I'm The Queen Of Wishful Thinking

I just realized that my birthday is only three weeks away! This is my obligatory pre-birthday/pre-Christmas na din wish list! :)






All I want for my birthday is him:




So cute!



If I can’t have him, I’d settle for a Polaroid Instant Camera:



But I think they’re phasing out Polaroids. Sad.

Anyway, more wishful thinking:

1. UST Commemorative Plate
2. Portable hard drive
3. Rurouni Kenshin (manga)
4. Live Aid Concert DVD
5. Einstein’s Dreams (Alan Lightman)
6. First Among Sequels (Jasper (Fforde)
7. Kafka On The Shore (Haruki Murakami)
8. New pair of eyeglasses!

Also, I need suggestions on how to organize DVDs.

Meme Killed The Radio Star

Meme again! After a long while!

The rules:

1. Open a music player.
2. Go to all music/library.
3. Hit shuffle/randomize.
4. Find photos of the first 25 artists/bands that come up (no repeats and no cheating).
5. Have people guess who the artists/bands are.

Additional rules:
1. Additional clue (artist's/band's song) will be posted on August 1 for unanswered numbers.
2. Correct answers will be posted on August 3 12nn. :) Enjoy!

(warning! lots of pics!)

- 1 -- 2 -- 3 -
- 4 -- 5 -
- 6 -
5ive (c/o MakMak)
- 7 -- 8 -
The Beatles (c/o MakMak)
- 9 -
Imago (c/o Jen)
- 10 -
- 11 -
- 12 -
- 13 -
- 14 -
- 15 -
- 16 -
- 17 -
Paul McCartney (c/o MakMak)
- 18 -
- 19 -
Green Day (c/o MakMak)
- 20 -- 21 -
- 22 -
David Cook (c/o MakMak)
- 23 -
- 24 -
- 25 -

What's Wrong With Dumbledore?

I have a problem with the latest promotional pictures for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, particularly with Dumbledore:

(photos courtesy of Mugglenet)

Why is he not flamboyant enough in the first picture? And why does he look like Gandalf in the second one?!

At least young Tom Marvolo Riddle is appropriately creepy. Can’t wait for the movie!

You Know You Like 'Em, Too

Unlike Bioman and Shaider, I don’t remember how Maskman ended. I’m not sure if it’s because I stopped watching or the show was cancelled.

The DVDs I got were subbed, unlike Bioman which was English-dubbed. The series shown in channel 13 before were Tagalized, so it was weird for me to hear “Takeru!” “Miyo!” instead of “Michael Jo!” “Rio!”. I will always refer to the five as Michael Jo, Lenard, Adrian, Eloisa and Mary Rose. Why I still recall their names I have no idea.

I was surprised that Miyo’s (Rio) malevolent sibling was… a prince. What the hell? They keep referring to her (him?) as Prince Igam (I forgot her Tagalog name. See, I’m not that weird) and she (he?) calls her (him) self as Prince but dude totally looks like a lady. I think there’s more to this, much like Ida in Shaider. Japan really loves these kinds of gender-bending roles. This was also the first time I noticed, but were Miyo and Prince Igam played by the same actress? I think I need to do a research after this.

The head of the evil empire is, for me, scarier than Fuma Le-ar and Dr. Man. There was something Shogun-ish about his appearance. As always, the villains are all pomp and flash. When I was young I never questioned that good always triumph over bad. But now that I have become, uh, more discerning, I wanted the superheroes to have worthy adversaries, not dunderheads with complicated schemes that get thwarted each and every episode. Takeshi (of Takeshi’s Castle) was better at defeating the good guys and defeating them soundly; I only remembered one episode when Takeshi were defeated by the contestants, and that was only because Iwakura usurped his leadership.

Speaking of Takeshi’s Castle, the actor who played Chief Sugata was also the the general who lead the contestants against Takeshi. It’s hard to take him seriously when you knew of this piece of information. (That guy? He never even won against Takeshi!)

So far I’ve rewatched the first five episodes and it brought a lot of memories from my youth. We almost believed that we can achieve the Maskman’s aura power through meditation. We even imitated their meditation gestures! Okerappa was the source of various jokes, green or otherwise. We laughed at the earrings that Yellow Mask and Pink Mask wore, as if their colors weren’t clear enough indication of their genders!

I think I want the Tagalog lyrics of Maskman’s opening theme! “Buong mundo’y magpupuri, magpupugay, mabuhay!” On second thought, it sounded like a song Pacquiao would sing. Better stick to the Japanese version.

Destination: Quiapo

I went to Quiapo last Saturday to buy pDVDs. I was quite excited because it was my first time to go there on my own.

The best thing about going out alone is that I have the liberty to do what I want with my time. I can afford to linger longer and walk at my own pace without worrying about a tired companion. I also get to meet new people.

My agenda for the day was to look for copies of Battle Royale and Lust, Caution. My first stop was at the stall selling animes and Asian dramas. There was a bunch of guys in the stall and they were buying a lot of stuffs. Among them was an Asian guy who was in a pDVD shopping spree as he was leaving for Singapore. Unfortunately, both the DVDs I was looking for were not available. I bought new titles (Warlord, You Don’t Mess With the Zohan, Bank Job), the Death Note live-action films, and the only Akira Kurosawa title available, The Seven Samurais. One of the guys recommend a film to me (“Miss yung katabi nung Seven Samurai maganda din!”), and I’m not sure, but I think he thought I knew how to read Japanese because the film he was recommending didn’t have an English title and I asked him what the title was and he just grinned sheepishly.

