Six Pack Movies and a Meme

I saw two movies recently: End of the Spear and 300. What do they have in common? Angry guys with six-packs. :-D My roommate rented End of the Spear on DVD. It's about a group of Christian missionaries who are killed by the Waodani, an Ecuadorian tribe, during the 1950s. The main characters are Mincayani, one of the tribesmen, and Steve Saint, one of the sons of the murdered missionaries. Undeterred by the murders, the missionaries' wives and family still try to reach out to the Waodani by living with them. Overall, it was an interesting story.

The next night, I saw the movie 300. I was reluctant to go b/c the movie looked like just another mindless, violent film, but I was with a friend and his friends and I didn't want to be a wet blanket so I went. Ok, let's see, the film had:

1) violence that seemed gratuitous even for a battle film
2) ridiculous elements that look like they're straight out of a J.R.R. Tolkien novel and not a history book (e.g. a giant rhinoceros, a Goliath-like creature, a half-goat/half-human, a human with crab-like limbs, fighters called the immortals with skull-like masks, a group of deformed mystics, and a hunchbacked Spartan)
3) occassional wannabe-freedom-speech moments that comes off as Braveheart-Lite
4) historical exaggerations, e.g. a characterization of Persian leader Xerxes that is downright silly

Aside from those things, the movie is great. hehe. Oh, I could go on, but I'll just say: skip this film and watch the History Channel or PBS if you want to know about Spartan history. Also, if you're into ancient war films (not necessarily Spartan-related), check out the classic Braveheart instead.

In meme related news, Carey created this meme in which I was included. Her rules are as follows:

1. Choose five blogs randomly from your blogroll.
2. For each blog, choose at least one entry (you could add more) which is your favorite post by this blogger.
3. Include a link to this post and explain why you like it.
4. The chosen five bloggers are considered tagged and they will also have to do the same in their blogs.

So far, Carey has posted this meme three times, each with 5 different bloggers. I was included in part 3. Cool. ;-)

Ok, like Alternati, I didn't really choose randomly. hehe. As I've said before, there's lots of great bloggers out there but I did have to choose only 5 of my favorite posts from the bloggers on my blogroll. That's not easy because each of them is unique and great in their own way. Note: I was a politician in a past life. :-D Anyway, here's some of my fave posts from the bloggers on my blogroll:

1) Toe's Let Me Drink My Diet Coke:
The first blog post that made me LOL.

2) Vern's The Pursuit:
It shows her persistence when it looked like she wouldn't get into the college of her choice. Her "won't take no for an answer" attitude is kinda inspiring. :-D

3) Alternati's 13 X-tinct Games:
I also played these video games as a kid and despite the cheesiness of the graphics, they do bring back memories. Just looking at the picture of the video game Kung-Fu Master makes me grin. If you've played that game, you know that the game is the epitome of "cheese" with it's damsel in distress plot. Still, I liked it. ;-)

4) Bill Billig's Let's Have Fun and Paulo Avelino Raps:
If there's one guy out there who speaks for my Igorot heritage, it's Bill. He articulates what I have a hard time putting into words. I chose two posts from his blog: his post about Paulo Avelino, a half-Igorot guy in some Pinoy game show and a second post about the controversy involving Barrio Fiesta restaurant. Ok, so Bill mentioned me in the 2nd post which is another reason why I like the post. hehe. Anyway, discussions on Bill's blog are always lively, fun and intelligent. Bring your thinking cap when visiting this blog.

5) Niceheart's Ten Things I Would Never Do:
I just feel bad for Arlene, who is mentioned in number 9. hehe

As far as tagging goes, like Alternati, I'm also waiving that requirement for the mentioned bloggers. ;-)

Technorati tags: meme, 300, End of the Spear

Meeting My Fellow Bloggers

Verns tagged me to do this meme. Well, she didn't exactly single me out -- she tagged EVERYBODY. hehe. Anyway, this meme involves meeting my fellow bloggers. If I should I ever meet my fellow bloggers, I wonder how it would go. I mean meeting other bloggers can be strange. There's a chance it might not go well. For instance, there might be lots of long, awkward silences. How will you know if the meeting didn't go well? Because they'll probably blog about it. :-D For example, they might say in their blog:

"He's not as tall as I thought he was."
"He kept blabbing on and on and on...."
"Geez, what a weirdo."

