THE LAST WORD

TESTING

2010-10-21T14:04:00.000+08:00

trying to post in blog via email...

WRAPPING UP 2009...

2009-12-23T11:08:00.002+08:00

Wow. I can't believe it's already been 2 months since the last post I made here...

It's been very very busy for me since I became the only writer for the project I was in. The project itself was quite stressful since I hated the story and the more I saw it in detail, the more it became apparent how crappy GMA's highest rating drama series was. Anywa, kung anong pangit nya, ganung kadali naman syang isulat and I am grateful for having all the scriptwriting jobs for it. An easy win is an easy win. Ang kaso lang nga, the office said we would have only until this year to dub it all so binawian naman ako sa volume ng trabaho. I have never had to write 6 1-hour episodes a week before, even back when I was writing at 20+, 3 a week would be so tiring that my eye literally bled. Still, I managed to pull it off with this one and it looks like I'll be expecting a big payday for a long time, so thanks to God!!!

Ut's only been the 4th time I got paid for this project and I already managed to wipe out a huge debt that I owed someone for almost a year. Yes, it's so liberating to be free from debt. You can actually talk to the person na hindi ka nahihiya kasi di mo pa sya nababayaran. I'd give myself another 1-3 months and I think I'll be able to wipe my credit cards clean.

Tapos na ako sa heavy load ng project and am now on a short xmas break. Dubbing resumes on monday pero 2 na lang ang deadline ko instead of the usual 3, and the last 2 isnt for another week. So I have the chance to kick back and recharge. After that, it's a new project. My boss isnt really going to give me much rest, but that's godd... I find myself thnking of too many things when I'm not working.

So there is still about a week left before the year is over. I am happy that I cleared one debt and am not as financially strapped as I was last year., and 2010 seems to be looking good. I have every reason to be thankful.

MORE BS FROM PLDT

2009-10-29T13:02:00.001+08:00

Aba, gaguhan ito… [this is BS]…

Normally, when a company brings back an old product, it’s coz it’s a classic and the consumers loved it. Kaya may clamor or demand to bring it back. You would expect this sort of thing from a pizza chain bringing back an old flavor of pizza, or a burger chain bringing back something in their menu, or a junk food manufacturer releasing an old snack into the market. “back by popular demand”, ikanga.

Ewan ko kung ano ang nakain ng mga henyo dyan sa PLDT. As if hindi pa gumagapang ang DSL nila sa plan P999 [the slowest one they have, “up to 1MBPS” daw na hindi naman umaabot doon], naglabas pa sila ngayon ng MAS mabagal! Note na sa P999 plan na yan, you still have to get a landline for the DSL to go through, an added P700, bringing your monthly to P1699. now they have a P1299 plan, the phone is “free” but the speed is BUSTED DOWN TO 384kbps. WTF?!?!

As if hindi mabagal ang DSL natin as it is, do we really miss the slower ones para ibalik pa ng PLDT ang mga ganitong kabagal na DSL? What were they thinking when they brought this package/speed back? Instead of bumping up their speeds, they offer slower ones and try to sell it as “savings”, porke sa panahon ngayon, kelangang magtipid.

Back when DSL and cable internet was just entering the scene, the usual selling point is “__x faster than dialup”. Eh bakit ngayon parang binabalik nila sa bilis ng dialup ang DSL? Pati Bayantel, their latest package is a cheaper package pero 768kbps na lang ang speed. Akala ba nila ipangfe-Facebook lang ng tao ang DSL? Nakakawalang gana tuloy kasi kung kelan ang dami mo nang magagawa online like watch streaming videos and play online games, hindi mo naman ma-appreciate kasi sobrang bagal ng internet mo.

Which reminds me… PLDT has this other new service called WATCHPAD. It lets PLDT DSL subscribers watch internet tv for free. Here I go again. As if their DSL isn’t slow enough, they want us to use it to watch tv online, eh meron naman tayo sa totoong tv nung mga channel na ino-offer nila. Bakit ako magtitiis sa computer where the video is stuck buffering when I can watch it on my tv? Masarap sana gamitin ang product na yan KUNG MABILIS ANG INTERNET MO, which is not what Pldt gives its subscribers.

Pldt, mga baliw kayo. Ayusin nyo na lang nga ang produkto nyo.

GOVERNMENT BS!!!

2009-10-28T10:18:00.002+08:00

I was very ticked off this morning when one of my uncle's employees who is basically our family's errand boy, came to my room...

A month ago, I made arrangements to apply for a salary loan and sickness notification at SSS [social security system]. I saw on the news that SSS was releasing funds or accommodating loans in light of the recent typhoons. Lots of people need money [kelan ba hindi?] and SSS and other agencies are making it more easily available.

I've been paying SSS for over 10 years and have qualified for a loan for the longest time. So even if I don't intend to use the loan to rebuild a water-damaged house, etc, I'm entitled to it and I applied.

What ticked me off is our errand boy came back and asked me to have the sickness notification form filled out again. Why? It was rejected. Why? Because it was filled out with a BLUE PEN.

This is BS! Even when I was in school, college or when I fill out a form in the bank, black and blue ink are acceptable. Why the hell they insist on the pen used having to be black is beyond me. This is a huge waste of time, considering that you line up for hours at SSS just to submit these forms. What a dumb thing to add to the red tape!

I think this is a BS technicality so that SSS wouldnt have to release funds to some people. Hindi naman sila namemersonal. Pero if some people get rejected over this technicality, that's less money for them to release.

SSS, pera namin yan. We make payments every month and we expect to be able to get the benefits when we are qualified. Don't try to keep it from us with BS technicalities like blue ink. These days, sawang sawa na ang tao sa ganyang mga kalokohan ng gobyerno. Shape up!

2009-10-21T11:27:00.001+08:00

I was watching BITAG LIVE for the past 2 days and Ben Tulfo was lambasting BDO for suspending some of their managers. Why were they suspended? For endorsing potentially delinquent cardholders of BDO's credit cards.

Now I agree, medyo unfair naman to punish the manager kung yung cardholder naman ang di nagbayad. Di na nila kontrolado yun e. Nageendorse lang sila ng aplikante.

PERO...

I also believe someone has to pay for those idiotic telemarketers who are always pestering us with credit card offers! You know who you are! Tuwing papalapit na ang 15th of every month, I always receive lots of phone calls from these guys, offering me ccards.

These guys are always telling me that I am pre-approved, that all they need is to "update my application/info" and I will have a ccard. This is BS. the truth is I am not preapproved. I havent filed an ITR in years. May 3 ccards na nga akong putol at malamang ay blacklisted na ako sa mga ccard companies na yun [ok lang, nalugi naman na yung isa e] In fact, if I applied for a ccard on my own, I wouldn't qualifiy, because I cant prove I have any income.

Pagkatapos, some other guy from the same ccard company will call me after a few days telling me the same thing... pero when I tell them that someone from their company called and offered me a ccard a few days before, they will tell me that my application isnt in their database! o akala ko ba may application na ako at iuupdate na lang?

These telemarketers accept me as an applicant even if they know I am not qualified, because they are after making a quota, they have to get a certain number of applicants before their deadline, regardless of whether the applicant is qualified or not. These guys are the ones who let the potentially delinquent ccardholders have ccards, nagkakaraon ng ccard kahit wala namang kakayahan na magmaintain.

These days, sobrang hirap ng buhay, having a ccard to a lot of people is like having free money. Wala pa yata kasing nakukulong dito for ccard debt. Eh ang pinoy, basta di nakukulong, ginagawa kahit alam nilang mali. You tell some loser that he qualifies to borrow money and more often than not, he'll take you up on it. So if your company does a piss-poor job of screening applicants, you're asking for a lot of headaches.

BDO, you cant have it both ways. You cant wish for an increase in people who get your ccard and also wish na walang delinquent sa mga yun. Kung wala kayong makitang tao na kayang magbayad ng utang, wag nyong pilitin na pautangin ang mga tao tapos paparusahan nyo ang tao nyo for giving ccards to people na YOU KNOW CANT PAY. Naghahanap lang kayo ng collection problems in the future, pagakatapos sarili nyong mga tao ang pananagutin nyo. This is plain dumb. Don't sell a product to people you know can't pay for it.

BIRTHDAY 2009: I TURNED 35!

2009-09-27T01:02:00.002+08:00

PICTURED ABOVE: I bought some food to celebrate my birthday with my maids and my driver, and his kids. Jollibee cheeseburgers and fries, rotisserie chicken, Goldilocks birthday cake, Coke, and Magnolia Sorbetes. I grabbed the opportunity to buy a complete set of the UAAP Coke bottles, for my lola.

PICTURED ABOVE: me with the maids, my driver and 2 of his kids.

This is actually the second leg of my 35th birthday celebration. The first leg was last night at the dialysis clinic at The Medical City, where Rose, a coworker of mine celebrated with me and the nurses on duty [and some of the patients too] with Pizza Hut viva lasagna meat lover's and free pepperoni pizza and pepsi. Thanks to Ed, Ruby and Tine, nurses and tech at the unit for celebrating with me.

I wanted to celebrate my birthday with a little blowout for my maids, my driver and his kids. These people have been taking care of me everyday and I wanted to celebrate with them. So I tried to order Jollibee so I could also get the UAAP bottles. But unfortunately, they don't give those on deliveries. You have to get dine in or takeout. So even with the insane weather, my driver and his eldest daughter Jackie went out to buy food. We couldnt go to Jollibee Temple Drive because the way there was flooded. So we braved it to Galleria... if I felt better I would've just hung out in the mall all day and watched Surrogates. There wasn't a whole lot of people at the mall because of the weather! Anyway, since we were there, we also got a cake and some ice cream from the grocery. And I got a good deal on some rotisserie chicken.

We also hit a small snag on the Galleria Branch of Jollibee... 3 of the UAAP bottles were out of stock. The UP, Lasalle and Ateneo ones, in particular. So after we got everything, we went to another branch in Emerald Ave. Yahoo! They had all the bottles available. That completes the set and meant more burgers and fries for everyone.

The last leg is later, my Tita is coming over with food and my first cousin and her husband and baby are also coming over. That is if the weather permits. If only I would get to see my nephew, this would be perfect.

This is my first birthday where I have a Facebook account and the fact that it makes it so easy for my friends to remember and greet me on my birthday makes this site makes it so valuable. I have loved FB ever since I joined in august and although I lost a friend since, I gained a lot in return. I am still hoping for another chance of reconciliation someday. But I am not holding my breath. But you never know... life is full of surprises.

Every year, I feel lucky to have made it to another birthday. I love life and belive it's precious. I've been doing my damndest to make the most of it. And I think I'm doing fine.

Thanks for everyone who remembered, and who will still celebrate this day with me. I love you all.

SHORTCHANGED

2009-09-19T23:34:00.002+08:00

It's been a while, or maybe even never, did I notice this, but better late than never...

Lately I have been buying canned veggies and making my own hearty veggie soup at home. Campbell's hearty soups are already too pricey and usually there's more soup than veggies so I figured I'd make my own. The other day I bought canned mushrooms, peas & carrots, and mixed vegetables. But to my surprise, once I combined the contents of all 3 cans, they barely filled a bowl. Most of what was in the cans was water. I found this to be a real gyp. When you read the contents on the label, it obviously reads the total weight of the contents but doesnt indicate what percentage is water.

For a guy with a water retention problem, the logic is so obvious. Most of the weight from my intake comes from drinking. Even if I eat plenty, that's nothing compared to the weight I put on if I drink too much. So of course, if you fill a can with water, it's going to seem heavy even if there is hardly any veggies in it.

Same BS with a can of Lay's STAX potato chips I opened tonight... Mind you, this is a sealed can. No chips were crushed settling at the bottom. At that rate, it was only about 3/4 full. If you eat one in one sitting, does that still count as eating a WHOLE CAN? =)

I'm already on a strict regiment, I have to watch the volume of what I eat. But getting smaller portions than what I should be getting for my money is never right.

SATURDAY [ONLINE] SHOPPING

2009-08-29T23:44:00.004+08:00

Quite a fruitful day. 2 great finds. Both on Ebay.ph and both for a steal of a price...
Been in the market for a second DVD recorder ever since I became a heavy contributor at PINOYCHANNEL.TV. Lots of programs to record, some of which are also on 2 stations and airing at the same time. And since Pioneer is the only brand most shops carry [it's the best one anyway] , I have been looking for a cheaper alternative. Today, I hit paydirt. An Aussie listed this baby on Ebay.ph. He bought it and brought it here to the country, thinking he was going to stay here for a while, but he sold his business and wants to dispose of everything quickly. So he let this go for a real bargain, and he hasnt even used it!

Handsome, isn't he? TF Universe Deluxe SE-01 Optimus Prime. About 7" tall, very articulated, and transforms into truck mode. It isn't metal but I never really cared much for metal. If you want a metal truck, get a Tonka! I found this one for only P500. I was thinking they were just selling this for a bloated price and it was probably on sale in Toy Kingdom or something, but it was out of stock in the big toy stores a long time ago. I heard this came out last year. I would never pass up the chance to own an Optimus Prime with this detail for only P500. And so, here he is.

I also got some cool AA rechargeable batteries from CDRKING for only P500 a pair. The cool factor: the caps of the batteries come off and reveals USB plugs. Charge them by simply plugging them straight into a USB port. Really convenient to use with my digicam that drains batteries like a humvee!

It's been a great saturday, tomorrow I may go to Vmall again to shop for DVD+RWS. Until now, I've been using minuses but this new machine uses the pluses.

All this time, my driver and I have been shopping for these gadgets like Batman and Alfred/Lucius... oh did I mention my driver's name is also Al? LOL

2009-08-27T23:07:00.002+08:00

I saw on the news yesterday that the NTC raided the 168 mall for smuggled cellphones. What in particular? A new China-made phone that has VOICE SCRAMBLERS on it. It can alter your voice so the person you're calling can't recognize you. Apparently some victim of a stalker getting prank calls reported it to the cops and thus, the raid.

What dumbass stunt is this now? There is no law against having a phone with a voice scrambler! The reason why they were allowed to seize those phones is 'coz they were smuggled into the country. Legit manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson all say that none ot their phones have such a feature. WELL, WHAT IS THE NTC GOING TO DO WHEN THESE PHONES START COMING WITH THAT FEATURE?

And let's not kid ourselves. The media made this news but the only thing it really accomplished was make the demand for these things even bigger. And we all know that once the NTC leaves the mall, those sellers will replenish their stock and go back to selling. The same thing happened months ago when smuggled satellite dishes were selling like hotcakes in Raon.

The only thing that will really solve this problem is to hit customs hard. That's how these things get in the country. Nailing the frontliners is a band aid solution and is at best for media mileage. Someone's pockets are being lined here, that's who the real target is.

IF MOHAMMED WON'T COME TO THE MOUNTAIN... WHEN SHE COMES

2009-08-24T02:33:00.002+08:00

Hanggang ngayon, dadalawa pa lang ang branch ng TACO BELL sa Pilipinas. Sa Gateway at sa Trinoma. Neither are in my area. The nearest Mexican food joint is Mexicali at Galleria and more often than not, nasisira ang tyan ko sa kung anuanong sahog na ginagamit nila. Not to mention that it's kind of pricey.

I've been craving for tacos for a while, so I decided to try making my own. Bought some ground beef, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, a big bar of cheddar cheese and a bag of Tostitos. After some pretty basic instructions to the maid on how to prepare the veggies and the ground beef, presto. Yung Tostitos na siguro ang pinakamahal sa listahan na ito.

It suprisingly tastes great. None of that "toxic" taste from Mexicali. And I haven't even added the cup of sour cream I bought [sa Taco Bell may sour cream pa kasi] nor did I add any Tabasco. Maybe next time. I also want to try to substitute tuna for the beef.

I just love it when I discover that a favorite food I usually order at some restaurant or fast food joint can taste just as good when cooked at home. Yeah I know, this is so easy to prepare. Half the time, I'm afraid the maid would screw it up.

This time, we had a winner.

And before I forget... eaten with a can or two of SPRITE ZERO and this barely or hardly shoots up my bloodsugar. Wonderful.

GMA'S DARNA 2009 [1ST 2 WEEKS]: RIPOFF OF SPIDERMAN MOVIES

2009-08-22T10:09:00.001+08:00

it seems yung spiderman movies naman ang niriripoff ng darna ngayon. if robin padilla ripped off a ton of movies for totoy bato, eto naman ang ginawa nilang kalokohan...

1. ian de leon plays a cop who is always looking after narda. eventually, when the supervillains attacked, he was one of the first fatalities. darna wasnt around because narda didnt want to be her. it was his death that pushed her to take the responsibility

IN SPIDERMAN: uncle ben.

2. raymart santiago plays a very irritable newspaper editor in chief who only wants stories and pictures about darna.

IN SPIDERMAN: jameson of the daily bugle

3. ricky davao is a rich scientist with a son who he is always picking on. he wants the boy to take after him but doesnt have any confidence in him.

IN SPIDERMAN: norman and harry osborn [green goblin]

4. babaeng impakta, one of the supervillains, has a monster on her back, it has long tentacles that grab its victims and waves them around.

IN SPIDERMAN: doctor octopus

the monster can also victimize other people and make hosts out of them

IN SPIDERMAN: venom

5. the first flight scene of darna, where she is frolicking in the air, is similar to spiderman 1 when peter parker discovered for the first time that he can climb walls and make giant leaps.

dalawang linggo pa lang yan ha... I don't get why a TV series that was based on a comic book can't just stick to its own story, bakit kelangan pang i-ripoff ang isa pang comic book.

2009-08-12T12:16:00.000+08:00

I feel guilty.

What about?

It seems every time I blog these days, it’s just a rant or about something I’m ticked off about. HOWEVER. That doesn’t mean o’m always angry. It’s just that when I am happy lately, it’s when I’m doing other things. It’s just a matter of bad timing that when something annoys me, I feel like blogging.

I am happy that I discovered Facebook. For the longest time, I have avoided FB since I thought it was just another Friendster clone and I have always thought of FS as a waste of time, something kids these days waste their time on, making friends with total strangers. It’s also a haven for stalkers and perverts… I have seen countless missions on Bitag, XXX and Imbestigador about girls victimized by rapists/maniacal boyfriends and lewd private pics of them end up in FS. To me, this is the female gender’s answer to COUNTERSTRIKE. If guys waste time playing online games all day in the net cafes, girls do this. But that isn’t the case with FB. Okay, a lot of people still waste time with it, but it’s a great communications tool. I used to think Yahoo Messenger was all I needed. FB made a huge improvement in all that. I reconnected with most of my schoolmates, college buddies, family and coworkers in just one site. Well, I also have the fact that Pinoys are trend victims to thank for that. FB is the “in” thing now, the fact that Pinoys simply cant be left behind on what’s hot is the reason why most are in FB.

I am happy that I finished reading almost all of Wolverine’s comics. All that’s left are the one-shots, specials, and the ORIGINS comic series. I’m pretty much up to speed on his adventures. Now there’s still the X-men, G. I. Joe and the Punisher…

I still haven’t seen the new G. I. Joe movie, although I am hearing a lot of good things about it. I have to admit, I’m skeptical. GI Joe to me has always been a ridiculous concept. Why are the soldiers the ones not in uniform while the terrorists are all in uniform? And you wonder why Americans were caught off-guard during 9/11… they were probably expecting terrorists to look like COBRA. 20 years ago, I saw this cool movie [although it had Chuck Norris as the lead star] called THE DELTA FORCE and I loved it ‘coz that’s how GI Joe should be. They didn’t dress like the Village People [that gay all male band who sang YMCA] and there were no American Ninjas, they wore all black tactical gear and fought real terrorists who didn’t wear uniforms. They had the cool weapons and vehicles, too, like dune buggies, motorcycles with missiles and guns. I’d much rather they did a remake of that…

I am also happy to have finally watched and finished both latest seasons of CSI Miami and New York, Miami is only about to start on AXN while New York is ¾ done already. I’m all done. And it was quite enjoyable. I keep imagining, with all the MO’s of local felons here, we could make a forensics, police show of our own. But more on that later.

So what am I ticked off about?

This past weekend, news broke about the now infamous PGMA $20,000 dinner. I am not ticked off that she had that dinner. I still give them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t see any proof that it was paid with taxpayer’s money. Am I being naïve? I don’t think so. I just want some real proof.

The media and activists wont give this stupid issue a rest. Last night, one news show started comparing how much $20,000 is worth if used to help the poor. PLEASE!!! They don’t do a piece about this when it comes to Manny Pacquiao’s money, or Willie Revillame’s money. And they shouldn’t. as long as as they aren’t spending someone else’s rightfully owned money, they can eat whatever they want.

I make no secret about it, I love food. I eat anything from street food to expensive restaurant food. Sometimes, my meal costs P400-P500. should I stop eating such food just ‘coz millions of people out there can’t afford it? Hell no!

These people who make issues out of this are the same people who are frustrated that they cant afford to eat expensive food. So they make themselves feel better by speculating that those who can afford to eat those are wrongfully spending someone else’s money. It’s a simple case of the have-nots being jealous of the have-mores. Pathetic.

2009-07-22T17:21:00.002+08:00

Yes, I still blog.

Ang kaso, tuwing magre-resume ako sa pagblo-blog, it usually is a rant. How I wish I did it less. But hindi talaga maiiwasan.

2 weeks ago, na-decline na ang isa kong credit card when I was buying some groceries. Note. Hindi sya over the limit. It was just near the limit, but not enough credit limit left to pay for my purchase. Early this week, I got a harrassing letter from the ccard company, saying I was OVER THE LIMIT and is demanding immediate payment of a certain amount, even if my due date is still at the end of the month.

Isa lang ang posibleng dahilan... the bloodsuckers stuck it to me with the annual fee and thus my ccard went over the limit. They are the ones who caused it to go over the limit and yet are penalizing ME with the over the limit fee. Anong kalokohan yan!

This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard and just proves how these ccard companies take every opportunity to screw us. Tayong mga cardholder eh hindi pwedeng gamitin ang ccard kapag sagad na ang credit limit. Pero silang mga ccard compaany eh pwedeng i-charge tayo ng kung anuano kahit na sagad na ang limit natin. This is like saying hindi na ako makautang dahil wala na akong pera, pero pwede pa rin nila akong kunan ng pera! Hindi ba ang labo? They could at least wait until there are sufficient funds in the ccard before they charge that annual fee para di mamulatahan yung cardholder na hindi naman tumatakbo sa obligasyon.

WOLVERINE'S RIDICULOUS HEALING FACTOR EPISODE

2009-07-11T10:12:00.003+08:00

I know Wolverine's got healing factor, and I know part of it includes regeneration of tissue, but THIS IS RIDICULOUS.

Whenever I watch or read something fictitional and find something ridiculous, I am always told to SUSPEND MY DISBELIEF. Well, you can only do that so far, there are still some things that your mind can't just accept even if the story is fictional.

