Movie Survey

I’ve been very busy this week, and as such I couldn’t find the time, nor desire, to post my usual long-winded musings/ramblings/banterings. It may change in a couple of weeks, but until then I’m sorry to say I won’t be blogging that much.

Anyway, from the limited time that I could take a breather, I’ve found a nonsensical-yet-attention-getting survey from my Friendster. It supposedly tests my movie-buffery, but I’m not sure about that. See for yourself, and feel free to put it in your blog as well. Of course, don’t copy my comments, which I’ll write in boldface.

Message: If you’ve seen over 85 movies, you have no life. Mark the ones you’ve seen.
There are about 170 movies on this list.
() Sukob
() Oh my ghost!
() White lady
() Wag kang lilingon
() Feng shui
() KKK (kasal, kasali, kasalo)
() Enteng Kabisote (uk)
() Enteng Kabisote 2 (uk)
() Enteng Kabisote 3
() Super Noypi
() Karma
() Shake, Rattle and Roll
() D Anothers
() First Day High

Total: 0 (WHY WOULD I WANT TO SEE ANY OF THESE TRASH FLICKS?!)

() Bring it On 1 (yuck!)
() Bring it On 2
() Bring it On 3
() Fun With Dick and Jane
() Cake
() Zathura
(x) Borat (It’s okay, I guess. Just didn’t rouse larf-ters from me as much as I had hoped)
() Dead or Alive (oh I just love how they patronize you if you haven’t seen this film. Eck.)
(X) 8 mile (Eminem acts well but the plot is… well, nothing you haven’t heard from his songs already.)
(X) 50 First Dates (just okay)
() The Princess Diaries
(X) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal (eh, my date wanted to see it. average popcorn affair)
(X) Legally Blonde (decent)
() Legally Blonde 2

Total sO fAr: 5

() Charlie’s Angels
() Charlie’s Angels 2
() Dude, where’s my car? (Ew!)
() Scary Movie (What a waste of time and money)
() Scary Movie 2
() Scary Movie 3
() Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie (Funny movie, but not worth having sequels)
() American Pie 2
() American Wedding
() American Pie Band Camp
( ) American pie 5
Total sO fAr: 6

(X) Harry Potter (cute)
(X) Harry Potter 2 (better)
(X) Harry Potter 3 (truncated)
(X) Harry Potter 4 (too high-school-ish)
() Resident Evil 1 (PUKES!)
() Resident Evil 2
() The Wedding Singer
() Cinderella Man
() The Village
() Coyote Ugly

Total sO fAr: 10

(x) Space Jam (The unfortunate ‘hip-hop’-izing of Warner Brothers. And Taz is the most obnoxious Looney Toons character ever.)
(x) Finding Neverland (Good)
(x) Signs (I kind of like it, but the alien effects is lame)
() The Grinch
() Texas Chainsaw Massacre
() White Chicks (Hollywood contrivance: cross-dressing black dispensing one-liners = comedy gold. What racist drivel).
() Little Manhattan
(X) 13 Going on 30 (Big rip-off)
(X) Click (Adam Sandler SUCKS MONKEYS. Somebody uppercut him, please!)
(X) Devil Wears Prada (I like it)

Total sO faR: 16

(X) Mighty Ducks 1 (I forgot which one I’ve seen. They’re all the same pap anyway)
() Mighty Ducks 2
() Mighty Ducks 3
() Mighty Ducks 4
() Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
() Meet The Parents
() Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
() Joe Dirt
(X) Anaconda (SUCKASS MOVIE!)

Total sO fAr: 17

(X) Alice in Wonderland (Ok film)
(X) The Terminal (I enjoyed ogling at Catherine Zeta Jones, but the plot, for whatever potential it has, is merely average)
() The Lizzie McGuire Movie
() Deep Blue Sea
(X) Dumb & Dumber (Not as funny as I had hoped)
() Dumber & Dumberer
() Final Destination (YYYYYUUUUUCCCCKKKKkkkkkkK!)
() Final Destination 2
() Final Destination 3
() Halloween
() The Ring
() The Ring 2
() Ring Zero
() Flubber
() Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
() Practical Magic
(X) Chicago (Lame copout happens at the end)
() Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(X) Hellboy (I like the director)
() Secret Window
(X) I Am Sam (Okay movie)

Total sO fAr: 23

(X) The Day After Tomorrow (I like it)
(X) Child’s Play (Average)
() Seed of Chucky
() Bride of Chucky
() 10 Things I Hate About You
() Just Married
() Gothika
() Nightmare on Elm Street
() Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans (Average)
(X) Coach Carter (Predictable, but okay)
() The Grudge
() The Grudge 2
(x) The Mask (funny. makes me nostalgic, actually)
(x) Son Of The Mask (on top of my worst movies list. It’s so friggin’ awful and gross!)

Total sO fAr: 29
() My Super Ex-Girlfriend
() Joy Ride
() She’s the Man
() Ocean’s Eleven
() Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Mean Girls (OVERRATED!)
() Step Up
() Pearl Harbor
(X) Predator I (Haha)
(x) Predator II (Don’t remember much of it)
( ) Superstar
() Happy Feet
(X) Ice Age (cool movie. Haha. Catch the pun?)
() Ice age 2 The Meltdown

Total sO fAr: 33

(X) Independence Day (Hollywoods-y pap)
() Cujo
() Idle Hands
() Darkness Falls (Why would I want to see a movie with that kind of lame-o name?)
() Children of the Corn
() My Boss’ Daughter
() Maid in Manhattan
() Monsters Inc.
(X) Rush Hour (It’s not even that funny for crying out loud!)
() Rush Hour 2
( ) Best Bet
() How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
() She’s All That
() Poseidon
(X) Titanic (Celine Dion. Nuff said)
() Mars Attacks
() Event Horizon
() Ever After
(X) Forrest Gump (I like it)
() Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator (yeah, it’s perhaps among my top action movie series)
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3

Total sO fAR: 40

(X) X-Men (Quite outdated now. And remember Storm’s Toad-struck-by-lightning awful line?)
(X) X-Men 2 (The Nightdreamer’s, erm, Nightcrawler’s fight scene is worth the price of admission)
(X) X-Men 3 (Not that bad, really. But plot-holes run amuck)
(X) Spider-Man (First half is good, second half not so much)
(X) Spider-Man 2 (I still regard it as the best superhero movie ever made)
(X) Sky High (Too easy)
() Jeepers Creepers
() Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can (Great film. Totally didn’t expect it to be so)
() The Others
() The Eye
() Dark Water
() Cruel Intentions
() Cruel Intentions 2
() The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek (I like it!)
(X) Shrek 2 (Ditto)

Total sO fAr: 49

() Swimfan
() Miracle
(X) School of Rock (Hell, yeah!)
() K-Paxx
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (All of them good!)
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
() A Walk To Remember
(X) Hollow Man (Meh)
(X) The 40-year-old-virgin (Funny stuff!)
() The Exorcist
() Exorcism of Emily Rose

Total so far: 54

Add up all your scores.

I’ve seen 54 movies out of 170

Bleh. Who wrote this list anyway? A 12-year-old?

Bartimaeus Trilogy

Some time last year as I was shopping for a fantasy fiction that has nothing to do with Hogwarts, I almost got His Dark Materials Trilogy (Philip Pullman) instead of Bartimaeus Trilogy (Jonathan Stroud). Fortunately, my instincts  snapped me out of that stupid decision, and I ended up shunning TEH POLAR BOARS WARZZZ.

From what I’ve heard, besides being anti-Narnian, His Dark Materials is just a by-the-numbers “prophecy story”. I haven’t verified that, but if it’s anything like the movie, I’ll pass. CGI POLAR BEARS ARE SO OVERRATED (I’ve seen and pictured one in real life, thank you). The movie’s only redeeming quality is Nicole Kidman’s body hugging diaphanous top, which makes her bra apparent. Anyway, if anything, His Dark Materials only convince that sometimes one only has to be polemic to be hip. Example? See The Da Vinci Code.

