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

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Monday, November 16th, 2009
2:15 am	Unworthy of Block I haven't really "published" something worth noting if not at all. The only real thing I have out there is a screenplay based from my Livejournal as filler in film festivals. So really, have I earned the right to call this phase I'm having a "writer's block". In a sense, I haven't done anything really substantial. And my musings to the web really is just a sick masturbation by a regular schmoe. It's more than halfway through this year's Nanowrimo, and yet I stare at the blank screen wanting to type something. Hell I want to outline something, but nothing seems to come out. I heard it's the first three pages that lead you break the inertia of procrastination. Right now, I plan to write, but all it remains are ideas mentally outlined and forever lost in a pool of dead ideas. Maybe one day, I'll write again. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
12:26 am	Boy George ... no not the Culture Club singer... In collaboration with Crezia Films, I directed a zombie movie within 48 hours (47 hours and 54 minutes to be exact) and completed with six minutes to catch our breath. "Boy George" was originally a port short written by Rob Peña. Collaborating with film school alumni and students alike, they've joined Bloodshots to make the film within 48 Hours! After 47 Hours and 56 minutes of blood, sweat, and tears, they've brought this zomedy to life! Any words would dampen the film, so I would just invite you to see it! If you like the film and continue to support filmmakers, vote for this baby by... EMAILING: bigsmashproductions@gmail.com SUBJECT line - "BOY GEORGE" MESSAGE - "I vote for 'BOY GEORGE' as the best film of Bloodshots Canada 2009". (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
2:47 am	All I Want for Christmas is to grope big >_> step one: make a post (public, friends-locked, filtered...whatever you're comfortable with) to your LJ. the post should contain your list of 10 5 holiday wishes. the wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("i'd love a ______ icon that's just for me") to medium ("i wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("all i want for christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV."). the important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want. if you wish for real life things (not fics or icons), make sure you include some sort of contact info in your post, whether it's your address or just your email address where santa (or one of his elves) could get in touch with you. also, make sure you post some version of these guidelines in your LJ or link to this post so that the holiday joy will spread.step two: surf around your friends list (or friends' friends, or just random journals) to see who has posted their list. here's the important part -- if you see a wish you can grant, and it's in your heart to do so, make someone's wish come true. sometimes someone's trash is another's treasure, and if you have a leather jacket you don't want or a gift certificate you won't use -- do it. you need not spend money on these wishes unless you want to. the point isn't to put people out, it's to provide everyone a chance to be someone else's holiday elf -- to spread the joy. gifts can be made anonymously or not -- it's your call. there are no rules with this project, no guarantees, and no strings attached. give, and you might receive. and you'll have the joy of knowing you made someone's holiday special. MY LIST 1. Plane ticket to Pinasland from Canuckistan. 2. Plane ticket from HK or Taiwan to Pinasland. 3. IMDB Full Membership. 4. Another film fest shoo-in. 5. Free entrance fee to applying for a film fest. 6. Cineworks membership or any film society membership that allows me to rent cheap equipment. 7. Demon Souls for PS3 8. $10-$50 worth of Superbrie ^_________^ 9. A grant approved. 10. Some money. THanks ^_^ (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
2:52 am	Count Your Blessings Like 2005, 2009 is just as weird. It's one of those years that I ask myself, I really can't say if the year is good or bad. It's not even average because it's quite interesting. Nor it's that exciting because I spent most of the year having a good pile of regrets and also having been glad to make several decisions for the best. Some of those regrets have evolved into a good life experience and also switches back into a regret when something else could've happened. The bottom line is, no way of changing the past to the way it was. Ironic that on my birthday of all days, Manila is struck by a calamity. Ironic but profound. There are some trips I wish I'd have taken and some trips which I wish I would've just postponed. Yet it wasn't a waste in the long run. Without those trips, I wouldn't have taken steps towards the future I wanted. Yet, it could've been another future where I could be happy. The truth is, I guess I should write off this year as an investment. Whatever decision I've regretted nor decision I thanked myself for making, it can't be changed. All that's left is dealing with the consequences. As one of my films claimed... Count Your Blessings. And that I do very well. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