I have been catching up on my reading of Wolverine pretty quickly. I already put away the whole Volume 2 and am now finishing up on the last 15 or so issues of Volume 3.

In this story, part of the CIVIL WAR story I think, Wolverine is battling Nitro, a mutant whose power makes him a walking atomic bomb. So anyway, Wolverine and he go at it. Nitro does his thing, blows up and Wolverine is at ground zero. If he had a normal skeleton, he would've disintegrated. But since it's indestructible adamantium, it survives the blast and even protects his vital organs. BUT, most if not all the meat on his bones are gone. Check it out...

Here's where the bullsh*t REALLY starts... even if he's only got the organs inside the skeleton left, his healing factor, and the regenerative qualities kick in and EVERYTHING GROWS BACK.

WTF...

I'm no expert on the human body, but you need to eat to make muscles. Your body doesn't just make them out of nowhere. He just laid there and grew himself a body. That's supposed to be part of healing?!

So my next question... if someone cuts off his penis, will it grow back? Will his healing factor make it the same size or can he adjust the length? LMAO

If I was reading this 10-15 years ago, I may found this to be way cool. Now I just laugh at it and say bullsh*t. And yeah, I haven't forgotten that it's fictional and more ridiculous things have happened in the X-universe.

Oh and a sad, unrelated note, I am saddened to find out that one of my high school classmates, Marie, passed away a few days ago with breast cancer.

A LITTLE SHOPPING AT VMALL

2009-07-09T15:37:00.003+08:00

NO, I didn't buy this! I saw it at the food court at VMall and I wanted to shoot it...

My DVD writer was showing signs of age. Close to conking out, actually. Been making coasters and what good discs it makes takes 45 minutes to burn at 16X. Something is definitely not right. So before I have to make that new batch of DVDS I'm sending to Canada, I decided to buy a new one.

ABOVE: The Liteon DVD writer I bought at my favorite PC store at VMALL. I was surprised to find that nobody really sells DVDROM drives anymore. The ones with burners are too cheap, so adding a few hunnerd bucks to the price of a DVDROM already buys you one that can MAKE DVDS instead of just read them. Logical indeed. While I was there, I decided to throw out the jurassic floppy drive I had and put in a card reader with USB port. This makes transferring pics from the digicam to the pc much easier than plugging the USB card reader.

I saw TEN THE EVENING NEWS last night, and in the Gadget segment, they featured a digicam and mentioned that more and more people are buying digicams now 'coz they want to post pics in Facebook. Well, I myself joined FB recently and can appreciate the site much more than Friendster. Truly wonderful, more on that later.

PICTURED ABOVE: a GHOST IN THE SHELL STANDALONE COMPLEX t-shirt I found at FILBAR'S. I noticed I was wearing the same batch of clothes over and over when I go to the hospital so I decided to buy this so I can wear something different next time. Bought it for P250. They had a few more anime t-shirts there, too.

(HAPPILY) DROWNING IN WOLVERINE COMICS

2009-07-08T11:24:00.003+08:00

Last night, after reading only for a few weeks, I have finished reading ALL 189 issues of Marvel's Wolverine Volume 2. I don't really know why it is called Volume 2... I think volume 1 pertains to the 4 issue limited series by Frank Miller [the Mariko Yashida story].

About 10 years ago, I stopped reading comics just when Wolverine ALMOST got his adamantium back. Cyber's adamantium skin was "skinned" off of him and was going to be put into Wolverine but it was rejected... he was doing a lot of soul-searching with Elektra when I stopped reading and I have been meaning to catch up on my reading for a while. It was after the latest Hugh Jackman movie came out that I decided it was time to finally start reading again.

And I simply love the comics. Woleveine finally got his adamantium back thanks to Sabretooth and Apocalypse, and my favorite character Sabretooth now had an adamantium skeleton too! I can't wait to start reading volume 3.

I am currently wrapping up reading his little adventures on Marvel Comics Presents. I have but 2 major stories to read from MCP... "Typhoid's Kiss" and "Weapon X", both of which I have read before because I owned the trade paperbacks... before it got eaten by termites. But after that, I'm going straight to volume 3, and then back to the miniseries and one-shots. Clearly, I am far from done with Wolverine.

A "LEGENDARY" PROJECT!!!

2009-07-08T10:53:00.003+08:00

It's been 3 weeks since EL CARTEL was passed off back to the inhouse writers and I haven't been given any work by the studio. But luckily, my old boss called me that very same night to hire me for another new project, one that I truly love.

Other than the time I was hired to write the Tagalog scripts of SLAM DUNK, I don't think I ever wrote another script that I was such a fanboy about.

THE LEGEND OF BRUCE LEE is a drama series produced in mainland China about the life of the legend, the martial arts man himself, BRUCE LEE. I first heard of this series when I was watching the Discovery Channel, they held a huge competition in China called "The Next Kung Fu Star" and the winner was going to star as the lead in this show.

When I found out the studio bought this series to be dubbed, I was quite excited, but when I found out that they hired another writer for the Tagalog version, I was pretty disappointed. But I was glad to find out that they wanted me for the English version. Although out of the 30 episodes, I was only tasked to write 6, I had the most fun writing a script in such a long time! After writing for a year about romantic couples facing all sorts of adversity and drug dealing traitors ratting each other out to the DEA, I'm finally writing about something I have been fascinated with all my life - Kung Fu on the big screen and Bruce Lee.

The show had a lot of interesting stories and factors that any fanboy would love. People from his real life were had onscreen presence, from his wife Linda, his son Brandon and daughter Shannon, friends and students Taky Kimura, Jesse Glover and Filipino friend Dan Inosanto [who was played by a Chinese guy, WTF! If you know nothing about Bruce Lee, you'd never guess this character was Filipino], including his nemesis opponents in the martial arts world like kenpo master Ed Parker and wing chun grandmaster Wong Jack Man! I had a blast researching my facts and names of real people in his life, I never had so many notes in my scripts explaining martial art disciplines, moves, techniques, and even philosophical inferences.

The show also had Hollywood actors playing roles, Michael Jai White was in it, Gary Daniels and Ray Park [who played Chuck Norris] are some of the big names in this show. And Linda Lee's actress looks a lot like Kelli Williams [Lindsay Dole] of THE PRACTICE.

I was also glad that my coworkers liked my script. Well, they said they did. They said it was so obvious I was a Bruce Lee fanatic. Some of them even asked for copies of his movies, which I was happy to oblige. Anytime you meet someone with similar interests as you can't be all bad... besides, some of them wanted it so they can study their roles. So I also made them copies of whatever Bruce Lee bios and docus I had. And over the years, there were quite a few of them.

And I was glad that the translation they provided was pretty decent. I wasn't given fansubs on a bootleg burned DVD this time, and I truly appreciate that. I never approved of using fansubs for dubbing of legally acquired shows. I always believed they should spring for decent translations and do it right.

My last episode is due monday... I sure wish there was more. But it was definitely fun while it lasted.

ANOTHER PIZZA HUT HORROR STORY

2009-07-03T12:22:00.002+08:00

My PH horror stories never seemed to end. I haven't blogged in a few weeks. I've been meaning to blog again but this wasn't what I wanted to write about.

I wanted to blog about Facebook and how I finally signed up. I wanted to blog about how I finally caught up on my readong of Wolverine, and how I read 40 issues in just one day the other day. But this latest experience with PH this morning just had to go first.

Ever since I got the Palm Card last april, I have been using it every chance I get. That buy 1 take 1 on the pizza deal is a steal. I have used it almost once a week, and more often than not, I have paid with my credit card. There were times that my eyes grew big when my credit card statement came and so many purchases from Pizza Hut were listed. Anyway, the point is, I used the palm card a lot and I paid with credit card.

To my surprise, this morning, I tried ordering my usual buy 1 take 1 pizza with the palm card and I was going to pay with the credit card. Hell, I've done it so many times before. I knew the drill. The girl takes my call, gives all the scripted Q&A, then I wait for the pizza. Today was different.

The lady insists that if I use my palm card, I can only pay with cash. WTF?! I couldnt believe it. I even raised my voice. It's a good thing she had a cool head. At least one of us did. I even called the Galleria branch to verify. They said the same thing. I checked the terms and conditions in their website. "Cash payments only". Even the terms on my palm card say so. SO HOW THE HELL DID I PAY FOR ALL THOSE PIZZAS WITH MY CREDIT CARD???

I am not making this up. I have many PH transactions on my credit card statement ever since I got the palm card. I know I have been using the buy 1 take 1 deal a lot. So I know I used to be able to pay with credit card. If these deals fell through the cracks, then they ought to know about it. Their foolproof system isnt as foolproof as they say.

I'm not mad at them, just puzzled.

2009-06-27T10:58:00.003+08:00

Terrible news yesterday. Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett both passed away.

At the dialysis unit, hindi na bagong balita sa akin na may kapwa akong pasyente na namatay na. I always hear that one of my "classmates", or fellow patient who share the same schedule with me on dialysis days, has already died. This is because most of the other patients are fortunate enough to get this disease when they are much older, whereas i got it when I was 30.

While the nurses and technicians are a really friendly bunch... I chat with them on YM and Facebook a lot... I can't shake the feeling na kapag ako naman ang namatay, they will only talk about me for a brief moment and then I'll be forgotten. Some may get the impression na kulang sa pansin ako... pero one of my fears is that nobody will even know I'm dead. Kahit sa workplace ko, one of the things I fear is that when I die, no one will even remember me, that I won't even leave a lasting imprint of myself in people's memories.

About 4 years ago, when I was admitted to the hospital for congestion, my whole family was worried sick. I don't know how my co-workers found out, but my grandmother told me that my bosses called my house and asked how I was, what room I was in and in what hospital. They told my grandmother that they were so worried about her grandson. My grandmother was so touched, she didn't know that so many people loved me, aside from my family. My bosses told her that everyone at my workplace loved me and wanted to visit me at the hospital. While I found this to be touching, I was happier with the way it made my grandmother feel. It gave her a sense of fulfillment, that she did right by me, that she raised a kid who has earned the loveand respect of most people around him, so much that they were afraid that he was going to die.

This is why, with my diminished capacity, I try to help my friends wherever I can, to make them happy whenever I can and in any way I can. Because that is how I want to be remembered.

So anyway, after realizing that at the hospital last night, I added numbers to my chart, additional people to be contacted in the event of my death. Sorry for such a morbid subject.

* * * * * * * * * *

BTW, I was told by a friend that someone had this crazy idea that I was a sociopath. That's hilarious... especially when you search Wiki and look at the 18+ symptoms of a sociopath, this person exhibits about 15 of the symptoms. LMAO! It was like reading a checklist ng kanyang personality. Pwede nyang i-paste yung symptoms sa profile nya and people would easily mistake it as an "about me" entry nya. Anybody who has met this person will tell you na sya ang sociopath.

[sings] sino ang tunay na baliw...

MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT MAKING AN ANIME MTV [AMV]: VOLTES V

2009-06-21T20:18:00.003+08:00

Whenever I am at dialysis, I listen to songs on my mp3 player... Sometimes I visualize an MTV... when I listen to Paul Oakenfold's "Ready Steady Go", I think of Voltes V... for some reason, it just fits. This song has been used in famous movies like the car chase scene in THE BOURNE IDENTITY, and a club scene in COLLATERAL.

This weekend, it was like a new chapter in my life. After 5 years, I finally kicked a bad habit. I used to think of someone everyday, and finally realized it was such a waste of time. I decided to learn how to make AMV's.

My first step was to go online and see if there are any tutorials. The most recommended progs I saw were Sony Vegas, Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle Studio. Of the 3, Pinnacle was the one I found easiest to use.

After downloading and installing the software, I played around with it for a few hours, and before I knew it, 4 hours have passed and I have finished the AMV. It was so much fun. I still have plenty to learn, since I hardly know anything about effects, transitions and stuff. So my first attempt is pretty basic. I also skipped the recommended steps like planning the video. At first, I thought making a storyboard would be appropriate, but I was too excited. I had all the scenes mapped out in my head, I was aching to see it compiled, timed with music.

So here is my first AMV, hopefully I can think up some better ones in the future.

2009-06-18T12:52:00.002+08:00

Bought this bad boy on a very abrupt time... I woke up this morning to find out my Viewsonic 17" LCD monitor has conked out. About 2 years ago, lightning struck and the power supply was fried, but the manufacturer replaced that and I was fine until today. The power supply is still fine but the monitor just wont power up.

I had this on my wish list for a while, saw it on the computer store about 2 weeks ago. Prior to this, I already had my eye on a 22" but I saw this one... it was 23" and it was less than P10,000. I was going to wait until I get my next TF [talent fee] for writing rewrties but I couldn't afford to wait anymore, I have a deadline to meet by tomorrow and can't do without my monitor. My cousin's old CRT wasn't good enough for my poor eyesight, so I had every excuse to run to the mall and buy this thing, even if a storm was on the way!

My only complaint at the moment is that I am NOT used to a widescreen computer monitor. So I am still using the normal full screen setting instead of the widescreen. I don't like my text stretched sideways. I hope there's a way to fix that. But for now, I am just enjoying the huge screen, and after I make my deadline, I will finally use this thing to read digital comics!

A SONG THAT HITS HOME

2009-06-13T17:26:00.004+08:00

It's funny how certain songs just hit much too close to home and says exactly how you feel. I've always loved the movie "Flashdance" especially this song. And I have been feeling this way for years...

It's the song that just keeps playing on the radio
And you know I haven't seen you for a while
I lie awake at night And I wonder how you are
And I wish that I could see you again

Is it luck or is it fate That brings us back?
Or is it just a common point of view?
Time has put a spell on you You never seem to change
And I wish that I could see you again

But I'll be here where the heart is
When the dreams that we've been after All come true
You will find me here where the heart is
I'll wait for you I'll wait for you

It's the light that keeps shining day after day
When other loves have come and gone
I'll be here with open arms to take you in
And I wish that I could see you again

And in between And when I need to see you again
All I have to do Is close my eyes
Oh the picture's coming in my friend
I'll hold you again, But until then

But I'll be here where the heart is
When the dreams that we've been after All come true
You will find me here where the heart is
I'll wait for you I'll wait for you

2009-06-12T06:57:00.002+08:00

After a very tiring, long yet super-happy day yesterday, I begin today by waking up really early to start working again. But I just want to post this... I am super, super-thankful to GOD for giving me the best gift in a long time... I know I have been so blessed these past few years, actually I have always been blessed with so many friends and family who love and care for me... but God is definitely the greatest and He will always outdo Himself when it comes to showering people with blessings.

So God, I know you can hear me... thank you thank you thank you for giving me back my friend...

2009-06-11T08:56:00.002+08:00

Got some decent sleep after coming home from the hospital and doing all the editing and uploads before going to bed this morning. I hope to clear 3/4 of an episode of el cartel today so I can have one down and one more to go due sunday. I don't remember if I ever cleared 3/4 an episode in one day, I'm sure I have.

Still a little antsy over the, well, "move". Still no after-effects and I can't afford to be waiting on it. Sometimes I don't know why I even bothered.

BOTHERED

2009-06-10T18:17:00.002+08:00

As Chains Cooper [Lance Henriksen] in the movie Stone Cold said... "This is either going to be the biggest porkchop I ever ate... or my bulldozer."... basically, it means he just made either a really good or bad decision.

I did such a thing this afternoon. And now, waiting for the verdict is eating at me. I can't work, I'm antsy. I don't know why I even bothered to do it, all I can say for now is I can't elaborate on it. But this is going to have a huge effect on me, in ways that most people who know me will never see coming.

Sorry for sparing the details... but I've said as much as I am willing to share...

2009-06-10T11:51:00.002+08:00

Still shaking off the cobwebs... it's almost lunchtime and I still haven't gotten my body to wake up, enough to do work, at least... I know, how the hell can I blog if I'm supposedly too tired? Well, my mind is mush right now and I am afraid it's going to affect my work if I force myself to write. Hopefully I can get some work done after lunch.

Funny how when you've got nothing to look forward to for a while but work, your body seems to be sandbagging. That can't be too good. It's not that I am not inspired to work, it's just that the body just won't cooperate. Ayaw talaga e.

The Wolverine movie is still playing on my dvd player... must be the 4th or 5th time it's played since this morning. Naka-loop kasi. I'm not really watching it, it's just playing in the background hoping to wake me up somehow.

2009-06-10T08:24:00.003+08:00

Woke up with a nasty muscle pain just behind the armpit of my left shoulder. I don't know how I strained it...

I decided to download X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. After I've seen the movie in the cinema, I felt like watching it again. I scored a pretty good copy. It's practically DVD quality, even if there is no original DVD release yet. If you can forgive Dutch subtitles, it's great. The player's been playing it on a loop since last night.

I googled about this movie... as it turns out, in an early cut, a young Storm made a cameo in the scene in Africa but was deleted. Syempre naduling ako sa kakahanap sa kanya dun sa movie before I found out na dinelete pala. Then I also read that there is an alternate scene at the end of Logan in a bar in Japan, implying that the sequel is going to be about Mariko Yashida and the Silver Samurai. Di ko napanood ito, kasi depende daw sa theater na pinaooran mo kung aling clip ang ipapalabas.

I have a lot of work for the next 2 weeks. The office keeps shaving off 2 days from my deadline each time. So my next deadline is sunday instead of tuesday, and next one is friday instead of sunday. At this rate, I won't have much time to rest... I usually take a 1-day break in between episodes but I won't be able to do that for the next 2 weeks. Pabsa-basa na lang ako ng digital comics kapag nagpapahinga nang panandalian.

Okay lang, I inspire myself to work by thinking of that 23" LCD monitor I intend to buy. I also had my friend buy me a complete set of the X-men Manga which was released in 1998. 26 issues sya. Got a good deal in Ebay and will just wait 'til my cousin visits from the US to bring it in.

That's it for now. Have to get started on work.

2009-06-07T14:19:00.003+08:00

Bakit ba parang nakakailang magblog ng walang title?

Currently watching Blade Trilogy.

Ewan ko kung bakit nagkahilig ako sa mga ganitong hero-types. Puro ganyan ang hilig ko... Punisher, Wolverine, Blade... Mga hero na may extraordinary power to kick ass. Usually masusungit pa. Not necessarily anti-authority, pero ayaw nilang isipin mong maaasahan mo sila, pero lagi naman silang andun kapag kelangan sila. Ang labo ba?

Same thing with action movies. As far as I can remember, pinapanood ko ang mga lumang movies ni Arnold Schwarzenegger like Terminator, Commando, or mga unang movies ni Steven Seagal, halos mga immortal na sila, single-handedly beating up almost dozens of bad guys. Ang saya lang...

Lately I have been reading Wolverine comics. naka-30 issues na ako. Natigil lang kasi may deadline ako sa martes. So far, he hasn't really fought any supervillan-types yet. Puro mafia, drug lords, and so far, he doesn't hold back on killing. Very bloody at madaming patayan ang comics nya. At home na at home ang mahilig sa Punisher katulad ko...

Left the house early today. wen to the hospital for some major fasting bloodwork. Inabot lang naman ng halos 2 hours sa kahihintay. Kung hindi lang fasting, isasabay na lang sa dialysis ang pagkuha ng dugo. Oh well, the good thing is I got out of the house early.

Finally got a haircut, and even went to Virra Mall. Di ko na iniisip masyado na bumili ng second CPU since nakakabasa na ako ng digital comics dito sa pc at nakakaraos naman. However, may bago na akong inaasam... may LCD monitor akong nakita na P9,900 lang, at 23 inches na!!! Everytime I look around for an LCD monitor, dati eh 22 inches lang ang pinakamalaki sa P10,+++ range. Ito na ang susunod na bibilhin ko kapag may extra money. At kung tuluy-tuloy ang bigay sa akin ng El Cartel, this wont be too far away. Sa excitement ko, di ko na naitanong kung may TV tuner sya...

2009-06-05T12:19:00.005+08:00

Kapag tamad ka nga namang magtrabaho, kung anu-ano ang naiisip mong gawin.
The other night, napanood ko sa Youtube ang "literal meaning version" ng old song na "Total Eclipse of the Heart" ni Bonnie Tyler. Someone made fun of the visuals in lyric form and sang it. My friend John and I toyed with the idea of doing the same thing with the Voltes V theme song. Syempre, di namin kakantahin, but subtitles were enough.
Ayan. ayaw pa kasi magtrabaho. At least I found out na I still haven't forgotten how to fansub. I got this one done pretty quickly.
Walang mapipikon na fans ha. Katuwaan lang ito. I didn't mean to offend any of the fans. I am a big Voltes V fan myself.

WHAT DID SHE SAY HER NAME WAS???

2009-06-04T10:22:00.003+08:00

I just finished reading issue #23 of Wolverine volume 2 [basically I just finished reading what was in the ESSENTIAL WOLVERINE TPB Volume 1] and I was lauging my ass off when I saw this character. She's a latina, and her mutant power is she inspires people. Well, talk about putting your abilities to good use, 'coz she is a revolutionary, rallying the common folk to fight oppression and all that jazz...

Her name... get this... LA BANDERA. bwahahaha! In Spanish, that'd be great, it would mean "The flag". Pretty patriotic. But in Filipino, "labandera" is a laundrywoman. I can just picture the local networks ripping this off and making a patriotic superheroine, and her secret identity would be a mild mannered laundrywoman... hehehehe

2009-06-03T12:20:00.002+08:00

Sa wakas, may CSR ng Pizza Hut na sumagot sa akin na hindi nakaka-imbyerna. Mabilis magsalita so kahit madaming scripted na sinasabi, hindi nakakainis. Thank you, RJ! And PH has a new flavor for its free pizza offer for the Palm Card. Syempre as usual, hawaiian ang default free pizza, so you have to ask. The new flavor: pepperoni and bacon!

The week is starting pretty well... my nephew stayed over since monday and just left before lunch today. Masaya kaming mag-tyuhin na tumambay dito sa room ko. Nanood ng cartoons, Wolverine and the X-men, naglaro ng Metal Slug sa PS2...

Tuluy-tuloy pa rin ang ttabaho sa EL CARTEL. I have just been handed another 2 episodes due on tuesday. I hope this keeps up. Masarap sulatin ito kasi the dialog is pretty modern and I can use a lot of the lines from my favorite police shows. Puro drug dealer ba naman ang character e.

I finally started reading my digital comics. I decided to start with Wolverine volume 2. Naka-3 issues na ako kagabi before I went to bed. And another 3 when I woke up this morning. I missed reading comics. Medyo malabo lang nga ang pagkaka-scan nung iba, kahit sa LCD monitor eh medyo blurry. Pero nakakaraos naman. Siguro kapag dun na sa Bravia, mas okay...

