A few days back, I blogged about my new Samsung Galaxy W and what I like and do not like about it. This time, I'll be sharing the first batch of Andoid apps I installed and recommend.

Useful Apps:

• GO Launcher EX – It's a launcher to change themes and such, I'm very particular about themes.
• GO SMS Pro – It's an app my friends suggested and use. It makes sending SMS more interesting. You can change themes too, and it also has a chat (requires internet access) but it slows down your phone, doesn't connect right most of the time, and sometimes hangs up your phone.
• App 2 SD – It helps you to move your apps to SD cards easier so your mobile doesn't run out of space.
• QR Droid – It lets you scan QR codes. I have a habit of scanning random QR codes when I see them. Sometimes, I find interesting stuff when I do.
• TweetDeck – Though there are tons of Twitter apps out there, I opt to go with the official one, with more functions than the default app.
• Facebook for Android – Also the official one.
• Tiny Flashlight + LED – It'll come in handy, promise.
• Viber – This is one of my favorites. This app is for exchanging stupid text messages with friends the VOIP way! This is way better than the always fucking up Skype app. I can chat with my friends from other countries using this, as long as I know their mobile numbers. The only thing I do not like about it is that you can't log off it for whatever reason. If you choose not to receive message from it, the only option you got is to 'Deactivate' your account. Also, you can't send text messages to people who's not added on your phonebook, but you can call them.
• Dropbox – Yes, it has an app and you better check it out. Although, when you install this app and logged in to your account, it will sync everything. My solution was to create a new Dropbox account and sync a particular folder it to my other Dropbox account.
• Green Power – It manages my WiFi to only connect at certain periods to sync emails and stuff and disconnect after. It also checks if the WiFi it's trying to connect to has good signal. If it's lower that the threshold you set, it disconnects. This way, you can save more battery.
• Camera 360 Ultimate – By far, the coolest free camera app I've encountered. It has lots of features like Retro, LOMO, Light Color B&W, etc. My favorite was the sketch. You can turn your image into a sketch!
• Camera ZOOM FX – It's the "best camera app for Android" according to a lot of sites. It has more features and options than Camera 360 Ultimate, though you need to download the other packs. It's great, but you have to pay for it. Although, it's really a money well spent kind of app.
• SoundHound – It's a really cool app that scans a song that you hear, say, along the way to work, and tells you the title and the artist with the lyrics of the song.

• Google Sky Map – It's a useless app, but I like it anyway. It shows you the stars, planets, etc. above you and stuff.
• Galaxy Tarot – The thing I like about this app is that you can pick your cards yourself and that the card is the classic set. It reads and translate your spread using tarotpedia. Though, I suggest you to just get this one instead of the other Galaxy Tarot Pro which is a paid one. The only difference it has with the paid one is that you can freely change the background image to whatever image you like including live wallpapers, which doesn't really have anything to do with the reading itself, and that the free one has ads.
• PocketDex Free – For some reason, this disappeared from the Market. But it's a complete PokeDex listing all the Pokemons, their complete stats including info like STR, DEF etc. and all the possible skills it can acquire.
• Androidify – It's an app made by Google to make your own Android avatar.

• TamaDroid - It's a tamagochi app. And not just any tamagochi app, the classic, pixelated one too!
• Field Runners HD – It's a game where you have to make different strategies to prevent soldiers, tanks, helicopters from going in your base.
• Monopoly – It's the classic game of Monopoly. This is my favorite childhood board game. You have to know this game, you have to! If you don't know this game, you're missing half your life. Like seriously.
• Uno – The same as above, it's the classic Uno game that you can bring wherever you go. Also one of my favorite games as a kid.
• Pacman – Of course, the classic game of Pacman. Maneuvering this apps controls is hard as shit, so I do not really play it. Except, perhaps those few days that I actually tried it and spend half a day figuring out how to best use it. Nonetheless, I need it in my apps drawer just for the vanity of having it.
• Pooyan – And my old time favorite FamiCom game, Pooyan. I actually play this every so often. There's also the Charlie Circus, but it's hard to catch the timing of Charlie's jumps. So I gave up on it after a while.

Fangs up, children of the dark! This February 25, 2012, Crysella Productions give us the very first Elysian Square Dark Fest (* updated event page here).

