Miracles.

Okay, so whatever happened to my diet? Did anything good come out of it?

Well, there were a few things... or should I say ARE a few things since I still feel them right now.... One of the things that I noticed was going up the stairs. You don't feel as tired anymore. Your heart doesn't pound like a drum that much as it used to. But I did start to feel that come back again this morning. I did go back to regular food since Sunday afternoon. Wait... why don't I just enumerate this.

1. I don't feel as tired.
2. I have the deepest, nicest sleep ever! Yep, I realized this around the second day of the diet. I thought I won't be able to sleep well since I'm eating wierd stuff. It turns out that it's just the opposite. And I get nice dreams too! An insomia cure? Maybe.
3. I don't need as much sleep. Ever feel like you need to sleep the whole day and it's still not enough? I find myself no longer that tired even if I have only slept for 6.5 hours.

Well, so far, those were the only changes that I have noticed. What about my weight?

Start weight: 176 pounds.
End weight: 170 pounds.

That's in 4.5 days of diet. Not bad... and I didn't go hungry at all. It's just those cravings that you need to do battle with.

Heartache.

I always walk up the stairs to work... almost 10 stories high. Everyday from Mondays to Saturdays. I go at a normal pace. Sometimes doing it quickly trying to take two steps with one stride--- now that really gets my heart going. But when I climb at a normal pace (like regular walking), by the time I reach the top, my heart still races. You can feel your heart thumping. I've been doing this for almost a year now, I think. And still, my heart thumps like crazy afterwards. It starts to almost hurt when I reach the 8th-9th floor level... that includes my leg muscles. My endurance climbing stairs did improve over the weeks compared to the first weeks that I was doing it.

But today, it was different. It's the 4th day of my so-called Gross Diet. As I reached the top, my heart didn't thump as hard anymore. I found myself not catching my breath as I did YESTERDAY or the days before. It's really wierd. And to think, my pace climbing that stairs was faster than normal. I didn't get 8 hours of sleep either. Could this be the result of the diet? I mean, it's been 3 days since last I had cholesterole, fat or salt in my diet. Maybe we should all go on diet. We'd all be superhumans.

The taste of the powders are not as worse anymore. I'm getting used to them... except for the 1pm and 4pm serving (same powder). Yesterday (3rd day), I didn't take the 4pm serving because I really couldn't take the taste or smell. I turned up okay... didn't really get hungry... just took my dinner earlier. Food cravings are really killing me. But, anything for health.

Riiiiight.

The Longest Journey...

They say, time flies when you're having fun. Well, I'm not! I used to be always excited for lunch because of food! Now, I despise it... I dred it! It's the part of this diet that I really can't stand! I don't know why... it's soooooooo... eeeewwww.

Anyway, it's day 3 and I'm still alive. Day 2 was basically the same as day 1. And so will day 3 and 4. But the only difference for Day 3 is that I'm getting used to the taste. I find it almost effortless to drink my breakfast and dinner. It's just the lunch that I still can't stand. 2 more days to go! I'll be free by Sunday afternoon! I can't wait!!! Woohoo!

Sometimes, I feel drowsy... light headed... probably from the liquid diet of healthiness. My body is craving for oil, fat, salt, sugar... cholesterole! Yummy yummy fat... mmmm...

Now... it's time to drink my lunch...

Fat did you say?

Okay, I am still breathing through my mouth as of this moment. While chewing this gum called Airwave (it's a really minty strong and sugar free chewing gum)... two of them, actually. Why you ask? That's because I just drank one of the most disgusting crap that I have ever drank... for lunch! Sigh... what I go through just to keep fit and heatlhy.

Let me explain, right now, I am going through this diet called a Detox, which is short for detoxification. Basically, it means that you are cleansing your body from unwanted chemicals and toxins that you have accumulated since you came out of your mama's womb. So for me, that's like 26 years worth of junk... when I say junk, I MEAN junk! Like cholesterole, salt, oil, fat... Lord knows what else is there! Now, how do you do this? You do it with fruit, water, detox drops, powdered supplements... and a lot of GUTS!!!! Oh, let's not forget discipline... and the most important of all--- DETERMINATION!!! I'm not kidding, man! This shit is totally hard! I'm like Mr. Ruffles, Potatoe Chip Joe, Salty Sultan... I love those junkie things! They are what life is all about! Aah... those salty, crunchy, greasy chicharon... those wonderful suckling pig skin... those food with cholesterole so high it's like digging-your-own-grave goodness with every bite!!! Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

But, there comes a time in a person's life when he realizes he's fat, ugly, and weak. We can't change anything about the ugly part, but we can certainly change the fat and weak part. So let's get started on a journey that you wouldn't want to take... unless you're as desperate as I am. This'll only take about 5 days anyway.

