Hot as F#*%

I just came back from a workout at the gym, which was surprisingly more comfortable than this office, whose air conditioning system ran out of freon today, so now it's like summer with a blackout in here. (I would've used a sauna analogy but I've never been in one.)

As downloaded movies go I finished O Brother Where Art Thou last Saturday and Monty Python & the Quest for The Holy Grail this morning. Both were okay, but as for the latter in hindsight I'm glad I didn't win that Ebay auction for the DVD a month ago. As much as I like parodies for the most part jokes where they break the 4th wall don't work for me. Stick for ironies, double entendres (did I spell that right?) and sight gags but keep away from "Look, it's the narrator for the movie!" or "Hey that wasn't in the script" kind of dialogue. And as far as British humor goes they like a milk a single gag for all it's worth, thus dragging the joke longer than it should at times. It's almost as if the writers of Filipino sitcoms honed their "craft" by watching British comedies.

Finally I've been experiencing this dull ache in the part of my abdomen where my appendix should be. Been there since last Friday. Ruled out cramps from sit-up excercises. Hope it's not appendicitis. Besides, I haven't had the usual symptoms, like fever and nausea. Am now waiting for both, as well as loss of appetite and abdominal swelling. Do have constipation and cramps. Uh oh....

San Jose and Mooncakes

Last midnight I made a long distance call to my friend Dulcie, who's currently working in San Jose, California. At first she wouldn't accept the collect (well, it was an office). When she finally confirmed it was me she returned my call with a phone card, instead. Nice chat, and her English (and accent) has greatly improved. Wish I could say the same for her TV viewing habits (she watches "reality" shows and American Idol...shudder...).

Tonight the See family had a Mooncake Festival dice-throwing game at their place. I was surprised to have "wins" on all my dice throws (except for the ones where the prizes in that "category" ran out), which more than made up for the 500 bucks I still owe Ma as of this journal entry. Boit got the biggest (i.e. priciest) in the family with the foot massager. I'm not sure yet what to do with the medium-sized plastic container and the glass and pitcher set, but the bag of Chips Ahoy! and Grape Juice I'll keep.

Me Snooze Me Lose

For some time now I've been screwing around with this idea about a private detective who works in a land populated with fairy-tale characters. Hell, this was one of my ideas for a screenplay thesis. When DC Comics came out with Fables, a book about fairy-tale characters interacting with the real world, I wasn't discouraged. Their idea was similar, but nowhere near, mine. I wanted my own land, the animal characters to stay animals, make it more of a comedy than a mystery book, etc.

Then today I read this article in ComicBookResources.com:
MAX HAMM: FAIRY TALE DETECTIVE is a new book from cartoonist Frank Cammuso, who works a day job in New York State as an editorial cartoonist. This is a story about a place called Storybookland. Picture Roger Rabbit's Toon Town, but inhabited by Mother Good and the Grimm Bros.' fairy tale creatures and you have the idea. Our lead character is one Max Hamm, the owner of a private detective agency with his partner, Humpty Dumpty. Together, they run the Eggs and Hamm Detective Agency. But when the femme fatale, Li'l Bo Peep, loses her sheep, things get a bit hairy. And then the egg gets whacked, and things turn personal.

Man, what a piss-off. Hopefully this book is only a one-shot. I've either got to flesh out my ideas more or get an agent.

D'oh! TV

Whereas last weekend was spent as a Alias marathon, this weekend was devoted to The Simpsons. I just realized I'm only less than a dozen episodes away from having watched every single episode in all (at present) 13 seasons. That's more than I've done for any long running TV series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, included. Okay, I'll stop this line of thought now before I sound any geekier.

Tonight I was again chauffer for the 'Rents for yet another wedding reception for another "townmate" from China I don't even know. It was held at The Century restaurant, which made the evening even less appealing. It didn't help that I had already finished reading the Punisher: Warzone trade paperback I bought this afternoon, thus having nothing to help pass the time. When's the new Michael Critchton (probably didn't spell his name right) novel coming out?

"I, I Do Want More Scrubs..."

This new series I Imeshed, Scrubs, can be described as Doogie Howser, M.D. meets Ally (not Ally McBeal, as the show's only a half-hour) meets Parker Lewis Can't Lose, only funnier than all 3 shows. The latter 2 show comparisons apply due to Scrubs' fantasy sequences and first person narration, which I've noticed how most comedies nowadays become hits in their first seasons. If medicine could be funnier than this, I've yet to see it.

