Your Lie in April x

April happened just like that. 

Chismisan with brotherhood

So, Charlie and I met at Robinson's Galeria to catch up. We just talked about life and our current situations - work, relationships, church and future plans and had some encouragement over coffee.

 

This is nice. Jassiee attended Joshua's wedding. While we already knew that Joshua booked Host Ed as the host, it was really nice seeing them and it's heartwarming that even after too many weddings, they still know us. It feels like our wedding happened just last week. You won't feel like you're just a client. You become, somehow friends. Well, they are the strangers who have been a really big impact on our wedding, they're pretty memorable. 

Jassiee and I were assigned to discuss and lead our Victory Group. We discussed seedtime and harvest using the VG app's resources. It's been a while and it feels nice. I'm not the most equipped person to discuss but this is probably because of several seminars in Victory, including the recent one, the Foundations Class. Our testimony is this, God provides. 

April 30th date. 

A few weeks ago, we opted to have a fine dining date, we went to The Nest in Vivere Hotel. Apparently, this is a really famous restaurant in Alabang. Probably because of the overlooking experience as it sits at the top of the hotel. 

It's really nice as this is also the date when the Momentum Festival happens. We heard Unique Salonga, Rocksteddy, The Juans, and December Avenue. Cool, cool, cool, cool.

This is a nice pause for us about what's happening lately and a simple celebration of what's ahead. We never had this before, it's a first for us, and we're looking forward to more. 

The food is amazing. We're full but we wanted to try more. We will definitely go back someday. It's a really nice experience. 

Photo Dumplings.

We also finished our Foundations Class and had an initial check-up. 

//YourLieInApril

//sebajisoka

March Madness

Hello. Here's some madness from March. This month has been pretty busy but here yah go. 

We started the first weekend of the month with a ramen night and a little stroll at Filinvest Park

Craving this for quite awhile. We ate at Ramen Kuroda in Festival Mall. I'm not high on this ramen.

It's good for its price - Having Mendokoro as the standard is pretty bad for this review. lol

Nonetheless, we enjoyed the food and we had fun on a lil date night and biking. 

Leade'r's Convergence and First volunteer

Last month was our Volunteer orientation and just few days after that, here I am, on an expensive gimbal taking videos on my first Leader's Convergence and my first volunteer. It's fun and nerve-wracking at the same time. I took time to review photography and videography and watched all the tutorials that I could watch as well.

Met Ate Kat

Ate Kat also visited us for a dinner chikahan and marithess-ing

New Phone

Yes, I broke my beloved OnePlus 6T android phone, and now I'm a convert - an iPhone 11 user. 

Enchanted Kingdom

To celebrate RJ's birthday - we went to the Enchanted Kingdom to have some fun with the kids. 

And practice some of my photog skills. 

Discipleship 2023

Our first time in Mall of Asia Arena and first time as a delegate in Discipleship by Victory. It's a day full of learning and inspiration. 

Its about discipleship. Our Pastors equipped us to be a better disciples and better discipler.

Told you that's we're busy this month. We also had our Foundations Class this month. After 5 years of victory weekend, we were finally able to join and took the challenge to establish a solid foundation of our Faith. 

Shiro's "Birthday"

This is the hungry shiro with his messed up cake. We had issues with the lalamove driver, just look. But Anyway, the cake is good. Shiro loved it and this is our set date for shiro's birthday, we don't really know when's his actual birthday so we just set it on the day that we received him. 

Jassie's Promotion, Mom and Dad's birthday. We just had some lunch at a Chinese restaurant for good food. 

Photo Dumplings:

This month is also the month where we encountered a family issue, which is really personal and hopefully has been resolved. I just wanna thank God. Dad's operation is also this month, which has been successful. He's been great after that. 

And for more than a year, a necessity has been added to our humble home: A new aircon.

//MarchMadness

//sebajisoka

February Something

Remember how slow-pacing January was? Well, here we are at the end of February. I know that we have fewer days for February but maan, this pacing is way too fast. 

Batangas

 

Starting off the new month by going on a trip to Batangas for a child dedication, this time, we brought Shiro. It's tough leaving him at home alone when we're out for a really long time. It was fun and tiring. Bringing a dog along is a real hard work. You have to guide them at all times, you don't want your dog to bite or to be bitten by strays (Or kids :x), you have to feed them, play with them, and clean them after they dig every square inch of the ground. 

Moira Concert

It's been a while since the last time we went out for a concert and Jasmin and I never really had one since being married. So, as an early valentines gift and knowing how big Moira fan Jassiee is, we went out for a Moira concert - this is our first non-christian concert. 

Aside from knowing how good and calming Moira's voice is, we are also intrigued by her story about her husband. They were a figure, an ideal that sadly fell apart. 

Basically, nagbayad kame kay Moira para sa first-hand, exclusive maritess-ing. We wanna know more and she did not disappoint. With little words and direct stories, the pain blooms beautifully and tragically through her songs. 