DAY 1. Wednesday.
This blog entry was supposed to be yesterday... but I didn't find the time. So now, here it is. Last night, when I was in the gym, I weighed myself before working out and after a light snack. I weighed in at 176 pounds. I used that old conventional weighing scale that uses small weights balancing on a horizontal bar because it's the most accurate next to an Atomic Weighing Scale. That's like my regular weight. Actually, before I started doing weights, I was 174 pounds. So I gained 2 pounds of muscle in a sense. No, it's not fat! I am 5' 8" in height. So that should give you an idea.

I woke up at 7.45am like any other work day. I then took 7 drops of Detox Drops. I took it under my tongue for that extra fast absorption. Then I drank a glass of hot water with a slice of lemon. After 15 minutes, I drank a glass of this totally GROSS and almost black powdered drink. I'm not sure what it is, since my sister and cousin is doing all the blending and grocering for me... I just came here to drink it. I'll post more details as the days progress. After drinking that black gross thing, I then drank this totally GROSS and dark green powdered drink. But this time, it's not just one... but TWO glasses! What a deal! Anyway, by now, you would have noticed that there's a pattern here... yes... they're all GROSS! They should start calling this diet the GROSS DIET! Get used to the word 'gross' because it's gonna be here in this blog for the next 4 days! The dark green stuff is a blend of two powdered drink along with strawberries and kiwi. Blend them together and you have this dark green ooze to drink. No wonder turtles turned into mutants.

That sums up breakfast. Probably the grossest breakfast that I ever had. Man, I miss those fried eggs and bacon.

So, off to work I went with this weird after taste in my mouth. At around 11am, I eat a kiwi. This is the highlight of my entire morning, by the way. Kiwi never tasted this good! I used to hate it because it caused the roof of my mouth to go itchy. But not in this case.

At 1pm, it's time for another gross session. Lunch. I have to drink this glass of white powdered stuff. It sorta tastes like almonds... so my sister says. I don't like almonds to begin with. And so, I used a small plastic cup and filled it with warm water (room temp. water is disgusting). I then put two tablespoons full of this white stuff in. Stir it with a chopstick (I forgot to bring a spoon) and WALAH--- a cup full of thick, mirky looking, gross smelling health drink! So I smelled it... it smelled like this weird almond biscuits that's powderized and then put into water. In other words, it's like drinking sawdust juice. The texture is so darn disgusting! My gosh! And I thought breakfast was disghusting!!! Okay, so after being at the verge of throwing up... I kept my mind on the prize--- good health and less love handles. Okay... that should do it for lunch.

By the way, since after breakfast, I've been having gas problems. It's like the bomb, baby! Fartsville here! But farting is goooooooood! And it feels nice, be honest you!

At around 4pm... it's time again... for lunch! Ack! Another glass of that repulsive white stuff! Same story... almost threw up.

And now, dinner... I thought dinner was gonnna be okay... I was wrong! It's another dose of that dark green stuff! Half a blender of it (or two glasses). After dinner at home, I went out to dinner with some friends. I had to do something but it so happens that they were in the same place so we met after doing my thing. They ate regular food. Me? I ate air. Believe me when I say that air tastes so good compared to those gross powdered things. Ah, this must be the diet's secret... it grosses you out until you run out of strength to eat. When we were looking for a restaurant to eat in, I was getting excited... 'what should I eat?', I thought... then, I realize that I'm on Gross Diet. Shit. But you know, the wierd thing is, I did not crave for anything. Sure, what they were eating looked and smelled great, but I had no urge to eat. I am not hungry, too at that point.

After dinner, we went for some walk and coffee afterwards. I drank a bottle of Evian and a banana. Ah... a banana... the highlight of my night. A lesson is to be learned here... never take bananas and kiwis for granted. They can be your best friend. :)

When I came home, I took 7 drops of Detox Drops again and drank that black gross stuff again. By this point, I have learned to shut down my nose. Breath through your mouth and you won't taste a thing. After drinking, breathe through your mouth still and brush your teeth, drink a lot of water... and yeah, eat a lot of airwaves! After that... it is safe to breath through your nose again. Just be careful of thouse burps... they taste gross.

