You haven't been to Panay Island without having experienced the very thing that's been pissing it's locals off for the last three years or so: regular brownouts. Having lived all of my nineteen years in the Iloilo province, I can tell you it's getting worse year after year. So why am I writing blogging about this just now? Simple. It just happened again a few hours ago. So here goes my little, mostly civil rant.
First off, we the customers of Iloilo Electric Cooperative (ILECO) or Panay Electric Company (PECO) or whatever else in the province if any are paying much for less. As I've heard before from a lecturing outsider, Ilonggos pay higher bills relative to those living in other provinces. And yet what do we get for all those extra charges and high rates? Inadequate power supply which shows visible decline after about the 25th day of the month. There's the usual rotational brownout which proved an annoyance and a real bane when we are still working on our undergrad thesis.
Next is that we only have two power plants in operation. One is a privatized diesel power plant from which most energy is tapped. The other is a brand new coal-fired power plant whose power hasn't been distributed as yet over the Iloilo province. These doesn't seem enough. Even in Iloilo City where the coal-fired power plant is situated, the usual brownouts are still experienced. Signs of incompetence on the power utility provider's part perhaps?
Finally, I have something to say about those KIAs (Killed in action? Nah. Guess what it actually means. HINT: It is similar to the definition of omniscient) from the religious and environmental sectors who have been delaying the coal-fired power plant's construction last year. Why they've been kind of unrealistic, pushing expensive, low output "green" power sources over the CFP, which shouldn't have been approved if it's not feasible, but it is. Other times, they simply say no.
I understand their complaints about health risks though, given the people's initial reaction during the test fire. But then, harm is all part of that thing called change. Just imagine what benefit it can give in the long run, plus we can always relocate the residents living next to the CFP complex. What annoys me is that these KIAs have been like me complaining about inadequate power supply and still complain when someone actually tries to give it to them.
I'll end it here. Please understand that this post is highly opinionated and my random sources and/or I may be wrong. I'll be open to corrections.
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
-_-
I'll be getting some good sleep tonight. It's West Visayas State University's U-Week so some IICTzens and I are pretty busy doing props these last 48 hours. The props are to be used in the lip-sync contest and IICT's lip-syncing that Rocky Horror Musical featured in Glee. You could just imagine my pain of bringing my grandfather's wheelchair to school, which is roughly 10 klicks from home. Anyway, my best regards to those who'll be using the props we made tomorrow. Oh they'll win it for sure.
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Saturday, January 22, 2011
Badass Mecha of the Week # 3: Stark Jegan
I've been thinking of what to put here this week, and mobile suits and a single mobile armor came into my mind. You guessed it, this week's featured mech came from the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise, and again from the Universal Century (see summary here) timeline. A prototype mobile suit actually and we call it the Stark Jegan.
The RGM-79S Stark Jegan is a prototype mobile suit based on the RGM-89 Jegan, the standard mobile suit of Earth Federation's Londo Bell Task Force, a unit formed to replace the Titans, which later fought against Char Aznable's Neo Zeon faction in what was known as the Second Neo Zeon War, in reference to the First Neo Zeon Movement led by Haman Karn.
The Stark Jegan is designed as a mid-range fire support unit, armed with a giant bazooka, two shoulder-mounted three-tube missile launcher, a beam rifle, grenades, beam sabers and four optional large missile launchers. To top it off, the mobile suit is equipped with some extra armor which allows it to take some beating while spamming missiles — oh, did I tell you it can fire one that spams what looks like beams? — and a set of three thruster-containing binders at the back to maintain mobility.
Of course, all these equipment makes the Stark Jegan a little slower than the standard Jegan, so all the missile launchers and the armor are all completely ejectable. With the binders still around, this makes the Stark Jegan highly mobile.
The Stark Jegan appeared in the OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, where it proved itself a badass. In the very first battle of the OVA, the mobile suit appeared leading a Londo Bell squad of Jegans engaging Neo Zeon's ("Sleeves" in this case, a continuation of Haman Karn's faction) powerful Kshatriya. The battle saw the destruction of the Jegans, leaving the Stark Jegan in a one-on-one match with the Neo Zeon mech. This is where I saw for the first time a grunt prototype piloted by a faceless Feddie fight well against, take note, a Newtype mobile suit. With funnels. The battle turned out an awesome match with the Stark Jegan evading the enemy's random beams while putting pressure into it with missiles and beams.
The battle culminated with a beam saber duel, and the Kshatriya only managed to defeat the Stark Jegan when it pulled off a little I-field trick.
The lovely mobile suit was finally hacked by a beam saber into two.
And that's the story of why the Stark Jegan is such a badass mobile suit. Well the unnamed pilot gets most of the credits though.
