Romancing Rome

What makes the Roman Empire so alluring?… so intoxicating that now I find my life revolving around its dramatization in the eyes of authors, game developers, and producers. Are glories of the republic and the empire things of the past? nay, I say, nay. For Rome’s highlights are lasting, its legacy entrenched in human history as the pinnacle of societal achievement and unity.

Rome: The Game 

I’m now at the brink of finishing Rome: Total War. The provinces I have conquered as part of the Julii family are dyed blood-red in the minimap of the game. I have around 30 to 40 provinces and I just got a message of the likes that ‘the people of Rome are enamored by your achievements and can’t wait for you to march down in its streets in full glory’… thus authorizing me to declare war on my fellow Roman factions (Brutii and Scipii) and of the Senate itself who hold Rome in their grip.

To the west, the last of the Britania faction, who dared venture out from their home Isles – which are now under my control – and a few other ‘barbarian’ factions – Parthians and Scythians. To the south, where the Scipii hold sway, are Aegyptus, the Ptolemaic kingdom who still defy Roman control. Since the goal of the long campaign is to conquer 50 provinces and hold Rome itself, I plan to conquer some more provinces and strike at Rome once I have sufficient number to end the game…

[I just hope I find time to finish it]

Rome: The Videos

Last week, I managed to buy 3 Discovery VCDs at Astrovision in SM Mall of Asia. I had to wait for an 8:00pm teleconference, so I asked my boss if I could trek to MOA and be back in time for the telecon. The VCDs that caought my eye are: Future Cars (Form Matt), The Quest for the True Cross (a post-Holy Week fill), and Rome: Power and Glory: The Fall (Ah, Rome again…)

The last VCD about the Roman Empire actually completes my collection. The first 2 deal with the founding of Rome as a city, as a republic, and finally in its evolved, grotesque form of the Roman Empire.

Why the sudden change of tone about the Roman Empire? What? No talk of its glory and magnificence and how it is the envy of all nations? One of the specialists interviewed for the Discovery Production actually opened my eyes to the reality of the Roman Empire. The Empire was the last, and the most brutal aspect in its history. The republic and early empire was its pinnacle – the Pax Romana. But when its greed for power never ceased, It has become a glutonous beast that literraly bit off more than it can chew. And the pompous arogance of its elite ciizenry and neglect for the poor was the trigger for its downfall.

When will the Empire Builders of this day learn the actual moral lesson from the story of the Roman Empire? When will these people realize that what their Founding Fathers, when looking to Rome for inspiration for their great nation, actually saw the Republic and not the Empire? (I guess you know who I’m talking about…)

Erratum: Wow, this is supposedly a 6-disk series! I just checked out the Discovery site and it lists all subjects…. gottafind the rest…

Rome: The Book

Stephen Baxter’s “Emperor” was the book I bought when Nina, Matt, and I went on an impromptu shopping spree at Power Books in SM Mall of Asia. Matt found his Thomas book, Nina found a parenting book and a story book with really cool art works (I think she has a picture or a full description in her blog).

I would have bought the sequel “Conqueror”, but I guess it was too much for now. I promised to come back for it.  Set in Britain, from the time of actual conquest to Constantine’s rise to power, it’s scope is epic but is contained in a thin book. I’m just reading the first part of it and the story is fast paced. I’ll give it a review after I finish it (in the Books page I set up).

Sweet Sinangag and Soulmaking

It’s my tradition that, when a new hardware is installed for my desktop, I check up on the general condition of my computer again. After installing the software packaged in the LG DVD writier I bought yesterday (along with the AOC LCD monitor), I was surprised to find out that the Mother Console has less than a gigbyte of storage left! So I proceeded to weed the garden of files in my hard disk (which is a pathetically low 40 GB thing).

After uninstalling a few games, I stumbled upon the ‘relics’ of my old computer files. What’s more surprising is stumbling on a file titled ‘AR’s Journal 2003′.  Whoa… and the memories came crashin’ again… [this was the time when either I was ignorant of blogs or the craze hasn't come on yet]

Diggin’ up through the small pile of about 5 entries from January to March 2003, I found this bit, which I’d like to share:

—————————— 

March 16, 2003
Friday
3:46 am (our clock)
3:16 am (real time)
Project 6 apartment, after coming home from celebrating our 7th monthsary of being brought together by God

 

I felt the urge to write in my journal because I’ve had revelations recently – one was through a dream, the other was through a book.

