If I Ain't Got You Cover by Kristel Fulgar

Not recommended for drivers with little experience. Doing stunt like this will get you killed. . . Nevertheless, she can really sing.

A vague update. . .

Took me a long time to write something. . . though, in all honesty, in the past 3-4 years that this account remained inactive, Plenty of events worth writing had passed by. True to the testament of these past years is my relative ease in writing this document, however, I still have a lot to savor from the lessons I'm digesting from my superiors and the way they approach writing. My palate on this skill is still dry and sorely needs more attention. .  .

So yeah, what had happened in these past years? To make the long story short, let me inform you of the major events that had transpired while this blog ran itself into dust due to my apparent lack of interest to document journal-worthy occassions. First, I left my old place  for my hometwon, where I'm still currently residing. Second, I got a job. . . .a comfortable yet a truly quite exhausting occupation. The latter, in itself, merits a dozen of these tiny pieces of which, sadly, I have no time to write about. Lastly, I taught myself to ride a bike. I'm now a proud owner of a scooter (for anyone who cares to picture the scene of me on a bike).

Hopefully, that one paragraph above me will give those who care enough to read this, an idea of the mundane milieu I found myself in. What surprises me more about these past three years is the fact that despite the obvious atmosphere, I still have the will to claw myself out of a "zombie-like" (robotic if you will) state of existence to which my colleagues had graciously accepted  way farther than the time I had set foot in that office space for interview. It should be worth mentioning, however, that despite my obvious distaste in office norms, their influence and "coaxing" had somehow rubbed itself on me. I find it a welcome addition as it had somehow refined some parts of me which i find, rather "nerdy" . . and to some extent, "bizarre". Take my dress for one. If i were to judge how I looked the day this blog went AWOL, I would sincerely have told myself I looked heinous. 

With all that talk aside, however, I have not written anything about what I intended to express. This piece  took a form of its own that now seems more of  an update on myself than anything else. As such, I will leave it as it is, and start writing anew all these thoughts I meant to write in the first place. 

Announcement

Anima Kyoukai will hold an anime event this August 17, 2008. The said event will feature a variety of mini contests which includes On-the-spot drawing, manga drawing, and a sing-a-like-contest among others. A Yugioh tournament will be a huge part of this big event. If anyone is interested to become a participant please contact mr. Jose Manuel "muds" Pacana on this number: 09202506711.

For more details, please visit their site at http://anime-manga-kyoukai.blogspot.com or you can also visit their forums here: http://animakyoukai.ipbfree.com

Thank you. . .

On Slayers

weeeh. . .. my favorite anime adventure is back . . . it's finally back. . tadada!!

i remembered the time i used to watch this series every saturday. . . wait, when was that? grade six? i could scarcely remember already. there were three of them lined up in a row and the last one was rayearth . . . or was rayearth on sunday? again, i could not remember clearly. anyway, at first, i treated this series as merely an ' appetizer ' because i thought it was humorously shallow, just blasting your enemies when you felt like it or when they piss you off isnt really gonna cut it as an anime with a good storyline, and i had always been looking for one.

but the humor and the well-made consistent characters grew on my senses and later on, i found out it had a lot more to offer than mere fun.

there are basically three consistent things that I like about this anime more than most of the others.

1. the humor - i remembered a time when i couldnt stop myself from laughing half an hour after its airing on saturdays but back then, i could barely remember why. watching the new series now (Slayers Revolution), i could recall half of the stuff that made this series fun. It was like the irony of Hitler declaring a nuclear war on an entire continent because Roosevelt told him he looked like Charlie Chaplin (though in truth, Chaplin did outlive Hitler and even made a film with him as a dictator as an act of Nazi defiance). on a more precise term, levelling an entire city because somebody insulted the protagonist (Lina Inverse) calling her "Ms. Flat chest" which she actually was and not even a bit pleased of being reminded so.

