[Shoutout!] Congratulations!

Many Happy Returns to Granado Espada: Dispatches from the New World, owned by the impressive and wonderful NineMoons!

Congratulations to all the winners of the Fantazztic Film Awards! You may check out the results here.

In other news, why is it that whenever I try to do anything remotely GE, I get timed out or my connection just gets all screwy? I'm not happy about this, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed so that this entry actually makes it... X3

[Event] GEph Blogger's Meetup

Roll Call:

• NineMoons
• DeSanggria
• Deniva with Illuvien
  
• Sigrid
• Mena
  
• Blacksword
  
• Fiksdotter and Artaxerxes (brothers)
• Reclusion brothers
  

I'm sorry I can't write so much on this since I literally stole away from elsewhere just to be there, and I was ... uh, unfashionably late. 6^_^0 But I'm glad to announce that the following issues were brought up:

1. Trading vis/in-game items for real currency - most, if not all, were of the mindset that it's better to earn items and vis the hard way (by playing)
2. Game bugs, scripts, exploits and imbalances - thankfully, no-one seems to be practising those among the blogger-gamers, at least
3. Excessive G-Points dependency on IAHGames' part - I am personally of the belief that it's better to have the combat manuals in-game, instead of limiting their availability to G-Points holders, otherwise ... well, it's all up to them now
4. Drumming up more awareness and support for the game - considering the woeful lack of promotion for GE in the country, count me in!
   

Most of us were also Fantazztic Film Awards participants so it was touched upon as well. Too bad I missed that part. >.<0 Speaking of which, NineMoons has announced the winners of the FFA-Intel Scene & Heard Contest here. Congratulations to fellow bloggers Reclusion, Fiksdotter, Mena and Sigrid for their entries!

For longer write-ups on the subject, please check the links on the roll-call list above. v^_^v

In other news I was supposed to add my first-ever artwork for this blog, so that it could finally live up to its name. Alas, my internet at home keeps dying whenever I try to upload it. DX Oh well!

[Plug] Please support the Fantazztic Film Awards!

Man, I wish I was able to use my editing skills sooner and I had time to go to the Machinima seminars so I could submit my own movie. D:

Anyways what's done is done and Fantazztic Film Awards is in full swing!

Please support the films that my friends worked on: Not Another Love Story, One Letter for Freedom, and the film I played a voice role in, Anhela La Venganza! :D

... To be honest though, I'm also rooting for Granado Superstars to win. XD; Their tweaks on the GE animation were superb and unique. *o*

Please click on the link above to view and discuss.

[Language] Romance in the Romantic Tongue, lesson 001 of ???

I've been wanting to talk about the use (and, well, the humourous misuse) of the Romance languages for some time now, especially since getting involved in the Granado Espada MMORPG phenomenon. I have to admit that my reaction to bungled Iberian Spanish leaves me either in stitches or in incredulous disbelief, and I plan to change all that by writing and (re-)reading Español. I believe that my only advantage is that not only do I have some research and dictionaries on hand, but that, more importantly, I have 13 years of education in a (Iberian) Spanish-run Catholic school to back it up.

On the side I'll be adding a bit of Italian, because I'm currently taking that up IRL (which goes a long way towards explaining why I ironically have no time or money for GE these days... XD;)

First let's do the basics!

Historical Background and Introductions

The Romance languages are rooted not entirely in romance (though the countries that DO use the languages them are known for being quite the venues for romantic rondezvous ;P), but in the Roman language, Latin. You see, modern Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, Romania, and even Germany, were once territories of the Roman Empire. All of the people in these countries were forced to speak in Latin, the official language. However, as is true today in all countries, there were two kinds of Latin used: classical, which is the one most visible in written form and is very poetic and formal, and vulgar, which is something like everyday street language. If you compare Latin to modern English, the difference between the two would be that classical language is formal language used by the academe, politicians, generally very important people and cityfolk, with an emphasis on proper pronounciation, proper enunciation and impeccable grammar, while vulgar language would be used in the ghettos or slums, on the streets and in the countryside, with the speakers hardly caring if they mispronounce some words or have an overriding provincial accent while speaking. We owe it to Vulgar Latin (to be precise, some particularly foul-mouthed Romans and their country-bumpkin subjects XD) for the Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French and Rumanian languages today.

While it is true that regional variation as well as constant and uncorrected mispronunciation and enunciation have all contributed to the break-up of the Romance language into Italian, Spanish, Portugese, French and Rumanian, there are still many similarities between them, which makes it pretty convenient when you're lost in any of these countries because they will understand you if you speak a similar language. One of these similarities would be in giving and receiving personal introductions. Allow me to demonstrate.

