The Work and Passion

Honestly, I have nothing to share except for this photo... But in no case will I ever left this page barren for another day... So here it is...

Work and Passion

This is my keyboard at my home station... my crib... my servant... Well I took the photo last January but I only took notice of it's aesthetic accents just this afternoon... so I decided to post it here... oh by the way, the blue light was from the speaker's LED power signal... I don't use flash here so the light that reflected on the keyboard came from the fluorescent.

Expedition 19 Launches for ISS

Expedition 19 crews aboard this Russian Soyuz Rocket trusts upward during launch to begin mission in the International Space Station.

The scheduled flight of the Expedition 19 of Russia has successfully been done in Kazakhstan. The Russian Soyuz TMA - 14 rocket is commanded by Commander Gennady Padalka. With him is Flight Engineer Michael Barrat. These two cosmonauts will join Koichi Wakata in the ISS and will complete the mission after 6 months. Spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi is with the Russian crew again and is bound to be back here on Earth on April 7. Discovery STS-119 will be landing in Earth on Saturday bringing home Sandy Magnus in exhange for Wakata.

Meanwhile, a dispute have paved while an inteligence report reached the Washington about the rocket the North Korea is planning to launch. According to NoKor, the rocket that they are going to launch is not a nuclear bomb but a mission to space. Undeniably, the international commnunity have reacted negatively to this move. Secy. Clinton of the Department of State said that the flight or the launch of such will be provocative as it will be a violation to the UN Resolution banning NoKor for any activity like that. In 2007, the country launched a rocket bomb but has not reached its target as it exploded after flight alarming many countries. In 1996, NoKor had faked a space flight only to advance its nuclear tests.

While there is no limit as to what countries would like to explore the space, the international community is not at peace with North Korea's plan. It might be that while their mission is really space exploration, who knows if they are trying to test if they can launck a missile from space to Earth. This is really scary... The name of their missile itself sounds scary - Taepodong-2...

I can't wait for Saturday to come... I will never miss watching Discovery STS-119's reentry and landing...

Falling In Love with Kiba

This past Saturday, I visited a college friend here in Legazpi. I came to his place around 10 PM and he was so busy watching an anime series in DVD. I was not surprised with him for being too obsessed with animes so I decided to stay for a while to watch with him.

I no longer watch animes in TV and I no longer know what are the recent fad on these things. All I know is that Naruto's very famous these days. I asked Bobet what he's watching and answered Kiba, without looking at me.

Kiba is currently aired by ABS-CBN every 4:30 in the afternoon and nearing conclusion. I never heard of it before so I never dared watching it or googling about it. Yeah, I'm kind of biased here and my doors are already closed. I can never have any favorite anime except Samurai X and B't X... But as I was watching with Bet that night, I get to notice something with Kiba. The story line was so pure and direct and not complicated. When I say it's not complicated I mean that it's not to deep something that one can easily fathom. I say that the story is more of political in nature. And I can sense a deeper and more serious theme discussed in Kiba. In fact I believe that Kiba has a concealed message that will be exposed automatically to those who really seek it.

Kiba's story revolves around 3 characters; Zed, Rouia, and Noa. Noa and Zed are bestfriends from the place called Calm. Apparently, they wanted to leave Calm and find a peaceful territory. An accident happened and both Zed and Noa were taken by a force through a portal to unknown territories. Later they knew that they were sent to Tempura and Neotopia - Zed being sent to Tempura and Noa to Neotopia. These two territories is a part of the chaotic world that is composed of other nations such as Task, Jimoto, Ulbacus, etc. Because the world is at war, one nation greatly aims for power through acquiring Key Spirits in order to gain supremacy over the other nations. Luckily for Tempura and Neotopia, Zed and Noa had been chosen by Amil Gaoul and Shachira respectively - two of the six Key Spirits. The Key Spirits are said to have the power to change the world for the better or destroy it.

The story runs from simple scenes of friendship, tackles basic human quests for power, greed, and selfishness that would lead to conspiracy and deception. Oh by the way, the nations that I said part of the world Zed has been sent, they have different characteristics and forms of government - a thing that I have even loved as I put it as if it is the world that I am living right now...

So, I'll stop this story telling here because I might spoil the series. Well, if you are interested you may tune in to ABS-CBN to watch it or browse some anime website over the net for video streaming. (You can also get a DVD copy from your favorite "Jack Sparrow" outlet and let me borrow it... LOL...)

Refurbished

Last August 2008 was the last time I changed the appearance of my blog. At first it was wrapped with green background and some other similar colors. It looks similar to this. Then one day Nel commented that my blog looks like that of Sec Ing Etc. so I decided to change its colors and it's header photo. I made it brown and named it Extraction Point. Though this blog has gone through several changes, those were nothing so major... I never changed its template and had not added some tools... except for a Cbox and the blogroll... Just last Saturday I made a decision to change the layout and template of my blog... And it came to me that black template is good so I decided to use it... Now, I welcome you the new look of my blog...