2. the well designed characters -

Lina had problems reconciling her claim of being a beautiful sorceress with her short figure and 'flat' chest. . . . and anyone who tried to remind her of the painful truth ended up the bottom of the crater caused by her powerful spell, Dragon Slave. In Gouddy's case, a simple whack to the head or kick in the 'behind' usually had him shutting his mouth.







well, Gourry is Gourry, and he is nothing but. . . with that being said, he's always a recipient of the Lina fireball and kick and the infamous Filia mace. . . and why is that? because he lacks in whatever kind of quotient you can think of (intelligence quotient, emotional Intelligence quotient, social intelligence quotient. . . etc). he manages to get himself into trouble by saying the wrong words at the wrong time at the wrong people. sometimes it can be attributed to his naivette, .. . but more often than not, Gourry is just being Gourry.








and then there's Xellos. . . oh how i like this guy. a dear ally a second ago. . . a pain in the ass the next. he had his little secret agenda going on in which Lina and co. does for him albeit without their knowledge. it's amazing how the series creators had switched his character from being a comic relief to a trickster and finally, to a dark dangerous character without even making it seem like Xellos made any effort to be all that. Xellos is simply, all that.


from a distant perspective, the characters have that generic nature, primarily because it had an RPG feel to it. but unlike other series, the characters here never tried to step into boundaries they where never meant to fill. you don't get to see a Lina acting all emo crying into a corner or getting all mushy with Gourry, (suppose to be was her love interest). . . which was fine with me. it was all designed to be consistently linear which is actually good if you're looking for fast paced action, fun and a little intrigue, but nothing else.

3. the myth and mystery - this was really the last straw that made this one of my favorites. perhaps, it may have been because i had always have an addiction for myths and names. . . and i find this series' character names to be one of the most original in any i have seen especially in the fantasy genre. . . such names as Phibrizo, Gaav, Cepheid all have a somewhat aggressive and archaic feel to it and though some were derived partially from western lore, they were nevertheless unheard of. even the spells themselves were named impressively. . . and finally the story of the Slayers universe , the myth of the dragons and the demons, and how everything came to be was well told. i also like the fact that the characters themselves were caught up in all this mysteries without actually overstepping on it. the series was like a treasure box full of little stories and information that you'd really believe there was a real wacko world like that somewhere. . . and even if there isn't, you'd still like to think there is one.

*whew* all in all, im just glad there's a new one that's released. i am just so happy i needed to write this why-do-i-like slayers post.

P.S. i also hope you watch kure-nai. nice anime. . . and please, don't get the wrong idea that it's lolicon. i've had enough just reading from some of those shitty commenters who want it to turn out that way.

A good find

I had a not-so-hostile sibling fight last night so i opened ym to talk to someone and cool my head off. . . that someone was a friend of mine way back in H.S. He told me to amuse myself, watch a comedy movie or scribble, or just DO SOMETHING to keep myself from eating myself (lol). . . and since i've exhausted up all my DVD supplies (visually speaking), i needed to watch something else from someone else's site.

And so i scoured the net looking for good movies. (oh yeah, i forgot he recommended two but i've watched one of them and i was not in the mood to watch the other). I searched 10 best films on google. . . and couldn't find anything except dorks who keep mentioning hollywood movies. I mean, don't get me wrong, i like hollywood movies. Lemme see. . . my fave classics are ben hur, lawrence of arabia and the longest day (sorry, classic romance ain't my thing . . . I can't bear to watch a guy in a mustache sweep a 60's looking girl off her feet, as he holds her with one arm and tells her "Darling, I'll never live another day without you" ---> it makes my skin crawl. . . ) and there are a lot of good modern ones too: autumn in new york, fight club, silence of the lambs, devil's advocate, event horizon, primal fear. . . etc. but i got tired of hollywood and their mindless taste in movie titles these days (excluding a few good ones that pop up every now and then and the superhero movies they're making ----> i'm mindless myself XD ). So the search went on. . . until it narrowed down to the top asian movies with lots of kung fu and jet li, and then to the top asian romantic then to the top japanese romantic drama until i reached a forum that recommended this particular movie . . .



Well . . the girl ain't really that pretty (she had a horribly cute smile in that nerdy face of hers, lol), and well. . . i'm not GAY to watch this movie because the guy was the same one that starred in Nodame Cantabile, but the opening act really set the mood. . . and so, I was like "ok, let's finish this."

So after an hour and a half of exposure i stood up, took a deep breath and found out that i wasn't even a bit angry or irritated. I was depressed, terribly in fact and i can't keep myself from forgetting that nerdy smile and pout and the weird way the girl walked in the movie. I turned off the monitor and just stared in space for a good half an hour and finally told myself "Shit! i love that movie."

the ending's a bit cliche actually, but it was so well done that even if you knew it would happen, you would never be able to help yourself but cry (i dropped a tear or two . . . OK OK!!! so it was more than a dozen. . . you happy now!?) . but that's just me (i must be a man with a hose for a tear duct)

Anyway, the point of all this is that i'm recommending this movie to you . . . the readers of this hideous, late-to-update blog, not because i personally like it but because i think it's really well done (like a juicy steak). and don't think i endorsed this movie so you could comment to me "thank you" or "your taste sucks". Seriously it's not for the comment. . . but if you happen to watch it and thank me, lemme just reply by saying "doh!, I told you so!"


