Lilo with Lola

My adorable niece, Lilo, on her grandma's lap. Joy took this photo one sunny afternoon on the balcony of our resthouse in Cavite. (This pic is Joy's way of thanking Uncle Dave for the wonderful camera.) Naturally my mom had THIS photo printed in her alma mater's Golden Jubilee souvenir program.

To Uncles Joe, Dave & Frank

Mark S. and his long-time sweetie Chuti have big news! I suppose you can guess what it's about, but let him email you. (I took this picture at the reception of Howie and Aisa's wedding.)

If you remember, Mark graduated this March from his HRM course at De La Salle-Lipa (Batangas). Last year he was one of five top students sent from DLSU-Lipa to intern for six months at The Veranda, a 23-room inn in Nantucket, Massachussetts.

Chuti and her mom have a catering company. The last time we all went to Mark's place in Los Baños to celebrate the first death anniversary of Tita Josie, Chuti and her family prepared the delicious food.

What I've Been Busy With

...is THIS.

Enjoying the BBC

I was having dinner last night at a friend's place, when, while channel-surfing, we came across a BBC documentary on Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic. He was recently found dead a few days ago; just today it was reported that he actually died from a heart attack rather than from suicide or assassination. (For another good British sum-up of Milosevic's bloody career, check out The Guardian.)

My friend, who earlier had accompanied me to the mall to help me choose new eyeglass frames, said that there were times he preferred watching the BBC over CNN. It was more calm and laid-back, and encouraged him to think. CNN, he said, is at its best for breaking news, but its programming is sometimes too adrenaline-charged, and therefore more tiring to watch.

The documentary was interesting. Apart from the usual biographical information it showed the evolution of Slobodan Milosevic and sociology professor wife Mira Markovich as Serbia's power couple, tracing their political affiliations from one extreme to another, and how the couple fed off each other's ambitions as they grabbed power and sought to remain there. The documentary also showed how they manipulated mass media to reposition Milosevic as a nationalist strongman despite having been indicted for ethnic cleansing and other war crimes at The Hague. Upon Marshal Tito's death, as Yugoslavia broke into smaller republics (talk about the term "balkanization"), the nationalist Serbs lapped up exactly what Milosevic had intended. The BBC documented every instance of individual and national betrayal. Biting stuff.

"Shades of Marcos and Imelda," I mumbled over a bite of brownies. "Mismo!", my friend said.

Now if they turn it into a biographical potboiler, I'd buy it to read in the farm. I'm into historical nonfiction in a big way -- countries, cultures, wars, biographies. When there's no television, and no new dvds, that's what sustains my imagination.

Mercury Retrograde Redux

Wasn't it Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawat who mentioned last year that Mercury Retrograde was not a good time for him? He must be making offerings to temples left and right just to stay afloat until March 25, hehehe.

On the home front...my Powerbook is back with a vengeance! The newly replaced LCD is working wonderfully! The techie at my friendly neighborhood Apple reseller also replaced my 768mb worth of RAM with just one 1G chip - I just traded in my two old 512mb Kingston chips (I have another 768mb worth of RAM in the other dead Powerbook I bought just for parts, all that remains now are the two OEM 256mb chips). He also tested my Firewire/USB mini HDD enclosure (which wouldn't mount). It turns out that the firewire cable doesn't work (the USB cable does, but you will need to plug the AC adapter, which defeats the purpose of portability). Good thing I can still have it replaced within warranty at Powermac Megamall. What peeves me is that the enclosure cost me PhP 5,500 last year while my friendly neighborhood Apple reseller was selling a similar-but-fully- working product for PhP 2,000 less! Alas, that's what happens when one is desperate for emergency portable backup storage. I will NEVER buy from them again. My friendly neighborhood Apple reseller will now get ALL my custom. My techie there, Nomer, is THE BEST! If you are reading this and if you are a happy QC-based Mac owner, you probably know the outfit I speak of. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

As to the planet Mercury, I thumb my nose at you when I have such good friends at my side!

