Driving Me Nuts

Family driver's away on vacation for the week, so it fell upon to me to drive Ma around for errands, mostly concerning the newlywed house.

It's only been two days but I never realized how draining an experience it would be. Just sit on your butt and drive around. How hard could it be, right?

Maybe it's the monotony. Maybe it's all the waiting around. Maybe it's how you have to be on-call so even when you just got home you have to step out again because someone forgot something somewhere. Oh, hell, it's all of it.

Not to sound elitist, but thank god we have a chauffeur.

Buffeted Out

Attended a buffet dinner at the Circle last night, then another one at Market Cafe for lunch. Noticeably ate less today than the night before, but always started the meals w/ sushi and ended it w/ either fruits or ice cream. While Market Cafe had better fruit and ice cream selection, circle did a better job of grilling meat.

Feel really bloated, but for some reason my body won't let me stay that way. It's like all the exercising I do has conditioned my body to stay at 150 pounds, so that the moment I feel too stuffed, it's twosies for me.

(That's about as graphic as I'll get when it comes to talking about bowel functions.)

Duty Free Afternoon

The 'Rents came home from a 10-day trip to Perth, Australia last night. Today we went to the Duty Free Shopping Center. (I hesitate to call it a mall.) The drab lighting in the place makes me wonder how balikbayans get enthused about coming here, not to mention a floor layout that gives you only way out if you want to see everything. Tax-free is tax free, I guess.

We managed to come out w/ a lot stuff, mostly edible. Milk and Spam were cheaper, and I got a set of Phillips headphones for 300 bucks less than local retail price. If that wasn't enough, I had a nice surprise of running into my old friend CR, now a practicing attorney. Hopefully we'll run into each other again over the weekend.

10 Thoughts on Jesus Camp

• Five minutes in and already I found it a tad unsettling w/ the Children’s Prayer Conference.Evangelical Christian kids are up at ‘em, hands and heads held up high like at an El Shaddai gathering. And of course the little girl was getting teary-eyed; you’d be too if you stared up at the ceiling lights w/o blinking.

• Funny-strange (not funny haha) scene: 9-year-old Rachael giving a teenager a religious pamphlet and proselytizing just after she prayed for a good bowling game. Silly girl; doesn’t she know that God’s too busy answering the prayers of professional athletes?
  
• I really prefer my Christian hiphop songs to be satirical in nature, and not used like in a Hi-5 concert. Oooh, and preacher Beck Fischer hates Harry Potter and made the kids cry. Bitch!
  
• Like any fancy camp, Kids on Fire camp has clean air, sunny skies, Go-karts, nature hikes, anti-abortion presentations and… wait, scratch that.
  
• Funny-strange (not funny haha) scene: the kids praying over a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush. Geez, how young do Republicans have to be?
• I really can’t stand seeing religion being used for political purposes. Religion alone is trouble enough.
• Already knowing Ted Haggard’s final fate, it’s great to watch his sermon, now dripping in irony.
• Granted, this documentary focuses on the more intense and hard-line Evangelicals and probably doesn’t represent the majority of born-again Christians. That’s why I’m okay w/ comparing them to the Hitler youth leaders.
• The focus is on the kids, and rightly so. These folks are walking the fine line between preaching and indoctrination. Kids should be having fun, not deciding on the fate of their immortal souls.
• Jesus Saves. Save these kids, Jesus!

10 Thoughts on 300

• I know it's adapting a comic book, but there is such a thing as too much narration, especially the you'd-have-to-be-blind-not-to-see-what-he's-narrating-about kind.
• The dialogue made me cringe at some parts, as it reminded me of the script I wrote for my high school Passion play. Better read than heard.
• Since no-one can really say what the ancient Greeks sounded like, Gerard Butler's Scottish accent was more-or-less forgivable. (Hey, Kevin Costner made Robin Hood American.)
  
• Yes, it's been said the Queen Gorgo's scenes w/ the council just padded the story, but w/o the female presence the audience might suffer from testosterone overload.
  
• It's the good thing it wasn't a scene-for-scene adaptation of the comic ala Sin City, 'coz in the bonfire scene of the latter they weren't wearing their loincloths, and 300 wangs would've been a definite distraction.
• Once again Frank Miller conveys his fascination w/ Asian and martial arts, giving them superhuman skills. First it was w/ Miho in Sin City, now it's with the Immortals. Orientals swordsmen w/ iron monkey masks. We get it, Frank. Everbody was kung-fu fighting...
  
• The fight scenes are the highlight of the movie. Definitely out-Matrixes The Matrix trilogy. The handling of the corpses of the... losers was... creative, to say the least. And isn't it nice that Leonides could enjoy a fresh apple amidst the stench of death?
• And speaking of which, where did he get that apple? I'll take their word that 300 guys were there, but who brought the food? No caravans, mules, or even pockets. Unless they ate those mushrooms that sent you into berzerker rages before/during battle like the Norse Vikings of old.
  
• The gayification of Xerxes could not escape my movie companion's notice. Hard to miss, really. Eyelined brows and more jewelry than a dozen Mr. Ts. Sure, the Spartans made fun of the "boy-loving" Persians, but given Greek history w/ homosexuality, I think it was a "thou dost protest too much" moment.
  
• I'm not spoiling anything by saying all 300 Spartan soldiers snuff it (not simultaneously). It's happened in similar war movies like Glory or The Last Samurai. Suicidal bastards. Klingons would've been proud.
  

Something I'm Telling Myself to Do Right Now

Do NOT get hung up on someone living in another continent, as the chances of you two hooking up were as likely as any Marvel comics character staying dead.

Still, it stung to see "In a Relationship" where once there was "Single."

UPDATE: Good news! It was use-that-so-guys-won't-bug-me-online trick. Well, I'm outta my funk.

Family Ties

Today is my parents 40th wedding anniversary. This is the non-Christmas family portrait. Lessee: 'rents, 2 brothers, 1 sister, 1 sister-in-law 1 cousin (and her son), 3 nieces and 3 nephews. Feel free to figure out w/c is w/c, but there are no prizes.

Happy V-Day, Peeps!

And by 'V' I don't mean venereal.

Though it wouldn't surprise me if a few of you end up with one, thanks to the unrealitstic expectations brought about by this unofficial holiday.

(Don't mind me if sound bitter. Pretend I'm being facetious.)

Commence Dick Cheney Jokes... Now

Snorkeler mistaken for rodent,

shot in face

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/10/snorkeler.shot.ap/index.html

• Shooter says he thought swimmer was big rodent
• Victim in good condition after 8 hours of surgery
• Gunman, 60, charged with assault, drug possession

Audition Update

Well... didn't get a role for the Tuldok Animation project. Geez, I hope they haven't typecasted me for "worm" characters. That wasn't even my staple character voice! Gimme a streotyped Brit or Aussie dude/ old guy anyday.

In good news (for her, anyway) Rachelle got a role as "little girl." A bit literal, true, but I'm sure she'll do them proud.