“Ano ba story nun? Parang Seven Samurais din?”
“Uh, hindi love story siya.”

My best find for the day was the DVDs for Maskman! And, okay, I did bought two more jdramas.

My next stop was at the stall selling Blue-ray and HD DVDs (can I just say I love the packaging of these discs?). While browsing though the titles, a middle-aged lady arrived and asked the seller if he has a copy of City of God. I was already holding my copy of that movie and told her that they have it and gave her another copy. I was curious with her choices (she was now looking for Cinema Paradiso) and I asked her if she likes foreign language and arthouse films and she said yes. I don’t know but I feel sort of embarassed that my preferences were more mainstream and was glad that time that I was holding copies of City of God and Donnie Darko instead of Speed Racer.

“Ikaw miss, ano hinahanap mo?”
“Battle Royale po.”
“Ay, meron ako nun.”
“Talaga po? Saan po niyo nabili? Kanina pa ko naghahanap dito ala daw po sila.”
“Internet. Download lang.”

“Sobrang violent (ung Battle Royale),” she added matter-of-factly. I hope I can be as cool as her when I reach her age.

I bought City of God and Donnie Darko, plus the Special Editions of Flags Of Our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima, Collector’s Edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Leon (Gary Oldman!!!).

I stayed for a while inside the “mall” because it was raining outside. When the rain stopped, I hailed a pedicab to take me to Quiapo church since the streets were flooded. From the church I walked to the LRT station in Carriedo. I was a few hundred bucks poorer, tired and a bit dirty, and I failed to find the movies I was originally looking for, but it was a good experience that I want to repeat another day.

Pop Deficient

While watching Jesse McCartney’s new vid on MTV at Grilla:

Me: Mas gwapo siya kay Nick ng Backstreet Boys.
Officemate: Bakit magka-age ba sila?
Me: Mas matanda si Nick. Kapatid niya yan di ba?
Officemate: Hindi ba si Aaron Carter yung kapatid ni Nick?
Me: Ha? Iba ba yun? Ay oo nga Carter nga pala apelyido ni Nick!



***


While browsing ONTD, one entry has the mug shot of a woman with the caption " Which celebrity’s mom got arrested?" The clue to the answer was “I want candy”. My initial thought was: “OMG? Mandy Moore’s mom?!”

Then I click the link, and the correct answer, of course, was Aaron Carter’s mom.


FAIL.


***

Since I already mentioned ONTD, can I just say I really enjoy browsing through that LJ community? It's raison d' etre is celebrity gossip, sure, but I found it less malicious than, say, PerezHilton, because it's a community and the topics are not subject to any author's bias. The comments are really wacky and the members are bat-shit crazy, especially when there's a current fad. When the news about Christian Bale's alleged assaulting of his own mother and sister broke, there were "I Believe in Christian Bale" comments even in news that had nothing to do with Christian Bale! (the "I Believe..." was the slogan of Harvey Dent in TDK)

Another recent series of funny comments was with regards to Michelle Williams' close relationship with one of Heath's closest friend. One commenter likened Michelle to Cho, saying that he is Harry to Michelle's Cho after Cedric died. It was immediately followed by comments quoting the conversation among the trio in OoTP when Hermione was explaining to the cluless Harry and Ron what Cho was probably going though! It went like this:

Comment 1: Well, obviously, she's feeling sad, because of Cedric dying. Then she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry and she can't work out who she like best.
Comment 2: One can't feel all that and not explode
Comment 3: Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon...

It's Harry Potter, what can I say? :)

Don't Fade Away, Cat

One of our cats died today and OhMyGosh I never thought I'd ever feel sad over a pet's death but I am.

We call her "Iyak" because she always meow noisily whenever we call her attention. She's old by cat standards; I always maintained that she's the mother of all the remaining cats. My mom found her this morning; I still gave her food last night. I want to think that she died in her sleep and her death wasn't painful.

We first adopted a stray cat when I was in primary school. He wasn't particularly pretty but he's friendly and he goes back to our house because my grandfather always give him food. Soon, he moved in and rarely venture out. Our cats are like that - maybe because we feed them well that they don't find the need to have a nighttime stroll in the neighborhood to scrounge for food. I remember that I have to bring a cat to our school for a Science report and I have to stuff the cat in my bulky backpack because he's scared of the new environment and was thrashing all over.

Iyak is sort of a second generation cat. There was a period when all of our cats moved out from the house. My youngest brother was the one to adopt her this time. She's pretty and cuddly, but has a temper. Sometimes she'll let us scratch her belly but more often she would hiss her disapproval at the slightest contact. Her death was a bit jarring because it was the first time that a cat died in our home. Our previous cats just disappear when they get old. We like to think that when a cat didn't go back to us, they chose to die (peacefully, we hope) someplace else.

I hope that Iyak is happy in their Cat Heaven and that she won't be as moody as she was while alive. I hope that she has lots of food to eat there and I hope she won't be choosy there. Your cat friends are missing you already here.