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The Stark Jegan is designed as a mid-range fire support unit, armed with a giant bazooka, two shoulder-mounted three-tube missile launcher, a beam rifle, grenades, beam sabers and four optional large missile launchers. To top it off, the mobile suit is equipped with some extra armor which allows it to take some beating while spamming missiles — oh, did I tell you it can fire one that spams what looks like beams? — and a set of three thruster-containing binders at the back to maintain mobility.
Of course, all these equipment makes the Stark Jegan a little slower than the standard Jegan, so all the missile launchers and the armor are all completely ejectable. With the binders still around, this makes the Stark Jegan highly mobile.
The Stark Jegan appeared in the OVA series Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, where it proved itself a badass. In the very first battle of the OVA, the mobile suit appeared leading a Londo Bell squad of Jegans engaging Neo Zeon's ("Sleeves" in this case, a continuation of Haman Karn's faction) powerful Kshatriya. The battle saw the destruction of the Jegans, leaving the Stark Jegan in a one-on-one match with the Neo Zeon mech. This is where I saw for the first time a grunt prototype piloted by a faceless Feddie fight well against, take note, a Newtype mobile suit. With funnels. The battle turned out an awesome match with the Stark Jegan evading the enemy's random beams while putting pressure into it with missiles and beams.
The battle culminated with a beam saber duel, and the Kshatriya only managed to defeat the Stark Jegan when it pulled off a little I-field trick.
The lovely mobile suit was finally hacked by a beam saber into two.
And that's the story of why the Stark Jegan is such a badass mobile suit. Well the unnamed pilot gets most of the credits though.
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Friday, January 14, 2011
Badass Mecha of the Week # 2: Viper 2
Ever played Virtual On? You've probably did if you've ever been to the arcade back in the '90s, or played in the Sega Saturn console like I did a few years back. This week's Badass Mech is from the Virtual On series. It is, no she is, my favorite VR in the game, TRV-06-E Viper 2.
I won't bother to bore you with its scant background and technical information. Instead I'll just tell about my own experience playing it in the game which is pretty much similar to what you'll find elsewhere in the Net. Only a little original of course.
A short description of Viper 2 is that it's a very agile virtuaroid, with some emphasis on aerial mobility. This is made possible by plenty of thrusters and a pair of wing binders.
Viper 2 is armed in its right hand with a vulcan cannon which can also launch missiles and project an energy sword in between its "claws" — yeah, a weapon that can do just about anything. On its chest is a beam launcher, a cannon that fires a powerful homing beam, a direct hit from which can shave about half off the health bar of an enemy virtuaroid.
If that ain't badass enough for you, it has a cool special attack: the SLC ram. SLC stands for "She's lost control", which is apparently the last words of a dead test pilot. When doing the SLC ram, the Viper 2 empties all its energy into its thrusters, Kamikaze crashing into it's opponent. Frankly though, given the graphics of the Operation Moongate game I played, I really thought the VR is riding it's own homing beam when performing the ram. XD
Viper 2 is extremely fast, which lives up to the Virtual On series' fast-paced gameplay. Having played with it, I really enjoyed dashing all over the arena in seconds, jumping and staying up for quite a long while, and even performing aerial stunts when attacking mid-air. It has however, like last week's Kampfer, paper-thin armor. It is not uncommon that in a single playthrough, your VR can end up like this:
Borrowed some elements of this post here.
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A short description of Viper 2 is that it's a very agile virtuaroid, with some emphasis on aerial mobility. This is made possible by plenty of thrusters and a pair of wing binders.
Viper 2 is armed in its right hand with a vulcan cannon which can also launch missiles and project an energy sword in between its "claws" — yeah, a weapon that can do just about anything. On its chest is a beam launcher, a cannon that fires a powerful homing beam, a direct hit from which can shave about half off the health bar of an enemy virtuaroid.
If that ain't badass enough for you, it has a cool special attack: the SLC ram. SLC stands for "She's lost control", which is apparently the last words of a dead test pilot. When doing the SLC ram, the Viper 2 empties all its energy into its thrusters, Kamikaze crashing into it's opponent. Frankly though, given the graphics of the Operation Moongate game I played, I really thought the VR is riding it's own homing beam when performing the ram. XD
Viper 2 is extremely fast, which lives up to the Virtual On series' fast-paced gameplay. Having played with it, I really enjoyed dashing all over the arena in seconds, jumping and staying up for quite a long while, and even performing aerial stunts when attacking mid-air. It has however, like last week's Kampfer, paper-thin armor. It is not uncommon that in a single playthrough, your VR can end up like this:
Borrowed some elements of this post here.
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Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Neue Stahl
Also featured in my Deviant Art gallery.
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Thursday, January 6, 2011
Badass Mecha of the Week # 1: Kampfer
I'll be starting this weekly topic from here on to keep my blog updated, apart from the other fact that I simply feel like sharing an interest.
