Moving out of blogspot

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Please use the new site to read my blog entries. :)

The Road to the Pokemon League

***** SPOILERS WITHIN THIS BLOG *****
(or works as a walkthrough, whichever way you wanna look at it)

FROM THE JOURNAL OF SINNOH REGION POKEMON TRAINER: ZED

*** JOURNAL ENTRY: 12 July 2007, 10pm ***

FINALLY, after 59 hours and 16 minutes of going through the Sinnoh Region, I emerged from Victory Road to arrive at the entrance to the Pokemon League.

Here's the Team I brought with me for my Pokemon League challenge:

Torterra - Lv. 51 (evolved from a Turtwig received from Professor Rowan)
Moves: Giga Drain, Solarbeam, Crunch, Earthquake
Luxray - Lv. 52 (trained from a Lv. 4 Shinx)
Moves: Thunderbolt, Shockwave, Crunch, Leer
Staraptor - Lv. 48 (trained from a Lv. 4 Starly)
Moves: Fly, Defog, Aerial Ace, Wing Attack
Infernape - Lv. 48 (evolved from a traded Chimchar)
Moves: Flamethrower, Rock Smash, Rock Climb, Strength
Empoleon - Lv. 48 (evolved from a traded Piplup)
Moves: Surf, Waterfall, Blizzard, Cut
Gengar - Lv. 44 (evolved from a hatched Gastly)
Moves: Hypnosis, Mean Look, Spite, Dark Pulse

I was levelling up Gengar so that I could catch the 3 legendary pokemons of the lakes. I had originally planned to bring Lucario with me to my League Team, but decided to see if Haunter would be a better choice since having a 2nd Fighting/Steel type on my team leaves me at a bigger disadvantage against multiple-types, compared to having the Ghost/Poison combination (which my other pokemon don't have).

I have been training the first 5 pokemon on my team from the very beginning of my pokemon journey, while training multiple pokemon (such as Gyarados, Haunter and Lucario) for the 6th slot. I had to use some of my Rare Candy, HP Up, PP Up and TMs in order to get some of the pokemon above the way they are. Also, I gave all of them items to boost some of their attacks, except for Gengar who has the Exp. Share for levelling purposes.

Even though I was advised to NOT attempt fighting the Elite Four + Champion until ALL my pokemon reached at least Lv. 55 or higher, I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. Anyway, if I lost (the correct phrase was "when you lose" as my brother pointed out when I told him I was attempting to battle the Elite Four with the team above), my pokemon could always use the experience.

So after using up my money on all the Hyper Potions, Revives and Full Restores that I could buy, I went in.

===================================
ELITE FOUR, FIRST BATTLE: Aaron

Aaron used mostly bug-type pokemon, which were easily killed with 1 or 2 hits from Staraptor's Aerial Ace, or Infernape's Flame Thrower. But the Drapion (darn combination type), fainted them a lot of times before I thought to try using Torterra's Earthquake. Torterra's high Defense/Sp. Defense stat helped make the job easier.

Beat him quite easily, thanks to Staraptor. Whoopee!

NOTE TO SELF: I noticed that Aaron had Full Restore at his disposal whenever I knock the opponent pokemon's HP into the red. I should assume that the other trainers must have the same, and must be wary to try to KO the opponent as quickly as possible.

===================================
ELITE FOUR, SECOND BATTLE: Bertha

Again, thanks to Torterra, I was able to survive a barrage of attacks from Ground-type pokemon. Since my Grass-type moves on Torterra were a bit slow, I had to use up a lot of Hyper Potions before I could knock out her pokemon. Empoleon's Surf was a BIG HELP, provided it didn't get knocked down by the opponent's Earthquake attacks. Bertha's Hippowdon was the hardest to knock down, took me a good 10 to 15 minutes.

But I beat her!!! :)

===================================
ELITE FOUR, THIRD BATTLE: Flint

Flint's supposed to have Fire-type pokemon, but I guess due to the lack of fire-types in the Sinnoh Region, he had the most diverse team. Empoleon took care of the Fire-types with Surf, provided he got to attack first. Infernape took care of the other 2 pokemon in Flint's arsenal, while Torterra and Luxray had a Crunch of the Drifblim. Torterra needed the experience points, but I switched out because it kept attacking second; Luxray's speed allowed it to use Crunch before Drifblim could attack.

