Siobhan tribute

Well, not really a tribute but a compilation of my favorite performances of Siobhan. There are only two of them but you get the point. I thought she was going to be neck and neck with Crystal Bowersox, so yeah, I think she was gone too (and I'm using this lightly) soon.

America was kind of right though. Her performance of "Any Man of Mine" wasn't spectacular. I have to agree that what Siobhan lacks in vocal power she makes up for with that screech at the end of every performance. So beyond that high note, there isn't much to say about her singing ability (which is better than good but not great and exciting) because she can't sing the phone book. She needed to pick songs that suited her and, case in point, her choices are as confusing as her style. But at the end of the day, she's unique and marches to the beat of her own drum, which is great.



Her take on "Across the Universe" was my favorite of the Beatles' week.



"Think" made my jaw drop when I first heard what she could belt out given the perfect song. No wonder this was her swan song. This is what made everyone stop and take notice in the first place. Too bad no other performance could outdo this. And she kind of went downhill for me.

The way I see it, Crystal's greatest foe would have to be Lee Dewyze. While Crystal is strong every week, Lee just keeps on getting better and better so she may be in for a tough time hanging on to those votes if she doesn't come out and sing something people actually know the lyrics to. hahaha.

The Jejemon

I had a feeling it was just a matter of time before I post this. So, there's a strange "phenomenon" happening in Pinoy social cyberspace right now: the emergence of the JEJEMON. Strangely enough, a twitter friend tweeted this topic just a few minutes after I received a message from my classmate, sharing the same "fascination". So on Facebook, I posted a question of where jejemons came from, and one of my friends said they came from jejeworld. O.....K.

Then, I knew this was something big when I logged onto my YM, and you know the dialogue box that pops up that shows news articles (and the like)? Yeah, Jejemon was on Yahoo Answers.

I know that "jejeje" is a different way of saying "hehehe" where obviously you replace the h with j. Here's what people on yahoo answers have to say about the sensation that is jejemon:




Bobs in English? Well, that's ironic.






Now this made me laugh.


Actually I share the same sentiments with the people here. I get annoyed when I read things like "Hellow powhz!!!" on people's profiles. Come on, human race, type like real people. It ain't cute, and I doubt that you're attracting positive vibes when the spelling and grammar nazis read what you have to type.

I have a feeling this all started with Friendster. I mean, it was the cradle of Filipino social networking. And maybe a lot of pretentious Pinoys started out with "weird text" that they thought would make them look cool...and it blossomed from there.

I don't think this is a fad though. The "EoWzz" are here to stay, but I know this won't spread like wild fire, simply because with the hundreds of thousands that use "jeje language", there are also the hundreds of thousands who know better.

Yeah, I believe Filipinos are smarter than that. So, good luck to all the Jejemons out there. Don't worry, you're not contagious.

Shrek teaser

here's a clip from the upcoming Shrek movie. Puss really let himself go! Anyway, the movie will probably hit Zamboanga shores in May, so it won't be a long wait afterall.

Madonna and ETC in one day

An hour ago, I was channel surfing when I came across a new channel, which featured a show oddly-enough, looked like a Project Runway rip-off. I mean, come on, one of the judges was Kelly Rowland. Wait, that's not my point. The point is, when I looked at the screen, I saw three letters I never knew I would see again: E T C. It was a pleasant shocker to have ETC back! But I don't think I'll enjoy watching Kelly Rowland act as somebody remotely close to a style mogul though. And I haven't seen Sam Oh, the somewhat Korean girl who used to host segments in between shows. I'm not sure if she's still with ETC though, which is a shame, since I liked her.

Anyway, I was also surprised that they aired new Glee episodes via satellite! So I watched episode 14 without even downloading it...which is great considering I'm devoting most of the space to Grey's anatomy episodes.

Glee's Madonna episode, was actually packed with drama and semi - pivotal moments!

Sue's obsession with Madonna reaches a boiling point when she orders Principal Figgins to play Madonna songs full-blast on the school's PA system. She also makes the Cheerios perform on stilts, which was cool yet bizarre. Will thinks Madonna is a good muse for the Gleeks so he asks them to do Madonna numbers.

I'm really not into Madonna so there wasn't a lot to appreciate though, but still, there was a lot of Madonna to go around.

1. Mercedes and Kurt, to make Sue feel better about not having Will's locks, make her the star of their Madonna - inspired video (the song's "Vogue")

2. Rachel wants to have sex with Jesse, but eventually chickens out. Santana also wants to have sex with Finn and they eventually do it, but Finn didn't feel any "spark" (like duh). Emma, because she wants to prove to everyone (including herself), that she's taking control of her life, also invites Will to do it, but in the end, doesn't happen. Then they sing "Like a Virgin".

