Wii For Mii!

Finally scored a Wii! Yay! There were around ten of them sitting in a cabinet over at the Target close to my work, so I gave in and bought one.

Now the buyer's remorse kicks in. I don't actually have time to play it, so...

Hey, maybe I'll get a Wii fit so that I can justify the purchase. At some point my girls can also play as well (although they'd rather watch me play "Dora and the Purple Planet").

If Melanie Marquez was Blonde...

So I'm listening to The Big Show With Mason and Ireland driving home from work, and they started discussing Miss Teen USA 2007. Apparently there was this blonde from South Carolina who answered the question "Why 1/5 of Americans can't locate the US on a map" with this little gem...



Now, she was probably nervous and all, but I can't for the life of me understand what she was saying. The hosts were making fun of her all right, but Ireland showed just how smart he was: "And yet she was in third place! She was third runner-up." Nice, Ireland. Show off that UCLA education.

Watchlist 2007

Pan's Labyrinth. This was an...interesting movie. Billed as a "fairy tale for adults", it's set in post civil-war Spain, a time when rebels were still roaming the countryside. Ofelia is a 10-year old girl who is caught up in the war when her mother marries an officer in the Spanish army situated in the countryside, assigned to flush out rebels. Her stepfather is a cold-hearted bastard, sure enough; he has no qualms over killing townsfolk who may be remotely connected to the rebels, even those who are just hunting for food.

The aforementioned Labyrinth offers Ofelia an escape from her miserable existence with her stepfather. The aforementioned "Pan" is not actually the God of the Pipes; instead, it is just a faun, much like the Tumnus the Faun in Narnia. This faun is the caretaker of the Labyrinth (thus the title, which in Spanish is literally "The Faun's Labyrinth". I guess they thought it sounded more dramatic using "Pan" for English-speaking audiences). The Faun claims to know Ofelia's destiny, and...well, you'll just have to watch the rest of it.

The movie is a gem. It's like Labyrinth (the one which introduced Jennifer Connelly) in reverse--instead of the heroine trying to escape from the labyrinth back to the real world, she is trying to get into the labyrinth--escaping from all her troubles in the real world. Instead of being light-hearted and whimsical, Pan's Labyrinth is quiet and thoughtful. It's actually a bit sad in a way. Both movies, though, have fantastical characters, and both have potential breakout stars--Connelly in one, Ivana Baquero in the other.

I highly recommend this movie. Note that it's subtitled--not that it matters. If you were able to follow the subtitles of Crouching Tiger and Amelie, you'll be able to follow this one.

Lost...in the Dark Tower?

Apparently this is old news (the date on the article reads Feb 2007), but apparently Stephen King has sold the rights to make The Dark Tower into a movie. The guys to do it? JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the fine folks who created Lost.

It's sure to make a couple of folks excited, but me? Meh. Maybe I'll get excited if/when it ever starts filming, but Book 7 left me feeling a bit cold. I'm also a bit worried as to how this will translate to film--a trilogy, perhaps? I doubt people will stick around for seven books; it doesn't have quite the universal appeal as that other seven book wonder. We'll see.

(Viggo for Roland! Although he might come across as a bit too Hidalgo-ish...)

More Than Meets The Eye

I AM
73%
JAZZTake the Transformers Quiz

Does this mean I get ripped in half by Megatron at some point?

Build Your Own Bumblebee

Remember those scale models of airplanes and cars and stuff? I could never get into those things--I was too klutzy, and I could never glue those things together properly.

If you're one of those people who are good at it, though, here's a DIY Bumblebee, from the Transformers Movie. You may need to learn Japanese, though. =)

bookoftheweek: His Majesty's Dragon

Ah, Booksale! Remember them? They used to sell books and magazines at a discount price. Stuff you couldn't find at National Bookstore you could find here. One of my prized finds from this place was Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. It was a series set in the world of Pern, a planet which dealt with the threat of "thread", mindless organisms that burrowed through living things. The "dragons" in this series were genetically engineered from flying lizards, and were mentally linked to their riders.