 

On Cooking Sinangag

 

I dreamt that I was making fried rice for breakfast or lunch but instead of putting salt, I’ve put sugar in it. Sugar of course will make it sweet. But fried rice needs to be salty. Nina has always commented that I was always perky – that I lacked empathy, especially when at times she felt low. I tried to fight of the idea – that I wasn’t always perky or at least I knew how to empathize. But after considering, I think she was right.

 

That’s one of my characteristics. The way I coed with my life before was to always look at the brighter side of things when things were going wrong. In that manner, I negated whatever negative thing was happening and I think that’s when I lost my ability to empathize. When I had the dream, I shrugged it off as another spurt of my creative unconscious. but then, the meaning of the dream dawned on me this morning and I knew I had to write it down before I forget my lesson. As perky and positive as I was, I was always putting sugar on all things. And yes, even sinangag – which was supposed to be salty. I had to realize that God gave us humans a range of emotions for use in the proper way.

 

I shouldn’t feel that I always need to cheer up my wife or myself. I should realize that emotions need to be felt – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Salt adds flavor. In times when my wife or I am going through trials that bring about disappointment and a sense of being low, I need to realize that flavor means getting what the lesson is, and never to lose hope. That it’s ok to feel that way because of the events that happened. That I know how it feels in a parallel situation in my life. Fried rice isn’t just salt added to cold rice. It needs to be cooked and subjected to fire and a lot of tossing and turning to get it’s taste even and have the rice heated properly – much like how God cooks us to perfection with all the trials that come our way.

 

My Wife’s an Angel

 

I’m currently reading a book entitled ‘Soul Making’. It talks about the desert experience and is a fresh new way to believe in Christianity – a way of believing the hearkens back to the ancient Church Fathers. I’ve been a slow reader and I’m only at the first chapter (after a relatively long introduction). On page 48, the author Alan Jones gives path to the way of believing like the desert fathers and mothers:

 

1. the need for detachment
2. the belief that nothing is accidental
3. the fact that we are not as free as we think we are
4. the conviction that remembering is an important part of the process of growth
5. the belief that while we have to do much of what we do alone, companionship is essential
6. the necessity of contemplative commitment
7. an appreciation of our “fallenness”
8. the mystery of having to let go of the things and people we love most

 

I’m now reading a section on no. 5 on the 8 steps – that companionship is essential. It talks about the need for others to bring out revelations in ourselves. Alan Jones talks about these people as Angels of God. Much like his experience with desert monks in Egypt, where he stayed at a monastery and was treated nicely. Asked why the monks treated him well, the monk said ‘you might be an angel’. In fact, that’s the philosophy of the monks who lived in the desert – that all who come their way might be angels of God. He sights three examples on angels in different people. One excerpt was in Franny and Zooey where he talks about the Fat Lady as an angel.

 

Angels bring about revelations that, without which, would hinder our full potential for growth. Now I truly believe that God has sent my wife as my angel. She has brought me to many revelations about myself. She has made me realize, as in the first revelation I talked about, that I have to come to terms with who I really am. She has made me realize how I’ve let myself be stupid for other people and that in turn has led to them taking advantage of me. But with those revelations, she has come to inspire me to become the person I am meant to be. The Inner Self whom God has created from the beginning. A person who will stand up for the right principles, uphold it with courage, and look through the eyes of love.

I know it’s a continuing process and revelations often shock and are initially rejected. I’m learning.

 

They say that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God (one of the Wisdom books in the Bible, I think it’s in Sirach…). The second step is admitting “I don’t know”. That’s when we are open. That’s when God can mould us and teach us our true worth.

Thank God He led me to my angel. And now, She’s my wife – whom I love very much.

 

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March 29, 2003
Saturday
6:16 am (our clock)
5:46 am (real time)
Project 6 apartment, after coming home from Nina’s workplace due to an overtime

 

“The believer is concerned with life. Why, then, all this talk of death and pits of terror? We all have to be – indeed, the believer is convinced that this is what God wants for us. The message is unambiguous: If you want to live life to the full, you must surrender life. What a paradox!”
- p. 72, Death in the Desert, Soulmaking: The Desert Way of Spirituality. Alan Jones. Harper Collins. 1989

 

“To come to this place where one is truly alive, one must hit rock-bottom. There must be a breakthrough to the place of deepest helplessness, ‘Then at last,’ writes Andre’ Louf, ‘a beginning can be made.’”
 - p. 83, The Gift of Tears, Soulmaking: The Desert Way of Spirituality. Alan Jones. Harper Collins. 1989

A New Look!

