Sunday, June 29, 2025

Mystery Manila Night

I spent an awesome evening at Century City Mall with my friends to try our luck at two Mystery Manila rooms: Sinister Sensorium and Mutants' Mission. It's been a while since my last visit to Mystery Manila so it was great to experience it again.


The first room we tried was Sinister Sensorium. It is really unique because all the participants need to "lose" one sense - either sight, hearing, or speaking (well, speaking isn't a sense but that's how it's described). It was such a cool challenge because you had to figure out how to communicate with each other when one person can't speak, another can't hear, and one person can't see and everyone is locked in their own area. I "lost" my sight but I was really happy I was able to figure out the puzzle box just through feel. My friends and I needed to a few hints to get out but thankfully, we did.


The Mutants' Mission was a lot tougher. This X-Men-themed room was really cool, with the entrance to the room looking like the entrance to Cerebro. At some point, I was certain that one part of the room was the key to help us get out but I couldn't quite figure out how exactly to make it work (I won't say what part of the room it is so I won't spoil you). I also got confused by so many different elements in the room. In the end, we exceeded the hint allotment (I think we are allowed up to three but we asked for, and were given, four) but we did eventually figure it out and get out.


I gotta say, these two Mystery Manila rooms were a lot more challenging than the rooms I had tried previously. There's a certain way of thinking that you need to have when you try to find your way out. It does make we really want to try more of their mysteries in the future.


 

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Monday, June 23, 2025

New Board Game

I have a new board game - Intarsia. In one of our board game nights, my friend Cla said that she wanted us to try this game. I thought it was both interesting and really nice to look at, what with the interestingly shaped wooden pieces that kind of lock together. I asked Cla if she was selling this game and she said that she could just sell me the copy we played. She also sold it to me at a really good price. How could I say no? As such, I now have a new board game, my first new one in a long time.

Intarsia Board Game

I promised myself not to get new games until I can reduce my "shelf of shame." The shelf of shame is the term somewhat popular in board gaming circles and it refers to the set of board games that a person owns that he or she has not played yet. Thankfully, I managed to reduce my shelf of shame a bit recently when my friends and I played my copy of Ecos. I actually really like this game although I don't know if it's because I seem to do quite well. The first time I played it (using Cla's copy), I won relatively convincingly. The second time I played it, I ended up in second place. It can be played by up to 6 players so it's a good choice for us when there are 6 of us playing and we don't want to break up into two different tables during game night.

Ecos Board Game

Hopefully, I get to reduce my shelf of shame a bit more before the year ends. My goal is to finally play two games I have that I have been wanting to play for a while - Altiplano and Yokohama. 

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Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Alas Pilipinas Women Win Silver at the 2025 AVC Women's Nation's Cup!

Congratulations to the Alas Pilipinas women's volleyball team for winning silver at the AVC Women's Nation's Cup. This is the best ever finish by a Philippine women's team at this 64-year old event. Amazing! They built on what was achieved last year - when the Philippines won bronze - and took it a step further in 2025. Most of the players from last year where still in this year's roster, with the notable addition of some incredible talents such as Bella Belen, Alyssa Solomon, and Shaina Nitura. This is also the first time the Philippines won a silver medal at an internaional volleyball since the 1997 SEA Games. The Alas team also had multiple individual awardees. One of them was Angel Canino who won Best Outside Hitter. This is such a spectacular result on so many levels. This is Angel's second international individual award in two years. Last year, she also won but as an opposite hitter. It's utterly impressive to think that she has won two international awards for two different positions in two years. Way to go, Angel! Jia De Guzman was also awarded best setter for the second year in a row. She really has cemented herself as one of the, if not the, best setters in the country. Not just right now but maybe in history. She truly is JiAmazing! I am also really happy that Dell Palomata was awarded best middle blocker. This was her first international individual award but she really did hold her own against some of the best attackers in the continent. This may be the first time in recent history that three members of the Philippine women's volleyball team won individual awards at the same international event. Congratulations Angel, Jia, and Dell! Hopefully the powers that be can keep this team intact for the most part and strengthen their skills as individuals and as a team. With their recent progress and ability to play against some strong team in Asia, they really do have such great potential. Congratulations Alas Pilipinas Women's team!  
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Friday, June 13, 2025

Retail Therapy

I found myself in SM Megamall recently, after a particularly stressful day at work. And as it turned out, I ended up doing some retail therapy.


