Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hero Worship

Here is a link to behind-the-scenes info on Heroes season 1 plus a little insight on season 2 (3 pages). The Heroes season 1 DVD is due out in the US today. It includes deleted scenes and the original 2 hour pilot episode. Season 2 premieres on 24 September. It includes new cast member Veronica Mars' Kristine Belle whose character is linked to Noah Bennet and has something to do with Peter Petrelli's explosion. Ali Larter (Niki), Masi Oka (Hiro, my favorite character), and Sendil Ramamurthy (Mohinder) are currently in Tokyo, and will visit Hong Kong and Singapore later this week. Jemenicricket will be waiting in line to meet them in Hong Kong. I'm so jealous!

Sunday, August 19, 2007

When I Grow Up

...I want to be a National Geographic photographer and take pictures like these.


Steve McCurry's Afghan Girl (1984) is a long-time favorite of mine. He used a 105mm Nikkor with this. The 105mm is my favorite lens and McCurry's photograph is proof that it's not the equipment, it's the photographer. Poor me.




All these pictures were, to my knowledge, last posted on a compilation of the world's best photos by MSN back in June.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

There's a thing in my pocket

(Yeah, I'm turning into a camwhore. Anyway...)

I finally received my office-issued plum Nokia N95 last Friday and am enjoying it! It's really "what computers have become"! It's got some glitches, though, but I can't complain. I got it for free! I just need to return it to the Company after 18 months. Sigh.

Pros:
- it's very pretty
- surprisingly user-friendly
- huge, bright screen (perfect for MMS)
- 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, shutter speed up to 1/1000, macro focus, 4 flash modes (including red eye reduction), exposure compensation, white balance, scene modes, and still image editor. Hmmm...so now I have 3 cameras!
- GPS - which I haven't tried, but know will be very useful if I get lost (the trauma of our family trip to Hong Kong when I was 4 continues to haunt me)
- I can finally use the Nokia Chill ringtone that Hans sent me last year on a real Nokia phone!

Cons (and the first 3 are major bummers for me):
- teeny-tiny keypad. As in. Very difficult to type text messages. Nakakangalay. Potential RSI? And for some stupid reason, it's so much harder to text left-handed with this phone than others.
- big screen = more space for long text messages shown with this very small font that's difficult to read
- short battery life (the longest it's been on is about 20 hours)
- time in between shots is ridiculously slow (camera on the Sony Ericsson K750i, Moto RAZR MAXX V6, and Bianca's little first generation Sony Cybershot are much faster)
- confusing additional keys that weren't in my old Nokia 6610 (which I *love*. Sadly, the software crashed and was beyond repair). Due to my infamous stupidity with all things that are supposedly simple (like a Mac), I somehow deleted this really nice photo that my busmate sent me of Angkor Wat on MMS.
- camera supposedly goes up to 20x digital zoom, but the noise is horrible. Then again, I never really cared for digital zoom anyway.

Anywho, I haven't read the entire manual (5x the size of the manual Lucas came with) and I haven't tried the video, music and internet functions, among others. I'll post some sample shots in a bit. Meanwhile, the floor is now open for name suggestions.

There's a thing in my pocket. And I forgot that it was a phone!

Labels: ,

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Stephen King on "Harry Potter"

DO NOT BOTHER WITH THIS POST IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED THE LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK (which begs the question..."Where have you been?!")

For everyone else, just follow this link to Stephen King's take on Pottermania. Like him, I, too, was surprised by the use of the word "bitch" in what started off as a children's series. Loved it, though ;)

The clearest sign of how adult the books had become by the conclusion arrives — and splendidly — in Deathly Hallows, when Mrs. Weasley sees the odious Bellatrix Lestrange trying to finish off Ginny with a Killing Curse. ''NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!'' she cries. It's the most shocking bitch in recent fiction; since there's virtually no cursing (of the linguistic kind, anyway) in the Potter books, this one hits home with almost fatal force. It is totally correct in its context — perfect, really — but it is also a quintessentially adult response to a child's peril.

In any case, enjoy the article!

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Melanisms

Quoting the one and only Ms. Melanie Marquez.

*****

My brother is not a girl; he’s a gentleman.