Anyway, I will try to read more before starting to write all weekend. I can read a whole issue in 20 minutes. I don't know if that is quick or not. Hindi ko naman minamadali. I am just trying to figure out how long it is supposed to take me, poor eyesight and all.

O sya, adios for now.

TENDEROAST: TRAITOROAST!!!

2009-05-31T12:25:00.004+08:00

I went to Robinsons Galleria this morning... I was still hunting down a comic store that still sold the Marvel Essential TPB's and was glad to see that Comic Odyssey had some and you could order the rest. I also went downstairs to the pc stores to get a quotation on a barebone CPU. That went pretty well, too. I am thinking about getting an extra CPU without all the trimmings, to hook up to my LCD TV so I can watch all the videos and read digital comics on a huge screen. I found out that I didn't have to spend too much for a new pc.

I also found a huge superstore of Japanese goods. It's called SAIZEN. Don't mistake this for the Japan Home Goods Store nearby that is operated by the DIY Store. That one is still there. Saizen is a huge store that sells so many Japanese items, I don't know where to start. Otaku would love that place. If you had a place or even a room of your own and you love everything Japanese, this is the place to get stuff to dress it up.

I was surprised to see that at the basement, Mr. Poon has become a steak joint called Tenderoast. This is the place between Yoshinoya and Mongolian Quick-stop. I saw that they had a quarter roast beef with mashed potato and rice for only P99 so I decided to get takeout. Originally, I was planning to stop by Sbarro's Megamall to buy some eggplant parmigiana.

Boy, that was a big mistake! When you tell me it's roast beef, I automatically assume it's more tender than steak, you won't have to chew it as much, it's thinly sliced and even the fat would taste great. This was the most pathetic, toughest cut of meat I have ever sunk my teeth into. I have been avoiding eating steak for a while... Holy Cow has been open upstairs for over a month and I haven't even tried it. I give this one a whirl and am regretting it! And having a name like TENDERoast just adds insult to injury, 'coz the meat is anything but tender.

Avoid this place at all costs. Let it die a quick death.

2009-05-30T12:36:00.004+08:00

Check out the underlined words on the screencaps below...

These are proof of GMA's blundering quality control people... once again, obvious mistakes slip through the [huge] cracks. These are screencaps from last night's [may 29] airing of the Tagalized version of "1 Liter of Tears", the misspelled "degenaration" is supposed to be "degeneration", placed via chargen [character generator] on the screen. GMA, at the last minute, busted our balls at the dubbing studio, insisting that without these chargens, nobody would understand the show.

Besides the chargens flashing too quickly for a person to even bother reading them, it has come to my attention that some of the words were even spelled wrong. Granted, this may have been a boo-boo by the technician, but the fact remains, GMA insisted on fixing a problem that was never broken, and now, what was once not broken, is.

Pin a rose on me, why dontcha... serves you right, pretending you give a damn about quality.

PERSONA NON GRATIFICATION

2009-05-29T10:20:00.001+08:00

recently nabalita na persona non grata si candy pangilinan sa baguio coz of her joke about igorots.

i am not sure pero PNG din si alec baldwin dito coz of his recent joke on letterman about mail order pinay brides.

i am also not sure kung PNG si chip tsao coz of the nation of servants thing in HKG.

pero kahapon, dun sa senate hearing about the haydencam thing, nabalita na may certain towns or cities in the phil where hayden kho is PNG. prior to this, may inaadvocate na si cayetano na shame campaign for this guy. yesterday din sa hearing, a tabloid reporter poured water on kho in the hearing as a show of disgust, and another guy printed anti hayden tshirts and gave them around.

while the first 3 are PNG in some places for not being very PC [politically correct], i welcome the PNG on hayden. matagal ko nang gustong may umiral na ugalijg ganito, that may level of intolerance na tayo for certain behavior. dapat lang naman na ipaalam natin sa certain undersireables that we dont like their kind and that there is no place for them in the community. for me, this should include shady ppl, drug addicts, sex workers, known criminals, and the like. when ppl tolerate this kind of thing in their town, dyan dumadami ang mga hudas na yan. so dapat lang talagang they are driven out hanggang sa wala na silang paglagyan.

wala lang, just getting it off my chest...

MY MINI-REVIEW OF TERMINATOR 4: SALVATION

2009-05-28T11:25:00.004+08:00

I decided to watch T4 on its opening day yesterday. Caught the last full show in Galleria cinema 6.

I have always loved the Terminator franchise. With the exception of the very first movie, I have seen 2 and 3 on the big screen. I am also a big fan of the Sarah Connor Chronicles and am sad to find out it has been cancelled.

When the movie started, I was surprised to see that it was directed by MCG. This guy was known for the modern Charlies's Angels, so while his movies may be action packed, I wasn't too sure if he could pull off T4, especially since it's set after judgment day. Still, it was pretty good.

SPOILER ALERT

I was expecting Christian Bale to have a big part here, but it seems the terminator had a bigger part in the movie. That was fine. Marcus [the terminator who thinks it is human] had an interesting story. He was a murderer who was sentenced to lethal injection, but was offered a "second chance"... a doctor at Cyberdyne proposed he donates his body to them after he is executed. He was then turned into a prototype terminator. He is not just a cyborg like the usual models... he has a human heart and brain. This made him think he is human.

I won't give any more of the story away, but I will say that unlike the last 2, where there is a terminator sent to save John Connor and another one to kill him, the terminator in this movie in this movie ended up doing both. This is proof that the kind of story and movie Terminator is has changed, from a straightforward guy flick to something with a decent story. I am not saying the story of the last 3 were crappy, but T4's story was much deeper. If you thought Skynet was just going to go back in time to find John and kill him, think again... they're more calculating this time...

For some reason, the loud clanging and explosions didn't bother me that much this time. This was one of the things I anticipated would annoy me about a Terminator movie set after Judgment Day... it'd be nothing but gun battles against machines so all I'd hear was gunfire and explosions. Yet it wasn't so bothersome on this one. Either that or I am going deaf...

The movie still had the continuity thing going and you just love seeing stuff that connects with the other 3 movies. Hearing John Connor say "I'll be back", Guns n' Roses' "You Could Be Mine", and of course, Sarah Connor's tapes which she recorded in the jeep at the end of the first movie. I also loved the battle in the terminator assembly line, where a terminator looking just like the T-101 [the Arnold Schwarzenegger model] from the first movie fought John Connor. It looked a lot like Arnie from the first movie, with the young muscular body and the wavy hair!

I pretty much enjoyed the 1 hour 45 minutes I spent watching this movie. I would never pick Night at the Museum 2 over this.

Catch T4... Terminator fans won't be disappointed...

2009-05-27T16:56:00.002+08:00

I finished watching season 1 of Wolverine and the X-men. Was quite satisfied with the series overall. Kahit papano, sarado ang storya. Pero alangan namang doon na matatapos yun, di ba? So imagine my excitement when Prof X saw the future and these guys were in it:
Mukhang AGE OF APOCALYPSE ang story ng season 2. For those who don't recognize these guys, that's Apocalypse in the middle, Mr. Sinister on the left, and the bad Cyclops on the right. Just like in AOA, mahaba ang buok nya at isa lang ang working eye nya, he lost the other one when Wolverine stuck a claw in it and in return, his optic blast cut off one of Wolverine's hands. So pag nakita nyo si Wolverine, kulang sya ng isang kamay, pero lumalabas pa rin yung claw kasi it was retracted when Cyke cut the hand off.

I can't wait...

2009-05-26T12:53:00.003+08:00

When I have a lot of work, to prevent myself from going poco loco, I usually have a movie or something playing on the TV to pace my brain. I find that if I do this, my mind won't full too much with what I am working on, because eventually, what I work on will creep into my sleep. Think of it this way... if you play too much of a videogame or watch too much of an anime in one sitting or too frequently, sometimes it ends up in your dreams. For example... years ago when I was fansubbing Shaider, I was doing it so often that I had dreams wherein Shaider was here in my subdivision, and I myself was a metal hero, in a green metal suit!

So while I was working on EL CARTEL yesterday, I decided to play the X-men trilogy on the DVD player. I am not really that crazy about the trilogy, but I find that it's good enough to distract me just right but not good enough that I would leave my work to watch it. I never seem to get past the second one, though. Watching it marathon style can be dragging.

Today I am simply laying back and relaxing. The deadline is tonight but I finished it last night so I am just resting while waiting for the next episodes to be assigned. So I decided to have a WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN marathon. I started watching this when season 1 had just begun, and I stopped at about episode 12 when most of the torrents wouldnt play on my standalone. But I found this on a batch... the entire season 1. So far, it's playing fine and I have been watching the remainder of the series since this morning.

I find this series more enjoyable thant X-men Evolution. Of course, they finally realized that Wolverine is basically the only thing most mainstream viewers would want to see in an X-men show anyway. Think of a SLAM DUNK remake with Rukawa as the main character, or a G. I. Joe remake with Snake Eyes as the main character. Sorry to sound like a fanboy, but Wolverine just reeks of coolness. Everything about him is shrouded in mystery, and all you want to do it hear about it, 'coz everything about his past makes for pretty good and cool story telling.

With WATX, the stories have been slightly rewritten to make it look like everything big happening in the future of the X-universe had something to do with Wolverine. In the future, even the new models of the sentinels are smarter because the maker studied Wolverine. And of course, to prevent a grim future from happening, Wolverine is the one tasked in reuniting the X-men after Prof X and Jean Grey disappeared.

So far, I have enjoyed most of the episodes. Except for the one with Mojo and Spiral, which I have always found boring. But I had a treat with the one where Wolverine had to fight Silver Samurai in a duel! And of course, Mariko Yashida was there, too. This was one my favorite stories in the comic... When Wolverine had a relationship with a Japanese girl and the Yakuza was mixed up in it...

Just a couple of things more...

There were a couple of episodes here that tackled Wolverine's past as a member of a black ops unit where Mystique, Sabretooth, and Maverick [Agent Zero in the recent X-men Origins movie] were also members. I am not sure if this was also in the comic, but in WATX, Logan and Mystique had a relationship, Logan helped Mystique escape the Weapon X project... SHE was supposed to be Weapon X but since she escaped, they did it on Logan instead. Does that mean Mystique also had a healing factor that would help her survive the process? Or did that mean if they used her, she would've died? This also tied another loose end... Logan and Victor's rivalry. From what I know, Mystique and Sabretooth had a relationship, too. So does that mean it was a love triangle and Victor hates Logan because Mystique and Logan had a relationship? Interesting...

Oh and I do remember that Nightcrawler is Mystique's son, but I am not sure if Victor is his father. I do know Victor and Mystique had a child.

The other thing I wanted to point out is in WATX, Dr. Cornelius [the Weapon X guy] called Wolverine "James". This makes me even more confused as to where this name came from, because Victor called him "Jimmy" in the X-Men Origins movie.

I can't wait to get the other CPU upgraded so I can start reading my digital comics on the huge LCD TV.

We've also started cleaning up here in my room... first order of business was the shelf of DVDS, then we brought down all the manga from upstairs. More on that later.

Adios...

LATIN FEVER

2009-05-24T20:30:00.002+08:00

Nasisira na ang ulo ko... For the past 2 weeks, I have been writing this new project called EL CARTEL... it is a Colombian telenovela about drug cartels. Think of Scarface meets Punisher War Zone meets CSI Miami. It's not what I am used to writing, which for the last year has been sappy drawn out lengthy Mexican dramas about love and family wars... this is a different kind of family. LOL

But I am so at home writing it. All the gangster and drug dealer talk... the only thing I am getting sick of is all the latin names... I always hear the -ito's and -ita's... Mamita, Cabito, etc...

Add to that, I have been catching Desperado [set in Mexico], The Specialist [set in Miami], and Assassins [si Antonio Banderas] on cable recently... hay puro latino, ayayay caramba!!!

2009-05-22T02:35:00.003+08:00

Ang aga ko nakatulog kagabi... I had a craving for Sbarro's ever since I had some takeout last sunday when I dropped by VMall. So umorder ako ng isang slice ng sausage pizza [mushroom pizza sana kaso walang naka-ready na luto na e] at ang favorite kong eggplant parmigiana. Nakatulog naman ako sa kabusugan, not sure kung sumobra na naman ang tinurok kong insulin kaya napagod ang katawan ko kahit wala namang ginagawa.

pictured above: still reeling back from my Wolverine movie experience, naalala ko na may pic ako ng pamangkin ko who wore a Wolverine costume for halloween some years back. Official costume ito na binili ng tita nya sa States. Naimagine ko nga na sana eh nagcostume ako ng Sabretooth para magkapares kaming nag-trick or treat, bagay dahil maliit lang ang pamangkin ko compared to me, which would mimic the proportionality of Wolverine to Sabretooth. Hell that would've been fun... and hot - literally.

Before I go to bed, I just want to blog about something that turned me off when I saw it on the news. Nag breakfast daw si president Arroyo sa Mcdo at nakipagchikahan sa mga call center agents. EEWWW... ano yan, porke nagburger si Obama last month at sya mismo ang pumila at nagbayad, gumaya naman itong presidente natin for the publicity?! Ewan ko ba... hindi naman siguro double standard pero while natuwa ako dun sa ginawa ni Obama, naplastikan naman ako dito sa ginawa ni PGMA.

MORE ON MY X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE EXPERIENCE

2009-05-21T14:40:00.002+08:00

More on my take on the Wolverine movie…

I watched this movie last night with my driver and his 16 year old daughter. They weren’t too familiar with the X-men story, and that is the point I am going to try to make with this.

While this movie may be a good one for the Wolverine/X-men fan, if you don’t know much about the comic then there’s a lot that wouldn’t make sense to you about this movie. My driver’s daughter could barely understand why Logan and Victor were still alive after fighting in almost every major war in the Us and the world. The movie just assumes you know about mutants and you don’t wonder why some of the characters have superpowers and where those powers came from.

This is sort of a conundrum for me. For the fanatics who defend the movie, they would argue that for me to enjoy the movie, I would have to shut up about how it was different from the comic and just take it as it is. However, if I disregard the comic, then I would have to watch this movie as if I previously knew nothing about it, in which case a lot of things, like the existence of mutants wouldn’t make any sense at all.

And if I leave behind everything I know about the comic and just watch the movie, then the movie just isn’t good enough for me. I have seen the black ops put in the shelf and the remnants killing off all the old members thing one too many times. Was I really surprised that Sabretooth and Striker had a deal going? Even if I wasn’t reading Wolverine, that was pretty damn predictable. Even Gambit being the only one who escaped from the secret lab and showing Wolverine the way back is so “The Rock” as in Sean Connery’s movie in the 90’s. And of course… Weapon XI’s all-your-powers-into-one soldier has been so done to death, how many anime and videogames have we seen that before? Even Megatron did that over 20 years ago in TF Generation 1 when he took weapons from every Decepticon so he’d kick Optimus Prime’s butt in an “honorable duel”.

And Wolverine's claws all hot and red from Weapon XI's optic blast... while pretty awesome, has been done somewhere before. I've seen the predator do that in Scwarzenegger's movie with the blade attachment in its arm... it heats it up using the laser sighting on its shoulders... sort of like a hot knife through butter thing...

But again, in defense or in fairness to the movie, the Wolverine story is quite old. So I am not saying it ripped off other movies or plots. It’s just that I have seen it all somewhere else before. The simple point is this… you can’t really watch this movie and say forget everything you know and do not expect anything. Rather, you have to have some sense of familiarity and prepare yourself for how some things are different and some stayed the same, and somewhere in the between, have a great time.

Lastly, did you ever wonder why Wolverine's claws seem to NEVER have any blood stains of them, considering they go in and out of his arms all the time and each time, the skin rips open? Anyone who watches CSI knows that a knife, when used as a stabbing weapon, has blood stains or even small particles on it. Wolverine's claws seem to be clean all the time. Does the blood slide off because the claws are like non-stick teflon? Hey, I'm nitpicking here...

MY WOLVERINE MOVIE BUBBLE BURST... THANK GOD FOR HEALING FACTOR

2009-05-21T05:11:00.005+08:00

It took a while but I finally had free time and circumstances finally gave me the chance to catch this movie. I went and watched guaranteed seat at SM Megamall Cinema 1 last night. Gee. When was the last time I watched a movie? I didn't know tickets were this expensive now! P180 a pop, and the popcorn and soda I bought weren't cheap either. I bought a Coke 500 and 2 bags of popcorn and it cost me P210. Oh my...

I read some reviews by my friends about this movie before I went, and so I had an idea what to expect. But as per my EX's advice, throw your expectations out the window and it won't disappoint you THAT much. Other reviews I read were raving about it so much that they watched it over half a dozen times. Well, I won't be doing that with this one, at least not on the big screen.

It may also be good to point out that I didn't go into this one armed with my stock knowledge of the X-men storyline, a comic book line I have been reading for years. I had boxes and boxes of X-comics, and Wolverine is definitely one of the coolest characters in my book. Not to mention that over the years, the X-men storyline has been remade and retold so many times with so many different animation series, I barely remembered which were the original. It's as if I was like Wolverine himself, not knowing which part of what he remembers is real.

The movie itself was pretty good, at least better than the X-men trilogy which I hated. It didn't have a lot of boring parts, lots of action in this flick. I expected no less since Wolverine does more with action than talking. I didn't have too many complaints on the casting. They all did pretty well. When you watch a comic-turned-movie like this, you tend to nitpick a lot about who they picked to be who. Wolverine looked like Wolverine, if you can forgive the actor's height, he's got everything else done right. Kikiligin ka pa when you hear him say his famous line "I'm the best at what I do." Deadpool is right on the mark, he is still as funny as he is in the comic... although the actor seemed to deliver some lines too familiar with his character in Blade Trinity, who is also the comic relief in the said movie. Other memorable characters like Agent Zero, the Blob, Cyclops, and Silver Fox were also well-casted.

Aside from Logan [why the hell did they give him the name "Jimmy"?], 2 other characters that stuck in my mind made it to the movie... the first one being Gambit. I disagreed with some friends of mine who said his role was too small. Gambit had a whole story altogether, if they delved into that too much, I think the movie would've taken a different direction. As much as I liked him in this movie, he is one of those non-faves of mine, the kind that is so cool and prominent that you just have to include him, but you wish they included other characters that you like more. To me, Gambit is one of those overexposed characters in the mainstream X-Universe... I guess I saw too much of him when I watched the animated series in the 90's that I got sick of him. In Looney Tunes, Gambit would be like Sylvester, Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, Taz, Marvin or Porky... They just have to be there but you wish some other characters made it.

Which brings me to my favorite X-character... SABRETOOTH! Even when I was reading X-men over 10 years ago, I always liked Victor better than Logan. That wrestler they casted for him in the first X-men movie was terrible compated to this one. At first, I was skeptical with his new actor... I saw this guy in CSI [he filled in for Grissom when Gris went on a sabbatical] and he was the guy in the Manchurian Candidate. But he did it pretty well. I always found Sabretooth to be menacing, big, almost maniacal, cold-blooded... and he was like that in this movie. And how cool is having Wolverine and Sabretooth fighting on the same side?

I still remember Sabretooth's picture in the comic that got me into thinking he is the coolest villain Logan could ever face. In my TPB copy of the Wolverine Saga, there was a part about how Wolverine found Silver Fox dead, and Sabretooth owned up to it. He wasn't in his costume yet. He was wearing something that lumberjacks usually wore. His face had all that hair and that evil grin... that look that gave you the feeling he just raped a woman, killed her, and ate her! Not to mention that they had a fight in that bar [which was used in the movie], Logan got his ass kicked! Unlike Logan, Sabretooth is naturally tough, he wasn't fused with adamantium, and that is why I like him more. But enough of that, I am not trying to put Wolverine down... point made, not necessarily taken...

The only one minor complaint I have with the movie is that part where he finds Silver Fox supposedly dead, he holds her in his arms and shouts loudly with his head tilted upwards, and the camera taking an overhead shot. For me, napaka-baduy at overused na nito. Ilang beses ko na yata itong nakita, pati sa local shows like ABS-CBN's Lobo and Sana Maulit Muli. Mahilig sila dyan sa mga sustained "nooooo!!!" na yan. I think even Barry Allen did that with his dead brother in the TV series of The Flash.

It was a great experience watching this movie and I will definitely buy the DVD, unlike the X-men Trilogy. If you guys still haven't caught this one, you might still be able to. But Angels and Demons is taking over in the cinemas pretty quickly.

MIKE BAUER?!

2009-05-20T08:33:00.003+08:00

GMA rips off even 24's designs...

PICTURED ABOVE: DVD COVER OF "24 SEASON 1"

PICTURED ABOVE:

DVD COVER OF "BEST OF IMBESTIGADOR VOL. 1"

PICTURED ABOVE: DVD COVER OF "24 SEASON 3" [take note of the logo, the number 24 with a circle]

PICTURED ABOVE: The logo of 24 of the Fox Network PICTURED ABOVE: screenshot of "24 Oras", GMA's news show at 6 pm.

ANG KAKAPAL NG MUKHA NYO!!!

GEARING UP FOR TV SHOW MARATHONS

2009-05-20T07:32:00.002+08:00

Almost all my favorite American TV shows just finished their latest seasons. This can only mean one thing... MARATHON!!!

Ever since natuto ako mag-torrent, hindi na ako nanood ng TV show sa cable. Dati kasi, lagi pang nagtitimer ang VHS ko sa AXN para lang panoorin ang mga ito. O di naman kaya, nakaasa pa ako sa dibidi-dibidi eh nabuwisit na ako sa katagalan dahil puro galing lang naman din sa torrent ang laman ng mga dibidi... wala nang DVD copy talaga, so I figgered... go straight to the source. Pag merong original, saka ko na binibili.

These are some of the shows that I never miss...

24: Ever since the first season, wala akong pinalampas nito. Hindi ko ito unang napanood sa TV. I heard about this groundbreaking series and I found the whole complete first and second season on original DVD. When I watched the first DVD, hindi ko na sya mabitawan, and after less than a day, I realized na para na rin akong dumanas ng 24 dahil pinanood ko ang buong season IN ONE SITTING. Ever since, ganun ko na pinanood ang 24... kelangan matapos ko in one sitting ang bawat season.

Before you start saying this show is ridiculous because nobody's life can have more than "longest day"... ask yourself how many times you have thought a day was the longest day in your life only then to eventually find out it was topped by yet another one. Besdies, what can be more ridiculous than Prison Break. kada season eh ibang bilibid sya nakukulong at natatakasan nya?!

CSI MIAMI: I have to admit, hindi ako ganun kahumaling dito... favorite pa rin talaga ang LAS VEGAS [although that one isnt all that exciting anymore ,either]. Iba kasi ang feel ni Horatio Caine. Medyo off-putting pa rin ang kanyang manner of speaking, pero sobrang ganda ng settings at lighting ng Miami na mapapanood ka na rin. Mas maaksyon din ito dahil madaming mga gangs at sindikato [it is Miami, after all]. Kaya masaya pa rin. Pero hindi ko ito pinapanood every week. So I wait for the season to be complete and do a semi-marathon.