Mercury Retrograde

I'd like to blame Mercury retrograde (which began last March 2) for my Powerbook being sent to the shop. Had the lcd replaced (for worrying onscreen fuzzy lines)and when the techie and I were checking the stats, the unit wouldn't read the RAM in the lower slot. He said that was a problem in the 1.5Ghz and 1.67Ghz Powerbooks (mine is a 1Ghz model), so unfortunately when we checked my Powerbook's serial number in the recall list, it wasn't included in the model series. My RAM went down from 768mb to 512mb!!! WAHHH!!! Am considering trading in my two 512mb's to buy 1G RAM if it comes out that the machine can only read one RAM at a time. Fortunately my techie was very conscientious and asked to keep my unit in the shop an additional 2 days until he could figure out how to fix the RAM reading. They really give good service there (a well-known Apple reseller based in Quezon City).

Oddly enough, Joy's 128mb flash drive also conked out and had to be replaced. My first Canon digital camera, the A60 (which Joy was using) also had to be repaired, fortunately within warranty).

The last time Mercury retrograde came 'round (November last year) some of my computer equipment began exhibiting problems. Fortunately, all of those problems were solved (but at a cost, damn).

Let's hope it passes quickly.

A Respite from the Rush

This is one of those rare days when I can sit back and think about the flurry of activity that characterized the whole month of February. When you think of it, blogging has been made so user-friendly that everyone can chronicle their latest thoughts, whether those thoughts actually contain useful content or not (hahaha!). Some really talented people I know manage to keep their sites updated despite problems at work, cranky babies, lack of access, name it. Sometimes I wish I were that disciplined.

Since January 7 we've had guests every weekend at Agape Springs, our bed-&-breakfast resthouse in Dasmariñas, Cavite. I'm back to working weekends. Supposedly I have days off (Mondays), where I catch up on sleep and watch tv/dvds. Along the way I injured my back trying to lift a box of bedlinens the wrong way. That meant having hour-long laser acupuncture treatments every Monday for five Mondays at my high school classmate's clinic in Quezon City. I'm pleased to report that I'm free from pain and my back is much, much better. However, leaving the house on Mondays makes me want to fill up my time with useful activities much like work... ergo... Mondays aren't really a day off. Sunday afternoons when I get home to Manila I try not to touch my pc or even check my email, otherwise I'll be tempted to multitask and find myself working still. But I try to make sure I get a social life -- was able to attend my friend Heidi's birthday dinner at the Chinese resto Zong (at The Fort) with the rest of my girlfriends in the group we refer to as The Justice League.

Last week we had no guests, so I had time to do my dad's Baguio City High golden jubilee souvenir program (everything from scanning to editing pix, content editing and layout, and printing a working draft in time for their meeting in Baguio). I also had time to play with my niece Lilo (lots of new pix to follow!). And I've been able to enjoy Battlestar Galactica Seasons 1 & 2 on dvd.

I also lost ten lbs.!!!

Deep Thoughts

Since things neither exist nor don't exist,
are neither real nor unreal,
are utterly beyond adopting and rejecting -
one might as well burst out laughing.

-- Tibetan Nyingma Master Longchenpa Rabjampa (14th century)

(from World Prayers Collective, a real nifty site you can visit for a few minutes each day when you need to soothe your heart or unruffle your troubled soul or just need to plain readjust your perspective.)

Happy New Year!

And the little one slept through it all!

For Lilo fans, recent pix here.

Reindeer in the Headlights

My gang spent one night before Christmas visiting a street in Mandaluyong where houses tried to outdo each other in lights and decor.

Check out Policarpio Street here.

Kong Rules

As we walked out of the theatre, Tristan remarked, "Lord of the Rings wasn't a fluke. Peter Jackson HAS done it again." Jackson's three-hour 2005 version of the sweeping epic adventure of how a giant ape from Skull Island bonds with a New York vaudeville actress is probably right up there for another Academy Award.

Her beautifully expressive face and dancer's lithe body makes the luminous Naomi Watts a major star in her breakout role as Ann Darrow. I won't be surprised if she gets nominated for a Best Actress Oscar. For most of the movie she looked like she took enough of a beating to put Keanu Reeves to shame (not a scratch in Speed, how about that. Sandra Bullock took more hits). And now and then she has really ethereal and incandescent moments -- especially when her eyes well with unshed tears -- rather like the young Penelope Ann Miller as Margo Lane in The Shadow (also a 1930s adventure). Jessica Lange was also incredibly beautiful in the 1976 version of King Kong... not that I remember much else beyond her beauty.

