Wednesday, April 30, 2008

It's good to see you all. It's good to see anybody.

the title's a funny thing that Keith Richards says on the Shine a Light soundtrack. Listening to the album I was just telling Cha, man, this is how rock and roll should be. it oozes machismo. anything that Jagger says is rock and roll and they way that the Stones play is, to misuse the word, an institution.

These guys are old enough to be my grandparents, but check out how they play. When you say rock out, you might as well be referring to Stones even as they endure in their old age there is a fervor and virility that is rarely matched by contemporary bands of today. And the music lives and breathes and is just as powerful, 30, 40 years since they were first released.

I think that doctors should do some serious study on the Stones. How do they keep doing it? Whatever the Stones did to themselves in their youth, man we should be testing because look at them now and they are still at it.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Tweener

The word tweener has come into vogue to refer to those kids who are between being a child and a teenager. basically the disney channel crowd. It's used in Prison Break to refer to that guy who was white but acted black.

I wonder now if tweener could refer to me as I was taking care of papers last week. For those friends who I haven't talked to in a while, I was doing requirements, putting all kinds of excretions into plastic containers, shuffling through paperwork, getting in lines, and generally doing all the red tape that gives our school the nickname University of Pila.

On the first day, as I was doing my physical exams and stuff like that, I was in line with the incoming freshmen. A good number were cutting in front of me, and where previously I would just fume and take comfort in the fact that karma would come to them one day, I was remembering their faces, just in case one of them made the mistake of enrolling in one of my classes after cutting in front of me in line.

There's a beautiful scene (well morbid beauty) in Breaking Bad where our hero Walt White has been cut off and generally been treated badly by an asshole businessman motorist who lacks real social skills but looks like he's racking in the dough for being an asshole. At the gas station the bad businessman goes into the convenience store chatting away on his bluetooth. Walt gets out of his car, grabs a squegee, and puts it in the guy's engine. As Walt walks away the engine explodes. I'm one for those cathartic moments, perhaps why I like that movie that with Michael Douglas Falling Down. Everyone wants to explode once in a while.

Anyways, I was there having to put up with the crazy lines and overzealous parents. It's very funny how people act when their kids get into UP. My mom's pretty reserved, i know she was proud of me but she never really showed it much to other people for fear that they would think nagyayabang siya. But I remember as a freshman the auditorium for one of the summer orientation sessions was half-filled with families, and I mean families with all the kids and the grandparents all excited that one of their angkan had gotten into UP.

The second day I was taking care of papers I was contending with the graduating kids who were all fired up to get their clearances and transcripts and the life, all ready to face the big bad real world. This was an easier affair as the soon to be graduates try to put off a cool i've been through it all air.

Ah but the lines, the lines. Now I wonder how things will be when I start teaching.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Updates

Anyone who's talked to me recently knows how excited I am about the A-Team film that will be coming out supposedly next year. It doesn't matter who does it or who's in it, man I'm watching. As a kid I had a great time watching that show, and it was pretty important for me to watch that in my formative years. Granted a lot of it looks funny now, but when you get to the bare bones of it is was a group of guys who were trying to do right even though the world had done them wrong, and they were doing it by outsmarting everyone else.

Now it's great and I hope that the film makes me happy. All us big kids were happy to see the Transformers on the big screen. Whether it was a disappointment for you or not, whatever, you gotta admit you were happy it made it there. I was happy to hear that Knight Rider was coming out again. Sadly, it's a terrible show. Or what I've seen of it so far is terrible. Mostly laughable. The material has to be updated. To take something from the same creator, see what they did with BSG. It was supposed to be a Star Wars rip-off and it was super-campy, but look at how the update it, making powerful statements about the world we live in and telling a spellbinding story with characters we care about.

