DVDx

Last month, I went through a personal battle and in an effort to ward off emotional demons the economy way, I bought a pirated 54-in-1 Brad Pitt movie collection in Blu-ray (just 17 full movies, actually) from one of the 2nd floor stalls of Traveler's Inn located in the notoriously perilous Carbon. **After seeing most of the movies in it (I refuse to watch Legends of the Fall), I swapped it with Sher Butter's 2009 Hot New Movies collection. I have about seen more movies than the previous two years combined. To prove that this is not an exaggeration, I will give you a list of the movies I've watched in less than three weeks' time: Contact, Interview with the Vampire, Spy Game, Snatch, Babel, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Ocean's 12, Ocean's 13, The Devil's Own, Se7en, The Fight Club, 24:Redemption, Eagle Eye, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Wanted, Juno, Dan in Real Life, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, Taken, and Vantage Point. For somebody who is not a movie-goer, I say these are a lot.

While some of these were watched with only half the attention because the other half was focused on either nail cleaning or brow plucking, most were watched with an expression conveying enjoyment, and some even, with creased eyebrows and mouth ajar associated with total involvement and intense concentration. And where there's attention and/or concentration, there's also realization and/or observation, profound or not. I am sharing mine. Let me warn you though; they belong to the second category mentioned.

• I am adding Brad Pitt to my list of deities. I used to be in the opinion that he's all good looks and no substance. I was so wrong.

• Kevin Spacey has made it to my list of Creepiest Actors. So far, it's just him and Anthony Hopkins on that list.

• The Fight Club and Babel are really good movies. Go watch them if you haven't yet.

• Snatch is Pulp Fiction-ish. Benicio Del Toro is John Travolta and Brad Pitt is Bruce Willis. Pulp Fiction is, in my opinion, the better movie.

• Benicio Del Toro looks a bit like Kevin Roy of Razorback. Here's a picture. This was taken by Kid A during the Villains Tour concert last Dec 12.

• In Spy Game, a severely beaten Brad Pitt looked like Marc Abaya, former frontman of Sandwich and now of Kjwan.

• I developed a certain respect for Shia LaBeouf having had seen Eagle Eye. Still, I am not watching Transformers.

• Juno is a cool, cool movie with a great soundtrack. I'm pretty sure my parents, especially me ma (Snatch's Mickey), would react violently to it, though.

• I am so looking forward to the new season of 24. Kiefer Sutherland is god. He is my *John Clark of the Clancy novels.

• Lastly, I am still undecided as to whether Christian Bale is good-looking or not.

**I would have preferred traveling every weekend but that would have completely depleted my meager savings.

*I originally wrote Jack Ryan. Then I realized I like Mr. Clark better.

Pack Rat (I'm not)

There's something exciting and liberating about getting rid of things I think I would not need anymore. At the back of my mind, there's always the fear that I might regret the decision one day. There have been quite a few times when I did and it's always deplorable.

Making the decision is never easy but I go on simply because I abhor clutter.

Famous Last Words

From an epitaph:

Pause, stranger, when you pass me by
For as you are, so once was I.
As I am now, so will you be
Then prepare unto death, and follow me.

A stranger's response (crudely engraved):

To follow you I'm not content
Until I know which way you went!

This story was part of the priest's sermon during the 5:30 PM mass at Metropolitan Cathedral yesterday. I found it funny. Unfortunately, not everybody reacted the same way I did.

911

September was a good month. I spent a week with my family and I got to visit a new place. Aside from these, September also marked my first-ever minor PC operation.

When I got back from my week-long homecoming, the first thing I did after putting my bags down was to turn on my PC. I was excited to view the pictures we took. I had plans of resizing them that night so I could post them online right away. To my sheer disappointment though, I heard three long and agonizing screams coming from the CPU. That time of the month again, eh?

Every two months or so, I'd hear these screams and cleaning up the CPU has proven to be the cure. I even bought special tools from Handyman just for this task. Despite being tired from travel, I screwed open the CPU and freed the inside of dust. It didn't work. That's OK, I thought. It happened before. I'm just going to clean it up again when I'm well-rested.

I cleaned the CPU again and again but still I hear the screams. Oh-oh. After the third clean-up, I was already in panic mode. I swallowed my pride and sought the advice of my techie friend Kid A. He said: Try removing the RAM chip and installing it back again. And because he knows I have no idea what a RAM chip looked like, he added: It's the one that looks like a wafer and there could be one or two of them. (Do you now understand why I waited that long to ask for his help?)

Kid A has proven yet again that age does bring forth wisdom. Hahaha!

It worked! Now I know exactly what to do the next time I hear those painful screams.

The procedure was exhilarating! So, this must be how doctors feel after every successful operation.

Balisong

I don't think that you even realize
The joy you make me feel when I'm inside
Your universe

-Your Universe

The morning wakes
I find myself entangled
In visions of your warm embrace

-Helpless

One more chance to never be apart
I promise I won't break your heart
Baby, please, can we just start again

-Start Again

I listened to Rico Blanco's new album all weekend. He makes such beautiful love songs.

The Rebirth

I am not into gardening or landscaping. So why yellow garden hose, you ask? I coined the term back when I was a lowly, malnourished, and over studied ECE reviewee. It was one of those dreary hot afternoons when my room mates (college buddies and fellow reviewees) and I decided to surf the net so we could get some air-conditioning and at the same time get a break from the endless reading, analysis, and problem-solving. Before going to the Internet cafe, we were listening to Pearl Jam’s Yellow Ledbetter.

I don’t know what inspired me then but I decided to start a blog. I couldn’t come up with a name right there and then so I looked around for inspiration. I was seated beside the window and the girl to my right was giggling every other minute, flirting with her chat mate in broken English. I looked to my left and there lying on the garden floor was an ordinary green hose. Yellow Ledbetter + Green Garden Hose. So I came up with Yellow Garden Hose. I don’t know about you but I actually haven’t seen a yellow hose. I grew up seeing only green and pale red ones.

That first blog died containing only one entry. I was class mayor/president, you see, and it was nearing exam day so I wrote something encouraging my classmates not to give up and to do well in the exams.

Now that I’ve decided to start (and hopefully maintain) a blog, I will use the same name because I could not come up with any other that's “cool”. Haha!

Welcome to my personal sounding board!