Friday, August 29, 2003
Had my hair cut today. It's quite short. Now maybe when I go to class tomorrow they won't recognize me as that freak who fainted last time. Perhaps a fake mustache or three would help as well.
Also watched 28 Days Later on DVD. Running zombies are indeed scarier than the old-fashioned, shuffling kind; but overall the film was actually less scary than Night of the Living Dead, though it might also be the more interesting of the two.
Running zombies, though. I wonder what the next step is. Zombies on motorcycles? Flying zombies? Zombies with guns? Martians attacked at 11:19 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
We went to the Manila Observatory and we saw Mars! Even on a cloudy night like this, it was a very bright orange dot in the sky; so technically we could have seen it even without going all the way to the observatory and waiting in line for 45 minutes with a jillion other people. But what fun would that have been? Mars! Wow!
Martians attacked at 11:04 p.m.! Where were you?
~
Tuesday, August 26, 2003
Hah! This time I actually have a good excuse for not blogging! It was because my brain was swelling up and threatening to burst from my skull like a fleshy pink baby bird hatching from its egg!
Well, no, not really. But I was a bit afraid that it was. By Monday, though, the headaches were pretty much gone; only a small but painful bump on the side of my head and a burning feeling of humiliation remain as a reminder of how, last Saturday morning, I fainted while giving a report in front of my entire Film Writing class and hit my head on the damn floor.
It seemed like a pretty cut-and-dried case of lack of sleep combined with two crackers for breakfast and a generous portion of my screaming terror of public speaking. But now Mom is convinced that I'm anemic or malnourished or that sleeping late gives me some kind of terrible falling-down disease, like the one that afflicted Carlo a little while back. So now she's making me swear to go to bed at 3 AM instead of 5, which I guess isn't such a bad idea anyway. Martians attacked at 07:30 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Thursday, August 21, 2003
No blog for several days means long recap!
Sunday: We went to see a kiddy Repertory play of Beauty and the Beast. Not the Disney version. Best part were Beauty's whiny sisters and their boyfriends with the outrrrrageous French accents. Best not to think about that laughing song though, unless you want "ho ho ho, hee hee hee, ha ha, ho, hee hee" to stick in your head.
Also, I managed to get that free Ragnarok Online trial working. This game is addictive, but it makes me feel like such a butcher. The monsters are all way too cute. They don't even attack you; but you have to keep killing them if you want to level up or get items. So here I am going around slaughtering these bouncing pink happy-face slime blobs and these squeaky fluffy white bunny things. I even found one area where you get to kill tiny just-hatched baby birds. My God, what have I become?
Monday: Went to the comic store and they were all out of 1602 issue 1. Cuuuuurrrses. So I caved in and bought the first volume of the translated Battle Royale manga. The manga is apparently based on the novel rather than the movie, so they take a lot more time to flesh out the individual characters. But the guys all have these really horrible shounen manga hairdos. Sugimura, my favorite of the guy characters in the movie, looks like some kind of long-haired Bruce Lee. The translation is very Americanized, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it seemed a little much in parts. Having characters call each other by their first names is one thing; but to have Shuuya call Noriko "Nori" is just plain weird. You just called her "dried seaweed", you dork! >__<
Tuesday: Finally went to see EL EX GEE in the theater. That ending... that has to be one of the most "WTF?" tacked-on endings in the history of cinema. Even more embarassing now that there probably won't be a sequel.
Also, I finally got my Ragnarok character Flerida (yes named after the Florante at Laura character, shut up) promoted from Novice to Swordsman. Swordswoman. Whatever. Technically she should be an Archer but I thought Swordsman would be more fun. Dollars to donuts that if Carlo ever plays this game he'll make his character a female Mage. XD
Wednesday: Finished the short story I was supposed to turn in for class that day. Also, my Ragnarok Online free trial expired. CUUUUUURRRRSES.
Thursday (today): Not much that's worth noting. I did run to the store in a desperate bid to pick up some Ragnarok Online prepaid cards, but they were sold out. CUUUUUUUUURRRRSES!!!
Oh yeah, and today was Ninoy's death anniversary. Not that I did anything for it; I didn't even wear yellow. I saw a piece about the Ninoy commemorations on BBC International. I wonder if foreigners watching that wonder why everybody's wearing yellow. I wonder if Cory even really likes yellow that much, or if she just wears it now because everybody expects her to. Martians attacked at 11:21 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Saturday, August 16, 2003
So the big project that I, somehow or other, turned in today was the first draft of the screenplay for my film writing class. My first screenplay makes my first novel look like "A Masterfully-plotted Literary Tour-de-force! *****" I actually suceeded in adapting the already quite retarded story of Florante at Laura into something even more retarded. But the important thing is, it's done now, and I can pretend it doesn't exist until it comes back to haunt me in workshopping! Wheeee!