G.I. Joe's in the works now and it looks pretty good. I'm very excited about Get Smart, because I watched that show every night when I was a kid. I'm watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and it plays it smart by trying to go deeper into the psyche of someone who knows what will happen in the future. It's also a pretty good case of cyber paranoia. There's just so much material there to build on, to play with. Is it a bad thing that we're updating things, does that mean we're out of ideas? I don't know. I have been making the claim that 24 is an update of Miami Vice (it is from the same creators) as it follows a cop who doesn't know how to draw the line and take care of his family. He goes under cover, loses himself in his work, and puts his family at risk. I had the same feeling watching jack Bauer try and save his family as I did when I watched the old series again and saw Crocket trying to save his family from people who had attacked his home.

I think that updating ideas is important. After all, all the stories have been told in this post-modern age. It's just how we tell that now that makes them different and special. Adam said Heroes is the 4400 except that 4400's better. I'm inclined to agree, but what Heroes did was it made the whole superhero concept accessible to a large audience. I think that we can see a lot of connections among shows. But again, it's how these things are thought out that makes them superior.

Take for example Breaking Bad, which was a show about a chemistry professor who starts making crystal meth. Man, we've seen stories of middle aged men going through a crisis, and we've seen stories about cancer patients trying to cope. And we've seen stories about druggies and the culture they inhabit. But the worlds that collide here is something new and dangerous and phenomenal. It's exhilarating to watch all the exciting moments, but there are also quiet family moments of tearjerking power.

So now, here are some updates i'd like to see, and maybe they will offer us some conclusive answers, unlike, say, Alvin and the Chipmunks.

1. Alf
2. MacGyver
3, Airwolf
4. Gilligan's Island (Like Lost, were they really meant to stay on the island? Did their island keep calling them back too?)
5. Parker Lewis Can't Lose
6. Weird Science (How does it end?)
7. Perfect Strangers

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

PC to Mac

I've made the jump from PC to pack by buying a MacMini. Man you see it you can't say no with how much space it saves and the power it packs. Granted you won't be doing any heavy gaming with it, but for the simple home purposes I got it for, it's a great product.

i'm still figuring things out with the new OS and all that. Very weird that I have a bit of fear about these things and the possibility of breaking it,

I got fed up with viruses, with issues to do with my PC. I thought, why not try the other side as it boasts so much in terms of OS and superiority in various other ways. We shall see.

Any tips from anyone how to maximize my move to Mac? Suggestions on working with Leopard?

Ang Mga Mahal ng Diyos

I was thinking earlier, as we (Cha, my mom, and I) were having dinner, about the whole religious thing my dad has been going through the past year and a half or so. We are not on speaking terms at all, he and I. So it's funny how recently he's been going on and on about his salvation, how he will be saved because of his faith even though he has been terrible, and continues to be terrible to his family and other people.

It's unusual. for example when he was down in the dumps his brothers and sisters didn't help him because he's not a part of their congregation. I don't know what that is but any group that tells you you shouldn't help your brother has just got to be dubious. And people who are terrible, but believe in their salvation thanks to faith, man that's either whack, or the workings of some mad god. Mahal ng Diyos ang mga kupal na tao? If that's the way they get into heaven, man I don't know. I'll go back to that old Groucho Marx quote if heaven's like that, I wouldn't join any club that would have me.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

The Peelemma

I'm working on an essay with my own neologism, the peelemma. sorry it's my word. my word. i thought of it. (unless someone i don't know has thought of it before. drats if so)

the idea is that it is a dilemma about peeing. either you have to pee but you're in a situation where you're not sure you should, say it's near the climax of the film and a trip to the bathroom might cause you to miss something important. but you really really gotta go.

Or you have to pee, and you can't.

I thought of this new word because i've been a victim of quite a number. i actually have further subdivisions and classifications of the peelemma, which will appear in the essay.

I think of writing about it because I was in a rather uncomfortable peelemma. as part of my entry to the DECL faculty i've got to go through physical tests. one of them is a drug test. I took my drug test early morning saturday,

While there I was given a sizable bottle which they said had to be filled to the bri. this meant some rather challenging dynamics in filling it up and timing it just right. I was not aiming for surface tension to be achieved mind you.

