eAUCTIONS

Links! Tour of the local auction sites. If anyone knows any more, please pass me a link.

eBay.ph: Haven't done any deals here, and the user base isn't as plentiful as Bidshot's. But still, it's eBay, and with the smooth interface only a hugely popular site can have, this one can only gain more and more users as time goes by.

Bidshot: Still the site people go to for buying and selling. Its cellphone-based way of doing deals is well-suited for us Filipinos, and it loads fast, too.

Avalon: Though this auction site is for different kinds of stuff, Avalon's an excellent place to find books (most posts are from main man Jasper) and does well at categorizing them.

THE BOYS

Garth Ennis' first major creator-owned project since his legendary Preacher run.

The premise is simple. In the world of The Boys, super heroes behave like rockstar assholes, popular and rich, with their own corporate sponsors. They're powerful, untrained and irresponsible, and no government would stand up to them – at least not openly. Enter The Boys, a covert group composed of guys with grudges against supers, willing to dig out the dirt and punish the offending do-gooders. Entertaining and violent, with trademark Ennis dark humor. Read it.

INTRODUCING: THE McDONALD'S MEGA MAC

McDonald's Japan limits sales of popular Mega Mac due to low stocks

Apparently, these four-pattied Big Macs are so popular in Japan right now that the restaurant chains have to limit their daily sales amount. Otherwise, they'd run out of them before noon.

This picture of the burger doesn't look so terribly yummy to me. But I suppose when (and if) this Mega Mac does get here, I should probably, uhm, try one out, or two, just to see what the hype's all about.

KEEPING THINGS WHOLE

Mark Strand

In a field
I am the absence
of field.
This is
always the case.
Wherever I am
I am what is missing.

When I walk
I part the air
and always
the air moves in
to fill the spaces
where my body's been.

We all have reasons
for moving.
I move
to keep things whole.

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Two of my childhood cartoon shows, Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, are coming back as movies this year.



Transformers has Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay involved, so I expect it to pretty much be a standard Hollywood action flick. I've been hearing news about changes they made to the movie for the sake of logic (Megatron now transforms into a tank instead of a gun), and so far fan reaction is mixed. I just hope they keep the personalities of the characters, Autobots and Decepticons, true to the cartoon's, just so we'd at least recognize them. That, and they show us Cybertron.



The TMNT trailer looks like a cutscene from a video game, and is too cartoony for my taste. And here I was hoping for the Eastman and Laird comic book version I read when I was a kid, before they diluted it and turned it into a cartoon. Vengeance-themed and dark, the original has some of the bloodiest scenes I've read in a graphic novel.

PAC-MAN CHART

TV GEEK

January! When TV shows resume their regular weekly schedules. A few favorites start new runs as well. My thoughts on the ones I watch:

24 - Never fails to up the ante, and last season was its heart-stopping best. Let's hope Jack Bauer doesn't let us down in season six.

Rome - Though we knew that Julius Caesar was going to die at the end of the first season, the way he was murdered was bloody brilliant and still shocking. This season starts with grand and gritty Rome under new management.

The IT Crowd - Haha. I didn't expect this one. I hope they bring back that hilarious goth guy they keep locked up in a room, and that they don't limit this season to just another six episodes. Damn Brits.

Heroes - Ordinary people discovering their superpowers in real-life situations sure makes for compelling TV. Great cliffhangers offset some cheesy dialogue.

The Office - Dwight Schrute gets my vote as the inwittingly funniest guy on TV. Plus, The Office is full of really humorous pop culture references, and some geeky ones too. "Why don't we watch that show you've been wanting to watch? That stupid Battleship Galaxy."

Battlestar Galactica - Best show on television. The writing isn't as strong as it was the past two seasons, but one could still write a lengthy critical paper for each episode of BSG. Most people steer clear of this show because it's sci-fi, but being sci-fi is precisely why it can get away with tackling the most disturbing and socially relevant issues of the world today, ones which would be too sensitive for most other shows.

House - Cel's show. I'm not a big fan of stand-alone procedurals because they're so predictable (in House, first diagnosis is always faulty; black guy doctor doubts House, House proves him wrong; someone, usually House, gets an epiphany during the last five minutes of the show, then proves everyone wrong), but the medical bits are interesting. And the latest, with House getting in trouble with the law for his Vicodin addiction, at least shows some progress to the character. Update: Straight from the House's mouth: "Nothing's changed," at the end of the aforementioned arc.

Prison Break - Now that Michael and co. have escaped, the whole tattooing-my-body-with-the-prison-schematics concept is out as well, and the show has also gone towards an entirely new direction. The suspense is still good but the story is stretched thin. I hope they really end this series this season.

Next: Lost, The Wire, Dexter, Scrubs, The Sopranos.

FINGER FRIDAYS

FHM editorial pals.

BA Borleo:


Charmaine Chanco:


Allan Hernandez:


Heidi Pascual and MJ: