Inspired by a Twitter post from a good friend and a vague recollection of a poster in my sister's old room.

In no particular order:

- Anger, fear, aggression. The dark side are they.
- In going to unknown places, you will only find what you take with you.
- If it smells bad on the outside, it smells bad on the inside.
- Always let the Wookie win.
- THIS one goes here, THAT one goes there.
- You will find many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
- Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them.
- Size matters not.
- You'll always get a bad feeling about things.
- Control, control, you must learn control.
- Authorities will always keep their own counsel on who is ready.
- War does not make one great.
- The possibility of successfully navigating an asteroid field is approximately 3,720 to 1 (which actually isn't true, statistically speaking).
- Let go of your conscious self and act on instinct.
- Don't give into your anger.
- Don’t always look to the horizon. Keep your mind on where you are and what you are doing.

And, of course,

- The Force will be with you. Always.

As I'm too tamad to ruminate over turning 30, I'll just post a song that's been buzzing in my head the past couple of days. =)

~ ~ ~

Heaven - Live

You don't need no friends
get back your faith again
you have the power to believe
another dissident
take back your evidence
it has no power to deceive

I'll believe it when I see it, for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

I sit with them all night
everything they say is right
but in the morning they were wrong
I'll be right by your side
come hell or water high
down any road you choose to roam

I'll believe it when I see it for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive, yeah

darling, I believe, Oh Lord
sometimes it's hard to breathe, Lord
at the bottom of the sea, yeah yeah

I'll believe it when I see it for myself

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

I don't need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don't need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I can see the sunset
I don't need no one
Ohhhh
I don't need no one
I don't need no one
I don't need no one
To tell me about heaven
I believe
I believe it, yeah

It's moments like this that make me cherish working for this company. ;-)

"Please send me my information. Your system says it has sent it,
but it doesn't actually do it. I have tried twice.

Mine is: xxx-xxx-xxxx
xxx
xxx@xxx.xxx
www.xxxxxxxxx.xxx

Theoretically I am one of your members, in actuality I am screwed."

Truer words could not have been spoken, dear customer. You are far more correct than you can *ever* imagine.

>:)

Current Mood: amused

Check out my Photos for some fictional Magic cards I thought of in my boredom. Am currently working on a full Gundam Wing block, feel free to send me your thoughts! Or even if you just have a zany card idea, share them here!

For Livejournal followers (as if naman meron, but you never know), here's a link to my Flickr folder: http://www.flickr.com/photos/raggster/sets/72157620741076023/

Guaranteed textless-format basic lands in booster packs? Sign me up for 25 each, please!

Shameless UAAP plug: Ateneo Seniors Basketball team wins against La Salle in overtime. Eagles nearly choked in the last quarter but survive the additional gut-check period. Can they keep up this pattern of losing two to three quarters and then bouncing back in the endgame? If teams start duplicating UP's conquest of Katipunan in Round 1, it could spell trouble for the Boys in Blue.

Shameless UFC plug: Anderson Silva embarrases Forrest Griffin. Meh. Can someone beat this guy already? I'm getting sick of him winning all the time. And by "beat," I'm not talking about some cheap judge's scorecard thing, I'm talking major ownage, preferably with the title on the line. Seriously.

BJ Penn beats Kenny Florian. Great return to glory for BJ Penn, I hope he stays at 155 and just sticks to his winning ways.

Shameless Magic 89.9 plug: Mo Twister just farted in the booth a few minutes before Senator Kiko Pangilinan arrives as their guest. That's hospitality for you. Good job Mo.

Shameless personal plug: So I survived a storm of illnesses, almost jumped over to Fujitsu, had a national hero in Cory pass away, had my father-in-law pass away, and had two separate gout attacks, all in the past two-three weeks.

How am I these days?

Not so good. I've seen better days.

Then again, I've seen worse days.

The next few weeks will be quite tight for us. I know we can pull through like always; nevertheless, I'm not looking forward to it.

I'm going to talk about Magic:The Gathering. If you don't know what this is, or aren't interested, feel free to trip on somewhere else for today.

~ ~ ~

Last week, Wizards of the Coast announced several changes they are making to the rules of Magic:The Gathering. If you haven't already read them, take a quick look: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/feature/42a

Most notable were the changes to combat damage and to mana burn. Much debate has raged throughout the Internet community on how well/badly these changes will impact the game. While I'll give a brief pitch here, something else disturbs me about these changes.

Raggster's Quick Pitches on Rules changes:

On Mana Burn: I won't particularly miss it, but I fully understand and agree with many Eternal-format players' sentiments that this should not have been removed. 1 life is often the difference between winning and losing in Eternal formats, and mana burn can, and often has been, the great equalizer. Mana burn may be corner cases in the formats they tested for these rules changes, but it is definitely not a corner case for Vintage games, and to a certain (combo) extent Legacy too.

Mana burn was a very useful tool for imparting resource management and deck construction. The notion that you needed to be very precise and controlled with your mana production always lent itself to creating stable mana bases. I don't see a potential for any abuse, but I do see a future where new players might not fully understand the need for playing their mana tightly.