6:05 pm	2009 in Gaming I haven't been playing much games for this year but looking at what it has to offer, I really am unimpressed. Fourth quarter usually is the time when the biggest and the baddest games come out but so far, ho-hum, the same old shit. Well, here are a few games I'm looking forward to for the 4th quarter. Be warned FPS wankers, it mostly comprises of RPGs. Shin Megami Tensei: Persona System: PSP Release Date: September 22, 2009 Developer/Publisher: Atlus A remake of a game that peered through the fantastic SMT universe and came back scathed. Only nearly a decade later would they return in full force to capture the imagination of curious folk who saw brilliance in seemingly small drops. Persona boasts unconventional RPG tactics towards a world that's used to the story-grind-story-grind-grind-grind-some-more formula. Where SMT finds another way to look beyond the typical grindcore format to a more sandbox means of grinding and looking for ways around the box. Plus the Snow Queen quest is available and with a killer soundtrack by Shoji Meguro (also the director of this game), Persona will be a refreshing update to a SMT rich year. Demon's Souls System: PS3 Release Date: October 6, 2009 Developer/Publisher: Atlus/Front Interactive I used to love MMORPGs just for the fact that it's a genre that has stripped its game to the core where the point of the game is to turn RPGs into a more dynamic, competitive, social entertainment. Just as romantic comedies and dark comedies are souffles, so are the MMORPGs because social and RPG really don't match. However, the beauty behind the MMO's structure is the emphasis on character building and strategy. Something that "grindcore" RPGs fail to acknowledge. Yes, you do grind, but in a much smarter and less time consuming structure. Plus with tons of dungeons to explore and monsters to conquer, Demon's Souls appear to be a worthy exclusive. Alpha Protocol System: Multi (PS3 + XBoX360) Release Date: October 6, 2009 Developer/Publisher: Sega What do you get when you combine Mass Effect and Splinter Cell? You get this game. Another "first", an espionage RPG where your choices affect the movement of the story and the interaction plays a great part of the game's physics. Combined with massive action and intricate story telling, I feel that Sega follows up last year's Valkyria Chronicles with another wallop. Insert applause here. Half Minute Hero System: PSP Release Date: 4th Quarter 2009 Developer/Publisher: Marvelous Entertainment If there's such a thing as "arcade" RPG. This is the RPG that requires you hustle and the only way to beat several levels is by repetition. Basically, you know where to go and what to do. High score equals the amount of gold you earn as you level up. Premise is simple: Evil Overlord decides to skip all the dramatics, cinematics, and androgynous attire and decide to blow up the current universe in 30 seconds, REAL TIME. Meaning, all you grind junkies better not dilly dally because this motherfucker's serious and he ain't waiting for you. Right now, my contender of RPG of the Year. Dragon Age Origins System: Multi (PS3, XBoX360, PC) Release Date: 4th Quarter 2009 Developer/Publisher: Bioware From the makers of Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect comes another much awaiting RPG that would possibly blow me away yet again. Just the fact that they're saying it's delayed but still advertising the same date would probably say that Scorsese and the Bioware crew are drinking in the same pub and some dude ordered extra drinks. They all got drunk and decided to delay the release of Shutter Island and Dragon Age. Ah well. If they delay it to 2010, more money saved. Heavy Rain System: PS3 Release Date: Sometime this year, possibly next year Developer: Sony This game looks so good. Mystery solving adventure games are my thing and I love the puzzles they branch out. I miss the Clock Tower series and more recently, I'm at awe with Hotel Dusk 215. I hope this game really meets my expectations and does some crazy shit on the side too. White Knight Chronicles System: PS3 Release Date: Sometime this lifetime Developer/Publisher: Level 5/SCEA More and more I watch the trailers. More and more I'm losing interest. Could've been awesome if it came out a year ago. Right now, it's looking more and more uninteresting. But hey, it's an RPG for the PS3. Only thing I deliberately missed was Cross Edge. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
