Daft Punk - Aerodynamic

It's techno time.

Sync

I felt so tired all of a sudden at three o'clock today. I fell asleep only to wake up four hours later. The body clock is out of order.

Sleep early kids. Don't be like me.

Election Season

The air is full of speeches and vice versa. I wonder who the next president will be. It's a close race depending on what survey you buy into.

The future will be interesting.

Pop!

You know what brings a smile on my face? Picking fleas off my dogs.

I comb through the fur with my hands first until I feel the unmistakable bump, telling of the presence of little pests. I part the fur with my palm and use my thumb and index to grab a hold of their surprisingly smooth surface to yank them out. They look like plump, little raisins if it weren't for the tiny legs and visible head writhing as I detach it from it's little meal. Oftentimes, I can't help but sneer smugly at their impotent exertions.

I detest these miserable little wretches. I hate these filthy, little parasites with no purpose, absolutey none in this universe, completely insignificant "life" forms which exist solely to subsist on the blood of nobler beasts and spread disease. I conclude that such a pointless and pathetic blister could only be the work of the devil. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than stepping on them until I hear a soft popping noise. It is so damn satisfying seeing them torn apart and the rich red blood on the pavement.

Some Raisinettes would be good about now.

Dante's Inferno Animated

First off, Dante's Inferno Animated is not an animated version of Dante's The Inferno. Rather, it is based on a video game called Dante's Inferno, which is based very, VERY, loosely on the actual work. It's not usual for video games to get this treatment so I figured it was worth a look. I don't own the game but I know enough about it.

Look at that. It says it's an animated epic. Whatever. The main character is Dante who is apparently a crusader out to take the holy land. Right of the bat, Dante's horse FLIPS through the air. Again, whatever. Dante rushes home to his wife Beatrice, who he believes is in great danger. Thankfully, she's not in danger but is simply dead. Her soul is taken by Lucifer to hell as payment for a "bargain" of some sort to be explained later. Dante decides that the rational thing to do is to jump into hell to save her and so begins the story and the hack n' slash killfest hour.

The story is incredibly fast with Dante cruising at the speed of one circle of hell per ten minutes. As he fights on, his past is shown to us via flashbacks. When we're not watching a flashback of Dante, we're watching him hack demons over and over and over again. That's pretty much it basically. The show is nothing but Dante whining about how hellish hell is as he carves an incredibly bloody path through the underworld. He is accompanied by Virgil who does all the exposition since Dante can only growl "Beatrice!" as the ghost of his very naked wife floats away. That's it. What do you expect being based on a video game of the novel?

By the way, the trailer is wrong. It's based on the game of the original material. ON THE GAME. I can't stress that enough so all you literary assholes out there looking for an adaptation of the real work won't get dissapointed. Dante never killed no demons. In fairness, the way it shows the circles of hell is pretty creative. The trailer mentions animated studios.

There were five studios involved giving us five distinct styles. The first is more western in appearance. It reminded me of Spawn though not as good and probably not the same studio I think. The animation seemed sped up and weird in some areas. The second is a lot better. It's more anime-like but tons more awesome. The third is where Dante gets anorexic with long angsty hair. In the fourth he gains 300 pounds of muscle mass and looks more like some kind of shonen crap. In the finale, he looks boring but the fight scenes are pulled of technically well. If it weren't for the varying styles, this epic would have been epically boring. It helps keep some variety. All versions are very violent with blood and guts and even more blood, tits, gore, blood. It's very bloody. Blood.

All in all, it's pointless, mindless action but it's fun. I never expected anything more than that. The visuals keep it interesting enough to hold my attention otherwise it gets repetitive. Don't expect anything deep in this movie. Throw away the, ugh, "book" you pussy and watch some violence.

Love For Philippines

I just realized something today. I have never heard anybody say anything positive about my country. I thought long and hard and could not remember a single instance where a fellow Filipino, a teacher or even a friend, said anything nice about this country. All I hear in popular talk is snarky cynicism with a hint of despair and a dash of impotent rage. Instead of giving in to the culture of cynicism, I'm going to look deep into my heart and find genuine positive things to say about my country and I'm not trying to be ironic here.

