Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Sento Kaneshiro's LiveJournal:

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Monday, July 13th, 2009
11:43 pm	Real Job? How do you define a real job? Or "a career"? Is it a soulless submission to the MAN? Or a way to achieve the middle class dream? Seann Ryon, a security guard friend of mine confronted me with the question and a statement that "the middle class dream" isn't too bad. Get a nice suburban house, get a car, go to vacation once a year, get the wife, the kids, the dog. It sounds nice. It is nice. The tradeoff is the death of my dreams. Yet what are my dreams anyway? Still stuck up in the clouds and not grounded. Trying for that creative job and achieving that creative nirvana while watching the years pass me by. Ah well. I still have a deadline for myself. It's gonna be here soon. Hopefully when it comes, I already have my feet directed to the path I want to end up in. What's my five year plan? My ten year plan? Still the same. Yet I have to make sacrifices. The question is, what would I sacrifice? The odds are great and the rewards are endless. The path is paved with broken glass and hot coals. Still I go after that impossible dream. On the other road is the boring brick road leading to the middle class dream. I'm at the crossroads. Which one to choose? (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
10:20 am	Detox Shin Megami Tensei is an acquired taste. Hell, when I first played Persona on PSOne, I was turned off a little. However with such little RPGs in the PSOne back then being King's Field, Beyond the Beyond, Tecmo's Deception, and Suikoden not being released in a couple of months, Persona was all I had. (I beat Beyond the Beyond the summer later, the game's just annoying - not challenging, it's annoying) The difficulty level was insane for my level of RPG experience then (I only had Final Fantasy VI, Final Fantasy IV, Legend of Zelda 3, Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger and Paladin's Quest in my resume lulz), so I kept giving up and coming back to it. Somehow, the storyline drew me in, but the gameplay averted me, it was just too hard for me back then. Persona 2 came out in 2000 and my PSOne was finally put to rest so I didn't get to play that (along with valkyrie Profile so yeah I missed out). Persona 3 came out in 2007 and I missed out on the other MegaTen titles on the PS2 during early 2000. Ah well. Now with MegaTen hitting cult status and its gameplay getting easier by the year, Devil Survivor is a great way to get into the series without all the difficulty turning off people. Persona 3 dropped its difficulty from the first Persona but has its little things that can be somewhat time consuming at times. Devil Survivor is for the DS so its portability makes it easier to experience it while you're commuting or waiting for an appointment. Ten Things That Make Devil Survivor The MegaTen Game To Start With 1) No Instant Death Spells Instant Death Spells is a scare tactic for those who hate saving. In other SMT games, there are so many of these instant death spells or setup to instant death spells, it's sick thinking about it. The most this gets in Devil Summoner (I think I'm at 60% of the game) is a petrify spell/attack buff (Petri Eyes or Stone+) that requires two chance based attacks to pull off. (first it has to take effect and next it depends on the character's VIT before you crack and break) So no need to worry about the pesky Hamas and Mudos. It gives you time to focus on elemental weakness and exploit it. 2) Stats Are Everything As the title says, no more extra equipment to be bought. You just rely on your stats. STR is Physical Attack and Critical Percentage. MAG is Magical Attack and MP gain. (There's no Magic Defense because it depends on the character's base elemental strength/weakness) VIT is Defense and HP gain. AGI is Initiative, Hit Percentage, and Dodge Percentage. And you only need to worry about the Hero build, the rest of the party has their default settings, so it's up to whether to make a *coughcoughboringcoughcough* balanced character or a specialist. Skills learned are also dependent on the stats you have. VIT based physical attacks require higher VIT and STR and so on. 3) Easy Cash Accumulation In an RPG that has an easy cash accumulation is similar to a poker game with an early chip lead. You have a lot of power to go around. And spending cash here is simple, you just use it to acquire demons (personas/summons), auction membership or add an offering to elementals and mitamas. So it's easy to get cash. 4) Simple Demon Acquisition Persona has a tendency to waste your time on endless Fusion experiments. This also requires you to go around and acquires as many stock Persona as you want. Here, you can acquire them easily in auctions. You just need money. And since money is easily acquired, you got any demon in your arsenal to fuse. And to make it easier for you, a neat auction trick is to bid 70% of the buying price. So if a demon is 1,000 macca, bid 700. You get the drill, if you still don't have it, you can bid closer to the price. Just keep your rating high so you can enter more advanced bids. 5) Basic Fusion As I said earlier, Persona has a bad habit of cornering you into a day wasted on Fusion experiments. Here, as long as you acquire every demon, they'll automatically list it for you, not make you go around in circles trying every fusion until you find that random persona at level 32. And you get to customize your Persona when it gets fused, you don't have to stick with its basic skills. It maximizes your demons' skill for easy grinding. 6) Organized Skill Set Other MegaTen games randomly jumble the skills around, so you don't know if a skill is passive, activated, magical, or a stat up. Here you get 3 Command Skills, 3 Passive Skills, and an Auto/Monster skill. Command skills are activated skills, passive skills increase your stats or add a status, and auto skills are skills activated at the start of the battle. Monster skills are skills based on a monster's species. You can acquire skills for your characters by unlocking them - defeating enemies that have them or acquiring them from treasure chests. Best thing is you can customize your skills anytime. The catch is only one character has that one particular skill. 7) Simple Social System Persona introduced a feature that many RPGs lack, the ability to communicate within a battle and expanded it even more to the Social Links system in Persona 3 and 4. Here, you're given a set amount of characters to work with and you get to decide who to socialize with. This determines the story sequence and which characters join you in your party. 