CSI NEW YORK: much darker yet equally entertaining. Dito naman sa New York, iba din ang feel. For me parang mas gruesome ang mga crimes na tinatalakay dito. Saka parang mas mayabang din yung mga CSI. Oh well, binabagayan lang nila siguro yung mga tao...

CSI: the granddaddy of them all. Ito ang nagpauso sa mga forensic mysteries. Pero after season 3 at midway thru season 4, nakakawalang gana nang panoorin ito. Wala nang gaanong memorable na episodes, unlike season 1-3 na kahit paulit-ulit na sa Foxcrime eh hindi pa rin nakakasawa. Halos halfway through sa season na ito, umalis na si Grissom para makasama si Sara [na umalis na rin] at wala na si Warrick dahil pinatay na sa season finale before this.

So who are we left with? Kasali na si Lauren Lee Smith as Riley, bagong babe nila na parang kapalit ni Sara. Medyo atat gumamit ng baril at halos laging kapares ni Greg. Si Laurence Fishburne ay si Rey Langston, parang pumalit kay Gris pero CSI Level 1 lang sya. Bale si Nick at Kath na ang pinaka-senior sa CSI pero si Kath ay halos supervisor na lang palagi. Mas madami na ring eksena si Hodges at Wendy [na nagkakadevelopan].

The season ender which I saw last night was pretty amazing.

Nawawala ang pic na inupload ko ng SURVIVOR TOCANTINS. Natapos na ito nung lunes at malapit ko nang imarathon. I used to watch this every week as it came out in the us pero sa QTV ko pinapanood. Pero nainis na ako sa version ng QTV. Live via satellite daw pero hindi naman. The QTV "live" broadcast is late by a few hours, and as usual, GMA screws you over... bago ipalabas ang tribal council, maglalagay sila ng SOOOBRANG HABANG COMMERCIAL BREAK. The dumb thing about is this is QTV. Hindi naman sponsor yung nilalagay sa break na yan, kundi patalastas lang ng kanilang mga shows na wala namang kalatuy-latoy. Welll, kapag pangit ang show sa iyo and it can be watched somewhere else, iiwanan ka talaga ng viewer mo. Goodbye!

Makapanood na nga... habang wala pa ang translation na hinihintay ko for my script due tuesday...

2009-05-19T19:50:00.004+08:00

Lately pinapalabas na naman itong movie na ito sa cinemax. Isa sa mga paborito ko. Basta Sean Connery, winner dito sa bahay namin.

Ipaghalo mo ba naman si SC saka storya tungkol sa Japanese culture! Kahit hindi otaku eh matutuwa. What more ang otaku na katulad ko.

Hindi ko na ikukwento kung tungkol saan ito. Alam nyo na yan. Ginawa ito ng panahon na high tech pa ang laserdisc. Kita nyo naman, High tech pa dito ang pagburn sa maliliit na laserdisc ng data. At sobrang high tech din ang pag video editing na parang ang dali-dali na ngayon.

Although ang mali lang nga dito sa movie ay ang paggamit ng "sempai/kohai". While tama na si Connor ang sempai at si Web ang kohai, hindi tama na tinatawag ni Connor na kohai si Web. Hindi mo yan pinanga-address sa tao dahil parang pinamumukha mo sa kanya na nasa ilalim mo sya.

Eto nga pala ang favorite line ko sa movie na ito. It's also something I try to apply in everyday life:

The Japanese have a saying, "Fix the problem, not the blame." Find out what's fucked up and fix it. Nobody gets blamed. We're always after who fucked up. Their way is better.

On another slightly related note...

Hay naku ang GMA nga naman... nairita ako 2 days ago nang malaman kong feeling ng mga taga-GMA eh hindi pa naririnig ng tao sa tanang buhay nila ang word na sempai nor do they think the common person knows what a sempai and kohai is. Susme, panahon pa ng Slam Dunk, Hana Yori Dango at Prince of Tennis among a bunch of other dubbed shows, ginagamit na sa dialog ang words na yan.

At ipagpalagay na natin na tama sila... ipagpalagay natin na hindi nga alam ng tao ang words o concept na ito. Napakasama bang matutunan o mapulot nila ito sa mga palabas na pinapanood ng tao sa kanilang istasyon? Lagi mong naririnig ang tao na nagsasabing "ang ganda ng [show] dahil napupulutan ng aral". Would it be so wrong if Filipinos learned about the sempai/kohai relationshjip? Masama ba kung matuto ang Pinoy na rumespeto?

Mas di hamak na may katuturan namang matutunan ang ganito kesa sa kung anuanong pautot na ginagawa ng GMA para magpauso... creating words like "dabarkads" or last night, sa ALL ABOUT EVE... Sunshine Dizon said "Ayoko na ng nega sa buhay ko..." "Nega" ang bagong pauso nila, short for "negative". This is the kind of stupid stuff that they want your kids to learn. But words that teach respect like "sempai"... nooo we can't have that!!!

PIZZA HUT: DON'T ASK, DON'T TELL?

2009-05-16T11:02:00.002+08:00

I am going to spend the whole day writing my last script of Tormenta en El Paraiso. Kapag buong araw akong magtatrabaho, I tend to burn off anything I eat. So I have to fuel up. Dati, kapag madami akong isusulat for Telesuccess, halos puro Yellow Cab Pizza lang ang inoorder ko. Brunch, dinner...

So ngayon, umorder ako ng Pizza Hut para mabilis at may libreng pizza [which I will have for dinner para di na kelangan umorder ulit mamaya]

I assumed hawaiian na naman ang free pizza. Pero nagbakasakali ako and I asked if they had other flavors that I can choose for the free pizza. MERON PALA. Upon request, pwede rin palang Beef & Onion or Veggie Lover's ang free pizza. YUN NAMAN PALA E. Why don't they offer these choices? Sa dami ng dinadakdak sa iyo ng CSR nila, parang convenient naman na hindi nila sinasabi ito. Kapag hindi ka nagtanong, hindi pa nila sasabihin.

Masyado naman yatang nanlalamang ang mga ito. I know, nanlilibre na nga sila ng pizza. Pero isipin nyo, magkano lang naman ang basic pizza na tinadtaran ng pineapple tidbits? To avail of the free pizza, kelangan umorder ka rin ng 1.5 na Pepsi for P65, eh P35 lang yan sa grocery. Yung P30 na tinubo nila sa iyo sa Pepsi, parang isang lata na yun ng pineapple tidbits at wala namang isang lata ang nilalagay nila sa pizza.

Anyway, never mind. free pizza is free pizza. For you PALM CARD holders, let this be a lesson. Hindi lang hawaiian ang pwedeng free pizza. Ugaliing tanungin kung ano ang choices. DAHIL YOU HAVE A CHOICE. hindi lang nila sinasabi. Tsk tsk...

PREMATURELY BURSTING MY WOLVERINE BUBBLE

2009-05-15T07:20:00.005+08:00

PICTURED ABOVE: Wolverine & Sabretooth toys I bought in Toys R Us 3 years ago. My how time flew. Halos di ko na makita yung blog post ko where I posted these pics. Wala lang, just to prove na hindi ako nakikiuso porke may pelikula sya ngayon...

Hindi ko pa napapanood ang Wolverine movie ni Hugh Jackman. May deadline ako this tuesday at may gagawin pa ako sa sunday [sisimulan namin ng driver ko na maglinis ng kalat dito sa kwarto at sa kwarto ko sa itaas]. Malamang, kung papalarin, next sunday ko na ito papanoorin, at kung may oras, pati ang Star Trek.

I am a big Wolverine fan... Kumpleto ako sa digital comics nya, Meron akong Essential Wolverine volumes 1-3. Wolverine Saga 1-4, at napakadaming comics, graphic novel at TPB tungkol sa kanya. Yung pagka-forbidden love nila ni Mariko Yashida [I have the TPB version] was one of my old favorites dahil nung panahon na yun, yung girlfriend kong Koreana eh pinagkakait din sa akin ng pamilya nya. Hehe I also had a Wolverine shirt, saka nabili ko yung classic action figures nila ni Sabretooth dati sa Toys R Us.

Pero nung nabalitaan kong gagawan ng origin movie at live action pa, hindi naman ako ganung ka-excited sa kanya. Based on my EXGF Meo's review of the movie, mukhang masasatisfy ako pero as a Wolverine fan, parang maiirita lang din ako. Sa totoo lang kasi, wala akong nagustuhan sa mga XMEN movies [the trilogy] and while kamukha ni HJ si Wolverine, he is obviously too tall for the role.

Nakakatawa na lang yung mga babaeng fan na tuwang tuwa sa character na ito... as usual na-reduce na naman sa pagiging "fafa-ble" si Wolverine... Asus... kung talagang kilala nyo ang character na ito, you'd probably find him cool but definitely not a hunk... bakit ka naman mai-in love sa isang tao na mas matanda pa sa lolo mo?

Anyway, back to the movie I HAVEN'T seen yet... sana nga mali ako at matuwa ako sa kanya. Kaso as of late, disappointing naman talaga ang mga ganitong movie... PUNISHER WAR ZONE ang pinakahuling movie based on a comic na nagandahan ako. Everything else, even Michael Bay's Transformers was disappointing for me. Nakakatawa nga yung mga comment ng TF fans, libog na libog kay Megan Fox na parang ngayon lang sila nakakita ng babae. Eh kung nanonood ka ng CSI MIAMI, linggo-linggo may ganyan... Asus!

Mas okay pa para sa akin yung WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN animated series. Sana kasi magconcentrate na lang sila sa paggawa ng mas magagandang animated series/movies kesa pinipilit nilang pagkitaan ng Hollywood ang mga ganito. As a fan kasi, hindi mo naman maiiwasan na panoorin dahil fan ka nga nya, pero malamang madidisappoint ka lang tapos sasabihin mo sa sarili mong "Hindi naman yan ginawa para sa iyo, para sa mainstream yan."

NEW PROJECT

2009-05-15T07:07:00.002+08:00

Tapos na by next week ang project na sinusulatan ko sa 20+, ang Tormenta en El Paraiso. Sad to say, hindi sa akin napunta ang final episode so as usual wala na naman akong kaalam-alam kung papano magtatapos ito. Sigh. More importantly, kinabahan na naman ako na wala akong raket.

Kahapon, tinawagan ako ng contact ko at sa wakas eh may bagong project na. Sana dumami pa! Although I checked this one and it's only 50 episodes [Tormenta was 185], at least sa simula pa lang eh kasali na ako dito kaya marami-rami ang episode na mapupunta sa akin.

And it looks right up my alley, too. May pagka-Scarface meets Punisher War Zone yata itong El Cartel. Excited na akong simulan sya. But not before I finish my last episode of Tormenta. They're both due on tuesday. So walang habas na sulatan na naman ito. But I'm no stranger to that...

There's nothing like a new project that makes me see green [kahit na wala nang berde sa pera ng Pilipinas]... Hindi ko na nga maalala kung ano yung binalak kong bilhin sa kikitain ko dito. Pero siguradong hahabulin ko yung mga Street Fighter toys na nagsilabasan na hindi ko pa nabibili. As far as I know, may bagong line na ang SOTA [kasali si Dhalsim, at E. Honda among others] at yung Revoltech. Sana lang nga meron pa when the time comes...

BAGO KONG PINAPANOOD: GOLGO 13!

2009-05-13T18:01:00.003+08:00

The other night, I was waiting for my driver to get redy... pupunta na ako sa dialysis. So pinanood ko ang episode 1 nito na matagal ko nang dinownload...

Matagal ko nang alam ang anime na ito. Nalaro ko ito a long time ago sa Nintendo Famicom nung may parentahan sa Virra Mall.

Balita ko din eh dito binase yung pelikula ni Jean Reno na "Leon: the Professional". But I haven't seen that movie yet. I don't remember if i I bought the original DVD years ago, for myself, or my director. Naku ang ulyanin ko na kasi...

I saw episode 1 and was not disappointed. This guy is way cool. He doesn't talk much pero pulido kung pumatay. Just my kind of guy...

Sayang lang nga at palaktaw-laktaw ang fansubs. Hopefully there isn't a whole lot of continuity in his "missions".

Mapapag-aksayan ng oras ito...

ANOTHER PIZZA HUT HORROR STORY

2009-05-13T12:06:00.003+08:00

What the hell is with these people...

I finally bought my Pizza Hut Palm Card the other day. Sayang nga naman yung free pizza. Every order of a regular pizza and a 1.5 pepsi gets you a free pizza of the same size, whatever their "Pizza of the month" is. [pinaganda lang nila, eh parang laging hawaiian lang naman ang POTM nila] pero sayang din naman yung free pizza, sa panahon ngayon malaking bagay na rin yun. The Palm card is about P350 and you can use it all you want for 6 months.

Since then, tuwing oorder ako ng pizza, I am inclined to put up with Pizza Hut's annoying CSR's just to get the pizza. Effective nga ang strategy na ito. Sometimes people are willing to forgive certain things just for a freebie. Eh wala e... free pizza is a big thing these days.

Which brings me back to the annoying Pizza Hut people who take your order over the phone. I am way past the scripted BS "that's a great choice sir, I've tried it myself" line that they always give me no matter what I order. Ang bagong kinaiinisan ko is the fact that they talk soooo slowly. Mga descendant yata ni Kuya Caesar ang mga ito! Ang daming ek ek, like the boladas [sir it's so nice to hear from you again...] and you know they're talking slow 'coz while they're reading off the script, they're figuring out what to do next. You watch Samuel Jackson's "The Negotiator", you can tell when someone's trying to buy some time. For what, I don't know!

Tinanong pa ako kung yung "usual kong supreme pizza" ang oorderin ko... and when I said "yes", inulit pa ang description ng pizza. HELLO... usual nga e... that means I've ordered it before, bakit mo pa uulitin sa akin ang description? "It's a combination of meat and veggies on pan pizza with 6 slices..." YES, I have been eating this since I was in high school 15 years ago and nothing has changed... hindi na kelangan ulitin kung ano ang laman ng pizza which according to her is my USUAL ORDER...

People usually equate those who work in call centers as mindless automatons. No offense to my brother who has a high position in a call center. Pero yung mga frontliners kasi, parang mga robot na kung magisip. Wait, hold that thought. Insulto pa nga sa mga robot yun e. You watch Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Cameron [Summer Glau] can at least but to the chase and not bother with needless questions.

Last week, nagmarathon ako ng Jay Leno. May nakwento sya na pinagiispan daw ng Mcdonald's na palitan na ng mga robot ang service crew nila. Ano nga kaya kung pati ganyan kasimpleng trabaho eh hindi pa rin kaya ng normal na tao, at sa robot pa rin ipagagawa? Ganun na ba katanga ang mga tao sa atin?

FRUSTRATED INCORPORATED

2009-05-12T19:36:00.001+08:00

I took a break from writing scripts today. I made my deadline yesterday so I decided to take a break. The next one is still next Tuesday. Lots of time to spare. So I decided to take it easy. Ordered a little Mexicali and watched some The Fugitive. Then took a nap.

While looking for my DVD of the The Fugitive, I noticed that my flashlight was missing again, and the light near the door of my room still hasn’t been installed after the ceiling has been redone last year! Clearly this is frustrating. The shelf near the door is where my DVDs are and I cant see a damned thing.

Since I didn’t do any work today, I had the chance to glance around in my room and see just how cluttered it has gotten… again. This seems to be a vicious cycle. I cant get this place organized. Frustrating indeed. What makes it worse is that other people leave their junk in here. I have to start throwing stuff out.

My room upstairs is no better. Ever since I moved down here years ago, my uncle got married and took over the master’s bedroom, all the junk got moved into my room. Since I rarely get to go up there, my grandmother has been constantly rearranging the stuff inside, tying stuff together, putting some in boxes… add that to the fact that a few years ago, I lost a big chunk of my collection to termites [the main reason why I moved down here], I am now having hard time keeping track of my belongings. I don’t know what is still there, what’s been lost, what the termites ate…

And somewhere in the middle of all that, is the junk. Stuff I now wonder why I bothered to keep at all. I have a box of old FHM/MAXIM magazines that I’ve been buying every month. Why do I even keep this stuff? I’ve also got tons of boxes. Believe me, I’d love to throw these out. But I need them if I decide to dispose of the stuff that belong in them… appliances, computer parts…

It is a daunting task. I doubt this could all be done in an afternoon. I intend to have shelves made here in my room, toss out whatever is not mine, and bring all of what’s left of my stuff upstairs down here and finally organize it. Sounds like a plan, you say? Let’s hope it’s more than just that…

MORON [MORE-ON] POORLY WRITTEN LOCAL SHOWS!

2009-05-05T17:20:00.002+08:00

And they havent even redeemed themselves with Totoy Bato for ripping off John Q, GMA dumbass writers have done it again.

This time, sa afternoon drama nilang DAPAT KA BANG MAHALIN... I saw the trailer for tomorrow's episode...

Ara Mina kills Julio Diaz by making powder out of ricin [castor beans] and putting it in his coffee. The writer did his homework. If you look it up in wiki, 500 micrograms of ricin is fatal. That's about the size of a grain of salt. Impressed na sana ako.

This was ripped off from CSI. May old episode ng CSI where a woman was killed by ingesting powdered ricin, nilagay sa salt shaker. The suspect was an autistic coworker. They were working in a library full of rare books.

So saan pumalpak ang GMA?

Ara Mina pronounced ricin [dapat rice-in] as raisin. Susmaryosep! Ano yan, pasas? How can you die from 500 micrograms of raisin? Eh mas malaki pa nga ang isang raisin doon?! I can eat a whole bag of raisins and not die. Someone clearly screwed up here. Baka isipin ng viewer eh nakakamatay ang pasas kapag hinalo sa kape.

GMA ayusin nyo naman ang trabaho nyo. It shows how stupid you think your viewers are.

MY CRAZY SHAKEY'S CUSTOM PIZZA

2009-05-05T11:20:00.002+08:00

Nung nasa high school pa ako, the very first time I tried this was when my dad took me to the then newly opened SM City [North Edsa]. Back then bihira ako makapunta sa mga ganung kalayong lugar. Kadalasan eh sa Greenhills lang ako nakakapunta.

May Shakey's doon [meron din naman sa Greenhills so ewan ko kung bakit doon sa SM City ko ito sinubukan] and I decided to make a customzed piiza for takeout. Back then, wala pang vegetarian pizza ang Shakey's so I basically just ordered a basic cheese then ordered extra toppings... 2 of each vegetable. I liked how the garlic tasted and having fresh sliced tomatoes and I have gotten hooked ever since.

Later on in high school, hinahanap-hanap ko pa rin ang Shakey's pero at the time, hindi pa rin sila nagdedeliver. Pizza Hut pa lang ang may delivery nung panahon na yun. Pero back then, my half brother and half sister moved in with us, their mother passed away. So the driver would go pick them up at Katipunan [my half sister studied at Maryknoll or Miriam College as it is known now] everyday after my brother and I went home. May Shakey's sa tapat ng Ateneo so lagi ako nagpapabili ng pizza for dinner...

That was when I really went nuts customizing my pizza. Back then affordable pa ang pizza sa Shakey's. Wala pa yatang P200 ang pinakamalaking thin crust pizza nila noon at sobrang dami na ng toppings. Mura pa ang extra toppings noon [about P9 each] so for about P300, I could have a family size pizza with so many toppings. Eto yung nakakalokang combination ko...

Thin crust family [or party size, basta yung pinakamalaki] Manager's Choice, Shakey's Special or Italian Sausage and Mushroom.

extra toppings:

4 x extra garlic
1x extra onion
1x gresh tomato
1x anchovies

Sa sobrang dami nung bawang, talagang iinit yung bibig mo. Pero ang sarap! If you've ever had Mongolian buffet at Mongolian Quick Stop and see the bowl of garlic na pwede kang kumuha ng as many spoonfuls as you want, ganun kadami ang nasa pizza ko.

Those were the days. Syempre sa presyo ngayon, hindi na yan feasible. Katulad ngayon, I ordered a small thin crust vegetarian pizza with 2x extra garlic and 1x beef, halos P300 na. And the amount of toppings on it won't even compare to how much they put back then. Sobrang kaunti na.

BUN ON THE RUN: PAPETIK-PETIK?

2009-05-02T18:29:00.003+08:00

About 2 weeks ago I decided to buy takeout sa Bun on The Run Metrowalk. Gutom ako bago pumunta sa dialysis and I remembered that BOTR closes late so I decided to buy a couple of choriburgers. Dati when they reopened [check my blog for a really old post about BOTR relaunch], hindi na gaanong masarap ang choriburger. It was kind of small and it just didnt taste the same. Not to mention na hindi sya gusto ng tyan ko... pero kapag kinain ko sya sa dialysis, it goes right back out through the machine so I can enjoy it.

Bumili ako ng 2 orders nung choriburger double patty. P115 ang isa. I thought to myself, krisis na talaga. I remember when this was less than P50 nung bumibili ako sa kiosk nila sa Glorietta 4 or dun sa restaurant nila sa tapat ng Ateneo sa Katipunan [both are closed now]. Nagulat ako na the double patty choriburger is HUGE and very heavy. The patties are huge [hirap ako kagatin] and there's twice as much coleslaw and cheese on it. Mas panalo ito kesa sa Whopper ng Burger King or Big Mac or Champ or even Tropical Hut's now-not-so-big Big Classic. Sarap na sarap ako sa bagong choriburger.

The next dialysis, bumalik ako at bumili ulit. Enjoy na naman.

Nagsimula ang bad trip ko sa BOTR on my second return to buy choriburgers. It was a wednesday evening, past 10pm. We got there exactly 10:40pm, 20 minutes pa before closing time. Kahit na may crew pa, closed na daw sila. WTF?! Dati kasi, open ang BOTR hanggang 3am. Kasi they were catering to people who wanted to eat after gimmicks. So nagulat ako na 11am-11pm na pala sila pag weekdays at 11am-12am on fridays. PERO, sarado na sila kahit 10:40pm pa lang. Frustrated, bumili na lang ako ng double cheeseburger sa nearby McDo na 24 hours.

Yesterday, May 1, buong araw kong hinintay ang gabi para makakain na ng choriburger. Ito namang driver ko, nagpagabi muna sa bahay nila. Inabutan daw sya ng kapatid nya who asked him to stay awhile and there was some singing contest kaya nanood pa sila. Anyway, we left the house for Metrowalk at around past 11pm.

Yup, you guessed it... we arried at BOTR 11:40pm, again, 20 minutes before closing time, AND THEY WONT SELL ANYMORE!!! I was so annoyed. What kind of BS is this? The operating hours say they close at a certain time yet they stop selling 20 minutes before? And don't tell me they're trying to save on electricity dahil wala nang customer. If that was the case, why were they still there?