That’s why I’m a success, it’s because I don’t middle in other people’s lives.

Don’t judge my brother; he’s not a book.

I won’t stoop down to my level.

Hello? Bulag ka ba? Bingi ka ba? Are you dep?

‘Yung STD, baka sa maruming toilet lang niya nakuha yan.

We are lovers, not fighters.

Kapatid ko pa rin siya. We are one and the same.

I don’t eat meat. I’m not a carnival.

Eto na po ang pinakamaligayang pasko at manigong taon sa inyong lahat. (During her acceptance speech at a Metro Filmfest awards night where her bioflick, directed by her late father Temyong Marquez, won an award.)

Sumasakit ang migraine ko.

Ang tatay ko ang only living legend na buhay!

Period na talaga; wala nang exclamation point. (When asked on S-Files if her present husband, Adam Lawyer, is her Mr. Right.).

At a talk show after her break-up with Derek Dee, Melanie was asked if she had some words for Derek’s mother (whom she partly blamed for the separation). “Oo nga,” said Melanie, “pero i-English-in ko para maintindihan niya.” She looked into the camera and, with the peremptoriness of royalty, said, “And to you, Mrs. Dee, I have two words for you. Ang labo mo!”

I cudn't care a damn!...

What's ur next class bef0re this?..

You can fool me once, you can even fool me twice, you can even fool me thrice. But you can never fool me four!

1-800-PSYCH

Here's an oldie but a goodie. So many of these types of email messages going around. We're all either bored or stressed out.

*****

Hello. Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline.

If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.

If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.

If you have multiple personalities, please press 3, 4, 5 and 6.

If you are paranoid-delusional, we know who you are and what you want. Just stay on the line so we can trace the call.

If you are schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

If you are delusional, press 7 and your call will be transferred to the mother ship.

If you have a nervous disorder, please fidget with the # key until a representative comes on the line.

If you are dyslexic, press 696969696969.

If you have amnesia, press 8 and state your name, address, phone, date of birth, social security
number and your mother's maiden name.

If you have post-traumatic stress disorder, slowly and carefully press 000.

If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9. If you have short-term memory loss, press 9.

If you are menopausal, hang up, turn on the fan, lie down & cry. You won't be crazy forever.

If you have a masochistic complex, please press "0" for the operator. There are 200 calls ahead of you.

If you are depressed, it doesn't matter which number you press. No one will answer.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

I Second Emotion

Got this from Jemen on email today. Laugh trip!


We've been friends for a long time ago. We come from the same alma mother. Actually, our paths crossed one time on another. But it's only now that I gave him a second look. I realized that beauty is in the eyes. The pulpbits of my heart went fast, really fast. Cute pala siya. And then, he came over with me.
He said, "I hope you don't mine. Can I get your number?"
Nag-worry ako. What if he doesn't give it back? He explained naman na it's so we could keep intact daw. Sabi ko, "Connect me if i'm wrong but are you asking me ouch?"
"The!?!!??". .. ang sarcastic na sagot nya.
Aba! The verb! Parang siya pa ang galit! Persona ingrata!!! Ang kapal niya! I cried buckles of tears.

Na-guilty yata siya. Sabi niya, isipin mo na lang na this is a blessing in the sky. Irregardless daw of his feelings, we should go ouch na rin.
Now, we're so in love. Mute and epidemic na ang past. Thanks God we swallowed our fried. Kasi, I'm 33 na and I'm running our time. After 2 weeks, he plopped the question. "Will you marriage me?" I'm in a state of shocked. Kasi mantakin mo, when it rains, it's four! This is true good to be true. So siyempre, I said yes. Love is a many splendor.

Pero nung inaayos ko na ang aming kasal, everything swell to pieces. Nag-di-dinner kami noon nang biglang sa harap ng aming table, may babaeng humirit ng, "Well, well, well. Look do we have here." What the fuss! The nerd ng babaeng yon! She said they were still on. So I told her, whatever is that, cut me some slacks! I didn't want this to get our hand kaya I had to sip it in the bud. She accused me of steeling her boyfriend. As is!!! I don't want to portrait the role of the other woman. Gosh, tell me to the marines! I told her, "please, mine you own business!" Who would believe her anyway?

