My Mantras

"Don't dwell on it."
It being the Past.

And

"Get over her."
Her being... oh, right. Over her. Got it.

Saturday Morning (Comic) Odyssey

While browsing at Comic Odyssey w/ Eileen at Robinson's Ermita (after a great pizza and lasagna dinner) I came across the announcement of their new store opening at Robinson's Galleria the next day. What caught my attention was the part saying comic artists Leinil Yu and Gerry Alanguilan doing a store appearance to sign autographs. My inner fanboy was thinking of going, if only to make up for my failure to get Neil Gaiman's autograph last year.

And go I did. When I got there (2 hours before the scheduled signing, since after Gaimain I was trying to abvoid a mob), the store was already up and running, mob-free. They even had a buffet for (I'm assuming) the officially invited guests, so I was surprised when they invited me to partake of it. Cool, I was gonna get autographs, BBQ and chicken pie!

Gerry singing my Superman: Birthright hardcover.

Then the artists finally came: Gerry of Superman: Birthright and Wasted fame; Wilson Tortosa of Battle of the Planets (G Force to the older crowd), Carlo Pagulayan and Jeff Huet of Hulk, and Edgar Tadeo... but no Leinil in sight. sigh.

Tortosa was the chattiest (not that the others were wallflowers, mind you), sharing inside stories w/ fans. I first got Tadeo's autograph on my Warren Ellis penned Wolverine issues (Not Dead Yet), as he was Leinil's inker that time. After I got Alanguilan to sign the New X-Men annual and Superman: Birthright he told me Leinil was already on his way. Whew! Don't wanna sound crass but it woulda been a bummer if I only got the John Hancocks of the supporting cast but not the lead star.

When Leinil did finally arrive I was amazed at... his resemblance to my kinakapatid Emark. I always told Emark that if he really wanted to he could've pursued a career as a comics artist, seeing as how they share similar backgrounds as architectual graduates and both draw very well. But he didn't, as is currently an illegal alien in the US. But I digress.

I managed to be the third guy in line (luckily the guy w/ the huge stack of books wandered off). A Tsinoy guy, Wilmark Yu, was acting kinda pushy (I'm guessing he's loaded) asking to buy Leinil's art and sorta demanding sketches. Still, it was when Leinil offered to do a sketch for the guy in front of me did I muster up the nerve to ask for one myself.

So done and done. Got my lost issues of Supreme (finally completing my Alan Moore Supreme collection), Leinil and Co.'s autographs, and a free lunch!

Leinil Yu's Clark Kent sketch for yours truly. But we're not a couple.

Holy Crap, I'm Lisa Simpson

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excell at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

What's Your Personality Type?

Deja View

Once upon a time Pixar was the only studio making full-length CGI animated films, like Toy Story. Then Dreamworks Animation got into the game, and all semblence of original story ideas started to deteriorate. Pixar had A Bug's Life, DW had Antz. (insects) Pixar: Monsters, Inc. DW: Shrek. (imaginary creatures) Pixar: Finding Nemo. DW: Shark Tale. (fish) Pixar: Cars. DW: Robots. (metal objects)

Get the picture? Either one production company has a mole in the other, or someone's writing down the basic premise on 2 Post It notes, giving one to each company, and whoever crafts a better story wins. So far IMO Pixar's ahead, since --w/ the exception of Toy Story 2 (w/c they were under contract from Disney to make)-- they haven'tt double-dipped in the story idea bowl.

Now everybody wants in on the game. There's Disney's The Wild vs DW's Madagascar (jungle animals). Future flicks include Pixar's Ratatouille vs DW's Flushed Away (rats) and Warner Brother's Happy Feet vs Sony Pictures Animation's Surf's Up (penguins, despite the fact that the titles have nothing to do with them, as penguins neither dance nor surf).

I Have Da Powah

Ugh. At this day and age it is agonizing to go more than 24 hours without electricity or phone lines.

Typhoon Milenyo has come and gone, leaving floods, uprooted trees and collapsed electric posts/ billboard signs in its wake. Today was cleanup day, particularly with our poor mango tree, w/c had even more branches cut off in an attempt to balance the weight, 'lest it finally give up and crash unto the street below. Fortunately trees, unlike humans, can stand living like a mutiple amputee.

