Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Lullaby

I would like to present you with a quote from a terrifically queer novel I just finished reading called Lullaby by Chuck Pahlahniuk.

The best way to waste your life is by taking notes. The easiest way to avoid living is to just watch. Look for the details. Report. Don't participate. Let Big Brother do the singing and dancing for you. Be reporter. Be good witness. A grateful member of the audience.
The novel itself is just the right kind of twisted that you need to read it.

Valerie

Right now, when I hear that name, I immediately think of the infectious and uber-fun song of the same name by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse. It's just a really good song and I promise you it will not disappoint.

Just this past week, my family started subscribing to The Filipino Channel (TFC) because my aunt and mamay felt it was the right time. I guess they are often bored. Well, they are also fans of Wowowee, a hugely popular variety show in the Philippines. Anyway, true to the name of my blog, I would like to briefly talk about one of the lips that are like sugar on that show.

But, Blueberry, you're Filipino, so of course you'll think those girls on TFC are hot. Not true. I am an equal opportunity guy and find all sorts of girls cute. In fact, I find inanimate objects cute (sometimes the curves on the piano's legs are just too irresistable). With the exception of Heart E. (please don't hate me for being cliche), I have yet to google any of the girls on the channel to find out more about them. That was until I started watching Wowowee and saw Valerie Concepcion.

I thought she was cute so just today I did some Wikipediaing and that's when the surprises slapped me. First of all, she's only twenty years-old?! What the frack, man? I've only been watching for a week, but I would have guessed she was a couple of years older, you know, just slightly younger than me. She's even younger than one of my brothers. So after thinking about it a little longer, I come to accept that she's younger than me. In fact, that's not so bad-- that's actually a good thing. I am youthful for my age, so I imagine that I would have more in common with a youngin'.

The age problem becomes a non-issue, but then the second factoid that gets me (and this one is humongous) is that she has a child. Wait, she's twenty and has a child? That's not all. She had her daughter when she was sixteen (frack!) by a Sotto guy! Well, I immediately stop reading because that whole Sotto thing disgusts me and the fact that those cats are old and impregnate a teen.

Well, Blueberry, maybe the Sotto guy the website talks about is actually a young guy unlike Vic. Pish-posh. I refuse to read any more and have those facts destroy my image of Valerie. I'll be fine. I will pretend that Valerie's having a child has made her more selective with her love interests, thus making such an awesome guy like me an excellent suitor. I'm better than a Sotto guy, right?

Whatever, I just hope I don't become more douchey by reading more biographical data on Valerie. I'll just enjoy her on Wowowee whenever my family watches The Filipino Channel.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Arghh, Nintendo at E3

I just finished watching Nintendo's E3 2008 press conference and I have rediscovered the meaning of the word "crap". That whole mess of a wreck was horrible. The only thing I found interesting was the Grand Theft Auto Chinatown game and that did not even have any screenshots or video.

Sure, Animal Crossing may be interesting in the same way that Animal Crossing is interesting to only a select few people. I am not one of those people. It looks like more of the same and the only reason I have played the DS version was because I wanted to see what the whole fuss was about.

The whole presentation just talked about how many Wii's and DS's Nintendo has sold. Big deal. The games for Wii are getting on my nerves now since there is no real substance. Do I have to wait once or twice a year for a great game like Super Mario Galaxy and Smash Bros.?

Nintendo, I don't care about your Wii Music. It's not even a game. Even Wii Sports was fun. Actually, I'll give you that Wii Sports is a decent game, but only because it was the first game to showcase the Wii's controller. Wii Music has no objective but to look stupid while pretending to play a wind or string instrument using the Wiimote. It doesn't even sound like the real instruments.

It's a good game if your're two years-old or are not a gaming enthusiast. There's nothing wrong with that except, your real fans will have to start to look to other consoles. I'm going to see what Sony and Microsoft has to offer, while you, Nintendo, sell a butt-load of Wii's that most people will never buy another game for (they can just play the Wii Sports which they think is the whole damn reason for owning a Wii).

I am angry and frustrated, because now, I have to consider spending 400 bones for a different system and I have a Wii that will collect dust perpetually.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Price Droppin' Fool

The xbox 360 $50 price drop is imminent and makes purchasing an xbox almost affordable. I am seriously contemplating buying one. However, if I think about it long and hard enough (hehe) I realize that I should probably wait a few months or a year to see if Sony drops the price of their Playstation 3.

Here are my reasons why I have to try my best to NOT buy a price-dropped xbox 360:

1) First of all, look at it's library of games. Yes, there are some really good games like Call of Duty 4, Bioshock, and Mass Effect, but not a whole lot of variety. The 360 is mostly good for shooters, which though I am a fan off, can get old fast if there's not fluffy stuff to balance out all the shooting and explosions.

2) In keeping with the games theme, the many of the good games are also multi-platform. In other words, there are not many exlusive games to the xbox 360 that warrant a purchase. Halo 3? Good game, but it's another shooter and there's a whole boatload of those on othe sytems. Where are my action adventure games and RPGs?

