For The First Time

This movie with KC Concepcion and Richard Guittierez ... is not very good. And the over promotion doesn't help either. I saw the film last Friday, together with my mom, ate, and Ara (our Feng Shui expert friend.. more about her in later posts).

The movie starts off good with KC's character, stressed by work, hies off to Greece for a reluctant vacation. There he meets Richard's character, etc. Then they return to the Philippines and everything in the film goes downhill.

It's not KC and/nor Richard who are at fault. They were actually the brighter points of the film (with all the over promotion, almost hailing it as the second coming of Christ!). Yeah, there were faults in their acting... KC seems "hilaw" pa, and Richard Guittierez, at times, is over acting (specially with his words: "...youuu'rree nooo fuuuun, piaa!" lol!).

So what makes the movie bad? Well, its everything else. The direction, editing, script writing... maybe the cinematographer is the only one who goes free. Well, how can he/she go wrong when she's shooting the grandeur of Greece!?

As far as I remember, Joyce Bernal was a good director. I just don't know what went wrong now. Maybe nangalawang na for having to direct cheesy crapTV teleseryes like Marimar and Dyesebel. ;p

The movie started promising, up to the point were the leads were going around Greece. After, everything seems to screw up. Mababaw yung story and script (the Lloydy film was too, pero they executed it perfectly). Magulo yung editing (one thing leads to another until you can't catch up because of bad editing). Andaming characters na inintroduce, pero hindi naman ginamit (Geoff Eigenmann's character; plus Anna Roces, who makes a dramatic entrance... pero wala naman pala talagang papel! haha).

And what's up with Richard Guittierez holding a party for all his EX'es!?!?! Who the fuck does that!? At yung mga babae naman dumating talaga, at all smiles pa!! What the fuck!? LOL!! Very far fetched! It's like some throwback to old '90s baduy pinoy movies with Wowie De Guzman and Bobby Andrews (ironically enough, Bobby Andrews is one of the extras here).

So yun, its not the stars who were at fault... its the actual movie production. Sablay ang story, character development... and they relied to much to "artificial" tear jerking. The bad editing gave the movie a bad pacing. And the director is at fault for letting all of this happen.

The only good part of the movie is Candy Pangilinan (and her partner) during the first half. LOL

Levi's - Dangerous Liaison

Nice! ;p

sore

I decided to go lifting weights again yesterday. I did back exercises. The thing is, I attempted to do my old workout routines-- heavier weights, minimal rest time, numerous repetitions, etc.

Guess what? Muntik akong hinimatay! Haha!

I was doing one arm dumbell rows (pictured below.. that's not me btw, just a pic i found in the net) with a 50lbs dumbell (what i used to do before), on 3 sets with 20 reps each.


Right when I was on the last set with my left arm, medyo nangangawit na! I was on the 15th rep and I kept telling myself, "5 more.. 5 more.. 4 more.. 3 more.." with complete and utter struggle.

After I reached 20 and dropped the weight, I felt so dizzy! Parang gusto kong sumuka! Hahaha! It's the exact same feeling of drinking too much booze and everything seems to be spinning. Akala ko talaga susuka na ako. ;p

I'll remember to take it easy next time. I was supposed to go back to the gym today but my body is all sore! Tomorrow nalang ulet! ;p

'Dark Knight sequel' news!!!

Ok, I was sleep bound but I saw this news right before logging off! News about the next Batman movie!!

LINK

The 62-year-old singer and actress is reported to be in talks to play Catwoman opposite Christian Bale in the third Batman film from British director Christopher Nolan.

The Oscar-winner will join a cast that includes Johnny Depp as The Riddler as she plays the whip-carrying burglar. The character has also been played by Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry.

A studio executive said: "Cher is Nolan's first choice to play Catwoman. He wants to her to portray her like a vamp in her twilight years.

"The new Catwoman will be the absolute opposite of Michelle Pfeiffer and Halle Berry's purring creations."

Filming of the new Batman instalment, provisionally entitled The Caped Crusader, is due to begin in Vancouver early next year.