3. Jesse quits (?!) Vocal Adrenaline (the club's rival group) to join their Glee club, and it causes every one to question his motives from the get-go (duh, who wouldn't?).

4. Because Mercedes and Kurt think that they haven't been given a lot of solos, they joined the Cheerios (Sue's cheer squad) AND performed "4 Minutes". They're still part of Glee though. Why doesn't Mike Chang and the other guy complain? They haven't opened their mouths to sing even five words (solo that is) the whole season!

5. The episode ends with their version of "Like a Prayer", which is obviously one of the few songs of Madonna that I know. And once again, it was GREAT! (right now I'm looking for a good youtube video to post, but there aren't any yet)

Wow, it felt like I was doing the fast recap at the beginning of every Glee ep. I better watch it next time. :)

Glee flash mob

Ok I just had to post this right now. This video shows a flash mob in Seattle dancing to Glee songs. I've always underestimated flash mobs. Like, I always assume that it's going to be a small group but a wide angle shot of the crowd showed almost everyone dancing. It's amazing that in the beginning, you never know who's part of it, then you'd be surprised at the "randomness" of people who don't look like dancers join in, and the whole thing erupts into one amazingly choreographed number.

Blood, Glee and no torrid lovemaking

This week was my first rotation ever in the operating room. We were assigned at Doctor's hospital and lucky for me, my fears were put to rest early when I was called first to assist. My first ever surgery, a thyroidectomy (removal of the thyroid gland) lasted the whole morning. Pretty heavy for a gland that's supposed to be small. The smell of tissue being cauterized (with a pointed tip charged with electricity; a fancy medical way of saying burning tissue) reminded me pretty much of papait (goat's guts stewed in bile-y soup). It also reminded me of the smell when you dissect toads, so thank you Sir whatsyourname, for prepping me early on during my Zoo lab.

I felt pretty good after the surgery because I didn't do an epic fail of what I was doing, which was basically cleaning the bloody instruments, handing instruments and retracting the skin to expose more tissue. I'm not going to complain about how my friends at General hospital managed to snag 3 surgeries in two days while I had (only) 1 because the experience makes you look forward to the surgeries to come, and thank my lucky stars blood and guts don't make me puke...they make me even giddy at some point. And it also helped that my instructor was calm most of the time.


I finally finished watching Glee episode 14 and I'm excited for the things to come. I mean, Rachel's playing a Juliet Capulet and seeing a guy from Vocal Adrenaline (their competition), Finn actually LIKES Rachel, Will and Emma actually have a shot at a real relationship, Terry (Will's wife who faked her pregnancy) will be getting less screen time, Regionals are coming up, and Quinn isn't in labor yet! What's not to look forward to??

Aside from Glee, I also watched "An Education", one of the films nominated for an Oscar early this year. I thought, that since it has a May-December love affair, like "The Reader" (Where Kate Winslet had sex with a boy without apologies), it would follow the same pattern of torrid lovemaking between a married man and a 16 year old girl, but it didn't. It was light and wholesome enough for the palate and yeah, I guess I've had enough of the old and young sharing bodily fluids for one day. It turns out it was about how a girl almost grows up too fast for her own good, and almost loses her shot at getting into Oxford because of her relationship. But she does go in the end after realizing how wrong she was so yeah, she does get "an education", pun intended.

a GREAT Misunderstanding

You probably don't care right now, with hunger, corruption and war going on around the world BUT I'm soooo happy that a new Glee episode will be coming in a few days!!!! You see, at the back of my head, I thought Glee will start when American Idol will end! BUT new episodes are up in a few days!!! I was watching Glee promo vids on youtube when it shocked me that the premiere date would be a few days from now. I thought I was hallucinating but NO!!!!! I'm ready to say hello to Glee again! (I can't believe this post contains A LOT of exclamation points

?

Even if I wanna sleep right now, even if my eyes are red and tired from yesterday's activities (two outings and an overnight), there's one thing that has been keeping me up for hours on end. Well, not really, but you get the point.

I'm pretty excited, anxious, scared of the things to come. By that, I don't just mean, OR, senior year and graduation. I'm talking about the years to come. I'm anxious because I don't want to be the guy who doesn't know what will happen to him in the next 10 years of his life. And what's weird is that, I'm anxious, scared and all the things in between, because I do have plenty of things I want to do, but I'm not sure how to do it.

I'm afraid that all the daydreams are just that - dreams. I want to be a chef and a photographer. Part of me wants to be an Oncologist - surgeon and part of me (though not that strongly), wants to get rich quick thus, a Nurse anesthetist would be a good choice.

I read somewhere that working with passion and love for your job is the priority in life - because whether we like it or not, we must find meaning in the things we do. The money and prestige is only secondary. Now given that fact and given my predetermined dream careers, I don't know what to choose.