12:39 pm	Epitaph SENTO KANESHIRO previously known as WINSENTO KUSANAGI (June 30, 2001 - September 5, 2009) There's no gain without sacrifice (Comment on this)
12:29 pm	What the Cosplay Community MEANT to Me I joined the community in 2001 and made some awesome friends. It was a group of people with similar interests. We felt that society finds us a little off but around each other, we can act how we want to. We were anime fans and we are proud of it. (Sounds like a LGBT community, but yeah that's what we are!) Two years down the line, I got involved with a lot of nasty politics and drama. But that's with just ourselves. No corporate sponsorship or anything yet, we were still indie. By 2005-2006, I felt that I was a dinosaur in a ballgame that wanted to branch out to the mainstream. Canada became an escape pod and I took it. I didn't want to deal with it, because sooner or later, it's not the community anymore. It's 2009, nearly a decade after I joined the community where I thought I could be myself, I thought I could share the same regard with people with like-minded interests. But it's already drowning in drama and controversy that it doesn't LOOK FUN AND EMPOWERING ANYMORE. I salute those who are still trying to protect an ideal I was too afraid and proud to protect back then. You guys are still my friends, you guys got me through a lot of tough times and was able to find out who I am. But I'm glad to say that I'm through with it. You guys are amazing through and through. Yet my life can't go on anymore with you. Goodbye. Thanks for the memories. I'll keep in touch. But keep the cosplay talk to a minimum. I want to be remembered as Vincent Ternida. SENTO IS DEAD. It's been a good run guys. I can tell you, I enjoyed it a lot. (8 Comments |Comment on this)
12:06 pm	Breaking the Silence I deleted my Plurk account. I just don't want the extra added aggravation that it makes me feel. Not because of anything but right now, I'm sick and tired of the cosplay drama in Manila. I'm six thousand miles away and that's the only news I keep hearing. Yeah it's great gossip and source of cathartic conflict in my life but after three years of the same G.I. Joe reruns (the second season mainly), it gets annoying. That annoyance turns into aggravation and that aggravation turns into passive anger that reinforces some other anger issue. I don't like getting angry because I tend to be irrational and I hurt everybody. I'm not making excuses using my genes but my dad does the same thing. The sad part is, I'm slowly turning into him, and I don't want to. However, if that's the only thing you've been exposed to for 20 so years, to get what you want using coercive measures such as verbal and emotional abuse, it becomes a norm. I find myself doing it without even knowing it. I'm very very very tempted to remove facebook from my list as well since parts of it also causes so much aggravation. I already have massive anger management issues and several things piss me off already. Actually correct that, EVERYBODY PISSES ME OFF. Just one little thing and I explode. I guess after so many years of bottling it up and then finally getting a chance to seeing that I can release it, it's not good. I end up hurting people and destroying things. I'm just glad that only fragments make it into Facebook and even less in Livejournal. I'm just removing Plurk because even if I'm not even at the heart of the action, the shockwave reaches me. Come on, people! It's the same fucking issue for the last three fucking years. Grow up already! It's causing me to feel aggravated already, what more all of you who are part of it? If it's just trying to get some comeuppence because some douchebag got away with something, let it go! I'm trying so hard to let go of the pain in my life but you guys don't make it easy because you set the standard that it's wrong to let somebody get ahead of you. But it's not! My dad just got diabetes after getting depressed seeing his colleagues get ahead of him. I'm seeing it as the "normal" thing to do. But it's not normal. I'm a nice guy, can be quite passive but I can assert myself if I want to. But please, if you ignore it, it'll go away. I think the best way to get back at all these douchebags is to just leave them be and let them eat themselves up. The moment they start cannibalizing each other and themselves, the world can become a better place. Unless it's also your source of entertainment or worse... your lives are already determined by it. If that's the truth, my god, then I'm glad I left the cosplay scene for good. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, September 4th, 2009