So, the entire Bartimaeus Trilogy looks something like this.

Yeah, I know, it looks so much like a Potter book. Even their settings are alike. BT is also about magic, and is essentially a coming-of-age tale of a boy wizard. Wake me up if you haven’t heard all these before.

But wait for the opinion that matters: I like Bartimaeus Trilogy more than Harry Potter.

And I’m not saying this just because “It’s hip to be different I’m hardcore r0xx \m/”. My reasons are more simple and less embarrassing than that.

While fantasy stories rely very much on magic, they still need some rules, and I happen to think that Bartimaeus’s make more sense than Potter’s. In Potter, magic just come out from any magicians with a magic wand. In Bartimaeus, magicians do not cast spells; they summon creatures of varying skills to do their bidding. These creatures are not visible to a commoner’s eyes, and they can only be seen by magicians who are wearing special kinds of spectacles. It’s more than likely that these creatures are doing something nasty behind you without you noticing.

Ok, apples and oranges so far. Now consider this: in Harry Potter, the magicians live in a world that is detached from the rest of us. They do not interact with non-magicians and it’s more likely that they haven’t lasted for generations. I mean, where were they in the events of history? What were they doing before Voldemort and all the dark arts? And what’s the rest of the muggle doing just ignoring them (If this is the real world, Fox News would be condemning them to hell and Dubya would be sending stealth bombers their way)? Are they even real? Couldn’t they just be a matrix-y "alternate world" thingy?

In Bartimaeus, there is a full integration of the magicians and the non-magicians. Wizards exist since the dawn of time. They have used their magic (that is, summoning) to create real-world landmarks, like The Pyramids or The Tower of Pisa. And what of the summoned beings? They are variegated, and, more importantly, are quite involved in the story, unlike Potter’s Creatures Ex Machinas (they just appear as the most convenient plot device. Phoenix, anyone?). A huge part of the plot involve them begrudging their slavery. As for the commoners, they are fully aware of magicians existence. They ARE ruled by magicians, and some do not sit idly tolerating that fact.

And I haven’t even touched on Bartimaues, arguably one of the best characters ever written. He’s a djinni who, much to his dismay, constantly gets summoned by this trilogy’s boy wizard, Nathaniel. He’s been in this world for more than 5000 years and is involved in many events we read in our history books (including some wars, and even the creation of Tower of Pisa, which, as Bartimaeus claimed, leaned because the architects did not follow his advices). Bartimaeus is sly and wisecracking, and he always peppers his speech with insults, sarcasms and braggadocios. His banters to Nathaniel - who he dislikes - are gut-eviscerating hilarious. 

Nathaniel: Silence!

Bartimaeus: All right. I’ll be quiet as the grave.

Nathaniel: Now-

Bartimaeus: Your grave, incidentally.

Stroud has only recently permitted Miramax to give the books movie adaptations, so do read the books now, so that when their movie trailer shows, you can go around bragging about how well-read and erudite you are. Chicks dig that. Hehe. I kid. I don’t think films will do these books justices.

Jaded

Adobe Flash, Photoshop and Illustrator are all my perpetual sources of frustration, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as exasperated with all 3 of them as I have this week.

They seem more determined to give me a crap art than a picturesque one. 

I’m not saying that I’m an expert in any of the 3, but I’d like to think that I’m capable of doing many things with each, let alone combined. And since I do have a good control of the Pen Tool (you’ll find that an achievement if you’ve ever tried using that bastard) I think I have what it takes to create lively illustrations. However, I have my biases for what I think are lively illustrations – I lean toward a mix of funky professional street art with a tinge of Chinese painting, plus a stylistic use of lights and a conscientious reduction of palettes. What really gets my goat is how limited the 3 programs are when creating artworks like that, or heck, anything that feels more hand-drawn than digital. Just this morning, I tried drawing a samurai (draw, samurai! Get it? Hilarious!!!) by using Illustrator. I wanted him to look like a Chinese painting. Instead, he ended up looking more like an engraving done by an 8-year-old. Naturally, I trashed that work, and settled with making a digital looking stuff, which, as I later realized, required the least effort… 

Wait, what?! Is that why these so-called “digital arts” are in the rage, and is it just me, or are they becoming the most generic sight ever? I’m weary of seeing the humdrum and formulaic thing adorning the billboards. How many times are we going to see the same circles, stripes, vertigos, twirls, ink splats, angel wings, gothic crosses, tribal tattoos and boxes to “retro” and “grunge” everything up? So, I’ve done all these today, and learned how easy they are to make. Could it be that these techniques are abused speak less of their artistic merits and more of current designers’ attitudes? So what about creating a more painterly-looking art, or, heck, just something with more personality and originality? Why don’t I see them? Have our designers run out of ideas, or are their skills in Illustrator mediocre? Or is it likely that excessive use of Illustrator may lead to the loss of ideas? 

Gee, that isn’t much of a stretch. You know what Illustrator need? A command that will inspire people! CTRL+I to get Inspired, or CTRL+H to get High, or CTRL+FN+G to Find God.

My Streams of Consciousness Part Two

I have a friend who lives near me, and he has a girlfriend who also lives nearby. His girlfriend and I also happen to be working in the same area, so we often take the same public vehicles home. 

But despite all these, and despite us being quite familiar of each other’s appearances, we’ve never spoken to each other. Truth to be told, I’d love to talk to her. My life’s been such a bore since this year started. Really, I’d love to talk to anyone. But after seeing her body language, I change my mind. 

To be exact, with or without her boyfriend besides, she deliberately ignores my presence and pretends to be asleep. She does not “wake” even if I’m chatting with her boyfriend - and I’m not much of a chatter in real life so I don’t believe that I’m disrupting their “conversation time” at all - perhaps to show that she has no interest in what I’m saying. What’s the deal with that? She thinks I lack the cognitive skills to see through her put-ons? So, yeah, this jeep we were on skidded abruptly, and her legs stood on the same spot instead of being pulled by inertia. 

If she candidly admits not wanting to be my friend, I’d have been cool.  But these acts do not simply suggest so. They also suggest that I’m not worth being respected. Point taken, since she’s trying to imply that I lack intelligence. That’s perhaps the worse kind of dissing anyone can get, and I hope she does not become the receiving end of it from someone else. I’m only disappointed of her using such a dumb tactic to imply that I lack intelligence, and I sure like to know what kind of dimwit will believe in her façade.

Whenever I’m not pissed off about other people, I’m pissed off about myself. And this self-loathing peaks whenever I lack inspiration. Perhaps you know that I’ve been taking up classes on web design. I’m currently doing my final project, and I’m trying to make it a magnum opus of sorts. Now if only I could come up with anything I’d find aesthetically pleasing. 

I went to multiple bookstores and, in my hunger for ideas, browsed through a few coffee-table books, none of which left me feeling sated. Blargh! As I was about to leave the mall, I heard a melodious call of my name, and that was it, my inspiration: a resplendent woman, who I’ve met three years ago and thus far have only seen thrice in my whole life. I was overwhelmed with the desire of lolling around with her, but our meeting was cut short, because she had to attend a meeting. 

And then I recall that I’ve never talked to her for longer than 10 minutes. I griped. 

So there goes my inspiration, coming and going as fugaciously as a soda’s fizz. I looked at her go, and I looked at her blur. And I wondered why everyone is so busy. 

Two girls, different sentiments, but all bitter. Perhaps, just another day in my life?

Sweets? Hots?

A slow day in the office… 

Dong: Hey, nightdreamer, would you like some chocolates?