I would prefer that bloggers say the following in their blogs if they ever meet me:

"Definitely way better looking in person."
"Even funnier in person."
"His blog doesn't do justice to how great a person he is. More people should be like him. In fact, a cult should be started right now in his honor."
"I laughed. I cried. I would tell all my friends to go see it." Wait a minute, that last one is from a movie review. :-D

Anyway, enough intro, here's the meme:

Who is the first blogger you met?
My sister. hehe. Aside from her, haven't met any bloggers. Although everyone seems to have a blog nowadays so I have probably met bloggers but I just didn't know it. ;-) I did try to meet a blogger once, but.....well, let's not get into that. ;-)

Who is the blogger “you most want to meet”?
Kevin Sites because I like reading blogs by people who are actually on location covering what they blog about. It also takes a lot of courage to do what he does.

Who is the ‘I can meet, want to meet, but somehow never got to meet’ blogger?
Right now? Well, I don't know too many Bay Area bloggers so I guess no one.

Who are the group of bloggers that you most want to meet?
This is a weird question. Group of bloggers? Can I make up my own group? If so, then I would say I would like to meet the bloggers whose blogs I often visit and leave comments on. What an awkward sentence. ;-) These are bloggers who make me laugh and have the same sense of humor as me. Ka-lebol. hehe. I also like reading about their personal stories.

Do you have any bloggers/blog readers that you would like to meet right now?
Yes. hehe. Well, you didn't ask who. ;-) But seriously, just see the previous question. :-)

As far as tagging people, I 'm going to add a twist to the tag: I'm tagging everyone who DOESN'T have a blog. So if you don't have a blog, good luck doing the meme. hehe. But seriously, feel free to do this meme if it interests you. :-)

Technorati tags: blogging, meme

Green Mac

I finally switched over to a mac about a month ago and it's been great. No, this isn't a "Supported Post." hehe. But I just got tired of all the viruses on my PC laptop. I'd say I must've formatted my laptop at least ten times ever since I bought it 5 or 6 years ago. So much for anti-virus software. Also, the hard drive on my PC was only 6 GB. That's pretty small for today's standards. Not only that, but the battery didn't seem to last too long (i.e. it would only work if it was plugged in). That sort of defeats the purpose of the laptop, which is that it's supposed to be portable. It was portable alright...as long as there was a plug outlet nearby. ;) Anyway, I thought it would be a difficult transition from PC to mac, but the mac is truly a user-friendly computer. Ok, forget the fact that Steve Jobs actually got the idea for the windows format from Xerox, but still, gotta admire the guy for improving and marketing the product very well.

Recently, however, I was surprised to find out something about macs...something disturbing. I was doing some blog hopping and came across Ajay's blog. She had a post about Greenpeace claiming that the upcoming Vista operating system will not be compatible with as much as half of the PCs out there. That incompatibility will force people to upgrade sooner, thus trashing their computers into landfills along with their hazardous chemicals. I thought, "No worries. I don't use a PC anymore. Everything's cool, right?" Wrong. That same Greenpeace website had bad news for mac users, also: apple ranks among the least environmentally-friendly electronic products. These products also include iPods and iBooks. According to Greenpeace

When they [apple products] are tossed, they usually end up at the fingertips of children in China, India and other developing-world countries. They dismantle them for parts, and are exposed to a dangerous toxic cocktail that threatens their health and the environment.

I was quite surprised to read this. Of all the companies I would expect to be green, surely it would be apple. Say it ain't so, apple. Well, I did just what Greenpeace suggested and clicked on their "email Steve Jobs" link, which had a pre-formatted letter urging Jobs to make his products greener. When apple was in trouble a few years back, Jobs stepped in and saved the company with his leadership. He can show his leadership abilities once again by stepping up and making the company more environmentally-friendly.

Technorati tags: apple, Steve Jobs, Greenpeace, mac

Final Thoughts on my Vacation

I've pretty much posted the highlights of my Philippine vacation. Now for some random thoughts about my trip:

1) The Philippines is still obsessed with looking white (i.e. skin whiteners). Here's some billboards I saw in Manila :

Is this colonial mentality or what? Although I have to point out that I only saw these ads in Manila, not in any other city I visited. So I don't know if I can attribute this "wanting to look like a white person" phenomenon to the entire Philippines.

