Friday, December 29, 2006

Scarred for Life

December Something 2006

Mel now lives in Vancouver. Brian is moving to Portland. And I am in Texas. At least they are still on the West Coast.

I wonder why no one moved to the East Coast.

Folks are predicting the death of DVD’s in five years or less, replaced by whatever you use to get your video on demand. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are just prolonging the inevitable. CD’s are pretty much dead, replaced by MP3 players which is a service you get on demand. I do not have a decent MP3 player yet although my camera can store and play tunes if I want it too. Which is not yet.

Meanwhile, I sit here with my CD player that skips with every step I take, wonder what to do with my VHS tapes and wonder why I carry the latest Harry Potter book which is five pounds and not have a thing that weighs 80 ounces that I can just read it on as long as the battery does not run out.

By the way, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows? Title wise, the Potter books are going out with a whimper but at least it is not as bad as the title of the first book. Books 5 and 6 were kinda lacking, especially after the awesomeness of books 3 & 4 (books 1 & 2 were decent too, but 3 & 4 just blew them out of the water). I hope book 7 turns out to be the best one yet with tons of death and destruction. Either that or I hope JK Rowling goes all metaphysical on us and ends the series the way Neon Genesis Evangelion ended. Could you imagine the mindfuck that would be?

The last word of the book (for now) is apparently ‘scar’. Let us put on the Rowling hat (or the sorting hat for you geeks) and wonder how it all fits in, shall we? (Come on, you know I am at least the millionth person to do this-WARNING: most of these are stupid…)

Harry lastly gave up the magic world, joined a new wave tribute band and chose the stage name Scar.

Ron Weasley would never forget the day he and Harry finally threw expectations out the window, the experience of which left him with his own lightning shaped scar.

Hogwarts was never the same since Hermione stopped referring to it as her flower and started calling it her scar.

Hagrid would never forget the day he and Buckbeak finally threw expectations out the window, the experience of which left him with his own lightning shaped scar.

When asked how he smelled if he has no nose, Voldemort just head butted Harry which left him another nasty looking scar.

Malfoy (Draco and Lucius) would never forget the day they and Harry finally threw expectations out the window, the experience of which left them with their own lightning shaped scar.

After his vacation in Bangkok and the incidents with the midgets, Ron would never tell anyone how he got his scar.

Dumbledore never died and was in fact one of the midgets which gave Ron his scar.

Hermione’s transfiguration experiment left her permanently a tiger cub that was eventually sold by Hogwarts who were in dire need of cash to Siegfried & Roy who renamed her Scar.

Even though it felt soft at the time, Snape still woke up the next day sore and on his right cheek, an odd looking lightning shaped scar.

Harry finally defeated Voldemort via a game of scrabble- the winning word being scar.

Harry and Ginny’s first time left them both with an emotional scar.

Harry renamed himself Sizzler, Ron was Creamy, Hagrid picked Adorable with Neville Longbottom on bass with the name Rebel- and they became the boy band called S.C.A.R.

JK Rowling got sick of writing this tripe, invited all of her readers to her castle punching them all in the face which usually left a nasty scar.

Cho Chang would never forget the day she and Ginny finally threw expectations out the window, the experience of which left her with her own lightning shaped scar.

Harry soon realized that Hogwarts would be the most significant time in his life, becoming just another civil servant after graduating, living alone in a dingy flat, eating TV dinners and spending Saturday nights staring into the mirror and into his stupid scar.

To this day, Harry’s pick up line was, “Hey, Ladies, want to see where else I have a scar?”

For no reason whatsoever, someone, somewhere said the word, “Scar”.

“The type of music Sublime played was called Ska?” said Hermione years later at the reunion, awkwardly trying to drum up conversation with her old school mates with whom she used to so close, “For a moment there I thought you said scar.”

Harry spent his final days in the run down nursing home he referred to still as Hogwarts, roommates with a black guy who though he was Kennedy, realizing his life was all in his head, that magic did not exist, that the one he called Ron was his nurse, Hermione was a mole on his leg, that he was not even British, telling anyone who would listen his stories and showing them, if they asked, his scar.

JK Rowling was just kidding when she said the last word in the Harry Potter books was scar, it actually is “SUCKERS! These books do promote Satanism! Now go sacrifice a goat…maybe one- BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! - with a scar!”

Uncle Vernon would never forget the day he and Harry finally threw expectations out the window, the experience of which left him with his own lightning shaped scar.




PS: Happy New Year!
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Thursday, December 21, 2006

Until the end of the world again...

December Something 2006
Since the time since I last posted here: 1) God still hates me2) Rosie O’ Donnell hates me (and apparently Asians everywhere)3) The world’s tallest man saved a dolphin using his god-given superpowers4) The world’s tallest man was unfortunately unable to save the Chinese River Dolphin from extinction, making it the first large mammal to disappear from the face of the earth in a long time. Pretty soon the cockroaches will be all that is left5) The world’s tallest man hates me6) It is found that if you get rid of your “hoodie” and opt for a “German helmet”, you will cut your HIV risk 7) I have found out that in an old MTV interview it is stated by Robert Smith that he does not try and play catch up with the mainstream but does not mind if the mainstream catches up with the Cure.8) In A Big Country Dreams Stay With You9) I found myself alone, alone, alone above a raging sea10) VNV Nation posted the first part of their North American tour and they are playing Coachella and SXSW. I hope on the second part of their North American tour, they actually play some ‘real’ venues in this town. The festivals are great and all, but Coachella is good if you do not mind being crushed in the desert and SXSW, they will probably not hit the stage until 1am and the people with better badges than you have all the good seats anyway. And yes, God still hates me. And more things have happened since, too. But I have been without access to a computer or the news for almost a week. My back hurts, it is too cold, I have no appetite for anything but I want to eat, the commute to and back from work sucks, cat poop smells and all other kinds of things. But I still feel like the luckiest guy in the world and am fighting the fight to make sure I deserve this luck. Holly and I now have a place we can call our own. As soon as things are unpacked and it looks respectable, you are all invited over for a drink. Cheers. Until the end of the world again… PS: The new Transformers teaser is actually cool.
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Friday, December 08, 2006

God Still Hates me...

December Something 2006

Life is still in the way and God Still Hates me.

All I can say is why can’t I be happy without being shoved in the face with something bad? I understand (and appreciate) the need for balance, but do you have to hit me with everything at once?



Whatever.


And then again, I have to be happy that it is not worse. It is actually getting better, but I am still a wee bit stressed about things.

Hey, it is that time of year where we all do the inevitable: Top Ten Lists of The Year!
(Disclaimer: the following lists may not contain actually ten things)

Top Movies of the Year:
1. Fearless: Jet Li kicks ass by not kicking ass. But there is still plenty of kicking ass.
2. Superman Returns: Vastly underrated and reinforced that the Man of Steel (along with Captain America) are the last two pure superheroes out there
3. Clerks II: Behind the dirty jokes is plenty of heart with one of the best ending of any movies ever
4. Brick: Just oozing with style to accompany the substance
5. Cars: I did not want to like this, but I have such a fond spot for Pixar movies
Guilty Pleasure: Fast & the Furious Tokyo Drift, MI: III, Ultraviolet, Dragon Squad
Crap: X-Men III
I have yet to see: Pirates of the Caribbean II (though the DVD is waiting for me at home), The Departed, Rob-B-Hood, and Pan’s Labyrinth

Top TV Shows:
1. Doctor Who
2. 24
3. MI-5/Spooks (seen only via DVD)
4. Hustle (seen only the 1st season via DVD, but that rocked)
5. Bones
Guilty Pleasures: Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, the Office & Heroes
I don’t watch but I keep up with it: Lost
Good Early Death: Alias

Best New Band That I first heard of this year:
1. The Birthday Massacre
2. Combichrist
3. Rotersand
4. Tokyo Rose
5. KMFDM (okay so, I have listened to them for years, but seeing them live just made me fall in love with them again in different ways)
Honorary Mention: Bebot by the Black Eyed Peas- talk about reinforcing my Filipino pride- SIGE!

