My Multiply account is now set up! I was happy to discover that I could cross-post in both Blogspot and Multiply, meaning that entries I publish in one will also magically appear in the other, so everything's great. Multiply seems to be a good place to post photos, and since there are a lot of old Quill friends using it (hi guys!), I'll try to upload lit events and UP-related stuff in my photos section there. Ayuz!
Are you left-brained or right-brained? Click on this link to see if the dancing girl turns clockwise or counter-clockwise for you. I seem to be able to bounce her whichever way I like. I don't know if it's because I figured out how to look at the pic or because this test says I'm 49%LB and 51%RB, which probably makes it easy for me to flit between my two hemispheres.
Author Terry Pratchett is suffering from a rare form of early Alzheimer's disease, it has been revealed.
He said in a statement that with forthcoming conventions and the need to inform his publishers it would have been "unfair to withhold the news".
Discworld author Pratchett has sold more than 55 million books worldwide.
The writer, 59, who gave the news on the website of Discworld artist Paul Kidby, said the condition was behind a "phantom stroke" earlier this year.
From BBC.
And Terry's letter on Kidby's site.
Hell yeah!
Yakuza! Ninjas! Sushi! Tempura! Chainsaws! Flying Guillotine! Drill bra! Revenge! What more could you ask for?
YouTube link.
Leelee: No one understands me because I don't understand myself.
Auntie Cris: Leelee, have you eaten already?
Leelee: No, I didn't eat already. I don't like already!
Leelee (singing): Rudolf with your nose so bright, won't you ride my slave tonight?
Cel: How was your day?
Leelee: It was like a dream of you.
Leelee: Mama, diba a purse is also a person?
On the Doctor Who episode where aliens controlled people with type A blood
Me: Buti nalang ako O positive.
Cel: Ako B!
Leelee: Ako butterfly!
Me: Galing. You can really make up a song.
Leelee: It's not "make up." Just "make."
Leelee: Papa, you know, a fight with words is called an angerment.
Me: Oh, you mean an argument?
Leelee: Yes.
The great-grandson of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien was ordered to pay more than £3,000 yesterday for possession of cannabis.
He admitted growing 39 cannabis plants at his shop selling knives and guns in Dudley, West Midlands, but said it was for his personal use.
Crombleholme was also given an 18-month community order and told to attend rehab.
From The Sun.
After a few drinks, my friend Kurt opens his mouth to speak:
Eight rules for writing fiction:
1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
4. Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
5. Start as close to the end as possible.
6. Be a sadist. Now matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters are, make awful things happen to them — in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1999), 9-10.
From Troubling Info.
Finally, a nice place to archive books you own. Add me if you have one. Still haven't uploaded most of my books, though. So far, about 95% of the ones I've searched for are in their database (which uses Amazon's, I think), though not all editions are present, and some, like some Sandman books I added, display incorrectly on my "shelf," so i had to take them down. Apparently, it's a community site too (and a pretty active one), so you can read reviews and join group discussions on your favorite books. Neat-o!
Thanks to cupkeyk for the link.
Is probably the most epic thing you'll ever get to see in your lifetime.
Okay, anyone who's seen a Miyazaki movie knows what great animé can do. Now place this greatness in a mecha-based genre and watch it trample on clumsy, dumb predecessors like Voltron and Daimos.
Remember, as kids, that feeling of despair when our favorite robot gets beaten up and dragged around on-screen? And remember that feeling that follows, when we gasp in awe as it slowly stands up and proceeds to beat the crap out of the enemy? This is what Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann is all about, that feeling that the best fights in Voltes V merely gave us a glimpse of in its attempt.
Gurren Lagann (which is actually the name of the main robot; Tengen Toppa translates to "Pierce the Heavens") is made by Gainax, the animation studio that did Evangelion. The story's more mainstream (less cerebral, more humorous) than Eva, the animation's top notch and colorful, and the characters endearing and inspiring.
Just 27 episodes long (around 20 mins each ep.), this series just finished wrapping up in Japan, so there still aren't any DVD copies out there, and the ones I've DLed are only fansubbed. If you're interested and want a copy, just text me and I'll burn you one.