My day yesterday was spent keeping water from coming into my room. Strong winds and rain kept slamming into the windows. Rolled up towels were pushed into crevices while the water outside seeped into the corners that I failed to seal properly with silicone gel. If nothing else at least now I know it needs doing over.

In the afternoon that same day I drove out w/ Wilson to buy some gas for the generator (w/c I predicted--correctly--wouldn't work). Managed to take some pix of the devastation, mostly in the form of downed trees. That most of the fastfood restaurants and gas stations were closed was more of an afterthought.

Right now the phones are still out, and I'm in dire need of a showah. Also need to catch up on past downloads. Yup, I gots my priorities staight.

More typhoon related pix after the jump.

It's A Small World After All...

I love getting to use a blog title that holds the right amount of irony. Case in point, a story from my brother, that almost sounds urban legendy:

Lawyer arrives at his daughter's birthday party. Lawyer's wife made all the arrangements, so his shock upon seeing the party theme was understandable.

The party organizers chose a Disney Mickey Mouse theme, complete with a guy in full MM costume. Why the shock? Seems the lawyer represented clients who held Mickey's intelluctual property rights, which the party organizers were blatantly violating. At his daughter's birthday party.

Long story short: he had them arrested (presumably after having a looong talk w/ his wife). Whether it was during or after the party, I'm not sure. I'm hoping it's the latter. Who needs to have kids traumatized from seeing cops slap the cuffs on Mickey Mouse?

* * *

Speaking of kids, presenting for no reason other than he looks sooo cute here, new pictures of my nephew, Jian:

Uh-Oh

Coup attempt by the Thai opposition goverment in progress. An army commander has declared martial law.

So much for the that trip to Bangkok I didn't plan.

* * *

My cloning hobby has now reached Hollywood. Sorta. Click here.

Free Movie

Went to the Shang mall w/ Lola to catch Doraheita, one of two samurai jidai geki (period film) being featured at the 4th Japanese Filmfest. The last time I went was in college at the CCP, where the "cinema" was a small room that resembled one where you'd hold AA meetings or anger management classes. It's also the first samurai film I've watched since Zatoichi.

Got two surprises that evening. The first was to see an old Beijinoy friend (who as of late stopped taking my calls) on (I assume) a date. You know those awkward moments where you wave Hi to someone who's not on speaking terms w/ you (but not you w/ them, if you could help it), and they're caught unawares and wave/shurg/nod back, an awkward smile across their face? I live for those. Pseudo-karma, baby.

The second was the cinema offering the tickets free of charge! We expected to pay 50 bucks each, so good thing we decided to catch this instead of that Aussie filmfest over at Greenbelt 3 (your loss, The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morell). Definitely a cool way to catch a flick at one of the priciest cinemas in town.

The flick itself, it wasn't so bad. Typical Japanese action-drama with bits of comedy, though the whiffing noises made by the kimonos when the characters moved were definitely distracting. Also definitely PG, as evidenced by the bloodless swordfights and jiujitsu moves in the action scenes. But, hey, it was free.

In what's almost becoming a ritual for both us (but not likely, given our schedules) we had a nightcap at Starbucks Ash Creek. What caught our eye was their ongoing photo contest. Then and there we decided to join and already thought of what kind of picture to submit. Hee hee, exciting! And for the 5K top prize it's a steal!

As Alanis Morrisette Might Say...

"Isn't it ironic," or somesuch lyrics.

My house's security camera was stolen last night. (Our security guard can be just as useless at times.) That's like robbers coming to the bank to steal the vault door.

My fondest memory of the security camera was when it captured the images of someone stealing the side-mirror off my cousin's car w/c was parked outside the house at the time. (My cousin later gave brief chase, to no avail) I say captured loosely since we don't actually record the videos taken. (See what I mean by useless?)

Ooooh, I'm Sooo Scared

In today's Philippine Daily Inquirer:

Doesn't seem to have as much impact, I think.