I hope this does not make my blog boring to read or too dull to look at... I hope you still pay a visit after these changes...

BTW, Saturday morning, I had a chat with heil and he promised me that he's going to lend me some few other shots that he has. And a few hours later he sent it to me... I will post the pictures later this week... or maybe next week...

My head's so heavy today... My vision's swirling and I get a little dizzy... I don't know what I have eaten yesterday that I get this feeling... I hope I could get well later this day...

Sorry, I have no pictures to post... I get bact to it soon...

PS: How do you find the new look of my blog? Share some comments or leave a message at the CBox... Thanks...

Captured 3.0

Finally... I give you the last batch of Heil's captured images... The first picture is so beautiful for me... I love the texture, i like the color combination. Everything in it is simply amazing. So indulge yourselves with these pictures and treat yourselves with relaxation.

School

Robust

Fishes

Challenge

I hope Heil got other photos to share... Maybe some other time I will ask him for another batch that I will feature here... For the mean time, I will try to have my own works posted in here...

Ignition

Yeah... After some years of staying idle, I culled out my Multiply account and here I am trying to figure out how this works and what to do with this... I planned to re-open this account for one reason - blog cross-posting with Blogger. If these things worked and I find it easy to use Multiply then I think I will have to dwell on this one... Let's see... Wish me luck....

Bat Aboard!!!

As of publication of this blog, Discovery STS-119 has successfully docked at the International Space Station. The seven crews are already in the ISS and are preparing for the space walk. 2 of the STS-119 crews will be doing a space walk to conduct the final installation of the solar panel wing and the other equipment the team brought. Meanwhile, another expedition from Kazakztan will be leaving Earth and will dock at ISS this month (Liftoff: March 26). The crew of the Expedition 9 will be joining Koichi Wakata at the ISS. Wakata will be left in the ISS when Discovery returned. Joining Discovery crews back to Earth is Sandra Magnus in replacement of Wakata.

A breaking news caught my attention... A bat hanging on the external fuel tank of Discovery STS-119!!! An image posted by NASA showed a bat clinging on the external tank of Discovery STS-119. It was confirmed that the image was actually a bat. According to NASA, it is possible that birds and other animal can get close to the ship as Kennedy Space Center is located near a wildlife area. The bat remained clinging on to the tank as the craft trusts upward. Woah... That's great...

***

I am envious of the astronauts... Really... I bet it's really fun being there in space... I want to do the space walk too...

*Photos are from NASA.

Captured 2.0

I apologize for keeping you waiting for the next batch of Heil's shots. Well, my tactic worked. LOL... So before you lose your patience, I now uncover another five of the pictures Heil took and shared to me. Enjoy...

Verticle

This one is my personal favorite. I do not know why... I just love it and I found it very challenging... And I got a deep fascination over lines and I found it in this picture...

Lilies

Dock

Web

Heil confessed that the web with the spider was the most difficult to shoot. He had several shots of this scene just to capture the best one. The challenge here according to him was to keep the spider in the center and wait for it to settle... Also, because the web is light weight and the scene was outside, the wind keeps the web moving thus creating a blur on the finished products. Good thing he was able to shoot one good part here.

And finally for this batch...

Flown

We Have Liftoff

Photo of the Discovery STS-119 during launch yesterday at Kennedy Space Center, Launch Pad 39A

After some days delay, Discovery STS-119 has finally left Earth yesterday. Discovery is going to the International Space Station to deliver 2 solar power panel wings and another equipment. Aboard the Discovery are seven astronauts led by Col. Lee Archambault.

*Photo from NASA.

B't X Syndrome

4:30 in the afternoon, it was Monday, the class was ended early by my teacher and too fortunate on my part, I was not one of the sweepers for the day. I usually land to be a Monday sweeper back in my elementary years but when I was in grade 6 we were randomly selected and grouped. That day, I have the opportunity to sneak at a canteen outside near my school and watch my favorite cartoon series. Yes. Before Zenki, we have our favorite cartoon sequel.

And since during my elementary years, CATV was not as famous as it is now, we have no choice but to watch what is shown by the local network. Too fortunate that time, we were able to sneak at a canteen with a good reception of ABS-CBN. We are so happy when we watched B't X those time and from that day on, this cartoon has become my favorite.

That time, I am no longer residing in Malinao. My family moved back to a nearby town - Tabaco - since 2 of my sisters are studying there already. So most of my school day afternoons are spent traveling. 4:30 pm is my favorite time of the day that time because by the time the clock ticks 5pm, I must be at my Andma's (this is what we call our grandma, it's a long story and I will try to manage to post an article about this here) house as my parents tend to drop by before we head home.