I won, I won, I won! It took a while, but I won! Took a relieved breather.

===================================
ELITE FOUR, FOURTH BATTLE: Lucian

My brother swears he hates this trainer. I quickly figured out why. His Psychic-type pokemon were mostly combinations in REALLY HIGH LEVELS (think Lv. 59 to 63), so they couldn't easily be killed with a fast Dark-type attack. Alakazam is a very fast pokemon with high Defense/Sp. Defense stats too, so my Luxray took a real beating, plus most of my turns were used on Potions (otherwise Luxray would faint and I wouldn't have a strong Dark-type attack anymore). Bronzong is a monster, since it could easily knock out Infernape with a Psychic attack. Thank goodness Flamethrower almost always takes the first turn. And it was after multiple revives of Luxray and Torterra before I finally figured to use Staraptor on the Medicham. Medicham was a bit faster than Staraptor, so I had to keep Staraptor's HP up all the time to survive the attacks.

I had the hardest time with Lucian, I think he kept me occupied for about 30 minutes, but yes I still won. At this point, I have used up about 15 Hyper Potions/Full Restores and maybe 8 revives. But OMG, I survived! I couldn't believe it! I beat Lucian! Huzzah!

===================================
POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPION: Cynthia

I have to spend a lot of words on this part. This battle was heart breaking for me.

Being Champion obviously means she has the best-made team, on top of having pokemon 10 levels higher than mine. 5 out of 6 pokemon were combination types that had hardly any weakness, while the single water-type pokemon had such high HP and stats (both Attack and Defense) that it was a struggle surviving this round.

Her Spiritomb was immune to Dark-type attacks, so I just used Luxray's Thunderbolt on it. It should have taken me only 3 hits, but because of the Full Restore, I used up 6 PP on it.

Milotic is a monster Water-type that's faster than Luxray, sadly. Luxray kept fainting before I could get a Thunderbolt attack in.

My Infernape survived most of Lucario's pounding, but it was still quite a while before I finally got it with a couple of Flamethrower attacks.

Gastrodon was matched up to Torterra, and was pretty easy to beat.

I should mention at this point that Gengar (who was absolutely useless throughout the whole League battles was already fainted here, and I only had 2 pokemon in green HP levels while the others were either fainted or newly-revived). Ohh, good luck to me!

Garchomp is a Dragon/Ground type. I had Blizzard in my arsenal, but it's not that effective against Ground types so Empoleon wasn't much help. Surf was more useful here, but Empoleon is slower than Garchomp. Infernape kept fainting from Earthquake. Garchomp kept knocking out Torterra, Luxray and Staraptor BEFORE I could land an attack. On Garchomp ALONE, I used up about 10+ revives and about 30+ Hyper Potions. Guess how I knocked it down?

It ran out of moves, used Struggle, and knocked my Torterra and itself out from the recoil.

My adrenalin was up. I only had to beat 1 more pokemon, and I would be Pokemon League Champion on my 1st try!!! But... my one last remaining pokemon was Staraptor. Everyone else had already fainted. Staraptor had full HP though, so I was hopeful.

Roserade was the last pokemon to beat. As a Grass-type, it was weak against Flying-type... so all I had to do was survive till I could get the first turn of attack. I used Aerial Ace.

Unfortunately, fate decided to go in Roserade's favor, because Staraptor got KO'ed from a single, critical hit with an Energy Ball.

After 2 hours, 4 Elite Four battles, 50+ Hyper Potions, 10+ Full Restores and 20+ Revives, my Flying-type got beaten by a Grass-type.

Sucks.

...

...

...

On a happier note. What did I learn from my entire battle? I believe I put together a good team. I was only battling with 5 Pokemon (Gengar didn't get to battle at all!), I was only battling with Pokemon who had WAY LOWER levels than the opponent pokemon (granted I was surviving from Potions, hehe) and I was only one Pokemon away from becoming Pokemon League Champion on the first try! I think it was a fantastic experience for me! :) I guess I couldn't really expect to beat the Elite Four and the Champion with the Team I brought with me, but I was close, eh?

