so bitter towards this sequel, as I blamed it for the further delay of Kingdom Hearts 3. Because of that, I started playing the sequel with some resentment.
I don't even know what possessed me to get the game anyway! I had no intentions of buying it; if anything, I wanted to borrow a friend's copy, but that was it. BUT IT HAPPENED AND MY LIFE WAS RUINED AND NOW I'VE FINISHED IT AND NOW I'M JUST-
I already knew what would happen, and how it would end, because I had already read up on the story and all since, as I said, I had no intentions of having the game in my life. AND YET... AND YET I HAD FEELS THAT I DIDN'T THINK I WOULD FEEL AND I STILL CRIED AT THE ENDING???
The gameplay for the main storyline was WAY too short though! I get that, with this sequel, Squeenix was addressing the whole issue of its predecessor being too linear. But with FFXIII, the storyline was much, much longer, so my emotional attachment to the characters and the story was much, much stronger. Like srsly, the number of hours on my gameplay of FFXIII-2 was around 37 hours (inclusive of dilly-dallying and grinding), whereas with FFXIII it was... much longer LOL. I remember playing FFXIII took me about a month or so, only because I got caught up with my OJT at the time. FFXIII-2 took me just a week, because I stopped for a couple of days due to some life happenings and stuff.
Granted, the replay value is FFXIII-2 is heaps more than its predecessor, but it almost felt like Squeenix was riding on fans' feels so the short storyline gameplay was made acceptable. It's like... FFXIII has the longer storyline but was deemed too linear, and FFXIII-2 had such a short story playthrough but the replay value is a lot and it's not linear at all.
Bottom line is... SQUEENIX CAN YOU PLEASE FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE WITH LIGHTNING RETURNS?
As for Lightning Returns... I'm tempted to get it ASAP. For the first two games, I was a year late for each, so I knew the story and all that (especially with FFXIII-2.) But with this last installment, I'd be experiencing the story firsthand... (except I'm not sure how firsthand this will be as I am already currently reading up on this last installment HAHAHA)
Lightning Returns might even be the last Squeenix game on the PS3 o m g???
I still think FFXIII-2 was kindov unnecessary, but admittedly, it did address two loopholes that bothered me at the end of FFXIII. Maybe they rode on those loopholes?
I was crying and laughing at the ending of FFXIII-2; crying because FEELS, and laughing because I was all "LOL UGAIZ DUNNO WAT UR SAYIN PLS COULD U B ANY WRONGER???!?" as I followed the script HAHAHA
Other things that need to be addressed:
1. Anything reminiscent of FFXIII (i.e the main characters) that make an appearance in FFXIII-2 made me cry
2. Anything Sazh will make me cry
3. Lightning Returns seems really dark and depressing, and it makes my heart hurt
4. WHY IS HOPE A KID AGAIN IN LIGHTNING RETURNS I MEAN???
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
My Neighbor Angelo
In which I document my outfit under the rain.
The title is a reference to My Neighbor Totoro, if you didn't pick it up. This was something I wore some time in August, and this post is a semi-tribute to my cousin who is now in Australia. We held a despedida for him that day, and by despedida, it obviously meant lots of alcohol because said cousin is the king of drinking in the family. His younger sister was actually the one who got me drinking waaay back, and I always joked that if my liver ever fails me it would be her fault HAHA. (Except my liver's been so clean now so we coo we coo.)
From Hong Kong top, Basic House shorts
Ay caramba this top is so cool man. It's a button-up but the only button you find is at the collar, which is perf for me because there is just something about buttoning a blouse all the way to the top that makes SUCH a difference versus leaving the first button open. That said, I didn't have an appropriate bra for it, so I wore a lace top (it was a gift from my cousins) under it instead. Also, this top reminded me of Ana when I first got it.