If you’ve visited my blog for the first time – welcome! You won’t be noticing it, but I’ve change the look and feel of my blog from its former 2-column layout to a 3-column layout. Partly because the last one was a bit ‘cold’ – blues, grays, blacks, and whites (Although I miss a picture of my Zoid – Buster Eagle at its header).

The main reason why I shifted to a 3-column layout is to provide separate spaces for my blog stuff and my page links.

<—– my page links

my blog stuff —–>

<<this layout is ‘Garland 1.0′ by Stefan Nagtegaal and Steven Wittens – thanks for the cool look!>>

So hopefully, it’ll give you – the reader who happened to stumble at my blog – a better time navigating my world. Please do visit some of my pages even though most of them are still works in progress.

Have anice day!

And to fellow bloggers, happy blogging!

(BTW, it’s comfy to view the 3-column layout on a new AOC 19″ widescreen LCD monitor… aha! something to make a user’s review of again…)

Points of Reflection – The Joy of Easter Morning

Happy Easter!

A quick reflection point: Just as the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Chist is central to our faith, His glorous ressurection is the culmination of it. The empty tomb. Why do you seek the Living among the dead?

It is this truth that ends the sorrows of suffering – that there is triumph in Jesus. In fulfilling the Father’s will to the end, He has freed us from death and brings us to the promise of eternal life. The fulfillment of His promise. The fullness of Life.

So the circle – the Truth – of our Christian Faith is complete. What began in Bethlehem, fulfilled at Calvary, is culminated at the Empty Tomb.

And we, as the Easter Generation as one preacher called us, are invited to celebrate! 

——-

Sorry for being preachy – here’s a better post on things to think about from Pat’s blog.

Points of Reflection – John Paul the Great, Of Faith and, the Youth

Holy Week is upon us. To get into the mood of the season, I decided to buckle down and continue reading ‘Crossing the Threshold of Hope’ by the late Pope John Paul the Great. As I have mentioned in my previous post, his book is a treasure trove of insights into the Christian, Catholic Faith.

So before I forget these insights, I’d like to share them with you, even if we belong to different faiths. Some points are universal and we can all agree on these.

John Paul the Great and His Conviction

I’ve come to realize one more thing about his work – he brings to life Jesus, God, and makes you realize how intimate he knows Him. John Paul’s passion is to let us know the Love of the Father through His begotten Son. It’s his personal knowledge, personal love, of God that permeates the book and give it its convincing power.

John Paul the Great is our Pope – my wife and I. He was the pope for almost 27 years of our lives, and he became pope on our birth year. His life and mission has come to portray his love for the Father and for sharing the Father’s love for humanity. He advocated social justice in the countries he visited and was instrumental in leading the world to prayer. These two works I suspect aided in the downfall of communism.

He was a man with unwavering conviction and during the times that he lived, became one of humanity’s greatest Guidestone* in an era of great uncertainty.

Read the book. I recommend that you don’t go through it in one sitting. It’s a relatively easy read (thoguh a Latin dictionary may come in handy). 

Salvation = Love

In a couple of chapters in his book, John Paul the Great expounds on the centrality of salvation in the Christian Faith. That this salvation comes from love, of God wanting to commune with his creation, and uniting it back to Him. Salvation can not come without Love. It is not enough to detach yourself from the world and seek out a personal salvation apart from everything. It is completed in seeking out to commune with the Creator.

Today, on Good Friday, we commemorate this act of salvation – an act that culminates in the sacrifice of a Life, that all others may live. Jesus, in His total obedience to the Father, became subject to the mockery and injustice of this world. This world that he came to save, became the source of His suffering. But it did not deter Him from His mission of saving humanity. It did not extinguish His love for us.

Because humanity is worth saving. Because you are worth everything to Him.

Hope on the Youth

I love how John Paul the Great described youth:

“What is youth? it is not only a period of time that corresponds to a certain number of years, it is also a time given by Providence to every person and given to him as a responsibility. During that time, he searches, like the young man in the Gospel, for answers to the basic questions; he searches not only for the meaning of life but also for a concrete way to go about living his life.” – p.120-121

I’m now 29 (argh!). and I feel so old. Tired, perhaps worn out from the constant day-to-day battle of living. But reflecting on where I am now, I smile. Yes, this has been where I wanted to be, to live – with a loving wife and kid, with the necessities to live by, and even a wee bit more to enjoy some of life’s pleasures. But I cannnot credit all that I have become to my own efforts. For back then, when I was younger, I’ve made a choice to allow God to work into my life.