Hindi ko nga maintindihan kung bakit kung kelan dumami ang mga call center sa area na yun eh hindi na sila bukas kapag madaling araw.

I have a friend who works in a bank. He is annoyed when a depositor shows up 5 minutes before the bank closes with a ton of transactions. Well, the bank isnt closed until the clock says so, so tough luck, do your job.

Ewan ko ba, I am not a big fan of the saying "the customer is always right", pero in this case, I don't think I am wrong.

MORON [MORE-ON] TOTOY BATO

2009-05-02T12:34:00.002+08:00

TB is still ripping off John Q... pero halos patapos na... now they are using it to bring forth the issue of hospitals in the Philippines not being poor-friendly and profit-driven.

Obviously, this is to tug at the sensitivities and heart strings of the masa who always complain about how they can't afford medical care [among the tons of other things they can't afford].

This is a non-issue just like oil prices. The gov't can pretend like they can tell the oil companies to lower their prices or that the gov't can demand an explanation for oil price fluctuation. but the reality is the oil industry is deregulated. Hello! They dont need a reason to raise their prices. On the same note, private hospitals are not free. How the hell are they supposed keep their hospitals running if they do it all for free? Expensive equpment and materials don't pay for themselves. This is also why I think that law saying hospitals should discharge patients who pay with promisory notes is utter BS. It's a no-brainer... once the patient leaves the hospital just by leaving a note, he won't bother trying to pay. The hospital will waste more money trying to get their money from this guy.

Another weird thing I noticed about Totoy Bato... another indication of the writer being stupid or not doing his homework... di ba his daughter got a successful heart transplant? Well, she's running around like a normal kid. Anyone will tell you that after a transplant, you have to wear a facemask to avoid catching germs or getting sick. After a transplant, you no longer have an immune system. Your immune system is disabled by a medicine [which you have to take forever] because if not, your body will reject the organ. Since pobre lang sila Totoy Bato, dapat laging naka-face mask yung anak nya, lalo na since nasa maduduming lugar sila. And I don't mean to sound politically incorrect when I say that. Poor people live in dirty places, especially the ones na katulad ni Totoy Bato. Also, those medicines that the kid has to drink regularly cost a fortune! Eh di ba nilibre lang nung ospital yung transplant? Who's paying for the meds?

It's these myths that writers of dramas keep putting in their stories that give the masa the wrong idea about a lot of things. They grow up with naive beliefs like doctors are supposed to help ALL sick people, and that after a major organ transplant, patients live like normal people. Hell, when I was a kid and I saw Julie Vega's "Ang Mga Mata ni Anghelita", where she donated her eyes to her blind boyfriend and after a transplant, he could see again, I actually thought that BS was true.

This is why I don't believe in suspension of disbelief when it comes to shows that have no elements of fantasy. If the story is about the real world, then it has to be as real as possible. BS like this is evident of faulty, moronic writing. Kung sa US eh naparlisa ang buong TV industry noong nagwelga ang mga writers, siguro kung nangyari yun dito, kung sino-sino lang ang pinalit sa kanila. Whoe would notice the difference, right?

I really don't know why people bother watching this garbage... and to think Pinoy's abroad spend hours online everyday just to watch this stuff on streaming. Go figure.

THE NEXT RIPOFF STARRING ROBIN/REGINE?

2009-04-24T09:57:00.001+08:00

this is my favorite movie of all time. shown in the 80's, starring dito ang madaming sikat na artista bago pa sila sikat. michael pare, amy madigan, diane lane, bill paxton, rick moranis, willem dafoe among others.

it's an action/romance movie with a lot of rock n roll music.
the basic story: badass ex soldier returns to rescue his old girlfriend who is now a famous singer from a cycle gang sho kidnaps her during her concert in their hometown. in the end, he faces the leader of the gang in a sort of duel/showdown and the movie ends in a huge concert.

nahanap ko yung showdown scene saka final concert scene sa youtube... i couldnt help but think kapag nadiskubre na naman ng writers ng gma ito eh magiging parte ng isang palabas o pelikula na naman ito with robin as a local version of tom cody and regine as ellen aim. sana hindi...

TOTOY BATO RIPS OFF DENZEL'S "JOHN Q": SEE FOR YOURSELF!!!

2009-04-21T13:31:00.002+08:00

Hindi pa rin pala tumigil ang TOTOY BATO sa pag-ripoff sa movie ni Denzel Washington na JOHN Q... sa episode kagabi, tuluy-tuloy ang lantarang panggagaya.

I found some clips of JOHN Q on Youtube, at aakalain mong sa Youtube lang pinanood ng writer ng TOTOY BATO dahil gayang gaya ang mga eksena at dialog. Kulang na lang eh tagalugin word for word.

At dun sa nagbibigay pa ng benefit of the doubt sa magagaling na writers ng TOTO BATO, watch it for yourself here:

FROM TOTOY BATO:

TAKEN FROM JOHN Q:

HETO PA... FROM TOTOY BATO:

AND AGAIN, IT IS FROM JOHN Q:

How original.

MASSIVE COOL

2009-04-19T00:37:00.002+08:00

Pasalubong sa akin ng pinsan ko from the US. Andito sya itong holy week.

SimpleTech SimpleDrive 1 terabyte external harddrive.

Fortunately, hindi ko pa napupuno yung 500 GB external harddrive na binigay nya last year.

Pero balak kong ilagay lahat ng multimedia downloads ko dito para madaling hanapin. I know what some of you are thinking. With a harddrive this big full of downloads, malamang parang dayami na ito at karayom ang mga files. For me though, mas madali hanapin yan kesa naman sa spindle-spindle ko ng DVDR backups. You can fit about 250 DVDR's of data in this thing. That's 5 50-disc spindles of stuff.

Thank you Erika.

Advanced congrats to her sister Kyla who just announced she is getting married.

Finally, belated happy birthday to my uncle Obet who celebrated his birthday April 17.

TOTOY BATO RIPS OFF DENZEL'S "JOHN Q"

2009-04-18T09:43:00.002+08:00

my driver's daughter watches GMA's dramas in my room every night. Personally, I can't stand GMA'S "world class" garbage, and last night was proof of why...

Robin's current drama on GMA is TOTOY BATO, a remake of FPJ's old movie.

Kagabi, like always, pinatunayan na naman nila na wala silang originality.

Sa story ng Totoy Bato, his daughter is very sick in the hospital and needs a heart transplant. So in the episode last night, Totoy [Robin] held the hospital hostage. This was ripped off from Denzel Washington's movie, "John Q", where he helf a hospital hostage so his son can be put on the donor's list for a heart transplant dahil ayaw i-cover ng kanyang medical insurance.

Pati ang dialog ni Denzel ay niripoff sa Totoy Bato. Denzel's line in the movie was "I WILL NOT BURY MY SON! MY SON IS GOING TO BURY ME!" and in Totoy Bato, Robin yelled "HINDI KO ILILIBING ANG ANAK KO! ANG ANAK KO ANG MAGLILIBING SA AKIN!". The ripoff was so obvious that it made me sick.

People would argue na there is hardly anything original anymore. But why is it that it is only when I watch a local show that I notice these ripoffs? I don't watch a foreign show and notice a similarity between that and something I have seen before. Bakit laging sa palabas na local lang ito nakikita?

BAKIT GANITO NA ANG MGA PINOY ABROAD PAG HOLY WEEK?

2009-04-12T09:26:00.002+08:00

i have been uploading TV shows in PCTV [pinoychannel.tv] for over a year now, and every holy week, the same thing happens. ppl are wondering why i didnt upload anything from maundy thur, good fri and black sat.

this morning nairita na ako kasi ang daming naghahanap nung episode ng lipgloss kahapon [yung ripoff ng tv5 of gossip girl].

mga pilipino ang mga ito na nasa abroad, pero bakit parang hindi nila alam na walang palabas sa pilipinas kapag holy week kung hindi puro religious shows? it's always been like this with philippine tv, so how come they dont know about it? nag-abroad lang sila eh nalimutan na nila?

and the pathetic thing is they never miss an episode of lipgloss [or joaquin bordado last year] pero wala silang alam about how things work in their own country... regarding their faith at that! it shows kung ano ang mas importante sa kanila na malaman nila. how pathetic! it also shows kung ano ang mas importante sa kanila kapag easter. hay...

KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD

2009-03-12T04:56:00.002+08:00

Wala lang, maikli lang ito... just felt like mentioning it...

When Francis M died last friday, something came over me and I wanted to listen to some of his songs. I didn't listen to his songs much nung buhay pa sya, pero parang gusto kong pakinggan ngayon.

Kagabi, laman ng MP3 player ko ang Cold Summer Nights at Kaleidoscope World. Pinakinggan ko nang paulit-ulit habang nakasalang ako sa dialysis.

Ewan ko ba... hindi naman sad song yung KW pero parang nalulungkot ako when I hear it now, ewan ko kung baka dahil naaalala kong wala na sya. I am not really that attached to Francis M pero nalulungkot ako. Kahit nung napanood ko yung coverage ng libing nya kanina, parang ang lungkot nga naman.

Every color... every hue...

WHAT'S SO TOUGH ABOUT THE 5TH GRADE?

2009-03-10T04:45:00.002+08:00

I didn't really think about this until I read the newspaper yesterday... about a contestant on GMA's "Kakasa Ka Ba Sa Grade 5?" game show... she won P500,000. Valedictorian sya. Pero naputol daw ang honor streak nya nang tumuntong sya sa grade 5. Bigla daw humirap ang studies. Nakabawi lang sya nung grade 6 na sya.

Ang tagal na ng game show na ito and I always dismissed it as a show na pinamumukha kung gano na kabobo ang tao ngayon, na kahit grade 5 question eh di na masagot. Then again, baka naman mga topnotcher yung mga bata na kalaban nila sa show kaya nahihirapan sila.

Pero when I read that article, I remembered that I had a similar experience. First honor ako nung grade 1-2. Grade 3 I made 5th honor [yes, meron nun sa Trinity College]. Nung lumipat ako sa Brent International Manila [nung nasa Pasig pa], second honor ako sa grade 4. When I was in grade 5, I dropped out of honors completely!

Looking back, hindi ko pa rin maisip kung ano ba talaga ang nagpahirap sa grade 5.

It was actually very traumatic not to finish the year with honors of any kind. Matindi kung mam-pressure ang parents ko sa bahay namin. Pag uwi nyo after the commencement exercises at wala kang inuwing honor or award of any kind, my parents would lay the guilt trip on me. Anything fun you ever did during the school year would come to haunt you. Naging kasalanan ang halos lahat ng gawain except for studying.

Makinig ka lang ng radyo eh kasalanan na rin! Back then, we always tuned in to 93.9 WKC, kasi nung panahon na yun, they told jokes in between songs. As in riddles, "use in a sentence" jokes, knock-knock jokes... wala lang, nakakatuwa lang sya pakinggan. And it was all in English. I even remember na kapag independence day lang sila nagtatagalog. Buong araw purong Tagalog ang spoken language nung station and even the jokes were all in Tagalog. Anyway, ayun, sinumbat sa akin yun nung end of the grade 5 year...

Oh well... hanggang ngayon as of this writing, di ko pa rin maisip kung ano ba ang nasa curriculum nung grade 5 pa ako na nagpahirap sa kanya.

If I were to overanalyze myself, it may have been because I experience a mild burnout after the 4th grade. Nung lumpat kasi kami sa international school, the pressure to do well was even higher. Ewan ko ba... siguro dahil madaming foreigner akong kaklase and my parents didn't want me to lag behind? Ewan ko ba... bakit parang importante palagi sa atin kung ano ang tingin sa atin ng mga foreigner...

Gee I hope this isnt one of the questions they'd ask me on that show kung makasali man ako. Coz I sure am stumped.

RIP: FRANCIS M.

2009-03-06T22:01:00.003+08:00

Ang bilis kumalat ng balita.

Pumasok sa room ko ang maid namin at binalita sa akin na namatay na si Francis M. Tanghali ito kanina at nagiiyakan nga daw ang mga kasama nya sa Eat Bulaga. Pati lola ko na laging nanonood ng EB eh naiyak daw.

Last year ko pa alam na may leukemia si Francis M. Nainggit pa nga ako sa kanya kasi ang daming nagdonate ng dugo sa kanya. Nung panahon na yun, nangangailangan din ako ng dugo kasi ang dami ko nang utang na dugo sa blood bank ng The Medical City [coincidentally, doon din sya nagpapagamot] kasi kailangan ko ito because of my kidney failure.

Malungkot for me ang balita na wala na sya. While I am not exactly a big fan of his music, I always respected the guy. And I am not saying that porke sya ang laman ng balita ngayon. He and I share the same name, and people always call me Francis M as a joke, it shows how popular he is. Basta pangalang Francis, sya na ang naiisip ng tao.

One of the things I remember about him is his being a die hard Voltes V fan. Sa multiply account nya, kinunan pa nya ng pictures ang kanyang SOC Voltes V, swerte naman ng laruan nya at isang magaling na photographer si Francis M kaya nakunan ng magagandang pic ang robot na yun.

So kahit it's been said so many times whenever someone has passed away, Francis M is big loss to everyone. So katukayo, pinagluluksa kita.

MINI REVIEWS: PUNISHER WAR ZONE & STREET FIGHTER: LEGEND OF CHUN LI

2009-03-06T09:12:00.002+08:00

Just shows you how out of touch I am with the latest movies. Alam kong ipapalabas ang mga movie na ito, pero this week ko lang alam na lumabas na pala sila. I had nothing better to do the other night so pinanood ko na pareho.

Street Fighter II is one of my favorite videogames [next to its brother game FINAL FIGHT] and the Punisher is my all time favorite comic book "superhero" [he doesnt have superpowers. then again, neither does Batman]. So di ko talaga balak palampasin ang mga movies na ito.

When I found out last year na may Hollywood movie na naman ang Street Fighter, naisip ko, naku, sasablay na naman yan. Naalala ko yung movie ni Van Damme na pinatulan ko pa talaga sa sinehan. A decade later, mas okay naman ang pagkakagawa nito. Although di ka gaanong matutuwa if you are an otaku and were expecting it to be a videogame turned into a movie like DOA. Kaso kung papanoorin mo naman ito na wala kang pakialam dun sa videogame, parang ewan lang sya sa iyo.

I'm not going to go much into the cast. Okay na sa akin si Kristin Kreuk as Chun Li, Papasa naman yung gumanap as Bison at Balrog. Hindi ko alam kung bakit hindi gurang si Gen at bakit naging anak ni Bison si Rose. Walang "shoto" characters dito [Ryu, Ken, Akuma, Dan, Sean, Sakura] and although it's set in Bangkok, wala rin si Adon at Sagat. Also, dont expect them to look like they did in the game. Chun Li doesnt have that blue outfit. Si Vega lang ang may mask at claw pa rin.

The story is also a departure from that of the game. Anyone who knows of SF lore will know.

Hindi ko na papanoorin ito ulit. Malamang patulan ko na lang ang original DVD for my collection. Mas entertaining for me ang DOA movie. Pero kung SF, yung unang animated movie pa rin talaga. Ewan ko ba kung bakit pinipilit pa nilang gawing live action ito eh sa anime naman ito nagagawan ng justice talaga. It's like most of the superhero movies. Kahit anong ganda nung ibang Hollywood movie, mas okay pa rin yung mga animated na bago like Ultimate Avengers.

Oh speaking of superhero movies...

Ito ang panalo!!! Actually yung movie lang ni Thomas Jane ang di ko type. I liked Dolph Lundgren's Punisher and I loved this one. Marvel Knights ito, meaning it is much more violent than the usual. I am a squeamish guy and I dont care much for gore. Pero tuwang tuwa ako dito, lalo na when Frank blows a guys head off with a shotgun.

When I first heard about this, akala ko they will base it on the first 6 issues of Punisher War Zone, which is one of my most favorite Punisher stories. Pero hindi pala. Si Jigsaw ang kalaban nya dito. Nandito din si Microchip. Ray Stevenson plays the role of Frank Castle perfectly. He looks just the way Castle should look and move. Clearly, this is how I expected the Punisher to be on the big screen. He just goes in and kills everyone effectively and violently. Walang sali-salita. Patayan lang!

Oh and the old Captain America movie is being shown on HBO lately. Wala lang, aliw lang.

PIZZA HUT: ANG PA-PLASTIC NYO!!!

2009-02-20T12:48:00.002+08:00

Hindi naman ganong katindi ang reklamo ko sa Pizza Hut. Actually I am satisfied with their delivery dahil mabilis ito at bihira silang magkamali sa orders ko... unlike let's say, Shakey's na nale-late tapos pipiliting makiusap dahil obligado silang ibigay ng libre ang order mo kapag late sila, o ang Domino's na laging nalilimutan ang change o nale-late din...

Nakaka-asar lang ang PH kapag oorder ka sa kanilang call center na 911-1111. Papano ba naman, ang daming kaekekan ng sasagot sa iyo. Lalambingin ka pa at kung anuano pa ang sasabihin sa iyo na nagpapahaba sa usapan. Ewan ko kung bakit tinatanong pa ako kung ilan ang kakain sa oorderin ko, kung gusto ko pang umorder ng ibang item eh nasabi ko na ang oorderin ko, etc etc etc...

Ang pinaka-nakakainis eh itong boladas nila... everytime I order, no matter what I order, the girl at the other end always says "Sir that's a great choice, I ORDERED IT MYSELF."... They say this EVERY TIME. NAPAKA-FAKE!!! I almost wanted to tell her that she's full of BS. Pero hindi nya naman kasalanan yun, she's probably told to say that everytime. Pero nakaka-asar kasi ginagawa nilang tanga ang customer. Hay!

GREEN CHARCOAL

2009-02-19T09:05:00.003+08:00

Napanood ko sa PROBE kagabi ang tungkol sa green charcoal. Isa itong invention ng isang Pinoy where he makes charcoal from garbage and adds a secret ingredient to make an eco-friendly alternative to LPG. Kung ito ang gagamitin imbis na LPG, may 30% savings at hindi pa mauubos ang supply katulad ng LPG. Nakakatuwa ang concept na ito kasi naisip kong may possibility na gawin nang ganito ang napakadaming basura sa bansa. Imagine solving the energy problem and the garbage problem with one solution. Pwede pang iexport... literally, it would fuel the economy!

Nanalo na daw ng award ito sa Geneva. In fact, I googled green charcoal and found out na inadopt na ang technology nito sa ibang bansa like Senegal at pinapakinabangan na nila ito. Pero dito sa atin, kung saan inimbento ito, PINAPAGAARALAN PA LANG NG DENR kung pwedeng gamitin! WTF?!

Dito pumasok yung inis ko. Sa palagay ko, hinaharang na naman ng oil cartels ang produkto na ito kasi mawawalan sila ng kita. It wouldnt be the first time na humadlang sila sa isang bagay na pwedeng ipalit sa oil products. Nakakabuwisit talaga. Tapos mababalitaan mo na lang na patoik na patok na ito sa ibang bansa?!

PANGARAP KONG JACKPOT...

2009-02-18T09:56:00.004+08:00

P236 million lang naman ang hindi pa natatamaan sa super lotto 6/49 kagabi... ang hahaba na ng mga pila sa mga lotto outlets kahapon. I am one of those people hoping na tumama.

Natawa ako sa news kahapon sa TV Patrol at Saksi... ngayong panahon ng krisis daw eh dumadami ang nagsisimba kahit sa tanghali. I jokingly said, kaya nagsisimba ang mga yan eh dahil nagdadasal sila na tumama sila sa lotto! Malay ko bang nung pinalabas na yung mismong news segment eh meron ngang mga nagsimba na yun ang hiniling kay Lord?! Madami daw na dumeretso sa lotto outlet pagkatapos magsimba! LOL

P20 for a 1 in like, 8 million shot at 230 million bucks buys me a lot of hope. Like any prudent or wise person who bets on the lotto, I dont expect to win with those odds, but I can always hope. Just knowing that there is a possibility makes me feel a whole lot better. And even if I find out that someone else won, I find myself happy for whoever he is.

What I am uneasy about now is the fact that even if I do win, hindi ko na alam kung saan ko ilalagay ang pera. I have always had a plan for what I will do with my winnings should I win. Dati, I always thought of putting it in a big bank like one that has a foreign counterpart like Citibank [dito nilagay ng lolo ko ang kanyang pera dati and I've always felt they were big enough to entrust millions to] , pero since the crisis hit the world last year and even big banks in the US like Wells Fargo and AIG were hit, hindi na ako talaga nakakasiguro. These days, magugulat ka na lang at may institution dyan na matagal mo nang iniisip na matatag eh nagsara na pala! Nakakatakot isipin na magdedeposit ka ng 230 million sa bank, tapos bigla pala itong magsasara, then you find yourself claiming insurance sa PDIC that only covers P100,000. WAAAAH!!! Come back my money!!!

Hay, saka na problemahin yan, kelangan manalo muna...

ONE OF NY FAVORITE JACKIE CHAN MOVIES: SPARTAN X

2009-02-03T17:33:00.004+08:00

nadownload ko kahapon itong isang old jacky chan favorite ko... it's called WHEELS ON MEALS... 25 years ago when i was a kid, paulit-ulit naming nirerenta ito sa betamax. it was shown here as DRAGON IN ACTION... some of you may have seen this movie... it stars jackie chan, yuen biao and samo hung, plus lola forner, beauty queen ng spain [leading lady nya rin sa armor of god]. it was shot in spain.

the fight scene here of jacky chan vs benny "the jet" urquidez is considered one of the best fight scenes of all time.

you may remember this movie because of their yellow van [a mitsubishi L300] that transforms into a chinese fast food store and they do a lot of stunts with skateboards.

i found this japanese trailer for the movie...

ang galing talaga gumawa ng mga hapon ng trailer. it makes the movie seem even more action-packed [action packed as it is]... this movie was also a big hit in japan because a videogame for the nintendo family computer named SPARTAN X was based on it... sa states, the title is "KUNG FU" for the nintendo entertainment system. do you guys remember playing this game?

so anyway, kahit na meron na ako nung original VCD nito from astrovision, dinownload ko ang english dub nito sa torrent kahapon. i was so disappointed when i watched it kasi it was redubbed for the DVD. ang pangit ng dubbing and the original soundtrack was removed and replaced with some really boring music. ang laki ng pinagbago!

Anyway, it's his old movies produced in Hongkong na gustung gusto ko... once he went international with movies like First Strike and Mr. Nice Guy, parang iba na e... iba talaga yung mga produced sa HK na halos lahat ng artista eh mga Chinese din.

MY LOLA'S 90TH BIRTHDAY!!!