Custom-made (by Alex for her thesis!) + Artwork pins, from HK necklace
GUYS JUST LET ME FREAK OUT OVER MY NECKLACE BECAUSE I REALLY WANTED A TEEF NECKLACE IN GOLD AND THIS WAS JUST SO, SO PERFECT??? Alice: Madness Returns vibes pls.
These shorts were actually a gift from my aunt (the mom of the very cousin whose despedida happened) and I thought it would be fitting to wear them since the despedida was also a joint celebration for my aunt's birthday. I love how these shorts have pleats on the front, making it look like a skirt. And the print! The print! So lovely. IT'S MEGA SHORT THOUGH LOL
DO YOU SEE HOW PRETTY THIS BRACELET IS??? It's so perfectly minimal and clean and I think the silver bar looks SO GOOD with the white. Like I said in some other post, I may like obnoxious and flashy things, but there are days when I just want simplistic things, and this bracelet is like... minimalism on your wrist. Perfection.
"My Neighbor Angelo," because we live right next door to my cousin and his family. Said cousin, whom I refer to as 'Kuya Gi,' is the eldest cousin on my mom's side of the family. To be honest, we're not particularly close -- I suppose our big age gap (about 13-15 years, I think?) plays a role in this -- so his leaving didn't hit me too hard. But it still feels a little odd to not have him around; I always referred to him as the God of Liver because he was always the last man standing during our family drinking escapades.
The gravity of his leaving didn't really hit me until I saw an Instagram post of his younger sister: it was a photo of them hugging, and she was teary-eyed. I maybesortakinda choked up a bit when I saw the picture because I very rarely see these two get all sentimental with each other, so the picture of them with all these feels just struck a chord.
Clearly I'm not directly affected by his leaving; despite being relatives who are neighbors, we don't actually see each other very often, so his absence is nothing I can't handle. In fact, when I got back from Hong Kong in May, we didn't even see each other until two weeks after I had landed.
It's just that... knowing that he is on another continent now... somehow that makes all the difference.
There is just something about posing with an umbrella that compels you to take a jump shot.
Ugg shoes
From HK hat
I think my hat has some sort of semblance to Totoro, don't you think?
J&C Online Boutique bracelet, Forever 21 knot ring, Vintage heart ring
DO YOU SEE HOW PRETTY THIS BRACELET IS??? It's so perfectly minimal and clean and I think the silver bar looks SO GOOD with the white. Like I said in some other post, I may like obnoxious and flashy things, but there are days when I just want simplistic things, and this bracelet is like... minimalism on your wrist. Perfection.
From HK bag
This was one of the bags I mentioned in this post. I'm not even gonna re-fangirl about this. Just know that all is well.
"My Neighbor Angelo," because we live right next door to my cousin and his family. Said cousin, whom I refer to as 'Kuya Gi,' is the eldest cousin on my mom's side of the family. To be honest, we're not particularly close -- I suppose our big age gap (about 13-15 years, I think?) plays a role in this -- so his leaving didn't hit me too hard. But it still feels a little odd to not have him around; I always referred to him as the God of Liver because he was always the last man standing during our family drinking escapades.
The gravity of his leaving didn't really hit me until I saw an Instagram post of his younger sister: it was a photo of them hugging, and she was teary-eyed. I maybesortakinda choked up a bit when I saw the picture because I very rarely see these two get all sentimental with each other, so the picture of them with all these feels just struck a chord.
Clearly I'm not directly affected by his leaving; despite being relatives who are neighbors, we don't actually see each other very often, so his absence is nothing I can't handle. In fact, when I got back from Hong Kong in May, we didn't even see each other until two weeks after I had landed.
It's just that... knowing that he is on another continent now... somehow that makes all the difference.
Monday, September 16, 2013
MOSQUITO H8ER 4 LYF
Let's talk about mosquitos. They are vile creatures of no use to us in this world. They are pests. They gave me dengue.
I've always been afraid of dengue, ever since my dad contracted it when I was a kid. It seemed pretty scary. It wasn't so bad in my case, to be honest. Save for maybe the high fever.
