tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59786602024-03-07T15:59:43.248+08:00Repository of the RandomUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger206125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-38746774773165220352015-07-26T20:02:00.003+08:002015-07-26T20:23:24.474+08:00The Best Things In Life are Free - and Weird
How funny that the last entry I made five years ago was also about the Japanese Film Festival. Nice to know I still enjoy doing the same things with the same people :)
Anyway, we caught the Eiga Sai 2015 about a week ago. It was free and that meant a long line of students and film buffs fighting to get in.
Luckily, we managed to get our collective butts into good seats.
They Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-54713274857590330802010-03-16T00:18:00.005+08:002010-03-24T12:27:30.206+08:00The Power of PerspectiveYesterday, I attended a Japanese film festival (called Eiga Sai) which is a yearly event held across different venues in the country. This year's theme revolves around eye-opening documentaries which brings to light social realities that are often taken for granted. In particular, I saw two films which focus on the human condition to varying degrees.The first one we Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-17484487414167137112010-01-23T21:22:00.002+08:002010-01-23T21:50:29.921+08:00On Getting OlderI turned thirty more than a month ago, but I've never once posted any thoughts about breaking into a new decade of my life. So what does it feel like to be 30? Obviously people older than me would say how cool it would be to be my age again. But why would they say that unless there was some lingering regret or issue(s) in their own lives?I suppose most of us would like to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-47005851798489725492009-10-14T12:59:00.003+08:002009-10-14T13:11:22.816+08:00Since I don't have anything worthwhile to post lately, here's a video I took last year:I've been thinking of taking daily snapshots of the things I see everyday, and add some of my thoughts as part of the text description. Since I haven't gotten around to that, this will do for now.Anyway, I remember going to this event with Lyn, her bro and a couple of other friends. We arrived at the venue Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-26330368093449529742009-10-07T02:27:00.002+08:002009-10-07T02:30:22.313+08:00Is this not the most surreal thing you've ever watched? Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-5342042964846689412009-09-02T14:25:00.003+08:002009-09-02T14:29:23.272+08:00I am listening to the audiobook version of "Ender's Game", probably the single greatest novel I've read so far in my life. Though superbly written, I'm not sure I've read a great deal of other books to make a solid comparison. For all I know, there are far better books out there that I am unaware of.But that is beside the point. Again, "Ender's Game" in itself is well-made, but the sentimental Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-87434917617667391542009-08-27T23:55:00.004+08:002009-08-28T00:02:33.145+08:00Perhaps it's true when they say that at the end of the day, what you do for a living doesn't define you. Yet, I'm beginning to realize that the qualities you espouse in order to DO well at your job (such as courage, integirty and respect) says a lot about your personality.Take my Dad for instance. As a kid, I looked up to him because let's face it, flying airplanes is a cool job. The perk of Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-58413373223553716132009-08-10T12:44:00.002+08:002009-08-10T13:02:42.389+08:00There comes a time in your life when you want to turn a new leaf and abandon a certain set of counterproductive habits that are bogging you down. The toughest part is when the pleasure and ease associated with these habits seem to overpower the reasons why you want to change in the first place. Just when you think you've taken the high road, the folly of your old ways suddenly doesn't feel so Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-4309209093264552732009-04-09T19:55:00.003+08:002009-04-09T19:58:39.940+08:00Marko took the The Watchmen Personality Profile Quiz quiz and the result is:Nite-Owl - The Most Human HeroYou are intelligent and resourceful. You have a fondness for gadgets and technology. You often make cautious decisions and have a backup plan. You analyze a situation before you act. This is both a virtue and at times a flaw. You are kind to others and loyal to your few friends. You are Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-29553774613758326982009-04-04T04:36:00.005+08:002009-04-04T04:53:46.190+08:00Partial Book Review: Ender's Shadow*Warning: unedited version - misspellings and grammatical roadbumps ahead.The problem with getting bitten with the so-called "writing bug" is that it strikes at the most unexpected of times. To make matters worse, it's hard for me NOT to immediately write down these fleeting thoughts, because I might forget them if I wait too long. That's why I'm up, writing Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-4727876432032659162009-03-30T10:39:00.005+08:002009-04-03T14:01:53.587+08:00*The following is a warm-up exercise intended to break myself out of a creative dry spell that's been plauging me on and off for the past twelve months or so:Back when I merely dabbled in writing (read: not my main livelihood), I was gratified by the fact that I was actually getting paid - chump change as it was - for putting words together that people would actually fork over money to read. It Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-68825168370531618882009-02-23T22:11:00.004+08:002009-02-23T23:52:13.975+08:00One of the inadvertent effects of meeting and interviewing people from different walks of life is that you can get sucked into their personalities if you let them. It's kind of like acting really - you get absorbed into another individual's character until you empathize with them so much that it seems like