Z

*note:  It's been a long while since I wrote something that has a semblance to a story. The last time was prolly two years ago. Most of the things i've written are still in my Multiply page, you can visit there and read them if you like.

Recently, I showed a close friend of mine my old stuff and he said that it would work. He liked the story and urged me to continue it and write more. If time comes, someone will be doing the art and it'll b on Komikon. That sort of bought my Hopes up. Actually, I've had a few things floating in my head for a new story. I let my girlfriend read it first and she said that it was nice. Well, if it was good enough for her, it's good enough for me. Please do enjoy reading Z. Any comments and critiques are welcome!


Z

“Are we ready to get started?”

His voice was a bit shaky at best but it took some guts for him to agree to what we asked of him, let alone be here.  I look around and see the people around me, their faces all lit up with smiles. But I know that in the back of their minds, they’re a bit worried.

I look back at him, “We need a few more minutes…it’s…there’s something still missing”.

“THEY’RE A-COMIN’!!!”

Eunice wasn’t much of a quiet person but she’s our best look-out. “They come with company?” I bellowed back. It took awhile for Eunice to reply but she said that they did but they were a bit far. “Well, I sure hope they get here …and fast.” I said to myself.

I look around again; the smiles were now replaced with grimaces of concern. I felt a hand grip mine tightly, “You know…all that shouting awhile back..might’ve been a bad idea.”. She reached out and fixed my hair a bit, “There might be more around…”. I shrugged and smiled, I gazed at her lovely face. It’s more beautiful than it was when we first met.

There was a knock at the door.

“We got it, now let us in damn it!”

I turn to the door then turn to her again, a big smile on my face. She let go of my hand and urged me to go.  I ran as fast as I could to reach the door, a lot of people were already there.  I make my way through and got hold of Jerry. He was catching his breath but he had a big smile on his face. “That place you said was right on the money. But sadly, all we could salvage was this.” He handed me something hurriedly wrapped in plastic, “But it was danged worth it! You owe me! “. He proceeded to laugh and pat my back.

“I owe everyone who went out and got me this…I…I don’t know how to thank you guys.”

I was teary eyed. I never thought that there were still these kind of people around and that these people were my friends. It was almost a dream.  Tank came in and nudged me hard, it almost took the wind out of me. Damn guy doesn’t know his own strength. “You know what would be nice?” Tank said out loud. “It would be nice for you to go back up there and do what needs to be done! I’m getting mighty hungry!”. He then pushed me to that direction and gave me a wink and a thumbs up. “Tank’s right, go over there…get it done…we’ll be here covering your asses.” added Jerry as he reloads his rifle. I nodded and made my way back to her.

Jerry and Tank made sure the door was closed tight and assigned a few people at certain strategic points. These guys wouldn’t even tell me the time of day when everything was still fine. Now, they’re helping me out fulfill a risky but wonderful dream.

As I drew nearer to her, I try to hide the plastic behind my back. I see her all teary-eyed and smiling as get to her. “You silly, silly fool.” she said, “What did you do now?”. I smiled and unwrapped the plastic infront  of her, “Oh..just something that this kind of thing lacks.”. I hear her gasp as she covers her mouth. I could hear her utter the words “You didn’t..”.

Erza then took it from me and took her to the side, “Let’s not prolong this anymore shall we?, I’ll help her put it on”.

I nodded and looked back behind me. The door was shut tight, people were guarding each and every possible entrance and exit. Jerry and Tank were coming down the aisle, both seem to have ties on although Tank was a bit loose. “Here.” Jerry said as he gave me my own tie. “Put this on and let’s start…Ol’ Makoy seems like he’s gonna faint already.”.

I took the tie and loosely wore it on my neck. I also went to my place and asked Ol’ Makoy how he’s doing. “You young ones and your crazy ideas…still, at least this will make it official. I haven’t held any of these since…” I cut him short as Erza came back.

“She’s ready.”

And that she was, even if it was just a veil and a bouquet, she was more radiant than ever. She caught me staring at her with my mouth open as she took her place beside me. Ol’ Makoy coughed, “Now then..shall we?”.

I look around again. My best men were beside me as is her maid of honor. Everyone guarding the place had their eyes now on us, smiling. I even see Eunice looking down on us from her spot. She holds my hand and tugs on it. I try to look at her thru the veil but I know she’s smiling at me.

We both reply yes to Ol’ Makoy. But just as he was about to start, we hear them from a distance. They were drawing in close. Much faster than we anticipated. Tank cocks his shotgun, “Well, this ain’t your typical shotgun wedding.”.  Jerry and I laughed, I could feel Erza rolling her eyes. Again, Ol Makoy coughs and we stopped.