Dahil it's not my problem anymore but her problem anymore, tumigil na rin siya ng panggugulo. Everything is coming up daisies. I'm so happy. Even my boyfriend said liketwice. He's so supportive. Sabi niya, "Look at is this way. She's our of our lives."

Kaya advise ko sa inyo - take the risk. You can never can tell. Just burn the bridge when you get there. Life is shorts. If you make a mistake, we'll just pray for the internal and external repose of your soul. I second emotion.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Glamorous Night

So Jemen - sporting her new short 'do and dressed in her "I'm single again" best - was here over the weekend visiting from Harry Honkers. She was looking to hang out at Capone's after dinner at her friend Ed's place. Patrick said a really cool band was going to play there at around 1AM. An evening with Jemen, Patrick, April, Hans, Marilen, Emil, Pia, Monchu, the other Patrick, lots of red wine, Jagermeister, San Mig Light, and a band that played lots of glam rock. What could go wrong? Thank God I decided to bring my Mom's driver! I haven't had that much fun outside Gabby's house in a while. Hahaha!

I can't remember the name of the band (something "and The Force". Someone refresh my memory). I only remember that the fantastic Daniel Crisologo was on guitar and that I was mildly disappointed that the band couldn't play Joe Satriani's Always With Me, Always With You or Forever by Kiss. However, I was *very* happy to hear The Outfield's Your Love and Mr. Big's Green Tinted Sixties Mind (not a lot of cover bands play those), and drunkenly enjoyed singing along to To Be With You (who didn't?), Until You Suffer Some (Fire and Ice) by Poison, Nelson's Love and Affection (wish Bianx was there to sing it with me), and of course, Heaven by Warrant. I think I surprised Emil (people at work tend to view me as serious). I don't understand why the band played I'll Be There For You *twice*, but it was fun! Guess who cursed his way through The Killers' Mr. Brightside? Hilarious! (yeah, man, when we're both cats).

Oh, how I miss live bands and glam rock until the wee hours of the morning. Next time, I'm requesting Signs by Tesla! Although I wonder...do you think they'd ever do the Marty Casey version of Baby One More Time? ;)

Hello Kitty Cops

I thought this was hilarious! Gotta love Thai creativity! Maybe we should do the same thing here, except that erring cops ought to wear the pink armbands in public [insert evil laugh here].

Labels: , ,

Monday, August 06, 2007

We Wants It Preciousssss

It's the MotoRAZR MAXX V6 Ferrari Challenge, and is so far not available in Asia (well, maybe they have it Singapore. I'm not sure). It has the Ferrari logo, comes pre-loaded with Ferrari wallpaper and action shots, and with a red leather case. When you open it, you hear a Ferrari engine roar. Coolness!

Wala lang, it just looks nice =) As it is, the regular MotoRAZR MAXX V6 is a great phone. 3G, Bluetooth, 2MP 2 sided-camera, VGA video camera,... I have no reason to complain. But the Ferrari phone is just so pretty!

Yun lang. It's a slow day....

Happiness is A Holiday Weekend

Due to insistent popular demand, the following are the remaining Philippine holidays for the year:

20 August 2007, Monday - Ninoy Aquino Day
27 August 2007, Monday - National Heroes Day
1 November 2007, Thursday - All Saints' Day
2 November 2007, Friday - All Souls' Day
30 November 2007, Friday - Bonifacio Day
24 December 2007, Monday - Christmas Eve
25 December 2007, Tuesday - Christmas Day
31 December 2007, Monday - Last Day of the Year

No word yet if 12 October 2007, Friday will be declared a holiday (Eid Al-Fitr is on Saturday, 13 October 2007). I'll keep all my HR fans posted ;)

Gabby, Benjor - jamming? Guess who else is on Singshot: Miggy!

Poetry For A Rainy Day

When Tori Amos released her Strange Little Girls album in 2001, the CD came with prose by Neil Gaiman (click on the link to go straight to the Strange Days page of Tori Amos's webpage). New Age, Strange Little Girl, I'm Not In Love and Real Men are my favorites. It's good reading, rain or shine (rain is better. Listen to the album while you're at it).