8) Clock System Persona 3 and 4 utilizes a Moon Phase/Weather system to determine urgency. Here a classic ticking clock is used, you don't have to check the calendar or the weather to know when to battle something and to move with the story. It's also static, so you can grind as much as you want. Persona 3 introduced exhaustion to limit the grinding a character can do, that I liked, it challenged me. 9) Difficulty Levels You can choose what type of grinding style you want. For those who have lots of time to spare (lucky fuckers) you can choose the regular difficulty where you can go opt to kill the leader, which is usually a weaker one and leave the powerful demons in wait. Harder difficulty is for those who want to grind efficiently, you get a higher difficulty rating (an easy level in Persona 3 FES) and chances of unlocking skills and getting treasure (usually extra skills and macca). 10) Broken Spells There are a lot, I mean A LOT of broken spells in this game. I define "broken" as a specific function in the game that makes it easy or almost a debug part of the game where with it, you can breeze through it. Orlandu in Final Fantasy Tactics is one and Cool Breeze in Persona 3. Several examples - DRAIN - it's 100% hit and removes 70-90% of an opponent's MP. It renders setup dependent attackers and magic dependent monsters impotent. BUFU (Ice) and ZIO (lightning) randomly casts freeze (stun+instant critical) and stun (3 turns immovable) status on your opponents rather frequently. And the Auto Skills namely BLITZKREIG and BATTLE TACTICS either make your party invincible (blitz) and invulnerable (battle tactics), and you don't have to cast them, the computer casts it for you. Monster skills such as SWITCH (switches characters on the field), DOUBLE UP (attack twice) and ANIMAL LEG (move after attack) combo, EVIL WAVE (long range attack) and DEVIL SPEED (increase movement) combo increase your money counter and strategically move your characters for much more efficient level gain and overall survival. It's on the DS and it makes a cool RPG to add to your list. As for myself, it's one of the best games on the DS next to Hotel Dusk 215 and The World Ends With You. It's ingenious and utilizes MegaTen on the platform. Also you don't need to be ambidextrous to play it (TWEWY) and there is enough action on it to keep you going. (Comment on this)
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
5:12 pm	2009 This year has been an interesting one for me. Yet as many would say, it makes a great movie but a crappy life. I like thinking about it, it probably will look great once you watch it but living it is another story. That's why people have films, they get to peek into the lives of people without waking up the next day to it. I have to wake up to this weird nightmare day by day. I guess as Nietzsche said, "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stronger". The fucker missed out an important clause, "...depending on how fast you recover from it." I'm recovering day by day, but I guess this way is better than any other way. If I could relive it all over again... I wouldn't erase my hard disc backup. (Comment on this)
4:50 pm	Ladies & Gentlemen, Harmony has left the building Seven hours, three diet cokes, one regular coke, a sausage roll, a fight with the girlfriend, discussing Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor with a friend, five youtube videos, a failed Final Cut download, three facebook messages, three Michael Jackson medleys, and two 4th of July news updates later Final Cut HD download still at 77%. I have an hour and a half left before I ditch this place and face the fact that I might be switching editing programs due to a very costly mistake. Adobe Premiere is not bad, actually a lot of people use it. I'm just bad at it, but I would probably prefer it to Avid any day. I just like Final Cut the best, it's a comfortable program. (I would prefer linear editing above all though, I miss the it) There's also no guarantee that what I'm downloading is just another upgrade. I want to settle for Final Cut Express (better $200 than $2,000) and I've already told my bosses at the editing place if they have an extra installer disc for Final Cut. Knowing them, they also have what I have. So it's gonna be pretty useless. It's gonna be funny though that I'm editing using a Premiere with a Mac. I got a Mac for Final Cut and now I'm switching. I should've setup my PC for editing, sigh. I've been at an edge for nearly a day and a half now, I've calmed down a bit but yeah, I'm still pretty pissed off at myself. Well, I have no way of knowing that the installer disc of Final Cut that i have is only an upgrade and not the program itself. Nobody's torrenting it, and not that I condone piracy, but it's a necessary evil to help poor editors such as myself get projects done without shelling out lots of cash for it. Because right now, the original programs would cost me another Macbook. If I was gonna spend that much, I'd rather shell out for a Macbook Pro, knowing that I won't have the same problems and more USB sockets. It just sucks too that where I'm living right now, they won't let me use the Internet. Well I can only ask for much. They already give me free food, free lodging, it's already too much to ask. My welcome is wearing thin day by day. My only other contact in this city lives in the other side of town and I got July 17 as a deadline. I haven't brought up paying rent yet but it's already common knowledge that if I can move out, I should move out. (For those who are wondering, no I'm not living with my parents right now, my dad worked out a favor with one of his friends. I don't know if they would like him the same way after me, hell I didn't do anything yet, I actually do my chores and offer to help out. I guess it's just hard now that in two days, I would be there for a month already. Hell, I even sent them a thank you card.) At this rate, if I can't hack Adobe Premiere, I guess the worst case scenario is me quitting this gig. Which sucks because I already have it down pat. I also have a system that I follow that works for me. I guess my computer just can't keep up with what I want so it's playing tricks on me. It actually worked. I thought I lost Compressor so I reinstalled everything. Now I lost Final Cut Pro since my installer's only an upgrade. In essence, I think my computer just needed a break from all the stress I was giving it. Now because of my panic attacks, I just fucked myself in the ass more. By the time I finish this entry, my download status is at 78%. 340 megabytes to go. Also when I go back home and try to download it, I have a 150 mb limit on my metered internet. I can spare 100 megs. So hopefully when 9 o'clock hits, I have 1.47 gigs downloaded of the 1.57 so I only need to download 100 more. I have a bus to catch and the people I live with won't like it that I'm coming home too late. What's the moral of this story? Simple. Crime does not pay. I finally understand it now. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, June 30th, 2009
