My mom just realized what she said and we both burst in laughter.

MyMusicStore.com.ph offers a wide range of music library open for purchase, which they claim is the first in the Philippines. The iTunes store only offers apps and free e-books, so if you really intend to buy music from iTunes you have to exert more effort (register an US Apple ID, buy iTunes gift cards, etc.). I also read from an article that you can buy songs from Google as well, but then again, you have to fake your physical location in order to gain access. So in other words, unless you really want to spend that much time and effort on those options, the only choice you have is either buy the CD or download from P2P sites.

So when I heard this website from a radio show, I was excited. I almost thought it would be a perfect alternative to iTunes, though I really haven’t experienced downloading music from iTunes ever. For as low as Php35 you can buy a Kelly Clarkson single. So I browsed their music library and looked for what I think is worth of my first purchase. After hours of choosing what album/song should I buy, I clicked the Buy button, registered a PayPal account, and then poof.

I am not impressed with the songs I bought. Here are my reasons, no matter how juvenile some of those might sound to you.

1. The album art is different. Why, oh why is it that the picture of Noel Cabangon was the one used as Orange and Lemons’ album art? I thought twice if I should buy this, because I am afraid I may not get the correct album (not that I don’t like Noel Cabangon’s music). I have to download the album art somewhere else and apply it to the tracks. OC na kung OC.
2. The track list is different from the official track listing. I have to modify everything in iTunes just so it would follow the correct order. Again, call me OC but these are the things that they should be very meticulous about especially if they are selling albums. All music metadata should be correct.
3. And finally, if I am buying the entire album, why do I need to download each song at a time? The album contains 18 tracks, and I have to download them one by one. Can’t I have the album as one download? Good thing I didn’t buy that Whitney Houston compilation album, otherwise I would be downloading 30 files or more! And no, I am planning to buy Whitney Houston album NOT for myself but for my mother! Defensive much?

The music quality is okay, but hear me out here. If you want to buy a CD, would you only care about the music (uhh yeah?)? How about the packaging in its entirety? I don’t know. Again, the reasons may be a little bit immature, but for me they are good enough for me not to buy from them again. Maybe I’ll buy singles, but albums? No thanks.

I like James Cameron’s take on the movie, but not to the point that it would make me watch it again in 3D. I think watching it once is good enough for me. My favorite scene in that movie is when the CGI version of how the ship sank was presented to the then present Rose. So when I saw this new CGI version, I am in awe seeing the science on how the ship sank, and how it hit the sea bed.

Tonight 12:30 am to 3:30 am cosmo rays entering earth from mars. So switch off your mobile at night. Don’t keep your cell with you & put it away while you are sleeping because they are too much dangerous rays: NASA informs BBC NEWS. Pls spread this news.

For someone who has been a regular bum in the Internet, I find this a bit hoax-y, so I search stuffs thanks to Google, and found this blog post from a fellow kababayan.

This post provides a detailed explanation as to why the said news is not true. Apparently this has been circulating since 2008, and for some weird reason, it resurfaced today. BBC also has an article about this.

It’s 2012. We are now living in a world filled with free information, thanks to the Internet. But not all that comes from the Internet are true. Before sharing stuffs like this that might induce panic to every one, please try and validate the information first. Was it so difficult to run a quick Google or Bing (forget Yahoo) search first before clicking that Facebook publish button?

If there’s anything that may come from Mars, it’s not the cosmic rays. It’s the Biker Mice.

I mean, there is no iMac 7S or iPod 5Z or something right? And people doesn’t get confused at all. Why do Apple have to append a sequence number next to the name every time they release a new one?

I think these are all just for bragging rights. They wanted to have this chance of saying to their friends “hey guys, hide your iPad 2 units; here comes my newly bought iPad 3 4G!! Boom.” Really?

Well I guess somehow it’s Apple’s fault. There would be no spoiled kids if there are no parents willing to spoil them. If they started branding the iPad and iPhone with just that – iPad and iPhone – and just append the word “new” during new releases, maybe people won’t react violently now.