1. We are a democracy

We often take freedom for granted. In school I was tasked to do a report on Burma and well, if you look at the horrible conditions in some countries abroad or contemplate the many instances in our history where we could have gone the deep end, you learn to appreciate that now, at least, we have mechanisms in place. Mechanisms that in theory, preserve the idea that the people are in charge. Even the mere existence of that idea in our culture is enough for me.

2. Free speech

The Philippines has a powerful, outspoken and freewheeling media. Not only that, we have a growing communications network with more and more people having access to the Internet. Everyone has a cellular phone when such technology seemed so distant decades ago. Speech isn't being forcefully squelched in schools or in public places or even in the airwaves. People can organize and rally yet, you don't see them being dragged away into gulags do you? All this talk about my country being a dangerous place for journalists is exaggerated. Fact: I'm blogging right now without any Chinese censors coming after my ass.

3. The Philippines is beautiful

If you think the Philippines is a polluted and ugly dustbowl full of decay and urban sprawl then get your fat ass out of the city. Visit a far off or less populated island. Better yet, pretend you're white and foreign, then take a vacation in one of the countries MANY tourist spots. We have 7, 107 islands. For Christ's sake look at some of them. The Philippines has some of the best beaches in the world and many pristine islands untouched by urbanization. There is a lot of the Philippines I, and many others I bet, have not seen. Paradise is out there, I know it is and so do you.

4. The Filipino

How about thinking of the Filipino's positive traits this time instead of the negative? Filipinos are sociable, shrewd, tenacious, savvy and versatile. Filipinos can adapt to any society. The Filipino is basically good natured and Filipino families are typically tight knit forming stable ties and stable societies.

Those are just a few I can think of. If you are a Filipino and while reading this, you are shaking your head in disbelief then go put your head in an oven. Even I get tired of all the negative crap sometimes. Stop putting yourself down. Do you think I enjoy writing the usual cynical pap about my country? Well I do a little but I'm trying to find the good here and it feels strangely more relieving. We've been conditioned to believe the worst in man, the worst in us, so much so that we can't give credit where it's due.

Go and treat yourself to some ice cream.

Bah

I bought Saint's Row 2, an open sandbox game since I thought I needed a fun sandbox game. I got sorely dissapointed.

It's not that the gameplay is bad. It's pretty solid. The problem are the graphics keep getting hiccups. I dont understand this since Prototype runs smoothly although it's graphically more taxing. I figure this could be just another lame PC port from the consoles like Mercenaries 2. I'm not sure.

This is the last time I'll ever buy crap like this. Either it's for PC or it's not.

The Western

I bought a DVD set (legally) at the mall, where all our worldly needs are satisfied. It contained three movies starring John Wayne namely: Rio Grande, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Sons of Katie Elder. Sadly, it did not have Wayne's breakout movie Stagecoach but I figure its a nice set for my small collection of westerns besides the Dollars trilogy.

I like westerns. It's one of my favorite genres. What I like about westerns is the recurring theme of adventure. Set usually during the frontier era of America from 1840 to 1890, the western rose to prominence with the film, The Great Train Robbery and had its golden age in the 1930s. Even before the moving pictures, there were already many legends and tales about frontier life. Think Wild Bill Hickok. The west was a large and untamed land. Many young men and women rode west, as the saying goes, to seek fame and fortune. It's the perfect setting for great stories. It captures the unique spirit of the American's rugged individualism, where a man goes and makes something of himself, tame the land and carve his own path in the world.

Another recurring theme in westerns is the concept of law and order. The frontier was beyond the reach of governments in the cities and urbanized areas. It's the story of the pistol, lawmen and bandits. Westerns touch on the deeper issues on the need for order versus what seems to be the innate brutality and evil of man. It was the law of man versus the law of survival of the fittest. Westerns were almost always simple stories of good versus evil with shades of grey here and there. It was human drama set in the amazing landscapes of America. (or Italy if you know what I mean) It also introduced or popularized many characters and devices that are a staple even until today. The lone gunman, the outlaw, arming the villagers, daring heists, the sharpshooter, the fastest gun in the west etc. Westerns had many breathtaking musical scores as well.

Sometimes, I wish I was a cowboy. I really do.