The automatic choice would be Med school, because I want to be a doctor and save lives. BUT I have to say that I'm pretty tired of studying (haha) and the thought of devoting eight-ish years of more studying makes me more tired. Maybe this is a sign that I really am not passionate about med school and it's a lucrative career option, but I still have to really really weigh the pros and cons.

Now if I were to choose something that makes me happy, then maybe the arts would be my thing. I love food and I enjoy being in a kitchen. I could go on and on about spending my days cooking delicious food. Now, I actually thought of being a food blogger or writing about for a prominent paper if I were to pursue this.

The same principle applies to photography. I just love taking pictures and though I haven't been behind the lens for a long time, the desire is still there. BUT I really don't know how I'm going to pursue this because I don't think my parents would support me. I have a feeling that I'm on my own with this one.

Now a practical (like I haven't heard this word before) option would be be a nurse, go abroad, earn, and then pursue your other passions. I'm not going to argue about how reasonable that sounds BUT I'm not too keen on really practicing Nursing in the future, or any time soon.

I actually like how level-minded and rational I can be. Yes, I believe I'm rational when it comes to these things. On a good note, I know I can think things through good enough BUT it could potentially cage me in a cycle of uncertainty. The latter probably defies my principle of living life unchained, but sad to say, I have yet to feel that principle.

I don't know how to end this post. Am I soliciting advice? Am I venting deep-seated feelings? Or am I just proving to myself how confused I am?

Let's just leave it like that.

The Lovely Bones: book and movie review

THIS HAS BEEN LONG OVERDUE. I watched the film adaptation of the Lovely Bones a few weeks ago, and I've been itching to write a review about it but unnecessary things like school came up so it took me this long to talk about the movie. I'm not really sure if it was released in Zamboanga but I'm pretty sure it's been months since the movie was shown. But either way, here goes.......

One of the pitfalls of watching book to film adaptations is the disappointment of a movie falling short of the expectations, simply because the book was amazing. This usually happens when you read the book first, then watch the movie, which I did with "The Lovely Bones". What's weird is that I actually liked "Dear John" even if my friends said it was inadequate when compared to the book. I liked it because I had no basis for comparison. You get my point, right?

Anyway, the book was dubbed as a "phenomenal New York Times Bestseller", so thank my lucky stars, it had a palpable hype that wasn't easy to ignore.

The book, in itself, was an incredible masterpiece. In a nutshell, it was all about the how life went on after the murder of Susie Salmon, the protagonist and whose point of view that book was laid out on. The book wove together events years apart, focusing on the people that Susie (from heaven) watched.

The way Alice Sebold unveiled the many details in the lives of characters (from Abigail Salmon, Susie's mom to Ray Singh, Susie's almost-boyfriend), and in the end managed to encapsulate the beauty of life and living in the closing sequences of the book, made me want to hug her. Yes, the book was THAT good.

The "Bones" in "The Lovely Bones" was a symbol for the intricate details in the lives of people, that when pieced together, suddenly brings a feeling of finality, contentment and peace. In other words, everything makes sense. Alice Sebold made it make sense.

My second paragraph and me practically jumping for joy after reading the book, probably foreshadowed less than favorable reactions to the movie. And just because it brought in Rachel Weiss doesn't mean that the movie was good. Whereas the book gave me sweet lemonade, the movie left me with a bitter taste in the mouth.

Yeah, I get Peter Jackson's attempt at focusing more on Susie and her journey towards heaven...no, it take that back, I DON'T GET IT. You see, essentially the book was all about how life goes and (and takes a few painful pitfalls) after the death of a loved one. But still, life goes on. The movie on the other hand, did step on that premise but it didn't really fulfill that. That's my only problem with the interpretation.

Obviously the book narrated decades worth of important events, and the movie people had no choice but to trim off the fat. But I felt that what was left was a carcass devoid of viable meat. Yes, I am this disappointed. The scenes did not connect at all, simply because it lacked the "heart" to make every thing cohesive. It had logic, but none of the emotion to make the scenes and the characters endearing.

I was disappointed at how most of the characters seemed static. They never attempted to be endearing and all they did was to blurt out their lines. I did believe Kevin Bacon as Jack Salmon, but I went only as far as the distance he covered in the cornfield, before he was beaten to a pulp. And please, it was pathetic to see Lindsey Salmon, Susie's younger sister, as a teenage sleuth AND pregnant years later without even bothering to change the character. *cringe*

From the beginning to the end, the producers had the potential to make every scene good and probably even Oscar-worthy, but no, nothing like that happened. The movie's biggest fault is its failure to tie together the characters' individuality and quirks with the scenes, and in doing so, the scenes never took off in terms of being cohesive and remarkable.