3) Playstation 3 has better exclusives and a better variety. Just look at the Ratchet series and think about Square Enix's support. I know the Final Fantasy series is overrated as are many Japanese RPGs, but it is a change of pace. There is at least good Japanese support for the playstation.

4) This price drop also signals that Microsoft may be coming out with another configuration for the xbox and they're just trying to clear up some room for this new one.

5) More importantly, the ps3 may also have a price drop in response to the xbox's. I really hope that the 360's sell really well following price drop. This would signal to Sony, that maybe, just maybe, 400 to 500 bones for a video game machine won't cut it for many of us. Hell, I still don't have a good enough TV to enjoy high-definition or any definition for that matter. If the xbox sells well, the ps3 will have to come down in price soon. I can only hope. Then I can judge for myself what moves I should make.

Let's pray for 250 to 300 dollar price point for both systems. Let's even drop the $60 price tag for games.

Peaces.

Iran is Not Da Bomb

Are you serious? Under no circumstance (at least currently or even foreseeable) should the United States even consider attacking Iran. We are still in two wars, if people forget: the hugely unpopular Iraq occupation and the less publicized Afghanistan operations.

Let Iran showboat and flaunt its photoshopping capabilities. I don't care how many missiles and nuclear plants it has, we cannot do a damn thing about it. We shouldn't even try because a three front operation is not going to happen. That's like the most unpopular kid alienating two random kids and deciding to give a third kid a wedgie (atomic wedgie? sorry). It's not good publicity much less the cost and casualties.

Mainly, the U.S. needs to let the rest of the world (Europe, ahem) deal with any supposed problems in the Middle East. Let's clean up our mess in Iraq, return to looking for Osama and Al-Qaeda, who are now most definitely in the mountain tribal regions of our "friend" Pakistan. But we should be careful about that, too. Pakistan does have nuclear capabilities.

As a matter of fact, let's just get the hell out of the Middle East all together and just strengthen our homeland security. Why not develop oil alternatives so that we don't have to step foot in the Middle East until they are an inviting enough place. Just read the Kite Runner and dream of the good parts of that book (what parts?). I'm all for travel and having a global community that celebrates the uniqueness of culture (I wish I had money to travel), but there are just some places right now where all parties are misunderstood.

Let's gallavant in Europe, instead. I hear it's great there in the summer.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Do It For Russia

I am a patriotic man. I am so patriotic that I am taking up the responsibilities of all patria. One country I plan on helping is the motherland, Russia. The twelfth of September, 2008 has been declared Family Contact Day where married couples are encouraged to "engage in marital intimacy". Sounds good to me. The goal is to create boat loads of Russian babies by June 12, 2009, to combat the falling population rates of Russia.

I say, Hooray for babies, but a double Hooray for engaging in marital intimacy. I would go so far as to say that one may leave out the marital part, but I'm sure Russian officials would not be down with that.

As for me, well, I am extending a proposal (I think there's a joke to be made here) to one Ms. Hotforwords, "Let's make some magic and some Hotforwords Pinoy-Ruski-American babies."

Ciao.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Casino Royale: Take Two

What's with me and watching movies for a second time through NetFlix and loving these movies even more? First, I saw Batman Begins for a second time and I was enthralled for the whole two hours and came out super excited for its sequel. This time, I rediscovered the goodness of Casino Royale.

I saw Casino Royale, probably back in 2006, on my computer so I didn't get the whole theater experience. The image quality was great, but it was on my computer and that may have affected my first impression. Since I was able to rent the DVD just recently, I was able to follow the weaving plot and more importantly, the witty, typical Bond dialogue that was heavily accented when I first saw it.

This movie is definitely along the same lines of Batman Begin's reboot of the franchise: it has refreshed double 0h seven. Don't get me wrong, I am a fan of Brosnan's Bond, but it was getting stale. The movies started getting too flashy. The gadgets were just too unbelievable (car controlled with a phone?) and the villains were over the top (diamond faced dude?). They weren't bad. They were good, but Casino Royale showed me that Bond could be better.

While not as gritty as Batman (can anything be, really?) Royale tweaked Bond to rely less on fancy devices and more on solid action sequences. It had parkour for crying out loud! You can feel Daniel Craig exert energy as Bond trying to achieve his mission. There was no ease of accomplishing things with the flick of a rist watch, just the use Bond's wits and doggedness. He friggin' ran after that parkour dude, and he kept up with that airplane bomber by just calling his phone.

Casino Royale has the good kind of glitz and glamour. The locales are amazing (Venice and Prague), and his suits are really sophisticated. Plus, Craig is in super good shape. It makes sense how he can do all these things.

This was and is Bond 2.0. I can't wait for the sequel Quantum of Solace. The sequel promises more of the same (good thing) and be a continuation of the plot established in Casino Royale. Plot continuation, anyone? Yes. Sign me up.