In my 13 years of Spanish education, the one thing my classmates and I never forgot was this:

• Q: Hi! What is your name?
• A: My name is [name here].
  

In Spanish, this dialogue would run:

• Q: ¡Hola! ¿Cómo te llamas?
  
• A: Me llamo [nombre aquí]. (yes I translate quite literally for as much as the languages allow :P)
  

In Italian, this would be:

• Q: Ciao! Come ti chiami?
• A: Mi chiamo [nome qui].
  

Do you see the similarities? I sure can. It gets even better when you say those aloud. d^_~b

Of course, in these Old World countries, you can't just use those introductions on anyone. The Roman civilization has also spawned class segregation and formal speech. What I have written above are all informal speech, language that you use between peers your age. Unlike the English language which does not distinguish formalities between persons, users of the Romance language must observe politness towards their elders, bosses, superiors and people who have seniority in general, so here are the formal equivalents:

1. Spanish
• Q: [saludo según el tiempo de día*] ¿Cómo se llama usted?
• A: Me llamo [nombre aquí]


2. Italian
• Q: [saluto secondo il tempo del giorno*] ¿Come si chiama?
• A: Mi chiamo [nome qui].

The asterisked phrases both mean "greeting depending on the time of the day", because it is obviously improper to just say "Hi" to a senior. :P

As you can tell the responses are the same, but the questions are phrased differently. To be precise, you normally use the third person of speaking (referring to the person you're talking to as if he or she were not being conversed to) during formal introductions.

Alright! Sadly that's all the time we have today. I promise I will discuss more of these with you as I find more time to do so. Until next time!

Sources:

• Orbis Latinus for the historical background
• IELanguages.com (Indo-European Languages) also for the historical background, and for excellent tutorials in any of the Romance languages (perfect for those who have no time to enroll in class)
  
• Wikipedia entry on the history of the Romance languages
  
• Babelfish, the first and (almost) all-purpose online translator, although it can be too literal in translating words and phrases. Originally in Altavista until it was bought by Yahoo.
  
• ImTranslator, which is better than Babelfish for translating between Spanish, English and French because the translations are actually intelligible and the site also has back-translation! (Though it has yet to feature direct Italian<=>English translation...)
• A VERY OLD copy of Bantam Diccionario Ingles-Español, Espanol-Iñgles. Geared towards Spanish-speaking people, it truly lives up to the claim of being "the best, most complete, compact Spanish & English dictionary available." My copy has been with us since for at least 20 years now and the covers have been torn apart, but it still works very well. I cannot recommend it enough, and I now wish Bantam/Random House had one for Italian too.
  
• Contatto, the trusty workbook for serious students of the Italian language

[Event] Granado Espada Philippine Commercial Launch

Date: 15th September (Day Raid) to 16th September (Night Raid), 2007
Time: 3:00 pm to 7:30 pm (Day Raid), 11:30 pm to 5:30 am (Night Raid)
Venue: One Esplanade, SM Bay City, Pasay City, Metro Manila/NCR, Philippines
* With the cooperation of BigFishManila, for the Night Raid (Godskitchen @ The Esplanade)

Before I forget, I'd first like to thank my friends, who are the very first people I linked this blog to, for the welcome. ^_^ I know you know this already but I love you guys! ♥ I hope to meet more people soonest.

Moving forward...

At long last, here is my overdue album featuring the events that transpired during the Granado Espada Day Raid (plus a peek into the Night Raid). Please click on the thumbnails to get to the large photos.

It began MUCH later than I thought, even after I was in a hurry to get there. Packing my costume wasn't exactly a breeze, and I was worried my toy "pistols" (actually toy pirate rifles - you can't blame a gal for being resourceful) were going to break. More on those later.

At first there was a chaotic line, and the booth of my comrades, Cosplay.ph, was in front of the queue. However, since the stage wasn't enough for the event, we had to move to the side, where the wind promptly tortured our poor banners to submission.

And then, to everyone's amusement, our friends at Team Kyoudo put yellow tape with black "Caution - Do Not Enter" written all over it around the venue, fashioning the crowd into an orderly queue.


Look, we've spotted NineMoons-player! Hey sis! {wave wave}


In the waiting line.

