haircut!

i had a haircut today.

i used to look like wolverine on a bad hair day.

now, i just have bad hair. well, short hair.

very short hair.

dvc: the book and the movie

i just watched the da vinci code. three hours. i was distracted for the last hour because i wanted to go to the room where you can find comfort but i was in the middle of the row... ugh.

anyway, the book first; i always thought it was "cinematically written". as cherry pointed out, its a book waiting to become a movie.

and the movie; well, we liked the effects where "imaginary" people were flocking to the church. nice. i thought it was a puzzle movie like national treasure. it's a bit too long though especially if your bladder is not ready for it. i was thinking that maybe there should be a 10 minute break in the middle of a movie that long.

all in all, the story line is intriguing. some people like it some people don't. should you watch it? hmmm... why not? if you have 130 pesos and three hours to spare.

da vinci code banned in manila

ha! i just feel that a choice has been taken away from me. it not really about the movie anymore. in my opinion, its about a mayor that thinks that his constituents cannot decide for themselves so he takes it upon himself to decide for them.

well, i think i'm old enough to decide for myself. i'm not really in a hurry to see the movie but i'll spend my money and watch it in makati or in pasig instead.

[sigh] some people...

over the hedge

cherry, robin, jason (robin's cousin) and i went out to see over the hedge. its the first day of showing and i was hoping that by late afternoon there wouldn't be too many people in the movie house.

wrong.

there were lines across the board. da vinci code was showing in five out of the eight movie houses in glorietta 4 (thanks to the publicity). mi:3 and poseidon was in the other 2 and one was showing over the hedge. pinoys are really a movie going people.

over the hedge is a fun and enjoyable movie. if you have kids then by all means take them. if you don't, well, go watch it anyway. it really is a fun movie.

and yes, if i had the money, i'd probably get the dvd if they were selling them outside the movie house.

bed weather

its been bed weather mornings for the past three days. i'm guessing it will be more of the same tomorrow.

tomorrow is monday. and i have to report for work at a client. which means i have to wake up a bit early.

awww.

ah well, bliss is not always on tap. besides, its not like i'm not getting paid for it.

i just hope the cloudiness stays a bit longer. driving from makati on the way home this afternoon i saw the sun struggling to come out from behind the rain clouds. i just want the weather to be cool for a change. a for a bit longer.

let's see tomorrow.

summer's over

well, its official. summer's over.

the first tropical storm named "caloy" just arrived and i heard over the radio that we are the only country in the world at this moment which has a tropical depression.

ugh. only in the philippines.

the upside is temperatures are certainly on their way down. which is great! i look forward to getting a more comfortable sleep.

this also marks the time when i need to get some school stuff for robin.

he's growing up. give it a few years and i'll have a little bundle of ranging hormones. that would be interesting.

its drizzling already.

city stars

i was in san pablo last night. san pablo is a small city about 87 kilometers south of manila. my hometown.

it amazes me how many stars i can see there in the province. back here in manila, i can only see a handful of them. there are so many lights in manila that they drown out the stars.

i find it ironic that to see more stars, people have to turn their lights off. or that they see less with the lights on.

watering the frog

i was watering the plants this morning when i saw this guy.

we have a lot of those tree frogs in san pablo but i think this is the first time i've seen one here in the yard. its been really hot lately which makes seeing this guy really unusual.

i want to go to the beach

i want to go to the beach. its been a while.

i don't want to go to boracay anymore. i've been there so many times before. the place holds so many memories for me. the first time i went there, the island didn't have electricity and that little inconvenience greatly added to the romance of the place.

its different now. there's so many people there. there's so many people wanting to go there. although the beach is still fantastic, its a bit too developed for me.

other places i can think of is bantayan island just north of cebu. or maybe camiguin but that's a bit far already.

i want to go to the beach.

waking up

i'm tired.

i've been up late for the past two days working on some web stuff.

i've had a full day today messing with some computers.

and i'm still up putting proposals together.

it is good to know that i will not be waking up tomorrow to an alarm clock at 4:30 in the morning.

i saw mars tonight. or was it venus? not really sure.

holy week break

cherry, robin and i went on a holy week break of sorts. we went out of manila to san pablo city, 87 kilometers south of manila to visit my folks.

it was definitely cooler there since there's an abundance of trees and we're about five minutes walk from the city's biggest lake — sampaloc lake.

we also went to visita iglesya or church visit. we went to the underground cemetary in nagcarlan, laguna (there's a chapel there that used to be the town's church)

and to liliw, laguna.

in liliw, my girlfriend treated me to a lunch in this nice and very cosy restaurant called arabela. the food was great and the place is full of character. you guys should visit if you're in the area.

i am a

i am a romantic. a helplessly hopeless one at that. i've known for quite some time now and i'm comfortable with it so relax those eyebrows. every once in a while i just get reminded of it.

this afternoon as i was channel surfing i saw this movie that i haven't seen for years. its one of a handful of cheesy, romantic movies that i liked. its one of those movies that cradles me, envelopes me in its stories and makes me remember my own cheesy, romantic story.

it was the eyes. her eyes. and her smile. it always is.