Me: Sure! Thanks! I do notice that you like to have chocolates with you.

Dong: Of course, that’s because I like sweets. I’m a sweet guy!

Me: Ha, then since I like hot foods, what does that say about me?

Lop: That you have a hot temper.

Me: Shut up!

Lop: I rest my case.

Apollo Justice

I’m just done playing the demo of Apollo Justice, and already… already…

*tries to form coherent thoughts. Fails.* 

O-M-G.

See, I raved last year about Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (quick FYI - It’s a lawyer game series). I played part 1-3 so many times I have memorized a few lines of their characters. You know, just like watching your favorite movie multiple times.

So Apollo Justice is supposed to be part 4 of the series, except a new protagonist - Apollo Justice - supplants the predecessor’s. But don’t worry, for the kindred souls who have played Phoenix Wright and loved him, you’ll still see him in this game.

Except, will you look at him? What happened?!

No, please DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION! I MUST FIND OUT MYSELF! February 19 couldn’t come sooner!

Anyway, you can play the demo here and judge (heh) accordingly. The bottom screen is supposed to be the DS’s touch screen, so you click your mouse on that screen in order to do anything.

Peevish Blogger Blogging Peeves

My friend calls it the New Year Slump™. It’s what happens after you’ve had too much fun that, when holiday ends, you start to get the blues as your life descends to normal - also known as, unremarkable. That’s essentially my life-since-2008, summarized.

Something like that always puts me in a bad mood, to an extent more so than when I’ve been unlucky. At least when predicaments happen, I can easily write about them, throw in some funny/angsty punchlines, learn a few lessons, and receive words of kindness from supportive commentators (eyeing Schumey - yay!). But when life’s a bore, how could I write about it without in the process getting bored too? Picture a bored writer writing boringly about how boring his boring life has bored to bore him boringly about boredom. It’s like you dreaming of yourself asleep while dreaming of yourself asleep while dreaming… All right, save yourself from the migraine. Don’t even visualize it.

Times when you’re bored, de-stress by directing your thoughts to a hate (hehe I’d make a fabulous psychiatrist). Law of Attraction practitioners would tell me "shouldn’t you be reading The Secret instead to learn its lessons"? Why, that certainly isn’t very productive. You’re going to see me getting pissed off about reading a book that wants me to be foolishly happy. Things that try to please but achieve the contrary rile me up the most. Plus I’d be angry about spending money on an overprized toilet-paper. That’s more anger than I could manage. Wait, why am I talking about The Secret? Did anyone just blog about it?

So the hate I’m going to tell you about is my blog-related pet peeves. If you’ve been into blogging yourself, chances are you know of the habits of several bloggers. I find some of these habits downright loathsome, and I won’t be surprised if others feel the same. So I hope that in this post I’ll be able to express what, perhaps, others may feel but have never said aloud. I will also offer suggestions for those who find themselves guilty of said habits but have the sense to change for the better.

And I will not list spamming as a pet peeve. Duh, everyone hates spams! Even spammers hate spams. That’s not pet peeve at all. That’s universal peeve.

Anyway, we shall begin.

“Blog Hopping”

They are strangers-to-you showing that they have visited you by writing a “blog hop” on your tagboard. Sometimes they’ll write a one-size-fits-all praise such as “nice blog” or “cool blog”. They may even request to exchange links with you (this one is the least annoying because at least the honesty is there).

You may think that these people are validating you in their little ways, but that’s not true. They only want readers, and in their desperate search for those, they establish their presence everywhere they go by posting in as many tagboards as they can, hoping to lure the authors of the blog they visit to their own chasm. Attention is all they want, really. They don’t care for your well-being at all – ask these blog-hoppers if they’ve read your blog and see if you can get a candid yes. They’re just cold and impersonal clicks-happy dimbulbs who orgasm in every increment of their Page Ranks.

Of course every blogger wants to get as many readers as they can, but I do believe in a less rude way of inviting readers. That is, if you want to be noticed by me, the way you can do it without veins protruding on my forehead is to read my blog and post a RELEVANT comment! Make me think that you’re capable of stringing two words together and that you’re not a keyboard-slapping moron. Think my blog is too long? Fine, go find someone else’s!

Look, if you want your link in as many blogs as you want, the only way to do it is to WRITE SKILLFULLY! Can’t do that? Don’t blog! Think you aren’t good enough? Get an Elements of Style and go read some books! If you write anywhere like Caffeine Sparks or Liz or Schumey or Brad Gallaway or Brackenbeard or Wits or Fence or Cai or Virus or… gee, everyone from that Dope Blog list of mine! If you write anywhere like them I’d be the first one to add you! I’ll even ask you to autograph my chest. I’ll even be cordial enough to post on your tagboard, saying, “I’m going to add you”, without any intent of asking you to do the same but only of letting you know you’ve a fan, And if you like my blog, I’ll be happy too. That’s link-exchanging, the refined way.

The ones who link exchange the “amateur” way should consider river-hopping too. As for Raul Gonzales, he should jump into a cistern of boiling mercury - his own spit, incidentally.

Link Flooding

Imagine if you have to read a Crime and Punishment that has a word in different color per phrase:

He ran beside the mare, ran in front of her, saw her being whipped across the eyes, right in the eyes! He was crying, he felt choking, his tears were streaming. One of the men gave him a cut with the whip across the face, he did not feel it. Wringing his hands and screaming, he rushed up to the grey-headed old man with the grey beard, who was shaking his head in disapproval. One woman seized him by the hand and would have taken him away, but he toreher and ran back to the mare. She was almost at the last gasp, but began kicking once more. himself from

Can you imagine going over a hundred pages of that?

Yet for some bizarre reasons, some bloggers like to overwhelm their posts with links. They probably do it to appear…er… well-read? Well-clicked?

I mean, geez, what, are they trying to emulate Wikipedia? There’s a reason why wikipedia’s called “an encyclopedia”. You go there for reference! You don’t go to most blogs for the same reason.

I saw the most severe case of link flooding while reading someone’s travels. Imagine that. It’s not even a case study, so I don’t know what it’s trying to be. Maybe, an “obscure” diary that requires stupendous “supplementary” reads?

You’re better off writing in a way that requires the fewest side-reads. If you’re talking about something that requires a lot of sources, just put the links at the bottom, just like in prints.

Page Rank Moaning

People who moan about page ranks, they’re like Britney Spears, except, with panties on.

I’ve heard of the importance of Page Rank for business sites and for pro-bloggers blah-de-blahs. That’s fine with me. I do, however, take issues with bloggers who keep moaning about page ranks. They go to tagboards outright asking others to increase their traffic, and they incessantly write blog posts about wanting to increase their page ranks. Really, sometimes I just CTRL+F, search for “page rank”, and when there are results I turn off the window immediately. Haha.

Here’s a simple truth in life: we hate whiners (and by whiners I mean those who groan aloud but do not offer solutions).

Just think of it this way, do you like to constantly visit a kid who always bug you to buy him an Optimus Prime because his dad wouldn’t?

If you find yourself constantly moaning about page ranks, I give you the cardinal rule of blogging: write better.

It’s a Conspiracy!

I hope novz will like this post. 

Sometimes I think that in my life, things happens with the most ridiculously conspired timing. Previously, I was complaining about my life being uneventful. That deprives me of inspiration, and without inspiration I don't write enthusiastically.

Fate may have read my blog post and said, "You want events? Here's an event! Now update your blog!"

Phooey! At least make that event PLEASANT! Frankly I'd rather NOT see HER so soon.

I'm referring to that GIRL.

But I'm getting ahead too fast. Here's what happened: I went out of my office to have my lunch. And just when I was about to come back to our office's building, I saw her standing outside the lobby.

