points of inflection

I hate it when people are bashing the movie “Batman Begins” after watching it. They have no idea how good the movie was. It’s great. Hardcore comic book geeks are giving the movie a 2-thumbs up. The movie captured the essence of Batman as a person and as a hero (note that ‘as a hero’ not ‘as a superhero”). ‘Minor’ Batman characters are given life - Thomas Wayne, Lucius Fox, Henry Ducard, Alfred Pennyworth, Jim Gordon and even Rachel Dawes.

One important part of the movie played perfectly is the character development of Batman. From a bat-phobia child, to being a part of the criminal world, trained by the League of Shadows, and finally assuming the Batman identity. Gotham City is an eyecandy. Especially the scene where Batman is atop of a columnar post beside a building, the camera panning from his right to left. Great scene.

I guess one flaw of the movie is not making Ra’s Al Ghul a formidable foe. In comics, Ra’s Al Ghul can give Batman a good fight. Being both swordsmen, the big fight could have been better. As it is, still, the movie is well worth it. Watched it twice - one with the boys at Gateway and the other with Pen in G4.

There will be lots of comicbook characters turned movie to watch out for- FantasticFour is sometime this year, GhostRider is up next, and of course I can’t wait for Superman Returns.

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(this is a sticky post, continue reading after this entry for the newer posts)

Might as well post it here rather than in the comments section from the previous blog post…

I finally put up my own site. Bought a domain name and (semi) launched the site. It was just a matter of timing and an apt domain name. I really wanted to launch the site today as it is a special day for us.

Give your initial impressions here folks.

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• Bought Bamboo’s second album - Light Peace Love. I have been listening to it since Friday (and it is even playing right now). The album as a whole is a bit mellow for me. Shades of War of Hearts and Minds in every song. There’s no loud song in the album except for the released single Hallelujah. I personally like I-You, Peace Man and F.U. So far, I still like the first album than this one. I’ll just keep on playing it until it touches me.
• San Antonio Spurs are on a 2-0 roll. Detroit must be feeling that Spurs’ defense is far better than their’s. Both teams live on defense; scores from the two games are both below 100. I read somewhere that the combined scores in the first game is the fifth lowest in NBA finals. Defense or otherwise, I hope San Antonio will win the Finals. Incidentally, the Spurs is the team with the most foreigners playing in a team in the NBA. Duncan is from Virgin Islands, Parker is from France, Ginobili is from Argentina, Beno Udrih and Rasho Nesterovic are from Slovenia.
• Anthony will be back in the country sometime tomorrow. I have no idea how he can contact us besides using the internet. I’m not sure if he has our phones numbers. Sabihin mo lang lang kung kelan tayo lalabas.
• I’m trying this OurMedia site where you can upload mp3’s. Try to download this and see if it really works: Incubus - No Scrubs Cover.
• Michael Jackson has been acquitted in his child molestation case. Read more here
• Pen mentioned her woes during holidays. I’m just thankful that she’s okay now. Kailangang mag-clusivol na at bawal na talagang magkasakit.

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Seven in our team went to Anda, Pangasinan - the hometown of our manager. It’s a 5 hour drive from Manila, plus one hour for our lunch/dinner on the way. We got to see the Hundred Islands and snorkelled there.

I’ll try to upload more pics later.

Here are two shots so far:

the group in Barangay Tondol, Anda Town in Pangasian

overlooking the hundred islands

more pictures here

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I got tossed several times before controlling my balance.

Sail is still down.

Pulling the sail up..

Sail went overboard and I splashed at the water.

Finally got the surf running.

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Third time to be at Dr. Manlapaz’ resthouse in Anilao. I was with Pen, Noims and Richard. This is first time to be there without Dr. M himself.

We were on our way as early as 6am Saturday and got to the place at around 9am. Brought our own foods and drinks. We went kayaking, snorkelling and WINDSURFING! I got to windsurf for about 15 mins only as I always loose my balance. Hehe.

There were lots of fishes when we went snorkelling. Unlike the other times we were there when fishes were scarce, this time everywhere you look you will surely see a school of fish passing by. Si Noemi, nagtuturo ng “Joker fish” sa spot nya, nalito ako kasi wala namang joker fish. Tapos sabi nya, “Si Nemo andito”. Clown fish pala yung sinasabi nya. Labo hehe.

Bitin lang talaga kapag overnight stay lang. Dapat at least 2 nights stay to really enjoy the place.

We’ll be uploading pics as soon as I got them from pen.

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We were in Outback last Friday night. We = Pen + AJ & Jie + Donnah.

I guess it’s official that Jie’s on a mission. It’s in his blog somewhere. I distinctly recall the first time me & Pen met Anne. I still have the pictures during that CK treat from Jie. Too bad we were caught unprepared when we met Donnah. The mighty digicam is somewhere stuck in my room that time. I can’t be carrying the bulky digicam anywhere I go. Sayang.

We had a sumptuous serving of steaks, a mountain of fries and a seafood pasta. It was yummy and pricey. Good thing that Pen still has her discount card with her which gave us 20% discount. Me and Jie must have eaten much of the food on the table as the two girls just took some little bites. I even had a baon when we got out.

*due to insistent public demand, post was edited. *

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Here are two pics during our cocomangas’ drink:

That’s the Illusion Shaker drink I drowned there. I gulped down two of that.

The infamous 15 shots of tequila lined up and ready to drink.

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Bitin!

Well, you can’t get enough of a getaway from work especially if it’s all paid for. The only thing I’ve spent money is for pasalubong and booze. I just bought little keychains and bead necklaces from the tiangges over at D’Mall. I am a lousy pasalubong buyer. I honestly don’t know what to buy so I just picked up the nearest things I can reach and paid the cashier.

Friday night we went to CocoMangas. The infamous bar where you can order the 15 shots challenge. 15 shots of tequila with different mix - baileys, kahlua, tabasco, etc… I have 6 officemates who took the challenge and each of them puked on the way back to the hotel and in their respective rooms. 1 did a double take on the 15 shots and drowned 30 shots. Now, that was wasted. He’s still standing after 30 shots but can’t recall how he did it and how he was able to return to the hotel and how he puked all over the place. Total black out plus memory loss. I ordered two Illusion shaker concoction. It’s a blue drink with vodka, tequila, pineapple juice plus another which makes it royal blue. Tama lang yung tama sa akin, still standing.

(i’ll be posting more stories later…)

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Here are some photos taken when we went to Manila Zoo last weekend.

a wishing well

the infamous elephant

python having it’s lunch

head over to the gallery page to see more pictures

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