I survived my first day! I did not take any salt, sugar, fat or cholesterole today. AMAZING!

Testing

This is from an email.

Ah, the Holy Week is over. What have you done during your vacation? Me? Oh, our company doesn't have a Holy Week! Fun, ain't it. While the rest of Hong Kong was relaxing in a beach somewhere, I was stuck in the office! I wouldn't have minded that if my salary was worth it! I took the Saturday off because I was in a bar til 3am in LKF. Now, that was fun... and expensive.

Anyway, I am here right now to talk about a game. Yes... a PC game. But not just any other game... this game is my MOST favorite game in the entire world! I'm talking about... drum roll please...

The Heroes of Might and Magic V! Also knows as HOMMV. Uh, V is the roman numeral for 5. It's the 5th instalment for the series. The first HOMM came out back in 1996. Wow, I was in high school back then. And yeah, I finished that game. I finished HOMM 1, 3 and 4. Including some of part 3's expansion packs. It's highly addicting. I mean, when you sit down in front of the PC, you will get so immersed in the game that you would realize later on that it's 12mn... and you forgot to eat your lunch, dinner and take a bath!!! Yeah, that happened to me once. Tsk tsk tsk... and they say life is precious... here's one way of wasting it.

I just finished playing the demo of HOMMV and let me tell you... damn... it was amazing! The greatest HOMM ever! They really did their homework on this one! Kudos to them developers! To give you an idea how far games, or in this case, this game has come, here are two screenshots comparing part 1 and part 5.

This is HOMM 1 in 1996.


















And this is HOMM 5 in 2006 (now)...


















Yes... that is the actual gameplay graphics! Hwaw... amazing, eh? Couple that with great gameplay and great music and great story... and you've got HOMMV!!! Woohooo!!!

The game would be released on May 23, 2006. I can hardly wait as this game has already been delayed because of the fans requesting the publishers to postpone the realse because the game was not yet polished. Thank goodness the publisher, Ubisoft, agreed!! So they delayed it by around 3-4 months. I say it's worth it! *droool* I'll get the collector's edition of the game that's a few bucks more expensive... but I'd say it's worth it! It comes with a map, some game additions, original art, brochure showing all the creatures and their respective statistics, etc! And yes... I'll get the GENUINE copy... not the pirated ones!!! hehehe! ;)

Ready Your Eyes!

I'm not particularly fond of inspirational stories or messages that I find in my mailbox on most occasions. But this one is quite touching.

INFORMATION PLEASE

When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother used to talk to it.

Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person and her name was Information Please and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anybody's number and the correct time.

My first personal experience with this genie-in-the-bottle came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. Amusing myself at the tool bench in the basement, I whacked my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn't seem to be any reason in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my throbbing finger, finally arriving at the stairway - The telephone! Quickly I ran for the footstool in the parlor and dragged it to the landing. Climbing up I unhooked the receiver in the parlor and held it to my ear. Information Please I said into the mouthpiece just above my head.

A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear. "Information."

"I hurt my finger. . ." I wailed into the phone. The tears came readily enough now that I had an audience.

"Isn't your mother home?" came the question.

"Nobody's home but me." I blubbered. "Are you bleeding?"

"No," I replied. "I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts."

"Can you open your icebox?" she asked. I said I could. "Then chip off a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger."

After that I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. She helped me with my math, and she told me my pet chipmunk I had caught in the park just the day before would eat fruits and nuts.

And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary died. I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, then said the usual things grown-ups say to soothe a child.

But I was unconsoled. Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers, feet up on the bottom of a cage?

She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, "Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in."

Somehow I felt better. Another day I was on the telephone. "Information Please."

"Information," said the now familiar voice.

"How do you spell fix?" I asked.

All this took place in a small town in the pacific Northwest. Then when I was 9 years old, we moved across the country to Boston. I missed my friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back home, and I somehow never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on the hall table. Yet as I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me; often in moments of doubt and perplexity I would recall the serene sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about half an hour or so between plane, and I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, "Information Please".

Miraculously, I heard again the small, clear voice I knew so well, "Information." I hadn't planned this but I heard myself saying, "Could you tell me please how-to spell fix?"

There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, "I guess that your finger must have healed by now."

I laughed, "So it's really still you," I said. "I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time.