Btw, i watched the Hulk and i liked it better than the first for various reasons: First because it's what i imagined hulk should be (though the first movie was actually more faithful to the image of the comic hulk ---> leaping long distances, healing insanely fast etc), second, because his opponent (Abomination) was the kind of villain that supports the hulk's portrait as a rampaging beast, third, because it was darker, and fourth because i like norton as banner better than bana even if the latter have the first three letters of bruce's surname.

umm. . . bad parts: live tyler's voice. the actress was ok, the voice was far from it. and some stupid lines (there were some lines that makes me wanna kill the writer).

Im an uncle!?

it was .. . what was that day? i forgot. i was stuck for more than 12 hours in the hospital when someone called to have a check at the nursery. i was still daydreaming because it was still night and so i ignored the announcement and had my mom and my brother-in-law have a check. a few minutes later, my sister came and told me her baby was born. the funny thing was, i just stared at her. her voice seemed like a distant vibration from outer space. . .so far, i needed to have a stethoscope or something just to hear. to put it bluntly, i was dumbstruck. i honestly didn't know how to handle the news. was it bad? of course it wasn't bad, but it was not like a cake had been handed down so that i can eat it (not that i like cakes). all day, i was expecting that any moment she would deliver the baby, i guess the reality never really sunk into me, and i had to drink water just to calm myself.

so what then. . . now that she has a baby, so what? the question kept running through my head a few seconds after i finally grasp what she had told me. . . and then it hit me, holy shit. . . I'M AN UNCLE. . . the word struck me like some foreign entity that dropped out of the sky. perhaps it would have been better if Michael Buffer (a ring announcer) walked right in front of me and yelled "Congratulations James, you're now an uncle!" . perhaps the news would have sounded more positive, the same when you're promoted from work. but i was half asleep, and the one telling me the supposedly good news was a woman who just came after grueling hours of labor and delivery. she looked half-dead (sorry lois) and there i was sitting on her bed with my eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. it almost reminded me of a scene from a dark comedy.

it took me hours to finally get ahold of myself. Eunice (the baby), she's one weird delightful soul. she sleeps most of the time, and the first time i saw her. . . she ignored me, choosing to sleep rather than face her sleepless uncle. she must have unconsciously hated me for not welcoming her properly within her first few hours. "i'm sorry, uncle was just surprised he's becoming an. . . well, an uncle" that's what the back of my mind told her after i saw her. i was proud of her. she has a calm, rebellious spirit just like her mother. perhaps one day, when i'm old (not that i'd like to think i am), i'd finally be able to tell her this awful story. until then, i'd have to be playing this new role she had given me, as her uncle.

new pastime?

when was the last time i posted? oh yeah october. . . it says below too. no good movies. just having a fun time whacking those two (blondie and JP) in Tekken. they're still noobs and so i was trying to restrain myself from fear that they may get discouraged. i wouldn't want that to happen or else i wouldn't have any bully material to tamper with and my days with the PS2 fighting would be short-lived. these are just those days i'm making a comeback after my disastrous stint with Stephen in Soul Calibur and Jp's insane racing skill in GT. it's ;like, for the first time in a long time, i could finally say to them "WELCOME TO MY WORLD, U PIECES OF MEAT!!!!".

lately, they have been improving though. . . .and so restraint wasn't so much of a problem anymore. they learned pretty quick. like me, Stephen's one of those methodical jerks who likes to play it technical, while Jp, well. .. . his style's just plain simple . . . but his timing and execution, it's impeccable. reminds me of a hated rival when he was just starting to play Tekken where you'd fall for the same old trick over and over and over until your reflexes began to tighten and that same move would be the only thing you'd watch out for. . . . or maybe my defense just suck so bad he just needed to repeat it for me to lose.

*sigh*

we played a new game last week (not that the game is really new). It's Tetris. you might wanna challenge us. Jp'll be bringing the cd to Okono once in a while.