She wrote songs that blew my mind - apparently, her situation is not just the usual type, it's way worse than that. The song below surprised me. While admiring her voice, and her songwriting skills, she became a real savage in this one and it literally made tears fall down my cheeks with its crazy revelations. Enjoy:

Glass Cab

For how many months, have my collections piled up and there's no place to display them. I only have a small 4-layer glass cab from Ikea, but now, I decided to buy from the Anime Collector Facebook Group for a better deal with more layers and a bigger glass cab. Really satisfied. 

Valentines Day

Jassiee and I decided to celebrate heart's day in our home. We just set a table up and bought some food online. It was nice and simple. Our tummies and hearts are full (yieh).

Food trip with Lors

Jassiee and I visited Lors one weekend and we had some talks and walks and food and Anya-san.

Volunteer week

This year, I was encouraged by my lovely wife to volunteer. I'm really not sure where to sign up, last year, I tried for the Music Team but the coward that I am, I back out from the auditions. Then, I thought about focusing on one 2 one. But after some talks with my wife, I'm left with 2 choices: The Tech Team or Creatives team. 

I decided to be part of the creatives as a photographer. I'm afraid, people around are probably the best in their fields and I'm just here with little to no knowledge.  

Dumplings:

 

//FebruarySomething

//sebajisoka

Summertime Rendering

Summer Time Rendering

25 Episodes 

Duration: 23 min/ep

Theme:  Action, Drama, Mystery, Shounen, Super Power, Supernatural, Thriller, Suspense

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆

Summertime Rendering is a mystery anime with a touch of Time Travel that is well done. 

I watched the first episode and I'm immediately hooked. I know that this anime will be really good. I sense the same feeling when I watched my favorite short series, Erased. And surprisingly, it has similar themes but a really different take. 

This is the perfect example of the famous quote "Try and try until you succeed". It emphasizes learning from past mistakes, and the show amazingly orchestrated the sequence about time and fear. 

Every end of the episode contains cliffhangers, it will leave you hanging and will ask for more. And as much as I can remember, each episode contains a plot twist. I'm really impressed by the writer's imagination and creativity. It contains layers upon layers of revelation that's really easy to follow. 

There's no dull moment, and everything is well thought off. The ending contains lots of callbacks, which are really emotional and facilitated to perfection. Behind that chaos and tragedy, here we are on the finale with just a simple, slow, and calming presence. 

Definitely one of the must-watch anime out there.

//SummerTimeRendering

//sebajisoka

One Piece

One Piece

1045 Episodes 

Duration: 23 min/ep

Theme: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Shounen, Super Power

Rating: ★★★★★★★★★★

Ever since I started getting into anime I'm hesitant to watch One Piece, probably because I first watched, Naruto and there's a huge beef between the fanbase and I'm a big Naruto fan. I'm was afraid that One Piece might a really better anime than Naruto. 

But I've moved on. I'm on a journey to complete the Big Three, I just finished Bleach, and I'm on the final leg of this journey.

Initial Thoughts

I opened the first episode with tons of thoughts in mind. I'm expecting it to be good but I really do not know what to expect. The art style and animation are nostalgic. The pacing is smooth and I'm just excited to see how the characters will be introduced. 

This show is already huge. While I haven't one a single episode prior to this, I have an idea about some of the key terms like Pirate King, One Piece, and Devil Fruit among others. So, that's exciting when I slowly learn what it is all about. 

I want to write a separate review comparing the Big Three, but for the first episode (No bias) Naruto wins in my opinion. I enjoy the hype in Naruto, 2nd is probably One Piece, and the last for Bleach. Do not get me wrong. There's a ton of stuff in this episode, really informative and Luffy is such a lovable character.

Full review

This show is fun and light at first, something to watch and enjoy. The animation and art style feels like from the 90s, we'll start from the 90s. It feels like a silly cartoon, to be honest, but you'll get used to it in no time. 

Well, obviously the anime and the manga are still on-going but sadly, I stopped watching the anime during the Dressrosa Arc in Ep 645 due to really bad pacing (I just realized this), I hopped into the manga instead and it's magnificent, the Manga is 1 year ahead of the anime. I'm on Chapter 796 which is Episode 741 in the anime. Whenever there's an interesting fight scene, I will immediately look for the episode and watch it instead - which is what I heard is the best way to enjoy One Piece. 

The show contains lots of layers in storytelling, lots of characters, and really good worldbuilding. It contains different types of emotions and sometimes you be surprised how the author smoothly connects it to the whole story. It's really enjoyable. There are episodes that will leave you in awe and episodes that will definitely make you cry. 

My takeaway

Watching the strawhat crew is like being with your friends in a really existing journey and crazy adventures towards life.

I'm just closing this blog but I'll go on with the Manga journey. 

//OnePiece

//sebajisoka