We stopped and urged him to start. I turn to my side then looked at her and nodded, she nodded back. I pull-out both my .45’s and made sure they’re loaded.  I grabbed hold of my katana at the side and loosened the knot from the sheath and guard. She, on the other hand, pulls out her crossbow and loads an arrow; she then fixes the rifle at her side and turns the safety off.  Even Erza was readying a few molotovs she concocted.

The whole church was full of the sound of guns cocking and stirring and then suddenly just silence. Only Ol’ Makoy can be heard and the occasional faraway moans.

“Now then, before we were interrupted…Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…”

-  ©amramos2001

Before and After Komikon :D

Me and Mikee actually did a few things prior to going to Komikon.

We picked up a few toys and had a delightful lunch at Sbarro in SM Megamall.

Oooh, how artsy! LOL

It has been awhile since we ate out and this is actually our first time eating at Sbarro. We both love pasta and pizza so it is a bit surprising we haven't eaten there yet.

Pizza? Looks like more like Crime Scene...

Unfortunately, we both forgot to take pics of our orders before we started devouring them. But what the heck, better late than never eh?

We got a Chicago and a er..uhm..what was that pasta...well, it was pasta LOL The Chicago is featured above and it looked and tasted different than the Chicago I had years ago. Maybe they changed recipes eh?

We stayed at Sbarro for a bit because my girlfriend's Spinach Calzone hasn't come yet [and we already finished eating!]. After asking a few waiters a few times, it finally came!

Bread? Breaded Crab? Breaded Head Crab?! SRSLY it was really big!

It smelled really great and yummy. I had a little slice of  its bread and that alone was great. I didn't take another bite as I was already full.

We did have a surprise when my girlfriend opened it up.

BRAINSSS...err I mean, SPIIINAAAACCHHH~

The whole thing was loaded with spinach! It still smelled great but we were both surprised at the amount of Spinach encased in a yummy bread shell. Sadly, it wasn't all consumed. We were already full and the order came late. Oh well....

OH! and SM Free Wi-Fi fails and sucks...ALOT!

Then, we went to Komikon via Taxi as it was hot and we were bored and too full to walk and climb stairs/overpasses/lrt stations. LOL

If you want to know what happened at Komikon, click this...mind you, it's not that comprehensive.

If you want to read on...well, just read on! :D

We returned to Megamall after Komikon. Why? 

- we left a few things at the baggage counter so we wont be bringing tons of stuff at Komikon

- it was still early and we wanted to spend more time with each other

- we were hungry...well, I was..

We went to our usual stomping grounds: Toy Kingdom, the Department Store, BookSale, BioResearch and then Surplus Shop. We both browsed and bought a few things, I bought a new shirt with Worf and a ridiculous internet meme worthy phrase and she bought a few pretty dresses.

Oh, I forgot to mention in my Komikon blog that I won a free Trese inspired tshirt just minutes after we just came in. Thank god the first guy didn't know the correct answer and thanks to my girlfriend for pushing me to the front to answer.

Going back, dinnertime came and we were wondering where to eat. We settled at Karate Kid because we ate there before and it was pretty much ok.

So yea, Rule of Thirds is a better excuse than saying I can't take decent picture out of my new phone...which I truly can't

Mikee doesn't really like eating Japanese food while I adore it. It's a good thing she likes to eat at this place though...even if it doesn't really serve any traditional Japanese food other than fusion sushi[more or less].

Someone is enjoying her autographed copy of Kulas! :D

We perused and read a few of the things we got from Komikon while waiting for our order. Also, during that time, I think I already drank two glasses of their refillable Red Tea.

I can't recall how many times they refilled my glass hahahah~

Anyway, we ordered the good-for-two er...uhmm...[asks girlfriend thru chat] oh! Beef Tepanyaki!

Blurry pic ahoy!

It tasted great and I even ate the vegetables [fun fact: I don't eat vegetables. PERIOD.] But this time, I surprisingly ate almost half of what vegetables you see there. With the free rice and refillable drinks, we ate to our hearts content and we ended up being full again...which is always a good thing.

It capped off what was a pretty awesome day. I apologize for the pictures, was trying out my phone's camera [OH YEA I HAVE A NEW PHONE AGAIN] capabilities and also trying out a camera app[FxCamera].

Anyway, here's some gratuitous pictures of us via the same phone and app. Notice how my ridiculously large head cannot fit in the pictures.