Ohh-kay! Sorry for this late post. Recently rediscovered my old addiction to Japanese animé, which has made me neglect keeping up with the hot new American shows. I'm reserving the animé for another post, so here's my take on the three shows I previously mentioned, based on what I've watched so far.
Dexter - A hugely underrated show. Everyone I've given a copy of Season 1 to has enjoyed it immensely. Plus, it has one of the best intros I've ever seen. The writing of this second season is as solid as the first and is based on Jeff Lindsay's second Dexter book, Dearly Devoted Dexter, with each episode carefully thought out and flawlessly executed.
Bionic Woman - I only have a vague memory of the '80s Bionic Woman, along with The Six Million Dollar Man, but I'm pretty sure this new one isn't as campy as the original. Not my most favorite show right now (the story's too simple and drags now and again, and again), but what keeps me going at it is that it a) has Battlestar Galactica actors in it, and b) bionic women are hot. Of course.
Reaper - Is a cross between Clerks and Dogma, and it's no surprise, since Kevin Smith directed and produced the first ep. Though Reaper is made up of predictable stand-alone episodes (which I hate), its characters are interesting and genuinely funny, and once in a while it's nice to see a show like this that doesn't take itself too seriously.
After months of drought (thank God for brilliant Brit shows like The IT Crowd, Doctor Who, Jekyll and Peep Show, which more than filled the gap), American TV is at it again. New seasons and tons of new shows—and I've trimmed mine down to a handful of what seems best for me.
Heroes - Of course, Heroes! I do believe that comic book aficionados appreciate Heroes more than it being just a good show. While the Hiro-in-the-past storyline is predictable and slow, we reel at the memories of dozens of Marvel/DC time travel arcs we've read as kids. And it feels like such a tribute to comics, and not a Hollywood mockery. And even though they killed off George Takei, they've made it up by giving us Uhura. W00t! Downside: attempt at making Claire's tale into Smallville just plain sucks.
House - Finally, House is breaking off from it's formulaic streak. Accepting fifty or so applicants to fill in the slots left by Cameron, Chase and the black guy is brilliant (of course by now they've been trimmed down to only about a dozen). These new guys have lovable personalities, and I can imagine the show's writers working overtime figuring out how to cram all of them and spotlight each of them in each episode.
The Office - Now twice as long, but I somehow prefer the twenty-minute episode lengths of the past three seasons. Perhaps too much of Michael can be exhausting, or maybe you start to see the thinking pattern of each character after a while, making what was supposed to be a zany remark not so surprising and funny anymore. In contrast, Cel and I laughed so much more at the short eps of this season's The IT Crowd. Hope The Office gets better. Update: Episode 3 ("Launch Party") rocks!
In a few days: Dexter, Bionic Woman, Reaper.
I was able to play the original Grow flash game about two years back, and was surprised to find that there's a new one in the series (so perhaps the one I first played wasn't the original, but also just another release).
It's a really simple game. Here you have to pick an order of technological advancements, and if you're on the right track, some really cool things will happen in the game. And if you pick the right, exact order, you max out the potential for each type of technology and win the game.
Googling, I found out there's an alternate UFO ending. As if the regular one isn't crazy enough!
"Okay, kids, wacky pose time!" 
This circulated around the Net a few months back, with a developed photo from film ending up on an online auction site and even had bids reaching up to S$53 (the auction was canceled when the school called up the site, though). I'd tell you where I got the news but I'm embarrassed to say, hehe.
One good thing about dedicating my Sundays to D&D marathons with college friends is that I get to fully appreciate the comic strip genius that is The Order of the Stick. That, and beer. And halfling's leaf.
Click on the image above to read it, but the strip's sequential so you'll only really understand the whole of it if you start from the beginning.
Lists! Some of the best ones I've come across the Net.
25 Most Interesting Animals. Axolotl r0xx0rz! Aye-aye on teh right.
20 Most Bizarre Experiments of All Time. Check out the Shock the Puppy experiment on the next page of the site.
25 Best Movie Sex Scenes of All Time. 'Nuff said.
10 Ways to Destroy the Earth. Mad scientist material. Also a link to other interesting lists.
Stumbled upon this on some guy's blog. Figured some of us might find this funny. I certainly will be calling Bea Alonzo "Philbert" and Patricia Javier "Genesis" if I ever get the chance to meet them. Heh.