On the new Combat rules: I'll miss how powerful Mogg Fantastic was with the old "combat damage uses the stack" rules, but I know full well how many weird, counterintuitive interactions the old rule created. I'm not keen on the whole "let's make combat more straightforward" approach, but I'm waiting to see what design/gameplay space it will open up.

The irony here is that the removal the stack in resolving combat damage created more problems than it solved, thus the seeming hodge-podge of other fixes in place, such as the line'em-up blockers rule, the exception to deathtouch, etc.

But I digress.

~ ~ ~

My main problem is that they changed the rules on the basis of a false dichotomy between casual gamers and competitive players. They paint the picture of a casual gamer as a group of people who "don't have the need or desire to devote themselves to learning all the ins and outs of the rules." I don't doubt that this is true, but I DO doubt that this is the standard case for the majority of casual gamers.

IMHO, the distinction should lie between players who want to improve their game, whether they be casual gamers or competitive players, and those who do not. If they want to improve their game, then they must learn the rules as they are implemented in sanctioned events. If not, they're always free to stick to casual gaming and to make up their own rules. It's that simple.

There was nothing broken/imbalanced about combat damage using the stack. Yes, it *did* pave the way for educated, tournament-savvy players to take advantage of those who weren't familiar with the rule with plays using Mogg Fantastic, but this should only highlight the need for better instructional materials for players making that transition from casual to competitive, NOT modify the rules to accommodate their supposed lack for wanting to know the rules.

Which also highlights another problem. The new combat rules don't lend themselves to ease of use, especially in dealing with multiple blockers and combat damage assignment. If the new rules were crafted for a crowd that plays games more "intuitively," and if these new rules aren't "intuitive" by nature, then they've just defeated the whole purpose of changing the rules to begin with. And at what price? Alienating a number of long-time players who have invested time, money and effort into playing the game they've loved?

For my part, I will continue to play Magic and, as I have since 1994, will continue to adjust to the new changes. But from this point onwards, I'll be doing so, wary of the precedent they have now set.

Current Mood: angry

Jueteng at illegal logging
May sideline, rape at kidnapping
Dealer ng shabu at uzi
Commander ng private army

May ari ng subdivision
Stock holder ng corporation
Landlord na land robber pa
Anak ka ng, bobong tanga!

Ang hirap mong hulihin
Lahat kaya mong bilhin
Wala kang silbe
Wala kang silbe sa amin!

Trapo! trapo ka kasi
Trapo! trapo trapo ka kasi!
2x

Di na binoboto pero nanalo
3x

May misis pero siyam ang kabit
Naadik kaya sabik na sabik
Ang kapal mo! hindi ka manipis
Ginugudtaym mo lang ang aming buwis

Mas maraming absent kesa sa present
Di ginagawa, kanyang assignment
Mula lunes hanggang biyernes
Wala sa congress? panay beauty rest!

Ang sarap mong ihawin! ipalamon sa mga pating
Wala kang silbe!
Wala kang silbe sa amen!

Trapo! trapo ka kasi
Trapo! trapo trapo ka kasi!

Di na binoboto pero nanalo
3x

Daming kalokohan pero napagtatakpan
3x

Current Mood: angry

It's been hilarious how our client assigned crucial training and quality management tasks to an unproven rookie in their office. While he is apparently able to hide his inadequacies from his immediate supervisors, his sheer lack of skills and knowledge are glaringly obvious to us here in Manila.

For example, when an issue already has a cut-and-dry answer, not only will he provide the wrong template, he will also customize the answer in such a way as to make it even more incorrect. Smart.

What's even smarter is that he is in charge of quality monitoring for phone and email escalations, and also has the task of reviewing the new hires.

A basic principle of management is that you always assign tasks and workload to people based on their current and potential capabilities. As a manager, one should be able to assess the strengths and areas of opportunity of their subordinates and then delegate tasks according to how they want their staff to develop skills while maintaining productivity.

I'm fairly certain there are management theories that abound that aptly describe our rookie's situation, but my own personal description only requires one word: retardation.

Must. Bail. Out. Soon.

Current Mood: amused

It's been a year since I signed up with LWS, and truthfully, the only reason I would consider staying on are my co-workers. They are a joy to work with, especially now that the client's pet project has resigned and will cease to be a burden on the rest of the team.

Speaking of the client. In all honesty, this client I've been working with for a year has got to be the worst client I've ever worked with, bar none. Their organizational chart is a clutter of isolated "left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-hand-is-doing" workgroups with overlapping roles and functions. Their technical team is lazy and refuses to work on trouble tickets for the lamest of excuses. Their prized website is slow, inefficiently designed and is user-unfriendly. Their even more-prized reporting system is unstable and even more user-unfriendly than their main website. Their client contact for the offshore operations (i.e. us) is hopelessly retarded, and the worst of it all is that he firmly believes that he is a competent manager and refuses to listen to even the most reasonable logic.

It pains me to think that they've actually been successful, given the way they're running the show.

Current Mood: annoyed