Comedian Jack Black is also in fine form in his first major dramatic role as the wily and opportunistic filmmaker Carl Denham. Adrien Brody was ok, although he was mostly window dressing.

Two new actors caught my eye. Thomas Kretschmann played the hard-nosed ship's captain and animal trapper Captain Engelhorn (reminds me of a younger, more serious Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson), with a most attractive European accent. Another discovery is Evan Parke, who plays the first mate Hayes, mentor to an impressionable young deckhand (an excellent, very intelligent performance. As a military-trained black man educated in the school of hard knocks, Hayes expresses his astute take on Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness.")

As for Andy Serkis, what can I say? He wins my vote for Best CGI actor twice running! He really ought to have won for Gollum, never mind that his face was all CGI'd up, he DID act with BOTH voice and body! I read he flew to strife-torn Rwanda on the sly to study gorilla behavior in the wild before Peter Jackson could stop him. Apart from Kong, Serkis also played Lumpy the one-eyed Scottish cook, the one who was slowly consumed by giant killer leeches in a scene that actually gave me nightmares for a couple of days.

It's amazing how as Kong Andy Serkis successfully managed to anthropomorphize male gorilla behavior, to communicate with Ann. Oddly enough, it felt like I was watching Richard Gere and Debra Winger have a spat in An Officer and A Gentleman, only Kong didn't need a Harley to drive away on:

Kong: Mmppfff! What have YOU to say now that I've rescued you from all those pesky T-Rexes? *shows rump sulkily*
Ann: Errr... Wait!!!
Kong: *picks up Ann and nonchalantly throws her on his shoulder for the ride*

Some people I talked to complained that they really didn't need to see the raptor stampede or the duel with the three T-Rexes or the extended giant insect creepshow, which lengthened the film. I actually rather enjoyed the raptor stampede sequence and squealed several times, especially when a character would get either squashed or bit at. You could hear the audience's excitement; you could tell we were all having fun. (One of the best frissons of excitement I ever got from the movies was from Raiders of the Lost Ark, in the scene where Indiana Jones runs like hell away from a rolling boulder. I pit all the exciting movie scenes against that one, and if my nape hairs all stand up that means I'd gladly watch that movie over and over. Witness Gandalf's battle with the Balrog, as well as Eowyn in ROTK telling the Nazgul King, "I am NO man!")

As I viewed Kong's fight scenes with the T-Rexes the following silly refrain kept running through my head: "She's MY Vaudeville Barbie! Mine!! MINE!!!" Hehehe. I also couldn't stop alternately laughing and gasping at Ann's trapeze act with one of the T-Rexes, it had an element of the ridiculous you couldn't miss.

The giant insect scenes were indeed gross and shudder-inducing; I believe I mentioned Lumpy being eaten by a giant leech. Peter Jackson must have dedicated that scene to the inner kid in all of us. If you have never experienced the thrill of playing with creepy-crawlies as a kid, I am truly sorry you could not enjoy that scene in all its horrific glory. And if you didn't get the cinematic pun about the giant crickets... well, in New Zealand they're called WETAs, which is the name of the effects production company Peter Jackson worked with on both King Kong and LOTR (they also worked on the first Narnia movie, which is coming soon in January 2006).

I did wonder about how the crew managed to find each other in less than 24 hours in a rather large unmapped island jungle... and how supposedly cold-blooded saurii could run so fast... and about the pesky giant bats that didn't attack Kong UNTIL Adrien Brody showed up... and about the very convenient root/vine that led all the way down from Kong's perch... But of course I didn't let that spoil my fun.

This King Kong is high camp; if you took it too seriously the joke's on you.

Prime

I hardly ever pass up a chance to watch Meryl Streep. To see her play Uma Thurman's shrink was something too good to resist. What further intrigued me was the May-December Ashton Kutcher-Demi Moore situation Uma Thurman finds herself in, complicated by the fact that the guy just happens to be her shrink's son!

