It was actually my first time to go to Recto by myself and buy the books I need and I realized a lot of things already. One, I thought it was Saturday or Sunday and wondered why there are so many students from U-belt. Hahaha~! Shopping books at Recto on weekdays is like entering a battlefield. You have the entire U-belt as your enemy. Nevertheless, I tried getting these books and I know this will surely sound geeky and nerdy for some of you but here they are:

1. Electronic Devices and Circuit Analysis and Design (I don’t have the book right now, it’s on my shelf and I don’t know if I got the title right but still, it’s the book required on our ELC 107 subject)

2. Digital Design

3. Mechanical Engineering : Thermodynamics

4.Elements of Engineering : Electromagnetics

The first book was somewhere in the middle of “Easy to find” and “Rare”. There’s one at the very first bookstore I visit everytime I go to Recto but a batchmate of mine bought the last in stock. I saw one in another store which I would probably not visit them because of their very demanding prices….and I hate their fat faces too. The second one was easy to find though the stock is few, got one in the first bookstore I visit. The third book, it had its publisher’s store nearby, told by that batchmate of mine and bought one there instead in National Bookstore which had at least ten to twenty peso price difference. Then the fourth one… hahahah, this is the most difficult book to find. Few of my batchmates went there before and they didn’t see the book, even a second hand one. Those batchmates of mine searching with me that day was also having a difficult time searching the book and ended up searching for Philo books. I went on with searching and had the “underground” or “hidden” bookshops as my last resort. Happily, one guy brought out the book and gave me a discount for it. I asked him if there’s any hope of finding one or few more units but unfortunately, the copy I’m holding was the only one he had in his stash. If only there are more units available, I would have chased the people I’m searching with to tell them they can get the book from this particular store.

It was a tough day. Tiring, really… It left me having a headache the whole afternoon. I was suppose to visit Trinoma afterwards but because I’m sooooo tired (and there’s the fact that it was actually SALE in Trinoma meaning it’s crowded), I decided not to go instead. I decided to rest for the remaining hours of afternoon.

In my team of Assessors, I think all of them are great people. My team consists of freshmen, sophomores as well as juniors who surely excel in their field. Actually, I accidentally lined up Chem majors together with my assistant who’s known for being a “kwatro-kid”. Then a couple of ME (Management Engineering) people who are tough-ass people because their department has a retention requirement which is not to have any single “F” mark in their grades given that they have tough Accounting subjects. My gulay, I cannot do that especially I’ve been struggling with my majors for the past three semesters.  Then there are Legal Management and Management students who also embark on the evil of Accounting subjects. I also have an assessor who came from my high school and she’s with her friend serving under the accounting under SOSS team. Then I have another assessor from Health Sciences who’s really great when I saw her First year, first semester marks…nosebleed. There’s so many of them! Their background makes it difficult for me, then, to tell them to do certain stuff. I can only do that to them since they are in a different field but still. You can see their aura of being WISE around them, so bright~!

yeah, just a rant.

I still can’t believe why people cannot tell me directly what they want to tell me. Why can’t they be frank, tell me that I suck, they hate me, I don’t belong to this particular place and so on?

I don’t know but because of these circumstances, I think I’ll have to resort to one thing.

sheesh.

Like for example, a simple reply on email, how come they can’t do that while they can email someone else? why not the closest person? People make me feel important, place me in an important position and then make me feel annoyingly useless after being in that position for a certain time. I mean, come on, tell me if I’m doing bullshit in my place so that I know what I will do.

For one, at some positions I did not intend to be in there, I just followed what people above would like to do together with the thinking “Maybe I can do this”. But sometimes, people are so discouraging.

Is this college?

Am I gonna experience this again in work?

What the hell is going on?

That’s what I hated way back in high school, people there at that time are “backstabbers”, gossip people. They can’t tell me directly what I am already doing that is, according to them, not-so-normal. I cannot understand why people are like that. Some say so that they won’t be able to hurt the person. Oh come on, not telling that person what he or she is doing bad and then telling it to someone else, aren’t you hurting that person more? You are giving a bad impression to that someone while leaving the “victim” unable to redeem his or herself.

and now I’m in college for nearly three years and I thought those kind of people are things of the past. But I don’t think so. to think this is a private school and yet people don’t act as sophisticated as the school. Take UP for instance, when you’re there, you don’t have that feeling that people would hate you for wearing house attire or islander slippers.

Anyway,

I thought I… well…found the good people around. Yet I’m beginning to retrieve my BAAAD mentality towards people around me because of the… no other way to say this, the people around me. I will be frank here, if you want, that I’m starting to lose some trust to some people AGAIN. and I’m starting to get irritated in college.

and please. anyone who will read this please, you know my way.

This is just a light modification so I won’t let it have a major page on my blog. Here’s how the car looked after the mod.

Yep, I modified the back with several paint jobs to make it look like it sports a small diffuser and spoiler as well as the tail lights look like evo 9’s.