Vanessa Laxamana - ALMA MORENO
Esperanza Padilla - ZSA ZSA PADILLA
Wilfe Dacula - KLAUDIA KORONEL
Love Marie Ongpauco - HEART EVANGELISTA
Carla Igot - RICA PERALEJO
Janet Derecho Duterte - KEANNA REEVES
Susan Reid - HILDA KORONEL
Jesusa Levy Sonora - SUSAN ROCES
Genesis Canlapan - PATRICIA JAVIER
Abelardo Dennis Florencio Ho - DENNIS TRILLO
Assunta Schiavones - ASSUNTA DA ROSSI
Philbert Angeline Ranollo Pagestrom - BEA ALONZO
Kristine Orille - KRISTINE HERMOSA
Martina Aileen de las Alas - given
Celestine Gonzaga - TONI GONZAGA
Cielito Fernandez - POPS FERNANDEZ
Ma. Luisa Ramsey - JAYA
Redmond Christopher Domingo - COGIE DOMINGO
Ma. Socorro Ledesma - KUH LEDESMA
Dorothy Jones - NIDA BLANCA
Hazel Klenk Reyes/Mathay - ARA MINA
Chona Velasquez - REGINE VELASQUEZ
Maureen Anne Fainsan - MAUI TAYLOR
John Paulo Quiambao Pratts - JOHN PRATTS
Jesusa Victoria Hernandez - LANI MERCADO
Ruby Cassidy - MYSTICA
Joyce Reintegrado - JOYCE JIMENEZ
Raul Fenstad Trinidad, Jr. - TJ TRINIDAD
Aurora Cabaltera Villamayor - NORA AUNOR
Ignacia Mabugat - VERNIE VARGA
Cody Andrew Garabato Miller III - TROY MONTERO
Lani Bayot - LANI MISALUCHA
Nadine Burgos Eidloth - NADINE SAMONTE
Ma. Erlinda Lucille Termulo - MARIEL RODRIGUEZ
Olivia Daytia - ISABEL OLI
Mai Lee Ang - GWEN GARCI
Cesar Manhilot - CESAR MONTANO
Esmeralda Tuazon - AMY AUSTRIA
Aiko Xioxi Blardoni Melendez - given
Angelica Colmenares - ANGEL LOCSIN
Jessie Alice Salones Dixson - given
Ubaldo Punongbayan - BOJO MOLINA
Michael Pangilinan Riggs - EAGLE
Regina Alatiit - GINA ALAJAR
Rachel Taleon - DAWN ZULUETA
Ethyl Gabison - ETHEL BOOBA
Rosemarie Joy Garcia - DIANA ZUBIRI
Desiree Lois del Valle Dunham - given
Dino Medrano Ross - DINO GUEVARRA
Gaudencio Aquino Sillona III - JAY-R
Beethoven Bunaga - MICHAEL V
Victoria Lorna Aluquin - LORNA TOLENTINO
Amir Carlos Damaso Vahidi Agassi - given
Melanie Calumpad - KYLA
David Ignatow
I am proud of your soft, brown eyes
looking at me to understand my presence.
You have smiled and you have thrown your hands
and legs into the air in a rhapsody
of well being and I have followed
with laughter, awed to think it is possible
to be as small as you and yet human,
for I have confused love with size,
and you look at me steadily
when I cluck and coo.
I am proud of your brown eyes
I have not known could be so soft
and questioning, and I lift you
from the crib to carry you cheek to cheek
to see if I can rub your gentleness on me.
I'm just now reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and am on the start of the third book and, wow, I haven't been this interested in the genre since Narnia. Like Narnia, the protagonists in His Dark Materials are kids, the story is set in fantastic places (and our world, too), and has biblical references in it. But this trilogy seems to be as blasphemous as Naria is zealous, and is no less ambitious than involving a plot to kill God Himself. No wonder Dong, who introduced me the first book, told me it's the anti-Harry Potter.
I'm at the part in the third book, The Amber Spyglass, where it's talking about a branch of the Church that practices preemptive absolution, wherein the practitioner would do penance way in advance for a sin yet to be committed, like murder, so when the time comes, he could do the dirty deed in a state of holy grace. Hehe, lupet, 'no?