The Dark Knight, this summer's blockbuster, has become the most successful of the Batman movies. Warner Bros expects the film to make about $530m.

It stars the late Heath Ledger, who was found dead in his Manhattan apartment after taking an accidental drugs overdose. His performance as The Joker is widely expected to garner an Oscar nomination.

Cher's recent acting performances have included Tea with Mussolini in 1999 and Stuck on You, in 2003 in which she played herself.

Okay, the first reaction with the whole Cher as Catwoman was a big WTF!!! She's like 62 years old! How the fuck can she play Catwoman!?

But then again, I remembered that its Christopher Nolan helming the flick, so he might have something going on... :)

The biggest news in the article though is JOHNNY FREAKING DEPP playing as The Riddler! That's wet dreams for all Batman fan boys!

Is this news even confirmed!? :D

strange dreams

I wasn't feeling well these past couple of days. Maybe something to do with the weather-- very hot, then suddenly a downpour of rain.

Anyways, I practically spent the majority of the time sleeping. And strange dreams are cropping up again. The thing with these dreams is that you remember most of them right after you wake up...then totally forget about them after some time, even how hard you try to remember. Maybe I should start recording them.

I did remember a recent dream though. I was with this girl who's supposed to be my prom date! Hahahaha! I don't recognize the girl. The scenario anyway was we we're on our way to our prom, but we decided to drop by Shangri-la Edsa to buy something. On the parking lot, two of our friends arrived and hitched a ride. Both of them, I also don't recognize. (my bet is that i'm playing another person)

Then the next scene, we were on a 'province setting'! How we got there, I don't know! Haha! The thing was, we were lost and trying to get out of the place. Tapos pumunta kami sa isang bahay, may matanda! It was our labandera! In the dream though, she was some kind of albularyo. Sinabi niya sa amin na baka na-engkanto kami kaya naliligaw kami palabas ng lugar.

Hahahaha! Ok, that was weird! ;p

From a sweet, teenybopper, prom night setting... we were thrown into a Shake, Rattle, and Roll scene with our labandera no less! Haha!

Anyhoo, I'll start having a pen and paper near the bed. So anytime I get some weird dream, I'll go and record it before I forget! ;p

Hell Week

Another "Hell Week" in the life of Mr. Capul.

Starting Monday, there were all sort of problems--car woes (again!), thesis, and pure unadulterated stress.

Monday was a holiday. Ninoy Day so its holiday for everybody. I started scheduling with my Thesis partners since were presenting to our adviser this week's Wednesday. Stressing kasi medyo busy bisihan na naman sila! So I started my piece na muna.

Tuesday came. It was Quezon City day so no working days for QC people. My mom asked me to go and take the cars, and have them tuned up! Hindi ako maka-hindi even though I had to finish something in the Thesis. And boy, another car woe.

What supposed to be a brief car tune up ate up my whole afternoon! Nagpa-change oil kasi ako, but when the mechanics took a second look, nakita na nabasag na daw recently yung isang engine support ng car!!! Badtrip!!! So I had to stay there for three more hours just to watch them replacing it with a new support!

The more stressing part is I have to meet my thesis mate at around 6pm (...unholy hour for a holiday) in PIA. Eh natapos na ako sa tune up, around 5:30pm na!

So yun, meet up about Thesis. We decided to continue it online since the guy still has to go to his graveyard shift. Naku, walang tulugan. I was doing all the left over parts in the docu all night, until Dom went online around 3am na!

10am that day (Wednesday), we decided to meet up in PIA so we can wrap things up and present it to our adviser. Just as bad luck would have it, na-suspend yung class because of a storm!!!

It was also Ade's birthday and she was gonna treat at Wham Burger in Robinson's Place. I was really tempted to go, but yun nga, I still have the Thesis priorites... AND the bad weather to discourage me from going. :(

Anyway, we decided to stay in the office and finish up the remaining chores. I finally got home around 9pm, and took a quick 2-hour nap. When I woke up, I went straight to the Thesis preparation again. Wala na namang tulugan until I got to PIA around 8am the next morning. This time, the plan was for Dom and I to go to UST and present the current program to the adviser. Eh plan dapat, 10am nasa UST na. Eh Dom arrived in PIA, around 11am na because of stomach ache. So rush na naman, since she has to go over the docu.

