To all who greeted me on my birthday, thanks to all of you.

To those who forgot to greet me, thanks also to all of you

Now back to regular programming

The game we were working on for the past couple of weeks is finally out on the iPad.

The name of the game is Fishing Kings. and it is in HD…. Yes… HD…

Buy the game  now by clicking this link

Probably one of the best fishing games out there. Play fishing on one side while www.partypoker.com on the other side. nice!

P.S.

Congratulations team for a job well done. All those sleepless nights paid off and here is the end result.

If you guys love us (the developers) please buy the game and do not support piracy.

P.P.S.

We have another game cooking up. Stay tuned!

First off, let’s pray for the victims of the Quirino Grandstand hostage taking that took part this morning. Thank god the standoff ended but we have lessons to learn on the incident.

While at work later, i kept myself updated on the hostage situation crisis that started around 9am. I was about to start work and the news back then was not that big yet. It was not until later afternoon when the news broke out big.

There was only 1 hostage taker. He took over 1 tourist bus containing foreign passengers. Lot’s of police in the scene… at least the hostage taker took out the kids that were in the bus.

First ultimatum was 3pm. then it extended till 3:30 and so on and so for. The whole country was watching a real-life drama unfolding right at their own living homes. I also kept myself updated with what’s happening (can’t blame it since i myself graduated from broadcast journalism) hence, this is my part of keeping myself updated with what’s happening to the country.

Around 7pm i think, the brother of the hostage taker was arrested. I think this is where it all started (i’m speaking for myself on this one)

As i took a rest while waiting for work to end, i watch through our cafeteria the latest developments. There were so many people watching… the rain was hard. I said to myself, it’s almost night and this will be over soon.

And it did…

But not on how everyone expected it.

It was a bloody mess… on a rainy night….

After all of this, what will happen to us? Will media be bragging on who got the exclusive reports? Will travel bans be implemented by other countries to the Philippines (as of this writing, Hongkong already issued a severe travel ban here in the country)

There are rules in covering hostage crisis for media practitioners: (as taken from Poynter Online)

• Always assume that the hostage taker, gunman, or terrorist has access to the reporting.
• Avoid describing with words or showing with still photography and video any information that could divulge the tactics or positions of SWAT team members.
• Fight the urge to become a player in any standoff, hostage situation, or terrorist incident. Journalists should become personally involved only as a last resort and with the explicit approval of top news management and the consultation of trained hostage negotiators on the scene.
• Be forthright with viewers, listeners, or readers about why certain information is being withheld if security reasons are involved.
• Seriously weigh the benefits to the public of what information might be given out versus what potential harm that information might cause. This is especially important in live reporting of an ongoing situation.
• Strongly resist the temptation to telephone a gunman or hostage taker. Journalists generally are not trained in negotiation techniques, and one wrong question or inappropriate word could jeopardize someone’s life. Furthermore, just calling in could tie up phone lines or otherwise complicate communication efforts of the negotiators.
• Notify authorities immediately if a hostage taker or terrorist calls the newsroom. Also, have a plan ready for how to respond.
• Challenge any gut reaction to “go live” from the scene of a hostage-taking crisis, unless there are strong journalistic reasons for a live, on-the-scene report. Things can go wrong very quickly in a live report, endangering lives or damaging negotiations. Furthermore, ask if the value of a live, on-the-scene report is really justifiable compared to the harm that could occur.
• Give no information, factual or speculative, about a hostage taker’s mental condition, state of mind, or reasons for actions while a standoff is in progress. The value of such information to the audience is limited, and the possibility of such characterizations exacerbating an already dangerous situation are quite real.
• Give no analyses or comments on a hostage taker’s or terrorist’s demands. As bizarre or ridiculous (or even legitimate) as such demands may be, it is important that negotiators take all demands seriously.
• Keep news helicopters out of the area where the standoff is happening, as their noise can create communications problems for negotiators and their presence could scare a gunman to deadly action.
• Do not report information obtained from police scanners. If law enforcement personnel and negotiators are compromised in their communications, their attempts to resolve a crisis are greatly complicated.
• Be very cautious in any reporting on the medical condition of hostages until after a crisis is concluded. Also, be cautious when interviewing hostages or released hostages while a crisis continues.
• Exercise care when interviewing family members or friends of those involved in standoff situations. Make sure the interview legitimately advances the story for the public and is not simply conducted for the shock value of the emotions conveyed or as a conduit for the interviewee to transmit messages to specific individuals.
• Go beyond the basic story of the hostage taking or standoff to report on the larger issues behind the story, be it the how and why of what happened, reports on the preparation and execution of the SWAT team, or the issues related to the incident.