7:32 am	Wasted Time Can Never Be Recovered Opportunity costs suck ass. As I grow older, I'm starting to regret all my wasted time. Sucks that I realized it in my mid-20s. Ah well. I needed to learn about life. I've wasted enough time in front of the monitor playing games. Now I just want to save up enough money to do something worthwhile. Speaking of wasted time... 2009 Movies that I’m Not Gonna Bother Watching There are films that you just feel like it’s just gonna be shit or not like. It could be great, it could be fantastic, it could be phenomenal, but it’s just not worth the $13. Well I did watch some really bad movies, but hey, I thought they had a chance. 10 - Night at the Museum 2, Soloist, He's Not That Into You and Push - stuff coming for DVD I'd rather watch: Last year's DVD selection The Skinny: At least last year's DVD selection will be cheaper or going for the 2 for 20 in HMV. This year's DVDs will be $26.99 and it's gonna be a pile of garbage. Actually I might just watch it when it comes to cable. At least it's free and I can always switch it to World Tournament Poker when I'm getting bored. 9 - Sorority Row and any other slasher... include Saw VI, if it actually exists I'd rather watch: Kinatay, Anti-Christ, and Inglorious Basterds - If I want violence, let's go with genital mutilation or mutilation with style! Cannes nominations, anyone? The Skinny: It's old but it still makes money. Good thing they stopped with the Japanese horror adaptations. The Wayans Brothers should make another one of their movies - Not Another Japanese Scary Movie. 8 - All The Family Movies Available Right Now Namely G-Force I'd rather watch: The Family Channel - at least it's free. The Skinny: Unless it's something fantastic, I'm not even gonna bother. Robert Rodriguez should go back to making edgy films. Now WTF is up with him doing Spy Kids rehashes. And G-Force, Jerry Bruckheimer, I hate you. Good thing the real Battle of the Planets is coming out next year. 7 - Ice Age 3 and every other animated 3-D movie that's not Astroboy or The Nines I'd rather watch: Astroboy and The Nines The Skinny: Face it, we’re all just watching it to see if Skrat gets his fucking acorn. I know my parents will catch this one. Thank god, I’m not there. They’ll probably watch it along with Harry Potter. Thank god I’m not there. And every other 3-D animation movie I'm not even gonna take a look at. It took me half a day to decide if I was gonna watch Up. Nope, not gonna watch it. 6 - My Sister’s Keeper I'd rather watch: Last Chance Harvey - another trailer that almost made me cry. The Skinny: I saw the review. I guess I would really love to watch the trailer all over again to get the entire movie. Kinda like Charlie Bartlett, the entire movie can be lived within that one trailer. I like the shots though, something most emo movies have a good staple of. 5 - Funny People and any other bro-mance films I'd rather watch: 500 Days of Summer - suits my style better. The Skinny: Yeah. A Judd Apatow film. Haven’t we had enough? I think I’m one of the only few who got sick of the format after 2005. Everything else he made just blew. I guess the only ones of the same format I genuinely enjoyed are Role Models and I Love You, Man. Forgetting Sarah Marshall was okay, much better than the others. And I hate Jason Schwartzmann, Seth Rogen and ESPECIALLY Adam Sandler. I would've considered it if Paul Rudd, Justin Long or Jason Segel were in it. Just the wrong mix of people. Yeah I hate Eric Bana too. 4 - Gamer I'd rather watch: Surrogates - Bruce Willis' Minority Report clone movie. The Skinny: Face it. I like Bruce Willis a thousand times better than Gerard Butler. Okay Dexter maybe the ultimate bad guy in this one, but fuck, it reminds me of Death Race. I can imagine the pitch - "okay it's like Death Race 2000 and Running Man", "Is Arnold gonna be in it?", "No, but I think that Leonidas guy would work.", "Nah, put in Jason Statham, everyone likes Jason Statham". I'll guess the ending, they find a loophole and Gerry works with the kid playing the game and escapes and caps Dexter with a gunshot to the head or making his station explode. I guess this is only good for those who want to see Dexter dead, unfortunately, I'm not one of those people. 3 – 2012 I'd rather watch: District 9 - A movie with aliens in it! Without particle beams! Made by a VFS alumni! Woot! The Skinny: Just like most of Roland Emmerich’s movies after The Day After Tomorrow, he’s gonna follow ID4’s format until he kills it, which he has. I’d rather experience the real thing in 2012. After all, I can’t miss that one if it really happens. From how the trailer looks, I think he's gonna fuck over the world this time around. And the ending, John Cusack keeps a couple of family members and enters the ark or spends his day alone in the sea, or spends the future on a yacht with his family knowing that he's gonna die someday. Whatever. As I said, I'd rather experience the real thing. 2- New Moon I'd rather watch: Moon - awesome looking sci-fi reminiscent of 2001: Space Odyssey The Skinny: I actually saw Twilight. On an air-con bus from East Avenue to Sucat/Bicutan. Yeah I got stuck inside a bus playing Twilight for the entire duration of the film. Now I can actually bash the movie because I saw it. And sorry to say, it’s for girls. Not to be sexist, I do love my rom-coms, but this one is just trash. Sorry, the entire movie felt like Blood & Chocolate with uglier actors. Why should I bother with a sequel? 1 – Harry Potter: Half Blood Prince I'd rather watch: Endless Michael Jackson news reports - I get to listen to Michael Jackson song clips all day 'round. Non-stop Beat It, Smooth Criminal, Billie Jean, and Man In The Mirror. The Skinny: I boycotted it since forever. Just another two years and this entire phase is over. It took a decade, but that’s good. I’m glad this decade is ending. It’s so full of crap. I guess next decade’s gonna be worse. I’m preparing for it. It could be good, all the die hards love it. But nah, it’s Harry Potter. 2009 Films I'm Gonna Take A Chance With Of course, I am looking forward to a couple of films. Just saying it, I'm gonna catch Public Enemies, Inglorious Basterds, G.I. Joe, Surrogates, Bruno, and Astro Boy just for the hell of it. If they suck, my worst films of 2009 need company. Unfortunately, they're not part of this list. By me saying that, it's quite obvious right? 10 - Kinatay Anticipated Scene Tons of mutilations The Skinny: I shook Brillante Mendoza's hand when I watched Tirador in the 2007 Vancouver International Film Festival. The dude's got some chops and he's pretty awesome. I skipped out on serbis but he did win Cannes. Beat out Quark, Raymond Red and Yam. Might as well check it out. Plus, uber-gory scenes. I guess that's what I like right now, horror elements in drama. 9 - District 9 Anticipated Scene Will the aliens charge and blast the White House? The Skinny Finally someone successful from VFS that's not Kevin Smith. At least it gives me a little hope knowing that the school I went to actually produces people in the industry and/or artists and not bitter shits like myself. I like the documentary style filmmaking the trailer showed. Just like Cloverfield last year, a monster movie from a different perspective. This time an alien movie on a serious mockumentary (if there's such a thing). It's cool that Peter Jackson is producing it and not making more epics I'm not gonna waste my time watching. 