While I was printing our work, the office guard approached me to tell that the car's tail light was left on! I immediately checked on it, pero naka-sara naman ang switch. It turns out, nag-short na yung break switch kaya kahit hindi ka nakatapak sa break... naka-red pa rin yung tail light! Take note, yung Honda na yung ginamit ko ah! Hindi yung usual suspect (Toyota! ;p).

And I only discovered that it was the case when Dom and I were already parked at UST na! So medyo kailangan bilisan namin kasi baka ma-discharge yung car batteries!

We finally met up with the prof, and new adjustments has to be made, albeit minor ones. It was actually a good meeting, but the pessimist in me is over reacting... until right this very moment. I have to get this done ASAP! :(

After the UST trip, I dropped off Dom in Edsa and went back to PIA to have the car checked by Mang Boy (the office driver and my driving mentor ;p). So yun, dinala namin sa talyer at gastos na naman! Haaaay!

When I got home, I was exhausted. I told myself, "Fuck it! Break muna!!!"

It was the first time I got to "really" sleep this week. The last 72 hours before that, my total sleeping time was around 8 hours. Badtrip noh!?

So there it is! My own version of hell week. My friend Che was also having a hell week of her own, including having her PC crash on her when there's plenty of deadlines, and shooting herself into a manhole. I tell you, people can really have bad days! LOL! ;p

And forgive my blogs right now. I just kept on typing things. I have no time for proof reading at the moment! ;p

Drey's Birthday

Last Friday (August 15) was my pareng Drey's 30th birthday! Senior citizen ka na pare!!! Hahahaha! (Just kidding, it was his 24th! ;p)

It was raining so hard that I decided to use the car even if its still "struggling" after a botched engine car wash. Since I was still pissed off, I decided to drop by the Petron station where I had the car washed and confronted that dude (or "dudette"! nyok nyok!) who performed the misdeed.

Parang namutla yung kumag nung nakita ako. Siguro inisip niya: "Patay, sira pa rin yung kotse!" Hahaha!

I asked him to check the spark plugs again. I checked the Internet a while ago, and I found out that the spark plugs might be the problem with a botched engine wash. True enough, he found water on one of the plugs and drained it out! Imagine my glee when the car started functioning great again. ;p

I decided to proceed to Drey's house. Since I can't park anywhere near Drey's house, I just decided to park the car in PIA, my mom's office. I took a jeep nalang towards Drey. It was raining so I got stranded in McDo (walking distance near Drey). Luckily, Drey offered to fetch me. ;p

The first ones there were Jem, JL, Jeff, and Frederick. Because of the rain, the rest got stranded in Taft. After some time comes the rest: Mark, Donna, Pilep, Che, and Pay (himala andito si Pay!!!! ;p). Unfortunately, Ade and Dale wasn't able to come. Na-stranded na talaga sila. Other absentees included Dom (who was committed to another party) and Oninz (who was at work overtime... or may inoovertime!? hahaha). Si Myk naman, na-injured daw... na-sprain sa basketball.

As usual, it was great being with these people. Kwentuhan galore and obviously, inuman. The elusive Red Horse "Happy Horse" was present. We had one bottle on the case. Mark drank it! ;p

Other highlights included Jem hogging the Coke, me playing with Che's DSLR camera (and the others convincing me to buy one), kwentuhan, videoke, and googling people's names in the Internet! LOL!

As in walang tulugan for some of us. Drey, Che, Jem, Donna, JL, and I were up all the way.

And it took a toll on me. When I was on my way home, I was so sleepy that I was driving like crap. Buti nalang hindi ako nabangga. Pero muntik na. Mejo muntik ako sumayad sa harap ko. Medyo mabagal na kasi yung reflexes ko! Hahaha!

Anywho, it was fun. Thanks to Drey for hosting the party. :)

Botched Car Wash

I was SO busy this whole week that I wasn't able to blog all these time. Di bale, babawi tayo! Haha!