Elysian Square Dark Fest will be a quarterly held dark music festival. I'll be an event that caters both local and international bands.

For this quarter's lineup we have:
ROUGH HAUSEN
WYNKEN DELIRIUM
OREMUZ
ANHURA
SANCTUS
SERENUS
SWITCH
HIGH IN MIST

The blood feast will be held at Inggo's Grill, Bay Cruise Terminal CCP Complex, Roxas Blvd., Malate, Philippines. 

Hell's gates will open from 7:00 PM to 4:00 AM.

Tickets will be at 250PHP with a free beer.

More details of the event as follows:

Medias & Supporters:
Presonus.com, GigsManila.com, Sharon Production, Manila Bloggers Network, Rakista.com, Live, Pulp, DB Radio365, Shinto Records, Beat & Riffs, Onlypinoy.com, Inggos Grill, Rakista Radio, Mingi Ltd., TFHM Production. http://www.dbradio365.com/

Sounds & Lights:
Professional sounds and lights system provided by Mingi Label Group Ltd.

Posters, Flyers & Tickets Offset Printing:
Flyerfish GmbH, Max-Born-Straße 2, 72622 Nürtingen, Germany

For further information, TICKET RESERVATION and street team for flyers/posters, please contact:
label@mingi.co.uk
0927-4512468
http://www.crysella.tv/

This exclusive production © 2012 by Crysella Records, a division of Mingi Label Group Ltd., incorporated and registered in England & Wales (EU No.# 06743287)

I've known this event for a while. I'm just too lazy to blog about it. Anyway, bands in the first lineup are good. Oremuz, Sanctus and Anhura are great, to name a few of my favorites. This will be the second time I'll be hearing Rough Housen play since EDW 6. I couldn't always attend EDW due to the fact that it's held during Hallow's Eve and I could only skip a few times from visiting our family's graves. Elysian Square Dark Fest will give me more chance to attend dark gatherings, listen to more alluring dark music and hangout with old friends.

Friends, you know who you are, if anyone of you will be attending, growl over my mailbox will you?

--

Updates:

Tickets are available thru our network outlets nationwide:
Pasig, Mandaluyong, Cainta, Marikina, Taytay, Antipolo area text 0927-9062471
Las Pinas (SM Center @ SM Southmall) area text 0927-4512468
Madaluyong (SM Mega Mall) area text 0905-3401255
Quezon City (SM Bicutan) area text 0935-3718650
Alabang (Festival Mall) area text 0927-4512468
Paranaque (SM Sucat) area text 0927-4512468
and thru mailorder service via LBC.

GIVEAWAY UPDATES: FOR THE 1ST 100 EARLY BIRDS ATTENDEES AT THE VENUE. WE HAVE THESE FOR YOU:
1X ROUGH HAUSEN TOUR SHIRT
6X TORTURE GARDEN CD COMPILATION BY SHINTO RECORDS
10X ELYSIAN DARK FEST T-SHIRTS (HIGH QUALITY RUBBERISED)
3X ELYSIAN DARK FEST MOUSE PADS BY E&J ADS SOLUTIONS
30X ELYSIAN DARK FEST PINS BY E&J ADS SOLUTIONS
10X OREMUZ BAGS
10X OREMUZ CD-SINGLE PROMOS
10X SHEKHINAH ARTWORK POSTERS
10X ANHURA BAG TAGS
10X ANHURA PINS

PLS. SEE EVENT PAGE FOR MORE INFO:
http://www.facebook.com/events/139990322783413/

Like the sun and moon,
We both share the same light.
But you could shine on your own,
And I could only borrow your strength.

Like the sun and moon,
We both serve the world.
But people only loved your warmth,
And I could only reflect their sorrow.

Like the sun and moon,
We both rise and fall.
Though it would be only for a while,
I couldn't help but love your shine.

Like the sun and moon,
We're each at both ends of the world.
I could only glimpse at you from far apart.
And I know, we can never really touch.

The other weekend, I put off reading other manga to give time for my cramming of reading Vampire Hunter D Volumes 1-5 since it's free streaming was nearing its end. I was putting off reading it until the last 2 days. I was worried at first that I wont be able to finish reading it, since it falls around 350-400 pages per volume. But I managed somehow.