8 - Anti Christ Anticipated Scene - Willem Dafoe's gonna get his cock sliced off The Skinny: Nagisa Oshima's In The Realm of the Senses changed the way I looked at art cinema. How's that different from porn? I know some porn has genital mutilation as well (don't ask me how I know) but yeah that's gonna be awesome. Willem Dafoe has been crucified (Last Temptation of Christ), tortured (English Patient), now he's gonna get it sliced off. The guy's just too awesome. Funny how he was Jesus Christ once now he stars in "Anti Christ". 7 - Where The Wild Things Are Anticipated Scene - Waiting for a Voyage of the Navigator moment The Skinny Hell, I said I'm not gonna watch a family movie this year, maybe I might make an exception with this one. That or Julie forces me to watch it. Either way, I'll probably enjoy this film. It's different from the pack and a lot of people grew up with it as kids. I don't remember it, and I'll probably fall in love with it and wiki it after. It's probably gonna be better than most of what summer dished out. 6 - The Hurt Locker Anticipated Scene Seeing the bombs go off while wearing the bomb suit. The Skinny: Trailer’s captivating. Makes me excited to see it. Finally, a movie about the war on terror that doesn’t feel like propaganda. Kathryn Bigelow impressed me with Strange Days, the entire 1st person cam that's not handheld. It's amazing. I wonder what else she can pull off with this film. 5 - Enter The Void Anticipated Scene Gaspar Noe made 2001 Space Odyssey, that remains to be seen. The Skinny: The director of Irreversible is back. And he's gonna disturb, shock, and provoke you more with this "masterpiece". Again, with the wild sex scenes, gruesome mutilations, drug abuse, and after life musings. Gaspar Noe is a fucked-up individual. But yeah, it’s the closest I’ll get to smoking crack. Bring on the art house. 4 - The Nines Anticipated Scene Battle with one of those sackboy things The Skinny: This is Sackboy on steroids. I saw the short film on this one, and it was amazing. Seeing that it elevated itself into a feature, wow… that’s gonna be good. If you haven’t seen the short, tough. Go youtube it or something. 3 - Moon Anticipated Scene The Big Reveal The Skinny: Not that other piece of trash. This one's another growing tale on the isolation of space. I dig movies such as Solaris, Event Horizon and of course Hoshi no Koe. People get bored with these films but I enjoy it. Amazing visual trip and other suspenseful twists and turns could really push this film to be a cult classic. 2 - Sherlock Holmes Anticipated Scene Any scene with Robert Downey Jr in it. The Skinny: Finally, Guy Ritchie is doing something cool that’s not repeating his bullshit or casting Madonna. With the exception of Jude Law, I think it’s gonna be great. Iron Man has been elevated due to Robert Downey Jr's performance. I guess I enjoy more of Robert Downey's commercial fares rather than the dramatic ones. Skipped out The Soloist because I don't like Jamie Foxx and Charlie Bartlett cuz I want to punch Anton Yelchin in the face. 1- 500 Days of Summer Anticipated Scene That one/monologue/voice over line that will make me walk out of the theater because it just affected me that much. The Skinny: Ever since Peter showed me the youtube trailer, yeah. I’m down. It’s actually my most anticipated movie this summer. Funny when all these geeks were going around asking each other what movie they’re most excited about this summer, I said “500 Days of Summer”. Followed by awkward silence. Followed by, “Are you Serious?” I said, “yeah, half of the movies this summer’s gonna suck anyway.” Great Vince, great way to make friends. There. Just killing time until I get my project ready. Will be wasting more time playing Devil Survivor. I should be working on a script. But meh, why expend all these wasted energy? (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 29th, 2009
11:52 am	Pride Before the Fall Well, here's a confession I'm gonna make. If I hate a teacher but like the subject, I make the teacher look stupid but ace the subject that the teacher cannot question it because I will challenge his authority including his lack of knowledge on the subject. I did that a lot back in university. If I hate the teacher AND the subject, I make sure my grade is one notch above the passing score. It shows that I didn't just pass, it shows that I could've done better but I hate their asses and it gives me a good reason to complain about the teacher and eventually get them fired, because I don't like them. That's how I feel about this year's lineup of movies. It brought it back to 1999-2003 days where there's about 2-3 movies I liked that year and the rest I shake my head. I'm just sorely disappointed since 2006-2008 had about 10 or more films that I would really love. Right now, there's a lot of "okay" movies and only 1 movie that I find was good. It doesn't even come close to the cool stuff from last year. At most, "Up", the only movie that I genuinely liked, is a 4-stars at best. Here's a list of the "Okay" films for the year thus far. Believe me, it's only "okay". TOP 10 “OKAY” MOVIES OF THE YEAR Movies where somebody I watched it with asked me, “How was it?” and I say, “Meh, it was okay”. Meaning a solid 3 at best on a good day where nothing has annoyed me and I didn’t need to go to the bathroom upon entering the film. The 2 ½ Star Range. 10 - Monsters vs. Aliens Why wasn’t it good: The Colbert jokes saved this movie from being THAT bad. 9 – X-Men Origins: Wolverine Why wasn’t it good: The only reason I was pissed at the movie was the bad ending. But hey, the rest of movie was indeed watchable. Fuck it though, Deadpool was mangled. Hell, tons of other things were mangled in the Marvel Universe anyway. But this was pretty bad mangling. Good thing the first part of the movie was well done including the credits and of course Ryan Reynolds. But the rest of it. Bleh. 8 – Angels and Demons Why wasn’t it good: It just felt too formulaic. Nothing special. We do this. We do that. We fulfill the script. But it doesn’t have any heart to it. It makes National Treasure, well a treasure. The rest of the movie is watchable and of course it makes it worth at least half your money. The other half, I could’ve just stayed at home and watched something good in AMC or TCM. 7 – Drag Me to Hell Why wasn’t it good: Unless you’re a Sam Raimi fan and understood all of his quirks, this movie can really put off a great deal. The rest of the film is well made though. Good acting for a B-film, a moving plot. But something is missing. Something that makes it more exciting than what it offers. If it’s in the okay level, it’s there, but to make it to my 3 ½ stars list, it’s gotta try harder. The 3 Star Range. 6 – The Hangover Why it’s just okay: If I count my laugh trip due to the weed I smoked that evening, yeah this movie would’ve had 4 stars. Without weed, a solid 3. Even 2 ½ if they caught me on a bad day. It was funny. There were funny moments, but it failed at what I Love You, Man has succeeded. Which was a more sustainable story. 5 – Watchmen Why it’s just okay: This movie didn’t need to be made. The graphic novel says it all. The only thing that made me like this film was the logical argument it made to omit the original ending and edit it the way it did. It was an excellent way to target the audience. Aside from that, the movie had too much of 300 that didn’t need to be there. Come on, it’s Watchmen! It’s more cerebral than it is visceral. 