Best Shows:
1. The Birthday Massacre at the White Rabbit in San Antonio
2. KMFDM at Emo’s
3. Combichrist at Emo’s (yes, I know it was the same show as KMFDM)
4. Echo and the Bunnymen at SXSW
5. SXSW in general (despite not having a wristband)

Best Comics of the Year (comics):
1. Runaways (it shows how good this book is because I am not looking forward to Joss Whedon taking over)
2. Street Fighter (just plain fun)
3. Transformers: Infiltration (the upcoming movie will never be as good as this)
4. N.E.X.T.WAVE (beautiful insanity)
5. The Eternals (I am waiting for the series to finish before reading past issue two, despite what I say below, the first two issues were not sucky. Perfect- no? But definitely not sucky)
6. The Punisher (Garth Ennis’ best work since his first run on Hellblazer? Because the last half of Preacher just sucked)
7. Civil War (stoopid first issue- aside from the Captain America bits, but it got better- so far, it aint over yet)
8. Infinite Crisis (I wish I could punch the walls of reality)
9. Neverwhere (second best comic book adaptation, the first being the Mignola Dracula book)
Decent so far: Action Comics by Richard Donner, Geoff Johns & Adam Kubert
The comics on this list read great in their individual issues and also great as collected trades. Most comics today only read great when read as trades and sucky as individual issues.

Best Non-Comics:
1. Fragile Things (technically have not opened the book yet save for the introduction but I did read at least half of the stores in there elsewhere)
2. Private Wars by Greg Rucka

Best Watching on DVD:
1. The X-Files
2. La Femme Nikita
3. Spooks/MI-5
4. Hustle
5. Doctor Who (not only the new series, there are some great old ones out there)
6. Dungeons and Dragons (and I just started watching them!)
7. Batman Beyond/Justice League
8. 24
9. Star Trek (any and all of them)
10. Sleeper Cell
Still a disappointment but an odd guilty pleasure: King Kong, the last seasons of Alias
I am still waiting for: Blade-the TV series (the pilot was awesome)

I Still Miss:
1. California
2. In N Out Burgers
3. CD Trader in Tarzana
4. The Pacific Ocean (specifically Leo Carrillo State beach)
5. When life was much simpler

Despite that, I still have no:
1. Regrets

What I like about Austin in the eighteen months I have lived here:
1. Austin Books and Comics- quite simply the best comic book store in the world
2. The Austin Record Convention
3. SXSW- even when you do not have a wristband, it was fun
4. Alamo Drafthouse- but I do not go enough
5. That Moroccan café/restaurant on Congress right in front of the Capitol
6. That big ass Whole Foods, makes me wish I had more money
7. Bookpeople

What I do not like about Austin in the eighteen months I have lived here:
(because nothing is perfect or fair- see rant at beginning of post)
1. The Lake that is not a lake
2. The freeways
3. A good number of the drivers on those freeways (not a majority, but a good number- and not that I am a saintly driver, but could you please slow down or signal or not drive too close when I am already going 70?)
4. How high school kids do fundraising by pan handling on street corners
5. Pretentious indie rock and the people who love them too much
Honorary thing I do not like about Austin: Harry Knowles- talk about pretentious. But we hate him in a good way (mostly I disagree with a lot of his reviews and opinions, even on movies we both like).

I have surprised myself this year by:
1. Becoming vegetarian (not having In N Out Burgers readily available helped in that decision along with Jean Michel Cousteau’s awesome documentary on the plight of the oceans. I have refused to eat seafood for ethical and moral reasons for at least forever, so I decided to one up that)

Looking forward to in 2007:
1. Living at a home I can call my own with Holly and the cats
2. Drawing on a regular basis again
3. Learning new things instead of just trivial knowledge
4. Maybe getting started on the great American novel/s
5. The new VNV Nation Album/tour
6. The new Cure album/tour
7. Stardust
8. The CGI TMNT Movie
9. The Transformers live action movie
10. Getting one step closer to enlightenment

And finally, the Top Reasons why God hates me:
1. If he puts all his hate onto me, he will hate the rest of you much, much less
2. Just because
3. Karma
4. Because I believe in a pagan belief such as karma
5. I am Filipino
6. I am a Filipino in Texas
7. I am lazy
8. He does not want me to be happy
9. I am dangerous when I am happy
10. Self Pity

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Monday, December 04, 2006

Nothing Left but Faith

December 2006

Here is a sweet holiday message for all of you out there who take the time to browse what it is that lives in my head:





GOD

HATES

ME














It is that simple.



I have proof.


I am just not in the mood for sharing right now.

New thoughts will be swirling in my head as well as those short stories and great American Novels that continually live there but seem to escape and be nowhere to be found when I want to place them onto paper.

However, real life intervenes and this space will be sparse and mostly unused for a while.

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