The movie should have showed us how Susie managed to cope and eventually accept her death even if it took her more than a decade. But after watching it, dear Susie has the right to go all angry spirit on Peter Jackson. I could go on and on about how the movie was lackluster, but I strongly urge you to read the book and compare it with the movie. Better yet, just read the book. Again, IT'S AMAZING.

And at the end of the day, all the lovely, poignant and moving scenes that should have taken off were left in the sinkhole, together with Susie Salmon's rotting, disemboweled corpse.

I would rate the movie: D
*******
A - Amazing! I wan't to watch it again and again
B - Pretty Good/Great
C - Good attempt but nah
D - I'd rather have syphilis

Walk away

Dear Gio,

Not again. fuck it. not again. The last time I wrote to you, I said I hope I would write under better circumstances. Well, this is probably worse.

This time, you lost a friend. A real friend. And I know you're probably angry as hell right now because, if somebody were to say it to my face that I don't matter to them anymore, I would snap their neck and send them straight to kingdom come. Then I would break down and cry.

Which you did, pretty well I might add.

There's no point in consoling you right now, saying that everything's gonna be ok...because it won't. It won't be for a long time. Just walk away from the fight while you can still control your emotions, because there's going to be hell to pay when you snap. Even I'm afraid when you start to shake and your speech gets slurry. Walk away Gio, walk away while you still can.

Right now, just forget about your friend and let yourself heal. Lick your wounds and sleep. Walk away, sleep and heal. It's ok to be tired. I know you're tired of putting up with people with a one-track mind.

You're in pain, I know. You can't fight your battles when you're in a rutt. Retreat and reorganize. But most of all, let go of things for a while. Your attempts at repairing the frayed strands of the friendship is futile right now. It's ok.

Remember that you're a person too. You fall and you get hurt. Don't pretend that nothing's wrong but don't let negativity consume you. Walk away, please. For your own sake.

Yours truly,
The guy in the mirror

top picks on AI

These are my favorite performances during R&B night on American Idol

Andrew Garcia - Forever



I actually thought I heard enough of Andrew and his silly song choices ("Give me shelter", "I heard it through the grapevine") and dismissed that he was just a one-hit wonder (circa Hollywood week's "Straight Up" ), but he proved me wrong with this one. His take on Chris Brown's song definitely won him more time on Idol but I'm not sure if he's going to last long though. Still, his performance was great!

Crystal Bowersox - Midnight train to Georgia



It's the first time she played the piano on AI, and I thought she did well (not great though). Her take was clean, honest and no-frills - like her. My only wish though is for her to take on more current songs that fir her well, like Pink. She's still amazing in her own retro way though. I'm rooting for her to win.

Michael Lynche - Ready for love



Who ever attempts to do an India Arie song must know that there's the risk of sounding plain and boring, with not much range in the melody. But Michael managed to make it tenderly yet still powerful, and I agree that it was a smart, tasteful decision because Mike sounded amazing. I never did like him and I'm not sure if I will but this performance per se was great.

Lee Dewyze - Treat her like a lady



I've always liked Lee but there are times that he tries to sound too Nickelback ala Chad Kroeger. Ever since the top12 started, the more he tries to sound like himself and relax on stage. The result is probably one of the best vocals I've heard this entire season. I hope he reaches the top, and knocks Siobhan out of the way.

youtube's fresh look

I opened youtube a few minutes ago to check out if somebody uploaded HD videos of American Idol top 10 performances. I found a great source for HD videos, and either the channel was created just recently, or I'm just an idiot that I didn't notice it before.

Anyways, youtube also unveiled a new interface for users and it looks like every site wants to be like facebook, in all its streamlined glory. I think youtube succeeded, whereas some sites like multiply and friendster were trying to hard. I mean, multiply just copied a lot of things off facebook, and it's not flattering at all. During the pre-facebook era, multiply was my go-to for sharing all my pictures. But now, since it's more practical and accessible for all my friends to view pictures on facebook, I'm shifting my gears and heading for that big blue F. Too bad though, multiply used to be a good site but now it just looks cheap, as in Friendster-cheap.

Since I can't complain as much for youtube, since it's indispensable and a godsend, I'm just going to rave about how the layout is easy on the eyes.



I like how there's no more awkward scroll buttons and there are less constricting lines.


I also like how, instead of the 5-star rating option, there's just the "Like" or "Don't like" (!). It makes it simpler and well, I'm too lazy to set a criteria for star ratings so it works for me.

I'm thinking of a lot of things to blog about right now. First on the list would be my favorite Idol performances last night. On that note, I never blogged about American Idol since the time I posted the Barney girl turned Dominatrix audition. At least this keeps me preoccupied.