4 – State of Play Why it’s just okay: Great start. Great performances. Middle starts to churn it. Then it failed miserably in the end when it went to the twist we figured out at the very start. Well made though, but a movie heavily reliant on performances that rest on a weak plot just means trouble in the very end. Therefore you get this, a train wreck. The 3 ½ Star Range 3 – Pelham 123 What stops it from being awesome: Everything is there. Really. Performances, plot, everything. Shitty part, it just ended with a whimper. I was waiting for the Spy Game twist that made everything awesome in the end. It just didn’t turn. The prestige was missing from master magician Tony Scott. Everything moved really well but the climax still felt like the first act turning point. Really great middle, just didn’t go the last mile. 2 – I Love You, Man What stops it from being awesome: The fact that it’s followed the bromance arc. I think a year more of this genre can run it dry. It’s great but Role Models really was a tough act to beat for Paul Rudd. This movie hit a plateau and did not peak. For a minute, I can relate to a girl who doesn’t orgasm without clitoral stimulation. 1 – Star Trek What stops it from being awesome: This movie was in my awesome movies for the year. Then I had to watch it twice. I usually watch a good movie twice. Hell, I watched Tropic Thunder three times and it was awesome, Live Free Die Hard I watched four times and I still wanna watch it, fuck I even watched HOUSE BUNNY twice and I liked it the same way I watched it the first time but didn’t find it as funny but still liked it. I watched Star Trek twice and enjoyed the first 30 minutes the same exact way. Then the rest of the movie just didn’t cut it for me. I don’t know why. I FELL ASLEEP after Vulcan was destroyed and woke up when Spock and Kirk got into a confrontation. Geh. But for a good first time experience, I give it 3 ½ stars. I guess it’s only good for a one night stand. For those who are wondering, where's my favorite movie this year *cough**cough**transformers**cough**cough* I'm getting to that. Here... another list. Top 10 Worst Movies of 2009 Besides ALL of it, I feel that 2009 wasted my time. It’s loads of crap that I didn’t need to see but I was forced to watch because of the nice marketing campaigns. The sad part is it made bad movies of the past look good! Oh my god! What is wrong with Hollywood? 5 – Street Fighter: Chun-LI Film it made look good: Dead or Alive (2007) They killed two awesome franchises during Spring. And I thought last year was bad with Forbidden Kingdom. Nooo… they had to double up. I guess you can guess the other film, IT’S WAY DOWN IN THIS LIST. A substitute porn that exists when substitute porn isn’t needed anymore because kids can actually download porn easily now that doesn’t sell sex is unnecessary. Not to mention, a substitute porn that doesn’t titillate like Dead or Alive, which was leagues better than this one. And I noticed that King of Fighters is gonna get a movie adaptation, why don’t you guys just make porn and please Canadian producers – why not just take a random idea from talented Canadian writers and create a new franchise that you CAN MAKE MONEY OF. 4 – Terminator Salvation Bad Film it made look good: Hancock (2008) The only salvation this movie got was a good box office. Thanks! Now I’m $13 poorer you lousy sons of bitches. It ranked #2 when I watched this pile of trash. Good thing another pile of trash came out and shat on something that was doing well for itself. Okay Chris, you liked your shouting match? Good. Well, this proves nothing, your acting sucked ass on this. And why is Anton Yelchin still getting roles? Fuck! And I thought Hancock was bad, I just didn’t give it enough credit. 3 – Year One Bad Film it made look good: 10,000 Years BC (2008) Any film that makes another bad film look good is BAD. The trailer was excellent. Of course it is, it makes you go watch A BAD MOVIE. Good job marketers, here’s 13 bucks. Go rip me off. Oh yeah, 10,000 Years BC was a better comedy, AND THEY WEREN’T EVEN TRYING! 2 – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Bad Film it made look good: Eagle Eye (2008) – and believe me I HATED EAGLE EYE It might not have been the worst movie this year but it’s my most HATED movie of the year. But alas something else beat it to being the worst, the fact that it got this far was because I HATED IT THAT MUCH. EMG, poorly edited, overly stuffed, with tons of explosions. At least other films had stories attached to them. This one, terribly shits on the original Transformers: the Animated Movie by fucking over what’s needed and adding way too much. Kinda reminds of me of the bullshit called –wait for it- Episodes 1-3 of Star Wars. At least George Lucas created Star Wars so it’s okay to shit on it, it is HIS. I would’ve liked Eagle Eye a lot better if only it didn’t coincide with the film fest season, popcorn movies get a lot of shit from me during film fest season, so my bad, there’s an even worse movie than you. 1 – Dragonball: Evolution Bad Film it made look good: Forbidden Kingdom (2008) Here’s Hollywood destroying 20 years of fandom. Let’s take a franchise and shit on it. It makes me respect the all the old-school adaptations of video games in the 90s. A lot of them sucked big time, but I actually enjoyed it. Now it’s just crap. I’m kinda liking how they’re trying to 3-D most of the anime starting with Astroboy but fuck, what is wrong with this picture? I didn’t sound like I hated this movie that much, but trust me, it’s THAT BAD. At least Forbidden Kingdom has a cool showdown with Jackie Chan and Jet Li and Li Bingbing is hot. Feel free to disagree, after all, everyone's opinion is worth only 2 cents. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, June 28th, 2009
4:36 pm	What would Spawn do? 269.71 MB Left. Anyway, I signed up for a portable internet rocket stick so that I wouldn't bother the people where I live with internet backlog and obviously, I'm such an internet hog, I eat up so much. Sad part is, I went from consuming more than 100 GB of internet space down to half a gigabyte. Now that's one diet I can't keep up with. So I gave up a lot of my internet activities such as viewing image heavy sites, watching useless streaming videos, downloading massive amounts of media, and uploading stuff. My internet has been reduced to chatting, email check, minimal downloads (only REALLY important ones), and facebook (mostly checking for updates and at the minimum a couple of quizzes a day) and facebook chat. I expanded to 1 gig just now and I still feel constrained. I've also started to balance my spending habits here a bit, so no more useless impulse stuff. Hopefully my work picks up, so that I don't have to worry too much about living. I've also started a spreadsheet of my spending to make sure I know where all my money goes. I work from home now, since my editing job makes me take my work anywhere. So basically, as long