4:58 am	Shallow Sleep It's rare that I have difficulty in sleeping. Usually when exhaustion takes its course, I lie down and I sleep. But twice in my life I went for days without sleep and just felt a surge of energy to complete what I have to do, and sleep when the task is done. I'm getting that urge again. Yet, something amazing happens during sleep. Everything resets and once you've waken, you discover what you truly feel the next day once you've waken up. The moment that sinks in, that's really what I'll feel within me. Will I feel regret or vindication? I hope exhaustion takes me upon her bosom as I let the sands of sleep carry me away. Then once I've awaken, I'll know the answer. Alas, I stay awake as society deems me as a knave. As the saying goes, the wicked warrants no rest for their wretched ways. (Comment on this)
Saturday, August 8th, 2009
3:55 am	The Inspiration for 30 Day Promise Well. I guess my anger stopped once again. Four years ago, I also erupted in the same exact bitter spasms and screams that ended with a sullen note of soul searching. It happened about the same time - July. Well it is August now and my anger was directed at my experience in July. I guess nothing has changed. I wrote this journal entry back in July 22, 2005. I'll repost it again because it is a wisdom from the past that I've forgotten. Yet it will aid me in present. Actually, it did aid me in my present. Because the post really sums up the ideas claimed in 30 Day Promise. It is a collaboration between Xia Lee and I but also one of my most honest piece of work. If ever something happens to me, I guess this is the one I'll be remembered the most. It's earned its second film festival credit, we'll be screened in the San Diego Asian Film Festival on October! Woo-hoo! (It also got rejected in two other festivals, but oh well, this one's bigger than those two heh heh) Don't believe me, here's the list, but it is of course credited to the filmmaker - Xia Lee. (http://www.sdaff.org/features_view.php?news_id=422 - Look for 30 Day Promise in the "Short Films" section) If you want to see my contribution, my other blog talks about it in great detail: (http://chubbybros.wordpress.com) I believe this blog entry on July 22, 2005 really inspired the concept behind it and also gives me a capsule summary of my entire blog from the day it started... 2:10 am, whether or not it is advanced or not, in the atomic clock I am at this moment staring at the empty computer screen. I do not want to touch my character right now, she just died stupidly. Right now, I am wasting time. I am doing what I have been doing since 2003 when I had the money to spend but with no one to spend it with. There was this one time where every Friday, I just walk around the gimmick places (Eastwood, Rockwell, etc) looking for a new person to talk to. It lasted three weeks until I decided to end the charade, I am Vincent Ternida, I do not belong here. It was this time of the month, July. It was 2003. Back then I liked this girl named Pia but she was about to get married. It was alright for me, I was juggling other crushes as well. Yet, I felt empty. This is what I feel now. Empty as a bottle used badly. I guess the moral lesson in Hans Christian Andersen's Bottleneck really does affect me. Everyone is created for a reason, and that reason one must spend one's entire life to find out. The wine bottle was so proud that he held champagne, yet the tradition of that village was to throw the bottle for good luck. Apparently, the bottle just kept changing hands. And then his life was dedicated to his "owners" a pair of star-crossed lovers who were united by the bottle. And he only realized his worth when he was already a mere bottleneck who returned to his old owner after being passed around with the letter of her dear deceased love. I feel I am the bottleneck as of the moment. I have no goals, I have no aspirations, and I have nothing to do as of the moment. I have my tasks at work (which I complete in less than an hour, I feel I will be rendered redundant in a few months time) and my responsibilities at home (which I avoid). I feel distant to most of my friends and I waste my time in a computer shop pushing a character which I will forget in a few months time. Soul Searching I pushed as of last week, because of a tiny memory that reminded me of a certain person. I wondered to myself, she was pushing herself but I am merely here, an empty shell. I seems that I have broken my promise in more ways than one. I really wish that I could take back all my regrets. My trip to school only pushed my regrets even further. Not only of Cesca but of many things that I missed out on. I turned my back on my school after I received my not so great grades. I hated the school with all my heart, due to the fact that it stood for bad ideals and its students were not the model students I feel that