I brought my weary Pokemon to the Pokemon Center at the League Entrance. I'm happy to find they are recovering nicely and none of them were unhappy with me for losing. My pokemon still love me as much as I love them, and we WILL become Pokemon League Champions together! All our hard work and training will be worth it some day.

For tonight, I must rest and rethink my battle strategy. Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow, our Road to the Pokemon League will be complete.

*** END OF JOURNAL ENTRY ***

6 Weird Things About Me

Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about you. People who got tagged need to write a blog entry of their own 6 weird things. They should state the rule clearly as well. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. I'm too happy-go-lucky. One perfect example would be that there was news of a possible retrenchment in our office. Instead of taking to the bottle like my officemates did, I was excited to be one of the people to get laid off-- it just means it's time for me to move on to better things!

2. I love accessories and kikay stuff. Earrings, bracelets, trinkets, high heels, gimmick clothes, skirts, etc. But I stick to my basic accessories of 3 stud earrrings (I have 3 earring holes) and rubber wrist bands, and my basic attire of polo shirt/t-shirt, jeans and rubber shoes. Go figure. In fact, I have 7 pairs of Nike Rubber shoes, and only 2 pairs of shoes that I would consider really feminine-- and I only wear these 2 during formal occassions wherein I have to wear a dress.

3. While all the guys were trying to escape ROTC, I joined ROTC in college and became an officer with the 3rd-highest position in the Corps of Officers (Corps N1 and Adjutant-- N1 since we were under the Navy). I was also the first female ROTC officer in the history of DLSU. :)

4. I have a penchant for cars, weapons, military gear, gadgets and rubber shoes, I prefer to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Transformers over Carebears, I would rather stay home and play video games than go shopping, I prefer shirts+jeans+rubber shoes over the typical girly outfits... but despite all these tomboyish traits, I have NEVER been mistaken for a lesbian. It's gotta be the overall attitude.

5. I have a violent reaction to children. I'll leave you to try to figure out what this means, but Teejay says that I'm the only person he knows who reacts the way I do towards children.

6. If Donatello was a real-life character, I'd want him for a boyfriend. Even if he IS a turtle. XD (Sorry Teej!)


I'm not weirder than (this was hard to compile, since I know few people weirder or are just as weird as me... I ended up just putting down some people who I found more peculiar than most of the people I know):
1. Sean
2. Faye
3. Dominic (my brother)
4. Gem (she's already tagged me)
5. Claire
6. Marco (Teejay's friend)

After 3 years of eBay... ARGH!

After 3 years of doing buy-and-sell on eBay, I think I have finally encountered the worst transaction possible... sad to say, it's from an eBay member who has a 100% feedback score and a blue star rating (for those who are unfamiliar with eBay rankings, a blue star rating means the person has had 50 to 99 unique and successful transactions. More info at eBay's Star Icons info page).

First of all, let me point out that all of my item listings have my preferred meetup points (Makati: General area of Starbucks Insular and for QC: General area of Orthopedic Hospital along Banawe) indicated. Complete with specific location, dates and times (since I have to work too, after all), and I have a note on every listing to please feel free to contact me for any concerns.

Going on to the story:

A potential buyer contacted me May 13 via email to ask if I could meet him on Election Day for the transaction. I said I was out of town at the moment, and would be back in Manila on Thursday, May 17 and if we could meet then. Buyer said OK to this and bid on the item.

On May 16, I clarified with the buyer that I can only meet at my QC meetup point on Thursday due to schedule restraints, and OK for the QC or Makati meetup points on Friday. Buyer said to meet at Makati since will be coming from a province, so will have to be Friday. OK'ed by both me and buyer.

On Friday morning (let's say 830am), buyer texted me to let me know we can meet at 1pm, and to change the order from a black-colored model to a blue-colored model. I replied with a text message: "Sorry, no other colors available at this time. Ok for 1pm at Starbux Insular."

Buyer replied to me: "I come all the way from ___ am not familiar with that place. Can we meet at Glorietta 4. Your ad said other colors available."