 Hmm, this angle won't fit both of us..maybe if we did it horizontally?

There we go! Just a little bit more... 

Fark it, I suck ;w; Oh well..

Another great adventure down, going on to the next!

- The Alansong -

Komikon 2011

This was my actual first official Komikon [its 's kinda vague if I went one last two years ago, I think I did LOL] but in any case, it was my first Komikon with Mikee [Don't ask, it's just something me and her started hahah].

ENTER! A PERSONAL BRIEF HISTORY WITH COMICS!


I'm a big comic fan. I've been reading comics since I can remember. Starting with the newspaper funnies and of course the newstand filipino Komiks, mostly it was Funny Komiks and Kick Fighter [although I know there was this other one, I forgot :/]. I would wake up early on fridays and go to the news stand at our local market and buy the newly delivered issues. I forego eating breakfast...well, maybe just a pandesal or two...then have my yaya dress me up for school. All the whle, I was reading the komiks I bought, as I coudln't bring them to school.

The next thing that happened is obvious. I started making my own komiks. From blank, unused notebooks to stapled bond paper that was folded in half. I was drawing away alot of stuff. I created a ton of characters and made a ton of storylines and adventures. I got most of those thru the comics I've read. Sadly, I couldn't draw that well...and it never progressed even though I was drawing all the time. But still I enjoyed it and it a great output and hobby for me at the time.

Now..on with KOMIKON 2011!

I think somebody's lost xD

The venue wasn't that far and was spacious enough, so that's a big plus. But I never thought that the crows was that big. I mean, granted that I knew there were ALOT of comic fans but WOW.

Mikee and me ended up walking around for a few times. Browsing the comic selections, checking out their wares, buying stuff. The wannabe comic writer/artist in me was envious of every one of the indie writers/artists  we saw along with their works. I thought that maybe I could've been part of this if I had really pushed through with comic writing/drawing.

Anyhoo....someone called my attention while I was browsing around. Lo and behold, it was a friend of mine and was also a former officemate/boss.

Awww, somebody is camera shy xD

Of course I bought a copy of his work [which was awesome]. I was and wasn't surprised that he was there. I knew he was working on a comic I didn't know that he'll be in Komikon as one of the exhibitors [that's the correct term right?].  I also bumped into a few more friends who were comics fans as well.

And of course, if there are fans, there will be people who they adore. :D Unfortunately, I couldn't get enough pictures.

OHAI THUR FRIEND 8D

 Sadly, I didn't bring my copy of PB23 :[

 I wondered where my copy of De-Kada was and if Lyndon already signed that one.

Budjette Tan signing a print for Mikee.

Over-all, it was a great experience going there. Even if we couldn't buy a few things or have photo-ops with the artists and writers that we admire, it was still a day well spent.

Looking forward to Summer Komikon :D

A lapse of Judgement..

Why the title? Well, I experienced just that a few days ago....when I lost my brand new cellphone.

It seemed like a regular trek going home from werk [working a 12hour, 9am-9pm shift]. I was listening to music from my new phone and was on the way to ride the MRT with a friend/officemate [we both were heading the same way home].  The first red light actually came before me via the volume of people in line going to ride the MRt but I still opted to ride anyways. The 2nd was that me and my fiend usually got on the 1st train that comes in but this was not the case tonight. The 3rd was an unnerving feeling I had. I cannot explain why, but it felt like something was telling me not to push through riding the MRT.

But I shrugged it off.

The 4th train came and I was able to get in...but the music blasting in my headset stopped. I just thought that with the people, it must've caught someone going off and got ripped off the phone so I didn't pay attention.

How wrong I was.

When me and my friend was able to move further in the train, I felt for my phone and it was gone. The color of my face drained, I was wrapped in cold sweat and I felt my strength was sucked away. I then said out loud that my phone was gone and looked at the floor and the immediate surrounding...nothing.

Try as my friend might, she couldn't really console me. All that I kept saying after that was "fucking stupid" over and over again. Thoughts raced through my head, "What will my granmum say?" "fucking stupid" "I knew I should've taken the bus" "This is one of the reasons why I hate the morning shift"..

I went home as fats as I could and told my granmum about it. I kind of woke her up but i did have to tell her. I wanted to apologize to her because of what happened. Why? She helped me buy that cellphone [which we had a deal that I will pay her monthly]. And losing it felt that I lost her trust in me and showed that I was careless with the thing she gave me. I really felt guilty.

Why?