it were. It felt like high school and inside I wanted to be an Atenean, it is something that my parents wanted. (Yet inside I did not want it) Seeing myself not getting good scores and still looking down at my school, I began to hate so much of it and looked at myself with so much prestige and self-worth. Everything that my peers threw at me, be it cooperative criticism or a mere comment, I snap back with so much pride and contempt. On who I should have been friends with, I turned into a hostile rival or mayhaps, an enemy. Everybody I felt was an intruder and my pride persisted until the very end. All my peers, my relationships, even the way I take my case to teachers, I see myself greater than everyone else. I made less friends and I grew more contemptuous. Everyone I met I shrugged away and became very picky to whom I should speak with. I burned bridges, demanded for greater ideals, and I myself curse the very structure of most teachers. I insulted them, I showed that I was better, I turned class into sport. I saw it as a means of "rebellion". My friends were rebels who had nothing to fight for, but fighting itself. I argued with everyone part of the mainstream crowd and hated everything that they did. The men loved cars, I chose to commute and promote it as a healthy and honest way of transportation. The girls loved vanity, I bashed them and showed much contempt. The teachers promoted Christian philosophy and ideals, I took up existentialism to ruin their proposals. Even my thesis went up against all of UA&P's ideals by taking up a Marxist point of view and tackling all their philosophies without much doubt. I rejected my college friends. I turned against my teachers. I turned off all the girls who had an inkling towards me. I made myself look pitiful, sad, and sickly. I pushed myself to be something that is totally not me. I pushed so hard to be different. To be eccentric. To be one of a kind. To be unique. Then I joined the anime community blindly, it is a way to reject my school, to accept a new universe, to mold myself differently from what the school asks of me. I became a recluse. Fast forward a few years later, I return to the school. I realized all the regret and all the misery that I have incurred. I was active in school. Yet I hated it. I never liked anything, I just enjoyed all the fringe benefits of each organization and used my connections to get me my benefit. Many still consider me as a friend or an acquaintance, yet I kept a wall behind me away from everyone. Now I am suffering from that. During work, it is difficult for me to trust, I hide my work, I deceive and pretend to be something in order to turn in something good. I am not a team player at anything. I love my lonesomeness. Slowly, I push friends away. Now that the animosity, which is UA&P has disappeared, everyone else has become my rival for I have no one else to hate. I have so much pride and hate within. Just a little push, I am paranoid. Just a little shove, I snap. My EQ is below the healthy amount. I am insecure and unstable. I cannot stand rejection for my narcissitic tendencies get in the way. I ignore what advice is given to me. I feel that I am the only one who has the right to give advices. I told Cesca that I am a bad person. She told me she doesn't care whether I am good or bad, she just wanted to know me. I replied with animosity. Just because of one rejected message, I exploded in live journal. I attacked everyone and threatened to vanish. I thought that without me people would change. My pride just kept on getting bigger. And I feel that I have pushed the one who made me wake up from this nightmare. I thought ill of her, I thought bad of her, I compared her to worse people. I really want to make it up to her. I just do not know. I cannot stand rejection and being replaced. I get very jealous when replaced. I get very upset when replaced. My case with Erin, I am at fault. I was very proud. I did not know how to look at myself. As I stare at myself, I see what is bad about me. I curse my bosses, I forego all their experience because I believe that my talent is far superior. I curse my school. I curse my parents. I curse my religion. I curse God. I curse everyone. My contempt has pushed itself to the worst type. My conscience has caught up with me. I have too much pride. I want to change. I want to change myself. Not because if I change myself she will like me. I want to change myself because I have caused too much trouble for everyone. I spite easily, I hate easily, I keep grudges even if someone else has not done anything towards me. I get jealous and envious of what others have. I guess everything started when I made my rejection with everyone at school. It took too long for me to accept it. All my mistakes was because of my pride. I took mistakes because it will make