We recognized each other, and she greeted me with the pleasantry of a masseuse. Bleah I'm dried of metaphors. So we spoke to each other a bit. You know, the typical "comment allez vous" stuff. I really should write "how are you" instead but since I just ate French bread, I'm still feeling a tad French-y. She recalled coming to my office two weeks ago and leaving a gift on my table, and she wondered if I've received it. I said I did. I never told her that I did not throw it away, nor did I tell her that I had been mad about at her. I do hope that she haven't read my blog. Wait, scratch that. I'd rather that she have read it, because she'll contribute to my Page Ranks, and in this day and age EVERY FRIGGIN BLOGGER MUST BE OBSESSED WITH PAGE RANKS! SO THERE SUCKERS I JUST SAID I WANT HIGH PAGE RANKS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY BLOGGING CAREER (gee do I try so desperately to make that sound grand)! Right, I'm digressing. Anyway, back to us. It was a conversation of two people treating each other professionally, meaning we're pretending to like each other more than we really do. Or, at least I don't like her as much as I appeared. I hope she has a crush on me though.

She also said she's being transferred to another department. She will now accommodate Makati clients instead of the Ortigas ones, although I still could contact her if I wanted to. Why, guess what, girl, pfft! I'M GLAD TO HEAR THAT YOU'RE BEING TRANSFERRED! Guess I won't be seeing you again now that I won't even try to contact you so out of my life you go mwuahahaha can I ask you out some time?!

See? See what's happening? That's a quality mixed feeling you're reading there.

Seriously, I still don't know if I should be glad of this chance meeting. She reminds me of a past disappointment but, then again, I still want to smell her hair and kiss her.

Que sera sera then.

Dope Blog’s Getting Too Much Dope?

I just read a very compelling blog, and was going to add them to my, um, blogroll *shudders*.

Except, I couldn't. Why? I tried to delete one blog from my list (there's a crap one there. I don't even know why I added it. Find the blog with a pen as a header. Pen, no less! The author thinks itself as an amazing writer?) but that didn't work either.

What's going on, i.ph?

Anyway, Caffeine Sparks is perhaps one of the most intelligent bloggers I've ever read. I loved her pointed attack to Tim Yap, and her debunking of our unfounded fear of communism. That, and she makes me feel inadequate.

Crappy post, I know. But my life's been slow at the moment.

Sorbetero

Just a quick one for today.

My brother and I were walking in the streets of Bambang. We saw an ice-cream vendor, the kind of "street ice cream" peddler that pinoys call as "sorbeteros".

Me: Hey, bro, want to buy an ice cream?

Bro: Eh, sure. 

Me: You know, I really dig the ice creams these vendors make. Y'know, great tasting, and only 10 pesos each.

Me: Speaking of cheap, it reminds me of something I grew irritated with when I was in school (De La Salle University).

Bro: And what is that?

Me: We also had a sorbetero vendor near our school (at Agno, to be exact), and a lot of us would also buy from it. The irksome thing is that, these Lasallistas call sorbetero's ice cream as "Dirty Ice Cream".

Bro: Huh.

Me: I mean, what on earth is with their talking-down-on-everything-not-bourgeois? They call it "dirty" just because it ain't something-gelato?

Silly IM Conversations The Sequel

nightdreamer: Hey, i just read your blog

nightdreamer: Sorry about what happened

brokenhearted: Yeah, it sucks but I'm okay

nightdreamer: You must've been emo

brokenhearted: ha

brokenhearted: I'm never emo

nightdreamer: punk then

brokenhearted: even when I'm sad i'm still metal \m/

nightdreamer: good. me,

nightdreamer: even when I'm sad I'm still BAD!!111 

nightdreamer: Why are people so caught up with their work these days? It's like even when they have only one more day to live, they'd spend it working than being with their loved ones

[statistics: 3 agreed, 2 disagreed]

[additional statistics: both of those who disagreed didn't greet me on my birthday]

Nightdreamer:eh, after playing persona i find it hard to get back to pokemon

Nightdreamer: since the two's essentially similar with regard to "paper scissor rock" gameplay, only persona has a better story and deeper gameplay

Nightdreamer: what pokemon need is UNNECCESSARY ZIPPERS and ANGEL WINGS FTW!~!111

masseffect: Heheh

masseffect: More gothic is called for

Nightdreamer: and black eye liners too!

masseffect: And sulky looks!

Nightdreamer: and unwashed hair

masseffect: And long, drawn-out scenes of emotional longing

Nightdreamer: and pouting protagonists unable to express their true feelings

Nightdreamer: and NAME the hero as RAVEN or something

masseffect: Guilt's Shadow, aka Marvin from the SeeD training academy

Nightdreamer: haha

masseffect: Anyway, that contra is pretty tough stuff

masseffect: Those challenge stages are madness

Nightdreamer: i've read about that, yeah.

Nightdreamer: maybe it's a reason why the heroes are made so muscle-bound? so that people will get the hint that this is for the BAD DUDES!

masseffect: Heh

Nightdreamer: imagine if they decided to make contra filled with effeminate dudes with tribal tattoos and pointless buckles.

masseffect: Or transsexual freedom fighters trying to achieve same-sex marriage

Nightdreamer: Or brothers swearing eternal revenge to each other only to realize in the end, when one dies, that they actually love each other

Nightdreamer: survey question: which one is better, starbucks or seattle's best?

seattle_boy: Ech, depends on what you drink

Nightdreamer: haha it looks like you hate both

seattle_boy: Both are owned by starbucks

seattle_boy: for sure

Nightdreamer: haha

seattle_boy: For drip, starbucks… for a mocha, SBC

Nightdreamer: i am not a fan of Starbucks or Seattle's best either

seattle_boy: But my preference is neither

Nightdreamer: which one is your preference?

seattle_boy: I usually drink a drip with a shot, so for that I would pick starbucks over SBC

Nightdreamer: most of the coffee that I get to drink are home-blended. my brother prepares them. he buys some bean in the grocery, grinds them and to the work

seattle_boy: But if I wanted a mocha, I'd go to SBC

Nightdreamer: starbucks is too popular in philippines, it's like another mcdonald's

seattle_boy: Seriously

Nightdreamer: and the customers of it are flat-out ob-friggin-noxious

Nightdreamer: full of rich and pretend-rich hags

seattle_boy: Same here

seattle_boy: Exactly

Nightdreamer: i blogged about that once (albeit in a much toned-down language) and it still is my most read post. haha

seattle_boy: I work at starbucks sometimes… I've met the ceo a few times

seattle_boy: Wish I had his bank account

Nightdreamer: I hated their organizer promo. when you're able to buy 24 accumulated cups of coffee, you'll get a free organizer. OH JOY.

Nightdreamer: I WET MY PANTS GETTING THE ORGANIZER FROM STARBUCKS RAAOOWRRR

Nightdreamer: imagine just how much that would cost

Nightdreamer: $2 per (cheapest) coffee x 24 = $48 dollars

Nightdreamer: nobody in the world EVER has to pay that much for a friggin organizer!

seattle_boy: Heheh

seattle_boy: I guess if you're gonna get the coffee anyway…

Nightdreamer: and yet a lot of poor Starsaps are EATING THAT UP because having a sb organizer is so… IN VOGUE!

Nightdreamer: more of a status symbol than of a recording book of any uses.

