Random thoughts

Been a while since I’ve posted. So here are the points to be kwento’d

• Splinter Cell – Chaos Theory
• Serenity
• Orange and Lemons
• Days With The Lord Weekend
• Transporter
• San Miguel basketball team
• Bloomfields
• China

Splinter Cell – Chaos Theory

One major reason I was offline was because of this game. It literally took a couple of months before I could get to play it since it was a bitch to crack because of the new protection scheme. Fortunately, someone figured out a way to circumvent it, hence all the playing recently.

Nothing spectacular about the story. The gameplay is quite interesting though. But I hate the fact that the “longevity” of the missions is simply because it’s tedious instead of actually engaging. When people pay for a game, they want the game to at least give them a run for their money – which usually means longer playing time… para sulit diba? It will definitely take time to play, not because it’s difficult… but tedious. Use cheats on it (like I do) and you can finish it in a couple of hours, unlike Prince of Persia, even if you cheat, it still takes a long time to get through the game.

Serenity

I finally downloaded a decent version of Serenity. ¹ It’s the movie continuing the story on the now defunct “Firefly” series that aired on Fox. It was a Telecine, which is next best thing to a DVD rip. For those who don’t know, Telecine rips are digitized versions ripped straight from the source film. It’s analogous to scanning a photograph – as against taking a picture of a photograph… which is the analogy akin to the cams or telesyncs ² Which are literally videocam footages of movies… INSIDE the theaters.

Visit http://www.vcdquality.com/index.php?page=faq for more information.

Anyways, I loved it! It lived up to whatever hype it had (it wasn’t marketed well, and didn’t have good ratings, so the series never made it to the second season). I actually downloaded the first season DVD rips after I heard about the reviews about the movie… and was I glad I did!

A lot of people compare it’s caliber to Star Wars as one of the best sci-fi treatments in history and I can see why. I’d still have to disagree on a lot of points for the fanatics, but I can say this: I like it better than Star Wars. And not because it’s better per se, but because I’m a story person.

If that didn’t make sense let me put it simply: Star Wars has a better mythology, while Serenity/Firefly has a better story. And for the sake of clarifying… Lord of the Rings has both, but it ain’t sci-fi – so there’s no comparison there.

I like how “personal” Serenity can get… how “human” its characters are. While it’s cool to be a Jedi, it always irked me how goody-goody they are. And now that they had the chance of portraying a rather interesting Jedi in the form of Anakin, they had to ruin it with lousy casting, and dialog. Serenity doesn’t fail in any of these points… and this is considering I never seen any of the actors in my life. Great acting, great dialog, superb story.

It’s unfortunate that it isn’t making the numbers in the box office, I don’t even think it would reach the Philippines at this rate. But if you get the chance to watch it, please do. I’ll buy you a steak dinner if you don’t like it.

But one caveat is that you have to watch the series to appreciate the movie. In fact I’ll go as far as saying that you’ll be mightily pissed if you watch the series after the movie.

Orange and Lemons

I was going to the Days batch friday night, when a friend of mine wanted to meet up before that. Turns out she was friends with this band. Funny thing was I never heard of the band because of the rock I was living under. Just kidding, I guess I’m not that into the local band scene, and a band doing brit/new-wave doesn’t really rock my boat.

I had heard the name before, when I saw an article in The Philippine Daily Inquirer on how they “plagiarized” a song for their theme for Pinoy Big Brother (again, a show I don’t watch either… or any TV show for that matter). I honestly don’t have an opinion on the matter. I never even bothered asking them about it. I couldn’t care less really.

I guess the point of writing this down is that the whole meet-up gave me some kind of “small world” feeling to everything. How one minute I was reading about these guys, and the next I’m in the same table eating dinner with them.

Days With The Lord

Tata, a good friend and fellow BP member was a participant… and I only noticed on the last day (likewise for her)! I guess the only thing I want to say to her at this point is that [with no disrespect meant to the crew now] she should’ve been a participant when the old music crew was active, she would’ve loved us!

But that’s just the music part of it, other than that I can say that this recent batch was probably one of the better ones I’ve been to. For those who started it, you would be proud of your “grandchildren”… the community is in good hands.