me look good at work. I took work by myself because I felt that everyone else cannot do what I can. I rejected most girls who rejected me as friends because I believe that they have rejected me as a person. I have hated Erin so much because I felt that I have invested so much but was replaced for someone so bad. I have hated my own race because I feel that I have been pushing so much but still my effort is not as enough as everyone else. In the end, what I am doing? I am playing Ragnarok. My sister asked me, "if you're so against mainstream, why do you play Ragnarok?" I was dumbfounded, but I saved my own skin by replying that it is part of the niche market. I accuse Deo of excuses but it is me who has the biggest excuse. I accuse Ron of being illogical, but I have been illogical from the beginning. I accuse Erl of being lazy and deceitful but I have been lying to everyone in this country. I accuse Ernie for being opportunistic, but I have used every opportunity to my advantage. I accuse Peter of lying and wearing masks but I myself cannot remove this mask. I accuse Shin of being a hypocrite but it is me who was a hypocrite. I accuse Erin of wronging me, but I have wronged her more ways than one. I accuse Gerard for being a traitor, but I already betrayed him in more ways than one. I have been envious of Galo because of his looks and his position, but I fail to see what I have in myself. I have been envious of Chris because of his height, but it does not need height to push me this far. I have pushed my angst towards those who work hard, I have pushed my faux talent, I have bashed people because of their tastes, yet I for one am fake. I am sorry for everything I have done the past two years. My soul searching ends here, I have found what I have been looking for. I found myself. I now know why I stay out late. I now know why I regret. I now know why I cannot push forward. Because in as so much as I try to push back what really makes me hate deep inside, I blame it to others. As much as I try to push myself and crush what little others have, I only hate myself. In the end, I do not hate my race, I do not hate society, I merely hate myself for pushing myself back. I hate myself for being lazy. I hate myself for not doing anything to benefit myself. I hate myself for not facing reality. I have hid from reality too much and too far. I do not look at myself at the mirror not because of the "ghosts" I see in it. I hate to look at myself. My ugly, evil self. I expect too much, but I cannot have it. I expect too much out of everyone. I expect too much out of life. They said that the key in life is less expectations. I have told myself that, time and time again but I failed at that as well... Cesca, I failed my promise to you. Like Naruto has failed Sakura's. I lied to you, I failed to believe in myself before I met you, I have never believed in myself all this time. And have sunk in further darkness. I have learned to love the darkness but hate the light. I have reached the end of my line. I want to go back, but it will be far journey. Each step will be painful, because it is a continuous road which I travelled without a rope, without a light. I have never been too honest with everything. I wish to be more honest. I want to be more honest. I want to give up my pride. I have caused everyone trouble with so much lies. I want to tell the truth again to myself. I want to rise up again. I do not sleep because it troubles me every night. I never faced my problems. Now I look at problems and will take each baby step towards its solution. I promise to myself and to you, that I will slowly but surely push myself for the better. I want to begin again. I want to start anew. I want a new life. I want that life to start now. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 3rd, 2009
4:36 pm	... I guess the moral story of not getting much comments on my journal is one, everybody is on plurk or twitter, two, I'm not too important to be cared about, and three, you're sick of my "I'm so tired, I'm so bored, life is stupid" posts. Yeah, why not? Instead of joining my lively argument, you will just sit back and keep your opinions to yourself rather than waste your time on this boring individual. I don't blame you, if I were you, I'd laugh at that stupid, fat, douchebag, waste of time. I bet you're thinking, how can that guy get a girlfriend anyway? Shrugs. I bet you know your answer and I guess you're keeping it to yourself to avoid an all-out flame war because knowing me, I will attack. Right now, you'll be tempted to reply to me via anonymous messaging because either you're scared to confront me or after all, as said earlier, I'm not worth it to attack. And it'd be fun to see me reply back to an unknown user. Usually the case, that's how it works. I guess I'm starting to enjoy my