September 3, 2013. I woke up with a headache and mild fever, feeling grosser than usual in the morning. Mild fever escalated into a high fever, and I was confined to my bed with a self-issued computer hiatus, because I felt that the radiation would make me feel worse. (Well, okay, I went online juuust for a tiny bit, only because of a birthday greeting.) Being chained to my bed prompted some television-watching (as in, using the telly for actual cable) for the first time in nearly two months. (My cable prior to getting sick was Youtube.)
Later that night, my temperature reached scary levels, so we went to the hospital. It was scary because I very rarely get sick, so for this fever to come out of nowhere, we were just, "WTF IS HAPPENING???"
Cue blood tests and urinalysis, negative for dengue and UTI. Oh, and there was also dextrose. Don't forget dextrose. The doctor at the ER wanted to hydrate my body to bring down my temperature. I live-tweeted what happened, and when my cousin saw my tweets he seemed doubtful that I was even really sick, because the way I tweeted seemed pretty normal (read: "Gee Ina, for a sick person you sure don't sound very sick.) Keep it cool, kids.
So I wasn't confined after that. My fever fluctuated for the next three more days, and in those three days I grew sick of the television. Mostly because WOW ARE YOU ALL EVEN AWARE OF HOW OFTEN RERUNS HAPPEN? On the flipside, I found out our cable had some Korean channels, so I got to watch several MV's etc. Not that I could've fangirled properly in my sick state.
By Saturday, my fever was nearly gone. But then the next day happened and I was itching all over. I wondered if it was dengue. I may or may not have spotted a mosquito in my room as I pondered over this possibility. I should've taken that as a sign.
So we went back to the hospital again. Cue another blood test, with consideration to dengue. They gave me a shot for the itching, which hurt because hot daeym did I feel that drug coursing through my veins, but it also knocked me out. I've been given a similar drug before for itching (I once had an allergy attack that prompted an ER visit) and boy, lemme tell you, falling asleep because of a drug is nice. It's like, easy sleep. I have a hard time falling asleep (it takes me about an hour to three hours) so that was really pleasant. Save for the pain it took to get that drug in me.
So after that sleep, I woke up still itchy. The blood test results came in and showed that I was positive for these anti-bodies against dengue. Which meant, okay, it was dengue. Not full-blown dengue (in fact my platelet count was fine), since my body was fighting it, but for the most part it was dengue. Cue IV again.
It wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I mean, in my first platelet drop, my count was still within normal range. My platelet count dropped twice, and I was still within the normal range. By day three of my confinement, my count went up, and later that night I was already discharged.
Now, the moral of the story is: eat lots of vegetables (it's what I've been doing for nearly half a year, so maybe it helped with my anti-bodies fighting off the stupid virus), get lots of sleep, slather on that citronella.
I was sick for over a week, and it was insane because, as I said, I almost never get sick. It felt so long that I practically forgot what my life was like when I wasn't sick at all. I also stayed away from my computer during the entire duration of my sickness (I was supposed to publish another post, but then dengue happened so no), except I was on my phone a lot... so... my presence on social networking (my Twitter in particular) was still up and kicking.
I'm fine now though. The past three or so days after being discharged were a little off, because there would be lingering itches (mostly on my lower body in the morning) and I'd feel tired during random times of the day. But being able to go on the computer at last must mean I'm okay now, right? And I don't itch anymore. But I freak out whenever I see a mosquito now.
Also, it is worth noting that I got Final Fantasy XIII-2 last night. I don't know what possessed me to do so, knowing my bitterness and spite for this sequel. But it happened, and now my life is ruined. It must've been remnants of the dengue virus that made me do it.
My veins still hurt though.
I've always been afraid of dengue, ever since my dad contracted it when I was a kid. It seemed pretty scary. It wasn't so bad in my case, to be honest. Save for maybe the high fever.
