Sunday, November 30, 2003
Well, last night I went out with Saki because she had a couple of free tickets to a movie called "Star Runner" starring one of those F4 guys. My expectations for the film were pretty low, but it turned out to be... the most spectacularly awful movie I've seen in recent memory. Anyway, by around 3 AM I was back home, just sitting down to write a blog entry about this fantastically stupid piece of cinema. Then the phone rang. It was my cousin Paolo, saying he'd been in a car accident.
He had been driving through an intersection and the light was green, when a jeepney suddenly made a left turn in front of him. (For foreign readers who have never seen a jeepney, it's a kind of gaudily decorated deathtrap masquerading as public transport.)
So, at 3 in the morning, Mom and I (Carlo was away for the weekend) had to go to Pao's house, wake his mother, and get to the emergency room, which resembled ten minutes of an episode of E.R. dragged out over five hours. Fifteen people in a car accident, and they had one guy working the X-Ray and encoding the data at his own leisurely pace.
The short version is, Pao is back home now, bruised but okay; the airbag saved his life. The passengers in the jeepney had some cuts and bumps, with the worst injury being a guy with a broken arm. There were five little kids and a pregnant lady, all of whom escaped without serious injury.
It could have been so much worse.
The moral of the story is, NEVER GET IN A CAR AGAIN. Martians attacked at 09:46 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Saturday, November 29, 2003
Oh, who am I kidding. I am far from finished with the CLAMP-related nerdiness. And I am heartily enjoying Tsubasa, for no other reason than the effed-up crossover insanity. And because it just occurred to me where all this mucking around with alternate worlds is ultimately headed...
CRISIS ON INFINITE CLAMPS.
(...yes, I know it's a retarded title, it's the best I could come up with.) Think of it. Introducing an anime-only character like Shougo Asagi means they've started throwing anime series continuity into the mix. That's already three distinct alternate universes for X alone. Eventually, they're going to get into Cefiro-2 and Cefiro-Prime and everything goes all cosmic and explodey.
Right now somebody needs to do a spoof of that Alex Ross/George Perez Crisis poster, with CLAMP characters. Any volunteers? Anyone? Instead of Superman holding dead Wonder Woman you could put Shaoran holding dead Sakura, and in the place of Superman holding dead Supergirl you could put Kamui holding Kotori's head, or Fuuma's head, or Subaru holding dead Seishirou, or whoever really.
Perhaps when this all ends we'll have one clean unified CLAMP continuity. Or at least some kind of explanation for why Tokyo has been stuck in the year 1999 for almost a decade, or how Sakura's dad in one universe can be Shaoran's dad in another universe and yet it's okay for the two of them to be a couple. Martians attacked at 03:24 a.m.! Where were you? ~
Friday, November 28, 2003
So this semester I have both my classes on Friday afternoons. Literary Translation is 1 to 4, and Fiction Workshop III is 5 to 8; so presuming I have no last-minute assignments to finish, I have an hour between classes to buy a snack or whatever and walk down the road to the other building. Doesn't sound too bad, right? But I think today I discovered one fatal disadvantage to having all my classes on one day: it might just happen to fall on the second day of my period. This is the one day when I usually feel too nauseous too eat anything, and end up feeling faint from hunger later; the day when I feel too ill to remain standing for long, but too achey to be comfortable sitting down for long. And that's just when I don't get the incapacitating cramps. Oh, today wasn't that bad, really. But it leaves me nervous that some other month I'll have a REALLY bad second-day-of-period that falls on a class day.
Anyhow, on to less awkward news. Yesterday evening Mom and Carlo and I went out for a preposterously huge buffet dinner, in honor of American Thanksgiving. Any excuse to go out on a weeknight and eat turkey is a good one, right?
Also yesterday, I got a great haul at the comic store. LoEG Vol. 2 Hardcover, Fruits Basket vol. 13, XXXholic vol. 2, and Tsubasa vol. 2.
(Beware! CLAMP-related nerdiness ahead.)