As I went into the bathroom to do my business the lady told me, "Ser kailangan medyo bukas po ang pinto." This introduces the problem of performance anxiety, the performance peelemma. I was having a hard time just because a woman was standing behind me and waiting for me to get done. I suddenl started worrying if I could manage to fill it up.

To further complicate the performance peelemma, as she was standing there she was approached by a gay officemate. Now I always have to have a disclaimer whenever I mention someone gay, so here goes; I've got lots of gay friends and I don't think of them any differently. However, there is that problem of a good number of gay men being rather, shall we say, loud. A little too loud. I don't know what it is, but they have this thing with volume. anyways, as i was trying to fill up the plastic cup, the gay man and the woman proceed to have a very loud conversation behind me. I'm big on psychic space and here was a definite violation.

For the first time in a long time I had to give my penis encouragement, "Come on, you can do it. Don't fail me now." We powered through together, but the whole process if giving all kinds of things for testing has been harrying. Let's not even talk about the shit sample, which I have renamed the unhappy sample.

On TV

I was on TV friday. got interviewed for Korina Today because I was included in Tales of Enchantment and Fantasy and I am unemployed so I can easily be places where my better earning co-writers might not.

I was asked at a party Friday night, how was it like being in the studio. My response: Cold. The air-conditioning apparently has to be maxed out so that all the equipment doesn't overheat. It also turned me into a rather hairy pretzel.

It's funny how we react to people when they have been on TV. All these statements like, wow, you're a celebrity or something. I don't know how to take that. I've been interviewed and I have interviewed people onscreen before, but never someone with as much fame and mass appeal as my Friday interviewer.

I just wonder how people reacted to it particularly my unsual Chewbaccca growl. I'm normally pretty uninhibited doing my Wookie thing, but the whole pressure of being on TV took something out of my once-powerful ngaaaar.

I can only hope that the appearance generates some interest in the book and reading in general. A lot of us who write are rather shy about these kinds of things, it's kind of why we prefer to write. I know that I prefer to be behind that scenes rather than in front of the camera. But you realize that we have to do all that we can to get people to pay attention to our writing. I hope that the appearance moves units, generates buzz about literature, and hopefully young writers.

People who saw it, hey what did you think?

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Wi-fi as a trend

My friend adam has referred to me recently as a wi-fi whore. While adam has a penchant for referring to me in such terms, it does get one thinking about all this wi-fi wireless, bluetooth, digital media passing available int he here and now.

When I was a college freshman the in thing was the nokia 5110 and i thought that i wasn't doing to bad with a jazz page. Who would've thunk it? and what would contemporary TV be without these innovations? Without the proliferation of the cellphone what would watching 24 be like? And what would Chuck be without Call of Duty 4?

One problem I have now if finding places with decent free wi-fi. the starbucks branch that I used to visit is now charging a hundred bucks for an hour. yeeesh man. I predict that in the near future wifi and its being free will become a demand and eventually an expectation of competitive cafes and other similar establishments.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Lost Season 4

I remember being on assignment when the first episode of Lost came out. I was in a hotel room watching that first episode and staying up late totally blown away by it. I've been watching the show ever since, at times disappointed but more often totally blown away or actually deeply affected emotionally.

Season 4 brings so many of those treats and so consistently. it's just a great viewing experience. The incorporation of even more sci fi and a stronger use of scifi elements only furthers the viewing experience.

i swear this whole thing is blowin my mind, just thinking about it the only bad thing is that lost's best season is also its shortest.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

thoughts on education

this title may be reused. i have many of them. but here's something i just read today, from How Computer Games Help Children Learn by David Williamson Shaffer:

Young people in the United States today are being prepared - in school and at home- for standardized jobs in a world that will, very soon, punish those who can't innovate. Our government and our schools have made a noble effort to leave no child behind: to ensure, through standardized testing, that all children make adequate yearly progress in basic reading and math skills. But we can't "skill and drill" our way to innovation. Standardized testing produces standardized skills. Our standars-driven cirriculim, especially in our urban schools, is not preparing children to be innovators at the highest technical levels that will pay off most in a high-tech, global economy.