random blatherings to the wall. If you haven't noticed, the wall indeed is my best friend. At least the wall doesn't fight back or argue with me, but in fact I enjoy our rapport. The wall doesn't tell me what to change and the wall doesn't tell me what I need to be. In fact it just listens. Yet I'm still back to square one, nobody tells me what to do, nobody tells me how to behave and it's fine. You all can just go to hell. Yeah, it is a cry of help you fucking hypocrites. Why do I fucking blog anyway? It's a fucking cry of help. And yeah, for those who love making others feel better you'll comment just to spite me. And yeah I won't disable my comments because I love hearing what people say. It's kinda like a drug for me. To amuse my little attention grabbing bullshit. But whatever. I don't have a pair of tits and ass to get your attention anyway. Plus I don't have anything funny to say so fuck you, if you're still reading, you're such a stupid twat. Don't waste your time, move on, go to same lame blog that makes fun of kittens and fags. Nothing to see, move on. You're asking yourself, what's his point? Got nothing. I'm just exercising my freedom of speech. You got one of those, well I'm using it now. It's either that or I walk into a store, shoot some people and get shot myself. I don't need a fucking hug, I don't need to talk, and I don't need to kill myself. I just want my freedom to shout, scream, and get angry without being hailed off to a fucking mental institution or any other things your fucking society feels like it's right to do to people like me. I don't wanna exercise, I don't wanna let it out, if you ask me what I want, I wanna punch people in the face without consequence, but I can't have that, you have your society to live up to. I just wanna tell you reader that I wanna punch you in the face. Without you hitting back and with me just enjoying every second of it. By this time, you probably are checking some porn site or going to some stupid funny site and I guess you didn't read that. Whatever, I don't need saving, I need a little vindication. That's all. Have a nice day. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
1:33 pm	Boredom For a couple of weeks I've only been doing three things - Eating, Rendering Video, and Playing Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor. I was also doing other menial things like sleeping, writing, and watch The Sopranos, but those three definitely took the bill of what I've been doing a lot of. Now to list the 10 Most Beneficial Skills and 10 Most Annoying Skills When Used by Enemies. Ten Most Beneficial Skills 10 - Battle Aura (Auto) Good for early to mid game battles. Has a conditional shield-all stat built in at the start of the battle and usually avoids very vicious deathblows and instant kills. Also defends from Drain from time to time. Late game enemies prefer Barrier and Wall compared to this auto technique so it's not that annoying on your end. 9 - Pierce (Passive) Renders immunities and absorptions null and void. The only thing that can nullify this is reflect. Only a handful of enemies have this ability (Murmur and Rangda). Any enemy on the field has no escape from the vile deathbounds and mighty hits and hassohappa you're going to dish out. 8 - Victory Cry (Passive) Fun recovery stat that regains HP and MP at the end of the battle. Highly useful if one is planning to spam Megido all over the playing field. Also if the character is a balanced one - half physical, half magical - it gives enough fodder to bring up the MP once magic is abused and bring up the HP once physical attack is abused. 7 - Barrier (Auto) Better than the Wall, since a lot of enemies who are physical based more often than not repeat physical attacks. And usually when enemies run out of magic, they resort to attacking physically. With the Barrier-Drain combo, you can nullify their first spell and then drain their MP leaving no other spells cast the following turn. When they attack you again, Barrier comes up using up their last resort (some random spell). And only a handful of enemies resort to Almighty damage (Megido, etc) 6 - Samarecarm (Activated) Just like Prayer, it can be cast from the map or in-battle. I brings back an ally to fight another battle in full fighting condition. It doesn't bring back lost MP but it's enough to take a quick beating, a meat shield, or do enough damage to the enemy. It's a second chance to victory and amazing way to do so. 5 - Megido (Activated) One of the few spells that cannot be reflected, blocked, or subjected to cheap Battle Aura defense. It is Holy so there's no defense against it. Plus it is one of the most powerful attack spells in the game. Just its sheer power and wipe out random enemies off the map before going for the kill. Prefer it to Megidolaon that eats up 75 MP, the extra 25 can be used for necessary Auto skills. 