It’s really nice to have something where you can vent your anger, think about things, work stuff out…  For instance, I usually think things over or vent my anger on the hobby I like to do the most: Driving. Sadly I don’t have a car and fuel prices are shooting up so I have to resort to technology for that. I do have another hobby which is remote control modification but it’s such a big task to complete one modification that it leaves me no time for my studies. Which mean I can only do that hobby during vacations. Happily, I do play games but not that immersed because most of the games released nowadays are not my type. I only like simulations and the most recent simulation game I can play, related to my hobby of driving, was Gran Turismo for PSP. I do have a PSP and with a couple of software tweaks, I was able to get this game. This then lets me do my philosophical thinking over a lot of things, decisions and more. I don’t how it works for me but sometimes, answers just pop out of my mind while, for example, entering a corner with a certain fashion.

It’s like what drivers really do: Some of them go out at 4 in the morning, having the whole road network all to yourself.  It’s just you in your little metal shell. Though, in my case, everything’s digital but still.  This lets them get their freedom of mind, because everything’s clear, no distractions, no interruptions. Sometimes, I ask myself why do I pick that gaming device, start Gran Turismo and just do a run. I get up in the morning and start a small run. why? Well, I just love doing it. It makes me happy a bit. 

While driving, my mind, aside from anticipating the next corner, lets me relax a bit and tell myself to calm down a bit so that I can do my stuff properly. And also, sometimes, I do ask myself how to solve a problem the same way I encounter these corners on a chosen circuit or road.

Sometimes, I think what I’m doing is just making myself similar to an autistic person but I think people have their own ways of encountering problems in their life. People might have the same perspective as mine in the general sense but we are all unique in our way and for sure, we also have our own unique way of looking over things.

In the end, it is you who will go around the world. People will help you around, of course, but there will also be some people who will not cooperate with your progress.

After all of these efforts, in thinking, in considering decisions, in getting rid of the possible errors, in your life….

You get to see the fruit of your hardships, see the world yourself and enter in another expedition in your life. Zoom-Zoom~!

Knowing that NFS “shifted” to realistic simulation of professional racing, this upcoming title should be impressive and worth waiting. aaand I think it is, though not for the PSP. This title is the greatest proof, so far, that NFS is starting to fail in the PSP platform [together with PSP itself].

There are a lot of expectations due to their change of style. However in the PSP platform, that style did not take effect. When they said that the game would be a simulation of professional racing, the original NFS identity of arcade racing remained in the PSP. Let me get straight to the point: There’s no tuning whatsoever. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS PRESS THE ACCELERATOR AND STEER. and that’s it.

Intro….

There are two modes of playing: Quick Race and World Tour. World Tour is basically your “Career mode” and you’ll have to go through a series of races defeating “Race Kings” and along with it, you’ll be able to unlock more cars. Different challenges mean different types of cars to use. That’s why the cars are analyzed for Speed, Drifting and Grip.

Speed, Grip, Drift….. So the GT-R doesn’t grip very well? Come on….

For tuning part, there isn’t any. What’s in the game is the Loyalty Pointing system. This compensates to the removed tuning system. Loyalty Points are gained by using the same car in the races and gives you points for every win with that car. With these points you can unlock special parts such as Tires, additional NOS Shots, Tuned Engine and Bodykit. After each race, the game would show your improvements in grip, drift and speed style and your aim is to get your overall performance to 100% to obtain the best car in the game: the BMW M3 GT2

The only thing you can modify in your car is it’s livery design. You can select from a preset of livery designs or unlock signature liveries from defeated race kings or unlock the loyalty reward of livery. You can also change the colors from the livery presets or, if you are simple, you can select no livery at all.

Downside….

Again, NFS mentioned a simulation but I mentioned that this is simply an arcade racing game. What makes me say so?

1. Where’s the “Shift”?

The biggest downside of this game is this: They failed to simulate. They actually removed the shifting system of the cars, leaving the game in full automatic acceleration. Is that simulation? Although the car sounds like it shifts gears but, like what Jeremy Clarkson mentioned while reviewing Aston Martin Vanquish S’s transmission, it is the driver that knows the shifting points well, not the car itself. The worse is that while you are busy stepping at the accelerator, sometimes the shifting of the gears doesn’t go well and you’ll notice this when the car runs awfully at low revs.

2. Driving physics.

Um, they also failed here as well. The driving physics isn’t as good as before. I’d prefer the driving physics used in NFS ProStreet rather than this. The drifting is easily initiated by handbrake tap. The nitrous are now in shots rather than user indicated use… And, oh, the brake lights turn on when you use the handbrake. Again, they really did not simulate realistic racing… this might be an arcade racing game after all…

Good sides (helps a bit)

This is really a disappointing title but a bit of this game helps it to be playable for a few moments.

1. The Graphics

It may not be a gigantic leap from their usual graphics style but compared to the last title, the graphics are better and as good as the ProStreet graphics. The reflections of the car are better now, the rims designs have better look and more realistic. The environment is not barren anymore and they reflect well.

Looks realistic with the light reflection and detail. Watta Jump from the older titles

Mountain Passes are one of my favorite tracks as they really look nice.

Smoking from Tires looks better.