Transporter 2

Cris and I also watched Transporter 2. I must say it may be a guy flick. But she enjoyed it as well, so I guess it’s all good. I never got to watch the first, but when I saw the trailer of the second, I thought that I really had to watch it. And I was glad I did!

The fight choreography was excellent. Nothing too much – save for the whole mastery of physics the guy seemed to have. The one that took the cake was when he made the car ramp off the road and spin so that the bomb that was under the car could get caught in one of the construction hooks… exxxaaaagggg! Nadaig pa niya si Rambo sa pagka-impossible.

But nonetheless, the character(s) were good. I liked the disposition of the protagonist, and it complemented the story well. I’d recommend this movie too! But of course it’s nowhere near Serenity.

San Miguel Basketball Team

Last tuesday, I skipped BP practice to accompany my dad to Tito Bing’s house. Dr. Bing Basilio and his friend/colleague Dr. Banatin are two surgeons who asked me if I could teach them how to use Macintoshes. I’ve always missed the opportunity to swing by Tito Bing’s house and “tutor” him, so medyo nakakahiya na he’s had his Mac for so long and still doesn’t know how to use it. He never even used a PC, so he’s practically starting from scratch as far as computers are concerned.

When my dad asked me if I was interested in going to dinner at his house, I thought I better not pass up this chance since it’s so hard to schedule. But that’s not the full reason why I wanted to go.

When it comes to food, there are a bunch of dishes, which our household makes better than any restaurant (whith a few exceptions, of course). This is part of the reason I’m never compelled to simply “eat out.” Why spend on something inferior, when you can get better for free. When it comes to Lamb Chops, Steaks, and the like, I’d probably choose ours over most restaurants. Suffice to say, dad makes killer versions of the mentioned dishes – Tito Bing taught him that. So I’d finally get to taste food from the master himself! I wasn’t about to pass this up.

Little did I know that it wasn’t any ordinary dinner. It was one of those occasions where Tito Bing treats the San Miguel team to dinner… because he’s close friends with their coach. We had prime-rib/roast-beef. And all I can say is wow. It tasted more like steak than roast beef! And the slices we were given were 3/4 of an inch thick and about 12 inches long on the average! So basically it was a steak already hahahaha. I ate a decent 250-300grams (I’m usually full with 200). It was pathetic compared to the 3 servings each player usually gets.

Bloomfields

Wednesday, Cris and I hung out, then went to Bagaberde (tama ba spelling?) to watch her friend Louie, who’s in the said band.

It was quite a treat watching people with a Beatle-esque porma doing synchronized steps – very enjoyable. People would usually think that it would be cheezy, but honestly, I rather bands have some planned “steps” cuz it really helps their stage presence. I’m not that much of a fan of 50-60s music, but I would recommend anyone… especially parents to watch them for the sheer fun of it. Louie’s mother was there, and it was cool to imagine the concept of playing music your parents would love. Though I myself can’t picture myself doing it for my mom… or sing Frank Sinatra for my dad hahahaha.

The interesting thing that happened is that He (Louie) dedicated a song to me, then Cris and I had our laughs as soon as we heard the first words of She Loves You by The Beatles. Touche pare!

Unfortunately, I was never a bar/band person. I’ve been in a band, but outside of that, I never liked the volume levels of any gig… and the smoke… God help me. But while it may be a while before I watch a gig again (or ever for that matter), let me state for the record that if you like 50-60s, and would like to see quality performance… then check the Bloomfields out – you won’t regret it.

China

We’re headed for China on the 20th to follow my mom who’ll be a business trip. Of course the prospect of that whole bird-flu shit is kinda creeping me out. From an article about the virus:

Scientists fear the H5N1 strain could combine with human flu or mutate into a form that it easily transmissible between humans, triggering a flu pandemic.

ooooookaaaaayyyyyy.

Note to self: avoid coughing people and do not eat any chicken. Oh and bring your camera so you can take a picture of the Great Wall!

I wonder if using semi-pro or pro equipment would be a hassle in customs… China being a communist country and all. Don’t you just hate it when they let people with the point and shoots or phone-cams take all the pictures they want anywhere, but don’t extend the same privilege to those using professional equipment. I experienced that treatment in some places in Egypt. I just hope it isn’t the case in China.

Oh well, we’ll find out when we get there.