A few other rainy day poems - one by Anne Sexton, a couple by me (from 2005), and another by Margaret Atwood. No Sylvia Plath today or Anne Sexton's Wanting To Die, although methinks it's time to bring out the Magnetic Poetry kit. As Shirley Manson once sang, some of us are only happy when it rains.


"Words" - Anne Sexton

Be careful of words,
even the miraculous ones.
For the miraculous ones we do our best,
sometimes they swarm like insects
and leave not a sting but a kiss.
They can be good as fingers.
They can be trusty as the rock
you stick your bottom on.
But they can be both daisies and bruises.

Yet I am in love with words.
They are doves falling out of the ceiling.
They are six holy oranges sitting in my lap.
They are the trees, the legs of summer,
and the sun, its passionate face.

Yet often they fail me.
I have so much I want to say,
so many stories, images, proverbs, etc.
But the words aren't good enough,
the wrong ones kiss me.
Sometimes I fly like an eagle
but with the wings of a wren.

But I try to take care
and be gentle to them.
Words and eggs must be handled with care.
Once broken they are impossible
things to repair.


"That Boy"

He came, he went.
He helped me pass the time.
And when we lost the hours of night,
Well...
I guess even not-so-happy endings
turn out right.


"Let Her Go"

And he said, "When the stars have fallen
from the sky, our hearts will collide. I'll
pick up the pieces with my bloody hands.
How far would you have walked away from
me by then?"


"This Is A Photograph Of Me" - Margaret Atwood

It was taken some time ago.
At first it seems to be
a smeared
print: blurred lines and grey flecks
blended with the paper;

then, as you scan
it, you see in the left-hand corner
a thing that is like a branch: part of a tree
(balsam or spruce) emerging
and, to the right, halfway up
what ought to be a gentle
slope, a small frame house.

In the background there is a lake,
and beyond that, some low hills.

(The photograph was taken
the day after I drowned.

I am in the lake, in the center
of the picture, just under the surface.

It is difficult to say
where precisely, or to say
how large or small I am:
the effect of water
on light is a distortion.

but if you look long enough,
eventually
you will see me.)



*Photo of Woman in Grief - one of my favorite exhibit pieces from the National Museum in New Delhi, India. It's actually much smaller than how you see it on this post. If you blink as you walk along the exhibit wall, you'll miss it.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

My Life as a Jeanette Winterson Novel

I'm just so Julie Delpy's Celine. Each line you will read in this post was originally written by British novelist Jeanette Winterson. If you were to read only one of her books, let it be The Passion. Nins, Bianx, my obsession with her work is all your fault. I thank you.

*****

"A fire and a tale," said Patrick...This was her story.

I wanted to be a drummer.

To avoid discovery I stay on the run. To discover things for myself, I stay on the run.

The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God. I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. God has had a great deal written about Him; nothing has been written about me. God is bigger, like my mother, easier to find, even in the dark. I could be anywhere, and since I can't describe myself I can't ask for help.

ONE DOG. BROWN AND WHITE ROUGH COATED TERRIER. FRONT LEGS 8 INCHES LONG. BACK LEGS 6 INCHES LONG. CANNOT BE SEPARATED.
Then I worried in case a person might mistake it was the dog's legs that could not be separated, instead of him and me.
'You can't force that dog on anybody' said Miss Pinch, standing behind me, her long body folded like an umbrella.
'He's my dog.'
'Yes, but whose are you? That we don't know, and not everybody likes dogs.'

Book collecting is an obsession, an occupation, a disease, an addiction, a fascination, an absurdity, a fate. It is not a hobby. Those who do it must do it. Those who do not do it, think of it as a cousin of stamp collecting, a sister of the trophy cabinet, bastard of a sound bank account and a weak mind.

What you risk reveals what you value.

We are friends and I do like to pass the day with you in serious and inconsequential chatter. I wouldn't mind washing up beside you, dusting beside you, reading the back half of the paper while you read the front. We are friends and I would miss you, do miss you and think of you very often.

I did not believe in fate, but it can be a useful excuse.

I like passion, I like to be among the desperate.

I’m not looking, I've found what it is I want and I can’t have it.

Hopeless heart that thrives on paradox; that longs for the beloved and is secretly relieved when the beloved is not there. That gnaws away at the night-time hours desperate for a sign and appears at breakfast so self-composed. That longs for certainty, fidelity, compassion, and plays roulette with anything precious.