2009-02-01T17:59:00.002+08:00

ANG GANDA NG LOLA KO... 90 YEARS OLD NA SYA BUKAS [FEB 2]

BLOWOUT NG TITA KO: CHINESE MINI-BANQUET FROM CHOY'S GARDEN.

KUMAKAIN ANG CELEBRANT...

BLOWING OF CANDLES WITH HER KIDS & GRANDKIDS... AND YES, THAT'S A YUMMY MANGO ICE CREAM CAKE.

90th birthday na ng lola ko bukas so ngayong sunday na namin ito cinelebrate. As usual family gathering nang matatawag ito, may apat syang anak na dumating at tatlo kaming apo nya na nandito sa bahay so masaya.

Bumili ng Chinese food ang tita ko sa Choy's Garden. This is the chinese restaurant that used to be COUNTRY WAFFLES sa Annapolis, Greenhills. Balita ko eh ex-partner ito ng owner ng Gloria Maris at nagsarili na sya, taking some of the GM chefs with him. We had some fried rice, roast duck, chicken with mushroom, fish fillet, scallops and prawns.

Nagulat ako sa tangkad ng hugis ng kanyang birthday cake. It turned out to be a mango ice cream cake. Ayos!

Dumating din ang tita ko and her daughter who I haven't seen in a long while. They weren't there during her last birthday celebration in Gloria Maris. She's the eldest of her daughters and was the one who raised me for the first 13 years or so of my life. Her daughter grew up in this house mula nung baby pa and they moved out when she was about 4 years old. So kilalang-kilala ko rin sya. She's in college now. Architecture student sa UST. Grabe ang tanda ko na! It was so nice to see them both.

Happy 90th birthday lola, many happy returns.

FAR FROM OVER: YES!!!

2009-02-01T11:00:00.005+08:00

PICTURED ABOVE: TORMENTA EN EL PARAISO TITLE SCREEN

PICTURED ABOVE: TORMENTA EN EL PARAISO CAST

Mabuti na lang!

A few weeks ago, medyo kinabahan na ako na mauubusan na ako ng trabaho dahil patapos na ang series na ito. Isa ako sa mga writers ng English dub nito para sa ibang bansa. Nasa episode 110 na kami at akala ko eh patapos na dahil ang alam ko, hanggang 120 lang ito. I checked it out at Wikipedia and found out it is 185 episodes. So mukhang matatagalan pa bago matapos ito. Hooray!!!

FAR FROM

POST-POURRI

2009-01-30T07:33:00.006+08:00

Have a lot of stuff to blog about...

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ANIME SWAK PAK = GMA ANIME SAMPLER

Ngayon naiintindihan ko na kung bakit ito ang tawag sa anime block ng GMA kapag umaga on weekdays... it's pretty much like the "side sampler" ng mga side dish sa Kenny Rogers Roasters. There's a little of everything! Eh pano ba naman, GMA edited these animated shows to shave off a good 10 minutes from each show. Naku hindi talaga makatarungan... it makes you wish na wag na lang ipalabas sa GMA ang paboritong anime mo. Halos 12-14 minutes lang kada episode ang pinapalabas. Pamatay-oras lang talaga.

It's also the reason why Ghost Fighter won sa Otaku's Verdict as the anime that got screwed. Pag ginanyan ba naman ang anime na gusto mo eh di ka talaga matutuwa.

* * * * * * * * * *

WHAT FOOD DO YOU MISS EATING?

A year ago, Nag-uwi ang tito ko from HK ng Horlick's. May beverage mix na pala ito. Pero nung bata ako, ito ang uso bago ang Ovalteenies, mala-tabletas na snack. Nang matikman ko ito ulit, parang naalala ko yung panahon na nasa Grade 2 pa ako. Hehehe

Ano nga kaya ang mga pagkain na nami-miss nyo? Sa dami ng produkto sa merkado ngayon, parang meron pa ring mga foods na hindi na nabibili.

Some of the food I miss:

Hershey's Watchamacallit Bar

- Ito yung may beige wrapper na very crisp ang laman. Meron nang crisp version ang Butterfinger ngayon and it tastes close but not quite like Watchamacallit.

Barnone

- another Hershey's favorite. Dilaw ang wrapper. Wafers ang laman ng chocolate.

Jack n Jill Munchees

- another favorite snack of mine nung nasa elementary pa ako sa Trinity College of QC. Orange chips sya.

Arby's Roast Beef Sandwich

- Used to eat this when I was a kid... meron silang branch dati sa Quezon Ave at briefly sa Greenhills. I always remember the huge slab of roast beef being sliced by a stainless machine. On a big bun at pinatungan ng natutunaw na keso. Sumikat din ang commercial nito dati, nag-drive thru si Batman and Robin sakay ng Batmobile [what else?]...

Round Table Pizza

- US franchise na naman... unang branch nito is at Greenbelt tapos nagkaron din nung bago pa ang Robinsons Galleria. Semi-crispy crust.

Little Caesar's Pizza-Pizza

- Hindi ako sure pero ngayon yata eh sya na ang Joey Pepperoni Pizza. My only basis for saying this is nung bago pa ang JP, bumili ako ng takeout sa Pioneer branch nila and the box it came in was a LC box na blinaligtad lang. Still, it doesnt taste the same. I miss LC at dati eh dinadayo ko pa ito sa E Rod malapit sa QC Circle, tapos nagkaron sila sa East Ave, and finally nagkaron ng malapit sa akin dito sa Meralco Ave. Bukod sa buy 1 take 1, ang sarap ng kanilang toppings, at malutong ang crust ng kanilang square pizza kahit na Pan Pizza ito!

Tom Sawyer's Fried Chicken [and their pizza]

- 2 branches lang ang alam ko. Isa West Ave at isa sa dating Crossroad Arcade sa Greenhills. Pag kumain ka sa restaurant nila, kitang kita ang mga bookshelf na may mga lumang libro na literary classics. While their gravy never came close to the old KFC gravy, masarap ang fried chicken nila. Think of KFC's hot and crispy chicken except hindi maanghang.

Jack in the Box

- it had a short lived stint in Megamall. This is another US fast food franchise. Mas mahal kesa sa Mcdo pero iba ang lasa ng food. At meron silang tacos na lagi kong binabalikan. Everything else was forgettable, though. Maybe that's why hindi sila tumagal.

Greenwich Tacos

- bago naging Fast food franchise ang GW, it was a homey pizza parlor. One of its early branches was in the old Manila Bank Arcade in Greenhills [yung may Automatic Centre na ngayon]. Back then, halos home made ang pizza nila, cheap ingredients na sa harap mo pine-prepare, unlike the prepacked ingredients of GW today. Dati makikita mo pang hinihiwa talaga yung hamon. And back then, they had yummy Tacos.

Bun on the Run Choriburger [the old one]

- dati eh dinadayo ko pa ito sa Tapat ng UP. Nakaka-addict ang kanilang choriburger. 2 chorizo burger patties, a big scoop of cheese, coleslaw on a pan de sal-like bun. Nung nagkaron ng pwesto ito sa Glorietta 4, I would buy so many for takeout after watching a movie with my Campv5 friends. Tapos bigla na lang nawala... nagbalik sila sa Metrowalk but it didnt taste the same anymore.

Nabisco Chicken in a Biskit

- a snack that my lola would always buy me from the PX goods store in the old Cash n Carry mall in Makati. Wala lang, it's a chicken flavored rectangular biscuit in a box. I dont see it in supermarkets anymore but am always on the lookout for it.

Nabisco Chip Star

- Halos wala na ring mabili nito dito. Unless you go to a specialty food store that sells Japanese or Chinese junk food. Ito ang panlaban ng Asia sa Pringle's ng mga kano. 3 flavors: original, seaweed, and chicken consomme. It's in a carton and the chips are wrapped in aluminum. Once you start eating it, uubusin mo sya sa sarap.

Laura Scudder's Potato Chips

- sold in 2's, the outer bag is made of paper, the 2 packs inside are in plain aluminum. Madaming flavor like sour cream n onion, barbecue, plain salted... ito ang uso na chips bago pinasok ng Pepsi ang Lay's sa market.

Horlick's

- kung alam nyo ang Ovalteenies, dapat alam nyo ito. May chocolate at vanilla flavor sya. Mala-tabletas sya.

Flamer's Burger

- isa sa mga players nang naglipana ang gourmet big burger craze. Meron nito sa tapat ng Metrowalk dati. Bottomless drinks, at may salad bar where you can dress your burger. Sarap kumain pag may barkada!

Ling Nam congee [with bicho-bicho]

- I simply miss this 'coz we used to eat here as a family when I was a kid. We ate at one of the old branches in Shoppesville Greenhills. Pork ball congee with bicho-bicho [bread pieces]. Meron din nito sa Luk Yuen pero iba talaga ang sa Ling Nam. Last year, they reopened across Shoppesville but I havent tried their congee yet to see if it's the same old taste.

* * * * * * * * * *

OPRAH'S BIG GIVE

Napanood ko itong marathon airing ng OBG kahapon. Ngayon lang ako nakapanood nito. Isiping nyo na lang na parang reality TV contest version ito ng WISH KO LANG. Parang Wish Ko Lang meets The Apprentice.

* * * * * * * * * *

SEMI-BAD TRIP

Nabalitaan ko sa direk ko na nabili ng studio namin ang KAMEN RIDER HIBIKI. Bad trip ako kasi last December pa pala nila ito sinimulan at hindi ako ang kinuhang scriptwriter. Wala lang, slightly disappointed. Ever since our studio has been buying Kamen Rider series 4 years ago, ako ang halos laging scriptwriter. Ako ang sumulat ng Ryuki, Faiz at Blade. Ngayon lang ako hindi nakuha… pero di ko sila masisisi. Madalang ang proyekto ngayon and it’s really likely na naunahan Lang ako nung iba sa paghingi ng trabaho.

* * * * * * * * * *

AYAN KASI…

Was watching TV Patrol last night. With all the layoffs happening because of the global economic meltdown, this job fair was flocked by young college grads and undergrads eager to land a job. It was reported by Jorge Carino, the hubby of a co-worker of mine. Anyway, he reported that many of the applicants were avoiding the booths of the call centers. I found this to be weird since call centers pay really well.

When asked why they didn’t bother applying at the call centers, most of the young applicants said they didn’t bother because they knew they weren’t going to be accepted. They said they had no chance. The reason? The call centers wanted people who spoke English well.

A few weeks ago, I spoke in a forum that there is simply too much Tagalization going on in Philippine TV. For the past 10 or so years, local TV has seen less and less English shows and almost everything has been dubbed in Tagalog. Anime, Asian dramas, American TV shows and now even American cartoons are being Tagalized. As much as I am happy, being in the dubbing industry, this means more work for us, there is a HUGE tradeoff. And that is the proficiency of most of our youth in the English language has DROPPED SIGNIFICANTLY. Gone are the days of balanced TV programming, when networks aired at least SOME shows in English. For most of these masa kids, they don’t have cable and are stuck watching nothing but Tagalized shows for the past 10 years and now they can't even speak decent English. This is really sad considering being able to speak good English could have come in handy for them in the call center industry. During these hard times, meron sana silang mapagkikitaan nang malaki but noooo…

We can blame it partly on the quality of education also dropping, but face it, mas maimpluwensya talaga sa tao ang media o TV. So kapag halos wala kang napapanood na English, talagang may kahinaan ka sa language na yun.

My brother and I studied in international schools where English is the primary language, and we spoke Tagalog among ouR Filipino friends. And I was lucky enough to be immersed in cable TV when all this Tagalization was booming in the 90’s. this is why I have no real recollection of watching Tagalized tokusatsu in the 90’s and I was never into Ghost Fighter when it first came out. Why watch that when you had cable? Not to mention I was always renting laserdiscs at the time…

Most of the masa aren’t so lucky. Some cant even afford cable these days. So they’re stuck with what’s on local TV and these days, it’s all in Tagalog. This should be some sort of a wake up call to the networks who claim to be “in the service of the Filipino”… dapat maging mas balanced ang program lineup nila. Not just by genre, but also by language.

* * * * * * * * * *

ANG KAKAPAL NG MUKHA…

I don’t want to elaborate any further about who I am talking about… it’s not one person, but thousands… it's practically a demographic! I really never understood why these people think it’s okay to impose on a complete stranger. They have all the excuses like being away from their families, being homesick… whatever! Wala pa rin silang right na mang-utos sa hindi nila kilala.

Sa party halimbawa, there are always people who are the ones who always bring the food and the booze. Meron namang palagi na lang walang dala at panay kain at inom lang. itong mga palaging kumakain at umiinom, ang kakapal naman ng mukha kung sasabihan pa nila yung mga nagdadala kung ano ang dapat nilang dalhin, at bilisan pa daw nila kasi naiinip sila. Kahit ang mga mahihirap na tumatanggap ng grasya mula sa mga matutulungin ay alam ito. Bakit kaya sadyang garapal ang iba sa atin?

* * * * * * * * * *

LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR… LET THE BODIES HIT THE FLOOR…

Nakakagulat ang balita kahapon na may sumabog na malaking pagawaan ng paputok sa Cavite. Literally, sumabog yung factory and pieces of human bodies flew everywhere. As in pira-piraso na ang inabutan ng rescue team. The explosion was so loud that a hospital that was so far away was damaged by the shock wave.

* * * * * * * * * *

GREETINGS AND GET WELL

Belated happy birthday nga pala sa aking Tito Caesar and ex-girlfriend Meowok who celebrated their birthdays on the same day this month. Many happy returns!

Get well soon sa aking friend sa CV5 na si Kayu "Royce" Ty na may problema sa lungs. Kalalabas lang nya sa ospital where he spent the new year getting his right lung aspirated.

* * * * * * * * * *

That’s all for now… madami nang topic ito. Will blog more later… Adios!

Where's the "Big" in Big Mac These Days???

2009-01-18T11:24:00.005+08:00

[ABOVE: "the customer is always right". A pissed off Michael Douglas draws a machine gun inside a fast food restaurant dahil wala silang consideration sa customer] Paminsan-minsan, gusto ko na ring gawin ito...

Following a bad experience I had with the North Park call center who got my delivery wrong, parang natabangan na ako na magpa-takeout sa driver ko sa NP kapag nasa dialysis ako sa TMC. So nung friday, bigla akong nagka-craving for Tropical Hut's Classic Big Cheeseburger. Dinayo pa namin ang 24 hours na TH branch sa may Shaw/Pioneer para bumili. Hay ang craving nga naman. Kapag hinanap mo, hahamakin mo ang lahat...

Mabuti na lang at nagpaka-takaw-mata ako at dalawa ang binili ko para sa sarili ko. Sa dialysis kasi, pwede ka mag-foodtrip at kumain nang medyo madami kasi habang nakasalang ka eh lalabas din agad ang kinakain mo. While the burger is tasty as it has always been, halatang pati ito ay tinamaan na ng krisis. Kung dati ay ang laki ng karne ng Classic Cheeseburger ng TH [ito ang best selling biggest burger sa menu nila], well, ngayon ay halos magtago na ang karne sa loob ng tinapay.

May litrato pa nga ng CCB sa kanilang restaurant. At katulad ng reklamo ni Michael Douglas sa movie, ang laki ng pinagkaiba nung nasa pic sa nakuha nyang burger. Kahit na even nung panahon ng hindi pa krisis eh hindi naman talaga kaparehas nung nasa pic ang burger na makukuha mo, hindi naman sya ganito kaliit dati. Naku, makakabaril ka nga talaga!!!

Thinking back, kaya nga siguro naka-penetrate sa burger business ang mga high end big burgers like BROTHERS, HOTSHOTS, WHAM, etc... nagsimula siguro lahat nang lumiit na ang BIG MAC ng McDo. There used to be a time when the Big Mac was so big that only guys ordered it. And even then, only guys with big appetites dared to eat it. These days, kahit babaeng maliit eh nabibitin na sa Big Mac!

Despite this disappointing fact, bumabalik pa rin ako sa TH. Isa pa rin sya sa favorites ko. shrunken patty or not. Besides, bihira na akong makakita ng burger chain na Pepsi ang sineserve. Now kung pwede lang eh ibalik nila ang Tropical Chili Burger...

4 THE BOYS

2009-01-04T16:14:00.003+08:00

My nephew stayed over before the year closed out. 3 days syang nandito sa akin after not being here for a month. Ayan, naabutan sya ng uncle ko and my baby cousin.

So rare chance na magkasama-sama ang apat na lalaki. So sinamantala na...

3 generations yan. My uncle, ako, pinsan ko na baby, at pamangkin ko.

SEMPAI

2009-01-04T04:17:00.003+08:00

The Japanese word for someone who is your senior. It could refer to someone at work who is of higher rank, your mentor, etc.

I've been a VA [voice actor] in the Philippine dubbing industry for over 8 years. My humble beginnings started when I was being trained and taught by my director. Since then, I've had numerous projects and even worked for other studios and other directos. I daresay, I learned most of what I know of the craft today from him.

Sa industriyang ito, laging may bagong sumasali, anxious to get a slice of the pie. madaming VA na magugulat ka na lang ay biglang mga director na. While I respect and admire my coworkers, it's quite obvious that some of them didn't earn it. Being a director doesnt just involve technical directing, but it involes giving the whole thing, even the other people behind it direction.

I've been working in another studio. The director doesn't talk to me as much and I have no real idea what kind of script they want me to write. Mababalitaan mo na lang, after makabigay ka na ng mga tatlo, na ilang linggo mong trinabaho, ay may mali daw at dapat ayusin. Ang kaso, hindi naman sinasabi kung ano ang mali at papano ang gusto nilang ayos.

Nagkaron ako ng long break itong holidays. Nahinto ang dubbing. Sa lunes [jan 5] pa ang deadline ng unang script ko for the year. Halos 3 weeks ko nang hawak ito, pero hirap na hirap akong simulan dahil hindi ko alam kung tama ang ginagawa ko.

Last night, dumalaw sa bahay ko ang long-time director ko. [Saan ka makakakita ng director pa ang pumupunta pa sa bahay mo?] Pagkatapos ng mahaba-habang kwentuhan at palitan ng input sa mga bagay-nagay tungkol sa industry at dubbing, nakwento ko sa kanya ang problema ko sa script.

Without even looking at my script, he started by saying "If you don't mind a little constructive criticism..." and I sure didn't mind. What have I got to lose? He may know how to help me. And in just one minute, he told me what the problem with my script could be and why it was a problem, and I immediately understood what I was doing wrong. It was the most fulfilling talk I have had in a while. Napakaikli ng sinabi, pero ang dami kong natutunan!

When other directors teach me something, the usual feeling I have is I am hesitant to try writing because I am afraid I still don't know what to do, because their explanation usually isn't clear. After my talk with my old director, I felt a rush and the first thing I did was revise my script in one sitting! I didn't even feel the need to rest. Ang sarap ng pakiramdam. Ganadong ganado.

It's what I believe he's got that makes him rare, despite the fact na ang dami nang dubbing director dyan ngayon. Bihira ang magaling magturo. Most just let you watch them at work and all you can do is hope you pick something up on your own. You can really learn from this guy and he isnt against the idea of learning from you, too. And he isn't like others who give themselves big titles and charge for lessons.

Before he left, I told him... "Tignan mo nga naman... 9 years and I'm still learning from you." And I hope with that message, I let him know how grateful I am, grateful that he is my SEMPAI.

"KNIGHT HUNTERS" IS BACK: IS IT JUST ME, OR...

2008-12-27T13:20:00.003+08:00

The moment I saw the teaser on HeroTV that they were going to bring back the 8-year old Telesuccess-bought Knight Hunters [Weiss Kreuz to the rest of the anime-loving world], I was quite excited. 8 years ago, this was the anime that made me interested in watching Tagalized anime with its witty dubbing and cool plot. It was the first time I heard an anime where the Tagalog dubbing was quite modern and contemporary.

Hindi ko nalilimutan na abangan ang fateful day na ipapalabas ng HeroTV ito and today was it. Dec. 27. Saturdays at 12:30 pm. May replay pa mamaya at 5:30 pm para sa mga hindi ito naabutan. Di lang ako sure kung meron pa rin bukas...

Halata talaga na by today's standards, medyo makaluma na rin ang dubbing. Although nung panahon na yun, makabago pa ito. Westernized ang mga names ng guests - Marlon, Enrico, Michelle...

Pero is it just me dahil tumanda na ako or nawalan na talaga ng "cool factor" ang mga shows na ganito? Dati kasi, I found these guys to be cool. Vigilantes ba naman e. The idea of silent weapons was also a plus. Pero ngayon, I think of 4 guys na laging magkasama and WORKING IN A FLOWER SHOP... Yech... it's so gay! As in Queer Eye!!! Heheheh And I'm sure madaming sumusulat ng kabadingang fanfic tungkol sa mga lalaking ito...

MASASAYANG VOLTES V

2008-12-24T08:04:00.001+08:00

i dont know why i got to start thinking about this this morning. basta naaalala ko yung nabanggit ko sa CV5 forum the other day about how sa movie na TOY STORY, the happy toys are the ones that have been played with at nilamog sa kalalaro while the sad toys are the ones that were never taken out of the box.

if you think about it, nung bata ka pa, your toy, kung may buhay lang yan, is practically your friend. if a girl sometimes talks to her doll, boys treat their robots like their friend, or their hero, etc. at the very least, parang tao na rin ang trato nila sa toy nila.

my nephew, when he was little, asked me to buy him an action figure and he loved it so much na he was hugging it while he was asleep.

so dun ko naisip, na our toys are also like friends in that regard... the friends that are more dear to us, are the ones we went through a lot with, lagi nating kinakausap, the ones we did a lot with together, kumbaga sa latuan, yun nga yung mga pinaglaruan talaga.

where as the friend who is not so dear to us, like the toy that was hardly played with and just stayed unopened in the cabinet for years, are the friends na parang acquaintance lang... kinilala mo syang kaibigan. but you guys never did anything together, you rarely talked, he doesnt really know anything about you, hindi mo napagsasabihan ng problema, hindi mo maaasahan kapag kelangan mo ng tulong, etc.

which brings me to the "happy voltes v's"...

if the happy toys are the ones na talagang pinaglaruan at nilamog, then the godaikin voltes v must be one of the happiest toys in the world. if you check in ebay, or if you ever see someone selling off their old godaikin voltes v, halos lahat ng makikita mo ay lamog-lamog na. kinakalawang pa yung iba. the joints are loose dahil paulit ulit syang vinolt-in at vinolt-out. madaming gasgas dahil ang dami na nyang beast fighter na pinagpapatay. madami na syang kulang na weapons dahil sa daming "battles" na pinagdaanan nila ng owner nya. the paint is worn out, the stickers are worn out, all signs na the owner really loved it and played with it...

and to top it all off, nobody EVER wants to sell it cheap. it means the owner really values it and expects to be paid a lot to let go of it [not just coz the market value is big]

when we were kids, we never even considered that we would never open our toys and just keep them in the closet. we always wanted to open them and play with them. and that is what toys are truly for...

to me that's proof na a toy, whether it's really cheap or as high end or expensive as an SOC, is meant to be played with. madami sa atin ang nagsasabi, when there is an EB and we bring our old godaikins na lasog-lasog na... we always say, we didnt know that it would be worth so much one day so we "didnt take care of it". we may not have known back then na ganun ang magiging market value nyan ngayon, but we always knew it was priceless.