Martians attacked at 08:07 p.m.! Where were you?
~
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Apparently Carlo's computer fell victim to that new MSbuster worm that's going around. I only found out about it this afternoon, turning on to CNN to see that weirdo Richard Quest talking about how his computer got it. They say that you have to download the patch at windowsupdate.microsoft.com. I spend hours pressing "reload" trying to access the page, what with every other Windows user in the world trying to get there at the same time; finally, I get a page that tells me it won't even let me in unless I'm using Internet Explorer 5. What a lovely bunch of people they have at Microsoft. Can't think why those nasty computer virus makers would have it in for them.
Martians attacked at 11:10 p.m.! Where were you?
~
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Interesting article about Saddam Hussein and his magic powers. I especially liked the line "Mr. Hussein and his inner circle were obsessed with the dark arts," because it felt like I was reading a Harry Potter fanfic instead of current events.
This line, though: Martians attacked at 03:56 a.m.! Where were you? ~
"In a country where decades of isolation and repression have cut people off from the modern world, belief in the occult is commonplace, and Iraqis regularly consult soothsayers to find stolen cars or tackle mental illness."
Decades of isolation, my ass. The Philippines is like that too, and we've been importing foreign cultures for centuries. Last year I had a classmate -- in a graduate-level class, in one of the country's top institutions of learning, mind -- who had us all listening and nodding seriously while she told us about the portal from the spirit world in her home and about how she used to be visited at night by malicious semi-tangible creatures. And it's not like she was just some wacko, because everybody knows somebody with a story like that.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Crazy. That's the second time within recent memory that I've had a dream about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie. The first was maybe a couple of weeks ago, when I still hadn't seen the thing. I dreamt that I was watching it for the first time, and that it was a lot different from my expectations. Tom Sawyer and Dorian Gray were barely in it at all, and the thing was like two hours of character development scenes with very little action and almost no discernable plot. (As it turns out, that dream was closer to the mark than I realized. XD )
And then this morning I dreamed that I was watching a scene in the movie that I had somehow missed the first time. Basically Nemo and a couple of others were captured by some bad guys, I guess, and they were all sitting around a table eating dinner. The bad guys were being really snotty to Nemo, ordering him to get them some salad dressing like he was a servant or something. (And from the comics, we all know how much he loves having to act like a servant.) Nemo very calmly and quietly got up, and then he ripped their frigging heads off. I was all set to declare this my new favorite scene in the movie, until I woke up. Damn.
Of course, the "real" Nemo would be more likely to shoot them in the face or gut them with a sword. But I guess Movie!Nemo could've used some special martial-arts technique to rip off their heads. But right as he got up, he said "I am a doctor", which really makes no sense. I mean, some of the movie posters described him as a "scientist", but unless he got himself a doctorate in Piracy and Steampunkery it really shouldn't count. Maybe he meant, "I am a doctor of RIPPING YOUR DAMN HEADS OFF you filthy colonialist wankers." Though he only ripped the heads off of the two guys who insulted him directly; the others he just hit over the head with a bottle of salad dressing.
Not that any part of the dream really made any sense at all, because my lola was watching the thing with me and she was just as amused as I was. No, my real lola is no more readily entertained by postmodern over-the-top violence than the average grandmother. And by the way, when I say "watching" I don't mean that we were watching it on a movie screen, I mean that we were sitting at the table with the characters.
...Man, I have some weird dreams. Martians attacked at 06:48 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Sunday, August 10, 2003
These days I keep letting weeks and weeks slip by without a single blog entry. I feel so guilty. Ah, the good old days when I was brimming with incessant posts about completely pointless things! It was fun. Nowadays I keep thinking, "Oh, I could blog about this" but by the time I get to the computer I've forgotten what made it even remotely interesting in the first place. Or I get lazy.
Anyway, to make up for it I might as well trot out a brief but nonetheless boring summary of what's been going on for the past few days. Let's see... Wednesday Mom left for Bangkok, and Carlo and I had a delicious meat-filled dinner at the cousins' house. As I always do when we go there, I stalked Ali, their sullen fluffy white kitty (brother to Shawn, my sullen fluffy grey kitty). As usual, he avoided me at all costs.
Hm... Friday, I went to class, where it was revealed that our next week's class will be moved to Wednesday. So much for seeing League of Extraordinary Gentlemen on opening night. Ah well.