To be fair, while I purchased three items of clothing, two of them weren't unplanned. A short while ago, I passed by the Perry Ellis store on the third floor and when I was there, I saw a cream-colored shirt that I really liked.  It was actually the exact same shirt that I wanted to buy when I visited the Perry Ellis store in Shangri-La mall months ago. I was told back then that they didn't have my size in any of their stores. So when I saw that same shirt in Megamall, I asked if they had my size and they said they did. I tried it on and it fit well (and I liked how it looked). I also saw an orange polo shirt and since my only other orange polo shirt was starting to get a bit too tight due to my weight gain, I thought that maybe I should get this one as well. As a bonus, both shirts were on sale, with about a 30% discount I think. However, since I really didn't need any new shirts, I decided not to purchase them on that first visit. A week or so later, I was still thinking about those shirts so I figured that if they were still available and still on sale, then I would get them. They were, so I bought them haha. I guess they were really meant for me!


The unplanned purchase was a pair of jeans that I got from American Eagle. The thing is, I discovered shortly before the pandemic that American Eagle jeans fit me quite well. So when I passed by their store and saw that they were on sale, with some items being up to 70% off, I decided to head in. I saw a pair of jeans that were the right size that were now "only" P900. Whoa! I quickly tried them, decided they fit me well enough, and immediately bought them.


Thankfully, this version of retail therapy wasn't too negative since I have not experienced any buyer's remorse. In fact, I am really pleased with what I bought. That said, my closet is way too full now so it's time for me to start letting go of some older clothes, especially ones that I don't really wear anymore.

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Friday, June 06, 2025

All aBoard Expo 25 sa QC

I spent an afternoon at the All aBoard Expo 25 sa QC and as a boardgamer, it was truly awesome! This event was the first of its kind in the Philippines and was designed to replicate board game conventions abroad. It was organized by the Quezon City government and Gaming Library. A few of my board gaming friends decided to go on the first day so I filed a vacation leave to join them.

It was a great experience on so many levels. Guests could borrow board games that we could play on any of the tables on the first floor of the M.I.C.E. Convention Center at the Quezon City Hall. (I got to play a few games that afternoon and my friends and I even made a new friend who played some games with us. Cool!) More tables were set up on the second floor that guests could also use to play games that they brought themselves. Coaches were present and scattered all over the venue to teach people how to play. Games were also available for purchase.

All aBoard Expo 25 sa QC

I spent most of the afternoon there and I was able to play a few games with my friends: Ding, Cascadia, and the LEGO-based game Monkey Palace. We also made a new friend who played some of these games with us. I also loved that there were standees of the beasts of King of Tokyo at the lobby (I actually own this game haha). Naturally, I had to have my photo taken.

Space Penguin from King of Tokyo

Another really great thing about this event was that a few game designers were there. One of them was David Gordon, the designer of Monkey Palace which we played that afternoon. As we were setting up the game, David Gordon passed by and he even sat down and interacted with us for a while. He even clarified one of the rules for us. Wow! But as if that wasn't enough, when I was taking a group photo with everyone along with the game, David saw us and joined us in the photo. It was super cool! And David is such a nice guy, it was such a wonderful experience getting to meet and interact with him.

Monkey Palace

The turn-out at this event was pretty massive, even on the workdays where you would expect not a lot of people to show up. I guess, similar to what I did, a lot of people took time off of work haha. In fact, I actually saw a colleague there and he also took a leave just like me haha. All aBoard Expo 25 sa QC was such a success that the QC government and Gaming Library have all but confirmed that this event will be held again next year, and the plan is to make it even bigger than it was this year. I can't wait! 

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