AFTER ALL THESE YEARS...

2008-12-16T20:35:00.004+08:00

Nagulat ako nang nagchannel-surf ako kanina after ko manood ng TV Patrol. Napadpad ako sa TV5 kung saan binulaga ako... tapos na ang CODE GEASS. Ang nakakagulat ay ang pinalit nilang anime.... FUSHIGI YUUGI! It's been almost 8 years since dinub namin ito sa Telesuccess and it was one of my earliest dubbing projects.

Ito ang isa sa mga dinub kong character sa FY... ang malokong si CHICHIRI.

Matagal ko nang napapansin na mukhang naglilinis ng cabinet o vault ang Telesuccess dahil tila nagsisilabasan at nagsisibalikan ang mga lumang titles namin. Ipapalabas na rin kasi sa Hero ang napakalumang GADGET BOY KANIPAN at KNIGHT HUNTERS [Weiss Kreuz], na dinub BEFORE GMA's anime assault! Mantakin nyo ba naman na this was before EDSA Dos?! My how time flew.

RIP MARKY "ZAIDO GREEN" CIELO

2008-12-08T18:38:00.003+08:00

Nagulat ako sa balita kahapon na namatay na si Marky Cielo. He was only 20. Binangungot daw.

Zaido, GMA's fantaserye which is a spinoff of the tokusatsu show Shaider, was originally supposed to be a licensed full fledged Philippine version of Shaider and Marky was supposed to play the lead as Shaider. But because the Japanese didn't approve, it became Zaido and Marky became one of 3 space sheriffs in the show. If GMA's original plans were carried out, Marky would have been Shaider, at pareho na silang patay ni Hiroshi Tsuburaya, the Japanese actor who played Dai Sawamura/Alexis in the original show.

Condolences to both of them. Mabuhay silang pareho.

MY FAVORITE KUNG FU FIGHT SCENE

2008-12-02T21:30:00.002+08:00

When I was a kid, my uncle the tech-geek bought us a betamax machine and not too long after that, we were renting tapes at Virra Mall by the box. Isa sa pinakamaraming klase ng movie na inaarkila para sa amin ng tito ko is English dubbed Kung fu movies, and I've been hooked to watching it ever since.

Just to be clear, I love martial arts pero I dont and never planned to learn it. I am just fascinated in watching it and it's usually the moves that are graceful yet not practical in real combat at all that catch my attention.

This movie, when I saw it, was titled SNAKE FIST VS THE DRAGON. I liked it so much that we bought the copy from the rental place. 20 years later, I wanted to see it again and it was only 'coz I watched it so many times that I realized na si John Cheung pala yung bida dito. He was also the bad guy in DRAGON: THE BRUCE LEE STORY [the guy with the long hair that Bruce had to duel with so he could be allowed to teach kung fu to foreigners]. So after a lot of googling, I found the international title of this movie. it was called SNAKE IN THE MONKEY'S SHADOW. Mas tama nga naman ito kasi wala namang Dragon Style doon sa movie. Well, he combined drunken style with monkey style, I guess that way he was wise enough to be called a dragon... well it's still a stretch.

Anyway, I found the final battle scene on Youtube and I just wanted to blog about it.

This past week, I had an infection from a wound in my toe and the infection literally infected my whole body. My whole body was in a lot of pain. It felt like the flu, only worse. Hindi ako makagalaw ng hindi nasasaktan. Kahit umubo lang ako ay masakit na. Totoo nga naman yung joke na kahit anong edad mo, kapag may sakit ka, para kang bata at gusto mong manood ng mga paborito mong palabas nung bata ka. Since nadownload ko na itong movie na ito a long time ago, ilang beses kong pinanood ang scene na ito and it's made me feel better.

Nakakatuwa lang sya talaga panoorin. Imagine i was about 8 when I saw this and I thought it was way cool. Nanood lang sya ng unggoy at natuto na sya ng Kung Fu. Hehehe! Well, tinuruan din naman sya ng drunken style ng isang master talaga. I remember that when I was in the 2nd grade, I'd mimick the monkey style fighting stance, including the part where he made faces, tapos para akong tanga na nakikipagsuntukan sa school, thinking I was actually gonna win with moves I saw in a movie. Well, bata e.

I found the moves to be so cool, lalo na yung nagfliflip sya in the air kahit wala naman springboard. Saka nung tumugtog na yung music, I used to always get a rush. Sa DRUNKEN MASTER ni Jackie Chan galing yung music, but I saw this movie before that...

It's 7 minute clip. It sounds kind of long, but I never get tired of it. Pagtyagaan nyong panoorin so you can appreciate what I mean. By today, it's nothing compared to let's say, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, pero it will always be my favorite Kung Fu fight scene.

PLDT: SCREW YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE COMPANY

2008-11-29T11:35:00.003+08:00

ito ang sinabi ng isang galit na customer ng PLDT sa isang customer service agent nila before it escalated into a profane shouting match over the phone, which was recorded and uploaded all over the internet.

papano nga naman hindi mo mumurahin ang kumpanya na yan, eh sadyang mga gago naman talaga.

to save money, i decided to have my p1995/month DSL downgraded to the P999 plan. i have been having trouble recently making the monthly payment of P2750 so opted to have it downgraded.

nung una, ang sabi sa akin, kelangan tapos na yung lock-in period. then sinabi na dapat wala nang due so account. it took me a while to finally settle it in full so i called them today to have it downgraded.

'ina lang talaga, may bago na naman silang pang-gugulang. if you want to downgrade your plan, there is a P500 PROCESSING FEE. ito yung mas magulang: THERE IS NO PROCESSING FEE IF YOU ARE UPGRADING YOUR PLAN.

that means this P500 is not going to go to processing your plan. pinagkikitaan ka lang nila talaga! kasi kung maguupgrade ka, that still needs processing and yet they can do it for free. what @$$holes!

in the first place, the idea that they put so many obstacles before you can downgrade is really stupid. the fact that you have to pay your whole balance before you can downgrade is already dumb. wala ka na ngang pambayad kaya ka nagdodowngrade e. but they wont downgrade you until you're all paid up. so while you cant pay what you owe them, they add another month to your bill. e di hindi ka na talaga natapos!

tapos padadalhan ka nila ng demand letter saying you leave them no choice to but to sue you since YOU REFUSE TO PAY. anak ng... sila yung ayaw idowngrade yung plan ko kaya lumaki ang utang ko, tapos ako pa ngayon ang ayaw palang magbayad. mga ugok talaga!

and let's not forget that they are doing all of this while their service is still so pathetic. Their fastest plan is still nowhere near the connection speed of common high speed internet in other counties. That's why kapag may commercial ang DSL dito, it's always described as much faster than dial-up. While this is true, what they dont say is DSL in the Philippines is nowhere as fast as DSL is in other countries. my DSL has a 2.1 MB connection, but my friend in the States who only has a 768kbps connection is faster.

Skycable is now offering something close to being on the level, a 12MB connection, but it costs and arm and a leg!

DYING BY THE SWORD...

2008-11-26T16:26:00.002+08:00

While I will count it as a photofinish, I managed to make my deadline last tuesday with plenty of time to spare. I still call it a photofinish dahil imbis na 1 week ang ibigay sa akin to write 2 scripts of a spanish telenovela na tig 45 mins, i was only given 3 days. Well, I had 4 days but ibawas na yung tulog na pang 2 days at yung time ko sa dialysis nung lunes ng gabi. Still, even if I managed to finish it with hours to spare, I wouldn't want to go through that again. Masyadong rigid yung schedule na ginawa ko para matapos ko sya. I had to clear 2 pages of the translation every hour. If there was time to spare, saka lang ako magpapahinga. I know it sounds easy, 45 minutes lang yung episode pero bakit inaabot ng araw para gawin. Trust me, it isnt as easy as it sounds.

Per ganunpaman, I still maintain a 2 episode/week quota so that I can maintain a decent income. Eh papano ba naman, sa tagal magbayad ng mga studio, by the time you get your TF [talent fee] eh pambayad-utang na lang sya kung paisa-isang episode a week ka lang!

This is why some of my coworkers use their siblings to write scripts. Tatanggap sila ng madaming trabaho tapos paghahatian nila para malaki ang kikitain nila. Per personally, hindi ko kayang gawin ito. I believe the studio hired ME in particular and they are paying for a script written by ME.

With my condition, dapat eh nagpapahinga na lang ako. I am often tired. Pero kapit nga sa patalim e. We all have to eat. Hindi naman pwedeng umasa na lang sa magulang, or in my case, iasa ang lahat sa magulang.

So kahit may flu ako ngayon, courtesy of the domestic helpers who have been infecting the whole house, tumanggap na naman ako ng 2 episodes due next tuesday. Not to worry, it's only wednesday. Kayang kaya yan.

HOW DUBBER'S CUT CAN BE BETTER

2008-11-26T01:12:00.003+08:00

ABOVE: one of the segments of Hero TV's Dubber's Cut.

While I am happy that Hero TV made this a regular thing, there are a lot of things I also don't like about it.

I don't find anything wrong with letting the fans know about who we [the dubbers]. In fact, sa tinagal kong dubber, mostly sa TSP, sanay ako na maging kasama sa proyekto pero kami-kami lang ang nakakaalam. Papano ba naman, hindi nilalagay ang mga pangalan namin sa credits ng mga dinu-dub namin. This leaves fans guessing who voiced who.

I've been in the forums for the past 10 years and dubbing and dubbers have always been a topic among fans. Hindi maiiwasan mapagusapan ang dubbing, kung sino ang nagdub, kung minsan pati director, kung sino dapat ang nagdub, kung sino ang mga gustong magdub... haaay...

Nang magkaron ng Hero TV, nagkaron na ng exposure ang industriya namin dahil ginagawan na kami ng featurette sa channel nila. Ayan, yung DC nga yun.

Anyway, I am thankful na ginagawa nga ng Hero ito. [teka, sinabi ko na yata ito. Bayaan nyo na, 1AM na and I'm just trying to kill time. PERO, madami ding bagay about DC na may pagka-jologs and to me ay dapat baguhin.

Masyado kasing pa-shobwbiz ang dating ng DC, to the point that the dubbers and even the directors come off as "artistahin". In an unnecessary way, it glamorizes the dubbing industry, when the truth is, it is a part of the show na simula't sapol ay tinipid na at minadali. While I don't expect them to feature the "ugly" side of the industry - like the insane deadlines, the questionable sources of translations, and the fact that they dont care who writes the scripts as long as there is a script to dub when the session starts - they need not glamorize the dubbing as if it was done so meticulously. I am not saying the dubbing is not meticulous, I am saying DC makes it look more intricate and glamorous than it really is.

All the questions are practically a template. The people interviewed in DC always answer the same questions. As a result, they answer in almost the same way, kumbaga nagiging generic yung answer, papalitan mo lang ng title ng anime or character.

Example:

1. "Hi, ako si [name] at ako ang dubber ni [character]"

2. "Si [character] ay matapang, mabait sa magulang..."

REMARK: Um hello, it's very, very likely na mas kabisado pa ng mga fan ang mga anime na yan kesa dun sa mga dubber, there is no point in telling us what the character is like or what he is about. UNLESS, the intent of saying this is to point out that the dubbers are familiar with the character they are dubbing.

3. "Ang boses na ginamit ko ay [voice style]"

REMARK: AGAIN, pinapanood naman ito ng mga fans, alam naman nila ang boses na ginamit nyo. This is useless to point out.

4. "Hi, I am [director's name] and I am the director of [anime]. Pinapanood ko pa lang yung video, alam ko na kung sino ang babagay na boboses..."

REMARK: Obviously, you are the director, so dapat talaga alam mo kung sino ang bagay dyan. Needless to say na yan. Ang masama pa, parang naco-condition ang utak nung viewer na tama yung na-cast na boses just 'coz the director said so. Whether the right voice was casted or not is a matter of opinion, and each viewer has his/her own take on that.

WHAT I THINK SHOULD BE ON DC:

Being the moderator of TSP's official forum, I've been talking to fans for over 8 years. Whenever the dubbing of a certain anime is being discussed, other than the usual "who voiced who", usually fans want to hear about:

1. Dubber's memorable lines/scenes/episodes.

Whenever a fan gets to speak to his/her favorite dubber, they always ask the dubber kung ano ang pinaka-memorable line nya for a certain character. Usually, mas memoryado pa ng fan ang mga famous lines ng isang anime character kesa dun sa mismong dubber, long after the dubber has forgotten his lines or even the entire project.

2. Behind the scenes stories during the dubbing of the show.

Dubbing their favorite anime is a fan's dream come true and they want to relish every memorable moment during the dubbing process. Talking about memorable moments, especially funny ones, are what fans like hearing about.

It's a short list but I believe it would make DC more fun to watch, imbis na what it is now, na ginagawang medyo "Showbiz" ang dubbing, which it isn't.

Okay tapos na yung video ko. Makatulog na nga.

REMEMBER "THE BREAKFAST CLUB"?

2008-11-21T11:36:00.003+08:00

Pinalabas sa 5 MAX MOVIES ng TV5 kagabi ang 80's movie na THE BREAKFAST CLUB at hindi ko pinalampas ang chance na panoorin ulit ito. Kahit na malamang ay may kopya na ako nito sa torrent, ibang experience talaga kung maabutan mo sa TV ang isang movie na gustung-gusto mo. Go figure.

I first got to watch this movie on Laserdisc when I was in high school. When I turned sophomore in high school, I begged my grandparents to buy me a laserdisc player for my birthday. Meron na kasi kaming LD player sa bahay ng panahon na yun but I wanted my own. Papano ba naman, the LD player was in my lolo's room and you can't watch a movie without my uncle and his noisy comments and my lola always asking what happens in the end EVEN IF THE MOVIE HAS JUST STARTED. To make a long story short, walang ettiquette kung manood ng sine ang mga kasama ko sa bahay so I wanted a player of my own so I can watch by myself in the privacy of my room.

When I got my LD player, I was always at Virra Mall at the rental places. Naging member ako ng halos lahat ng parehtahan ng LD. Eh pati ba naman ang kaklase ko sa Brent, may parentahan ng LD sa Virra Mall. So hindi ako nauubusan ng panonoorin. TBC was one of the titles na nahiram ko.

Sa mga hindi nakakaalala, TBC is the movie that made famous the Hollywood Brat Pack. Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Molly Ringwald, Moira Kelly... Kasabayan yan ng mga ibang movies like ST. ELMO'S FIRE. Ang babata pa nila sa movie pero hindi yun dahilan para maging hilaw ang acting. And it shows 'coz the movie is great even after 20 years.

Simple lang ang storya ng TBC. A bunch of students from different "cliques" or factions in school spend saturday together in the school library for detention. These cliques, on regular school days, never mingle with each other. It's pretty stereotypical, there are the feeling cool kids, the rebels, the jocks, the nerds, the weirdos... in the movie they learned to bond and see that neither one is really that cool or that bad. Madaming angst at katatawanan. Think of it as a tamer, better, more dramatic version of Linday Lohan's MEAN GIRLS, another school movie na type ko.

It's so nice that even after 20 years, I can watch it and still get so much out of it. Ang nakakatawa pa, the whole movie was shot within the walls of a big school library. Naku siguro indie film na lang ito kung ngayon gagawin. It's something na pwedeng-pwedeng gawin dito sa Pilipinas, but I bet none of our stars would be able to pull it off. Strange considering the movie seems so simple.

OFFICIAL?

2008-11-19T17:00:00.002+08:00

Hindi ko alam kung papano ako magrereact... yung isang katrabaho ko kasi, gumawa ng tinatawag nyang OFFICIAL WEBSITE tungkol sa sarili nya. Hindi ko talaga alam kung bakit gagawan nya ang sarili nya ng ganito.

Wala naman sigurong masama. Kung madami ka nang nagawa, lalo na ang katulad naming mga dubber/voice actor/scriptwriter... sa dinami-dami ng mga shows/projects na ginagawa namin, baka mapahiya ang mga artista sa imdb.com sa amin. Pero yung gagawan mo pa ang sarili mo ng OFFICIAL WEBSITE, medyo over naman yata.

I try to think of what the logic is. Hindi naman kaya gumawa sya ng OFFICIAL site para in case na may rabid fan sya na gawan sya ng UNOFFICIAL site? Pero mahilig din sya magsabi na hindi nya tanggap na may fanbase sya. O eching lang yun?

Ok naman din kasi yung concept. Papano ba naman kasi, kahit hindi naman kami mga celebrity, nilalagay na ang mga pangalan namin at ang mga naging proyekto namin sa mga sites na pwedeng inputan ng kahit sino, like wikipedia at Anime News Network. And more often than not, the info is WRONG. Papano ba naman, mga nagmamarunong na fans na hinuhulaan lang kung sino ang bumoses ang mahihilig na maglagay ng info sa ANN. Sa aking profile nga, madaming nakalista na anime na ako daw ang bumoses pero hindi naman totoo. At ang hirap naman kung ako pa ang babalik-balik sa ANN para ituwid yung maling info na nilalagay ng iba.

Pero the idea of an OFFICIAL website about me na ako rin naman ang gumawa seems so self-flattering. Kulang na lang magtayo din ako ng fan club ko na ako rin ang presidente.

Oh well, kung ano man ang ikatutuwa nya... bahala sya sa buhay nya.

ANONG "OKAY NA YAN"!?

2008-11-06T11:02:00.004+08:00

Something to think about...

I heard this while watching an old episode of "The Practice" the other night.

"Somewhere along the line, I don’t exactly know when, pragmatism became a good thing. We now celebrate the man who starts off with “seems to me” and sputters off a piece of folksy wisdom, drooling with practicality. “It’s great to be tolerant”. It seems so logical. If one apple ruins the bunch, remove the apple. That’s the practical and pragmatic thing to do. The only problem is, pragmatism is something we used to settle for when idealism couldn’t be achieved, but is now the target goal. And that’s lousy. "

OO NGA NAMAN.

NEW FOOD DELIVERY "SCAM"?

2008-10-30T11:13:00.004+08:00

Madalas akong magpa-deliver ng pagkain kapag busy ang maid o walang maipaluto sa bahay. Halos nasa tapat lang ng Robinsons Galleria ang subdivision namin, making it accessible to many fastfood joints and restaurants both inside and outside the malls. You'd think the options are endless.

Pero lately, may napapansin akong bagong estilo ng mga food delivery. Dati kasi, very competitive sila when it comes to delivering on time and being fast. In fact, Pizza Hut's marketing schtick is "HATE LATE?" and usually kapag ganito kalapit sa kanila ang tirahan mo, there is a 30-minute guarantee or you don't have to pay for your delivery.

Naaalala ko tuloy yung first part ng SPIDERMAN 2 when Peter Parker even tried to make the delivery guarantee by delivering a bike full of deep dish pizzas as Spiderman. Nung late sya ng iilang minuto, hindi talaga binayaran yung mga pizza and they got it for free.

Minsan na ring nangyari sa akin ito. NO, I didn't try to deliver pizza... Na-late ng 2 minutes ang Shakey's sa pagdeliver sa bahay ko. At first, nag-try pang tumakas nung delivery boy at dinahilan na hinanap pa nya daw kasi yung bahay. Well, I argued that hindi ko problema yun! They deliver in this area and it's their job to be familiar with the area.

Since then, they have always arrived on time or in 29 minutes, just enough to make you wonder if your order is going to be for free. Whether it's free or an on-time delivery, at least hindi naman late!

So what's this scam I am suspecting?

Since last week, kahit saan ako magpa-deliver, whether it be McDonald's, Jollibee, Brother's Burger, or Domino's... lagi na nila akong tinatanong muna if I am WILLING TO WAIT 45 MINS-1 HOUR. What happened to the 30-minute guarantee? They are basically asking you to waive it so they don't have to be there in 30 minutes. 'Coz if they make that guarantee and can't live up to it, you don't have to pay.

And their excuse is always the same. Kulang daw sila sa magde-deliver, or all the riders are out making deliveries. To some extent, I am willing to believe that. Perhaps dumadami na nga ang nagpapa-deliver na lang dahil sa mahal ng gas. Pero this is getting to be a regular thing, as in TUWING oorder ako, may palusot agad na ganyan.

Oh, and by the way, even the nurses at The Medical City in Ortigas are complaining that food deliveries take too long and they don't really follow the 30 minute guarantee anymore. Saka hindi dahilan yung madaming umo-order kapag bandang lunchtime or dinnertime. Because the nurses at the dialysis clinic usually order past midnight when most people are asleep [10pm-6am shift]. Bakit hanggang sa oras na ganun eh hindi sila makapagdeliver ng mabilis?

So I don't know... ano ba ang solusyon dito? This is not exactly a pressing matter these days, pero I think consumers should do something about it so these companies would realize that we aren't going to take this BS. It's disappointing na bumagsak ang quality of service natin in yet another sector.

SALUTE TO MY COWORKERS

2008-10-27T13:06:00.003+08:00

Saludo ako sa mga katrabaho ko sa dubbing industry... to those who are still working after all these years... who still have the passion na parang it's still their first project... na mahilig pa rin sa anime kahit tumanda na sila... sa mga cina-career pa rin ang trabaho nila... and especially to the true-blue anime fans, who, amazingly still do their job simply because doing it makes them happy.

Your passion and love for this genre is truly amazing.

It's because of anime lovers like you that Tagalized anime became more "fan-friendly". Sino nga ba naman ang mas nakaka-alam kung pano dapat ang tunog ng anime kundi ang mga mahilig manood nito?

Mabuhay kayo.

STREETS OF FIRE: MY ALL TIME FAVORITE MOVIE

2008-10-20T10:29:00.004+08:00

Mid 80's. Bagong lipat sa bagong bahay ang uncle ko. Family business was doing well, ninanamnam naming lahat. So when he got married and moved into a new house [that had a pool in it], syempre bago ang lahat ng appliances. At the time, high end na ang TV na may remote control [na hindi pa cable-ready dahil wala pang cable]. Anyway, it was with my uncle that I was introduced to what was back then considered what is now commonly known as a Home Theater System. Back then, it just meant your Betamax machine had hifi audio and the audio was hooked up to a component stereo system that made the sound "more realistic".