Going back, B't X is my favorite character in the series. Of course, Teppei, being the master of B't X goes with that favoritism. I have a circle of friends in my neighborhood in Tabaco namely Chor and Jun. Chor being the biggest among us three and the most dominant chose to characterize himself as Tepei, while Jun as Fao. Because I was only left with Karen, Dr. Hokuto, and Ron to choose from, I had nothing left but to pattern my interests that time to the remaining unclaimed characters. Jun suggested that I pick Dr. Hokuto as he is a great scientist, intelligent, and neutral - characters that he said he saw in me. So I picked Dr. Hokuto as my character.

Dr. Hokuto's B't is Max. Max is a turtle and the most powerful B't over the planet and second only to Rafaelo. Hokuto is regarded as the Master Doc as he is capable of healing soldiers and knights that he came accross wounded. He is also able to repair any damaged B't that he finds. Without Hokuto, B't X and Teppei could not have survived an attacked posed by the army sent by Aramis. Hokuto is not actually an ally of Teppei until the rest of the guardians settled to a mission to destroy Rafaelo. Ironically, Hokuto is sick and weak and he cannot heal himself.

For ten years, I have been missing this TV series just as I am missing Samurai X. Few months ago, I purchased a DVD of the first season of B't X and I was so happy I get to see the guys again. I still find myself over the character of Hokuto and the DVD made me reminisce some parts of my childhood. I realized I have grown already and now facing my own Rafaelo.

I miss Chor, Jun, and the rest of my childhood friends back in Tabaco. I am missing my life 12 years ago.

I hope I can find the other DVD of the 2nd season of B't X... The death of Rafaelo... B't X Neo...

If anyone of you has this copy or any copies of the series, please let me know...

In Grayscale

The Writer

Resonance

Newsbreak

These pictures were taken a day before the brutal murder of Rei Mon "Ambo" Guran. As his fellow, I dedicated these shots for him. I never had a clue why during that Sunday I took the pictures, I was imagining shooting at a person but is absent or is invisible as portrayed in the photos... And the next day, the person I was imagining has been filled up.

These photos are also representations of me. I am a writer, a reader, and a music lover... Interests that I share with the late Ambo.

Live Pictorial

It was our acquaintance party in 2005 back in AUL when I took the pictures below. Yeah. The pictures are quite old already but they are mine and I want them to share to you. In the aspect of photography, one thing that I wanted to perfect are human shots. Candid as possible. The pictures I feature here are one of my first attempts and admittedly it was not perfect. But still let's give it a try.

My models here were well, "itago na lang natin sa mga pangalang" Jay and Ste... LOL... (Peace sainyong dalawa...) To why I took pictures of them? It was not actually my idea and I was there during the event not to take pictures of any non-sense scenes but to document the event. It was the idea of these two and the rest of the Architecture students whom are their classmates and my friends. It turn out that the fun that was supposedly in thise pictures became something more than just what expected.

You might notice that I lacked some lighting and composition here... Too far to be considered a professional shot. But hey, I am a novice and I just love what I do... I don't do it as profession so technically, none of my pictures should be considered as such (but in no case will I object if you would regard it with such an eminence, just don't try to compare it with those taken by pros, then we have a deal.)

Tommorow, I will share some of the photos I took back in college... I still have to crop them so I need to have some few touch of Photoshop on them... hehe...

Captured

As I promised to Heil, I am now posting his shots here in my blog. I personally liked his angling and techniques in macro photography so I offered him a space here.

It was in December when we discussed about this photography thing. It actually started when we exchanged links in Friendster and we happen to have a common interest in photography. Heil is a comrade and a team mate. He is also an airsoft player and that's the main track we became known to each other.

Here are the few shots he let me peep over. There are actually thriteen or fourteen of them but for some element of surprise I defer to post them all here at once... (so you can get back and wait the next post... and also a reason for me to post again...- to get rid of those "blog pauses." LOL.)

Mist

Droplets

Cornered

Courtsy

Towers

So there you have it... The captions are mine and it is my own interpretation of the pictures... Check out tommorow the next pictures that I will be featuring here...

The Second Pause

I really am not sure why this happened twice. When I started this blog in October 2006, I had posted only 3 articles and then I got whim of surprise I left the blog barren. Then, it was only last year when I again had the courage to fill up this personal undefiled second world. But the same happened last October 2008. I had the second pause. I don't know but maybe I just got too busy making history and forgot to write it down here... Or I just had a creepy hiatus and brought me to insoluble taciturn.

See. I am not into bragging up my life and my everyday whereabouts and thoughts to people especially if unsolicited. I just wanted this blog to become my proof of existence and a witness to my interests. So maybe the pause was just a reminder that I need to push the play button again...

My gears need a little grease already...