Some of my co-moderators and I were reminded of the very modern, so-hip-it-hurts TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, and we knew that a faux crime scene was begging to be shot. Unfortunately, without duct tape and chalk to create a human impression on the concrete floors, what could we do? Results are here (http://www.cosplay.ph/photogallery.php?photo=7436), courtesy of Kero and Acewildgal of Cosplay.ph. Thanks guys! d^V~b XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Soon enough the crowd grew restless and the event time drew nearer. I changed into my outfit in the ladies' room then continued the rest of assembling my costume (basically putting on and fixing my wig) outside, where it was MUCH cooler, with the help of my friends Jactinglim, Maiko and NineMoons. Soon enough I was dolled up to look like Brunie Etienne, the gun-toting treasure hunter of Granado Espada. Thanks to my friends, as well as to Mang Poli, for creating this ensemble


Not exactly my best photo, but it does show the intricate detail done to the rubber/craft foam sheets. (I originally wanted a real corset to go with the top, but I knew I'd never make it in time for the event if I'd insisted on it.)

I must maintain though that for a so-called "tomb raider", she's got extremely impractical clothing. I mean, come on, lace? Taffeta? Chiffon? ^_^000 Those things snag, and once they get caught into things, you're pretty much screwed. (I've been wearing those materials long enough to know that.) I was also a bit shocked to find that my shirt was dreadfully short in front, exposing my belly for all to see. Now normally I wouldn't mind it (I cosplayed Danaya of Encantadia after all), but if you base it off the original costume my midriff should have been hidden under the shirt. Alas, there was no way of hiding it, so we resorted to sewing the front end to my pantaloons. I was very thankful that I didn't have to go to the toilet until I needed to change into my Night Raid outfit.


Kero of Cosplay.ph choreographed me for this shot. Thanks to him, I also learned a few neat tricks I could do with my pistols. v^_~v

The event finally began around 3:30 PM, with the brilliant Pinoy Soul band SinoSiKat? kicking off with a cover of Erykah Badu's "On and On", a favourite of mine. They also began playing some of their singles, but the crowd failed to appreciate them because they were too busy trying to get the 100 Divine Angel Wings prize and the Limited Edition box set. ;_; Mental note to self: Must buy their album very soon.


I love you guys. ♥

There were speeches from the staff of E-Games Philippines, which is currently distributing the game for the Philippine market. At this point in time I couldn't take photos anymore, what with the media taking photos of me trying - and dismally failing - to execute the pistol-twirling and shooting tricks Kero taught me. It was good that I did manage to learn how to do them in around 30 minutes or so. (Thanks Kero for your patience!) More photos can be seen here in Cosplay.ph (http://www.cosplay.ph/photogallery.php?album=112), in DeSanggria's blog and in NineMoons' blog, among others. Major thanks also to DeSanggria and Veya (a friend of ours in cosplay) for hosting the cosplay segment. v^_~v

The event was fun, but it was a bit hard to follow the ongoing tournament (it didn't help that I didn't have my trusty eyeglasses on me during the entire Day Raid). I guess I was so used to seeing players duke it out by guild, that I didn't quite appreciate how E-Games made them fight by region instead. Also, I am still wondering what exactly happened during the live quest (scavenger hunt/Amazing Race game). I spent most of my afternoon chasing after my friend's daughter - the adorable Catherine cosplayer - and playing Filipino games with the other, younger cosplayers. In costume, FTW.

In the end, the Catherine cosplayer broke one of the pistols, to her mother's chagrin. Well, that's the quality you get for PhP150.00. X3 But at least they lasted through the whole cosplay round. And she with her dolls won second place, which was great! (Then again, there were only three Granado Espada cosplayers. The Elementalist was first, I was third.)

Then, after the Day Raid finally wound down, I had a McDonald's meal for a late takeaway dinner while chatting with DeSanggria-player. We had a photo taken with NineMoons-player so we could at least present some form of female presence in the rather (surprisingly) masculine GE event. XD


Grrl gamerz unite, because we PWN. v^V~v

After another long wait, the gates to the Night Raid - in reality the BigFishManila Godskitchen event - were opened. It was surreal to see people dancing to trance music while videos clips of GE were constantly replaying on the projectors, but then again it's no surprise. Obviously, the highlight of this night was when DeSanggria and I - well, mostly I - got rather wasted and partied very, VERY hard. XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD Yes folks, grrl gamerz play hard and party harder. d^V~b Alas, we Cinderellas had to go home from the ball eventually.

More photos, scant though they are, in this album.

And that's all the report you're getting from me. X3

[Player] First Post: I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.

Lo and behold, I finally made myself a tiny blog which will hopefully contain writings and artwork for my Granado Espada family.

Add me up? :3