Anyway, here's a trailer of The Golden Compass. It's the first book, and reads for the most part like an ordinary fantasy novel. I'm more excited about the second and third books, where we get to the meat of the story, and they're hopefully due December 2008 and 2009, respectively—that is if this trilogy follows the LotR pattern.
And here's my result from a daemon test I found in the movie's website. Daemons are talking animal companions and are kind of like Pokémons in the Golden Compass world, where everyone has one, which I'm guessing represent one's soul, or one's conscience.
In case you haven't heard of Postsecret, here's a great vid that introduces the site and what it does.
An funny little ad that went around the World of Warcraft community. Click on the image for a more readable view.
Can Moses beat up Satan? Who's the nastier biblical babe, Mary or Eve? When the going gets tough, does Jesus run to his Father for help, or does he take it like a man? You decide—in Bible Fight!
Picked up a new body from Hidalgo last week, a gray market 30d which I promptly christened Soprano. Gray market status allowed me to get it around 5k pesos cheaper, in lieu of course of the proper Canon Philippines warranty. Henry did give me one-year store warranty, though, which is good enough for me, seeing that I've never had any problems with my previous purchases from him. We'll see with this one.
So now good old Bauer, my 20d, is finally retired to back-up status, having already surpassed its 100,000 shutter clicks lifespan, and after having given me my 200th official (er, paid) shoot, also last week. About time, too, since on good months I now hit more than 20 shoots, and so I was starting to worry about my cam giving out. So Bauer will be attached to my 10-22 lens from now on, while Soprano will be my workhorse with the 24-105L. This also means I won't be needing to swap lenses as often, if at all—freeing up precious time during events shoots, and lessening the need to clean camera sensors (a necessary and delicate procedure that can result in camera death if done improperly).
There are a lot of little improvements of the 30d over the 20d, like a larger LCD screen, spot metering, one-third ISO stops—hell, even the file numbering and auto-rotate scheme (on-computer and not in-cam) are pretty sweet—whose usefulness I’ll no doubt get to maximize before the need for my next upgrade, probably due after a year or so. Damn the bug of endless upgrading, which, in the field of photography, would have left me dirt-poor by now, kidney sold and life ruined, had this not been my job.
Had a chance to shoot sportscaster and triathlete Tricia Chiongbian a few months ago for Men's Health. Aside from my commissioned portrait shoot, I also took some candids of her while she was being interviewed by MH editorial assistant Omar Belo. Here are a few photos from that interview, since they'll never see print anyway, and I think they're pretty good expressions worth posting.
Apparently, you have to have a PLDT landline first before you can get a PLDT DSL connection, and we've been told that the only way we can get a PLDT connection is if someone from our area has their line disconnected. Yes, we're that far away from civilization. But not that far away, though, as the most awesomemest Fully Booked building (five floors!) is just a very short drive from our place. W00t! Oh, and we got Smart Bro instead.
Upload your photo and have yourself Simpsonized here.
I Am Legend:
30 Days of Night:
Judging by its trailer, I Am Legend has strayed very, very far from its excellent source material. Poor Richard Matheson. A few months back I was able to watch another adaptation of his work, Dance of the Dead, in Masters of Horror, and it turned out crap too.
30 Days of Night, on the other hand, I found cheesy when I read it (it's originally a comic book, by the way), but its trailer looks scarily sweet to me.