I entered the theater thinking Prime was just another chick movie. Yes, it deals with chick issues, but as the movie progressed I realized there was more to this intimate jewel of a movie than I originally thought. Blame the trailer for marketing the more accessible (comic + romantic) aspects of the movie. Parts of it ARE brilliantly comic, thanks in no small part to Meryl's impeccable timing. She slips into the role of Dr. Metzker (supportive shrink-but-neurotic-Jewish-mom) so easily, but avoids making a caricature of her character. Opposite her Uma plays it straight, and seeing her character Rafi evolve is a joy to watch.

At the beginning of the movie we see Rafi trying to recover from her emotionally crushing divorce. She looks wilted and humiliated and in dire need of self-validation. Dr. Metzker encourages Rafi to rebuild her self esteem, to open up, toward giving and receiving love. Later, as Rafi blooms from the attentions of her young lover David (tenderly played by Bryan Greenberg), you see her growing more and more radiant. (Reminds me of another cinematic divorcee who slowly gets her groove back - Diane Lane as Frances Mayes in 2003's Under The Tuscan Sun.)

"We have had sex on almost every surface of my apartment, and I have NEVER been so satisfied!" Hearing a rapturous Uma deliver that line alone had our entire cinema audience cheering.

Conflict begins when Dr. Metzker realizes that the lover is her son David: how does one behave ethically as a therapist when the subject of her client's affections is a family member? How does a therapist prioritize client care over her personal issues? How does a Jewish mother encourage her son to cherish his culture and religion? Given that our movie is set in New York, it's not inconceivable for a therapist to have her own therapist.

Later, when strain threatens Rafi's relationship, Uma Thurman gets to show exactly how a woman of 37 feels, faced with the 14-year gulf in intellectual and emotional maturity between Rafi and David. I truly felt her exultation and her pain, and so did every girl in the audience (which does characterize this as a chick flick). At this point the audience suddenly realized that the comedy on the surface had its darker depths.

The movie is marketed as a comedy, but it had a balanced mixture of comedy and bittersweet romance. All in all it felt more like a slightly gritty European film rather than a glossy Hollywood one. The film's writer made sure the subject was never at any point dumbed down. There was no fairy-tale ending (yes, we know Ashton and Demi got married in real life, that's Hollywood for you), but there was a realistic one that made you think.

Does it bear repeated viewing? I enjoyed watching it. My vote is Yes.

Gems from National Geographic

From National Geographic magazine, November 2005 issue:

Health - Women feel more pain - and feel pain more - than men, notes a new study. The sexes' coping strategies may hint at why. Men in the study focused on physical aspects of discomfort, which apparently helped increase pain thresholds. Women focused on pain's emotional as well as physical aspects. Their pain proved harder to treat and seemed of greater intensity.

Astronomy - A new planet with three suns in its sky has been found 149 light years from Earth. Its type is named Tatooine after the dual-sunned planet in the film "Star Wars".

From the December 2005 issue:

Health - Olive oil contains a natural painkiller, scientists say. An ingredient in olives known as oleocanthal works in much the same way as the drug ibuprofen to suppress pain-causing prostaglandins in the body. The anti-inflammatory properties of oleocanthal may help explain the reduced incidence of certain cancers, stroke, and heart disease in Mediterranean populations that traditionally use large amounts of olive oil in their diets.

Animal Kingdom - Cats can't taste sugary foods. A defective sweet-receptor gene is why, according to a new study. This antipathy toward sweets may have helped shape feline evolution in the wild, leading to a preference for muscle-building protein over carbohydrates. Or, say scientists, the gene may have become defective from lack of use in cats' high protein diet.

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I truly love this magazine. I remember growing up as a kid reading my uncle's old back issues, and it felt like I was travelling a different country each time. My not-so-secret fantasy was to become a National Geographic photojournalist...

Agape Springs, Cavite

Click on the pic to view a larger version.

A year ago, our resthouse at the family farm looked like this. We've had to tear down the old wooden structure to make way for a more permanent, yet no less beautiful, building. I'm having this photo printed as an 8x10, for framing.

Click here to see what the new structure looks like, along with the other developments on the farm. We're gearing up for the big family reunion on January 2006.

Video Googling

Some hilarious videos to make your day:

Doing the Yoda Groove

Karaoke Duo

Enjoy!