In my opinion the new features are great and I might even buy it anytime soon. The name won’t be a huge deal for me. I am in for the specs. I just hope that when I buy it from a reseller I won’t get confused and mistakenly buy iPad 2 instead thinking it’s the new one. I mean there’s no way to determine if it’s the new version right? Unlike in iPhone, just press the Home button long enough to see if Siri will appear which proves it as the 4S version. All the new updates in iPad are somehow iOS based and were already there; just enhanced because of the retina display. Maybe the retina display is that apparent that you don’t need any proof whatsoever.

This is just one of the problems when you try to release a much anticipated version. When the hype was so high and the expectations weren’t met, no matter how great the new version was, it will disappoint the fanboys. Even if it is just the name. But then again, fanboys are fanboys. As much as they wanted to hate, they will still buy it anyway.

I was standing inside the Power Mac Center last weekend, thinking on whether I should go with Magneat or Cable Yoyo. I was really going to buy Magneat at first and it might have made my life easier if only I didn’t see the Cable Yoyo thing. I remember someone gave this to my colleagues during the holidays four years ago, and since I wasn’t lucky to receive anything from him, I found it awkward to ask where did he buy it. After 30 minutes or so, I have finally decided to go with Cable Yoyo.

Other than the price, I chose Cable Yoyo over Magneat because I think the former can keep my cable in order while it’s inside my bag. Magneat is only useful if I am using my earphones and I’d like to keep them in order while wearing them. I am not sure if it can keep the wires from tangling itself when it is in my bag. Since I am always sitting while using my earphones, I don’t need Magneat. I can just go with Cable Yoyo.

I have to keep myself from spending on things that are outrageously expensive for a specific purpose that other items can provide with a cheaper price tag.

For an external hard drive, I really don’t mind if it comes with a power adapter instead of having all the power and data transferred through USB alone. Actually I don’t even consider USB at all. The computer comes with FireWire 800 and Thunderbolt, so I have been looking for hard drives catering either of these instead. These ports offer faster file transfer, which I find beneficial since I’ve got huge files to migrate.

There’s one storage solution that I saw in Amazon that offers FireWire connectivity which is WD My Book Studio 3TB. I love the metal enclosure of the storage device; and 3TB is big enough for me. I can just partition the drive into two, with the first half as my Time Machine drive and the other as my personal “anything-goes” drive. But the problem is the device is a bit pricey, and my friend from US won’t be coming home till August, so I am starting to consider another option.

I was also looking for a Thunderbolt-powered hard drive, because apparently it offers faster transfer rate and the connection also powers the device, which is great. I mean, who could say no to less wires right? I was checking out the Seagate’s GoFlex solution, but the Thunderbolt adapter is bought separately, which means additional $$ for me.

You see, I am so willing to pay more on the hard drive, as long as it has huge capacity with faster transfer rate. The only problem is I have to save up first before I could buy one. Arrgh.

This is the reason why I have been looking for a cable organizer that I could use for my earphones. A colleague of mine once told me where to buy it, but I can’t remember it anymore, so I have been looking for it every where it could possibly be available.

My initial guess was in CD-R King, since they almost have ANYTHING that has something to do with gadgets. But unfortunately, the one they offer is too small. It is such a huge effort to put my earphones in that cable organizer that it is better for me to untangle it instead than put it in there.

When my mother and sister went to SM yesterday, they saw this offered in Power Mac Center (which surprisingly wasn’t in the list of shops that I thought of). They took a picture of it for me to see, and they said it costs Php495. Magneat.

It contains a magnet that you could use to attach the cable organizer in your clothes while it holds the earphone wires. Well this isn’t exactly what I had in mind when I first thought of cable organizers, since I just wanted them to stay orderly inside my bag. But this is a nice innovation. According to Magneat.com, they have different designs that you could choose from. You can have it black, white, or with a zebra-like pattern, or a pixelated skull for the rockers by heart.

It’s a shame I wasn’t able to buy one today. I will look at iStudio or Digital Hub to see if they have it.