"I wonder, she said, if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls."

I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister. "Please do, just ask for Sally."

Just three months later I was back in Seattle. . .A different voice answered Information and I asked for Sally. "Are you a friend?"

"Yes, a very old friend."

"Then I'm sorry to have to tell you. Sally has been working part-time the last few years because she was sick. She died five weeks ago." But before I could hang up she said, "Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Paul?"

"Yes." "Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down. Here it is I'll read it "Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He'll know what I mean".

I thanked her and hung up. I did know what Sally meant.

End.

No, I didn't write that story. Have a pleasant holy week. And remember who died for your sins! Now, if you don't mind, there are other worlds that I have to sing to.

Judas... the Most Loyal.

Have you heard the latest news? Judas was innocent! That's right. You read it correctly. New evidence have been found that suggests Judas to be the opposite of a traitor. In fact, it turns out that he is the most loyal of them all! Nobody yet can say for certain if this is true... but the Gospel of Judas have just recently been translated.

The National Geographic Society recently released the first modern translation of the ancient Gospel of Judas, which was denounced as heresy by the bishop of Lyon in A.D. 180. From then until a few days ago, the contents of that ancient scroll were a total mystery. What's separates these texts from the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) is that it contains some details and conversations between Jesus Christ and Judas Iscariot.

The other apostles pray to a lesser God, Jesus says, and he reveals to Judas the "mysteries of the kingdom" of the true God. He asks Judas to help him return to the kingdom, but to do so, Judas must help him abandon his mortal flesh: "You will sacrifice the man that clothes me," Jesus tells Judas, and acknowledges that Judas "will be cursed by the other generations."

Biblical scholars said the Gospel of Judas differs from the four New Testament Gospels in at least two important ways. First, it portrays Judas not as the betrayer of Jesus but as the most favored of his disciples, the only one who truly understood Jesus.

Some scholars suggested that view -- if it had been accepted -- might have lessened anti-Semitism over the centuries. "The story of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas gave a moral and religious rationale to anti-Jewish sentiment, and that's what made it persistent and vicious," said Princeton University professor Elaine Pagels.

Second, the Gospel of Judas offers a new creation story, depicting the evil world as the product of a bloodthirsty, foolish lower deity, rather than the higher, true God. This duality "is why this gospel could never be accepted by orthodox Christianity," said Bart D. Ehrman, chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Scholars disagreed on whether the gospel sheds any new light on the historical Jesus and Judas Iscariot. Senior, the Catholic priest, said he saw "no evidence that it has a legitimate historical basis" and thought it probably was written by Gnostics who retrospectively attributed their own beliefs to Judas.

But Craig Evans, a professor at Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia, said the New Testament also may hint at the new text's central theme -- that Jesus instructed Judas in private to betray him.

In the Book of John, Evans noted, Jesus tells Judas at the Last Supper, "Do quickly what you are going to do," and none of the other disciples know what he means. Maybe the Gospel of Judas "points us in a direction where we can understand Judas's relationship to Jesus a little better," he said.

The Gospel of Judas, however, ends abruptly, drawing no conclusions about the consequences of betrayal: The arresting party "approached Judas and said to him, 'What are you doing here? You are Jesus' disciple.' Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money and handed him over to them."

Now, if all these are true... then Judas is the most loyal of them all. I mean, do you think it's easy to betray your own God? Even if He tells you to do it? That's going to take a lot of guts and faith to do what he did. I don't think the others were up to it. Only Judas can.

Source: Washington Post.

Apple Eats Its Own Apple!

It's finally happening... Apple is giving in to the Windows world. It first came with Apple switching to Intel processors. This shocked a lot of people. But Apple had no choice seeing how good the Pentium-M was performing and how nothing can be done to improve the PowerPC's performance per watt. And let's not forget how hot the PowerPC can get!

FYI, this is nerd talk right here if you still haven't noticed.

After introducing the world of Apple with Intel a few months ago, here now is Apple introducing a new software that runs Windows on Intel Macs flawlessly! The software is called Boot Camp. It doesn't run on 'virtualy' unlike the old ones... which makes Windows run really slow. This one is totally running on its own inside the Mac. It will be installed in a separate partition in your Mac. The only downside is that you can't run both Windows and Mac OS's at the same time. You would have to reboot if you want to switch between them. That's okay... because according to reviews, Windows runs really fast! This is due to the processors being Intels... the processors that Windows were designed for.