Another car woe situation (and it never stops! Hahaha!)! This time, it was brought about by a "supposed to be harmless" car and engine wash.

I went by the Petron station near our subdivision on my way home and inquired about the car wash. When I learned that it was pretty cheap, I decided to go back later in the evening.

So there I was, expecting this to be just an hour long. I excitedly watched the employees bathing the car, vacuuming the insides, and cleaning the engine. After it was over, I happily paid the tab and decided to go home.

But wait! While I started the car, something wasn't right. Parang "umuubo" yung engines! But I still went ahead. I set the gear in reverse... biglang namatay! I tried again, namatayan na naman! And again... and again! The other gas boys were jeering on me, maybe something like "whooooo hindi ata marunong mag drive ito, namamatayan ng makina!".

When I asked one of them if this is natural after an engine wash, one ignorant gas boy answered that it is! "Nalamigan" lang daw yung makina! Bullshit! I decided to test drive the car around the subdivision instead of going home.

And fucked up, it is! It can barely go into "primera"! And when I move to "segunda" (2nd gear), namamatay yung makina!

Badtrip sobra! So I decided to bring it back and confront that guy who did the engine wash! As in I interrupted him from the new car he was washing! Medyo badtrip ako when I asked him about it. Takot na takot. I figured later na medyo "darna" pala si kuya! Haha! But that didn't stop me from heckling at him... it was my car he messed up in the first place.

After a while, he decided to use the blower to some parts of the engine. Medyo bumuti na yung takbo. Medyo nakaka-shift na sa 2nd gear, pero its still "clunky". I decided to go home na muna for now, since it took 3 hours na! Kainis!

Continuation on "Drey's Birthday" post.

The Goal

With the aftermath of my transcribing job (after hundreds of pages later), I picked up a few things from it. One of the speakers on the tape, Jim Lindner, mentioned a book called "The Goal" by Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt.

Lindner used the philosophy found in the book and incorporated it to his business and expertise which is digital film archiving.

I was so enamored by it that I couldn't help myself, I had to read it. So I looked for an e-book (shame on me!) and started reading. But Dr. Goldratt, if you happen to read this, I'm going to buy a copy of your book this weekend! So don't fret! Haha!

"The Goal" is written as a fictional novel. It's about a metal factory plant manager who is always behind schedule. His factory is in shambles as he can't keep up with the deadlines and the quota number of productions. With this dilemma, one of his friends approached him and taught him the "Theory of Constraints", which eventually helped him solve his managerial problems. It enabled him to find out what the problem is (why his factory doesn't reach the deadline and quota of metals), and eventually do something to fix it.

Now why did it caught my attention? You're telling yourself, "Asus, si Fil nagbabasa ng ganito! Asa!!!" Haha!

It caught my attention because I can adapt it to my own problem: Thesis.

I'll break it down.

"The Goal" features the "Theory of Constraints". In a nutshell, it's a theory of identifying what the problem is, and making a remedy for it. It consists of 5 steps (if you follow the link, you'll see it). And out of the five steps, number two is the most important. Number two is about identifying the constraints and exploiting it, and learning how to control or measure them to be able to go to number 3...

Let me sink in further. In the book, Dr. Goldratt introduced the term "bottlenecks". Bottlenecks refer to the constraints--the factors that disables your work from getting done.

In Lindner's case (digital archiving), the bottlenecks were: "only few available equipments", "he has only a few men to do the work", "lack of materials", "lack of resources", and so on. These 'bottlenecks' are what's keeping him from finishing the digital archiving process efficiently and on time.

And digital archiving is a series method, meaning you have to do step one before you can move to step 2, and so on. First, the selection process--he needs to watch movies to decide which ones he's going to digitize. Then after the selection, he proceeds to digitizing the actual tape.

But how can he even proceed to the digitizing process when he can't get through the selection process? Because in the selection process, he has bottlenecks such as "lack of movie players", "the tape is missing", "the audiovisual archivist is on leave", etc.