I’ll post an update as soon as I have bought one.

I have never been a fan of tactical games, because for me those kinds of games just gives me headache. I mean, I am playing a game to relax right? Why would I stress myself more by thinking strategies to win a game? This is why most of my games are childish, and probably why I make my recent career decisions as such.

But enough about me (or at least the decision thing). I just finished playing Where’s my Water and I was already looking for another game to play while waiting for my dish to cook on Zombie Cafe. I saw this game in App Store and after watching the gameplay on YouTube, I immediately bought it without thinking that “hey, this is a tactical game you idiot. Do you really know what you’re doing with your money?” But then it was already too late when I realized that. It is with great relief that after playing the game for about 15-30 minutes, my interest on the game never faded. I didn’t even realize that I was already playing for almost an hour with this!

The main goal of the game is to protect the ant hill from lurking bugs. The player would lead the worker ants to the food that the queen needed to generate soldiers, spitters (shooters) and bombers that would help you shield your colony against enemies. Well you do that by leading the ants to their tactical position to kill enemies and feed the carcasses to their queen. Who would have thought that a war is raging beneath our feet?

The objective sounds simple enough to understand, but of course just like other games, it always goes down to what the situation will be. Are there going to be some stack food that could help generate the enough defense? Or I have only one worker and a leaf of food?

My favorite type of ant so far is the bomber. WIth the bomber you can fly on the enemies and drop explosives on them. Imagine if you have 20 bombers or more! The blanket of explosions relaxes my mood, which is quite weird at times.

I really hate those bugs that shoot stuff from afar, because it really makes it hard to reach and kill them. You really have to send like a swarm of bombers just to finish the job. My favorite bugs on the other hand was those lady bugs that does nothing but present themselves as food. Ha! Can’t love them more.

To all iOS users out there, this game is a must have. Well at least if you are into strategy games such as this. This game is awesome.

Thanks to Image & Form for this wonderful game. Go to the game’s website for more details.

Mental Note to Self: Stop purchasing anything for a month please.

After one month of having an iPhone, I have bought my first app. But no, it’s not a journal logging application (in case you’re wondering what is my first app purchase, it’s Where’s My Water?). My second app purchase was the Day One app, which is a journal logging application. Gee, two app purchases in just one day? I hope I’ll be able to control myself with these impulsive purchases.

So why do I need to keep another journal? After years of blogging, I found out that as much as you want to say and publish everything in your blog, you’ll find yourself restricted most of the time. What if someone you’re referring to your blog reads it? What would he/she feel? What if your thoughts written and published might damage someone in any possible way? Spewing bad thoughts doesn’t have to hit someone else. But then, keeping those thoughts inside you won’t help you either. For so many days I’ve always been bugged with these negative brain farts that keep messing up in my head. I find it hard to think when I have these baggages wanting to get kicked out of my system. I tried blogging these thoughts, but then I’d found myself deleting them afterwards (the shortest timespan between clicking Publish and Delete buttons is one hour so far – which I think is the only thing quicker than Kim Kardashian’s marriages). It’s like spewing something and eating it back again (ewwness overload, I know, but there’s no better metaphor to describe it).

Then I saw this app that you could use and keep privately. Imagine all of your thoughts locked inside an app. You can create an entry anytime anywhere, and still be assured that no one will be able to read it. There’s no nagging sensation in your head thinking infinite “what if” questions. Just you and yourself.

Making a journal about everything privately brings out the honesty in you. Why would you choose your words if only you can read it? Why bother saying the polite words when no one’s gonna be offended? I must say that just moments after posting some entries I find them a little bit corny, but I must restrain myself from deleting them and writing a new one. It would just defeat the purpose, and at the same time cost me two dollars for nothing.

I’ll be doing this experiment and see if my mind would be clearer in the coming days. Thanks to Dumbledore for the idea of a pensieve. A place where you could store memories privately unless you show them voluntarily (or maybe under duress? But who would threat me for my journal’s contents? The antagonists in Mara Clara?).