So to start off, let me introduce you to my favorite hit-and-run mobile suit of all time, the Kampfer from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080.
Before I proceed in telling you how badass this mecha is, let me give a brief history of the original Mobile Suit Gundam universe. In the near future, in an era dubbed as the Universal Century (UC), mankind started to colonize space, living in clusters of Island 3 colonies known as Sides (e.g. Side 7, Side 6, etc.). Over time, those who live in space became paranoid of those who live in Earth, a schism giving rise to the labels spacenoid (space colonists) and earthnoid (the regular Terran). Soon in the year UC 0079, colonies in Side 3 known as the Principality of Zeon declared a war of independence from the Earth Federation, the one-world government ruling Earth. This conflict is known as the One Year War.
So late in the War, the Principality developed the MS-18E Kampfer, a mobile suit designed for hit-and-run attacks. This MS sacrifices armor for multiple powerful thrusters all over its body (not excluding the head) which allows great maneuverability and speed. Why take hits when you can dodge 'em eh? The drawback however is that the Kampfer consumes way too much fuel with all those thrusters working in sync, thereby shortening its operational time.
Now its standard weapons loadout includes a couple of giant bazookas on its shoulders, a couple of huge versions of the classic panzerfaust on its waist, two head vulcans you'd usually see in Gundams, a shotgun and a chain of mines it has used once to strip a Gundam itself nude of armor. Yes that's a badass enough combo even if you have no knowledge of how the Kampfer took down an entire Feddie mobile suit garrison in Side 6 single-handedly.
Unfortunately, the Kampfer was developed too late to change the course of the War, a months-long stalemate which has finally gone in favor of the Federation. In Dec. 20, UC 0079, Mikhail Kaminsky, a member of Zeon's elite Cyclops Team, is deployed in the Kampfer in Libot Colony, Side 6 to neutralize the Federation's latest prototype, the RX-78NT-1 "Alex" Gundam. He and the rest of the Team failed, and the only Kampfer known in history is shredded by a three-barrel 90 mm Gatling.
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So to start off, let me introduce you to my favorite hit-and-run mobile suit of all time, the Kampfer from Mobile Suit Gundam 0080.
Before I proceed in telling you how badass this mecha is, let me give a brief history of the original Mobile Suit Gundam universe. In the near future, in an era dubbed as the Universal Century (UC), mankind started to colonize space, living in clusters of Island 3 colonies known as Sides (e.g. Side 7, Side 6, etc.). Over time, those who live in space became paranoid of those who live in Earth, a schism giving rise to the labels spacenoid (space colonists) and earthnoid (the regular Terran). Soon in the year UC 0079, colonies in Side 3 known as the Principality of Zeon declared a war of independence from the Earth Federation, the one-world government ruling Earth. This conflict is known as the One Year War.
So late in the War, the Principality developed the MS-18E Kampfer, a mobile suit designed for hit-and-run attacks. This MS sacrifices armor for multiple powerful thrusters all over its body (not excluding the head) which allows great maneuverability and speed. Why take hits when you can dodge 'em eh? The drawback however is that the Kampfer consumes way too much fuel with all those thrusters working in sync, thereby shortening its operational time.
Now its standard weapons loadout includes a couple of giant bazookas on its shoulders, a couple of huge versions of the classic panzerfaust on its waist, two head vulcans you'd usually see in Gundams, a shotgun and a chain of mines it has used once to strip a Gundam itself nude of armor. Yes that's a badass enough combo even if you have no knowledge of how the Kampfer took down an entire Feddie mobile suit garrison in Side 6 single-handedly.
Unfortunately, the Kampfer was developed too late to change the course of the War, a months-long stalemate which has finally gone in favor of the Federation. In Dec. 20, UC 0079, Mikhail Kaminsky, a member of Zeon's elite Cyclops Team, is deployed in the Kampfer in Libot Colony, Side 6 to neutralize the Federation's latest prototype, the RX-78NT-1 "Alex" Gundam. He and the rest of the Team failed, and the only Kampfer known in history is shredded by a three-barrel 90 mm Gatling.
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Wednesday, January 5, 2011
The Tribunal Has Spoken
We passed the final defense for our thesis! Our paper, entitled SMS-Based Automatic Billing System for Power Consumption was presented this morning and reviewed by select WVSU-IICT faculty, namely Dr. Bobby Gerardo, Mr. Frank Elijorde and our thesis adviser Engr. Karen Alinor Subong. We got bombarded by questions from them, some pointing at what our system is lacking, usually with suggestions for improvement. It was fortunate we got through those and got the passing mark, that which lightened up my mood for the day. So now, I just hope I can actually post pictures soon.
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