The Oscars.

I spent most of yesterday watching the Oscars.

Kate Winslet finally won her long overdue Oscar! :) I was so happy when I heard her name being called out as the winner of the Oscar for Best Actress. To be honest, I thought Meryl Streep was going to win the award. But I’m so happy she got it.

I was also a little preoccupied looking at everyone’s clothes and accessories. Everyone had such pretty gowns on. So it was interesting to see what bags, jewelry, or shoes they paired their gowns off with. Or if they wear IWC watches.

Anyway, yay for Kate and Slumdog Millionaire! :D

Ferdinand

Yesterday, my friend Shirlyn told me about Ferdinand Center for the Creative. It’s a tutoring center for people in the Philippines who want to study art, but can’t afford to pay for the tuition and other expenses. I think it’s a great idea, since there are a lot of people out there who have potential, yet have limited or no resources at all.

I was able to talk to Les – the director of the center – this morning. I will be volunteering in the center when it opens its doors, working with the students who are interested in photography. I’m really looking forward to it. But Les still needs a lot of help.

If you want to help or donate, you can sign up for the mail list at the website, or contact Les on Twitter. I believe you can find his e-mail address on Twitter as well.

Anyone interested in industrial clamps?

In need of ideas

My imagination has gone into a temporary dry spell. I want to do a couple of photo shoots on digital and film, especially since the Olympus OM-1 has been repaired. So I have a new camera to play with. I’m playing around with a couple of themes, but nothing seems to be hitting the mark.

Any ideas or suggestions? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Heh.

On an unrelated note, do you already know about the change in Facebook’s Terms of Use? It sort of makes you want to think before uploading anything, eh? If you don’t know about it yet, you can read about it here.

Now I have to think twice before uploading content to my profile.

My mom and I are planning a trip to our province, Davao this year. I think I need new luggage. But I’m really looking forward to it! My cousin is planning an itinerary for us, since she’s been after me to visit since last year. I’m looking forward to spending more time with them, so I hope this trip happens.

New layout

New layout. :D I just felt like a change, and I was really bored this weekend. It isn’t centered this time. I hope it’s fine with you guys.

At the risk of sounding like a total gaming geek (although I’m afraid I am turning into one), I was able to try Left 4 Dead Turbo Mode today. I ended up killing a total of 1,330 zombies on Expert difficulty. I was on god mode, though.

It was a little scary, with a horde of 500 zombies coming out every few seconds. There was no time to walk around, shooting tv stands in houses. Fun, though.

I need to stop blogging about video games. I promise the next blog entry will not be about video games, heh.

Funny dog

Our dachshund, Gus, has recently started sleeping in my room. Sometimes, he sleeps on the floor beside the bed, or even at the bottom of my closet where the shoes are. That’s fine with me, as long as he doesn’t sleep on my clothes.

He’s a rather small dog, so we’ve gotten used to his habit of finding strange places to sleep in.

But imagine my mother’s surprise as she was packing her stuff for a Singing Bee taping (she’s part of the band), she turned around and saw our dog curled up in her suitcase.

Gus in the suitcase

Isn’t that cute? Almost as cute as sports gifts.

Good thing my mom didn’t get to put anything in the suitcase when he slipped into it, or else her clothes would have gotten smelly.

Furniture shopping

We’re going to have a house built, hopefully this year. We have the land picked out and paid for, we just need to start building it. I’ve been looking at a lot of furniture blogs for design ideas. My mom and I are going for a modern Japanese look. Here’s something we both have in mind:

Japanese home

I’ve also started designing my bedroom – which I hope will include a mini home theater (I’ve been setting aside money for an LCD TV and I’m about 60% to my target amount, and I already have a DVD player, I just need the bedroom :D ). I’ve been planning my personal home theater for a few months now, and Jeremiah has been helping me look at possible wall-mount TVs.

Now time to look at the possibility of pvc fence installation. I am so excited about this house. :D

I want a home theater.

I want a home theater. Ever since I started collecting DVDs, I’ve been itching to build my own HT. I’ve been planning mine for a long time now, right down to the carpeting, seating, and soundproofing. I’ve been looking at price tag of every LCD TV I see.

I don’t think my plan will come into fruition any time soon, but I think I may be able to build a mini home theater when we move to our new house. No carpeting, no seating, but I plan to put a up a wall-mount TV right in front of my bed, so I can lay on my bed while watching movies. I plan to close off that area of my bedroom with a few shoji screens, which would also suit the modern Japanese theme that my mom is going after.

Wish me luck!

Lexie, the gamer.

Today, I’m taking the geekery to another level and will be blogging about the first-person shooter (FPS) games that I frequently play. I have two brothers, and no sister, so my brothers thought it was essential for me to learn how to play FPS so they’d have someone to play with if the other was away. :P

I only play first-person shooters, perhaps with the special exception of Icewind Dale.

A few of my favorite games are:

  • Half-Life 2
    When my brother first showed me a photo of Gordon Freeman, my initial remark was, “Look at me, I’m a cool geek. I wear horn-rimmed glasses, an uber cool suit, and my trademark weapon is… a crowbar?!” My brother’s response? “Don’t hate on the crowbar. You see a man killing aliens using a crowbar, you know he’s not afraid of anything.” He was right. I find it a little strange that Gordon Freeman doesn’t talk, though.

    Half-Life 2

  • Left 4 Dead
    Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter, survival horror game. My brother and I like to think of it as a mix of Resident Evil and CounterStrike. That sounds dull, yes. But what makes it interesting are the characters. You can play a four-player cooperative game, or go on a single player mode with three AI (personally, I wouldn’t recommend this because the AI suck). You choose among four players: Francis, the biker; Bill, the Vietnam Veteran; Louis, the I.T. guy; and Zoey, the college student/horror movie enthusiast. My personal favorites are Zoey and Francis. The game is also very easy to play.

    Left 4 Dead

  • No One Lives Forever 2
    This is really just your typical FPS, only with a female protagonist. You play as Cate Archer, a spy, and complete her missions. You can complete missions through action, stealth, or using gadgets. There’s also a cooperative mode, where you play as Cate’s backup and assist her on certain missions.

    NOLF2

Among all three games, my most favorite game would have to be Left 4 Dead. Only because it’s easier, and the cooperative mode is so much fun. :)

Going offline now to look for Victorinox Swiss Army watches. :P