2) Discrimination is still rampant. Here's an example of a typical job ad from a Baguio newspaper with height, age, and of course, the "pleasing personality" requirement:


Do you really need an age or height requirement when working the front desk? C'mon, just have them sit or stand on a couple of books if they're short. :D Meanwhile, at this Manila establishment, they don't mince words:

What's an unattractive person to do? hehe. Can you imagine being rejected for this job? "Miss, you've got all the qualifications, but unfortunately.... well, you're not easy on the eyes." hahaha. Well, at least the restaurant didn't require the waitress to have a "pleasing personality." :D

3) Fireworks....annoying fireworks. I became annoyed at all the people setting firecrackers near our house in Baguio and leaving their trash everywhere.

I suppose this graphic poster of severed fingers they had posted at the sari-sari stores wasn't enough to deter the revelers from playing with fireworks:

I'm not trying to be KJ, as they say in the Philippines, but some of these fireworks ARE illegal and dangerous. I did see a headline the next day that there were 600 fireworks-related injuries. So much for that graphic poster.

4) Nothing beats relaxing around a bonfire with a few drinks. Here's one where I drank hard liquor around a bonfire, but didn't get drunk. The liquor was only 65 proof. :D
We had to move the hard liquor b/c it was a little too close to the fire. ;)

6) The export of human labor continues. Yet another relative has left to work overseas as a nurse. I have another relative studying nursing. I think she already has a degree in another field. Is the Philippines always going to be an exporter of human labor? Will there ever be a time when people will consider the Philippines as the one with "greener pastures"?

7) Tough jobs....there's a lot of them in the Philippines. Some of these tough jobs include vendors (whether it's chicharon or peanuts or sweets,etc.) on buses or those prawn vendors along the highway who advertise their product by holding up the prawn as you whiz by them on the highway. Other jobs are unofficial. For example, kids will flag taxis for you but expect some sort of tip. Probably one of the toughest jobs I saw was the restroom or comfort room (CR) attendees at bus stops who collect 1 or 2 pesos from riders who use the bathroom. If I had that job, I wouldn't even touch the coins. I'd just tell them to put it in a box or something. And if they ask for change, I would just let them use the CR for free. ;)

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about my trip. Looks like I can get rid of this sim card I bought in Manila... won't be needing it anymore:
I had a blast. As Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz once said, "There's no place like home." Too bad I won't be back for a while. Yan ang buhay ng Fil-Am .... or Amboy, as someone once called me. ;)

Technorati tags: Baguio, Philippines, skin whitener, discrimination, firecrackers

Pinoy Show Biz

A few months back, my cousin told me about this game show in the Philippines called Starstruck, an American Idol knock-off. Anyway, there was some controversy when a contestant made some derogatory comments about a fellow contestant, who was an Igorot. The guy eventually apologized, probably b/c he was swamped with complaints by all the Igorots from around the world. Strange how people still make ignorant comments about ethnic groups they don't know anything about. Anyway, when I heard about this, I looked it up on the internet and found another Pinoy in Show biz who also made derogatory comments about Igorots. This one involved Lucy Torres, a very European-looking Pinoy. I didn't find much info on the controversy involving her though b/c, as my cousin later told me, it occurred back sometime in 1999. Seems like there's no shortage of Pinoys in show biz making ignorant comments about Igorots. I'm half-Igorot myself so I would probably be offended if I heard those comments, but I'm over in the states and perhaps the only friction b/w Pinoys here is maybe the one b/w American-born Pinoys versus the FOBS, of which I'm a member. As Rodney King once said, "Can't we just all get along?" Sorry, Mr. King, no such luck. ;)

Anyway, while I was looking up info on Ms. Torres, I stumbled upon a Korean girl working in Pinoy show business. Her name is Sandara Park and her story fascinates me. She moved to the Philippines when she was 8 and became famous during her teen years after an appearance on a Pinoy reality TV show. What's weird is that South Korea obviously has a better economy than the Philippines and yet it looks like she prefers to work in the Philippines, probably b/c she's in the limelight and practically spent her formative years there. There's a switch: an overseas non-Filipino worker in the Philippines. Who'd have thunk? Well, I guess since the Philippines is exporting all their human labor overseas, the Philippines should at least get one foreigner who wants to work in the Philippines. After all, the Philippines does have a shortage of Show Biz entertainers. haha.