Oh No He Didn't

Have a listen.

Well, as you can probably imagine, fellow Filipinos won't be very happy about these unflattering comments. This reminds me of an incident before. The popular show, Desperate Housewives, they made a joke about the Philippines producing dubious college degrees. There was a sizable uproar with protest from this and that sector etc. It was even referenced in a national paper.

In the Philippines, believe me, people in general have a poor sense of humor. As soon as some American or foreigner takes jabs at our country, our panties are in a bunch. Yet, interestingly when we mock our own failures we shrug our shoulders.

I don't really find Adam Carolla's comments offensive. That's because its so over the top, I don't take it seriously and I can appreciate the sarcastic and caustic style of comedians like Carolla. I mean, I have George Carlin's complete set of routines and videos if that tells you anything. Others however, take it so seriously. What he said had a grain of truth and we can't accept it. Its not fun to be the butt of a joke but all countries have to learn to accept being made fun of. Look at Canada.

Anyway I agree with everything Carolla said about Manny. He is idolized way too much. We really need to grow up, closing down the entire country whenever he fights. That's a fact actually. It is statistically true that even crime goes down on the day of his fights. Yeah, we should get a life and yes, its funny. What he said was funny. It's not offensive. It's funny. Its funny because its true, isn't it. ISN'T IT. Oh yes, the truth hurts but learn to laugh for chicken bone's sake. Learn to laugh. Its called a sense of humor. Get one.

Why so serious?

Poor Little Rich Man

There's this guy running for president. Let's call him Money. Money's gimmick is that he's a self-made man, a rags to riches case. He's been there, done that and then some. Now, he got himself the means to the highest office in the land. A charming story right?

Well, a lot of people are questioning his, how shall I call it... street cred? In the opinion pieces of local and national papers one can read about the gossip surrounding Money's origins since that's what passes as political discourse around here. Money says he lost a relative since he had no money to buy medicines and that Mommy was a fish vendor. He also said all his siblings slept on one mat in the same room when he was young. All of these stories, it seems, are dubious. His relative, as it turns out, was sent to some fancy hospital, his mom was a fish trader and not a vendor (traders sell stock to vendors) and nobody can really confirm the bad living conditions except Money himself right? Yadda-yadda. Long story short, he wasn't POOR poor. He was probably middle class or lower middle class at best.

Money wants sympathy. Majority in this country are poor. It makes sense to tell them that you know what its like. However, I think all of this is revealing of our little quirks as a society, not just the way we automatically categorize people into socio-economic strata but on the importance of image in politics. What does it really matter if you were born of a poor or well-off family? The implications in all of this is that somehow, having been poor makes you more virtuous. See, if you're born relatively wealthy, you are completely incapable of human empathy. You are a greedy capitalist pig who never had to struggle and never shared the same experience as majority of Filipinos have.

I blame classical Christian morality where the poor are seen as noble and humble. Wealth is viewed negatively as an evil. I understand Money's need to bolster his street cred but he's not the only one. Other candidates run on anti-poverty gimmicks as well. Poor this, poor that. We gotta help the poor! Give them free crap! Vote for me since I got the most crap to give!

The poor are given way too much attention in this country. Look, a lot of poor people, not all to be fair, are fickle, ignorant, illiterate, gullible, vulgar and crude. Do you really think that from among the retarded masses, our savior shall emerge? Only someone from the masses can truly lead us to our destiny? We tried that folks and our savior was convicted of plunder. (He's still running now, go figure) If anything, the hope of this country lies in the educated class. The middle class. Maybe not the rich since they can be "too smart" if you know what I mean.

So Money, be proud man. Be proud of your glorious middle class heritage. Middle class people have been marginalized and discriminated against for long enough. Stand up and be proud. Enjoy your air-conditioning and DSL. Drink your ground coffee and eat three meals a day. Don't let them look down on you.

Man, this is like those high school guilt trips all over again.

The Rascal King - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

I applied for a part-time job as a transcriptionist recently. I figure that writing someone else's crap would be more pleasant. They said they would call me today if I got it but its a holiday so I dunno what the hell...

Feel like crap. Procrastinating. Haven't been exercising.

You know what cheers me up though? Ska.