His Majesty's Dragon and the succeeding books (Throne of Jade, Black Powder War and Empire of Ivory) takes this basic formula and transplants it to early 19th-century England, when Napoleon was still emperor and was bent on taking over the world. Dragons were used as aerial fighting units, carrying riders and materiel. The series focuses on one dragon in particular: Temeraire, a Chinese Imperial born on a ship, and his relationship with William Laurence, a captain in the British Navy who unwillingly becomes bonded to Temeraire. As the book progresses, he becomes attached to Temeraire, and the two quickly become important parts of the Aerial Corps.

The book is quite exciting and hard to put down; there are the dragons, who are quite intelligent and quite different from, say, Dragonlance dragons. They are classified into different categories, from the lightweight couriers (think recon aircraft) to the heavyweight Regal Coppers (think bombers). Different countries have different types of dragons as well; the French probably have the coolest dragons, from the night-vision Fleur-de-Nuit to the fire-breathing Flamme-de-Gloire.

I can easily see this being made into a multimedia property--movies (already optioned by Peter Jackson--think of Master and Commander with dragons--how cool will that be?), comic books, and even tabletop/computer games (Real Time Strategy definitely; RPGs, not so sure). The last one is not surprising, as Naomi Novick helped develop the Neverwinter Nights expansion Shadows of Undrentide.

This book--heck, the entire Temeraire series--is highly recommended. Pick it up if you see it.

Cool It Now...With a Necktie

Hmm, maybe I could've used this back when I was working at Makati, in the sweltering heat and humidity...





...or maybe not. I think I would've preferred looking normal with a knotted noose vs looking stupid (and tethered to my computer--it has to be plugged in to run!). My friend Billy would've run away screaming if he saw anyone wearing this.

I never did get the appeal of clip-on ties anyway. You wear a tie, might as well learn to tie knots correctly. Thankfully, I don't need to do this now.

This might've been a bit more useful, although good personal hygiene would be important.

What's in a Name

Okay, this is carrying it too far...a New Zealand couple named their kid Superman. Fine, I think, after all, Nic Cage named his kid Kal-El. Celebs name their kids weird names all the time.

Except Superman wasn't their original choice. Noooo, they wanted to name their kid "4Real", because when they saw him in the ultrasoud they realized he was "For Real".

What's next, someone named LOL? OMG? l33t?

I feel sorry for the kid when he grows up. He doesn't even have the "protection" of having famous parents.

Monster Movie

While a bunch of us are anxiously awaiting the release of Stardust, there's another film scheduled to be released in November that was also written by Neil Gaiman: Beowulf.

The trailer looks...interesting. Great CGI, but look at their eyes: they look flat and unfeeling. Kinda like Final Fantasy: The Spirts Within or The Polar Express. I'll give this one a chance, though, since Gaiman's one of the writers. Ironically, there was another Beowulf movie called Beowulf and Grendel that was released in 2005, starring...Gerard Butler, who also starred in that other epic CGI flick released this year.

The Los Angeles...Decepticons?

Dear Lord, someone actually used Transformers as a metaphor for the NBA, as a result of the KG trade. The writer sees the three vet Celtics as the Autobots, looking for the Allspark Cube (aka the Larry O'Brien Trophy). He then goes on to compare Shaq and Kobe to...Megatron and Starscream. An excerpt:

"Could Shaq-Kobe possibly be any more similar to the Megatron-Starscream relationship? One is the dominant and powerful ruler, the other is his high flying second-in-command who looks to take over the throne at all times. When Megatron dies in the cartoon movie (or more accurately is on sabbatical while being resurrected as Galvatron), Starscream is in charge and the Deceps become a huge mess"

On one hand he kindasorta makes sense, but he kinda goes overboard don't you think?