2. The cars’ brake lights

Though in other courses where the setting is late afternoon or nearly evening, the cars don’t have lighting. But at least their brake lights are better than the previous titles. Just take a look at this one:

Evil. Imagine Iron Man with eyes the same color as that…

Not only that, I’ve noticed that when you reverse, the reverse lights also turn on, which is realistic… only on that part… Though sometimes, it also fails… Take for instance the Nissan GT-R’s reversing:

Um… I believe the reverse lights should be in the inner center lamps….

3. The Crash Factor!

Though there’s a damage modelling, they only demonstrate how you car would look like when it crashes, then resumes your car back to its original state as well as its assumed speed after crashing with no damage.. Nice. But I don’t care much about the car recovering, I care when they display the car being damaged!

Crashing a BMW M3 GT2 in real life will really crush your heart. Just do it here~!!

Yes, I know. Good thing I don’t own one in real life.

They also gave a good attention to detail to crashes. For instance, there are wheels that still spin or at serious crashes, your hood flies off, your wheels roll away from the car.. But they will still go back altogether after the crash.

Look, the front wheel’s still spinning~!

Look, the wheel went off! Say hello to the audience with a wrecked Lamborghini!

You don’t see this everyday…. so play the game to see it everyday.

Crash, crash to another car, preferably a Veyron… and you don’t have to pay for the price.

Verdict:

Overall, I am again disappointed with EA despite the several shift of studios to develop a game, a decent NFS for the PlayStation Platform. They did this before, why can’t they perform better than last time? No wonder the first NFS in PSP which was the Underground received the greatest score.

Again, the simulation isn’t there, it’s just a pure arcade racing game. Honestly, I only liked the game because I can crash the cars and see how they look like. If I were to give a score out of 10, it’ll be a 5.0. Sorry, but it deserves that score, and I hope it wakes EA up. I mean, come on, the game receives good rating in the major consoles, why not do the same thing to get the same rating?

Driving TIPS:

1. SHIFTING DILEMMA – Once you hear the low-rev engine, release then step on the accelerator quickly.

2. DRIFTING ERROR – When the car has high drift rating, it actually means it slides easy but doesn’t maintain well. The long drifters are the ones with less drift rating. Just an observation.

3. CORNERING – The theory of the fastest way through a corner is through drifting is a lie. But it’s actually a truth in this game. Use handbrake drift to go fast through corners

4. UNLOCK BMW M3 GT2 QUICK – It’s in the line: quick. Do quick races as in increases your profile rates, leading you to unlock the M3 quick.

5. BMW M3 GT2 DOES IT ALL – It’s an all-around car in the game so if you’re lucky to unlock it early, you can use it at any race since there are no requirements in races. It may be down in the top speed category but it smokes high speed cars through it’s monstrous grip and acceleration. Afterall, it’s a Touring Car Specification.

Gallery:

I’ve been crazy about the silly light box but even though there are tutorials about its simple construction, I cannot put my money into it. I do have the camera and the light but not the peripherals to concentrate the light to the subject. However, I received a brighter lamp and tested this kind of photoshoot using scratch papers. The result is a semi-dark or a bit underexposed despite setting the camera to Aperture-priority and then setting the exposure to +1. The resulting photos were bluish since it’s dark time already and the only thing lighting up the subjects is the bright study lamp. Despite these instances, I brought up another paper facing the camera side to focus the light to the center. After shooting the pictures, I edited them using Adobe Photoshop, adjusting the color balance, brightness and contrast. Here are the results:

Looks nice, for me.

Gallery:

More screenshots were released from PSP IGN of Gran Turismo PSP. And they also released the news about the release of the Gran Turismo Package for the US Release:
Here are the details:

-A Mystic Silver PSP-3000 unit

-Gran Turismo UMD

-Gran Turismo Car Voucher – An exclusive car download, White version of the Corvette ZR-1 for GTPSP

-PSN movie voucher

-2GB Memory Stick

-Sony Music Voucher for US residents.

When I saw the image of the package above, I was saddened because it didn’t have the good looks of the GT Package that will be released in Japan:

As you can see, it might be a plain Piano Black 3000 system, but the sides are grey, the PSP Ring at the back is also in grey finish and the L-R Buttons are smoked Grey as well. And at the front, the PSP sports a semi-opaque GT Logo. Just how cool and far better is that compared to the US release? But still, I hope they can still change the unit. Or else, I would really wait for the Japanese version.

here are some of the screenshots:

I’ve been out of the groove of Q-steer since hell weeks came. But I’m back. I’m starting to get the other cars I need such as the first Nissan Skyline R34 Bayside Blue. Well, an upcoming chassis is coming and it now bears the Choro-Q name. Cheers.

Plan for tomorrow is to make a temporary circuit using the largest illustration board that can be purchased from National Bookstore. Also, I’ll need to buy more boards and white cartolina so that I can test that silly home-made white box for photography.

yup, I finally started fiddling with the famous system monitoring program, Samurize. This is actually my first work, inspired by aircrafts as well as Nissan GT-R’s LCD screen instruments. It is named Aircraft Instrument Panel (of course. :p).

If you’re into Samurize, you can try this design of mine by visiting my newly opened deviantart account.