So ano nga ba naman ang gagawin sa setup na ganun? E di umarkila sa Virra Mall ng kahon-kahon na betamax tapes [yes, kahon-kahon, at hindi pa uso ang VHS, Laserdisc at DVD. Betamax ang prevalent format sa Pilipinas nung 80's dahil this format was junked everywhere else at dito sa atin ito tinapon ng mga Hapon. Still, Betamax was superior to VHS]

SIDE NOTE: this proves na for as long as we can remember, Filipinos have been patrons of video piracy. Panahon pa ng betamax, uso na ang rentahan ng mga kinopya lang from original tapes. Sanay na tayo sa pirated, at kapag bumibili tayo ng original, we think we are being excessive in spending, kahit na makakabili ka na ngayon ng original DVD for as low as P150.

So balik sa kwento ko...

One of the betamax tapes given to my uncle to showcase what the sound system can do is a "laser copy" version of the movie STREETS OF FIRE. And rightfully so. The movie had everything that a great sound system can bring out. It had music [may mga concert scenes at madaming kanta], lots of loud explosions and gunfire, saka may sound effects kapag next scene na... may transition sya and it makes a sound like a train stopping. Pati pag-squeak ng balisong, rinig na rinig mo.

The moment I got to watch it, I fell in love with this movie. Lagi ko syang pinapanood when I am at my uncle's house and eventually he gave me the tape. Over the years nung may ibang format na, I also bought original copies. So I have it in Laserdisc, DVD and I even downloaded the AVI so I have a copy in my laptop. I also managed to buy the soundtrack when I was in Hongkong a long time ago.

PICTURED ABOVE: TOM CODY [Michael Pare] & Ellen Aim [Diane Lane]

The story of SOF is pretty simple. No deep plot. It's a straightforward mix of action, romance and music. Tom and Ellen were sweethearts living in a town. Ellen dreamt of being a singer and was actually making it come true. Tom felt like he couldn't keep up with her so he left and joined the army. Ellen left the town and became a famous lead in a band. Her manager Billy Fish [Rick Moranis] arranged for a benefit concert in her hometown. Sa opening number pa lang nung concert, Ellen was kidnapped by a biker gang led by Raven [Willem Dafoe]. Tom's sister Reva sends him a wire, asking him to come home. He rescues Ellen and leaves the streets in flames [hence the title] and Raven goes back to the town to challenge him to a duel.

PICTURED ABOVE: The famous kissing-in-the-rain scene.

After he rescues her from the biker gang, Ellen finds out that Tom rescued her under one condition: that her manager pays him $10,000 to do the job. Pinag-awayan nila ito and when she was safely back in town, she dumped him. But after Raven issued the challenge, Tom realized that it wasn't about the money so he gave the money back to Fish. As he walked out of their hotel in the pouring rain, Ellen chased after him. The two made up and kissed in the rain.

Sappy as I am, I found this scene to be so cinematically romantic. So much so that gusto ko ring magka-girlfriend at maghalikan din kami sa ulan. At nung nagka-girlfriend ako nung high school, nagawa nga namin ito. =)

PICTURED ABOVE: Raven [Willem Dafoe]

Nung napanood ko na ang Spiderman and he was in it as Green Goblin, naalala ko pa rin sya as Raven. Ganun pa rin kasi ang mga facial expression nya kapag naghuhuramentado na sya.

Madaming ibang artista sa SOF ang bagito pa lang nung panahon na yun pero mga sikat na ngayon. Kasali si Bill Paxton, and Amy Madigan.

And if you know this old catchy song called "I Can Dream About You" [hindi yung "Dream About You" ni Stevie B ha], dito rin sa movie na ito lumabas yun.

Balita ko nilabas na rin ito in HD DVD pero mukhang wala namang bonus feature so I'm not going to bother buying it.

Having my sickness, lagi kong naiisip na maikli na lang ang buhay ko. I seem to be often looking back at how or what I've done in my life. Among my all time favorite things is this movie. There are some things that you just never get sick of and as far as movies go, for me, this is one of them. Kahit na halos memorized ko na ang lahat ng dialog, pinapanood ko pa rin sya. Compared to today's movies, parang ang babaw lang nitong SOF. Pero favorite ko pa rin sya.

REMEMBER CHIP STAR?

2008-10-14T21:26:00.004+08:00

I'll make this quick since nagmamarathon ako ng Heroes Season 2-3 today.

I don't know if you guys remember Chip Star, it's a snack na parang Pringle's potato chips. You may not remember it like this 'coz it was also sold in cardboard boxes. Nung nasa elementary at high school ako, ito ang lagi kong binibili sa canteen namin at pati sa grocery [kapag meron]. Mas malasa sya kesa sa Pringle's. I like all the flavors [original, nouri seaweed & chicken consomme] pero yung nouri seaweed ang favorite ko. Bihira nang makakita ng Chip Star ngayon at kung meron man, ang mahal pa. Nakakatsamba ako minsan sa mga lugar where Chinese/Japanese snacks are sold like DEC Food Plaza.

Ngayon ko lang nadiscover na may alternative pala sa nouri flavor ng Chip Star. Lay's Stax came out with a nouri seaweed flavor and it takes almost exactly the same. It's like reuniting with an old friend...

Mas panalo nga pala ang Lay's Stax kesa sa Pringle's. May tray sya sa loob para di madurog yung chips, saka para madaling makuha kapag nangangalahati na ang laman. This comes in handy especially if your hands are big like mine and can't fit into the can. Iba na rin ang lasa ng Pringle's ngayon. ewan ko ba! Sa ibang bansa na yata kasi gawa e. It just doesn't taste the same anymore. Nawala na rin yung mga lumang favorite flavors ko ng Pringle's like the light [1/3 less salt, in silver can], and rippled [ridge cut, in yellow can].

Yun lang. Makabalik na nga sa Heroes.

MY NEW PIZZA EXPERIENCE: CAFE MONDIAL

2008-10-12T03:17:00.003+08:00

Nadiskubre ko itong Cafe Mondial when I was surfing at the Clickthecity.com website for new restaurants in the Pasig Area. I decided to check it out last night since malapit lang ito sa bahay ko.

Cafe Mondial is at Silver City, Pasig. This is the building on Julia Vargas Ave, halos katabi lang ng SM Hypermart. Madali syang makita kasi may HSBC sa bungad saka ang laki nung signage ng ALCHEMY sa harap. May Starbucks din sa gilid at Gerry's, Cafe Mondial isn't that far from Gerry's, it's about 1-2 spaces away.

Cafe Mondial isnt like Sbarro's or some restaurant, it's sort of a nightspot na nagiging parang inuman pag gabi. Pag weekend, it's open 'til 3am.

Anyway, dati'y Italian food ang sine-serve nila pero ngayon ay sari-sari na. Pero nandun pa rin yung Italian selections that they are known for.

I ordered the Godfather's pizza [pictured at the top], parang "Supreme" flavor nila. The one I got is square. Sobrang lutong ng crust. Ang sarap! Hindi ito katulad ng thin crust ng Domino's o Shakey's na manipis lang pero walang lutong. The toppings are pretty good, too. The sauce is almost like a Bolognese sauce. It's a 12" pizaa that isn't too heavy on the belly, costing a little over P300.

Their menu can be downloaded at their multiply account. Check it out and other pictures at http://cafemondial.multiply.com/

STEAK FANTASY

2008-10-10T20:12:00.005+08:00

I have always been a fan of steak. Whether T-bone, Rib Eye, Tenderloin, Filet Mignon... Bata pa ako, pag nagluto ng steak sa gas range ang tito o tita ko, it's always been something to look forward to. Mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes and my uncle's Caesar salad. Hay ang sarap talaga kumain!

As I grew up and was able to eat out on my own, lagi akong naghahanap ng masarap na steak joint. Steak is my favorite food next to pasta.

Nung pinalabas ang movie na TWISTER nung 90's, bukod sa maganda yung movie, lagi kong naaalala yung scene where they all went to Jo's Aunt Meg in Wakita Kansas where they ate steak and eggs. Hanggang ngayon [it's being shown on HBO lately], yun ang isa sa favorite scenes ko sa movie na yun. Pinagluto sila ng malalaking cut ng steak sa kawali, with fried eggs, a huge scoop of mashed potatoes and gravy that's supposedly so good that it's practically a food group all by itself.

Watch the clip above and see for yourself.

Don't you just love the fact that just about anything has already been uploaded on Youtube...

Lastly, kung gusto nyong makabasa ng guide sa mga steak joint sa Metro Manila, check out FHM Magazine, yung issue with Iwa Moto on the cover.

TRY THIS...

2008-10-09T20:21:00.002+08:00

Try this on someone and find out what they answer...

Personally, I dont think there are any psychological implications depending on your answer. But the fact it appears like there are really messes with people's heads.

I tried this on someone and she answered the same way Nick did.

HENSHIN!!! ESTE...

2008-10-07T09:24:00.003+08:00

Commercial ng Jack & Jill para sa baked crackers. May pagka-Tokusatsu, pagka-Masked Rider. BAKEMAN!!! [pronounced "BA-KE-MAN"]

Nakakatuwa yung idea na naka-subtitle pa sya. Talagang pinagmukhang Toku fansub...

A CALL FOR A RERUN CHANNEL

2008-10-06T11:59:00.004+08:00

I got myself a copy of the new issue of FHM Philippines, the one with Jean Garcia on the cover.

Hard as it may be to believe since I buy MAXIM & FHM every month, I dont really look at the pictorials. What I read are the articles, particularly the ones about food. But in this issue, I really liked their article on old TV shows in the Philippines. These were shows aired some 20-25 years ago, nung wala pang cable. Admittedly, I miss these shows because I grew up watching John en Marsha with my parents and grandparents [which is now on original DVD, by the way] and when I was in high school, I was hooked on Palibhasa Lalake [at least before Anjo Yllana's Tikboy became a regular on the show]. It was a good read, almost like taking a trip down memory lane.

Here are some of the shows in the article:

PALIBHASA LALAKE
EH KASI BABAE
CHICKS TO CHICKS
JOHN EN MARSHA
T.O.D.A.S.
CHAMPOY
MANOK NI SAN PEDRO
LOVINGLY YOURS HELEN
DUPLEX
YOUNG LOVE, SWEET LOVE
MONGOLIAN BARBECUE
VILMA
SUPERSTAR
LOVELY-NESS
TONIGHT W/ DICK & CARMI
ABANGAN ANG SUSUNOD NA KABANATA
SIC O'CLOCK NEWS
2+2
OBER DA BAKOD
GOING BANANAS

Some shows that weren't in the article but I wish were in it:

TGIS & GROWING UP
- sort of a 90210 ripoff but I found myself watching GU regularly after a while. Maybe it was 'coz it wasnt about poor people. At least it was one show where poverty wasnt that much of an issue. Hindi ko sya napanood nung TGIS pa lang sya though, or when TGIS got itself a new cast.

ACTION 9
- I watched this every night! Rey Langit, Dong Puno and Mon Tulfo taking shots at anything anomalous, whether it's street crimes, gov't scams... and you had to love Tulfo's foul mouth na ang lutong manigaw ng "Gago!" sa mga tinitira nya. Before Bitag, XXX and Imbestigador, there was Action 9.

S.T.E.E.R.
- I don't remember much about this show except it was on RPN9 and it was a ripoff of the A-Team with the cast being most of the TVJ group of comedians.

ANG MGA ALAGAD NI KALANTYAO
- a trio of motorcycle-riding heroes in orange uniforms and black vests, these guys would always go after bad guys and fight hand-to-hand. This show came out when STAR RANGERS [Himitsu Sentai Goranger] was shown in RPN9 during the late 70's. It starred Ernie Garcia, Robert Lee and Aris Bautista. As they go to battle, you would always see them in their motorcycles driving down a road and that rock theme song would always play...

BODY TO BODY
- this sitcom was shown on GMA after lunch, after the drama "YAGIT". The theme song was Miami Sound Machine's "Body to Body" and sa opening, pinapakita yung mga bida [3 guys] na nagwo-work out. I only remember 2 of them, one was named Lito Gruet and the other was Julio Diaz.

FLOR DE LUNA

- Janice de Belen and Herbert Bautista making us cry every night. Pero tawang tawa ako kay Lola Aguida [Carmen Enriquez] kasi may one scene sya where she was talking to someone over the phone and you could see that the phone wasn't even plugged to the wall. OOPS! LOL

ANNA LIZA
- drama ng GMA starring the late Julie Vega. Wala akong maalala about the show kasi never kong napanood. Eh papano, it was being shown at the same time as Flordeluna and we were glued to that. =)

TAMBAKAN ALLEY
- before "Going Bananas", the Bad Bananas [Jay Ilagan, Johnny Delgado, Edgar Mortiz, Al Tantay & Boyet de Leon] had this sitcom in RPN9 where the backdrop was a junkyard.

JOEY & SON
- Joey de Leon and his son, a very young Ian Veneracion.

JULIAN TALISMAN
- I am not sure kung si Ian Veneracion yung bida. Di ko na masyado maalala itong fantasy show na ito ng RPN9 kasi pinagbawalan akong manood nito after it gave me a few nightmares.

[When I was a kid, I used to have bad dreams often, I would usually cry violently in my sleep and sometimes even vomit. Sabi ng tita ko na syang nagpalaki sa akin, it had something to do with the stuff I watched on TV at night and my tonsils getting irritated. Eventually, I had my tonsils removed.]

HAPI HOUSE
-this is a family sitcom in IBC13 starring Tito Sotto, Sandy Andolong, and Aga Muhlach. I dont remember who played the kids. The family was known as the Haphaps, and it was shown during the time The Cosby Show was gaining popularity in GMA.

PLAZA 1899
-Dolphy was the main star in this one, shown in RPN9. I cant remember if it replaced John en Marsha or was just shown on another day in the week. Anyway, the only thing I remember from this show is Dolphy played a radio news host and the news he read were hilarious. There was one episode where he segwayed to a field reporter named REY LUPA [played by REY LANGIT, who was their guest that night] and when he said "Come in, Rey!" Rey entered the booth and delivered the news. Hindi alam ni Dolphy that Rey literally came in and delivered the news sa likod nya!

BUDDY EN SOL
- I dont remember much about this sitcom starring Eric Quizon and Redford White but I know my uncle watched it every week, and he didn't really watch TV that much so he must have found something really entertaining about it.

So anyway... after reading this article, I got to think... Bakit kaya hindi gumawa ang SkyCable ng isang channel where they would show reruns of their old shows? I am not really a big ABSCBN fan pero I wouldnt mind watching reruns of Palibhasa Lalake, 2+2, etc. Siguro naman may mga tape pa sila ng mga ito. They can even buy the old shows from the other networks imbis na bili sila ng bili ng mga foreign shows na hindi naman nagre-rate.

Ang nakikita kong reason why they wouldnt do this is most of those old stats are in the rival network now. Sa Palibhasa Lalake pa lang, Joey Marquez, Richard Gomez, Anjo Yllana, Mark Anthony Fernandez and Carmina Villaroel are all GMA stars now. Hay, bakit kasi may network wars pa. Sa US, kahit may show si Kiefer Sutherland sa FOX, pwede naman syang mag-guesting sa NBC.

I guess I can always hope. Sana naman hindi lang sa old footage sa Youtube mapapanood ulit ang mga shows na ito.

VIOLENT, FEELGOOD MOMENT

2008-10-06T03:42:00.002+08:00

This is not exactly my most politically correct post and this is one of the reasons why comments are disabled in my blog. Siguradong may magrereact kapag nabasa ang sasabihin ko, siguradong may mao-offend.

I have been a Rambo fan ever since First Blood. While I don't find the 4th installment totally enjoyable to watch entirely, I just love the final battle scene and I watch it more than once every time I pop in the DVD.

I watch all the gore and violence and see all the bad guys get killed and one thing keeps coming to mind... ganito ang gusto kong gawin sa mga pasaway sa Mindanao. MILF, MNLF, Abu Sayyaf, NPA... kung ganito lang ako kagaling lumaban, limang minuto lang ang katapat ng mga hudas na yan.

Bear with me... watch this final battle scene 'til the end to see what my feelgood moment is all about.

CONFESSION OF A GREEN MIND

2008-10-06T03:28:00.002+08:00

Wala lang... nagtitrip lang at walang magawa...

Napanood ko ang commerial na ito kagabi...

Impaired na yung hearing nung lolo at mali-mali na ang rinig nya sa mga sinasabi sa kanya...

Kahit sinong medyo bastos ang pagiisip ay makakaisip ng joke about this commercial. I mean if you're partially deaf and have even a remotely green mind, what Tagalog word does "Canton toppings" make you think of? BWAHAHAHA

PATI BA NAMAN CORNED BEEF...

2008-10-03T08:43:00.002+08:00

Mapapaisip ka tuloy just how much Voltes V is a part of Filipino everyday life.

'la lang...

WHAT'S UP W/ THAT!?

2008-09-29T09:19:00.004+08:00

2 weeks ago ko pang dapat ipopost ito but I keep forgetting about it.

Naloka ako nung papasok na ako ng entrance ng Metrowalk Mall. Meron kasing nakalagay na sign sa door. It said the whole Metrowalk building had CCTV cameras and the police were monitoring the place 24 hours a day for the protection of its patrons.

Isn't that totally ridiculous? All day, everyday [at pinagmamalaki pa nila ha], nakikita pala ng pulis ang ISANG BUONG FLOOR NG MGA PIRATA and yet they aren't going after them?! HELLER, paging Edu Manzano... ano bang kagaguhan ito?!

IWAS MUNA SA MCFLURRY & OTHER SUNDAES W/ CRUSHED OREO'S

2008-09-25T19:58:00.004+08:00

Nasa news ngayong gabi na kasali na sa watch list ng Bureau of Food and Drugs ang dairy products ng Kraft Nabisco, related to the China Milk Scare currently sweeping the country. Among the products being pulled out of the grocery shelves are Snickers Bars, M&M's, Chips Ahoy and Oreo cookies because some of them are imported from China.

However, I ate at McDonald's this afternoon and I remembered that I was still able to order a Mcflurry, which had CRUSHED OREOS in it.

So I don't know what McDonald's is doing about this, perhaps they haven't heard that Oreos are on the watch list. But I seem to remember Dairy Queen had a Blizzard sundae with crushed Oreos in it as well.

Nasa sa inyo na yan kung gusto nyong umiwas sa mga produkto na ito for now... Hindi biro ang magka-kidney failure. I should know.

WHY I HATE GOING TO THE DOCTOR...

2008-09-25T17:00:00.002+08:00

Nakakainis na nga yung fact na may sakit ka at madaming nagpapahirap sa katawan mo.

Mas nakakainis yung kelangan mong pumunta sa doctor para lang magpa-check-up.

Bakit?

Dahil kapag alam mong check-up na lang at titignan ka lang at malamang ay wala nang grabeng makikita o gamot na irereseta, you are JUST WASTING YOUR TIME. Magbabayad ka ng consultation para lang sabihin sa iyo na okay ka na.

Pero hindi pa yun ang pinakanakakabuwisit doon...

Siguro doktor lang ang trabaho na alam kong kumikita ka pa rin even if you ARE NEVER ON TIME at lagi mong pinaghihintay ng syam-syam ang pasyente mo. If you were a storeowner or own a business, it is a huge disservice to your customers kapag late kang magbukas ng tindahan. Pero ang mga doktor na ito, kahit 3-4 hours ma-late sa kanilang mga clinic at minsan ay di pa sumisipot, ang lalaki pa rin ng kinikita. At wala kang choice bilang pasyente dahil kahit lumipat ka ng doktor, ganun pa rin ang mae-experience mo dahil lahat sila ay ganyan!

Kagagaling ko lang sa aking check-up sa aking vascular surgeon sa kanyang clinic sa ospital. Dati ay okay pa sya dahil on time sya. 2 PM ang simula ng clinic hours, 2 PM ay nandun na sya. Pero after the first 2 appointments, lagi na syang late. minsan 30 mins, minsan 1 hour.

Today, inabot na talaga ng sukdulan. 1 hour nya akong pinaghintay tapos tatawag sya sa secretary nya na may emergency daw syang ooperahan at 4pm pa sya darating. Dahil lumabas ako ng bahay, nasunog ang stored calories ko at bumagsak ang aking bloodsugar. Hilo-hilo ako sa labas at napalamon ako sa Mcdo nang di oras. Malaman-laman ko, sa malayong ospital pala sya nago-opera at HINDI NA SYA DADATING. The other patient was irate. Matanda na kelan lang nadiagnose ng kidney failure [like me] at inaayos pa ang kanyang fistula sa braso. Inoffer ng secretary na patignan sya sa resident doctor pero ayaw pumayag ng patient dahil importante yung fistula nya. Oo nga naman!

Alam naman ng doktor na yan na karamihan ng mga pasyente nya ay may kidney failure, pinaghihintay pa nya. Hindi dapat pinaghihintay ang mga katulad namin dahil madali kaming mangawit because of our sickness. Paupuin mo lang kami ng 30 mins ay pagod na kami!

Pero ano nga ba naman ang aasahan naming mga pasyente nya? P500 lang ang kikitain nya kada appointment sa amin samantalang at least P30,000 ang professional fee nya kapag may inoperahan sya. Siguro sa isip-isip nya, saka na lang kami!

Sana may patakaran din ang mga ospital tulad ng mga SM Malls, na kapag bukas na ang mall at sarado pa ang tindahan mo, kada minuto na late ka ay may corresponding na multa.

A REALLY DUMB AD

2008-09-24T20:48:00.003+08:00

Matagal ko nang nakita ang ad campaign ng Philippine Government na ito pero ngayon ko lang naalalang gawan ng comment ito. Natatangahan kasi ako sa kung sino man ang nakaisip nito.

Nilabas ito nung panahon na nagpopromote ang magaling na gobyerno natin ng breastfeeding. Maaalala nyo na pinagbawal na ang advertisement ng formula milk dahil sinusulong nga ito.

Pero sino naman kayang ubod ng talino ang nakaisip nito? Para kasing sinasabi na hayop ang umiinom ng gatas ng baka. Up to what age do they expect people to drink breastmilk? Hindi naman habang buhay sumususo sa nanay nila ang mga tao 'no! Eventually iinom sila ng gatas galing sa hayop. Ano ba yan!

Not to mention na gusto nilang alisin ang choice sa nanay na painumin ng formula milk ang mga anak nila. Napaka imposible nito lalo na dun sa mga may higit sa isang anak. May na-interview nga na nanay dati sa news, tatlo ang baby nya. Sa lakas sumuso nung panganay, wala na syang natitirang gatas sa dibdib nya para dun sa dalawa. Papano nya papakainin yung dalawa kung ipagbabawal ang formula milk?

Anyway, lumabas na naman ang kashunga-shungang ad na ito ngayong may issue na naman sa gatas galing China. Proponents of breastfeeding saw the opportunity to promote it since they can make it look so good compared to drinking contaminated milk from China.

Pero sana naman, binago na nila yung campaign ad! This stupid ad should've never seen the light of day!