A very happy New Year to one and all!
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Yesterday saw me pretty much out of the house. Went with my mom to get my second chemical peel and buy some gifts for her clients in Makati. At that point Paolo texted me about his plan to go to Glorietta 4 as well, so I got my mom's consent and stayed behind to meet up with him.

While waiting for him I decided to take another whack at the Initial D ver.2 arcade game, which I had avoided playing all these months because of the prohibitively high price (PhP30 per race!) and the fact that these assholes just hogged the machines to themselves. Now that Timezone had an additional 2 cabinets...people still hogged the machines. Grrr.

Anyway it was lunch time and no one seemed to be touching the machines at that moment, so I decided to try my luck with "my car": my mildly modified yellow Honda S2000 roadster, after not touching it for so long. Needless to say, by the time Paolo got there, I had already spent PhP250 just on that game, bought at least 5 mods for the S2000, and cleared two of the game's six mountain passes (which I'm pretty proud of).
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What can I say about Initial D ver.2?

Let's just say I didn't find it good or easy at first, having been so accustomed to an older game, Scud Race, that also emphasized drift driving. But that one has proper race courses with wide roads, so comparatively it's easier to drive in and perform big drifts. In contrast, Initial D ver.2 features 6 mountain passes as its courses---all very narrow and with increasing degrees of complexity, in keeping with the anime.

I found that while drifting is Initial D's focus, simply driving normally in the arcade game without bumping into the speed-robbing barriers was tough enough in itself. Good driving in most of the harder roads necessitated a few practice runs in Time Attack mode. Since weather and night driving also factor in the game, as well as the fact that the passes can be run either downhill or uphill...let's just say I'll have to be pretty fucking rich just to practice driving in all the game's possible race events.

Oh, and did I mention the setup of the driving cabinets was right-hand-drive? This made driving tougher, as I'm not very used to having the shifter on my left hand. I swear, every time I negotiated Akina's hairpin curves, my right hand never let go of the larger-than-expected steering wheel, despite my wrist already being twisted a great deal. As a result my right thumb now feels rather stiff from holding the wheel so oddly and twirling it so suddenly.

The key rule in Initial D ver.2 is to drive as fast as possible, but to avoid bumping or rubbing into anything so as not to rub off essential speed. To do that, you'll have to practice a lot, learn how to slow down properly before turns (engine braking and foot-braking helps a LOT)...and get used to the idiosyncrasies of RHD driving. FORGET PERFORMING DRIFTS, unless you're driving in Myogi or Usui. You'll be drifting if you drive well anyway...and if you fuck up trying a drift in, say, Akagi or Irohazaka, you'll lose a LOT of essential speed.
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As I was saying, Paolo came along and we played even more games. All in all I spent PhP350 on that game, and I was lucky to get to play PhP100 free from Paolo's mom.

Paolo just got his own Initial D car card, and he chose to get a silver Nissan R34 Skyline GT-R. He seems to have enough points as he's managed to get a fancy exhaust and alloy rims on his 4WD supercar by now, and he's adjusting to the game pretty well. He told me the game wasn't the cheap cash-in he thought it would be.

I managed to pick up a left card as well...also an S2000 on it, and it looks like it hasn't been used.

At least now we got a good reason to go to Glorietta 4 now...although this means more saving to do. Blech. I'll never have enough money.
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On the way to the parking lot I spotted Pam going down the escalators. Once Pao and I were outside the mall, I decided to give her a call and greet her a Happy New Year. She seemed fine and I was glad she and her grandma enjoyed the food for the gods I gave her.

Was nice seeing her again.
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On the way home we got to ride in what seems to be their third Pajero. This newest one seemed like an automatic JDM 3-door from 1995-96, converted to left-hand-drive with surplus LHD dashboard parts. The conversion looked pretty good, apart from a deep scuff on the new right-hand dashboard, and the whole car felt like my dad's old RAV4 enlarged in all the right places. Paolo's dad got on the Skyway and gunned the 2.8L diesel lump to 140 km/h.

Damn...all their cars are diesel Pajeros! How cool!
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Went to Nanay's in White Plains for the annual New Year's media noche buena. This being one of the few occasions that I drink, I pretty much took advantage of it.

I had three glasses of red wine, a glass of champagne and a Mule...and I was all red and tipsy afterwards. Damn, I am an alcoholic wimp. I suppose it doesn't matter much, since I'll probably end up being the designated driver for my friends if we ever go on a bar trip or whatever.

I'll admit it, I love driving too much to give a shit about getting tipsy or drunk. Besides, alcohol'll just screw up my driving skills. I feel there's more to life than drinking cocktails.

This year was pretty quiet in terms of fireworks...seems people have learned better. They seem to have resorted to some other form of thrill though. The TV had us witnessing some gay revelers in Binondo gyrating in front of the TV cameras, while some others got humiliated on national TV being dead drunk. Still, this New Year's seemed a bit different, a little more reserved. I can't really tell why or how.

Ah, it doesn't matter. It's 2004. I'll try to make the most out of it.
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By the way, it's my sister's birthday a few seconds from now. Happy birthday Bianx!