Question is were these rules followed?

Here are my thoughts on the incident:

• This will be an issue on the next couple of days (media frenzy and striking while the iron is hot)
• Past issues will be forgotten because of this one (i do hope not, we still have criminals to pursue and justice to be served)
• Pointing fingers on the issue (again, i do hope this won’t happen)
• Tourism will affect the Philippines (even though you don’t say that it will have a negative effect, i don’t think so)
• Inspections here and there on bus stations
• Many people will make fun of the police and will throw jokes that they should have played Counter Strike, Modern Warfare or any other First-Person Shooters and will claim that it’s just easy to handle the situation (remember, in games you can respawn. In real life, you only have one shot to do everything)
• Where is the news blackout?
• Opportunistic politicians will jump in the issue and will grandstand on the said issue. Come on guys, style nyo bulok (in other words, old style)

In the end… we all end up as losers… Why you ask? Because it’s still us fellow Filipinos who will be suffering the consequences of the hostage crisis…

P.S.

Whatever happened to the Maguindanao crisis? the Graft and corruption problem? GMA corruption problems?

I do hope they will not be forgotten because of this incident.

Let this serve as a lesson for us Filipinos as well. For who may know, it may not only happen on a tourist bus.

Let’s all be vigilant!

P.P.S.

For those of you who don’t know, Ron Gagalac, the person covering the beat for ABS-CBN was my college professor way back in DLSU-D.

Oh hello there! sorry as i wasn’t been able to post in my blog for quite some time. Been busy and stressed for the past month (have to finish a game and must release it asap) and im proud to say that if all goes well, i’ll announce it here (still in the approval process but once it’s done, i’ll post it here just like what i did before) i have to say congratulations team, we all did it. It’s not a one man effort but a team effort (i consider myself part of the team as well, we are the team not i) hehehe!

August month and you know what that means, i’m growing a year older. Some may hate it but i don’t. Why? because as the days pass by, im loving it because mnmkbp is always on my side to cheer me up! thanks and i love you so much mwah!

Okay, so to sum it up, here’s what’s happening in the past few weeks:

- Crisler, our resident japanese-korean-chinese-bisaya officemate left the company. We made an avp presentation for him (thank to the suggestion of jeff and allan) the idea came one dinner night and it took us only:

• 2 days to do the whole thing
• Armed with only cellphone camera’s
• Trial version of adobe premiere (as much as i wanted to learn vegas, i still prefer adobe over it. sorry vegas lovers)
• Limited resources
• Annoying chee who keeps on popping to my workplace thus i have to hide the whole video editing process and delaying it for hours.

Overall, the video turned out somehwat good (it took me around an hour and a half to edit the whole thing) and the original content of it was cut down to at least 1/4th only. yes, the avp content is only 1/4th of the whole idea. Thus, that’s the purpose of version 2.0 coming up (i’ll keep you posted on the progress of it)

- Also, this would be the last week for allan and hypermike in the office. See you around guys

- Got starcraft 2 and the leet dogtag. yeah! after almost 12 years of waiting, i can say it’s worth the wait. if you guys like the game, please do purchase the original version to give what is due to the developers (those sleepless nights, stress from QA) trust me, it’s all hell!

- Currently selling some of my ps3 games that i already finished playing and saving up to you know what it is

- Another project that is about to enter beta phase. Here comes stress again! woohoo!

- Been camping in the office (only going home at least once every week to get some clothes) hardcore!

- Hadlang is the new name of the band that im curently into. We had a jam last week and basing from what i hear, there is a potential on the member lineup of the band. Once we polish things. This time, the sound is a little heavy than on the previous bands that i have been into. Back to the composition board again!

In case you are wondering how the video looks like, watch if below:

And someone get’s his hand on the standard edition….

One Friggin epic trailer…. good job Blizzard….

Now give me a game

Weeks before the release of the highly-anticipated games starcraft 2, someone got hands on the collector’s edition waay early…

And to think there were only 50 (yes only that number) of copies that’s available here in the philippines?

Dear Blizzard,

Please give us more collector’s edition copies of SC2 and for the love of god, lower the prices of it. They charge it here as high as $150 dollars. The standard edition costs almost $80. That’s how high the prices here.