So, what does this mean to us? This means that all of you who want the looks of a Mac and the programs of Windows can finally have them! Does this also mean that Gamers can now play on Macs? No one has tested games yet... but that would be awesome. Bill Gates does own Apple shares, anyway... and oh, yeah... there are rumors floating around that Sony is in big trouble. Stocks falling down due to a lot of reasons... and Bill is said to be planning to buy Sony! Tsk tsk tsk... there goes the PlayStation stomping on the Xbox statement. Soon, it's going to be called the Xstation. Bill Gates is gunning for world domination!

As for me, I still love my Windows... and my future Mac... but nothing's wrong with having them both in one machine... that would save on electircity, space and money! The world is really coming to an end... ONE WORLD NATION... ONE RELIGION... ONE OPERATING SYSTEM!

At Long Last...

This blog is finally finished! It's like 99% done! Damn thing! Who would have thought that I would run into a lot of problems with this one-paged blog!

Optimus Prime.

Who is Optimus Prime? Geeks know of him. Other than that... I don't know.

Optimus Prime is not just a name to me. He's a hero. Yes, the world has turned so bad that you must turn to fictitious characters to find a hero. When I was growing up, he was the ultimate super hero. His was big! He transforms from an 18-wheeler truck to a gigantic robot! He was red! His voice was deep, rough and robotic! His heart was pure. He was the leader of the Autobots (good team). He was powerful. He was intelligent. He doesn't get pissed so easily. He had a big gun! He was caring and kind. He sacrificed his life for the good of others. Not even Rizal or George Washington can beat that!

He sounds too good to be true, eh? Who among you cried when Optimus Prime died in the movie? That was back in 1986. Hmm, I was 6 years old then. A lot of children probably had a trauma after seeing him die. I know some people who actually cried! No, I didn't cry... I think. But even today, I still feel sad whenever I watch that scene.

If he were only the president... what a wonderful world we would have.
Although he would go bankrupt from rising oil prices! And he would also have to be converted into a hybrid in order to make all those environmental activists shut up!

Now, if he were a real person... he would probably look like this... tsk tsk tsk... Prime... corrupted by worldly things.

FYI, Optimus Prime is his Western name. His Japanese name is Convoy. He was inspired from a toy line by Takara back in 1980 or 82. I had an original toy of him when I was young. Now, I just bought a 13inch version on eBay! Still waiting for it to arrive though.

If Prime were real, I would like to meet him. But he's not and he's not going to be... so, I'll just be a nerd and dream of my childhood days with Optimus Prime.

New Life!

Haha! This new design is almost finished! Just a few more tweaks here and there and the flash animation... and we're done! This took almost 2 days! It could have been easily done in less than a day if I was more adept with the blasted table and CSS codes!

I would like to thank the Academy for the recognition. I cannot forget Mark for helping me out clean out the bugs in my code. You're usually useless, Mark, but not in this case! Thank you for all of you who come and read my site... there are so many of you to even mention... like 2.

Oh, well.

Krrr Kkkk Rrrrrr Kkkk Krrrr!

The title was supposed to be a representation of the sound the Transformers make when they transform. It sounded like this weird electronic sound that is quite difficult to reproduce with the human voice. Amazing and unique. I even have a ringtone of it in my phone! They should use that same sound in the upcoming movie. In case you didn't know, they are making a live action movie of the Transformers. Steven Speilberg is executive producing. Turns out that Steven here loves the transformers since the 80's. Claiming that he's been buying Transformers (TF) toys for himself and not for his kids. I don't know if that's true, it might just be a gimmick to get into the hearts of fans. In any case, it's all a plus for fans. Michael Bay is directing the movie. Some of his past works were The Island and Armageddon. This should be a great hit as Dreamworks is releasing it as their biggest movie for the year 2007. The date was put at June 4, 2007... America's independence day. That tells you that they really want this to be a hit.

A debate is going on around the online community about the voices of the characters. Fans would kill to get the original voice of Optimus Prime. But there is fear that Holywood would hire famous actors like George Clooney (please!) to lead the voice cast. It's quite understandable as films are investments and they are only making sure that their going to make a ton of profit in the end... but there should also be passion for what you're making. It's not just always about the money... let's not forget that films are also an art... which are also close to a lot of fans' hearts--- in this instance, Transformers fans.

Tomorrow, let's talk about Optimus Prime.