Nightdreamer: i really should blog this. haha.

seattle_boy: Heh

nightdreamer: so what do you do in your ethics exams?

glasses: read a 300-paged piece

glasses: and then answer these questions:

glasses: Is there such a thing as ethics?

glasses: and does God exists?

nightdreamer: Ha i bet you can just act suave, agree with what the professor has to say and you'll get an A+

glasses: no. you have to cite sources

nightdreamer: oh.

nightdreamer: that's too bad then. otherwise, i'd opine in valley-girl speak

nightdreamer: "Ethics exists. Like, totally"

nightdreamer: "And I *hearts* Jesus"

nightdreamer: Or how about doing this in gangsta-speak?

nightdreamer: "Yo, ethics, is real!"

nightdreamer: "And God loves, fo' sho!"

nightdreamer: mayabang daw

nightdreamer: sobrang malandi, isnabera

blueallman: ah ganun?

blueallman: ows?

nightdreamer: minsan nagkasakay sila sa parehong jeep (ng kaklase ng kuya ko)

nightdreamer: di lang man pinansin, as if she's rejecting her roots

nightdreamer: laki ulo

nightdreamer: tapos ngayon magpopose siya sa FHM (or some sexy magazine like how 24 oras like to preview that news as though it's relevant)

nightdreamer: geez

nightdreamer: celebrities these days…

nightdreamer: napaka predictable

blueallman: hahahahahaha…

nightdreamer: can't they ever spend their time on a worthier cause?!

nightdreamer: it's no wonder FHM can so pompously claim "FHM nation",

blueallman: sobrang pangit kaya ng FHM ng pinas kumpara sa FHM ng ibang bansa.

nightdreamer: yan na kasi bansa natin ngayon eh! kelangan mo lang magpose sa FHM hot ka na at may carreer ka na sa showbiz

blueallman: yung US na FHM kasi entertaining basahin e.

nightdreamer: i mean geez nabasa mo ba yung mga columns ni asia agcaoli? brain-farts!

nightdreamer: sha lang ang worth tingnan sa mga columns niya eh. yung mga sinasabi niya eww!

blueallman: oo noh.

nightdreamer: not to mention sobrang pangit ng writing

nightdreamer: walang ounce of cleverness/originality/wit

blueallman: sobrang lousy ng mga writers ng FHM. para kang pumunta sa isang party na nakikipag-plastikan ka lang…

nightdreamer: TUMPAK!

nightdreamer: tapos eto pa yung magazine na laging pumapasok sa mga starbucks conversation?!

nightdreamer: and they say pinoys are becoming more and more illiterate 8-|

blueallman: kaya pag nakakabasa ako ng FHM, tinitingnan ko lang yung mga pics e.

nightdreamer: "dudespare, have you read the latest FHM? this babe is like my classmate grabe!"

nightdreamer: "ow really? is she like the hot stuff ba? I remember once I saw her cleavage eh! YEAH BABY!"

blueallman: hahahahahaha… highschool shit….

blueallman: )

nightdreamer: oo nga eh!

nightdreamer: wala naman akong objection sa publication ng magazine mismo eh. it's more that i'm really annoyed at the weight/credence people give to such magazine

nightdreamer: tapos la pang kwenta ang articles

blueallman: oo nga e. andaming puniputol ng puno para langsa papel tapos sinasayang lang nila..

nightdreamer: bwahaha kinonek pa natin sa global warming ah =))

nightdreamer: have you ever tried to read a book after you read a poem?

nightdreamer: that is a very peculiar experience. yesterday as i was deciding between odyssey and foundation,

nightdreamer: i read odyssey's first page first

nightdreamer: and then when i read foundation i sort of read it stanza by stanza and whining "huh it's not rhyming?"

nightdreamer: so i read it like:

nightdreamer: his name was gaal dornick

nightdreamer: and he was just

nightdreamer: a country boy who had

nightdreamer: never seen trantor before

nightdreamer: tinulog ko na lang ) [translation: I slept instead]

guyadik: viagra has no side effects. its effects occur on front.

nightdreamer: CORNY!

glasses: alam mo ba kung ano ang english ng kangkong?

nightdreamer: no clue at all

nightdreamer: oo nga no i never thought about it!

glasses: its water spinach.

glasses: or Asian watercrest

nightdreamer: wha?!

glasses: very chi-chi

nightdreamer: haha

nightdreamer: water spinach? sounds like a kung fu dub

glasses: miss, padagdagan nga ng Asian watercras sa sinigang ko!

nightdreamer: hahaha

glasses: watercrest kako

glasses: bleah my typing skills suck

Neverwhere

I could call my 2007 "The Year of the Books" because I was such a frenzied bibliophile then. There was a month when I devoured 3 books a week.

Alas, those days didn't last. The tires went screech, midyear, with The Wind Up Bird Chronicle's 600 pages of droning. Mind you I read similarly long books (like Battle Royale and Grapes of Wrath) in the months before that. Wind Up began with me going "OH EM GEE LOOK AT HOW HE'S BEEN PULLING DA RIGHT CHORDS HE'S A GENIUS U RAOWK MURAKAMI \m/!" but by page 200, when the story needed to wrap, it rambled on to the point that my good will for Murakami became hostility. And come some harrowing subplots, and they nearly made Wind Up good again, but only convinced me that Murakami should stick to short stories. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows followed, and it was a Deus Ex Machina "hey, it's magic" mill. And I’ll just as soon call Avenged Sevenfold's music videos “brilliant” as I would call Ron/Hermione melodrama “poignant”. Yucky angst. Good Omens (by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett) tried too hard to make me laugh because apparently I took Deathly Hallows’s angst too seriously. Tried, by footnoting their “humor”. These 3 lackluster books dragged my reading speed: they took me six months to finish.

So when I started Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (just after he let me down, no less. See how dumb I am?), I was languid, weary and cynical - if it sucked, well, let’s just call it another day huh?

Turned out, I was being paranoid. Neverwhere made reading fun again!

Neverwhere starts with Richard. He could be your cubicle neighbor, he could be you. He is a typical London yuppie and his life is unremarkable, but he feels like the luckiest man alive because he has a girlfriend that looks like Jessica Alba (I imagined her like that since they share the same name, and that also makes it easier to make Richard me, vicariously). What do you do if your girlfriend is Jessica Alba? You marry her, loonies. So yes, Richard isn’t a loony. He is getting engaged to Jessica. Come the FATED DAY™, he rescues a wounded girl he found at the roadside, making him cancel his appointment with Jessica. This makes Jessica furious.

The wounded girl – named Door – recovers, and then disappears. Richard expects everything to become normal again but as he heads off to work, he finds himself rejected by the world and ignored by everyone, even Jessica. (At this moment, I feel like him because Jessica doesn’t even know I exist.) He doesn’t know why it happens, but he thinks it has to do with Door. So he begins searching for Door, and that leads him to world very different to his: to the London Underground.

London Underground is a world that is a reject of ours. It is home to those who pass off as hobos in our world, and also of rats and other weird beings. Unlike our world, London Underground is supernatural, and few of its inhabitants - such as Door – can do magic. It has a market that always changes locations, and a subway that isn’t visible to us. It is mostly peaceful (if less than tidy), but it has a few inhabitants that do not have the best intentions. Those that injured Door, for instance, live here. And Richard, in his search for Door, gets caught in a murder plot. Will he reach Door before it’s too late? And will he find a way to exist in our world again?

Because of London Underground's varied sights, cultures and people, Neil Gaiman created a world that's fascinating. The characters, too, are well-written, and easily loved or hated: Richard is an everyman that stays affable because he is everyman in the truest sense, unlike other authors’ contrived everymen who still manage to get their pants removed by all women characters. Murakami, learn! The cutthroat duo of Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar is menacing without remorse; they’re not some albino assassins working for a so-called higher goal. Classic villains without jaded pasts have become passe, but Neverwhere relives the (fun) days back when they are feared and hated instead of forcibly sympathized. There are loads more.