So I replied: "No stock yung other colors na. It was specified in the item description about the meetup point. You should have asked me first if we can meet up at a different location. Can I give you a call?"

Buyer calls me up, asking "Was it specified in the description about the meetup point?" I said yes. Then buyer says "I'm coming all the way from ___ and I have to meet you on your doorstep to buy the item? eBay is a place for buyer and seller to respect each other and come to compromise in order to do a successful transaction."

At this point, I explained first that the reason why sellers put meetup locations in the item description is so that buyers are already guided as to whether the meetups are reasonable to them or not. Ok lang to meet elsewhere, pero sana naman the buyer asked me first if this was possible, and not spring up a location change to me at the last minute.

And that's where all hell broke lose. Buyer started saying things like "mutual respect about buyer and seller", "how long have you been on ebay", "if you check my feedback i'm not a scammer", "glorietta is a public area so safe for me and buyer to transact", "i've been doing transactions on ebay for a long time ikaw lang yung di maayos kausap."

And buyer was saying it in a patronizing tone of voice, without even giving me a chance to explain. Basta satsat siya ng satsat. Obviously, I was irritated at this point. I didn't shout although I did have to raise my voice a little to get my point across, which buyer was rebutting with things like "we're both educated" and "i don't want this transaction to go sour" and other stuff.

Ah... and buyer even had the audacity to tell me "iha, bata ka pa" and "wag mo ako tarayan."

What does this information have to do with the meetup location? Tsaka pag sinabihan ka ng ganyan ng total stranger, how the hell does one expect you to react???

In the end, buyer told me "Iha, di tayo magkakasundo, wag na lang." As to which I replied "Next time, please read everything in the listing."

There were some other points about the item that we argued about, like the item color and availability, but this was the part of the conversation that really irked me.

I've had meetups with other buyers before who come from far away, and I've also had a lot of transactions where I had to go far from my meetup points to meet the buyer, but within reasonable distance and agreeable to us both WAY BEFORE the meetup date. And if this buyer has the audacity to tell me that buyer has had so many ebay transactions before with no problem, then why couldn't the buyer pick up on a simple thing as "Meetup Point" in the item description. All the buyer had to do was ask if we can meet at Glorietta the first time I was contacted. Then I could schedule my day to try to meet the buyer at Glorietta. Diba?

Geez.

My First Crumpler!

So, how does it look?

Review to follow later on!

HOT!

I didn't post for a over a week. No excuses, but I'll tell you that I wasn't idle during those days.

60% of those times were work-related (project nearing completion crunch time, so overtime is mandatory to get the job done), and the other 40%, you can see for yourself here-- and hey, it's not even complete yet. :)

Anyway, my airconditioner broke down last Sunday night. It's blowing out air, but when I turn the dial to "Cool", it makes a noisy choking sound which intermittently goes away and comes back, but the temperature doesn't change. In other words, it's currently working as a very expensive electric fan.

It chose a really lousy time to break down. Why couldn't it have broken down last February when the temperature was below 20 degrees? The summer evenings are averaging between 30 to 35 degrees, without counting humidity. It's sweltering nowadays, and I sweat easily too.

I have 2 electric fans in my room, a wall-mounted type and a 12" floor fan which I use to keep mosquitoes away from my legs when I'm working at the computer table. The wall fan doesn't blow strong enough even if I aim the fan on the bed and put the speed setting on high. The 12" floor fan sits on a stool I keep in the room, and it's not enough either.

Don't get me wrong... I wouldn't want you to read this thinking I am living the luxury life with the aircon and all. :D But come on people, you gotta admit that it's HOT. Yes, I turn on my aircon every night, but I don't leave it on for too long. We bought a timer thingy wherein I can set the aircon on for 1 to 2 hours-- just to cool the room to a comfortable sleeping temp, and then it will shut off the aircon and automatically turn on the electric fan, which is good enough for me as long as I don't sweat while sleeping.