Saturday, I accompanied Carlo to the computer shop, and dropped in at the comic shop. I bought some Korean Tokyopop manga; and they gave me that free trial Ragnarok Online CD that was supposed to come with that copy of Culture Crash I bought at Powerbooks last week, only it didn't. Oh, and the free CSN comics newsletter thingygummy had that LoEG vol. 3 preview picture on the front, the one with Mina and young Quatermain looking stylish and evil.
Saturday night I stayed home, having begged off what might have been a fun evening at Saki's, in order to attempt to be productive on two major writing assignments due next week. And that's pretty much the sum of all unmentioned parts of last week: me trying, and failing, to do work on assignments. Martians attacked at 08:36 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Monday, August 4, 2003
I've updated Britannia Waives The Rules. Also, my abdomen hurts! I hate it when it does that. I can't sit still to do anything, and I can't walk around to do anything else.
Ooh look, scanlations for that new CLAMP series XXXholic. Have read the first chapter. It's seriously freaking me out that the girl is drawn Mokona Apapa style while the guy is drawn Mick Nekoi style. Do Mokona and Mick have to sit elbow-to-elbow at the drawing table to do this? Maybe they do it over OpenCanvas chat. Martians attacked at 11:00 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Sunday, August 3, 2003
Wow. I did quite a number of things yesterday, many of which were not incredibly boring. I had lunch with Mom and Carlo in CPK. I finally decided to buy the second Artemis Fowl book at a sale in Powerbooks. I went to a new Gloria Jean's coffee place, when the last time I had Gloria Jean's stuff was in the States. And I met with two friends, one of whom I had not seen in weeks and the other of whom I had not seen since second year college. But what I managed to go on and on about for endless paragraphs was the LoEG movie. I am a true nerd after all! *___*
I'd been wondering if it wasn't time to get off my lazy behind and change the design of this blog for the second time in recorded history. And now that I've found these helpful instructions, I'll finally be able to make that trendy anime blog I've always wanted to have! Stay tuned -- soon this page will be renamed "NIHILISM" and feature a large and cleverly Photoshopped picture of Sanzo from Saiyuki! FWEEEEE~! ^>____~^% Martians attacked at 8:33 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Saturday, August 2, 2003
Oh my! What could this big block of text be all of a sudden? Is it possible that Andrea, whilst on her way to meet a couple of friends at Starbucks, swung by the wretched hive of scum and villainy known as Virra Mall and procured herself a cheap bootleg DVD of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen movie, a week and a half before its release in local theaters, and is now trying to pass her excessively incoherent stream-of-consciousness nerdings off as a review of said film?
Yes, it's possible.
Don't worry, I intend to do my part in putting bread on the poor starving Hollywood film exec's tables by seeing the movie again in the theater when it comes out. And it's actually quite a good thing that the first time I saw this movie was in the privacy of my own home. That way, no unfortunate moviegoers had to be subjected to my high-pitched squeal at THE CIGARETTE CASE, OH MY GOD, IT'S THE EXACT SAME FREAKING CIGARETTE CASE CAMPION BOND HAD IN THE COMIC, and my screaming "YOU'RE A FUCKING MIDGET" at random scenes of Nemo talking.
I fell near to weeping a la Lemony Snicket when Quatermain and Mina started trading barbs in the car. It made me think of Quatermain and Mina in the comics and how they were bickering as soon as they'd met. Ah! What could have been! ;___; Instead she had to be slobbering all over that Gray guy. How do Mina Harker and Dorian Gray know each other? When and where could they have met? Her damn husband could only have been dead for three years tops. When would they have had the time to have this implied torrid affair and breakup? And how did they do it without either one discovering that the other is a freakish vampire/immortal dandy? And what on earth could they possibly have had in common, anyway? ARRRHH why couldn't she have ended up with Jekyll? He was so cute!
When did Sawyer ever learn to drive that car? For that matter, since when was it a convertible? I'm so confused.
Check out the new Invisible Man, "Rodney Skinner", Mr. "I'm so heroic yet misunderstood", Mr. "Lookit me, the lovable Cockney rascal with the witty and terribly modern wisecrack about franchising, but such a good guy at heart." Some movie fans are going to get the shock of their lives when they read the comics and come across Griffin. In the bit where Sawyer runs into an invisible guy who he thinks is Skinner, until a menacing voice says "What makes you think I'm Skinner?" and starts going at him with a knife... I like to think that we were hearing the voice of Hawley Griffin.
Haha, yes! Die, Sean Connery! Die so you can't mess up this franchise any more!