September 3, 2013. I woke up with a headache and mild fever, feeling grosser than usual in the morning. Mild fever escalated into a high fever, and I was confined to my bed with a self-issued computer hiatus, because I felt that the radiation would make me feel worse. (Well, okay, I went online juuust for a tiny bit, only because of a birthday greeting.) Being chained to my bed prompted some television-watching (as in, using the telly for actual cable) for the first time in nearly two months. (My cable prior to getting sick was Youtube.)
Later that night, my temperature reached scary levels, so we went to the hospital. It was scary because I very rarely get sick, so for this fever to come out of nowhere, we were just, "WTF IS HAPPENING???"
Cue blood tests and urinalysis, negative for dengue and UTI. Oh, and there was also dextrose. Don't forget dextrose. The doctor at the ER wanted to hydrate my body to bring down my temperature. I live-tweeted what happened, and when my cousin saw my tweets he seemed doubtful that I was even really sick, because the way I tweeted seemed pretty normal (read: "Gee Ina, for a sick person you sure don't sound very sick.) Keep it cool, kids.
So I wasn't confined after that. My fever fluctuated for the next three more days, and in those three days I grew sick of the television. Mostly because WOW ARE YOU ALL EVEN AWARE OF HOW OFTEN RERUNS HAPPEN? On the flipside, I found out our cable had some Korean channels, so I got to watch several MV's etc. Not that I could've fangirled properly in my sick state.
By Saturday, my fever was nearly gone. But then the next day happened and I was itching all over. I wondered if it was dengue. I may or may not have spotted a mosquito in my room as I pondered over this possibility. I should've taken that as a sign.
So we went back to the hospital again. Cue another blood test, with consideration to dengue. They gave me a shot for the itching, which hurt because hot daeym did I feel that drug coursing through my veins, but it also knocked me out. I've been given a similar drug before for itching (I once had an allergy attack that prompted an ER visit) and boy, lemme tell you, falling asleep because of a drug is nice. It's like, easy sleep. I have a hard time falling asleep (it takes me about an hour to three hours) so that was really pleasant. Save for the pain it took to get that drug in me.
So after that sleep, I woke up still itchy. The blood test results came in and showed that I was positive for these anti-bodies against dengue. Which meant, okay, it was dengue. Not full-blown dengue (in fact my platelet count was fine), since my body was fighting it, but for the most part it was dengue. Cue IV again.
It wasn't as bad as I feared it would be. I mean, in my first platelet drop, my count was still within normal range. My platelet count dropped twice, and I was still within the normal range. By day three of my confinement, my count went up, and later that night I was already discharged.
Now, the moral of the story is: eat lots of vegetables (it's what I've been doing for nearly half a year, so maybe it helped with my anti-bodies fighting off the stupid virus), get lots of sleep, slather on that citronella.
I was sick for over a week, and it was insane because, as I said, I almost never get sick. It felt so long that I practically forgot what my life was like when I wasn't sick at all. I also stayed away from my computer during the entire duration of my sickness (I was supposed to publish another post, but then dengue happened so no), except I was on my phone a lot... so... my presence on social networking (my Twitter in particular) was still up and kicking.
I'm fine now though. The past three or so days after being discharged were a little off, because there would be lingering itches (mostly on my lower body in the morning) and I'd feel tired during random times of the day. But being able to go on the computer at last must mean I'm okay now, right? And I don't itch anymore. But I freak out whenever I see a mosquito now.
Also, it is worth noting that I got Final Fantasy XIII-2 last night. I don't know what possessed me to do so, knowing my bitterness and spite for this sequel. But it happened, and now my life is ruined. It must've been remnants of the dengue virus that made me do it.
My veins still hurt though.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
August 2013
GASP COULD IT BE? IS INA /ACTUALLY/ POSTING A MONTHLY VLOG RECAP /ON TIME/???!!!!?!?!? YES, IT'S TRUE!!!
Okay capslock, exclamation points, and question marks aside, it's the first of September which obviously means August has ended which means hello time to post a vlog of last month!