4 - Holy Dance (Activated) There is Megido and Megidolaon. However Holy Dance gets rid of bosses. It is unblockable (except for Battle Aura during lucky breaks) and it hits about 700 -900 damage per shot. For enemies with high magical defense it still hits about 150-200 per shot. Usually deals 2-4 hits per activation and of course it cannot be reflected. 3 - Prayer (Activated) There is healing and there is instant recovery. Prayer can be cast on the map and in-battle. It cures ailments and heals damage. It costs less than Affection and Devotion, for those increase in cost as the demons go up in level. It takes priority over most of the skills activated that round, and it provides extra ammo for your physical-based allies. Nifty. 2 - Reflect Physical (Passive) There's no way you can get past this shield. Any physical attack even with "Pierce" is nullified by this baby. Even reflected physical attack is nullified by it. This RPG Aikido technique enables you to withstand any damage but also giving it back twice fold. It not only hurts the enemy, but also keeps you from harm's way. Excellent source of instant death damage. 1 - Drain (Activated) In a game where magic is the game breaker, Drain is by the far the most useful magician offensive spell one can have. In a game where items that replenish does not exist, there's only one way to replenish MP. Either by passive recovery or by using your enemies as fodder. Aside from that, you deal HP damage and also lock them in a stasis since they cannot cast spells. Nifty, huh? 10 Most Annoying Skills Used by Opponents 10 - Swarm Only Belzeboub has it, and it's his trademark annoyance. It gives you a fly inside and does a considerable amount of damage. When it hatches, you lose a character and you have to deal with the enemy that comes out of it. Annoying on the first run. Good thing it's only with Belzeboub. 9 - Attack All Caught off-guard and suffer the damage. It's not just one guy that gets it, but everybody. It hurts like hell. And the enemy will laugh at you for it. 8 - Endure Makes enemies harder to kill and deprives you of getting experience at times. Most annoying when you've dished out a high damage spell that kills the leader but everyone else remains losing out on experience. It also adds another expense to your magic-wielding team. 7 - Makarakarn If you're not using Holy, then this spell will force you to switch to an all-Holy damage dealing team. All your Dances and multi-target spells will return and it sucks if you're pretty powerful because you'll eat what you've been dished out. 6 - Tetrakarn Makes everybody a reflector for that turn. The annoying part is when you're grinding, then suddenly they cast it. It kills off your team especially when someone has an Attack All equipped. More annoying than Barrier or Makarakarn because Physical Attack is almost always an economic way to battle. 5 - Reflect Physical Not so fun when it's them who wields it. You're forced to cast magic. And purely physical teams are rendered useless. Not even Pierce can penetrate this and some enemies have Revenge and Payback attached to add insult to injury. Only way around it is a nifty Drain spell. 4 - Megidolaon When used by the enemy, it's not fun. It's usually given to enemies that have seemingly infinite MP so they spam it like crazy. And also to enemies who have more than one attack per turn. (I'm talking to you Lucifer!) They love spreading it around. Which sucks when you have enough life to withstand two. Then they cast a third one and you know the programming is fucking with you. 3 - Bind Slows you down. Most annoying on special circumstance missions when you have to protect citizens or party members. You don't reach the NPC in time and they end up dying and you losing the match. Also annoying when you're going for a COMP cartridge, it doesn't let you have it and it slows you down like mad. Urgh. 2 - Any Long Range Capabilities Without Chaos Wave or Evil Wave, any enemy that loves to attack from afar gets a free ticket to whooping your ass and invites you to watch your team take damage. At the most part, it screws up morale and wastes your MP on random auto skills. Just the fact that you can't do anything about it is annoying enough. 1 - Megidoladyne Only one enemy has this most annoying skill and it's Lucifer. It's a map based attack so you cannot Endure, you cannot Shield against, and you cannot heal or revive fast enough. It deals at a minimum of 350 damage and I've seen it do 2,000 damage. It gets much more annoying at the endgame since he prevents you from moving and only casts it without inviting you to fight. Talk about sore loser. (Comment on this)
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? (3 Comments |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)