Neverwhere is sincere. It does not pretend to be profound by pulverizing you with pseudo-metaphysical New Age gobbledygooks (unlike Paolo Coelho), nor does it resort to Good Omens’ irritating parody-everything. It is instead a straightforward tale in the spirit of Lewis Carroll. Not entirely artsy, but there’s nothing wrong with enjoying fun-for-fun’s-sake stories, and anyway Gaiman has written other tales that fill your more intellectual (and resent-of-money) needs. To use a loose analogy, if Gaiman’s Sandman is his Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, then Neverwhere is his Hard Day’s Night.

It isn’t without flaws, though. Door, for one, is very likable if you don’t realize that she’s just a recycle of Death (from Gaiman’s Sandman series). Gaiman sure loves his perky goth chick, huh? A few characters get glossed over, inspiring “what happened to them” discussions from Starbucks frap-swirlers who try to sound smart and literate. These problems are minor and they don’t affect the main plot.

Overall, Neverwhere succeeds in drawing me into its Neverland-reminiscent world, and I had a great time with it. Props to Neil Gaiman.

Need Feedback Again

Gah, my most recent blog posts are stupendously long. I need to be more concise.

Feel the same way? Any suggestions on where I can improve? Then issue your grievances on my comment box!

2007

I'm unfocused. If you've ever opened my office drawers, you'll see books, art papers and kept-as-mementoes junks. I keep the former two for "emergency" - that being, to busy myself when I'm having a do-nothing day.

Today's a do-nothing day, and I have Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere beside my keyboard since I came here. Its cover depicts a tunnel, giving it an air of mystery, inviting me subliminally to "come in and see what's at the end". I should be reading it, and at page 124 I'm already quite far. Yet, I've not been sucked into it the whole day today.

You can guess what I'm doing instead.

During the yuletide, bloggers tend to post year-end wrap-ups. I'm doing it now. Private life matters are mostly already chronicled, so those won't be today's focus. Instead, I'm discussing movies, books, and videogames I've experienced last year.

Movies

Everyone raved about it, but Pan's Labyrinth is surreal, poignant, gloomy, stylish, gothic, hopeless yet hopeful, etc. What else can be said about it that you couldn't read from a thousand other movie critics? Anyway, I saw this movie in the theaters, and my classmate, coincidentally, was also there. We then spent an entire hour on the phone talking about it - the parable-like messages, the characters, and even the most horrifying scenes. It’s this type of movie that guarantees long discussions, and perhaps introspection. Go watch it if you know what's good for you.

If you've seen the trailer of Bridge to Terabithia, you'll think that it's another Narnia knock-off. That's not true. Bridge is more like Pan's Labyrinth for younger audiences, except its protagonists cope with down-to-earth everyday problems rather than with a dictator. It never feels easy, contrived and sappy - surprising feats for a Disney film. And AnnaSophia Robb's character is just too adorable..

BUT WE WANT MORE ACTIONS says the attention-deficient readers of this blog (assuming there are such persons here). Fine. Bourne Ultimatum is an excellent conclusion to the Bourne trilogy. It sizzles from the start and never lets up. 300 is a stylish retelling of a war epic. You'll find it shallow, you'll laugh at the dialogues, and you'll pick your jaw from the floor every time a battle commences. About Transformers, you don't want to hear my criticisms of it *cough* shallow people *cough* racism *cough* jingosim *cough*. It's still a fairly fun romp if you ignore the human characters - which include heroic whiteys, promiscuous hispanics and fat-and-comic blacks, ugh to Hollywood.

Animes

Besides NBA games, the only TV shows I've watched are 2 animes. First is Nodame Cantabile. It’s about classical music, and it tells its story in a slice-of-life way, where vaguely connected events happen so we can understand the two leads better. All of its characters are likeably eccentric, although one of the leads is too arrogant.

When you write the name of a person on the Death Note, this person dies. Death Note is perhaps the most talked-about anime of the year, so I won't repeat what everyone's been saying. I'll just say it's deep, thrilling and philosophical - it will make you think of what justice represents. The anime starts excellently, but later episodes befuddle. The comics explain the events better, so I suggest getting the comics instead.

Videogames

If you think you're a badcore hardass (typo? lalalala!) I defy you to beat Contra 4. It does not have cutscenes, "profound" stories, and "gasp in awe of all these Maya graphics!" moments. It only has unmitigated BLASTING-ALIENS-INTO-OBLIVION fun. Oh yes! Contra is great again. It’s also DS-defenestrating difficult - the cover’s shirtless muscle-bound soldiers should be hint enough for that.

If you're someone who’d rather use your head than blast someone else's, get Phoenix Wright. And if not, get this game anyway, sheesh. I'm being objective. You play the eponymous character - a defense attorney - to defend clients and investigate crimes. Nothing is more exhilarating than your well-placed "Objection" supported by the correct evidence, accentuated by a dramatic silence preluding an upbeat song (I even have their arranged orchestra and jazz album! Click below for sample tracks). The story is very tight, and the characters are more compelling than anyone from Harry Potter.

Naruhodou Ryuuichi - Objection! (Jazz Version)

Naruhodou Ryuuichi - Objection! (Orchestra Version)

As Phoenix Wright can demonstrate, nihon-jins are reliable when you need a dose of zany and otherworldly ideas. Eternal Sonata, an RPG where you play as Frederic Chopin, stands as further testament. According to the game, when Chopin was comatose from a disease that would cost him his life, he had a dream of a land of young bandits, huge (but cute) monsters, and terminally-ill magicians. This is one of the rare Xbox360 games that do not have drab walls, depressions, hostile aliens, macho cuss words, marine-suits, steroids and silicones. It’s quite the contrary, as this game is very bright and colorful, and is populated with characters so innocuous you’d want to hug them.

Persona 3 is proof positive that PS2 still has life on it. Unlike most other RPG’s, which are downplayed by the term “interactive movie”, Persona 3 does involve you. You’ll only survive the game if you know everyone’s - yours, your allies’ and your enemies’ - strengths and weaknesses, so you can’t be doing the same lazy attacks all the time. Also, how other characters think of you depends on how you treat them. Unlike Final Fantasy, you won’t end up as a lover of any woman unless you’ve spent time with her. That’s how a real RPG should be! It should be more than just watching effeminate fancy-pants metrosexuals getting moody and rebellious while mashing the X button to oblivion (And no, Tetsuya Nomura, I’m not talking about your buckles, your angel wings, your douchebag Reno and your Gothic Mickey Mouse™!). I’m very addicted to this game, not just because it plays well, but also because it’s like living inside an anime. 

Books 

I’m only going to write about a few of the books I’ve read in 2007, because otherwise I will break this blog’s character limit. 

This is my much-belated view about Dumblepants: I think it’s out of place. I don’t have anything against gays and, if you recall my silly IM conversations with guile_sonicboom, I may have prognosticated it. I only find Rowling’s justification lacking. She said that even if Dumblepants was known as an altruist, during his younger years he had been drawn to Grindlerods, whose ideologies were sinister. That’s because D is gay about G. The problem is that she explained their relationship after the book is already finished. But how convenient! Is that the best she could come up with? Is it now unacceptable for two men become friends without being homoerotic? 

She also said that this is a “prolonged argument for tolerance”. Excuse me, Rowls, you do not argue for tolerance by shelving someone’s homosexuality throughout the story, only to reveal it in a press con. You do not reinforce acceptance by making the Death Eater or every Slytherins nihilistic and sly beyond redemption. 

The book’s biggest problem is convenience. Harry’s obstacles are rarely solved by his abilities; they just somehow get obliterated by something suddenly falling into place - be it by a phoenix, time machine, elves, Dumblepants, or spells unexpectedly saving someone’s life. Deathly Hallows suffered from this the most, such that it felt like Rowling has been pulling off fast ones. That’s why, of the series, I hated this book the most, even though I very much liked the person I borrowed this book from. Oh, and somebody burn the epilogue chapter, please.

Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud surpasses some of the Harry Potter's. They’re similar, but unlike Potter, Samarkand’s magic does bear real consequences on non-magician’s world. It even explains why certain events from our history happened (of course they’re fictional, but that’s what makes it fun). It also has none of them Deus Ex Machinas - the characters are left to their own devices when dealing with trials. And, speaking of characters, allow me to introduce you to Bartimaeus. Imagine him as a snarkier and more apathetic Holden Caulfield. Reading his chapters never grows old.

I had been urged by my best friend to read more business books, so I bought a Pera Mo, Palaguin Mo! by Francisco J. Colayco. And then I was reminded of why I've never been into business books: it's because their choice of words is so dry it could sharpen your pencil. From a layperson’s point of view, PMPM is okay. It offers pragmatic tips on how to become richer (basically, save money), and it reads very casually making it easily understood and applied. How I wish, though, that it would quit interchanging languages. And couldn’t they change the font? Is Comics Sans business-like at all?

Forget the movie, read Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. It wouldn’t take longer to finish the book than to watch the movie, and the movie cannot capture all of Robert Neville’s musings. Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, on the other hand, is just as good as the movie, so either reading or watching it is okay. Koushin Takami’s Battle Royale is among the most disturbing novels I’ve read, and it also happens to be very good. Both Fight Club and Battle Royale provide sharp insights about our communities. 

When I was watching Star Wars Episodes 1-3, I came away amazed at its graphics. But when I finally got over the awe, I realized that they’re devoid of anything else, like a good story or good characterization. That’s exactly how I felt with Wind Up Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami) too: that behind the high-flown words and simile/metaphors, it’s quite empty. And that’s when I started noticing Murakami’s writing patterns. He abuses simile/metaphors like a photocopier do to laser printers. He can only do it too much before I get annoyed like a dog unable to scratch away its itch. In case you’re asking “Nightdreamer, what’s with the couple of similes you used”, that’s exactly how Murakami writes. And am I supposed to be impressed that he knows more about Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Eric Dolphy than the average person? Why he name-drops assorted musicians all the time, and why he puts a background music on EVERY FRIGGIN' SCENE, I’ll never know. I didn't care much about his characters too: they’re never normal, they’re always weird - sometimes purposelessly so. In Wind Up, new weirdos get introduced so that the old weirdos can leave the story for good. What’s up with that? And good grief, can't Murakami write a story that does not take place on a self-centered and love-lorn average Joe's point of view? I'm not sure I can sympathize with Wind Up's because he tries to reunite with his wife by having sex with other women and by sitting under the well all night. Some back stories of the other characters are excellent, though, and that made me conclude that he’s much better off writing short stories. Wind Up is too long, and quite pointless. Maybe Norwegian Wood is better?

Whew, that’s my wrap-up. I’m exhausted now, but I hope you had a good time reading my capsule reviews.

My Shanghai Travel Writing

I've meant to write about Shanghai for quite some time, but I've been procrastinating. Even just by recalling Shanghai from memory, coherent thoughts wouldn't form. That's why I've not written about Shanghai two weeks since I've left it.

Know that this is not chronological, so I won't write like "On day 1 I was here, and on day 2…". Rather, I chose the highlights of the trip. I think that's for the best, otherwise this would be too long-winded, that when printed it will be so thick that most will think this is supposed to be of the intellectual bastion. That's why people buy business books - the thicker the books, the more ostentatiously smart they are, right?

Shanghai. It's not China's capital, but it's among the nation's most prosperous cities. Think of New York to America. These two cities are quite alike in regard to their countries, and the architectures of some of their buildings resemble each other's. Just walk along The Bund, and you'll see.

The Bund: Nighttime

 An Impressive clock tower

The Bund: Morning. It's foggy.

The Bund is similar to Baywalk (Philippines), except The Bund is a river's walkway. When you go there, you'll see a lot of European Art Deco/Beaux Art buildings behind you. These kinds of buildings can also be seen all over Manhattan (or on our Roxas Boulevard, although they're abandoned and unmaintained and changed from Beaux Arts to Bulox Farts). So try to keep your ears open because language is their only discernible difference. Look opposite to the Huangpu River, that there's the Pudong district. See the many tall modern skyscrapers like the Pearl Tower, Jin Mao Tower and the soon-to-be-finished World Trade Center. Of course, you can go there, climb up, and have a panoramic view of Shanghai. They're among the top ten tallest buildings of the world.

Jin Mao Tower (front) World Trade Center (back)

Pearl Tower (hide your snark, please) 

You can go from The Bund to Pudong by subway. Or you can go by The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel. The admission fee to it is expensive ($4), but try it once anyway. You'll move by an underground cable car through a passage filled psychedelic lights accompanied by weird sci-fi music, making the going from point A to B very much like traveling to another dimension (or at least the common notion of dimensional transport. I really wouldn't know). See the final scenes of 2001: Space Odyssey. The experience is alike.

By the way, Shanghai is enormous, and that means if you want to see its tourists spots, you have to do a LOT of travelings. While the subway is useful, it does not go to all places. Get used to being peripatetic.

Ok, some may moan that they hate walking. Fine, but if you're touring anywhere, do not expect to get your money's worth if you're walk-phobic. I'm saying this because there might be some who are so amenities-spoiled they couldn't even cross the road (I know a handful of people like that), and will choose the guided package tours. Don't. They're not worthy. Guided package tours will take you to the tourists spots very briefly you'll fail to absorb the sceneries. And they'll also drag you to many irritating souvenir shops and awful restaurants. My suggestion is for you to plan your own itinerary and be prepared to walk a ton. That rule applies anywhere, but I just need to say it because I know of some who always use package tours instead. Walking is a fact of life. Deal with it.

Maybe you will think that I'm sidetracking, but I'm not. Walk a few kilometers from The Bund and you'll reach Nanjing Road, a very popular shopping street. You can also reach here by subway. You will see malls, restaurants, department stores, hotels, and shops. It's almost like New York's Times Square, which, for better or worse, means it's very bright, noisy and crowded. But this shopping district extends farther than Times Square, and is divided east and west with People's Park in between, with each of the three having its subway station. People's Park is a good repose from all the bustling, and has a museum near by. 

If you can read/speak Chinese, then take the bus; otherwise, you can walk (very far) or taxi to XinTianDi, south of People's Park. XinTianDi is an impressive sight because it looks like Paris (and even New Orleans). It has malls, galleries and theaters, but it's not so much a place to shop as it is to dine and wine. Very expensively at those. So unless you're willing to barhop and to splurge, going here might not be worth your time.

Xin Tian Di

Back off, dude. 

So far I've been talking about places in Shanghai that are reminiscent of the West. But I'm sure you didn't go to Shanghai for something like that; rather, you came with mental images of Oriental temples, old towns or pavilions. Well, worry not, Shanghai has many of those! The only drawback is that going to there without using taxis are like having a pilgrimage: manageably tiring, but oh-so-rewarding.

Yuyuan Garden is EXQUISITE! How could I even describe it? Just look at these pictures:

Yuyuan

 Yuyuan

 Yuyuan again

 Ditto

He's being reprimanded by a lion-hybrid

And you won't only see impressive gardens, pavilions and pagodas, you can also dine here (without giving Trillanes an open invitation to your pocket). They also have an expanse of shops where you can buy junks for your needy friends whose "Bon Voyage" actually means "Pasalubong ha!" (translation: don't forget my souvenirs). My only gripe here is that they have two Starbucks that plays Kenny G. When I think of traditional China, I think of emperors, temples, erhus and teahouses. Coffee shops and muzak JUST. DON'T. FIT.

