Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Whooooo!!!

.:Aufwiedersehen:.

One of my longest-standing best friends, Abby, is going to Denmark tonight for her Masters.

I'm very proud of you, Abby, and I'll see you soon. Blaze a trail only you can ever possibly blaze. Take care, and know that I'll always be there for you.

Always. =)

.:Before Cranking It Up:.

I watched this movie premiere with El, 'Elle, and Moon. It was definitely awesome, to say the least, and as usual, Elbert played his 20 questions game to get to know Moon and her friend better while we were waiting for Estelle, who was late as usual...

Elbert and I were dared to make out, but we told Moon and her friend to do it first, then we would. They balked, so we didn't find the need to prove our masculinity by making out in a manly, non-homoerotic manner. We're secure about our masculinity that way. Making out with another guy? Ha! It doesn't faze us.

.:Film Review: Crank:.


With a preview of another film right beside me!



SPOILERS AHEAD!!!The Transporter is back! Jason Statham stars as Chev in this high-octane but self-aware movie about a man who was injected with a poison that would kill him if he allowed his heart rate to slow down enough.

This movie's romp into film noir-ish pastiche started from the opening graphic of the movie, and even kicked in when they established the point of the story by the first scene, as Chev was on all fours in his living room, watching a video that informed him he was poisoned. Vowing revenge on the people who did this to him, he slowly discovers that in order for him to stay alive, he has to keep on doing things that would give him an adrenaline rush.

And do things, he does! He runs the gamut of doing it in the middle of Chinatown with his girlfriend, getting into a fight for the sake of getting into a fight, snorting coke, taking nasal sprays with ephenedrine (artifical adrenaline), being shocked by a fibrillator (Spelling?), and other such activities. Anytime there's a lull in the movie, the poison starts kicking in, so he has to make things happen, and when things happen, instead of being action-packed, you end up laughing your head off at the sheer inanity of what's been going on.

Some would argue that this movie, in its usage of film-noir techniques for comedic effect instead of artistic innovation, is even funnier than Snakes On A Plane, and I'm hard-pressed to disagree with that notion.

Favorite line in the movie (Chev's Doctor): If you stop, you die!!!

Second favorite line in the movie (Chev): (To people, after knocking the taxi driver who didn't want to let him in the cab.) Al Qaeda!!!

Jason Statham's acting was impeccable. He was deadpan as a killer-for-hire who was running around causing havoc all over town, and the movie was so downright campy, especially with the CGI shots of his heart that you can't help but laugh out loud because Chev doesn't seem to even find the humor in anything he's been doing, while it's there for everyone to see. The entire cast knew how to ham it up to a fault, but also knew better than to let the hamming get in the way of the very amusing flow of the movie: climax, lull, climax, lull, climax, lull, climax, essentially simulating the adrenaline glands of Chev in the movie.

With an inane plot, campy dialogue, lopsided motivations, static characters, stereotypes, racism, drug use and references, crass toilet humor, and overall bad special effects, you are treated to a deceptively awesome movie, to say the least. Worth a watch for anyone who's willing to leave his brain at the door.


Critical Evaluation: F
Fun Evaluation: A+++

.:I Met Batista. Gasp:.

So I met up with Estelle and her best friend, Cams, around the Shangrila area. Thing is, Estelle wasn't really a wrestling fan, but because she knows I'm a huge huge fan of all things wrestling, she went ahead and invited me to meet Batista.

From Shangrila, we headed to Gateway, where I had fond and bitter memories of days past, and since I recently finished quite a load of work for my uncle Raymund for the whole playlists thing, I pigged out on Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. Wasn't so bad, if it weren’t for the fact that almost the same things were being served at the Roxas residence where Batista was going to make an appearance.

I was a bit worried about not having a camera, but luckily, a photographer friend of Tita Toots' showed up and volunteered to take pictures. I had the WWE Title Belt on me, and I had Batista sign the title, although he never particularly held that belt anyways. I really wish I had the WCW Title, though. That one was awesome.

I was tongue-tied while I was trying to talk to him. I was hoping to ask for a picture where he was going to smack me with a belt, but it didn't pan out well since he was sitting and I was nervous. Heh. I don't get starstruck except around pro wrestlers, apparently.

Thanks, Bessy! I really, really loved the chance to meet Batista in person...

.:The Sweetest Thing:.

When it comes to non-romantic gestures, this tops the list for sweet gestures, to say the least.