as I have this job, I can edit wherever I want. If I have an awesome body, I would've been editing out on the beach showing off my awesome abs, but nope, I'm a fat slob so I would rather do it in my batcave. I don't think it'll be my bat cave any longer since they're hinting I should live somewhere else. If I have enough money I can spare, I can negotiate rental time. I'm paying rent for the first time in my life! SHIT! Well, I do have to grow up. I'm a walking caterpilar cum pupa who vegetates where I feel like. I guess I've been demoted from the Peter Pan state. I bought my own printer earlier this month. (Vince, you're not syphoning paper from another person?! OMG!!!) And I'm paying for my own cellphone and internet. I guess all I need is a girlfriend and I'm set. No wait, I have a girlfriend. Movies in the 90s The 80s and the 90s were so different from this decade. This decade sucks so much. I've been watching a lot of the movies made back then, and I'm finding that they're more complete. I actually enjoyed a lot of Michael Bay's movies then. Okay fine Bad Boys and The Rock were amazing. Armageddon started his plunge into the excess but I really hoped it would've stopped with Armageddon but it didn't. Hey, I used to really like Michael Bay. Now, he's just a joke. Same with Roland Emmerich. After Independence Day, he was just making the same movies but switch aliens with something else. Here's the formula: The Michael Bay Formula: EXCESS + EXPLOSIONS + HOT LEADING ACTRESS - GOOD STORY = FILM The Roland Emmerich Formula: X = FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH e.g. aliens, monsters, global warming Y = Year made Z = Big name stars L = Lack of Logic Sum of (XYZ) to the power of L = FILM Yeah. That's my anti-mainstream media blathering for the day. By the way, congratulations to the married couples of last month and this month, namely Sheila and Paul Mendoza. Will Sheila go by Sheila Benedicto-Mendoza? That remains to be seen. RIP to David Eddings, David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson. Tons of stars. Legacy Ed McMahon... ... I was a big Star Search fanatic when I was 8 years old. Watched it a lot in RPN-9 back then. I don't really have a soft spot for dear ol' Ed but Star Search was a big part of it. I guess he stuck to the background and he deserved more attention. Farrah Fawcett... ... I wasn't into the Charlie's Angels thing, so most of my memories of her was mom constantly watching her TV movies on Laserdisc. After a while, she was more of that actress that made my eyes roll because I couldn't rent any more awesome movies when my mom picks her TV movies. Ah well. David Carradine... ... Hey, I didn't want to mess with the guy. Before Kenshin, he was the original bolero martial artist. He'll knock you down with charisma first before he really knocks you down. Then as Bill, he was pretty convincing. Anyway, most of my memories of the guy culminated in 6th grade. David Eddings... ... Love him or hate him. He got me started on fantasy. Although fantasy waned for me since most of my fantasy genre edged on J-RPGs, he's the one who got me into the western fantasy who really started the entire trend anyway. Michael Jackson... ... He didn't get to me until The Moonwalker mini-film. (It was an extended music video but still) He really marketed himself so well to the kids because he himself was a big kid. The thing that got to me was when he transforms into a car and transforms into the Michael Robot. That was awesome. The music video and "Smooth Criminal" remains one of my most favorite videos of all time. The video game, no matter how disturbing it got for some people, was pretty awesome as well, both Genesis and the arcade ones. The guy even had a ride in Disneyland, how cool is that? Most of his music was used in Saturday morning cartoons, especially Thriller. (I keep mistaking the title as "Thriller Night") If I have an all-time favorite album - I would say "Bad". "Bad", "Man In the Mirror", "Dirty Diana", "Leave Me Alone", and of course "Smooth Criminal", it has my longest list of favorite singles. I only liked, "In The Closet" and "Do You Remember the Time" in Dangerous (Dangerous was okay) and "Billie Jean" and "Thriller" in the Thriller album. "Blood On the Dance Floor" sounds too much like "Scream" but his video with Marlon Brando in it almost reminds me of "Smooth Criminal", but nothing tops Smooth Criminal. Yeah, I myself have made fun of the guy when he was down but I guess that was when I he got too freaky. I still liked the guy in the late 80s where everything was good. 265.12 MB left. (Comment on this)
Saturday, June 6th, 2009
4:57 am	Final Hours at the Pacific Well, the inevitable has arrived. I had many a plane trip during my glory days in the 90s but in this decade, I can only count six. This being my sixth trip. When in the 90s, I took flying for granted since we flew three times a year back then. Now, I'm starting to appreciate that I'm gaining my wings once more. I'm more proud now that I'm actually paying for my own flights, among other things. I believe 2009 is a year of opportunity. Crisis have struck way too many times for me to ignore that my life is aimlessly moving forward but I myself remains still. I have my small victories, yet in my war against failure, I have suffered heavy losses. The war has been happening since 2007 and it has moved onto a destructive campaign climaxing in 2009. Yet I move on. Fate, luck, and divine intervention has granted me close calls and painful gifts. Those have weighed tremendously against my chest and suffering from excessive hubris, I fail to realize my failures. Yet with the undying support of many, I've embraced my defeat. Starting from nothing, I realize that there's a lot of ground yet to cover. The plain and simple truth of "I have yet to start" bites deeply against my wrecked pride. But what is pride but a concept. A non-tangible thing I cannot eat, invest, nor bear fruit. It's only a bitter pill that turns sweet in that final moment of triumph, but like a narcotic, the bitter injection only fades in the sweet haze of its illusion. I've tasted the Atlantic air far few times. In 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997. Far too brief a moment and far too small the affair. Yet a tourist I am not, this time I encounter it with all my heart. I've lived all my life facing the Pacific. It's familiar breeze, I've grown accustomed to, so vehemently convenient. Three years ago, I've thought to start anew. Yet although it may be a different place, it is still the same ocean air. I face another challenge. This time, it is not familiar air I breathe but an alien one. I am alone this time around. I have some support, but I enter this alley blind with the fog of war. Excitement breathes deep within my veins yet anxiety is far from my troubled mind. I see my direction more foolish than brave. Like the great explorers who braved the oceans long ago, I prepare for my sojourn, dangers and surprises await. I breathe my last Pacific air this coming hours. So long, kind friend, you've been good to me. I now face a new companion, a new adventure, a new opportunity. That's all I long for. A tiny bit of opportunity. I am not afraid. (Comment on this)