Aside from the effed-up crossover madness, though, Tsubasa doesn't seem all that interesting so far. I'm taking a much greater liking to XXXholic, because that Watanuki kid is COOL. I just wish I could read it. Stupid non-kiddy manga and their lack of furigana! T______T
There, CLAMP nerdiness all done. I bet you wish I'd also warned you before I started going on and on about my cramps and nausea, but we can't always get what we want in life, can we? Martians attacked at 07:20 p.m.! Where were you? ~
I thought CLAMP was seriously taking dental tools to our brains when they brought out the white and black talking Mokonas in Tsubasa 1; but that was before they threw in Shougo Asagi. Shougo freaking Asagi, the guy who appeared for two seconds in the X movie because they needed to fill Kakyou's spot on the Dragons of Earth. X__x What next? Whatever next?
Wednesday, November 26, 2003
That's right, it's time for another Non-Blogging Update Of Stupidity(tm)!
Last last Monday, I went out in the evening, along with friends Gloria and Saki, to see friend Missy who was in a play called "STOPKISS". Brought Carlo along because he apparently really wanted to see the play, though I wasn't sure why. Turned out to be because he knew it was a play about lesbians. Isn't that always the way!
The play was awesome, but go see it yourself if you want to know more about that. Before the play, we all went to a bar run by hobbits. There were a lot of cruddy old Tolkien-related paintings on the walls, and a woman with a guitar singing in a completely unintelligible language masquerading as English (or perhaps some obscure form of Quenya). All seemed well until our hobbit waitress revealed, after we had done ordering, that there was a P195 cover charge just for walking into the place. Which no one had informed us of before we walked in, naturally. Tricksy, these hobbitses! Filthy little thieves!
Tuesday, I went to class in the afternoon only to find out that that class had been dissolved. So I had to scramble around filling up forms and getting signatures so I could get into another class.
Wednesday, Mom left for New York. I spent Wednesday and Thursday afternoons getting class paperwork straight.
Friday, went to new class, which is something about Literary Translation Seminar something-or-other. Seems interesting, at any rate; and at least I have some idea of what it's about, unlike the other class that got dissolved.
Saturday, I planned to work on comic all day but ended up with a bit of artist's block. Spent most of afternoon flipping through that Alex Ross DC artbook I bought in the States, lamenting the fact that I was not Alex Ross, and wondering what the Powerpuff Girls would look like rendered by Alex Ross.
Sunday, Carlo and I went out to lunch with lola. Then we stopped by National Bookstore, because my spider sense was telling me that a new issue of W.I.T.C.H. was out. My spider sense never fails me.
This last Monday evening, Carlo and I went to pick up Mom at airport. She brought the Two Towers extended DVD, Finding Nemo DVD, and FFX-2.
Today, Carlo had a bunch of people over to watch the extended Two Towers. I hung around upstairs, and accomplished not a whole lot. Felt kind of blah.
TO STUPIDITY, AND BEYOND!!! Martians attacked at 09:13 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Thursday, November 13, 2003
New Prisoner of Azkaban teaser trailer. It seems very different in feel from the first two films' trailers, which might indicate something about the movie itself. Lots of money shots of Snape, and Gary Oldman.
My verdict: YES. *___* Martians attacked at 09:03 p.m.! Where were you? ~
Thursday, November 13, 2003
And now, finally, some mini-reviews of things I saw/read/bought in the States.
Kill Bill (movie)
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Tenth: The Slippery Slope, by Lemony Snicket (book)
The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde (book)
Paradise Kiss, vols. 1-3 (manga, translated)
Basara, vols. 1 and 2 (manga, translated)
Bride of Deimos, vol. 1 (manga)
Top Ten, books 1 and 2 (comics) Martians attacked at 06:23 p.m.! Where were you? ~
If Chigusa in Battle Royale had gotten a spiky-ball-chain-thingy instead of a switchblade, she might have lived.
As I expected, the continuing subplot of the Baudelaire's moral erosion was finally resolved in this book. Certain mysteries are becoming less obscure, and the whole series seems to be gearing towards its conclusion. Anyway, I enjoyed this book more than the last one. But what was up with Violet and [spoiler - name witheld]? I thought it was just some cheesy but innocent romantic subplot; but the way Snicket kept harping on and on about their "private moment" up on that ledge, I'm starting to think that they lost their virginity there or something. (Note: no, not really. Geez.)
