I’ve said it a million bajillion times but I fucking hate winter. Sure it’s fun for a week or so with the pretty snow and making snowmen and stuff but to have it for months it’s just depressing. Lots of people like to take holidays to warmer, happier climates during winter and i’m no different.

A lot of Swedes choose to go to Thailand during this time (which is why it’s hard for me to go home over xmas because flights go through Thailand to New Zealand) but lots of people seem to forget about the other gems that Asia and the pacific have to offer. Now not because i’m ½ Filippino, but I think the Philippines is a really fantastic place to vacation. Like Thailand, there are spectacular beaches and scenery, (and unlike Thailand) often untouched by the (can sometimes be) tacky tourism industry. I like to go to places and not feel that i’m basically in the same place but just a different climate.

I haven’t been back there since I was like 11 or 12 but i’ve been thinking about it a lot lately, especially since seeing pictures of my parents recent trip there. It’s not just my friends and family there that I miss, it’s the whole package! The warm weather, the relaxing atmosphere, the shopping and the delicious food!! No really, the food… is just WOW. The pineapples, papaya, jackfruit and mangos are the best I have ever tasted anywhere (and I really mean that, I love mangos and am always trying to eat them but so many are crap and fiberous compared to the ones in the Philippines).

I was born on the island called Cebu and here are a few pictures (with links) of the place where I was born:

Mmm fresh avocados growing in the garden

If these pictures have at all enticed you to want to take a lovely holiday in the Philippines or maybe even move there, just click on the pictures for a link to a fantastic place to rent (these pictures were taken at that place except the beach which is about 10km away)

All of my friends will know how much I love dancing (:P) and dance music. There have been many coveted trance parties I would love to go to all over Europe but it seems that there is always SOMETHING keeping me from attending them! For example, my dream party is Sensation White. I know it’s cliché and so many people claim that black is better and white got “too mainstream” but I believe that the atmosphere of white would just be spectacular. It seems to get bigger and better every year and this year’s lineup in the Amsterdam Arena included several of my favourite DJs.

For the past 2 years i’ve been in Europe i’ve missed Sensation white because of the Electronic Sports World Cup. It seems that every year gaming wants to punish me by holding ESWC on those dates; “No Livia, no fun allowed outside of gaming!”.

Well for the past couple of years Sensation white have also been holding a world tour but the events have not been on-par with the Amsterdam one. Except now… I think i’ve found one that will be just as good and I won’t have to miss ESWC for it! There will be a Sensation White held in Düsseldorf on New Years Eve this year! It looks like it’s going to be incredible and what a way to bring in 2008!

Hell yeah, the Unreal Tournament 3 demo was leaked today. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. As soon as I woke up I had it installed and ready to go. But now there’s been a problem, at first it just bluescreened when I started it so I installed the latest nVidia graphics drivers. But then now it gets past the intro ads and it crashes again! GRRRR.

I guess this could both be a good and bad thing, because since I can’t play it means I won’t get hooked. I do get hooked on games easily and the release time of the full version of UT3 is at a dangerous time as it’s right before the CGS world finals. Many people tell me “oh you can play both, just spend MORE time on DOA!”. Obviously, these people don’t understand my profound and undying love for the Unreal series.

It breaks my heart that I can’t play the demo so i’ve been releasing steam playing DoA4! But i’ve had my first bad day in the game today. For some reason nothing I try seems to be working. I’ve been practicing juggles and combos and yesterday I was nailing them (after almost an hour of spending my time on one move hehe :P) but today it’s as though my controller is cursed… cursed with my frustration of not being able to even try UT3!

I will need a lot of panda videos to cheer me up.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysTmUTQ5wZE 370 270]

There’s a lot of drama on xbox live. I’ve been playing on it for like, I dunno, a month now or something and only recently have I got a mic and I can hear wtf people are saying! Usually it’s pretty ok, people just chat about the game and stuff but today I came across this guy that was from Sweden. Usually when I play people in Scandinavia there is hardly any lag (which is soo nice).

Sometimes on Xbox live theres a lot of drama. People sometimes get all pissed off when you win and they leave the game when the final replay is on cos umm.. something about maybe you can’t take points from them or something? I don’t know. To some people online ranking matters a lot.

NB// To quickly explain the ranking system, in DOA4 theres an xbox live ranking where it is based on umm I guess your win / loss ratio. But if you beat someone of a higher ranking than you, you get more points towards your ranking than you would if you beat someone of the same or lower rank than you.

Anyway, this guy starts screaming down the microphone at me about lag? When it does lag, both players see it not just one guy on one end. I certainly had no lag on my end and was enjoying finally playing without it. He was winning 50/50 anyway but honestly kept SCREAMING at me about it with such hate in his voice so I just left since I didn’t know how to mute him and there was only one other dude in the room anyways. Damn kids and their xbox.

Yeah sadly winter is on the way and while the lowering temperatures do give me a clue that it’s coming I am also made very aware of it by many different cold viruses invading me! A day before I was due to leave for the UK I woke up with a high fever. Oh no, what a terrible time to get the flu! Luckily I recovered at the combine only to realize that someone else gave me their cold!! AHH!

Now today i’m waking up again feeling some kinda cold. My head feels heavy and i’m not liking the signs of this at all! I have a lot of stuff to do and I don’t have time to be sick! For one I planned to go and FINALLY fix my hair since I couldn’t do it before the combine. I’m getting my extentions taken out but the guy that does them was in New York for 2 weeks!! I hated going to the combine with such crappy hair but what could I do But now I really don’t feel well enough to leave the comforts of my apartment! Maybe tomorrow…