There is no sense in loving someone you can never wake up to except by chance.

Fetch. My heart returns to me what I turn away. I am my own master but not always master of myself. This woman wants to be… "Your lover."

Lovers are not at their best when it matters.

I say I’m in love with [him]. What does that mean? It means I review my future and my past in the light of this feeling. It is as though I wrote in a foreign language that I am suddenly able to read. Wordlessly, [he] explains me to myself. Like genius, [he] is ignorant of what [he] does.

When I say "I will be true to you" I must mean it in spite of the formalities, instead of the formalities. If I commit adultery in my heart then I have lost you a little.

If I cheat another, I cheat myself out of the person that I could be. If I wound another, I will eventually find the cut recalled to my own heart. There is no appropriate confession, only the will not to fail again so readily, perhaps because while failure can be forgiven it cannot be excused.

Like God, she was forgotten.

Why is the measure of love loss?

I didn't know what hate felt like, not the hate that comes after love. It's huge and desperate and it longs to be proved wrong. And every day it's proved right it grows a little more monstrous. If the love was passion, the hate will be obsession. A need to see the once loved weak and cowed and beneath pity. Disgust is close and dignity is far away. The hate is not only for the once loved, it's for yourself too; how could you ever have loved this?

What is more humiliating than finding the object of your love unworthy?

"You talk as though I've had an amputation." "I think you have. I think someone has cut out your heart."

I felt as if I had blundered into someone else’s life by chance, discovered I wanted to stay, then blundered back into my own, without a clue, a hint, or a way of finishing the story.

You play. You win. You play. You lose. You play.

Does it matter whom you lose to, if you lose?

"But I tell you, Henri, that every moment you steal from the present is a moment you have lost for ever. There's only now."

This is all I have, all I can be sure of. The rest is gone. The rest may not follow.

The secret of the world is this: the world is entirely circular and you will go round and round endlessly, never finding what you want, unless you have found what you really want inside yourself. When you follow a star you know you will never reach that star; rather it will guide you to where you want to go. It's a reference point, not an end in itself, even though you seem to be following it. So it is with the world. It will only ever lead you back to yourself. The end of all your exploring will be to cease from exploration and know the place for the first time.

And the heaviest lie? That we could go home and pick up where we had left off. That our hearts would be waiting behind the door with the dog.

I miss God. I miss the company of someone utterly loyal. I still don't think of God as my betrayer. The servants of God, yes, but servants by their very nature betray. I miss God who was my friend. I don't even know if God exists, but I do know that if God is your emotional role model, very few human relationships will match up to it. I have an idea that one day it might be possible, I thought once it had become possible, and that glimpse has set me wandering, trying to find the balance between earth and sky. If the servants hadn't rushed in and parted us, I might have been disappointed, might have snatched off the white samite to find a bowl of soup. As it is, I can't settle, I want someone who is fierce and will love me until death and knows that love is as strong as death, and be on my side for ever and ever. I want someone who will destroy me and be destroyed by me.

Time is a great deadener. People forget, grow old, get bored.

It's hard to remember that this day will never come again. That the time is now and the place is here and that there are no second chances at a single moment.

The traveller always wants home to be just as it was.

Empty space and points of light.

A stranger is a safe place. You can tell a stranger anything.

I’m telling you stories. Trust me.

I can change the story. I am the story.

"I'm running away," she said.
"Who are you running away from?"
"Myself."

Who was I last night?

There’s no such thing as autobiography, there’s only art and lies.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Mercedes-Benz Ad

Bwahahahahahaha! Cynthia, Drew, have you seen this? I LOVE IT!!! And yeah, anything Alonso can do, Hamilton can do better. Plus, the boy is HOT! (shhh...don't tell Kimi...).

My Outer Daemon

Meet my daemon, Aesop. I expected my daemon to be a black cat or a panther or jaguar (when I imagine myself as a mage, I always have a jaguar as my familiar). As it turned out to be a spider, I thought he would be called Anansi. Now since when was a I "humble" and "modest"?

The Golden Compass opens 7 December 2007. The time to re-read the book is near.


Labels: ,