What was my tipping point? World Youth Day, 1995.  In the presence of Pope John Paul and in communion with all the other young people of the Philippines and the World, I saw hope. Hope that there can be a better furutre. Hope that springs eternal, as tenacious as life itself. From then on, I knew God has led me – led me to a community of believers, The Lord’s Flock Catholic Charismatic Community, and then, led me on to discover life, and have it abundantly; Of joy in finding my soulmate where He had appointed it to be**. And of knowing that yes, He is there – by your side, ready to talk whenever you need a companion, a guide.

Pope John Paul the Great is the Pope of the Youth. His ability to reach out to the youth is explained by his approach. He is more interested in what the youth has to say to him, rather than what he has to say to them. Isn’t this what we always wanted when we were young? TO be listened to and believed. To know someone was there to consider your thoughts and views, instead of imposing their own ideas. To let you explore yourself, find out who you really are, and celebrate that.

Wow.

I can’t claim I’m still in that time period. Maybe it has passed, and I hope I’ve taken account of that resposibility. There is but one goal now – to know this truth about youth, and to be guided by it, to realize it in others, and to know how to cultivate it and share its passion so that once again, we can be young.

That’s the task I now have for our young Matthew. It’ll be a couple of years more… I’ll try – we’ll try - to prepare for it the best we can.

A Blessed Holy Week to everyone!

——–

* In reference also to the 3-D strategy game Homeworld from Sierra and Relic Entertainment. The Guidestone was instrumental in guiding the Exiles back to their Homeworld. (okay, so the gamer in me tries to come out once in a while…)

** At the UP Chapel, at or near the Blessed Scrament, my hiding place with God. (It was then located at the left side of the altar, now it has been moved to a level below).

BLUE Radon W310 – A User’s Review (Part 1 of 2)

Finally, I now have the time to buckle down and start my user’s review for Gizmo, my first ever laptop. I must agree that a laptop is a big investment, and one has to be sure about whether they are getting their money’s worth. Needless to say I poured a lot of time doing research about the subject and scouting on what available brands/units/specs are out there in the Philippine market.

In the end, I took home a 13.3″ Core Duo notebook in shiny silver Al-Mg alloy casing, with enhanced video power from its ATI X1300 Mobility Radeon chip. It’s from BLUE, a Filipino brand from Axis Global, Inc., though further research on the notebook PC revealed it’s original manufacturer to be Arima Corp. of Taiwan (who produced laptops for one of the bigger Amaerican brands). Its model name is Radon [W310], and I have christened it MyToy Gizmo (well, if you’ve read this article, it originally was named as ‘MyToy’ – this will give you the reason why I renamed it to Gizmo).

Gizmo on a laptop riser I bought from Octagon. If you look hard enough and recognize it – it’s the intro sequence of Rome:Total War

A quick rundown of Gizmo’s specs:

• 13.3″ WXGA Display 1280 x 800
• Intel Core Duo T2400 1.83 GHz processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• ATI X1300 Video Card with HyperMemory (256 MB max.)
• 60 GB SATA Hitachi Harddisk
• Built-n Intel Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0
• SD / MC / MMC Card reader
• PCI-E Mini slot
• DVD +/- RW

It runs WindowsXP SP2, but is fully Vista-capable. I won’t be upgrading to the new Windows OS yet unitl I get confident that it will run all games I’d like to load up in it.

Oh, and I’d like to calrify that this review is from a user’s perspective. I’m a typical engineering worker in need of a mobile computing device which the office has not given out yet. So I decided to get one. I’m a newbie techie now engrossed in the world of computers since one of my passions is all about computers and graphics and performance – no, not software programming – gaming! hehehe… I’m a PC gamer since my Mom sent me an IBM PS2 when I was in highschool. I’ve had one more PC to use before I bought a desktop in 2005. It has always been my dream to have a laptop and, thank God for the graces, now that I have one, I’d like to share my experience with it to those who would want to have it for themselves as well. <As a disclaimer, I don’t work for the company who sells this PC nor do I intend to sell this kind of laptop. I’m just a user.>

Size Does Matter

As a gamer, I wanted a bigscreen laptop – the bigger the better! so when I checked out the available stuff @ www.laptopking.com.ph, I filtered out all the small stuff. I thought I’d go for the ASUS S96J Whitebook – since it’s a 15.4″ Core Duo wonder with an ATI X1600 Mobility Radeon chip that’s just perfect for the highend games of today (and half of tomorrow).