Well some may feel the ideas are out of context, as this is an American writer referring to an American system, but keep in mind that our own educational system is based on that of the Americans.

Making this more relevant for me is the fact that the school where I used to teach modeled itself after the Americans and implemented whatever findings it could that were based on the Western models. I generally approve of new ideas, new theories, but in their implementation one must learn to localize. Need a good metaphor? Look at the tanks that fill up with sand and become dead weight in desert settings? that tank would have mowed people down and blown up buildings elsewhere, but in the desert it's just a big heap of metal if the sand gets into the machinery. So if we are to implement innovative ideas from elsewhere, then they should be implemented with a strong understanding of context.

i said this a lot. and i got in trouble for many things. ah well.

these ideas also caught my eye because my school of former employment was also wacky over standardized testing. test here, test there, table of specs, diagnostics, achievement tests, whatever whatever whatever, but then aside from not many students testing well, outside of the testing sphere there wasn't much that they could really accomplish in terms of thinking out of the box and solving real problems or understanding real contexts.

I believe that this world we live in, it's different. The world changes but people are the same. So we have to educate, we have to adapt, we have to learn with all these things in mind, with all the contexts that we occupy and must understand. And being given a list of what we ought to know on a very mechanical level, and answering tests that show students can perform those basic functions and that teachers can teach those basic functions just doesn't cut it. In the age of information we should be striving for more, we should be better.

Reformat/Unemployment and the Price of Gas

I'm going to be changing the format of my blog. What's happened is that I would update sporadically and make long posts. Now I'll be going for shorter posts and more frequency. Let's see how it goes.

So the first post in the new format has to do with economics, which means that though I shoot for brevity, this may be long despite the change in format.

Well, I've got no work til June. No employee work anyway. I am on the prowl for rackets though, as is Cha, who resigned a few weeks after I did. So we're both down to our last pay checks and clinging on to the hope that we can stop spending and thus hold out until the final pay we'll receive gets to us. But this week sees us visiting Serendra twice and that's a wallop in terms of gas sadly. I had not really been watching the gas trends until I started splitting gas costs with Cha. Seeing the thing hit 47 was crazy. We were getting a full tank of gas and what was formerly 1200 went on going and going. We cringed waiting for the thing to top out and it just wouldn't, that price kept rising til it got to near 1700. This and the other option of commuting looking similarly unsavory as there seems to be a looming fare increase that is supposedly going to make it 9 bucks for basic.

What does this bode for us? Everyone's screaming crisis and I am inclined to join that line. Cost of rice is crazy and going to the groceries, man, i mean, just buying a few cuts of meat costs an arm and a leg. But a good economy thrives on a good balance of savings and consumption. How will we save, and how will we consume, if everything's so expensive. I'm inclined to try and stay at home as much as possible to save money. besides it costs so much to just leave the house anyway.

but aside from complaining we have to start asking for tangible answers to these problems that are hitting us over the head. how do we address the food problem? many of the reasons behind it are ones that are very difficult to face, for example overpopulation. or how about the consumption of first world countries? and while we're talking about excessive consumption anyhow, we best mention fuel and first world countries and everyone with their SUVs. we need better options.

i though of getting an electronic motorcycle. but charging time takes 6 hours. and it'll only run for 1 hour. and only at 20 mph max. that's just plain inefficient. so we need to be offered options that work within the contexts of our lives.

who will answer these questions? who will address the various problems at various levels of society? do the decision makers for example take into account the tricycles and how much they pollute? but how they are also a necessity in many communities. What's to be done? Subsidized transportation? like the MRT which has many flaws and though i'm happy with it is the subject of many complaints.

when will we get answers?