v, the comic book

i was in san pablo for a couple of days and i got a chance to borrow the comic book where the movie was based on. thanks gerry. the general storyline was there but there are differences. there always are whenever the book gets transferred to film. the comic book is certainly not your run of the mill superhero thing that most everyone is used to. this is one of those comic books that are meant to be read my mature readers. the comic is dark as is the film. some parts of the the ending was a little different as well and it was nice to see evey don the mask...

you have to read the comic book.

cover to v for vendetta. art is by david lloyd.

new forehead

some of the regular visitors (if any) may have noticed that i did a bit of redecorating and changed the forehead of this blog a bit. its a little bit of javascript that i've been meaning to write for some time now. i'll probably change a few more graphic items but that comes later.

so how do you like the new "forehead"?

a conversation with robin

over a week ago while robin and i were walking from school we had this interesting conversation.

"dad, do you know i have a girlfriend?"

blink. blink.

ok. that stopped me. literally. right there. on my tracks. the mind goes blank for a moment.

robin just kept on walking, stops, looks back to me and says, "what?"

"nothing." i said, catching up to him.

my mind goes from a standstill to a fast series of images, videoscapes, sounds and finally i was able to blurt out, "you have a girlfriend?"

"yup."

" do i know her? is she one of your classmates?"

"yup."

"who."

"secret."

grrrr... well, the thing is, at that time, he was just seven and will be turning eight in a few days. i opted not to pursue the "who?" anymore and just concentrate on being the "cool" father. although to be honest i was excited for him.

"well, that's great! really! so how is it? having a girlfriend, i mean."

"its ok," robin said with a smile starting to break.

what the...? he's not excited about it?!?! but he was smiling while we were walking so i guess there's a bit of excitement there.

i'm also excited about the fact that he's comfortable enough with me as a father and maybe as an older friend to confide in me.

uuuaaagghh

its been a cloudy day so far. it rained hard last night although only for a while. time enough to make sleeping comfy and cool. and as expected, the following day would be frigging humid. and it is. ugh.

there are dark heavy clouds above and i think they're still deciding whether to release the rain or not. i wish they would though. the city certainly needs some cooling down. i know i do.

agustin's rc stuff

a friend of mine — agustin v — sent me some pictures of his new ride. he told me he sold all his gas powered cars and an electric car and got himself a competition level electric car. for those who are a bit in the dark, i'm talking about radio controlled cars. the serious ones. these are not the double a powered thingies that you see being sold in department stores.


the one that gus got is a hot bodies cyclone. wow. speed controler is lrp quantum competition 2, katana 23-turn stock motor made by top, tires are by sorex (type 40 for day racing and type 36 for night) with hara hard inserts, batteries are nimh 4200 mah (already?!?!) and the stratus 3 body is by protoform. this is seriously wicked stuff. he didn't mention the radio he uses but i'm sure its pretty much serious stuff as well.


yup. the chassis is made from carbon fiber. and i'm almost sure that there's a sprinkling of titanium somewhere there. its 4-wheel drive complete with differentials. the suspension is totally adjustable with shocks and springs. camber, caster and some other thing that i forget are adjustable. sometimes i think that eventhough these things are about 190 mm x 395 mm in size they're almost as complicated as the real car!

i was and still am, although in a low profile kind of thing, into this hobby for quite some time. i have a race car and two trucks. all electric. my stuff is not really for competition like what gus has but they're still complicated enough for an enthusiast. all of my trucks and car are still in pretty good condition although i do have to get tires for one of the trucks when i get some extra cash (which is pretty rare these days). i'm cleaning the race car so i can play with them a bit in mendiola. i don't get to race because i'm not really into it but gus does and i heard he's pretty good at it too.

now, back to cleaning...

robin's 8th

24th of march. robin's 8th year on the planet. we think he's having fun. we had a small gathering of cousins. nothing fancy really. just a handful of balloons in light and dark blue, a chocolate fudge cake, chocolate ice cream, some spagetti, chicken, siopao, a square pizza, dalandan and orange juice.

the kids played first with go kart, bicycle with guide wheels, b-daman, whatever. they're kids and kids play. the chaos started at around 3:00 pm and everything was cleaned up my 9:30. the adults were all bushed but he keeps saying. "but i'm not sleepy yet!" well, with all that chocolate stuff he ate he wouldn't be!

if you want to see more pictures click over to my flickr collection.

v for vendetta

the wife and i watched v the other day. very good movie. i'd buy the dvd if i can. i don't know why but the movie had this "crisp" feeling to it and it made the whole movie very involving, in a matter of speaking. you guys have to go and see it on the big screen. its no fun watching the thing with a squanky pirated dvd (a bad thing) on a tv screen even if you do have those 6.1 surround-sound thingies. go to the movies and watch it.

i do have to read up on the comic book though. its been a while since i re-read the thing. my brother, gerry, has the complete collection i think. so i'd probably get the chance to go through the story again during holy week.

1 more day

one more day and finals will be over. i find it really hard for me to tutor robin. he's very hardheaded for a 7-year old. so i will be glad when final exams are finished and we can move on the summer vacation!

yes!