Character closest to their comics equivalent: Nemo. He was a bit too goody-goody and not-gleefully-gunning-down-Englishmen, and his dramatic lines completely failed to sound menacing since he's about three feet tall. But aside from that, he did everything more or less like comics!Nemo would have, and managed to kick a bit of ass while doing it. He even had a big thing of Kali in his room! Now he just needs an improbably large harpoon gun and a belt buckle with a big "N" on it.
Character farthest from their comics equivalent: Quatermain. Everyone else, even when changed considerably, managed to do at least one thing similar to their original. The Invisible Man, despite completely failing to be evil and to stab the League in the back, still managed to be snarky and deliver comic relief. Mina, despite being Miss Vampire-Skank-of-the-Century, still... uh, wore a red scarf. Sometimes. And delivered a couple of rather comics!Mina-like scathing remarks. But with Quatermain, nothing. Comics!Quatermain may have whined and complained at every opportunity, but he was never a cocky smart-alecky bastard. Comics!Quatermain may not exactly have jumped to be at Britannia's beck and call, but he hardly hated the British Empire (that was NEMO, damnit!). Comics!Quatermain would never have figured out about M and Moriarty without Mina's or Nemo's help. Comics!Quatermain would never have shot a man in the back -- he'd consider it cowardly. The guy in the movie might as well have been called Connerymain.
Character whose changes I disliked the most: Yeah, you knew this was coming. Mina. I know it's old hat and I should just accept that they made her a vampire and a supporting character instead of the lead, but I can't help it. For what it's worth, I guess she made a decent vampire character. Her voice had kind of a creepy quality that sounded a bit like a weird foreign accent. At first I thought that they were trying to make her sound Transylvanian; later on, though, I realized that it was just Peta Wilson trying desperately to conceal her Australian accent. XD
Character whose changes I LIKED the most: Jekyll. In the comics, Jekyll was a likeably pathetic scrawny little milksop. In the movie, he was dead sexy. Yes, dead sexy, even though his sideburns looked about ready to leap up and attack each other. I like to imagine that this is what comics!Jekyll looked like, back when he was still, as Hyde described, a "big strapping fellow". And unless my crappy bootleg DVD left something out (besides half of the final scene >__<), it seems like they didn't really go anywhere with the "romantic" subplot between Sawyer and Mina. So I still hold out hope that Jekyll will stop jerking his watchchain and go make the moves on Mina. She's not comics!Mina, but she has a scarf sometimes, damn it! My favorite scene is the one where Jekyll and Hyde are fighting over Mina, and Hyde goes, "She doesn't even look at you. She looked at ME!" Haha, IT'S SO TRUE. XD
Hyde, though. He was far too nice. They were ALL far too nice, but Hyde was just super nice and heroic for no reason. I mean, if he's the embodiment of Jekyll's evil side, then Jekyll really must have been a complete namby-pamby to begin with. -_- I did like the scene where Hyde is in chains and growling and snorting, because at first I was terrified that they were going to make Hyde talk only in unintelligible grunts like the Hulk; and then he opens his mouth and starts delivering the witty remarks. And everyone else is just, "......"
Anyway, the bottom line: I watched this movie fully expecting to cringe repeatedly and scream my head off at certain changes. And I did both those things. But I also enjoyed the movie, far more than I expected to, and would not vomit at the prospect of a sequel (though that prospect is looking dim at this point). And I'm somewhat pleased with the idea of added visibility/popularity for the comic. Though I just know that some fan of the movie is going to read the comic and complain that Mina is too much of a wimp because she doesn't use her "vampire powers"; and then I will scream, and scream, and scream... Martians attacked at 11:06 p.m.! Where were you? ~
E-mail: daedalus@icarusfalls.com
Website: Icarus Falls
Age: 21
Location: Manila, Philippines
Material Desires: see here
How Many Roads Must A Man Walk Down?: 42
FAQ:
Q: What the heck is that?
A: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a cool steampunk-ish comic series by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill which has several prominent literary characters banding together to form a Victorian-era superhero team. Aside from the principal characters, the series also contains cameos and references to just about every bit of fiction ever written in the Victorian era. This layout features the cover from Volume 2, issue 3 of the series. And now that I've finally read the issue in question... LOOK OUT, MINA! Don't run into any invisible and brutally violent psycopaths plotting to sell England out to the Martians! Oh God... X____x
Q: No, I mean this thing. What is it?
A: Oh. Well, it's my weblog. I write junk in it.
Q: No, THIS thing!
A: What, that? That's a walrus. Careful, they're very territorial.
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