I guess I had rather high expectations for this book; and I really loved the world set-up, plus Thursday Next was a fairly cool character. But I thought the whole "war" thing resolved itself way too easily, and in the end I was bitterly disappointed that she married that lame-ass romantic interest of hers, who was so boring that he put me to sleep during all of his scenes, rather than getting together with her adorable partner. I'll probably check out the sequel once it comes out in paperback, just to see if that lame-ass guy dies or something.
The characters in this manga seem to be constantly waving at the readers through the big gaping holes in the fourth wall... but it's actually funny and well-done. Need those next volumes, please.
The art is... not beautiful. Though funnily enough, the style of drawing faces reminds me very much of early 1990's Mokona Apapa. But I digress. A nice little shoujo fantasy epic, with teeth. Will continue to buy.
Melodramatic 70's horror shoujo manga, complete with plucky dewy-eyed blonde-tressed heroine, tragic doomed love, and tearful running away scenes. I could eat this stuff up with a spoon. As usual, most of the mythological references are effed-up (it's Phobos who was god of fear, and anyhow I really don't think the Greek/Roman gods had much of an incest taboo, considering their leader Zeus married his own sister, Hades married his niece, Aphrodite screwed around with her half-brother, etc. etc...); on the other hand, I really liked the "Kaguya-hime was a WEREWOLF!" idea. I curse myself for only buying one volume, on the same day we left the US.
This is the first Alan Moore title I've read that I could even remotely describe as "cute" or "zany". XD It's basically a cop show with superheroes, and it's completely priceless. The superpowered cats and mice with their miniature "Secret Infinite Crisis Wars", and the cops trying to solve the murder of Baldur before his dad gets pissed and declares Ragnarok, are surreal comedy GOLD. Unfortunately, I've heard that Moore's quitting all the ABC titles except LoEG, so it seems that this might never be continued. I shake my fist at the heavens.
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
I think it's a gross injustice that the Clone Wars animated episodes up on the official site are only viewable by people in the U.S. What about poor losers like me, who had to be out the past two evenings and thus missed chapters 2 and 3 on Cartoon Network Asia? Are we expected to just buy them on bootleg VCDs, or what?
What actually has me excited is that among the character profiles on that site, they have girl Jedi. GIRL JEDI, who resemble nuns with lightsabers. Green nuns with lightsabers. How long before we see them in action?
My Matrix name is Sif. Ooh, mythological. Kind of cool and stupid-sounding at the same time.
Oh, and speaking of things that one has forgotten to mention... When we went to see Matrix Revolutions last week, I squealed in an entirely shameless manner the instant I spotted Ken Watanabe in the trailer for The Last Samurai, holy crap! Ken Watanabe, the guy who played Tokiyori, my favorite character in that Hojo Tokimune TV series I was obsessed with a couple of years back! Skim through the archives of this blog, maybe early 2001 and thereabouts, and you should see what I'm talking about. Oh, look, a picture. Look for him in the trailer -- he's the one with the shaved head, speaking funny English (when he says "to know my enemy", it sounds like "tune on my enema".) Tee hee. But remember, I saw him first! I was Martians attacked at 11:47 p.m.! Where were you? ~pathetic a fan way before he appeared in a big Hollywood Tom Cruise flick!
Monday, November 10, 2003
I haven't been blogging because every time I sit down to type up an entry, it seems way too daunting because of the huge buildup of things that I keep meaning to write about. For instance, I can't believe I totally forgot to mention in that capsule summary of our US trip that we got to see Neil Gaiman. It was amazing. I had him sign my wrinkly old copy of Angels and Visitations, and he drew something in it that I'm pretty sure is an angel, although it resembles nothing so much as a large, sad bird.