I'm sure by now that all my friends know that during my birthday, the first thing I would always ask for are handwritten letters (Hint, hint.). That being said, Estelle did one better than that.

In fact, she did twenty-two better than that.

For twenty-three days until my birthday, she has been giving me one letter a day. To represent the twenty-three years we haven't known each other, and twenty-three letters loaded with insight on how wonderful a person Bessy really is.

What else can I say? I'd be hard-pressed to come up with anything remotely as brilliant as that, though some ideas come to mind, as early as now...

.:Rush Rush:.

I made a boo-boo with the playlists I was doing a while back, and had to redo all of them. My uncle even ended up having to meet me at my office while I worked on the whole thing, but it wasn't so bad, really.

Afterwards, I finished the work, and then of course, the Batista episode happened. From there, I found myself not sleepy yet and ended up going with Moon and her friends to Videoke in Marikina. As usual, I went for my staples: Gary V, Ogie Alcasid, Lionel Richie and Diana Ross, and Salbakuta. From there, I slept over at Elbert's, only to find out the following day that a huge gaff occurred with the playlists for Gaisano, and it wasn't our fault, but we had to redo playlists anyways.

So again, I met up with my uncle, and we fixed some stuff up, and resolved that we'd also work out a schedule for me to learn a bit of sound engineering in the near future as well. It was a pretty good time, and my cousin, Maikee, was awfully sweet that day, and was amused at my PSP, to say the least.

After finishing the work, he dropped me off at Elbert's place, and it ended up being a gathering of me, El, 'Elle, Johan, and ND. Moon dropped by after a while, and late as she was, it was still good to see how well she hit it off with my friends.

.:Food Trip:.

Come Sunday, El and I waited for April, as I wanted her to get to know Elbert and Estelle, since I was hoping she'd have some new friends she could talk to and all that. I was very glad because El and 'Elle really really like her, and of course, eating at Wai Ying along with ND made things even cooler.

I pigged out, to be sure. I had two servings of duck rice, and dumplings galore. Awesome food, to say the least.

In any case, El instigated the ice breaker by asking the ghost of past, present, and future question. Answers were very interesting and insightful, and what stood out was how Estelle and April really seemed to find a lot of common ground with each other. They got along a lot, and despite having met all of 'em for the first time, April was comfortable enough to be on hugging basis with all of them already, even Elbert (!).

Nonetheless, from there, we headed out to Greenhills to just hang out some more, and since it was just me and April while El, 'Elle, and ND were in the other vehicle, April and I took the time out to bond some more, and share a quiet but meaningful moment. It's hard to find such simple moments nowadays, to be honest. With everything so hurly-burly, it's a lot easier to just be all sound and fury and stuff. Instead, here we were, having a tender moment, further reminding me how lucky I am to have friends like April.

While the whole deal in Greenhills was fairly non-happening, the trip home was fairly eventful, nonetheless. Elbert and April continued talking some more, and it turned out that a certain Annoying Ditzy Idiot got her comeuppance courtesy of April. Ha! Wonderful!

.:Mondaze:.

I can't believe it's been six months since I last ate at Manang's. It's been very odd and all, but I guess the killer thing that has happened was that my trip to the Philosophy Department proved most enlightening. They were asking me to eat with them if I so wanted, but I declined. What was really interesting was that after all has been said and done, I still have a soft spot in my heart for Philosophy, going as far as to ask Mr. Calasanz for a reading list for me to go over while I'm not yet with the department, and him asking me if I was happy.

I told him that if I were in the academe again, I knew I would. I believe that, quite honestly.

Afterwards, I just really hung around, bonded a bit with Estelle over the phone and told her how things have been going lately, and how despite the downs here and there, for the most part, I'm on the up and up and I'm very happy with my friends. Maybe I'll never love someone again the way I still love *her*, but I know that I can share my affection for my friends, nonetheless. Hades, I even hugged Elbert. Ahahahaha.

Surprisingly, April dropped in on us, and we had really funny conversations in Seattle's Best, mainly with us doing voices and lamenting the death of Ernie due to HIV, and all that stuff. Still, April has been very much happy lately, which was a far cry from how she used to be for the previous times I've been meeting her. I'm glad that it's that way, because I know that her finding her smile once again is nothing but good news, to say the least...

That being said, when we got back to El's place, I freaked April out by pretending to be in the throes of passsion as Elbert was trying to maintain some semblance of decorum while talking to Estelle over the phone. Elsie, Elbert's sister, was snickering all the way, and it was definitely amusing how Elsie and Elbert act around each other... hehe.

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