Za-Za-Zatturnnaaaahh!!!

Just when I told the virtual people in cyberspace that I will not buy another book until I finished my pending ones, I bought one.

Well, technically, it’s a graphic novel—my first Pinoy graphic novel. I never saw the movie version but I heard the theatrical version was good. I’m not gonna make a complete review of it but it has it’s funny moments. If you want a quick stress reliever, this is it. I also think it’s pretty cheap for it’s price—I mean, considering the effort of story writing and art. And it has these extra colored pages, here’s a sample.

And they are ALL men. =D

Expensive Interests

I think I belong in the minority of women where shopping (mostly spent on clothes and accessories) is not a primary interest. Don’t get me wrong—I like to shop but not as often (although I can spend a lot on one go). So, to compensate, the heavens must have wired me to be inclined to the following preoccupations, which truly makes up for my lack of spending in shopping.

Books – The moment I finish my pending four books, I’d buy another bunch. It’s too bad books costs so much these days. I miss buying books. I miss hanging out at National Bookstore and Powerbooks. I’m such a nerd.

Art-related Materials – I’m mostly the pen and ink, and pencil type so to buy more than one sign pens of different points and various shades of lead can get costly. Fortunately, I have great friends who have given me art materials (colored pencils, pastels, drawing pads) as gifts in the past. I’m saving every single one of them by not carelessly using them as practice sets—I have generic paper and materials for that—but only when I get to start making a serious art project. I also include art books here—books that tell me how to draw but I don’t really follow since I just stare at the pictures and take it from there. High costs of these books have also deterred me from buying—even if on sale, the price hurts.

Tennis – I was told once that tennis is an expensive sport since you need to rent a court, ball kid and a hitting partner to play—unless you have someone else to play with or a wall to hit the ball to. Someone should’ve told me that tennis racquets were expensive as well. Seriously, I didn’t expect them to reach such sums—sure, I knew they could reach a thousand or so but 10k?! 20k?! Some even more expensive! I was fortunate enough to get a decent one below a thousand (no choice, the racquets here belong in the 70s era, the wooden lollipop-looking ones). At most, if I really save on a lot of things, I can play at the rate of once a week. The one good thing about this is the abandoned and lonely tennis court at the SPS rooftop in school that nobody uses. Reservation is easy and it’s free—perfect for walling practice. It can just get very lonely when practicing alone.

Cars – This is very farfetched, car racing I mean. It would be nice to experience a go on Tuason Racing School. But no, I can’t even afford to have my mudguards changed and my other entry alarm replaced. Karting rates are sky high as well!!! And here I was also thinking of putting a little personal touch to my car. I’m not after the MTV Pimping kind (which can be rather impractical) but simple side skirts, angel eye headlights, change my wheels/rims and put some black accents on the sides—maybe put a little insignia on the gasoline door panel thingy, are enough. Before I wanted to change my grille and put spoilers but now, I’m ambivalent about it. I guess I got used to looking at the snarling grille and although spoilers would look good on the outside, it kind of bothers my vision from the rearview mirror. Damn, I’m speaking as if I can actually afford doing the modifications! This fascination in cars will remain a fantasy and the closest thing that I can get is to go to car shows (which may seem like a masochistic move, haha!).

Imagine if I’m not into the above and actually a shopping spender—I’d be flat broke even before the week ends. >__<;;

What's Playing on the Small Screen

My reputation for watching movies in theaters isn’t that good. Often times, I’m one of the few people (at school, at least) to watch the latest movies two weeks after their opening dates. So this summer, I told myself to catch up and watch recent movie DVDs and those that were considered classics. And here are my opinions of them (not really reviews and not very constructive either)…

300 – Whoa. I watched this twice—probably won’t get tired of watching it. I want to read the graphic novel. This is good movie. Gory, but really good. Tight plot and witty humor (Spartans can just be so adorable when they make an upcoming bloodbath something to look forward to). See, it’s so good I’m writing in fragmented statements. I regret not seeing this on the big screen…and I blame my superego and thesis for it.