Lindner said it best: No matter how fast most of the system is, if ONE part is SLOW, its gonna affect the whole.

Take for example, a narrow road and you are driving a sports car. No matter how fast your car is, you're never gonna get past that slow 10-wheeler truck in front of you because of the narrow road. No way.

Now, apply it on my case... the thesis.

Thesis is a SERIES method. You are stupid if you think its not. Look at it this way:

1. You have to create a proposal.
2. Have that proposal approved by the thesis adviser.
3. Begin writing the documentation.
4. Have the documentation approved by the thesis adviser.
5. Start creating the program.
6. FINISH the program.
7. Defend the program against the panel, and pass.
8. GRADUATE!!!

You can't do step 3 right off the bat without having the proposal approved (step2), right?! What's the point of writing a document about something that wasn't even approved by the adviser in the first place!

And surely, you CAN'T defend a program if it isn't finished yet! And you can't fucking graduate without finishing the THESIS!!! Right!?

So even if you do steps 1-5 in six months, BUT step 6 took TWO FUCKING YEARS to complete...

Well, you get my point?!

Step 6 is the goddamn 'bottleneck' in my case. (hey, I really love saying that word.. 'bottleneck!' 'bottleneck!' 'bottleneck!'... hahaha!)

Step 6 is the road block. Step 6 is the freaking 10-wheeler truck in front of my sports car.

And thinking about it in a way, I'm a part of the bottleneck. Why? Because I've waited a long time before I did something about the dilemma. That's irresponsibility on my part. Alam ko na kung anong ugali ng mga kagrupo ko, pero wala akong immediate na ginawa para gawan ng solution.

So yeah, you can say that I'm part of the bottleneck. If only because of my being irresponsible enough to put up with much, much irresponsible persons.

My only consolation about it is that I've already done something about it... and hurray, I'm almost on the finish line. :)

So that's "The Goal" on my perspective. What did I do with the bottlenecks? Tsaka na... Tsaka ko na sasabihin after everything is said and done. :)

Anywho, that's it for now. I highly recommend "The Goal" by Dr. Goldratt. It is a good read! It's like one of those philosophy bibles that anyone who reads it can relate it to their own problems.

++Wow, considering that I've read 'The Goal'. Last book I've read was Anne Rice's Memnoch The Devil, and Merrick. After all my problems are over, I'll start reading the Twilight series. I heard its good. And its a vampire novel. ;p

a very special love

Hahaha! Finally, I've seen the film by John Lloyd Cruz and Sarah Geronimo... much to the persuasion of some friends (cough.. cough.. Ade.. cough). Hahaha! Nandamay pa raw.

Hehe... joke lang. I was really going to watch it kasi si mama naaliw sa trailer, mukha daw nakakatawa; plus, my mom is a Lloydy fan in denial.. sshhh.. hahahaha! ;p

Anyways, the movie was actually good. It's a feel good romantic comedy with John Lloyd as a frustrated CEO who has a lot to prove to his family, and Sarah Geronimo as a love struck girl attracted to Lloydy's character.

The movie is good. It has a lot of laughs in it, including the infamous "sun dance" which looks really stupid. LOL!

My gripe is that the movie got a bit dragging towards the end. Another gripe is that some scenes were a little bit stretched, particularly those scenes with the theme song playing--it seems they played the WHOLE song (a whole 4 minutes) on one single scene (I think the one where John Lloyd is sick, and another scene which I can't remember at the moment). All minor gripes anyways. ;p

In a nutshell, the movie is entertaining. What surprised me was that John Lloyd had great chemistry with Sarah Geronimo. Only thing that bugged me the whole movie was Sarah Geronimo's hair which looked kinda weird. Parang artificial! Hahaha!

Sidenote:
What's even funnier were the audiences in the cinema house who were so KILIG, as in tumitili, every time there's a romantic moment or what not! LOL! Sa Trinoma na yun ah! Hahaha! ;p

got the car aircon fixed!!! finally!

"May Globe broadband na kameeeeee!!!"