August was:
• Renz's birthday party! (0:00 - 0:41) (See this post.)
• The Forever 21 Music Fest. (See this post.) Please notice the crowd from 0:41 - 1:05 and then 1:05 - 1:14 because LOL WHATTA DIFFERENCE RIGHT? Thysz and I were like, "Isn't this a music fest? WHY ISN'T ANYONE DANCING?!"
• Visiting Alex's newly renovated house! (1:58 - 3:34) HER HOUSE MAN. HER HOUSE. IS. DA. BOMB. I pretty much made a mini-tour of her house in the aforementioned time bracket, so please go see the beauty that is the Cruz household.
• Helping out Luisa with her finals. (3:35 - 3:50) It was my first time getting to work with Luisa ever, though we've been online friends for quite some time now. Good luck with exams bb!
I will also take this opportunity to blog about bullet point number five a.k.a. the visit to Alex's house. I promise I have her full permission to blog about this on her behalf HAHA.
But first, a photo of Creampuff, the calmer one of the two Lontoc canines. I hitched a ride with Tintin the day we made the visit to Alex's house, hence the picture.
If you've never been to Alex's house pre-renovation, lemme tell you bro, it looks NOTHING like this anymore. I could not stop fussing. I was all, "ALEX, WHERE ARE YOUR PARENTS? I /NEED/ TO CONGRATULATE THEM FACE-TO-FACE OHMYGOD I- JDFHSDJG"
And oh man, do you know how happy I was when I found out that Alex and her sibs finally have their own respective rooms? I KNOW HOW THAT FEELS MAN. I didn't get to see Pao's room, but Alex's and Gabbie's are SO nice! Gabbie's bed is boss, folks.
Go away Muffin.
LOVED the second floor. Because the table. Also because BEAUTIFUL LIGHTING UP THERE CAN I JUST??? Envy pls.
Hi Janelle! We mostly hung out in the kitchen (which looks just as swanky, can I just say), stuffing our mouths with food and feels.
Janelle and Ashley have a history.
And then it was time to go, so we took some group photos to commemorate the day.
Jam's shirt says "PUG LIFE" by the way. Talk about boss.
Tintin said we should do the "Ina face" for this shot, which apparently meant the grit-your-teeth face, but then Janelle, FOR SOME REASON LIKE I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY, burst into a fit of giggles at the last second. So this is what happened. I. Why.
Anyway, on another, more somber note, August was kinda loopy. It was a roller coaster. I can recount two specific days that involved me crying really bad; the first made me feel like a horrible person and the second time involved SO MANY FEELS LIKE YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW and it caused my mom to even call me up all the way from Hong Kong HAHAHA oh mother, thank you for worrying.
But I think those two events were necessary, especially at this point in my life. They were such good learning experiences. I'm still recovering from the second life happening but I think it was bound to happen sooner or later anyway, and I guess God found that sooner would be better than later for me in this situation.
I hate being vague about these two things (I a b s o l u t e l y HATE vague blog posts or parinig posts UGH SO IRRITATING PET PEEVE PLS), but I bothered blogging about them anyway because they were changes that were so important in my life. So important that they needed to be chronicled in my blog, but even I can only share so much of my ~*~personal life~*~ on the net as well.
I mean, I guess you could say I've always been kind of public about my life in terms of blogging, but I actually DO choose what I want to share and what I don't. I obviously don't post things that I know are too personal for me. Whatever it is I post on the net, they are things I know I have no problem sharing with strangers. I wouldn't post things like... things that are like... blackmail material? Or things that can be used against me in the wrongest of ways? I was a victim of cyber-bullying once and it was really, really intense, so I know what and what not to post, at least for myself.
LONG EXPLANATION OF A VAGUE MENTION ABOUT SOME DRAMU IN MY RAIFU ASIDE, HAPPY FIRST OF SEPTEMBER EVERYONE! I have been oddly excited for Christmas since late July, lemme just get that out there.
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