their thoughts and emotions are your own.Honestly, it feels like my moral compass gets Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-47334538744245461602008-10-11T02:21:00.011+08:002008-10-11T03:41:52.767+08:00Plans gone South So I'm here in Cebu and went through a magazine with none other than hometown heroes Urbandub on the cover. After reading the article, I noticed that they had a listing of places that have live bands. After calling up a few of the establishments in the directory, it turns out they're pretty far from where I am.An hour and a half later, here I am in Mango Square at a net cafe, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-43717111804624181932008-07-10T14:25:00.000+08:002008-07-10T14:26:53.984+08:00Train Ride with my boyUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-66930416277451391092008-07-01T09:02:00.004+08:002008-07-01T09:40:33.549+08:00My friend Alex made a video of his recent trip to Japan which inspired me to put together a slideshow of the pictures I took from the last week of our stay over there (late February of this year). I played around with Windows Movie Maker and this was the result:Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-39686236548184548192008-06-18T08:06:00.003+08:002008-06-18T08:32:46.705+08:00One of the things I learned in Japan was not to put too much on my plate. The nature of the training we did required us to do a lot of tasks, all under a deadline. There were times when I felt there was too much going on that I felt paralyzed by indecision. It sometimes felt like I had so much to do that I didn't know what to do first. What I did to cope was to focus on one thing at a time Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-31470705277167468902008-06-15T23:12:00.003+08:002008-11-28T22:22:25.607+08:00We just saw the Incredible Hulk last night. I can't say it was a bad movie, because it honestly looks like a lot of effort was put into making this reboot. Any movie with Edward Norton and Tim Roth are justifications alone to go and see it, but I can't say I was blown away by this one. I was probably expecting too much, I guess. It was hard for me not to make comparisons with Ang Lee's Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-9649875347249882202008-05-17T22:27:00.003+08:002008-05-17T22:33:55.658+08:00Shellhead strikes box-office goldWhat I love about the movie is that it walks a fine line between plausability and farfetchedness. It has the right amount smartassery (in dialogue) and action sequences to keep the fanboys satisfied while enticing the non-followers of the source material. I dig the fact that it's not campy at all, which is a common trap for superhero movies. It's a given that RDJUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-61186521890570020872008-05-08T21:23:00.004+08:002008-05-08T23:05:47.670+08:00Someone once said that people blog to show the rest of the world that they are plain, simple and cool. I can't help but think that this is true, and it depresses me to think I am one of millions trying to put up this conceitedly self-depreciative tone in order to project that I am in fact, the opposite of how I describe myself. Here I am in this vast sea of users contributing to an infinite Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-56893115580861766342008-04-04T08:02:00.009+08:002008-04-10T08:55:57.910+08:00One Month LaterThere's a box of brownie mix across the kitchen that's begging to baked for the sheer boredom of it. But then, I can't eat what I won't bake right? Right. I'm already at 170 lbs, and when I came back to Manila I was at a nice 160. Now that I'm in the land of plenty, it's easy to waste all the hard work I inadvertently put in for the last 6 months I spent in Japan (back when I was Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-9813706425031987692008-03-02T21:10:00.002+08:002008-03-02T21:13:12.192+08:00Otsukaresama DeshitaTonight marks my last night in Japan. We'll be going home tomorrow because the Manila branch of the company we're training for is going to close due to complications that have arisen during these recent months. I'll be getting into that later on, but our flight's early tomorrow, so good night for now.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-57570744511227672982008-02-12T22:00:00.000+08:002008-02-12T22:39:23.111+08:00Driven by some masochistic need to deprive myself of much-needed rest, here I am still glued to the screen browsing the Web for whatever suits my fancy. I keep promising myself to sleep early, but still manage to stay waaay past my bedtime. Now that there's nothing interesting left to read, blogging has become my excuse to stay online and keep my bloodshot eyes open. Vitamins and coffee (which Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-11851836089065240632008-02-03T19:24:00.000+08:002008-02-03T19:30:06.417+08:00Eight Months to GoBut sometimes it feels much longer than that.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-27750342297690496872008-01-06T11:10:00.000+08:002008-01-20T00:13:12.603+08:00Various thoughts across multiple topicsJust a condensed collection of observations accumulated in the 3.5 months we've been here:*HumorPaulette, our Canadian friend and classmate from the kominkan (local community center where free language classes are held etc.), says that other foreigners living here have grown jaded and angry over the years. She says it's mainly because people here lack a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5978660.post-44563472367754781462008-01-05T22:26:00.000+08:002008-01-05T23:29:01.411+08:00Arterial crimson never looked this good "Scared shitless" was going to be the title for this one, but I've calmed down after going through the cast photos (to convince myself the actors aren't vampires) and the wiki info (beware of spoilers!) on 30 Days Of Night. It was a bloody good ride through and through, especially for those into the whole vampire genre. The cast did a great job of making Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0