Friday, May 29th, 2009
3:24 am	Life as we know it... Face it, I haven't been posting here. I got tons of reasons. Lots of them, personal and private. I guess I've recently stopped having such an open book life, or maybe life I felt I need to keep private for the meantime. Tons have happened with this life. A lot of them I see in my dreams. I dream of loss. The other day I dreamt about friends coming to my house and cooking rice. Not just rice, ALL MY RICE. I felt annoyed and irritated when they got together and started eating it in front of me. I had no choice but to eat it too. The day before yesterday I dreamt about my wallet getting stolen and all my important cards went missing, yes including that credit card. They asked me to pay $500 or they will go nuts. Yesterday, I dreamt that my laptop, my camera, and all my tools for filmmaking have been taken (since they're all in one bag), stolen by some streetkid. I chased after the kid and threw bottles at him but nobody helped me and outran me. The faster I ran, the further he got. I realized how the little things in life that I take for granted I'm actually scared to lose. I'm scared to lose my security, I'm scared to lose my passion, and I'm scared to lose comfort. Things have changed my life very recently and I feel that it's about to change some more. I delayed a trip in order for me to have second thoughts and work accordingly. I thought that I didn't take gifts because of guilt, but because I take them for granted. I've always relied on my parents and I'm under a false delusion that I can stand up for myself because I'm "self-sufficient", however I am not. I'm not ready for a lot of things in life and it takes a bit of realization to figure out that you're really never ready. But sometimes, hard choices can be made. Another message from these dreams is that I would never truly appreciate anything until it's finally gone. And I'm afraid of that. I'm afraid of leaving and moving on with my life. I'm afraid of losing that comfort, that security, that crutch. I've always felt safe behind my pretentious walls and my comfortable lifestyle. I've never taken a risk nor have put myself out there. I make half-assed product because in the end, I'm such a half-assed guy. I never really experienced what it's like being hungry, but I make fun of people who are. Yet the truth is, I've never been hungry. I've been greedy, but not hungry. I've never felt true desperation. I was lazy and am lazy. That's what the dreams are about. I am afraid to go out and live. Time to get busy living (but starving) than choose to die (and live comfortably but bear no fruit). Happy three years in Canada, Vince, shame you're not around for most of it. (Comment on this)
Thursday, May 21st, 2009
9:47 pm	Nine Days This journey will be hard, but the rewards are tempting and there's really nothing for me here no matter how much I delude myself. I dedicate the next song to myself. Because I'll be needing it. KANSAS CARRY ON WAYWARD SON Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more Once I rose above the noise and confusion Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion I was soaring ever higher But I flew too high Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man Though my mind could think I still was a mad man I hear the voices when I'm dreaming I can hear them say Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more Masquerading as a man with a reason My charade is the event of the season And if I claim to be a wise man, well It surely means that I don't know On a stormy sea of moving emotion Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean I set a course for winds of fortune But I hear the voices say Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry no more No! Carry on, you will always remember Carry on, nothing equals the splendor The center lights around your vanity But surely heaven waits for you Carry on my wayward son There'll be peace when you are done Lay your weary head to rest Don't you cry (don't you cry no more) (Comment on this)
Monday, May 11th, 2009
2:41 am	Twenty Days Yeah, this year's kinda like the year of reckoning. I have to be dynamic. It's all about movement. I don't mind it, hell I actually like it. I hate being grounded or stuck really. Guess I have to keep myself moving. I realized that the moment one gets stuck or satisfied, might as well keep it that way, keep it in your memory before you lose everything. At that point in time, I guess it's time to die. However, life is all about movement. One cannot be satisfied if they've achieved a perennial goal. One has to keep on adding more goals and more dreams. If the "ultimate" dream has been realized, go further, go higher, or start a new one. The point is to keep moving forward. I've seen its potential, now to straddle through and finish what I started, or finally get started. And I'm not going to get anything done if I maintain in one place. I just have to keep on moving. Goodbye Vancouver, it's nice knowing you. Hope to meet you again another time. (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 30th, 2009
2:27 am	Self-Love Story Self-Love Story Sing to the Lyrics of Taylor Swift's Love Story I was still young when I saw porno I close my eyes and the wacking starts I was sitting there, in my toilet, shutters closed See the pics, see the hottie, the mosaic See the video until the money shot And wheeze "Whoa" Little did I know That you were Romeo, the monthly trannie And my daddy said, "stay away from man to man" I was crying in my bedroom Screaming, "don't delete my files!" And I said, "Romeo, dude, buddy, pal I've been here so alone I was making clorox But dude, I just won't come Where the hell is Juliet When I need her? Is this a love story? Dude, I don't know." (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
11:55 am	More Music Videos! Here's one from Do'Ahou - Cautionary Warning... Enjoy! (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
4:18 pm	Fruits of My Labor Funny how bands have evolved through the years. I wanna upload other videos to do a compare and contrast of the bands I've been involved with. Here's a bunch of stuff I've uploaded in Youtube recently just to show how much the bands have changed. From Bohemian Beast Fighters to Dojibiron to Free Beer. And from Shiver to GP Alliance to Dust Loop. Enjoy. Trivia: Both songs are sung by Flow. Love 'em. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
1:41 pm	One Giant Leap I did it. I asked Julie yesterday. Popped the question. And the question was... "Julie, let's play an April Fools Joke on everybody saying that we're married... what do you say?" And Julie said yes. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, March 12th, 2009