Fast and the Furious 3 – While Quiaps and Choco might disagree with me on this, I didn’t like it as much as I liked the first two (yes, even if there is an Evo in F&F3). Didn’t like the plot—Initial D 4th Stage has better plot (and I thought ID4 had very little compared to its predecessors) and while there were wee moments of excitement (I can’t remember now which part), I don’t know…the “drifting” didn’t thrilled/impressed me. The mountain pass views were nice though.

Babel – This is like watching a global version of Crash—plots where characters are eventually linked with each other. I liked Crash better because I prefer its pacing over Babel. The movie comes off as boring but in retrospect there were issues that are worth debating over. And it’s very interesting to see how sign language is used in the Japanese context. Translation issues. I instantly remembered Magnus on this since he wanted to do a research on this topic.

Letters from Iwo Jima – For me, this movie screamed Japanese culture and how unpopular unconventionality can be. The dude who played Nishi was hot (compared to the rest, sans, Ken Watanabe). The suicide scene-soldier style was—well, really graphic. This was a heavy film. I wouldn’t watch it again anytime soon. I did like it a bit better than Babel.

The Godfather Trilogy – Let’s start with the Godfather ONE. Very slow start—that’s my only complaint and the rest went smoothly. The simultaneous baptism and massacre scenes were great. Imo, this is the most action-packed among the three. And I can’t believe they killed HIM just like that—didn’t see it coming…and just when I was warming up to his character!!! Godfather TWO. I felt like this installment dealt more on the character development—the Vito Corleone flashbacks were nice (and darn, Robert de Niro and Al Pacino almost looked alike and related! ; ). Towards the end though, I felt how long the movie was—the drag setting in I guess…it’s like there were moments that I asked “when will this movie end…?’). Godfather THREE. I liked it—pacing and all, and for a change, something got taken from Michael Corleone (oh, le anguish…), unlike before where it was always him that takes something from someone. But I guess the reason why I appreciated this movie more was because I saw the first two—I wonder if I will feel the same way if I saw it stand-alone. The common circumstance among the three, aside from the obvious mafia dealing, is the festive mood—there’s always songs and celebrations in each installment. One thing’s for sure—I applaud anyone who can watch this trilogy marathon style ~_^.

Cinepuri – Even though I already know how this turned out since I read Tenipuri manga, I thought I’d check it out and see what the crack is all about. Heeheehee…this is like tennis meets Shaolin Soccer/Kung Fu Hustle style, only at least the whacked premise is already known in the latter two films while in Cinepuri, it actually starts off serious. But really, no one should take this movie seriously ^_^ And so what if I fancy the dudes who played the Captain and Mr. Buuuurrrninggg!!!! (Again, compared with the rest LOL!!!) Also, I found the lead kid to have more personality here compared with the manga (and he actually fits the role, he looked cute…as in kid/puppy-cute).

Death Note – I may have to do a follow-up reaction here since I only saw the first part—the subbing of the second was way too messed up. I also want to reread the manga for better comparison. All I can say is L is hot...his acting, I mean, hehehe.

Cogitations of an Idle Mind ver…3? 4?

I feel the need to update this blog but I can’t seem to connect with my muse who usually gives me the drive to write about something. So for now, I guess an update on what I’ve been doing would do…

I have less than two weeks before school starts and work begins again. I still haven’t made my preps. *looks at piles of junk on desk* I’m not even done completely fixing my room. But there’s a big improvement compared with the last year or so.

If I was such a loser for watching 300 way too late (meaning, DVD only), it’s a different story for Spiderman 3, which I saw on the second day of opening. Choco already blogged about this and while I didn’t really feel the slight drag of the movie that she felt, I quite agree with her assessment(!) about the movie. It wasn’t bad but I didn’t feel the urge to get the DVD, unlike maybe Fantastic 4. Spidey 3, imho, invested on emotions and character development—the last fight scene was really great, though. And yeah, do watch out for Harry Osbourne ^_^

I just finished revising one of the research projects (with Magnus and Quiaps) and I noticed how much difference 2 years made in terms of writing style. I recognized some of the portions I did in the paper and since I’m fresh from finishing my thesis (a.k.a the blissful journey to hell and back), I realized how, erm…my writing style has changed ^^;; Also, the way I looked at my old writing style…hehehe, it could use a lot of work.