I felt just like that girl from that Globe broadband commercial-- except that I'm screaming, "May aircon na akooooooo!!!"

Hahahahaha!! ;p

Finally got it fixed with the help of Verg, my highschool barkada. As I've repeatedly said before, Verg is probably the most knowledgeable friend that I have when it comes to cars. He hooked me up with a distant relative of his, Oliver, who fixes car aircons.

Instead of shelling out 4k on money grubbing talyers, I just spent half of that price with Oliver's services. Bouyah! ;p

...And hindi na ako sanay ng may aircon! Ang lamig masyado that when I got home, sinisipon na ako! Putek! Haha! ;p

fucked up, but never out

Yes, stress is taking its toll on me. Even how much eggs I eat, or weights I lift, my weight is still gradually decreasing. As I've said, I've been busy with two things: transcribing and thesis.

Regarding the transcribing side job, its fair enough. The conversations are lengthy and the accents are a little bit hard to fathom at some point, but I'll manage. It's money after all.

I'm trying to earn more money for the SG trip. Actually, hiyang hiya na ako kay Ed kasi nag promise ako na dadalawin namin siya ni Dale this August (dapat nga nung July pa). I would've easily went since I already have the money for the trip (I'm just doing side jobs for pocket money and hotel expenses), but the motherfucking thesis just won't let me be. This little fucker has been a thorn on my backside for the last two years... time to put it out.

Rest assured, all is going to be well. This time, I really mean it.

And Ed, if you happen to read this, don't worry... Dale and I will get there, one way or another! Sasakay pa tayo ng reverse bungee kahit naduduwag si Dale Banthony, and gigimik tayo sa night clubs sa Red Light District! Hahaha! (don't worry Ade, we'll leave Dale in the hotel, promise! hahahaha!)

Good times are here to come... just have to take care of the little fucker for the mean time. :)

And 2morrow

Because of my current 'lack of time', I'll just post one of my favorite poems while going through high school. This is one of the poems, during my teenage years, that I often recited to myself every time I wanted to see better days.

It's called "And 2morrow" by Tupac Shakur, a person I respect so much not only because of his hip-hop influence, but more so for his talent as a poet and the vision he behold which was truly ahead of his own time.

Rest in peace, 2pac.

And 2morrow

Today is filled with anger
fueled with hidden hate
scared of being outcast
afraid of common fate

Today is built on tragedies
which no one wants 2 face
nightmares 2 humanities
and morally disgraced


Tonight is filled with rage
violence in the air
children bred with ruthlessness
because no one at home cares


Tonight I lay my head down
but the pressure never stops
gnawing at my sanity
content when I am dropped


But 2morrow I c change
a chance 2 build a new
Built on spirit intent of Heart
and ideals based on truth


and tomorrow I wake with second wind
and strong because of pride
2 know I fought with all my heart
2 keep my dream alive

what's up

I've been so busy that I had no time to write something here. Anyway, here's a few details of my life these past two weeks (no dates because I can't recall...lol):

*Verge celebrated his birthday with Richard, Karen, and me... treating us for dinner at Mann Hann. I realized we haven't seen each other for a long time 'cause last they saw me, I still had my pony-tail hair style)

*Thesis woes and shit. But its all coming together. My mother made sure of that! Hahahahaha! It's going down, baby!

*Transcribing. Kinda hard than what I expected but hey, who doesn't want extra cash!? ;p

*I saw 'The Mummy 3: Curse of the Dragon Emperor'. Being a big fan of the franchise, I can say that I'm HUGELY disappointed. Gone are the quick and witty humor, replaced with corny jokes. Also, Rachel Weisz not returning as Eevy O'Connor is pure fail! Stephen Sommers can do better Mummy movies in his sleep than Rob Cohen on steroids! The only good thing in this movie is Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, and the rest of the Chinese people.

*The car is finally fixed! No more overheating problems for me! ;p

*New hair cut! Definitely shorter. I call it, "The Emo Two-face". LOL! I can brush it up to look more formal, or drag the bangs down that shows "hey, you're bangs are not even!!!". Hahaha! Pure stupidity! I like it! :D