When I got to see how big it really was, I couldn’t imagine myself lugging it around to meetings. It’s just too big! <sigh>. I browsed over to the otehr 14.1″ laptops available at the store. But I still found the size too big. Finally, they showed me the Radon, and I knew it was the perfect size.

The 13.3″ WXGA latchless screen is just perfect – a bit smaller than a regular 14.1″ and not too small as a 12.1″. It gives you the right resolution and clarity for work-related activities, or for gaming. It’s maximum resolution is 1280 x 800 pixels. For games, widescreen support is growing these days although there are still those that gives a setting of 1280 x 768, instead of x 800, which, when selected makes no difference.

To give an illustration about its size, the laptop is as big as an 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper, and a little less than an inch thick. It’s lightweight and very portable.

Pentium M or Dual Core?

When I bought it last December, Intel has just introduced their Core 2 Duo processor. I knew it was time to buy me a dual core processor. But the proces for the Pentium M laptops are still attractive and it may be enough for me. But realizing the benefits of a Core Duo system, especially during multiple applications operations, I went with teh Core Duo. My office PC is now choking whenever I use it for work coz of all the apps I run on it simultaneously.

And the Radon just had that. As far as I know, it doesn’t come with any options. So that’s another check on my list.

One side effect of having a dual core processor for gaming is this – the AI gets smarter. Honest! Aside from quicker loading times, I feel the difference on how the AI reacts to my gameplay when I’m using the desktop and when i’m using Gizmo.

First Impressions

When I examined the design of the laptop, I thought it to be logical and well-thought-of. It has 2 USB ports on the left, adequately spaced for those fatter-thatn-usual flash disks, and one on the right side. The USB on the right is usually used for the mouse.

LH Side – shown here with a USB DirectLink cable I use to hookup my desktop and Gizmo

RH Side shows the optical mouse and the power cord plugged

The exhaust vent is on the left, while the optical drive is on the right. I find this logical since it’s easier to operate the optical drive with my right hand (being the right-handed guy that I am). The left side has the Card readers, Mini PCI-E Card Slot, the Firewire port, and the S-Video Out. On the right, aside form the drive and USB port, the jacks for the headphones and mike are located forward of the drive, and the power socket at the far end.

The LAN and modem connections are at the back, as well as the VGA output socket.

It’s cool design features include:

• Latchless
• Touch-sensitive keys

The touch-sensitive keys are located at the upper left part of the keyboard area:

It’s for turning on the bluetooth and wi-fi, instant Internet Explorer launch, and instant E-mail launch.

There is a down side to he Radon’s overall design. It’s how it handles the heat. The left side of the touchpad gets really hot, especially if you’re running some graphics heavy stuff. That’s where the processor and hardrive is. But even with this flaw, the Radon’s design copes with it aptly – it’s on the left side. Most right-handed persons would use their right hand navigating via touchpad and the adverse heat will not affect them that much. That’s how I’ve been using it and the heat on that part of the notebook PC is not a problem.

Three Years Young

April 3 – that’s when our ‘baby’ turned three! Yes, he’s no longer a baby. He’s growing up to become a little boy. Matt never ceases to amaze Nina and me with new words he’s just picked up from Playhouse Disney. What’s surprising is, he knows how to use them!The first time he knew the word ‘again’, we somehow knew that he’d be very makulit. And yes, he has been…

I managed to buy him a birthday cake the day before. It’s the traditional chocolate cake from Red Ribbon (Mmmmm….mmmm), with a ‘3′ candle on top. So when I got off from work early (thanks to the understanding of my superiors although I wished i could have taken the day off), we had a short photoshoot with his birthday cake before having some fun.

We had a simple celebration at Mall of Asia, at his favorite tambayan – TimeZone. He wanted to ‘roll the ball (bowling)e ball (basketball)’. Here he is in action….

And he had fun banging the heads of the mice at this game…

After that, we discovered that he loves the four-cheese pizza baguette at Delifrance, so we headed over there to treat him. The boy just loves cheese!

We also decided to visit Toy Kingdom and get him something to play with. He wanted a golf club set again (we jsut bought him a set the weekend before as a birthday present). But, Nina found Matt something interesting to play with. It’s a pachinko-like game but instead of chips,there are balls. It’s like a pinball too, and Matt is always interested whenever I play the Lord of the Rings pinball at Time Zone.

We went home earlier than usual. It seems that it was time well spent since we didn’t feel that there was so little time going around the huge mall. It was time well spent in having fun.

…. Oh and when we got home, we had our fill of cake and ice cream! (it wouldn’t be a complete birthday celebration without those).