Also, make our realm accessible to other countries as well, not here in Asia. For sure, you guys know that we are in the same portal realm as Korea and as everybody knows, it’s considered as their national sport thus, we will get annihilated (but hey, it’s  a good training ground also for us.)

Thanks and hoping to get my copy so that i unleash the zergs like what i usually do way back in high school…

XOXO,

Popo

P.S.

Can you send me one Collector’s Edition copy as well (at least i tried)

heheh!

Yeah, those are the words that i can clearly remember to him way back in high school….

To Mr. Florencio Magcamit.

We, your students whom you teached your values, knowledge, and wisdom would like to raise a glass of beer…

May your soul rest in peace and we’ll see each other again. Probably by that time we would be bringing our news articles and at the same time, the books that you made us do as school projects.

“We’d like to toast this bottle of beer for you, Thank you!”

Thanks for the memories and until we meet again oh great mentor.

Sir OIR TIMACGAM (that’s his name spelled backwards as he use to spell it)

Oasis – Champagne Supernova

“Someday you will find me caught beneath the landslide… in a champagne supernova in the sky…”

Woke up with this song playing in my PC speakers…. Can’t believe it’s been 15 years since this song was released…. i can remember i was singing and playing this on my guitar within the hallways of our school and when other people sees me playing it, they will try to jam and sing along with you.

Ahh the good ol’ days of youth… guess if i will be given a chance to go back15 years ago, i would say to myself, enjoy your youth and i tell you, years from now, you will be one stressed out guy working in a game company but hey, it will be fun… you get to meet new friends, be in a band, enjoy life, experience the ups and downs of life, will learn new things but the most important part of it is that you will meet the girl whom will complete you and will make you happy for the rest of your life… oh and btw, you will always say mnmkbp999 more often up until you grow old…

Sweet… i should make a me a letter addressed to myself 15 years from now…

Haven’t done this in a while because of the busy nature of work but hey, i listen to music while at work to keep me sane and at the same time, keeps me relaxed. Now, let’s begin with album reviews:

Eevee – Paramdam

This is one band to watch out for. Recent winners of Nescafe Soundskool, These4 young lads hailing from Davao released their debut album “Paramdam” under Sony Music. The first time i heard their single “Gusto ko lang ng girlfriend” this is a refreshing sound and what we need right now and not some angsty-driven music that is playing on the airwaves right now. I personally like the debut album and i can see that they have the potential to make it big in the music industry. “Gusto ko lang ng girlfriend” opens up the album while “Waiter” has the catchy tune of “Waiter pa-follow up ng order, yung inorder kong lovelife. kanina pa ako naghihintay” will make you singing for quite sometime. Other notable and personal favorite tracks include larawan, photographer, master baby (which is also one catchy) leading man and saturday night just to name a few.

I only have one complain on this album, it’s very short. Why only 11 tracks? Just when i was having fun listening to the album, it falls off with 11 tracks. Well, my complaining can only mean one thing and that is i can’t wait to hear the next album.

I highly recommend this album guys so get it now!

Taken from the MusikoInc youtube channel

Francis M and Ely Buendia – In Love And War (ILAW)

About a year and a half ago, there is this dream collaborative project between 2 of the most influential artists in the philippines namely the late Francis Magalona and Ely Buendia. Everyone was excited until the man from manila passed away. They did however started the recording process and as a result, the carrier track is Higante. But due to the unexpected death of the master rapper, we were all left wondering will this album still be released?

Flash forward to 2010, finally, In Love And War (or simply ILAW) is now released in record bars. I was curious, how did the project went on? Answer? It has 10 tracks wherein 3 tracks were recorded with both ely and francis taking over the microphones. As for the remaining tracks, it’s a collaboration with different artists such as Pupil, Hilera, The Purplechickens and Gloc 9 just to name a few. The Album starts off with the carrier single “Higante” and you think that was it? Bleeder and Bust Stop are the next track that has francis magalona on it. The rest “Bum Ticker, Hand on,Wasak Waltz, It’s alright Ma and Buzzkill just to name a few) are some of the other tracks in the album though quite honestly, the 3 tracks that has ely and francis singing has got to be the strongest tracks in the album.Don’t get me wrong though, i like the purplechickens track and hilera but not as strong as bus stop (though bum ticker is a little catchy especially the closing verse)

Overall, the album is not bad though it would be epic if the late francis magalona didn’t passed away and completed the album. That would be legen…. wait for it….. dary

Still, get the album and you won’t be disappointed

Taken from youtube user kupalczach