12:22 pm	Should I Stay or Should I Go Okay, I'm about to make another mistake here. Well I always make mistakes, it's my raison d'etre. I can't seem to do the right shit anyway. It sucks and I want it to stop. Funny how I'm starting to like everything here. Things are making sense but at the same time, I'm always seeing the possibility and positives of going back. But there are other factors at work that are making me double think everything. People are saying that my decisions should be easy. "No brainer" this and that. Yet I don't know if I'm such a moron or I just see a much broader picture than most to realize that my decisions could very well seal my fate for the next four years. Maybe even life. I haven't made my decision yet. I'm still vacillating. Still looking for the perfect opportunity. Yet sometimes I wish for a simpler logic process. Problem is, Julie likes my annoyingly complex decision making process. If it wasn't for my scatterbrain approach, I would've been similar to others. But the source of my happiness required that. Now I have to deal with every mistake I ever made. And make that decision. (Comment on this)
Monday, March 9th, 2009
9:45 pm	Life in the Fast Lane I'm so not used to having a relationship. There are days when I feel really lonely but after being single for a long time, I've devised ways to control that urge. However, finally being in one is something I cannot really fathom. I've always seen it as a joke but as of right now, even though it still feels very superficial in nature, there is a connection that I enjoy having. Something that I cannot grasp with other people, or maybe its just the passion I feel every once in a while. I guess I'm still hovering over the denial phase of the relationship. Just a certain point of unbelief due to the fact that I've resigned myself time and time again into the singles crowd. It's pretty hard to get used to. Especially with the "let's meet your friends" bit. She's met my friends but I haven't her's. It's just this hurdle I have to take. Yet there is another hurdle. In as much as I enjoy this little distraction, I have yet another distraction to address. I've expressed my concerns to her and to a lot of people yet I still believe that there are certain risks I have to take. This is 2009 after all. In as much as I want to avoid them, I must face them in due time. The worst is yet to come I guess. And really, I should get used to it by now. This relationship is everything I asked for plus some. I enjoy her company so much and every minute with her is a blessing, a gift, a dream. It's borrowed from someone so divine that they allowed this woman to see me for who I am and accept me for what I lack. I believe she feels the same way but I feel that I don't deserve her yet at the same time, I'm the luckiest man in the world for having her. I think that we may have moved so fast on the relationship freeway but I guess that's how relationships really start off. I don't wanna get sick of her. I want this moment to stay as long as possible but there's something in me that feels pessimistic in all the optimism it presents. I guess it's still new to me. All I can do is to enjoy it and cherish it. Like everything in this world, these moments are precious, fragile and delicate. The one I value the most is the hardest thing to maintain as well. (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 28th, 2009
12:25 pm	End of the 30 Days Everything happens for a reason. The only regret I feel is that I didn't enjoy my time between this moment and the times I felt bitter. Yet in the end, happiness finds you. My journey ends and a new one begins. Monica's curse is lifted. Benette's 30 Days Promise has been fulfilled. Erin's 7 Year Wait Draws to a close. Cesca's March 18 stays in 2005. All there is left is me. And a declaration of a simple truth. Can 0 touch infinity? Impossible. Not without the leap of faith. Thanks Julie. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 9th, 2009
10:10 pm	Advent This is it. Go for broke. The longest 15 hours of my life thus far. I'll see ya when I see ya. Stay frosty. (Comment on this)
Saturday, February 7th, 2009
1:43 am	Advent Week Five Well each week does seem to get worse for some strange odd reason. I discovered that I have to make some permanent decisions in how my lifestyle's gonna be. Since apparently, I have kidney problems. All those years of spicy food, holding your bladder an extra five minutes, and just relatively bad habits have caused me to pee blood. I'm having my x-rays and lab tests next week, hopefully it yields a good result. If they have to operate, thank God I'm in Canada because here the treatment is free. Well not necessarily, you do pay insurance but if you're a douche and you try get by with as little as possible, then you can get the free healthcare. Middle class in this country sucks ass. High taxes plus no benefits. Kinda like a point of no return. You're better off being a bum, at least you get welfare. There are other things that I do not wish to discuss but also made my life a little bit more complicated. Hopefully it doesn't hit the fan. Or when it does, I'm hoping I'm nowhere in sight. Sucks having a crosshairs implanted on your head. Bunch of cool stuff too. I discovered how fun it is working at the mezzanine in HMV. You get paid to slack off, well if you're working on closing shifts. No customers, you get unlimited internet time (apparently no social network sites, emails and blogs but everything else is game), you get a cute blondie working with you and unlimited access to all the soundtracks, specialty cds, and other goodies to listen to all day. Too bad I only got a glimpse. We also get a private bathroom too! The next week's gonna be the toughest. Got to pack up. Got to clean the room. Gotta tie some loose ends. And I gotta make sure there's nothing left hanging. Sucks enough that I gotta make it back before taxes. It's gonna suck a lot more if I don't get anything fixed up. Good Luck to me. Oh yeah The Wrestler is amazing. Darren Arronofsky is an excellent director. He knows how to establish existential angst, milk it, and make it grow on you. It's depressing as fuck but at the same time very darkly optimistic as well. Makes me think twice of my position as an artist. I leave you with The Boss. The Wrestler Bruce Springsteen Have you ever seen a one trick pony in the field so happy and free? If you've ever seen a one trick pony then you've seen me Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street? If you've ever seen a one-legged dog then you've seen me Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more? Tell me can you ask for anything more? Have you ever seen a scarecrow filled with nothing but dust and wheat? If you've ever seen that scarecrow then you've seen me Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze? If you've ever seen a one-armed man then you've seen me Then you've seen me, I come and stand at every door Then you've seen me, I always leave with less than I had before Then you've seen me, bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more? Tell me can you ask for anything more? These things that have comforted me, I drive away This place that is my home I cannot stay My only faith's in the broken bones and bruises I display Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free? If you've ever seen a one-legged man then you've seen me (Comment on this)