Woke up at nine today and guess what could have ruined a supposedly good day. Power failure.
Coined as "brownouts" during the late 80s, the Philippines has been known to experience power failures of varying lengths. It was resolved in the 90s but the occassional blackout still occurs from time to time for sometimes idiotic reasons such as jellyfish.
A blackout plagued Metro Manila starting at 11 am and power, at least for our home, resumed at around 3 pm. However, Lea's place only got their power back at around 7 pm. In the four hours of living without electricity, I reminisced on why I got into playing collectible card games.
I was an avid gamer, especially when it came to video games. A day didn't pass when I didn't turn on my Super Famicom and play the latest game I could afford. It was pretty annoying though when you'd reach a certain stage which took you the last few hours to get to, only to have it cut short by a blackout. Even some RPGs didn't save you this horror as you could only save in particular areas. Also, what other way could you entertain yourself when electricity isn't available?
My solution came in the form of Collectible Card Games (CCGs). The game was the popular Magic: The Gathering and by then, Fourth Edition had recently come out and the hottest expansion was Ice Age (Fallen Empires also came out but Magic fans know how weak that set was). The advantage of the game was that you didn't need electricity to play it. All you need was yourself, a deck, and a friend. Since the game consisted of only cards, it was easily portable and you could bring it anywhere. We often played at school, in my friend's house, in malls... Magic was a great, albeit expensive, hobby.
So what else did I do today? Aside from reading Pullman's Golden Compass, I planned to go to Glorietta to catch a glimpse of Anime Quest. And then I found out that it was still tomorrow. Still, I wanted to go to Glorietta and visit A Different Bookstore but unfortunately, I arrived at the MRT only to find out that they only went until Shaw.
The time then was 4 pm and since I had an hour and a half to kill before meeting with Anna, I decided walk to Robinsons Galleria. After strolling for a couple of minutes, I went to Megamall and finally saw a DVD copy of Metropolis. Was it worth getting? My pondering was cut short as it was 5:30 and I had to meet up with Anna at National Bookstore. There, I found at she left the books at her office in Tektite so we had to walk there.
The power failure had locked some of Anna's officemates in the office but power soon returned and we were able to retrieve my books and Anna's coworkers were free. Later in the evening, I called Lea to rant and we discussed about Anime Quest, Questor, and my plans for the future.
As I was talking to Lea, I thought of my crush as I really miss her. Perhaps I should be grateful that I received an email from her yesterday. That aside, I want to set up an anime magazine once I graduate since the one we have here isn't exactly a work of art. And it's expensive. And most of it was acquired from the Internet. Also, I plan to set up an organization to set up conventions instead of the commercial affiliated ones we have here. A dream? Perhaps but one can always hope.
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