Anything

Just to write/share something...


Real Genius - I have been watching this movie repeatedly these days because of my son's fondness for the Comsat Angels's "I'm Falling" during one of the sequences of the movie that used the entire duration of the song. He practically uses it as a lullaby at bedtime. Fine by me. At least it's not "Nobody" by the Wonder Girls.

Green Tea - Probably the only reason why my weight has not approached pachyderm proportions despite my disregard for diet and exercise.


Movie Scores - Today's contemporary music scene makes one wish for a Groundhog Day scenario set during the early 90s. In the absence of good pop/rock music, movie scores are the way to go.


Chuck Taylors - RIP. The coolness element will be sorely missed.


Elow Poh! - Makes you wonder if the speaker is extremely courteous or just someone with an uncontrollable compulsion to commit atrocities with their lame attempts at cuteness. Imagine a grown "man" with lips the size of Mt. Kanlaon doing this to a person young enough to be his son. Exactly.


Young People Who Think Avatar Is James Cameron's Opus - There are a lot of pirated copies of ALIENS and The Terminator Series and The Abyss. In the words of Henri Ducard, "Always mind your surroundings." Or if that's too much, Google is here for a reason.


Pan De Manila - Because the Ortigas land area is already saturated with 7-11 and Mini-Stop shops per square inch. Thank you for opening a branch near the office.


Reading - A lot of good books left unread because of this inanity. Okay I'm off.

Diagnosis

When I was a kid my mother took me to the doctor back in the medical unit of SEAFDEC because of a pesky fever that's threatening the family's holiday plans (we were due to depart for Manila for our annual Christmas vacation). I remember that my impression of the guy was of someone who checks on patients and goes home at the end of the day and looks at his medical books to see if most his diagnoses were right; not unlike the kind of guy who'd also look at a dating manual or an FHM magazine after a first date to see if picking his front teeth with his finger during dinner was acceptable or not. 

The guy went at it like most GP does and gave the go signal for 'safe' travel even though I was chattering so bad I feared splintering all my front teeth. I was in the airplane and most of the passengers mistakenly assumed I was horrified of air travel because I was shivering so badly during the entire flight. When we arrived at the house in Quezon City they had to give me an ice bath because the fever was so high. According to my uncle I was so delirious I told them Batman was sitting in the far chair looking at me sympathetically. The next morning I was admitted to the UST hospital and was diagnosed with h-fever.

The Saturday before the last one, my wife and I took our son to the doctor for his vaccine. I was uncomfortable at the clinic due to the unusual low temperature of the airconditioning system. I didn't mind it that much considering i really have a low tolerance for cool temperatures, but the discomfort was there. going home inside the cab, I realized i was suffering from a fever---a little funny considering my son got the shots and showed no signs of imminent fever or malaise.

The fever. That's the worst part. Not only was it so high that the chills were excruciating, but the headache and lack of appetite that came with it were pure torture. You'd get hungry you'd think you can eat an entire cow, but lose appetite after one or two spoonfuls. I thought it was one of those new strains of flu that probably came from an elephant and mutated to pummel humans into oblivion with their new, superpowered mutant potency. My fever only fluctuated between 38-40 C, and that was when I took paracetamol every four hours. I'd probably burn a hole straight into my pillow if I didn't take any medication. 

Not only until the third day of the fever, when I was in the hospital insisting that they admit me that I realized I was again suffering from dengue--my platelets they, said, were decreasing in an alarming rate.

Not that i was entirely depressed by the news. It was the Medical City, and one of the high-end hospitals and I had my HMO to take care of it. I was looking forward to a week (or more) of no work and being treated like a king. That's one of the advantages of being a patient, you basically have people treating you like a fine China during the duration of the disease.

The joke was on me though; the damned card only covered the 'ward' section and not any of private rooms I was fantasizing of occupying. Talk about being suckered.

Joke's on you

Surfing the internet I came across an article about the sequel for Batman Begins. Of all the Batman treatments that have been shown--- from the hyper-campy AdamWest-television version of the 60s (Holy sardines Batman!) to the goth fairy tale tratment of Tim Burton, and its eventual degradation in the hands of Joel Schumacher (Batman Forever/Batman and Robin)---Christopher Nolan's treatment had fans who were turned off by the recent films hoping again. And casting Christian Bale in the title role was the most appropriate casting choice I have seen in the comic book movie adaptation genre in the last few years. Having seen Memento and Insomnia from Nolan, and Bale's portrayal of brooding and mentally unstable characters from Equilibrium and American Psycho respectively, I was confident this production team could pull it off. And pulled it off they did. It was like watching an excellent graphic novel that several die-hard fanboys of the comic told me they actually clapped after the screening.

The Dark Knight, the sequel, looks very promising from what I've read. We'll be introduced to The Batman's arch-nemesis The Joker. Most people are confused by this, saying The Joker died in the Tim Burton version. That's why the first film was called Batman Begins-it has no relationship whatsoever in the previous films; a sort of reset if you may. Heath Ledger would be the clown prince of crime though I would have preferred Back To The Future's Crispin Glover. He even looks like The Joker without any make-up on. I actually even signed an on-line petition so the studio would take him. But I guess an Oscar award speaks volumes. But hell, I'd even watch it if they got Vin Diesel for the part.

What I like most about Nolan's treatment of the material is that he has reverence for what the character as he is popularly known by comic-book fans; something that is also not unlike what Sam Raimi did for the SpiderMan series. The Tim Burton version was okay but the one by Joel Schumacher, specially the one with George Clooney in it practically looked so moronic that it could have been any nut in a Batsuit trading insults and trashtalk with the badguys (Batman is not particularly known for his sense of humor). With the Bale version, you'd actually believe the guy's motivation for wearing a costume and jump on rooftops at night instead of dating supermodels and driving sports cars. The sequel, in addition, has the feel and overall look of one of the best Batman graphic novels called The Killing Joke written by Watchmen and V For Vendetta's Alan Moore.

In any case, along with Spiderman, it's still the best superhero movie adaptation i have seen so far.