As I had mentioned in my previous post, VHD Manga Volume 6 is out. If you're from a country where manga is scarce, like me, you can read VHD manga Volume 6 via emanga.com. But of course, you have to purchase points and "Rent" it to be able to read.

Technically, the VHD manga is the same as the novels, only with graphics.  Therefore, Volume 6 is technically the same as Pilgrimage of the Sacred and the Profane. So in D's adventure in volume 6, this time, he met a granny named Viper. She's a well known "people finder." Her job is to look for spirited children and return them to their families. And she's currently on her mission to return a girl named Tae who was kidnapped by the nobles and held captive for years at a castle called Castle Gradinia. By the looks of it, the granny probably had a hard time taking the girl back since this particular castle is quite known to be filled with nobles. As you know, nobles in VHD are like all omnipotent beings. And then she came by D, just like fate. He and another duo of bounty hunters traveled to go across this dessert that's known as some sort of "dessert of no return." Of course I'm not telling you what happened in the dessert because you might shoot me dead. All I can say is that you'll get to learn a lot of interesting things in this manga. Some of it were already hinted a bit by the previous ones, and some of it are faint hints of possible plot of future volumes. There will also be sneak peeks of D's personality throughout this manga. Definitely worth reading.

I was suppose to write this entry a day after I bought and played with it, but I got lazy and all. Anyway, last December 18th 2011, I bought myself a Samsung Galaxy W I8150 model smartphone. And I named him Amadeo, after my favorite fictional character, Armand from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Amadeo is Armand's name, given by Marius after he took him in and turned him into a vampire.

Amadeo is my New Year's gift for myself for doing my best for the past year. To be perfectly honest, it's been hard. I'm really trying my best to cope up with a lot of things. Thank you for supportive friends even though I go bipolar on them most of the time with random extreme depression and exteme anger streaks.

Of course, pictures!

The entire package is really small. It contains a the phone itself, a manual, a USB PC connector, and the headset.

Upon full charge, I started playing around with it. I've notice a few things here and there and I'll probably notice more as time goes, but here's what I think about my new phone:

On a positive note:

• One thing I love about this phone is the sync feature. I think this comes in with the OS, however. Whenever I add new contacts, it auto syncs itself to my Google contacts. Another thing is that I do not need to download apps directly from my phone. I can just click "Install" from the Market and it downloads itself to the phone.
• Second is the threaded SMS. It's so much easier to read back on conversation.
• Third is the email. I wanted something with the same feature as the email application I had in my old Nokia N95, and I'm so glad smartphones have them, and it syncs with my Google mail too!
• The same goes with the calendar.
• Another thing I love is the screen lock pattern where I can choose any patterns I want.
• One of my most loved feature is that it rotates horizontally when you tilt it. My old Nokia N95 doesn't do this.
• I also like the QWERTY keypad, but it's hard to use. Luckily, you can change the keypad to the usual number-keypad like that of the older phones.
• The default alarm clock is also interesting! I can set different times for each different day of the week!
• The Google Maps helps me a lot, especially the me who has no sense of direction. But not as bad as Hibiki Ryoga.
• Oh and the option to block people/contacts! Thank Android for this! OMG! I have a few cases of persistent unwanted calls from random people I do not know, so I've always wanted this feature in my phone. Back when I was using my Nokia N95, I was even tempted to purchase the tool you install in Symbian just for that purpose.
• The best part of it is that you get to play around with tons of apps in the Market, and these apps are handy most of the time.

Negative stuff:

• As every smartphone is, the battery drains easily. I'm always running low on battery.
• I'm not sure if it's just me, but it hangs up every now and then.
• The  earpiece is VERY low. I can hear calls clearly when I'm indoors but when, for example I'm on a mall or a bus station, it's very hard to hear the person I'm talking to.
• I'm always use up 80%-90 of my phone memory, even when I've closed all running apps and cleared the memory.
• I can't uninstall unwanted/useless pre-installed apps! D:

I'll try to play around more with it and probably root it after a few more month, just for seeing the difference between a rooted phone and not. I heard it's faster when you root it.