Alias Overload

Let's pretend today is Sunday (it's 12:19 am and I should've updated earlier). It's Day 2 of No Parents since they're in Naga City for the inauguration of my uncle's (3-Ku) new SeaOil gas station, but they ought to be back by tonight. It's funny how having at least 1 family resident (or in this case 2) out of the house causes house activity to decrease significantly. Sometimes we go to bed earlier, or turn up the TV volume more. In my case I had the opportunity to watch most of the episodes of Alias I downloaded over the past few weeks, something I've been unable to do because the office was always busy (i.e. noisy). Boy, watching 5 episodes straight (plus the feature-length pilot of Justice League) feels like nothing by when you have nothing else to do. I thought about saving a few episodes but those darn cliffhanger endings kept popping up. Only 4 shows to go, and just when I just found out that Studio 23 is planning the air the series in the near future(!) Man, I stopped downloading Malcolm in the Middle for that reason, but RPN 9 is replaying the 1st season yet again. That show's really having trouble finding an audience (i.e. advertisers). I'd start that again, but I wanna go with the Simpsons downloads first.

We Suck at 77

Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog group, recently released its annual Corruptions Perceptions Index. Out of 102 countries listed The Philippines ranked #77 (along with Pakistan, Romania and Zambia) in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. After seeing the number I thought Man, they must not know us very well. A second glance reveals that list is from least to most corrupt. Okay, so they do know us. Finland is #1. Who knew the country where Santa Claus lives would be perceived as the least corrupt? The most corrupt? Bangladesh. So much for my travel plans.

I was supposed to talk about an audition in Mandaluyong City, but that didn't push through so I watched a movie instead. The Bourne Identity, starring Matt Damon and Franka Potente (she of Run Lola Run fame). For a remake this was a good action flick. Intelligent, even. (How often does that happen?) I was surprised to see Brian Cox in the movie (w/c only shows what little attention I payed to the TV commercials), but only because I didn't plan of seeing him in any film before the X-Men sequel.

One Lucky Bitch

Famed reporter Jessica Soho just returned from her assignment in Afghanistan, where she and her crew were near fatal victims of a landmine. It was all on tape (and television). Jessica and crew were walking behind an ambulance that was carrying 5 people and a dead "de-miner" who minutes earlier was a victim of his job. As the ambulance careened foward it hit a vehicular landmine. (That might explain why the de-mining crew thought it was all clear to pass, as a normal person's weight wouldn't have activated it.) Cameraman was knocked down. Jessica picked out tiny pieces of sharpnel from her hair and the heads for people surrounding her. People and ambulance dead. Already dead de-miner no deader. About 20 injured.

All I can say is I'm glad it wasn't Sheryll.

Misson: Dull

Side note: Lala told me there was an earthquake around 10 PM last night. Guess Law & Order: SVU was that good, since I didn't feel anything.

Watched the pilot episode of Mission Hill via Imesh download, an Adult Swim feature in the US-- one of those cartoons for mature audiences, like MTV's Downtown. It's original name was Downtowners, but it was changed to avoid confusion to MTV's show. Too bad the creators didn't do the same for the storylines (at least for the 2 episodes I watched). Few funny bits, a bit predictable, and altogether nothing to write home about. Lacks wit, which should be prerequisite for "mature" cartoons. Style isn't enough. I deleted the other 7 episodes unwatched.

The Gang's All Here...Sort of

Yesterday fellow China traveller Beth invited the "gang" for a little get-together at Robinson's Place (Manila) for some bowling. After a major travel faux pas (turned right when I should've turned left) I arrived late. As expected, I was not alone in that area. What was a surprise were the new faces. They were from this year's batch of those who went to Xiamen, China, some apparently the younger siblings of my group-mates, Beth and Heidi in particular. Even a bigger surprise were the familiar faces I saw/ ran into while I was walking around with the group (Karen Yam, Ann Marie & Karen Cheng, Gayle Ong the Supermodel, Charmaine's guy pals Ryan and Jay and someone who looked like Mina, formally in charge for payroll from work). With a couple of people late we had forgone bowling (and a movie) for just dinner later in the evening. TGIFriday's. I had a chicken sandwich.