Going back, I dislike leaving my window open at night, so you can imagine the air circulation in my room: hot air moving around in circles. I'm a bit of an agoraphobe (as opposed to being claustrophobic) coupled with slight nocturophobia, so I absolutely REFUSE to open the windows. It also doesn't help that I like to watch monster/horror/thriller movies and that my wild imagination makes me think that something will be coming in through my window if I leave it open. My windows have bars and a screen door, but still... yeah yeah, the HEAT! I KNOW! But I'd rather suffer the heat than like awake at night wondering if I'll see something looking in on me when I open my eyes in the middle of the night.

I blame it on the JeepersCreepers2 movie.

And you know how service centers are in the Philippines. National said they could come look at it on Thursday (tomorrow). While I have my doubts about my old aircon unit still being servicable (I think it's over 10 years old), I'll wait till tomorrow's verdict before looking at shops for a new one. I've already got the dimensions written in a piece of paper in my bag, hehe.

For the sake of saving money though, I hope the aircon is still serviceable with a reasonable price tag.

...

As an afterthough, getting a new aircon means I'll be able to save electricity when I use it, since the newer models consume less power than the old ones. ;P

PLDT myDSL Sucks

I hate PLDT.

I've been a PLDT myDSL subscriber since July 2004. Back then, the internet packages were something like P2500 for a 768Kbps (or was is 786kbps?) connection. In those days, a 768Kbps connection was already pretty good.

Technology and the internet has kept on advancing in the past 2-3 years, and as of August 2006, the PLDT myDSL packages look like this:

Plan 999 = 512Kbps
Plan 1995 = 1.2Mbps
Plan 3000 = 5Mbps
* Note that the prices are exclusive of VAT.

Where am I going with this? Well, did you know:

1. PLDT did not provide flyers regarding the new DSL packages to existing subscribers.
2. Existing subscribers do NOT get an automatic upgrade.

Which means that UNLESS you storm over to PLDT to get your plan changed (only after your 2-year lockup period has passed, of course), you will be paying good money for poor service.

My 2-year lock up ended last July 2006. Technically, I have been paying P2545.56 (with 12% VAT) for a 768kbps connection, but newer myDSL subscribers pay only P2035 (with 12% VAT) for a 1.2Mbps connection -- they pay less for better service.

And get this...

1. When you ask PLDT to upgrade your speed under the same plan, my P2545.56 per month will only allow me up to a 1Mbps speed upgrade.

2. When you ask PLDT to upgrade your plan to upgrade to a higher speed, they call it a DOWNGRADE, since they make less money (they get P2545.56 for 768Kbps VS getting P2035 for 1.2Mbps).

3. When you ask to "downgrade" your plan, the telephone customer service people will tell you that you have to pay a P5000 service charge (F*ck that, I'd rather terminate my DSL plan. Besides, I'm WAYYYY past my 2year lockup period, stupid! DUH!)

4. When you ask for a rebate to compensate for the overpayment you are making (versus the current DSL packages), they'll tell you this is not possible since the old plan is still in effect.

5. When you tell them that they should've automatically "downgraded" the plan, they'll tell you they don't change current plans without the advise of the subscriber.

6. When you tell them that they should've provided the new packages information to existing subscribers (hello, they send useless ad flyers with your PLDT phone bill), they'll tell you that the information has been available since the day the packages were made available to the market.

Oh... I had to ask all of these via a Business Center because their telephone customer service hotline SUCKS BIG TIME!

I hate PLDT.

The only reason I have a PLDT DSL subscription to begin with is that my company was the one who applied for the DSL subscription (since it's a work-related benefit). Since the 2year lockup is over, I have the option to switch to Bayantel. Unfortunately, Bayantel does not offer competetive rates / speed. I need a connection of at least 1Mbps, and Bayantel can't give this to me at a reasonable rate. Globelines is not available in my part of Metro Manila. *sigh*

For now, I've decided to retain my DSL subscription (but I made them "downgrade" it to Plan 1995, but have to wait for 2 weeks before the changes take effect), at least until August. By then, I will be moving to my new place in another part of Metro Manila, and I'll have to get a new subscription with whatever carrier will be available there (screw PLDT if they're still the provider in that area). It would be too much effort to change to a Bayantel subscription if I'm only going to be able to use it for 5 months, when there is a lockup period to consider, plus the ludicrous rates).

But damn, I hope I'll be able to switch to a better provider then.