This was the real first cellphone that was bought for me. Something that was brand new and wasn't a hand me down. Most of the previous phones I had was from my older brother. I'm not one to complain but it would've been nice to get a new phone. And now that I was able to get one, I lost it to a darn pickpocket.

You see, I haven't had any incident like this...ever. Even from previous jobs where I went home late. The only time I only got robbed was when I got mugged during highschool and a knife was placed upon my neck. After that incident,  I was now often wary of bag-slicers and snatchers on buses and people on the street. I was careful, I didn't want to make people worry. I even have an army knife tucked in my back pocket to ward of a mugger. But I couldn't stop a pickpocket.

Funny and tragic thing is, my girlfriend lost her phone a few weeks ago. It slipped from her pocket and was never to be seen again. I guess that's prolly one more thing we have in common. Anyhoo, I'm trying hard to see the silver lining in what happened. That it was better they got the phone and not my wallet as ALOT of things are currently in my wallet that's more important than a phone. That it was better than getting hurt in a mugging. I also thought that it was a little bit of divine intervention of sorts. That my phone getting stolen was some sort of sacrifice in order for my older bro to have a safe trip while he's in China and also safety for my younger sister who works as a nurse in Singapore. if that was the case, then i'd gladly sacrifice my phone for both of their safety. I'd rather have two great albeit irritable at times siblings rather than just have a phone.

...besides, I can get a new one but that's prolly going to take awhile.

I actually have thought about selling a few my toys to get funds for a new phone. But I'm still on the fence on that one as I think the ones i'll be selling off won't be enough.

Anyhoo, yesterday I didn't [prolly wont] go home via MRT. I went home via bus, it's slower and it's going to add to my daily travel expenses but I feel that it's a bit safer...at least for me.

That lapse of judgement that night will be of those things that will haunt me. I pray that it won't happen to any of my family and friends.


Precious cargo has been lost..but the adventure continues...
~ The Alansong ~

Let's Omnomnom!: Double Down Zinger from KFC

The Double Down was prolly the most ambitious and weird things KFC thought up of last year. But it sort of clicked as most KFC branches me and my gf went to sold out of those babies. I was able to taste one at a branch found at the MRT Ayala Station, and it was pretty good.

Now that it's back, KFC added some zing to it. They replaced the original recipe "chicken buns" with the hot and spicy ones.

It provided the "kick" the old Double Down lacked. For me, it was much better with hot and spicy than original. Although they really didn't change much of the recipe. It still has the same ingredients between those "buns" but I think it seems like it's a bit bigger. I'm not sure, maybe it depends.

I liked how they made it into zinger buns. I like hot and spicy foods but my body doesn't as it sweats profusely as I eat anything spicy. It definitely goes well with a large drink and some fries.

Anyhoo, it's a good replacement if you're craving for a hot and spicy burger. It may still be a bit greasy and prolly unhealthy with multiple consumptions but it still tastes great.

Let's Talk Figures!: Marvel Universe X-23

Seems like Crossbones is unaware of things to come...

They've almost done everything to Wolverine and I think one of the best was introducing Laura Kinney, X-23, as a clone of his.

The recent wave gave use X-23 in her X-force regalia. Her time with X-force was prolly the most brutal we've ever seen of her. A calculated yet sometimes feral killing machine. Ol' Logan disapproved but there's no stopping X-23.

Calm before the storm..

First off, I'm glad and thankful that my girlfriend got to reserve and get me this figure at GreattoysOnline. I thought I won't be able to have this fig but she surprised me and got me one.

Anyway...

Unlike the previous MU women that came out, X-23 has a much better mold. Swivel elbows, thighs and ankles are what separates and gives her an edge. Black Widow and Ms. Marvel would've used at least swivel elbows. Other than that, she has the same articulation as most recent MU figures.

Just look at that figure! Perfection! ..more or less. Her face has some nice paint apps and her hair is bendy/rubbery enough to allow a few nice poses. Her face seems a bit older than what she looks like in the comics but its still a great mold.

She only comes with the typical stand. Hasbro really needs to up the ante on accessorizing MU figs. For example, X-23 could've used another pair of feet that has claws and another pair of un-clawed hands. maybe an extra unmasked head while you're at it. Now that would've made this figure truly awesome.

Yep, you can tip her head like so...and now we have our obligatory "brooding" pose.

X-23 is a tall smexy glass of water. A bit taller than most MU women and almost the same hieght as other figures from other 3.75/4" toyline. She really does stand out among the rest.

Over-all she's an awesome addition to your Marvel Universe collection. Especially with the X-force Boxset that's out in stores. 

Now for some fun! Till next figure!