Thankfully, Qibao does not have Starbucks. Qibao is identical to Yuyuan Garden, except if Yuyuan is of the affluent ancestors then Qibao is of the ancient everypeople. Both of them are uniquely fascinating. You'll travel a lot in going to Qibao (and here's a warning: the wikitravel's tip on that is inaccurate) because it's far from central Shanghai. A temple is here, which makes this place more spiritual than Yuyuan. They also have narrow streets that are full of sellers of foods and ancient Chinese goods.

He thinks he's a Tang Dynasty poet

Once again… 

Streets of Qibao 

Same 

For a temple that's nearer to the urban areas, go to Jade Buddha Temple. It is sacred, but you can go here to see the sheer magnificence of the Buddha statues of Maitreya, Siddharta, Guanyin and many others. What I don't like is that its incense is expensive: at $2 for 3 sets when it's 50 cents for one elsewhere. Even more absurd is that their incenses are said to have "different flavors", so there's a kind for family prosperity, another for love, another for harmony, and another for fortune. I don't get it. They also have souvenir shops that sell jewelries, paintings and antique statues. But, by far, the best thing about this temple (and believe me there's a lot to like) is the foods. They're scrumptious, affordable, and vegetarian-friendly.

Jade Buddha Temple

Buddha shrine

Jade Buddha Temple's Backyard

That covers it for my short Shanghai travel guide. There are too many places here that are worth your time, and I'm sure I haven't gone to as many as 1% of China's tourist spots. All I can say is that Shanghai is fabulous. You HAVE to go there when you get the chance.

Before I end this entry, here are my few observations about Shanghai:

• Did you know that Yao Ming is from Shanghai? He is the most famous individual of this country. There's a poster of him every hundred meters.
• The authorities can do things to you if you say something that indicts communism.
• People from Shanghai think that Philippines is a more prosperous nation than China. Ha ha ha. *nervous laughters*
• Pirated DVD costs $1-2.
• If you're a vegetarian, let Happy Cow guide you to finding vegetarian restaurants of any cities.
• Sun Yat Sen is much revered.
• Chiang Kai Shek isn't.
• Be wary of how the people here drive because they're very undisciplined. They swerve at will and they very often beat the red lights. Kind of like in the Philippines.
• Sadly, you'll get used to being-bumped-without-receiving-apologies.
• A lot of Chinese spit anywhere, but I've been told that people who do these are not from Shanghai.
• Have you ever seen Chinese acrobats? My goodness, they're practically boneless!
• Surprisingly, the immigration office from China is very well-mannered and efficient. Quite unlike pinoy's.
• I hate going into this "we pinoys don't have that" diatribe-land, but we DO need to improve, to work harder, and to STOP relying on delusional government's "efforts" and buzzwords. Stop believing in institutions that overrate their achievements. Please. Philippines is a beautiful country; we're just not doing our part to make it stay beautiful!
• The weather wasn't very good when I was in Shanghai. A foggy day, in Shanghai town/had me low, had me down/I viewed the morning with such alarm/the vista from Pudong had lost its charm…

My Streams of Consciousness

My gibbest challenge in maintaining a blog is to post an entry AFTER a long vacation. Though I can say a lot about those days, I do not know how to express it in a way that does not sound either euphoric or languid to the point of boredom and inaccuracy.

Grammar polices might already bug me to correct at least one word in the previous paragraph. No, sorry, I do mean "gibbest" and not "biggest". Yes, I feel the most like a castrated cat when faced with the challenge of posting post-vacation entries. Does that make sense? I'm sure it doesn't.

So hello 2008. I came to the office today a tad earlier than usual. A new organizer sat atop my desk. It was left there by a girl I used to have a huge crush on (I was out of work the previous 2 weeks, so I didn't see her). To be more accurate, she's given it to everyone in the office, but I do hope, anyway, that she cares for me more. Hoping is not a very bad thing, unless when you're a New York Knicks fan.

Er, why are you giving me that look? You're surprised that as misanthropist as I could be, it's amazing that I could still adore someone? Shut up. So, about my ex-crush. Oh geez, I just mentioned that word. I loathe calling people ex-crushes because that implies my defeat, if not annihilation. It's true in this case. Oh what in the world am I saying, it's just the second day of the year and already I'm feeling blue. You ain't been blue, no, no, no... Er, no singing. It must not rain in spring.

("Nightdreamer, will you please be more focused?" That's harder than you think, folks.)

Why does she have to leave an organizer on my desk anyway? Such a painful reminder of her. I wanted to throw it away, but it looks very embarrassing to be emo in the office (I'm not sure if emo doesn't look embarrassing elsewhere). If she wants me to remember her, couldn't she just phone me and say, "I have something to give you let's meet up somewhere"? Yes I'd say yes in about yes the same number of times yes James Joyce said it yes in the last hundred pages yes of Ulysses yes. Yeah, me and my silly fantasies. So… thinking of this girl made me feel miserable. She was one of the unpleasant memories of 2007, which has otherwise been a good year for me. Normally, when disappointments like this happen, people go "let go and move on". I'm not doing that right away before reflecting on what went wrong, because there's a lesson here, kids. Now open your Aesop's Fable, I'm about to tell you about this foxy lady.

[Yucky pun]

We don't work in the same place but it was in a company vacation of early 2007 that we met. Or, rather, she met our company as she booked our excursion. She and I established rapports in those few vacation days and we hung with each other a lot. We inevitably had to leave and to go back to doing the bugger of a deed that pays you but consumes your soul. Work, in other words. To keep us in touch, we added each other in Friendster. The first week since, I tried to contact her so that I could thank her for giving me a wonderful time. That was all I was trying to do, but, bizarrely, she NEVER answered my call, or replied to my SMS's. She even deleted me from her friends list. Why? If I was being too persistent, I would understand. But I only tried to call her twice, SMS'ed her once, and messaged her in Friendster once. I even reviewed my messages to see if there was anything in them that offended her. Can anyone tell me what's wrong with "Thank you for giving me a great time in the past few days"?

I was disheartened. How could she be so cool with me during the vacation days, then turn into a Medusa-whose-stares-turn-people-not-to-stones-but-to-phantoms after that? This bothered me for a lot of months, because it's not the first time I've met such kind of person. And I'm certainly not the only person who's ever been "befriended" by those who do it only because I'm, for the time being, a convenient way to shake off boredom. At modern times, or maybe just in an adult's life, this happens a lot. Overnight friendships. One night stands. People do not even TRY to keep connected anymore. Why even bother creating a social link in the first place if you're not going to give some attention to the other? Were we even like that back when our lives weren't dominated by coffee shops and the technological marvels of communications? Do they actually bring people closer?

[Ask your philosophy teacher. But, perhaps, they wouldn't know. They're hermits.]

It just annoys me. Readers, treat those you meet more as human beings than as fireworks. None of us are ephemeral displays of fancy, exceptions being if you're Sean Kingston or Paris Hilton or other tabloid-whores (the verdict of what's so fanciful about them is still pending). The rest of us deserves attention more often.

Anyway, the organizers this certain girl had handed out landed on a certain forlorn guy. The organizer says "Patio Pacific" but it's formerly known as Pink Patio. When I was on Shanghai (QUIET! THIS IS RELATED, I SWEAR!) there was a Feng Shui professor who suggested that I should buy a Pink Pixiu (I didn't buy it, though). Pink Patio. Pink Pixiu. I'm starting to think that someone is out there doing a practical joke on me.

It was nice knowing this girl, and I had memories of her, but we only passed each other by like ships in the dark. She has embittered my vacation twice, but it's ok. This time, I will no longer allow myself to chronicle her as the last (and the most - it's so trite to say "last but not the least", that lasts are now somewhat assumed to be the most) thing about my vacation. I still have a lot of better things to say about my Christmas and New Year, before I move on. Now, if only my thoughts on those could become more coherent in the next few days.

At least writing about her wasn't that hard.

Not verbally, anyway.