Anyway, I knew I had to mention that. And then I was going to talk about going to see Matrix Revolutions last Wednesday. So many people seem to be complaining about that movie now, but I'm not sure why. It was way better than Reloaded, in that it didn't put me to sleep, or have a ten-minute rave scene that made me want to fling myself through the nearest plate glass window to escape. Sure, the whole bit in the beginning with the train station and the evil Frenchie, was completely pointless and had no bearing on the plot. And in the end, Neo somehow solved all the problems by glowing very brightly. But there were still cool bits. And uh, certain characters, in dying, finally gain a smidgen of the emotional depth and characterization they so sorely lacked in life. And now
...And from there, I was going to effortlessly segue into a string of short reviews for stuff I read/saw in the States. But now I'm too tired. Another time. Martians attacked at 05:36 p.m.! Where were you? ~Colonel Sanders the Architect has declared peace between humans and machines! Now maybe those stupid humans will finally let the machines join the U.N. like they wanted to all the way back in the Second Rennaisance!
Wednesday, November 5, 2003
Oh, to heck with it. I'm never going to be able to do a detailed account of our entire trip. I should have kept a day-by-day diary like when we went to Tokyo, but no, I never got around to it.
Stage 1: San Francisco
Stage 2: Santa Clara
Stage 3: Sonoma Valley
Stage 4: Napa Valley
Stage 5: San Franciso again
And then we went home!
...And then Carlo installed the XBox he bought, and set about trying to master the intricacies of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. I installed the Intuos tablet I bought, and set about trying to suck less in Painter.
And then for Halloween I put on my Evil Red Riding Hood costume from last year, and handed out candy to little monsters. We bought a plastic axe in a costume store in the States, which was a lot easier to carry than the real axe I had last year. After that, Mom and Carlo crashed from jetlag while I went to Saki's for dinner with old friends, and watched The Sixth Sense on DVD.
Er, anyway. The moral of the story is, classy hotels suck because they don't have microwaves, nor do they get Cartoon Network! What good is a TV in the bathroom if you can't get Cartoon Network? Martians attacked at 06:22 p.m.! Where were you? ~
We stayed here about four days, in a nice classy hotel. It had a TV in the bathroom, but it did not have a microwave or a proper fridge, and did not get Cartoon Network. We were about a block away from Borders, which meant that within half an hour of our arrival I had already spent giant-sized bucks on reading material. So basically we spent four days hanging around and buying stuff at big American stores. Oh, and Carlo and I watched Kill Bill, and Matrix Reloaded on IMAX. Matrix Reloaded is basically the same on IMAX as it is on the regular screen, except that Lawrence Fishburne's pockmarks are now the size of lunar craters.
Spent about four or five days here, in a nice not-so-classy hotel that had a microwave, good-sized refrigerator, and got Cartoon Network on the TV. Which meant that most nights we stayed in and ordered pizza, so I could watch Justice League and FLCL, and the second-to-last episode of the new Big O season. Gah. And the days were spent visiting our old haunts, the places we used to go when we were visiting Grandma, or that year we were living here.
Stayed 2 days here at a very cute little bed-and-breakfast place. The owner had 1.5 dachsunds (the .5 one was half Welsh Corgi), plus a cat who we never saw. And the bathroom was HUUUUGE, with a big desk in it and everything. But there was NO TV. Staying here was Carlo's idea. He wanted to tour wineries and things, supposedly to get material for a travel article he's writing. *makes drinky-drinky hand gesture* But seriously we did tour a couple wineries; and after learning all about the ridiculously complicated process of making wine, I felt obligated to drink everything that they gave us to taste.
This was the site of our small Peterson family reunion. Met up with the relatives, hung out, had picnics and stuff. We met Brother Tim, who is my Dad's uncle or my Grandmother's cousin or something. He is 96, but he knows all of our names, and he drives around on one of those nifty scooter-wheelchair thingies. Anyway, we stayed there for two days or so, in a rather crummy hotel that nevertheless had a microwave, a good-sized refrigerator, and got Cartoon Network on the TV.
Back to our classy hotel for two more nights. More Borders, more hanging around, and Mom packing stuff into boxes.
Thursday, October 30, 2003
Okay, I'm back from the States, and it seems that while I was gone Pitas ate all my entries for the month of October. All two or three of them. Including the one that said that I was going to be in the States until the 30th. Erm. At any rate, please stay tuned for an account of our trip.
Martians attacked at 07:11 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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