Just when you think you've heard all the best Star Wars gangsta rap songs ever made, this comes along:
Admiral: This is Admiral Biatch to base camp, it seems the Stormtroopers have gone on strike and I have no experience with this type of shit. Who should I call for help? Vader: It's the V to the A to the D-E-R (Vader!) Reconstructin' the Death Star! With my slick suede suit that's black like tar, Fucking you up no matter who you are! Palpatine: Tell the motherfuckers 'bout the sheer Dark Side! Pull up on your planet, Death Star drive-by! And we'll beat the Rebels 'cause their skills ain't shit! Vader: I need my TIE Fighter, zig-zag, stay lit! Yoda: Oh, shit! Yoda on the scene, 900 year fiend smoking Dagobah green! Bitches on my tip, like Lando on liquor. Lando: Ah, you're just jealous 'cause my black dick's thicker. Chewbacca: *Wookie yell* Lando: Yo! Tell 'em Chewie, last night I had Leia all drunk wanting to do me. Luke: Shut the fuck up man! Leia's my sister! The only thing you're getting is a beat-off blister. Ben Kenobi: Luke! Use the force before intercourse, but Luke! Don't forget! Bitches ain't nothing but hos and tricks! (Ohh!) Luke: Obi-Wan, I'm the top gun! (top gun) But you're the one hotter than both suns! Vader ain't shit, his head's cut up and split! He's slower than the first Pentium chip! (Dark Side!) Vader: The one brings it worse to this fucking universe. (Rebels!) Luke: You know we'll fucking win, 'cause we'll fight to the end! (Dark Side!) Palpatine: I can feel the anger dwelling within you! (Rebels!) Yoda: You also feel Vader's dick in you. BIATCH! *Incoherent Huttese Jabba rap* Han Solo: Jabba, you ain't nothing but a fat-ass slug! Fake gold chains? You sorry-ass thug! Sittin' in your palace with your blue-headed whore, trap door to the Rancor. *sound of someone falling* C3PO: Oh, my, goodness gracious me! I'm a gay man's golden fantasy! Programmed for homo-ecstasy, ten million forms of gay positioning. For my golden shower, you must pay a fee, but R2-D2 gives it up for free. *R2-d2 squeaks* R2-D2, watch your language! Always having sex with robotic strangers! Jar Jar Binks: Meesa like to drink and smoke all night! Meesa like to fight and fucka yo wife. Meesa no care 'cause meesa so dumb. Meesa will fuck you with me tongue. Yousa wants a meesa cause meesa wants some. Yousa wants a meesa cause meesa wants some. Yousa wants a meesa cause meesa wants some. Meesa wants some cause meesa wanna cum!
Comics! Read!
Stephen King's The Dark Tower. This mini is already four issues deep (out of seven), with the King having direct involvement in this adaptation of his work as both its Creative and Executive Director.
The team assigned to this is a personal fave. Doing the scripts is Peter David, who wrote probably my most-read single comic in my high school collection, X-Factor #87. And pencils is Jae Lee (rightmost guy in the photo), who I was lucky to have met once on his book signing tour here about – oh my God – fifteen years ago. Hey, isn't that Shaun of the Dead on Stephen King's shirt? Astiiig.
Something unrelated: Leelee and I were able to watch the newest Miyazaki movie, Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea), and it's just meh. Leelee sat through the whole of Totoro when she was less than a year old, as well as Kiki and Howl later on. And she still watches them again and again without getting distracted by other things. With Gedo Senki I lost her in the first fifteen minutes. I found out later that it's not a Hayao Miyazaki movie, but a Goro Miyazaki one. Who? Hayao's son, who Hayao didn't want to direct in the first place. Hope he gets a lot better if ever he wants to succeed his father.
Leelee's first attempt at parenting failed when she lost the Tamagotchi I gave her about a week ago. We knew she lost Mimi (what she named the thing) somewhere in our room, and what's funny is we knew this because we could hear its faint beeps for help every once in a while. And despite some time spent rummaging through our stuff, it still wouldn't turn up. It was finally Leelee who found it, three days later, in her hair clips box, but by then Mimi was already dead and only had a pixel image of a Tamagotchi angel floating on its screen. Better luck next time, Lee.
Leelee showing off her dead Tamagotchi. Murderer!
Edward Norton is the new Incredible Hulk. Tyler Durden's now big, green and mean. This should be interesting. Louis Leterrier (The Transporter) is directing.
Click here for the news article.
From an article in MIT news:
When the Green Goblin kidnapped Spiderman's girlfriend, Gwen Stacey, and pushed her from the George Washington Bridge to her death, the debate raged in comic book circles for years: Was it the fall that killed her or Spidey's attempt to save her by catching her in webbing mid-fall, causing her neck to snap?
If Gwen has a mass of 50 kilograms, falls 300 feet and acquires a velocity of 95 mph, there would be 10g of force on her body, which she could potentially survive. But stopping short against all that force in half a second would certainly break her neck, as the Green Goblin declared in a later issue after Kakalios was widely quoted making the same calculation. "If I can teach a homicidal maniac like the Green Goblin about forces and motion, I'm making a difference," he said.
